Is this a troll/fake

[SupremeDoc]

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I've been looking at random accounts on MDapplicants, and some of the stuff I see is just crazy. Take this guy for example --> MDapplicants.com:

He's got a 524 MCAT, 4.0 GPA, looks like good clinical and non-clinical volunteering, shadowing, research, and leadership. He didn't even get interview invites at quite a few places. He even put a shrugging guy next to Harvard. Is this a joke? Did he have an IA, or is he a truly horrible writer? If he got rejected at the interview round, I might guess that he didn't vibe with the school or was awkward or something, but he didn't even get to that stage.

Just wondering. I suppose I should take what I see on MDapplicants with a grain of salt because who knows if people are lying. Just makes me neurotic sometimes :/.

btw he's apparently "buckeyes2017" on here

Yet another guy with a stellar app yet less than sufficient results...doesn't even get a proper acceptance, just barely makes it off the waitlist of one. --> MDapplicants.com:

 

[blackroses]

I've been looking at random accounts on MDapplicants, and some of the stuff I see is just crazy. Take this guy for example --> MDapplicants.com:

He's got a 524 MCAT, 4.0 GPA, looks like good clinical and non-clinical volunteering, shadowing, research, and leadership. He didn't even get interview invites at quite a few places. He even put a shrugging guy next to Harvard. Is this a joke? Did he have an IA, or is he a truly horrible writer? If he got rejected at the interview round, I might guess that he didn't vibe with the school or was awkward or something, but he didn't even get to that stage.

Just wondering. I suppose I should take what I see on MDapplicants with a grain of salt because who knows if people are lying. Just makes me neurotic sometimes :/.

btw he's apparently "buckeyes2017" on here

Yet another guy with a stellar app yet less than sufficient results...doesn't even get a proper acceptance, just barely makes it off the waitlist of one. --> MDapplicants.com:

He got 8 acceptances... I don't know how much better of an outcome you want than that, but if that's not good enough for you, I don't really know what to tell you.

 

[skk_]

Interview invites from 14/19 of the schools he applied to, including Yale, NYU, JHU, and a ton of top tier programs... seems like he did extremely well to me? I don't know in what world this is "less than sufficient results"

 

[Eleithyia]

I think OP is probably trying to hack the Ivies and meant that the applicant wasn't feeling as much love from those elusive "top-tiers."

 

[efle]

I had a very similar app, also only got interviews from about half the t10s I applied to. It def happens all the time.

They ended up admitted to Michigan, Pitt, Chicago, Northwestern and Vandy, plus had a shot at CCLCM, Hopkins, Yale, WashU and Duke. Is that really so disappointing that you think it might be a joke ??

 

[md-2020]

I had a very similar app, also only got interviews from about half the t10s I applied to. It def happens all the time.

They ended up admitted to Michigan, Pitt, Chicago, Northwestern and Vandy, plus had a shot at CCLCM, Hopkins, Yale, WashU and Duke. Is that really so disappointing that you think it might be a joke ??

Post history suggests OP is just entering college, so perhaps he is equating MD admissions difficulty with that of undergrad, where generally a stellar app gets you the big Ivies/Stanford/MIT.

Though @OP, fwiw I also straight up got rejected by HYPSM for undegrad despite having a perfect score on the old SAT, which I would self-servingly argue is quite a bit rarer than a 524 MCAT. Life doesn't always work out the way it's "supposed" to.

 

[Eleithyia]

Post history suggests OP is just entering college, so perhaps he is equating MD admissions difficulty with that of undergrad, where generally a stellar app gets you the big Ivies/Stanford/MIT.

I think md-2020 is probably right; fit (i.e. how well an applicant fits with the school's mission) plays a much larger role in med admissions.

Also: lol @ "SupremeDoc: Gunner"
Way to put it out there, man.

 

[Lyoness]

That's not how the application process works. Quit being a baby.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PreMedMissteps]

I've been looking at random accounts on MDapplicants, and some of the stuff I see is just crazy. Take this guy for example --> MDapplicants.com:

He's got a 524 MCAT, 4.0 GPA, looks like good clinical and non-clinical volunteering, shadowing, research, and leadership. He didn't even get interview invites at quite a few places. He even put a shrugging guy next to Harvard. Is this a joke? Did he have an IA, or is he a truly horrible writer? If he got rejected at the interview round, I might guess that he didn't vibe with the school or was awkward or something, but he didn't even get to that stage.

Just wondering. I suppose I should take what I see on MDapplicants with a grain of salt because who knows if people are lying. Just makes me neurotic sometimes :/.

btw he's apparently "buckeyes2017" on here

Yet another guy with a stellar app yet less than sufficient results...doesn't even get a proper acceptance, just barely makes it off the waitlist of one. --> MDapplicants.com:

The first mentioned applicant had a very successful year. He even declined some IIs.
I don't think you understand that SOMs can only interview about 10% of their applicants, so many awesome applicants will still not get an II to many of the schools on their app list.

The second mentioned applicant was a MD/PhD applicant. He did get some acceptances (read the bottom) and also came off a WL. The MD/PhD app process is more complicated.
Here is what he put on the bottom of his page:

Finished 19 secondaries, 9 II (8 MD/PhD, 1 MD-only). 3 acceptances (UTSA, CU Denver, IU-MD only), 3 waitlists, 1 rejection, 2 not attended)

And it appears that he declined two IIs, as well.

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Plz chance my D 4.89 GPA
2380 SAT
23 AP's All 5's
HYPSM???????

Boy, I don't miss college confidential

 

[Lucca]

MD/PhD applicant definitely had a weird cycle for their research background / stats. My only thoughts based on this limited info are:

1. Research is all over the place, no longitudinal commitment to a single field which can be important for MD/PhD.

2. No undergrad pedigree. Sadly this is most important at the programs that consider people with his stats.

3. No publications. Pubs are by no means a requirement for dual degree applicants (most will get in without one) but some signs of productivity are. Maybe research letters were not strong or maybe he didn't make enough of an effort to find conferences to go present his work at.

4. Lackluster letters? In the absence of a prestigious background and publications, opinions other scientists have of you as a scientist is very important for MD/PhD.

The phrase "keep an open mind" is practically code on MDApps.com for "I didn't do as well as I expected". That being said, he got a WL at UChicago, Baylor and UCSD, and an MD only interview at Mayo which he declined. In the MD/PhD cycle there is A LOT of waitlist movement (very small class sizes and a few top applicants hold a ****load of acceptances and their decisions affect a lot of waitlisted people) so getting a WL spot is not bad at all and plenty of reason to be hopeful.

I have a friend who applied with similar stats and research background (4.0/523/4 years) and was rejected everywhere, got 1 accept, and got off the waitlist at a really good program in the end. MD/PhD is *extremely* competitive and high stats alone wont get you very far like they will on the MD only side. The lowest mcat accepted by JHU MSTP last year was 521. The LOWEST. also, 50% of their class comes from the top 10 schools and 50% have at least 2 gap years doing really impressive stuff.


Cutthroat AF.

 

[Goro]

I've been looking at random accounts on MDapplicants, and some of the stuff I see is just crazy. Take this guy for example --> MDapplicants.com:

He's got a 524 MCAT, 4.0 GPA, looks like good clinical and non-clinical volunteering, shadowing, research, and leadership. He didn't even get interview invites at quite a few places. He even put a shrugging guy next to Harvard. Is this a joke? Did he have an IA, or is he a truly horrible writer? If he got rejected at the interview round, I might guess that he didn't vibe with the school or was awkward or something, but he didn't even get to that stage.

Just wondering. I suppose I should take what I see on MDapplicants with a grain of salt because who knows if people are lying. Just makes me neurotic sometimes :/.

btw he's apparently "buckeyes2017" on here

Yet another guy with a stellar app yet less than sufficient results...doesn't even get a proper acceptance, just barely makes it off the waitlist of one. --> MDapplicants.com:

Many SDNers seem to be astounded that high stat candidates get rejected.

Yet they do get rejected...I don't know the exact stats from the entire pool, but the number isn't insignificant.

The bolded are definite reasons for being rejected pre-interview. Other are that there the person might be a good candidate, but aimed too high, and was crowded out by even better candidates (think Olympic trials).
The candidate may also have had a bad LOR, or applied late.

 

[Lawpy]

Many SDNers seem to be astounded that high stat candidates get rejected.

Yet they do get rejected...I don't know the exact stats from the entire pool, but the number isn't insignificant.

The bolded are definite reasons for being rejected pre-interview. Other are that there the person might be a good candidate, but aimed too high, and was crowded out by even better candidates (think Olympic trials).
The candidate may also have had a bad LOR, or applied late.

Wouldn't bad letters and IAs suggest rejections from every school as opposed to just being rejected from some schools?

 

[Goro]

Wouldn't bad letters and IAs suggest rejections from every school as opposed to just being rejected from some schools?

Ahh..OP didn't specify that. In further reading of the thread, my thought is that even superstars aren't going to have have 100% success in this process.

 

[SupremeDoc]

@blackroses @kysk99 That's true....I posted this late at night when I was really tired, I shouldn't have just noticed the rejections. I apologize 🙁. I'm new to this.
@Eleithyia @efle I'm definitely not trying to "hack" the Ivies, just curious about what it takes to get into them. My first and foremost goal is to get into a medical school and become a physician, by setting myself up to "pretend" to shoot for a selective med school, I'm bound to get into something. That's my logic, maybe its flawed. In the long run, I couldn't care less about name brand. A lot of physicians in my family did not graduate from "great" medical schools and they are stilll getting to do what they love, and living the life. I truly understand. If I gave off a different impression, I'm sorry. Btw the gunner thing is a joke, I will remove if you want me to, it's no big deal to me.
@Lyoness Still learning about this process, I deeply apologize. I should've done my research, it's my bad.
@ChymeofPassion Lol funny because that's actually the SAT score I got. And btw it was completely useless, didn't get in anywhere. CollegeConfidential is cancer, I understand.
@Goro That's a bummer, but maybe there are just too many "superstars" these days

 

[ChymeofPassion]

@blackroses @kysk99 That's true....I posted this late at night when I was really tired, I shouldn't have just noticed the rejections. I apologize 🙁. I'm new to this.
@Eleithyia @efle I'm definitely not trying to "hack" the Ivies, just curious about what it takes to get into them. My first and foremost goal is to get into a medical school and become a physician, by setting myself up to "pretend" to shoot for a selective med school, I'm bound to get into something. That's my logic, maybe its flawed. In the long run, I couldn't care less about name brand. A lot of physicians in my family did not graduate from "great" medical schools and they are stilll getting to do what they love, and living the life. I truly understand. If I gave off a different impression, I'm sorry. Btw the gunner thing is a joke, I will remove if you want me to, it's no big deal to me.
@Lyoness Still learning about this process, I deeply apologize. I should've done my research, it's my bad.
@ChymeofPassion Lol funny because that's actually the SAT score I got. And btw it was completely useless, didn't get in anywhere. CollegeConfidential is cancer, I understand.
@Goro That's a bummer, but maybe there are just too many "superstars" these days

No need to apologize for anything haha, everyone has to learn.

 

[VincentAdultman]

think Olympic trials.

I don't regret not knowing about this place when I applied for medical school.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

That's a bummer, but maybe there are just too many "superstars" these days

Number of applicants/number of seats has increased. Average MCAT and GPA for accepted students has increased. I could go on. For the most part medicine is just hard to get in to, so that makes the upper echelon even more selective. Put all the big fish in the same pond and at least a few won't survive.

 

[SupremeDoc]

I also feel like psychologically, applicants (not specifically these ones) who had results that fell below what they expected would be more likely to post their app on Mdapplicants. The ones who managed to get into their "dream" school would probably have moved on. Of course, there a few rare souls that were successful in their application process and were nice enough to leave some tips for future applicants.