Is this real life?

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ThatsG123

ThatsG123

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Excuse my ignorance but I don't have very many pre-med friends.

Everyone on SDN seems to have a 33+ MCAT score and a 3.9+ GPA. People on here think their entire application is a waste because of one typo on their AMCAS. Others freak out if they are close to breaking their precious 4.0. They start studying for the MCAT during the Spring of their Freshmen year. Then they freak out when they get a 9 on VR. They are self-titled "PMS-1". People have 10,000 hours of volunteering, community service, and shadowing hours, each. A girl in my physics class wears scrubs to lectures everyday. Some people refuse to help me in the lab in fear of me getting a better grade. So I must ask:

Is this real life?
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1. It's the internet. I'm also a Brazilian supermodel. ;)

2. SDN attracts the kind of uptight overacheivers that manage 39/3.9 and freak out over an mid-word space on their AMCAS. The fact that we're here means we're just as guilty, but the first step is acknowledging it. :) Also, if they're too bad with this they'll probably be taunted or flamed until they leave, get a thicker skin or mellow the hell out.

3. Some of those people are just tool-bags, like anyone that identifies themself as PM-1 or wears scrubs to class (unless they actually have a job that requires it and they came right from there or are going there after class).
 
ThatsG123 said:
Excuse my ignorance but I don't have very many pre-med friends.

Everyone on SDN seems to have a 33+ MCAT score and a 3.9+ GPA. People on here think their entire application is a waste because of one typo on their AMCAS. Others freak out if they are close to breaking their precious 4.0. They start studying for the MCAT during the Spring of their Freshmen year. Then they freak out when they get a 9 on VR. They are self-titled "PMS-1". People have 10,000 hours of volunteering, community service, and shadowing hours, each. A girl in my physics class wears scrubs to lectures everyday. Some people refuse to help me in the lab in fear of me getting a better grade. So I must ask:

Is this real life?
Click to expand...

Honestly, "real life" involves a lot more diversity than SDN and your class will lead you to believe. I would say the people you're describing are a small slice of the whole pie--and I think looking at means and averages of applicants/accepted students/etc will show that is true.

For example, I'm a 3.8/32 (with 9 in verbal kid)/with some extra-curriculars and no shadowing outside of a hospital setting. I am a bit worried about it, but I will see how this application cycle turns out. Granted, everyone should dabble in all of the things you said here and there--volunteering, community service, etc. It makes for a well-rounded applicant. I am guessing that girl is either CRAZY or has a LEGITIMATE reason for dressing tha way--maybe she works in an office of some sort. Don't make assumptions just yet! I say that with an open-mind only because my bff will show up to dinner with me dressed in scrubs because she just got back from working at her vet office...so there are legitimate reasons (ie: maybe your classmate is about to head off to volunteer at a clinic)

Anyway, sorry for the slight digression, my point is...in the real-world, you'll see a whole bunch of people--those that are anal-retentive like the ones you described, and plenty of people who "got by" without doing "all of that"...why do you think the average GPA for an accepted student is about 3.7ish...it's not 3.9 or anything like that. Just relax, do your best, and don't worry about others--unless they're your patients or those that you're helping.
 
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Geekchick921 said:
1.

2. SDN attracts the kind of uptight overacheivers that manage 39/3.9 and freak out over an mid-word space on their AMCAS. The fact that we're here means we're just as guilty, but the first step is acknowledging it. :) Also, if they're too bad with this they'll probably be taunted or flamed until they leave, get a thicker skin or mellow the hell out.
Click to expand...

Lol I wish I managed that.
 
No, this isn't real life. You're in a dream within a dream.
 
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ThatsG123 said:
Excuse my ignorance but I don't have very many pre-med friends.

Everyone on SDN seems to have a 33+ MCAT score and a 3.9+ GPA. People on here think their entire application is a waste because of one typo on their AMCAS. Others freak out if they are close to breaking their precious 4.0. They start studying for the MCAT during the Spring of their Freshmen year. Then they freak out when they get a 9 on VR. They are self-titled "PMS-1". People have 10,000 hours of volunteering, community service, and shadowing hours, each. A girl in my physics class wears scrubs to lectures everyday. Some people refuse to help me in the lab in fear of me getting a better grade. So I must ask:

Is this real life?
Click to expand...

Short and simple,

SDN is like Lake Wobegon.

Take everything you read here with a grain of salt. There are a lot of fake profiles floating around.
 
JFalc said:
Short and simple,

SDN is like Lake Wobegon.

Take everything you read here with a grain of salt. There are a lot of fake profiles floating around.
Click to expand...

For a serious answer: I don't think fake profiles are a big problem. I think it's more that people who do above average are more comfortable sharing their #s than those who are below average.
 
Catalystik said:
Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the applicants are above average?
Click to expand...

you got it.

Or do any of us have it?

But where is tomorrow taking us....
 
I think there's also a positive feedback type mechanism working here. Kids who stumble onto SDN want to be apart of the crowd and the expectations they set for themselves become higher because of this place. They then post their statistics and the next batch sees them and the phenomenon continues to perpetuate itself.
 
I dream that I am here
of these imprisonments charged,
and I dreamed that in another state
happier I saw myself.
What is life? A frenzy.
What is life? An illusion,
A shadow, a fiction,
And the greatest profit is small;
For all of life is a dream,
And dreams, are nothing but dreams.
 
Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me.
 
I have no idea how you found time to make this topic when you have so much public ridicule to do with that girl who wears scrubs every day.

Here, I'll get you started:

"Oh! Are you going training to be a lab tech?"

When she gets flustered and tells you she's a double major in radiology and surgeon generalship, adopt a look of sad confusion and ask her why she isn't dressed nicely, like a doctor.
 
pulled my trigger and my mom got scared and said "you're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air"
 
ThatsG123 said:
Excuse my ignorance but I don't have very many pre-med friends.

Everyone on SDN seems to have a 33+ MCAT score and a 3.9+ GPA. People on here think their entire application is a waste because of one typo on their AMCAS. Others freak out if they are close to breaking their precious 4.0. They start studying for the MCAT during the Spring of their Freshmen year. Then they freak out when they get a 9 on VR. They are self-titled "PMS-1". People have 10,000 hours of volunteering, community service, and shadowing hours, each. A girl in my physics class wears scrubs to lectures everyday. Some people refuse to help me in the lab in fear of me getting a better grade. So I must ask:

Is this real life?
Click to expand...

No. Though, it'd make for a great cartoon sitcom ala Archer. Someone make it so!
 
if everyone on SDN had 3.9/33+ there wouldn't be a huge St. George ad at the top of the page.

you might think that's the case because alot of people on SDN are either:
1. hopeful premeds who are just assuming they'll have a 3.9/39 so they take on that persona on the internet
2. actually have great numbers and post alot because they either think that they are gods among men and their advice is like manna from heaven or are looking for any opportunity to mention their GPA or MCAT score
 
skinMD said:
if everyone on SDN had 3.9/33+ there wouldn't be a huge St. George ad at the top of the page.

you might think that's the case because alot of people on SDN are either:
1. hopeful premeds who are just assuming they'll have a 3.9/39 so they take on that persona on the internet
2. actually have great numbers and post alot because they either think that they are gods among men and their advice is like manna from heaven or are looking for any opportunity to mention their GPA or MCAT score
Click to expand...
And we have a WINNAR!
 
3.9/43.

Wait, what were we talking about again?
 
ThatsG123 said:
Excuse my ignorance but I don't have very many pre-med friends.

Everyone on SDN seems to have a 33+ MCAT score and a 3.9+ GPA. People on here think their entire application is a waste because of one typo on their AMCAS. Others freak out if they are close to breaking their precious 4.0. They start studying for the MCAT during the Spring of their Freshmen year. Then they freak out when they get a 9 on VR. They are self-titled "PMS-1". People have 10,000 hours of volunteering, community service, and shadowing hours, each. A girl in my physics class wears scrubs to lectures everyday. Some people refuse to help me in the lab in fear of me getting a better grade. So I must ask:

Is this real life?
Click to expand...

Maybe she's coming from or going to work after or before class? If not then thats hilarious. Although I've done it a few times....scrubs are just so dang comfy...
 
Catalystik said:
Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the applicants are above average?
Click to expand...

Absolutely brilliant, you put an immediate grin on my face. Oh lake Wobegon, a place so dull that their best stories put me to sleep while driving.

______________________________________________________________

And yea, I felt pretty inadequate myself when I joined SDN. The truth is that being a white, traditional applicant, with adequate extra-curriculars and a 3.6 GPA and a 30 on the MCAT should get you an interview at your state school. The rest is up to you. Obviously, they higher your LizzieM score (GPA+MCAT) the better.

I have a feeling that if I met some of the people I've communicated with on SDN, I'd either Powerbomb them or give them The People's Elbow... to the neck.

There was a poll on SDN that asked students their anticipated MCAT score, it was centered somewhere around a 36.

SDN is full of gunners, leaders, shut-ins, and trolls. Keep your non-medical friends close; you'll go insane without them.

-C.J.
 
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