more age concerns

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dapmp91

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Will I be at a disadvantage if I apply to med school when I;m 20-21 years old

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Depends...how old do you look? If you look super young, that'll (subconsciously, at least) put people off. I don't think the number will stop anyone from interviewing you.
 
I was 21 when I started MS1, and I felt immature in comparison to some of my classmates. However, I am catching up quickly, and I feel that young talented individuals are good medical school prospects. Unless you are a complete douchebag, you should be ok. I partially argee with the statement about youthful looks made by an earlier poster. A conspicuously immature attitude, however, is a big turnoff to any med school. In other words, you have to be mature enough to fake it.
 
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um, I'm 20. I applied this yr. I got 5 interviews. I didn't dress like I was 15. wore lots of makeup & glasses b/c it makes me look older. Practiced not saying um, like, yeah. Nobody commented on my age-to my face.
 
PariPari said:
Practiced not saying um, like, yeah. Nobody commented on my age-to my face.

Um, like, yeah, that's totally like good advice for everyone, you know?
 
i have some difficulty with saying that age isn't going to be a problem. i think that being young didn't hurt me in getting interviews. BUT i felt that my limited amount of life experiences kept me from sparkling that tiny bit more which might have made the difference between a waitlist and an acceptance.
 
Being young isn't going to hurt you at all...although I've got to say there were definitely a couple of interviews were I felt really young and immature at 22 as the majority of my fellow interviewees were non-trads...I really felt out of place as these folks where discussing mortgages and kids and I'm like uhhh what??? Other than that as long as you know when to be professional and act maturely you will be fine.
 
you will be fine. Only problem I heard about age was an MSTP from texas who was too young for UT med schools so she had to go to grad school for the first year. But she was super young, 17 or so I think. Good luck.
 
I applied medschool at 20. Applied to 11 schools got 7 interviews and 2 acceptances. Age never came up to be an issue as long as you sound sincere and mature about your decision to attend medical school. However, when you start medschool you might seem younger than most of your fellow classmates who supposedly had more experiences,etc. but you will get adjusted. Good luck.
 
hell, I look like I am 14 yrs old...cant grow facial hair to at all
 
riceman04 said:
hell, I look like I am 14 yrs old...cant grow facial hair to at all

Neither can I, but, then, I'm a girl :laugh:
 
Saluki said:
Neither can I, but, then, I'm a girl :laugh:

You mean girls are not supposed to have facial hair????
Heck, I've been deceived all my life........ :laugh:
 
I agree with previous posters on the issue of how old do you look and also how mature are you personally.

Im 17, female, applied this year, got 4 interviews and an acceptance and 2 waitlists. To my surprise at 3 out of 4 interviews they asked me about my age and directly challenged whether I was prepared for what was ahead. I defended myself and stayed calm so I guess they liked that or else they wouldnt have accepted me this year. If under 20, be prepared for direct questions at open file interviews, they really do read the AMCAS.
I have younger looking friends who are 22-23 and where told by admission committees to look at masters programs as a condition for admissions. So if you are really worried, apply to some as a back up plan. I got into an MPH program early this year and defered until Fall'06 just incase I didnt get into medical school. Just use common sense. They expect you to behave a certain way, so avoid overusing cliches and popular expressions (umm, like, yeah) as previous poster have pointed out. Act like you can take it.
 
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DrZee said:
I agree with previous posters on the issue of how old do you look and also how mature are you personally.

Im 17, female, applied this year, got 4 interviews and an acceptance and 2 waitlists. To my surprise at 3 out of 4 interviews they asked me about my age and directly challenged whether I was prepared for what was ahead. I defended myself and stayed calm so I guess they liked that or else they wouldnt have accepted me this year. If under 20, be prepared for direct questions at open file interviews, they really do read the AMCAS.
I have younger looking friends who are 22-23 and where told by admission committees to look at masters programs as a condition for admissions. So if you are really worried, apply to some as a back up plan. I got into an MPH program early this year and defered until Fall'06 just incase I didnt get into medical school. Just use common sense. They expect you to behave a certain way, so avoid overusing cliches and popular expressions (umm, like, yeah) as previous poster have pointed out. Act like you can take it.

17... female... did you interview at Yale? Silverman mentioned someone like you I think.
 
DrZee said:
I agree with previous posters on the issue of how old do you look and also how mature are you personally.

Im 17, female, applied this year, got 4 interviews and an acceptance and 2 waitlists. To my surprise at 3 out of 4 interviews they asked me about my age and directly challenged whether I was prepared for what was ahead.

How did you manage to apply at 17? Accelerated High School? Most people at 17 are finishing high school and applying to medical school is one of the least things they do.
 
Ya'll are making me feel old, and I'm only 22. I dont understand the big rush to get into med school at a young age...take a year off, have fun, experience something other than being in school. My year off has been one of the best years of my life to date and it's only affirmed my MD aspirations.
 
LJDHC05 said:
Ya'll are making me feel old, and I'm only 22. I dont understand the big rush to get into med school at a young age...take a year off, have fun, experience something other than being in school. My year off has been one of the best years of my life to date and it's only affirmed my MD aspirations.

agreed.. don't rush life guys... life is too short to only focus on your profession... honestly I feel ancient on this thread and I'm only 24 :barf:
 
MDhopeful023 said:
agreed.. don't rush life guys... life is too short to only focus on your profession... honestly I feel ancient on this thread and I'm only 24 :barf:

one of the big reasons i am applying early is because that is what my family wants. according to them, taking a year off or years off to gain other experience is considered waste of years.
 
LJDHC05 said:
Ya'll are making me feel old, and I'm only 22. I dont understand the big rush to get into med school at a young age...take a year off, have fun, experience something other than being in school. My year off has been one of the best years of my life to date and it's only affirmed my MD aspirations.

I'll second that. I was 20 when I applied the first time. I applied to 2 schools (where I was out-of-state) and didn't get in. I'm extra thankful that I didn't get in then, because I've since gone on to grad school. Now, I think I might finally be mature enough to really know what I want to do - also, I now have a fiery passion for neuroscience. Obviously, this applies only to me; everyone else here may be mature enough at 20 to really tackle med school and the associated major life decisions, but I sure wasn't. I just didn't realize that until now, but now I'm ready to take the med school plunge.
 
kpatel said:
one of the big reasons i am applying early is because that is what my family wants. according to them, taking a year off or years off to gain other experience is considered waste of years.

I know a few docs who went straight into med school after college at an earlier age (or in the foreign system were you don't go to undergrad and just 6 years of med school straight out of secondary school) who get to the middle of their residency and suddenly find out that they are a) miserable in the profession because they made the wrong choice at 18 and b) have missed out on an entire decade of living because they've had to throw themselves completely into their education and professional training.

A year of isn't a "waste of time" or even "a year off" if you find something else that interests you more than being a physician. You can't just take a year off of life, you're still living!! KPatel, I'm guessing that you're Indian from your avatar name, so I understand that there's a familial expectation of success that comes from your parent's culture. They're obliged to make sure that you get to a place in life where you can support a family. But if that comes at the price of your happiness, it's not worth it in my mind.
 
dapmp91 said:
Will I be at a disadvantage if I apply to med school when I;m 20-21 years old

Um...why?

P.S. My entering class had an age range of 20-42.
 
kpatel said:
one of the big reasons i am applying early is because that is what my family wants. according to them, taking a year off or years off to gain other experience is considered waste of years.

sad
 
according to realage.com I'm actually 15.
 
It really depends on you whether you want to take a year off or not. Personally I went ahead and applied at 20 without taking year off. For me it wasn't a difficult decision. Once my application was out I had was very chill in my senior year without worrying much about grades and focused more on interviews, etc. If I had decided to take year off I would have had to bust my a** keeping up with my high gpa while taking upper division courses so medschools won't think I am starting to slack off. So for me my senior year was kinda like year off where I did all sorts of things in college and just studied a few days before test and was happy making B's. I probably would have worked full time in my year off and once I got home worked on secondaries, interview practice, etc. which would be pretty busy. Its not like I would get too many days off work to travel, etc. I like the continuation of education. One whole year without studying would make me really lazy and would be very difficult to adjust to fast pace of medschool. I think a year off is valuable for someone who is interested in doing something interesting like teach for america, volunteer, peace corps, or even travel somewhere.
 
hey guyz, thanks for all the feedback, i dont know wut else to say, except quantim mechanics in Gchem :eek: ... :laugh:
 
dapmp91 said:
Will I be at a disadvantage if I apply to med school when I;m 20-21 years old

haha. same here! i got the same concern.

i'm really young.. will be 21 when i begin med school.

u know how asians don't look theri age?

well my friends say i look like i am 18... though i got big guns............ and a big rocket... but that's beside the point.

anyway, everytime i go to the casino, i get carded! when i was playing at the venetian, everyone at the table was like 21 or 22. but who gets carded? only me. even my white buddy who is 22 didn't get carded.
 
kirexhana said:
17... female... did you interview at Yale? Silverman mentioned someone like you I think.

Hah, no I wish ;) I got rejected from yale. I didnt mention my age anywhere in the AMCAS besides where they ask for a birthdate in the biographical data because I, too was afraid it would garner an immediate rejection from most places. so chances are silverman didnt know me for my age. On second thought, I wish silverman did though, it would have meant an interview :) and maybe a chance of getting in.

I talked to Dr. Neil Parker (dean of UCLA, my undergrad) in person, twice, about what UCLA ad coms would think of my applying. He basically indirectly hinted that I would need to show the experience of a nobel laureate in medicine to get in. In other words, somewhat discouraging towards having someone that young apply. His exact words if I remember correctly were: "I would want to know why a person that young is trying to do that?". I felt as if I was being discouraged from selling my left kidney to a drug dealer.

I mean really, people in the UK, Europe, the Mideast and India go to medical school around 18, why shouldnt US students be trusted the same?

I dare to presume that it is probably easier to get into medical school being a non-trad (more than 30 years old) than being under 20, Because there is a natural friction built into the interview discussion when it comes time to trust younger applicants and to judge them objectively. I even considered going to law school and then reapplying after that so I would be 3 years older and hence less "outlier" appearing at least on paper.

The often repeated truth is, medicine is still a conservative institution and established members are less apt to accept too much deviation from the norm, they want someone similar to them to join the field and so it gets harder to be accepted the farther you get from the "norm". The image of a Grey haired physicians is the "norm", that of a teenaged doctor is not. It is merely a source of curiosity and conversation.
So if you just look younger and are desperate to blend in during interviews, I dunno, gain some weight, dress ultra-conservatively and wear glasses. Or else, you could wait a few years. Time should cure that problem for you. :) permanently. :oops: :laugh:

By the way, I have no hard feelings of the admission committees being so hard on younger folks like me. They have to be untrusting, scrutinizing types of people. I would want them to be hard on everyone. They are chosing the people who will take care of you and me when we are sick and helpless.

Peace.
 
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