**Official Class of 2021 Thread** !

[redsox93]

My Hep B titer came back low as well. I will be getting a booster shot on Monday and then I have to wait 6 weeks to get another titer done. I'm hoping that is all I'll need!

It's so weird how common this is haha. But I contacted my school and basically they just said I need to keep them updated with titers and boosters and what not haha

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[Kgizzle]

I guess we were both wrong hahaha. Announcement is still cool!

Can't wait for the James Webb Space Telescope to be launched

 

[Dr.Kat]

I actually got a message from a mysterious member with 0 posts telling me that "Your avatar is an extremely cool guy and a staff member at Creighton. I'm not telling you to take it down, but I just wanted you to know that"

I felt bad, so took it down. I'm guessing it was him

wait that is sooooooo freaking funny hahahaha im loling

 

[Dr.Kat]

Same here. I even emailed my current top choice and all they said was to wait until March for more vaccination info

mine said the same thing...and in my head i'm thinking what if I need a booster and it takes 6 months?? will they let me start school until proven immune? hahah. my guess is that since they're semi-lax about letting us know about immunizations, they will just need proof when we get it done, like @redsox93 's situation

 

[libertyyne]

mine said the same thing...and in my head i'm thinking what if I need a booster and it takes 6 months?? will they let me start school until proven immune? hahah. my guess is that since they're semi-lax about letting us know about immunizations, they will just need proof when we get it done, like @redsox93 's situation

I guess clinicals start in two years, so wouldn't be too bad. But you could potentially get hep from cadavers.

 

[Fancy_Feast]

mine said the same thing...and in my head i'm thinking what if I need a booster and it takes 6 months?? will they let me start school until proven immune? hahah. my guess is that since they're semi-lax about letting us know about immunizations, they will just need proof when we get it done, like @redsox93 's situation

When I began working as a CNA they just had me start my series on the first day...so I'm guessing it's not too serious?

 

[Dr.Kat]

When I began working as a CNA they just had me start my series on the first day...so I'm guessing it's not too serious?

I think it depends on the school, tbh. Like if they wanted to make sure you were clean/immune before day 1 of classes or orientation, I would think they'd have the decency to let you know before March.

 

[libertyyne]

I think it depends on the school, tbh. Like if they wanted to make sure you were clean/immune before day 1 of classes or orientation, I would think they'd have the decency to let you know before March.

That sounds very eugenic-y.

 

[Dr.Kat]

That sounds very eugenic-y.

oh boy, you knew what I meant

 

[Doggeronie]

Is it fine to bring your parents/siblings to an accepted students day?

 

[NonTrad16]

Is it fine to bring your parents/siblings to an accepted students day?

I personally wouldn't bring too big a posse. My significant other will be coming with me. Hopefully schools will provide a schedule well in advance for those who have to travel, but I don't know how much of the day will be of interest to non-students. I'm sure there will be some socialization time (food etc) but also some info that others would probably zone out through.

 

[Dr.Kat]

Is it fine to bring your parents/siblings to an accepted students day?

im bringing my parents

 

[750335]

Is it fine to bring your parents/siblings to an accepted students day?

Huggy is right, some schools don't allow it so check first.

 

[750335]

Can't really get into specifics but there is some truth to using your multiple acceptances to leverage some form of aid/scholarship so might be worth a try, if anyone here cares.

 

[libertyyne]

I wish I knew that prior to withdrawing from half the schools where I applied to and interviewed at.... I figured since I wouldn't attend any of them over my first acceptance than i should just withdraw.

Go look in the mirror you probably have Creighton Jesus's facial expression right now.

 

[750335]

I wish I knew that prior to withdrawing from half the schools where I applied to and interviewed at.... I figured since I wouldn't attend any of them over my first acceptance than i should just withdraw.

Still try. The worst that could happen is things stay as they are. Plus, not like they know you withdrew till April 30.

 

[Dr.Kat]

Can't really get into specifics but there is some truth to using your multiple acceptances to leverage some form of aid/scholarship so might be worth a try, if anyone here cares.

what do you mean give it a try?? like call the schools and discuss potential for scholarship? I thought it just happened based on the school's decision to give you money

 

[750335]

what do you mean give it a try?? like call the schools and discuss potential for scholarship? I thought it just happened based on the school's decision to give you money

Well email, but yes. Most of it is the school deciding to give you but turns out they can be persuaded to give you/give you more if you have been accepted in multiple places.

 

[Dr.Kat]

Well email, but yes. Most of it is the school deciding to give you but turns out they can be persuaded to give you/give you more if you have been accepted in multiple places.

I wondered about this and have heard that this is a thing. But I didn't you know you had to be proactive about asking for the money lol

what would you even say? "SHOW ME THE MONAYYY"

 

[750335]

I wondered about this and have heard that this is a thing. But I didn't you know you had to be proactive about asking for the money lol

what would you even say? "SHOW ME THE MONAYYY"

Haha, an M1 here did it and it worked so he was the one who encouraged me to try and it worked well for me too. Basically that haha - how you have been accepted here, here, here but want to go there and would like to be considered for a scholarship to lessen the financial burden on you blah blah - seemed a bit more polite than saying GIMME THE MONEY even though that is exactly what I meant lol

 

[Dr.Kat]

Haha, an M1 here did it and it worked so he was the one who encouraged me to try and it worked well for me too. Basically that haha - how you have been accepted here, here, here but want to go there and would like to be considered for a scholarship to lessen the financial burden on you blah blah - seemed a bit more polite than saying GIMME THE MONEY even though that is exactly what I meant lol

wow this is very interesting! funny cuz my dad has been telling me to email the schools pretty much saying what you did and I thought it would be inappropriate! I'm PMing you

 

[750335]

Besides FM, IM and Peds, anything else considered primary care? EM maybe?

 

[freak7]

Besides FM, IM and Peds, anything else considered primary care? EM maybe?

I think EM by definition isn't primary care, but I feel like it's the most primary care-y of the specialties.

 

[redsox93]

Besides FM, IM and Peds, anything else considered primary care? EM maybe?

Ehh I think ER is more like secondary care. Ob-gyn is considered primary I believe

 

[750335]

@freak7 @redsox93 psych?

 

[Astra]

Besides FM, IM and Peds, anything else considered primary care? EM maybe?

Internal medicine and obgyn are also considered primary care specialties

 

[freak7]

@freak7 @redsox93 psych?

I don't think so.

 

[MeltingIceCube]

@freak7 @redsox93 psych?

According to the NHSC, psych is primary care.

 

[freak7]

According to the NHSC, psych is primary care.

Oh cool!

Edit: I feel like psych is so important and so overemphasized. I also think that there are too many other non-MD people clouding the field and making it difficult for patients to know who is right.

 

[750335]

Thanks guys. One last question, what combo, if any, do you guys think will probably have a harder time in med school - high gpa/low mcat or low mcat/high gpa?

 

[freak7]

Thanks guys. One last question, what combo, if any, do you guys think will probably have a harder time in med school - high gpa/low mcat or low mcat/high gpa?

low mcat/high gpa I'd bet.

If nothing else, the MCAT is weakly correlated with Step 1 performance which in and of itself is huge. Whatever the issues for low GPA were, they can be addressed in school. A lot of the schools I've interviewed at have had students tell us stuff like "oh I just told the professer 'bruh, that ain't gonna get done in time' and they just said 'yeah that's cool, just get it in whenever' ". That would be a GPA WRECKER in UG.

 

[libertyyne]

Thanks guys. One last question, what combo, if any, do you guys think will probably have a harder time in med school - high gpa/low mcat or low mcat/high gpa?

MCAT = smarts
GPA= Work Ethic.

MCAT+GPA*10<=62 = Will struggle.

 

[getfat]

Hey guys! Admitted over Fall so I figured I would join the thread party!

Matriculation paper work is ridiculous but it sure beats redoing > 20 secondary essays.

 

[freak7]

MCAT = smarts
GPA= Work Ethic.

MCAT+GPA*10<=62 = Will struggle.

I definitely would not define GPA as work ethic. I've got a great work ethic but crappy GPA because I had to do things like work and figure out where food was coming from during UG. I also went to an institution whose departments massively grade deflated and also had systems to ensure that a guaranteed portion of the class failed. 2/10 would not recommend for fellow pre-meds.

 

[libertyyne]

I definitely would not define GPA as work ethic. I've got a great work ethic but crappy GPA because I had to do things like work and figure out where food was coming from during UG. I also went to an institution whose departments massively grade deflated and also had systems to ensure that a guaranteed portion of the class failed. 2/10 would not recommend for fellow pre-meds.

and some people get diarrhea during the mcat. I worked too during UG,but really I should have been smart enough to take out 10 K in loans and focus on my GPA.

 

[getfat]

I also went to an institution whose departments massively grade deflated and also had systems to ensure that a guaranteed portion of the class failed.

Exactly so your better GPA compared to your peers in a grade-deflated institution highlighted your work ethic. Especially if you worked a job through out college (can relate to that struggle).

If you got into a US medical school your GPA was not "crappy" by any means. Give yourself more credit than that

 

[750335]

I'm also of the gpa is more important camp; just seems hard to BS your way to a 4.0 gpa, which also means 4.0 sgpa no matter the school but i see what you mean @freak7. Plus, most DO schools are high gpa/low mcat but many of their students certainly can handle MD curriculum even though those are usually high gpa/high mcat

 

[Doggeronie]

.

 

[Astra]

I'm also of the gpa is more important camp; just seems hard to BS your way to a 4.0 gpa

Its much easier to BS your way to a 4.0 gpa than it is to score a really top MCAT score.

For example, you can attend a easy public school and pick an easy major, take only the easiest professors, get the old exams for the classes whenever possible and get yourself a 4.0. Heck, I knew habitual cheaters in my graduating class who had 3.8+ who couldn't score about 500 on the MCAT after multiple tries

Also, in regards to the MCAT, I really feel like luck is understated in attaining your score. Right before my MCAT, I reviewed a few psych terms and a few physics formulas and guess what? Those concepts made up 25% of each of those sections. For someone who might have fuzzy on those concepts but super smart, they would do worse than me.

 

[libertyyne]

I'm also of the gpa is more important camp; just seems hard to BS your way to a 4.0 gpa, which also means 4.0 sgpa no matter the school but i see what you mean @freak7. Plus, most DO schools are high gpa/low mcat but many of their students certainly can handle MD curriculum even though those are usually high gpa/high mcat

DO schools only proove that to become a DO you dont need high MCATs. You also dont need high mcats >25 to pass the classes in MD school. The difference will become evident during step 1. MCAT scores have a correlation to STEP 1 scores, it doesnt come as a surprise that DO students do worse on Step 1 compared to their peers.
4.0 really doesnt mean the person didn't BS their way to a 4.0, college corricula and their scoring and grading is non standardized. I have taught college classes where just attendance and turning in assignments in time led to an A. The MCAT is the great standardizer. There are plenty of schools like Harvard where there is rampant grade inflation and the median grade is an A. This is a reason why I made the comment on LizzyM, the higher you are on the lizzyM scale the less likely you are to have academic difficulty in medical school. The MCAT is more predictive of difficulty in Medical school according to the research I have seen and usually above 30 everyone is in the clear.

 

[Astra]

So you're saying I can continue to get by on my combination of laziness and intelligence? sweet

lol I'm super lazy myself but the fear of falling behind in med school and doing bad on Step 1/2 is gonna make me work hard

 

[freak7]

Exactly so your better GPA compared to your peers in a grade-deflated institution highlighted your work ethic. Especially if you worked a job through out college (can relate to that struggle).

A couple things:
1) My UG institution is not well-known for its grade deflation practices as it is a large public U.
2) It is a bit fallacious to say that just because I did better than my piers that my work ethic was highlighted to adcoms. For example, consider the case where the grading scheme is as follows: median is set to 2.0, 1.0 and 3.0 are 1 standard deviation below and above the mean respectively, 4.0's are only given to the top 5% of the class given that they also scored at least 2 standard deviations above the mean. In this example you could do significantly better than your peers, but still only end up with a 2.9 or so just because the grading scheme is THAT awful. Keep in mind that this was department-wide and not limited to 100-level weeder courses. You had some of the smartest of the smartest in your 400-level class and if you didn't do better than 83% of them, you weren't getting a 3.0.

Edit: Additionally, in the grading scheme put forth in (2), it may very well be possible that nobody can get a 4.0 because of a wide standard deviation or a skewed bell curve.

If you got into a US medical school your GPA was not "crappy" by any means. Give yourself more credit than that

This is also a bit of fallacious thinking, as both my cGPA and sGPA were below the 10th percentile of all of the schools I was accepted to. It was bad. Maybe I'm just a special snowflake, but my GPA was in fact pretty crappy.

 

[750335]

DO schools only proove that to become a DO you dont need high MCATs. You also dont need high mcats >25 to pass the classes in MD school. The difference will become evident during step 1. MCAT scores have a correlation to STEP 1 scores, it doesnt come as a surprise that DO students do worse on Step 1 compared to their peers.
4.0 really doesnt mean the person didn't BS their way to a 4.0, college corricula and their scoring and grading is non standardized. I have taught college classes where just attendance and turning in assignments in time led to an A. The MCAT is the great standardizer. There are plenty of schools like Harvard where there is rampant grade inflation and the median grade is an A. This is a reason why I made the comment on LizzyM, the higher you are on the lizzyM scale the less likely you are to have academic difficulty in medical school. The MCAT is more predictive of difficulty in Medical school according to the research I have seen and usually above 30 everyone is in the clear.

Idk. A good chunk of DO schools seem to have average step one scores right around 228-230 of md schools, at least the top ones, and there are DO schools with a high mcat requirement with crappy step 1 scores. Every school has one of two BS classes where you can blink and get your A but unless it really is a local community college where no one really cares, idk how you can BS your way all four years and end up with a very high GPA without effort. Then again, I'm canadian. Our school system is something else.

 

[Astra]

Idk. A good chunk of DO schools seem to have average step one scores right around 228-230 of md schools, at least the top ones, and there are DO schools with a high mcat requirement with crappy step 1 scores. Every school has one of two BS classes where you can blink and get your A but unless it really is a local community college where no one really cares, idk how you can BS your way all four years and end up with a very high GPA without effort. Then again, I'm canadian. Our school system is something else.

This explains so much.

 

[getfat]

DO schools only proove that to become a DO you dont need high MCATs. You also dont need high mcats >25 to pass the classes in MD school. The difference will become evident during step 1. MCAT scores have a correlation to STEP 1 scores, it doesnt come as a surprise that DO students do worse on Step 1 compared to their peers.

Agree mostly with your assessment. A lot of DO schools don't have the curriculum tailored to Step one so i'm sure that plays a role as well. I remember when I interviewed at a couple DO schools over summer I asked about it and most of them replied "Why would you take Step I? You are going to become a DO???"

 

[libertyyne]

Idk. A good chunk of DO schools seem to have average step one scores right around 228-230 of md schools, at least the top ones, and there are DO schools with a high mcat requirement with crappy step 1 scores. Every school has one of two BS classes where you can blink and get your A but unless it really is a local community college where no one really cares, idk how you can BS your way all four years and end up with a very high GPA without effort. Then again, I'm canadian. Our school system is something else.

There is a bit of self selction bias going on here.
1. Reporting is not standardized in DO schools for average / median acceptee vs matriculant
2. Not all DO's take step only the ones at the top of the classs or gunning for ACGME residencies
3. The reporting of step scores is not stanrdardized either.

It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you are good at high stakes high stress test(mcat) you are likely also good at another high stakes high stress test (STEP1)

 

[750335]

Its much easier to BS your way to a 4.0 gpa than it is to score a really top MCAT score.

For example, you can attend a easy public school and pick an easy major, take only the easiest professors, get the old exams for the classes whenever possible and get yourself a 4.0. Heck, I knew habitual cheaters in my graduating class who had 3.8+ who couldn't score about 500 on the MCAT after multiple tries

Also, in regards to the MCAT, I really feel like luck is understated in attaining your score. Right before my MCAT, I reviewed a few psych terms and a few physics formulas and guess what? Those concepts made up 25% of each of those sections. For someone who might have fuzzy on those concepts but super smart, they would do worse than me.

I think there is a method to the mcat madness. Not to put anyone's effort down, but with the right resources and advice, you can get a good mcat score in less than 6 months of dedicated study, even less if you are on sites like r/mcat all things being equal. I have 2 friends who hopefully are not lurking on this thread right now, who made 521 and 518 on the mcat but I'm not even sure they consider themselves that smart. They just lived on r/mcat and followed the advice of people here and there. That was actually what instigated my question because neither was accepted into MD schools this cycle because of their low gpa even with those scores.

 

[getfat]

A couple things:
1) My UG institution is not well-known for its grade deflation practices as it is a large public U.
2) It is a bit fallacious to say that just because I did better than my piers that my work ethic was highlighted to adcoms. For example, consider the case where the grading scheme is as follows: median is set to 2.0, 1.0 and 3.0 are 1 standard deviation below and above the mean respectively, 4.0's are only given to the top 5% of the class given that they also scored at least 2 standard deviations above the mean. In this example you could do significantly better than your peers, but still only end up with a 2.9 or so just because the grading scheme is THAT awful. Keep in mind that this was department-wide and not limited to 100-level weeder courses. You had some of the smartest of the smartest in your 400-level class and if you didn't do better than 83% of them, you weren't getting a 3.0.

Edit: Additionally, in the grading scheme put forth in (2), it may very well be possible that nobody can get a 4.0 because of a wide standard deviation or a skewed bell curve.

This is also a bit of fallacious thinking, as both my cGPA and sGPA were below the 10th percentile of all of the schools I was accepted to. It was bad. Maybe I'm just a special snowflake, but my GPA was in fact pretty crappy.

Hey friend if you want to have that kinda attitude about your UG experience go for it. But at the end of the day you got in to medical school! congrats! Go take advantage the opportunity to take over with an empty slate.

 

[libertyyne]

I think there is a method to the mcat madness. Not to put anyone's effort down, but with the right resources and advice, you can get a good mcat score in less than 6 months of dedicated study, even less if you are on sites like r/mcat all things being equal. I have 2 friends who hopefully are not lurking on this thread right now, who made 521 and 518 on the mcat but I'm not even sure they consider themselves that smart. They just lived on r/mcat and followed the advice of people here and there. That was actually what instigated my question because neither was accepted into MD schools this cycle because of their low gpa even with those scores.

Mensa Literally took MCATs in lieu of IQ tests for membership for a longtime. Your friends sound like they may have some other issue going on like poor school lists or some other issue. The liklihood of matriculation with those scores is very high, but then you all are canadian so it is different.

 

[freak7]

I think there is a method to the mcat madness. Not to put anyone's effort down, but with the right resources and advice, you can get a good mcat score in less than 6 months of dedicated study, even less if you are on sites like r/mcat all things being equal. I have 2 friends who hopefully are not lurking on this thread right now, who made 521 and 518 on the mcat but I'm not even sure they consider themselves that smart. They just lived on r/mcat and followed the advice of people here and there. That was actually what instigated my question because neither was accepted into MD schools this cycle because of their low gpa even with those scores.

There are just so many confounding variables though. It could be anything. Maybe it was their GPA, who knows? Maybe it was their interview, maybe it was their EC's, maybe it was their essays, maybe it was those DUI's they never told you about, maybe it was that night in Vegas. We'll never know, but it's hard to say that it was only the GPA holding them back (assuming they applied to international-friendly US schools)