*~*~* Official Class of 2023 Thread *~*~*

[Lucca]

Interesting, I would have thought it would be faster, not slower.

*** 2018-2019 MD/PhD cycle - Questions, Comments, and other things ***

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[Sagebrush]

*** 2018-2019 MD/PhD cycle - Questions, Comments, and other things ***

check it out if ur curious

Interesting, I'd never thought about schools being more concerned about over-enrolling with the new lack of traffic rules. That does make sense. I'll just keep telling myself that's why I don't have any IIs yet!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

they certainly dont, but they might have an outsized effect since programs are so small and over-enrolling is a bigger deal. Each over-enrolled MD/PhD candidate is an extra 500k-1 million dollar investment for the program over eight years.

Yeah that makes sense. I didn’t doubt that it would be more intense in small programs like that. I was just responding to your musing about whether MD only would be similarly affected.

 

[Lucca]

I’m always interested to see what schools choose to advertise about themselves

16% first author and 51% co authored pubs at Michigan! And 48% with some explicitly non-Voluntourist global health experience. They also count 1 gap year as trad!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I’m always interested to see what schools choose to advertise about themselves

View attachment 238419

16% first author and 51% co authored pubs at Michigan! And 48% with some explicitly non-Voluntourist global health experience. They also count 1 gap year as trad!

It’s a little blurry. Is that saying their class is 65% female?

 

[Lucca]

It’s a little blurry. Is that saying their class is 65% female?

yup (sign me the f* up)

(if my gf reads this, jk)

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

yup (sign me the f* up)

(if my gf reads this, jk)

Haha. While I dig the ratio, that seems kind of unbalanced.

Incidentally, my last supervising doc went there (She’s female lol).

 

[scribbles&rambles]

Haha. While I dig the ratio, that seems kind of unbalanced.

Incidentally, my last supervising doc went there (She’s female lol).

Yah, when I first looked at that male-to-female ratio, I just thought my vision was just failing me (considering how poor my eyesight is, would not be surprised), but turns out it is that unbalanced. I wonder how that happened...

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Yah, when I first looked at that male-to-female ratio, I just thought my vision was just failing me (considering how poor my eyesight is, would not be surprised), but turns out it is that unbalanced. I wonder how that happened...

I’m guessing they did it on purpose. I doubt they had a shortage of qualified male applicants.

 

[Sagebrush]

@Lucca you must be thrilled with how your cycle is going so far! You must have put together one rockstar application, because you're killing it! I'm super excited for you!

 

[Lucca]

@Lucca you must be thrilled with how your cycle is going so far! You must have put together one rockstar application, because you're killing it! I'm super excited for you!

thanks! I'm obviously ecstatic. I definitely did not expect to have interviews this early lol. I figured the 80+ folks would snap up the first ones and I'd get some attention around October. More than anything else, I think I have a very strong set of letters cuz my numbers are only very slightly above average for MD/PhD and honestly on the bottom half or quarter of many schools on my list.

 

[Sagebrush]

thanks! I'm obviously ecstatic. I definitely did not expect to have interviews this early lol. I figured the 80+ folks would snap up the first ones and I'd get some attention around October. More than anything else, I think I have a very strong set of letters cuz my numbers are only very slightly above average for MD/PhD and honestly on the bottom half or quarter of many schools on my list.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure your application is amazing, but I also think there's some good karma involved for your years of herding neurotic premeds around this forum!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

thanks! I'm obviously ecstatic. I definitely did not expect to have interviews this early lol. I figured the 80+ folks would snap up the first ones and I'd get some attention around October. More than anything else, I think I have a very strong set of letters cuz my numbers are only very slightly above average for MD/PhD and honestly on the bottom half or quarter of many schools on my list.

Congrats on all the interviews!

 

[grossmed198]

Some of my schools require me to take the CASPER online test. Is 8/28 too late to take it? Also, do schools heavily weigh your scores in making their decisions? I am very nervous to take it and ruin my chances. Any helpful resources for practice? Or any additional advice?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Some of my schools require me to take the CASPER online test. Is 8/28 too late to take it? Also, do schools heavily weigh your scores in making their decisions? I am very nervous to take it and ruin my chances. Any helpful resources for practice? Or any additional advice?

Different schools use it differently. Some don't use it in decision making at all, while others use it as a way to give lower-stats applicants with cool stories another metric to invite them for an interview.

But remember that it takes 3 weeks to get your score distributed (could be less, but count on 3 weeks). So if you take it August 28, your schools won't get it until mid-September. That's starting to push it a little bit, I think. If you can take it earlier, do it just to be safe. You really don't have to study for this. It's very straightforward.

 

[Lucca]

anyone else find it really hard to be productive on Fridays or Mondays because you feel that those days are more likely to bring IIs (I have no reason to believe this is actually true)

 

[scribbles&rambles]

anyone else find it really hard to be productive on Fridays or Mondays because you feel that those days are more likely to bring IIs (I have no reason to believe this is actually true)

For these past few weeks, my stress levels have been rising every Monday because of #UMichMedMondays... which is funny because my committee letters haven't even been uploaded to AMCAS yet, so my apps are not complete anywhere.

 

[Hirro]

anyone else find it really hard to be productive on Fridays or Mondays because you feel that those days are more likely to bring IIs (I have no reason to believe this is actually true)

Nope. I do find myself sitting at work checking my email all like

 

[amylovee19]

sooo when should i start panicking about not getting IIs? Thought this week would bring some news but nada

 

[676188]

sooo when should i start panicking about not getting IIs? Thought this week would bring some news but nada

April. If you start panicking now you’re going to have a very long cycle.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

sooo when should i start panicking about not getting IIs? Thought this week would bring some news but nada

Agree with the above. The general rule is if you don't have any IIs by Thanksgiving, you should start planning for next cycle. But people get IIs all the way into the spring, so even then it's not totally over. It's definitely too early to panic.

 

[Lucca]

April. If you start panicking now you’re going to have a very long cycle.

Always have a backup plan but worrying time should start during the holidays. New traffic rules this cycle will probably make it longer for everyone

 

[theKingLT]

Some of my schools require me to take the CASPER online test. Is 8/28 too late to take it? Also, do schools heavily weigh your scores in making their decisions? I am very nervous to take it and ruin my chances. Any helpful resources for practice? Or any additional advice?

8/28 is not too late. The weight of the test varies by school. For those that just added it this year it likely won't be used at all given they need to see the scoring trends of their interviewees and acceptees first. Don't be nervous, it's not something that requires much preparation. Just take a few hours before the exam to do the practice test and practice questions on the Casper website and you'll be fine. If you are a particularly slow typer then consider practicing to improve your speed as well

 

[Lucca]

r/mcat getting banned is the biggest national premed scandal since Duke incorrectly sent dozens of people acceptances

 

[lemonade58]

r/mcat getting banned is the biggest national premed scandal since Duke incorrectly sent dozens of people acceptances

@Lucca r/mcat??

 

[Lucca]

@Lucca r/mcat??

the mcat subreddit

 

[lemonade58]

Update on my lack of awareness: just looked into it and wow I feel so terrible for everyone taking upcoming MCATs

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Update on my lack of awareness: just looked into it and wow I feel so terrible for everyone taking upcoming MCATs

They started r/MCAT2 and have reuploaded most of the resources already.

 

[Hirro]

r/mcat getting banned is the biggest national premed scandal since Duke incorrectly sent dozens of people acceptances

True. I went there religiously for my MCAT prep. I was too poor while in undergrad to afford anything except official FL's and the actual test. That sub is a large part of why I did well on the MCAT.

I feel bad for everyone who was planning to take it in September.

They started r/MCAT2 and have reuploaded most of the resources already.

Yeah, but there were a ton of questions you could google and get instant feedback on. All the past explanations and simple analogies are gone unless they can recover the subreddit.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

True. I went there religiously for my MCAT prep. I was too poor while in undergrad to afford anything except official FL's and the actual test. That sub is a large part of why I did well on the MCAT.

I feel bad for everyone who was planning to take it in September.


Yeah, but there were a ton of questions you could google and get instant feedback on. All the past explanations and simple analogies are gone unless they can recover the subreddit.

They’re not gone. You can view the cached links on Google.

 

[Ms Procrastinator]

I couldn't find anything apart from "this subreddit was banned for repeated copyright infringement" so was r/MCAT basically where people shared answers and explanations to practice questions from their MCAT prep materials, thus making it a really nice place for people who didn't have those materials?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I couldn't find anything apart from "this subreddit was banned for repeated copyright infringement" so was r/MCAT basically where people shared answers and explanations to practice questions from their MCAT prep materials, thus making it a really nice place for people who didn't have those materials?

No, it actually was because people kept posting screenshots of uworld content.

 

[Lucca]

No, it actually was because people kept posting screenshots of uworld content.

It’s hilarious to me that everyone on Reddit is mad at UWorld for just trying to protect their copyrighted content when it’s Reddit that decided to ban the sub instead of simply cracking down on the (small number of) offending users.

I’m all for free sharing of information, but c’mon you need some common sense; UWorld *isnt* just going to stand back and accept that they are going to lose money.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

It’s hilarious to me that everyone on Reddit is mad at UWorld for just trying to protect their copyrighted content when it’s Reddit that decided to ban the sub instead of simply cracking down on the (small number of) offending users.

I’m all for free sharing of information, but c’mon you need some common sense; UWorld *isnt* just going to stand back and accept that they are going to lose money.

Agreed. The ridiculous reaction is pretty unprofessional in cases.

 

[MyOdyssey]

I used to write trade non-fiction for a living, but my real interest is in creative fiction. I've published like 7 short stories, mostly science fiction. I'm working on an urban fantasy novel right now.

What are some good anthologies of short stores of the sci fi variety?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

What are some good anthologies of short stores of the sci fi variety?

The Hugo Winners
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame
The Good Old Stuff

Personally, I am a huge fan of Ray Bradbury’s shorts, and The Martian Chronicles is essentially just a bunch of shorts with a common backstory and theme (some of them are more directly connected).

 

[Lucca]

What are some good anthologies of short stores of the sci fi variety?

I really liked "Stories of Your Life and Others", a compilation of shorts from the author who wrote the story that inspired the movie Arrival (the short story differs from the movie in a few key ways so they are different experiences). More "soft" sci-fi, but really imaginative. He also incorporates a lot of religious mysticism into his sci-fi and I'm a sucker for that.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I really liked "Stories of Your Life and Others", a compilation of shorts from the author who wrote the story that inspired the movie Arrival (the short story differs from the movie in a few key ways so they are different experiences). More "soft" sci-fi, but really imaginative. He also incorporates a lot of religious mysticism into his sci-fi and I'm a sucker for that.

I actually wasn’t a huge fan of his other stories, but I only read a couple. I might give him another chance.

Then again, everyone seems to love Haruki Murakami, but I find his writing really boring.

 

[Lucca]

I actually wasn’t a huge fan of his other stories, but I only read a couple. I might give him another chance.

Tower of Babylon and the one about automata powered by words were my favs from that collection IIRC. He also wrote a speculative short for Nature that was pretty cool (Catching crumbs from the table).

If people want to kill time, I recommend Cixin Liu's three-part series that starts with The Three-Body Problem. Those books were awesome.

 

[Lucca]

also if anyone likes to read essays, Lewis Thomas' Lives of a Cell, the Youngest Science, and the Medusa and the Snail are 100% essential pre-med/biologist reading IMO. My fav of the physician-writers.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Hopkins got me all excited this morning sending me an email, but it was just them resending my complete email lol.

 

[Sagebrush]

Hopkins got me all excited this morning sending me an email, but it was just them resending my complete email lol.

Lol they did the same thing to me a few weeks ago. I still resent them just a little bit for that.

 

[Sagebrush]

Just to clarify, though, I still love them and would do just about anything for an II from them!

 

[Sagebrush]

The complete and utter silence from every single one of the schools I applied to is slowly killing me. I think I need someone to take away my internet privileges for a while!

 

[letsgetstarted1234]

I’m always interested to see what schools choose to advertise about themselves

View attachment 238419

16% first author and 51% co authored pubs at Michigan! And 48% with some explicitly non-Voluntourist global health experience. They also count 1 gap year as trad!

that's insane. 50% of admitted students have co-author and 16% have first.

what the heck. *looks at own meager research accomplishments*. what must the top 5 be like then.

enough internet for me

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

The complete and utter silence from every single one of the schools I applied to is slowly killing me. I think I need someone to take away my internet privileges for a while!

Not to be that guy, but it could be worse. I am sitting on silence from every school but one. And that one rejected me pre-secondary.

 

[Sagebrush]

Not to be that guy, but it could be worse. I am sitting on silence from every school but one. And that one rejected me pre-secondary.

I thinks it's rough for everyone who still hasn't heard good news at this point!

 

[Hirro]

Not to be that guy, but it could be worse. I am sitting on silence from every school but one. And that one rejected me pre-secondary.

If anyone in this thread is getting an II and acceptance this cycle, it's you. I don't know why but I feel you're the most likely of all of us that's going to make it, man. Stay with it! It's just that low sample-size school list you have.

 

[Sagebrush]

If no one minds, I'm going to go snivel in the corner for a little bit. Just got my first II and may or may not be a slight emotional wreck right now.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

If no one minds, I'm going to go snivel in the corner for a little bit. Just got my first II and may or may not be a slight emotional wreck right now.

Shouldn’t you be happy?