Perception of SDN By Adcom's

[MedWonk]

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I got my start in the nontrad forum, which tends to be little more sane than pre-allo. My post-bacc advisor basically told us to take the info on here with grain of salt, though there are nuggets of golden info to be found on the website. I have found the website to be super helpful, and there's a ton of great information without which I would have been a little lost in the process. SDN definitely answered a lot of the questions I had re: what I needed to be successful in my app cycle.

 

[familyaerospace]

I was told to stay very far away from SDN a year or two ago because everyone here is apparently a troll. If I hadn't stayed away, I would likely be in medical school right now. While SDN has caused a lot of stress, most of the people I have found here are very nice and altruistic people. The kinds of things I'd like to have in my doctor, minus the crippling neuroticism, of course.

Mine said it because everyone is neurotic and it was making me crazy and crushing my self esteem. According to the average person on SDN, there is no way I should have gotten an interview because my last MCAT attempt was a 25 and my cGPA and BCPM are low. (I've had 7 interviews total over 3 years. 6 MD, 1 DO) .

I was overly concerned about comparing myself with the people on here despite the fact I am a non-trad with much different life experiences. Did not dawn on me that some people are lying through their teeth about their scores/experiences and that some are trying to hire others to write their essays for them. Someone did actually try to hire me to write their essays.

I have heard so much advice that I now know is horribly bad advice that I now take most of what is said here with a grain of salt. I used to read nearly every thread, not so much anymore.

I went to something at Emory where the medical students were talking to a few hundred premeds and the medical students also said "be careful on things learned on a certain website. You know which website." The room cracked up (I was trying not to laugh), my partner who was there with me looked confused and I explained to him later.

The only reason I came back was because I am sitting on my top two schools' waitlists. The waiting and seeing no movement on the school threads is going to give me an ulcer.

 

[Winged Scapula]

SDN has gotten a bad name over the years because of the Pre-Med and Lounge antics. The good advice : outright lies/bad advice ratio increases dramatically as you move to the residency side of things. But we must be doing something right; for years the AAMC warned people away from SDN, now they're a partner (at their request).

 

[About28]

Mine said it because everyone is neurotic and it was making me crazy and crushing my self esteem. According to the average person on SDN, there is no way I should have gotten an interview because my last MCAT attempt was a 25 and my cGPA and BCPM are low. (I've had 7 interviews total over 3 years. 6 MD, 1 DO) .

I was overly concerned about comparing myself with the people on here despite the fact I am a non-trad with much different life experiences. Did not dawn on me that some people are lying through their teeth about their scores/experiences and that some are trying to hire others to write their essays for them. Someone did actually try to hire me to write their essays.

I have heard so much advice that I now know is horribly bad advice that I now take most of what is said here with a grain of salt. I used to read nearly every thread, not so much anymore.

I went to something at Emory where the medical students were talking to a few hundred premeds and the medical students also said "be careful on things learned on a certain website. You know which website." The room cracked up (I was trying not to laugh), my partner who was there with me looked confused and I explained to him later.

The only reason I came back was because I am sitting on my top two schools' waitlists. The waiting and seeing no movement on the school threads is going to give me an ulcer.

Yeah I try to look at everything realistically, what I meant is that before I started to read SDN, I thought my 34 MCAT was really cool, and that applying late had no effect what-so-ever on my chances of being accepted. Now, I know that my 34 is good but not great, and that applying late can tank even the best applications. Also, SDN helped a lot to put a good school list together for this coming cycle, but I'm still working on it a bit.

 

[Mad Jack]

If it weren't for SDN, I would not have made it into medical school. I started at a community college, where the advisers hadn't the slightest clue about medical school admissions and prereqs. From there I went to a medium-sized liberal arts college, where information about the process was inaccurate and the premed advisers existed more to create additional roadblocks than to actually help you. I was also a nontrad, so they literally had no idea how to handle me.

SDN is what you make of it. It can be a great good or great evil depending on your level of neuroticism and your ability to detect BS. Finding this site forever changed the course of my life in the best possible way, and they sure as hell will be getting a donation for that once I've finished finalizing my yearly budget.

 

[Pacna]

If it weren't for SDN, I would not have made it into medical school. I started at a community college, where the advisers hadn't the slightest clue about medical school admissions and prereqs. From there I went to a medium-sized liberal arts college, where information about the process was inaccurate and the premed advisers existed more to create additional roadblocks than to actually help you. I was also a nontrad, so they literally had no idea how to handle me.

SDN is what you make of it. It can be a great good or great evil depending on your level of neuroticism and your ability to detect BS. Finding this site forever changed the course of my life in the best possible way, and they sure as hell will be getting a donation for that once I've finished finalizing my yearly budget.

Did anyone else swell with pride while reading this post? I love success stories. 😍

 

[Dwan]

Isn't it weird how everyone at interviews is depicted as chill/outgoing/normal, yet many on SDN are depicted as neurotic/antisocial/odd? They're the same people. People act differently and are more open to their insecurities thanks to the anonymity of the internet.

 

[Jalby]

I actually joined SDN the first year it was created. Although I am known for a certain post, the best thing that it is used for is to compile other peoples experiences. So when I entered medical school, I looked at the USMLE forum and saw what books people thought was most usefull. I purchased those books and that was my main study guide. The year before I took the boards I created a thread where people talked about their experience with the boards (what their MCAT was, what books they studies, which test bank was the most accurate and like the test, etc, etc) Then when I studied for the boards and choose what to review, I had that information to draw upon.

If you want to find the most useful threads I have done, find "The official guide to applying to medical school" and "Compiled step one experiences" I'm to lazy to search for them myself. They would still have alot of useful information 13 years later.

 

[Jalby]

The easiest way to get quoted is to write on one of my favorite threads......