Random non-MCAT and only peripherally related to the MCAT thread - Part XXIV

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Dr Durden

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Let's get this party started. :banana:

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Our lovely Randames.
 
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Wow, what the hell! (from the Canadian forums)


MCAT

Physical Sciences: 14
Verbal: 12
Biological Sciences: 14
Written Sample: S

Undergrad

School: University of Manitoba
Major: Biochemistry
Minor: Mathematics
OMSAS GPA: 3.69 (lol
biggrin.gif
)

Extracurriculars

• lots of lab experience
• 8 publications (one first author)
• Envirothon team captain
• guitar
• other odds and ends, no heavy volunteering

Application history

First-time applicant
Home Province: Manitoba
Applied: McGill, U of T, Queen's, 5 US schools (MD/PhD)
Rejected pre-interview: McGill, 5 US schools
Waitlisted: U of T
Accepted: Queen's!
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Rejected pre-interview for MD/PhD with a 40S and 8 pubs? And OMSAS GPA is almost always lower than AMCAS....so he probably had like a 3.8 AMCAS.


Is this a normal occurence? I honestly couldn't fathom that someone with that high an MCAT and such heavy research experience would get rejected pre-interview for US MD/PhD.😕
 
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jochi1543 said:
Wow, what the hell! (from the Canadian forums)




Rejected pre-interview for MD/PhD with a 40S and 8 pubs? And OMSAS GPA is almost always lower than AMCAS....so he probably had like a 3.8 AMCAS.


Is this a normal occurence? I honestly couldn't fathom that someone with that high an MCAT and such heavy research experience would get rejected pre-interview for US MD/PhD.😕
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maybe his/her PS was just full of cliches
 
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jochi1543 said:
Wow, what the hell! (from the Canadian forums)




Rejected pre-interview for MD/PhD with a 40S and 8 pubs? And OMSAS GPA is almost always lower than AMCAS....so he probably had like a 3.8 AMCAS.


Is this a normal occurence? I honestly couldn't fathom that someone with that high an MCAT and such heavy research experience would get rejected pre-interview for US MD/PhD.😕
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It's possible...but not very likely. It really depends on where he applied. The other thing you have to consider is that it's VERY difficult to get an MD/PhD or MSTP that is fully funded (which is probably what that poster was looking for) if you are an international student, which includes Canadian students (I think that's true for the purposes of calculating those grants). Some schools specifically state that they won't fund ANY international applicants, and others say they will but only one out of their 8-10 spots. So it gets very tricky as an international student, and even people with 40 MCAT can get bumped out of the game.
 
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jochi1543 said:
Wow, what the hell! (from the Canadian forums)




Rejected pre-interview for MD/PhD with a 40S and 8 pubs? And OMSAS GPA is almost always lower than AMCAS....so he probably had like a 3.8 AMCAS.


Is this a normal occurence? I honestly couldn't fathom that someone with that high an MCAT and such heavy research experience would get rejected pre-interview for US MD/PhD.😕
Click to expand...

Agree with DocFunk and PBandJ. Also, for what it's worth, I had a long conversation with an MSTP adcom from a top 10 school a year ago who started giving me some more insight into the process. According to her, the truth is - and this does vary from school to school - that the MCAT and GPA are not generally as important in the MD/PhD process as they are in the MD-only process. The reason that MD/PhD students as a group tend to have a higher MCAT and GPA than MD students may have more to do with the fact that they are a self-selected group in terms of academic performance rather than being selected for higher numbers, per se. In some ways, the MD-only process is MORE competitive because you have MANY MORE people vying for spots, so the numbers matter a lot more for cutting down the applicant pool to something manageable. MSTPs have far fewer applicants, so they can afford to look more closely at an applicant the first time around... so the research experience, essays (they've got at least 3 or more of them to read!), and the letters of recommendation can weigh in a LOT more heavily. So we may not know why this guy wasn't accepted, but it can be any number of things about his application: rec letters weren't laudatory enough, essays were not compelling enough, the international thing may have been a disadvantage, and who knows... even with 8 pubs, the "significant research essay" may not have been as convincing as one might have expected.

Anyway, I guess that's why we always say "apply broadly"... five schools is probably not very broad... and imagine if they were number 1-5 on the U.S. News rankings... not very broad at all, right?
 
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Morning! Speaking of father's day, I should probably call my father.....we don't celebrate father's day (or mother's day) in Russia, but I'm somewhat perplexed that I e-mailed him all the details of my trip last Friday and have yet to hear back.😕 And I'm flying out on Thursday!
 
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A little history: The US Father's Day was initiated by the YMCA organization (specifically by Sonora Smart in Spokane, WA) and wasn't officially a national holiday until 1972 (just an observed holiday).

Jochi - My calendar has Russia's father's day as Feb. 23??????
 
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megboo said:
A little history: The US Father's Day was initiated by the YMCA organization (specifically by Sonora Smart in Spokane, WA) and wasn't officially a national holiday until 1972 (just an observed holiday).

Jochi - My calendar has Russia's father's day as Feb. 23??????
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That's actually Armed Forces Day, so it's only for men who've served (who are indeed the majority, as Russia has a mandatory draft that's pretty hard to dodge). My mother is also an officer (voluntary service), so technically, it's her holiday, too, but she doesn't really care. My father was conscripted after he got into a fistfight with the Dean and was expelled from the university.:laugh:




Oh damn, it's pouring outside.:scared:
 
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Anybody liking Carrie Underwood's song "Before He Cheats"? (It's on the radio now). I'm not a huge country music fan, but it's a catchy little number. Jochi, it's my Calgary song...they played it a LOT when I was there.
 
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Crazy Canuck said:
Anybody liking Carrie Underwood's song "Before He Cheats"? (It's on the radio now). I'm not a huge country music fan, but it's a catchy little number. Jochi, it's my Calgary song...they played it a LOT when I was there.
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It's not bad...I'm not a big fan of country music either (got a grand total of one country song on my iPod), and I think it's pretty good. Not good enough for me to download, but I don't mind listening to it on the radio. Well, maybe I have 2 country songs, if you count Dixie Chicks, but not everyone does.
 
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Yeah, I agree about the not downloading part. But the fact that I found country music tolerable was a big surprise. Maybe being forced to listen to the country music oldies shows when I was younger didn't do as much damage as I thought 😛
 
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jochi1543 said:
That's actually Armed Forces Day, so it's only for men who've served (who are indeed the majority, as Russia has a mandatory draft that's pretty hard to dodge). My mother is also an officer (voluntary service), so technically, it's her holiday, too, but she doesn't really care. My father was conscripted after he got into a fistfight with the Dean and was expelled from the university.:laugh:




Oh damn, it's pouring outside.:scared:
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interesting. My calendar also has the last Sunday in November as Mother's day for Russia.
 
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Crazy Canuck said:
Anybody liking Carrie Underwood's song "Before He Cheats"? (It's on the radio now). I'm not a huge country music fan, but it's a catchy little number. Jochi, it's my Calgary song...they played it a LOT when I was there.
Click to expand...

I am a big country fan. In fact, I used to DJ country radio. Go figure. Anyway, I am surprised that I like Carrie Underwood as much as I do. As far as the Dixie Chicks go, I used to hate them...now I love 'em. Again, go figure.🙄
 
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TypeA said:
I am a big country fan. In fact, I used to DJ country radio. Go figure. Anyway, I am surprised that I like Carrie Underwood as much as I do. As far as the Dixie Chicks go, I used to hate them...now I love 'em. Again, go figure.🙄
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Big country fan here too. Probably has something to do with location for me.. It's pretty much the main choice on the radio. I 😍 Carrie Underwood.

I bet you're getting excited about your trip Jochi. How long will you be there?
 
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gradu8in2003 said:
I bet you're getting excited about your trip Jochi. How long will you be there?
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2 weeks. I'm kind of dreading the flights, though. It's a 2.5-hour drive to the airport for me, then a 10-hour flight, 1.5-hour layover, and another 4-hour flight. It used to be much easier when I lived in DC - just a direct 8 hours.

I kinda wish the layover in London was longer, last time I had immigration issues. These *****s don't have a direct connection between the 2 terminals, so they wouldn't let me exit the terminal and board the bus to the other one (where my connecting flight was) b/c I didn't have a British visa.🙄 It took them like an hour before they let me go through.
 
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TypeA said:
I am a big country fan. In fact, I used to DJ country radio. Go figure. Anyway, I am surprised that I like Carrie Underwood as much as I do. As far as the Dixie Chicks go, I used to hate them...now I love 'em. Again, go figure.🙄
Click to expand...

I just hope they don't ruin it by overplaying it
 
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jochi1543 said:
2 weeks. I'm kind of dreading the flights, though. It's a 2.5-hour drive to the airport for me, then a 10-hour flight, 1.5-hour layover, and another 4-hour flight. It used to be much easier when I lived in DC - just a direct 8 hours.

I kinda wish the layover in London was longer, last time I had immigration issues. These *****s don't have a direct connection between the 2 terminals, so they wouldn't let me exit the terminal and board the bus to the other one (where my connecting flight was) b/c I didn't have a British visa.🙄 It took them like an hour before they let me go through.
Click to expand...

Ugh, I hate travelling, and I do all of my travelling domestically (I might like it more if money was no object and I could be in business class, not economy). I'm soo glad I don't have to deal with visa issues
 
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Crazy Canuck said:
Ugh, I hate travelling, and I do all of my travelling domestically (I might like it more if money was no object and I could be in business class, not economy). I'm soo glad I don't have to deal with visa issues
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Yeah, I personally don't like flying much - not afraid of it or anything, I just hate all the airport BS and being "randomly searched" every single time....and I hate all those tiny cramped seats. You think Economy is bad, imagine sitting there for 10 hours straight...and the Economy on transatlantic flights is even smaller, because they want to cram as many people on those 777s as possible. So I drive whenever I can. I'm planning on going back to Minnesota for the State Fair this August, and I think I'll drive, even though the flight is a little shorter shorter (it's a 1.5-day drive). I'm also planning on driving to most of my interviews, with the exception of really faraway ones (like Tulane, which is 2350 miles away).

But then again, our airport here is small, so I always have to go to Calgary anyway, whenever I have to fly....and that's 2.5 hours of driving already. So if something is within a day's drive, it's usually faster and cheaper to just drive.
 
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jochi1543 said:
2 weeks. I'm kind of dreading the flights, though. It's a 2.5-hour drive to the airport for me, then a 10-hour flight, 1.5-hour layover, and another 4-hour flight. It used to be much easier when I lived in DC - just a direct 8 hours.

I kinda wish the layover in London was longer, last time I had immigration issues. These *****s don't have a direct connection between the 2 terminals, so they wouldn't let me exit the terminal and board the bus to the other one (where my connecting flight was) b/c I didn't have a British visa.🙄 It took them like an hour before they let me go through.
Click to expand...

Ick. Goodluck. :luck:
 
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Here's a random question, brought on by staring at my 3 cats. How come cats have white chins, chests, and bellies so often, but only have white backs if their dominant color is white? Is it just an evolutionary thing so they blend in better? How does it work out genetically?
 
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So I e-mailed MDapplicants.com with a suggestion...I think the site would be even more useful if you can separate between MD and DO acceptances. I've noticed that people here will often ask about their chances at a US allo, but a lot of times if you punch in borderline stats into MDapps, the majority of the results are DO - but you don't know that these applicants are DO until you click on every single profile. I think it's kind of frustrating, and it can also be misleading for some....and while you can just go by school, sorting through 12 (or however many) DO schools is also very time-consuming....so I suggested that they implement an option of offering only MD, only DO or combination searches....anyone agree?
 
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jochi1543 said:
So I e-mailed MDapplicants.com with a suggestion...I think the site would be even more useful if you can separate between MD and DO acceptances. I've noticed that people here will often ask about their chances at a US allo, but a lot of times if you punch in borderline stats into MDapps, the majority of the results are DO - but you don't know that these applicants are DO until you click on every single profile. I think it's kind of frustrating, and it can also be misleading for some....and while you can just go by school, sorting through 12 (or however many) DO schools is also very time-consuming....so I suggested that they implement an option of offering only MD, only DO or combination searches....anyone agree?
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Well, you could just go through each one and just check which schools each different mdapplicant has gotten into.
I dont even think mdapplicant differentiates between DO and MD.
 
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DocFunk said:
Well, you could just go through each one and just check which schools each different mdapplicant has gotten into.
I dont even think mdapplicant differentiates between DO and MD.
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Yeah, they don't, which is why I'm asking they do.:laugh:

And yes, you could sift through each one, but it takes a lot longer than if they just had an option to search for people who got a DO acceptance only or MD acceptance only.
 
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TypeA said:
Hey Funk! How are ya?
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i kinda got fired on friday. Turns out the law firm i used to work for doesnt need me anymore so the temp agency called me and told me on friday. I guess I was too expensive for the firm? 😕

Oh well, I think i'll go after another job now.
 
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DocFunk said:
i kinda got fired on friday. Turns out the law firm i used to work for doesnt need me anymore so the temp agency called me and told me on friday. I guess I was too expensive for the firm? 😕

Oh well, I think i'll go after another job now.
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Aw, sorry to hear that 🙁
 
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DocFunk said:
i kinda got fired on friday. Turns out the law firm i used to work for doesnt need me anymore so the temp agency called me and told me on friday. I guess I was too expensive for the firm? 😕

Oh well, I think i'll go after another job now.
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Oh that sucks! But I've dealt with temp agencies before, and temp employees ARE expensive to the organization due to the middleman fees. Have you tried talking to the firm about being hired directly? Because the temp agency takes about 30%, so right now they might be paying $30 an hour for you to get $20 an hour....so once you eliminate the $10 middleman, you could stay with the same salary, but the firm will not spend as much money. So I'd suggest you try this before you decide this is entirely over.
 
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jochi1543 said:
Oh that sucks! But I've dealt with temp agencies before, and temp employees ARE expensive to the organization due to the middleman fees. Have you tried talking to the firm about being hired directly? Because the temp agency takes about 30%, so right now they might be paying $30 an hour for you to get $20 an hour....so once you eliminate the $10 middleman, you could stay with the same salary, but the firm will not spend as much money. So I'd suggest you try this before you decide this is entirely over.
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yeah, i'll speak with the partner I worked under tomorrow and see my options tomorrow.

Now i'm an unemployed bum 🙄
 
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DocFunk said:
i kinda got fired on friday. Turns out the law firm i used to work for doesnt need me anymore so the temp agency called me and told me on friday. I guess I was too expensive for the firm? 😕

Oh well, I think i'll go after another job now.
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Too bad you don't live in my hometown. I need someone to do office work for me 🙂
 
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megboo said:
Too bad you don't live in my hometown. I need someone to do office work for me 🙂
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i would do office work. Even though I wouldnt be able to do it for a long period of time, I think I can grind it out
 
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