Reaction to graduating from two undergraduate colleges at once

BU Medical Sciences
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
philosonista

philosonista

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2012
Messages
353
Reaction score
194
Members do not see this ad.
Hi, all --

I'm graduating from two separate undergraduate colleges at the same time with two completely unrelated degrees.

I just wanted to get a snapshot of reactions for this to figure out if and how I should shape interview answers/secondaries/etc in light of this.

@LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn
 
I agree with what @piii said. Aside from the fact that you could talk about your capacity for time management if you completed two degrees concurrently at different schools (assuming this is different from double majoring at one school and there was no overlap in courses between the degrees at the different schools), it's just a tidbit you might mention. Definitely won't make your app stand out that much.
 
Dr. Retractor said:
I agree with what @piii said. Aside from the fact that you could talk about your capacity for time management if you completed two degrees concurrently at different schools (assuming this is different from double majoring at one school and there was no overlap in courses between the degrees at the different schools), it's just a tidbit you might mention. Definitely won't make your app stand out that much.
Click to expand...

By "different schools" I do not mean double majoring. I do distinctly mean two different universities.

Thanks for the opinion.
 
philosonista said:
By "different schools" I do not mean double majoring. I do distinctly mean two different universities.

Thanks for the opinion.
Click to expand...

I meant that if you had to take some courses twice it would be more work than double majoring. It's clear that you graduated from two distinct schools.
 
philosonista said:
By "different schools" I do not mean double majoring. I do distinctly mean two different universities...
Click to expand...

It plays out the same. The only difference is really an extra transcript. I'm not sure how this helps you for med school and might raise the question "why would someone bother to do this?", and "Did he take the prereqs at the more challenging of the two?"
 
Dr. Retractor said:
I meant that if you had to take some courses twice it would be more work than double majoring. It's clear that you graduated from two distinct schools.
Click to expand...

Definitely more work than double majoring. So many gen ed requirements.
 
Law2Doc said:
It plays out the same. The only difference is really an extra transcript. I'm not sure how this helps you for med school and might raise the question "why would someone bother to do this?", and "Did he take the prereqs at the more challenging of the two?"
Click to expand...

Pre-reqs were split evenly between. But the "Why would someone bother?" is what I am curious about. How would an ADCOM investigate this and how can I prepare for it.
 
philosonista said:
Pre-reqs were split evenly between. But the "Why would someone bother?" is what I am curious about. How would an ADCOM investigate this and how can I prepare for it.
Click to expand...

By asking you the question "Why would you bother doing this? Why didn't you just find a school that offered both of your degrees and take them at the same place for a probably lower cost?"
 
WinslowPringle said:
By asking you the question "Why would you bother doing this? Why didn't you just find a school that offered both of your degrees and take them at the same place for a probably lower cost?"
Click to expand...

As long as it's just an interview question I should anticipate, good.
 
Fedekz said:
Did you have a good reason for it? If not, then it may reflect on your decision making capabilities.
Click to expand...

I couldn't say until the ADCOMs answer. I want their uninformed reactions.
 
WinslowPringle said:
...Why didn't you just find a school that offered both of your degrees and take them at the same place for a probably lower cost?"
Click to expand...
I don't think saying you couldn't do both degrees at one school is even a good answer. You only need one degree to go to med school. Unless you are saying that wasn't always the goal.
 
Law2Doc said:
I don't think saying you couldn't do both degrees at one school is even a good answer. You only need one degree to go to med school. Unless you are saying that wasn't always the goal.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying anything until ADCOMs answer.
 
cloudmurder1 said:
So you're asking for advice for a strange decision, and now you don't want to give other important information. I don't think an adcom is going to help you here...
Click to expand...

I don't mind giving the important information once I get the initial reaction. In fact, I want the reaction without and with information. But the ADCOM's aren't here yet to give me the former.

Unusual, yes. Unjustified? Well, I can't say yet.

This is the last I am addressing the lack of information until I get an ADCOM reaction.
 
Law2Doc said:
This is not how SDN works. If you post on pre-allo rather than just PM someone you invite everyone's comments.
Click to expand...

I appreciate their reactions too insofar as there are only a few ADCOMs, however shark tank-like the SDN community is.
 
philosonista said:
I'm not saying anything until ADCOMs answer.
Click to expand...

Here's your answer: on its own, it's no big deal. I'd say it wouldn't even spark that many questions. But if it does come up in interviews, and your answer is something that makes the interviewer or committee think you have extremely poor judgment, then that could be a problem.
 
philosonista said:
I couldn't say until the ADCOMs answer. I want their uninformed reactions.
Click to expand...
The more the member ADCOM people help potential applicants on this forum, the more entitled the membership gets, including tagging them, etc. It's ridiculous. If it was me, I'd just stop posting for a while.
You know what they're going to ask. And it was already posted. Why would you do that? Followed by how did that help you come to apply to medical school and how will it help you achieve your future goals.
I'm assuming you had some reason that made sense, like business school at NYU and Juilliard, UCLA film and USC biochem, Etc. Or Otherwise, good luck.
The other thing that springs to mind, unless the reasoning was clear and sound, is all the wasted time and effort that could have been directed elsewhere. Then the extra critical look at the ECs starts, etc.
 
Last edited:
I think enough physicians/faculty commented to suffice as ADCOM judgement. Thanks for that.

PM-ing ADCOM's isn't rude? It strikes me as rude, while tagging doesn't strike me as rude. The ADCOM's have always seemed flattered to have their expertise called on. Different sensibilities.

So here's why:

I transferred from school A to school B because I thought school B was the better school for numerous academic and personal reasons. But financial aid fell through, forcing me back to the far less expensive school A. After some time at school A, financial aid was fixed, and it turned out I had finished one of my two intended majors at school A, which I wasn't just going to abandon. It also turned out my gen eds were essentially done at school B from having been there a year and from seeing what could transfer, and school B offered a really generous financial aid package after seeing what I had done during my time away. So I decided to finish the second major at school B because I still see it as the much better school. An ambitious thesis at school A kept me technically enrolled there while I finished at school B -- hence the simultaneous graduation.

In essence, the opportunity cost of getting two degrees happened during the initial transfer, so I could just enjoy the benefits of the second school upon returning, and -- why not? -- get a second degree.
 
Last edited:
I'd be curious as to how you managed to pull that off!



philosonista said:
Hi, all --

I'm graduating from two separate undergraduate colleges at the same time with two completely unrelated degrees.

I just wanted to get a snapshot of reactions for this to figure out if and how I should shape interview answers/secondaries/etc in light of this.

@LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn
Click to expand...
 
You totally made it seem like you were taking classes at two different universities at the same time with the intention of completing degrees at both. What you described doesn't really seem that different from double majoring - many students at my school would complete the classes for one degree then work on the other degree while doing research in their first degree. Definitely be prepared to answer for why you continued with school B despite already completing the requirements for a degree at school A (aside from the fact that the financial aid was good and the school was good).
 
It makes more sense now that you've provided more information. Before, you made it seem like you were taking 36 credits a semester and in lab or lecture 40 hours a week. Your situation may not be far off from students who graduate then go for a second degree in a related field where a lot of their credits transfer
 
Well, this has been a fun ride through the shark tank of SDN.

Merry Christmas!
 
Fedekz said:
It makes more sense now that you've provided more information. Before, you made it seem like you were taking 36 credits a semester and in lab or lecture 40 hours a week. Your situation may not be far off from students who graduate then go for a second degree in a related field where a lot of their credits transfer
Click to expand...

Lot's of reasons. One being a 20 minute vs. 2 hour commute, another being school B offered a major that I liked far better than the one at school A (lots of wiggle room with a year left and no gen eds!). But I'm not sure how much detail to go into without boring/flustering an ADCOM. I have no regrets about my decision besides the huge amounts of bureaucratic glue and tape necessary to pull it off.
 
Last edited:
I think the end result is it will neither hurt you nor help you much but if you act evasive and only give half information like you tried to do earlier in this thread it will cause problems. Also this forum is not like shark tank -- we are not here to try to make anything off of you, it's a forum where people freely offer up information, but to get good and useful information you kind of have to ask for it the right way, not put qualifiers on it. It's up to you to filter, not get annoyed when only the responses you don't desire are forthcoming.

If you need to put a TV analogy to it SDN is very much like Seinfeld's Soup Nazi. You ask for info the right way, you'll be happy with the results, if you don't, "no soup for you".
 
Last edited:
Law2Doc said:
I think the end result is it will neither hurt you nor help you much but if you act evasive and only give half information like you tried to do earlier in this thread it will cause problems. Also this forum is not like shark tank -- we are not here to try to make anything off of you, it's a forum where people freely offer up information, but to get good and useful information you kind of have to ask for it the right way, not put qualifiers on it. It's up to you to filter, not get annoyed when only the responses you desire are forthcoming.

If you need to put a TV analogy to it SDN is very much like Seinfeld's Soup Nazi. You ask for info the right way, you'll be happy with the results, if you don't, "no soup for you".
Click to expand...

Egads! You mean to tell me people don't like being asked questions by a person evading providing information about the question! No way! I'll put that tip alongside the LORs I have that show I'm actually not as socially idiotic and Machiavellian as the anonymity of the internet allows me to be. I wanted an answer with little information, and SDN-ers love having a reason to hate people anyways. Everybody wins.

"We are not here to try to make anything off of you." At its best, SDN gives information, facilitates an incredible amount of interaction between professionals and aspiring students and cultivates socializing. But , quite often -- too often -- it gives people an easy way to create a moral high horse for themselves and easy opportunities for the thrill of anonymous, groundless condemnation egged on by mob psychology. Comparing the social atmosphere of the MD-PhD forums to the pre-allopathic forums is enough to show how much of a shark tank this is.

But thanks for the advice. Due respect for an attending.
 
philosonista said:
Egads! You mean to tell me people don't like being asked questions by a person evading providing information about the question! No way! I'll put that tip alongside the LORs I have that show I'm actually not as socially idiotic and Machiavellian as the anonymity of the internet allows me to be. I wanted an answer with little information, and SDN-ers love having a reason to hate people anyways. Everybody wins.

"We are not here to try to make anything off of you." At its best, SDN gives information, facilitates an incredible amount of interaction between professionals and aspiring students and cultivates socializing. But , quite often -- too often -- it gives people an easy way to create a moral high horse for themselves and easy opportunities for the thrill of anonymous, groundless condemnation egged on by mob psychology. Comparing the social atmosphere of the MD-PhD forums to the pre-allopathic forums is enough to show how much of a shark tank this is.

But thanks for the advice. Due respect for an attending.
Click to expand...
What's with the attitude? There is a big difference between being concurrently enrolled in two schools (which makes it sound like you are taking classes from two schools at the same time) and getting two degrees from different periods of study that just happened to end at the same time. You didn't fully present the situation

Then it's not the reaction to the situation that matters- it's how adcoms react to your reasoning as to why you pursued both degrees that is important. People were trying to get at your reasoning so they could actually give you advice on how the adcom will react. No one "hates" you
 
philosonista said:
Egads! You mean to tell me people don't like being asked questions by a person evading providing information about the question! No way! I'll put that tip alongside the LORs I have that show I'm actually not as socially idiotic and Machiavellian as the anonymity of the internet allows me to be. I wanted an answer with little information, and SDN-ers love having a reason to hate people anyways. Everybody wins.

"We are not here to try to make anything off of you." At its best, SDN gives information, facilitates an incredible amount of interaction between professionals and aspiring students and cultivates socializing. But , quite often -- too often -- it gives people an easy way to create a moral high horse for themselves and easy opportunities for the thrill of anonymous, groundless condemnation egged on by mob psychology. Comparing the social atmosphere of the MD-PhD forums to the pre-allopathic forums is enough to show how much of a shark tank this is.

But thanks for the advice. Due respect for an attending.
Click to expand...
Agree with Krupke above. You don't seem to know how to work this medium. Nobody was taking the moral high horse or attacking you. You chose to not present adequate information to understand your situation or give you useful advice, and when we said we needed more to help you, you pretty much said, sorry I'm only going to dialogue with Adcom members GTFA. So no, we aren't being the difficult personalities here.

Good luck with that. (And fwiw, since there aren't going to be too many people with your story, you are telegraphing all this to any Adcom who frequents SDN, so being respectful rather than argumentative probably is advised).
 
This really isnt complicated. If you present this openly and can address any questions an ADCOM might have about it in an interview truthfully, the effect it will have on your application will likely be rather negligble. If you can't do these basic things, the effect it can have on your app is probably not something that will be to your benefit.

The problem here isnt graduating from two different schools nearly as much as it is about how you are trying to seemingly do everything but answer simple questions from rambling, to dishing snark to ADCOMs, to not providing all relevant information to potentially coming across as evasive.
 
Wtf is wrong with this kid. Creates a problem from no problem. Escalates another problem after being told the original is not a problem.

On the flip side @Law2Doc should cool off a bit with the SDN policing. Fixing one or two bad apples isn't going to prevent the next idiot from popping up
 
OP, your story is unique, but not in a way that makes you look good to an admissions committee. It's just strange, especially if you try to present it as if you were taking classes at two schools concurrently.

I would definitely avoid mentioning that you transferred to chase prestige before confirming and double checking that the finances would work out, since "leap before you look" isn't generally looked at favorably.

I'm also not sure you'll impress too many people by completing a second degree, after finishing requirements for one at a different school, just because it was cheap and the school was good. If there are ANY deficiencies in the non-coursework components of your application, it'd make me wonder why you spent the time/effort/money to get another degree when you could've been working on those.

Also it's funny that you talk about what the "anonymity of the Internet" allows, while describing a situation that will apply to a near-zero number of applicants.
 
3790473-8923210310-21czc.jpg
 
philosonista said:
But , quite often -- too often -- it gives people an easy way to create a moral high horse for themselves and easy opportunities for the thrill of anonymous, groundless condemnation egged on by mob psychology.
Click to expand...

I think there is some truth to this - but it's not demonstrated in this thread.
 
Sounds like you enjoy spending money. Know who else enjoys poor decision making skills and pools of $? The Caribbean.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
Cornell undergraduate
Replies
9
Views
1K
LizzyM
LizzyM
E
Should I submit my entire school list all at once or split them into batches?
Replies
8
Views
3K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
R
Withdrawing from class after having already graduated question
Replies
2
Views
494
RagingBolt34
R
V
Maximizing ECs over the next two years
Replies
4
Views
442
vexation
V
D
LOR question: Applying to two health professions graduate programs at once
Replies
2
Views
435
K-Frog
K-Frog
Top