SDN identity exposed

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NickNaylor said:
Because while there would occasionally be the person that said "oh, hey, are you that guy from SDN?" in a calm, curious manner, most of them were *****s and responded by saying "OMG YOU'RE THAT GUY YOU POST SO MUCH LOL CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH."

I seriously wish I were joking. That exact thing happened more than once.
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lmao, autographs? (seriously?) :scared:

but to be fair you used to have your real name in your username. what im curious about is how people like medpr and others got identified... they don't have very specific information in their mdapps at all
 
circulus vitios said:
This is why I misrepresent my personal information. I wouldn't want an adcom to find me out and get all butthurt because he read my posts about volunteering, the MCAT, the applications process, etc. being a ******ed joke.
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I can imagine these posts hurting you as a pre-med. They are very not politically correct in the medical admissions world.

Have you looked at the medical student forums? The shift from the bleeding heart pre-meds who are dying to volunteer every second of the day and make a minimum salary for the greater good to the medical student actually concerned with *GASP* making a decent salary is quite interesting.

As a medical student now, I'm less concerned about what I post, but then again, I wouldn't post anything I wouldn't want my mother to see!
 
NickNaylor said:
Because while there would occasionally be the person that said "oh, hey, are you that guy from SDN?" in a calm, curious manner, most of them were *****s and responded by saying "OMG YOU'RE THAT GUY YOU POST SO MUCH LOL CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH."

I seriously wish I were joking. That exact thing happened more than once.
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Lol, did you do it? That's so funny.
 
NickNaylor said:
Because while there would occasionally be the person that said "oh, hey, are you that guy from SDN?" in a calm, curious manner, most of them were *****s and responded by saying "OMG YOU'RE THAT GUY YOU POST SO MUCH LOL CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH."

I seriously wish I were joking. That exact thing happened more than once.
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To be honest, I have wondered if your username was your actual name or if your picture was actually of you. You could either be open about who you are or extremely good at creating a false person to hide your identity.
 
BABSstudent said:
To be honest, I have wondered if your username was your actual name or if your picture was actually of you. You could either be open about who you are or extremely good at creating a false person to hide your identity.
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Uhh I'm guessing u don't listen to a lot of rap/hip hop...




P.S.
That's not me in my avatar either
 
Venom5 said:
Uhh I'm guessing u don't listen to a lot of rap/hip hop...




P.S.
That's not me in my avatar either
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I grew up in the Seattle area. Rap is not very popular there. I listened to alternative/grunge rock.

And I know your avatar is not of you. :laugh:
 
lol, people would expect him to be Drake, and be disappointed it's some regular guy 😛
 
Venom5 said:
Uhh I'm guessing u don't listen to a lot of rap/hip hop...




P.S.
That's not me in my avatar either
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Hoo rah. It's Birdman, CEO of YMCMB.


Sent from my iPad using SDN Mobile app.
 
In all my years, I've only recognized one person and it was pretty obvious given that he was non-trad and had a truly unique application that included military service. (and he interviewed in uniform)

I thought it best not to let him know who I was (I don't go by Elizabeth or Liz or Lizzy IRL) but latter we PM'ed and I did tell him. LOL

And yes, he got in at my school and every single school where he interviewed... he was an amazing applicant.
 
LizzyM said:
In all my years, I've only recognized one person and it was pretty obvious given that he was non-trad and had a truly unique application that included military service. (and he interviewed in uniform)

I thought it best not to let him know who I was (I don't go by Elizabeth or Liz or Lizzy IRL) but latter we PM'ed and I did tell him. LOL

And yes, he got in at my school and every single school where he interviewed... he was an amazing applicant.
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Hearing that from you.......:wow:
 
when i was a premed i was worried about people finding me out. now i don't care. if people have followed my posts throughout the years, I am pretty unique to the medical field and when people see me it is a generally a dead giveaway. and like i said, I don't really care. If you post enough to know who I am, you are just as bad as me.
 
LizzyM said:
In all my years, I've only recognized one person and it was pretty obvious given that he was non-trad and had a truly unique application that included military service. (and he interviewed in uniform)

I thought it best not to let him know who I was (I don't go by Elizabeth or Liz or Lizzy IRL) but latter we PM'ed and I did tell him. LOL

And yes, he got in at my school and every single school where he interviewed... he was an amazing applicant.
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Not going to lie, for lack of better terminology, what a badass.
 
Thego2guy said:
EXACTLY. I had two separate instances over the last two months where the conversation took this turn,

First instance was at an OR, when I was talking to an MS2, and casually asked him about any advice when it comes to the app process. He told me the usual stuff and then he said "well you know those websites...like...like student doctor, or something? ..."
Me: " yeah... It sounds familiar...isn't it the website that shows up in all of those google searches when you search med school related content or something?"
Him:"yeah....well...AVOID it at all costs. It does no good to you, and it makes you crazy."

For the remainder or the convo I of course agreed with him, and pretended like I've been on here once or twice.

The second situation is very similar and happened at school. The only difference was that the guy first asked me whether I knew of this place, with a very inquisitive look....so I wasn't sure if I should have jumped up in joy (knowing that there is yet another high caliber premed at my low caliber school), or...pretended like I didn't know the place, while simultaneously bashing it. Lol, I went with the latter, and apparently that was the right choice to go with.

I guess I'm a "closet" sdner. Idk why people hate this place AS much as they do in the real world. Im sure that if word ever got out that I am an active member on here, it would bring me more shame than pride.
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Everyone I ask about SDN pretends they have no idea what it is...as if they haven't googled the word doctor by the time they are in ochem 2?
 
Sesom said:
Everyone I ask about SDN pretends they have no idea what it is...as if they haven't googled the word doctor by the time they are in ochem 2?
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They should hide this website.


Sent from my iPad using SDN Mobile app.
 
Thego2guy said:
EXACTLY. I had two separate instances over the last two months where the conversation took this turn,

First instance was at an OR, when I was talking to an MS2, and casually asked him about any advice when it comes to the app process. He told me the usual stuff and then he said "well you know those websites...like...like student doctor, or something? ..."
Me: " yeah... It sounds familiar...isn't it the website that shows up in all of those google searches when you search med school related content or something?"
Him:"yeah....well...AVOID it at all costs. It does no good to you, and it makes you crazy."

For the remainder or the convo I of course agreed with him, and pretended like I've been on here once or twice.

The second situation is very similar and happened at school. The only difference was that the guy first asked me whether I knew of this place, with a very inquisitive look....so I wasn't sure if I should have jumped up in joy (knowing that there is yet another high caliber premed at my low caliber school), or...pretended like I didn't know the place, while simultaneously bashing it. Lol, I went with the latter, and apparently that was the right choice to go with.

I guess I'm a "closet" sdner. Idk why people hate this place AS much as they do in the real world. Im sure that if word ever got out that I am an active member on here, it would bring me more shame than pride.
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People hate it on the internet world too. Take a walk around /r/premed and watch the butthurt flow through them. :laugh:
 
LizzyM said:
In all my years, I've only recognized one person and it was pretty obvious given that he was non-trad and had a truly unique application that included military service. (and he interviewed in uniform)

I thought it best not to let him know who I was (I don't go by Elizabeth or Liz or Lizzy IRL) but latter we PM'ed and I did tell him. LOL

And yes, he got in at my school and every single school where he interviewed... he was an amazing applicant.
Click to expand...

So obviously you don't do this, but do you know/have heard of any adcom members who do google searches like "site:forums.studentdoctor.net (list of potentially unique applicant information here)" to see if they can turn up an applicants' account? Or is it something that no one would even think to check/care about?

FrkyBgStok said:
when i was a premed i was worried about people finding me out. now i don't care. if people have followed my posts throughout the years, I am pretty unique to the medical field and when people see me it is a generally a dead giveaway. and like i said, I don't really care. If you post enough to know who I am, you are just as bad as me.
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So I take it that's you in your avatar?
 
theseeker4 said:
It isn't a big deal to me, since first, I don't post anything on here that I wouldn't be willing to stand behind, and second, if anything happened where I started to be harassed or stalked on here (however unlikely that is) I would simply walk away from the account, reincarnating and stay more anonymous in the new account.
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This.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
Sesom said:
Everyone I ask about SDN pretends they have no idea what it is...as if they haven't googled the word doctor by the time they are in ochem 2?
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I made it through ug and part of a gap year before finding sdn.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
Venom5 said:
haha... yep ceo along with slim


1000th post!
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If I ever met Venom, I would DEMAND an autograph!

That avatar is amazing, I feel more and more gangsta every time I see it.
 
Last edited:
I've ID'd people and been id'd at interviews and now as well that school started.

Probably has something to do with the autobiography I put up.
 
Venom5 said:
lmao, autographs? (seriously?) :scared:

but to be fair you used to have your real name in your username. what im curious about is how people like medpr and others got identified... they don't have very specific information in their mdapps at all
Click to expand...

You might be surprised at how identifying very general information can be. Knowing two or three general activities (no specifics - just very basic info) plus a relatively narrow GPA/MCAT range plus your undergrad can be enough to identify you. In my case, I was the only person from my 12,000 person undergrad applying with a 4.0/41, so I wouldn't need to provide any other information beyond that. It's a little different if you apply with more common stats, but still, it doesn't take too many data points to narrow the number of possible applicants to a very small pool.
 
i was able to identify a former high-school classmate who also was my classmate in college on SDN since he was pretty active on here. I knew he was really smart and did a lot of things and his SDN linked to mdapp by chance so yeah that blew me away further to see his exact stats and ECs. Yeah ok that sounded stalkerish......
 
I have known medical students on the adcom to search applicants on facebook... if they are alumni of the same undergrad it is possible that they have mutual friends and that whole friends of friends thing ...

I'd say that in much less than 1% of applicants is this an issue.
 
No offense to NickNaylor (or anyone else), but why would a pre-med want another pre-med's or med student's autograph? 😕
 
NickNaylor said:
You might be surprised at how identifying very general information can be. Knowing two or three general activities (no specifics - just very basic info) plus a relatively narrow GPA/MCAT range plus your undergrad can be enough to identify you. In my case, I was the only person from my 12,000 person undergrad applying with a 4.0/41, so I wouldn't need to provide any other information beyond that. It's a little different if you apply with more common stats, but still, it doesn't take too many data points to narrow the number of possible applicants to a very small pool.
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Seriously. I feel like MCAT score and GPA is enough to identify students if they also have our university name (if the schools really wanted to). I mean, I don't know about your schools, but I only know of a handful students from mine that are applying to medical school right now. All of our GPAs and some of our majors are different.
 
I'm in a field that took 41 residents last year. There is only one program in the state that I'm in and only 2 residents in the program. The other guy my year is the stereotypical nice guy and I'm a little of a hardass. It would be trivial to figure out who I am, which is why I don't bother trying very hard to hide it. I'll stand by what I say on here in person so it makes no difference. I've met up or talked with over skype a couple of prospective students in the past that have PMed me. *shrug*

I learned a long time ago that your online identity can be easily penetrated, even if you hide things well. If someone has the time/energy it is trivial. So be nice...
 
BABSstudent said:
Seriously. I feel like MCAT score and GPA is enough to identify students if they also have our university name (if the schools really wanted to). I mean, I don't know about your schools, but I only know of a handful students from mine that are applying to medical school right now. All of our GPAs and some of our majors are different.
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Exactly. Unless you go to an EXTREMELY large school, the number of people applying to any one school likely isn't all that much (maybe a few hundred at most). That already narrows it down quite a bit. Throw in a few more identifiers and, voila, no more anonymity.
 
mimelim said:
I'm in a field that took 41 residents last year. There is only one program in the state that I'm in and only 2 residents in the program. The other guy my year is the stereotypical nice guy and I'm a little of a hardass. It would be trivial to figure out who I am, which is why I don't bother trying very hard to hide it. I'll stand by what I say on here in person so it makes no difference. I've met up or talked with over skype a couple of prospective students in the past that have PMed me. *shrug*

I learned a long time ago that your online identity can be easily penetrated, even if you hide things well. If someone has the time/energy it is trivial. So be nice...
Click to expand...

I like being anonymous, but if anyone spent the time on analyzing my previous posts, blog articles, and MDapplicants page in order to find me out, it wouldn't be in the end of the world.

Side-note - How does one get the rocket scientist badge thing?
 
Renaissance Man said:
I like being anonymous, but if anyone spent the time on analyzing my previous posts, blog articles, and MDapplicants page in order to find me out, it wouldn't be in the end of the world.

Side-note - How does one get the rocket scientist badge thing?
Click to expand...

I believe you had to have majored in an aerospace-related field. You might also qualify if you worked in aerospace, but I'm not sure about that.
 
Sesom said:
Everyone I ask about SDN pretends they have no idea what it is...as if they haven't googled the word doctor by the time they are in ochem 2?
Click to expand...

Lol, very true...

TheShaker said:
People hate it on the internet world too. Take a walk around /r/premed and watch the butthurt flow through them. :laugh:
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Lmao, I seldom go to that subreddit, but I know of the hate. I still don't know why they hate it that much. The obvious reasons are not enough, perhaps they don't like to see the competition and the pessimism that goes around here?
 
Not having an MDapps profile really helps with staying anonymous IMO. If anyone had the time and energy to dig through hundreds of posts, I'm sure they could figure it out.
 
Praefectus said:
Not having an MDapps profile really helps with staying anonymous IMO. If anyone had the time and energy to dig through hundreds of posts, I'm sure they could figure it out.
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People have already threatened to "out me" to DO schools because I have written that DO is a backup to MD.

SDN is pretty serious business, bro. 😉
 
MedPR said:
People have already threatened to "out me" to DO schools because I have written that DO is a backup to MD.

SDN is pretty serious business, bro. 😉
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I'm sure that the DO schools will be completely shocked.
"WHAT? People actually want to go to MD schools if they're a borderline applicant? That's preposterous! Next he'll say that the Earth is round."
 
Yeah, I get really worried people will identify me at interviews based on my food preferences. 😀

But in reality, I have definitely given enough info out through my posts on SDN to identify me, even though I keep my MDapps pretty anonymous. Something makes me think that the effort it takes to search through my posts on SDN makes it not really worth it to find out who I am, even though it would actually be pretty easy. In any case, I definitely agree that I don't say anything on SDN (or on the internet in general) that I couldn't stand behind under other circumstances.
 
NickNaylor said:
You might be surprised at how identifying very general information can be. Knowing two or three general activities (no specifics - just very basic info) plus a relatively narrow GPA/MCAT range plus your undergrad can be enough to identify you. In my case, I was the only person from my 12,000 person undergrad applying with a 4.0/41, so I wouldn't need to provide any other information beyond that. It's a little different if you apply with more common stats, but still, it doesn't take too many data points to narrow the number of possible applicants to a very small pool.
Click to expand...
In some cases you wouldn't even need that much info. Just GPA/MCAT can be enough. For example, if you have a 99th percentile MCAT you're about one of 400 people who got that score that year (and since adcoms can see the year you took the MCAT in they'll know which group of 400 people you belong to). Then consider that in the 3.5+ GPA range there are 50 different GPAs you could have. At this point there's between a 1:8 and 1:20 chance of knowing your identity just from GPA/MCAT (I'm sure my math is off, but just go with it). Throw in any other data point and you're unique. The certainty rises the higher up you go too; at 41+ your score, year of MCAT, and GPA will be sufficient to identify you.
 
When I was in undergrad, one of the guys I went to school with knew who I was. But we had a really small pre-med community, so that wasn't really a surprise.

Now that I'm in med school, I've had at least 5 people either message me on Facebook, come up to me in class, or come up to me in a bar about something I posted here. I don't make a real strong effort to keep myself anonymous. The bar instance was weird, but otherwise... who cares.
 
mvenus929 said:
When I was in undergrad, one of the guys I went to school with knew who I was. But we had a really small pre-med community, so that wasn't really a surprise.

Now that I'm in med school, I've had at least 5 people either message me on Facebook, come up to me in class, or come up to me in a bar about something I posted here. I don't make a real strong effort to keep myself anonymous. The bar instance was weird, but otherwise... who cares.
Click to expand...

I think it's interesting that you get to do Ortho and Ophtho completely separate from your Surg rotation. Pretty cool.
 
TheShaker said:
People hate it on the internet world too. Take a walk around /r/premed and watch the butthurt flow through them. :laugh:
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oh lawd, there really is a subreddit for everything 😀

as for the thread topic, my first app season I haven't been outed but SDN did come up at one of my interviews. I definitely tried to play it off that I didn't post there since the consensus was that the place breeds animosity and paranoia. Which, after being on for a few years now, I totally agree with.😀😀 However, I really don't act any differently here than I do irl so if I was outed, it wouldn't be such a big deal.
 
Praefectus said:
Not having an MDapps profile really helps with staying anonymous IMO. If anyone had the time and energy to dig through hundreds of posts, I'm sure they could figure it out.
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My MDApps gives me away completely.

On a serious note, it would be impressive to pinpoint the PMOD user! The originator doesn't even post anymore, I don't think, though we all know each other 😛
 
+1 to not caring a lot about anonymity. Honestly I think it helps hold me accountable to post responsible helpful comments and not to be a jerk (unless you put a smiley face after it signifying sarcasm) 😉
 
markyb03 said:
+1 to not caring a lot about anonymity. Honestly I think it helps hold me accountable to post responsible helpful comments and not to be a jerk (unless you put a smiley face after it signifying sarcasm) 😉
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You're a jerk.










Oh, almost forgot,😉
 
I was a bit surprised how many people here are worried about people finding out their SDN accounts, or that they deny knowing about SDN in public. My SDN account may be fresh but I've been a high poster on other websites/forums and don't worry about those either. To each their own I guess, but I wouldn't mind if my account were browsed right in front of me during an interview.

And the anti-sdn sediment from reddit is funny, because they're often the same people (or at least the same type). :laugh:

Here's a recent reddit thread about SDN:

http://www.reddit.com/r/premed/comments/zjlmx/sdn_rage/

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