SDN/real life discrepancy

[bbas]

Anyone else notice a major discrepancy between premeds in "real life" and those on SDN? I never really noticed it until I started to hang out with premeds at my school. I was amazed about how little people seem to know about the seemingly common things like the applcation process, what courses to take, etc. There also seems to be a big difference about what constitutes an average applicant, especially in terms of EC's. Most people I know have done the usual volunteering, shadowing, research, and maybe an occasional club/service org.here and there. On here, it seems like people are worried about "average" EC's and then fire off ten different things they are involved in. Just thought it was interesting.

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[crisv]

I think what you see here is classic sampling bias. The premeds who are going about the application process half-heartedly (and have average stats) are simply less likely to be seen here.

 

[photo_girl07]

I think what you see here is classic sampling bias. The premeds who are going about the application process half-heartedly (and have average stats) are simply less likely to be seen here.

DITTO....there is definitely a gradient of premeds. The ones on SDN seem to be 100 steps of everyone.

PG

 

[63768]

DITTO....there is definitely a gradient of premeds. The ones on SDN seem to be 100 steps of everyone.

haha this is why i love SDN. it helps me be ahead of everyone else.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

I spit on those obnoxious, non-cancer curing dunderheads.
-Dr. P.

 

[Oculus Sinistra]

Anyone else notice a major discrepancy between premeds in "real life" and those on SDN? I never really noticed it until I started to hang out with premeds at my school. I was amazed about how little people seem to know about the seemingly common things like the applcation process, what courses to take, etc. There also seems to be a big difference about what constitutes an average applicant, especially in terms of EC's. Most people I know have done the usual volunteering, shadowing, research, and maybe an occasional club/service org.here and there. On here, it seems like people are worried about "average" EC's and then fire off ten different things they are involved in. Just thought it was interesting.

Definitely noticed the gradient.

Helps to explain the fact that so many people get rejected each year. How you can even walk into an interview without preparing an answer for why you want to be a doctor, I don't know.

"It was so left-field!"

"Yeah... you gotta watch out for curveballs," you tell him.

The next day you wear your rad SDN shirt and sunglasses and loiter on a bench near one of his classes.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I notice that I am much better informed than almost every premed I have run into, outside of SDN. It seems like they don't know about the MSAR, have no idea where to apply, do not know what a good MCAT score is etc.

It is like they are completely in the dark as to what it takes to do well in this whole process. Also a lot of times it is futile for me as a person not yet applying to try to give advice to someone who is. They claim I don't know how it works, or amcas says to do this or that.

I think what could really help applicants across the country is a program to educate advisors. Colleges need to be the primary source of information for how to sucessfully apply to medical school. Also considering that most universities will require you meet with your advisor before you schedule classes it would provide an ideal oppurtunity to explain the process.

 

[burntfries]

These days i find myself telling people, "well I read on SDN that ______. " Gotta love the internets!

 

[Oculus Sinistra]

These days i find myself telling people, "well I read on SDN that ______. " Gotta love the internets!

EDIT: This one is better

Internet!

 

[mmmkay121]

Whenever anonymous MCAT scores were polled, the average came out to be 32 (87th-ish percentile )!!!

 

[OwnageMobile]

haha this is why i love SDN. it helps me be ahead of everyone else.

Me too. Muahahahahaha!
Yours truly,
OwnageMobile

 

[spospo]

i never really notice the gradient probably because there are a total of 5 premeds at my school and i don't talk to any of them. its nice because i don't have all them stressing me out....just all of you guys.

 

[tncekm]

On the flip-side of this coin, if there is such a huge accomplisment difference and we SDNers have unproportiontely better grades and more qualified ECs, what does the 40% acceptance rate premed applicants mean?

Does that mean that the countless hours we spend researching stuff the other kids don't know about and asking each other "what are my chances?" is really much less important than simple communication skills?

This all makes me think that the interview is probably the most important thing in the entire application process. Granted, of course, you have to GET the interview...but, lots of people get interviews. My point: work on your communication skills people

 

[DoctorPardi]

On the flip-side of this coin, if there is such a huge accomplisment difference and we SDNers have unproportiontely better grades and more qualified ECs, what does the 40% acceptance rate premed applicants mean?

Does that mean that the countless hours we spend researching stuff the other kids don't know about and asking each other "what are my chances?" is really much less important than simple communication skills?

This all makes me think that the interview is probably the most important thing in the entire application process. Granted, of course, you have to GET the interview...but, lots of people get interviews. My point: work on your communication skills people

One of the key reasons people do not get into medical school is because they don't know where to apply and when to apply. For example take a guy who applies with a 3.9 gpa and a 35 mcat. He only applies to say 5 top ten schools and then a few OOS public schools. On top of that he took the august mcat and didn't apply until after he got his score. For us we would think, oh well he just applied late and didn't apply broadly enough, but a lot of people don't know when, and where they should be applying. This hypothetical applicant would almost certainly get into medical school if he applied smartly, but a lot of people just don't know what to do.

 

[tncekm]

One of the key reasons people do not get into medical school is because they don't know where to apply and when to apply. For example take a guy who applies with a 3.9 gpa and a 35 mcat. He only applies to say 5 top ten schools and then a few OOS public schools. On top of that he took the august mcat and didn't apply until after he got his score. For us we would think, oh well he just applied late and didn't apply broadly enough, but a lot of people don't know when, and where they should be applying. This hypothetical applicant would almost certainly get into medical school if he applied smartly, but a lot of people just don't know what to do.

Oh, of course if you increase your number of applications you're going to increase your chances of acceptance.

I'm just saying that too many people get hung up on SDN and preparing a perfect appication when that means nothing if you cannot converse without a keyboard.

 

[NonTradMed]

When I was in college, eveyone was obsessed with their GPAs and griped about how hard it was blah blah. However, not everyone was into the volunteering thing. At least one friend (who is really smart but completely clueless on some things I swear...) didn't do any shadowing/volunteering/ECs, and deliberately took easy load (two science classes and three music 'fun' classes) to bump her GPA. Then she decided to apply to all the top schools with no thought to backups. Needless to say, she didn't get into med school that year. I didn't know about what a post-bacc program was (although, part of the reason was that they were relatively new development at that time). Everyone thought reapplicants had no chance of getting into med school, nontrads were just to be pitied for their lame attempts at getting in....

When I went back to college this past year, I noticed some people were even more clueless (!) about the premed process. At least two girls told me they 'winged it' on the MCAT and (surprise, surprise) did poorly on it. Another girl refused to consider applying out of state for school becasuse she figured if she can't get into her state school, she can't get into anywhere else. One guy insisted he would go carribean over DO because with he'd "have that MD and be able to be a doctor, unlike a DO". Then there's also the people who deliberately waits until the last minute to apply because "they're still going to look at my application as long as I get it in on time".

I tried to introduce some of these people to SDN, but they only perked up when they heard of the interview feedback. I tried to tell them that the forums were a great tool to gather information, but they considered it 'too technical' for them. Blech.

 

[71263]

DITTO....there is definitely a gradient of premeds. The ones on SDN seem to be 100 steps of everyone.

PG

I dunno. Its really easy to act 'normal' on the internet at anonymous forums. Wait till you meet some of these people in real life...

 

[tncekm]

I dunno. Its really easy to act 'normal' on the internet at anonymous forums. Wait till you meet some of these people in real life...

Precisely.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I tried to introduce some of these people to SDN, but they only perked up when they heard of the interview feedback. I tried to tell them that the forums were a great tool to gather information, but they considered it 'too technical' for them. Blech.

I have had this same experience. People seem to disrespect any mention of good information on the internet. It is like, "well if it is on the internet I probably know it already."

I really feel bad though, I saw a guy's amcas school's list the other day and he is applying to two schools (out of a total of ten) that accept like 1-2 OOSers a year lol.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I dunno. Its really easy to act 'normal' on the internet at anonymous forums. Wait till you meet some of these people in real life...

It seems like half of us are talking about real life premeds being ill prepared for medical school and the other half are talking about SDNers being socially inept lol.

 

[tncekm]

It seems like half of us are talking about real life premeds being ill prepared for medical school and the other half are talking about SDNers being socially inept lol.

Exactly Hard to find a good combination these days, huh? lol

 

[DoctorPardi]

Exactly Hard to find a good combination these days, huh? lol

While I am no motivational speaker or anything,but I believe I'll do well on interviews. I think normal people who aren't shut ins come to SDN just as likely as people who are completely socially inept. The thing is, this site offers more info than any other source for how to be a sucessful applicant.

 

[tncekm]

Of course not everybody on the forums will be socially withdrawn, but I would say there is probably a higher percentage of socially unprepared students on SDN. Many people here, like myself, are here because we are recluses. Some people can be reclusive and socially savvy, but its less probable to find people like that in this environment.

I'm not trying to talk trash...I'm a big-time computer nerd Just basing my experiences as a comp geek as the foundation for my argument, that's all.

 

[mfrenkie]

I'm pretty sure that my acceptance to medical school hinges almost completely on everyone with a better MCAT than me being the social equivalent of Napoleon Dynamite and me being really, really sweet at life.