SDN represents

[IHOPness]

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Building off a previous posting, where do you think the typical active member on SDN falls in terms of representing the actual pre-medical student population?

 

[the duck]

Building off a previous posting, where do you think the typical active member on SDN falls in terms of representing the actual pre-medical student population?

I'd say they tend to be the more serious students, seeing as they spend their free time researching med school admissions. On average, they probably have higher mean GPA/MCATs than the rest of the population

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Hard to say, I personally think that SDN is full of brilliant people and then some extremely socially awkward people. I would say that a normal curve of SDN's population would be like the top 30% of all pre-meds being the average/center/majority with a standard deviation of 10%.


Obviously me using numbers will get me shish-kebabed. But oh well bring it!

 

[StudyShy]

Certainly SDN represents both the highly gifted and the struggling students. Interesting question. 🙂

 

[mtbtx]

Most pre-meds have better things to do than waste their time on here. Therefore I think that there are two groups of premeds on here:

1)Premeds that waste their time on here because they don't know how to manage their time and fail, or are failing already and come here for reassurance, motivation, etc...

2)Premeds that waste their time on here but are so smart it doesn't matter and end up being successful anyway, or just come here to gloat or whatever.

The "average" premed doesn't even know SDN exists.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Most pre-meds have better things to do than waste their time on here. Therefore I think that there are two groups of premeds on here:

1)Premeds that waste their time on here because they don't know how to manage their time and fail, or are failing already and come here for reassurance, motivation, etc...

2)Premeds that waste their time on here but are so smart it doesn't matter and end up being successful anyway, or just come here to gloat or whatever.

The "average" premed doesn't even know SDN exists.

3) Bored pre-meds who come on here when they are done with their work and are used to having a good conversation on here on slightly relevant topics.

 

[Wakesc]

Most pre-meds have better things to do than waste their time on here. Therefore I think that there are two groups of premeds on here:

1)Premeds that waste their time on here because they don't know how to manage their time and fail, or are failing already and come here for reassurance, motivation, etc...

2)Premeds that waste their time on here but are so smart it doesn't matter and end up being successful anyway, or just come here to gloat or whatever.

The "average" premed doesn't even know SDN exists.

Out of curiousity which group do you fall into?

 

[loveoforganic]

Certainly SDN represents both the highly gifted and the struggling students. Interesting question. 🙂

I'd agree. Probably pretty bimodal.

 

[LoveTheRunner]

in this thread we have:

gunner
troll
gunner
troll
troll
gunner
troll
gunner


special categories include Lizzy, Prowler, Cat, and Cole, but those are more like rare birds in pokemon than actual SDN populations

 

[Doc of the Walk]

Is this thread based on my post?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

in this thread we have:

gunner
troll
gunner
troll
troll
gunner
troll
gunner
floating head

special categories include Lizzy, Prowler, Cat, and Cole, but those are more like rare birds in pokemon than actual SDN populations

Fix'd

 

[IHOPness]

Is this thread based on my post?

Nice pic. Yeah, why not? 🙂

 

[Doc of the Walk]

Nice pic. Yeah, why not? 🙂

 

[StudyShy]

special categories include Lizzy, Prowler, Cat, and Cole, but those are more like rare birds in pokemon than actual SDN populations

The fact that you mentioned Pokemon probably makes you fall in the socially "awkward category." 😉

I like me a good storm trooper. I want you Pikachu! 😀

 

[Healer of Ills]

Most pre-meds have better things to do than waste their time on here. Therefore I think that there are two groups of premeds on here:

1)Premeds that waste their time on here because they don't know how to manage their time and fail, or are failing already and come here for reassurance, motivation, etc...

2)Premeds that waste their time on here but are so smart it doesn't matter and end up being successful anyway, or just come here to gloat or whatever.

The "average" premed doesn't even know SDN exists.

Completely agree with this, probably the most accurate analysis i have heard regarding the SDN pop

 

[mitchlucker]

I only found out about this when a member of the admissions committee at my school told me to come on here to research student experiences at different schools.

They told told me (not joking) to not even look at the forums aside from the school specific ones and to come back only if I was drowning in medical school and had no one else to turn to. (Full of students who do nothing but live to get into medical schools, trolls, people who are argumentative for no reason, people with false information, chickens with their heads cut off, etc) This was an exaggeration of course I found out but I can see how a person could get that vibe depending on when they visit the site. Probably a bad first impression for that person which led them to tell me that.

I like this site quite a bit because it is very informative about the whole application process, gives you things to talk about with people who are pretty smart (on average) and share your experiences with as a pre-med (aside from your friends who are pre-med or other people who couldn't care less about your status as a pre-med). It also gives you a large group of people to give you an answer completely anonymously with no regard for your feelings.


SDN represents the top, maybe, 5% of all pre-meds I would say. Stats wise and effort wise. The typical pre-med doesn't know it exists. None of my friends told me and it was only until I asked a casual acquaintance about choosing schools based on the student population (ie- I didn't want to be around kids from extreme gunner schools) that I knew about it.

Now, this doesn't mean a 2.5/21 would find out about the site the same way I did, but the fact that the people who post here (generally) know how to properly use the English language and ''dn't post like thisss 2 get answers 2 there questions'' means that they're fairly smart people.

The thing is is that most pre-meds don't have better things to do with their time ... I would say being on these forums is a better usage of my 30 mins/day than watching a lame TV show or doing something else pointless for 30 mins.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Completely agree with this, probably the most accurate analysis i have heard regarding the SDN pop

Which one are you in?

 

[StudyShy]

It also gives you a large group of people to give you an answer completely anonymously with no regard for your feelings.

Isn't SDN great! Gotta love the advice. 🙂

 

[mtbtx]

Out of curiousity which group do you fall into?

Actually, I fall into the "pseudo third" group: already accepted into med school this cycle so getting entertainment value from this site.

 

[NickNaylor]

Is this thread based on my post?

That picture is awesome.

 

[gravitywave]

you always hear about adcoms/deans trashing this site, but i suspect that's because most of them are from the generation that didn't grow up with the internet/social media. some of them have spent maybe twenty minutes here and can't handle the signal/noise ratio, panic and tell everyone to stay away.

i'm here because i'm an inveterate procrastinator and this place feeds my addi(c)tion.

 

[CrystalProphecy]

I would agree with the bimodal thing. A lot more trolls on here than the CollegeConfidential I was familiar with, but a loooot less gunners than there were on there (I have a 2400 on my SAT BUT I GOT A 4 ON THE APUSH EXAM. AM I GOING TO GET INTO A CSU OMGZOMGBBQWTFblahblahblah). I think there are both stellar students on here to help get prep for their apps as well as people who've done non-traditional route who want advice as well as people are doing badly and want help.

I wouldn't say top 5% as someone mentioned up there. I'd say everyone in here should be in a 3.0+ GPA range, maybe 2.8 at the very least. I think anyone with lower is prob not concerned enough with being a doctor to sign up on SDN.

 

[MCATism]

i'm here hoping that SDN will become the new 4chan.

/slash people here tend to be (significantly) more down-to-earth than the pre-meds in my classes, so it's way easier to talk about application-related stuff without immediately collapsing into a state of self-loathing over my own douchebaggery. i'm tired of hearing from the people at school about all of their "accomplishments". it seems like they think everyone else is an undercover admissions officer.

 

[cocoa butter]

There are no gunners on SDN, they're too busy outdoing themselves.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Based on what I've heard people talk about when it came to being a "good" pre-med when I was completing my pre-reqs, people don't seem to know about this place. It wasn't too uncommon to hear the "my pre-med advisor suggested..." line. That right there always seemed to imply that they didn't know about this place and no one ever piped up to tell them that pre-med advisors tend to suck. Even pre-pharm kids never talked about this site. I'd say that those on SDN tend to be a very small minority in the app pool. Maybe <5-10%. The people who post probably represent an even smaller minority.

It's probably mean but I never told anyone about SDN. I kind of treated it like the people in Leonardo DeCaprio's "The Beach" treated their secret hide-away on that island that they shared with the marijuana growers. I kept it a secret. Especially from "that guy" that I actually sat next to. The only pre-med that I got to know happened to be "that guy"; Mr. "I got a 4.0 in undergrad and just got accepted to the Carrib." I felt good about not telling him about this site.

 

[StudyShy]

Based on what I've heard people talk about when it came to being a "good" pre-med when I was completing my pre-reqs, people don't seem to know about this place. It wasn't too uncommon to hear the "my pre-med advisor suggested..." line. That right there always seemed to imply that they didn't know about this place and no one ever piped up to tell them that pre-med advisors tend to suck. Even pre-pharm kids never talked about this site. I'd say that those on SDN tend to be a very small minority in the app pool. Maybe <5-10%. The people who post probably represent an even smaller minority.

It's probably mean but I never told anyone about SDN. I kind of treated it like the people in Leonardo DeCaprio's "The Beach" treated their secret hide-away on that island that they shared with the marijuana growers. I kept it a secret. Especially from "that guy" that I actually sat next to. The only pre-med that I got to know happened to be "that guy"; Mr. "I got a 4.0 in undergrad and just got accepted to the Carrib." I felt good about not telling him about this site.

It's kind of scary to think that only a handful of premeds know about this place. That means that most premeds are probably not researching enough about the requirements for medical school and which schools would be most appropriate for any given person. Yikes.

Has anyone actually met someone IRL from SDN?

 

[NurWollen]

It's kind of scary to think that only a handful of premeds know about this place. That means that most premeds are probably not researching enough about the requirements for medical school and which schools would be most appropriate for any given person. Yikes.

Has anyone actually met someone IRL from SDN?

This.

When you here stories about people not getting in anywhere with a 30 and a 3.5 it is because they didn't research the applications process. They didn't apply to the right schools, enough schools, etc. etc.

Last semester in my O-chem class a fellow pre-med classmate sitting behind me tapped on my shoulder to show me the Harry Potter SOM joke thread on his laptop. He said he just lurks though and doesn't post much.

I did talk to an admissions counselor from A.T. Still who said it is a their new DO school in Arizona in NOT focused solely on getting people into primary care, and that that was probably a rumor started on SDN. So SDN is worthy of note in the greater pre-med universe. Still, most of the pre-med people I know here haven't heard of SDN. Although I do sometimes try to keep a distance from other pre-meds for the sake of my own sanity.

 

[StudyShy]

Although I do sometimes try to keep a distance from other pre-meds for the sake of my own sanity.

I know what you're saying.

 

[RocketSurgeon]

I came to SDN after my first meeting with my pre-med 'advisor'..who spent 20 mins typing stuff into a search engine and reading out the articles to me...

I realized that I did not need someone with a masters degree and 'extensive clinical background' to read out already laid out guidelines to me...


Also I assumed that most pre-meds did know about SDN..I do come across some pre-meds quite rarely who dont know squat about medical school admission..

But I should mention here almost every med student I have met did know about SDN specially MSIVs looking for residency programs reviews...

 

[dbeast]

Based on what I've heard people talk about when it came to being a "good" pre-med when I was completing my pre-reqs, people don't seem to know about this place. It wasn't too uncommon to hear the "my pre-med advisor suggested..." line. That right there always seemed to imply that they didn't know about this place and no one ever piped up to tell them that pre-med advisors tend to suck. Even pre-pharm kids never talked about this site. I'd say that those on SDN tend to be a very small minority in the app pool. Maybe <5-10%. The people who post probably represent an even smaller minority.

It's probably mean but I never told anyone about SDN. I kind of treated it like the people in Leonardo DeCaprio's "The Beach" treated their secret hide-away on that island that they shared with the marijuana growers. I kept it a secret. Especially from "that guy" that I actually sat next to. The only pre-med that I got to know happened to be "that guy"; Mr. "I got a 4.0 in undergrad and just got accepted to the Carrib." I felt good about not telling him about this site.

There's a SDN marijuana farm?!

 

[wanderer]

I'd say about half of successful applicants at least lurk occasionally. Maybe 20% of successful applicants use this site? It's anyone's guess. At one school about half of the interviewees admitted to using this site, but that was just in general, not frequent users.

 

[s1lver]

SDN'ers need a different category. I mean, we all have 6.0 GPA's, 50+ MCAT scores, etc.

We don't even qualify for the summa and magna cum laudes because we're overqualified. Department buildings / scholarships are named after us in recognition of our academic achievements...

 

[gettheleadout]

It's probably mean but I never told anyone about SDN. I kind of treated it like the people in Leonardo DeCaprio's "The Beach" treated their secret hide-away on that island that they shared with the marijuana growers. I kept it a secret. Especially from "that guy" that I actually sat next to. The only pre-med that I got to know happened to be "that guy"; Mr. "I got a 4.0 in undergrad and just got accepted to the Carrib." I felt good about not telling him about this site.

I'm the same way, I keep SDN as much of a secret as possible. But think about it, do you really want people like that on here?