SDN vs. other premeds?

[SweetRain]

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So I keep reading the same thing over and over that SDN members tend to have better stats and should not be discouraged by comparing ourselves to them.

I don't have very many premed friends and I'm not really sure how they actually compare. It is actually true that while my premed advisor tells me I'm in decent shape, SDN always seems to be able to find a spot for improvement. (And I'm very grateful!)

Do SDN members have higher stats in general? This is actually my primary source of info and really, I thought everyone only applied to med school with a 30+ mcat and 80 hours of shadowing...

 

[anfleisch]

No question higher stats. And earlier submission. And I don't really understand how someone could go through this whole long process without finding SDN or wanting to use it's resources.

 

[DirtyJustice]

So I keep reading the same thing over and over that SDN members tend to have better stats and should not be discouraged by comparing ourselves to them.

I don't have very many premed friends and I'm not really sure how they actually compare. It is actually true that while my premed advisor tells me I'm in decent shape, SDN always seems to be able to find a spot for improvement. (And I'm very grateful!)

Do SDN members have higher stats in general? This is actually my primary source of info and really, I thought everyone only applied to med school with a 30+ mcat and 80 hours of shadowing...

Haha no... many do but not all.

 

[surftheiop]

I would say its more bimodal, you get people with rather high stats concerned with maximizing their chances at a dream school and then you get a lot of people with really mediocre stats trying to maximize the chance of getting an MD.

Most of the folks who are comfortable with their resume and are really happy to go to their state school probably don't feel compelled to spend a ton of time on SDN (or atleast if they do spend time they aren't going to be posting stats for analysis too much).

 

[thechenster]

I would say its more bimodal, you get people with rather high stats concerned with maximizing their chances at a dream school and then you get a lot of people with really mediocre stats trying to maximize the chance of getting an MD.

Most of the folks who are comfortable with their resume and are really happy to go to their state school probably don't feel compelled to spend a ton of time on SDN (or atleast if they do spend time they aren't going to be posting stats for analysis too much).

That's a sexy word.

And I agree

 

[AlexB]

I would say its more bimodal, you get people with rather high stats concerned with maximizing their chances at a dream school and then you get a lot of people with really mediocre stats trying to maximize the chance of getting an MD.

Most of the folks who are comfortable with their resume and are really happy to go to their state school probably don't feel compelled to spend a ton of time on SDN (or atleast if they do spend time they aren't going to be posting stats for analysis too much).

yea I fall into the latter category, and damned proud! 2 years ago, I had a very slim chance at getting into med school.....then I found SDN and learned the tricks of the trade. Now I have a solid chance at a mid-tier school, don't care about being "elite"

 

[zwitter]

I think SDN over-exaggerates the process personally. It does not have to be as stressful or tedious as many make it out to be. However, the best med school candidates I have met ( and go to school with) all had 3.8's and 40's without really focusing on school. Their stats were not what made them amazing. Kind of scary to think about......@!

 

[cbrons]

The ones on here are more neurotic. What they lack in social skills and a girl who actually wants to sit by them (much less sleep with them) they make up for in actually getting in. In other words, you're not likely to see an SDN premie worried about having an LOR from a science faculty member come June 1st. You should see some of the schmuck premies out there. God help the non-SDN premies who don't go to a school with decent pre-med advising or at least an older friend/family member who has been through the process.

 

[Narmerguy]

The ones on here are more neurotic. What they lack in social skills and a girl who actually wants to sit by them (much less sleep with them) they make up for in actually getting in. In other words, you're not likely to see an SDN premie worried about having an LOR from a science faculty member come June 1st. You should see some of the schmuck premies out there. God help the non-SDN premies who don't go to a school with decent pre-med advising or at least an older friend/family member who has been through the process.

Ah yes, the ole "they must be nerds if they're smart" stance. I'm sure that there are plenty of neuorotic guys and girls on this site, but most of them are just very competitive and driven. The neurotocism concept is thrown around on here like all the other hyperbole that is associated with SDN.

I would say its more bimodal, you get people with rather high stats concerned with maximizing their chances at a dream school and then you get a lot of people with really mediocre stats trying to maximize the chance of getting an MD.

Most of the folks who are comfortable with their resume and are really happy to go to their state school probably don't feel compelled to spend a ton of time on SDN (or atleast if they do spend time they aren't going to be posting stats for analysis too much).

Spot on! I like it.

 

[addo]

I would say its more bimodal, you get people with rather high stats concerned with maximizing their chances at a dream school and then you get a lot of people with really mediocre stats trying to maximize the chance of getting an MD.

Most of the folks who are comfortable with their resume and are really happy to go to their state school probably don't feel compelled to spend a ton of time on SDN (or atleast if they do spend time they aren't going to be posting stats for analysis too much).

I agree. Sometimes looking through "what are my chances" section, sometimes I see way too many 95-99th percentile scores. So they are either lying or the top scorers really do aggregate here on SDN.
On the other hand, I also see such low scores that I have never come across anyone with such stats.

 

[NickNaylor]

Knowing some of my friends that are pre-med, I would say that the average SDN member is significantly better off than the average pre-med. Not true in every case, of course, but I think the generalizations hold.

 

[Grobe57214]

The Pre-Medical and MCAT forums of SDN are extremely depressing for the average medical school applicant (ie:me). I find that SDN, or at least the people that post on the forums, are filled with people on two extremes, the ones who do extremely well on the MCAT that often gloat and the people who do poorly on the MCAT and bitch. Therefore I made sure that I didn't visit the site during the process. Now that I am in, I lurk and post on occasion.

 

[Baron S]

From conducting committee LOR interviews I can definitely tell you that SDN members are better off. Out of the people I interviewed, none of them knew a thing about health care reform and most had really, really bad personal statements. Their numbers were a good chunk lower and they still didn't understand DO as an option. Out of the 8 people I interviewed, I would say 2 would be competitive by SDN standards and even they had some question marks(and both knew nothing about reform and really struggled with ethical questions).

 

[Kaustikos]

From conducting committee LOR interviews I can definitely tell you that SDN members are better off. Out of the people I interviewed, none of them knew a thing about health care reform and most had really, really bad personal statements. Their numbers were a good chunk lower and they still didn't understand DO as an option. Out of the 8 people I interviewed, I would say 2 would be competitive by SDN standards and even they had some question marks(and both knew nothing about reform and really struggled with ethical questions).

I'm sorry, but does anyone have any idea what that cluster-**** of an attempt of reform was about?

Spoiler alert - No

 

[Baron S]

I'm sorry, but does anyone have any idea what that cluster-**** of an attempt of reform was about?

Spoiler alert - No

I am guessing you have not interviewed yet because you need to be well-versed on it. You will be asked your opinion on it along with a myriad of other issues in healthcare. None which these non-SDN students knew much about.

 

[Kaustikos]

I am guessing you have not interviewed yet because you need to be well-versed on it. You will be asked your opinion on it along with a myriad of other issues in healthcare. None which these non-SDN students knew much about.

Oh, I can definitely answer THAT. I was partly joking because of how ridiculous and vague/lame the reform was.

I can sum it up succinctly - it won't work.

 

[NickNaylor]

Oh, I can definitely answer THAT. I was partly joking because of how ridiculous and vague/lame the reform was.

I can sum it up succinctly - it won't work.

I'd like to see how far that gets you.

 

[Narmerguy]

Oh, I can definitely answer THAT. I was partly joking because of how ridiculous and vague/lame the reform was.

I can sum it up succinctly - it won't work.

Why not take these opportunities to actually intellectually discuss the merits and shortcomings of these types of issues rather than resorting to what are usually partisan conclusions on the reform's ability to succeed or likelihood of failure.

Edit: Many apologies. My intent is not to derail this thread into a political discussion. I mean this only as something to think about and apply going forward, it simply frustrates me the lack of actual thought people give half of what they believe, myself included.

 

[VincentAdultman]

Thank God I didn't know about SDN when I was a premed.

And if premeds don't know about DO schools, health care reform, or how to answer an ethical question, then those premeds are idiots. It's not hard to find out more on any of these things with little more than a google search,.

 

[Narmerguy]

Thank God I didn't know about SDN when I was a premed.

And if premeds don't know about DO schools, health care reform, or how to answer an ethical question, then those premeds are idiots. It's not hard to find out more on any of these things with little more than a google search,.

Not everyone has exposure to these things nor the inclination to look up every alphabet combination that follows people's names they encounter. If no one around you talked about DO or decided to explain it to you, when would you ever find out? Why would you just randomly look up DO?

So, thank God I know about SDN as a premed.

 

[BrainBuff]

Why not take these opportunities to actually intellectually discuss the merits and shortcomings of these types of issues rather than resorting to what are usually partisan conclusions on the reform's ability to succeed or likelihood of failure.

Edit: Many apologies. My intent is not to derail this thread into a political discussion. I mean this only as something to think about and apply going forward, it simply frustrates me the lack of actual thought people give half of what they believe, myself included.

Not a bad idea, although I do not know why you assume that someone's conclusion is partisan, just because he is stating that the reform will likely fail.

I consider the lack of tort reform one of the major weaknesses of health reform. The great majority of physicians practice defensive medicine now days, which contributes to most of the healthcare expenses. Healthcare is not expensive because of the $200 or $400 that a physician or specialist may charge for a consultation, but rather because of the expensive technology and for the unnecessary MRIs, CTs, ultrasounds and laboratory work up and excessive consultations that the attending physician may be tempted to request in order to cover himself and have an adequate "paper trail". The fact that the president and the congress majority felt to acknowledge this problem, indicates the hypocrisy of their actions (after all, most of them are lawyers) rather than their ignorance.

The other big lie was that the reform would reduce expenses. How? By cutting medicare?, (a system that is already bankrupt and imperfect and that keeps reducing physician reimbursement and has never kept up with inflation?) Or by forcing every american to purchase a product (the insurance) which may not be their choice, nor to their liking and that may prove to be unconstitutional, anyway?

Anyway, these are some of my points. Others, please feel free to chime in and dont worry about your own partisan conclusions🙄

 

[VincentAdultman]

Not everyone has exposure to these things nor the inclination to look up every alphabet combination that follows people's names they encounter. If no one around you talked about DO or decided to explain it to you, when would you ever find out? Why would you just randomly look up DO?

So, thank God I know about SDN as a premed.

I'm not sure if you're intentionally trying to be dense or not. Given the nature of the internet one doesn't have to arbitrarily type "DO" into a search engine to get info on it. It's discussed as a viable option in multiple online sources (Kaplan med talked about it on their website I think; but it was long ago and I may b mistaken). Not to mention by my premed advisors. At least that's how I was able to learn about it without the luxury of SDN.

This place is so thick with douchbaggery and neuroticism that I proabably would've stroked out if I came here looking for premed advice. But that's just me.

 

[NickNaylor]

I'm not sure if you're intentionally trying to be dense or not. Given the nature of the internet one doesn't have to arbitrarily type "DO" into a search engine to get info on it. It's discussed as a viable option in multiple online sources (Kaplan med talked about it on their website I think; but it was long ago and I may b mistaken). Not to mention by my premed advisors. At least that's how I was able to learn about it without the luxury of SDN.

This place is so thick with douchbaggery and neuroticism that I proabably would've stroked out if I came here looking for premed advice. But that's just me.

Many people have no idea what a DO is, including pre-med students. I sure didn't until I visited SDN. Why would you actively (or even passively) look for something if you don't even know about it?

You had the luxury of taking a Kaplan course and having well-informed advisors. Most people don't have this luxury.

 

[CoolWhipp]

I find that many people don't know about this website. I went to Berkeley too, its like SDN in real life on campus--essentially crawling with premeds.

..except you don't get any useful information from them.

 

[YaBoyAR]

i like to think of SDN as "google for medical education"

it's a place i have found a lot of information i never knew about this process, though as with anything in life, you hafto sift through the bull ish.

could i have found the same information elsewhere? sure, but it's all here for me on 1 site

 

[Kaustikos]

Why not take these opportunities to actually intellectually discuss the merits and shortcomings of these types of issues rather than resorting to what are usually partisan conclusions on the reform's ability to succeed or likelihood of failure.

Edit: Many apologies. My intent is not to derail this thread into a political discussion. I mean this only as something to think about and apply going forward, it simply frustrates me the lack of actual thought people give half of what they believe, myself included.

That's why. I've given it too much thought. I can gladly explain to you why the healthcare reform is going to be a joke, but I'll save it for adcoms who will actually agree with me because I actually paid attention to the "exclusions". I'm not, however, going to say it in this thread. I derailed it enough.


I agree with the sentiments of the OP

 

[Kaustikos]

I'd like to see how far that gets you.

Because I'm not a lemming? Have you actually talked to doctors about this? Probably not.

 

[VincentAdultman]

Many people have no idea what a DO is, including pre-med students. I sure didn't until I visited SDN. Why would you actively (or even passively) look for something if you don't even know about it?

You had the luxury of taking a Kaplan course and having well-informed advisors. Most people don't have this luxury.

Because I wan't looking. I found stuff just by looking at general pre-med info. I'm sure you know that when you research one thing ineveitably other topics pop up.

 

[Kaustikos]

Because I wan't looking. I found stuff just by looking at general pre-med info. I'm sure you know that when you research one thing ineveitably other topics pop up.

Like 4chan

 

[LuciusVorenus]

There's probably a really easy way to figure this out. Just do a poll at the beginning of June and see how many people from SDN who applied to med school from the last cycle got in. If it's over the national average then the average users who take time to answer the poll (not the people who just post once about their stats and never come back) are probably above average, if not then not.

 

[Kaustikos]

There's probably a really easy way to figure this out. Just do a poll at the beginning of June and see how many people from SDN who applied to med school from the last cycle got in. If it's over the national average then the average users who take time to answer the poll (not the people who just post once about their stats and never come back) are probably above average, if not then not.

But people could lie, lie!

 

[LuciusVorenus]

But people could lie, lie!

hahaha
if someone is a big enough lunatic to lie on an anonymous poll then we have bigger things to worry about

 

[DarknightX]

On average, people on this site are probably better off. With that being said, I'd take a lot of things that I hear with a grain of salt. People who are stressed out about having a 3.8 with a 35 MCAT are a little too neurotic for my taste. I know that if I had believed the stuff I read on here, I probably wouldn't even have bothered applying to medical school.

On the other hand, there are some very misinformed people who would really benefit from this site. Just the other day, I was talking to some pre-med volunteer who was telling me he was going to apply with an 18 on his MCAT....he asked me if it was a good idea to apply in October or November. He was so non-chalant about it too...like he was completely oblivious to how hard it was to get into medical school. So overall, students using SDN are probably better off than people who aren't.

 

[SweetRain]

overall, that's a relief to hear.
I thought every premed in the nation had his/her mind set on applying by june 01, and I was so stressed about submitting on June 10th.

Haha, well good luck to everyone!

 

[Kaustikos]

overall, that's a relief to hear.
I thought every premed in the nation had his/her mind set on applying by june 01, and I was so stressed about submitting on June 10th.

Haha, well good luck to everyone!

Every person who I talked to gave me 😱 when I said my application was submitted last week. Then another 😱 when I said I had my LORs done. And then another 😱 when I told them 21 schools. Then another 😱 when I said I was already accepted.