The craiglist killer is a med student!

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No, I'll be the first to admit that BU had a very different, abrupt way of making the "cuts." That said, I know for a fact they read everyone's personal statement and gave it great weight. That's all I know about the process, really.

But I like that you are able to admit that you would have liked to have been considered there. Show's that your not one of these online tough-guys who is never vulnerable.


I'm calling BS on this. There is no way they read that many peoples PS in a matter of 1 or 2 days of being complete. Unless you were on the committee and read them all yourself that is just too bold a statement to make.
 
You said he had a 3.85 and a 33 and would have been rejected if his MCAT were one point higher?

According to the 2010-2011 MSAR the median accepted BU MCAT was a 33Q, and the 90% was a 38S... not sure how true these stories of BU screening out "over-qualified" applicants are...

That's what his interviewer told him <shrug> Who knows whether he was actually on the adcom or was just bsing.
 
Some news report that he was a premed at Boston, but actually, he is a second year med student at the same university.
 
You said he had a 3.85 and a 33 and would have been rejected if his MCAT were one point higher?

According to the 2010-2011 MSAR the median accepted BU MCAT was a 33Q, and the 90% was a 38S... not sure how true these stories of BU screening out "over-qualified" applicants are...

There' s a lot of anecdotal evidence that seems to indicate that their admissions are at least unconventional. I received interviews at essentially every school I applied to, and received a preinterview rejection 2 days (actually about 36 hours) after I was complete. The same day, about 50 people on SDN received rejections with similar complete dates. That translates to hundreds of people in the premed pool at large. Do you REALLY think they read all of those applications in 36 hours? Obviously the process had to be automated at least to some degree.
 
"He had this hatred for people he thought were beneath him," said Caitlin, a 23-year-old high school classmate who asked that her last name be withheld. "He saw me as beneath him and he needed to degrade me. I think he had a complex."
"He was just a bully," she said. "He would get picked on, but I never felt sorry for him because he was mean. He had this arrogance that he was better than you.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/re...smate:_&#8216;He_had_this_hatred_for_people_/

Sounds like he was a typical gunner.


......Markoff gambled all night at Foxwoods two days after Brisman's murder, winning $5,300.
"He went to Foxwoods frequently, including visits on April 2, 12 and 16," ABC quoted the source as saying. "On the 16th he left with $5,300 in winnings."

The young, upwardly mobile couple apparently enjoyed high-stakes gambling. On their wedding Web site, they list a Connecticut casino as a top honeymoon choice while McAllister's Facebook profile lists her as a "fan" of a St. Kitts gaming parlor.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/re...17&format=&page=2&listingType=Loc#articleFull

He was in heavy debt from gambling and this is probably the motive behind his deeds.
 
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I think the girl in your ^^^ posts is just bitter. She sounds like someone that got (and probably still does get) rejected OFTEN!
 
There' s a lot of anecdotal evidence that seems to indicate that their admissions are at least unconventional. I received interviews at essentially every school I applied to, and received a preinterview rejection 2 days (actually about 36 hours) after I was complete. The same day, about 50 people on SDN received rejections with similar complete dates. That translates to hundreds of people in the premed pool at large. Do you REALLY think they read all of those applications in 36 hours? Obviously the process had to be automated at least to some degree.

Again, the 2010-2011 MSAR shows the median accepted MCAT as a 33Q... an "unconventional" admissions process and "screening out over-qualified" people are very different ideas.

An average accepted MCAT of 33Q, with a 90% of 38, hardly suggests there is an automated mechanism of screening out "over-qualified" applicants... sorry, not buying it.

I'm sure you're a genius who got interviews at tons of schools and likely got into a few of them-- you got rejected by BU, doesn't seem like you're worse for wear, so get over it 👍
 
From CNN:

His fiancée, in an e-mail aired on ABC's "Good Morning America," said Markoff "is the wrong man" and "was set up."

"Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public. All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!" according to an e-mail from Megan McAllister. She said police officers in Boston are "trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new?"

In her e-mail message, the fiancée said, "Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life, so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it. We expect to marry in August and share a wonderful, meaningful life together."

Aww. That's sweet. Methinks someone's been drinking the punch.

She's nuts in addition to having a gambling problem herself and was probably an accomplice...

For some reason, I don't think these two incidents were his only crimes. I think there are probably previous victims (prostitutes) afraid to come forward....

speak for yourself, I voted for Zelda.

👍

can't believe people are suggesting he robbed these women to pay off med school debts, or even gambling debts as the article this morning says. Seriously? He lived in a high rise condo in Quincy, met these women at luxury hotels, didn't seem too strapped for cash. The article last night said he only got $800 total from 3 robberies...

I don't think he did it for the money either...
 
Again, the 2010-2011 MSAR shows the median accepted MCAT as a 33Q... an "unconventional" admissions process and "screening out over-qualified" people are very different ideas.

An average accepted MCAT of 33Q, with a 90% of 38, hardly suggests there is an automated mechanism of screening out "over-qualified" applicants... sorry, not buying it.

I'm sure you're a genius who got interviews at tons of schools and likely got into a few of them-- you got rejected by BU, doesn't seem like you're worse for wear, so get over it 👍


It's a coping mechanism, why would any school reject people with high MCAT scores?
 
An average accepted MCAT of 33Q, with a 90% of 38, hardly suggests there is an automated mechanism of screening out "over-qualified" applicants... sorry, not buying it.


Why do you guys insist on calling the MSAR averages? They are MEDIAN scores per section, NOT per applicant.

If you want to know what their AVERAGE is it is ~10 per section (once again, still not PER APPLICANT).
 
Why do you guys insist on calling the MSAR averages? They are MEDIAN scores per section, NOT per applicant.

If you want to know what their AVERAGE is it is ~10 per section (once again, still not PER APPLICANT).

actually, for averages, the average per section would add up to the average per applicant (ie total average)
 
Fair enough.

I'm calling BS on this. There is no way they read that many peoples PS in a matter of 1 or 2 days of being complete. Unless you were on the committee and read them all yourself that is just too bold a statement to make.
 
Perfect statement. Every now and then we get a gem, and this is one of them.

This whole question of whether the dude would have been screened out by BU if they had a better admissions process is ridiculous.

How many pre-meds end up committing suicide? A lot. How many doctors end up with drug problems? Even more.

Did whatever med school fail to properly screen these people? What do you want to do? Psych evals on every applicant? And even if you did, how many people could lie their way though that?

All I'm saying is that it's impossible, regardless of screening or background checks, to make the medical community immune to drug dealers, takers, murders, rapists, and people who go 66 in a 65, because that's illegal, too.

Med school, is a microcosm of society - although a skewed one, live with it.
 
Again, the 2010-2011 MSAR shows the median accepted MCAT as a 33Q... an "unconventional" admissions process and "screening out over-qualified" people are very different ideas.

Remember that this includes both GMS acceptees (who have low GPA on average and generally high MCAT if that's the case) and MSTP acceptees which have much higher MCAT than the pool in general. IIRC these two groups made up more than 20% of the class. I'd guess the real median of open pool applicants not in these two categories would be more like ~31.

An average accepted MCAT of 33Q, with a 90% of 38, hardly suggests there is an automated mechanism of screening out "over-qualified" applicants... sorry, not buying it.

It is what it is whether you believe it or not. Either you think they can read 500+ applications in 36 hours and give them a good thorough qualitative screening, or they have some sort of automatic screening process.

I'm sure you're a genius who got interviews at tons of schools and likely got into a few of them-- you got rejected by BU, doesn't seem like you're worse for wear, so get over it 👍

BU and Tufts were the two lowest ranked schools I applied to, simply because of location. I went to undergrad in Boston and wanted to go back there. Heaven forbid I apply there with high stats because I >ACTUALLY< wanted to go there. Oh well.
 
actually, for averages, the average per section would add up to the average per applicant (ie total average)

You usually can't simply add up different averages, in this situation it would most likely be close.

To be more specific:

Averages (for entering class of 2007):

VR: 9.7
PS: 10.5
BS: 10.9

Looking at the averages per section, you can see why you would not likely get an even 30 average for matriculating students. It would probably be close, but not 30.

To the other poster. I see where you got your 33 number now, but you cited MSAR in your post.
 
You usually can't simply add up different averages, in this situation it would most likely be close.

To be more specific:

Averages (for entering class of 2007):

VR: 9.7
PS: 10.5
BS: 10.9

Looking at the averages per section, you can see why you would not likely get an even 30 average for matriculating students. It would probably be close, but not 30.

To the other poster. I see where you got your 33 number now, but you cited MSAR in your post.

wait what?

You have set A, set B, and set C

set D = composite of set A, set B, set C

also, sum of set D = sum of set A + B + C

the sum of the averages of set A + average of set B + average of set C is = average of set D


if you are talking about median it would be different. But you are specifically stating average
 
This whole question of whether the dude would have been screened out by BU if they had a better admissions process is ridiculous.

How many pre-meds end up committing suicide? A lot. How many doctors end up with drug problems? Even more.

Did whatever med school fail to properly screen these people? What do you want to do? Psych evals on every applicant? And even if you did, how many people could lie their way though that?

All I'm saying is that it's impossible, regardless of screening or background checks, to make the medical community immune to drug dealers, takers, murders, rapists, and people who go 66 in a 65, because that's illegal, too.

Med school, is a microcosm of society - although a skewed one, live with it.

Well said.

How did this thread turn into argument about BU admission process and average stats of entering class?
 
"During a search of Markoff's house, police found a semi-automatic weapon, plastic ties and duct tape, Conley said."

response from Markoff's financee'

"A police officer in Boston (or many) is trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new?? Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it. We expect to marry in August and share and wonderful, meaningful life together."

right...a busy boston police officer making up a story about a medical student to make big bucks and placing a semi-automatic weapon, duct tape, plastic ties in his house, while linking the craigslist ad. to ur bf's ISP number on his blackberry and having videotape evidence of your bf at the site of the crime is all BS...good reasoning

she defends him by saying "phillip is an intelligent man"...so apparently... by her reasoning....intelligent people can't commit murder?

 
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http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/04/22/med_school_colleagues_shun_media/

Though it's common sense I think often we forget that everything we write on this forum is public information.

It's disgusting that the media badgered BU med students during exam week looking for juicy details, let's not give them any more ammo by posting details here. I feel bad already for contributing to these threads. Just a heads up.
That's unfortunate, but if some reporters want to scan SDN instead of, you know, actually interviewing people with knowledge of the case, that's their prerogative. If they're really that averse to doing their jobs they'll find a blog to pluck comments from, or yes, just start bothering students outside class. I really feel for the students.
 
"During a search of Markoff's house, police found a semi-automatic weapon, plastic ties and duct tape, Conley said."

response from Markoff's financee'

"A police officer in Boston (or many) is trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new?? Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it. We expect to marry in August and share and wonderful, meaningful life together."

right...a busy boston police officer making up a story about a medical student to make big bucks and placing a semi-automatic weapon, duct tape, plastic ties in his house, while linking the craigslist ad. to ur bf's ISP number on his blackberry and having videotape evidence of your bf at the site of the crime is all BS...good reasoning

she defends him by saying "phillip is an intelligent man"...so apparently... by her reasoning....intelligent people can't commit murder?



yup, i highly doubt boston police is that corrupt to randomly frame a med student
 
I'm with you on this. How much money is a Masseuse really worth anyway? Not much, especially if she's not offering happy endings.

Somehow I suspect the folks advertising "erotic" massage on Craigs list would offer the whole package.

There's a lot of conjecture on this thread -- I think folks need to hold off on presuming the motives, or alleging that the fiancee is involved (which by the way is libel if she isn't). Plenty of us on here have visited Vegas, AC or other gambling cities multiple times without having a gambling problem. When you live near a casino while in a professional school it's sometimes a good way to let off steam -- not necessarilly indicative of huge debts or a motive for robbery or murder. So while folks are trying to ascribe a motive for robbery, this kind of evidence hasn't been demonstrated yet. Nor has this person been convicted of anything. Certainly prostitutes make for good robbery victims as they tend not to report things to police; they often rob their clients for the same reason.
 
BU and Tufts were the two lowest ranked schools I applied to, simply because of location. I went to undergrad in Boston and wanted to go back there. Heaven forbid I apply there with high stats because I >ACTUALLY< wanted to go there. Oh well.

Geez, get over yourself. do you actually read your posts before you hit "submit?"

Sounds like you went to my alma mater, which saddens me.
 
Geez, get over yourself. do you actually read your posts before you hit "submit?"

Sounds like you went to my alma mater, which saddens me.

Out of context quotation ftw... if you actually read the back and forth in the thread you would understand what I was getting at, which is that BU appears to have a quantitative screening process that is screening out high stat applicants w/o reading their application. This seems relevant given the circumstances.
 
Out of context quotation ftw... if you actually read the back and forth in the thread you would understand what I was getting at, which is that BU appears to have a quantitative screening process that is screening out high stat applicants w/o reading their application. This seems relevant given the circumstances.
Not really. They just happened to read this guy's app and thought he was a reasonable addition to the class. It's not like they saw he was a murderer or suspected violent tendencies and couldn't restrain themselves from accepting him over your equivalent back in 2007.

The banality of evil is such that the typical person cannot tell the difference between a mass murderer and a loving family man. Certainly someone in between those two extremes would be even harder to identify based only on GPA, MCAT, PS, ECs, secondaries, and interviews.
 
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Not really. They just happened to read this guy's app and thought he was a reasonable addition to the class. It's not like they saw he was a murderer or suspected violent tendencies and couldn't restrain themselves from accepting him over your equivalent back in 2007.

Well clearly if they're not reading the applications carefully that could be a contributing factor <shrug>
 
Well clearly if they're not reading the applications carefully that could be a contributing factor <shrug>

You really don't think they're reading applications clearly, when they're accepting people into their incoming class? It's one thing to say that not everyone's personal statement is read when you go from 13,000 applicant pool to 1,000 interviewees. But, when you go from all these interviewees to your class of 180 students, I don't have any doubt they spend a considerable amount of time on each application.
 
Somehow I suspect the folks advertising "erotic" massage on Craigs list would offer the whole package.

There's a lot of conjecture on this thread -- I think folks need to hold off on presuming the motives, or alleging that the fiancee is involved (which by the way is libel if she isn't). Plenty of us on here have visited Vegas, AC or other gambling cities multiple times without having a gambling problem. When you live near a casino while in a professional school it's sometimes a good way to let off steam -- not necessarilly indicative of huge debts or a motive for robbery or murder. So while folks are trying to ascribe a motive for robbery, this kind of evidence hasn't been demonstrated yet. Nor has this person been convicted of anything. Certainly prostitutes make for good robbery victims as they tend not to report things to police; they often rob their clients for the same reason.

Libel? Speculating about her potential involvement seems just as protected free speech as speculating about his involvement. Of course, IANAL, and you are, so...
 
Libel? Speculating about her potential involvement seems just as protected free speech as speculating about his involvement. Of course, IANAL, and you are, so...
Is that seriously a real, commonplace acronym? IANAL? Or did you just make it up for Law2Doc?
 
I think more to the point, is there anything on an application that would indicate he was a murderer (if he is in fact convicted) and BU should have picked up on? It's not like any school conducts a detailed top-secret-like clearance check for admission, and anyone with half a brain can write a personal statement that doesn't include their desires to want to kill, gamble, sniff their sister's underwear, whatever to slip under the radar.

The admissions process is not that rigorous and I think it's a little silly to suggest BU could somehow improve its selection process to weed out future murderers.
 
Out of context quotation ftw... if you actually read the back and forth in the thread you would understand what I was getting at, which is that BU appears to have a quantitative screening process that is screening out high stat applicants w/o reading their application. This seems relevant given the circumstances.

That's funny. Cause I remember you being the one consistently bashing BU admissions. Apparently, by your measure, if a school doesn't interview you and has a serious problem with an accepted student, they have poor admissions policies. Is that the context you wanted?

Like the other poster said. Get over yourself.
 
That's funny. Cause I remember you being the one consistently bashing BU admissions. Apparently, by your measure, if a school doesn't interview you and has a serious problem with an accepted student, they have poor admissions policies. Is that the context you wanted?

LOL because that's exactly what I said...

what I actually said was that it's amusing that a school that uses an unconventional admissions strategy seems to have problems with admissions. I also think it's a poor policy to screen out high stat applicants because they might actually want to go there.
 
Here's another update:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30345961/

Appears that perhaps compulsive gambling was involved.

Now there is enough strong evidence that he is the one.

Markoff would appear warm and friendly one day, then be brooding and depressed the next day
He spoke only when someone else initiated a conversation, and although he seemed nice, he was also "strange in a dark way," she said.
I think he had some mental problems.
 
I'll be the very to admit that I'm definitely experiencing some schadenfreude and amusement over this whole situation, simply because BU's high-handed declaration that they thought some nebulous definition of fit got them a better student body and "careful" reading of personal statements has led them to admit a couple of murderers. I don't think it's as much whining/bitterness than amusement though 😀

👍:laugh:
 
I think more to the point, is there anything on an application that would indicate he was a murderer (if he is in fact convicted) and BU should have picked up on? It's not like any school conducts a detailed top-secret-like clearance check for admission, and anyone with half a brain can write a personal statement that doesn't include their desires to want to kill, gamble, sniff their sister's underwear, whatever to slip under the radar.

The admissions process is not that rigorous and I think it's a little silly to suggest BU could somehow improve its selection process to weed out future murderers.

Well, if this charade of character judgements, essay competitions, good-fit pronouncements, altruism hunting, passion measurement, motivation mining etc doesnt even sniff out a murderer, maybe they should stop subjecting us to it. Just a thought ...
 
Well, if this charade of character judgements, essay competitions, good-fit pronouncements, altruism hunting, passion measurement, motivation mining etc doesnt even sniff out a murderer, maybe they should stop subjecting us to it. Just a thought ...

Yeah because his personal statement and ECs talked about his love for casinos and wanting to be a doctor for the money. And during his interview, I'm sure all this came up as well. Come on. Don't tell me that you don't put on a half-charade happiest person face when interviewing. You don't know what his application was like. You don't know what his interview was like. And you don't know if he got into any other schools. But you can stay bitter at BU.
 
Yeah because his personal statement and ECs talked about his love for casinos and wanting to be a doctor for the money. And during his interview, I'm sure all this came up as well. Come on. Don't tell me that you don't put on a half-charade happiest person face when interviewing. You don't know what his application was like. You don't know what his interview was like. And you don't know if he got into any other schools. But you can stay bitter at BU.

Wait?!? You cant really judge a person based on an interview, an essay and an AMCAS application?! OMG, quick, before its too late, everyone go tell an adcom, i heard thats exactly what they've been doing!!

No special bitterness towards BU, i bet he was accepted elsewhere.
 
Wait?!? You cant really judge a person based on an interview, an essay and an AMCAS application?! OMG, quick, before its too late, everyone go tell an adcom, i heard thats exactly what they've been doing!!

No special bitterness towards BU, i bet he was accepted elsewhere.

That's not what I said. I meant that I doubt his application had any hints for the actions that he allegedly committed. And I'm standing by innocent until proven guilty.
 
That's not what I said. I meant that I doubt his application had any hints for the actions that he allegedly committed. And I'm standing by innocent until proven guilty.

Exactly, i agree, thats why maybe schools should drop this (intense and costly) charade.

You're right on innocent until proven guilty ...
 
I can't believe we're going back and forth about this still.

You don't design your admissions process to screen out zebras, you design your admissions process to screen in the right horses.

Anyone who has any appreciation for statistical significance realizes that it is not statistically significant that BU Medical School has admitted two people in the same era who ended up murdering someone, regardless of their specific individual histories.

You can talk about the fact that the first killer had a criminal/violent history that the BU admissions committee should have seen. However, you can't associate the case of the second (most recent) killer on the same plane because he didn't have any noteworthy criminal/violent history to speak of (that I am aware of).

The two cases are very different in terms of the presence of red flags.
 
I can't believe we're going back and forth about this still.

You don't design your admissions process to screen out zebras, you design your admissions process to screen in the right horses.

Anyone who has any appreciation for statistical significance realizes that it is not statistically significant that BU Medical School has admitted two people in the same era who ended up murdering someone, regardless of their specific individual histories.

You can talk about the fact that the first killer had a criminal/violent history that the BU admissions committee should have seen. However, you can't associate the case of the second (most recent) killer on the same plane because he didn't have any noteworthy criminal/violent history to speak of (that I am aware of).

The two cases are very different in terms of the presence of red flags.


You guys are killing me with these stats... Have you run the data?

I'm sure it's a coincidence, but until you run the data you have no idea, also what are you defining as your alpha level? Come on. Just say you think it's a fluke and not a big deal. Don't start waxing statistical significance to try and elucidate your point when you haven't analyzed the data.
 
? Sometimes, when the n is big enough, and the numerator is small enough, and you have some idea of the activity of a population, you can make statements about the general significance of data on the fly. or at least, I just did.

and by the way, my alpha is these nuts fool.

You guys are killing me with these stats... Have you run the data?

I'm sure it's a coincidence, but until you run the data you have no idea, also what are you defining as your alpha level? Come on. Just say you think it's a fluke and not a big deal. Don't start waxing statistical significance to try and elucidate your point when you haven't analyzed the data.
 
You guys are killing me with these stats... Have you run the data?

I'm sure it's a coincidence, but until you run the data you have no idea, also what are you defining as your alpha level? Come on. Just say you think it's a fluke and not a big deal. Don't start waxing statistical significance to try and elucidate your point when you haven't analyzed the data.

coming from someone who didn't know the difference between median and mean in regards to composite vs individual section scores.
 
I can't believe we're going back and forth about this still.

You don't design your admissions process to screen out zebras, you design your admissions process to screen in the right horses.

Anyone who has any appreciation for statistical significance realizes that it is not statistically significant that BU Medical School has admitted two people in the same era who ended up murdering someone, regardless of their specific individual histories.

You can talk about the fact that the first killer had a criminal/violent history that the BU admissions committee should have seen. However, you can't associate the case of the second (most recent) killer on the same plane because he didn't have any noteworthy criminal/violent history to speak of (that I am aware of).

The two cases are very different in terms of the presence of red flags.

I have seen zero evidence that anything other then mcat and gpa add any value, have you? (In fact, the one school I've heard of that actually looked at this question ended up completely revamping their admissions process.) And here we see that an adcom deemed two murderes to be highly altruistic people who would make a great addition to the BU class. That illustrates the point that it is possible to play the game well without reflecting anything at all about the type of doctor or classmate someone will be.

I dont really see how you can make any claims about statisical significance. What hypothesis are you testing, whats your sample size, what are the estimates of your parameters?

Edit: Those cant all be your nuts. And i have no idea what n or your numerator mean.
 
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