Very confused and depressed

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medguy13 said:
Okay it seems like many of you want more info.

I applied very late in the previous cycle (AMCAS verified in October I believe) which is a big reason why I did not get in. I also had minimal clinical experience. I made it a point to rectify both of those mistakes this time around.

My AMCAS was verified this cycle in late June, and most of my secondaries were complete in late July-mid August. My LORs were on time (I reused the ones from the previous cycle). I did not retake the MCAT. I had a 32 last time around as well (11 Bio/9 Verbal/12 Physical).

I live in California and I'm an ORM, so every state school is extremely difficult to get into. Yes, I was a reapplicant to many of the in-state schools, but honestly all of CA schools were reach schools in the first place, and I was not entirely surprised to be rejected from all of them. My issue is with not getting more "love" from the OOS schools that I applied to. I did quite a bit of research on the best OOS schools to apply to, and only I only bothered with ones that accepted many OOS students and had GPA/MCAT averages near mine. I could list them out but I don't really feel like it, and I assure you I wouldn't be here complaining if I only applied to Harvard/Johns Hopkins type schools. I didn't.

My personal statement and secondaries may not have been the most beautiful pieces of literature ever written, but I put considerable time and thought into them. I mean, I had a whole year to edit and re-edit my PS from the previous cycle, so it definitely was not trash.

I don't know. I really don't. Maybe I am just a statistical anomaly.
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I commented earlier about your situation, but after reading this (quoted) post, I think you are just like you said a 'statistical anomaly'. You should have had 5+ iis and a couple of acceptances already. Don't loose hope since you are waitlisted at 2 schools!
 
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BestDoctorEver said:
I commented earlier about your situation, but after reading this (quoted) post, I think you are just like you said a 'statistical anomaly'. You should have had 5+ iis and a couple of acceptances already. Don't loose hope since you are waitlisted at 2 schools!
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I'm sorry, but I don't get why people keep calling this a statistical anomaly.. 1 in 5 is not a statistical anomaly..
Also, how do you judge how many interviews he "should" have gotten. Is there data backing up how many interviews applicants get given their stats?
Even given that OP applied mostly mid-low tier, there are still differences in schools that old account for his app doing well at a few but not others.
 
medguy13 said:
Long story short, I worked my ass off for 4 years to get a 3.8 GPA at my undergrad university. Took the MCAT and scored a little lower than I wanted (32), but still thought I stood a more than realistic chance at getting into many MD schools.

Well here I am in late March. I have had 2 interviews. Zero acceptances. I applied to 25 MD schools, mostly mid-lower tier ones. And yes, I applied early. I'm still on the waitlist for both schools, but at this point I'm treating them as silent rejections.

Luckily, I have been accepted into one DO school, but my plan all along was to go MD and honestly for the time that I put in during college, DO just doesn't cut it (no offense). I feel like I wasted my time getting A's in my classes just to compete for acceptances with people who have 3.3 GPA/25 MCAT.

There were no red flags in my application that I know of. I am completely baffled. I have begun to get paranoid and I've considered the possibility that maybe one of my recommendation letters was negative. But I really have no idea. It's hitting me that I won't be able to get into an MD program after all the hours I've put in. And to see people with lower stats getting accepted left and right just confuses and annoys me more.

I'm sorry if I came across as an arrogant dingus in this post, but its more pent up anger than anything. I just don't get it.
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Please calm down and don't worry so much. If you don't get in this year to your favorite places, you can always apply again next year and apply to more places. And spend the year doing something substantial - Research, A fulltime job, working as an EMT, etc. There are tons of things you can do. A year goes by very fast! Don't be angry.
There's still hope.
Praying for you.
 
WillburCobb said:
Don't forget that an interview can make or break you. Just because you have all your boxes checked doesn't assure an acceptance.
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Yeah of course... I was thinking more along the lines that he received feedback stating that the reason for his rejections was a lack of clinical volunteering despite the scribe experience. Was just assuming, but I could have obviously interpreted that wrongly.
 
hubriz said:
Negative. If you went to USUHS for medical school that incurs 7 years of active duty commitment. Your residency does count towards payback of your 7-year requirement, but also incurs further commitment (one year per year of training), thus you are obligated to active duty 7 years post-residency. For ortho this means 4 (USUHS) + 5 year residency + 7 year payback = 16 years active duty. If you go Navy, you'll (edit: likely) do a GMO tour of 3 years (which counts towards the 7 you owe for medical school), which increases your obligation to 17 years of active duty.

Once you get past 8 years, there is no obligated reserve time. I am an active duty officer currently separating at 5 years and thus have to do the reserves for 3, but they can and will be inactive reserves (no drilling).

If you are considering ortho, you should keep in mind that you will be severely underpaid in the military to the extent that it is not a financially sound decision even considering your income as a student, resident and free education and pension. If you are considering primary care specialties on the lower end of the financial spectrum, then going the military route is a sound decision financially.

Also, the military lifestyle is really hard for certain spouses and children and therefore military medicine may not be in the best interest of your family even if it allows you to start one sooner.
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Very informative post, thanks!
 
terp720 said:
I'm sorry, but I don't get why people keep calling this a statistical anomaly.. 1 in 5 is not a statistical anomaly..
Also, how do you judge how many interviews he "should" have gotten. Is there data backing up how many interviews applicants get given their stats?
Even given that OP applied mostly mid-low tier, there are still differences in schools that old account for his app doing well at a few but not others.
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Well and he's from CA which puts him at an obvious disadvantage. It seemed that he applied mostly (aside from CA) to public OOS schools that accept a large number of students from OOS. Hopefully he did his homework on that and didn't include places like UW that technically take a lot of OOS students, except that they're almost all WWAMI students. Even so, though, "a lot" of OOS students is still usually only what, 40%ish? So you're still handicapped applying to those schools too, just not as much if it was LSU or something. Definitely glad I'm not in CA.
 
DermViser said:
Yup. SDN when it comes to premed admissions is so far skewed to the right it's crazy the so-called "advice" that is given. I'm waiting to see someone say that if you don't get into a Top 10 school, you're not worth anything.
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On SDN it's more like: You must be published, 3.9+, 38+ to get into medical school.

If you get into a top 10, however, you must go to a lower ranked one or else you're an elitist jerk.

Also you must practice primary care in rural Kansas or you're a monster.

It's a really weird environment.

Back on topic though: Less than 1% of undergrads publish so unless 80% of premeds fall into less than 1% of undergrads most "research experience" is going to be pretty asinine.
 
medguy13 said:
Okay, first of all I'm sorry, I did not mean to offend anyone by my comment about the DO acceptance not cutting it. I do actually respect the program and their values, and if none of my waitlist options come through, I will attend. I applied to DO schools because I knew this very scenario could come true, and it did. Will I be as happy? No, but I will push through and look to match into an MD residency in a few years time.

For those of you telling me to just reapply next year, that is not an option as I am already a reapplicant and have sunk more money into this process than I care to think about, which just adds to the frustration of it all. (Also, you may be thinking that me being a reapplicant would be the red flag, but 20/25 schools that I applied to this year were different from last year, so most don't even see me as a reapplicant.)

I don't want sympathy. I really don't. This post was (1) to vent, (2) to see if anyone else was in a similar situation, and (3) to brainstorm about what has gone wrong.

Some of you wanted my ECs:
150+ hours as volunteer in ER in hospital and other various positions in nearby clinic
100+ hours shadowing 3 different MD specialties
500+ hours as a high school math/science tutor (job)
2 months of research (no pubs)

Not stellar but shouldn't be a red flag (at least I don't think so).
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150+ hours? That's child's play. I do agree that you are a stellar applicant, but I think applicants nowadays don't put any value in actually immersing themselves in a hospital setting. Actually getting valuable experience in a hospital setting is something that is going to set you apart. I was an EMT for 4 years during college and obtained over 2000 hours of patient contact experience. I could have done nothing and just studied for 4 years too and attained a 4.0 GPA no problem, but I was told that more value is being put on hospital experience, learning how to do IVs, learning how to converse with patients, how to get a patient history, etc. When you're applying against people who have CNA, EMT, paramedic, or nursing experience and have similar stats as yours, I would guess they would take the experienced student any day.

Regardless, good luck on your future endeavors!
 
Tri4thlete said:
150+ hours? That's child's play. I do agree that you are a stellar applicant, but I think applicants nowadays don't put any value in actually immersing themselves in a hospital setting. Actually getting valuable experience in a hospital setting is something that is going to set you apart. I was an EMT for 4 years during college and obtained over 2000 hours of patient contact experience. I could have done nothing and just studied for 4 years too and attained a 4.0 GPA no problem, but I was told that more value is being put on hospital experience, learning how to do IVs, learning how to converse with patients, how to get a patient history, etc. When you're applying against people who have CNA, EMT, paramedic, or nursing experience and have similar stats as yours, I would guess they would take the experienced student any day.

Regardless, good luck on your future endeavors!
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I don't understand how scribing isn't a hospital experience. Honestly, most hours I spent volunteering at the hospital were pretty useless, so I'm not sure if I would have wanted to spend a single minute extra there haha

IMO, the main problem the OP faced is being in state in California.
 
tennischamp822 said:
I don't understand how scribing isn't a hospital experience. Honestly, most hours I spent volunteering at the hospital were pretty useless, so I'm not sure if I would have wanted to spend a single minute extra there haha

IMO, the main problem the OP faced is being in state in California.
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I guess I wasn't pointing out the type of experience (scribing is great), but the general lack of hours. 150-200 hours really isn't that much (although it seems like a lot), but I'm just speaking for myself I think 🙂. I felt like a boss during the first 200 hours of my EMT experience, but now that I look back after 2000 hours I was a mere nub cake.

I agree, being in Cali doesn't help much either.
 
WillburCobb said:
Actually there's quite the running for that title. rifle(random numbers), xenoblade, anastomoses, twantinsuyu, and a few others. If only we could clear out the trolls from this list so someone who truly deserves such a distinguished title rightly earns it.
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Why would you list my name here? If anything, you're a troll from what you post on my threads. dingus
 
This reads like an SDN script.

Outrage! And end it with a stunning personal attack.

Tawantinsuyu said:
Why would you list my name here? If anything, you're a troll from what you post on my threads. dingus
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Then invoke the moral high ground, nevermind the name calling thing I just did....

Tawantinsuyu said:
And I thought doctors were supposed to help people, not act like dicks to them.
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Win. :clap:😆
 
Why would you list my name here? If anything, you're a troll from what you post on my threads. dingus
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Play him off keyboard cat

 
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Now I didn't read through the whole thread but, did OP even respond back to anyone's questions?
 
Agent B said:
It contains helpful links? 😕
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It's not the links, it's the graphic overload. My brain has a small seizure when it tries to take in all those emojis emoticons.



"What does it all mean!!!????" Is what my brain is trying to do.

Edit: I don't know the difference :cyclops:
 
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WhippleWhileWeWork said:
It's not the links, it's the graphic overload. My brain has a small seizure when it tries to take in all those emojis.



"What does it all mean!!!????" Is what my brain is trying to do.
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Emojis are lame. The SDN emoticons are carefully chosen to illustrate a deep hidden message regarding possibly the app season, how to break 30+, SDN history, etc.
 
Agent B said:
Emojis are lame. The SDN emoticons are carefully chosen to illustrate a deep hidden message regarding possibly the app season, how to break 30+, SDN history, etc.
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I'm wading in the kiddie pool, you're high diving in the deep end.
 
"Positive Contribution

Student Doctor Network members are expected to contribute to a helpful, positive and enjoyable forum environment. Please refrain from behavior which irritates other members of the forums. Members not contributing to the forums in a positive manner may have their account temporarily or permanently closed at moderator discretion." ~from Terms and Rules

I believe this applies to all of us.
 
Ehwic said:
Now I didn't read through the whole thread but, did OP even respond back to anyone's questions?
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Twice I think. He gave some broad general answers but didn't touch on too many specifics, which had he done early on this thread would've taken a much different trajectory and then faded silently into the sunset.
 
Tawantinsuyu said:
"Positive Contribution

Student Doctor Network members are expected to contribute to a helpful, positive and enjoyable forum environment. Please refrain from behavior which irritates other members of the forums. Members not contributing to the forums in a positive manner may have their account temporarily or permanently closed at moderator discretion." ~from Terms and Rules

I believe this applies to all of us.
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Lol speak for yourself
 
Hi I'm a semi new SDN poster and have yet to get into my first argument. May I join?
 
Closing thread.

Yet again, a reminder that the forum TOS explicitly states that posts should be courteous and contribute to the topic at hand.

If you have a problem with something somebody has posted, please use the "report" function. If a certain user is bothering you, feel free to use the "ignore" function.
 
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