What are the most useful things that you have learned or gained from SDN?

[curiousadcom]

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Thanks to all the responses to my initial question about what an adcom should know about SDN. This question is slightly different -- I'm curious about the specific ways that SDN has helped you in your pre-med / medical career. I'm really impressed by this community and I'm really eager to learn more about it!

 

[Planes2Doc]

When I was a pre-med, SDN made me feel very inadequate regarding my ECs. It pushed me to go above and beyond what I needed. That definitely helped. I was also a post-bacc so I had a different path than others. I also realized how to play the "game" during that time. I've devoted many threads later to helping people navigate through the whole ECs arms race.

Anyway, if it weren't for SDN pushing me originally, I probably wouldn't have had competitive ECs to get into medical school in the first place.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Thanks to all the responses to my initial question about what an adcom should know about SDN. This question is slightly different -- I'm curious about the specific ways that SDN has helped you in your pre-med / medical career. I'm really impressed by this community and I'm really eager to learn more about it!

Pre-med phase:
-Helped relieve me of my general cluelessness about the process. The advisers at my school were fine but not particularly useful, especially because I was not going through the standard pre-med track (I decided on med school very late), and they were not super comfortable with that. In retrospect I lucked out because I did a lot of things that SDN would advise you not to (applied late, minimal clinical experience, etc). But I think what I learned on this forum helped me a lot in the interview phase and I ultimately got into my top choice.
-Helped with ID'ing good resources for MCAT prep

Med school phase:
-Helped provide resource for ID'ing high yield study materials and USMLE prep
-Helped provide anonymous resource for venting and/or discussing sensitive topics you don't feel comfortable opening up to your classmates about
-Helped make sure not to repeat said cluelessness when it came time to apply for residency, made sure I knew the important aspects of the application process
-Informed me how the match works (which a shocking number of my classmates didn't understand)

Residency phase:
-Enjoy giving back some of that advice that I once benefited from
-Again provides source for venting and discussion outside of my co-residents

 

[Lucca]

I didn't know anything about applying to the college when I was in high school (I'm an immigrant, school had 0 resources for guidance, parents did not know anything about higher education system here) so I researched everything myself and realized that I was already super behind on the things I needed to be very competitive in that application process. I wanted to do medicine then as I do now so I wanted to be as informed as possible. Thanks to SDN:

- I now know where my GPA and MCAT need to be.
- I understand that gap years are a normal and possibly very beneficial thing.
- I know that applying early is better than applying late (sounds obvious but there you go)
- I understand the multiple facets of an application that, if missing, cannot be made up for. (Tons of research but no clinical experience?)
-I understand the medical student and resident perspective on medicine, school, and health policy far better thanks to the posters who take the time to explain their views and provide reality checks for pre-meds.

Overall I feel like I have all of the information I need to apply to medical school and know that I am putting my best foot forward. Before SDN I didn't even know the MATCH was a thing since that's not how it works in my home country. When the time comes I bet SDN will be very helpful in understanding that application process as well.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

As I mentioned in the other thread, I've learned all sorts of valuable things about the field from med students, residents, and attendings. A few have been kind enough to field questions with an "ask me anything" thread. We even used to have an IM resident who provided invaluable information about surgical training! He hasn't posted in a while though 😉

In terms of admissions, there is also an "ask me anything thread" by an adcom (@hushcom). In addition, @Goro, @gyngyn, and @LizzyM are there to provide realistic guidance about the application process. In fact, Goro often provides pre-meds with school lists in order to help maximize their chances.

I am definitely not the typical pre-med (far from it-lol) and I benefit from other non-conventional applicants who share their experiences and success stories. I've also been fortunate to find support and inspiration from the more traditional crowd.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the MCAT forum, which is also very resourceful. I've gotten great MCAT tips from those threads.

Edit: to be more specific, I've learned that there are ways to have a great app without stellar stats. I won't be applying with a high GPA. It'll be around a 3.4 (with a significant upward trend), but others here have reassured me that there are ways to remain competitive (ECs, MCAT, diversity of experiences, etc) even with a lower GPA. Again, the success stories of others keep me hopeful.

 

[clairephillips]

CuriousAdcom,

I was just accepted to medical school, so I can't speak to sdn for medical students, but as a premed, it has been absolutely indispensable.

I started out as a nontrad two years out of school with no access to premed advising, nor to any doctors anywhere in my family or friend circle. In fact, when I was interested in applying when I was a student, I was told point blank by a premed advisor (years ago) that I didn't have a chance of getting in. Yet, my childhood dream just wouldn't go away, so I was going to try to make it work.

The only things I knew were that I needed more volunteer experience and that I had to take the MCAT, which had information from some classes I hadn't seen since 1999. I didn't know when, where, or how to apply, when, where, or how to study for and take the MCAT, which schools were in my home state (Texas), or any kind of timeline for applications.

Pouring my heart out as a hopeless newbie and trying to get over the feeling that I was crazy to leave a worthwhile profession, sdn provided the support I needed and pointed me in the right direction to get information. I gave a detailed account of my experience in the "What are my chances" subforum and asked for a reality check. The adcoms counseled me to add shadowing experience to the experience I had from 14 years ago; one even provided his phone number over private message so I could grill him with questions - he spent a full half hour with me until I ran out of questions. I was able to get recommendations on the best books to buy for MCAT prep and given the site to register. Someone set up a thread specifically for those taking the MCAT the same day as me, and we challenged each other with study strategies, practice test scores, daily quiz questions and explanations to things others found confusing.

Later on, school specific threads provided secondary application essays for prewriting, interview dates as members were invited for interviews, and pointers/reactions for those who had upcoming interviews. We consoled each other when rejections came and cheered each other's acceptances. More general threads served as hubs for those of us who shared common interests -- a Texas specific thread, threads with links to interesting articles, threads for those of us who were panicking, a whole forum specifically for nontrads.

In short, sdn is a community and after I found and became active on this site, I never again felt alone in the application process, despite knowing no one else in my personal life who has gone through it.

 

[Rocher]

I've always had a love-hate relationship with SDN.

I really took all the negativity on SDN to heart as a pre-med and almost didn't apply to medical school. I thought I would be miserable and would "lose my 20s", and I thought "sure, I can picture myself doing other things so maybe this isn't for me". I eventually sucked it up and went, thinking I wanted to be a physician enough to deal with the problems. Fact is, I've loved med school and honestly it's been nothing like the negativity I've seen here (YMMV). Lesson: you can learn about some of the problems in medicine on here but realize that internet forums are where people go to vent.

On the other hand, I'm glad I have an idea of the problems facing medicine, so I know what to expect and can adapt my career goals around them. Some of my classmates have overly idealistic career plans and I worry that they'll end up miserable, because the real world doesn't work like they think it does. So in a sense this initial negative has turned into a positive.

Other things I love about SDN are that you can find information regarding residencies on here that you can't find anywhere else. When looking for any info, I always do a search through SDN first. You can find insider information and opinions on programs that are invaluable. SDN acts as a sort of compass to guide you through the difficult and confusing process that is medical training, and for that I am grateful.

As others have mentioned, I also love helping people who have questions about the process. I always thought the "giving back" (to the community, etc) phrase seemed like contrived BS, but on SDN I really do get that feeling.

Lastly, like another poster above, I do think SDN has made me a more competitive applicant by pushing me to succeed. When you know what a competitive application looks like, its much easier to actually achieve it.

Rocher, MS4

 

[deleted480308]

remember, remember the rescindment of november

 

[LizzyM]

remember, remember the rescindment of november

To be fair, that involved someone's misbehavior on a website that was not SDN but we certainly heard about it here.

To answer the OP's question, I have a much better idea of the process from the applicant's perspective which I have found to be helpful to me as an adcom member and as someone who IRL deals with grad students who are thinking about med school.

 

[Australopithekus]

remember, remember the rescindment of november

What is this a reference to? (Aside from V, I mean.)

 

[LizzyM]

What is this a reference to? (Aside from V, I mean.)

A guy was admitted to a school (DO, IIRC). He wrote something inappropriate (insulting??) on a social media site (Facebook page for the incoming class?) and the school informed him on the Friday afternoon that the offer of admission had been rescinded. He could do nothing to confirm that the message was not a prank until Monday! And it was no prank, he was out. Such pain but he had it coming to him based on his asshat behavior.

 

[allantois]

Such pain but he had it coming to him based on his asshat behavior.

 

[AttainableDream]

Early...apply early and broadly.

 

[FutureOncologist]

Discovered this site in between M2 and M3 year. What I discovered with my stats was I could've applied more broadly. My school list from 2012 is something weird--basically places I'd like to live because of weather, general climate, where friends were applying, and other personal interests.

 

[NYCdude]

I was pretty stoked when I realized that actual adcoms posted on here and helped people with questions. You also have physicians, medical students, or people generally ahead of the schedule who you can ask questions as you prepare to take the journey yourself.

What a cool resource! I distinctly remember @Catalystik answering some of my really dumb questions about the AMCAS application when I'm sure there were much better things to be doing on a Sunday night lol. So I really appreciate the people on the site who try to help others. I will definitely try to pay it forward as I progress on my journey towards becoming a doctor.

 

[Satire5Texul]

I thought I had problems in life...not being able to derive the thickness of slits from the Young Double Slit Experiment. But a quick trip to the Physician/Resident Forum, put things into perspective.

Honestly I come here every-time I am snoozing or going slow with work. I browse for 5 minutes, and I am charged up again to do work (always more awake).

also been lurking here for a while. The site has really helped me find a path for my next steps. Its hard when you have things up in the air and don't have a goal to work towards, but I actually formulated my path to medicine here and then used outside sources from university to just get a 3rd opinion (people here kind of solidified what I needed to do).

I think I live by the motto from Goro: "There are some MD schools that reward reinvention with a good performance"

I keep that sentence on a loop.

The whole process of breaking into medicine is complex. Its like chemistry. No one tells you the atoms are not colored bouncy balls in 5th grade. They just feed you what you need to know atm. This site gives you a mental trajectory.

 

[darkjedi]

It helped me find which post-bac programs were good. I was going to do the Columbia post-bac, but was dissuaded after droves of people here said it was a terrible program and instead recommended better ones. It was super helpful to me when I had no premed office to turn to for advice when figuring out how to switch careers and such for med school. Once I had a proper pre-med office to turn to, I used SDN less for my own personal application.

I think the most helpful thing on SDN are the school-specific threads. They are an incredibly helpful resource for keeping up to date about how the school's cycle is going and such. Of course there is the side-effect of freaking out when you see other people hearing back and nothing has happened yet.

WAMC I think is also really helpful for people that need some help in directing where their application might have the most impact.

I like coming back to SDN even as a med student because I remember how helpless I felt when I started the process.

 

[tea guzzling traveler]

It gave me an invaluable way of commiserating with fellow premeds taking the MCAT, as well as getting an idea of what future steps to take, i.e. what would actually help the application the most. The adcom members are great as they instill a sense of reality into the process.

The stickied posts have great reserves of information as well.

It also made me aware of the different problems that doctors face, and especially gave me insight into how current doctors feel about coming changes to the medical system like the Affordable care act.

 

[Lysinee]

SDN has taught me 2 life lessons.

1) There are people who think they know everything. There are some premeds who act like they already have a MD/JD and their posts don't reflect that level of expertise. Also, some residents who think they know everything about other specialties.

2) There are people who like to argue over everything. Some posters operate under theory that the the only way to win an argument is to get the final word/post. They will keep arguing until you give up.