What is a misconception you used to have about the pre-med/med school process?

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That taking a gap year would be the end of the world for me and that I should never consider taking one.

I'm ending up taking one because I realized studying for my MCAT, maintaining a high gpa, spending time on my extracurriculars and writing applications would be too difficult for me to do during my Junior second semester.
 
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Princeton Medical Student said:
That II in signatures stood for secondaries...
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And that IA is used for both institutional action AND interviews attended

There was someone on here with something like 'IA: 6' in his/her sig but who interviewed at a ton of T10s and I remember thinking 'this person must have saved the pope from drowning to make up for that many institutional actions 😱' before I realized haha
 
You are your own enemy.


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I overestimated how valuable my research experience would be. I remember feeling a lot of pressure to find a research position early and get really involved. I had a lot of experience and even a publication but this hardly even came up at an interview and I don't feel like it did much for me.

I underestimated how important the MCAT was. I knew it was a big factor, but I thought it was more of a "bar" to clear rather than something that would have such a tremendous impact on my options. It was interesting to see how much better people who had MCATs even 2-3 points higher than mine fared in the process.

I underestimated the impact of random stuff that I did for personal fulfillment rather than for my application. Interviewers rarely discussed the things I was "supposed" to do, like hospital volunteering and seemed much more interested in random potpourri that I did just because I was interested.

I underestimated how stressful it would be.
 
  • Pre-meds are supportive of each other
  • What @Gilakend said
  • Adcoms will reject my application for missing a preposition
  • Interviewers will bite my head off
  • Fellow interviewees will be icy and not talkative
  • I won't be fed during interviews or will be fed very bad food
  • Med schools have their **** together so I'd better too
  • Edit: Don't trust things posted on SDN
 
- I always thought I could never ever get into med school because of how much I screwed up in undergrad. Apparently not true.
- I thought I needed to use my extensive work experience as my most meaningful experience even though it wasn't as meaningful as my business ownership. Looking back, I would have ignored what I thought I *should* do and used the truly more meaningful experience.
 
That luck was not a part of the process, e.g. getting your completed app assigned to someone who likes what they see and recommend extending the II or getting assigned an interviewer that you will click with and will go to bat for you instead of someone who has already made up their minds before you even sit down in their office to start the interview...
 
That you had to be a genius with the kind of IQ that would get you into the gifted program in elementary school to get into medical school.

That you couldn't get into medical school from a state university.

One of the many reasons I am grateful for SDN. I never in a million years would have considered applying to medical school a realistic option without it.
 
catloverforever said:
When I finished MCAT, I thought the worst part is over.

NO, it's the waiting game.
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Oh this is SO real. I was actually at my hospital volunteering gig when I finally got the email to log in to check the score. In hindsight, that was an excellent place to be because my blood pressure has never spiked so high.

RespectTheChemistry19 said:
That you had to be a genius with the kind of IQ that would get you into the gifted program in elementary school to get into medical school.
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It's kind of funny that you say this because knowing the opposite to be true actually led me down this path in the first place. I knew a lot of people who weren't in the gifted programs throughout elementary/middle/high school, and they went to great med schools and have done fine. So I figured if they could do it, then I could too :laugh:
 
Everyone says they want to help others. Just not their peers. peers=others?? *confused*

PreMedStudent55555 said:
That taking a gap year would be the end of the world for me and that I should never consider taking one.
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Absolutely THIS. I took two off and definitely it helped me out.

Gilakend said:
That my schools premed club/adviser would be useful.
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I'm seriously trying to find a good premed advisor. These are like, unicorns, I tell you. UNICORNS!

Oh, that everyone in med school is a super caring individual who wants to help people. So many of them just want to make a buck. And I was surprised how many of them come from MD families, never had a job (what is a w2?) in the past. Many later tell me, "oh, i did it because my parents do it and they said it's a cool profession. So i decided to do it too." Dannnnng. thats what gets people into med school these days? lol
 
Alejandro said:
Everyone says they want to help others. Just not their peers. peers=others?? *confused*


Absolutely THIS. I took two off and definitely it helped me out.


I'm seriously trying to find a good premed advisor. These are like, unicorns, I tell you. UNICORNS!

Oh, that everyone in med school is a super caring individual who wants to help people. So many of them just want to make a buck. And I was surprised how many of them come from MD families, never had a job (what is a w2?) in the past. Many later tell me, "oh, i did it because my parents do it and they said it's a cool profession. So i decided to do it too." Dannnnng. thats what gets people into med school these days? lol
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This for sure! I noticed that so many of my classmates are in it for themselves and to an extent, their friends, but screw everyone else! Or volunteering at clinics just for experience, not for the patients. I am SURE some do actually care, but would I be surprised they’re not being in any way altruistic? Nope.
 
Isoval said:
I used to believe that “if I could just make it to the interview stage, I’d be able to woo admissions committees with my impeccable charm”.

Fast forward to today: four interviews -> three waitlists.

Ouch, my charm.
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I thought the same thing and ended up with 4 post-II rejections. Stings.
 
A major misconception I had is that I could get in at all.

Just kidding. What I really wish I had known was that you don't need a 3.8+ for MD programs. I also used to think that DO's only did PC and you had to be in the tooppppp of your class if you wanted to specialize as a DO ( even for stuff that's not super competitive, like the IM specialities, Ob/Gyn, Nuero, etc.). Gosh darn that was silly.
 
Gilakend said:
That my schools premed club/adviser would be useful.

It is not.
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I'd say the advisor is sometimes useful but the club meetings are 99% of the time not useful. (Granted our school's premed advisor was freshly-retired adcom from a UC)

I did pay $50 for a lifetime membership to AMSA though and get to list that on my application, I even got an exec board position since one of my friends was the president, so it may have helped a little.
 
  • I thought adcoms would be more impressed by club involvement in undergrad. Being a “president” of a club doesn’t actually amount to much in the grand scheme of things.
  • You absolutely must do research if you plan to go MD. I did no research and landed 2 MD seats.
  • Being a Reapplicant is a bad thing. In reality, I felt much more confident and prepared the second time around.
 
stickgirl390 said:
  • I thought adcoms would be more impressed by club involvement in undergrad. Being a “president” of a club doesn’t actually amount to much in the grand scheme of things.
  • You absolutely must do research if you plan to go MD. I did no research and landed 2 MD seats.
  • Being a Reapplicant is a bad thing. In reality, I felt much more confident and prepared the second time around.
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Congrats on your success!
 
Hobbsyy said:
I thought that a 514 would give me an acceptance by now. HA. on 4 waitlists with 0 acceptances.
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Around 80-85 percent of people with that score do get in, but still like 1 in 5 do not. The aamc has a whole table on gpa/mcat stats and matriculation or acceptances. Good luck with the waitlist.
 
Misconceptions I had:

1. UCLA was so holistic and the other tippy top schools would follow suit this MSAR lmao (medians of 3.8/520 now)
2. Stigma of a reapplicant -- the absolute biggest bs that SDN has ever tried to push lol the VAST majority of people on my interview trail (n >10) were reapplicants. That's anecdotal, though
3. Clubs in UG show involvement (spoiler: AdComms won't care)
 
DrDwayneJohnson said:
Misconceptions I had:

1. UCLA was so holistic and the other tippy top schools would follow suit this MSAR lmao (medians of 3.8/520 now)
2. Stigma of a reapplicant -- the absolute biggest bs that SDN has ever tried to push lol the VAST majority of people on my interview trail (n >10) were reapplicants. That's anecdotal, though
3. Clubs in UG show involvement (spoiler: AdComms won't care)
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Yes to 1 especially... Many schools say they are holistic and few are. I was accepted to a higher ranking school and rejected from 3 much lower ranking ones, purely based on numbers...
 
As a Premed:
- That the Fee Assistance Program through the AAMC and AACOMAS wouldn't be worth the hassle of doing. Mainly cause I would have to fight my parents to get their tax and income information.

- That I may have to do a master's program to get into med school.

Present day accepted applicant:
- Without it I never would of applied to out of state schools. Got accepted to a neighboring state school. Definitely worth nagging your parents for.

- Got in directly out of undergrad. Can finally start deleting all those Master's program invites I keep getting.
 
asdf333 said:
As a Premed:
- That the Fee Assistance Program through the AAMC and AACOMAS wouldn't be worth the hassle of doing. Mainly cause I would have to fight my parents to get their tax and income information.

- That I may have to do a master's program to get into med school.

Present day accepted applicant:
- Without it I never would of applied to out of state schools. Got accepted to a neighboring state school. Definitely worth nagging your parents for.

- Got in directly out of undergrad. Can finally start deleting all those Master's program invites I keep getting.
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FAP is so so so important. It allowed me to apply to a school that I probably wouldn't have otherwise applied to due to location. It's ended up being one of my top contenders and has even offered a significant scholarship. Literally wouldn't have happened without FAP.
 
I don't think I truly understood how many highly qualified applicants apply to medical school each year and the level of competition that brings. I met so many incredibly intelligent, talented, likable, compassionate, and impressive individuals along the interview trail. I always believed the stereotypes that most pre-meds were just arrogant, one-dimensional braniacs (and I definitely met some of those, too 😵), but most of the people I spoke with were fascinating individuals with really interesting backgrounds and experiences.
 
bubba21 said:
I don't think I truly understood how many highly qualified applicants apply to medical school each year and the level of competition that brings. I met so many incredibly intelligent, talented, likable, compassionate, and impressive individuals along the interview trail. I always believed the stereotypes that most pre-meds were just arrogant, one-dimensional braniacs (and I definitely met some of those, too 😵), but most of the people I spoke with were fascinating individuals with really interesting backgrounds and experiences.
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That was just their interview face. They're still the same "arrogant, one-dimensional braniacs" you imagined.
giphy.gif
 
That med schools don't give a **** about ECs. Thought it was mostly a numbers game like high School ---> UG. Luckily someone told me I was wrong way before I applied
 
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That it doesn't matter when I apply in the cycle as long as I'm competitive/it doesn't matter when I apply as long as it's before the school's deadline

There are schools I'm pretty sure my app wasn't even looked at because I sent my secondary in after August. It worked out in the end, but I would 100% apply earlier if I had to do it again.
 
sss1219 said:
I always thought I'd be content in getting an acceptance at all as a reapplicant, but damn is it hard to not tie my self worth to getting into a better school I interviewed at
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This.

I also thought my secondaries were horrible. After so much writing it was quite frustrating. I ended up getting IIs/As from schools where I thought they were bad.

I also felt that this whole process was a little random. I got rejected from schools where I thought my application really catered to the mission and my stats were competitive, but was successful at some schools where that was less the case.

Most of all, I did not realize the patience that this process can require. From opening my primary in May 2017 and just about finally deciding on a school just about now... it has almost been a full year. A year of ups and downs. Now I’m ready to start.


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I'd prob
WIMNFamilyMed said:
A chem professor who's my friend's advisor told her to 'do pre-medical activities'. Super specific and not obvious advice, thanks!
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LOL did he also say “make sure you take he MCAT!”
 
MCATISEZ said:
This.

I also thought my secondaries were horrible. After so much writing it was quite frustrating. I ended up getting IIs/As from schools where I thought they were bad.

I also felt that this whole process was a little random. I got rejected from schools where I thought my application really catered to the mission and my stats were competitive, but was successful at some schools where that was less the case.

Most of all, I did not realize the patience that this process can require. From opening my primary in May 2017 and just about finally deciding on a school just about now... it has almost been a full year. A year of ups and downs. Now I’m ready to start.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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Congrats on your acceptance. I hope to be there someday. Even though I disagree with your username xP
 
Probably that one bad semester will kill you. You don't need to have a 3.9+ to get into medical school. Of course you need good stats, but what I've learned is that stats get you TO the door, while ECs and interview skills get you THROUGH the door. It is a process that is very competitive and has too many variables.
 
scribedbyme said:
There are schools I'm pretty sure my app wasn't even looked at because I sent my secondary in after August. It worked out in the end, but I would 100% apply earlier if I had to do it again.
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I have zero doubt in my mind that having my primary verified before June 30th (or whenever they're released to schools) helped me tremendously this cycle at a large number of schools.
 
Mcar11 said:
Yes to 1 especially... Many schools say they are holistic and few are. I was accepted to a higher ranking school and rejected from 3 much lower ranking ones, purely based on numbers...
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I actually think it might be a misconception that holistic review mean they will have a lower mean gpa/MCAT. Those top schools get thousands of apps from people with very unique and diverse backgrounds who also have great numbers. They can be holistic and still mostly take people with high numbers.
 
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