What Kills a Med School Application

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Both are perfect examples behind the reasoning for interviews. They have to rule out the freaks some way! :thumbup:

:laugh: :laugh:

Wow I can't believe those stories you quoted actually happened. That is just crazy!!! Makes you wonder about some people.

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You appear cocky if you believe that you are a shoe in at the school you are interviewing at. An adcomm at Maryland told me that she was interviewing this Hopkins guy with a 4.0 GPA and a 39 MCAT. On top of not really seeming interested in the school, he was describing his doctor shadowing in hopkins hospital, and he refered to the poor, indigent (black/hispanic) patients as "those people"; and he exclaimed how he could never understand what they were saying (even the blacks). I'm sure that I'm not describing it well, but you can see that he was completely detached from the real world and he had a sense of entitlement. He wasn't humbly grateful for his interview.

Another example of cocky. I forget where I heard this but I believe it may have been someone who spoke about admissions at an AMSA meeting, but essentially what I heard was that one time someone turned in an AMCAS without a personal statement.

They assumed that they could get in on numbers alone but not have to write any essays. Completely ******ed thing to do.
 
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Well I'm just passing along advice given to me by an ex-adcom friend of mine who's also a gay M.D.. He said I need to remove any trace from my application that I'm gay (and all I did was mention that I have had a partner for 9+ years and bought a house together 6 years ago) as it was killing my application.

I think you have to realize that it could be one person's perspective as there are others who have been gay and gotten in places such as HMS. I suppose it depends on the school, but you'll be in by next year at a school so you'll realize it probably didn't hurt as much as the fact that your overall GPA is a bit average when compared to some of the 3.7+ GPAs out there. If you had a 3.7+ GPA, I am pretty sure you might have gotten in by now.

That said, I'm going to agree with a lot of what has already been stated:

1. A felony/conviction especially something outrageously extreme that deems you a danger to society.
2. Bad LORs, Bad essays, anything that is completely just downright horrible in your app. For essays make them strong and for LORs make sure they can write you a good one.
3. Lack of any sort of ECs and assumption that numbers alone will you get you in somewhere. Show proof that you have at least tried to expose yourself to the medical field.
4. Arrogance shown towards those who decide your fate i.e. admissions personnel, med school staff, anyone connected with the med schools.
5. LYING LYING LYING!!! Note one thing right now, if you lie about an aspect of your application and they find out later on, they can easily kick you out later on and blacklist you from other medical schools.
 
...which ironically AMCAS had trouble with...they list the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine simply as "Southern Illinois School of Medicine" (on my app at least)...nothing to call home about but still you'd think AMCAS wouldn't make a mistake like that

I was thinking more along the lines of Wyle College of Medicine, Pritsker, and Havard.
 
i got a 3.34 GPA and got into an MD program and not a "bad" one. i'm also an ORM....
 
I know people mentioned felonies and other crimes but i would think those that have to do specifically with drug abuse and drug dealing have the potential to be serious killers. After all, correct me if I'm wrong, but physicians are the professionals with the highest rate of drug abuse, and I'm sure adcoms don't want to knowingly up that rate...
 
8. arrogance (which can come out through your essays or interviews, especially)

Arrogance is a good one. Any time you assume that you're a sure thing, like during an interview, you're not.
 
not paying your application fee - kills the appllication before it can even be killed
 
how about cursing (hopefully by accident?) at a med school interview? gujudoc? lizzy? that ever happen to you?
 
1. Stick a piece of broccoli between your front teeth, smile a lot. :D
2. Excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, come back completely soaked.
3. As you reach inside your briefcase pull out a sock puppet, introduce him as “Socko” and harass your interviewer with it.
4. Comment on how much you like your interviewer’s spouse’s picture, then take it and put it in your briefcase.:laugh:
 
1. Stick a piece of broccoli between your front teeth, smile a lot. :D
2. Excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, come back completely soaked.
3. As you reach inside your briefcase pull out a sock puppet, introduce him as “Socko” and harass your interviewer with it.
4. Comment on how much you like your interviewer’s spouse’s picture, then take it and put it in your briefcase.:laugh:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
 
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As you reach inside your briefcase pull out a sock puppet, introduce him as "Socko" and harass your interviewer with it.

Trying to turn your group interview from a roundtable discussion into a steel cage rumble would probably not go over well either ("Interviewee Deathmatch").

"A 15 ft high stainless steel cage, impressive GPAs and MCAT scores all around; Six premeds enter, only one leaves....with a full ride scholarship." :smuggrin:
 
would your application die if during your interview day your zipper was open? Because I have a feeling that at one of my schools that was the case...:laugh:
 
Taking more than 1 BBQ sandwich at UTSW
 
Hilarious thread =)
I'm literally laughing out loud as I read and my roommates think I'm weird.

:laugh:
 
Someone who did a summer program at upstate said that the admissions staff told them a story of one student who would have been accepted, but then the adcom found out he was an a**hole to the admissions office staff. He wasn't accepted... don't know if he was waitlisted or rejected.

I totally believe this. I had a job interview once where I spent 5-10 minutes waiting in the reception area with the receptionist. As part of the decision making process, they ask the receptionist for her opinion of the person and how they behaved.
 
Another example of cocky. I forget where I heard this but I believe it may have been someone who spoke about admissions at an AMSA meeting, but essentially what I heard was that one time someone turned in an AMCAS without a personal statement.

They assumed that they could get in on numbers alone but not have to write any essays. Completely ******ed thing to do.

Hey now, the year I did that it specifically said it wasn't required. There was a different section that was required.
And there were plenty of people that told me that it didn't hurt me.
 
I heard slipping a friendly bribe to the Dean doesn't work as well as it theoretically should.

Bribes have to be official. In other words, a sizeable donation to the medical school before you apply.
 
Submitting an application with typos or bad grammar. Misusing the following words: to/too, their/there/they're, we're/were/wear, it's/its, your/you're.
 
Submitting an application with typos or bad grammar. Misusing the following words: to/too, their/there/they're, we're/were/wear, it's/its, your/you're.

My PS statement had 2 typos and my EC descriptions had a 3rd. Attending an MD school in the fall. Not an app kiler. (<---This typos are 4 teh laughs)
 
Of course, there is an exception to everything. I was actually being generous with my stat compare to what the UCSD admissions lady told me. She said that applicants should have around 3.7 and 30 to be EVEN considered.

If that's the case you should have qualified your response by stating that your opinion of the GPA/MCAT scores were for most University of California schools.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of Wyle College of Medicine, Pritsker, and Havard.
That speaks to my constantly correcting people re: University AT Buffalo. There is no University OF Buffalo.
 
Telling lies, or stretching the truth at the interview and having your interviewer figure it out will win you an automatic rejection. I've seen it happen. Some people will say anything. Also, showing little interest in the school or giving the impression that you don't know anything about the school. Both will kill your application at the school I attend.
 
~Arrogance. There is no need to be snooty during interview day. It just makes you look like a jerk and shows the admissions office that you don't play well with others.
~cutting and pasting secondaries and forgetting to change the school names
QUOTE]

:eek: At one of my interviews, I was discussing my thoughts on the school to the interviewers and mentioned my home school's name (instead of the one I was interviewing at)....I caught myself and apologized profusely - definitely not my best moment
 
On the flipside of this discussion, what if you were to devour a poop hot dog in front of your interviewers? I think that would be an impressive sign of commitment, no? :D
 
My PS statement had 2 typos and my EC descriptions had a 3rd. Attending an MD school in the fall. Not an app kiler. (<---This typos are 4 teh laughs)
Ditto. My PS had 2 as well, and another major one in my EC's; I too will be attending Med School.
 
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