What % of Pre-Meds know about SDN?

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unsung

unsung

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Just curious. In the prep class I took, it seemed like a lot of people didn't know about SDN, and were kind of... well, clueless about many parts of the application process. Maybe my perception is just skewed since so many of you folks on here seem so well-prepared, and so many of you have good tips for the MCAT, etc.

It got me to thinking.. is all this torture of knowing necessary? ;) How many students just blunder their way through the process, take the Sept MCAT, apply in October (to 3 schools), and make it?
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I didn't know SDN existed until I started going on my interviews in Dec. I think I came across it at just the right time. Any earlier and I would have been freaking out about all the wrong things.
 
My guess is 30% - 40% know about it.

Let's keep it a secret, k? :rolleyes:
 
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I've always wondered this myself....and since everyone says SDNers are the obsessive neurotic premeds, if they do better in general in the application cycle?
 
At both my interviews I met students that had found SDN, perused it for a few minutes, and left never to return.

Apparently we can come across as neurotic, cutthroat, stand offish people. Who knew?
 
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i discovered it when I was looking to see if my mcat scores were posted (they were a few days late), and SDN was filled with posts by angry ppl complaining about the lateness.
 
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I swear I heard 10% from some "reputable" source on here.
 
the gunner inside me wants no one else to know
 
I found out from my mentor. I was in a program that assigned you a mentor to keep you informed about med school. It was like a big brother big sister program for pre-med students. She told me about it. Sometimes I'm happy to have found out about this site, other times not so happy. I like saying things to my friends, who say that they want to be doctors, about the application process and having them go "who tells you these things?" or a regular "my advisor didn't say anything about this". If I never came to this site I'd probably drive my mentor crazy with all my questions.
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over 9000%

I only found SDN by digging through the depths of the internet, not sure how everyone got here.
 
many people know about sdn, but most do don't post on threads.. they just surf for info. thats how i found sdn.. anyone doing any search on premed stuff is bound to find this site because of the sheer amount of threads on premed stuff lol.
 
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redlight said:
many people know about sdn, but most who do don't post on threads.. they just surf for info. thats how i found sdn.. anyone doing any search on premed stuff is bound to find this site because of the sheer amount of threads on premed stuff lol.
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I concure. At least 10-20 more people lurk on the forum than join or post. I've heard from friends that they look things up on this site but never really contribute. Also, most people seem to find this site by accident. I was trying to look up info about school's secondary essay on google when I found this gem. I bet a lot of people found it this way as well.
 
Climberak said:
My guess is 30% - 40% know about it.

Let's keep it a secret, k? :rolleyes:
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Agreed, this is our special little organization ;) No one talks about SDN. Just like fight club, SDN does not exist.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
There are currently 40,000+ active members of the forum. Keep in mind many of them are Med students/residents/other pre-professionals/other professionals. As far as how many are Pre-med, it is hard to tell.
 
Most of the pre-meds I've talked to have never heard of SDN. I cannot believe how many of the people I know have NO idea what they're doing. They have no idea when they're supposed to take the MCAT and when they are supposed to apply. I talked to a pre-med at my church last week and when I asked him when he planned to take the MCAT, he had no clue.
 
medisaur said:
I didn't know SDN existed until I started going on my interviews in Dec. I think I came across it at just the right time. Any earlier and I would have been freaking out about all the wrong things.
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Similar situation here. I relied heavily on upperclassmen to guide me, and it worked! I agree that being on SDN as a pre-med would have probably made me quit freshmen year! I think I signed up AFTER getting accepted, although I definitely used the interview Q's posted here.
 
Caesar said:
of course, you guys are all telling them to join SDN, right? :D
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Lol I tell my best friend. She told me just this morning "I'm joining this SDN site because you keep finding a whole bunch of info"
 
If I recall we did a survey at some point last year and compared it to the unique hits Pre-Allo was getting and the applicant pool size. We estimated something like 10-15% of allopathic applicants were on SDN.

Not the most scientific results but as good as we could put together.
 
my undergrad's premed advisors actually told those of us applying to go to sdn to look through the interview feedback, which I tended to find quite helpful. Any earlier though, and I think it could have made me have an aneurysm.
 
Hyperstudyosis said:
Most of the pre-meds I've talked to have never heard of SDN. I cannot believe how many of the people I know have NO idea what they're doing. They have no idea when they're supposed to take the MCAT and when they are supposed to apply. I talked to a pre-med at my church last week and when I asked him when he planned to take the MCAT, he had no clue.
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I know...I was talking to this guy at the end of the semester who told me he's taking his MCAT in September (for this cycle). Has never heard of SDN. I found it by doing a search about the medical profession or something the beginning of sophomore year, but sometimes I wish I hadn't found it yet because it can be addicting & drive me somewhat crazy worrying! Also I just recruited a premed friend last week.:thumbup:
 
Depakote said:
If I recall we did a survey at some point last year and compared it to the unique hits Pre-Allo was getting and the applicant pool size. We estimated something like 10-15% of allopathic applicants were on SDN.

Not the most scientific results but as good as we could put together.
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sounds about right to me
 
Yeah I'd buy it. It's probably the same percentage of the general population that's highly internet savvy. About 10-15%. I pulled that number out of my ass but I'm probably not too far off.
 
Last week I asked a kid at work if he had submitted his AMCAS yet. His reply: "I don't think you can fill that out until August."

I'm so happy that I've been lurking on SDN for so long and so I know when to apply and all the tips and hints!

:thumbup:
 
aunt ethel said:
Last week I asked a kid at work if he had submitted his AMCAS yet. His reply: "I don't think you can fill that out until August."

I'm so happy that I've been lurking on SDN for so long and so I know when to apply and all the tips and hints!

:thumbup:
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lol, yea the tips you pick up are definitely a big reason why im addicted :blush:
 
I'm pretty much the only pre-med I know who actually knows how the whole process works and all kinds of stuff about it, so the 10-15% thing seems relatively accurate.
 
Just check the guest:member ratio at peak times and compare it to the relative number of people who complete an AMCAS app. THen multiply the number by 4.
 
mbe36 said:
Just check the guest:member ratio at peak times and compare it to the relative number of people who complete an AMCAS app. THen multiply the number by 4.
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That seems really inaccurate to me because you have to take into account people's schedules and maybe they're more of a Saturday viewer than a Friday one. And if you try to take both days you'll have repeat members of each population.

Maybe someday (read:in my little fantasy world) we'll have a checkbox on the AMCAS where you can designate whether or not you used/viewed SDN :D
 
haha wow you just described me pretty much. I just stumbled across SDN a couple weeks ago randomly searching the internet and couldn't believe that all the information I needed the last few years is right here. I was pretty clueless about a lot of things related to premed/medical school. I took the August MCAT and applied at the deadline for TMDSAS, but somehow I got into one of my top choice schools, so I guess it all worked out.:D
 
Hyperstudyosis said:
Most of the pre-meds I've talked to have never heard of SDN. I cannot believe how many of the people I know have NO idea what they're doing. They have no idea when they're supposed to take the MCAT and when they are supposed to apply. I talked to a pre-med at my church last week and when I asked him when he planned to take the MCAT, he had no clue.
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Not really their fault. A lot of schools have really awful advisors. My boyfriend's advisor last year was absolutely effing useless. Her office even managed to lose ALL of his LORs. I wish I had discovered SDN last year before he applied, then we would have known a lot more about the process than we did.
 
i was shadowing a doc who told me to do two things

1) join SDN
2) read the house of god

i tell all my premeds about this site and they refuse to sign up, instead, i just relay important info that i find, or they end up asking me a question about the process that has been discussed here ad nauseum. of course i tell them the answer to their quesetion, but i also tell them to stop being lazy and look at the ****ing site already!!!
 
hmm, i notice that most premeds at my school that aren't SDN'rs think that pre-med is a major.
 
my wife found this site because she was positive an online forum for people just as neurotic and obsessed with the whole process as me existed... turns out she was right.

i used to not spend so much time online,... now, thanks to SDN, i have a habit. *sniff* i want to get help, really. *sob* i just don't think they're is anything they can do.

i do keep it like fight club though. i don't talk about it, no sir.
i am the undercover pre-med. i know it's not a major, i am a chem major...plain and simple.

thank you SDN ... for breading neurosis and gunnerism everywhere.
 
Personally, I think that the more interesting question would be "what percent of SDNers get into MD school?"

THAT would influence people.
 
unsung said:
It got me to thinking.. is all this torture of knowing necessary? ;) How many students just blunder their way through the process, take the Sept MCAT, apply in October (to 3 schools), and make it?
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I can guarantee you, applying late (October is very late) and to so few schools will cripple anyone's chance of acceptance. So yes, a clear understanding of the process IS necessary.
 
yep, as a mediocre applicant myself, i'm pretty sure SDN will be the only reason this year IF i do get an acceptance. the premed advisers do stress you to apply as early as possible, but you only see your adviser like twice a semester. so, ppl forget their advice and they get screwed. most don't even submit their AMCAS stuff till end of summer and only apply to a few schools. that's one thing my advisers never mentioned - apply broadly. if you are just a mediocre applicant, they just say apply to a few schools and see what happens. isn't applying early and BROADLY most important for ppl who are mediocre? the ppl who should only apply to 2-3 schools are the 4.0, 41 ppl haha.

even the ppl who went through the cycle this past year still don't know much about the process. one of my friends applied super late, like October and to only to 2 schools. her advice was to apply early, but that's it. she said "it takes AMCAS 4 weeks to verify your transcript! so apply early!!" i already submitted one of my transcripts, and it only took them a week to verify. haha i told her this a few days ago, and she was like "HEEEEY!!!" haha
 
drcrabber said:
i already submitted one of my transcripts, and it only took them a week to verify. haha i told her this a few days ago, and she was like "HEEEEY!!!" haha
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That's just one of many advantages of applying early. AMCAS processes much faster in June than in mid August or later.
 
drcrabber said:
yep, as a mediocre applicant myself, i'm pretty sure SDN will be the only reason this year IF i do get an acceptance. the premed advisers do stress you to apply as early as possible, but you only see your adviser like twice a semester. so, ppl forget their advice and they get screwed. most don't even submit their AMCAS stuff till end of summer and only apply to a few schools. that's one thing my advisers never mentioned - apply broadly. if you are just a mediocre applicant, they just say apply to a few schools and see what happens. isn't applying early and BROADLY most important for ppl who are mediocre? the ppl who should only apply to 2-3 schools are the 4.0, 41 ppl haha.

even the ppl who went through the cycle this past year still don't know much about the process. one of my friends applied super late, like October and to only to 2 schools. her advice was to apply early, but that's it. she said "it takes AMCAS 4 weeks to verify your transcript! so apply early!!" i already submitted one of my transcripts, and it only took them a week to verify. haha i told her this a few days ago, and she was like "HEEEEY!!!" haha
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Yeah, one girl I knew said that last cycle said she took the MCAT in April or something, but just sorta hung on to her AMCAS application all summer because no one ever told her it was important to get that turned in soon. So she thought she had all summer... ended up submitting it end of August. So... yeah, SDN definitely saved me from making That mistake!
 
heh,
there should be a legitimate statistical analysis about SDN'rs getting/ or not getting into a med school

:D
 
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