What % of SDN premeds go to med school?

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funwithpuzzles

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What percentage of SDN premeds posters do you think actually go to med school?
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71.3% from last sensor
 
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great question OP. I'd like to know this as well...
 
We've never done any type of survey to evaluate this. We'd have some serious self-reporting bias, I'd imagine.
 
SDN posters seem to over represent the high and low ends of the applicant spectrum. The meaty part of the bell curve seems underrepresented relative to the extremes.

Thus, SDN is not really representative, although the "average" may work out close to the average for the applicant pool.
 
flip26 said:
SDN posters seem to over represent the high and low ends of the applicant spectrum. The meaty part of the bell curve seems underrepresented relative to the extremes.

Thus, SDN is not really representative, although the "average" may work out close to the average for the applicant pool.
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No way to know this. There are lots of lurkers and sporadic posters who never go further on this path. Of the more outspoken folks, I suspect a better than average percentage will attend, because this site is likely not of much interest for folks who haven't resolved on a premed path. A more interesting question would be to look at the high schoolers and follow them and see how many attend (since normally about 90% of folks who show up at college "premed" don't make it), and then you'd have a sense of whether SDNers were a different group than the norm. By the time most people in college come on here, they are already further down the road (the weeding out has already occurred for many) and so probably not representative of average college students.
 
rocketbooster said:
100%, eventually.
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Or zero. Because pre-meds don't go to medical school they are pre-meds.

But to actually answer the question I would say 70% of the active posters will eventually go. The world may never know.
 
SDN posters: 67.33%
SDN lurkers: 23.89%
SDN trolls: 3.56%
SDN mods: 100%
 
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I'm not sure about all pre-meds, but out of all pre-meds that APPLY to medical school, about 43% get in according to AAMC stat sheet that you can look at on their site.
 
A better way of ascertaining this would be to see how many (what %) 1st year matriculants were aware of SDN and used the site.
 
If anyone has taken a statics course, you can do this as a project lol.
 
flip26 said:
SDN posters seem to over represent the high and low ends of the applicant spectrum. The meaty part of the bell curve seems underrepresented relative to the extremes.

Thus, SDN is not really representative, although the "average" may work out close to the average for the applicant pool.
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Very salient, Flip26
 
bozz said:
lol I wonder how we could use statics here
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We could model applicants as weighted beams.

I prepared an MSPaint diagram:

diagram.png
 
I guess one would have to ask if there are any reasons why the average for people on SDN should be different for the average of people who have never been to this site.

For example, we could argue that SDN people are more informed about the application process (for example, interview feedback helped me tons in preparing for interviews, something a non-SDNer wouldn't have) and therefore have better chances of getting accepted. Or they could be more ambitious (since they sought out websites that tell them about medical school applications, etc) and therefore they are more likely to be accepted.

On the other hand, we could also argue that SDNers are less likely to be accepted to medical school. For example, we could argue that we are more neurotic than most pre-meds and that, often, the information given on SDN is based on single experiences and isn't very valuable, i.e. it might actually hurt you to be on SDN. Or you could argue that people, who feel that they have a weak application, are more likely to seek out advice on the internet and therefore the total SDN applicant pool is below average.

In the end, I don't think you can properly argue either way since we don't have any numbers and there are too many confounding factors.

I guess we shall never know.
 
On the topic of statistics, I was looking at the MCAT/GPA grid for accepted applicants on the AAMC website. http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

Under 3.4-3.59 GPA and 30-32 MCAT (which seem to be about average for here) there were 5210 applicants and 3295 acceptances, for a 63.2% acceptance rate overall.

A 3.4-3.6 GPA / 30-32 MCAT isn't really outstanding, so how do people have so much trouble getting into medical schools with a 63.2% chance of being accepted somewhere?
 
circulus vitios said:
On the topic of statistics, I was looking at the MCAT/GPA grid for accepted applicants on the AAMC website. http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

Under 3.4-3.59 GPA and 30-32 MCAT (which seem to be about average for here) there were 5210 applicants and 3295 acceptances, for a 63.2% acceptance rate overall.

A 3.4-3.6 GPA / 30-32 MCAT isn't really outstanding, so how do people have so much trouble getting into medical schools with a 63.2% chance of being accepted somewhere?
Click to expand...

It could be that the evil conglomerate called AAMC is giving us false information to put us in a false sense of security.
 
circulus vitios said:
On the topic of statistics, I was looking at the MCAT/GPA grid for accepted applicants on the AAMC website. http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

Under 3.4-3.59 GPA and 30-32 MCAT (which seem to be about average for here) there were 5210 applicants and 3295 acceptances, for a 63.2% acceptance rate overall.

A 3.4-3.6 GPA / 30-32 MCAT isn't really outstanding, so how do people have so much trouble getting into medical schools with a 63.2% chance of being accepted somewhere?
Click to expand...

I'm having so much trouble getting into medical schools with a ~93% chance of being accepted somewhere lol
 
Siverhideo1985 said:
I guess one would have to ask if there are any reasons why the average for people on SDN should be different for the average of people who have never been to this site.

For example, we could argue that SDN people are more informed about the application process (for example, interview feedback helped me tons in preparing for interviews, something a non-SDNer wouldn't have) and therefore have better chances of getting accepted. Or they could be more ambitious (since they sought out websites that tell them about medical school applications, etc) and therefore they are more likely to be accepted.

On the other hand, we could also argue that SDNers are less likely to be accepted to medical school. For example, we could argue that we are more neurotic than most pre-meds and that, often, the information given on SDN is based on single experiences and isn't very valuable, i.e. it might actually hurt you to be on SDN. Or you could argue that people, who feel that they have a weak application, are more likely to seek out advice on the internet and therefore the total SDN applicant pool is below average.

In the end, I don't think you can properly argue either way since we don't have any numbers and there are too many confounding factors.

I guess we shall never know.
Click to expand...

previous thread polls have revealed that SDNers who post have higher numbers than the typical applicant pool.

I believe that if you have average or weak numbers, it is too painful to read SDN. My mother monitored it for me last cycle because I wanted the info (which def helped, BTW) but couldn't stand reading it.

Well, she monitored it until she got banned!!!!!! lol.
 
slowbutsteady said:
previous thread polls have revealed that SDNers who post have higher numbers than the typical applicant pool.

I believe that if you have average or weak numbers, it is too painful to read SDN. My mother monitored it for me last cycle because I wanted the info (which def helped, BTW) but couldn't stand reading it.

Well, she monitored it until she got banned!!!!!! lol.
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...Your mother got banned from SDN?
 
bozz said:
lol I wonder how we could use statics here
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Clearly just sum the forces in every direction pointing toward medical school, and dont forget to add in the moments when you second guess your friday night studying
 
rocketbooster said:
I don't mean to spoil your fun, but shouldn't the MCAT weight be farther down the side and the GPA one closer to the middle?

torque=r x F. Taking the pivot point to be at the fulcrum, you want as great of a r value as possible to yield greater torque. Greater torque will tip the scale more!
Click to expand...

The implication of the diagram is that due to his low GPA and MCAT, the applicant's beam is going to tip over and spill him into the reject zone.
 
statics or statistics ?

What's the difference ?
 
circulus vitios said:
A 3.4-3.6 GPA / 30-32 MCAT isn't really outstanding, so how do people have so much trouble getting into medical schools with a 63.2% chance of being accepted somewhere?
Click to expand...
Um, those are decent grades, and a very reasonable MCAT. Those people DON'T have much trouble getting into med school.
 
slowbutsteady said:
I believe that if you have average or weak numbers, it is too painful to read SDN.
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Absolutely. I've made more posts since I got accepted than I did since I registered 5 years ago.
 
starfishprime said:
We could model applicants as weighted beams.

I prepared an MSPaint diagram:

diagram.png
Click to expand...



I was thinking. The problem with this is that it doesn't accurately model an industrial process, which is what most engineers do. I decided to model the premed process myself in Microsoft Visio.

premed-process.jpg
 
engineeredout said:
The problem with this is that it doesn't accurately model an industrial process, which is what most engineers do.
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I think that's only true for chemical engineers. I'm pretty sure designing a suspension bridge has nothing to do with process engineering.
 
starfishprime said:
The implication of the diagram is that due to his low GPA and MCAT, the applicant's beam is going to tip over and spill him into the reject zone.
Click to expand...

haha, yeah, I realized that 1 minute after I posted that and then edited those lines out. You read my original post and hit reply during the 2-minute timeframe it was up haha
 
starfishprime said:
I think that's only true for chemical engineers. I'm pretty sure designing a suspension bridge has nothing to do with process engineering.
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thats not true. i know for a fact that both mechanical and industrial engineers do this type of stuff, and im sure many others do as well. youre obviously not an engineer here at u of i...;)
 
You remembered your flux capacitor. That's all I needed to see. A+. Carry on.

engineeredout said:
I was thinking. The problem with this is that it doesn't accurately model an industrial process, which is what most engineers do. I decided to model the premed process myself in Microsoft Visio.

premed-process.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Well put!

Siverhideo1985 said:
I guess one would have to ask if there are any reasons why the average for people on SDN should be different for the average of people who have never been to this site.

For example, we could argue that SDN people are more informed about the application process (for example, interview feedback helped me tons in preparing for interviews, something a non-SDNer wouldn't have) and therefore have better chances of getting accepted. Or they could be more ambitious (since they sought out websites that tell them about medical school applications, etc) and therefore they are more likely to be accepted.

On the other hand, we could also argue that SDNers are less likely to be accepted to medical school. For example, we could argue that we are more neurotic than most pre-meds and that, often, the information given on SDN is based on single experiences and isn't very valuable, i.e. it might actually hurt you to be on SDN. Or you could argue that people, who feel that they have a weak application, are more likely to seek out advice on the internet and therefore the total SDN applicant pool is below average.

In the end, I don't think you can properly argue either way since we don't have any numbers and there are too many confounding factors.

I guess we shall never know.
Click to expand...
 
this thread is getting really nerdy. :p

I lol'ed when I read someone's mom got banned by SDN..
 
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