Where do you look to determine a school's "fit"?

[Hierophant]

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I read a comment that "fit" can be a better predictor of interview/acceptance success than metrics. Do you look in the school's mission statement? Selection criteria? Anecdotal evidence on SDN? How do you know what a school looks for in terms of "fit"? How specific is this "fit"? Are we talking about research vs service-oriented, or something more specific, like personality? I read about fit frequently, but I'm not confident I could explain it to someone if they asked me.

 

[Goro]

I submit that this is something you can only determine after visiting the school. You have to ask "Can I see myself being here for 4 years"?

 

[md-2020]

Tbh, I don't give a **** about how a school fits unless I got dem acceptances in hand. If necessary, id make CNU "fit."

 

[ProspectiveKidd]

I submit that this is something you can only determine after visiting the school. You have to ask "Can I see myself being here for 4 years"?

Tbh, I don't give a **** about how a school fits unless I got dem acceptances in hand. If necessary, id make CNU "fit."

Hm..I don't think OP is asking that question. He's asking about how the school determines if students are a good fit for its program, not the other way around.

 

[md-2020]

Hm..I don't think OP is asking that question. He's asking about how the school determines if students are fit for its program, not the other way around.

My implicit answer, which I probably should have enumerated previously is: "fit really doesn't matter." (I understand there are a few exceptions here and there).

 

[Hierophant]

Hm..I don't think OP is asking that question. He's asking about how the school determines if students are a good fit for its program, not the other way around.

Yeah, you've got it. I understand there are a host of qualites that schools consider when determining if an applicant is a good fit for their program, but I'm inquiring about how to determine any idiosyncracies among schools that match this "fit" intangible.

The kinds of comments that spurred this question:
"I hear med school X is really looking for a certain type of person."
"I had better success with schools that I was a good ~fit~ for, rather than with schools with matching metrics (GPA, MCAT)."

 

[ProspectiveKidd]

Yeah, you've got it. I understand there are a host of qualites that schools consider when determining if an applicant is a good fit for their program, but I'm inquiring about how to determine any idiosyncracies among schools that match this "fit" intangible.

I would surmise that a good candidate is good anywhere as long as there are no red flags on the app or that stick out in the interview. Certain schools might emphasize certain qualities more than others do like community service, underserved service, or research. Pretty much what @md-2020 was getting at. In terms of personality I would guess residencies are far more concerned with that sort of thing. Obviously if you're an ass its not going to work out, which is true anywhere.

 

[Goro]

My apologies!

This is an even harder question to answer!

One measure of "fit" can be "is this person likely to come here?"

The following is even more important for a mission-based school (say, like Mercer or TCMC) "Is this person likely to stay here?"

I suppose another view is "can I see this person as one of our students"? "One of our grads?"


At my school's Adcom meetings, we rarely use the term "fit".

Hm..I don't think OP is asking that question. He's asking about how the school determines if students are a good fit for its program, not the other way around.

 

[Ho0v-man]

You can get some pretty superficial information on the schools websites and I had some luck with talking to people on SDN attending schools I was interested in. Take that info and rehash and regurgitate for secondaries and interviews.

It's like dating. You should be able to figure out what she wants to hear and then tell it to her. It's kinda sleazy, but don't hate the player--hate the game because everyone else is playing the same way.

When you have a couple of acceptances, then figure out YOUR best fit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hierophant]

Thanks all for weighing in. What I've gathered from your responses: whether fit is a perception of the adcoms or buzzwords one thinks the adcoms want to hear, it doesn't sound like it's enough by itself to justify adding or removing a school from a school list generated by the usual metrics.

 

[Dr.JD.House]

I would say that "fit" can also be used to whether or not you are in line with the school's mission. For example, certain people would be a better "fit" at a school like Loma Linda, who are either A. Seventh Day Adventist, or B. A different type of Christian. That's not to say that school discriminates, but their secondary does ask questions about the applicant's faith and involvement in church, so one would assume some people would be a better fit there than at other schools. Goro alluded to it up above, but schools who have the mission to serve rural areas (like MCW regional campuses, for example) may ask a question that requires you to explain your experience with rural healthcare, which if you have no experience, might be difficult. Finally, I think a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself why you want to go to said school. Can you explain why you want to go to said school or are you just applying because it's a school that fits GPA and MCAT (we all do it, but will be harder to sell yourself on why you want to go there)

 

[Hierophant]

I would say that "fit" can also be used to whether or not you are in line with the school's mission. For example, certain people would be a better "fit" at a school like Loma Linda, who are either A. Seventh Day Adventist, or B. A different type of Christian. That's not to say that school discriminates, but their secondary does ask questions about the applicant's faith and involvement in church, so one would assume some people would be a better fit there than at other schools. Goro alluded to it up above, but schools who have the mission to serve rural areas (like MCW regional campuses, for example) may ask a question that requires you to explain your experience with rural healthcare, which if you have no experience, might be difficult. Finally, I think a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself why you want to go to said school. Can you explain why you want to go to said school or are you just applying because it's a school that fits GPA and MCAT (we all do it, but will be harder to sell yourself on why you want to go there)

I see what you're saying. It seems like looking up past secondary prompts could be helpful.

 

[LizzyM]

Let's go with the dating analogy. If the potential date is interested in dating people who like engaging in extreme sports and your answer is "oh, I'd like to try that some day" maybe you aren't a good fit. If someone wants to date someone who is very religious and who attends worship services every week and you are not someone who goes more than twice a year, you might not be a good fit with that potential partner. Likewise, if a school is looking for people who are interested in research (or service to rural communities or communities of color or whatever) and you've no interest in that aspect of medicine you might not be a good fit.

There are also people who would go crazy in a very urban area or a very rural one, in a program with letter grades and pressure to score very well or who would not do well in a program with no grades and only one's self to answer to (plus board scores).

It is not so much "will this person come here?" but "will they thrive here? will they be happy here? Are we a good match?"

 

[Hierophant]

^Me at future interviews

 

[Hierophant]

"fit", outside of historically black colleges and DO schools, is a largely meaningless term used as a catch-all for the inevitable phenomenon of having to reject 95% of applicants at most schools simply due to the sheer numbers of this process. yes, research powerhouses largely want people who did research, schools that dont have access to a large medical center tout their desire to spit out primary care physicians, but at the end of the day they all want a solid applicant who will make their school look good

I definitely see how attributing an applicant's rejection to "they weren't a good fit" could be a polite way to explain away rejecting hundreds or thousands of qualified applicants, but the fact remains that adcoms choose some qualified applicants over others for some reason. I just wanted to make sure "fit" wasn't something I was overlooking when devising a strategic school list. It sounds like fit is just a broad, intuitive term that can be gleaned by reading between the lines of a school's mission, etc. and not some insider secret adcom preference that requires digging through forums to uncover.

 

[Hierophant]

no, youre wrong. its the same as how A-list actors got their big breaks out of the other thousands of casting auditions because the director had a certain mix of factors such as coffee, marital satisfaction, health, weather that day to cause him/her to pick that actor. especially when you consider the application process is basically one huge fake popularity contest of sociopaths pretending to be what they think the adcom wants to see, and adcoms have some false sense of being able to pick the right students

4/10 troll. Would not recommend.

 

[clippers50fan]

Let's go with the dating analogy. If the potential date is interested in dating people who like engaging in extreme sports and your answer is "oh, I'd like to try that some day" maybe you aren't a good fit. If someone wants to date someone who is very religious and who attends worship services every week and you are not someone who goes more than twice a year, you might not be a good fit with that potential partner. Likewise, if a school is looking for people who are interested in research (or service to rural communities or communities of color or whatever) and you've no interest in that aspect of medicine you might not be a good fit.

There are also people who would go crazy in a very urban area or a very rural one, in a program with letter grades and pressure to score very well or who would not do well in a program with no grades and only one's self to answer to (plus board scores).

It is not so much "will this person come here?" but "will they thrive here? will they be happy here? Are we a good match?"

Very well worded, thank you. Is it appropriate to comment on a curriculum being P/NP in your secondaries as a reason you want to attend said school? for me it's extremely important but I feel as if that's a really superficial answer.