Why do people constantly feel a need to ask about completion date, LM score and submission date?

[WickedCool98]

I am wondering this based on the behavior I see on the School-Specific threads, particularly some of the frankly ridiculous people in the Tulane thread.

How is asking somebody about their statistics and completion dates, whether interview or not, at all a meaningful question?

All of that information is meaningless. You either get an interview or you don't. None of us understand how each school triages or reviews applications, you can't "gauge" anything about your application.

I think it is simply better for all of us to encourage people to stop using SDN or Reddit after submitting your secondaries.

The interview either comes or it doesn't. Harassing people about the minute details of their application, especially after they just got rejected, is not beneficial for anyone.

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[stew_md]

I agree it is a fruitless endeavor. I think it is just for some temporary reassurance, or to gauge when they might hear back from the school if their application was complete around the same time.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yes. Please read the articles instead.

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The application process is a lonely one. Over the years this forum has been running, there is solace to talking to people safely about the challenges of this process, and all applicants have been acclimated to the focus on stats/metrics being extremely important (though not sufficient) to get an interview in a regular decision application.

Our society now is full of social media and messages that don't just come on the forums. People have been monetizing their application stories with vlogs on TwX, YouTube, IG, and TT. One can always ask, but, for privacy, one doesn't have to answer. Go to other forums or even Discord private rooms, you bet there is still type of chatter and worry. It's not a topic you want to bring up to your friends in-person on-campus... for those who are still students and meet you peers who are also applying and gleefully talking/embellishing? their interview invitation haul.

As the OP has done, you can delete all posts in a WAMC thread. At least with LM scores, there is a layer of protection (just like an application ID protects vs. using the SSN) from getting doxxed. You can control the information you give out, and in some cases, I'm sure people have posted troll profiles just to make others feel bad or horrible. Misinformation, it seems, is just problematic on the internet since its inception.

At least if one comes here, we have experts who can give perspective about the process. We do what we can to support others, and if one does not find a benefit to that assurance from volunteer experts and peers here, then fine.

It's always good to unplug from social media and turn off your phone notifications every once in a while. But tap into your empathy for those who seek some assurance from others to address whatever anxiety they have. Support each other, as you will once you make it as a professional.

 

[chssoccer7]

I am wondering this based on the behavior I see on the School-Specific threads, particularly some of the frankly ridiculous people in the Tulane thread.

How is asking somebody about their statistics and completion dates, whether interview or not, at all a meaningful question?

All of that information is meaningless. You either get an interview or you don't. None of us understand how each school triages or reviews applications, you can't "gauge" anything about your application.

I think it is simply better for all of us to encourage people to stop using SDN or Reddit after submitting your secondaries.

The interview either comes or it doesn't. Harassing people about the minute details of their application, especially after they just got rejected, is not beneficial for anyone.

I have 2 varied thoughts on this question- one being, the same could be said for posting in the thread at all. In this light, posting you got an interview, email, acceptance from the school is all useless, so why do it? The answer, in my opinion, is that people want to discuss/converse/gauge what's going on in a largely lonely process where they know very little of what is happening for months at a time after years of hard work.

My second thought, for the people asking questions to people who were rejected,etc- some people applying to medical school lack any social skills or grace whatsoever.

 

[wysdoc]

I have 2 varied thoughts on this question- one being, the same could be said for posting in the thread at all. In this light, posting you got an interview, email, acceptance from the school is all useless, so why do it? The answer, in my opinion, is that people want to discuss/converse/gauge what's going on in a largely lonely process where they know very little of what is happening for months at a time after years or hard work.

My second thought, for the people asking questions to people who were rejected,etc- some people applying to medical school lack any social skills or grace whatsoever.

I agree, I think it’s mostly for reassurance or hope that maybe their turn is coming soon. This reinforces the idea that things happen in chronological order, which is only accurate in the sense that people who haven’t submitted yet of course can’t be getting the secondaries or interviews.
Schools do not give out all their interview spots to early submitters, and schools have a wide variety of reasons to interview the people they do.

The posters who make me wonder the most are the ones who ask the exact minute a person got an interview, who want others to post their emails from schools online, and especially the ones who pepper a person who just got rejected with questions.
Are these guys just doing it to feel better, like “well, my stats are better than that dude’s so I’m not gonna be rejected?”

I find it useful for people to share when secondaries & interviews come out. It gives their cohort an idea of the pattern and flow of the individual school’s process. If you know that a school gives out all its offers in February, you won’t be sad that you don’t get one in December.
The application year is long and filled with a lot of rejections, very hard to adjust to when a person has been previously praised and rewarded for their successes. It helps to know others are facing the same things and get some sympathy or encouragement when you need it.

 

[surelycalm]

I am wondering this based on the behavior I see on the School-Specific threads, particularly some of the frankly ridiculous people in the Tulane thread.

How is asking somebody about their statistics and completion dates, whether interview or not, at all a meaningful question?

All of that information is meaningless. You either get an interview or you don't. None of us understand how each school triages or reviews applications, you can't "gauge" anything about your application.

I think it is simply better for all of us to encourage people to stop using SDN or Reddit after submitting your secondaries.

The interview either comes or it doesn't. Harassing people about the minute details of their application, especially after they just got rejected, is not beneficial for anyone.

It's information, just like anything. Since there is a lack of transparency in this process, knowing which schools are sending out IIs, if they are both IS and OOS and having some idea of what folks GPA/MCAT scores are and if secondary submission date seems to play a role is at least something tangible.

Sure there are always outliers so specific scores might not mean all that much, especially since we don't know what ECs people have, or how well written their PS or secondaries were, it's still interesting information.

 

[troy&abedintheAM]

Like others have said, those posters prob are looking for reassurance. Your logical brain tells you that's an odd way to get reassurance, but their brain is telling them something else. Being a dr requires understanding why your patients might think differently than you do and having compassion for them too. So kudos to you for trying to understand others!