Would you recommend SDN to your premed children?

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

Despite what most people have told me about using SDN, I have found it an invaluable resource and a wealth of insider wisdom from folks along the path. Has it been good to you, and would you recommend it?

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[deleted407021]

It's been invaluable. I'd be dug so deep in a hole of despair if I'd listened to my ill-informed and rather daft advisors.


So yes, I'd tell them to join the forum. Then I'd troll them.

 

[ProspectiveKidd]

Ive learned a ton here and have also been able to help some people with various situations as well. I would, but I'd be sure to tell them to consider various other sources as well because of how compulsive it can get, and to keep the BS filters on.

 

[Lawpy]

Despite what most people have told me about using SDN, I have found it an invaluable resource and a wealth of insider wisdom from folks along the path. Has it been good to you, and would you recommend it?

Yes I would recommend SDN, but I'd urge them to look at the sticky threads to be directed along the right path and avoid the distractions, flame wars and neuroticism involved in the process.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Having someone rip you a new one on WAMC is a great way to stay humble and motivated lol

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

Yes I would recommend SDN, but I'd urge them to look at the sticky threads to be directed along the right path and avoid the distractions, flame wars and neuroticism involved in the process.

Your compilation is probably a good place to start for most pre-meds.

 

[Lucca]

Yes I would recommend SDN, but I'd urge them to look at the sticky threads to be directed along the right path and avoid the distractions, flame wars and neuroticism involved in the process.

"Your father's thread is stickied you know...."

*child goes on to never use SDN again*

 

[sharpstickie]

I would in no doubt recommend SDN.
Wanna hear a joke?
My advisor told me I wasn't ready to apply this cycle (15/16) or even for this next cycle (16/17).
The result: 3 II and hopefully I get accepted.
It was from SDN that I decided to apply and it has been paying off.

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

"Your father's thread is stickied you know...."

*child goes on to never use SDN again*

SDN is categorically the world's best platform to troll your children.

 

[pillowsnice]

I would in no doubt recommend SDN.
Wanna hear a joke?
My advisor told me I wasn't ready to apply this cycle (15/16) or even for this next cycle (16/17).
The result: 3 II and hopefully I get accepted.
It was from SDN that I decided to apply and it has been paying off.

I have found that many advisors at my school hate sdn...maybe its because of reasons like these.

 

[Lawpy]

Your compilation is probably a good place to start for most pre-meds.

"Your father's thread is stickied you know...."

*child goes on to never use SDN again*

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

I have found that many advisors at my school hate sdn...maybe its because of reasons like these.

and many people on SDN hate pre-med advisors...go figure. I mean, just look at the anti advisor threads with hundreds of responses with horrifying anecdotes and jokes.

Instead of having to hire advisors, career counseling should just refer students to SDN stickies.

 

[sharpstickie]

I could see that. SDN was referred to me by a friend the day I decided to go into medicine. Sure there are trolls and furries that jump out of nowhere, but that's just human nature (besides the furries).

and many people on SDN hate pre-med advisors...go figure. I mean, just look at the anti advisor threads with hundreds of responses with horrifying anecdotes and jokes.

Instead of having to hire advisors, career counseling should just refer students to SDN stickies.

 

[Cookie04]

Nope. Never in a million years. It's way too easy to get caught up in the flame wars and neuroticism, especially when it comes to URMs or other sociopolitical issues. The only aspects of sdn I would possibly recommend would be the school specific discussions thread and the interview feedback.

 

[sharpstickie]

Those were very helpful to me during the interview proces!

Nope. Never in a million years. It's way to easy to get caught up in the flame wars and neuroticism, especially when it comes to URMs or other sociopolitical issues. The only aspects of sdn I would possibly recommend would be the school specific discussions thread and the interview feedback.

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

I could see that. SDN was referred to me by a friend the day I decided to go into medicine. Sure there are trolls and furries that jump out of nowhere, but that's just human nature (besides the furries).

I was tolerant of that furry guy until somebody proposed them being URM.

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

Absolutely not. I want my hypothetical child to be happy and well-adjusted.

 

[md-2020]

Let's be real here:

SDN, Year 2050

Kid: "I have a 4.5 GPA 530 MCAT, 3 Nobel Peace Prizes, and a Congressional Medal of Honor, WAMC??"

@Goro: "Stats are lethal for MD and DO."

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

Let's be real here:

SDN, Year 2050

Kid: "I have a 4.5 GPA 530 MCAT, 3 Nobel Peace Prizes, and a Congressional Medal of Honor, WAMC??"

@Goro: "Stats are lethal for MD and DO."

"You'd be reject-bait at my school."

 

[theonlytycrane]

100% recommend! It's my online pre-med advisor. The advisor at my school tells students to apply in September...

I also agree with having a filter though. However, I have received responses on here that I didn't like at first (harsh truth) which have been beneficial in the long run. The "SDN neuroticism" isn't completely bad, is it?

 

[deleted407021]

Let's be real here:

SDN, Year 2050

Kid: "I have a 4.5 GPA 530 MCAT, 3 Nobel Peace Prizes, and a Congressional Medal of Honor, WAMC??"

@Goro: "Stats are lethal for MD and DO."

I'm excited for when they put Goro's brain in a vat so we can keep getting his advice.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Yeah, but I would tell them to make sure they still think critically about what they read here

 

[rilte4]

The most valuable information I've found on here has come from the School-Specific Discussions subforum.

 

[Lawpy]

Let's be real here:

SDN, Year 2050

Kid: "I have a 4.5 GPA 530 MCAT, 3 Nobel Peace Prizes, and a Congressional Medal of Honor, WAMC??"

@Goro: "Stats are lethal for MD and DO."

"You'd be reject-bait at my school."

At least the neuroticism will always be there so...

"Get a 'scrip for Xanax"

 

[prehealthadvisor55]

Wow maybe my username wasn't such a good idea....
I haven't gone looking for those anti-advisor threads...and I won't be for my own sanity. I hope I'm the exception to the rule, especially since I came here seeking more information to pass along to my students! Of course I'm the same advisor who goes on yik yak during registration to help answer confused students' questions too...

I think it's a great resource as long as it's used responsibly.

 

[Lawpy]

Wow maybe my username wasn't such a good idea....
I haven't gone looking for those anti-advisor threads...and I won't be for my own sanity. I hope I'm the exception to the rule, especially since I came here seeking more information to pass along to my students! Of course I'm the same advisor who goes on yik yak during registration to help answer confused students' questions too...

I think it's a great resource as long as it's used responsibly.

Its not that SDN hates advisers. Its that ill-informed advisers are unnecessarily hurting the applicants' chances by giving them misinformation.

Your username is fine and your post history shows you are actively engaged in being informed about the admissions process to help the students at your university have a better chance in getting into medical school. As such, you represent the type of adviser whom SDN admires and encourages to continue helping out.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Only if my children understand that the main goal of being pre-med is... You guessed it... Getting into medical school!

Members in the pre-allopathic forum put too much emphasis on the journey to medical school. They push people to do a laundry-list of volunteer activities, and a good number support doing entry-level clinical jobs which are huge commitments and can potentially severely impact your grades and MCAT in a negative way. These jobs don't set you apart and the skills you learn are not what a physician does, and they won't give you much of an edge either once you start medical school.

Members on this site get shot down if they admit that they aren't enjoying the activities they are doing to get into medical and are told they will make horrible physicians (and these are the dumbest reasons).

When I was a pre-med, my adviser told me to shadow and volunteer weekly. I added some sporadic non-clinical volunteering which I actually enjoyed. I got into medical school. These advisers aren't idiots like everyone on here claims. The members that are doing a bunch of volunteer activities, paid clinical work, and have great stats are the cream of the crop. I saw people fail to get into medical school that bit off more than they could chew in college. If they got out of pre-med too late, they ended up stuck in crappy jobs that don't require college degrees. On SDN, however, you don't hear about this, because once someone drops the pre-med route, why would they post here again?

Our ultimate goal is to become a physician. So cut the crap about how we need to do all of these things to make us feel all warm inside, when they will take you away from things you genuinely enjoy doing at this age in college, or be so much that you fail the process and negatively impact other aspects of your life as well.

As for the EC Dog and Pony Show that dominates in pre-allo, let's fast forward to present day as a third year medical student. I was sitting at our residency info session and the speaker said something along the lines of: "Now we all know you volunteered to get into medical school, but you should only put volunteering that you did during your time in medical school." Great! So whether you got 100 hours and bailed or were a Mother Teresa Wannabe, you suddenly start again as being "non-altruistic" as a medical student. Wow!

As you go beyond pre-allo, you get some great advice and people aren't putting on a ridiculous facade. Sorry to be so hard on it. There are some great members out there and some good advice, but you need to go through a lot of junk and bad advice to get to the gold.

 

[whatsupdoc442]

The only aspects of sdn I would possibly recommend would be the school specific discussions thread and the interview feedback.

Well what about the studying for the MCAT advice threads?

 

[Lucca]

I'm excited for when they put Goro's brain in a vat so we can keep getting his advice.

Are you kidding? If we get the opportunity, we are downloading his brain into a cat.

 

[BluMist]

implying he's not a cat already

Are you kidding? If we get the opportunity, we are downloading his brain into a cat.

 

[Afp0731]

The amount of wisdom I found here while studying for the MCAT was extensive. Yes.

 

[md-2020]

we are downloading his brain into a cat.

implying he's not a cat already

.... @Goro?

 

[Cookie04]

Well what about the studying for the MCAT advice threads?

I've never used that thread before so I really can't comment about it. But I assume it might be helpful depending on the person since each person studies differently.

 

[Glandzburg]

At a pre-med club meeting in college, the president told everyone not to listen to what they hear on SDN. The next week, they had a representative from St. George's give a presentation about their medical school.

 

[Mad Jack]

Only if they were 17+.

 

[sharpstickie]

At a pre-med club meeting in college, the president told everyone not to listen to what they hear on SDN. The next week, they had a representative from St. George's give a presentation about their medical school.

HAHA Solid club.

 

[Mad Jack]

Nope. Never in a million years. It's way too easy to get caught up in the flame wars and neuroticism, especially when it comes to URMs or other sociopolitical issues. The only aspects of sdn I would possibly recommend would be the school specific discussions thread and the interview feedback.

I fully expect that if I have children, they won't be idiots. And if they're idiots, they won't become doctors. Either way, they either will be able to sort the wheat from the chaff on SDN or they won't have a reason to be here in the first place.

This site is solid gold if you've got common sense.

 

[GrapesofRath]

This site is solid gold if you've got common sense.

Sadly a relative minority of the active and viewing population of this site does.

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

You are still salty after all this time huh?

"You'd be reject-bait at my school."

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

Yeah but SGU is a TOP CARIB

At a pre-med club meeting in college, the president told everyone not to listen to what they hear on SDN. The next week, they had a representative from St. George's give a presentation about their medical school.

 

[SDN]

This is an interesting discussion. One thing that has been bothering me recently is the broad brushstrokes people in the academic or 'medblog' community use to describe SDN.

SDN is an organization with tens of thousands of members, each with their own personality and opinions. Our membership is made up of premeds, medical students, residents, attendings, administrators, and premed advisors from across the country. Our members are roughly 50/50 female/male, with significant diversity of race, culture, sexual orientation and religion.

It's absurdist reductionism to sum-up such diversity of culture, experience and ideas with statements like, "don't listen to anything on SDN" or "SDN is nothing but trolls and gunners."

Maybe we could fairly be described as libertarian leaning:

1. We allow our members to discuss topics openly, perhaps tolerating more than we should at times - but we would rather have some heated discussion than have a site which bans members simply because they do not conform to one person's definition of what is right.
2. We aggressively remove spammers 'stealth advertising' (aka native content).
3. We forcefully protect our members' privacy with a strict TRUSTe certified privacy policy. Over the past 16 years we've spent an amazing amount of money on lawyers to defend against misguided schools, organizations and companies in unsuccessful attempts to obtain member information because they did not like the content of member posts.
4. We routinely fight against companies that attempt to have member opinions removed from the site and have even endured harassment from criminals that were exposed as frauds by our membership. Not sure other sites would or could do that.

But ultimately, our goal is and always has been to help students become doctors. Every resource on the site is provided for free (or at cost if needed). I and every member of the mod team have volunteered many years with SDN because we strongly believe students need a place to share ideas and information freely and openly.

I'd appreciate other members' thoughts on this topic.

 

[rilte4]

This is an interesting discussion. One thing that has been bothering me recently is the broad brushstrokes people in the academic or 'medblog' community use to describe SDN.

SDN is an organization with tens of thousands of members, each with their own personality and opinions. Our membership is made up of premeds, medical students, residents, attendings, administrators, and premed advisors from across the country. Our members are roughly 50/50 female/male, with significant diversity of race, culture, sexual orientation and religion.

It's absurdist reductionism to sum-up such diversity of culture, experience and ideas with statements like, "don't listen to anything on SDN" or "SDN is nothing but trolls and gunners."

Maybe we could fairly be described as libertarian leaning:

1. We allow our members to discuss topics openly, perhaps tolerating more than we should at times - but we would rather have some heated discussion than have a site which bans members simply because they do not conform to one person's definition of what is right.
2. We aggressively remove spammers 'stealth advertising' (aka native content).
3. We forcefully protect our members' privacy with a strict TRUSTe certified privacy policy. Over the past 16 years we've spent an amazing amount of money on lawyers to defend against misguided schools, organizations and companies in unsuccessful attempts to obtain member information because they did not like the content of member posts.
4. We routinely fight against companies that attempt to have member opinions removed from the site and have even endured harassment from criminals that were exposed as frauds by our membership. Not sure other sites would or could do that.

But ultimately, our goal is and always has been to help students become doctors. Every resource on the site is provided for free (or at cost if needed). I and every member of the mod team have volunteered many years with SDN because we strongly believe students need a place to share ideas and information freely and openly.

I'd appreciate other members' thoughts on this topic.

Don't poke papa bear, guys.

 

[I'mJustCurious]

I would recommend SDN. There are people out there who are quite mean or hostile, but there are other people out there who truly want to help others and also give our great advice. Just warn them to take everyone's post with a grain of salt and get ready for people to make snarky comments.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

I have only been on this site for a few months, but the wealth of knowledge I have gained is incredible to say the least! I think it's awesome how people from all different stages in the process communicate with the people who need it the most(pre-meds). I also think its cool how you can browse different forums to get a feel whats ahead or reminisce on what you have already gone through, and help others along the way.

Like with anything in life, there are negatives with SDN. However I feel that this is due to individuals rather than a systemic failure. More than anything discernment goes a long way to making this site useful. A lot of my friends come to me for advice about "being a pre-med" and I have cited SDN countless times. I only wish I knew about this site when I was a freshman!

I cant wait to give back to this site( when I hopefully) get into med school and beyond.

 

[Reckoner]

This is an interesting discussion. One thing that has been bothering me recently is the broad brushstrokes people in the academic or 'medblog' community use to describe SDN. It's absurdist reductionism to sum-up such diversity of culture, experience and ideas with statements like, "don't listen to anything on SDN" or "SDN is nothing but trolls and gunners."

It's like the path director at my school who told everyone on our first day not to use pathoma because Sattar oversimplifies things. Might be true, but that's coming at it from the wrong angle. People don't use pathoma to get the Big Robbins experience. They use it because it's clear and concise. It has a different sort of value.

Same thing with the advisors. They see the negatives - neuroticism, groupthink, etc - but don't understand the real value of the site. Where else can you get advice from applicants, students, administrators, and clinicians? Not to mention the study schedules and tutoring. And for free? Look at Jalby's georgetown thread. Most of it is stupid but over the years people have posted some legitimate critiques of the school and its admissions department. Is a student going to get that prospective from an advisor?

If they can't see the value in that resource it's because they're myopic, not because the resource lacks value.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

This site was the single most helpful resource throughout my application cycle. Especially goro, LizzyM, gyngyn, mimelim, and all other attendings/residents/medical students that routinely help us through the process by offering their own experiences/advice

 

[Turkishking]

Despite what most people have told me about using SDN, I have found it an invaluable resource and a wealth of insider wisdom from folks along the path. Has it been good to you, and would you recommend it?

Maybe

 

[Spector1]

I'm pretty sure my parents read sdn more than I do

 

[ZedsDed]

This is an interesting discussion. One thing that has been bothering me recently is the broad brushstrokes people in the academic or 'medblog' community use to describe SDN.

SDN is an organization with tens of thousands of members, each with their own personality and opinions. Our membership is made up of premeds, medical students, residents, attendings, administrators, and premed advisors from across the country. Our members are roughly 50/50 female/male, with significant diversity of race, culture, sexual orientation and religion.

It's absurdist reductionism to sum-up such diversity of culture, experience and ideas with statements like, "don't listen to anything on SDN" or "SDN is nothing but trolls and gunners."

Maybe we could fairly be described as libertarian leaning:

1. We allow our members to discuss topics openly, perhaps tolerating more than we should at times - but we would rather have some heated discussion than have a site which bans members simply because they do not conform to one person's definition of what is right.
2. We aggressively remove spammers 'stealth advertising' (aka native content).
3. We forcefully protect our members' privacy with a strict TRUSTe certified privacy policy. Over the past 16 years we've spent an amazing amount of money on lawyers to defend against misguided schools, organizations and companies in unsuccessful attempts to obtain member information because they did not like the content of member posts.
4. We routinely fight against companies that attempt to have member opinions removed from the site and have even endured harassment from criminals that were exposed as frauds by our membership. Not sure other sites would or could do that.

But ultimately, our goal is and always has been to help students become doctors. Every resource on the site is provided for free (or at cost if needed). I and every member of the mod team have volunteered many years with SDN because we strongly believe students need a place to share ideas and information freely and openly.

I'd appreciate other members' thoughts on this topic.

I wasn't aware of the bold... that's disturbing. I'm sure pretty much everyone agrees that the efforts of the staff do not go unappreciated.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

All of my advisers in college, even my sister, didn't think I was gonna make it.

Biology professor/Adviser: Ummm..... *Looks at my grades*...... do you have a plan B?
Professional advisers: I recommend you retake the MCAT.
Sister in Pharm school: Med school? You should apply to pharmacy school.....or you should do nursing.
My ex girlfriend: Oh you're not that impressive. I've known younger kids who got into med school. Why are you so old? *During an argument*

The moment I got my acceptance calls

Seriously, SDN saved my future and am blessed to have met everyone who helped my path to medicine. I recommend SDN to everyone....... even though my advisers told me to stay away from it!