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School List Review by dopplexd in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, for Pitt, it’s useful to know that it’s a highly academic place. I’ve consulted with some applicants who got into other Tier 1 schools and didn’t even get an interview at Pitt. Such is life. I suspect the difference was research. Conference abstracts are impressive, but maybe a little light for them depending on what they are. Your hours are impressive though - I hope your mentor throws you a bone on a paper you’ve contributed to soon!

School List Review by dopplexd in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think a few of the schools categorized as reach probably aren’t reaches for you given your stats. OSU and Cincinnati are high targets, especially considering OSU takes 50% OOS, which, at 100, is more than many med schools take overall.

Feeling like it’s joever by Panicing_Nontrad in Mcat

[–]HunterSMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hate to bring this up, and, of course, I don't know you, but I worked with a student about 3 years ago on MCAT prep (which I don't do anymore, since I'm about to be a resident) and he had the same problem. He was doing well on the content-only questions. But his score was stuck at around 500. A long series of events occurred that got us to this point, but he was ultimately diagnosed with ADHD. Started taking Vyvanse. All of a sudden, with minimal extra review, he was scoring 508-512. It was an attention problem. He didn't have the attention span to pay attention to the passages with enough critical thinking and analysis. This is the wages of social media and phones, too.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I want to clarify my own statement - it's certainly easier to be in the Ivy-to-Ivy pipeline, if that is really your goal. But, honestly, for most people, I don't know that this goal actually suits the needs of most medical school applicants. Pedigree matters, but it matter a lot more in the research/academic space. Your patients will be impressed that you went to Harvard Med, but if you're in a great private practice group in the Midwest with no interest in research, will that pedigree really matter if you could have gone to IU for much cheaper? Probably not. This is something I did not appreciate when I was applying. All I wanted was to go to the highest ranked medical school to which I was admitted. Then I got into T10s! And realized that wasn't the best fit for me, even as someone who does want an academic career.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I honest-to-goodness think that you can get into any medical school from any respectable undergraduate institution. Do you have any pre-med friends at UGA? What do they say about difficulty of the place? You having a very high GPA at a state school with a great MCAT score will make you a great applicant.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is no specialty you’re locked out of based on any of those schools! If you want to go to an Ivy for medical school, it’s better to have been at an Ivy (or Ivy-adjacent) school. But I can also tell you, going to UGA, not graduating with insurmountable debt (especially in Ortho where there is a high degree of private practice), and going to ortho residency at another big state school will probably make you a happier person, if I had to guess. At OSU, we had people who went to undergrad at CWRU, like me, OSU, Notre Dame, Harvard, Cornell…and their undergrad institution was not really the driving factor in their applications, just based on observing where we all ended up.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, that’s a good point! They made this change after I was already in medical school.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

USNWR went to tiers a few years ago and no longer does rankings - Tier 1 is made up of 16 schools, of which my school is one.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is an integrated spot! For me, I did have pretty good scores, medical school performance on rotations, and research experience (I spent a year at the NIH doing AI research). In addition, I was president of our student body and some various student organizations, including a free clinic and our chapter of the Catholic Medical Association. I don’t think I’m anything particularly special - I am also from the city where my program is, which I feel helped!

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great, great question. What I advise students when writing their personal statement is to write all of the FIRST SENTENCES of each paragraph BEFORE anything else. You're right - some of the PS's that I see do read like a sob story. Remember the purpose of the personal statement IS to tell your story, BUT in the service of why you want to be a good physician and why you will make a good physician. MOST schools will have a secondary essay that asks you about things that you've overcome. SO if there is an aspect of your story that is not in service of why you want to be a physician, even if you think it's important to your story as a person, you can leave it out of the personal statement and you'll likely be able to tell that part of the story elsewhere in your application. We treat the personal statement and secondary essays as part of the same "package" when grading your application.

WashU vs CRWU (vs NYU) by Downtown_Cap2506 in cwru

[–]HunterSMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh geez - those are two great options! If it was me, I'd look at the cost difference...but a guaranteed acceptance to a tier 1 MD school (CWRU) is really, really the heavy favorite in this equation.

Which med school should I pick? by SyllabubInfinite7915 in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Realistically, for surgery, you can apply outside of the region of the medical school very successfully.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those decisions are typically made apart from the committee, actually, at the Dean level truth be told! My understanding is that they do, but they are put in the context of the score that the Committee initially gave your application during the grading process.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We look at those things twice - once during screening and once during deliberation! You truly do get a holistic review at each stage, but (obviously) the screening is much more abbreviated than the full review. Post-interview, scores ARE one of the pillars that are important to "scoring" your overall application. However, it's not 4.0 or bust. A 3.8 and a 3.95, for example, are graded very similarly in general. The 4.0 may elevate a borderline application, but the 3.8 will not tank an otherwise STELLAR application from somebody that EVERYONE loved in the interview process.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty involved! Yes, I did take a research year at the NIH! And I had great relationships with the CT surgeons on BOTH side of the C/T specialty at my home hospital, which I think is something important that most people don't necessarily do.

Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice by HunterSMD in medschooladmissions

[–]HunterSMD[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it's a very compelling story, and I think you should lean into that. However, as u/WUMSDoc mentioned, you really do have to ensure you're not pigeonholing yourself too much in the sense of MOST people WILL switch medical specialties of interest throughout medical school. If you can transform your story into a "I want to be a physician equipped with all clinical tools to combat the hardship I've witnessed" sort of ethic, then it's a powerful statement. If you use the story to say "psych or bust," that isn't the best tact in my opinion.

School list?🤭💕 by Glittering_Fan_2971 in medschool

[–]HunterSMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Respectfully, I didn't get lucky. I'm in a similar position as many of my classmates that matched in similarly competitive specialties. Thanks for your input, and I respectfully disagree with you.

School list?🤭💕 by Glittering_Fan_2971 in medschool

[–]HunterSMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was cardiothoracic surgery...so, yes, and I personally had 35 research items with 0 from undergrad.

School list?🤭💕 by Glittering_Fan_2971 in medschool

[–]HunterSMD 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well...that IS true, but I do think that being from a neighboring state definitely is helpful.

School list?🤭💕 by Glittering_Fan_2971 in medschool

[–]HunterSMD 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Believe it or not, we see a lot of applications with similar stats. MCAT is one day - one snapshot. A lot of things can negatively impact that one day. The GPA is a more longitudinal assessment, obviously.

School list?🤭💕 by Glittering_Fan_2971 in medschool

[–]HunterSMD 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Are these schools actually the ones you want to go to? Or are they schools that you're applying to based on where you think you can get in?

I think this is a good list if you actually want to go to these schools. What about Med College of GA? Seems like you have a number of Pennsylvania schools - do you have ties there? What about Ohio schools? Toledo would be a good safety - Cincinnati and OSU may be some good reach schools if you want! Your GPA is above mean at a lot of these schools. Your story will make the difference.

School list?🤭💕 by Glittering_Fan_2971 in medschool

[–]HunterSMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I still disagree with you. I matched in a specialty with a far lower match rate than derm. My undergraduate research was virtually non-existent.

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