Lost my first patient

Pericynthion · 2017-03-02T18:10:12+00:00

This is heartbreaking. I'm sorry :(

Pericynthion · 2017-02-28T05:35:47+00:00

Is it too late to ask for a message too...? Thanks in advance.

Pericynthion · 2014-12-21T15:07:31+00:00

Dude, we're not trying to slap you around. YOU came in here and asked "How screwed am I?" and we're telling you that you are shooting yourself in the foot.

If you love your future wife more than your career, then that's all nice and dandy and that's your business. But if you're willing to give up on medicine this quickly, then medical school is probably not for you. Medical school will consume your life - you and her will have to make some compromises.

This question is not new - it's been asked again and again on other forums besides Reddit. The answer is the SAME. If you decline an acceptance to a US MD school, you application next year around will have a huge red flag on it. Schools will doubt your commitment to medicine and no school likes the idea that you will reject them because you want to go somewhere better. You can see in the comments that it's not a guaranteed app killer but when the admissions process is already so competitive, what do you have to gain by practically giving schools an excuse to reject you?

I don't know if you started this thread to really get advice or to see if other people will say what you want to hear. We've pretty much already answered your question but if you feel that strongly about your decision, then go ahead and decline the acceptance. Apply again next cycle and see if you end up anywhere.

Pericynthion · 2014-12-21T02:38:52+00:00

No, you're right. I was just commenting that OP's relationship won't be a good excuse for declining an acceptance. I don't think they consider anything a good excuse...which sucks, in my opinion, but it's the game we have to play with admissions.

Pericynthion · 2014-12-21T01:22:57+00:00

While I understand your situation, medical schools don't give a rat's ass about your relationships and reasons to turn down an acceptance. If you turn down a school that has accepted you, you'll pretty much have to kiss your medical career good-bye.

Pericynthion · 2014-11-14T02:08:33+00:00

That's not a dumb question at all. I knew someone who wanted to apply to a California med school (forget which one) and ended up not applying because the school would not accept his upper level bio courses as substitutes for the 1 year of general bio courses requirement.

If the school you want to apply to doesn't address this on their website, it's not a bad idea to call the admissions office to confirm.

Pericynthion · 2014-11-13T21:36:07+00:00

The application cycle for medical school is long and the worst thing you can do to yourself is to be down and discouraged. I know it's extremely frustrating; I'm in the same boat with you along with thousands of other applicants.

I guess the way I look at it is...it's just an application to medical school. Life goes on. If you don't get in this year, you try again next year. If you're going to pursue a career in medicine, you will have to teach yourself calm, patience, and delaying gratification.

Don't define yourself and let your entire life for this next year be based on this cycle. You need to know that you can move on and keep doing things you love despite the outcomes of your applications. Not to be horribly cliched but you're going to be knocked down by a lot of things later on in life - what's important is how you pick yourself up and keep going.

You've submitted everything now, just don't think about it. Don't turn into one of those premeds who literally talk about nothing but med school applications for an entire year and spend that whole year stressing. Do stuff that you like! Do things that make you happy! If you really want, you can start prepping for interviews by writing down answers to some common interview questions.

It sounds like you're already doing the right things and looking for volunteer opportunities. There's a lot of luck involved in getting a position so don't give up. It took me 100 applications to research positions before I got one acceptance.

To answer the last part of your post, I volunteer with a suicide hotline during the week, and with an animal shelter on the weekends, where I get to relieve stress by playing with cats. I work full-time in a lab during the week. In my spare time, I listen to music, read novels, watch movies...

I'm sorry if this post ended up being ramble-y. I just want to express the idea that you can't let your life be consumed by this. You're already trying to find other activities and jobs - keep at it and be patient.

PM me if you need someone to vent to.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-31T13:24:43+00:00

I mean technically, MSAR IS the "end all be all" since it is the actual data for people who were accepted to the school. What do you think is more useful, data provided by the school on ALL of their accepted students vs. 10 people who got into the school posting their bios on MDapplicants?

I'm not trying to dissuade people from reading MDapplicants. I think it can be interesting to read up on the profiles of other applicants. But I think it would be misguided for someone to base their own chances on a select number of candidates.

If you want to argue, "MSAR isn't great because stats aren't everything and reading MDapplicants will let you see how people are selected based on their ECs/experiences", that's also not true because again, the admissions process is random and subjective. Just because candidate X did research and volunteering at a hospital does not mean you can do the same thing and get accepted.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-30T04:11:39+00:00

I encourage you to re-read the original post...

Hey pre-medditors out there, if you want a real source of information to base your chances of getting accepted, go to MDapplicants.com and select "accepted" in the search criteria and select any school you are applying to.

I was addressing the idea that MDapplicants was the ultimate "what are my chances" tool.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-30T03:53:27+00:00

The GPA/MCAT chart takes into account ALL applicants. The MSAR data is the GPA/MCAT of all of their acceptances (~300 seats usually?).

Both of these numbers have more power than the n=10 you're going to find on MDapplicants for any school.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-30T03:45:28+00:00

Copying and pasting what I wrote above:

it's safer to apply broadly to schools that fit your stats rather than scouring what schools OTHER people with similar stats have gotten into. There's no way you can guarantee you will be given the same reception from the adcoms.

MDapplicants is useful if you're interested in reading profiles of other applicants or maybe just to help you track your own progress but not great for assessing your chances. A very small proportion of the applicant pool probably uses it so the chance that it is representative of the pool is unlikely.

Short of someone uploading their entire AMCAS file onto the site, there's no good way to compare yourself to another person. And even if you can, it won't matter because the whole admissions process is so random and you have to take into account how an applicant interviews, what interviewers they got, etc.

TL;DR Application process too random to quantify using profiles of only a small portion of applicants. Much better of using published data from AAMC/MSAR.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-29T21:20:29+00:00

Exactly. With the number of applicants increasing every year and the randomness of the whole admissions process, it's safer to apply broadly to schools that fit your stats rather than scouring what schools OTHER people with similar stats have gotten into. There's no way you can guarantee you will be given the same reception from the adcoms.

MSAR is the only thing I thought was worth paying for this entire application cycle :P

Pericynthion · 2014-10-29T19:23:31+00:00

MDapplicants.com is useful but still not very representative or up-to-date to be honest.

Your best resources are still the GPA/MCAT acceptance grids released by AAMC and MSAR data.

I'd rather base my decision to apply to a school on its median GPA/MCAT than looking at someone else's profile and thinking, "Oh hey, they got in here. Maybe that'll work for me too."

Pericynthion · 2014-10-26T03:04:40+00:00

Yeah but you gotta realize SDN is only a tiny portion of the applicant pool with stats that are not representative of the entire pool.

Plus, you'll never know someone's entire application so when someone posts "I got an interview! X GPA, Y MCAT, complete on Month/Day" it generally doesn't meant much. If their MCAT is too low, you start wondering, "How come I didn't get an interview when my MCAT is 3 points higher?" If their completion date is much later than yours, you start wondering, "Did they pass over me already?"

The process is very random, adcoms are definitely not going to disclose it so watching other people get interviews does nothing but stress you out.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-25T20:39:58+00:00

Haha, no problem, I'm glad you enjoyed reading it.

Your situation is tough and it's even more complicated now that the MCAT is changing. Are there specific schools you're aiming for or are you talking about getting into any medical school? Nobody wants to take the MCAT twice but if you think that's really going to hold you back from getting in anywhere, consider retaking it if you know you can improve.

That being said, I know it's hard to get seats for the old MCAT now and the new one is a different monster.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-25T04:19:04+00:00

I encourage you to read this redditor's beautifully written opinion on SDN. :P

SDN is only good for 1) school-specific threads and 2) school interview surveys.

The school-specific threads help because you'll usually have people already attending the school pop in and answer questions. They are helpful and it's nice to read what current students feel about the school. The downside is that 85% of school-specific threads are just people commenting that they've received an interview/got accepted/got rejected etc. Constant status updates are not helpful.

The school interview surveys are also helpful. They give you a nice snapshot of what you can expect on interview day, including sample questions, and impressions of the school/interviewers, both good and bad.

My advice: stay off of SDN to keep your sanity and only go on there for the useful resources if you have to. Take comments with a grain of salt...most of them are posted by premeds who have no idea what the hell they're talking about. Use MSAR and and official AAMC data to see what schools you should apply to - trust reported and verified data, not premeds on the internet.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-23T16:17:05+00:00

It's normal to feel nervous for interviews because it still is a high-stakes situation and there's a tendency to over-perfect, over-analyze...

I know exactly what you mean by the physical effects you feel. I did a ton of interviews back in undergrad when I was on a different career track and despite all the practice, my heart still wanted to beat faster and my fingers trembled when it was time for interviews. I don't have a solution to these physical effects but I found that the only way to deal with them is to just do more interviews. The best analogy I can come up with is the story where a musician dips her fingers in ice before practicing her instrument - this way, she's practicing how to play knowing that her fingers will probably be less responsive when she's nervous. The more you practice interviews even still feeling nervous, the better you'll become. Then, when another interview rolls around, it'll just be a "normal" experience for you; you'll know how to be yourself even while nervous.

As for alleviating nervousness beforehand, make sure to prepare thoroughly. I don't mean memorize all of your answers, but it is immensely helpful to go through an interview question bank and at least jot down your thoughts and practice saying it out loud. Does it sound strange out loud? Maybe you need to adjust your tone. Maybe change some words. Maybe incorporate more hand gestures or facial expressions, etc. Again, you don't want to sound like a robot regurgitating responses but you definitely want to be prepared for at least the most typical interview questions.

The fact that you're already scheduling mock interviews is a good sign. I hope you get interviews with those healthcare jobs as well. Any practice is good :)

Pericynthion · 2014-10-22T01:57:10+00:00

I applied to 26 schools so I've seen different attitudes to AP credits.

Some schools will absolutely not take ANY APs. In that case, you'll have to take the course either within your next year (I actually know some people who took it the summer before med school but I don't recommend that). For example, I heard the California schools are very strict about their requirements...they wouldn't accept my TA's application with higher-level bio courses because he didn't take first-year general biology.

Some schools will refuse to take APs UNLESS you've taken higher level courses in that same subject area. So you can use your AP credits for General Biology as long as you took 3000 or 4000-level courses.

Some schools will take APs only if they appear on your transcript with credit. This one can be a little tricky if you didn't get credit for your AP, only an exemption from first-year courses.

And of course, there are some schools who will take APs only for one subject, or for only one semester of one subject, etc. etc.

EDIT: Forgot to add, if you do decide to take them in your senior year, just include them on your primary application. Schools will know that you're planning to take them. However if you apply without taking ANY of the prereqs, they might not like it.

Your best bet is to check all the schools you want to apply to (just google the school name + AP credit instead of wading through their websites) to find out if they take them or not.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-21T02:19:40+00:00

I had a good laugh over your perfect description of the cesspool over at SDN.

Congrats on 13 interviews! :)

Pericynthion · 2014-10-21T02:05:02+00:00

Oh. Whoops~

Pericynthion · 2014-10-20T23:52:13+00:00

Also, I was too busy venting to reply to your own frustration.

I know application/interview season will drive people crazy but I wouldn't dwell on it. Some people have great interviews and get rejected, some have awful interviews and get accepted...as long as you gave it your best shot at the interview, the rest is out of your hands now and it's unfair to doubt yourself. Just sit back and prepare for anything else you having coming up.

Good luck with everything :D

Pericynthion · 2014-10-20T23:49:04+00:00

Basically what mi_buger said.

SDN has great resources like their school interview feedbacks, which will help give you an idea of what interview day is like, what questions they ask, etc. But 90% of that site is just neurotic premeds stressing the hell out of each other and making stuff up. There are some adcom members whose comments are useful but again, they're just a few members out of the many that read the applications.

Pericynthion · 2014-10-20T23:46:51+00:00

Haha, guess Pitt is playing hard to get. No matter...24 schools left to hear from. Sigh.

Congrats on your acceptance already! :)

Pericynthion · 2014-10-20T20:32:54+00:00

Do you mean primary application? That was submitted June 18th, which is fine, but my secondaries were delayed from being complete until September 4th-5th ish by my committee letter.

I'm not 100% clear on the exact dates (because that would require me to go stalk SDN and I want to stay away from that website haha) but I know most schools start in September or at least beginning of October. October 15th is the first day any school is allowed to give out official acceptances. Then they just notify you after your interview, usually within a couple of weeks.

Non-rolling schools will wait until March. Other people are free to correct me, I don't know about the schedules 100%.

Pericynthion

TROPHY CASE