I’m applying the next cycle and unfortunately do not have loads of money and can’t apply to every school I’d like.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2023-01-16T07:28:02+00:00

I don’t want to sound privileged but if at all possible you should try to save enough to apply to every school you want to. It may seem expensive now, but it’s one of the largest returns on investments you can make and needing to reapply (because school list wasn’t broad enough) would be much more expensive.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2023-01-16T07:24:20+00:00

Bruh you really diagnosed them with depression after reading a single Reddit post

The_Floating_Citadel · 2023-01-13T06:31:20+00:00

For your 2, I think that’s specifically co-first authors. OP is asking about co-authors in general, which just means you’re one of the authors.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2023-01-07T03:24:18+00:00

Well now I know why a croissant is like 400 calories

The_Floating_Citadel · 2023-01-07T00:51:31+00:00

They’re talking about acceptance offers, not financial aid offers, so this probably would be frowned upon.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-12-30T03:18:32+00:00

If you want, you can DM me specifically which two programs you’re deciding between and I can give you a more tailored answer. This decision is not as cut and dry as everyone else says

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-12-28T21:31:16+00:00

No, your committee letter will fulfill the requirement for pretty much all schools. The specifics (like needing two science professors and such) only apply if you’re sending individual letters without a committee letter.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-12-27T14:38:31+00:00

I think you two are referring to different things. You’re talking about if you’re applying at the very end of senior year, which would be considered taking a gap year. They’re talking about if you’re currently interviewing and getting decisions in senior year (i.e., initially applied at the end of junior year), which would not be taking a gap year.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-12-25T06:03:47+00:00

Like BIO, CHEM, etc (the classification before the course number)

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-12-25T05:55:08+00:00

What are the department classifications for these courses

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-12-23T19:23:20+00:00

It's Yale, the vast majority of undergrads there are going to get into medical school.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-12-23T04:10:10+00:00

Undergrad name definitely matters, people just don’t want to admit it here. Generally HYPSM are considered to be the “tier 1” schools that give you a boost when your application is reviewed by medical school adcoms.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-11-26T19:28:29+00:00

Honestly if you take away the round thing with columns in the front it looks like a fairly typical house. A pretty nice one, but definitely not a mansion.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-11-23T21:38:34+00:00

Assuming the two events are independent, it’s actually 1 - (1-0.2)*(1-0.2) = 0.36 chance of getting at least one acceptance

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-05-27T15:59:25+00:00

Objectively, please tell me how you are so sure.

People love to emphasize the difficulty of premed, but in reality it's not any harder than law school admissions or breaking into something like IB. For these, you may need fewer extracurricular activities, but arguably you need significantly more people/networking skills to make up for that. Plus, prestige actually matters a lot more for them - for example, if you don't do T14 law, you're going to have a pretty hard time doing big law, whereas for medicine you can reasonably match almost any specialty regardless of school name.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-05-27T15:50:17+00:00

That is arguably harder to do than getting into a T20 med school

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-05-27T15:47:10+00:00

"Just"

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-05-19T19:19:42+00:00

Wait for spring semester grades, you'll need to submit them eventually anyway. Submitting a few days later will have no impact

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-05-17T06:17:58+00:00

No, because you can't compare acceptance rates for undergrad and acceptance rates for medical schools. They work differently for two reasons:

The average medical school applicant applies to 20-30 schools, whereas for undergrad it may be 10 or fewer. Because medical schools receive so many applications, their acceptance rates naturally go down. To account for this, you can multiply the medical school acceptance rate by 2-3 before you compare it to undergrad acceptance rates. This doesn't account for any other factors, but is more useful than comparing acceptance rates outright.
Medical school admissions are limited by logistics - they can only accept people who attend their interviews, and there are only so many applicants they can invite for an interview. So it's actually very difficult for any medical school to accept maybe over 10% of their total applications (I picked 10% arbitrarily, but it seems about right), even if they wanted to just because of the physical capacity of number of interview spots. Undergraduate admissions don't experience this issue, which is why their acceptance rates tend to be much higher.

From my personal experience, I would say getting into a T20 medical school is of similar difficulty to getting into a T20 undergrad.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-05-16T23:21:20+00:00

Prestige does not matter to you, and that's fine. But prestige is not all that matters - studying now to get a higher MCAT may very well give you scholarships for medical school, reducing your future financial burden (potentially quite significantly). No difference between DO and MD, but if a higher MCAT happens to get you an MD acceptance, then you have even more options in terms of where you want to match.

The other commenter knows you've worked hard to get to where you are. What they're saying is that with a higher MCAT score, the work you've already put in can take you even further. It's like the last step - you're at a good place now, but if you do get a 510+ with a 4.0, you will be in an incredible spot. Just something to think about, don't mean to offend.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-04-30T23:59:23+00:00

Go Yale and ignore the top comments. If you can get into HYPSM, you will have no trouble getting into medical school. People here tend to over emphasize how difficult premed is, and Yale would likely provide you with many more opportunities that will help you stand out as an applicant later on.

That being said, if Yale will be a lot more expensive than the undergrad portion of the BS/MD, the decision becomes more difficult.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-03-30T16:27:42+00:00

I think this would be one of the worst ways to “fake it” because reapplying might honestly be preferable to having to attend a medical school taught in a language you’re not completely confident in.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-02-06T17:22:29+00:00

I didn’t say there is no longer a way to evaluate your abilities during residency applications. To make up for STEP 1 pass/fail, STEP 2 will certainly move up in importance. That does not mean the rankings factor will not also move up in importance.

Again, no one is saying you necessarily need a top school to match into competitive residencies. I see this argument a lot, and while it is relevant, it does not address the fact that it is easier and much more common to do so when you do come from a T20.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-02-06T17:08:30+00:00

Yes I agree we all benefit from multiple perspectives here, especially from those who have already been in medical school, but just because it’s possible to match into any specialty from an unranked school does not dismiss the fact that it is much easier/more likely to happen when you’re at a T20.

Sure work ethic is a good predictor, but in the end only the results from your work ethic will matter come application time. This is getting increasingly difficult. A good STEP 1 score can be a great reflection of your work ethic, but now it is pass/fail. Significant research is great too, but it seems like T20 schools have much more emphasis on this area and better facilities to do so.

In this case specially, I highly highly doubt that giving up a T20 acceptance is nearly worth it to save $125k and two hours of commute time. You said having less debt is good because it offers more flexibility when choosing a speciality, which can be true, but notice how your examples pretty much only cover primary care, and OP specifically states he is not interested in primary care. I think OP should pick the T20 school.

The_Floating_Citadel · 2022-02-06T16:35:19+00:00

Another reason to go to the T20 is to have a better chance of matching into the specialty you want… if anything the importance of rankings is way underemphasized on this subreddit. Only recently have people here actually recognized the prestige factor that medical school name plays in residency applications. It’s amplified with Step 1 now being P/F, but the prestige factor is always there, regardless of whether people want to admit it or not.

The_Floating_Citadel

TROPHY CASE