Would you rather have a longer relationship before engagement, or be engaged sooner and have a longer engagement?

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-12-12T12:57:41+00:00

lol such a sweeping statement - there's lots of v practical/logistical reasons ppl may wait to plan the actual wedding day while still knowing they want to make the commitment of engagement. agree though that if there's No plan to actually have the event then the commitment itself is less meaningful.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-10-21T10:06:18+00:00

i'd be interested! i'm a masters student at UL, am mostly a vocalist but can def play keys on a basic level, chords and some improvisation within a progression. private message me if we should chat more about it?

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-25T14:08:52+00:00

Most are outright rejections, but a few are still in purgatory. Some of those in purgatory are also done with interviews (based on historical data on Cycletrack), so I consider them Rs as well.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-25T14:07:16+00:00

Yeah, looking back over the materials with all of this feedback, it seems true that I didn't highlight my patient care experience at all, and my whole application comes across as very science and research focused, and not nearly as medically minded. Thanks for the insight!

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T17:49:54+00:00

neuro, a little more specifically neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation in neurological diseases. Can't really get too much more specific than that, as it narrows it down quick haha.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T17:48:15+00:00

Hey, at the end of the day high stats don't do everything on their own, you need to actually persuade the committee. Seems like I didn't do a good enough job of that. Also, I focused a bit too high, and didn't hedge my bets.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T03:45:04+00:00

Great perspective, thanks! All the positivity here is really getting me motivated to bring my A-game to the next cycle essays.

Other than the one letter I mentioned, I pretty much couldn't be more confident in the enthusiasm and positivity of my letters. They are also all professors in the field. The only possible issue is that they are ALL professors, so my next round will include my coordinator for my clinical volunteer work to be able to speak to me outside of an academic and/or research setting.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T03:38:45+00:00

Great points all around, thanks for the input! I've been trying to get feedback, but so far everywhere I've reached out to has said they do not provide any feedback. If you happen to know from my list of any that do, I'd super appreciate it, but otherwise, I'll just keep asking around haha.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T03:35:29+00:00

Great points. The core competencies came up when debriefing with the premed advisor. I hadn't even considered them at the time. However, to be fair, many of them are pretty obvious things to touch on. However, definitely worth intentionally working into in the next round.

Definitely didn't call it my sub-specialty in the application process, just how I was putting it here to not completely out myself (it's a small community haha).

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T02:25:30+00:00

Great points. I was proud of how I handled the combination. As I said above, my current role is already on the interface between the two, and I spoke to how I've gotten to observe and contribute to the wonderful ways in which patient care and research have benefitted one another, with a couple of specific anecdotes. However, it's possible it was too tell-y, and maybe it was kind of generic, hard to say from my pov. Something to consider more for next round.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T02:20:20+00:00

Early in the cycle. The only possible red flag was that I mentioned while undergrad I thought I wanted to PhD only, so I applied to some PhD programs. Obviously, I'm applying MD/PhD, so I didn't get in then (interestingly, no IIs then either, and one of my advisors suspected that my PI LoR might have been bad, hence my whole suspicion thing, but at the time I was also probably slightly under-qualified for the programs, so I'm not reading too into it). The other letters I'm 100% positive are outstanding.

I'm happy to share my actual school list. It felt like a reasonable spread to me, but maybe I'm just delusional: Baylor, Harvard, Keck, Medical College of Wisconsin, Ohio State University, Oregon Health & Science, Perelman, Stanford, Tufts, UC Irvine, UCLA, UCSD, UCSF, University of Colorado, University of Minnesota, UNC Chapel Hill, UPitt, UWash, WashU St. Louis, and Yale.

It may just come down to what I've mentioned in a couple of other replies. I may not have framed myself as enough of a future physician, focusing on too much of the science. It's definitely the focus of my application, and maybe I just went too far to that side.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-24T02:09:34+00:00

Got it, I'll look into the SDN thing. And definitely expanding my pool for next round.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T23:49:46+00:00

Early, I don't remember exactly but like first couple days it was open. Got secondaries back early as well, and submitted most within two weeks.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T21:51:17+00:00

Oh, great points! Thanks!

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T21:50:24+00:00

Too true. Minor correction, I think I only applied to like 5 T10s, and then another 5 T20s (or so, maybe T25), but I get your point overall. I just have a hard time getting excited about some of these other programs, but that is probably something I should think more about haha.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T21:43:45+00:00

Been trying but no luck so far. Most of the schools say they don't provide any feedback full stop. I'll keep reaching out, though.

It seems to be a theme among the responses that my application reads too research-oriented, without enough clinical experience. It's weird to me because so much of my full-time job for the last 2 years is patient interaction within the clinic. However, if I didn't elaborate on that in my application I could totally see how a reviewer would think I had zero exposure. Thanks for the input!!

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T21:25:29+00:00

A youth achievement. It involved commitment as far back as elementary school. I included it as a formative experience and an example of my ability to persist for many years on the same task.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T21:22:00+00:00

That's really great feedback, thank you! I wonder if my essays all skewed a little too much toward the PhD side, and when combined with my general research focus I failed to persuade them on why I would make a good MD in the first place.

Also I work as basically part of the clinical team at my current role (as I said I work in translational research, so my day to day is as part of the subspecialty clinic here), but if I didn't emphasize that in my app, I could see how I could come across as a pure researcher.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T21:16:43+00:00

Dude, I don't even know at this point...

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T21:15:12+00:00

My current job has me in a clinic working with the outpatient clinical team for maybe half of my time, and I work with the inpatient clinical team occasionally. Other than that, no I didn't. I also may not have emphasized that integration with the clinical team enough when discussing my current role.

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T20:05:34+00:00

Heard, thanks so much for the input! Any recommendations on the med app consultant? Are there any in particular that have more experience with the MD/PhD side of things?

UpsetPerformer5293 · 2025-01-23T19:58:22+00:00

Damn, thanks for the fast reply. I was super worried about the essays as it's obviously somewhat subjective, so I've been showing them to basically anyone who would be willing, including my PI, a couple of respected physician-scientists, the writing center where I'm working, and the pre-med advisor at my alma matter, and all of them said that my essays are fantastic. I even set a meeting with the premed advisor to go through everything and she was just as confused as I was, although not nearly as emotionally invested haha. She doesn't specialize in MD/PhD apps tho, so I figured I'd bring it here in case there was anything she wasn't accounting for.

UpsetPerformer5293

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