Recent content by wanderer

I find it ironic that when I was a pre-med, every time I volunteered at a new hospital, I had to take another drug test. As a 3rd year med student, I only had to take a drug test for one of the five sites I rotated at. If a hospital is paying 1000 USD to get a student "credentialed" it's because...

Having an essay with many errors is like driving down a road with many speed bumps. Given the number of alternatives, you're going to be insta-rejected by any place that reads secondaries before sending out invites.

Think from the perspective of an admissions member. You think they have the time to comb through your app to see if you got a couple of honors here or there?

I think the rankings given in the first post are about right. But by the time you will have finished medical school you will have realized that what you get out of medical school (assuming USMD) is much more dependent on you than your school. Sure the SUNYs don't have much research, but there...

As a student who's been a co-rotator with someone that surreptitiously brought in food/gifts/whatever, please don't pull that crap. If you're going to do that at least give a heads up so I can pick something too. I remember there was another time when there were 4 of us rotating together on a...

I LOL every time I hear how someone had a better social life in med school. It's either because they were a late bloomer, had a terrible social life in undergrad, or are talking while still in the first 2-3 months of med school.

Having recently finished interviews, I can say that I was rarely asked about most ECs. One of them was even fairly unique and I was only asked about it once. Stuff like leadership only came in handy when answering open ended questions like "Tell me about a time you had to compromise." Even...

Many students in my class hadn't done research prior to med school. It's good to have, but by no means is it a requirement.

Nope. I put something similar, and it worked. Some people may assume it means competitively so be ready to mention that it's more of a hobby. Only put it if you're a fairly big guy or gal.

Hobbies should not be passive things. E.g. watching TV, movies, playing videogames etc. These are more acceptable if you make them somehow active, e.g. writing a blog. I think being a big sports fan is a bit more acceptable because there's some positive connotations (you watch with others...

When a few people say it's okay. But looking back at my med school PS I cringed pretty bad. They serve a purpose but it's impossible for them to not be cheesy unless you have a really unique story.

I remember back when I applied I occasionally straight up copied and pasted secondary essays (successfully I might add) for similar schools.

There's also a huge selection bias. Look at any MCAT thread; people who never posted before will have their first post stating they got a 35 or whatever. It beats me why anyone would do that other than insecurity.

Yes people lie. I saw that Hopkins posted a facebook status that mentioned that several current applicants will email them saying something like they got a 40 on the MCAT (to try to get an interview) when they really got a 30. And these are applicants have easily verifiable stats.

If you can't get in by applying to 30 properly selected schools why would applying to 100 help? Your odds only increase up to a point.