This Premed Has Competitive Stats, But Something Is Missing | Application Renovation (S3 E15)

[@krishnancom]

Doctor and business owner parents from Dubai. We are not talking about a doctor in impoverished New Guinea. Anyone can see that she is privileged. You can't afford the high undergrad tuition of Boston University and living expenses if you are not.

[@elyssatruman1292]

Can we see a similar series with successful applications? It’s discouraging to see so many “this person has amazing stats but was accepted nowhere” videos in my feed all the time lol

[@kaminmedicine]

He has a playlist called mission accepted

[@MrXxColexX1]

it's encouraging that medical schools are concerned with more than stats as both a patient and a pre-med student.

[@elijahakinade6626]

I am grateful for this video. It was what I need to see as a pre-med student.

[@Stickman142011]

I love to see international applicants because I am one and I can already see how hard it is for us. Would love to see more!

[@kansasmypie6466]

Dr. Gray contradicts himself in a lot of his videos. He stated previously that the “Why medicine?” is only relevant in the personal statement. Here, it seems like he is criticizing this applicant for enjoying non-clinical activities. Again, he’s doing that thing like oh she likes cooking as a hobby, she should go be a chef! Pretty one-dimensional in my opinion and treating an adult like they’re a little kid who doesn’t know any better. Has it ever occurred to you that she wouldn’t have applied if she wanted to be a biochemist?

[@laurenluwho13]

I think he understands that. I think what he is saying is that it’s not inherently obvious as to why she wants to be a doctor. Like he said the foundation of medicine is being around patients and how do you know you want to be a doctor without those experiences

[@qman1131]

I've felt this way about a lot of the videos. I have started to feel better when I realized that he probably doesn't know better than any one else why people are rejected or accepted. I don't think adcoms know why they choose some people over others.

[@coreygarcia622]

It is important to realize that most of his comments he makes on each video are very personalized to each student who's application he is reviewing.

[@nicolealexis4512]

I think the thing is more the balance between the activities. If you have 2500+ hours of research and little to no clinical experience, then that raises red flags. You can have cooking as a hobby, but if you everything you do is around cooking and you don’t have good clinical experience and your personal statement is about why being a chef will make you a great doctor then it’s not clear that medicine is your passion. That’s how I interpret it anyways. In this applicants case, the fact that she tutors isn’t a problem and wanting to teach within medicine isn’t a problem, the issue was that her personal statement was “I am a good tutor, so I will be a good doctor” which just doesn’t work.

[@kansasmypie6466]

​@@nicolealexis4512 I can see your point of view. It makes sense for a traditional applicant like her (?), but most non-traditional applicants will always have thousands of hours in non-clinical activities. It would be impossible for them to equalize their clinical with non-clinical activities without spending many more gap years just to play catch-up.

[@mikailagray]

I don’t want to be a MD but the critiques of personal statements are very helpful to anyone who needs to right one. Thanks.

[@ShinySephiroth1]

I really hope she can both cope with her test anxiety in the future, as well as not tell anyone on any ad comms this happened

[@litojonny]

can you do videos with successful medical students?

[@kaminmedicine]

He has a playlist called mission accepted

[@atd.5763]

It’s very interesting to hear that you shouldn’t go to doctors or current medical students for personal statement advice. It’s also somewhat amusing to me that he pushed for premed advisors. I sent my PS almost a month ago to my school’s PS reviewer, she said she’d get back to me in a week, and then ghosted me 🤣 whereas the doctor and my professor both worked with me for hours

[@Iheartrowls]

Those 480 hours over the span of 2 months are kinda sketch to me….

[@alexishenderson2230]

How do you tell a story without making it seem like you're trying to sell the skills you've developed while participating in that activity?

[@bryanm6080]

Yo this is a great question, and I have been asking the same thing to myself. A thought just popped up in my head; during writing, just do not sell anything at all or hint towards any traits. Just tell multiple stories.

[@owenchristianschubert8400]

The answer is "show, don't tell". Look it up, it's one of the most common writing techniques.

[@katherinebrown2841]

Hi, my application just got processed, but during the month of waiting for verification, a lot of personal issues came up that made it extremely difficult to study for my MCAT. I love my primary application, my grades show an upward trend and cumulative is 3.77, long term dedication to shadowing/volunteer/etc, but the only thing I’m worried about is my MCAT being the only thing that would make medical schools doubt if I’m academically ready. Amcas isn’t allowing me to change the disadvantage status on my application after verification, but is there a way I can let medical schools know what has been going on during this month as to not jeopardize my chances of getting in my top choice schools? Thank you

[@kansasmypie6466]

Why put physician as a parent’s occupation anyways? Why not leave it blank? Seems like there’s no benefit.

[@jayrollo1352]

Actually it's a double edged sword. At woke institutions it might give off the vibe that you are a trust fund baby with all kinds of privilege, but at some other places it's actually a benefit because it shows the school that medicine isn't a novel concept to you, thus you are more likely to stay and pursue it.

[@Djkhalid1234]

I put it and talked about it during my interview and it worked for me to get accepted

[@thesneakygamer4343]

You should mention it as it’s part of who you are and a big reason that interested you in medicine. However it shouldn’t be all over your application

[@joy_nia]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with talking about tutoring. If that’s one of her most meaningful, that’s that’s one of her most meaningful. I think was the way she forced the connection of it to medicine

[@alexwyler4570]

it is really annoying when the tutor is stomped by the problem. I think the tutor should be able to do the problems. my edit LOL

[@PillarofAutum787]

Dr. Gray, thank you for your podcasts. I just found you recently and has tremendously helped. I want to get advised since I'm a first-gen and im applying afte my gap year. I want to know if I need a post-bacc or if I have some hope to apply and see this coming 2022 cycle.

[@Maddawg31415]

At most institutions, your freshman and sophomore classes are considered “weed outs. “. And tbh we don’t want someone in this profession who doesn’t take it seriously. Doesn’t mean you cant drop premed, do something else, then come back to it after graduation and get into Med school. But it’s not easy. Gen bio- it’s a gut check. Ochem- we started day 1 with 82 students, and ended the semester with 43. Kinda wish they did it like the Seals where if you withdrew from the course you had to ring a ships bell 3 times that was sitting outside the ochem lab 🤣. I took a sci class or two at BU. Not unreasonably hard compared to UMASS, Harvard, and my alma mater at St. Lawrence university. Just my respectful opinion.

[@thefenerbahcesk4156]

I get what you're saying, but I disagree. If you do bad in those weed out classes that doesn't mean you should stop pursuing medicine. If you still want to be a doctor, it should be a reality check and an inspiration to work harder. I did really bad in both semesters of o-chem (a garbage subject which has almost nothing to do with medicine), yet I worked my @$$ off (and also got lucky sometimes), and I'm starting med school in the Fall.

[@Maddawg31415]

@@thefenerbahcesk4156 Oh you can still pursue Med school, but its harder. You got to do phenomenal your other three years of college. Maybe you have to retake the courses or remediate and do well in upper level sci classes. And maybe you need time after graduation before applying. But there’s a reason a lot of people drop after taking these classes- THEY don’t wanna do it anymore. This is a way of life and a commitment.

[@thefenerbahcesk4156]

​@@Maddawg31415 Yeah that's true. If you do bad in those weed-out courses, you need to be prepared to work extra hard (and most likely have no little to no life besides premed stuff) for the rest of college.

[@lilrabbitcuz]

The reason why this logic fails and doesn’t work is that. Students still make it to medical school that don’t want to be doctors and are doing it bc their family told them to. It messes up the grades of low income students that have no clue what college is about. This is what’s wrong with the path overall. It favors those who have parents with a college education in undergrad and were lucky to be college prepared. If you weren’t you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Only low income people understand this.

[@Maddawg31415]

@@lilrabbitcuz So just to get things straight, you think that those who don’t go to medical school but still apply skew the MCAT/GPA averages so much that it holds lower status applicants back? Hey maybe a little, but it’s pretty faulty thinking to assume that most who academically do well are only doing Med school because their families make them. But I’m not low income, so by the sounds of your comment my insight is invalid 🤷🏻‍♂️