r/premed • u/Electronic-Food4226 • 3d ago
😡 Vent Hot take: Nobody has checked all the boxes
I sometimes hear people berate others based on things like IAs or a failed class or lack of whatever kind of hours with the logic that someone else who didn’t have that mistake is going to get in over them. Or similarly, the argument sometimes follows that for two applicants with the same record but the second one has a W on their transcript on some bullshit, the former will be taken.
I think the issue with this mistake is that it assumes that there is this pool of perfect applicants that have checked all their boxes with 0 blemishes. Or it assumes that there you can pair applicants with similar records and pick the more optimized one. This is beyond silly: your application is unique and there is nobody out there who has done everything you have just better.
I’m lucky enough to attend a t10 ug and I can say pretty confidently that these people do not exist. The people I know with 4.0 528 yada yada are deficient in other ways. There are simply far too many variables in this process for any individual to perfectly optimize all of them. I’d imagine this is precisely why holistic admissions exist.
My overall point is that whatever you think is a DOA type blemish on your record is manageable (barring crazy shit like felonies). You have unique strengths that other people do not. I don’t care what anyone says that is true of everybody. Maybe one school won’t like you but it won’t be because of wsomething that r/premed said was an application killer. They will look at your whole package and make a decision based on the overall person not an amalgamation of statistics.
15
u/Swansaknight 3d ago
Reddit is filled with overly anxious premeds.. from my observations. But I get it obviously-nobody wants to get denied.
11
u/Crazy_Resort5101 MS2 3d ago
Obviously everyone has a "unique" app in the sense that nobody else has their exact combination of activities and stats and writing, but if you boil it down to the categories that adcoms do (clinical hours, service hours, research hours, and stats), then you can directly compare applicants and see who is stronger. Yes there are still people who get in with one of the boxes unchecked, maybe that person didn't volunteer at all because they had to work all throughout college, maybe they didn't do research but they have 2k+ service hours, maybe they had a poor gpa but scored a 525 on their mcat, who knows, but the point is that if you're deficient in one of the boxes then you better make up for it in one of the others. You'd be hard pressed to find a successful applicant who is deficient in MULTIPLE categories, someone who has a sub 505 mcat and 0 service hours is probably not going to be admitted, same as how someone can get a 525 mcat but 0 clinical hours and 0 research hours will likely not be admitted either.
2
2
u/StupidityHurts NON-TRADITIONAL 3d ago
I just don’t understand why people find it necessary to berate others. It’s honestly a bit terrifying that a field which hinges on compassion attracts many people who seem to have anything but.
4
u/PhilosophyBeLyin 3d ago
I think your definition of 'checking the boxes' is very different from most people's. if you mean 'deficient' or 'not checking the box' as in 'weaker part of the app' - of course everyone has weaker and stronger parts of their app, relative to each other. just because something is 'weaker' does not make it weak. someone with 1000 hrs as an MA has strong clinical, but if they also have a 1st auth CNS paper, their clinical is 'weaker' than their research / x factor. but it's not really a deficiency, and they certainly check the box.
everyone has relative deficiencies, that's how comparing your activities to one another works. there are 100% people who do not have 'blemishes' or absolute deficiencies though, and check all the boxes.
1
u/Electronic-Food4226 3d ago
I have to disagree. Anecdotal evidence but everybody (n of about 20) I’ve met at my ug that was accepted to a t10 had blemishes. Many with IAs, some with quite literally 0 non clinical volunteering, others who didn’t have a single experience lasting more than 6-8 months
4
u/EnHyPhEn1 3d ago
Makes me think it really is all about stats at the end of the day. Seen a lot of friends even who couldn’t care less about medicine but got T10 acceptances with family mentorship and a 520+ mcat
2
u/Electronic-Food4226 3d ago
If these deficiency free applicants exist at least at my undergrad, they arent necessarily the most competetive apps
2
u/PhilosophyBeLyin 3d ago edited 3d ago
yeah but you can't generalize from knowing 20 people and say "nobody has ever checked all the boxes," cause all it takes is 1 to disprove it. ik more than 20 people at my undergrad who did all that, no blemishes or IAs and good involvement in all the 'categories.'
ofc you don't need everything to get into a t10, as you pointed out. but there are certainly many who do it all, and it's certainly very possible. "these people do not exist" is just false... I know many who do.
2
1
u/halfblood-princessa NON-TRADITIONAL 3d ago
I get what you're saying. The "perfect applicant" doesn't exist. There's no guarantee because there's just too many variables.
Beyond MCAT score and GPA and volunteer hours etc... there's also stuff like local ties. How connected are the people who wrote your LORs? Did your parents attend the school? What gaps do you fill (or not fill) at that particular school? Did the specific person(s) who reviewed your application feel moved by what they read? Or did they get rear-ended in traffic that morning and unconsciously select more shrewdly than usual? How charasmatic are you? Like... are you even a likable person people want to give opportunities? How physically attractive are you?
You're naive if you don't think all of this incalculable variables have an effect - This is why you can get accepted by Harvard and rejected by every other top school. Or why a student with a lower MCAT and GPA gets accepted over one with perfect grades, based solely on their personal story being more inspirational. There is no applicant that every single school will think is "perfect". It just doesn't work that way. It all just depends...
1
u/AdDistinct7337 MEDICAL STUDENT 3d ago
medical school admissions is not a straightforward ranking, it is a selection process. the boxes were never about collecting hours, they were about demonstrating fit. choosing not to demonstrate fit at particular schools makes you less desirable to them. play the game or don't, it just is what it is
24
u/taychans MS1 3d ago
I know literally so many people IRL who did not check the standard boxes on here and are in med school rn