<p>Curm, I agree with your conclusion that it seems like some elite schools work “that way.” At least, that’s been my experience with the few that I know. </p>
<p>bluebayou, another Duke catchphrase (other than “capable of brilliance”) is that they’re looking to “explode your potential” and thus make an effort to choose students whom they believe have extraordinary potential to thrive in their particular (and some think strange) medical school environment. Perhaps they believed your friend had great potential in spite of what you claim to be a lackluster undergrad experience. I personally, as an applicant who’s met lots of other applicants along the trail, would find someone who volunteers as a medical translator quite impressive and unique (especially if she’s not of Spanish/Hispanic descent). In addition to understanding Spanish words and grammar, your buddy probably has an impressive understanding of Spanish medical culture, the Spanish community near Stanford, and disparities that exist in various areas of the health care delivery system. In my opinion and experience, those things are far from typical.</p>
<p>Or, maybe you’re right–she’s one of the ones who just made it through the admissions cracks.</p>
<p>bluebayou, The Duke Med graduate you referred to has a lot of merits as a person on this career path: drama queen in the dorm –> likely have a good personality. lotsa clinical hours –> a dedicated premed who knows well how to do premed properly. an All-American girl –> definitely not a dork. gets some points here. Her killer application asset is her Spanish skill and Spanish-related ECs. Spanish is THE most sought-after language skill in medicine. She definitely had pushed the right button when she chose her other major right and selected the right ECs when she was doing premed.</p>
<p>The other day, when we casually chatted with DS about what he might be interesting in doing if he has some free time before medical school, he mentioned he would spend some time on picking up Spanish language again. I guess if he knew he would be in this career path as a freshman (he did not at that time), he would likely take more Spanish classes in college.</p>
<p>please don’t misinterpret what I did not write. I did not say that my friend’s D had a “lackluster” undergrad experience; graduating with wonderful grades from Stanford is the contrary. In response to the article, I just wrote that she:</p>
<p>Was not a varsity athlete
Did not have publications
Did not play in the band
Was not first gen
Was not low income
Did not have unusual life experiences (unless attending the HS where The OC was filmed counts)
Did not take scholarly ‘chances’ – unless a double major counts, but the common wisdom on cc is that it does not (I posted about Span a couple of years ago, and the then cc wisdom was that is didn’t much matter – perhaps a small plus factor)</p>
<p>Other than that, she is the prototypical Southern California blonde beach comber — one that is just really smart!</p>
<p>Yes, I have no doubt that she is capable of brilliance, but I find that to be true in a lot of college students, most of which I would not recommend for grad school. :)</p>
<p>mcat: the article did not reference bonus points for not being a dork. hahahahaha</p>
<p>Was not a varsity athlete: Very few were. orgo class/lab and major sports tend to be not in the same league
Did not have publications: Some (but not that many) do. But how many will pursue research/academic medicine in the end?!
Did not play in the band: Typical California beach combers tend to have more fun activities than staying in the practicing room too long which is a must to be a good player in a well-known band. A well-rounded person (who may be, arguably, a better fit for a doctor) tend to learn many things well enough but not specializes in a particular area.
Was not first gen: Few in medical schools were.
Was not low income: Not many have low income, esp. for students from a private school whose admission criteria tend to require long commitments to ECs which costs a lot of $. You can find much more low income students in Community Colleges, not in private colleges or medical schools which requires a lot of investment before you can get there.
Did not have unusual life experiences: Few did. (Again, one may find more of these in community colleges.)
Did not take scholarly ‘chances’ : That is for graduate school, not for professional school.</p>
<p>During one interview, an interviewer told DS that he should distinguish between what is the reality and what is “advertisement from a school.” This professor may have been doing too much hardcore medical science jobs (he is likely a PI?)and do not know much about the other side of reality :)</p>
<p>I don’t know whether this may have some truth on this: Once I heard from somewhere that if a school has some (but not overly) rigor in its academics, and it tries to put some brake on the competitiveness of student’s academic life, it may be good for a student who is going to attend a professional school. This is because otherwise the student may not have enough time for developing their “resume” in which most of the items are EC-related (for most pre-professional students anyway.) Maybe Stanford, as compared to a few “hot” majors in Cal, may be just such a school. As long as a student there does not choose a “soft” major or take a physics class at some other lower-tiered school in summer, their classes are definitely rigorous enough.</p>
<p>Well, maybe she’s really hot. That particular diversity profile could be what they were looking for that day. ;)</p>
<p>IMO, that acceptance doesn’t damage the article. The things mentioned were just “for examples” and shouldn’t be read as a laundry list, ruling things in. And for Heaven’s sake, nobody think it’s an exclusive list or even worse, a blueprint for successful applications. </p>
<p>We know Duke puts a great deal of emphasis on the essays. Maybe they were outstanding. I believe strongly that Stanford is a school whose grads get “points”. From the article, it seems Duke wants a national profile and is concerned about a “too southern” image (or at least they were). </p>
<p>And like Kristin, I find the profile (as stated) to be quite appealing and maybe it was even “unique” at Duke Med that cycle. I can’t believe there were dozens of California Top 5 Research UG beach bum blondes with an excellent GPA who spent countless hours volunteering in a clinical setting translating for Spanish only speakers. UCLA Med? Maybe so. But Duke? Add in Duke’s new Spanish outreach program and…</p>
<p>And bb, you’ve done folks a service by posting about the gal. She had something special to sell and found a school where they were buying what she was selling. I believe my D had the same experience at her school. Where CCLCM and Mayo unceremoniously dumped my socially adept, outgoing, occasionally goofy youngster after she was literally a first day interview invite (and my guess is they dumped her because of her “inexperience” or “lack of life experience” and age), her med school seems to select 70-80% of their kids from the same basic bin. It might just be a coincidence. But OTOH it could be that she was selling what that school was buying. ;)</p>
<p>I’m a big believer in LOIs, but I’ve spoken to my admissions dean about this and, while they do take them into consideration when there is sufficient justification, he mentioned that about, say, half of the accepted people who withdraw had written a LOI. Lot’s of gunnerish deceit out there unfortunately. I know a few people who wrote letters of intent to all schools the interviewed at :(.</p>
<p>So i guess my advice is to write the letter in a personalized way that focuses heavily on what specifically makes you a likely candidate to keep your word (family in the area is a great one if you have it).</p>
Aww, man. That ain’t nuthin’. I don’t know if that one would have even got me an eye-roll. She’s de-sensitized. </p>
<p>You should have seen me shake it at her middle school dance when she told me not to let myself be seen by her friends. Come’on baby, let’s do the twist. ;)</p>
<p>Look, we parents have to get something outta this deal. Being able to embarass our children is one of those things.</p>
<p>bb,
But being from CA is almost a hook, CA kids are flooding the system getting accepted at higher %%. I just looked at stats for U of Mich, did not look at others. But D. has mentioned that there are always disproportionate number of CA kids at all interviews. On one of D’s group interviews (2 people in a group), the other girl was from CA. So, I would say, along all the points, it is valid to mention if one is from CA. </p>
<p>Was not a varsity athlete
Did not have publications
…
…
But from CA</p>
<p>Due to the difficulty of getting into an in-state medical school for a California resident, it increases the possibility that an applicant from California will go OOS for a medical school if offered an admittance.</p>
<p>An exception may be that if a medical school thinks you have good odds of getting into a California medical school, you may even have a harder time to convince an OOS medical school to take you. Your credential (stats and ECs) just has to hit a “sweet spot” – not too strong, but not too weak, it should be just right.</p>
<p>After all, convincing a medical school that you will attend if offered an acceptance is likely a big part of the application effort. Some may even do something that is unethical because of this importance. The post by mmmcdowe a few posts back shows the ugly aspect of a premed life (for SOME, but not all, premeds):</p>
<p>“Perhaps that should be 'from California and full pay…” hahahahaha "</p>
<p>-Full pay is NOT that unusual (unless you meant full pay at Med. School). My assumption is that lots of pre-mends are on full pay/full tuition or very large scholarships at UG because of their HS stats and high college GPA’s, but I might be wrong. Congrats on not having loans so far, anyway.</p>
<p>There is only one Med. School that D. has indicated to in application, that it is her first choice. She was not invited to interview at this school, while having relatively high % of interview invites and acceptances (actually, she had one reject right away, while being invited to interview to all others except for the one in discussion). She has never contacted that school any further, since she is very happy with outcome of her application process. We are also aware that our state is NOT favored at this school. Maybe we are too much into location, state residency correlation to Med. School acceptances, but we have real life experience with only one applicant, nobody else in a family has ever applied to Med. Schools, and D’s experience points to very strong correlation.</p>
<p>Is it because your state is too close to (but still not in the same state as ) that medical school? At the UG admission level, it is rumored that a student needs a higher qualification in order to get into Rice if he/she is from the same city, because that school does not want to be perceived as a “in-state” or local university.</p>
<p>However, I heard competitive UGs (medecal schools as well? Not sure here) on the east coast draw a high percentage of their students from the east coast. The same for the counterparts on the west coast and mid west. Actually, I heard many very competive students on the east coast do not want to go south or mid-west. One reason they cite is they are concerned that they may “get stucked” in that area after they graduate from a school there. (I know it is quite arrogant for them to say so – it is almost as if they believe their area is better than the other two areas.)</p>
<p>“Is it because your state is too close to (but still not in the same state as ) that medical school?”
-Absolutely correct, the closest school for my D., although in different state (less than one hour from home). However, I am not sure if this is the reason. There is a huge football rivelry in Big Ten, to the point that if you are attending the school with rival team, you better not mention what team you cheer on, harassment might be severe.
D. is not upset at all, she is completely confused which school to choose, more so that couple of them scheduled Second Look visits on the same dates. She has hard time deciding which one to go for Second Look and they are coming soon. D’s schools are close in ranking and ranking is not what she considers anyway. The thing is if she had this one school as a choice, she could have chosen it and would have been done with process today. I wonder if your S. and other people here has made thier minds.</p>
<p>Just filled out my very own FAFSA since now I’m a big bad grad/professional/otherwise-financially-independent student. And my EFC is a whopping $0. (Considerably lower than the EFC for undergrad…)</p>
<p>Bring on the grants (not too many loans), per favore!</p>
