<p>^Good for her! My D. have said that SDN is the worst place to visit when applying. You got to filter heavily everything that you read there. If you can stay cool and look strictly for some information, then go ahead. However, most who are applying could not handle the tone of many posts there.
I agree with compiling list. Since D. had a great experience with the list of UGs that I have compiled for her, she actually has asked me to compile the list of Med. Schools. She gave me her criteria and I absolutely stick to it. She used my list and was successful 50%, which was the target. So, I would say, keep some kind of success rate target in mind and complite your list accordingly. Some might have 25% in mind, others would feel more comfy with 75% rate of acceptance.</p>
<p>^ D cracks up at things posted on SDN-- especially the WAMC threads like “40 MCAT, 3.95 GPA, what are my chances?”. Like these people really don’t understand how qualified they are? Not a chance.</p>
<p>Well, if they are in California, it is still 37.1% chance of getting in Cal schools…</p>
<p>Sure, but if they are that qualified, they should be able to figure out a suitable list of schools to apply to-- LizzyM spreadsheet, MSAR, USNews, etc… </p>
<p>My D will be a CA applicant :)</p>
<p>I think SDN is the place where everyone goes to release their demons - it truly is an awful environment over there.</p>
<p>The problem at that level usually is that LizzyM will say they are qualified for all. But that is quite misleading for California residents since none are considered safeties within state while they are qualified at most schools in the nation. If this person was in Texas, every school would admit him/her if they show up for an interview since we have enough seats for qualified students. In Cal, no one can guarantee an interview (may be USC if they are willing to pay the private school prices).</p>
<p>In the end it comes down to whether they get some money OOS so they can afford the OOS price tag.</p>
<p>@Brown—</p>
<p>it’s the Northern Cities Vowel shift</p>
<p>[Do</a> You Speak American . Sea to Shining Sea . American Varieties . Midwest | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/midwest/]Do”>Do You Speak American . Sea to Shining Sea . American Varieties . Midwest | PBS)</p>
<p>"My D will be a CA applicant "
-She might be coming close to where we are. CA is overrepresented at many Med. Schools in Midwest. Just prepare to answer an interview question about driving in a snow. D’s classmates use her as a source of info what to do when they start gliding and sliding and spinnng. I told her to make sure that she is driving whenever she could after she told me funny stories that did not sound funny to me at all.</p>
<p>iwbb, you nailed it with "I think SDN is the place where everyone goes to release their demons - it truly is an awful environment over there. "</p>
<p>@Miami–Luckily we haven’t always lived in CA and have Midwest and East relatives so D knows about snow 
</p>
<p>As a native CA myself, it didn’t take me long to adapt to driving in snow and now I know all about carrying kitty litter and soda with me on our drive to Lake Tahoe just in case.</p>
<p>My DD never looked at SDN, nor even CC, but was happy to accept the knowledge gleaned from the sites, as her school had poor advising-a great deal of filtering is required for SDN as a pre-med, but I have to say, as DD is now doing residency apps, SDN has a much better style of posting. Yes, there is still the occasional still “my scores are stellar, but do I have a chance” but mainly it is helpful for figuring out how things work. There are some residency program directors who post.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. Anyone complaining about SDN just doesn’t know how to use it. I suppose it does take some time to learn. SDN has wonderful resources and direct access to people with inside knowledge in anything you need to know. Moderation is excellent in the topical forums and silly stuff like WAMC questions are segregated. I made several contacts with PDs, admins and faculty using SDN. These contacts were very helpful to me as I was planning my application year.</p>
<p>somemom,
“as DD is now doing residency apps” - Best wishes to your DD!!
Mine will do the same next year. We have contacts from Internet list of Residencies, but she will have to check if they are up-to-date. W know that at least one of them is OK, D. knows person very well.</p>
<p>The chances threads are equally annoying on CC & SDN.
Really anonymous internet poster, really? You think the chances for your admission to HYPS is accurate as quoted by another random anonymous internet poster, likely another HS kid? Really?</p>
<p>Getting residency interview invites is a similar feeling to med school interview invites. A Sally Field “you really like me” moment, but whereas med school has a much smaller expectation of admissions, in residency matching is expected and instead one must balance the number of interviews and random trips all over the country against not ranking enough programs. The big SDN debate, “Is ranking 10 still the magic number or do you need more”? And the challenge question is Southwest with no change fee or usual airline with miles accumulated.</p>
<p>and to just be clear about SDN- I was in no way saying that it’s useless or has no merit - I certainly visited it during my application cycle, but I simply found the majority of posters on there to be insufferable and felt no desire to continue posting once I got what I needed (in contrast to here).</p>
<p>I see the CC Pre-Med threads as dominated by parents, and SDN a haven for students. DS would never post on this site, but I stalk him regularly on SDN. It can often be a bit of the blind leading the blind, but people like LizzyM and Goro are invaluable resources.
I do like reading the DO threads as well. On CC most of the people here have 30+ on MCAT and are coming from Top 20 UG. I am knocking on wood that DS will have a good score, but the pre-DO group are an encouraging bunch for the most part.</p>
<p>
I wish snd had a thread for parents. I’m happy to have found CC, but I wish it had even more.
You’re lucky. My son doesn’t go on any forums, well except FB, but that’s hardly anonymous.
This is how I feel. And plumazul, I wish I did understand better. Instead, I get that feeling that I am missing something, but I don’t even know what that something is, other than an anonymous contact.
</p>
<p>That is, how did you go from writing an anonymous post to making a RL contact?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Good question 
SDN has a badge/verification system where admins/directors/physicians/faculty etc. can fill out a form and be verified. They then carry badges on their IDs so that users can be assured about a user’s expertise. Sometimes after communicating with these “experts” on the board, they will PM you with more specific advice. In my case, for example, a PD at an MD/PhD program offered to read my entire application before I submitted. He made several very valuable suggestions. Another admin strongly suggested I change my tentative list of schools. (which turned out to be correct) Another PD took several of us SDN users to dinner after an event at NIH this summer where we freely asked whatever questions we had. It was a surprise to me how many great people were monitoring SDN for the sole purpose of helping and recruiting the users. Whenever I sit on panels for discussions with pre-meds at my university, I highly recommend using SDN (in moderation of course 
)</p>
<p>What is a PD?</p>
<p>^ The Program Director</p>