<p>Thats it, thats what we all have to do. screw the GPA and MCAT just win a noble peace prize. lol</p>
<p>If that cat can feed the hungry of Poland, I'm sure it'll be the Nobel Peace Prize in Biology. And Economics. And Feline Studies, which they'll invent just for you.</p>
<p>And apparently a Noble Prize, too.</p>
<p>@BDM</p>
<p>What do you mean by he's too interested in hard sciences? Is it because his research was in ochem and physics? Is that a bad thing?</p>
<p>"1.) Applied to too few intermediate programs -- Northwestern is the only one on there. Where's Pritzker? Case? Emory? Vanderbilt? Mt. Sinai? NYU? Tufts?"</p>
<p>Intermediate? In no order, some of those schools are ranked 15, 21, 21, and 23. I'd say below top 25 is intermediate. But you know more I guess.</p>
<p>Medicine is a social profession. Even for the MD/PhD's there's some connection they feel to people which draws them for that MD. It's why medical schools all have required interviews. </p>
<p>In my experience, particularly among docs at academic medical centers, there is a fair amount of animosity between MD's and PhD's. The MD's think the PhD's are nerds, anti-social, and don't care about what the science actually means in application. The PhD's think the MD's are stupid, don't know anything, and would do a better job if they focused on the pure science. I've definitely had lecturers in both camps make comments to those effects.</p>
<p>So if you're interviewing with a bunch of MD's and have a resume like this applicant's in which there is pretty much nothing that suggests significant interpersonal skills (his best "people" position being a receptionist - who knows what that really entails - just answering phones is a lot different than asking a person about their sexual history), then you aren't going to impress upon people that you can be a successful physician. And his interviews might have really been awful.</p>
<p>Well, the point is that he has a pretty large gap in that section of his application. Whether you want to call them intermediate or high is really semantics. The point is you can't go around applying to WUSTL, Hopkins, and UM-CP and be surprised when WUSTL and Hopkins don't come through.</p>
<p>Of course -- he might not have been surprised. He might legitimately have preferred UM to Pritzker or Case, but in that case there's no sense asking "what happened", because in that case he ended up at one of his very high choices.</p>
<p>I'm not really sure what I think of that theory. I do think that having extensive interests in another field does put more pressure on your personal statement to really explain why you're interested in medicine, but, then, there's a lot of pressure on that to begin with. It was an interesting suggestion that another poster made, and I'm still not sure what I think.</p>
<p>"In my experience, particularly among docs at academic medical centers, there is a fair amount of animosity between MD's and PhD's. The MD's think the PhD's are nerds, anti-social, and don't care about what the science actually means in application. The PhD's think the MD's are stupid, don't know anything, and would do a better job if they focused on the pure science. I've definitely had lecturers in both camps make comments to those effects."</p>
<p>I definitely can sense that tension as well. I intern at a lab and the PI was showing around a PhD candidate around the lab since she would possibly do her post-doc there. Afterwards, the other people said that she was too serious and seemed like she wanted to go into clinical medicine.</p>
<p>"significant interpersonal skills (his best "people" position being a receptionist - who knows what that really entails - just answering phones is a lot different than asking a person about their sexual history),"</p>
<p>Umm, how would someone in college do such a job.</p>
<p>It is possible the UMD was one of his top choices as he was a MD resident and tuition would be signficantly less than private inistitutions. Cost may have been a motivation for him to complete his undergraduate degree in 3 years. It also is likely this explains why he did not apply to lower ranked or similarly ranked medical schools. Moreover, he withdrew from several schools without interviewing, presumably after accepting Maryland's offer. He also may have known that he was pretty much accepted by UMD from his premed advisor there and that influenced where he applied. He was a Banneker-Key Fellow which is given only to a few MD residents/year and is a full-ride at UMD. It is the most prestigious scholarship awarded to incoming students at UMD. I'm sure he had superb stats from high school, too.</p>
<p>It is interesting he was not asked for a secondary from Mayo. Presumably Stanford and Harvard also did not interview him. He applied to the Harvard HST program which is geared to extremely strong science students and has supplemental classes offered at MIT. I think he would have been a good fit for that program as a number of the students are strong in the physical sciences and engineering. Then again, as strong as his stats are, there are others will similar stats and a PROVEN record of research experience. He may not have had a strong record in that area, particularly if he completed his degree in 3 years. I think he would have strengthened his application by doing some high quality research or independent study in his major. </p>
<p>I am not sure whether he really bombed his interviews as he only had a few. His main strength was his academic record and scores. If he tried to sell himself as a potential future biomedical scientist, he may have come up short. Certainly, most M.D./Ph.D students admitted to top medical schools will already have some significant research experience and likely will have publications. As a staight M.D. he still may not have had either the research experience compared to other strong applicants to WashU or Hopkins, or the strong extracurriculars. I would say one or both are needed for admission to some of the top medical schools in addition to strong stats. It also is telling that despite his strong stats, he did not even get invited to interview at some schools.</p>
<p>I don't think we can conjecture about his possible lack of social skills. If he got invited to every school he applied to and was rejected by them all, that may be possible. But that did not occur.</p>
<p>I actually think he had a wise approach to medical school admisions. If he applied to a large number, he would likely have had more interviews with more expense, travel, and time expended. By planning his strategy around a likely "safety" school-UMD, he cut a lot of that down. Most people will not have his stats or his luxury to do so. Last, it does not matter how many medical schools you gets accepted to. You can only go to one.</p>
<p>You know, if you all are that curious, his SDN name is on his profile (or in the comments I think)... you could message him and get the dirt if you really wanted to...</p>