Worst College Advice you have heard, that you know is untrue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

My sibling went to Brown for premed. No one helped them get into med school and they were on their own (and did very well).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

There is also an entire department at JMU dedicated to medical/health school admissions. Gasp! You are so lame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

My husband went to med school at Hopkins. His classmates (our friends at the time) were from every college under the sun. From Harvard to many state schools to no-name bible colleges. If you take the pre-recs and do very well and rock the MCAT and write a compelling essay you can get in from ANYWHERE. Medicine doesn't care that you went to Harvard. They don't want a class full of Harvard and Yale grads. They want a diverse class of people who are passionate about becoming physicians.
And you don't need an "an entire department polishing pre-meds". Applying to med school isn't hard. I helped my brother through this process a few years ago. He had really good grades. Great MCAT. I helped him write his essays (I work in healthcare). Boom. He got in. We finished the applications in a weekend. He was admitted from a small, christian undergrad college (that I guarantee you haven't heard of). He's now in residency at a great program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

My husband went to med school at Hopkins. His classmates (our friends at the time) were from every college under the sun. From Harvard to many state schools to no-name bible colleges. If you take the pre-recs and do very well and rock the MCAT and write a compelling essay you can get in from ANYWHERE. Medicine doesn't care that you went to Harvard. They don't want a class full of Harvard and Yale grads. They want a diverse class of people who are passionate about becoming physicians.
And you don't need an "an entire department polishing pre-meds". Applying to med school isn't hard. I helped my brother through this process a few years ago. He had really good grades. Great MCAT. I helped him write his essays (I work in healthcare). Boom. He got in. We finished the applications in a weekend. He was admitted from a small, christian undergrad college (that I guarantee you haven't heard of). He's now in residency at a great program.

+1 billion. My daughter is currently in her first year of medical school at Pritzker (UChicago). Thinking about the classmates she's talked about...Cornell College (in Iowa), Earlham, Loyola University Chicago, St Mary's College, Trinity (in TX)...probably more.

[Anonymous]

Yep. From JHU med school website: class is made up of students from 61 different undergraduate institutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
+1 billion. My daughter is currently in her first year of medical school at Pritzker (UChicago). Thinking about the classmates she's talked about...Cornell College (in Iowa), Earlham, Loyola University Chicago, St Mary's College, Trinity (in TX)...probably more.

They were literally 1 out of maybe 10 who were accepted to medical school. Outliers. At top colleges 15-25% of each class heads to medical school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1 billion. My daughter is currently in her first year of medical school at Pritzker (UChicago). Thinking about the classmates she's talked about...Cornell College (in Iowa), Earlham, Loyola University Chicago, St Mary's College, Trinity (in TX)...probably more.

They were literally 1 out of maybe 10 who were accepted to medical school. Outliers. At top colleges 15-25% of each class heads to medical school.

And?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

There is also an entire department at JMU dedicated to medical/health school admissions. Gasp! You are so lame.

NP here. We were recently at a JMU open house and attended a session led by the pre-health professions advisor and a panel of pre-PT, pre- PA, and pre- med students who were in the application process. JMU has a 40% acceptance rate to health profession programs after graduation. One parent asked what happens to the other 60%, her best answer was that some take a gap year and apply again. I attribute much of this difficulty to the biology information session we also attended that day where a prospective student asked about research opportunities and was told that there really aren’t any on campus but sometimes upperclassman can find opportunities in the surrounding area.

Can you become a successful physican after JMU? Yes, but the odds are stacked against you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

There is also an entire department at JMU dedicated to medical/health school admissions. Gasp! You are so lame.

NP here. We were recently at a JMU open house and attended a session led by the pre-health professions advisor and a panel of pre-PT, pre- PA, and pre- med students who were in the application process. JMU has a 40% acceptance rate to health profession programs after graduation. One parent asked what happens to the other 60%, her best answer was that some take a gap year and apply again. I attribute much of this difficulty to the biology information session we also attended that day where a prospective student asked about research opportunities and was told that there really aren’t any on campus but sometimes upperclassman can find opportunities in the surrounding area.

Can you become a successful physican after JMU? Yes, but the odds are stacked against you.

Doesn't the burden fall onto the student at some point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges will overlook some grades, but look for an upward trend. Sorry, it's called GPA, Not GPA for Freshman year, Sophomore year, Junior year et .

Myths like this are perpetuated by admissions departments to inflate apps. Ditto the emphasis on "holistic" and on quirky essays. Most colleges don't even read your essays. It's all bullshit. Their software filters out everyone with mediocre GPA and SAT - human eyes never see your app.

When a quirky essay is leaked by an Ivy or Stanford it's because they want plebs to think an essay makes a different. ex., the Black Lives Matter one last year was by a minority kid who had perfect stats!

My kid actually gots card from the elite college admissions officer that said ‘I loved your essay’!

Huh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
sure, a mediocre GPA and SAT isn't going to get your app read, but once you get over the first cut, your essay does become a factor. admissions committees typically assign 2-3 readers to each app (this is for the apps that make the first cut).

Yet more admissions bullshit they leak into the mainstream. This is fake.

The admissions readers may consist of current students, faculty wives, parents of existing students, etc. They are given a rubric but they are not actually highly skilled admissions consultants. They might not recognize which summer music camp is most competitive and well-regarded, which competitions are actually fake, the significance of a magnet school., etc. All that stuff that you lost sleep over! Completely overlooked on the application!

Excuse me? So, there aren’t any female faculty members in the year 2018, just faculty ‘wives’ and they are ignorant and unskilled?
What swamp do you reside in exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

There is also an entire department at JMU dedicated to medical/health school admissions. Gasp! You are so lame.

NP here. We were recently at a JMU open house and attended a session led by the pre-health professions advisor and a panel of pre-PT, pre- PA, and pre- med students who were in the application process. JMU has a 40% acceptance rate to health profession programs after graduation. One parent asked what happens to the other 60%, her best answer was that some take a gap year and apply again. I attribute much of this difficulty to the biology information session we also attended that day where a prospective student asked about research opportunities and was told that there really aren’t any on campus but sometimes upperclassman can find opportunities in the surrounding area.

Can you become a successful physican after JMU? Yes, but the odds are stacked against you.

Doesn't the burden fall onto the student at some point?

https://www.jmu.edu/iihhs/_files/MDaccept02.pdf Good students do just fine with school admissions.

If your GPA and MCAT aren’t up to snuff, it doesn’t matter if you go to Harvard or JMU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

My husband went to med school at Hopkins. His classmates (our friends at the time) were from every college under the sun. From Harvard to many state schools to no-name bible colleges. If you take the pre-recs and do very well and rock the MCAT and write a compelling essay you can get in from ANYWHERE. Medicine doesn't care that you went to Harvard. They don't want a class full of Harvard and Yale grads. They want a diverse class of people who are passionate about becoming physicians.
And you don't need an "an entire department polishing pre-meds". Applying to med school isn't hard. I helped my brother through this process a few years ago. He had really good grades. Great MCAT. I helped him write his essays (I work in healthcare). Boom. He got in. We finished the applications in a weekend. He was admitted from a small, christian undergrad college (that I guarantee you haven't heard of). He's now in residency at a great program.

I know - Hopkins is so diverse they graduated a female doctor who was doing female circumcisions in Michigan. That’s true diversity for you.
https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/ritarubin/2017/04/14/doctor-charged-with-female-genital-mutilation-has-published-research-overseen-residents/amp/

Nephew had dreams of med school and went free to a low level school to save money. His education was meh and his MCAT’s are not that great.
Also, he had this same crazy teacher twice (no other choice), each time receiving a low grade that he thought was unjust but he had no recourse. He is now dreaming of PA school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

You totally miss understanding that a “good candidate” doesn’t need to pushed bc they’re already motivated. I’d rather be treated by a doctor who was motivated to join the profession than some zombie who was pushed to grab for the status of Dr.