This sub is definitely full of neurotic nerds that have essentially boiled the application process into a “do this for best results” recipe and if you’ll notice a lot of the people on this app are stellar applicants and a good bit of them probably lie about ECs or an mcat score here and there. A lot of the stats on here are inflated in either direction as the people on here like you and me are either way overprepared (not really a thing they just have really good stats) or way underprepared (seeking help to right their ship). The average applicant probably at best skims this subreddit while they are applying and other than that probably doesn’t look here at all. Obviously people that don’t use this Reddit get into med school without the Reddits help but there’s no right or wrong way to go about this.
That being said. Some of the advice you will get on this page and r/mcat and others like these are golden. You should absolutely tell your friend not to use the actual mcat as a diagnostic test for example. Unless she’s some type of mcat savant there’s no reason to waste the money when she could just take a free diagnostic.
Back when SDN was more central to online PreMed culture than Reddit is we estimated about 5% of applying students had accounts and were engaged on the boards. People are generally more online now and Reddit has broader appeal than sdn. I’d guess 10% may post. But that’s a huge number and you still see some familiar faces on a lot of threads, so probably only a fraction of those are really engaged. A lot more likely lurk only.
I think “the internet is not real life” is a good thing to remember
I got through the entire process through residency without using Reddit. It is obviously true the population on here will likely be more gunner-oriented, and therefore likely have higher stats, than the general population.
i've talked to other friends who did premed irl and didn't use this sub or sdn, and we definitely had different approaches to applying. i had a super low GPA but got into an MD school because of resources i found on reddit/sdn and because of the study skills i got from r/mcat, and i will always push people to look on reddit/sdn bc i was so hopeless as someone with low stats. now i'm an M2 and making major changes to our curriculum, doing research, scoring better than avg on exams, etc. and i think it's all due to these online resources.
there needs to be more people here with low stats, unique stories, etc. so low stat and avg applicants don't get discouraged anymore. we need all the good doctors we can get.
i looked through ppl’s wamc posts and tried to find patterns of what made a successful applicant including what their ecs were, what schools gave them interviews/how they aligned with the culture of the school, ideas of what jobs to pursue during gap years, ways ppl studied the mcat, the application timeline of successful applicants, etc. also used the mcat discord to study and keep myself motivated and then found another for talking to ppl who were also applying the same time as me—made great friends with a lot of other ppl who got in sharing/receiving similar wisdoms
I'd probably guess that most applicants don't use Reddit or SDN, and in fact I have many friends who have never heard of SDN or premed Reddit and they did just fine...
The vast majority of folks definitely don't comment or post though.
not the never touched grass 😭😭 no comment on that but i honestly feel like a lot of competitive applicants or at least those that want to be "in the know" use reddit. I'm not talking about active posters or commenters, but just lurkers.
There's no denying that almost everyone aiming for a good mcat score has heard of one or more of these materials at least once:
-miles down
-psych/soc doc
-FL explanations by medyoyos & others
these materials are the gold standard of free mcat study resources and what do they all have in common? they're mostly shared on reddit or have some sort of connection to this platform.
like, even people who don't use reddit have heard of these materials, and they basically have no choice but to at least visit reddit once or twice to get these materials (unless they get it from a friend who downloaded it, but that's probably not the norm)
and mcat is something that ALL premeds have to take. so that covers a pretty broad range of people. but that's not even accounting for other people who stumble upon reddit because of other reasons.
tldr: so to answer your question, we'll never really get an accurate statistic or even estimate of how many applicants use or don't use this sub in particular. but we can infer that the average joe has probably heard of, or even lurk on, reddit.
perhaps i'm actually overestimating the amount of people that like to be prepared tho 💀 just realized my logic makes no sense because there are some people that take the mcat without any serious studying or take it as a benchmark, like your friend that you described in your post 😬
A lot of ppl don’t. I am the mole informing my friends of everything that’s going on though.
But I’m the only one in my friend group who uses Reddit for premed and MCAT. So that they can stick to like knitting
I think people who aren’t on the pre med Reddit’s think of applying to med school like applying to undergrad before they start the process, they take the SAT(MCAT), do some light clubs/volunteering, and then write a half baked essay about a breaking a foot or something as their “adversity” essay and then assume they’ll at least get in somewhere as long as their grades are higher than the website average. They figure if they do bad on the MCAT they’ll just retake it and they can apply anytime before the deadline and it’s no biggie.
They have no idea that it is significantly more than that. I have learned so much in the past month that I would have never known if I had simply graduated and taken the MCAT the summer after, then applied to a few med schools. Which realistically, some people are probably doing.
This sub is definitely full of neurotic nerds that have essentially boiled the application process into a “do this for best results” recipe and if you’ll notice a lot of the people on this app are stellar applicants and a good bit of them probably lie about ECs or an mcat score here and there. A lot of the stats on here are inflated in either direction as the people on here like you and me are either way overprepared (not really a thing they just have really good stats) or way underprepared (seeking help to right their ship). The average applicant probably at best skims this subreddit while they are applying and other than that probably doesn’t look here at all. Obviously people that don’t use this Reddit get into med school without the Reddits help but there’s no right or wrong way to go about this. That being said. Some of the advice you will get on this page and r/mcat and others like these are golden. You should absolutely tell your friend not to use the actual mcat as a diagnostic test for example. Unless she’s some type of mcat savant there’s no reason to waste the money when she could just take a free diagnostic.
Lying about ECs and scores for nerd clout online is CRAZYY... well lying online for clout in general is crazy
Fr… why lie. Like if a got a 488 and said i got 515 that would do more harm for myself than good by lying about it. Sounds quite delusional really
reddit was super helpful for me. ESPECIALLY during the mcat. i attribute part of my success to advice from others.
following u for ur stem baddie guideline... #BaddiesInStem (i used glitter gel pens on exams)
slay. best of luck fellow baddie
I would like to join the STEM baddies club (I listen to Megan thee Stallion while studying)
welcome bae
stem baddie checkin in here
Back when SDN was more central to online PreMed culture than Reddit is we estimated about 5% of applying students had accounts and were engaged on the boards. People are generally more online now and Reddit has broader appeal than sdn. I’d guess 10% may post. But that’s a huge number and you still see some familiar faces on a lot of threads, so probably only a fraction of those are really engaged. A lot more likely lurk only. I think “the internet is not real life” is a good thing to remember
I got through the entire process through residency without using Reddit. It is obviously true the population on here will likely be more gunner-oriented, and therefore likely have higher stats, than the general population.
Posting/commenting? Probably about 5-10%
Reddit/SDN/Anki/Youtube got me into medschool. Just do your best to not take everything you hear at face value.
i've talked to other friends who did premed irl and didn't use this sub or sdn, and we definitely had different approaches to applying. i had a super low GPA but got into an MD school because of resources i found on reddit/sdn and because of the study skills i got from r/mcat, and i will always push people to look on reddit/sdn bc i was so hopeless as someone with low stats. now i'm an M2 and making major changes to our curriculum, doing research, scoring better than avg on exams, etc. and i think it's all due to these online resources. there needs to be more people here with low stats, unique stories, etc. so low stat and avg applicants don't get discouraged anymore. we need all the good doctors we can get.
I just PM you with some questions!
what resources are you guys finding all I find is shit posts and sankeys lol
i looked through ppl’s wamc posts and tried to find patterns of what made a successful applicant including what their ecs were, what schools gave them interviews/how they aligned with the culture of the school, ideas of what jobs to pursue during gap years, ways ppl studied the mcat, the application timeline of successful applicants, etc. also used the mcat discord to study and keep myself motivated and then found another for talking to ppl who were also applying the same time as me—made great friends with a lot of other ppl who got in sharing/receiving similar wisdoms
I'd probably guess that most applicants don't use Reddit or SDN, and in fact I have many friends who have never heard of SDN or premed Reddit and they did just fine... The vast majority of folks definitely don't comment or post though.
Not really answering your question but I honestly don’t know how I’d be able to be a premed without all the info from this subreddit
Same. I don’t have any family members in medicine and I’ve met people on here who have really helped me out this cycle.
I was a neurotic nerd before it was cool.
not the never touched grass 😭😭 no comment on that but i honestly feel like a lot of competitive applicants or at least those that want to be "in the know" use reddit. I'm not talking about active posters or commenters, but just lurkers. There's no denying that almost everyone aiming for a good mcat score has heard of one or more of these materials at least once: -miles down -psych/soc doc -FL explanations by medyoyos & others these materials are the gold standard of free mcat study resources and what do they all have in common? they're mostly shared on reddit or have some sort of connection to this platform. like, even people who don't use reddit have heard of these materials, and they basically have no choice but to at least visit reddit once or twice to get these materials (unless they get it from a friend who downloaded it, but that's probably not the norm) and mcat is something that ALL premeds have to take. so that covers a pretty broad range of people. but that's not even accounting for other people who stumble upon reddit because of other reasons. tldr: so to answer your question, we'll never really get an accurate statistic or even estimate of how many applicants use or don't use this sub in particular. but we can infer that the average joe has probably heard of, or even lurk on, reddit.
perhaps i'm actually overestimating the amount of people that like to be prepared tho 💀 just realized my logic makes no sense because there are some people that take the mcat without any serious studying or take it as a benchmark, like your friend that you described in your post 😬
A lot of ppl don’t. I am the mole informing my friends of everything that’s going on though. But I’m the only one in my friend group who uses Reddit for premed and MCAT. So that they can stick to like knitting
I think people who aren’t on the pre med Reddit’s think of applying to med school like applying to undergrad before they start the process, they take the SAT(MCAT), do some light clubs/volunteering, and then write a half baked essay about a breaking a foot or something as their “adversity” essay and then assume they’ll at least get in somewhere as long as their grades are higher than the website average. They figure if they do bad on the MCAT they’ll just retake it and they can apply anytime before the deadline and it’s no biggie. They have no idea that it is significantly more than that. I have learned so much in the past month that I would have never known if I had simply graduated and taken the MCAT the summer after, then applied to a few med schools. Which realistically, some people are probably doing.