Top Reasons to Avoid Visiting Premed Forums Like Premed101

Here's Why You Should Avoid Visiting Premed Forums 

Of the few real members on Premed101, there are many bad apples. There are people trying to misdirect you, trying to shake your confidence and hoping that you just don’t apply. This type of bullying and misdirection is well documented and experienced by most premed students.

Most alarming is that even some of the moderators use unprofessional and hostile language towards others, and get into frequent bickering matches in an attempt to prove their 'expertise' and superiority, which brings their qualifications as mentors and role models of professionalism into question. Forum moderators are anonymous and even the site owner and administrator claims he doesn't know who they are so it is quite possible that the 'expert' moderators might not even be medical students or residents. This also shows the clear lack of true dedication that goes into maintaining this site or caring for those they are supposed to serve.

And this is the point: Things that are posted on the internet without appropriate oversight can be very problematic. And you will be none the wiser. Premed101 has few people posting helpfully. But even people who are trying to help get it wrong because they’re over-speculating, they’re biased, and/or their sources aren’t accurate. Additionally, posts remain up for years so something that was correct in last year's application cycle may not be correct today.

So let’s be clear: Using Premed101 to answer all your questions about how to get into medical school is the same as using WebMD to diagnose the cause of your abdominal pain. You’re bound to get a lot of information that you cannot interpret and it will freak you out. This is the difference between information and wisdom. Premed101 features a lot of data but very little of it is contextualized for each member with a question. There is no wisdom.

 One piece of false information can spread like wild fire. One little hunk of advice becomes the community standard for everyone, even if the member offering the advice has no credentials and maybe hasn’t even been accepted to medical school. These membership forums support hive minds like few other internet phenomena and you would be wise to avoid thinking like everyone else when it comes to getting into medical school.

What Resources to Use Instead of Premed Forums

Your best source of internet advice when it comes to getting into medical school is the official website of the school. The websites have so much useful information because they are keen to have complete applications that follow all the rules. They also don’t want to get four million emails the week before the deadline clarifying things that are already on the internet.

That being said, if you have a real specific question about how a certain school will read an element of your application, you should email the admissions team available via the address listed on the website. They are usually really awesome people who can answer all your questions.

When I applied to medical school the first, second and third times, I did not touch premed forums. But I did scour the websites of my top schools and I emailed admissions officers when I didn’t understand something. And it worked out with zero time spent sucked into the internet.

[Since we posted this article, the Premed 101 forum agents have continued to include false and defamatory information on their forum about us presumably because the truth hurts - here is our response >>]

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting

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