I’ve had a good cycle and got into some pretty great schools. I’m thrilled, as I wasn’t expecting anything from some of my top choices.

However, I’ve gotten a chance to connect with some of the other admits and honestly … a lot of them just come off as neurotic and gunner-ish. It’s hard to describe. It’s like every conversation turns into a dick-measuring contest about extracurriculars and scores and scholarships and rankings and research productivity, implicitly throwing shade at lower-ranked schools, or about who can flex some super niche hobby or accomplishment, that sort of thing. I’ve had people “congratulate” me for my successful cycle in the most backhanded ways (“wow, getting in with THAT profile is impressive, you must’ve been a great writer!” type of thing). Feels like r/ApplyingToCollege all over again.

I get that some folks are still deciding where to go, or right now people are on “impress” mode to try to make themselves look and feel better. Is this really going to be the next four years of my life? Not that it bothers me that much, I have thick enough skin to handle the snarky comments and worse, but I was sort of hoping to make friends whose identities don’t entirely revolve around medicine/academics.