Application Cycle One: 2007

• Undergraduate college: Stanford University
• Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences

• Total MCAT SCORE: 522
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 130, C/P 132, CARS 127   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.80
• Science GPA: 3.82

Summary of Application Experience

9/25/07
OK...since I come to this site all the time (too often for my own good, in fact), I figured I might as well put in my two cents :)

Soooo....AMCAS was submitted mid-June, verified about a week later.

Secondaries started rolling in soon after that. Tried to do the easy / rolling admissions ones first, left the harder / non-rolling ones for later. Sent primary to 28 schools, got secondaries from all (including screened ones i.e. all the UCs, Vanderbilt, etc) except for Mayo.

Started submitting secondaries late July, as of today (9/25) have submitted all but 3...Columbia, Yale, and Duke. Plan on doing Columbia and Yale, but probably not Duke...waaaaay too much work for 1 secondary (6 essays?!?). It's getting tough, though, doing all these secondaries. I have been dragging my feet recently; I work full time and prefer to have a life outside of work. The last thing I want to do after getting back from work is to come home and write a blasted secondary essay. Anybody else reading this having trouble pulling through w/ their last secondaries?

Have heard back from a handful of schools so far. Got an auto-interview at University of Michigan pretty early on, which was nice. Also was offered interviews at Vanderbilt, Tufts (invites mid/late August), Northwestern, and Albany (invites early-mid september).

Was put on pre-interview hold at UC San Diego...anybody know anything about this, i.e. how many people get put on this, how many get interviews, accepted, etc., or am I pretty much doomed for UCSD?

Also, was denied an interview at UC Irvine...hmm. A little disappointed, but more befuddled, seeing as I had already been offered interviews at so-called 'better' schools. Not that I expect to get an interview at anywhere near every school I apply to...I guess that just kinda confirms what I had heard about this entire process, that it seems like a total crapshoot. Still though, I'm curious as to why I didn't get an interview at UCI. Anyone have any thoughts based on my limited info / knowledge about the school?

Overall, I guess this process is going ok so far...5 interview offers to date, 1 pre-interview hold, 2 rejections. It definitely could be worse, but that doesn't change the fact that this process is SOO nervewracking. I wish I could fast-forward 8 months ahead and be done with it already (hopefully w/ an acceptance :D). I haven't heard anything from schools for about 2 weeks now, so I'm starting to get a little antsy hehe. Some schools whose secondaries I completed in early/mid august (ex. dartmouth, upenn, harvard, ucla, etc.) I still have heard nothing from...anybody know if these schools are inviting for interviews yet? Ok this post is getting long. I'll update later. If you are still reading this, thanks for putting up with my banter.

10/12/2007
After just over 4 weeks of silence (not hearing anything from any schools), I checked my status at UCLA, and lo and behold...INTERVIEW INVITE! I am super-excited, considering UCLA is a great school and it is the first CA school I have an interview at. Woot!

10/12/2007 - Update #2.
Wow. What a day. Within the span of 1 hour, I found out about two interview invites. UCLA and UPenn. Words cannot describe.

10/15/2007/07
Soooo...it's 10/15. My UMichigan status reads 'Highly Desirable - December Decision.' Not as good as an acceptance (obviously), but it's the next best thing, I guess. Anybody know anything about how many people get this status and how many people end up getting in off of it?

Also, got rejected post-secondary from Pritzker today. Ohhhhhhh wellllllllllll.

10/16/07
Weill Cornell interview invite!

10/17/07
Temple Invite!

10/20/07
Dartmouth Invite (snail mail)!

10/22-10/26/07
Was on an interview trip this week. Interviewed at Tufts, Vanderbilt, and Northwestern. Tufts interview was good, I think. Vanderbilt interview was a little bizarre...interviewer asked lots of questions seemingly-unrelated to medicine, such as 'Why did you go to Menlo (my high school)? What was your SAT score? How do computer hard drives work (my dad is a mechanical engineer, did lots of work w/ hard drive industry)?' but I think I kept my composure pretty well, so hopefully that went ok. Northwestern's facilities were AMAZING, personal interview went well I think, but I wasn't really a fan of the panel interview...think I did fine though. We'll see what happens.

11/1/07
That's it. My days as a pre-med are officially over. I just got an acceptance phone call from the Dean of Admissions at Tufts!! No matter what else happens in this long & insane application process from here on out, I am going to med school. It can only get better from here!

11/3/07
UCSF rejection came snail mail =/. Oh well...can't say I wasn't expecting it. At least I already have an acceptance somewhere and a good number of interviews at good schools.

11/6/07
WashU Invite!

2/28/08
It's been a while...I am in a state of shock right now. I just got into Northwestern. I interviewed way back in October, and I thought my panel interview was awful. Didn't hear back in December for the early acceptances, so I assumed I would get rejected / waitlisted. Then I check my status page, and it reads 'congratulations on your acceptance...' I am very (pleasantly) flabbergasted, and unbelievably excited. I really loved the school. YAAAAY