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MD Applicants

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  • Application cycles: 06/08/2012
  • Demographics: Female, 33, Caucasian
  • Home state: Virginia
  • Last Active: 07/28/2013
  • Brief Profile: I'm trying to make this as complete as possible because I found the rare completed profile very useful during my application cycle. Hopefully this is some help to you. I do not include the descriptions of activities and my personal statement because 1. I really don't think the descriptions matter that much, 2. my personal statement is just that--personal, and 3. It's already pretty easy to identify me, why make it any easier :).

    Background:
    First person in my family to attend any graduate program. Identified as disadvantaged (born in the Bronx, grew up on federal assistance, worked two jobs in undergrad to pay for school)
    GPA Trend: freshman year- 3.9; sophomore year- 3.5 (due to taking 24 credits each semester and senior level bio classes; to be honest no one seemed to care); junior- 4.0; senior year- 4.0; fifth year- 4.0 (wasn't on original application, but included in update letters)

    LORs (I have a lot because I needed letters from all my research advisors):
    1. Thesis/Undergrad Research Advisor
    2. PI from Einstein Internship
    3. PI from Ghana Internship
    4. Advisor for Tri-Beta, also my professor for upper level bio class
    5. Professor for physiology and metabolism, on thesis committee, went to her often for mentoring and career advice
    6. PI from Viral Discovery Program
    7. PI from Microbiology Research, I also TAed for her and was in one of her bio classes

    Activities from my application to you:
    1. Research/Lab: Amgen Research and Development Intern (3 months; 40 hours per week)

    2. Honors/Awards/Recognitions: Collegiate Honors and Awards (listed current month of application; no hours); I included this category because I had a significant amount of national/regional/school research awards and scholarships. I would NOT use this to list Dean's List, etc

    3. Research/Lab: Undergraduate Microbiology Research (6 months-present; 5 hours per week); I had a couple of presentations and one first author manuscript

    4. Research/Lab: Albert Einstein College of Medicine SURP (3 months; 40 hours per week); I had a couple of presentations

    5. Community Service/Volunteer- Clinical/Medical: Einstein Community Health Outreach Clinical Intern (3 months; 5 hours per week)

    6. Other: Clinical Shadowing (1 month; 12 hours per week): I listed exact hours for each specialty and when those occurred

    7. Intercollegiate Athletics: Triathlon Team (3 years and continuing; 25 hours per week)

    8. Community Service/Volunteer- Medical/Clinical: Free Clinic (2 years and counting; 2 hours per week)

    9. Research/Lab: Neuroscience Undergraduate Research and Honors Thesis (3 years and counting; 10 hours per week); One publication, honors thesis (likely publication), presentations on local/regional/national level, wrote grant that was funded, received a couple of research awards

    10. Research/Lab: Virginia Tech-Ghana Research Experience for Undergraduates (3 months; 40 hours per week); multiple presentations, keynote speaker at a conference, first author publication

    11. Community Service/Volunteer- Not Medical/Clinical: Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentor (4 years and continuing; 2 hours per week)

    12. Teaching/Tutoring: Teaching Assistant and Science Tutor (4 years and continuing; 8 hours per week); I was a paid Athletics Tutor for organic chemistry, anatomy, physiology and physics for two years, teaching assistant every semester since sophomore year for various biology classes, supplemental instructor for physiology

    13. Research/Lab: Virology Undergraduate Research (4 years and counting; 5 hours per week); multiple presentations, one publication

    14. Leadership: Tri-Beta Biology Honors Society President and Executive Board Member (4 years and continuing; 6 hours per week); President for two years, VP for one year, Treasurer for one year; completely revamped entire organization and received a fantastic letter from our club advisor

    15. Community Service/Volunteer- not Medical/Clinical: St Elizabeth's Camp Counselor and Assistant Director (2 years; 100 hours per week); I explained that the camp is one week per summer and is a camp for teens with disabilities such as Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, etc so counselors are basically working 24/7 with their camper buddy. As Assistant Director, I was responsible for a subset of counselors and campers


    I was told my Personal Statement and LORs were exceptional by multiple interviewers, if that sort of thing matters.

    Applied MD/PhD only and did not consider an MD-only program. My MCAT was a little low, but I'm pretty sure my research made up for it (4 publications with 2 first author and 3 manuscripts in progress; 20+ presentations; 4 internships). Applying MD/PhD is rough... especially if you were lucky like me and had a significant amount of interviews. Go on as many as you can afford because you don't know what a school was like until you visit. There were a couple of schools I was not too excited about until I attended the interview and, likewise, there were a few schools that definitely disappointed me. Also, as you get closer to the waitlist movement schools will call you up and unofficially offer a spot to try and protect their yield (I don't list those schools, but feel free to message me for them).
  • // Applications //

    Application Cycle One: 06/08/2012

    • Undergraduate college: James Madison University
    • Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
    • Total MCAT SCORE: 514
    • MCAT Section Scores: B/B 129, C/P 128, CARS 129  
    • Overall GPA: 3.85
    • Science GPA: 3.75

    Summary of Application Experience

    I tried to keep up with dates for secondaries, etc, but some of these are rough estimations because I became too busy with school and interviewing to keep up.
    -----------------------------------------
    SR = secondary received
    SS = secondary submitted
    C = complete (secondary received + LORs received)
    II = interview invite
    IA = interview attended
    WL = waitlisted
    A = accepted
    W = withdrew
    R = rejected

    *Note: Some of the completion dates for my secondaries are delayed because I had to wait for my fee waivers to be approved by individual schools. Also some of completion dates are approximate since some schools did not email completion notifications.

    Applied, Withdrew

    Vanderbilt University
    Duke University

    Application Complete, Rejected

    Dartmouth College
    University of North Carolina
    University of Colorado
    Cornell University

    Application Complete, Withdrew

    Stanford University
    University of Massachusetts
    University of Pittsburgh
    Washington University in St. Louis
    University of California, Los Angeles

    Invited for Interview, Withdrew

    University of Nebraska
    Wake Forest University
    Yale University
    University of California, San Diego
    University of Miami
    SUNY Stony Brook
    Jefferson Medical College

    Attended Interview, Rejected

    Medical University of South Carolina
    New York University

    Attended Interview, Withdrew

    University of Pennsylvania

    Attended Interview, Waitlisted, Withdrew

    Albert Einstein of Yeshiva University
    University of Wisconsin

    Accepted

    Virginia Commonwealth University
    University of Virginia
    Emory University
    University of Maryland

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