Undergraduate College: Boston College
Undergraduate Area of Study: Physical Sciences
MCAT: BS 12, PS 14, VR 11, Q
Overall GPA: 3.57
Science GPA: 3.53
Brief Profile:
I'm posting this as a reference for myself and for others so that they can see how I fared in this application process. I was a chemistry major/economics minor with a bunch of bio electives. I'm just another student trying to get into med school.
I was thinking about going to pharmacy school but I took the PCAT and got a 99th percentile with only a few weeks of studying. That made me think that I should try to push myself and not sell myself short. So I didn't decide to apply to medical school until the beginning of my junior year and my activities were a bit weak. My work/activities included about a year and 2 summers worth of volunteering, shadowing 3 doctors, a summer and 2 semesters of research, a year at an afterschool program, 2 years of work at the dining hall, an alternative spring break and hobbies including playing the violin and golf. I took a gap year in which I sent out my applications and worked in a research lab at a medical school.
For the MCAT, I studied in the summer of my junior year and took it in September. I bought the exam krackers set to review the basic topics and took several full length kaplan practice exams during the last month or so before the exam since I didn't have the money for a class. I also bought three of the official AAMC practice exams and got about a 32/33 average. I reviewed all the questions that I got wrong and flagged the ones I was unsure about to make sure to reread those topics again.
I received letters of recommendation from two science professors and a language professor. I was close with one of the science professors, having taken three of his classes and visiting him frequently during office hours. The other was the PI of the lab that I worked in and he taught one of my classes. They were packaged in a committee letter from my school. Part of the reason why I applied after I graduated was because I didn't start the process for the committee letter on time. Don't miss your deadlines. The other part was that I wanted to have more time to raise my grades (they stayed the same) and I wanted to spend more time on my activities since I was late in starting on them.
Useful Threads:
General Advice:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=410718
LizzyM (adcom member) Answering Premed Questions:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=877440
NickNaylor's Advice About Applying:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=824137
Tips for Entering Your Work and Activities:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=10877657
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=202513
Personal Statement Guides:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=536199
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=375844
http://web.jhu.edu/prepro/health/Applicants/personal.html
Secondaries:
Diversity Question:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=913539
Why our school:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=832253
Describe yourself:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=425754
Would You Like To Tell Our Adcom Anything:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=5fef11b5c47f61c685cd6ce6c779fd6b&t=444562
Interviewing Tips:
http://mediasite.hs.washington.edu/Mediasite/Viewer/?peid=5092d8383fdd42a98bb00ae464dfe643
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=424366
http://web.jhu.edu/prepro/health/Applicants/interviewing.html
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=853936
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=820524
Letter of Intent:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=690354
Some great mdapps profiles:
http://www.mdapplicants.com/profile.php?id=23893
http://www.mdapplicants.com/profile.php?id=19291
http://www.mdapplicants.com/profile.php?id=6325
Like some others, I think that the personal statement is not as important as many people think it is, but know that if you're offered an interview, the school has read your entire application carefully. I was asked about something I mentioned offhand in my personal statement at two schools. Interviews are stressful but most of my interviewers were very nice and easy to talk to. I feel that these were more difficult than the interviews where they basically go through a checklist. I've only had two stress interviews, although I didn't realize it until after the fact. If I had to apply again, I would rewrite my extracurricular activity descriptions because I was very factual and didn't really do the description style which might have been better. I would have also done some mock interviews to practice. This may seem obvious, but thinking up answers and talking to yourself is very different from talking to another person, especially in a stressful situation. I also wish that I talked up my experiences and my motivation for medical school. I figured that I included everything in my application and tried to include new things when I should have just rehashed everything I wrote and embellished my answers.
At the beginning of my application season, my top choices were Mount Sinai and Stony Brook. Since I was accepted from a waitlist, it was a long year but I'm grateful to have gotten in on my first try. There are many more applicants than seats at medical school, so don't feel too discouraged if you don't make it in. When there are hundreds of people vying for each spot, chances are slim. I know a few people who didn't get any interviews their first time around but made it into a great school their second or third time so don't give up.
During this year, I spent a lot of time poring over internet forums and camping on my email, hoping to hear from schools. So feel free to send me a message on sdn if you have any questions because I know how nice it is to be able to talk to someone with firsthand experience of what you are going through. Good luck!
AMCAS submitted: 6/22/2011
Application Complete, Rejected
University of Rochester - "They send out a nice brochure, you can read all about it there. It's a reputable school but the city..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/18/2011
- Secondary Completed: 7/28/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
They send out a nice brochure, you can read all about it there. It's a reputable school but the city was pretty much founded around Kodak, which isn't exactly doing well. Don't really know much about this school outside of what I've read on their website and in their brochure.
Boston University - "Very timely rejection, the 3 weeks review thing seems to hold true for the vast majority of appliant..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/19/2011
- Secondary Completed: 7/28/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Very timely rejection, the 3 weeks review thing seems to hold true for the vast majority of appliants. It's in a nice place; Boston is pretty cool although it shuts down relatively early.
Cornell University - "Nice place, great neighborhood with a lot of fine restaurants. Lots of opportunities for working abr..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/25/2011
- Secondary Completed: 7/27/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Nice place, great neighborhood with a lot of fine restaurants. Lots of opportunities for working abroad and doing research. Housing is right across the street and the library is on the first floor with a lot of windows that face the street. It is probably very distracting around rush hour with all of the honking that you would expect from New York City but always packed with med students. It seems that I made it past a few cuts but didn't get an interview in the end. I'm pretty bummed about this one, it's a great school.
Emory University - "Interviews until the end of February. I applied after hearing a lot of good things about this school..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/25/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/9/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Interviews until the end of February. I applied after hearing a lot of good things about this school.
Tufts University - "Interview invites stop coming in February and interviews finish in March. It's an expensive place."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/26/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/2/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Interview invites stop coming in February and interviews finish in March. It's an expensive place.
Columbia University - "Interviews end Feb 10. Great school, just tried for kicks and didn't expect anything. And no, I don'..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/28/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/11/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Interviews end Feb 10. Great school, just tried for kicks and didn't expect anything. And no, I don't want to get a master's in nutrition.
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 8/2/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/12/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Disappointing. I was hoping for an interview here since I heard that this school likes high MCATs. Mount Sinai is in a unique area and would have been a great place to learn. It's right between the upper east side and harlem and it has a really nice free clinic. I volunteered here during high school and I would loved to have come back.
New York University - "Interviews end at the end of January. Wish I had a chance to interview since Langone is very well kn..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 8/31/2011
- Secondary Completed: 9/13/2011
- Interview Invite: No
- Interview Attended: No
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Interviews end at the end of January. Wish I had a chance to interview since Langone is very well known, especially for surgery.
Attended Interview, Rejected
SUNY Upstate - "I wasn't very impressed with the news that they were having trouble with their accreditation and I g..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/20/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/3/2011
- Interview Invite: 8/8/2011
- Interview Attended: 9/28/2011
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
I wasn't very impressed with the news that they were having trouble with their accreditation and I guess I let it show in the interview. The facilities seemed run down and the class splits up in the 3rd and 4th year. The area wasn't that great. However, the people at the school were really nice and it seemed like they were a really tight-knit community. It was probably the friendliest school I've been to, although interview day impressions don't mean much.
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/22/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/1/2011
- Interview Invite: 8/9/2011
- Interview Attended: 9/19/2011
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
It has nice research, a lot of money and great facilities. You can spend an extra year doing research. They also have a lot of international opportunities. Rent for 300 dollars a month in a really nice, spacious room is pretty awesome. The neighborhood wasn't great and it is appreciably far from Manhattan although it's an easy train ride into the city. There's also a pretty nice clinical skills area. All in all, a fine school.
Albany Medical College - "Screening is done until March, interviews are conducted through late April. I had no ethics question..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 8/8/2011
- Secondary Completed: Yes
- Interview Invite: 2/28/2012
- Interview Attended: 4/19/2012
- Waitlisted: No
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Screening is done until March, interviews are conducted through late April. I had no ethics questions, despite the fact that the interview feedback emphasizes it so much. Didn't like this place too much and they charge a ton of money. Tuition also rises quickly here. I didn't hear from them until late February and it was one of the last interviews so I figured they didn't care about me that much. I didn't prepare as much as I did early in the cycle. The people running the tour guide were nice enough and the classrooms were okay but I didn't like this school, not that it mattered.
Attended Interview, Waitlisted
SUNY Downstate - "Put on Hold for Spring Consideration.
Alternate List 06/04/2012
hoping to hear soon"
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 8/9/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/10/2011
- Interview Invite: 12/19/2011
- Interview Attended: 1/23/2012
- Waitlisted: 3/6/2012
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Put on Hold for Spring Consideration.
Alternate List 06/04/2012
hoping to hear soon
Attended Interview, Waitlisted, Rejected
New York Medical College - "Lovely area, lovely people. It's a bit far from the city but it has a beautiful campus. The anatomy ..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/27/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/8/2011
- Interview Invite: 8/29/2011
- Interview Attended: 10/5/2011
- Waitlisted: 11/28/2011
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
Lovely area, lovely people. It's a bit far from the city but it has a beautiful campus. The anatomy lab is gorgeous and on the top floor of its building.
Didn't make it off their waitlist but I'm very happy where I am.
SUNY Stony Brook - "They over-accept and it looks like the high priority waitlist is barely moving. It was a very nice s..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 8/22/2011
- Secondary Completed: 9/29/2011
- Interview Invite: 11/15/2011
- Interview Attended: 12/6/2011
- Waitlisted: 1/25/2012
- Accepted: No
Summary of Experience:
They over-accept and it looks like the high priority waitlist is barely moving. It was a very nice school and one of my top choices but i'm not holding out much hope.
Accepted off Waitlist
SUNY Buffalo - "First interview and first acceptance. I got in off of the Middle Third by email (right before they s..."
Combined PhD/MSTP: No
- Submitted: 7/16/2011
- Secondary Completed: 8/1/2011
- Interview Invite: 8/5/2011
- Interview Attended: 9/14/2011
- Waitlisted: 10/14/2011
- Accepted: 6/8/2012
Summary of Experience:
First interview and first acceptance. I got in off of the Middle Third by email (right before they switched to phone acceptances). It's a little far but I'm very glad to have gotten in.
Summary of Application Experience
Verified 07/14/2011. Letters were sent out by my school near the end of July.
I was planning on a reapplication at the end of June, early July 2012 if I didn't hear back from any schools by then.
