Brief Profile:
Honor Societies/Awards: Phi Beta Kappa Alpha Gamma Sigma Phi Theta Kappa International Golden Key Honor Society National Deans' List (2001-2004)
Extracurricular Activties: Played vioin for 8 years, performing solo and with the ensemble.
2 years of dance and will continue studying ballet at California Ballet School
2 years of drawing/painting. I also took a course where I got to travel to Italy and France to study the art and architecture.
Teaching Experience: Served as head TA twice for lower division biology course and once for structural biochemistry.
Designed and taught a course called ' Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology' to high school students in association with UCSD. I will teach the course again in July 2006.
Research Experience: Worked as a lab assistant for half a year and got fed up with being the Cinderella of the lab. I then went for a Master's and got 2 more years of research experience as a student researcher in a developmental neurobiology lab. Discovered new role for GABA and glutamate; project will be published in the future either in Neuroscience, Science, Neurobiology, or Nature.
Conferences: Presented poster at Society for Neuroscience conference.
Hospital Experience: 1.5 years as volunteer at Orthopedics Unit.
Community Servive: Violin benefit concert Tutored students in association with the International Rescue Committee.
Languages: fluent English fluent Russian 2 years of Latin 1 year of German 1 year of Italian Will take intermediate German and 1 year of Spanish in 2006-2007 academic year.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 2006
Undergraduate college: UCSD
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Institution: UCSD
Area of Study: Biological/Life Sciences
Degree Obtained: BS
Institution: UCSD
Area of Study: Biological/Life Sciences
Degree Obtained: MS
Total MCAT SCORE: 505
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 127,
C/P 127,
CARS 124
Overall GPA: 3.83
Science GPA: 3.70
Summary of Application Experience
FINAL COMMENTS: Wow! What a journey to getting into medical school. I really could not have imagined a better experience: 9 interview invites, got accepted on the first day med schools offered acceptances :10/16- lots of fun. I couldn't imagine that I would have to withdraw from interviews on account of acceptances. My advice is that it is crucial to apply early! I submitted my application on 6/6/06 (mwahaha) and got all of my secondaries in by the end of July (more or less). I ended up withdrawing from the other schools because it was January and I hadn't heard from them. Also, I was very excited about going to U of R or UC Davis and really have to say that getting everything done well on time took the stress out of the process. Phew! Good luck Y'all!
9/12-- What is with the holds? Just reject me and take me out of my misery. Damn MCAT VR!! So close and yet so far. I feel that if the adcom thinks the applicant is iffy then they shouldn't keep them around.
9/14- So happy about another interview! Chicago Medical School is awesome!
9/15- rejection bites (Mayo)! Well, like my super awesome doctor said: when applying to medical school, the pile of rejections knows no limits but the pile of acceptance is down to 2 schools at best. Woof!
9/21- I had my interview at Rochester. My first interview was 1:10 hr and the second one was one hour long. I hope everything worked out well, because I really want to go to Rochester. We shall see-- at worst, I will be calling and bothering people if I am waitlisted.
9/24-- I got invited for UCD! I love getting those awesome e-mails where the heading says: Invitied for Interview!! I'm getting addicted to checking my e-mail just for that particular notification.
9/28- Invitation from Dartmouth!! I'm speechless and my interview will be on Halloween!!
10/13-- In the morning, my mom told me I got rejected from UCSF, which was fine but still rejections stinks. However, an hour later I received an e-mail invitation from AECOM and was ecstatic!! MWAHAHA, not feeling down anymore!
10/17-- Yesterday, I had my interview at VCU and it went very well. The doctor I was interviewing with was very nice and a very kind person who said she hoped to see me at VCU next year. I was really happy and when I got back to the hotel, my dad called at 9pm telling me that University of Rochester had left me a message to call them back. I called them this morning to find out that I have been accepted!!! It is one of my top choices, so most likely I will be attending. I'm gonna be a doctor!!!!!! ' Ehhhh, what's up, doc?' Sadly, I am withdrawing from my interview at AECOM. I don't think it is fair to hog other interview spots from other students if I know that I would be interviewing there just for fun at this point. Anyways, my advice is to apply early!!!! It is sooooo nice not to freak out and worry until May 15th to figure out where I will be going. I should know from the rest of the schools about their decision in December. However, I will most likely be withdrawing my app from the schools that have not contacted me yet.
10/21- I thought my interview at NYMC was completely stupid. They didn't seem to really even try to find out what kind of person I am. I definitely don't want to go to a med school like that. I'm also going to be withdrawing interviews from other places. Rochester is awesome!
10/25- I swear, I have a 6th sense about getting interview invites. I start checking my e-mail like crazy because I can feel an invite coming. I got the Penn State invitation and want to visit there. My sister will be applying to an Econ. PhD program there so we shall see how things go.
11/2-- I loved the interview day at Dartmouth! The interviews themselves were nothing to talk about, but I liked the students, the campus, etc.
12/15- Rejected from Dartmouth without waitlisting. I'm kind of not surprised because I did not feel that the interviewers were interested in me and I really can't remember much about the interview. Anytime I wanted to delve into a topic with more depth I was constantly cut-off. Also, they make their interviews only 30 min long. Something tells me they already know ahead of time which students they are interested in but probably interview a variety of applicants to fill a quota or something. My advice is the following: if your MCAT isn't ab fab then even if you get an interview there, just cancel! DMS, although similar in ranking to U of R, is numbers obsessed. So, unless you're sporting a 34 on that exam don't even bother. Thus far, I will rank my interviews from best to worst: 1) U of R 2) VCU 3) UCD (good interview experience- very nice student and faculty interviewers) 4) DMS 5) NYMC I have always been myself during all of my interviews and do not get nervous. It's just luck if you get interviewers who like you or those who don't.
1/3- Wow! Got an interview invite from the University of Vermont. I wish I could go to the interview, but have already been accepted to medical schools and feel like there would be no point in going.
Applied, Rejected
Vanderbilt University
Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: Yes
Secondary Completed: No
Interview Invite: No
Interview Attended: No
Waitlisted: No
Accepted: No
Rejected: Yes
Summary of Experience:
rejected pre-secondary--what's in tenessee?