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MD Applicants

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  • User #10252

  • Application cycles: 2008
  • Demographics: Male, East Asian
  • Home state: Indiana
  • Last Active: 12/11/2011
  • Brief Profile: Triple major in chemistry, mathematics, Germanic studies at a large public university. Applying MD/PhD only. Below is the (condensed) list of activities entered on the AMCAS.


    * Barry M. Goldwater Scholar
    * 4-year full-ride merit scholarship
    * National Merit Scholar
    * Various institutional and departmental (math and chem) awards
    * Standard state supported scholarships
    * Several summer research fellowships
    * Phi Beta Kappa

    * 2.5 years of molecular neuroscience research. 1 published paper.
    * TA for a 300 level genetics class.
    * Departmental tutor for chemistry

    * Headed up an undergraduate literary magazine
    * Organized discussion panels on writing for aspiring writers
    * Member of a standing student advisory board to the University
    * Served in various leadership roles to the university swing dance club. Also performed on the swing performance team for a while.
    * Habitat for Humanity for 2 years, served on various committees.
    * Dorm-affiliated a capella choir member for ~1 year

    * ER department intern, 30 hours
    * Shadowed an otolaryngolosit, 20 hours
    * Volunteered at local children\'s science museum, 50 hours

    * Semester-long study abroad at a German \'Exzellenzinitiative\' university.
    --
    PSS = Pre-Secondary Sent (only for U. Wash.)
    SR = Secondary Received
    SS = Secondary Sent
    C = Complete
    II = Interview Invite
    I = Interview Date
    Wl = Waitlist
    W = Withdrew
    R = Reject
    A = Accept
  • // Applications //

    Application Cycle One: 2008

    • Undergraduate college: Indiana University Bloomington
    • Undergraduate Area of study: Physical Sciences
    • Total MCAT SCORE: 524
    • MCAT Section Scores: B/B 130, C/P 130, CARS 132  
    • Overall GPA: 3.99
    • Science GPA: 3.99

    Summary of Application Experience

    2008-05-14: AMCAS begun. All but the three essays filled out.

    2008-05-15: Transcripts ordered from both Uni and CC.

    2008-05-22: Uni transcript received by AMCAS.

    2008-06-06: CC transcript re-ordered, this time with both the school's form and the AMCAS form.

    2008-06-09: PS complete. 1 down, 2 to go.

    2008-06-12: CC transcript received by AMCAS (though they didn't tell me until the 16th)

    2008-07-02: 'Why MD/PhD' and research essays written. Ready to submit primary, but still waiting on feedback on my essays from non-invested eyes.

    2008-07-12: Finally submitted everything. PS is an extended metaphor to Goethe's Faust. Why MD/PhD and research essays fairly standard. Waiting on secondaries now.

    2008-08-05: At long last is my primary application verified by AMCAS, with only 3 X'es (all minor). I already started receiving secondaries immediately after submitting, but am expecting more to come shortly. Also, there now exists far more of an incentive to complete secondaries now that they are the limiting reagent.

    2008-08-06: First completion at WashU! For some reason, they wouldn't take my debit card, but it worked after I used another credit card. Not sure why, but just happy now. Have been systematically going through the easy secondaries; anything with an essay of over a 1000 words has been temporarily pushed back, mostly because of writer's block.

    2008-08-12: So I've given up on trying to be creative for my secondary essays. I'm taking the path of just directly answering the question asked in as little words and as direct a manner as possible. It worked out for the last major application I filled out. Crossing my fingers that this tactic won't backfire this time.

    2008-09-11: First interview invites! I got both the WashU MD invite (still waiting to hear on MSTP) and the Cornell/Tri-I MSTP invite this afternoon. Unfortunately, I've been slacking off on secondaries now that school's started, and am only complete at 5 of my 16 schools. Need to get on that soon.

    2008-09-26: So I just got my first rejection, from the WashU MST (by snail mail). Still haven't decided whether or not I'll be doing the MD only interview. Luckily, I've gotten interview invites from three other MSTPs so far of my 7 complete schools, so I'm not too worried yet.

    2008-10-12: I'm definitely growing careless. Upon re-reading my Northwestern secondary, I just realized that either something got mixed up with my file, or I definitely only half-wrote one of the (lesser) essays. Hopefully, they'll overlook that based on all the other essays, but I might have just shot myself in the foot.
    - Furthermore, I'll be late in getting everything complete at both UCSD and UCSF. The Cali schools seem to like setting an arbitrary deadline based on the date I receive the secondary email, and I've just missed both. I'm sending them in anyways, on the off chance I'll be lucky, but I'm not expecting too much.
    - On the upside, I now have only Duke, Vanderbilt, and U. Wash secondaries left, and I'm half done with Vandy. U. Wash. still hasn't sent me a secondary, but I cannot really complain since I just filled out the pre-secondary today.
    - Anyways, wish me luck at Yale next week!

    2008-10-24: Well, I had my first interview at Yale, which turned out relatively well, though jaunting off to interviews is going to wreck so much havoc on my grades this semester. Funny thing, in my second MD/PhD interview, my choice of Goethe's Faust for my personal statement was discussed at length in a favorable way. Seems it caught some people's attention at least.
    - In addition, I've now reached five interview invites total, though Northwestern's dates are not fitting in well with my schedule. At this point, I'm pretty much resigned to not filling out Duke (15 schools is plenty), just because of the amount of extra effort involved, along with the fact that I don't really want just one year of basic sciences.

    2008-12-01: Wow. So much has happened in the past month or so. As it so happens, I ended up getting awarded a major scholarship for study in the U.K. (the press release isn't out yet, so I can't say which one), and so'll be spending two years there before coming back. I've heard mixed things about how medical schools view what will now be a planned deferral, but I figure I'll be honest and inform them what my plans hold.
    - In other news, I've just been racking up the rejections from MSTPs, which isn't all that much fun. Luckily, sometime in the past several months, I stopped worrying about my future so much, so the rejections haven't actually hurt. I figure that there are worse things I could be doing now than trying to decide between my Northwestern and UCSD interviews, both of which have no other dates available. Oh well, thing's could be worse :-P

    2008-12-12: University of Chicago: first acceptance, woot! Additionally, I should add that it was the Marshall Scholarship I won for study abroad in the U.K. ^_^

    2009-01-22: It's been a while since my last update, but I had my Northwestern and Columbia interviews last week, finishing up (or so I thought) my interview season. Both seemed like cool schools, though I did have one extraordinarily odd faculty interviewer at one school, which turned out in some ways to be perhaps more informative than any of my others so far.
    - The reason I'm on the site today though, is that I just now received an UCSD invite. I had been invited earlier, but the date conflicted with Northwestern, and they had no other dates scheduled. Now, however, they've had so many applicants that they are setting up another interview time on the 12th of January. My only regret is that I'll be missing the festivities at my school for Abraham Lincoln's birthday.

    2009-01-23: Well, I sent out my first update letter just recently with an updated transcript, news of a second-author paper that was just accepted, and an inquiry regarding deferrals. More will probably follow; well, I guess we'll see what comes of it.

    2009-03-19: It seems that the application season has ended rather fortuitously for me. Final score: 8 rejections, 2 pre-interview withdrawals, 2 waitlists, and 4 acceptances (counting Harvard HST), with the nice added bonus of the Marshall. It's now decision making time, which is further complicated by the fact that my career ambitions have shifted slightly since the start of this process. Of course, I could have a far more difficult dilemma than choosing amongst Yale, Chicago, and Harvard, so I'm extremely grateful. Oh well, we'll see what happens come 2nd look weekends, and make a decision from there.

    2009-04-06: Well, I've withdrawn from everything except Yale and Chicago now. Though I'm very inclined towards one school, I could see the revisits possibly changing that, so only time will tell.

    2009-04-15: Yale it is ^_^. Chicago required a decision by April 15, which precluded the possibility of a revisit (because of my personal schedule commitments), and I was learning towards Yale before anyways.

    Application Complete, Rejected

    Washington University in St. Louis
    University of Pennsylvania
    Stanford University
    Johns Hopkins University
    University of California, San Francisco
    Vanderbilt University

    Application Complete, Withdrew

    Duke University
    University of Washington

    Attended Interview, Rejected

    Cornell University
    Columbia University

    Attended Interview, Waitlisted, Withdrew

    Northwestern University
    University of California, San Diego

    Accepted

    Indiana University
    Harvard University
    Yale University
    University of Chicago

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