Application Cycle One: 2008

• Undergraduate college: UCLA
• Undergraduate Area of study: Psychology/Social Sciences

• Total MCAT SCORE: 523
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 130, C/P 132, CARS 130   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 4.00
• Science GPA: 4.00

Summary of Application Experience

10/5: Rejected post-secondary from UCSF. W...T...F. I guess you win some and lose some.

10/6: So impressed by Mayo -- in a nation where all med schools are more similar than they are different, Mayo may be the only one that is truly unique!

10/15: Accepted into the University of Michigan -- STOKED!

10/16 : Accepted into Mayo and UCSD :)

11/4/08: Interviewed at Cornell, what a great school -- PBL seems really forward for a curriculum

11/11/08: Accepted at Mt. Sinai--SWEET I CAN GO TO NEW YORK!


12/15/08: Accepted into UCLA SOM. Plenty of tough decisions to come... I'm still dying to hear from Upenn, yale, stanford, and jhu about interviews -- is it too late in the cycle?

12/17/08: Application closed at Pritzker (U Chicago). All i know is that three times along the application cycle people have told me Pritzker is where fun goes to die. Sure, I might be rationalizing this rejection, but it makes me feel a little better :) .

WHERE ARE YOU UPENN/YALE/JHU/STANFORD? I feel like getting rejected from stanford for the 4th time in my life!

12/18/08: Rejected from Warren Alpert (Brown). What a great week.

1/21/09: Rejected Post-secondary from Stanford. I applied early decision with my best friend in high school 4 years ago. Deferred, then rejected. I applied two years later to transfer. Waitlisted, then rejected. Why did I even bother applying again? Oh I know, to get rejected again.

1/26/09: Interview awarded for Irvine, can't see myself going here over any of the schools I have gotten into so I'm withdrawing.

2/27/09: Withdrawing from Albert Einstein (they sent me an interview invite...) But on a crazier note, I got into Weill Cornell!!! I can't believe it. They told us they would send out decisions mid-March, so I was @#$%@#$ when I saw the e-mail!

3/5/09: Columbia's package arrived! Longest/Best acceptance letter. ever. This cycle is unreal.

3/15/09: Found out Harvard's letters were sent out yesterday -- I'm anxious but relieved that the cycle is almost complete.

3/16/09: Apparently acceptance e-mails for new pathway came out at noon western today ...didn't get one...

3/18/09: The HMS rejection came in the mail today -- I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I'd be (but still pretty bummed about it). Well, looks like this cycle is coming to an end. Wash U still hasn't said anything but I don't know if I would go there anyways.

For the next two months I have to decide if I would rather go to Mayo or Columbia (a very hard, but very fortunate position to be in)

3/23/09: Waitlisted at Wash U (Thriver) -- I'll stay on it for kicks

4/30: The last day of April--meaning I have 15 days left until I need to have a decision. I eliminated Cornell (loved it's area compared to Columbia, but the student body wasn't quite on par with Columbia's) and UCLA (if I went to ANY other undergrad I would have chosen here). I revisited Columbia and Mayo and met awesome people and thought both places were different but both great. My issue is that the schools are so different that I will be missing out on a lot going to either school. *pulling out hairs*

5/3: After talking it out with my mom and gf, I decided on going to Columbia. I asked myself where I would go if both Mayo and Columbia were free, and it would hands down have to be columbia. I figure the extra money I'll have to put down at Columbia will be worth the extra fun (as both the city and students are exceptionally conducive to social opportunities). Thanks for following this cycle of mine and good luck to all of yours!

GO COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS! !!!!!!

5/14: I have officially withdrawn from all schools, and walked in a withdrawal letter to UCLA yesterday. However, a HUGE curveball came today when Dean Parker (at UCLA DGSOM) awarded me a merit scholarship in addition to the 5,000 everyone gets. To be honest, I kinda turned down Mayo's ride because of the drop in prestige from Columbia P&S (both medically and layman prestige). But, UCLA is right there with Columbia on prestige and it would be great to save money. Hard decision to come in the next 24 hours...