Application Cycle One: 2008

• Undergraduate college: Wesleyan University
• Undergraduate Area of study: Psychology/Social Sciences

• Institution: Hunter College
• Area of Study: Premedical Studies

• Total MCAT SCORE: 517
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 129, C/P 129, CARS 130   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.74
• Science GPA: 4.00

Summary of Application Experience

This process wasn't as bad as it's often made out to be, though I think being out of college for 5 years at the time helped me feel confident in my applications and myself and that helped keep my stress level down. I submitted my amcas app a little late (mid july) but heard back from lots of schools quickly. I did the entire application process from abroad and in terms of submitting apps that is not a problem. Scheduling interviews was a little hard as I had to fly and take time off work for all of them so I was trying to schedule them together into 3-4 trips. I had this mostly worked out but fortunately interviewed at my top 3 schools first (Mt. Sinai, Yale and Cornell) and heard from Cornell in December and thus was able to cancel all my other interviews and trips as I knew I didn't want to go to any school besides Yale or Sinai over Cornell. In the end I have decided on Yale. It came down to Yale or Cornell in the end, though I think I always leaned heavily toward Yale. Most important for me were the following: New Haven is my hometown, I lived in nyc for many years and am ready to be back near family again; my impression from many students I know at both schools is that older students with a more humanistic, social, public health oriented career interest, like me, are happier at Yale over Cornell; I like the Yale system better--more flexible, self-directed and oriented toward research and finding your own way (though PBL at cornell seemed like it would be great for my learning style) and on the range of med student stress levels I think yale is a little lower than cornell. Mt. Sinai is a great school, I have some really amazing friends there also and East Harlem is an exciting place to work in the health field. The Dean was really, really cool in the interview day, he has a great perspective on medical education. However, there are a lot more resources, funding etc at a school like Yale or Cornell, not to mention the doors those schools open for you. As much as I wish it weren't true, a lot of people (from a range of med schools) advised me to go to the highest ranking/most prestigous school you get into, or the one that gives you the most money, and alas Sinai is neither of those. All these are quite subjective and people might have the complete opposite impressions of these two schools! I'm super excited to go to Yale, and am really thankful that this process went so smoothly.