Undergraduate Area of study: Engineering/Technology
Total MCAT SCORE: 514
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 130,
C/P 128,
CARS 126
Overall GPA: 3.20
Science GPA: 3.40
Summary of Application Experience
I'm finally making one of these after the application season is over. I went to a rather reputable undergraduate institution and picked probably the most difficult major possible. I was told by advisors, professors, and peers that I'd never get into medical school with my GPA. This process has made me laugh, it's made me cry, but overall, it's made me mature more than I could have believed. It's taught me to be realistic yet to dream at the same time.
If I have any advice for future applicants, it is this:
1. Believe in yourself, but realize how random and arbitrary this process can be. I know tons of great applicants who were rejected pre-interview from top schools. And then I get interviews from Case and Hopkins? Who knows. I thought interviewing was a TON of fun, and really enjoyed meeting so many great people at the different schools. First, I read 'The Medical School Interview' by Dr. Jeremiah Fleenor, which I thought was great preparation, despite the grammatical error on the first page. Once you get to the interview, I think a lot of it depends on your interviewer's personality and how well they will represent you at the committee meeting. I had a very strange, then just kind of boring let's-just-read-the-questions-off-my-sheet interviewers a few places. I knew that they weren't the ones who were going to be convincing the schools to accept me. Where I was accepted, I really clicked with my interviewer and could tell that he and I BOTH wanted me to be accepted and sure enough, it happened.
2. Stay positive. Don't let the rejections get to you. At my Case interview early on in September, the Director of Admissions told us that 95% of the students Case interviews are ultimately accepted to SOME medical school (MD). Those long months of waiting afterwards, that statistic stuck in my mind and I kept thinking, please let me be in that 95%!
3. Have a great backup plan. I ended up applying to a 1-yr masters program at Tulane. After being accepted in early March, I was psyched about moving to New Orleans and doing something new. Knowing I would be doing SOMETHING cool next year, if not medical school, lifted a huge weight off my back. Then, being accepted in April just seemed too good to be true.
