Background/Education: Former college drop out, originally a history major. (Absolutely intrigued by Holocaust and WWII history). GPA upon pursuing medical career: ~3.1. No science courses taken at that point.
Currently fourth year chemistry major with 4.0 gpa in all science courses taken at current university.
Research: -6 semesters student research assistant in bioanalytical chemistry -2 summers paid student research assistant -3 poster presentations at statewide symposiums, 1 poster at a national conference, 1 poster at a regional conference, and 1 poster presentation at an ACS western states conference, 2 oral presentations -1 first author publication.
Clinical: -1.5 years (>1000 hours) of ER experience at a Level II trauma center working closely with physicians. As my job involves seeing patients with them, it\'s sort of like paid shadowing.
Extracurriculars/Leadership: -3 year President of a volunteer club (Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, and various other volunteer events) -1 year ACS student affiliates vice president -2 year PreMed club member -2 semesters teaching assistant for US history. Gave 2 self prepared 30 minute lectures. -1 semester teaching assistant for intro psych class. -3 semesters organic and general chemistry tutoring. -1 semester tutoring jr high/high school students enrolled in schools failing to meet state testing standards.
Awards: 2008- 3 scholarships 2009- 1 scholarship, American Chemical Society Analytical Student of the Year
Thoughts: -My obvious weakness is verbal reasoning. I scored better in all 3 sections on practice exams, averages were 34-37. Was ridiculously nervous during my MCAT and thought I failed physical sciences. As such, I almost walked out of the exam, but decided to finished. Ironically, physical sciences still ended up being my highest section, but my VR left much to be desired.
______________________________________________________________________ Abbreviation key: SR: secondary received SS: secondary sent C: complete II: interview invite (scheduled interview date in parentheses) R: rejected A: accepted WL: wait list H: hold
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/25/2009
Undergraduate college: Generic University
Undergraduate Area of study: Physical Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 472
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 118,
C/P 118,
CARS 118
Overall GPA: 3.52
Science GPA: 3.96
Summary of Application Experience
06/26/09- AMCAS submitted, transcripts sent mid-June
06/27/09- AACOMAS submitted, transcripts sent mid-June
07/17/09- AMCAS verified
07/23/09- -I am a little apprehensive of all that may unfold. This is a scary process. There are so many qualified people. I hope my essays are making the cut. I am not that terribly great of a writer and hope that my eagerness and sincerity are showing through. :(
07/25/09- Jefferson and U of Minn added. Cast a broad net right?
07/30/09- -Jefferson sent. -UCLA received my application today, but has not extended me a secondary application request. Oh well. C\\\'est la vie! On a related note, I feel burned out with secondary applications and I have only completed 10. :-/. I am completely overthinking these prompts and as such, it is taking me FOREVER to finish each one.
07/31/09- -UCLA secondary received today. I guess they didn\\\'t screen me out :)
8/4/09- -AACOMAS verified (Finally!). -Took a few days off of secondary essay writing (amazing) and just worked.
8/5/09- -Indiana state rejection. Oh well.
8/7/09- -UCLA secondary sent-This was the longest secondary to date. I did enjoy some of the prompts though. :) I am learning so much about myself through this application process and rediscovering things I had completely forgotten about. I think my biggest weakness right now is my MCAT score and am thinking I should have done some of my AMCAS things a little differently. If I have to reapply next year (fingers crossed that I don\\\'t) at least I know what I have to improve upon.
8/12/09- -I am getting poor. REEEAAALLLY poor. I have paid for almost all my allopathic applications and am beginning to receive my osteopathic ones. I can\\\'t believe how much I\\\'ve spent during this process so far. I have three MD secondary invites in my inbox right now and two DO ones. I am inclined to pay for the three MD ones first since the allopathic schools have a closer deadline (I am hoping since the DO schools have later deadlines, it means that the spots don\\\'t get filled as fast). I don\\\'t get my financial aid money for 2009-2010 until August 28th at the earliest so IDK.
I don\\\'t know how much assessing the admissions committees have done on my file thus far, but I have been doing some extensive self-assessing lately. If only I knew at the beginning of my journey what I do now. I keep thinking about this, that, and the other. I guess that\\\'s life though. Hindsight is always 20/20 (As compared to my actual visual acuity which is progressively deteriorating, but that\\\'s another issue). I hope to get in this year, but have decided that if I don\\\'t, things will be okay. I\\\'ve lived a pretty good life so far and I really can\\\'t complain.
On a different note, I can\\\'t wait until school starts for the fall. All my senior chemistry classes are here. Yikes. I remember being completely new to the major and seeing the seniors walk around talking about pchem or instrumental analysis and being completely freaked out by it. Now I am one of those seniors (if we were strictly speaking of units i guess i\\\'ve been one for quite some time) and look forward to being challenged.
10/09- Interviewed at U of A- Phoenix. Absolutely loved it there! The dean, staff, students (everyone really) were all very nice and I just liked the feel of this school. I hope I get in here.
Looking back at the previous things I have written, I just think, wow, what a nutcase I was during the summer. It\'s a stressful process, definitely, but I have decided to employ a more go-with-the-flow approach to this cycle. I can only do so much. The rest is out of my hands, so there is no use in fretting. I am going to take it one day at a time, finish up my degree, and learn some drums in the process. :)
