Life: -Taught English in Japan -Lived in Thailand for a time -Worked as a translator -5 years medical device experience -Former career as an engineering consultant for several device companies -3 years clinical experience with direct patient contact and management
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 09/21/2009
Undergraduate college: Pittsburgh
Undergraduate Area of study: Engineering/Technology
Institution: Pittsburgh
Area of Study: Engineering/Technology
Degree Obtained: MS Bioengineering
Total MCAT SCORE: 513
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 129,
C/P 129,
CARS 126
Overall GPA: 3.40
Science GPA: 3.30
Summary of Application Experience
AMCAS Verified 10/08/2009
Because of the plethora of grades on my transcript and the fact that I retook several courses, AMCAS originally failed to verify my transcripts correctly. I was truly dismayed because at first I was told that they would not correct the discrepancies on my transcripts. After much phone calling the errors were corrected, resulting in my AMCAS BCPM GPA going from a 2.8 to a 3.5. Double check your applications! And my thanks to the supervisor who helped me!
Cost of applying to medical school:
MCAT prep books: $540 MCAT practice exams: $300 MCAT: $260 AMCAS Primary application: $510 Secondary Applications: $810 Travel to Iowa: $300 Travel to Minnesota: $260 Travel to GW: $305 Travel to Drexel: $280 =======================
Total cost of applying: $3805
Factor in the 34 days of missed work I needed to travel and study and this was a really brutal process.
Best travel experience: Mara Determan and the AKK house at Iowa. Iowa will always be special whether I end up there or not. Worst travel experience: Trying to make it to Philly for Drexel during Smowmageddon. Most impressive facilities: UI for the student clusters, UMN for the hospital system tied. Least impressive facilities: GW\'s \"student lounge\". Best staff interactions: UMN and UI, tied. Honorable mention: Marshall Worst staff interactions: NYMC. Best organized office: UI by far Worst organized office: Drexel Best road food: Home cooking in Waconia Worst road food: Chili\'s in Milwaukee, trying to make it to Drexel Best advice: \"Apply now or you\'ll regret it!\" Worst advice: \"Go for a PhD\" Best MCAT Prep materials: ExamKrackers, all of it. 9 point jump in practice test scores. Worst MCAT Prep materials: Princeton Review. Books just didn\'t suit my study style and I didn\'t retain any of it. Wasted a year with these.
Some final thoughts: -Apply early, it\'s worth it. I think I might have had a few more interviews if I had gotten in early in the cycle. -I was pretty disappointed in my MCAT score. In practice I\'d regularly been putting up 37s based on high PS and VR scores. I had a bad day on VR, that\'s really all I can say. For the other sections of the MCAT make sure you are familiar with every possible subject. There\'s no worse feeling than the one you get when you\'re unprepared.
Applied, Rejected
University of California, Irvine
Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: 09/28/2009
Secondary Completed: No
Interview Invite: No
Interview Attended: No
Waitlisted: No
Accepted: No
Rejected: 03/08/2010
Summary of Experience:
Rejected before secondary, no email sent. Found out by checking status on website.
6 months later they sent the official rejection. 4600 apps to UC Irvine this year.
Summary of Experience:
Admissions office was very rude on phone, secondary submission system extremely difficult to use. No essays on secondary. Chose not to submit secondary.
Summary of Experience:
12/20/2009 - \"The Committee on Admissions reviewed your application but has not invited you for an interview at this time. Additional reviews will occur...\"
I called to figure out if this was a hold email, a pooling because of the holidays or if I should take this as a rejection. At first the woman said \"Probably you\'re rejected\" but later said \"You might be rejected or interviewed I can\'t say\" so I\'m reading between the lines and assuming this is a rejection until I know otherwise.
- Now that I\'m in at Iowa I\'m counting these guys as a rejection.
- Penn sent me three different rejection emails, none of which actually said I was rejected. I get the point guys, really.
Summary of Experience:
I\'ve been under review for months, so I\'m moving this to the rejection pile. I went a little long on my essays but I guess it didn\'t help my case. I wish I had applied earlier.
Summary of Experience:
Sat \"Under Review\" for months, sent several updates and ended up on a first-name basis with some of the people answering the phones... rejected by email. :-P
Summary of Experience:
Interview invite for February 2010. Thank you Drexel! High hopes for love from my home state! One of the fellows I work with is a Drexel product.
Interview scheduled for the 7th of February but I had to postpone due to weather. Rescheduling was more difficult than I thought and Drexel didn\'t seem to have much sympathy for my situation. In the meantime I was accepted to UMN. With UMN and Iowa I had acceptances from my two top schools. Withdrew via email
Summary of Experience:
-Small pooled March 2, 2010; three and a half months after going complete. Wow!
-Moving this to the reject pile after a month in the small pool. Definitely could have applied earlier as my app probably wasn\'t even read till the end of the cycle.
- Interview invite but I\'m already looking for apartments in Minnesota and Iowa. No reason to waste anyone\'s time.
Summary of Experience:
-Marshall doesn\\\'t review OOS apps till Dec 1. They then interview them in a batch around February and pick their favorite 20-25 for admission.
-Director Warren is very charming and helpful
-Withdrew from interview with Iowa acceptance after discussing it with fiancee. She felt job prospects and lifestyle would be better for her in Iowa so I withdrew from Marshall. Hope someone makes the best of my interview slot. Very nice people!
Summary of Experience:
11/23/09 Application placed on Hold three days after secondary confirmed received. Assuming rejection.
11/27/09 \\\"Your application has been reviewed and you will receive notification through email.\\\" Still presuming rejection.
11/30/09 Invited to interview! Very excited!
-Enjoyed my interview day. Would be very happy to get an acceptance here, though the facilities weren\'t the greatest. They get a huge number of applications so to make the interview cut gives me some confidence.
-Waitlisted. I wouldn\'t take GW over Iowa or UMN so I withdrew.
Untraditional took the old MCAT and scored a 32 which is in the 88th percentile of all old scores.
We converted this to a 513 on the updated scale which is in the 89th percentile of the updated MCAT. We also converted Untraditional’s section scores as follows:
Untraditional scored a 11 on the Biological Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 129 on the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems.
Untraditional scored a 12 on the Physical Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 129 on the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems.
Untraditional scored a 9 on the Verbal Reasoning section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 126 on the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills.
