Application Cycle One: 2009

• Undergraduate college: good school
• Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences

• Total MCAT SCORE: 524
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 132, C/P 130, CARS 132   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.90
• Science GPA: 3.93

Summary of Application Experience

Pros/Cons of all the schools I interviewed at:

Michigan
+: Weekly flextime quizzes, Michigan football (!), college town with lots of great food, great clinical reputation, amazing technology, lots of flexibility in the first two years
-: Weather is absolutely awful, huge class size (tends to get cliquey, research slots are more competitive), some 4th years mentioned it\'s difficult to get back into CA if you\'re in a competitive specialty, and I didn\'t get any scholarship money :(

WashU
+: Amazing facilities, great clinical training, CWE has some good stuff going on, the school really spoils its students with funding, tons of research opportunities
-: Biggest negative by far is the students I met there. I know the rep of WashU students being high scoring machines without lives is just a stereotype, but I found it to be kind of true. I\'m sure there\'s probably a good mix of normal people, too, but many of the students I met seemed very...naive and lacking maturity. Many of them struck me as the type of student that went through all of the premed motions without really thinking about it or questioning themselves and just happened to do really well in school. In short, I guess I got the sense that they sort of lacked \"passion\" compared to students at some of the other schools I visited

Ohio State
+: Really down to earth, normal students. tOSU football! And Columbus is a pretty cool college town
-: Huge class size, not as great a reputation as other schools that I\'m considering, and somewhat lacking in really groundbreaking research

Pitt:
+: Great facilities, tons of hospitals
-: Graded preclinical, lots of class time/PBL/busy work

Vanderbilt
+: Everything is centrally located, pretty cheap housing, tight-knit student body, happy students, friendly administration/faculty
-: Further from home and more expensive than a similarly regarded school that I got into (UCSD). A scholarship would have made me change my mind, but I didn\'t get one =(

Emory
+: Great students, great curriculum, great training available at Grady.
-: ATL isn\'t my sort of place -- I\'m more of a small-town sort of guy. Also, more expensive and doesn\'t offer more than UCSD would.

UCSD
+: Close to home, absolutely amazing weather throughout the year, new P/F curriculum starting this year, new building the year after that, great clinical training with exposure at many different types of hospitals
-: New curriculum will probably have some kinks to work out, new curriculum actually has MORE required class than the old curriculum (less optional lectures that I would have skipped anyway), and in general, the school seems kind of disorganized.

UCLA:
+: Great rep, great weather, close to home, I know a lot of people who go here, P/F all four years (although with letters of distinction, it\'s pretty much graded for the last two years anyway)
-: Traffic is absolutely miserable in LA, smog sucks, and I didn\'t really like a lot of the students I met (they either seemed like the WashU kids [naive and driven for the \'prestige\' of medicine without really contemplating if they liked it] or the Penn kids (bro-y and all about getting drunk and living in the city)

Penn
+: Happy students,1.5 year curriculum, great clinical training
-: I\'m not a city guy and I don\'t match the \"bro\" stereotype that seems to be common at the school. Also, the students here seemed like a very different type of \"happy\" than the ones at other schools. For example, when I asked some of them what they loved about Penn/why they were so happy, they mentioned things like being able to party in the city a lot, not having to stress out about building their resume (they seemed content to coast on the Penn reputation), and working hard/partying hard. That being said, I was disappointed with the waitlist and things don\'t look optimistic.

Yale
+: Yale System (P/F, optional/anonymous tests), freedom, flexibility, faculty/administration hugely dedicated to students, great mentoring, tons of interdisciplinary research opportunities with other Yale schools, tons of funding, small class size, brilliant way of teaching anatomy (case studies instead of straight rote memorization)
-: Pricey, and I didn\'t get the best financial aid package. Also, cold weather.

Stanford
+: The most insanely impressive students I met, endless funding and research opportunities, great reputation, laid back lifestyle that is a perfect match for my personality, happy + down-to-earth students, flexibility in the curriculum, dedicated faculty and administration, and amazing campus with beautiful weather and tons of college sports!
-: Nothing really, other than I\'m not nearly impressive enough to get in and it was just a tease to invite me to interview here.