Brief Profile:
(03.09.11) Well now that it\'s getting toward the end of the cycle I\'ve decided to update my profile with all of my extracurriculars and activities. I have included the length of time that I have participated in these activities up until this point in my gap year. I graduated in Summer 2010 with a degree in Physiology and a minor in Spanish Linguistics. I worked close to full time during school and took a while to find my stride in college which is why my GPA is less than amazing, but I did a fair amount to salvage it my last two years as I had a very strong upward trend, particularly in upper-division science courses.
Clinical: 9-1-1 response ambulance- EMT-Basic, Field Training Officer, Quality Improvement Supervisor (3.5 years, paid) Student-run Medical Non-Profit Group- Chief Development Officer- worked domestically and internationally (1.5 years, volunteer) Shadowed an Orthopedic Surgeon (8 hours, didn\'t include on app)
Research: Principal Investigator for a CPR study (1 year) Research Coordinator/Team leader for another CPR project (7 months)
Teaching: Clinical Skills Instructor for UCLA DGSOM (1.5 years off and on) Independent tutoring for high-schooler (6 months)
Other: Christian Fellowship- Bible Study Leader (5 years) a few misc. awards and hobbies. Strong LORs Study abroad
Summary: Strengths- leadership and teaching experience, MCAT Weaknesses- research (too little too late for most places, got a very late start); GPA. Gap year= ambulance, tutoring, volunteering, research. I applied very broadly as I was not sure how my CA apps would turn out. All my apps were completed by Sep. 1
I hope this helps some of you as you apply so you can see where I did and did not receive any love. Best of luck.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/30/2010
Undergraduate college: UCLA
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 520
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 131,
C/P 129,
CARS 129
Overall GPA: 3.67
Science GPA: 3.55
Summary of Application Experience
It\\\'s been pretty brutal thus far.
10/19/10 well, it\'s been a lot better recently. I\'m noticing that interview invites seem to come in on Tuesdays for me. 5 of 6 have come on Tuesdays. The problem with this process is that I start to notice stupid little patterns. Probably my own neurosis haha. In other news, completely blessed with some Chicago invites recently. Dear California, please show me some love because I am running out of money. Love, Your Native Son.
12/15/10 Wow. I have been super blessed with so much good news. Even still though, it\'s been very quiet recently. A little too quiet, if you ask me. My application continues to hang on despite the fact that I was complete most places forever ago. I have survived waves of rejections at UMich, Cornell, and Stanford, though I suspect that they are coming soon as I don\'t know how much of a shot I have at those places. I\'m pretty sure that Stanford letter just got lost in the mail. We shall see though. I plan on withdrawing at a number of places at the end of this week as I have been blessed with two acceptances. One of those withdrawals will be at RFUCMS because I really did not enjoy my time at the school. The people and facilities are all very nice, but for many key reasons, the school was not a good fit for me. Hopefully I\'ll continue to hear some more good news from everywhere else!
2/9/11 I am now \"officially\" assuming my rejection at a few of the non-rolling schools, since I haven\'t been invited and most of them stopped interview invites at the end of January. I am still hanging on at UC Davis and USC, but I am not too confident they will turn around with positive news in the last few weeks that they are sending out invites. I am super blessed to have received an interview at UCSD, which is right now tied for number one on my list with UCLA. I am praying that UCLA comes around with positive news on the 15th as it has been a long and grueling wait. Hopefully my decision isn\'t pushed back until March 15th or I won\'t know what to do with myself.
Summary of Experience:
Well I figured that since I hadn\'t heard in a long time that CU wasn\'t going to come back with positive news. I really liked the school, but there\'s no way I would have gone here given the fact that their OOS tuition is ridiculous. I thought the interview had gone better since my interviewer said she would fight for me at the meeting. C\'est la vie.
