26 year old graduate with a B.S. in Chemistry from a University of California school. Straight out of college, I wasn\'t 100% sure I wanted to do medicine and the sacrifices that came with the job. I got hired at one of my old college jobs as a Sales assistant with the prospect of leading my own sales team. I wanted to give business a shot and see where it could take me. However, after only 6 months I realized that it just wasn\'t for me and I went back to volunteering and shadowing to revist my old interest in medicine. I quickly fell in love and knew that I wanted to be a physician. I am currently planning to marry my long-time girlfriend of 5.5 years (she\'s an RN) and we don\'t plan on having children at this point.
Since I am from California with sub-optimal stats, I\'m applying to all OOS schools that I can. I have a great MCAT of 33 but my GPA lacks hard due to poor performance and poor decisions during my 1st and 2nd year at UC. I have applied to 19 DO schools this cycle. Right now I\'m interested in anesthesiology as my background is in chemistry, but I\'m keeping an open mind and I\'m sure I\'ll change my mind at least a few times during the four year education. I hope I get in this year as I\'m already 26, and will be 27 before matriculation (I hope this cycle is nice to me).
AACOMAS cGPA: 3.14 AACOMAS sGPA: 2.96
(Irritated that AACOMAS counts college courses I took during high school. I would have over a 3.0 sGPA if they didn\'t)
I lead a small team of volunteer rescuers made up of people who have lost pets in the past. We work with people who have lost their beloved family members and put into action a plan to spread witness development.
I volunteered to do hospice care for terminally ill patients but I wasn\'t given much opportunity to actually interact with patients due to living far away from actual patient\'s homes.
Shadowed a Primary Care D.O. at a VA Clinic for 20 hours. Did this for the D.O. Letter Requirement for LECOM and to also recognize any difference between MD and DO in a primary care setting.
Worked with physicians and RNs to change all of the handwritten charts into computerized charts. I never had direct patient contact so I put this as community service.
Love snowboarding. I go every winter if I can. I\'ve made trips to tahoe, mammoth, and utah (all >6 hour drives) just to snowboard in different communities.
Currently I\'m missing around ~3 credits for Biology so I plan to enroll at a local community college in the Fall 2011 to complete this requirement. I also plan to retake a few courses for grade replacement. I want to take them at a 4-yr but the cost is too much for me currently. I\'ll take what I can get. Hopefully my high MCAT proves that I can handle the subjects and I\'m not just taking the easy way out.
I didn\'t realize that some schools require a D.O. letter of rec so I\'m working on finding a D.O. that I can shadow and get a letter from. *** Update: Added this D.O. Letter after I submitted my application **
Looking into volunteering at a local soup kitchen or another healthcare activity to keep up my motivation to pursue medicine and keep myself busy during this application cycle. ** Update: Started volunteering at the local homeless shelter\'s food kitchen on the weekend. Also went back to the VA Emergency Department and have been volunteering there.
Letter of Recommendation
1. Obtained excellent letter of recommendation from the PCP MD that I shadowed. He is a mentor to me now and I believe his letter carries a lot of weight. 2. Science: Letter from a highly acclaimed professor at UC and I got A\'s in both of the classes he taught. I believe he wrote favorably about me, but he did express some concern about my unfortunate 1st and 2nd year. 3. Science: Letter from a professor that I received an A- in his class. He was not very talkative during the whole process but I believe he wrote me a favorable letter, but its probably not very strong. 4. DO: ADDED LATE. After I submitted my application, I shadowed a primary care D.O. at the Veteran\'s Affairs hospital. I got to know him over the course of 2 months and I believe he wrote me a great letter of recommendation. I set it out to all my schools as soon as I had received it into Interfolio
MCAT Prep
I followed SDN\'s 90 day technique, but expanded it to about four months. I studied hard everyday, reviewing a lot of material that I had forgotten since I took the MCAT years after my pre-req classes. I was getting 32-36\'s on practice tests and landed a 33Q on the real deal (PS 13 BS 10 V 10, Q) I was super surprised from the PS13 due to the fact that my BS was always higher than PS during the practices.
Cost of Application
AACOMAS: 19 DO schools - $751 AMCAS: - $160 (submitted + withdrawn for refund)
Travel Costs: $1098 LECOM-E = $430 flight, $62 hotel, (+ $100 lost at airport changing flights) AZCOM = $130 car rental, $120 in gas, $226 hotel (stayed all weekend with teh woman)
Interview Attire: $1175 Suit = Brooks Brothers Milano Flannel Grey 42R ($550) Tie = Navy Pindot ($21 Tiebar.com) Shirt = Brooks Brothers White XSlim ($80) Shoes = Allen Edmonds Park Avenue Black Captoe ($353) Belt = Allen Edmonds Calfskin ($96.81) Pocket Square = White Linen ($20 Kent Wang) Garment Bag = $35 on Amazon. Leatherbound Folder = Staples ($20)
================================== Total so far = $4004
Sheesh. Process isn\'t cheap!
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/27/2011
Undergraduate college: University of California
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
10/17: Arrived at AZCOM in the morning. Psyching myself out the whole day trying to prepare for the interview. The facilities were nice and the students looked happy. I like the use of technology in the classrooms, but I hope they can get the faculty to record their lectures before 2012. Cafeteria was nice, and plenty of things to do to relax. Tuition is high, but I\'d be happy to pay it. It was HOT too. My interview went pretty well, I was last due to my last name. We had some laughs, and 20 min flew by. One of the interviewers even said \"Wow, it\'s been 20 min already?\" so I took that as a good thing. Afterwards, packed up and drove home. Stopped at a gas station and checked the student portal and saw the Accepted Student Checklist. I couldn\'t believe it.
10/18: Withdrew from most of the other schools and canceled my pending interviews. I\'m really glad to have been accepted to my #2 school, now I can concentrate on that #1: Western Pomona. Looking up Letters of Interest and going to send out a polished draft at the end of the week. Really want to get an Interview Invite here, but if I do end up matriculating to AZCOM, I would be really really happy.
10/19: Woke up to an LMU-DCOM voicemail with an interview invite. Going to have to call em back today to cancel it and withdraw my application. It\'s nice to still get interview invites though :D
11/2: Mailed my Update Letter (Letter of Interest) to Western. Hope something good comes from it!
11/8: Emailed Robin at Western to make sure they received my letter and my D.O. letter of recommendation. She said they didn\'t get the new LOR! Time to resubmit that asap. Also received an email back from Terry at AZCOM. He said I\'m going to be in the LA rotation site for my third year! This is a major plus.
11/20: Robin @ Western finally confirmed my DO LOR today. Now waiting for that precious interview invite. Nothing else I can do except wait now.
11/21: Rejection letter from CCOM today. Not really surprised but joke\'s on them, I\'m still going to Midwestern (in Arizona!) which is in a better location for me.
12/15: All Quiet on the WESTERN Front. Get it.. huehuehue. I contacted Robin at Western\'s Admissions to see if they had a chance to review my update letter and new letter of recommendation. She said that they have not yet gone back through applicants they have put on hold.. and doesn\'t even know if they WILL. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF I hope so....
1/25: My cycle is officially over. Received an email from Robin at Western saying that I was no longer being considered for an interview. Bittersweet ending. I would have loved to get an interview at Western but at least now I know for sure I\'m moving to Arizona for AZCOM. It will help me better plan my next few months. I hope to see everyone at AZCOM next year!
Applied
West Virginia (D.O.)
Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: 06/27/2011
Secondary Completed: No
Interview Invite: No
Interview Attended: No
Waitlisted: No
Accepted: No
Rejected: No
Summary of Experience:
Decision Deffered since I\'m not from the area.
Summary of Experience:
Very unimpressed with this school. No email, No Phone call, No Letter. I was basically notified of my rejection by having my access to the online portal blocked. I tried to login one day and all it said was \"You are currently not being considered as a prospective student.\" Wow. Just wow.
