Application Cycle One: 06/20/2011

• Undergraduate college: MIT
• Undergraduate Area of study: Engineering/Technology

• Total MCAT SCORE: 517
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 129, C/P 129, CARS 130   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.39
• Science GPA: 3.25

Summary of Application Experience

As a Texas resident, I applied both AMCAS and TMDSAS.
My pre-health advisor recommendation took a long time... so my recs weren\'t sent to schools until August 19.

My TMDSAS rankings were:
1. UT Southwestern
2. UTHSC San Antonio
3. UT Houston
4. Texas Tech El Paso
5. Texas Tech Lubbock

I matched into my #2, UTHSCSA.

My reasoning behind the rankings was this:
I loved UTSW; the people there reminded me of the people I knew at MIT, and I felt in some way \"at home\" there. So, it was number one.
I loved El Paso, but it started too early (before my missionary year was over), and was far away, and unknown to residencies. At TTU, I liked the students I met, and Lubbock too, but I wasn\'t impressed with the program or its reputation among residencies. So they were both ranked at the bottom.
It was hard to decide between UTHSCSA and Houston as my second choice. My thoughts were colored by my mood at each interview: Houston was my first interview, so everything was amazing and awesome. UTHSCSA was one of my last ones, and I was tired and unimpressed by how similar it was to every other interview. But those moods had nothing to do with the schools themselves! I ended up choosing UTHSCSA because I prefer SA to Houston, and also because of the opportunity to do rotations at the RAHC -- a regional campus in Harligen, TX. Since I matched to my #2, hopefully that decision was the right one! ;-)

General thoughts on the process....
The schools I chose to apply to were really random. In retrospect, I would have applied to far fewer, and even some different ones (schools in Chicago, Tufts, Colorado). First, I underestimated medical schools\' ability to give scholarships/aid. I automatically discounted some expensive schools, when I could have at least applied and seen what my offer was. Second, I was intimidated by my counselors/advisers into applying to a million and one schools, essentially as back-ups to all the Texas schools. Then, I only received *one* non-Texas interview. So I wasted a lot of money applying to schools that were *harder* to get into than the schools I preferred (TX schools). Sigh.

Biggest piece of advice: Texas Residents, you don\'t really need to apply beyond Texas, unless you want to.