Brief Profile:
Traditional applicant (applied during senior year), MCAT taken on 9/10/2014.
I applied to 35 schools, 27 MD/PhD, 8 MD only. 29 AMCAS (submitted 6/12/2015, verified 7/2/2016) schools, 6 TMDSAS (TMDSAS submitted on 5/7) schools.
Results summary for MD/PhD vs MD: 3 MD/PhD interview invites, attended all interviews, 0 acceptances. 7 MD only interview invites (some from schools that rejected me for MD/PhD), attended 5 interviews, received 2 acceptances, 2 waitlists, and 1 rejection.
Results summary for AMCAS vs TMDSAS (note that 27/29 AMCAS schools are MD/PhD, while all TMDSAS schools are MD only): 7 AMCAS interview invites, attended 5 interviews, 0 acceptance, 4 rejections, 1 waitlist. 3 TMDSAS interview invites, attended 3 interviews, 2 acceptances, 1 waitlist.
Notes about MD/PhD: I do not regret applying to MD/PhD at all, if I were to apply again for the first time, I would still apply to MD/PhD programs since I was not sure if I wanted to do MD or MD/PhD (if I were to apply again for the SECOND time, I would apply MD only). Even though most advice I heard was if you are not sure about MD/PhD, apply to MD only, but my rationale was that there's nothing to lose in applying to MD/PhD programs, and I could choose not to attend an MD/PhD program even if accepted. However, it turned out that I did lose money and from my experience, applying to MD/PhD hurt my chances for the MD programs in that institution if they allowed you to apply to both at the same time. My application to MD/PhD programs was certainly unsuccessful, and I believe the greatest hindrance was LACK OF BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCES (all I had was plenty of other research experiences).
SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCES:
3 main research experiences (one on solar cell for around 4 years, one on plant genetics for around 4 years, one on origin of life for 2 summers), 3 co-authored pubs (no 1st or 2nd authored papers, no big journals like Nature or Science).
40 hours of physician shadowing (3 surgeons - orthopedics, ENT, urology - and one rheumatologist).
343 hours of volunteering at a hospital (involved patient contact).
Teaching/tutoring: one on campus for one year, one private for 2.5 years.
Some pre-med/health conferences, some awards (no significant ones like Marshall or Rhodes).
Some leadership (webmaster of Tau Beta Pi for less than a year, not significant IMO).
School's Christian Club Member (4 years).
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/10/2015
Undergraduate college: UC Riverside
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 520
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 131,
C/P 132,
CARS 126
Overall GPA: 3.97
Science GPA: 4.00
Summary of Application Experience
COST (total around $5600): Applications (primary + secondary): ~$3500. Flights (6): $1930. Others like suit and interview spending: around $200.
The application cost was totally worth it! I am really happy about the results and am very excited to start med school at UT Southwestern!
Summary of Experience:
the admissions people were very nice, even though the rejection date is very late, but there were notifications about my status before that date.
Summary of Experience:
So the school rejected me for the MSTP program (8/24/2015) but invited me for the MD program (they sent the interview invite and secondary on the same date).
ishuman took the old MCAT and scored a 37 which is in the 98th percentile of all old scores.
We converted this to a 520 on the updated scale which is in the 98th percentile of the updated MCAT. We also converted ishuman’s section scores as follows:
ishuman scored a 14 on the Biological Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 131 on the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems.
ishuman scored a 14 on the Physical Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 132 on the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems.
ishuman 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.
