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MD Applicants

  • fpo-profile-avatar
  • gonefishing

  • Application cycles: 05/31/2015
  • Demographics: Male, 23, Caucasian
  • Home state: Maine
  • Last Active: 07/17/2016
  • Brief Profile: Applied MD/PhD only; MCAT >38; GPA > 3.9

    Other MDApps profiles that I found helpful (specifically for MD/PhD applicants): Nigel Vermouth, neurotroph, will update with more as I think of them!
  • // Applications //

    Application Cycle One: 05/31/2015

    • Total MCAT SCORE: 472
    • MCAT Section Scores: B/B 118, C/P 118, CARS 118  
    • Overall GPA: 0.00
    • Science GPA: 0.00

    Summary of Application Experience

    GENERAL ADVICE
    - getting the interview: honestly, this is a bit of a black box to me. Clearly, stats are important, but they're also not everything. I think, because there's usually a significantly smaller applicant pool for MD/PhD programs than for traditional MD programs, adcoms have the time/energy to look more closely at each application, beyond initial demographics. But maybe that's wishful thinking. Certainly, you can do exceedingly well as a lower stats applicants. It's just going to be harder, and I'd encourage you to apply to a wider range of schools. Oh, and if you're a good writer, I think that matters (though, to a lesser extent). The overall goal of your paper application is to be interesting and memorable enough to be worthy of further conversation. You can achieve this in a variety of ways. Play to your strengths

    - getting the acceptance: for the love of all the money you're spending on this application process, PRACTICE answers to standard interview questions. And do a mock interview, if not with your school, then with a family member. Interview questions that you will undoubtably encounter over and over:
    1) why MD/PhD?
    2) tell me about the most recent/most exciting research project you were involved with
    3) why school x? what faculty would you be interested in working with? (it's totally NOT necessary to review recent papers. Just look over websites. If you want to be extra thorough, search PIs of interest in the NIH RePORTER tool to determine (the majority - excluding private foundation grants) of topics that are currently being funded.)
    4) do you have any questions for me? (it's ok to say no, but at least try to say something like 'well, I had questions about xyz, but we already discussed that' to show you're interested in/have previously thought about the particulars of this school's program)
    5) tell me about yourself (my guess is that this happens when, as is so often the case, interviewer didn't have any time to look over your application. Thus, make sure you have a concise response to this question that highlights the relevant parts of your life/application)

    Hope this helps! I'm so excited to meet y'all at interviews :)

    Application Complete, Rejected

    Cornell University
    University of Michigan
    University of Pennsylvania

    Invited for Interview, Withdrew

    University of California, Irvine
    University of Southern California
    University of Colorado
    Yale University
    University of Chicago
    University of Wisconsin

    Attended Interview, Rejected

    Harvard University
    University of Washington

    Attended Interview, Waitlisted, Withdrew

    Stanford University

    Accepted off Waitlist

    University of California, San Francisco

    Accepted

    Duke University
    University of California, Los Angeles
    Washington University in St. Louis
    Johns Hopkins University
    University of California, San Diego

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