2005 - Storyline: after years of thinking about it, engineer decides to attempt switch to medicine. So, took a nursing assistant course, shadowed a bunch of physicians, got a job in a research lab, started haunting the hospital, and went back to school to pick up biology/ochem prereqs.
06/20/06 Finished and submitted AMCAS on same day as MCAT scores came out (doh!..stoopid vurbil).
07/07/06 AMCAS starts transcript verification (approx 2 weeks from date application & transcripts were complete)...
07/11/06 AMCAS verification complete...let the secondaries begin!
07/11/06 (PM) Whoa, that was fast. Way to go Case Western. But what's w/ the 2 week turnaround?
07/12/06 Ohio State (due in 30 days), UPenn (15 Nov), UPitt (15 Jan), USUHS (3 weeks), UMich (31 Dec) secondaries received
07/17/06 WashU secondary received (due in 4 wks)
07/18/06 Dartmouth (due 31 Dec) and UIowa secondaries (due 15 Dec) received via ground mail
07/21/06 Submitted Case Western and UPenn
07/24/06 Holy smoke, an interview offer from UPitt! Go Panthers!
07/26/06 Submitted USUHS
07/27/06 Submitted WashU, received Harvard secondary (due 15 Nov)
08/07/06 Interview offer from UMich (9/30)
08/15/06 Interview offer from Ohio State (10/2) and Case Western (9/29)
08/17/06 UUtah secondary (due 10/1)
08/21/06 Interview offer from USUHS (10/5). Rejected by Mayo w/no secondary?! I sure hope they buy themselves something nice with my $75.
09/07/06 Interview offer from UIowa (10/4).
09/18/06 Interview offer from Dartmouth (10/17)
09/25/06 Interview offer from UUtah (10/19)
09/29/06 Interview offer from Hopkins (11/3)
10/12/06 Interview offer from UPenn (11/29)
10/15/06
ACCEPTED by University of Michigan! 'Do a little dance, make a little love, Get down tonight...' Michigan is not only a top-ranked program, but they continue to demonstrate consideration for students, even managing a little humor to boot -- they sent out a little 'you're admitted' video on midnight Oct 15th -- very cool. I decided to drop the Penn interview given that there's no compelling reason to prefer Penn to Michigan, and I've already missed too much school traveling to interviews.
ACCEPTED by Case Western! Another awesome school, highly ranked in biomedical engineering. Their dual degree programs, including M.S. in BME, Anatomy, etc. are fantastic. An embarrassment of riches.
10/16/06
ACCEPTED by Ohio State! Great school, love the 'independent study track' option.
ACCEPTED by U Pitt! Superb sim center.
12/21/06 Woo Hoo! Johns Hopkins acceptance!
01/24/07 Interview offer from WashU -- too little, too late
03/30/07 ***** Wow!! Michigan just offered a FULL TUITION scholarship! And here I was all set on Hopkins. What to do, what to do...I guess its time to go to 2nd look weekend and talk to some more folks...
05/11/07 Well, after much deliberation, decided to take the full ride to Michigan. Great school, great environment to have a family, and will graduate with no debt! If I were younger, unconcerned about debt, and interested in a high-powered academic career, I would've probably gone to Hopkins. Nevertheless, the doctor you become is determined by your individual efforts, not the school.
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A lot of people have asked me how to smoke the MCAT, so here's my opinion for what it's worth: The key is repetition, repetition, repetition; then some more repetition. Once you've repeated things enough that the concepts and formulae have become reflex, the test itself is just a matter of reading carefully and double-checking for bubbling errors. Did I mention repetition?
1. I primarily used the ExamKrackers 'complete study package'. I started studying them hard about 6 months prior, and went through the booklets about 5-6 times each. I usually referred to outside texts only if there was something unclear in the EK materials. The main reason I chose this route is that the EK books are condensed and simplified enough to actually make it through multiple times. I figured constant repetition of the fundamentals would be more useful than exhaustive study w/o any time left over for repetition. I also listened to EK's 'Audio Osmosis' CDs, which cover the same material as the books, during my commute - once I knew a lecture, I deleted it from my MP3 player. Corny as they were, I listened to them enough times that I almost knew them by heart simply due to repetition.
2. I *highly* recommend taking as many of the official retired MCATs as possible -- I took all 9 under timed conditions (although I skipped the essays (which is probably why I got an 'O' :^) and usually did just 1 section per sitting.) I found that my score on the actual test was predicted exactly by my performance on the practice exams.
3. If you can at all find a way, spend 12 years as an engineer -- makes all the math and physics bits much easier ;^)
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Final comments:
1. Most schools are thrilled to have older nontraditional applicants. (Possible exceptions being Mayo and Harvard ;^), especially if you...
2. Do well on the MCAT. (Note again that to do well you must put in the time, especially if you've been away from school for awhile, because familiarity/repetition IS KEY.)
We help students become doctors. TM
