Apr 25: Decided not to go to second looks, staying at Stanford. Handed in matriculation letter today. I would still like to do the PhD, but the value of it was not more than staying in Cali. Personal and research reasons, basically. If I didn't have an established position here, I would have gone to Penn, no questions asked. So I'll apply internally. (i'm still feeling surprised at my own decision even after a week of poring over the problem).
Apr 13: Stanford MD Acceptance!!!!! Proof that it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings. Time to rent a hall and a fat lady. So now what, UW v. Penn v. Stanford. Stanford is the easy decision but it is hard to justify. I've been really lucky this cycle. I didn't dare to dream when I started, and in fact I lost all hope until Mar 26 (below). Question is: Do I withdraw now or go to the second looks and then decide?
Apr 03: Personal call from interviewer at UW who was in the imaging field. Fun. It would seem that after acceptance, especially at MSTPs, they become the sellers and I cease to be one.
Apr 02: Will wait for stanford, but scheduling UW, Penn second looks apr 19-22 and apr 26-28 respectively. Maybe this Thursday is the day?
Mar 30: Stanford review: I already knew a lot about stanford before coming, but I learned more. The curriculum is mainly lecture based with some small-group discussions, a good balance between PBL and Traditional curriculums I think. Research....well it's the same research I've been doing in imaging which is better than I've seen elsewhere (note: bias is evident in previous statement).
Mar 29: UCLA Rejection......Being from Cali is definitely a disadvantage.
Mar 26: Penn and UWash acceptance!!!!! Going to be a hard decision to make. Going to keep the Stanford interview. Will withdraw from Penn State and Irvine once I have the time.
Mar 23: UW review: 20 miles of corridors. You can find your way around, but man. 3rd and 5th floor corridors run the length of the medical school and hospital. It's like playing Doom. Faege bioengineering and genomics building looks GREAT. Great imaging research as well, under the Rad department. UW also is very flexible about what you want to do in the program and what faculty you want to work with, so I feel I have the freedom there. Weather is 'great', depending on whether you're a wet weather, not too hot not too cold person, which I am. People both inside and outside of the UW are generally very friendly and social. Seattle is also safe for it's size, and you can walk around at night. Big library in the middle of Seattle. I got really nervous before the panel interview, where you pretty much talk about research and why MD/PhD, but pulled myself together. As it happened, it was an interview probing my knowledge about the research field, so know everything about your research and alternatives to your research and how you expect to go forward.
Mar 19: Harvard rejection and UCSD waitlist :(. Oh well, I wasn't going to Harvard anyway, even though I would have gone if accepted (interesting I know, but it's Harvard. It's really the only reason anyone goes there. Clinical training is known to be better at Penn and WashU)
Mar 10: Start of March Madness.
Mar 9: UC Davis Sacramento: New facilities, we would be the first year to use them. New curriculum, again we're the guinea pigs. They have not decided the 3rd year requirements as yet. My first interviewer the previous day complained about the curriculum a bit. Shriner's Children's hospital was very impressive. UCDMC was a normal hospital, nothing very specific to say, except that a new ER building was being constructed. First interviewer really liked me and we talked for about an hour and something. Very difficult questions about my choice for med school though, like where would you think you would get the best clinical training in the country? I said Penn. For some reason, he tried to encourage me to go East. I kept the focus on my interest in Davis.Overall good impression of the med school, and I would like to go here over Irvine/Penn State and a serious competitor to LA were it not for research.
Mar 8: UC Davis Proper impression: Small-town atmosphere, nothing around. Great. Smell: What can only be termed as farm smell, probably from the equestrian center to the south of the health sciences buildings. Faculty more or less laid back. Last interviewer was a difficult one (why should we accept you? etc.), the rest mostly only wanted to talk about research.
Mar 3: Stanford Interview!!!! Strike up Nummer Elf!. Scheduled on April 26th. Eleventh interview at the eleventh hour...on the eleventh day after tax day. Will I still go here for MD v. MSTP? Interesting decision. I can still apply internally right? (Update: Got it shifted to march 30).
Feb 27: Feeling apprehensive. Two interviews left. Davis and UWash. A month to go before final decisions from UCLA, UCSD, UPenn and Harvard(MD-only). Still no news from Stanford.
Feb 26: Rej UMich MD. Oh well. Now what?
Feb 08: UCLA interview: Top overall school, location+school+research. Westwood is a great area in general and the new graduate housing is great. Again, didn't see much of the medical school due to a conflicting interview, but from what I saw it was quite good and resources are great (not as good as UPenn). Research is also very wide-ranging and still expanding. I can seriously think about doing image processing research in molecular imaging or medical imaging. Both are very well supported.
Feb 06: Stanford MSTP rejection letter upon arrival from Harvard. VERY suprising, a big downer given it's (*was*) my first choice. Hoping for an MD interview at least.
Feb 06: UCI MSTP acceptance!
Feb 05: Harvard NP MD interview: First impression: Cold. Second impression: Traditional and Old. Third impression: The school and hospital are really great! BWH is huge, and that was just one hospital out of many in the area. Dorms leave something to be desired though...but it's Harvard.
Feb 04: Davis Interview!. Zauber Nummer Zehn.
Jan 27: UCI acceptance! MD, still to hear from MSTP.
Jan 25: UCLA MSTP interview!! Chalk up Nummer Neun!
Jan 24: UCSF and WashU rejection...............gahh....
Jan 21: Harvard NP interview! That's Nummber Acht! (MD-only)
Jan 17: UPenn interview: Top-class school, top-class research, bit underwhelmed about the location (big-city not my thing). But it is definitely not Baltimore and does not deserve the bad reputation is has. Mostly clean, mostly safe. Did not get to see much image-processing research, this will be my focus if I go for a second-look. I interviewed at the GCB to explore the breadth of Penn research, and it is *very* broad. One of my interviewers asked where I applied, and he was rather suprised by my application to Penn State. Most of the interview was spent talking about them....... My first two(out of 7) interviews were strange, they kept asking me if I had any questions. (Update: There is the HHMI program, which has a focus on biomedial imaging. This program is really quite good in preparing you for the field!)
Dec 24: Greatest Christmas present ever, acceptance by Penn State MD/PhD! Withdrawing from Galveston.
Dec 11: Penn State review: Best location I have interviewed at. The small-town feel is really an asset to the school. Faculty interviewers were all friendly, but were careful to say that the med school is great but not on par with the top schools.
Dec 7: UCSD review: Very good research, some faculty in my area. Faculty interviewers for the most part were talkative and some of my interviews went really late, much to the inconvenience of the admissions coordinators driving us around the huge campus. Did not see much of the school of medicine except the lecture halls, but one of my PIs graduated from there so it cannot be bad :).
Dec 2: Yay! UTMB and UWash MSTP - that's Nummer Sechs und Sieben!
Nov 19: Yay! UPenn And UCSD MSTP! That's Nummer Vier und Fuenf!
Nov 15: Yay! UCI interview! My first Cali interview.
Nov 7: Interview at PSU! Confirmed late Nov interview at WashU.
Oct 24: Intervu at WashU! Yay! (got complete 10/10). This is only MD, still have to hear from MSTP
Oct 18 - Sending UCSD/UCSF. UCLA/Harvard left (non-rolling). Withdrawing from Utah :((. Still not complete at UCD and Penn State, but complete at all others. Feeling good, but I'll be way happier with an interview invite :).
Oct 3 - Thanks for commenting.
In answer to posters:
Yes, I am confident, but due to research and recs, not MCAT, though that definitely helps. Bottom line is, I simply do not have the time to fill out many secondaries this year and I have solid plans if I have to take a year or two to apply again.
Also, the BCPM shown is significantly lower than the AMCAS BCPM, but 3.20 is what I feel they will 'see' in my bio/chem/phys grades.
Update:
Only UCD, UCSF, UCLA, UCSD left for secondaries to do/recieve.
Sep 22 - All LORs in!
Sep 19 - All LORs almost in. Will send maybe 6 secondaries in the next two days.
Aug 21 - Started recieving mass secondaries.
Aug 20 - Verified!
Jul 20 - Submitted!
We help students become doctors. TM
