-Lived in New Mexico all my life and moved away to be with the wife. I found out too late that they reinstated the EDP program and are allowing applicants with strong school ties to apply. Trying to get my application to count. I really want to go home!
-A few changes this year. EVMS looks pretty cool, their numbers are the reverse of most state schools, lower GPA and higher MCAT, which suits me fine. I pulled WVU, UW, Creighton & BU off the list. Don't want to live in WV or Wis. or Nebraska and BU's secondary process is just a money-making machine now.
-Reach schools are Case Western, Dartmouth, Wake & Tufts
-We'll see what the higher GPA and a 3 point(balanced) increase on the MCAT does for the app. I'm hopeful, but one thing about this process that rings true is do not expect anything.
-I have decided to apply to UNECOM this year which is a DO school. I don't really know where it is on my list, but I can say for sure that after seeing shots of the campus and location, it is definitely not on the bottom. I am kicking myself a bit for not applying here last year.
8/13/08 Drexel, Loyola & Tufts secondaries came in late and I am busy filling them out (especially Loyola's! Life story here people). UNECOM interview notice. Excited to visit this school.
8/29/08 Case Western and UNM are a go. I don't know what to say here. Speechless.
10/15/08 Accepted at EVMS today. I really liked the people there and I'm very happy about this.
12/10/08 Just got back into town. Rejections from New England and NYMC were waiting for me. Surprised by NE. I really liked the school and had a comfortable interview. Not so surprised by NYMC. My interviewer talked the whole time and steam-rolled over me when I tried to say something. Luck of the draw I guess. Just remember, sometimes no matter what you do, the interview can go the other way.
1/8/09 Offered an interview at SLU but withdrew. If it isn't Boston or DC, I don't want to be in a big city.
3/6/09 Rejection from GWU yesterday. Other than that, crickets these past couple of months. Nice to know someone remembered to reject me :)
4/2/09 Just doing some house cleaning and listing every place that I haven?t heard from as a rejection at this point. That seems to pretty much sum up the medapp process for me. I?ll come along and say a few more words before I start school.
5/28/09 I'm just going to right down why this cycle went better for me and some notes about my postbacc. First, I retook the MCAT and got a 33O balanced versus a slightly unbalanced 30M the first take. Second, I applied 3 weeks earlier (was complete at the beginning of July, rather than at the end). And third, I was much more relaxed at my interviews because I had done them before. I think all of this attributed to a better round for me. There are factors that are under your control and you want to MAXIMIZE your chances with these controllable factors.
I started with a 3.1C/2.4S gpa and spent my post-bacc bringing both of those up to a ~3.4. I moved next door to the school and went to all of my classes. Put yourself in an environment where you will succeed! Concentrate on your own work and progress and ignore the hubris of others (they are not what they seem). If competition helps you then get into a group of over-achievers and compete, but don't let it negatively impact you.
Lastly, be realistic. I have heard the platitude that everyone has the potential to be anything. This is BS. If 99% of people can be anything they want but only 2% have the tools they need to succeed, guess which percentage is going to put a choke-hold on the # of successes? Learn from your mistakes and do everything you can to improve. Build that toolset.
A little here about numbers. I started off with 10 other people in this and as of now, I'm the only one that has made it through. A rundown (n=11).
4 are going nurse and NP route (3 of which took the MCAT and got below a 20).
1 got upper 20s but couldn't get in after 2 cycles and is going PA.
1 got a 31, quite unbalanced, and didn't get in so is going bioengineering route
4 are still fighting to get in.
The MCAT filters out quite a few and the app. process is pretty brutal on top of that. With the exception of 1 person, these are all post-bacc people, so you can see from my little groups how tough it is to fight a low GPA. Ideally, you want a 3.8+ on the post-bacc and a 32+ on the MCAT if you are fighting a low GPA and want into an MD school. This is only addressing the cognitive scores.
I hope my applications have given you a nice peek under the hood and I wish you luck with your own application.
