Application Cycle One: 2007

• Undergraduate college: University of Arizona
• Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences

• Total MCAT SCORE: 526
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 131, C/P 132, CARS 132   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.92
• Science GPA: 3.90

Summary of Application Experience

Whirlwind...

10/12 - Northwestern. Beautiful campus with amazing facilities in the heart of downtown chicago. All of the students seemed very happy as well as being extremely open and nice. If I had to name the top three things about the school I would say it would be 1. the people 2. The facilities/location 3. The curriculum. Although I state curriculum with one caveat, that being they do not seem to have a focus on real patient interaction during the first 2 years. MAny of the schools I have been to have had this. They mentioned free clinics among other opportunities but as an instituionalized objective it wasn't there. (standardized and mannequins were though) Also they seemed to be shifting their focus towards a strong research oriented curriculum. I got mixed impression on this point though and it was not necessarily a negative or positive.

10/5 - GW 'They were who we thought they were'-Dennis Green (youtubeit) Absolutely zero fin aid for merit at least as they presented it. Combined with the or almost the most expensive medical school in the country and that makes it tough. Good opportunities for study abroad etc but my faculty interviewer left something to be desired. Started the interview 10-15 mins late, took a phone call during the interview, stepped out of the interview for 5 minutes to talk to his assistants mom and spent more time talking about himself/the school then about me. He asked all the students who interviewed with him what their GPA and MCAT scores were (2nd question after tell me about yourself) in a closed interview which while not necessarily a scary question for me added to the overall underwhelming impression he gave off. Who knows though, I could still be happy there.

9/21 - Love Mayo. Love the people. Love the clinic/hospitals. Love it all and they better let me in!

9/14 - U of A Phoenix is a mixed bag. Anatomy lab is at another location. No hospital on campus. Campus closes at 6 most days apparently. Library was one room with 6 computers and a couple book shelves. The research areas were alright but nothing jumped out at me as some kind of amazing project I would want to get involved with. The dean and the staff were very courteous and seemed to know what they were talking about. If I wanted to blaze a trail I would have more than enough opportunities to do so at this campus, unfortunately even if you want to blaze a trail you don't want to have to blaze ALL of the trails. I actually put them down as a preferred campus over Tucson although I am not sure why.

9/12 - U of A Tucson what I expected. Tour/interview started ~1/2 hour late. Students looked pretty happy and everyone was rather nice. I have lived/gone to school here for a good amount of time so not much new was gleaned from the experience.

9/10 - Georgetown AdCom Amazing, school nice, school expensive. If you get a chance to interview at the school I really enjoyed the talk that they gave at the beginning, almost worth going just for that. The facilities seemed like they could use some updating but the staff and opportunities offered were very nice. Too bad they cost an arm and a leg. Here's hoping for some fin aid!