User #6171
Application cycles: 2006
Demographics: Male, East Asian
Home state: California

Brief Profile: Graduated 2006 with Computer Engineering, B.S. and music minor (piano performance). Decision to go to medical school was during late junior year, took an extra year to finish pre-med requirements. Definite upward trend in grades after starting pre-med coursework.

Worked at software companies full time summers/part time school years starting freshman year until junior year, switched to pharmaceutical company doing bioinformatics work until now. Main interest is in computing technology and combining it with medicine. Want to be a physician first, then use that knowledge and expertise to advance information technology in medicine.

Hospital volunteer (~6 months)

Bioinformatics research at UCSD (~1.5 years)

Mentored by chief radiation oncologist at UCSD Moore's Cancer Center, saw patients, went to cancer boards at children's hospital, learned about radiation planning, extensive shadowing (~6 months)

Digital Nursing, Teams in Engineering Service at UCSD, Team Leader
Created a computer based documentation system for nurses at nursing care facility to take patient notes onto a laptop equipped with touch screen interface. Web based solution created entirely from scratch and is now successfully developed and deployed. Acted as both team leader and software team member. Now leading research team for publication in medical informatics journal to publish findings and contribute knowledge of computing in nursing homes. (~1.5 years)

1 Abstract: Accepted to American Medical Informatics Association November 2006 Symposium

Coordinated two Taiwanese American Youth Leadership Conferences in 2002

Chaired 2nd Annual UCSD Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Conference in 2005

Music minor: took private piano lessons for music majors the entire duration of stay at UCSD

// Applications //

Application Cycle One: 2006

Undergraduate college: University of California at San Diego
Undergraduate Area of study: Engineering/Technology

Total MCAT SCORE: 509
MCAT Section Scores: B/B 127, C/P 128, CARS 126
Overall GPA: 3.07
Science GPA: 3.20

Summary of Application Experience

BCPM freshman grades were low, was not thinking about medical school at the time, that brought down the BCPM quite a bit. I'm not sure how the medical schools are going to react to the low grades, or my computer engineering degree. I was born in Michigan and still have family/friends there so that is the reason for the Michigan schools.
A lot of the upper tier schools are medical informatics powerhouses so I figured I would try.
A lot of these schools are a shot in the dark, esp the california schools, but maybe my 'non-traditional' application will spark some interest.
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Applied

Charles Drew University/UCLA

Wright State University

Wayne State University

Wake Forest University

University of Wisconsin

University of Vermont

University of Southern California

University of Pittsburgh

University of Illinois

University of California, San Francisco

University of California, San Diego

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Irvine

University of California, Davis

Uniformed Services University

UMDNJ - New Jersey

Tulane University

Tufts University

Temple University

Stanford University

Saint Louis University

Oregon Health & Science University

New York Medical College

Michigan State University

Loyola University Chicago

Johns Hopkins University

Jefferson Medical College

Harvard University

George Washington University

Eastern Virginia Medical School

Drexel University

Case Western Reserve University

Boston University

Albany Medical College

MD Applicants

User #6171

// Applications //

Application Cycle One: 2006

Summary of Application Experience

Applied

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