Brief Profile:
clinical, volunteering, research, leadership. took year-off for break, and to gain more clinical and research (decided on medical path junior year of college).
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 2006
Undergraduate college: Duke University
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Institution: Duke- Health Policy Certificate
Area of Study: Computing and Information Science
Degree Obtained: Certif.
Institution: Duke- Chemistry
Area of Study: Physical Sciences
Degree Obtained: Minor
Total MCAT SCORE: 523
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 131,
C/P 130,
CARS 132
Overall GPA: 3.79
Science GPA: 3.79
Summary of Application Experience
got amcas in 7/10, processed 7/31 completed most secondaries w/n 1-2 weeks--- completed rolling admissions schools first
quirky things: -Received invite from Pitt w/n 24 hrs of submitting secondary (pre-interview screen well-known) -Received invite from Duke w/n 24 hrs of submitting secondary. Took me over a month to complete this secondary.
interview invites:
heard from hopkins and pitt very early - already interviewed heard from vandy soon after - already interviewed heard from penn early october - already interviewed heard from emory in mid-october - interview in early dec; cancelled interview after pitt acceptance heard from uchicago mid-october - already interviewed heard from columbia mid/late october - interview in early dec heard from UF late october, gave me interview after initial hold - interview in early jan - cancelled interview after pitt acceptance heard from nwestern late october - interview mid dec, cancelled interview after pitt acceptance heard from duke late november - already interviewed
Not as bad of a process as everyone says. Its too damn expensive for certain, but its not that stressful... once you've had one interview, you'll realize they all pretty much can be handled the same.
Also, your MCAT is not as powerful as you think. If you are hoping for top 10 schools, I think anything above a 35 is weighted about the same.
My best interviews were at Vandy, Pritzker, and Columbia. Average interviews at Pitt, Penn, Duke, and Hopkins. Don't really feel like I totally bombed any interviews.
Was asked one hypothetical situation (Hopkins), was never asked any health policy questions (bizarre since I have a health policy background), Columbia interview did not address anything remotely related to medicine.
Most difficult question: 'What does it mean to you... for a patient to call you 'd octor'? (hopkins) [try not sounding generic with that one]
User #6796 took the old MCAT and scored a which is in the percentile of all old scores.
We converted this to a on the updated scale which is in the percentile of the updated MCAT. We also converted User #6796’s section scores as follows:
User #6796 scored a 14 on the Biological Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 131 on the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems.
User #6796 scored a 13 on the Physical Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 130 on the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems.
User #6796 scored a 13 on the Verbal Reasoning section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 132 on the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills.
