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MD Applicants

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  • User #8850

  • Application cycles: 2007
  • Demographics: Male, Caucasian
  • Home state: Tennessee
  • Brief Profile: I am working right now as an ER Tech, and during the last five winters I have volunteered at my local mountain as a ski patroller. I am also a team leader on ski patrol. I have held various engineering internship positions, which led me to find out that medicine is for me, most notably with BMW in Regensburg, Germany for 6 months.

    I am now attending classes at a local college finishing up my pre-med requirements that I did not have from engineering school, as well as starting A&P. Depending on where, if at all, I have gotten in I will either be taking classes in the spring or just working at the hospital and adding to my experiences working with the doctors and nurses in the ER.
  • // Applications //

    Application Cycle One: 2007

    • Undergraduate college: Tennessee Technological University
    • Undergraduate Area of study: Engineering/Technology
    • Institution: Pellissippi State Community College
    • Area of Study: Premedical Studies
    • Total MCAT SCORE: 509
    • MCAT Section Scores: B/B 127, C/P 127, CARS 127  
    • Overall GPA: 3.28
    • Science GPA: 3.24

    Summary of Application Experience

    I've only been applying now for three months, and it feels like it has been years. The stress and nerve factor is very high, especially for me since my undergrad GPA wasn't so hot coming from mechanical engineering. Im just praying my August MCAT went as well as it felt, and that I will start getting more secondaries and some interviews in the coming months.

    9/12/07 - Just got my second mcat scores back. I raised my score from a 24M to a 30P!!! I am much more optimistic about getting in this year!

    9/14/07 - Got paid yesterday and am finally able to send in all my AACOMAS stuff. So hopefully its four weeks and not six to get it finalized and everything. They already have my MCAT scores and my transcripts, so we'll see. And hopefully I'll get some MD secondaries soon...

    9/18/07 - Registered for Interfolio yesterday, and got all of my letter requests out to the letter writers today. Hopefully this will help the problem of slowarse letter writers. Also asked the Dean of Engineering at Tech to write me a letter for Interfolio and he said yes, woot!

    After much deliberation with myself, I applied to UVM. I know its kinda late... but I fell in love with the school and the town last year before I even started applying. I didnt apply there because I am so far away and my first MCAT was kinda... lacking. I'm up to their last year's average now, so I hope that sending in my stuff so quick (got it and sent it today) will help me a little. Will keep things updated.

    Oh, and still waiting on AACOMAS verification

    9/20/07 - Received UT Memphis secondary app by email today. No essays necessary so that sucker was sent right back in. Hoping that means I have a decent chance for interview here since they only send it out to certain applicants. I have to still send in a signed form, picture, and payment, so I should be complete here by Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Woohoo!!

    10/4/07 - Asked the ETSU Adcom to review my file with my new mcat scores to see if they really wanted to reject me this year. They did. I received the email today saying that not enough new information was present to warrant a secondary. Oh well. I didnt really want to go here, it was just in state so I had to apply.

    I'm still waiting on my last LOR for KY. Im about to go crazy about that one... I have asked for the past three weeks for my OChem professor and she keeps saying, this week, this week. Yeah right. So I went back to the Dean of Engineering at Tech and he wrote me a letter. Now I am just waiting on it to get to interfolio so I can send it to KY and make my file complete... I hate waiting.

    Still waiting on all of my letters for Interfolio actually, as soon as they get there, I'll be complete at UT, UK and UVM. Makes my hopes for this year a little better I guess... I am hoping to get the DO secondaries filled out and sent back in as soon as possible when I get them.

    10/8/07 - Finally got my last letter in to UKY through interfolio after waiting over two months. Stupid prof still hasnt written the letter I asked her to. Oh well, hopefully the problem is solved now. I'm still waiting on my other two letters to get to interfolio which is wierd because they were sent a while ago, so they should be there by now... maybe they got lost. Ill need to check with my other two letter writers. I've been too worked up over this last one to even think about the other two.

    I think I'm gonna withdraw from the Duke and UVA secondaries, I dont really see myself having much of a chance with them so I can save the $160 bucks from the two secondaries for my DO school secondaries. Still going for the long shot at UofColorado though, I think I'm gonna send in my secondary there when I get paid on Thursday. Whats the worst they can tell me? sorry, try again next year? I've already heard it three times this year, so its nothing new .... :)

    10/11/07 - Ok, on a complete whim here (noting the fact they only send secondaries to those they deem worthy) I sent my primary to U of Louisville. I know, I know, its waaaaaaaaaay late. But the good thing is I wont be getting just a blind secondary to fill out. If I get one, they at least like me. A little. So worst case, I'm out 30 bucks. No biggie.

    Couldnt find the UofCO payment button on their online site so I'm calling them first thing in the morning to go ahead and submit my secondary there since I have the money. I might end up adding some extra DO schools once my app is verified. Pulled out of Duke and UVA. Would have been nice, but I'm just not competitive, and its not really worth the money....

    10/15/07 - I have to send in UofCO secondary check by snail mail. I still cant decide if I want to spend the $100 bucks or not. I guess I'll never know if I dont, I just really dont think my gpa is high enough. Plus my aacomas is almost finished verifying (they just finished gpa calcs), so I should be getting some DO secondaries soon. I'm hoping I will at least.

    So should I send in the CO 2ndary or save the money for DO schools? ...Decisions, decisions.....

    10/17/07 - So my envelope for the CO 2ndary got put in the mail stack and sent. Oh well, at least now I'll know if they like me. I also got the Louisville 2ndary yesterday. Filled it out and its going in the mail this morning. I am quite suprised at how quick they got it back to me. Makes me feel good about sending it to them since the only send to 'screened applicants'. Whatever that means.

    Still waiting on one letter at Interfolio, got my second one in yesterday. So I'll be able to be complete at... 4 schools as soon as I get the third letter. I hate waiting. Still waiting on my AACOMAS to be sent out too. Jews.

    10/18/07 - As soon as I got back from the post office yesterday I had an invite for the LMU secondary in my inbox, so I started on that. Had to go to work, and I am finishing up the essays right now, and am headed to the post office soon to mail it off. Hoping my third letter will be in soon so I can be complete at... 5 schools now when it gets there.

    10/20/07 - Friday was quite the eventful day for me. Not only did I get a call from DCOM asking if I could interview there next Tuesday (First interview woooooo hoooooo!!!!!), I also got the secondary from VCOM, the school I really wanna go to. The only problem is I will need to take another science course to satisfy their requirements. So I'm still trying to figure out what is going to happen with that. I need to get into contact with them to see if any of my engineering classes could count for the last class so I dont have to take anymore classes next semester.

    I also called UofCO and let them know that I was withdrawing. Boo hoo, no going to Colorado for the skiing. *sigh*.

    10/24/07 - Had my interview at LMU yesterday and all I can say is WOW!!!!!!! Its an amazing place from the building to the cirriculum to the professors to the attention to every little mundane detail it seems. I love the systems based approach to learning. It will be hard to not go there if I get accepted. I love the location, the mountains, the school, the atmosphere, everything. Plus I will hopefully get to do 3rd and 4th year rotations here in Knoxville at hospitals I know if I get in. I cant say enough good things about it.

    On a slightly less exciting note, I got a letter from UK yesterday telling me they were waiting to make a decision on my file until they can compare it to other OOS applicants. So not a rejection, but not necessarily good news either. I dunno, I'm pretty pumped about the LMU thing, so I could handle going there I believe.

    11/9/07 - Finally... complete. My LORs were sent out to DCOM, UTMem, UVM and Louisville today, hopefully they will be there around Tuesday of next week. Im really only worried about DCOM cause thats where I think I want to go. I have been debating going to any other interviews if I get in there just to save money, but I might go to one or two just to make sure. The only other school that I think will hold any merit to DCOM is VCOM, and they have already called twice asking about my secondary, so I think I'll get an interview there. But if I put my deposit down for DCOM, it will be hard to walk away from 2k. I guess thats all assuming I get into DCOM though. So I guess I'll just wait to make that decision until I have to.

    11/20/07 - Got my first acceptance, and it was to DCOM, WOOOHHOOOO!!!!! Its a super nice school, the technology is first class, and of the students I have met they have been great. So now I'm just going to have to wait until I hear back from VCOM, and hopefully I'll get to make a decision. It will be a hard one though because Blacksburg is somewhere I have always wanted to live. So we'll see. It might be after the Christmas season before I even get an interview there, so as of right now I'm going to LMU-DCOM!!! Super, super, super pumped!!!! :)

    I also just withdrew from the Louisville application. I didn't really want to go there I was just getting a little nervous in October because I hadnt gotten any calls or emails for interviews from anyone. Looking back, maybe I shouldnt have, but oh well, whats done is done. And I'm already in to one of the schools that I really wanted to go to!

    11/30/07 - Took my deposit for the class up to DCOM yesterday and put down a housing deposit to live in their medical student housing. So it looks as if thats where I'm heading. :D!!!!

    Im still waiting to hear back to see if I get an interview at UTMemphis, UK, VCOM and... University of Vermont. The only school that I am really even actually interested in is VCOM though. So I guess I should just go ahead and withdraw from the others, huh? I dont think that I would actually go to VCOM either, I feel so at home and welcomed at DCOM its unbelievable. I've been debating on what to do for a while now. I should have known better than applying to all the MD schools that I did, my stats just arent high enough to beat their numbers game. But thats ok, cause I got into a school that looked at me instead of my undergrad GPA. And I'm happy :). And hindsight is 20/20, right? I'm feeling better about DCOM everyday, not much would be able to break that now.


    *******


    12/21/2007 - I have officially withdrawn from all the other schools I was waiting on. I'm kinda shocked that I havent heard anything back from UT yet, especially being in state. But its their loss. VCOM looked interesting to me, but I got another 'well, could you send us your fall semester grades... we're not quite sure about you...' email today from them. And I honestly dont think I would be as happy there. UK and UVM were some really nice schools that would have been great to go to, but I havent heard anything from them and plus, I love the Osteopathic method of learning/teaching/practicing medicine. I'm sure I would have done things the same way at any MD school, but the atmosphere and attitudes at DCOM are what I'm looking for. Laid back, very approachable, and they really, really want us to succeed and do the best that we can.

    So in the end, I'm in at DCOM, and as great as the other schools might be, I just fit in at DCOM. It feels comfortable there, I love the professors and students, the location is ideal for me, and I just really feel like I click there. So I'm headed to DCOM come next August, WOOHOOOO!!!! What a ride its been. An expensive one at that:

    Primaries - $650
    MCAT x2 - $450
    Secondaries - $390
    MCAT study books - $150
    Online MCAT tests - $90
    -------------------------
    Total: $1730
    +DCOM matriculation fee and housing fee - $2000 and $200
    -------------------------
    Grand Total : $3930


    I am extremely happy and excited to be going to one of the most amazing schools in the country. I cant wait to start next August and I hope everyone else has some great luck this application season as well!

    Applied, Rejected

    Vanderbilt University
    Virginia Commonwealth University
    East Tennessee State University

    Application Complete, Withdrew

    University of Colorado
    University of Tennessee
    University of Louisville
    Edward Via Virginia College
    University of Virginia
    Duke University
    University of Vermont

    Attended Interview, Waitlisted, Withdrew

    University of Kentucky

    Accepted

    Lincoln Memorial University

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