Application Cycle One: 2007

• Undergraduate college: UCLA
• Undergraduate Area of study: Computing and Information Science

• Total MCAT SCORE: 511
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 127, C/P 127, CARS 129   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.87
• Science GPA: 3.70

Summary of Application Experience

My 2 cents on this whole process:

*LOR Advice: This is a unique approach, but worked incredibly well for me since I attended a huge public university, and wasn't the student sitting in front of class answering all the questions.

During the beginning of my junior year, I applied for a pre-med prep program that required LOR's from my professors. I decided to ask my Chemistry professor, who barely knew me aside from my grades and ranking (that was recorded on his computer). Keep in mind, since this course was a lower div class that was a pre-req for all science major, he had 300+ students per quarter.

Anyway, I went to his OH, asked him if he would be willing to write me a letter of rec, and explained to him the prep program I was applying for. He was willing to write me a rec, though he didn't know me personally. Anyway, I did not get into the program, and went back to his office to thank him and let him know of the bad news. Surprisingly, he was very supportive and encouraged me to keep looking for other opportunities, and told me to feel free to use him for other references in the future. I actually did use him for a couple more references, and in the process, he got to know me a lot better and was able to write more personal LOR's as time went on. By the time med school apps came around, he had known me for 2 years and knew my motivations and determination to pursue medicine, and wrote me a stellar recommendation.

Because of this, I think I had a heads up amongst other pre-med students who just asked him for a LOR once (probably for medical school), and whom he never gotten to know well.

So, my point: Find a reason to visit your professor early on, whether you're asking for a LOR for a program or even a scholarship (this is an easy one!), and maintain the relationship thereafter.


1) Applying early definitely helps.
2) Choosing Schools: Find schools that are focused on your interests. There is no point in applying to a highly ranked school in research if you are interested in community-health and primary care. In my experience, schools look for fit just as much as they look at credentials, especially if you have average stats, like me.
3) If you're applying far away from home, give personal reasons (when appropriate) about why you want to go their school. All the schools I've been accepted to, I either had family or friends in the area. The schools in which I had no affiliation with, I didn't get in. (Not saying this is the reason why I didn't get in, but schools want to know that you have a compelling reason to choose their school over another school.)
4) Secondaries: Practice makes perfect. This applies to writing secondaries and interviewing. The secondaries I had written towards the end of my secondaries were better in quality, as well as the interviews I had done towards the latter part of the interviewing season. I would suggest doing secondaries/interviews from schools that are less important to you first to practice.
5) Interview Travels: If you have the time and finances, I would recommend staying a couple days in the cities you interview at. I either stayed with friends or brought my bf along to spend the weekend in Chicago, DC, New York, Philly, San Fransisco, and Seattle. I also grouped all the East Coast interviews in 2 weeks, and took the greyhound to save money. Fun times! HOTWIRE.com also has INCREDIBLE deals on hotels.
6) Interview: This is my jaded opinion, but don't let conversation fillers that have nothing to do with your application take up your time. Towards the middle of my interview season, I realized there were things I really wanted to talk about that were never brought up or asked about. I decided to have 3 selling points that I thought made me completely unique, and would bring them up one way or another before the interview ended. This, along with practice, seemed to make all the difference. I got accepted to 2 (RFU, Jefferson) out of the first 6 interviews I went to, while getting accepted to 5 (MCW, LLU, UCSF, UCLA, Northwestern) out of the last six interviews, while waiting on the last one (UWSOM).
6) Post-interview: Don't be hesitant to send LOI's to schools you are interested in. I sent a pre-interview letter to UCLA, and I got a call a week later. I sent a post-interview letter to UCSF after they waitlisted me, and I got an acceptance a week later. Also, the schools don't pay much attention to the AMCAS Extracurricular Activities section, so sending them an LOI that highlights your selling points while telling them what an awesome addition you would be for their school is highly effective.

I am so grateful that this application process had turn out so favorably for me, and that I had tons of fun in the process. I hope this helps people who may not have stellar stats, and are not URM (although I am Southeast Asian, which some schools considered a minority).

PM me at raininspain if you have any questions. I'm glad to help!