26 year old graduate with a B.S. in Chemistry from a University of California school. Straight out of college, I wasn\'t 100% sure I wanted to do medicine and the sacrifices that came with the job. I got hired at one of my old college jobs as a Sales assistant with the prospect of leading my own sales team. I wanted to give business a shot and see where it could take me. However, after only 6 months I realized that it just wasn\'t for me and I went back to volunteering and shadowing to revist my old interest in medicine. I quickly fell in love and knew that I wanted to be a physician. I am currently planning to marry my long-time girlfriend of 5.5 years (she\'s an RN) and we don\'t plan on having children at this point.
Since I am from California with sub-optimal stats, I\'m applying to all OOS schools that I can. I have a great MCAT of 33 but my GPA lacks hard due to poor performance and poor decisions during my 1st and 2nd year at UC. I have applied to 19 DO schools this cycle. Right now I\'m interested in anesthesiology as my background is in chemistry, but I\'m keeping an open mind and I\'m sure I\'ll change my mind at least a few times during the four year education. I hope I get in this year as I\'m already 26, and will be 27 before matriculation (I hope this cycle is nice to me).
AACOMAS cGPA: 3.14 AACOMAS sGPA: 2.96
(Irritated that AACOMAS counts college courses I took during high school. I would have over a 3.0 sGPA if they didn\'t)
I lead a small team of volunteer rescuers made up of people who have lost pets in the past. We work with people who have lost their beloved family members and put into action a plan to spread witness development.
I volunteered to do hospice care for terminally ill patients but I wasn\'t given much opportunity to actually interact with patients due to living far away from actual patient\'s homes.
Shadowed a Primary Care D.O. at a VA Clinic for 20 hours. Did this for the D.O. Letter Requirement for LECOM and to also recognize any difference between MD and DO in a primary care setting.
Worked with physicians and RNs to change all of the handwritten charts into computerized charts. I never had direct patient contact so I put this as community service.
Love snowboarding. I go every winter if I can. I\'ve made trips to tahoe, mammoth, and utah (all >6 hour drives) just to snowboard in different communities.
Currently I\'m missing around ~3 credits for Biology so I plan to enroll at a local community college in the Fall 2011 to complete this requirement. I also plan to retake a few courses for grade replacement. I want to take them at a 4-yr but the cost is too much for me currently. I\'ll take what I can get. Hopefully my high MCAT proves that I can handle the subjects and I\'m not just taking the easy way out.
I didn\'t realize that some schools require a D.O. letter of rec so I\'m working on finding a D.O. that I can shadow and get a letter from. *** Update: Added this D.O. Letter after I submitted my application **
Looking into volunteering at a local soup kitchen or another healthcare activity to keep up my motivation to pursue medicine and keep myself busy during this application cycle. ** Update: Started volunteering at the local homeless shelter\'s food kitchen on the weekend. Also went back to the VA Emergency Department and have been volunteering there.
Letter of Recommendation
1. Obtained excellent letter of recommendation from the PCP MD that I shadowed. He is a mentor to me now and I believe his letter carries a lot of weight. 2. Science: Letter from a highly acclaimed professor at UC and I got A\'s in both of the classes he taught. I believe he wrote favorably about me, but he did express some concern about my unfortunate 1st and 2nd year. 3. Science: Letter from a professor that I received an A- in his class. He was not very talkative during the whole process but I believe he wrote me a favorable letter, but its probably not very strong. 4. DO: ADDED LATE. After I submitted my application, I shadowed a primary care D.O. at the Veteran\'s Affairs hospital. I got to know him over the course of 2 months and I believe he wrote me a great letter of recommendation. I set it out to all my schools as soon as I had received it into Interfolio
MCAT Prep
I followed SDN\'s 90 day technique, but expanded it to about four months. I studied hard everyday, reviewing a lot of material that I had forgotten since I took the MCAT years after my pre-req classes. I was getting 32-36\'s on practice tests and landed a 33Q on the real deal (PS 13 BS 10 V 10, Q) I was super surprised from the PS13 due to the fact that my BS was always higher than PS during the practices.
Cost of Application
AACOMAS: 19 DO schools - $751 AMCAS: - $160 (submitted + withdrawn for refund)
Travel Costs: $1098 LECOM-E = $430 flight, $62 hotel, (+ $100 lost at airport changing flights) AZCOM = $130 car rental, $120 in gas, $226 hotel (stayed all weekend with teh woman)
Interview Attire: $1175 Suit = Brooks Brothers Milano Flannel Grey 42R ($550) Tie = Navy Pindot ($21 Tiebar.com) Shirt = Brooks Brothers White XSlim ($80) Shoes = Allen Edmonds Park Avenue Black Captoe ($353) Belt = Allen Edmonds Calfskin ($96.81) Pocket Square = White Linen ($20 Kent Wang) Garment Bag = $35 on Amazon. Leatherbound Folder = Staples ($20)
================================== Total so far = $4004
