Brief Profile:
Graduated in 1990 from Harvard and worked for 14 years in the software industry before returning to school (Mills College) for pre-med requirements. Had some exposure to medicine prior to that, but began pursuing clinical activities seriously in 2004/2005. My UG grades were not my best; I had done 4.0-level work in high school, and got a straight 4.0 at Mills for my post-bac work, but UG grades were I believe just under 3.0.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 2007
Undergraduate college: Harvard College
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Institution: Mills College
Area of Study: Premedical Studies
Degree Obtained: 2006
Total MCAT SCORE: 516
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 129,
C/P 127,
CARS 132
Overall GPA: 3.31
Science GPA: 3.28
Summary of Application Experience
For the year of entry 2007, I had applied to 18 schools (harvard, yale, dartmouth, brown, cornell, mt sinai, nyu, u. washington, duke, UCSF, stanford, uc san diego, columbia, pritzker, johns hopkins, u. rochester, u. north carolina, northwestern) and was only granted one interview (at u. rochester) which for various reasons I didn't go to. I attribute this to a) generally being late with my applications, b) only having ~1 year of clinical experience at the time, c) writing essays not at my best ability, d) not addressing my undergraduate grades in my essay, and e) only applying to 'stretch' schools. I had only applied to stretch schools because I didn't believe that my UG grades would impact my application much, since they were so long ago and I had gotten a 4.0 at Mills. This proved not to be the case, as every school I followed up with cited my grades as the reason they did not offer me an interview. I addressed all these issues in my application for entry in 2008: better writing, more clinical/research experience, addressed my grades in my essay, expanding my school list (48 AMCAS, 36 secondaries), and doing everything early.
5/20/08 update: In retrospect I think the two most significant things I did to improve my application the second time were 1) APPLYING EARLY. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized; every single school I interviewed at in November accepted me outright, whereas every subsequent school waitlisted me. 2) applying to many more schools. It appears from my observations of my peers that for postbacs without straight A's in college (or after), a rough average would be ~35 secondary applications = ~3-5 interviews = ~1-2 acceptances. I think having so much good material left over from the previous year's application, plus paying for some excellent consultant advice, plus good interview skills, allowed me to beat this average. I'm holding an acceptance at Dartmouth but am waiting to see what happens with the waitlists I'm on. I love New England, but at my age I'd rather stay nearer all my Bay Area friends!
6/4/08 update: I was waitlisted at UC Davis on Monday 6/2, then got the acceptance phone call on Tuesday 6/3! Am waiting for the packet in the mail before I consider everything completed, but as far as I'm concerned I'm now a UC Davis student. Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7/11/08 update: some dates now included for the schools I interviewed at. '2R' = 2ndary received. '2S' = 2ndary submitted. 'AC' = app complete. 'I' = date of interview. 'A' = accepted. 'WL' = waitlisted. 'R' = rejected.
