Application Cycle One: 2008

• Undergraduate college: University of Colorado at Boulder
• Undergraduate Area of study: Psychology/Social Sciences

• Total MCAT SCORE: 516
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 130, C/P 129, CARS 127   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.90
• Science GPA: 3.96

Summary of Application Experience

•8/4 - Finally officially rejected from UCLA ... UCSD here I come!
•6/30 - Withdrew from UCD. They offered me a nice scholarship, but, in the end, I feel UCSD is a better fit for me.
•5/29 - Accepted to UC-Davis. I will wait to have a look at their financial aid package before making a final decision.
•5/8 - Withdrew from Dartmouth. I\'m down to 1 acceptance now, UCSD is the victor.
•5/4 - Withdrew acceptances from USC, UCI, Wisconsin, Colorado. WD from Vandy waitlist.
•3/10 - Rejected for the 6th time from Stanford. First was grad school, times 2-5 were for research jobs that I thought I was well qualified for.
•2/21 - Rejected post-interview from the JMP. Not entirely sure what happened; I thought it went very well. This is probably for the best.
•1/23 - Interviewed at UCSF-UCB Joint Medical Program. They have a very interesting 5 year program where you get a MS from Cal and an MD from UCSF. They only matriculate 16 students and the curriculum is completely PBL/case-based. The students come up with their own learning objectives for each case and really teach each other. This is the first time I\'ve seen problem-based learning in action. Although the concept is unfamiliar, I could see myself truly learning a lot with this format.
•1/11 - Sent update to UCLA, would have sent one to Stanford also, but they do not accept pre-interview updates.
•12/8 - Accepted to USC, letter dated 12/1
•12/1 - Impressions thus far: Wow, I\'ve received a lot of interviews. The three interviews I\'ve been on thus far have been very impressive. All I need now is an acceptance. I\'m about to embark on a tour de California where I get to visit 3 UC schools in a single week. Then, a week later, I\'m following it up with UWisc and Dartmouth interviews. That will be a total of 5 interviews in one month. We\'ll see how my bank account holds up.
•9/23 - Vanderbilt, simply put, was amazing. I would be honored to make the next cut.
•9/13 - interview invite - USC
•9/2 - first invite - Vandy
•8/29 - first rejection - Mayo
•8/24 - submitted LOR to secondary schools, I was previously waiting on a delinquent letter.
•8/5 - primary verified, it\'s a mess of Xs. AMCAS decided that my military schools should be my freshman year and this caused a trickle-down effect for all me subsequent courses classifications, it shouldn\'t matter though.
•7/27 - added 5 schools to app.
•7/13 - submitted primary w/7 schools, will add more.
••••••letters••••••
? u-grad thesis advisor, she is not a science prof but should be a very good letter.
? o-chem prof, he doesn\'t know me very well but it is a science letter.
? upper division science prof; i did well in his class but we aren\'t otherwise acquainted.
? clinical letter from MD who i worked closely with
? work/research letter from current PI, should be very strong

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AAMC PRACTICE TESTS:
30 4/07/08 AAMC 3r: 11p, 10v, 9b
32 5/05/08 AAMC 5: 11p, 10v, 11b
35 5/16/08 AAMC 4: 10p, 12v, 13b
34 5/25/08 AAMC 6: 13p, 10v, 11b
36 5/28/08 AAMC 7: 13p, 11v, 12b
36 5/31/08 AAMC 8: 12p, 12v, 12b
36 6/7/08 AAMC 9: 12p, 12v, 12b
38 6/11/08 AAMC 10: 12p, 13v, 13b
34.6 grand average of all AAMC tests
35.8 average score after content review
34 real score from 6/13/08 2pm MCAT
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tally of costs to date--starts at bottom:
$140 - Flight to San Diego for 2nd look
$140 - Flight to LAX and back
$85 - Hotel and ground transportation (UCLA)
$30 - Gas and parking (Berkeley JMP)
$48 - Gas and bridges (Boston/Dartmouth)
$61 - Hotel near Dartmouth
$166 - Rental car in Boston for drive to Dartmouth
$120 - Nice dinner for friend who hosted me in Chicago
$10 - Public transit in Chicago
$38 - Gas and parking for nice guy who drove me to Chicago
$3 - Bus fare in Madison
$490 - Ticket to Madison/Boston/Home
$10 - UC Davis parking and bridge toll to return
$59 - Hotel in Sacramento
$30 - Gas for drive to Sacramento and back
$80 - Hotel in Irvine
$50 - Housewarming gift for friend in San Diego
$6 - San Diego parking
$120 - Gas for drive to San Diego and Irvine and back
$115 - Hotel room and ground transportation (LA)
$305 - Plane ticket to LAX to DIA to SJC
$152 - Hotel room and ground transportation (Nashville)
$269 - Plane ticket to Nashville
$1090 - Secondary fees
$240 - Added 8 more schools
$340 - Primary app. fee w/7 schools
$210 - MCAT registration fee
$75 - MCAT prep materials for self-study, mostly used
$77 - Interfolio
$65 - transcript fees
$28 - 2009-2010 MSAR (after tax and shipping)
$~ 12 - Postage
$~ ? - forthcoming cost