Brief Profile:
- Canadian citizen, went to undergrad in US - 3 years research during college, 1 co-authorship - course fellow for a humanities class (wrote problem sets etc) - certified EMT - director of ESL program for Chinese immigrants - first aid/CPR instructor - clinical shadowing with urologist and ob/gyn - director of a martial arts club
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 2008
Undergraduate college: Harvard College
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 524
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 130,
C/P 132,
CARS 132
Overall GPA: 3.94
Science GPA: 3.96
Summary of Application Experience
Apply early!! I can't emphasize enough the importance of this. I procrastinated some of my secondary applications, and fortunately got away with it... but I considered myself lucky.
Receiving my first acceptance at Northwestern, to a great program at a great location, was a huge relief and led to a lot of withdrawals at other schools.
Canadian citizens: applying to schools in the US is quite difficult. Many great schools will consider you, but very few will offer any institutional aid. Even worse, many will ask for four years of tuition in escrow. This cut down my top choices to Yale and Harvard, or crossing my fingers and hoping for a merit scholarship.
Also, the interview season was VERY long as a result of having interviews in 2 countries with different admissions cycles. My first interview as in October and my last one in March.
It's very important to apply widely. I thought I had a relatively strong application, but was waitlisted at several schools. I had my Canadian schools to fall back on, but they do not send decisions until May 15. Getting the Harvard letter in mid-March was an immense relief! On the other hand being waitlisted is not the end of the world, as I found out when eventually offered a spot at Yale off the waitlist.
Of course I'd heard all the above advice before, but it's important to hear it and also take it seriously! Applying late or to not enough schools is VERY easy to do and it hurts to have it bite you later.
User #17046 took the old MCAT and scored a which is in the percentile of all old scores.
We converted this to a on the updated scale which is in the percentile of the updated MCAT. We also converted User #17046’s section scores as follows:
User #17046 scored a 13 on the Biological Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 130 on the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems.
User #17046 scored a 15 on the Physical Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 132 on the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems.
User #17046 scored a 13 on the Verbal Reasoning section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 132 on the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills.
