Application Cycle One: 06/14/2009

• Undergraduate college: UCLA
• Undergraduate Area of study: Physical Sciences

• Total MCAT SCORE: 517
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 130, C/P 132, CARS 126   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.94
• Science GPA: 3.90

Summary of Application Experience

I\'m an MD/PhD candidate hoping to start med school in Fall 2010. My school list is huge (I know...), but I\'m hoping that a few post-secondary rejections and early interviews will thin it out in the coming months. After 4 years on the West Coast, I\'d like to be closer to my family (Midwest or Northeast) for the next 7-9 years. Please comment!

6/4 - All LORs are in!

6/10 - All transcripts are in!

6/15 - My eyes hurt from reading this monster over again and again and again. AMCAS finally submitted.

6/24 - AMCAS verified

7/9 - First batch of secondaries sent
Dartmouth, WUSTL, UPitt (yet to do MSTP app), UMich, Cornell (waiting for MSTP supplement)

7/10 - Sent UIC and Rochester secondaries. Rochester\'s was very nice, no essays! But for future reference, type all responses in NotePad and then paste into the actual secondary. If you paste from Word, all your apostrophes become question marks in UIC app.

7/13 - Sent Wisconsin, Baylor, and Columbia secondaries today. It was a fun weekend writing those...

7/21 - I\'ve been feeling a bit lately, so I haven\'t been working on secondaries. But I sent Cinci, NYU, UVa, and Yale secondaries today. That make 14/25 schools done!

7/27 - So I just realized that UChicago sent me a secondary...over a month ago! I rushed to finish it today, and got Vandy done on the side. 16.5/25 (the half is for JHU being almost done).

7/29 - JHU done! And mailed JHU\' paper version, Columbia\'s photo form, and WUSTL dean\'s certificate. Now all I need is Northwestern\'s secondary form and the emails will stop! 17/25

7/30 - Wow, it\'s not even August and I already have an interview. Thanks Rochester!

8/2 - Sent my UPitt MSTP secondary, now I just have to beg my MD/PhD LOR writers to send an electronic version of my recs to Pitt. And I withdrew from Mayo today, they\'re just being too much of a pain in the a$$ for me with the LOR requirements and exhorbitant fee. 17/24

8/4 - Sent Case and Northwestern today. Case took me a while because the CCLCM essays were kinda unusual, but enlightening prompts. Nearing the final lap: Duke, Harvard, OSU, UPenn, and Alabama (they ask for essays after interview request) left. 19/24.

8/11 - Sent OSU today. Also passed the initial UAB screen, and my full review starts today. In other news, UChicago put me on hold until December. 20/24

8/16 - Sent UPenn and the epic Duke secondaries today. Just Harvard and Alabama left. 22/24

8/17 - Good and bad news; interview at UVA but rejection at WUSTL.

8/20 - Vandy interview!

9/1 - Haven\'t updated in a while; decided to switch MD/PhD --> MD at OSU and received interview offers at UAB, Wisconsin, and UPItt. Unfortunately, Cornell MSTP sent me the little MSTP death envelope, but that\'s OK. I have more than enough interviews to keep me busy.

5/1 - In conclusion, this process is like a very wild and long roller coaster ride. I got some very early acceptances and some very late acceptances, but in the end I was accepted to each MD/PhD program where I attended an interview. My main advice is to APPLY EARLY (yes, July is already bordering too late), know yourself and your research well, and interview only at the schools that you would seriously consider attending (otherwise you\'ll waste a lot of time and money travelling). Good luck to everyone in future cycles!