Brief Profile:
I'm trying to make this as complete as possible because I found the rare completed profile very useful during my application cycle. Hopefully this is some help to you. I do not include the descriptions of activities and my personal statement because 1. I really don't think the descriptions matter that much, 2. my personal statement is just that--personal, and 3. It's already pretty easy to identify me, why make it any easier :).
Background: First person in my family to attend any graduate program. Identified as disadvantaged (born in the Bronx, grew up on federal assistance, worked two jobs in undergrad to pay for school) GPA Trend: freshman year- 3.9; sophomore year- 3.5 (due to taking 24 credits each semester and senior level bio classes; to be honest no one seemed to care); junior- 4.0; senior year- 4.0; fifth year- 4.0 (wasn't on original application, but included in update letters)
LORs (I have a lot because I needed letters from all my research advisors): 1. Thesis/Undergrad Research Advisor 2. PI from Einstein Internship 3. PI from Ghana Internship 4. Advisor for Tri-Beta, also my professor for upper level bio class 5. Professor for physiology and metabolism, on thesis committee, went to her often for mentoring and career advice 6. PI from Viral Discovery Program 7. PI from Microbiology Research, I also TAed for her and was in one of her bio classes
Activities from my application to you: 1. Research/Lab: Amgen Research and Development Intern (3 months; 40 hours per week)
2. Honors/Awards/Recognitions: Collegiate Honors and Awards (listed current month of application; no hours); I included this category because I had a significant amount of national/regional/school research awards and scholarships. I would NOT use this to list Dean's List, etc
3. Research/Lab: Undergraduate Microbiology Research (6 months-present; 5 hours per week); I had a couple of presentations and one first author manuscript
4. Research/Lab: Albert Einstein College of Medicine SURP (3 months; 40 hours per week); I had a couple of presentations
5. Community Service/Volunteer- Clinical/Medical: Einstein Community Health Outreach Clinical Intern (3 months; 5 hours per week)
6. Other: Clinical Shadowing (1 month; 12 hours per week): I listed exact hours for each specialty and when those occurred
7. Intercollegiate Athletics: Triathlon Team (3 years and continuing; 25 hours per week)
8. Community Service/Volunteer- Medical/Clinical: Free Clinic (2 years and counting; 2 hours per week)
9. Research/Lab: Neuroscience Undergraduate Research and Honors Thesis (3 years and counting; 10 hours per week); One publication, honors thesis (likely publication), presentations on local/regional/national level, wrote grant that was funded, received a couple of research awards
10. Research/Lab: Virginia Tech-Ghana Research Experience for Undergraduates (3 months; 40 hours per week); multiple presentations, keynote speaker at a conference, first author publication
11. Community Service/Volunteer- Not Medical/Clinical: Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentor (4 years and continuing; 2 hours per week)
12. Teaching/Tutoring: Teaching Assistant and Science Tutor (4 years and continuing; 8 hours per week); I was a paid Athletics Tutor for organic chemistry, anatomy, physiology and physics for two years, teaching assistant every semester since sophomore year for various biology classes, supplemental instructor for physiology
13. Research/Lab: Virology Undergraduate Research (4 years and counting; 5 hours per week); multiple presentations, one publication
14. Leadership: Tri-Beta Biology Honors Society President and Executive Board Member (4 years and continuing; 6 hours per week); President for two years, VP for one year, Treasurer for one year; completely revamped entire organization and received a fantastic letter from our club advisor
15. Community Service/Volunteer- not Medical/Clinical: St Elizabeth's Camp Counselor and Assistant Director (2 years; 100 hours per week); I explained that the camp is one week per summer and is a camp for teens with disabilities such as Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, etc so counselors are basically working 24/7 with their camper buddy. As Assistant Director, I was responsible for a subset of counselors and campers
I was told my Personal Statement and LORs were exceptional by multiple interviewers, if that sort of thing matters.
Applied MD/PhD only and did not consider an MD-only program. My MCAT was a little low, but I'm pretty sure my research made up for it (4 publications with 2 first author and 3 manuscripts in progress; 20+ presentations; 4 internships). Applying MD/PhD is rough... especially if you were lucky like me and had a significant amount of interviews. Go on as many as you can afford because you don't know what a school was like until you visit. There were a couple of schools I was not too excited about until I attended the interview and, likewise, there were a few schools that definitely disappointed me. Also, as you get closer to the waitlist movement schools will call you up and unofficially offer a spot to try and protect their yield (I don't list those schools, but feel free to message me for them).
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/08/2012
Undergraduate college: James Madison University
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 514
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 129,
C/P 128,
CARS 129
Overall GPA: 3.85
Science GPA: 3.75
Summary of Application Experience
I tried to keep up with dates for secondaries, etc, but some of these are rough estimations because I became too busy with school and interviewing to keep up. ----------------------------------------- SR = secondary received SS = secondary submitted C = complete (secondary received + LORs received) II = interview invite IA = interview attended WL = waitlisted A = accepted W = withdrew R = rejected
*Note: Some of the completion dates for my secondaries are delayed because I had to wait for my fee waivers to be approved by individual schools. Also some of completion dates are approximate since some schools did not email completion notifications.
Summary of Experience:
Tri-I MSTP; SR: 7/3, SS: 7/9, C: 8/14 (I don\'t know what took so long.), R: 9/19. Not interested in MD-only, so not moving my application to the MD pool.
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/2, SS: 7/4, C: 7/26, Apparently one of my MD/PhD references never submitted the supplemental reference... not worth the time trying to hunt them down, W: 10/10
Summary of Experience:
Received email 7/10 for fee waiver, reviewing primary, II: 8/16, Interview scheduled for 1/2-1/4; Decided to withdraw after VCU acceptance; W: 11/2
Summary of Experience:
Received email on 7/6: "Your AMCAS application has been evaluated and we are sending you our secondary application by e-mail.* Please allow 2 weeks for the application to be sent to you as we send them out in batches."
SR: 7/12, SS: 7/17, C: 8/7 (? never received email notification), II: 10/11, had to postpone interview due to Hurricane Sandy, W: 12/30.
Running out of money for travel, so I need to pick and choose where I interview.
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/6, SS: 7/10, C: 7/26, II: 8/1, Scheduled for 11/13-11/14; Did some long and hard thinking and decided this program was not for me and I would not attend over VCU; W: 11/1
Summary of Experience:
Received email 7/16 saying that I would receive a secondary as soon as my letters arrived. Received letters on 7/26 and put into screening. SR: 8/9, SS: 8/9, C: 8/9, Received email that I was under review 8/13, II: 8/22, IA: 10/26-27, R: 1/15ish, The feeling was pretty mutual here.... they seem to be heavily chemistry focused and don't have a lot of research in my area.
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/6, SS: 8/7, C: 8/7, II: 8/20, IA: 10/5, R: 2/1ish?, Loved the program and Bellvue and was a little crushed when I was rejected, but in the end, I think I would have enjoyed living in Manhattan for 8 years a little too much and probably would have failed out of school haha.
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/9, SS: 7/26, C: 7/26, II: 9/6, IA: 11/8-9; Definitely was not a good fit for me. Loved the faculty I met with, but was not impressed with many of the current students and the way the acted during the interview weekend, W: 11/15ish
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/10, not allowed to submit until 8/20, SS: 8/21, C: 8/23, II: 9/26, IA: 11/29-12/2, LOVED wisconsin, it's just so far away from home :(
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/12, SS: 7/27, C: 8/17, II: 8/21, IA: 9/24-9/25, A: 10/15 (MD/PhD pending an MD acceptance; phone call, snail mail), A: 10/16 (into MD program); Second Look completely sealed the deal for me-- the new medical school building, new curriculum, students, and growth of the program are amazing. VCU has been hiring some big name MSTP (from Sinai, Penn, etc) directors to head the MD/PhD and MD program here. Will likely become MSTP in the next 4 or so years and the school is on the rise, especially for being a relatively younger school.
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/6, SS: 7/27, C: 8/5, II: 10/5, IA: 11/15-11/16, A: MD only 11/16, W: MSTP 11/30ish High Alternate Status; UVA has a slight edge research wise over VCU, but VCU wins hands down in clinical aspects. Also, I would rather live in Richmond than Charlottesville for the next 8 years.
Summary of Experience:
Received email on 6/29 saying that secondary would be available in mid-July. SR: 7/16, SS: 8/15, C: 8/28, II: 11/5, IA: 12/4-5, Loved being near the CDC and all the global health opportunities, didn't love the fact that Atlanta is so car dependent and I felt like I didn't get along with other students as well as at other programs
Summary of Experience:
SR: 7/20, SS: 8/14, C: 8/14, II: 12/14, IA: 1/14-15, Loved the students and program, but couldn't justify spending 8 years in Baltimore.
