Brief Profile:
MIT 2011 - B.S. Biological Engineering
I\'ve got many research experiences, but they\'re all short and kinda superficial. My strength lies in all the service/mission work that I\'ve done. I was also a varsity athlete, and had a lot of undergrad leadership stuff. BUT my grades aren\'t too great. Here\'s hoping my MCAT combined with MIT\'s name will save me.
Spending this year serving the poor as a Catholic missionary in the U.S.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/20/2011
Undergraduate college: MIT
Undergraduate Area of study: Engineering/Technology
Total MCAT SCORE: 517
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 129,
C/P 129,
CARS 130
Overall GPA: 3.39
Science GPA: 3.25
Summary of Application Experience
As a Texas resident, I applied both AMCAS and TMDSAS. My pre-health advisor recommendation took a long time... so my recs weren\'t sent to schools until August 19.
My TMDSAS rankings were: 1. UT Southwestern 2. UTHSC San Antonio 3. UT Houston 4. Texas Tech El Paso 5. Texas Tech Lubbock
I matched into my #2, UTHSCSA.
My reasoning behind the rankings was this: I loved UTSW; the people there reminded me of the people I knew at MIT, and I felt in some way \"at home\" there. So, it was number one. I loved El Paso, but it started too early (before my missionary year was over), and was far away, and unknown to residencies. At TTU, I liked the students I met, and Lubbock too, but I wasn\'t impressed with the program or its reputation among residencies. So they were both ranked at the bottom. It was hard to decide between UTHSCSA and Houston as my second choice. My thoughts were colored by my mood at each interview: Houston was my first interview, so everything was amazing and awesome. UTHSCSA was one of my last ones, and I was tired and unimpressed by how similar it was to every other interview. But those moods had nothing to do with the schools themselves! I ended up choosing UTHSCSA because I prefer SA to Houston, and also because of the opportunity to do rotations at the RAHC -- a regional campus in Harligen, TX. Since I matched to my #2, hopefully that decision was the right one! ;-)
General thoughts on the process.... The schools I chose to apply to were really random. In retrospect, I would have applied to far fewer, and even some different ones (schools in Chicago, Tufts, Colorado). First, I underestimated medical schools\' ability to give scholarships/aid. I automatically discounted some expensive schools, when I could have at least applied and seen what my offer was. Second, I was intimidated by my counselors/advisers into applying to a million and one schools, essentially as back-ups to all the Texas schools. Then, I only received *one* non-Texas interview. So I wasted a lot of money applying to schools that were *harder* to get into than the schools I preferred (TX schools). Sigh.
Biggest piece of advice: Texas Residents, you don\'t really need to apply beyond Texas, unless you want to.
Summary of Experience:
I was SO impressed in this school. I knew nothing about it going in, thought it was a podunk little school. Not so!!! Everyone I met there, from students to faculty, was amazing.
kristin_rawr 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 kristin_rawr’s section scores as follows:
kristin_rawr scored a 11 on the Biological Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 129 on the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems.
kristin_rawr scored a 12 on the Physical Science section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 129 on the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems.
kristin_rawr scored a 12 on the Verbal Reasoning section of the old MCAT which is approximately equal to a 130 on the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills.
