Brief Profile:
Some of the demographics are fudged. I was a third time applicant. (sub 30 score my first cycle and didn't know what I was doing the first two). For the third cycle everything seemed to come together.
1st cycle: no interviews (applied on literally the last day...had no idea what I was doing all around)
2nd cycle: bumped MCAT to 35. Still neglected to work at all on my primary. ECs weren't that good either.
-Waitlists at UVA, Pitt, Vanderbilt and post interview rejection at Drexel. Applied to UVA, PItt, and Vanderbilt again for the third cycle. Didn't apply to Drexel again.
3rd cycle: (see below) Interesting to note that 2 of my 3 acceptances came from schools that wait-listed me the cycle previously. For this cycle I had completely revamped ECs and spent about 5 months perfecting my primary.
Take home? Do everything right the first time. Let the adcoms get to know who you really are on your primary.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/13/2012
Undergraduate college: College
Undergraduate Area of study: Mathematics
Total MCAT SCORE: 517
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 130,
C/P 130,
CARS 127
Overall GPA: 3.80
Science GPA: 3.80
Summary of Application Experience
2-8-17: Wow. I can't believe it's been over 4 years since I was accepted. Med school was certainly challenging but definitely doable. While I'm somewhat disenchanted with medicine and not as naive as I was as a pre-med, I would do med school all over again, mostly because of the people I met. Planning to go into GI.
9-21-13: I'm almost done with anatomy. One of the thing I love about med school is being surrounded by people who share the same passions as me.
I remember having class in undergrad in the lecture hall where the white coat ceremonies are held, just dreaming about being a student here. Well white coat was 2 months ago and I absolutely love where I am now.
3-13-13: This cycle is over for me. There were a lot of ups and downs but I should have just trusted myself from the beginning that everything would work out in the end. Would've saved some stress.
Out of the 11 interviews I attended, I was accepted to 3 of my top 4 choices. It was always a dream of mine to get accepted to Pitt. The outcome of this cycle was literally a dream come true.
As if my decision wasn't easy enough, Pitt gave me a very substantial needs based scholarship. Pitt Med Class of 2017!
Summary of Experience:
I heard great things about this school, so I was sad to withdraw without even visiting. However, I've spent an insane amount of money on interviews/application fees already and couldn't justify the trip.
Summary of Experience:
I had only one bad interview experience throughout this cycle. It came here. The faculty interviewer did not smile a single time, didn't seem to care at all about my research (not surprising), and was borderline rude. Sometimes you just don't mesh well with an interviewer.
Summary of Experience:
Penn blew me away. I was expecting the medical center to be smaller than it was...probably because I had always heard about Philly hospitals having to "fight" for patients.
As far as I know, the only school that lets interviewees don gloves and an apron and dig in to cadavers. Very cool.
Update: Well I was one of the unlucky few that was outright rejected post-interview. Not that I was expecting to get in but I was thinking at least a wait-list was coming my way.
I though that both my interviews were pretty strong. Either I'm a terrible judge of these things or they just decided that I simply did not have enough credentials to get into Penn. Who knows.
Summary of Experience:
Burlington is the prettiest little town I visited during the interview trail. If you have a chance, I would reccomend walking the path along Lake Champlain. Very peaceful, snow-capped mountains in the background, some small beaches...and French-Canadians walking around.
Summary of Experience:
Fantastic admissions office. Everyone was nice. I left with a great impression of the school. I guess the only downside for me would be living in NYC. I think the city is great to visit though.
Summary of Experience:
Last question at interview: Would you choose Temple over Pitt? I never mentioned Pitt either.
I knew that saying "no" would likely mean a wasted trip to Philly, so I was honest and said something like "I see a lot of similarities between the two schools and would be very happy at Temple".....perhaps they knew it wasn't one of my top choices and decided to wait-list me...that's just my hunch though and I wouldn't blame them if that was the case.
Summary of Experience:
Loved my time in Albany. The school reminded me a lot of Rochester, albeit with no undergrad campus nearby. Didn't withdraw right after current acceptances because I was curious to see how I did on the MMIs....maybe not so well considering I got wait-listed.
Summary of Experience:
Once I started talking about my research and goals in medicine, the faculty interviewer told me that if you want to do research, GW is probably not the best place for you.
I understood that I was pretty much out of the running for GW at that point. I think I salvaged the rest of the interview pretty well though. Interviewer told me that "I think you'll have quite a few acceptences and you'll have to decide what's the 'best fit'"....apparently, I wasn't a good fit for GW.
Summary of Experience:
"1st tier wait-list"....a lot of people were taken off the wait-list last year, but they changed things up with non-rolling admissions this time around. I think I still have a good shot here so we'll see.
Summary of Experience:
Fantastic program! I even warmed up to Iowa City. Only downside for me is the OOS price and distance from home.
The interview was quite fun! It was with two faculty members and another faculty member observing the interview. I got a great vibe from Carver.
Though I probably won't matriculate here (I've lived on the east coast my whole life and want to stay) I look forward to hopefully visiting Iowa again on the residency interview trail.
Summary of Experience:
One of my top choices going into the cycle. I would be very happy here. Ended up being accepted!!! I was set to go here, looking at houses in Charlotesville and everything, then I was accepted at Pitt.
As good as UVA is I think that UPMC trumps a lot of hospital systems.
