Application Cycle One: 2005

• Undergraduate college: Drexel University
• Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences

• Institution: Minor
• Area of Study: Computing and Information Science
• Degree Obtained: BS

• Total MCAT SCORE: 505
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 129, C/P 126, CARS 124   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.32
• Science GPA: 3.20

Summary of Application Experience

Last year I applied late- did not become complete until november 11th or so. This was due to the August MCAT, and also because Drexel's use of the quarter system lets out for summer in mid June, seriously delaying my ability to get things submitted early.

VCU's offer for interview was stunning, I was just invited this week- w/o the new mcat scores from this August.


Having reviewed their interview dates available, the peak of interviewing season is oct/nov. This is critical to understand, after those months the number of interview dates available drops off remarkably sharply- assuming that they do not provide extra dates later in the year, if you do not submit your apps by august you will be hard pressed to be interviewed IF you are not stellar.


Drexel U has a good undergrad program, but in looking back, I guess since the goal of undergrad was to get into medschool, I would have been best suited going to a school that has more experience getting their students into medschools. DU is new at that game, it shows in the grading of students and the curriculum itself- how convenient that the suits upstairs altered the curriculum my senior year.

my advice- apply early, do secondaries quickly, and do not apply if you are not ready, academically or for whatever reason- it is costly and very time consuming.

UPDATE: They explained at UVM and VCU, that after your interview the interviewer will go before the committee or submit your interview results and then your GPA, MCAT and the rest will be hashed...it seems that schools dont give you a break...if you're numbers aren't there- I think you're screwed regardless of how well your interview. Plus, my parents aren't docs. Seeing as how Ive been waitlisted at VCU, Jeff and UVM, I can state with confidence that its either my numbers OR the fact that at all of these interviews I have explained how I enjoyed both my primary care shadowing and surgical shadowing- ergo I am undecided as to what field I prefer. I suppose it is plausible that this uncertainty is viewed as a negative- but it really should not. My next interview I will stick to one specialty and see if there is a difference in outcome.

I threw some applications at the Israeli schools too- BGU, and the Technion. BGU canned me- not a surprise. They want ppl truly interested in international health...I cant really show that I am.

The Technion just accepted me though- that school is amazing and world recognized, I am just concerned about residency placement and bias against any non US school- so I'll be making phone calls monday.

If I get accepted to a US school, it's going to be a tough decision whether I give up my place at The Technion. So if any of you web surfers on here know anything about the program or have any opinions- feel free to post back to me. In fact my email is [email protected]


It's now been a year and I have received an interview at Tulane U. Considering the damage portrayed by the media- New Orleans is nowhere near as bad as people have made it sound. In fact the city is very livable. The staff were all friendly and the interview is much like a conversation. I was impressed.