Costs so far
$1500 - Kaplan
$200 and 11 Hours of my life - MCAT
$795 - Primary Applications
$??? - Secondaries so far (lost track) I'm guessing $1200
$??? - Travel costs (lost track)
Getting into Med School.... priceless
Best of luck to us all!
9/26/05
Downstate Interview! First one went well I guess but kind of short. Liked the school hated the area, we'll see what happens. The people were very nice.
Got placed in the 'Upon further review' pile at Penn State. Atleast it's not a rejection.
10/6/05
Stony interview went great. The school was lovely, much better than downstate I think. Class size is small and everyone is close with each other. Interviewer was super nice, talked for about 45-50 minutes. She knew my applicaiton very well. We talked about me being Burmese, the research I did and other things on my application. Also talked about how bad the weather is in Upstate NY since she was from Oswego, which is pretty close to Bing. Hopefully I'll hear some good in a few weeks.
10/12/05
Scheduled Einstein on 12/13. Upstate is next Wed (10/19) and Buffalo the week after (10/26). Drexel is on 11/21 so I'm hoping I can schedule my Temple interview on the 22nd so I dont have to travel twice to Philly. Their scheduling system sucks though.
Jefferson lost my letters so I'm having another set sent. This bites, I should have been complete there a month ago.
10/17/05
Einstein finally confirmed my interview invite after a week of replying back and forth to get a convenient date. I think I got pushed back a few weeks because of the emails. Turns out I'm gonna have to drive home the night of my cs final, interview the next day then come back up to Bing to make a presentation for my research group on the Friday of that week. Owell.
Got to schedule my Temple interview at the end of November so I wouldn't have to make two trips to Philly. Back to back interviews at Drexel and Temple. Looks like I'm gonna start Thanksgiving break about 5 days early. Sweeeet. Now all I gotta do is book a hotel.
10/19/05
I was very impressed by Upstate and Syracuse in general. The admissions people were so nice and very helpful. The anatomy labs were state of the art and the students were really close friends with each other. As for my interview itself I was rather surprised I did not get a MD or PhD. Instead I got someone with a masters degree that works in the admissions office. Not a doctor or professor. Kind of had to tell how I did on the interview though I would rank it as my worst thus far. It wasn't horrible but I didnt feel too good coming out of it. My student interview went really well on the other hand. He was a pretty laid back and cool guy, just asking me questions about my application, classes and other normal things. Got into talking about golf and baseball for a bit and then let me go. First interview was about 40 minutes or so, second was an hour. Thought I lost my car for a second in the parking lot, then I remembered I was on the wrong floor.
Buffalo Next week!
I hope Downstate sends me some notification before I have to go to Buffalo. I really don't wanna make the drive there.
10/27/05
Still no word from Downstate so I took the bus to Buffalo, the ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would. The school was very nice, it was an actualy campus. The facilities were ok, didnt get a chance to see the lecture halls but the anatomy lab was OK. 8 students to a body was a bit much but they work on a rotation so the first years didnt mind. Had a pop essay for my group, 'What will your greatest accomplishment be as a doctor?' or soemthing like that. I wrote about contributing to the Burmese physician community and they loved the response, atleast one of my interviewers did.
Buffalo was def. the best interview day I've had so far. I've completed my SUNY circuit so now its more waiting.
11/7
Waitlisted @ Buffalo. Accepted at DOWNSTATE... WHOOOOOOO!
11/10
Withdrawing from Temple, Drexel, NYMC and NYCOM interviews. Never thought I'd be withdrawing from anything.
11/12
First rejection from Rochester, meh.
11/16
Einstein rescheduled to Jan 3rd
Upstate just called with good news
11/21
Stonybrook waitlist... BAH. I heard they take 1/3 off waitlist so theres still a chance. Time to bring out my trump card in a few months and write letters of interest and intent.
2/5
Got into AECOM. Score!
3/2
Sinai stops interviewing in a week and I've been complete since August. Suffice to say my application cycle is over. Still waiting on Stonybrook but at this point I am leanign heavily towards AECOM because of P/F, slightly better location and crazy cheap housing.
