Brief Profile:
-Honors degree in Chemistry -3 years in Taiwanese club. Did tons of stuff, including running it. -Active fraternity member, one year as VP and on exec board, current historian/webmaster. -Engineering comp sci and hydrologic research for US Army Corps of Engineers. -Organic chem summer research at a phamaceutical company. In oncology group focusing on targeting kinases. -Volunteering at a children's hospital for a semester and continuing. -Shadowed a trauma surgeon several times. -Workstudy job in tech support at engineering school to support tuition. -Organometallics research -TA for Advanced Organic Lab -Volunteering at a free clinic in West Philly
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 2006
Undergraduate college: University of Pennsylvania
Undergraduate Area of study: Physical Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 511
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 129,
C/P 129,
CARS 124
Overall GPA: 3.54
Science GPA: 3.58
Summary of Application Experience
All in all, this is pretty much what I expected, other than not hearing back from Tulane after being waitlisted, and honestly, I'm happy that this process is done and I'm going to med school that has low tuition. For any of you Ivy league students that are applying to schools, some words of wisdom: -Your school can open some doors, but it's up to your credentials to actually get you through them. -The four key credentials are GPA, MCAT, research, and clinical experience. Those four are will what get you in the door, with much emphasis on the first two. Research is almost required to get into a prestigious med school, while clinical experience is something you will absolutely be asked about at an interview. -Get your applications early. Admissions is rolling-based. -If you really like a school at get waitlisted, keep nagging them about how much you love them until they either accept you or block your e-mail. -Last, this entire process is a crapshoot, and to be honest, a pretty crappy system. I know people with bad scores that got into med school easy, while others with detestable personalities and characteristics that I know will make them unprofessional, bad physicians in the future that got into really good schools. Don't let it get to you, and as long as you get in somewhere, you're set. The more people you talk to about this in the field, the more you'll realize it's all the same everywhere.
