Non-trad applicant (obviously). Cultural anthro undergrad. Acupuncturist, teacher, musician. Advanced degree in Oriental medicine and seven years experience treating patients in integrative medical settings. Bad GPA is from 15 years ago. Most of my grad work has been P/F so it's had little impact.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 2006
Undergraduate college: Univ of CT
Undergraduate Area of study: Psychology/Social Sciences
Institution: Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Area of Study: Computing and Information Science
Degree Obtained: PhD
Total MCAT SCORE: 507
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 125,
C/P 124,
CARS 132
Overall GPA: 0.00
Science GPA: 0.00
Summary of Application Experience
Got a late start. Very exciting times! Very little sleep!!
S = Submitted Secondary PIH = Pre-Interview Hold II = Invited for Interview I = Interviewed W = Waitlisted R = Rejected A = Accepted
Took August MCAT. Received scores mid-October. 10/26/06 - Submitted AMCAS. 11/5/06 - Submitted AACOMAS.
11/28/06 - AACOMAS Verified. The GPA did not look right to me and I wrote in to dispute their calculation and ask them to look at course designations, ie- undergrad vs grad vs professional. The issue is not yet resolved.
12/3/06 - AACOMAS status switched to 'New' (mailed out). Doesn't make sense to me that they sent it prior to resolving the GPA issue, but they did.
12/4/06 - AACOMAS notified me they corrected my GPA today. Several factors were influenced, but the most striking was that my graduate GPA went from a 0.98 to a 3.50. Seriously. They said they would send this correction to the schools.
12/5/06 - AMCAS Verified. Similar problem with my grad GPA. I have submitted a request for AMCAS to re-verify the coursework in question.
12/8/06 - Looks like MSAR is not 100% correct about the secondary deadlines. I missed RFU based on the bad intel. Looks like UCONN's date is also incorrect. There are probably others. Beware!
12/10/06 - AACOMAS re-sent corrected profile to schools.
12/13/06 - I called AMCAS to see if they reviewed my academic change request. Not yet. I submitted it on 12/5 and they are currently working on requests from 12/2. Also added Touro-NYC today, which is the new osteopathic school in Harlem.
12/16/06 - Haven't received secondaries from Albert Einstein, SUNY-Downstate, Drexel, or UCONN. Some deadlines looming. Emailed them to request the secondaries.
12/17/06 - Got secondaries from above-mentioned schools.
12/22/06 - Still no update from AMCAS. I emailed them and their response was that it takes 10 - 15 business days to review an academic change request. It's been 13.
12/26/06 - AMCAS re-verified today. Graduate BCPM GPA went from 0.96 to 3.7! C'mon!! There are additional discrepancies that were not corrected or addressed in the correspondence I received so I emailed them again.
1/8/07 - AMCAS re-re-verified today. My 'All Other' graduate GPA went from a 1.25 to a 3.3 and my total graduate GPA went from a 1.08 to a 3.5. This occured only after resubmitting the original request for academic change, several calls to AMCAS and emails to the registrar at one of the colleges I attended. The registrar also told me that he called AMCAS and wrote them a letter. Of course, by now I have already received several rejections based, at least in part, on the incorrect data. Lesson: AMCAS is not infallible. Originally, they told me that my request had been thoroughly investigated and denied. I had to fight them for this one and all along the way they told me that I was wasting my time. In the end, they discovered they had an error in their grade conversion system for this particular school. I mean... I know my GPA's not stellar, but would I really apply with a 1.08?
2/20/07 - There appears to be another problem on my AACOMAS profile. I got a call from one of the schools asking when I would submit my grades for physics to complete the 8-unit requirement. Thing is, I took AP physics in high school. It transferred into my freshman year of college as 8 units and appears on my transcript. I am looking into the problem to see if this is an isolated incident or if this is something on my profile.
2/26/07 - Interview invite from USC! Scheduled for 3/21.
3/6/07 - Still no response from AACOMAS re: my pre-req's. The Admissions Director at the college in question told me that my profile says 'Deficient' regarding physics, even though he can see the physics units on my transcript. He reiterated that AACOMAS will have to take care of this before the school can evaluate my application. Also, I took a look at my profile on the AACOMAS website and it actually shows 12 units of physics(more than I took). I've emailed all the other schools to ask them if this problem is on the profile they received as well but no one has gotten back to me (other than with a rejection letter). Oh joy.
5/3/07 - Will give a better update later. Currently waitlisted at Touro-NY and USC.
6/4/07 - Letter from Touro-NY today. It says I am #17 on the high waitlist for 2007, and that if a spot doesn't open up, I have early acceptance for 2008. Took a while to sink in that I got accepted! Now I'll prepare for the worst but hope for the best. I could still get in this year, but if I don't, I've got next year locked down! It's not exactly what I've been working so hard towards, but it's slowly sinking in that I've achieved my goal... Against some pretty rough odds, and with trials and tribulations all along the way, I'm going to med school. If not this year, then next. It's awesome!
