I’ve always loved reading MDApplicants pages, and hope that the tradition will continue for future applicants to see. As a pre-med, I’ve always wanted to see what type of student got into what tier of schools, and I hope to share my own application story to give a glimpse of what my application experience was like given my stats/experiences.
Brief overview:
Econ Major Asian-American male from NJ. 3.8/518 for a LM of about ~74. I gave myself WARS of an 88 (low end of S), which may be an overestimate or underestimate.
T30 Private Undergrad (WARS: 1/3)
Extracurriculars:
Clinical experience:
- 350 hours over 3 years working with homeless patients at a medical respite center
- 240 hours over 3 summers as a translator for a global health mission (in China)
- 90 hours shadowing PCP, anesthesia, rad onc.
(WARS: 3/3 clinical experience, 2/2 shadowing)
Research:
- 520 hours on protein trafficking related to addiction- 4th author
- 540 hours research on the socio-economic correlates of the opioid epidemic - Published a paper, although listed in the acknowledgments section (not an author)
- 400 hours Undergrad Honors Thesis on NFL play calling
(4/5 research)
Non-clinical volunteering:
- 100 hours as a peer-to-peer texting support hotline
- Gap year as an AmeriCorps member (1700 hours of service)
(3/3 volunteering)
Other extracurricular activities
- Student government (4 years)
- Asians student organization leadership (1 year)
- Wrote thesis on NFL playcalling)
I worked hard to build connections with professors throughout college and believe that 3/5 of my letters of rec as well as my committee letter were very strong. Other 2/5 were probably pretty generic. I am fairly confident I got the highest possible recommendation from my schools pre-health committee and there were no flags in my LORs.
I worked very hard on my personal statement and have been told that it was strong by multiple readers, and I also took the time to make my activities descriptions well-written.
Overall, I really tried to sell myself as a unique applicant. My angle was my passion for attacking opioid use disorder, shown by my volunteering in the heart of methadone mile in Boston, and two research projects that looked at opioid addiction.
(WARS: 3/4 Misc.)
Timeline of Application:
Primary Submitted: 6/8/20
Transcript Received: 6/22/20
Verified: 7/28/20
I am fortunate to come from a family with parents willing to pay for my app fees, so I ended up applying to 39 schools, a lot of which were reaches; and with the pandemic, I had the time to start pre-writing secondaries around April. My transcript was delayed (dammit AMCAS), which led to me being verified on 7/28, a couple weeks later than I would’ve liked but still early enough IMO
School List:
Harvard
Stanford
NYU
UCSF
WashU
Columbia
UCLA
Mayo
Cornell
Duke
Pitt
Michigan
Yale
UChicago
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Sinai
Case
Emory
UVA
BU
USC
Iowa
Rochester
Dartmouth
Brown
Einstein
Georgetown
Cincinnati
USF
Miami
Wake Forest
Tufts
Jefferson
Wayne State
Hofstra
NJMS
RWJ
Cooper Rowan
Timeline:
9/9/20: First II to Cooper Rowan!
9/15/20: II to Pitt!
9/30/20: II to WashU!
10/3/20: Attended interview at Cooper Rowan.
10/5/20: II to BU!
10/9/20: Attended interview at BU
10/15/20: Priority WL at Cooper Rowan :/. Pretty surprised in all honesty, but I’m going to tell myself it makes sense from their yield perspective so that I feel better about this. My stats are pretty significantly higher than the median I probably didnt express enough interest.
10/17/20: Interview invite at NJMS!
10/18/20: Interview invite at Rochester!
10/19/20: Attended interview at WashU.
10/19/20: Interview invite at Georgetown! Third in 3 days, which makes my WL at Cooper feel better. Up to 7 IIs.
10/27/20: Attended interview at Pitt.
10/29/20: Attended interview at NJMS.
11/4/20: II at Dartmouth!
11/10/20: II at Mayo!
11/10/20: Attended interview at Georgetown.
12/10/20: Attended interview at Dartmouth
12/11/20: Attended interview at Mayo
12/11/20: My first acceptance from BU!!!
