Brief Profile:
Applied as disadvantaged, FAP recipient, LGBTQ+, tons of clinical/research/volunteer and leadership experience. Extensive work with underserved communities. Compelling life story and some of the best letters of rec one could ask for. Taking 1 gap year.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 05/31/2019
Undergraduate college: Top 20
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Summary of Experience:
Sunny San Diego... another dream school of mine! It was my first time in SD and I loved it there! La Jolla is so gorgeous! Ya boy also got some bomb af Mexican food and enjoyed happy hour at a bougey restaurant overlooking the beach. I wanted to stay in the hotel that was right off the medical campus, but of course they jacked up the price to like $250 for the night before the interviews. Also no student hosts were offered. So lame! I ended up staying in some cheap hotel in Pacific Beach and just took Uber to my interview. The interview day was unorganized to say the least. I had gone on multiple interviews before this and all of them welcomed us with beverages and snacks. UCSD, yall r cheapos. The MMI was in the morning, after a Q&A with the Dean of Admissions. Theres 2 groups. I was super glad to be in the first group and to get it done with. Unlike my other MMIs this one had no rest station, which I kinda liked. It just flew by! Again, a pretty standard MMI with 8 stations. After my MMI we just hanged around for 1.5 hours. I wish the admissions office had prepared something for us on the itinerary instead of giving us so much downtime, but honestly Cornell did the same thing and it wasnt the worst. The tour was good, students seemed very chill going to class in their shorts and flip flops. Such relaxed SoCal vibes here! Get pitted, brah. After the tour we had long downtime again until the admissions director came in and apologized for being disorganized lol. They told us they would compare 5-6 groups of applicants (32 x 5= ~160 ish) before making decisions in November. UCSD has a lot of opportunities especially with regards to community health at the border and of course plenty of research. Overall, UCSD didnt really try that hard to sell itself imo, but its a top 20 with cheap tuition in a perfect location. Would love to come here!
First reject post II oof. Had a bad MMI station so maybe that contributed lol
Summary of Experience:
I was so freaking excited as this was my first II and it was so early at work. I vividly remember shrieking at work, calling and texting family/friends to tell them about this! When I arrived in DC, it was so freaking hot and humid. I stayed in the GW area in a hotel as it was more convenient to get around and I had a back-to-back interview with GW the day after. The Georgetown area is so posh and felt so different and isolated from DC. They really drilled cura personalis and by the end of the day I was pretty tired of hearing it. Every school does cura personalis but the difference is that they dont feel the need to display it like here (I have nothing personal against Jesuits). I didnt get the strongest sense of community or enthusiasm from the students I interacted with, so that was a bit of a turn off. Their match list is pretty strong and it seems like there are a lot of ortho people. Tasty lunch! It was an open file traditional interview, but your interviewer can choose not to read your file and they are part of the Georgetown community, whether an alumni doctor or a MS3/MS4. Fairly conversational interview with some standard questions they have to read from a list. You get a financial aid handout at the end of the interview and can see how expensive this school is. The facilities are so bad considering how expensive the school is, and how nice Georgetowns undergrad campus is. Girl where is dat money goin. Overall, Id be okay with not going here. Not the best fit for me even though its a solid school.
Waitlist and withdrew. Didnt like this school much anyways.
Summary of Experience:
I interviewed here the day after Georgetown. I am a big fan of the location here - right off the metro and convenient to get around DC, as well as see all the cool stuff on the National Mall. I felt super sick but somehow made it through the day. Fake it till you make it bruh. I wish they had given us more opportunities to interact with students, because there was only 1 MS4 who came during lunch, and one of my interviewers was a student. The facilities here are nicer than Georgetowns and I had fun seeing the clinical practices areas. They seem to really push clinical public health and its a big theme here, as well as health policy opportunities due to proximity to the Capitol. I interviewed with an older faculty member and it was a bit awkward. A lot of my desire to go into medicine has to do with my identities (LGBTQ+ for one) and the guy started going into detail about how he used to dislike homosexuals until he met a colleague he had such respect for who eventually came out. Lol like congrats on realizing that different people are still human beings...? Awkward for me. Student interview was chill. I liked it a little more than Georgetown, but Georgetown seems to have more clout and a stronger reputation. I did see a lot of good matches from GW though, like NYP-Columbia and Cornell. Overall, GW is a solid school.
Summary of Experience:
I jokingly told my friend I went to Denver with, that I would hopefully go back for an interview because I heard the med school was really good here. Turns out it actually happened! Uber is expensive from the airport and far and slow lol. They offered student hosts here which was great! The interview day is sooo big omg, there were like 60 people. Theres a group exercise (which was pretty fun LOL), a group interview (~15 mins, honestly not a fan of this one), and individual interviews (15mins with 2 people who interview you simultaneously). The Dean opened up with a pretty awesome and inspiring speech. I thought this school was really good, other than the OOS tuition that is fixed for 4 years. They have a scholarly project that everyone is required to participate in. Medical campus is amazing - its huge! It feels very centralized yet fairly spread out. I especially loved the Childrens Hospital we toured, it was so colorful and lively and felt more like a childrens playground. I wish all hospitals were like that! Students seemed pretty happy with the school, even the OOS ones who have to deal with the mountain load of debt. COL can be pretty cheap depending on how you want to live. I could see myself being here if the COA wasnt so insane, and that unfortunately puts CU at the bottom of my list as ~8 of my other IIs (statistically i should be able to get into 1 of those lmao) would be soo much cheaper.
Waitlist and withdrew, would not choose over my current options.
ACCEPTED AS OOR HOLY!! Got the call at 4:30pm PST on a Friday. 20/6300.... unbelievable. Im one of the first OOR admits and waiting on that tuition waiver to get in-state tuition in March.
Withdrew, it was hard to give up my tuition waiver :(
Summary of Experience:
My 3rd II, and my first interview! I had such a pleasant experience here. It was my first MMI and I was so nervous. Luckily I had a friend there who helped put me at ease and he was right, just be yourself as cliche as it sounds. The MMI here is great and they totally want to see that you are a normal human being. It was so freaking hot in Sacramento! The student community here really set the bar for my future expectations. Everybody is so kind, supportive, and caring. This school is just so damn wholesome. A med student came up to me and fixed my tie... that was the sweetest thing ever. As expected, very heavy focus on primary care, but they had a lot of derm matches this year. I would say the only cons were low average board scores, but UC Davis has raised academic standards of the admissions process while sacrificing some diversity to counter that. Sacramento isnt my cup of tea either with the weather and how suburban it is. Dating scene is also trash. The Bay Area has certainly spoiled me. I would love for this to be my first acceptance <3 <3
First acceptance and elated :)
Received a 30k/yr merit scholarship for 120k all 4 years in March. Shocked as I thought theyd only give scholarships to URMs. Awesome!
Summary of Experience:
Cornell...? What the hell..? My most shocking II by far. As you can see, my stats dont match up to this schools at all, and Im pretty sure they are stats hungry! Anyways, I totally fell in love with this school. There are 2 groups: a morning and afternoon group. I chose the morning group because I like to get things over with. That was a good decision, because all the applicants who had the afternoon ones were exhausted after the tour. I had 2 open file interviews with members of the admissions committee, a staff member and a doctor. It definitely felt like my strongest interviews Ive done, and the interviewers knew my application so well. I really like how they asked appropriate questions that catered to me. Lunch with current students was pretty good, there were more students than applicants! The students seemed really happy here and had good vibes. Subsidized housing here is amazing, but first year dorm at Olin Hall is a bit grimey. You do get to build a lot of community which I liked, and move to apts after first year. The facilities and hospital here are absolutely stunning. Everything is SO CLOSE to each other!! I was worried it was too posh, but Cornell students get to rotate @ other burroughs. You dont even need to take the subway to the rotations because they have shuttles everywhere! Yasss to no car!! Although this is a research heavy institution, there are so many opportunities to be involved in the community. I had a pretty compelling Why Cornell essay that felt genuine when I was writing it. I also really liked the 1.5 year preclinical curriculum and how you take Step 1 after clerkships, as well as have protected time to do a scholarly project. It just sucks I have to wait 6 months to hear back from them. Theyre going debt free financial aid starting next year, and as someone who comes from nothing (financially lol), graduating medical school debt free would be an absolute dream. I love NYC so much and hope I get the chance to move here, because Id be stoked with living in Manhattan during my 20s. Not to mention, people are gorgeous in Manhattan :P Fingers crossed!
Accepted and beyond elated. My dream school. Matriculating!
Summary of Experience:
Super excited about this one, because the tuition is so good and they only interview ~4% of OOS applicants. Also they give full rides. My flight was so expensive and they dont offer student hosts though...
Accepted with 10k/year so far, with potential to get more in December. Got a tuition waiver that waives the OOS tuition in February. Withdrew after Cornell.
