thesecretisme123
Application cycles: 05/31/2019
Demographics: Male, 27, East Asian
Home state: California
Last Active: 04/12/2020

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

Total MCAT SCORE: 512
MCAT Section Scores: B/B 129, C/P 128, P/S 129, CARS 126
Overall GPA: 3.65
Science GPA: 3.65

Invited for Interview, Withdrew

Drexel University

Temple University

University of Vermont

Rosalind Franklin University

Loyola University Chicago

New York Medical College

SUNY Downstate

Hofstra University

Albert Einstein of Yeshiva University

Oregon Health & Science University

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Attended Interview

Charles Drew University/UCLA

Attended Interview, Rejected

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, San Diego

Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: 07/10/2019
Secondary Completed: Yes
Interview Invite: 08/13/2019
Interview Attended: 09/12/2019
Waitlisted: No
Accepted: No
Rejected: 10/18/2019
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
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Attended Interview, Waitlisted

University of Chicago

Attended Interview, Waitlisted, Withdrew

Vanderbilt University

Georgetown University

Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: 06/28/2019
Secondary Completed: Yes
Interview Invite: 07/12/2019
Interview Attended: 08/29/2019
Waitlisted: 10/28/2019
Accepted: No
Rejected: No
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.
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George Washington University

Brown University

University of Colorado

Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: 07/15/2019
Secondary Completed: Yes
Interview Invite: 08/26/2019
Interview Attended: 09/13/2019
Waitlisted: 10/17/2019
Accepted: No
Rejected: No
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.
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Accepted

University of Washington

University of California, Davis

Medical College of Wisconsin

Cornell University

Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: 07/10/2019
Secondary Completed: Yes
Interview Invite: 08/15/2019
Interview Attended: 09/03/2019
Waitlisted: No
Accepted: 03/13/2020
Rejected: No
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!
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University of Wisconsin

Boston University

University of California, Irvine

MD Applicants

thesecretisme123