Application Cycle One: 2007

• Undergraduate college: Yale University
• Undergraduate Area of study: Psychology/Social Sciences

• Institution: UCLA Extension
• Area of Study: Premedical Studies

• Total MCAT SCORE: 523
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 130, C/P 132, CARS 132   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.74
• Science GPA: 3.65

Summary of Application Experience

R = received secondary
S = submitted
C = complete

6/8 Added UIUC and UC Davis because they are friendly to MD/PhD students in cog sci. but still fund. I have gotten 38-42 on my last 4 AAMC and Kaplan practice tests, so I moved the MCAT up to this Friday. Wish me luck!

I will submit AMCAS in late June as soon as I know my physics grade.

AMCAS submitted Monday Jul 16

GOT MCAT! 40S!

8/2/07 AMCAS verified yesterday, and they left off my two spring quarter science classes that I WAITED for to submit. Damn. I'm appealing that. Also, they counted my teaching classes as grad, not postbacc. In conclusion, GPA is lower than it would be. But I've turned in a mess of secondaries already, and I officially love Interfolio.

Other disaster: somehow, AMCAS cut off the first two words of my significant research essay. No idea. I proofread it 3571895718 times.

8/4/07 added WVU, where I grew up, filed academic change requests for missing classes

8/17/07 first interview invite! Rochester! Pretty excited, I do like them.

8/27/07 PITT INTERVIEW! yay!

9/20/07 interviews loom. Sad about my Cornell rejection, but they seem pretty damn ruthless this year. Invited to go interview at CCLCM (sweet!) and the UMDNJ MD/PhD program.

9/28/07 I just finished interviwing at Rochester, and I LOVE IT. Wow. Everyone is so happy and productive and interesting here. I will be very happy and relieved if I get in here.

10/04/07 Pitt was great too--it has been a top choice in my head for a long time, and I enjoy the city and the school a lot. Looking forward to hearing from both them and Rochester. Got Stanford interview. So far, I'm definitely interviewing at Penn, Mt. Sinai, Stanford, UCLA, and UCSD still. The others I will not schedule until I hear from Pitt and/or Rochester in the next few weeks, because then I can afford to be pickier. Oh yeah, I was rejected from Hopkins. Shocker

10/16/07 Dr. O'Banion from Rochester called me today while I was walking back to my office from an MRI scan to offer me a place in the MSTP class next year! Someone is dumb enough to let me be a doctor! I'm ecstatic. Rochester really felt like home to me--what it lacks in ranking, it makes up for in intangibles, and I would be very happy there. This also allows me to cancel interviews, which are getting a bit ridiculous. Yay!

1/29/08 Seriously? I got into Stanford's MSTP? What are they thinking? Wow. I didn't even seriously consider them as a top choice because I thought, no way in hell! Probably withdrawing from everywhere else soon, although considering holding onto the Pitt acceptance a bit longer.

2/8/08 After toying with me for months (i.e. telling me previously I would probably not get int), Duke re-reviewed me and let me in. I LOVED it there and this is a top choice along with Penn and Stanford. Looking forward to revisits so I can decide, but I feel so fortunate!

3/29/08 After being waitlisted at Penn, I am accepted at and considering Yale, Stanford, and UCLA/Caltech. Withdrawing from Duke was incredibly difficult but I really like the noncompetitive, mature environments at the other schools, and I really didn't want to move to NC.