User #6241
Application cycles: 2006
Demographics: Male, East Asian
Home state: California

Brief Profile: Major: Biological Science and Computer Science with over 260 completed units thus far as a 3rd year (~60 classes)
Dean's list x5
2 Research areas:
-Chemo-informatics (January 2006 to present; 10 hours/week) ? worked independently to provide comparisons between various methods that analyze and predict molecular dynamics of complex chemical using computers
-Golgi Dynamics (April 2006 to present; 30 hours/week) ? applied various molecular biology techniques to study functional properties of the Golgi leading to another possibility in how cancer cells can form; possible paper within a year
-awarded a 500 dollar research grant to continue my work in Golgi Dynamics research
Clinical experience: 300+ hours in 1.5 years with 6 rotations
Active memeber of Alpha Phi Omega, a community service frat for almost 2 years, at least 40 hours a year on top of others
-Several trips to Mexico to build houses and maintain a child daycare/parenting lessons
-volunteer for a year at a homeless intervention shelther to watch over children and help single parents get back in the workforce and become self sufficient
-shadowed a general surgeon for his full shift a few times
-attended international human rights conferences
-computer software programmer/web programmer/hardware tech

Letters of Recs: 1 solid science from PI/cell bio professor, 1 solid non-science from comp sci, another science from biochem prof, 1 clinical, 1 science from physics prof

Hobbies/interests: piano, tae kwon do (2nd degree), paintball, tennis, classical music, web design, etc.

Took MCATs once in April 2006 after a review course I took. It was pretty worthless since most of it was surface-level review, so I had to do mostly self studying to get a level of detail required for the MCAT. My take is review courses are good if you need an external source to keep you on track and reviewing a set of material each week. Cost me $1200.

Thoughts/Questions:
-Anyone know any weakness or strengths in my bio in terms of getting reach schools, or just in general? Any other schools that I may have overlooked or should consider? How do you think I would do in some reach schools, any chance or I shouldn't waste my money?
-If a school has a pretty much automatic request for secondary information, would that mean that they haven't even considered the primary application? Would you guys take this to be a way to get extra money from applicants or what?

Thanks for looking!

KEY for below:

$: secondary cost
R: date received
S: date Submitted
I: interview date
C: date completed

// Applications //

Application Cycle One: 2006

Undergraduate college: University of California, Irvine
Undergraduate Area of study: Engineering/Technology

Institution: University of California, Irvine
Area of Study: Biological/Life Sciences

Total MCAT SCORE: 511
MCAT Section Scores: B/B 127, C/P 129, CARS 126
Overall GPA: 3.62
Science GPA: 3.59

Summary of Application Experience

Cost run down thus far:
MCAT review course: $1200
MCAT itself: $210
AMCAS: $800 for 24 schools, maybe more later
+$90 more for 3 more schools
presentation paper for LOR paperwork: $20

AMCAS application submitted: 8/17/06; transcripts received 8/14; ready for review
AMCAS application verified: 9/11/06

8/18: Now, I sit back and start working on the secondaries. And I thought I would have a break after submitting =/

9/2: Added 3 schools: Boston University, Penn State, and Tufts. I hope its worth the 90 dollars!

9/11: FINALLY! My application is verified... now let's see some secondaries! Currently, I am working on getting another LOR in, hopefully by the end of this week!

9/12: 4:30 PM so far and 6 secondaries have came via email... time to get busy!

10/20: Whew. Haven't made an update in a while, so I decided to update instead of studying... I sent off my LORs from UCI 10/5/06, and I will be sending off more tomorrow, fun times...
All these secondaries are getting quite costly =/ I hope this is worth all this time, money and effort.

Thoughts/Questions:
-Anyone know any weakness or strengths in my bio in terms of getting reach schools, or just in general? Any other schools that I may have overlooked or should consider? How do you think I would do in some reach schools, any chance or I shouldn't waste my money?
-If a school has a pretty much automatic request for secondary information, would that mean that they haven't even considered the primary application? Would you guys take this to be a way to get extra money from applicants or what?

Thanks for your support and everything else people!

Applied

University of California, San Diego

Johns Hopkins University

University of California, San Francisco

Applied, Rejected

Charles Drew University/UCLA

Application Complete

University of California, Davis

New York Medical College

University of Chicago

Temple University

Jefferson Medical College

Rosalind Franklin University

Saint Louis University

Case Western Reserve University

Ohio State University

Loma Linda University

Stanford University

Tufts University

Albert Einstein of Yeshiva University

University of Southern California

Pennsylvania State University

University of California, Irvine

Albany Medical College

Northwestern University

University of California, Los Angeles

Drexel University

Loyola University Chicago

Boston University

MD Applicants

User #6241