Application Cycle One: 2007

• Undergraduate college: Barnard College
• Undergraduate Area of study: Physical Sciences

• Total MCAT SCORE: 519
• MCAT Section Scores: B/B 130, C/P 130, CARS 129   Detailed Breakdown
• Overall GPA: 3.70
• Science GPA: 3.70

Summary of Application Experience

9/23/07: Five interviews and three rejections. Several schools are taking a loooong time to verify my application. I'm in for a lot of waiting. Oh well, at least I've got lots of books to read (I'm taking a year off between undergrad and med school).

10/10/07: Harvard interview invitation!!! WOW! Oh man, I really hope that they're serious about me as an applicant. This is a dream come true...

10/12/07: Duke rejection. Another one bites the dust. I thought my essays were pretty good. Oh well.

10/15/07: UCSF rejection. On the bright side, not being invited to complete their secondary saves me $60.

11/14/07: Accepted to Rochester! I'm going to be a doctor!!!!!

11/17/07: Unrejected from Duke. Interviewing in a few weeks. The hard work I put into my essays paid off :)

11/20/07: Interview from Columbia! I'm pretty keen on their school. This week has KICKED ASS. Oh man, I feel like the luckiest person alive! I hope this good fortune continues.. Just wait, I'm totally going to get three rejections next week.

11/21/07: March 1st is 100 days away! In 100 days, non-rolling admissions schools will possibly send me news! Maybe they'll send me good news (I doubt it, though)

11/26/07: I just got off of a 10 hr bus ride and found a waitlist envelope from UPitt. UGH. Here I was feeling good about myself for over a week. I totally called this. Superstition says that this week will be terrible.

12/3/07: Put on the 'alternate list' at UVA. Another day, another waitlist.

12/12/07: NYU invite! So, I'm 4/4 for the medical schools in Manhattan. Yay!

12/20/07: Waitlisted at Robert Wood Johnson. I'm not surprised, although I'm starting to get creeped out by all these waitlists...

1/3/08: At this point, I figure that I'm not going to get any more interviews. I've been incredibly lucky so far, so I'm not complaining. I'm still waiting for news from Emory. I expect a waitlist or rejection from them. I assume that Michigan has rejected me (I've been on hold since September). Of course, I'm also waiting for all the non-rolling schools. The first week (weeks?) of March will be quite an emotional whirlwind for me. I'm trying not to think about it, but failing. Seven weeks of waiting left... I need to find something to occupy my time.

1/11/08: I can't help mentally revisiting my interviews and desperately wishing that I had said different things. Then again, I've had multiple interviewers gush over my application and compliment me on my personal statement, so I should probably stop worrying. Of course, I felt pretty good about the interviews that turned into waitlists, so I don't know what to think. Argh. This emotional roller coaster is so painful. I try to make sense of everything, but I just can't. Maybe this whole thing is a cosmic test of my endurance.

1/18/08: Waitlisted at Mount Sinai. Hilarious. I've obviously majorly pissed off a higher power because the universe seems to hate me. There's no hope of me getting into my 'dream schools' if I keep getting all these waitlists. I wish that my undergrad school had offered practice interviews...

1/25/08: THREE rejections this week: Northwestern, U Michigan, and Stanford. Post-secondary rejections hurt a lot, lot less than multiple post-interview waitlists. It's hard to dream about getting into those top schools when all logic dictates that March will be a rude awakening.

3/4/08: Columbia waitlist and no news (=rejection or waitlist) from NYU. This is ridiculous.

3/5/08: That's right. NYU waitlisted me. Waitlist number seven.

3/13/08: Another week, another waitlist. WHY?!?!?!

3/18/08: All Duke and Emory acceptances have been sent out. Also, Yale was kind enough to finally send me my post-secondary rejection. This hurts so much. I'm trying to love Rochester, really I do. Yet... I'm still not quite satisfied with Rochester. It feels like I'm 'settling,' except that I really don't have other options right now (depends what happens with the waitlists). It's seriously an amazing school- I'll be really happy there. I don't know if I want to play the waitlist game. I haven't sent my reply letter for the waitlists at Columbia, NYU, or Cornell because, quite honestly, I don't know if I want to wait.

3/19/08: Nine waitlists. I'm declining Emory and NYU because I really need to start emotionally committing to ONE school. Also, I definitely prefer Rochester to NYU (and Emory's really early and expired financial aid deadline just makes me nervous)

5/18/08: COLUMBIA!!!!!!!!