Hi everyone sorry I’m late… the College Confidential thread helped me a lot throughout my application time as well as before I even started applying so I thought that this could be my way of kind of giving back and helping anyone else that needed it!
Weighted GPA : 4.66/5.0
Unweighted GPA: 3.93
Class rank: 30/858 (I go to a very competitive high school)
ACT: 34
State: TX
Gender: M
Ethnicity: Asian
AP classes (taking Government, Calculus and maybe Biology exams senior year):
Computer Science:4
US History: 4
Chemistry: 5
English Language & Composition: 4
Psychology: 5
Medical Exposure:
Built prototype of electrochemical sensor (under the guidance of a PhD in microbiology from MD Anderson as a mentor) that detects ethylene on tomatoes to determine signs of Botrytis cinerea (fungus) and presented it to an audience.
Shadowing experience of 250+ hours
Volunteered in senior nursing home for 100+ hours
Paid research internship in Baylor College of Medicine in microbiology (genetic variations in nematodes) 360+ hours
Extracurriculars:
Playing violin in Varsity school orchestra (very competitive school orchestra program)
Participated in the local Youth Symphony for 4 years and advanced to 2nd highest level
Earned multiple superior medals in UIL Solo&Ensemble Contests
Black belt instructor at taekwondo academy
Won multiple silver and gold medals in sparring and forms at regional tournaments in taekwondo
Ran in 4 marathons and earned seeded qualifying time in half marathon
Ran in multiple runs earning 3rd in a 30K
Competed on my high school swim team (JV)
Initiated a Math and Science team and currently the head coordinator at a local elementary school
BS/MD Programs:
CWU PPSP- Rejected pre-interview
Union/AMC- Interviewed- rejected
Texas Tech BS/MD- Rejected pre-interview
University of Cincinnati/Cincinnati Medical School- Rejected pre-Interview
VCU GMed- Interviewed- Accepted
Case Western PPSP- Rejected pre-interview
NJMS 7-Year- Rejected pre-interview
Texas A&M PPC- Interviewed- Accepted
Hofstra University- Rejected pre-interview
Decision: Texas A&M PPC
Reflection:
The application process itself was crazy and definitely not what I was expecting, with so many supplementals and so much of waiting and preparing for interviews. I honestly believe that even getting one interview is a huge achievement as these programs are extremely competitive and the acceptance rate of applicants for even an interview is fairly low. I suggest preparing for interviews well in advance of your first interview invitation (I suggest all of winter break) and ALWAYS call rather than email the school if there are any problems with your application.
I ended up debating between the Texas A&M PPC and VCU GMed, where I chose PPC because of a couple of reasons. After talking to numerous physicians, I realized that the medical school you go to plays a minimal role when getting a good residency in comparison to the amount of work you put in. Someone from Duke med school with low Step scores will have a lower chance of getting in than someone from VCU Med school with higher Step scores. Because of this, I stopped worrying about the ranking of both medical schools and instead started focusing on what would give me the best chance of landing a stellar residency.
I realized that A&M’s medical school was one of the cheapest in the nation with a tuition of about 30K a year compared to VCU’s 90K as well as the fact that A&M Med school was only an hour and a half away from my family. VCU’s GMed program also lets you apply out to other medical schools while keeping the guaranteed admission to their medical school. This was very enticing; however, I realized that I would basically be doing a normal undergraduate at VCU in order to get into good medical schools as I would have to focus on academics and get back into the pre-med track that I had chosen to avoid by doing a BS/MD. Thus, in order to develop more holistically as a physician rather than go through a normal undergraduate from VCU as well as be close to my family during medical school and pay MUCH less in tuition, I chose the Texas A&M Partnership for Primary Care program. The program itself is reserved only for Texas residents and has an option for a 7-Year track. I highly suggest all Texas BS/MD applicants to apply to this program as many do not know about it since it’s not on any of the BS/MD program lists online.
Advice:
Honestly, the biggest advice I can give is to stop worrying about the rankings of each and every medical school you apply to because it truly doesn’t make a difference. I compared residency match lists from A&M Med school (which was unranked) and schools in the top 50 and they had approximately the same number of students going into top 10 residency programs like Stanford and Johns Hopkins. It just shows that your hard work and intelligence is more important than the medical school you’re in so instead of focusing on the rankings, focus more on whether you would be able to shine and stand out in the medical school and whether you genuinely like the medical school as that is where the next 4 crucial years of your life will be! I am extremely excited to have gotten into a BS/MD that is so close to my family and has a medical school that makes my wallet happy. Gig’em Aggies!