Had posted initially on the discussion thread and then had been a lurker.
Posting for my son
GPA: 3.974 (UW); 4.7 (W); public school
Class rank: School does not rank; class size: 552
SAT: 1540
No Subject tests
APs: 8 - (Scores in 4 APs = 5; 3 APs = 4, 1 AP = 3)
Advanced courses: Linear Algebra, Statistics
Biology: took Bio (Honors Bio, AP Bio, Bioinformatics) for 3 different years
LORs: Strong; Counselor was very nice and we had maintained a relationship over 4 years; 2 teachers gave strong recos.
Ethnicity: ORM
Hooks: None
Awards:
Top 5 finalist at a nationally recognized competition
Junior Scientist award - from local science fair
AP Scholar with Honors or Distinction
National Merit Commended Student
RIT Innovation & Creativity Award
ECs:
Research: 1 summer - focused on bioinformatics
Research - selected for 1 program - canceled due to COVID
COVID-19 fundraiser - Raised $3,800 for 2 hospitals
Hackathon organizer & leader - raised money for non-profit
CPR certified
Robotics - programming lead
Data Jam - Captain
FBLA: Qualified for state’s for past 2 years
Math Club: Vice President
Local non-profit chapter: Involved for past 8 years; President Youth Chapter for 3 years
Volunteer - local senior community - focused on Alzheimer’s and dementia residents (pre-covid)
Shadowing - PCP (pre-covid)
Peer-tutoring: AP Calc BC
Tutoring: Freshmen in school - Geometry
Tutoring: English to a low income elementary student in rural in-state school
Martial Arts: 4th degree black belt
Golf: Member of JV team
BS/MDs:
Union-AMC: Interviewed Accepted
VCU: Interviewed Accepted
Drexel: Interviewed Accepted
SLU: Accepted
NJIT-NJMS: Feeder school interview; forwarded to NJMS: rejected post-interview
TCNJ-NJMS: Feeder school interview; forwarded to NJMS: rejected post-interview
Penn State PMM, Rochester, FAU, Hofstra, BU, Case, Baylor/Baylor, Tulane, GW, Temple, Upstate, Arizona: Rejected pre-interview
Brown: Rejected
Undergrad:
In-state: accepted with scholarship
Waitlisted - Northwestern, Rice, CMU
Decision: In-state undergrad
Reflection:
Colleges applied:
We applied broadly, knowing how competitive these programs are.
For regular under-grad, we only selected colleges where we thought there was a balance between academics and EC options, and a supportive environment. For us, Rice and Northwestern fit the bill. We also thought of applying to Vandy and Emory but none of my son’s friend were applying there and he decided to not apply. My son applied to CMU only because most of his friends are going to engineering or CS and had applied there.
ECs:
COVID severely impacted our ability to do research, shadow doctors and in general do more ECs. Our state also has age restrictions for becoming an EMT (need to be 18+). My son has interests in robotics and programming and luckily he could do a bioinformatics research. That was the only research activity he could do. Our local university is notorious for only giving research if you have insider connections. My son wrote to 50+ professors only to get negative responses from 2. All others ignored his requests. Meanwhile, a friend of ours could easily get his daughter into research because of his connections.
We applied to a few OOS summer research programs and were fortunate to be shortlisted by one but it was canceled due to COVID. My son then reached out to the prof. in question about doing it virtually but he declined.
Our school is a public school and there is not a lot of support for ECs. Even for activities like FBLA, we had to fund ourselves.
Fortunately, our PCP friend had allowed my son to shadow him. Again, due to COVID, it was curtailed short.
I am very proud of my son to have done an online fundraiser for COVID 19 and support 2 hospitals for PPEs. He has this caring nature and wants to give back. His work with a non-profit for past 8 years and last 3 as president was something he did out of his own heart. Yes, we did highlight that in his essays (where we could) and the genuineness he brought to them was touching.
LORs
Our teachers were very supportive and they knew my son.
Our counselor - while being very helpful - was only vaguely familiar with BS/MD process. We were again fortunate that we found an external coach. Through their guidance, we prepared an information sheet for our school counselor and teachers and this supplemented the information we had in Naviance. This helped us provide more information about my son, and about the BS/MD program. I believe this played an important role in getting strong LORs.
Counseling:
Frankly, without this external coach, we would have been lost. They had the right balance of pushing my son to work towards deadlines, giving the feedback on our essays, and holding us when we were down. They challenged my son’s thinking and guided him to write the best version of his essays. Our Common App essay and Why medicine write-up was reviewed by additional coaches in their team and their pointed feedback provided additional perspectives from someone who had not worked with my son. The difference between our first draft and the version we submitted was like day and night. But for me as a parent, they provided valuable knowledge and support when we sorely needed it. There were days we were totally disappointed and frustrated. I have called them at odd hours and sometime multiple times in the same week. Not mention the amount of SOS text messages I may have sent. They would patiently hear us out, calm us down and more importantly, helped us keep the faith and made us see the right perspective.
I am sorry I am writing too much about this coach but frankly they value they added was priceless to us.
College visits:
We did not visit any BS/MD colleges prior to our application. We did do virtual tours and information sessions (where they were available). Frankly, I was disappointed with PMM’s information session. while they spoke about the program, they did not share anything about the application review process. They simply mentioned Penn State’s admissions took care of it. Arizona, on the other hand, held one of the best information sessions. Full of energy and transparent Q&A.
Re: Interviews:
We were fortunate to have 4 interviews.
Virtual interviews at most colleges were well organized. It is ironic that my son got accepted where there were MMIs and the one interview (NJMS) where it was one-on-one, he was rejected. He thought that interview had gone very well as they had talked for an hour. Again, the interview prep helped he had received helped him tremendously.
Forums:
I spent most of my time on forums like CC and filtered information to my son. I think CC (though very helpful) added to my anxiety. I would caution students to spend time here.
Decision:
Cost was a factor for us when we started the process but it has become the most significant factor due to our current situation (which I will not share). My son is disappointed he will not join a BS/MD program but he understands our financial situation and agrees with our decision to not load up on debt. We are frankly annoyed with Rice - my son loves that college and considering our current situation, they promised us a significant aid but they waitlisted him. We are not too hopeful about the waitlist. But if he makes it, he will choose Rice as it’s cost (after aid) will be on par with our in-state school.
In conclusion:
We are fortunate that we have options. We thank God for blessing us with these options. Please note there are thousands of smart kids and rejections are to be expected. However, those rejections are painful and makes us doubt everything. The BS/MD process feels cruel and crazy and lack of communication from colleges creates a vacuum of information which then gets filled by negative thoughts. For us, our situation only compounded my anxieties. Please find someone with whom you can pour your heart out and not be judged.
CC is a good forum and as I was a lurker I gained much. I did message a few people and was happy to have received their replies and guidance. Thank you to all who were kind with your time and responses.
PS: Please pardon my typos and grammar errors. English is not my first language.