hi all, posting for my daughter. can’t believe i am doing this after feeling confused, frustrated, and stressed for many months! very grateful that i am getting to do this!!
ACT: 35 | SAT: did not take | GPA: 4.0/4.4 uw | ORM / Indian | Ohio
ECs: varsity tennis captain | musician/team leader of school’s music club | vp of school student govt | fundraised for pediatric cancer | food pantry volunteer | NHS president at school | TA for ELL math class in school | secretary of korean culture club at school
Work: part time job as a dining server at a senior home
Medical ECs: virtual physician shadowing, hospice volunteer
Other stuff: computer science research internship at a public university (with publication)
Rec letters: didnt read, but must have been good. very friendly personality, had great relationship with teachers always.
Hooks: none
Goal:
plan A: get into BS/MD
plan B: land a good merit scholarship from Case western undergrad
plan C: Ohio state undergrad
Undergrad-Only programs:
- Ohio State Neuroscience | accepted into honors with 3K / year merit
- Ohio State BMS program | rejected pre-interview
- Michigan | wait-listed
BS/MD Programs - Rejected pre-interview:
-
Rutgers | UG accepted no $
-
Rochester | UG accepted with 10k / year
-
Stony Brook | UG accepted with 15k / year, not that it mattered - but we were surprised about not getting into Honors/Wise
-
UPitt | UG accepted with 15k / year
-
Case | UG waitlisted - and with that, Plan B went down the drain!
Interviewed at Cincinnati, placed on alternate list, received acceptance on 05/11 !!
Decision before May 1st : Ohio State undergrad
Decision after May 11th : Cincinnati Connections BS/MD
Some extra info:
daughter wanted to be a vet until 10th grade. changed her mind mid-way thru the sophomore year. all her ECs with senior home, hospice etc was all stuff she started doing from early middle school because she cared. nothing was ever a checklist item for resume. infact, we didnt even consider going the BS/MD route until after she landed a 35 in her only attempt at the ACT.
some might feel that we did not apply broadly enough. but considering what our goal was, i still stand by our college list. these essays are a pain, i have a lot of respect to some of these kids here who applied to 15-20 schools or more, but my daughter could not have done it. 
essay counsellor experience: really pushed her to think through better examples. couldnt have done this without her. counsellor kept warning us that BS/MD admits were almost impossible because of zero clinical experience, esp being ORM.
firstly, ohio does not permit EMT volunteering until the kid turns 18. we dont have personal doctor friends whom we could have requested favors. on top of it, everything was closed during COVID and we couldnt find shadowing / clinical volunteering using regular process.
So… though we knew that chances were low-none, we just believed that her hospice musical volunteering and work experience at senior centers truly showed her empathy, leadership, and character to pursue medicine. she had a lot of meaningful experiences with serving seniors at both places and a couple of essays highlighted that.
every reject was painful until cincinnati finally called her for an interview. her interview coach was amazing and she came a LONG way from her first mock interview (which was like a cartoon show!) to the 5th interview where her preparedness and confidence really came through. i dont know what we would have done if we hadnt found this coach! you know who u are and a BIG, BIG thank you, we will remember your contribution always!
getting waitlisted at Case RD for undergrad was super painful. i wrote a very long post (Thread for BS/MD BS/DO 2021-2022 - #4231 by happyFlamingo) on the main forum and received overwhelming support from all the senior members there. was very grateful to get several ideas from them and we followed through on some of them.
fast fwd to may 11 - getting the acceptance from Cincinnati was the best possible outcome for our daughter and family. we are beyond thrilled that this ordeal is ending on such a happy note. thank you to a couple of you on this forum for declining your cincinnati admits and deciding to enroll elsewhere
Lastly, dont really have a lot of advice for parents of future applicants, except -
- each kid’s story/motivation is different. let us just make sure they are happy and let us not nudge/pressurize them towards medicine
- application process is treacherous. always encourage them and let them know that u are proud of them through rejects and wait-lists
- things will always work out at the end, BS/MD or not, medicine or not.