Posting for my son (who is agreeable to my doing so)
GPA: 3.78 (UW), 4.35 (W)
Class Rank: 17/389
ACT: 35 (36 superscored)
No Subject tests and no AP tests; he was full time dual enrollment with an early college program within the county and only attended college classes
Teacher / Counselor Recs: Counselor rec was outstanding; his English teacher recommendation really highlighted the quirky helpful side of my kid; his Math teacher is his mentor and adores him but writes pretty badly, so that was a weak letter unfortunately
State: FL (but military kid)
Gender: M
Ethnicity: Native American/Caucasian
Income: >150k
Hook: high achieving Native student
Awards:
● Presidential Volunteer Service Award- Gold
● President’s Award for Educational Excellence
● Prudential Spirit of Community Leadership Award - Local Honoree
● Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award
● Rensselaer Medal for Outstanding Science and Math Achievements
● Congressional Award- Bronze Medal
● High School Varsity Academic Letter; Additional patches for academic achievement earned
Major ECs/Volunteering/Etc
Research Internship with cancer center/university (JR and SR years)
Volunteer at Hospital
Tutor inpatient children’s ward at hospital
President of Medical Explorers
Doctor Shadowing (Surgeon, PA, Primary Care)
Clubs like NHS, MAT, Key Club, PTK (and leadership roles in them)
Student Ambassador at high school
Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:
BSMD Applications
- GW/GW: Accepted
- Brown-ACCEPTED!!!
Other BSMD Applications
Pitt, Penn, FAU, NJMS, BU, Temple- Rejected pre interview
VCU, Drexel- offered interview and declined to accept
Hofstra- sent supplement/no interview invitation
URochester- Interviewed, not selected
Applied to the following undergraduates:
UNC-CH (OOS)- Accepted
Duke-Accepted
Georgetown- Waitlisted
Swarthmore-Accepted
UVA- Accepted
CMU- Denied
William and Mary-Accepted
Tufts-Accepted
Vanderbilt- Accepted
Boston College-Accepted
Northeastern- Accepted
Stanford-Accepted
UF (in state)-Accepted
FSU-Accepted
UW (OOS)-Accepted
Emory-Accepted
Yale- Rejected
Dartmouth- Accepted
UPenn- Rejected
J Hop- rejected
Columbia- Waitlisted
Harvard- Rejected
DECISION: BROWN PLME
Reflection:
So in the end he got what he wanted, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Though some of the rejections like PPSP and REMS (especially post interview) hit him pretty hard, he had so many highs that the occasional lows didn’t hurt as much as they could have. He was really in the most fortunate of places as he was accepted to Stanford via REA so that washed away the anxiety for regular decisions. The initial results for BSMD didn’t seem promising (all rejections) and finally a brief little streak of acceptances made it seem like this could actually happen.
He applied pretty broadly- we had no clue how this would work out. His unweighted GPA seemed low for his ambitions. Unfortunately His freshman year was BAD for a kid with his hopes (All Bs and one F in a core class). His father had been injured during deployment that summer prior and kiddo was a mess. His upward grade trend saved him (I think) and he made sure he included an explanation of what happened, but going into this with that on the transcript meant we were really worried and pretty much applied to as many schools as he was willing to write essays for. Hence the long list of the traditional UG.
I started reading the CC threads about two years ago- he was agreeable to my suggestions based on what I learned here. Tiger mom, helicopter parent, whatever I may be called by SDN (haha)- I told him what I learned and he charted the course. We hired a consultant whose help on the essays was vital to how well they turned out. We utilized that service for interview prep as well. My husband and I grew up in pretty rugged poverty so the whole idea of applying to be a doctor or to Ivies was very beyond our personal experiences.
What he did well: we reviewed the aspects of successful applicants and tried to replicate it with meaningful activities he appreciated. He was very methodical in his planning but didn’t just do stuff to pad a resume. Research has now become a passion for him; he had no interest in sports ever and did not even pretend, but he is an avid hiker and highlighted that in his essays and resumes. HIs essays portrayed him very well- I read them back now and I can picture who he is from them. This process helped cement his desire to be a doctor and while RI isn’t as close to home as his mother would like, I know that he is going to fit in well with that environment.