<p>Finally another instate secondary came in and is going out within 24 hours (a new record for DS which will probably never be repeated). I learned that another school’s secondary probably hadn’t been received because they were waiting for at least 1 LOR. Hopefully that will now show up soon. DS has plenty of secondaries to work on but it would be really nice if the in states showed up sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>Another one “in the trenches” here and always appreciative of CC support. Here’s a little about me, just FYI. Thanks in advance, and good luck to all your kiddos! It’s a stressful time and trust me, we love having cheerleaders.</p>
<p>Basics: MCAT=30S (9P, 11V, 10B), GPA=3.83, SGPA=3.75, residency=Missouri, undergrad=University of Missouri</p>
<p>Applied to: University of Missouri, St Louis University, Georgetown, Duke, Northwestern; will add ~2 more “matches” and 2-4 more “reaches” to include at least 1 Ivy (why not!). Intend to stick with a small number of schools because I believe I have a very good chance at getting into University of Missouri, a program that I really love–it’s going to take something huge and very enticing to get me away from here!</p>
<p>Ultimate goal: MD/MPH, a few years working in developing countries (which could change if my family situation changes aka I get married), then back to Missouri to work in some field with both clinical and procedural/surgical components and continue to work with improving health literacy (keep reading!)</p>
<p>Something that has been described as my “hook”: I’ve done lots of service work with pregnant teens and teen parents which inspired me to start a nonprofit organization with the goal of improving health literacy (a common occurrence in my area). My program matches college kids with patients referred to us by social workers. The students (called Allies) then meet individually with patients to help them learn about their health condition and come up with questions for their physicians. Allies accompany patients to appointments, provide support, and ensure they understand what’s going on. Then the Ally helps them explain diagnoses and treatment plans to their families and accompanies them to any other appointments if they want. So far it’s caught on beyond my wildest dreams–I’ve presented its model to health literacy professionals nationally and in my state and currently work on health policy analysis and outreach for a health literacy organization. My program will probably expand to 3-5 more universities this fall. </p>
<p>Other stuff: 400+ hours shadowing (300 split between 2 oncologists, 100 split between 4 others), 100+ hours volunteering, medical mission trip to Costa Rica, 400+ hours bio/microscopy research, 300+ hours clinical breast cancer research (paid), lots of campus leadership, multiple honor/leadership/secret societies and awards, tutoring and mentoring various demographics, studied abroad in Italy (Renaissance art trip), major Greek life leadership and involvement (but I have recently decided not to continue on with Greek life).</p>
<p>LORs: bio prof/advisor for my organization; honors organic chem prof; PI of my bio/microscopy lab; oncologist I’ve shadowed and now do reserach for; oncologist I’ve shadowed for 2yr; social worker whose agency inspired my organization; prof for leadership classes who knows me very well personally and in a leadership sense; and president of health literacy organization that I’m working for this summer. I had the wonderful problem of having 8 phenomenal people ask to write letters for me, so there’s no way I could have turned them down! </p>
<p>I’ll keep you posted! So far, AMCAS is submitted (awaiting verification), no secondaries have been received, and I’m searching for the rest of the schools I want to apply to. </p>
<p>Wish me luck!</p>
<p>Kristin- it would seem like you should have a solid chance for UM. Good luck.</p>
<p>Your profile looks really good, I’m sure you will get into many great medical schools.</p>
<p>mcat2
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<p>I took my MCAT at the end of sophomore year, and shortly after that I received the letters from these schools “encouraging me to consider them”, so I am sure it really has nothing to with AMCAS and the primary. In any case, AMCAS will only send the info to the schools the students designate, not to random schools.</p>
<p>I have never liked WUSTL, primarily because of the city (I did not like them for undergrad either). The school is not very popular with people from the Southeast and I also find the students a bit too competitive for my taste. Again, it is a personal thing, some one else may have a different feel for it.</p>
<p>I rather go with any of its neighbors schools in Chicago…</p>
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<p>lollybo, show your school’s spirit and defend your school. LOL. (I heard the school itself is in a better area of the city.)</p>
<p>The school is in a pretty decent area, in Clayton with multi million dollar homes. But it is important to note that the medical school is on a completely different campus. The medical school is in Central West End, which is sort of like an upscale downtown.</p>
<p>To each his/her own I guess, but I think WUSTL is a great place to be for pre-med and med school. The med school is a bit scary for the second year, because it is no pass/fail and you will be competing with students where the average MCAT score is a 38 and the average GPA is around a 4.0.</p>
<p>It appears that there is a very large park (“Forest Park”) that goes between washington university and its medical school, which is located only a few blocks to the west of SLU.
Is it safe enough to jog in Forest Park? It could be a very good place for joggers if there is no safety concern.
Where may be the “bad” area? East of SLU (toward the river) and east St. Louis where the airport is?</p>
<p>Forest park is great. I’d say its safe as long as you don’t go jogging at 2am but 4/5am on should be fine. So where the airport is fine, its past the counties in an almost rural area. Umm the bad area is north st louis and east st louis which is nowhere near the medschool. The medschool is on the central west end which is a nicely developed area full of restaurants and expensive shopping. Where SLU is is fine also. I’d say stl downtown is as safe as anywhere else. If you stick to where the dining, shopping, clubbing, and schools are you’ll be safe all hours of the night. But if you go explore stl where the buildings look rundown and abandoned, well…</p>
<p>sources: born and raised in stl and now going to WUSTL now</p>
<p>ChemFreak, Thanks for your input. I agree that any city would have some rundown areas.</p>
<p>I did research at WashU Med after my first year of med school. The city itself is definitely no Chicago. Safety concerns are noticeable but shouldn’t be a major factor if you are smart about it. However, there just isn’t a whole lot to do in the city and the downtown is a joke. The heat and humidity during the summers are absolutely ridiculous. I’ve lived for 6+ years each on the west coast, east coast, and the midwest and the summer I spent in St. Louis was the worst one weather wise.</p>
<p>ncg. I guess you haven been spoiled by what the best city can offer 
Few cities in US can compete againt NYC in terms of things to do. DS had a very good experience about NYC whenever he had a chance to have a visit there. (only a couple of times though.)</p>
<p>It did surprise me when you said St Louis is humid in the summer, as it is far from the sea. As Chicago is close to a large body of water. shouldn’t Chicago, instead of St. Louis, that is humid? Think about it. NYC is close to the sea. It should be humid there also.</p>
<p>^^St. Louis is in the South which, by definition is hotter (and more humid) than the north. And, the fact is that Lake Michigan has a cooling effect on the city. Since the lake water never gets too warm (~70 in mid-August), it acts as a natural cooling agent most days, at least downtown. O’Hare, which is 20 miles inland, is usually several degrees warmer, depending on the winds.</p>
<p>Even though St.L is only ~300 miles south of Chicago, the extra heat is definitely noticeable. Wind patterns are not as strong that far south, either.</p>
<p>I wasn’t even thinking of NYC. I personally don’t really like NYC.</p>
<p>But, the humidity isn’t even close b/w Chicago and St. Louis. It is less humid in Chicago. Humidity isn’t always a function of how close you are to water. For example, my home is in the Bay Area, very close to large bodies of water. But, the heat we have in Norcal is dry, very little humidity.</p>
<p>Edit: I think technically St. Louis is the midwest, not South. But, it definitely feels less hot in Chicago. When I was in St. Louis. I lived literally 5 minutes walk from the med school. But, I could not walk to work each morning about becoming sweaty. If I can’t walk for 5 minutes at 9 AM without being drenched in sweat, it’s too humid.</p>
<p>yeah, but ncg, the Bay Area has many days of 100% humidity – it’s called fog; great for making sour dough bread, dry salami and Irish Whiskey’s (at the Buena Vista). hahahahahaha</p>
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<p>It also makes for BAD hair days! :(</p>
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<p>I remember days so bad I couldn’t drive in the mornings. But, fog is less important when it’s only 70 degrees out.</p>
<p>I understand everybody who are concerned with location. Location is my D’s most important criteria. It is 4 years of life, she wants to feel comfortable if she has a choice.</p>
<p>When i mentioned that “i did not like the city”, I was referring to the exact reasons norcalguy stated. St Louis is “a big town” not a “city”. Again, it is a matter of personal taste and I was not really considering the location nor the neighborhoods surrounding the school. Obviously, the school is excellent.</p>
<p>I cannot stress strongly enough how shortsighted this is. For one thing, exploring locations about which you have negative preconceptions is a powerful motivator for growth: too many twenty-somethings think it’s cool and worldly to explore Paris and London and New York while harboring undisguised contempt for Missouri and North Carolina.</p>
<p>More importantly, your life – especially in medical school – is almost entirely dominated by your university culture anyway. It is your school, not your city, which will make or break your experience. It is extraordinarily narrowminded to take such a peripheral consideration and make it so paramount.</p>
<p>In a concrete sense, one can surf USN’s admissions percentages to demonstrate this phenomenon. Students are invariably obsessed with programs like Georgetown and Boston University – excellent programs, sure, but their popularity is vastly out of proportion to their peer schools. I applied back in 2005, and at the time a student who could open his mind up even a little bit – enough to apply to Case Western, or Baylor, or Emory – was at a huge advantage in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Exploiting other people’s shortsightedness and shallow priorities is an excellent way to make a killing in the stock market. It’s also a beautiful way to get into medical school.</p>