Note: I won’t be elaborating too much on my application for sake of privacy.
GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.55 (W), school has an AP cap
Class Rank: NA; Class Size ~400
SAT: 1570, 1530 (1590 superscore)
SAT Subject Tests:
Chemistry: 800
Math 2: 800
AP’s (at time of application):
AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics 1, AP Calculus BC and AB sub score, AP US History, AP World History, AP English Literature, AP Environmental Science: 5/5
AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Physics C Electricity & Magnetism, AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics, AP Psychology (taking in 12th grade right now)
Teacher / Counselor Recs: Assuming they were good but not seen except for research mentor and doctor I shadowed (both showed their recs to me, which were really good – 10/10)
State: no extra geographical diversity brownie points where I’m from
Gender: M
Ethnicity: ORM
Income: middle class
Hooks: N/A
Awards:
- 2X USABO semifinalist
- Regional science fair winner 3X
Major ECs:
- Shadowing
- Research
- Hospital/nursing home volunteering
- Taught science to elementary/middle school students
Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:
- RPI/AMC – interviewed - ACCEPTED
- Rice/Baylor – interviewed – WAITLISTED at Baylor College of Medicine, which I won’t be getting off of unfortunately because all their 6 spots have been filled (ACCEPTED to Rice undergrad with merit scholarship)
- California Northstate University CHS/COM – interviewed – ACCEPTED to 3+4 program
- Northwestern HPME – got the supplementary application but rejected pre-interview
- Brown PLME – rejected
- Boston University BS/MD – rejected pre-interview (accepted to BU undergrad)
- University of Pittsburgh BS/MD – rejected pre-interview (accepted to University of Pittsburgh undergrad with merit scholarship and offered interview for full ride merit Chancellor’s Scholarship)
- Case Western PPSP – rejected at PPSP pre-interview
Applied to the following undergraduates:
- UC Berkeley (Computer Science), UCLA (Biology) - ACCEPTED
- Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania – rejected
DECISION: RPI/AMC with good merit scholarship
Reflection:
First off, here’s a short disclaimer. This is just my opinion. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong. Feel free to take it or leave it. Obviously, I have my own perspective and theories, which will be a little different from everyone else’s. The BS/MD process is almost like a black box to some extent because you don’t know everything they’re looking for. You don’t really know what the admission committee is saying or looking at when reading your application or discussing your interview performance. This is my best guess at what happens behind those closed doors.
Wow! I can’t believe it’s finally over! It was so much work but also very worth it! I think essays really make or break your application. I would like to respectfully disagree with those people who say it’s not worth it to apply to Rice/Baylor. I think it totally is – if nothing else, Rice is a tremendous undergraduate university that is great for premed if you can get in. I would have happily gone there in a heartbeat if I had no good BS/MD options. Looking back at my Rice/Baylor essays, I think I got really lucky in that I hit what they were looking for. The way I did my BS/MD essays is that I had a few core stories and themes that kept popping up in pretty much all my BS/MD applications in some way or another. Feel free to take or leave my opinion, but I believe it really boils down to fit at the medical school level as well (not just the undergraduate school). Each medical school has a different mission and in your essays I think it’d be a pretty smart idea to show how you’d be a great fit for each medical school’s values/missions, etc. When looking back at my Rice/Baylor essays and checking out Baylor Medical School’s website, I realized I unintentionally did a really good job of this by hitting research and care for the underserved. Of course, I had a lot of luck involved in getting an interview for Rice/Baylor; it’s just so competitive that no matter how brilliant you are, <0.5% ultimate program acceptance rate with only 6 students across the entire country being selected is NO JOKE. It was a real privilege to be selected for the interview and be in the same room with 24 of some of the best and brightest applicants in the country. I really enjoyed the experience. They had an amazing pre-interview night where we could talk to current Rice/Baylor students, eat food with them, and chill with regular Rice students and sleep overnight in the Rice dorms. We got to eat breakfast the next morning at Rice and go on campus tours at Rice before heading over to Baylor Medical School for the interview in the afternoon. Even though I never got a chance to visit Rice before, this really wonderful positive experience solidified Rice as a great choice for me BS/MD or not. I know a few of the Rice/Baylor interviewees were total superstars with research conferences, abstracts, publications, and/or Intel ISEF winners. One of them got into Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Rice/Baylor. Another student got into Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and was waitlisted at Rice/Baylor (if I remember that last part correctly). It sounds crazy, but then again to be accepted to Rice/Baylor, you by definition are NOT normal. Talking to the current Rice/Baylor students on my pre-interview night, I found out some of them had also gotten into Stanford as well and also Case Western PPSP interviews, too. I don’t say this to crush people’s hopes of getting into Rice/Baylor but this is what you’re up against. I also know students with similar profiles to me that got into Rice/Baylor a few years back (and probably this year too I bet – I don’t know the profiles of all of this year’s accepted candidates), so it’s definitely possible if you play your cards right (especially during the interview) to get in but albeit significantly harder. Also, here’s an interesting piece of information about the program timeline. Traditionally, they would accept 25 students into Rice by the end of March or early April and then interview them during April and let them know near the end of April whether they made it into the program. This year, however, they notified the interviewees of their selection by the end of January and held the interviews in late February. I’m glad that all my BS/MD interviews could be done in person before the COVID-19 crisis really shut everything down. As far as I know, all the Rice/Baylor interviewees were accepted to Rice (I haven’t asked all the Rice/Baylor interviewees, but I have yet to come across a Rice/Baylor interviewee this year who did not get into Rice). Finally, there may or may not be a causation effect between being a Rice/Baylor interviewee and a merit scholarship. A lot of the Rice/Baylor interviewees, including myself, got nice merit scholarships. I do believe there’s a strong correlation there, but it could be that Rice/Baylor interviewees typically tending to have strong profiles (rather than being a Rice/Baylor interviewee itself) results in an increased chance of getting a merit scholarship at Rice.
As far as RPI/AMC goes, I’m super excited to go there! It was cold and snowed there when I interviewed in January, which was interesting. There’s a great Hilton Hotel literally connected with Albany Medical College where the interview’s at. I’d definitely recommend sleeping at Hilton Hotel the night before the interview; it’s literally in the perfect location. They obviously love research, and I love research too making us a great fit. Submitting research posters, abstracts, and/or publications will definitely help you because they are interested in making physician scientists. Also, definitely submit a research mentor’s letter of recommendation here if you can because that will go a long way to getting you an interview, combined with your research experiences and essays.