<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown):2250-ish, two sittings, I don’t really remember anymore
ACT:35, single sitting
SAT II: 790 (Bio-M), 770 (Math II), 800 (Chem)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):4.00 (school does not weight)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/85
APs at the time of application: My school offered zero AP’s, so these were self-studied from an advanced class in school or taken online through the state: Bio(5), Chem(4), Stats(5), Calc AB (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): School did not offer IB
Senior Year Course Load: Adv. Lit, AP Physics B online, Adv. Gov, Sociology, Senior Project, Spanish IV
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):National AP Scholar, National Merit Scholar
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): HOSA (first state president, school pres and former VP), FBLA (pres, former VP), NHS, Quizbowl (captain), Sci Oly, jazz band (soloist on bass guitar). I got 30+ state awards in FBLA and got other state awards in oratory, HOSA, Sci-Oly, and research
Job/Work Experience: Certified Nursing Assistant, research assistant in nearby hospital in breast cancer metabolism and drug targets
Volunteer/Community service: Hospital volunteer
Summer Activities: U Iowa research in nanochem and enzymes, paid research internship in local hospital (see above), Europe music tour for honors band/choir chosen from the Midwest
Essays: In the range of 6’s to 8’s, pretty good overall - my writing is a strength. My HPME and Emory scholarship essays were probably my best work though (it paid off), with UPenn the worst
Teacher Recommendation: Waived right, but iffy to alright - teachers really never wrote recs for any students or schools other than nearby community colleges or nearby state schools, much less for Ivies or BS/MD’s (I think I was the first in my school’s long history to apply to a BS/MD), but the teachers and I got along really well and I’ve even been to DC on a week-long trip with my bio teacher for HOSA
Counselor Rec: Probably pretty patchy, she’s younger and doesn’t have much experience with upper-level schools and programs - 4 to 5, we weren’t close but she knew of my curriculum, activities, and reputation with the teachers I guess
Additional Rec: Head of my most recent lab, probably a 7, he was a cool guy</p>
<p>Other
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public, small, and semi-rural
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender:F
Income Bracket: I’ll not answer</p>
<p>Accepted: Northwestern HPME, Emory (full tuition scholarship), Cornell, Rice, Johns Hopkins, Washington U St. Louis, U of Minnesota (full scholarship), U of Iowa (biggest scholarship offered), Boston University (half-tuition scholarship)
Waitlisted: Harvard, Columbia
Rejected: Brown and PLME, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Rice/Baylor BS-MD (no interview but admitted to Rice), Boston U SMED (no interview), </p>
<p>Reflection: Luck. That is all. I was initially so sad when I didn’t get an interview for BU SMED and thought all my chances were blown, but then I somehow got an interview and acceptance to NU HPME. You just never know. I had a tough choice deciding between NU HPME and the full scholarship to Emory, but I calculated it this way: Emory scholarship was worth around $170,000. A year of saved money at NU is about $65,000, plus the extra year of work if I did HPME in 7 years would be, on an MD salary, at least $100,000 if not more. Then, the saved year of life outside school, effort to study for the MCAT, and increased opportunity without having to worry about med school admissions. Total, HPME money-wise and opportunity-wise was equal or more than Emory and their scholarship for me. Don’t forget - scholarships are quick money saved, but don’t just turn down a program because of price - factor in everything, because long-term, things could turn out very differently, as I decided. When writing essays, don’t be the typical BS/MD applicant - stand out. Do something weird, or creative, or independent! I come from a small school in the middle of cornfields, and my high school literally only has two hallways. No AP’s, and I honestly have no idea what an IB is still. Yet taking initiative to do my own independent research project in public health, helping to kick-start HOSA in my state and being the first state president, and going above and beyond my school’s meager curriculum offerings caused some colleges to like me, but not others. Luck.</p>
<p>General Comments: Don’t take the application process overly-seriously. Have fun with your essays, put some genuine thoughts and passion and creativity behind them, and the readers of them will have fun, too. Have a life your senior year, not just a college admissions life. As it has been said, don’t join clubs just because you think they’ll look good on your resume. I totally should not have been in jazz band (almost daily rehearsals and missing days upon days of schools for competitions was very tough on my schedule) but I loved playing jazz bass guitar, soloing, and jamming out with some of my best friends, so I did it. One of the things that made me as an applicant so distinctive was being a CNA. We are at the bottom of the totem pole in medicine - I did everything. Scrubbing toilets in a mental facility for convicted felons, feeding, dressing, showering, toileting, and changing the Depends of residents in nursing homes were just a few of the things I did as a CNA. Not a lot of BS/MD applicants, as far as I can tell, get their CNA. It really is tough, rough work, and I really respect the men and women who make it their profession. When I worked as a CNA my junior year, it really showed me how much I loved making that patient-caretaker relationship and gave me insight into the doctor-healthcare team relationship that I then was able to talk about during my HPME interview. Seriously. I suggest doing something that is unusual, not run-of-the-mill BS/MD stuff like shadowing or volunteering, which are also cool BTW. Then, you have something awesome to talk about and write about.
Seriously, I have no idea how I got into HPME. Did they pick me for personality or… because, while I had research experience and higher test scores, I in no way had the experiences or coursework that some of the other interviewees had. Programs and schools will, to an extent, consider your background. A kid from NYC will probably have easier access to research, internships, and other activities than, say, one living on a ranch in the middle of Montana. Even I had to drive 3 hours, 180 miles round-trip every day to get to my research internship, and I live in a large-ish town. On paper, I don’t have the stats of other HPME’s, but I guess my essays and interviews went well.</p>