Chances at BU 7 Year Accelerated Med, any help would mean a lot!!!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Scores
PSAT: 217
SAT: 2300
SAT Bio: 780
SAT US: 750</p>

<p>Classes (all AP/honors, so everything below is AP)
10th: World History (5)
11th: English Lang., U.S. History, Calculus AB, Biology (all 5s)
12th: Physics, Chemistry, English Lit., Microeconomics, Art History </p>

<p>Rank: 2 out of 501
GPA (unweighted): 4.00</p>

<p>Recs: Getting an amazing rec from my bio teacher, especially because I helped her over the summer as well with the Tutoring Club for struggling kids. English rec should also be great. Also I'm getting a rec from my professor at the research internship (more on that a little down)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities (I'll list the awards that go with it too)</p>

<p>DECA (this is a business competition that mainly involves presentations, "role plays," in front of judges and testing in specific "events" you're in, like Business Administration and Business Services)
-Several Test and Role Play Awards at Regional and State Level
-Made it to Internationals two years in a row, and the second time I got a top 20 test score</p>

<p>Shadowing
-Really mostly just with my mom so far, but quite a bit. I can shadow with other doctors too, heard it was much more useful than general hospital volunteering. I know I don't have too many medically related activities, but I think I can pull off a nice interview and I heard it's mostly your academic stuff that matters to get to the interview stage, but definitely correct me if I'm wrong please. </p>

<p>Tennis
-Won State Team once, solid record this year too
- I only play with my school though</p>

<p>Chess
-Won State Team Every year of high school ($4000 dollar scholarships to TTU)
-Several Individual Awards as well</p>

<p>Clubs and Leadership</p>

<p>Tutoring Club
- This is huge for me,possibly my essay topic. Here's a brief summary of its impact and what I did with it. A couple years ago on a visit to India, my mom took me to a center for the mentally disabled for about a month to help out. I definitely felt uncomfortable for the first week even, but in the end they really became friends; seriously I had a great time. When I came back to the U.S. I decided to help out more of the underprivileged, since I didn't exactly have any centers for mentally disabled around me anywhere close and I wasn't really sure what to do. I tutored at a couple disadvantaged schools, and eventually started this club. We provide free tutoring to anyone at our school and drive to a nearby school to help out there too several times a week. I have about a 100 hours total right now for tutoring altogether (not including India, that was 8th grade summer), and the club has about 20 members. </p>

<p>Spanish Club
- I'm the Treasurer; it's not really a big role though and I don't spend too much time with it. Also I was Secretary last year</p>

<p>Table Tennis Club
- VP. This is really something more for fun but we have about 40 people.</p>

<p>My other clubs include
- Green Team (40 hours volunteering)
- Community Service (maybe about 20 hours)
- Knowledge Bowl (varsity team, and $7,500 scholarships each for regional winners, we were second last year)
- International Club
- Dance Dance Revolution Club
-HOSA (medical club)
- Student Council</p>

<p>Enrichment Activities
- I went to Governor's School for International Studies last summer, and it was a great experience, a TON of fun.
- Boston U Research Internship for 6 weeks </p>

<p>Final Stuff
- I'm bilingual (Know Telugu, an Indian language)
- I held a job for a couple years at a private school tutoring. I sent all the money I made (about $750) back to Lekhadeep, the center for the mentally disabled in India.</p>

2

<p>Fellow andhra boy here. What I’ve heard from students and seen about BU SMED is that, compared with other programs, they want more well-rounded students. Whereas other med programs are looking for those who have high aptitude in Science, BU is looking for someone who does well in science, but also has other interests. In terms of academics, they could be a little more competitive. You’re gonna be competing with a lot of high caliber students so you could potentially solidify your SAT/SAT IIs scores. I think the program might require chem so check on that. It might be enough to get you an interview, but you might want to play it safe. Don’t despair though. In terms of ECs, what programs will look for is interest in medicine and (mainly for BU) other interests. First question, do you show interest? In terms of shadowing, it seems as though you haven’t done much. Programs care about the number of different specialties you have shadowed and it doesn’t seem like you haven’t done much so try to get those hours. You should have volunteered in the hospital. Some people get into such programs with volunteering alone (i believe many of bu smed students got in with volunteering alone). You have research which can only help, but in terms of interest, though you show some, it’s not strong. At least you’re significantly involved in things other than science and the tutoring thing seems interesting. Granted you write a good essay, you should have decent shot at the interview mainly because you show that non-science activity that BU is looking for. Good Luck.</p>

3

<p>Mmm that’s definitely at least kinda reassuring. Forreal man, hyderabad? it seems like all the telugu indians come from there. I’m shadowing a couple of my mom’s friends though next year though, even though I’ll be a senior, and I’ll try to fit in a little hospital volunteering, even though it’s kinda unlikely. If i can’t fit in the volunteering though, is that seriously a killer? what other accelerated programs do you think i have a shot at?
also, what do you think about penn?</p>

4

<p>I never said I was from hyderabad, andhra has more than one city. Hospital volunteering is somewhat useless to have at this point because you wouldn’t get that many hours and that wouldn’t do much. It’s good that you’re gonna shadow and make sure you can shadow several different specialties to show that you have a better view of medicine. Other programs tend to care more about medical ECs, aptitude for science, and, most importantly, academics. In terms of the SAT I, it’s not bad but if it were better, it would make it that much easier to get an interview. For SAT IIs, I would reccomend taking one of the math (math II is your best bet) as med programs want to see math and you’ll most probably have a higher score than 750 which looks better anyways. GPA/class rank is good and hopefully you took the most rigorous course load possible. Medical ECs as I discussed before suffers b/c of a lack of volunteering which could have helped a fair amount, but i guess it’s not necessarily a must have. How about that research, do you think you could win any competitions with it? So far though, BU looks like a better bet than programs like Northwestern, Penn State, Rice Baylor, U Miami. RPI/Albany and the Drexel Programs are worth a shot because you should have fair chances in those (thoigh the med schools aren’t as good as Boston’s). But I must emphasize that the interview selections can be very arbitrary. Like someone will be selected for an interview at a harder program, but won’t be selected for an interview at an “easier” program.</p>

5

<p>I think you might need to take a math sat II, probably math 2c, but check on that. You have the stats to get in to someplace much better than BU, even for a 7year med program. Really think this through before you make a decision.</p>

6

<p>Obviously there’s more than one city in andhra, I was just asking if you’re from there too since I happen to be. Yeah dude academically I think I should be okay. The courseload and everything was maxed. Scores-wise though, do you think it’s a worthy investment of my time to study for and take the sat again? I’ve asked a couple people that but I usually get vague answers. Yeah BU requires the chem and math 2 subjects so i’ll have to be taking those anyway. Unforunately I haven’t taken ap chem (taking this year) yet so the subject test might be a little annoying to study for… I went to the seminar with the dean a couple weeks ago, since I’m finishing up the internship now, and their admissions really do seem to be a lot more… general so to speak. Not really focused on just science but strongly rooted in academics. Yeah for research competitions though, I don’t think any finish before application time, but I’m thinking about putting this one into Siemens if I have any extra time next year. Exactly dude, how does penn state program compare to BU’s? Also though btw, i meant UPenn in that earlier post, just the regular 4 year. Thanks a lot</p>

7

<p>Yeah they require a math 2 and chem sat moonman, but actually I wouldn’t be so confident about getting into the 7 year</p>

8

<p>You have to study for the SAT II tests so you probably wouldn’t have as much time for SAT. For Penn State, a higher SAT score would be preferable because they really rely on SAT (and gpa). But again, it’s more important to focus on SAT IIs. Chances for Penn are fine; try to highlight that tutoring activity you’re passionate about. But I’ve heard bad things about Penn pre-med (and pre-med anywhere in general), but especially Penn where 2/3 of pre-meds take a gap year before going to med school. I’m not even applying to CAS because I do not want it to be an option.</p>

9

<p>I think you will have a great chance of getting to the interview stage. From there on, your interview basically solidifies whether you make it or not. I don’t know too much about BU’s program, but at the ones I’m looking at the interview is the make-or-break. Good luck on all your applications!</p>

10

<p>You have a very high chance of getting in.</p>

11

<p>Thanks guys. That also definitely makes sense sat/subject-wise, so next year I think I’ll jst stick with my shadowing and keep up everything else. What other nice pre-meds are you looking at then? I’m from TN, so Washu and Emory and nearby and Rice looks really interesting too, and then of course Vanderbilt. Also I’m looking at Brown and Columbia which are probably my highest reaches besides penn, but maybe even berkeley too.</p>

12

<p>Duke has a good pre-med program; probably my top choice for regular undergrad. I’m also thinking about JHU and Northwestern in addition to some of the schools you are looking at. But I guess no matter where you go, it’s gonna be tough for pre-med, hence aiming for bs/md programs.</p>