Current junior aiming for Brown PLME –– Chance Me

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I AM ONLY A JUNIOR SO SOME OF THE INFORMATION MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Demographics
• Egyptian female from California
• Small private high school
• Fluent in 3 languages and speak 4th language (French) at C1 level

Intended major(s)
• Pre-medical student majoring in neuroscience and minoring in political science

Statistics
• UWGPA 3.93
• WGPA 4.3
• Class rank NA
• SAT shooting for 1520+ but haven’t taken it yet

Coursework
• Highest course rigor available
• Have been taking at least 12 courses each semester throughout all of high school (literally finish school at 6 PM some days)
• Planning to take a total of 7 APs
• Completing IB-equivalent diploma that would qualify me to study medicine straight out of high school if I went to Europe

Awards
• 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo
• Silver medal and 2x bronze medal in the National French Contest (Le Grand Concours)
• Verbal commendation at local MUN conference

Extracurriculars (only included the 10 I plan to include in my applications, but have done more)
• Research at neurology department of very prestigious medical school
• Intern at world-renowned hospital (taking patients’ vitals and shadowing, among other things)
• Crisis hotline operator
• Research program at prestigious college where I wrote a 15-page research paper about public health and discrimination
• Research assistant at major think tank, researching the effect of climate change on vulnerable communities
• Blog writer for local mental health organization
• Taekwondo instructor
• MUN president
• Junior class president
• Calendar coordinator for local political non-profit with over 8K Instagram followers

Other
• Currently writing an independent research paper on the treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia using bupropion –– hoping to get published but no high hopes whatsoever🤞

Essays/LORs/Other
• I believe I am a very compelling writer, and I’ve already begun planning my essays, so I believe they will be very good.
• For PLME specifically, I want to write about my interest in political science developing my interest in understanding the historical bases of discrimination and physician bias in healthcare, especially as I want to be a psychiatrist.
• Very small school that I have attended since Kindergarten, meaning I have fostered very close relationships will all my teachers (expecting great LORs)

Cost Constraints
• No, but will probably need to take out loans
• Not applying for financial aid

Schools
• ED Brown + BS/MD (reach)
• University of Pittsburgh + BS/MD (reach)
• Stanford (reach)
• Tufts (reach)
• Duke (reach)
• Johns Hopkins (reach)
• UC Berkeley (match)
• UCSB (match)
• Pomona (reach)
• UCSD (match)
• UCLA (reach)
• UCSC (safety)
• San Jose State (safety)
• San Francisco State (safety)
• San Diego State (match)

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You sound beyond human. How does one take 12 classes? Secondly if you take 12 classes how do you do all you you listed? You will need to provide some level of evidence. Make sure these items you list are of substance.

Obviously you could get in to any college. Will you? I can’t predict.

Not saying you are being dishonest in any way. But the average person will have a hard time believing you are not greatly stretching the truth. It’s almost like it’s an April Fool’s post.

You might want to focus on 2-3 ECs.

Best of luck.

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Please clarify. Is it that your family doesn’t qualify for need based aid? Or what?

How much in loans do you plan to take for undergrad school? Because IF you get accepted to medical school, it will likely be funded with loans loans and more loans.

Your reaches are…reaches. As long as you are happy with attending one of your sure things for admission and affordability, fine…apply to all the reaches. But do keep an open mind.

My free advice which you didn’t ask for…if you plan on going to medical school, keep your undergrad debt as close to zero as possible.

Also, you make the fifth poster I’ve read about planning to major in neuroscience as an undergrad in a premed track. Curious why this is the new major for premeds?

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Yes, my family would never in a million years qualify for financial aid. The issue is that my siblings also go to the same private school and we live in a VERY expensive area. So, on paper, my family looks like it could easily afford my college tuition, but they can’t :confused: My parents said they would help me out as much as they could, but they still have a mortgage to pay off. I’m still very grateful for everything my parents have done for me. I’ve kind of already accepted that I will be dirt poor until I’m 45, and I’m relatively okay with it. I can’t see myself going into any other profession other than psychiatry.

As for my reaches, I’m only applying to schools I’m 100% ECSTATIC about attending, meaning I would be happy at any of my safeties or matches. I would not be upset about attending a single school on this list, except for maybe San Diego State since I hate the warm weather.

Also, I’m majoring in neuroscience because I want to go into psychiatry. The closest to that is either psychology or neuroscience, but neuroscience covers more of the medical school prerequisites, so I figured it would be more convenient since I have to take fewer classes that way. However, I’m hoping to get into brown so I can explore classes about clinical psychology and abnormal psychology, irrespective of my major.

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If you don’t like warm weather, why apply to SDSU? with these #s you could get significant merit at many cold weather schools.oh and UCLA, UCSD and all the warm weather schools you list!!

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I don’t think you need to choose your major based on what kind of medicine you want to practice eventually. You’ll cover specialties in med school. For undergrad, it would be best to work with an advisor to make sure you’ve got your med school pre-reqs done, but other than that, you’re not really limited as to major.

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You would actually be surprised, but my average week isn’t that stressful :slight_smile: All of my “major” ECs (research and hospital volunteering) were done during my breaks. My average week is just going to school for 8 hours a day, going to club meetings, and going to work for a couple of hours each week. I write for the blog whenever I get the chance and I do the calendar coordinating on the weekends. I only do a single 4-hour shift on the crisis hotline each week, also on the weekends. The key is finding ECs that don’t feel like hard work. I genuinely enjoy what I do. For example, writing my research paper is truly fun for me. It’s not what you would call “easy” work, it is literally just entertaining to me to read about schizophrenia, just as watching TV is entertaining. Also, you can probably tell I started high school intending to become a political scientist, but that one program where I researched public health made me fall in love with medicine and psychiatry, which is why only half of my ECs relate to medicine while the other half relates to political science.

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I still want to pick a major I find interesting. Technically speaking, I could go to medical school as a film major.

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I still like the school and I toured the campus, so figured I would apply since all the state schools in California have the same applications, similar to the UC system.

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What world renowned hospital in the US allowed a minor to take patient’s vitals during Covid?And how do I make sure I don’t become a patient there?

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Also, I would like to add that most BS/MD candidates have achievements similar to mine. Maybe this is a lot for the average student, but BS/MD programs have acceptance rates of <5%

Every student admitted to one of these programs has probably done as much as me, if not more.

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Just telling you how it appears. Hopefully you’ll provide context in the amount of time you spend - common app asks and quantifiable results. You needn’t list ten. And you say there’s more.

While I’m not a med school expert, I’ve read enough people on here who are. A few things and @thumper1 briught one up - keep costs down. This is an 8 year venture. You can go to many schools in cold climates that are cheap. You need a high gpa and mcat.

#2 you hopefully can find shadowing opportunities. See what each school provides ? Anything nearby vs far away?

Good luck.

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In Germany :slight_smile: I tried so hard to find shadowing opportunities in the US (I emailed over 50 hospitals/clinics/doctors) and got a single auto-generated response. I was very close to giving up but a senior at my school did their internship in Europe so I did the same. Look up something called “Schülerpraktikum” if you don’t believe me. It is very easy to get internships as a high schooler in Germany. However, you need to be fluent.

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Theres somewhat cold weather ca state schools….but ok.

As for ECs, they needn’t be in your areas of academic interest. But you have passion for them so that’s ok. But it’s not required or even recommended.

You may look at schools with full rides that aren’t impossible to get - especially being Egyptian. W&L, SMU (rarely cold), Seattle. A few Hail Mary apps

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Thank you! Brown is my top choice because they have a BS/MD program that allows you to explore your interests as an undergraduate very freely, but I’m also aware that there are tons of other amazing colleges in the likely chance I don’t get accepted.

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And Brown will be $350k undergrad + med school. unless you qualify for need aid. With what it seems like your parents can already spend, it won’t likely happen.

Run the NPC to make sure.

unless they want to pay that much, take it off your dream list now.

good luck.

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There are a few threads on BS/MD programs on CC – take a look at those to find some good safety/match schools, ideally those that offer merit aid for undergrads. Of course, you don’t need a combined program, though I see why you’d want one, but you should also look at schools with high med school placement numbers. Your list is really reach-heavy and some schools you think are matches really aren’t, for anyone.

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@WayOutWestMom perhaps you can comment on the need to major in neuroscience to eventually pursue a degree in psychiatry. And really…you need to get accepted to medical school first, take your step 1 and 2 tests, do rotations in many areas, and then apply for a residency specialty. You might just change your mind about psychiatry once you have experienced other things.

So…anyway…keep an open mind. You have a lot of reaches, but you also have other options. Good luck…and please do keep folks here posted!

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That’s not true.

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I’m only applying to BS/MD programs if I like the school to begin with. I know people who apply to 15+ BS/MD programs, but I’m applying to many colleges that are great pre-medical schools. I don’t really want to apply to BS/MD programs if I don’t like the school itself. And, I hate to come off as this cocky person, but I’m pretty confident I can get into all my matches and safeties, except for UC Berkeley. I wouldn’t consider Berkeley a sure match, just very possible, but I understand how my post could have been interpreted that way. When people have really reach-heavy lists, that is called shotgunning. It’s people who would be perfectly happy going to a safety/match and apply to many reaches with the hopes of getting one acceptance. Finances are still something I’m discussing with my parents. I hope to do a PhD while in medical school because the government usually pays your medical school tuition, especially since my parents both immigrated from Egypt to do their PhDs here.