I'm Trying to Get to the Interview Stage...

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
1

<p>are my stats enough to get me some interviews at places like lehigh, Neuocom, USC BAC MD, northwestern, brown, rice baylor, penn state, and VCU? See, I know I'm not a star student, but if given the opportunity to get an interview, I think I'd stand a better shot.</p>

<p>SAT I:2160 (composite)
Math:760
Writing:720
CR:680</p>

<p>SAT II's:
Math 2C:750
Chemistry:710
Biology:660 (had a bad day, don't really know what to do about this)</p>

<p>RANK: 3/480
weighted GPA:4.67
unweighted:like a 3.8 or something</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activities:</p>

<p>-Varsity Tennis 4 years, Team Captain 11th and 12th Grade.
-ASB Ambassador 9th through 11th grade.
-Vice President of HOSA (Health Occupational Therapists of America) 9th grade.
-Treasurer of Interact 10th grade.
-CSF (California Scholarship Federation) and NHS (National Honors Society) Parliamentarian 10th grade, member from 9th through 12th grade.
-Secretary of Spanish Honors Society 11th grade, member 10th and11th grade.
-Europe Trip Club
-Key Club member grades 9th and10th. </p>

<p>Activities and interests outside of school (church activities, community service, clubs, outside sports, etc...):</p>

<p>-100 hours community service at Desert Valley Hospital.
-200 hours community service at Sai Baba Hindu Temple in Sydney, Australia over 11th grade summer.
-Anually volunteer at homeless shelter during Thanksgiving.
-Publicitor and Editor of Indian American Cultural Association of the High Desert magazine.
-MC for annual Indian Independence Day celebration for 3 years.
- Job Shadowing a Neurologist for several weeks.
-Harmonium (Indian musical instrument, resembles a piano) lessons for 4 years.</p>

<p>Awards:</p>

<p>-Presidential Scholar Award (senior year)
-National Merit Commendation for 11th grade PSAT scores
-5.0 GPA Award (junior year)
-Voted Most Likely To Succeed for Senior Class of 2006.
-Varsity Athletic award all 4 years
-Indian Cultural Society Honors Award 4 years</p>

2

<p>scores are decent but not stunning. Btw, HOSA is Health Occupations Students of America. And northwestern and brown are definite rejects so don't bother. The other programs are doable.</p>

3

<p>wow, definite rejections...I have this false hope that I might somehow get in, so Im applying there anyway, but your probably right. Well as long as I stand a shot, good enough for me, any more opinions?</p>

4

<p>i think you have a chance. your standards are what colleges expect. you are definitely not a "definite reject", you have a very good chance :).</p>

5

<p>when i say rejects I mean they are rejects for 99% of people. I heard that at northwestern 5 people get in out of 600. Please tell me whether this is an indication of a low acceptance rate.</p>

6

<p>i heard northwestern takes about 50 people.</p>

7

<p>r u sure? O wait, maybe its 5 for rochester's REMS program. 50 seats is still a very low acceptance rate in the grand scheme of things.</p>

8

<p>Northwestern takes about 45 students.</p>

9

<p>im trying to rely on good communications skills, I think I'm good with people, so that's what I was shooting for.</p>

10

<p>foodisgood you are definately not in the position to tell someone they are a reject or not. Get admission into a program go through the process, become a doctor then come back to this site and post such responses as "definite rejects". I think Funkmasta that you have a shot at many programs, while it is true that some are more difficult then others, you have a shot at all. </p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

11

<p>well, I satisfy two of HighschoolDOC's criteria so let me just say...</p>

<p>I don't do "what are my chances" posts but I will speak about all apps in general: strive for passion and cohesiveness, qualities that a lot of apps are missing. Everybody's got that list with 239857239 ECs and that gets really, really old after a while. Show some cohesiveness by concentrating your ECs and rearranging the way they're presented on your app around just a few key areas, e.g., music, community service, leadership, etc. Show your passion by sticking with those ECs for longer than a year. Even your awards should show cohesiveness. A single award for, say, "perfect attendance" doesn't go along with a "music" theme that you want to portray, so it's not going to help your cause. A debate team award doesn't stand out if you only did it for 1 year OR if you're going for a "community service" or "medical research" theme. This may be counterintuitive, but I don't waste my time posting obvious or useless things so I'm not gonna say something that would be obvious. Think of it from an adcom's point of view. They want to see that you're wellrounded but they also want to see that you've shown passion in two or three key areas. Random awards and ECs will dilute the message/themes that your app is trying to bring across. Here's how I employed this technique with my app (I got into HPME): I've been playing piano for a while and was involved with some music stuff in high school. However, I wanted a "community service" and "leadership" theme for my app. Therefore, even though I really wanted to emphasize my music activities more, I portrayed my music stuff as more recreational/hobby type activities, lessening their importance in comparison to my other activities to avoid diluting my app. That worked too because it showed that I knew when to relax and that I used my down-time in productive ways.</p>

<p>Also, I feel that your test scores are there not to meet a certain cutoff point, but to prove to adcoms that you're, well...you're not stupid. I just think many people lose sight of that and forget what test scores are really about. In effect, you're not competing with others to get the highest test score, per say, but you're showing the adcoms that you're competent and can handle the college/med school workload. So just get your scores within a certain range and then let it go. Maybe that'll help people decide whether their test scores are good enough and decrease the number of "what are my chances" posts. Just pretend you're an admissions officer and ask yourself if your test scores sufficiently show that you're able to handle the rigorous college/med school workload that these med programs entail. If not, then keep trying. Does a 650 in SAT math sufficiently show that you're good enough in math? Does a 3.2 GPA sufficiently show that you'll do well in the extremely rigorous med school curriculum?</p>

<p>Well...good luck!</p>

12

<p>see, I never saw it as a means of beating everyone else, I just wanted my SAT score to hti a certain range that they would see as competent (although I hardly agree with using the SAT's above all to determine whether a person is capable of college course loads). As for my EC's, although my stuff may seem like a laundry list of things, I did try to focus into volunteering and taking advantage of my courses during high school which were all medical oriented. I figured that I didn't want the other awards which I worked hard for to go to waste, so I listed them anyway. Besides, many of the awards are neutral, they don't focus on a certain thing, instead they show that I am a capable person and someone who works well with peers. Thanks for your opinions, all of you, and I would appreciate anymore advice.</p>