CHANCES for Stanford, Columbia, Brown, Northwestern, JHU, Accelerated Med Progra

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I think you have a shot at the Brown PLME program. Just remember that that is probably one of the most competitive to be admitted to out there.

Here are some tips:
- You say you have 600 hrs of volunteering, which is great. Just remember that the interviewer is not really going to care how many hrs you spent as much as he/she will want to know what you took home from the experience. I've had quite a few people who interview with me for the PLME program try to dazzle me with how many hours they spent volunteering but were unable to tell me a single thing they got out of the experience (automatic reject).
- Make sure you know why Brown / why medicine / what was the spark that drew you to each? I can't tell you how many applicants respond by saying something along the lines of "I've always wanted to be a doctor" or "One (or both) of my parents is a doctor." If those are your sole reasons you'll be an automatic reject. Even worse is people that explain all the suffering and how they wan to help people (and then have zero ECs to show that they have acted on this desire). As for why Brown, you can mention the open cirriculum (but every one says that, so you better build further and give specific reasons to how Brown can help you (and you Brown)).
- Mention the golf. Mention as much as you can. It may not help your applicant, but it will not hurt either.

Your application looks pretty comparable to every one applying to the PLME program. If I were to add things, I'm not really getting much of a sense of what you do in your spare time for fun. Your application looks forced (this may just be what you chose to share) and there aren't many hobbies (aside from golf). Brown (probably more so than any school) looks for very well-rounded individuals. I do not get that sense from what you have shared.

Those are just some things to think about. Hopefully that was helpful.

smiley612 said:

600 hours hospital volunteering since soph year
500 hours pharmacy internship since fresh year
will be working a job during summer before senior year
been a tutor since freshman year
3 years in science research (class offered at school where we go to science fairs)
CSF
national merit - psat 226; havent applied for it (october)
been playing golf for 4 years (not at school, and no rankings) -not even worth writing down?
will be playing golf (walk on varsity heh) 2011 spring so wont show up?
club president since freshman year
member of jsa
teen court member - work as jury for actual minor offenders

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on paper, that is one of the most stud-like resume i have seen coming out of high school...

I honestly don't think so. You will get AP Scholar so you can talk about that award a lot. Just because you don't have awards doesn't mean you aren't doing things and your resume shows that you've been doing great. I would apply to all those schools confidently if I were you.

smiley612 said:

thanks emerica
im also thinking of applying to university of pittsburgh, because an indication of an interest in premed or bioengineering would automatically put me in consideration to be admitted into the guaranteed med school admissions program
any thoughts on this?

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I also applied to Pitt and received a full-tuition scholarship but I didn't get into the GAP. With your stats you definitely have a good chance for admittance and you will definitely receive at least full-tuition scholarship and their medical school is top-notch. Definitely apply and then visit to ensure that that is where you would like to be. Coming from Florida, I was not a fan of the cold I would have to endure and that was a large part of my decision not to attend.

smiley612 said:

EXTRACURRICS:

600 hours hospital volunteering since soph year
500 hours pharmacy internship since fresh year
will be working a job during summer before senior year
been a tutor since freshman year
3 years in science research (class offered at school where we go to science fairs)
CSF
national merit - psat 226; havent applied for it (october)
been playing golf for 4 years (not at school, and no rankings) -not even worth writing down?
will be playing golf (walk on varsity heh) 2011 spring so wont show up?
club president since freshman year
member of jsa
teen court member - work as jury for actual minor offenders
any suggestions? retake sat i, take act, extra currics, etc

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I'm just gonna comment on the Accelerated Med Programs and Stanford, since Stanford was my alma mater and I applied to those programs back in the way. For Stanford (and a lot of other top universities) you really need something "special" persay. It's unbelievable how many apps I went through (in the admissions office) that were of an Asian kid having 2300-2400 SAT's, 4.XX GPA, level 10 piano/violin, extensive volunteering, etc.

They all look the same after a while. Have something that really is unique so that it draws their attention from the other 30k applicants.

As for the med programs, just really emphasize your maturity and back up why at age 18 you decided to go along this path. That's what they're looking for.

I'm a past HPME graduate (7-8 years ago) so my data is pretty outdated. I don't even know how your SATs are scored now a days. Your CV is impressive and was comparable to the one I had in high school. I am of a similar background (asian sciencey male nerd CV from so cal). That being said, southern california asians made up the majority of my hpme class. I would say the only thing on my CV that wasn't on yours that made me stand out is that I did a year of lab research at at local college (CSUF) on genetics (PCR....yeah it doesn't sound good now but in the 1990s, it was cutting edge OJ simpson type of research). Most of the programs have interviews... ours worked that if you got an interview, you already passed the "looked good on paper" test... you basically had a 50% shot of getting in then. They were just checking to see that you were committed to medicine, were mature, and most importantly, "not weird"...

Just as a heads up, JHU doesn't have an accelerated pre-med program (i.e. there's no program for guaranteed admission to Hopkins med if you do really well in Hopkins undergrad). That being said, I'm incredibly happy to have spent my time at JHU, I wouldn't trade the education I've gotten there for the world, and I've met some wonderfully inspiring people there.

Best of luck to you!

Danlee07 said:

on paper, that is one of the most stud-like resume i have seen coming out of high school...

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Agreed. You have a high chance on getting into most of these schools/programs. As was stated before, find something that differentiates you from the "sciency asian male from socal" stereotype. I can't say what that is, but I'm sure you can. Find something that is attention grabbing other than your stellar CV. Humanitarian work maybe?

I would mention the golf. It may be a stereotype, but it's a TRUE stereotype..DOCTORS LOVE TO GOLF. I don't golf and I miss out on a lot of MD functions because of it. As the prototypical socal asian male, I was raised playing tennis. I learned the hard way that you don't swing a golf club like a tennis racket as I ended up scraping the skin off my thumb.. not fun during surgery.

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even need me to chance you? It's pretty obvious that you have pretty amazing ECs even without parental connections with doctors.... I saw your chance me threads many many times before, but I got too sad and ashamed to post anything

undergrad:
Brown: Match
Stanford EA: High Match
Northwestern: Match
Johns Hopkins: Match
Boston U: Safety
LA/Berkeley/SD/Davis: Low match

accel med programs at:
northwestern hpme: beyond getting an application, stats don't matter. the subjective opinion of the person giving the interview is unpredictable. I'd say you have good enough stats to get an app though.
brown plme: Good chances. Low reach
boston: high match
UCSD: i'm not familiar with this program.

Any other schools i should consider? ivies. MIT. you are competitive anywhere.
should i have other safeties? maybe add one more.
any other suggestions? don't do the SAT II Korean. It makes you look like a noob who is obsessed with building the best resume possible. do you really think they will be impressed that a native speaker got an 800 on the exam? also, you may be surprised how crazy the curve is. My friend took it (native speaker, studied for a couple weeks before exam) and didn't do very well.

Agree that you shouldn't take SAT II Korean.

I think Stanford will be difficult (another alumnus here - they definitely look for something "special" which I don't think you will be able to generate at this point). However you should have your choice of some of the best schools in the country - it's just hard to predict which ones.

I can also say that you have a reasonable chance at the UCSD BA/MD program. Whether or not you get in will depend almost entirely on your essays and interview.

I am biased (UCSD SOM c/o 2008) but I think it is the most attractive early MD acceptance program in the country.

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Hi smiley. Great numbers, ECs. You're a solid applicant.

Indya, I both agree and disagree with your points here (obviously, I'm biased because I went to undergrad at one of those Ivies and am currently tearing my hair out over the Step 1 and wondering why I even bothered going to med school). Anyways, here's my two cents after going through the whole process.

indya said:

hahaha! you are unfortunately under the delusion that ivy's (or any school) will help you get into medical school.

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1) Going to an "Ivy" will not necessarily help you in that you should NEVER think that simply going to a top school is your meal ticket into JHop. That said, there are a mountain of intangibles to help you in private schools, from tons of advising opportunities to fellowships, research labs, and support networks. It's about the math--you take a school like Ohio State University, and it doesn't have as much money to spend on each student as Columbia (for example, I didn't go there). That's not good or bad. It simply means that OSU's mission is to train 50,000 students of all different achievement levels on an in-state tuition base. Columbia only needs to work with 4,000 kids, on one of the largest endowments in the nation. This isn't saying the kids who go to OSU can't get a phenomenal education superior to the Ivies there, but the competition is that much stiffer. The bottom line is that if you want to go to medical school, you need to be stellar, whether you go to OSU or Columbia. That said, the safety net is bigger at Columbia.

indya said:

THE GREATEST ADVICE EVER. seriously, I have been trying to say this to all the ivy crazed high schoolers I know. Here is a continuation of the greatest advice ever:

1) Once you get into medical school, it doesn't matter where you went to college (and once you get into college, it doesn't matter where you went to hs.)

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Agreed. I have classmates that went to Harvard and classmates who went to San Diego State. We're all med students now.

indya said:

2) Which college you went to is a minute- if even existent- criterion for medical school admissions. Evidence supports this.

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Can you give me a reference?

indya said:

3) Harvard and South Central Louisiana State University use THE SAME TEXT BOOKS! You can learn the same things at either school.

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Indeed. In fact, the teaching might be better at South Central LSU. But by the time you go to college, you should be teaching yourself. If you really care about quality of teaching, go to a liberal arts school (Williams, Amherst, Swathmore). Their students do very well in the med school application process too.

indya said:

4) EC's are much MUCH easier to get into at state U than at gunner U.

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But less funding and harder to find like-minded people. Also, ECs are overrated after a certain point.

indya said:

5) Debt sucks

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Agreed. Try to get a scholarship.

indya said:

6) No patient will ever ask you where you went to college, medical school, or did your residency. It is irrelevant.

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Untrue. I've been asked plenty of times. It matters less later on in your career, but in the inpatient setting, everybody wants to know and it's kinda aggravating. That said, you shouldn't go to a certain school because you're concerned about what other people/patients will think. You should go to a certain school because it can give you the best possible education to become a compassionate, knowledgeable doctor.

indya said:

7) It is better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond.

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It is best to be a big fish in a big pond.

NotAsking4Much said:

I'm just gonna comment on the Accelerated Med Programs and Stanford, since Stanford was my alma mater and I applied to those programs back in the way. For Stanford (and a lot of other top universities) you really need something "special" persay. It's unbelievable how many apps I went through (in the admissions office) that were of an Asian kid having 2300-2400 SAT's, 4.XX GPA, level 10 piano/violin, extensive volunteering, etc.

They all look the same after a while. Have something that really is unique so that it draws their attention from the other 30k applicants.

As for the med programs, just really emphasize your maturity and back up why at age 18 you decided to go along this path. That's what they're looking for.

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This.
Although I've never seen the applications Stanford's admissions office receives, I've heard that the best thing you can do is stand out from the crowd. At that level, everyone is competitive. The question is: how are you better than all of the other 4.0 GPA and multitalented applicants?

That said, the only thing I feel lacking on paper is a good amount of meaningful leadership. You said you were a club president... what did it mean to you? How did the leadership position grow you as a person? Really play that up. For my applications, I plan to place a lot of emphasis on my time as a section leader and drum major in my school's band.
Just my thoughts. Great application. You seem very dedicated and intelligent.

accel med programs at: Your GPA is not high enough, SAT is good, AP scores needs improving.
northwestern hpme: Emphasis is on interview, but need get invitation first, very competitive and expensive.
brown plme: May have chance, but no interview required. Very very competitive.
boston: don't know
UCSD: only accept California resident.

You remind me a lot of myself when I was your age.

I'm a student at Stanford, and I'll say that your numbers are comparable to what mine were.

Stanford doesn't conduct interviews, so your personal essay is going to be very, very important. My father lived in Korea, while my mother was busy with research; I wrote about the impact that this family isolation, as well as my cultural alienation as an immigrant, had on me. I feel that my essay got me in, since my achievements weren't too distinct.

One word of advice: do not consider your undergraduate institution as a stepping stone into medical school. With that mindset, getting into a prestigious university will be pointless, as your undergraduate years will be a mere continuation of high school and you will be wasting the innumerable opportunities available to you. Once you find out where you're going, spent the remaining time to define what your true passions are, so you can pursue them from day one. Don't let the thought of med school stop you from doing what you really want to do in college.

Good luck.