2007 Non-Trad Applicants' Progress Thread

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Well, I haven't posted here much but for the benefit of the thread...

3 interviews - TTUHSC, UT-Houston, UT-San Antonio

Both went pretty well or at least I thought they did. The only issue I see is that one of my interviewers at TTUHSC (where I have the best chance) was a Chinese national who did not speak english very well. I know that I missed some golden opportunities to impress with some common interview questions but it is behind me now. I really don't have high hopes about this cycle so I am mentally preparing myself to retake the MCAT in May or April of '07.

Good luck and take care,👍

'Rambler

PS - Anyone in Texas know anything about invoking the "Academic Fresh Start" provision and how it affects your application to medical school?
 
I got tired of waiting for Drexel to find their copy of my secondary - I FEDEXed another copy today. If you asked me this morning whether I would find myself shaving in a Kinko's bathroom trying to make myself presentable for a Passport photo before rushing off to teach, I'd have suggested you found some really, *really* good crack.
 
WestTexasRambler said:
PS - Anyone in Texas know anything about invoking the "Academic Fresh Start" provision and how it affects your application to medical school?
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I think that the jist of it is that you can have your academic slate wiped clean once every 10 (?) years, and you start over. For state schools, you should be able to use the fresh start provision to wipe your slate clean, but then you'd have to start all over.

However, I only took a look at the provisions briefly almost 2 years ago, so I could be way, way off in my memory.

EDIT: Here's a page with a good description:

http://www.collegefortexans.com/applying/academic.cfm

It is my understanding that all TX public medical schools participate in the academic fresh start program, but you STILL need to send them all your transcripts, so I wonder whether there is really anything stopping them from using the old courses on your transcript to influence their decision.
 
Ouch on the how-can-you-fulfill-your-female-procreative-duty-in-med-school question. I've heard of that one, but I thought it was just an urban legend. Do you think he was just trying to provoke and test you or did he seem genuinely curioius?

Thanks for the heads-up about questions regarding an older student's ability to relate to younger students. I hope I get that question, because I've got good answers for it.

I've received two more invitations to interview since I last posted, one at University of Washington next Wednesday and one at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in four weeks. Wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted on non-trad-specific questions. Congrats to those who have been accepted somewhere, and best wishes to those of you who, like me, are still wondering whether next year will be an M1 year or an MCAT2 year.

-Chulito
 
Yeah, I'm not looking forward to the how-to-fulfill-female-procreative-ability question. Especially considering the sex change, transplants, hormone therapies, and immunosuppression it would require.

Seriously, though, I can see why that's an irritating question.

In happier news, Drexel updated my secondary status to reflect the fact that I actually *did* submit it back in September. 🙂 God bless FEDEX.
 
Hi, I'm a non-trad (42 y.o.) with a background in medicine from the military, but who stopped the whole medicine career many years ago in order to raise a family. Now that my kids are grown and nearly grown, I'm back.

Final results for my application for 2007 matriculation:

3 interviews, 4 acceptances (WVSOM accepted w/o an interview), about 13 interviews I ended up declining, and a huge pile of unfinished secondaries. I probably over-applied, but I had no idea what to expect really.

My first choice target school is the one I'll be going to next fall (UTHSCSA in San Antonio). My wife is from SA and has wanted to get back to TX for many years now. We're pretty happy that everything turned out so well. Now we just have to get the house up on the market, pack and move all our stuff, family, dogs, horse... should be a piece of cake after all the work involved just to get into med school while working full-time. 🙂
 
Congrats!

Got my first rejection today (pre-secondary) - WVU decided they liked in-staters with higher QPAs than me. Oh well. Seems a little anti-climactic after the Pitt invite. 🙂
 
siinew said:
My first choice target school is the one I'll be going to next fall (UTHSCSA in San Antonio). My wife is from SA and has wanted to get back to TX for many years now. We're pretty happy that everything turned out so well. Now we just have to get the house up on the market, pack and move all our stuff, family, dogs, horse... should be a piece of cake after all the work involved just to get into med school while working full-time. 🙂
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If you don't mind my asking, how did UTHSCSA notify you of your acceptance? (you are OOS, I presume)
 
jota_jota said:
If you don't mind my asking, how did UTHSCSA notify you of your acceptance? (you are OOS, I presume)
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Hi. Yes, I'm OOS, and it was by mail. As you probably already know, OOS notification can start happening by 10/15, whereas in state doesn't start until... 11/1? I think? I was also accepted to another TX school and when I called to talk to them, they seemed to act like it would be well into December before they really started notifying TX applicants. I'm saying this because it looks like you're from TX, in which case you may have at least a few more weeks of waiting ahead of you. Good luck.
 
I'm not applying until next year, so I haven't been on SDN much, but I figured I'd check out how things are going for my fellow non-trads so far. Great job everyone who's been accepted, and FINGERS CROSSED for the ones who are still waiting! :luck:
 
siinew said:
Hi. Yes, I'm OOS, and it was by mail. As you probably already know, OOS notification can start happening by 10/15, whereas in state doesn't start until... 11/1? I think? I was also accepted to another TX school and when I called to talk to them, they seemed to act like it would be well into December before they really started notifying TX applicants. I'm saying this because it looks like you're from TX, in which case you may have at least a few more weeks of waiting ahead of you. Good luck.
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Thanks, yeah, I was just trying to get a handle on how each school notifies acceptees of their acceptances. No one really knows when/if all of the schools are going to send out their pre-match offers.
 
Thanks jota_jota. I would expect that most schools are more afraid of what a low GPA would do to their averages rather than the implications of 10 year old academic work. My case: 260 hours attempted with a 3.13 cum, last 110 hours 3.64, last 56 3.93. I hope so at least!😀

Good luck,


'Rambler
 
jota_jota said:
Thanks, yeah, I was just trying to get a handle on how each school notifies acceptees of their acceptances. No one really knows when/if all of the schools are going to send out their pre-match offers.
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I was wondering whether it would be frowned upon to call and ask. I chickened out. 🙄
 
I just got an e-mail from Pritzker!






But it's just telling me that my application is now complete and is being reviewed by the admissions committee.





And it's a carbon copy of the one I received Sept. 26.




😡
 
A stellar GPA, excellent MCAT score, clinical experience and more does not guarantee a smooth application process. I'm writing this for those who are career changers and are passionate about entering medicine to give an idea of what to look for in a school. Switching careers is hard, the investment in postbacc is a minimum of around $7,000, and at least one year of being a full time student and MCAT prep is required. Application fees and travel can get as high as $5,000-$7,000 if one completes interviews at approx. 20 schools (probably won't happen, but its a maximum). To apply to schools that weed based upon insignificant criteria that a postbacc has no control over is a waste of a postbacc/career changer's time. Three schools wasted my time and about $90 of application fees are in the gutter, but if a secondary was completed for these schools then ~$400 would have been wasted.

Some background information about me:
29M
Previous career in aerospace (~5 years)
BS Mathematics
Overall GPA ~3.7, BPMC GPA ~3.8
MCAT 38Q
Clinical Experience in an Emergency Room
Extracurriculars During Undergraduate Education (Student Gov't, Student Spirit/Athletics Booster, Academic Clubs, Honor Societies, etc).
Currently in a postbacc program for career changers, but my gen chem was completed the summer prior to postbacc at a 2 year college because of scheduling issues.

I applied to the following schools with the following current statuses:

Albany -> Awaiting LOR Confirmation
Albert Einstein -> App Complete
Boston U -> Withdrawn / Community College Unfriendly
Brown -> Secondary in Progress
Cornell -> App Complete
Columbia -> App Complete
Dartmouth -> App Complete
Harvard -> App Complete
J. Hopkins -> App complete
Mayo -> Phone Interview Complete, Awaiting On-Site Interview Decision
Mt. Sinai -> App Complete
NY Med College -> Withdrawn / Postbacc & Career Changer Unfriendly
NYU -> App Complete
U Rochester -> App Complete
Stanford -> Awaiting LOR Confirmation
U Vermont -> Awaiting LOR Confirmation
UC Davis -> Withdrawn / Generally Unfriendly
UCI -> App Complete
UCLA -> App Complete
UCSD -> Interview Scheduled
UCSF -> Letter sent starting "Unfortunately..."
Yale -> App Complete

Boston University classifies prerequs based upon institution attended. Institutions are classified as "Preferred" or "Non-Preferred." It is made tremendously clear that 2 year university work is looked down upon no matter the information learned, quality of institution or MCAT score.

NY Med College requires a LOR from a prof. in my major. For a postbacc career changer, this requires going back several years (for me 6) and finding someone located 300 miles away who taught me in my major that is willing to write a letter. Such a letter would be worthless since the person doesn't know me anymore. "I had so and so in Advanced Calculus during 2000 and he got a B+" isn't a good letter of recommendation.

UC Davis asks about activities, but only allows for one activity per section that the applicant specifies. Other activities are pre-filled with things such as Boy Scouts, Red Cross, American Cancer Society, etc. For most people this translates into a secondary application that is mostly blank. Essays are required based upon the indicated activities. For someone with a mostly blank activity list of those that UC Davis pre-specifies the essays are a total bust since there is nothing to write about.

If I were to do it over again, I would have also applied to DO schools. Because of the later deadline for primary applications I might still do this, but I'm now at a disadvantage because of rolling admissions (I'm late to asking a date to the dance). Although the average MCAT and GPA are lower, DO schools are career changer friendly with 25% of enrollment consisting of the non-traditional student. Acceptances for DO schools are also earlier and with interviews granted to the seriously considered applicants.

The weakness in my application is the lack of life science research/publications. This is true of almost any career changer/postbacc because one to two years isn't enough time to be accepted into a research laboratory and publish (unless one is very, very, tremendously, super, double-plus lucky). My impression is that DO schools are more interested in a passionate person and less interested if you are named in a publication for washing glassware.
 
Just when I was beginning to get worried about not hearing anything, I get two interview invites, to AZCOM and UofLouisville. I was given back-to-back days for these, and I live in WA state, so not sure how I am going to swing it. Probably will have to reschedule.

Hope everyone has a good veterns day. I'll be thinking of my dad and pretty much every male on my mom's side of the family - not to mention our troops around the world.
 
Quix said:
I just got an e-mail from Pritzker!






But it's just telling me that my application is now complete and is being reviewed by the admissions committee.





And it's a carbon copy of the one I received Sept. 26.




😡
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Same exact thing happened to me. i was really hoping it would be an interview invite from pritzker!
 
Hey, I'm a non-trad that has not yet posted on this thread, so I thought I would throw in my status update here with all of yours. So far:

Complete Aug/Sept at 12 schools
2 interview invites (one of which is coming up), 1 waitlist, 2 rejections post-secondary
That leaves 8 out of 12 schools that I still havn't heard anything from.

Its been a more difficult process than I thought it would be. The waiting is the worst! It is definitely worth it though.
 
interview with georgetown in december. i'm glad they want to interview me... because their 2ndary was soooo expensive!
 
I got a rejection letter from mayo this morning. I'm starting to think DO is the way to go for career changers even more.
 
I got an email from Missouri last week!!!!!!!!!!!



A rejection email...typical.


Oh well, I'm pumped for my interviews I've got lined up at Kirksville-COM and DeBusk-COM....both are right up my alley.

On hold at AZ-COM and KCUMB...and haven't heard out of anyone else since becoming complete.
 
just a quick update...

after months of waiting, i finally got my first MSTP interview invite! I'll be at UAB in january for my interview. yahoo!!
 
Quix said:
So complete, in fact, that its completeness could not be contained in one e-mail! There was spill-over completeness. Wow.
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Hehehe!! This made me laugh out loud and I totally scared my cat...

So, this is how observant I am: I've been hanging around this website for a couple of weeks, and it took me until tonight to cognify that there was actually a separate non-traditional applicant section.

I am a non-traditional person, applying to med school for my first time this cycle. I was interested in medicine for most of my life but always lacked confidence in my science abilities, so thought that I should remain in my meek little English/History-person corner studying medical ideas from afar. About four years ago I realized that I was actually kinda good at science (oddly enough, I'm better at science things than humanities things -- go figure), so I decided to persue my dream of becoming a physician, yay!

This year, I applied to about 25 schools, got secondaries from most of them (except UCLA and UCD, grrr), got five interviews, one waitlist, and one acceptance (yay!). I'm still waiting to hear from the the other places that interviewed me, and am still waiting to see if more interview invites come my way from the few places that haven't rejected me post-secondarily (is that a word?) yet.

That's my progress so far... I'm still exploring around this, er, forum segment, and I'm looking forward to learning more about fellow non-traditional folks! 🙂
 
Great to see so many people just starting the process. I just enrolled at my local Community College where I am going to finish my science prereqs. I have to take Organic Chemistry, but I need a refresher so I will start with General. My pace is to be accepted into the class of 2013 which means I will graduate med school AT 50 years of age.....LOL I MUST be crazy, either that or residual side effects of the 70's and 80's....
 
Score one for the nontrads today! I received my first acceptance, from UT-Southwestern, this morning. UTSW was one of my top 3 choices for Medical School, and I would be very happy to go there. Of course, I hope to have some other schools to choose from, but even if I don't, it won't bother me much. Best of luck to everyone else -- I hope that the rest of the Nontrads applying this cycle get notice of their acceptance(s) early and often!
 
jota_jota said:
Score one for the nontrads today! I received my first acceptance, from UT-Southwestern, this morning. UTSW was one of my top 3 choices for Medical School, and I would be very happy to go there. Of course, I hope to have some other schools to choose from, but even if I don't, it won't bother me much. Best of luck to everyone else -- I hope that the rest of the Nontrads applying this cycle get notice of their acceptance(s) early and often!
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wow, congrats!! UTSW is a great school!! 🙂
 
jota_jota said:
Score one for the nontrads today! I received my first acceptance, from UT-Southwestern, this morning. UTSW was one of my top 3 choices for Medical School, and I would be very happy to go there. Of course, I hope to have some other schools to choose from, but even if I don't, it won't bother me much. Best of luck to everyone else -- I hope that the rest of the Nontrads applying this cycle get notice of their acceptance(s) early and often!
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Pretty much what he said, for me too. I'm going to be a doctor!!! UTSW has some family issues that I would have to work around, but otherwise I really liked it. 😍 😍 😍
 
This is my first post in the non-trad forum. I am 26, married and we are expecting our first baby next month! I did my undergrad in NY and graduated with a lousy gpa back in 2003. I did want to go to med school but did not take orgo, and my gpa was lousy, partially due to a bout with cancer in my freshman year. So I decided that I would give it another shot. I got married in '03 and had another round with the cancer. Once that was over with I went back to school and did post ba work at city college ( not a program just took orgo and abunch of other advanced sciences ). I had a 3.8 gpa until the last semester - thats when we got pregnant and ended up with a 3.59 gpa with 33 or so credits. I got a 39 on the MCATs ( 13 across the board ) and decided to give it a shot so I applied to all the NY schools ( easier to be near family with the baby and my wife working ) and a couple of ivies ( it would take a harvard to get me thinking of moving out right now ) even though i know its a long shot. I have been complete at most of the schools since late Sept, early Oct and at Columbia and Stony Brook this past week. So far I only have one interview invite but I havent been outright rejected either so I am hoping that I will get some more invites. I get nervous, though, seeing all the people who have been invited to so many schools already. Ok enough with my rambling..Good luck to everyone.
 
With the pre-match acceptance offers at TX schools which started yesterday, I have some good news to share.

So far, I've been accepted to the follwoing Texas schools: UT-San Antonio, TCOM, Texas Tech, and TX A&M.
 
So I haven't updated in a while - MEA CULPA!!

I received my acceptance from USUHS a couple of weeks ago (I think I posted that already here) and just added the TMDSAS schools this week: UT-SA, Tech, and TCOM.

I've decided Tech isn't really for me, though I have to say I LOVED my interview in El Paso - but the move half-way through just isn't easy on families with children. I'm still deciding otherwise. The other three schools each have great things about them and they are each so different that I feel like I'm comparing apples, oranges, and bananas! 🙂 But I am grateful to have choices, so I won't complain.

Good luck to those still waiting! :luck: Hang in there!!
 
Well, I've been waitlisted at Pitt. They review the wait list in May, so not much point in worrying until that time. I'm keeping my chin up though...at least it wasn't a downright rejection.
 
scentimint said:
Well, I've been waitlisted at Pitt. They review the wait list in May, so not much point in worrying until that time. I'm keeping my chin up though...at least it wasn't a downright rejection.
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:luck: :luck: :luck: We're rooting for you, scenti. 🙂
 
Application5150 said:
I got a rejection letter from mayo this morning. I'm starting to think DO is the way to go for career changers even more.
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I was looking at your post previously and I have to say that you were a little too ambitious. I know your MCAT score was good, but you should ALWAYS have backup schools. What was Mayo's reasoning for rejecting you? Maybe that is a good starting point as to what you should start working on. Just a thought.

Good luck
 
scentimint said:
Well, I've been waitlisted at Pitt. They review the wait list in May, so not much point in worrying until that time. I'm keeping my chin up though...at least it wasn't a downright rejection.
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Agreed - a waitlist is better than a rejection. With any luck, we'll be classmates next year.

In other news, since I have consigned myself to waiting limbo until that magical InBox(1) appears, I am currently sitting at Panera staring at a few pages of blockquotes that will eventually become a textbook chapter on chronic metabolic alkalosis, procrastinating and abusing the free coffee refills. I need a dramatic renewal of purpose.
 
I haven't posted anything this year, but I'm a non-traditional applicant and this is my third consecutive application cycle. Each previous cycle ended with me interviewing at 2 schools and ending up on waitlists at both that never moved.

For me, I entitled this application cycle "3rd times the charm / 3 strikes you're out" but something magical seems to be happening:

Applied 16 schools
Received 15 secondaries so far - still waiting on 1
Submitted 14 secondaries by beginning of September
Received 0 post-secondary rejections, 1 hold, and 3 interview requests
Interviewed at Drexel and EVMS and was pointedly told that "this year you don't have to worry about getting into medical school, you have to worry about choosing amongst all the offers" 😱 😀

Yeah, it's early still, but by golly, I think I'm finally going to get into medical school this year.
 
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