Well, then don't be teasing us you bastard!!!
Applying in December with a 3.4 / 30 and getting 2 MD and 1 DO acceptance is just nuts
Yeah, I'm planning a big SDN post chronicling this journey. So I'll leave out much of the background except to say that I never planned on applying to med school this year. But there's an old Yiddish saying, "man plans, God laughs."
First, I think my curriculum turned a few heads. I'm an English and biopsych major, and a biology minor. I also did honors in biopsych. There's almost no crossover between these curriculums, on top of all the premed classes. To finish it all I had to take 18 credits almost every semester, and took classes nearly year-round. I'm graduating with 180 credits. In four years.
Clinically:
1) I shadowed a primary care doctor in a rural, undeserved area. I was there 8am-5pm every Friday one semester, as I had Friday's off. Since she was the only doctor in the office, I got a lot of hands on experience [+1 LOR].
2) Starting sophomore year, I became a volunteer first aid responder for the Red Cross.
3) During junior year, I did basic EMT training, while taking 18 credits.
4) Then I became a volunteer EMT for the Red Cross
5) During senior year (right before submitting AMCAS), I did EMT specialist/intermediate training, again while taking 18 credits. Lots of great, dirty, hands-on-patient clinical experience. As a EMT-S, I can do IV's. [+1 LOR]
* Add on some smaller clinical experiences, like a religious program where we visited patients in the UofM hospital, a soup-delivery service for sick students, etc.
Research:
1) I researched developmental disabilities with children. Too much to describe here. I worked with this professor for 2 years.[+1 LOR]
2) Honors research, for my thesis. I researched hemispheric changes in the brain that occur with age. So I worked with real, live, elderly subjects. 2 Published works, 1 award at a state neuroscience convention. I didn't just work as an RA, either. The project is all mine, start to finish. [+1 LOR].
Leadership etc:
I was also very involved with the Michigan Daily newspaper. I started out as an opinion writer, moved up to the editorial board, and eventually rose to prominence as a columnist. Now THAT was awesome. Imagine getting a biweekly podium with a circulation of >100,000 people. I wrote about a lot of issues like the environment, health issues, international issues, etc. Managed to get a little recognition from Washington Week, too.
How I got this all done with classes, I'll never know. There's also a lot of miscellaneous stuff that I needn't add here. Also got LOR's from my prehealth adviser and an very prolific English professor to round out the set. And you can imagine, being a writer, what kind of essay I penned for the personal statement.
So, how'd I do with admissions? After submitting the AMCAS on Dec 1, I was verified by Dec 15 and has most secondaries done between then and January. (The osteopathic app was basically a cut-and-paste job). I got 5 MD interview offers and 2 DO. I skipped on one DO interview after getting my first acceptance to TUCOM in late February, and skipped on St. Louis for Jewish reasons. I got post-interview rejected from Yale (they gave me an extension), waitlisted at GW, accepted at Techion (in Israel), and NYMC (off the waitlist).
So, standing out probably helped me a lot. And with my good looks and shining personality, I interview well. My GPA really wasn't that bad, by the way. Most of my premed science grades were solid B's, with some A's, and nothing below a the occasional B-. Got A's in pretty much all major classes, though the bio minor certainly dragged me down. I also had an upward trend, so my junior and senior year GPA's were 3.6/3.5. And it's Michigan - we're known for science rigor.
I'll be going to NYMC in the fall for the MD/MPH, assuming I dont get off the GW waitlist.