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- May 14, 2016
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Hi, first post on SDN and I would love some feedback (please be nice, but honest). Here is the short story breakdown for me followed by my stats.
I am a 30 y/o Middle Eastern (Persian) who spent the first half of my life living in upstate NY (Syracuse) and Princeton Area NJ then moved to California and am a current resident male (currently non-disadvantaged) who graduated from UCSD in 2009 with an Economics degree, only "science" courses I took in college were mathematics, no bio, etc. Worked in private equity for 2-3 years with good pay and decided that medicine is for me after I realized I hated finance/business. Walked away and moved back home to the SF Bay Area and enrolled in the San Francisco State University Formal Post-Bac program and did well in the program. While there my experiences were as follows, in addition to my work experiences after UCSD in finance/PE:
UCSF Rounding Revamp Project Volunteer - I rounded with IM teams and conducted research on rounding bedside vs. in the hallway and its impact on patient outcomes/in-patient stay times, 150 hrs.
San Francisco General Hospital Emergency Volunteer - Volunteer at SFGH ED, Trauma 1 center. Did the basic ED volunteering stuff and administered CPR to a man who died with my hands on him, which I wrote about as most meaningful, 150 hrs.
Orthopedic Surgeon Senior Medical Assistant - My second "most meaningful" I continue to work here while waiting on my cycle. It is a very, very, very, awesome experience. My doc is awesome and I get to do A LOT of independent decision making due to the high volume and I feel like 3 years here I feel like I could be a clinical ortho doc (obviously didn't write that) but that was the experience. 6000 hours and got 4 ortho surgeon MDs letters of recs, all 4 in the private practice.
San Francisco State University Chemistry Instructor - My third and final "most meaningful" I was a chemistry lab/discussion leader for 6 semesters for the undergrad gen chem 1 classes. I did really well in chemistry at my SFSU post bac and due to the intimate relationship to the instructors they often ask the better students to come back and help in PB/undergrad labs/discussions. I really really loved this position. 2340 hrs, and LOR from the SFSU Chem dept head.
Undergraduate Medical School Preparation Mentor - During my chem instruction I had a lot of students who were pre-health professional students who had no idea how to navigate the system of applying (RN, MD, PT, etc). So I opened separate hours and OH for "formal" counseling on what to do/how to maximize themselves etc through my experiences. 1000 hours, and a LOR from the head instructor at the chem dept who informally oversaw this.
Research for ACL Outcomes - Did this research through my clinic publishing ACL of our patients based on graft types, age, activity, etc. 750 hours. LOR from clinic docs included this. I was published in 1 paper.
Also added a few of the main hobbies I have such as competitive cycling, competitive motorsports
So, now time for the hard stuff, the statistics.
New MCAT taken one time: 512 total score. Physical Sciences: 128, CARS: 127, BioSci: 127, Psych: 130.
BCPM GPA (AMCAS Verified):
Freshman: 4.00 GPA, 3.30 hours
Sophomore: 3.50 GPA, 3.30 hours
Junior: 1.00 GPA, 5.40 hours
Senior: 1.70 GPA, 2.70 hours
For my SFSU Post-Bac I took the formal course as I had no science background at UCSD, other than math, which as you can see I did poorly. So 2 semesters of Physics w/ Lab, Ochem w/ lab, Biology w/ lab, Gchem w/ labs, biochemistry, endocrinology, and a few other electives in addition to a math course. Got a nice formal committee letter along with individual letters from instructors from my courses.
Post-Bac: 3.50 GPA, 77.50 hours
Cumulative BCPM GPA: 3.18 GPA, 98.80 hours.
AO: Zero units in the PB. And for the rest of my UCSD GPA Cumulative was 3.22.
My personal statement was about growing up pretty disadvantaged, following my heart after my career change for happiness in medicine, and once I found that medicine was for me through some goo and bad life experiences and events, I committed myself to doing well in the PB and pointed out the huge jump GPA in more difficult courses when I enrolled in sciences courses along with my maturity.
I applied to nearly 60-70 MD schools that I tried to pick based on average stats for myself (along with all CA schools besides Loma Linda and Stanford) this cycle as soon as the application cycle opened, returned about 50 of the ~60 secondaries I got back by mid to late July. So far just 1 rejection from U. North Carolina, 1 hold at SUNY downstate, and the rest haven't heard anything.
Also applied to 6 DO schools in August, did 5/6 secondaries (did not do NYC Touro secondary). Got an invite 1 week later to Midwestern AZCOM in Arizona and picked my date for Jan 24th.
Thanks for reading and for your invaluable input! Please let me know if I am missing any key information or have any questions to better give an understanding of myself!
I am a 30 y/o Middle Eastern (Persian) who spent the first half of my life living in upstate NY (Syracuse) and Princeton Area NJ then moved to California and am a current resident male (currently non-disadvantaged) who graduated from UCSD in 2009 with an Economics degree, only "science" courses I took in college were mathematics, no bio, etc. Worked in private equity for 2-3 years with good pay and decided that medicine is for me after I realized I hated finance/business. Walked away and moved back home to the SF Bay Area and enrolled in the San Francisco State University Formal Post-Bac program and did well in the program. While there my experiences were as follows, in addition to my work experiences after UCSD in finance/PE:
UCSF Rounding Revamp Project Volunteer - I rounded with IM teams and conducted research on rounding bedside vs. in the hallway and its impact on patient outcomes/in-patient stay times, 150 hrs.
San Francisco General Hospital Emergency Volunteer - Volunteer at SFGH ED, Trauma 1 center. Did the basic ED volunteering stuff and administered CPR to a man who died with my hands on him, which I wrote about as most meaningful, 150 hrs.
Orthopedic Surgeon Senior Medical Assistant - My second "most meaningful" I continue to work here while waiting on my cycle. It is a very, very, very, awesome experience. My doc is awesome and I get to do A LOT of independent decision making due to the high volume and I feel like 3 years here I feel like I could be a clinical ortho doc (obviously didn't write that) but that was the experience. 6000 hours and got 4 ortho surgeon MDs letters of recs, all 4 in the private practice.
San Francisco State University Chemistry Instructor - My third and final "most meaningful" I was a chemistry lab/discussion leader for 6 semesters for the undergrad gen chem 1 classes. I did really well in chemistry at my SFSU post bac and due to the intimate relationship to the instructors they often ask the better students to come back and help in PB/undergrad labs/discussions. I really really loved this position. 2340 hrs, and LOR from the SFSU Chem dept head.
Undergraduate Medical School Preparation Mentor - During my chem instruction I had a lot of students who were pre-health professional students who had no idea how to navigate the system of applying (RN, MD, PT, etc). So I opened separate hours and OH for "formal" counseling on what to do/how to maximize themselves etc through my experiences. 1000 hours, and a LOR from the head instructor at the chem dept who informally oversaw this.
Research for ACL Outcomes - Did this research through my clinic publishing ACL of our patients based on graft types, age, activity, etc. 750 hours. LOR from clinic docs included this. I was published in 1 paper.
Also added a few of the main hobbies I have such as competitive cycling, competitive motorsports
So, now time for the hard stuff, the statistics.
New MCAT taken one time: 512 total score. Physical Sciences: 128, CARS: 127, BioSci: 127, Psych: 130.
BCPM GPA (AMCAS Verified):
Freshman: 4.00 GPA, 3.30 hours
Sophomore: 3.50 GPA, 3.30 hours
Junior: 1.00 GPA, 5.40 hours
Senior: 1.70 GPA, 2.70 hours
For my SFSU Post-Bac I took the formal course as I had no science background at UCSD, other than math, which as you can see I did poorly. So 2 semesters of Physics w/ Lab, Ochem w/ lab, Biology w/ lab, Gchem w/ labs, biochemistry, endocrinology, and a few other electives in addition to a math course. Got a nice formal committee letter along with individual letters from instructors from my courses.
Post-Bac: 3.50 GPA, 77.50 hours
Cumulative BCPM GPA: 3.18 GPA, 98.80 hours.
AO: Zero units in the PB. And for the rest of my UCSD GPA Cumulative was 3.22.
My personal statement was about growing up pretty disadvantaged, following my heart after my career change for happiness in medicine, and once I found that medicine was for me through some goo and bad life experiences and events, I committed myself to doing well in the PB and pointed out the huge jump GPA in more difficult courses when I enrolled in sciences courses along with my maturity.
I applied to nearly 60-70 MD schools that I tried to pick based on average stats for myself (along with all CA schools besides Loma Linda and Stanford) this cycle as soon as the application cycle opened, returned about 50 of the ~60 secondaries I got back by mid to late July. So far just 1 rejection from U. North Carolina, 1 hold at SUNY downstate, and the rest haven't heard anything.
Also applied to 6 DO schools in August, did 5/6 secondaries (did not do NYC Touro secondary). Got an invite 1 week later to Midwestern AZCOM in Arizona and picked my date for Jan 24th.
Thanks for reading and for your invaluable input! Please let me know if I am missing any key information or have any questions to better give an understanding of myself!
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