Hey guys/girls, I remember being in your position not too long ago (as you'll soon find out). I was quite a long shot and even thought that I would take the GRE this summer to apply for PT schools (I kid you not, I was shadowing a PT and all). I can only stress don't give up.
My Story:
I am a reapplicant, but I did receive 2 interviews last year (PCOM and LECOM-E) with a 3.5 gpa/22O (6, 7, 9) MCAT. I was placed on the waitlist and waited the long summer to get my rejection. I did an 18-week internship at a Philadelphia oncology practice/cancer center in July-November. I did receive one publication 2nd author and one tentative publication from this. I also got incredible clinical experiences from surgeries, shadowing in the practice and hospital, attending resident conferences and rounds...it was pretty amazing. During this, I took a Kaplan course to up my MCAT. It was horrible, but that is for a different discussion. I upped my MCAT on the January MCAT to a whopping 24O (6, 9, 9). I was then unemployed, but not for lack of trying. Until I finally got a job at...
Petsmart. At this point, it was late March and I had not received word from anyone. I will be honest, I lost ALL hope. But then, in later March, I received an email from an angel with the initials of A. R. She said, "Congratulations, you have been accepted for an interview at LECOM." It was a pinhole of light in the dark. I reached through it grabbed on tight, though. My interview was for 4/29 and I figured it was for a WL spot but who cares, I am gonna give it my all. Of course, I was sick on my interview day, which might have helped, makes me memorable ya know
. I than waited for my letter...waitlisted. Although I knew it was coming, it still stung, but it meant there was still hope. I decided that I would make sure they knew who I was, so I sent a letter of intent (it was basically the best decision of my life) to a few important people in admissions. A little more than a week later...ACCEPTED. My fiance came into Petsmart with my letter and told me to open it lol. My boss was like, so I guess this is your two weeks notice haha.
My Advice:
Many(most) of you will not be accepted this year. Sometimes we underdogs are not always looked upon too well the first time around. If that is the case, do everything you can to make yourself STAND OUT. Look for internships, research, post-bacs and definitely retake the MCAT. It shows persistance which is key to underdogs. You guys know what you need to do to get accepted. You have seen the "stats" and know the hard work that you made harder by not being at the top. I am not going to say that most of you will get in this year, my main message is DO NOT GIVE UP!!!
Now my time is spent staying up really late on SDN writing pseudo-motivational pieces because I have no worries for the next month.
😀
PS. I never claimed to be a motivational speaker lol.
GOOD LUCK!!! I will be rooting for and following your stories closely
oh: Shouldn't have waited for my MCAT score after taking the June 18th test.
!!! But, coming from my practice test scores I assume I will still be welcome here. Good luck to everyone getting their applications ready to send in/waiting to be verified. I am submitting the end of next week I hope!
