Meh. They were decent. I gotta be honest, I've been told many times by directors and students alike that "I'll get in everywhere," and BOY did that blow up my head. I wasn't acting arrogant on interviews or anything, but I honestly thought that I'd be a shoe-in everywhere, and I think that may have caused me to interview with a little less tenacity and eagerness (not to mention humility
). Either that or I just wasn't prepared for how cutthroat the process is. Let me start off with the good news: since my last comment, I've received interview offers at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Mayo, Emory, UCLA, and even UCSF. I've attended all of these interviews except for Emory and UCLA due to scheduling conflicts and issues. I've been told before by my post-bacc scholarship advisor that I interview well, so although I was never able to practice using mock interviews for MD/PhD programs, I feel like my interviews went well overall. There are certain smaller things that I wish I had known before interviewing, but even still, I think that showing your truest, most authentic self can only work in your favor.
As you all know, it is coming close to mid-March and I have received a great deal of feedback thus far. I got into Stanford's MD program, and I'm still waiting to hear back from their MSTP. I've been waitlisted at Cornell, Mayo, Columbia, NYU, and Einstein. I have also received acceptances from UT San Antonio, Boston U, and Northwestern. Since I am very happy with and grateful for my Northwestern acceptance, I have withdrawn my application from Mayo, Einstein, UT San Antonio, and Boston U (note to self: I should probably also pull my application from Cornell). Still, if I happened to be offered a spot by Columbia, I would choose them over Northwestern. Not sure about if I would choose NYU over Northwestern, but I know that I wouldn't choose any MD program over MD/PhD. Harvard, UCSF, and Johns Hopkins said no. In addition, UPenn, USC, and even Drexel said no before interviewing me. I thought that I would have a better chance at many of these schools, and I'm keep trying to remind myself that I've done well regardless, but it really is a bit of a blow to my self-esteem. That said, don't let your ego get the best of you! Especially as a URM, I wanted to prove to myself that I was smart by using external validation, and that was dumb
. I actually think it's cute to look back on my previous comment and remember how happy I was to have simply received an interview offer from the first three schools that reached out to me.
Although I have a lot of advice, anecdotes, and opinions to give about my experience, I would like to believe that I would have had a better shot at some of these schools if I showed more interest. At first, I thought that UChicago was my first choice AND I thought that I would get in there without a problem. They currently have my application under continued review (...
). I've since heard that they are the type of school to respond favorably to strong (and maybe even repetitive) letters of interest. I sent them a letter once about how much I wanted to attend their school, but I refrained from saying "You are my #1 choice." I didn't want to lie, even though I actually felt like they were my #1 choice at the time. I mean, what if I got into Harvard, yknow? Funnily enough, my research interests have shifted in a very significant way since then. Before I went on interviews, I applied to various programs with the mindset of doing epilepsy and/or cognition research, even though my true passion and interest was in neural prosthetics. It wasn't until after my interview at Northwestern that I learned that I can not only do research in neural prosthetics, but also get a degree in Neuroengineering if I wanted, even though I only have a Bachelors in Chemistry. That changed the way I looked at various schools, and unfortunately made UChicago a not-so-ideal option for me since they simply do not have a lab working on the type of neural prosthetics that I'm interested in. I could probably do something related to neural prosthetics research, but that's a gamble. I also remember sending Columbia a desperate email after being waitlisted, telling them that they were my #1 choice before I was certain of it. First of all, I had no reason to be desperate since I had already been accepted somewhere that was able to offer me what I need in a program. I don't recommend lying to programs, though I do recommend showing tons of interest, even if it's not 150% genuine, just so that you have options. I was 100% genuine in my interviews, and I just feel like it may have come across as uninvested at times. On the other hand, maybe I just wasn't qualified enough to get in. Either way, even though I know that I can be very emotionally fragile at times and self-critical when it comes to things like this, I am absolutely fine and know that everything will work out well. At this stage, Columbia really is my #1 choice, and if I end up at Northwestern, I will still be happy. #TeamLouMalnatis