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- Mar 13, 2017
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25M, white (unsure how much that matters but I see people talking about minority or majority status and the acronyms confuse me), low SES from a rural and medically underserved area, first generation college student, mom didn't graduate high school, dad was the first of his 6 siblings and parents to even graduate from high school (I mention this in my personal statement when I talk about being first generation and my high school not really encouraging college that heavily). From a very disadvantaged background (low SES, on Medicaid, Headstart, free lunch), was adopted as well. Going to talk about my disadvantaged background as an applicant on AMCAS, unsure how to write it in AACOMAS other than what I already wrote in my PS about being from a rural underserved area and first gen.
Bachelor of Science with Special Honors in Biology May 2021
Master of Science in Biology May 2024
Master of Science in Biomedical Science July 2025
TLDR: doing a second Master's because free tuition, wanted more classes to raise my overall GPA, free MCAT prep, was going to study this summer for my retake anyway and this lined up with what I wanted to do.
Long explanation: I know I will get asked why I am doing a second Master's, it's almost an SMP-like program at one of my in-state schools that has an MD program. I was accepted as part of a special inaugural cohort of students in a new program designed to help disadvantaged students with applying to and success in medical school. No guaranteed interview or acceptance, but we get free tuition, took an MCAT prep course this summer as well as had informational sessions on applying to medical school, sessions and activities about being resilient in our journey toward medicine, had sessions on crafting a good application. An ADCOM member was involved with our summer prep program and said that ADCOM members at this school will know about the program and its rigor even though there is no guaranteed acceptance or interview, was told they pushed for it for us but the medical school said no. Otherwise our curriculum is the same as the normal biomedical science students other than we do an extra research project next summer with med students and physicians at one of the clinical sites, unsure if publishable research. We actually had an informational session this summer while in the middle of our prep course (was late because the program was rushed in getting started and scheduling issues about getting an informational session together with everyone involved with getting this program together), and several ADCOM members were there and spoke to us. So that is a plus they are involved.
Overall GPA: 3.34
Overall science GPA: 3.32
Undergrad overall GPA: 3.19 (was working on an upward trend but an episode of depression my last semester of undergrad ruined that).
Undergrad science GPA: 3.05
Graduate overall GPA: 4.00
Graduate science GPA: 4.00
Last 6 semesters of grad school have been a 4.00 at both my grad schools (4 Fall/Spring semesters and two summers), maintained a 4.00 in my first Master's while working 3 jobs for a total of 48 hours a week full time. 7 out of my last 8 semesters have been a 4.00 other than my bad semester Spring 2021 when I was clinically depressed.
495 MCAT 2021
Retaking MCAT September 13, 2024, shooting for 505+, about to take another FL, was scoring ~500 about 3 weeks ago, taking another one this week
Clinical experience/shadowing:
1,728 hours as a medical scribe in a rural ED in my home county, part time for 3 years, 2021-2024. Worked many shifts with a great DO trained in FM, got him to write my LOR.
840 hours as a patient care tech as second job in same ED, full time for 6 months, 2021-2022.
192 hours shadowing/volunteering outpatient peds with my high school pediatrician in 2021. This was my first shadowing experience. I started just shadowing 8 hours a week for a couple months, and I just enjoyed being there so much that I just kept coming once a week, asked to do more and volunteer, triaged a few times, would help run medication samples or excuses to parents as they were leaving. So on AACOMAS in the description I have it as shadowing/volunteering. I was here once a week from about June to December 2021. I absolutely loved shadowing peds, loved being there in general, the doctor, who was my former pediatrician, tried to teach me a lot. My personal statement talks about my experiences with my own pediatrician growing up and then this shadowing experience with my high school pediatrician. Am leaning family medicine but would not lie in saying I have strongly considered pediatrics and if I would just be happier doing that.
280 hours spent doing a summer rural pre-medical internship last year with one of my in-state MD program's regional campuses, involved shadowing grand rounds at a teaching hospital, shadowing FM residents in the outpatient clinics, shadowed outpatient peds and IM, spent the last week at the regional medical campus working on a group project which was a presentation on any healthcare topic we wanted, my group presented on the future of A.I. in medicine, we spoke in front of dozens of people on campus, including medical students and a lot of the faculty, including the regional campus dean. This was the day of our "graduation" from the program as well, since the next two weeks after to close out the program they had us shadowing with a rural FM physician in each of our home counties.
72 hours shadowing a rural FM physician as part of the internship I mentioned before, I got him to write my MD letter. He was actually employed by the hospital I worked for. He went to the MD program we were interning with as well. Really great experience being in an outpatient FM clinic, he actually treated me like a medical student, which made me feel like a participant rather than just a shadow, so to speak. After the first couple of days he told me I could go see the patients before he did, get their symptoms and reasons for the visit, etc, since I was a scribe at the ED (the ED was literally a one mintute walk from this clinic since it's right beside the hospital). He even said I could use my stethoscope just to listen to them, or even use the otoscope or light to do an "EENT exam" if they came in with any particular respiratory symptoms, with the patients' permission, of course. Then I would go back to his office, we would talk about the patient for about 5 mins, he would ask me what I saw, what I thought about what I saw, what I thought might be wrong with them. It's not like he seriously expected me to know any pathology like a medical student, he directly told me as much, he just said that he wanted me to be involved and thinking about things since I had some healthcare experience and was going to be a medical student and ultimately a physician in this position one day. After this we would go see the patient together. All of the patients were more than happy to speak with me and let me "examine" them, was just a great experience and I was very thankful for him involving me as much as he did.
Other volunteering other than the peds clinic mentioned above:
About 128 hours from Student Senate working with both College Republicans and College Democrats to organize and work voting drives throughout the Fall 2020 semester before elections that year, as well as spreading awareness about the 2020 United States census, we had some informational tables and events. I was co-chair of the Governmental relations committee, and that year we were awarded the SGA Committee of the Year award for our efforts with the community. For our census work we actually met several times with this person at the university who was in some community outreach position, attended a local meeting/presentation with local officials listening to workers from the U.S. Census Bureau give a presentation on how to talk to people about the Census, how to volunteer, etc. Was an interesting day.
20-30 hours helping plan and participating in SGA toy drives around Christmas for the two years I was in Senate. Unsure if I would include this since it's not that much.
Starting at a Habitat for Humanity next week, excited about that. Ties in well with my personal statement about being from a rural and underserved area and disadvantaged background myself, and my dad was in construction and built some houses before becoming disabled in 2008, so I can tie that back to my background as well.
Leadership:
840 hours over two years as an SGA Student Senator from 2019-2021 in undergrad. Was co-chair of the Governmental Relations Commitee. Was appointed to fill an empty seat at the end of the Spring Semester 2019 and then was re-elected to two full terms. In my role as co-chair of Governmental Relations, our committee was tasked with keeping students aware of any local legislation or ordinances which may impact them. We were awarded SGA Committee of the Year in 2021 for our efforts with spreading awareness for the U.S. Census in 2020 as well as holding numerous voting drives for students and working those throughout the semester.
128-ish hours as the Public Relations Officer in my university's pre-med AMSA chapter. Was elected to this role at the start of the Spring 2024 semester, just calculating 8 hours a week involvement. In this role I was designated with outreach and publicity for the program. While I was involved on the executive board for this chapter we held a couple of informational sessions for new members (mostly freshman) on medical school timelines, how to craft a good application, etc. I am talking about this from a position of being able to help other first generation pre-med students like myself, since I had no one in my family who was a physician and was just generally ignorant about many aspects of the applications process when I came in as a freshman in 2021.
Other clubs:
Was a member of my university's Beta Beta Beta (Tri-Beta) Biological Honors Society while in graduate school, was inducted as a member in 2021.
Awards/Scholarships:
SGA Committee of the Year 2021 when I was co-chair, Graduated as a member of my University's Honors Program for undergrad, Full Tuition Merit Scholarship for Undergrad, Full Tuition Scholarship for my first Master's as part of my TA position, Full Tuition Scholarship for second Master's
Teaching:
1,280 hours as a Graduate Teaching Assistant from 2022-2024, mostly for Human Anatomy and Physiology although I did teach one Intro Biology II lab my first semester in the graduate program. As an anatomy TA I was responsible for teaching the lab component of Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II. Was mostly I but taught two lab sections of II my third semester of teaching Fall 2023. Most of the students I taught were prospective nursing students, as this course was one of the "gatekeeping" courses into my university's nursing program, which is apparently pretty highly regarded, but I was not nursing so I do not know much. The Intro Biology Lab II section I taught was the only one that was it's own standalone course, which was 1 hour. Anatomy and Physiology was 4 hours combined lecture and lab, so whereas for this course I was a TA on Canvas, for the Intro Biology Lab I was the actual instructor for the course.
Research:
1 poster but no publications.
I am just calculating my research below at 8 hours a week, nothing incredibly intensive.
128 hours Fall 2022 working in my department head's cancer lab, looked at the effects of CBN and CBD on cell migration and proliferation in Ewing's Sarcoma, a pediatric bone cancer, I specifically looked at the effects of the compounds under hypoxic conditions. Presented research with a poster at my Department's first ever Biology Research Symposium, students and faculty from all across campus came.
256 hours August 2023 - May 2024 in a genetics research lab at my university with my undergrad and then graduate advisor. Spent the first semester mainly learning proper molecular biology techniques. Wanted molecular biology and genetics experience which is why I joined his lab. My last semester I joined him and another student on a non-medical research project. We essentially worked on developing an extraction protocol and eDNA assay for detection of an invasive snail species in the Southeastern United States. A couple other faculty were involved, including our university's snail researcher (she studies invertebrates but specializes in snails) and an ecologist, our lab PI was just working on the genetics portion. Faculty member who studies snails and does etymology work told us that this would be an easy publication since there is not a lot of literature on this species and people will want to see the extraction and assay protocol since this is a methods paper. She also said that I would be listed as a first author??? I am unsure how this works, going off what she heard me and I have not been contacted about the project since graduating, so idk. If I get my name on a publication, cool, if not, cool. I initially did not list this lab work when I applied DO in Fall 2023 since I was mostly learning lab techniques, but I am going to go back and list the hours like I did here.
Other Work experience:
3 months as a cashier at a local grocery store back home my first summer after college, cashier/sales at an office supply store my last year of undergrad and then started again when I went back for grad school, still with this company at my new school, and some experience as a pallet-builder part time summers during undergrad. Was specifically asked about that last job at my only interview last cycle and how that relates to being a better physician. My interviewer had a great sense of humor, he looked at me all serious, and said, "So, I'm looking at your application, and I want to ask you one thing first. How do you build a pallet?" and smiled. I didn't really expect that, I explained that I gained good experience just interacting and working with a group of people in a patient population I want to serve, my interviewer said, "Building a rapport, right? I said yes, exactly."
Background on me re-applying:
I applied the first time out of undergrad in 2021, was coming off a bad semester of depression and probably some burnout, took my MCAT at the end of that summer. I planned on studying a lot, but my dad was hospitalized and wasn't able to work while recovering so I worked more to help them out with bills so I wasn't really able to study as much, and just wasn't in a great place mentally through that Spring/Summer recovering from being depressed that semester (wasn't hospitalized or anything, just wasn't in a great mental place to start with and then life got in the way that summer). Took it anyway and made a 495 with not really much studying. Threw out applications in-state just because.
I initially intended on going straight in for a Master's before applying to medical school in 2021, but I had 0 clinical experience and wasn't in a good place mentally to begin school right away, so I moved back home and started shadowing and found a scribing job in my rural home county's hospital Summer 2021, I knew I didn't have a great application but applied anyway that Fall, just in-state and 3 OOS programs, no luck. I then sent in my application to grad school and started Fall 2022.
Didn't have time to retake my MCAT in grad school since I was taking classes every semester including my one summer semester in between my first and second years, during which time I did a rural premed internship with one of our in-state MD programs.
I knew my MCAT was low which handicapped my application but applied anyway last year to about 7 programs. Was told by my advisor and an MD ADCOM member at the school I did my internship at that they mostly recommended I apply in-state. I regret not applying to more and I will be applying to 30+ schools this cycle, 20 with AAMC fee assistance, and probably ~15 DO.
I actually interviewed at VCOM Alabama in February for the waitlist despite my low MCAT. This school is and was at the top of my list. I feel my interview could have gone better, I did not prepare as much because I didn't want to memorize scripts and sound robotic. Was nervous but I think it was mostly a good interview, could have been better if I prepared more but that could just be hindsight. They told us that we would find out in 7 days if we were offered a waitlist spot, and if not whether they encouraged us to reapply or not to reapply.
I was not added to the waitlist but they did encourage me to reapply the next cycle, submit early, and that it could be helpful to submit a letter of intent. When I applied last year it was late October, I didn't feel optimistic about my chances, so I took like a good 3 weeks to get my secondary in and didn't submit that till early December, was marked complete in January and interviewed in February. One of my interviewers asked if I interviewed in 2021, I told her no that I did not even get a secondary, she said she was just curious because it tells her I am a reapplicant but not if I interviewed. When I submit my letter of intent I will be mentioning that I interviewed earlier this year, had a great impression on the school and that it only solidified my commitment to going there. I want to become a rural FM physician which lines up with their mission, my interviewers specifically commented on how they were impressed with my medical experience and said they appreciated that I fit the mission.
So that is where I am at. I am mostly focused on applying DO, would love to go to VCOM. Hoping they interview me again, they seemed to like me.
I can't think of anything else? If I am missing anything I will make an edit.
Bachelor of Science with Special Honors in Biology May 2021
Master of Science in Biology May 2024
Master of Science in Biomedical Science July 2025
TLDR: doing a second Master's because free tuition, wanted more classes to raise my overall GPA, free MCAT prep, was going to study this summer for my retake anyway and this lined up with what I wanted to do.
Long explanation: I know I will get asked why I am doing a second Master's, it's almost an SMP-like program at one of my in-state schools that has an MD program. I was accepted as part of a special inaugural cohort of students in a new program designed to help disadvantaged students with applying to and success in medical school. No guaranteed interview or acceptance, but we get free tuition, took an MCAT prep course this summer as well as had informational sessions on applying to medical school, sessions and activities about being resilient in our journey toward medicine, had sessions on crafting a good application. An ADCOM member was involved with our summer prep program and said that ADCOM members at this school will know about the program and its rigor even though there is no guaranteed acceptance or interview, was told they pushed for it for us but the medical school said no. Otherwise our curriculum is the same as the normal biomedical science students other than we do an extra research project next summer with med students and physicians at one of the clinical sites, unsure if publishable research. We actually had an informational session this summer while in the middle of our prep course (was late because the program was rushed in getting started and scheduling issues about getting an informational session together with everyone involved with getting this program together), and several ADCOM members were there and spoke to us. So that is a plus they are involved.
Overall GPA: 3.34
Overall science GPA: 3.32
Undergrad overall GPA: 3.19 (was working on an upward trend but an episode of depression my last semester of undergrad ruined that).
Undergrad science GPA: 3.05
Graduate overall GPA: 4.00
Graduate science GPA: 4.00
Last 6 semesters of grad school have been a 4.00 at both my grad schools (4 Fall/Spring semesters and two summers), maintained a 4.00 in my first Master's while working 3 jobs for a total of 48 hours a week full time. 7 out of my last 8 semesters have been a 4.00 other than my bad semester Spring 2021 when I was clinically depressed.
495 MCAT 2021
Retaking MCAT September 13, 2024, shooting for 505+, about to take another FL, was scoring ~500 about 3 weeks ago, taking another one this week
Clinical experience/shadowing:
1,728 hours as a medical scribe in a rural ED in my home county, part time for 3 years, 2021-2024. Worked many shifts with a great DO trained in FM, got him to write my LOR.
840 hours as a patient care tech as second job in same ED, full time for 6 months, 2021-2022.
192 hours shadowing/volunteering outpatient peds with my high school pediatrician in 2021. This was my first shadowing experience. I started just shadowing 8 hours a week for a couple months, and I just enjoyed being there so much that I just kept coming once a week, asked to do more and volunteer, triaged a few times, would help run medication samples or excuses to parents as they were leaving. So on AACOMAS in the description I have it as shadowing/volunteering. I was here once a week from about June to December 2021. I absolutely loved shadowing peds, loved being there in general, the doctor, who was my former pediatrician, tried to teach me a lot. My personal statement talks about my experiences with my own pediatrician growing up and then this shadowing experience with my high school pediatrician. Am leaning family medicine but would not lie in saying I have strongly considered pediatrics and if I would just be happier doing that.
280 hours spent doing a summer rural pre-medical internship last year with one of my in-state MD program's regional campuses, involved shadowing grand rounds at a teaching hospital, shadowing FM residents in the outpatient clinics, shadowed outpatient peds and IM, spent the last week at the regional medical campus working on a group project which was a presentation on any healthcare topic we wanted, my group presented on the future of A.I. in medicine, we spoke in front of dozens of people on campus, including medical students and a lot of the faculty, including the regional campus dean. This was the day of our "graduation" from the program as well, since the next two weeks after to close out the program they had us shadowing with a rural FM physician in each of our home counties.
72 hours shadowing a rural FM physician as part of the internship I mentioned before, I got him to write my MD letter. He was actually employed by the hospital I worked for. He went to the MD program we were interning with as well. Really great experience being in an outpatient FM clinic, he actually treated me like a medical student, which made me feel like a participant rather than just a shadow, so to speak. After the first couple of days he told me I could go see the patients before he did, get their symptoms and reasons for the visit, etc, since I was a scribe at the ED (the ED was literally a one mintute walk from this clinic since it's right beside the hospital). He even said I could use my stethoscope just to listen to them, or even use the otoscope or light to do an "EENT exam" if they came in with any particular respiratory symptoms, with the patients' permission, of course. Then I would go back to his office, we would talk about the patient for about 5 mins, he would ask me what I saw, what I thought about what I saw, what I thought might be wrong with them. It's not like he seriously expected me to know any pathology like a medical student, he directly told me as much, he just said that he wanted me to be involved and thinking about things since I had some healthcare experience and was going to be a medical student and ultimately a physician in this position one day. After this we would go see the patient together. All of the patients were more than happy to speak with me and let me "examine" them, was just a great experience and I was very thankful for him involving me as much as he did.
Other volunteering other than the peds clinic mentioned above:
About 128 hours from Student Senate working with both College Republicans and College Democrats to organize and work voting drives throughout the Fall 2020 semester before elections that year, as well as spreading awareness about the 2020 United States census, we had some informational tables and events. I was co-chair of the Governmental relations committee, and that year we were awarded the SGA Committee of the Year award for our efforts with the community. For our census work we actually met several times with this person at the university who was in some community outreach position, attended a local meeting/presentation with local officials listening to workers from the U.S. Census Bureau give a presentation on how to talk to people about the Census, how to volunteer, etc. Was an interesting day.
20-30 hours helping plan and participating in SGA toy drives around Christmas for the two years I was in Senate. Unsure if I would include this since it's not that much.
Starting at a Habitat for Humanity next week, excited about that. Ties in well with my personal statement about being from a rural and underserved area and disadvantaged background myself, and my dad was in construction and built some houses before becoming disabled in 2008, so I can tie that back to my background as well.
Leadership:
840 hours over two years as an SGA Student Senator from 2019-2021 in undergrad. Was co-chair of the Governmental Relations Commitee. Was appointed to fill an empty seat at the end of the Spring Semester 2019 and then was re-elected to two full terms. In my role as co-chair of Governmental Relations, our committee was tasked with keeping students aware of any local legislation or ordinances which may impact them. We were awarded SGA Committee of the Year in 2021 for our efforts with spreading awareness for the U.S. Census in 2020 as well as holding numerous voting drives for students and working those throughout the semester.
128-ish hours as the Public Relations Officer in my university's pre-med AMSA chapter. Was elected to this role at the start of the Spring 2024 semester, just calculating 8 hours a week involvement. In this role I was designated with outreach and publicity for the program. While I was involved on the executive board for this chapter we held a couple of informational sessions for new members (mostly freshman) on medical school timelines, how to craft a good application, etc. I am talking about this from a position of being able to help other first generation pre-med students like myself, since I had no one in my family who was a physician and was just generally ignorant about many aspects of the applications process when I came in as a freshman in 2021.
Other clubs:
Was a member of my university's Beta Beta Beta (Tri-Beta) Biological Honors Society while in graduate school, was inducted as a member in 2021.
Awards/Scholarships:
SGA Committee of the Year 2021 when I was co-chair, Graduated as a member of my University's Honors Program for undergrad, Full Tuition Merit Scholarship for Undergrad, Full Tuition Scholarship for my first Master's as part of my TA position, Full Tuition Scholarship for second Master's
Teaching:
1,280 hours as a Graduate Teaching Assistant from 2022-2024, mostly for Human Anatomy and Physiology although I did teach one Intro Biology II lab my first semester in the graduate program. As an anatomy TA I was responsible for teaching the lab component of Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II. Was mostly I but taught two lab sections of II my third semester of teaching Fall 2023. Most of the students I taught were prospective nursing students, as this course was one of the "gatekeeping" courses into my university's nursing program, which is apparently pretty highly regarded, but I was not nursing so I do not know much. The Intro Biology Lab II section I taught was the only one that was it's own standalone course, which was 1 hour. Anatomy and Physiology was 4 hours combined lecture and lab, so whereas for this course I was a TA on Canvas, for the Intro Biology Lab I was the actual instructor for the course.
Research:
1 poster but no publications.
I am just calculating my research below at 8 hours a week, nothing incredibly intensive.
128 hours Fall 2022 working in my department head's cancer lab, looked at the effects of CBN and CBD on cell migration and proliferation in Ewing's Sarcoma, a pediatric bone cancer, I specifically looked at the effects of the compounds under hypoxic conditions. Presented research with a poster at my Department's first ever Biology Research Symposium, students and faculty from all across campus came.
256 hours August 2023 - May 2024 in a genetics research lab at my university with my undergrad and then graduate advisor. Spent the first semester mainly learning proper molecular biology techniques. Wanted molecular biology and genetics experience which is why I joined his lab. My last semester I joined him and another student on a non-medical research project. We essentially worked on developing an extraction protocol and eDNA assay for detection of an invasive snail species in the Southeastern United States. A couple other faculty were involved, including our university's snail researcher (she studies invertebrates but specializes in snails) and an ecologist, our lab PI was just working on the genetics portion. Faculty member who studies snails and does etymology work told us that this would be an easy publication since there is not a lot of literature on this species and people will want to see the extraction and assay protocol since this is a methods paper. She also said that I would be listed as a first author??? I am unsure how this works, going off what she heard me and I have not been contacted about the project since graduating, so idk. If I get my name on a publication, cool, if not, cool. I initially did not list this lab work when I applied DO in Fall 2023 since I was mostly learning lab techniques, but I am going to go back and list the hours like I did here.
Other Work experience:
3 months as a cashier at a local grocery store back home my first summer after college, cashier/sales at an office supply store my last year of undergrad and then started again when I went back for grad school, still with this company at my new school, and some experience as a pallet-builder part time summers during undergrad. Was specifically asked about that last job at my only interview last cycle and how that relates to being a better physician. My interviewer had a great sense of humor, he looked at me all serious, and said, "So, I'm looking at your application, and I want to ask you one thing first. How do you build a pallet?" and smiled. I didn't really expect that, I explained that I gained good experience just interacting and working with a group of people in a patient population I want to serve, my interviewer said, "Building a rapport, right? I said yes, exactly."
Background on me re-applying:
I applied the first time out of undergrad in 2021, was coming off a bad semester of depression and probably some burnout, took my MCAT at the end of that summer. I planned on studying a lot, but my dad was hospitalized and wasn't able to work while recovering so I worked more to help them out with bills so I wasn't really able to study as much, and just wasn't in a great place mentally through that Spring/Summer recovering from being depressed that semester (wasn't hospitalized or anything, just wasn't in a great mental place to start with and then life got in the way that summer). Took it anyway and made a 495 with not really much studying. Threw out applications in-state just because.
I initially intended on going straight in for a Master's before applying to medical school in 2021, but I had 0 clinical experience and wasn't in a good place mentally to begin school right away, so I moved back home and started shadowing and found a scribing job in my rural home county's hospital Summer 2021, I knew I didn't have a great application but applied anyway that Fall, just in-state and 3 OOS programs, no luck. I then sent in my application to grad school and started Fall 2022.
Didn't have time to retake my MCAT in grad school since I was taking classes every semester including my one summer semester in between my first and second years, during which time I did a rural premed internship with one of our in-state MD programs.
I knew my MCAT was low which handicapped my application but applied anyway last year to about 7 programs. Was told by my advisor and an MD ADCOM member at the school I did my internship at that they mostly recommended I apply in-state. I regret not applying to more and I will be applying to 30+ schools this cycle, 20 with AAMC fee assistance, and probably ~15 DO.
I actually interviewed at VCOM Alabama in February for the waitlist despite my low MCAT. This school is and was at the top of my list. I feel my interview could have gone better, I did not prepare as much because I didn't want to memorize scripts and sound robotic. Was nervous but I think it was mostly a good interview, could have been better if I prepared more but that could just be hindsight. They told us that we would find out in 7 days if we were offered a waitlist spot, and if not whether they encouraged us to reapply or not to reapply.
I was not added to the waitlist but they did encourage me to reapply the next cycle, submit early, and that it could be helpful to submit a letter of intent. When I applied last year it was late October, I didn't feel optimistic about my chances, so I took like a good 3 weeks to get my secondary in and didn't submit that till early December, was marked complete in January and interviewed in February. One of my interviewers asked if I interviewed in 2021, I told her no that I did not even get a secondary, she said she was just curious because it tells her I am a reapplicant but not if I interviewed. When I submit my letter of intent I will be mentioning that I interviewed earlier this year, had a great impression on the school and that it only solidified my commitment to going there. I want to become a rural FM physician which lines up with their mission, my interviewers specifically commented on how they were impressed with my medical experience and said they appreciated that I fit the mission.
So that is where I am at. I am mostly focused on applying DO, would love to go to VCOM. Hoping they interview me again, they seemed to like me.
I can't think of anything else? If I am missing anything I will make an edit.
