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- Jul 29, 2025
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I am a US citizen attending University of Florida as a senior and am planning on applying during the upcoming 26/27 cycle. I am interested in applying broadly, but am aiming for UF, FAU, USF, and UMiami. Harvard HST/Stanford are dream programs due to the translational aspect at HST and startup focus at Stanford. I am looking for critiques and thoughts on my app as it stands.
- 3.95 cGPA 3.95 sGPA
- 523 (130 CARS/130/131/132)
- Florida, US citizen
- White male
- Senior @ University of Florida, Chemical Engineering (taking gap year)
Clinical Experience:
- 2 years of paid scribing in the ER, 2000 hours by time of applying. My job also includes frequent interactions with patients, including helping with ambulation, delivering food/blankets, generally conversing, and occasionally helping with physical exam. We see the entire healthcare process from arrival to discharge/admission & frequently document in high-intensity situations. Very meaningful.
- 1 year (150 hours) of volunteering with patients going through cancer infusions, involves welcoming them into the center, helping them get settled and occupying them throughout the infusion through conversation, games, & other activities. Inspired by a close family member.
Research:
- 1500 hours of research in synthetic biology by time of applications. This will include 3 mid author pubs, 1 first author publication which will be my senior thesis, 2 poster presentations at my local university, and 1 at a national convention this winter. Work is very cutting edge and technical, I am deeply involved in this.
Shadowing:
- 150 hours shadowing, including orthopedics, neurosurg, IM, EM, FM, anesthesia
Non-clinical volunteering:
- 150 hours volunteering at a thrift shop in rural PA over summers with my aunt (this activity was very significant to me)
- 150 hours volunteering at a thrift shop & homeless shelter in my local town, inspired by work above
- 200 hours of volunteering with a local pre-health honor society chapter, this is not focused on one group/population, but spread out around many different causes, so less impactful to me.
- Tentative: would-be 150 hours volunteering with a local health center focusing on community outreach & screenings. This is something I recently discovered and I'm really interested in but weighing if this will add substantially to my application.
Other extracurricular activities:
- 3 different directorship positions in my local pre-health honor society chapter. These were in outreach volunteering with local farms, pre-health student development through educational seminars, Q&A sessions with medical professionals, and inviting a prominent pre-health application advisor to speak with us, and fundraising, raised $35,000 for our charity with this. (~180 hours combined)
- Part-time job as Electronic Data Capture Design Lead for an engineering company which works with the FDA & medical device startups to bring devices to market. I essentially design the data capture forms that are used to build reports that are sent to the FDA for approval. I meet regularly with physicians and engineering teams who are building these devices, do data analysis & build reports, and survey over subject data. Have worked with institutions such as HSS, UPenn, NYU, Ohio State, & other small medical clinics to support patient enrollment. (500 hours).
- Calculus II TA for 1 semester (50 hours)
- Organic Chemistry II TA for 2 semesters (120 hours)
- Assisted in developing a new teaching lab for the ChemEng department with a prof. over the summer & advocated for more biotech-centric experiments. This included ordering the equipment, building, testing, writing the theory manual & standard operating procedure (100 hours). I now TA for this lab (80 hours).
- Internship with a Fortune-200 engineering & utility company, included working with 2 teams of established engineers to build an automated prediction algorithm which will save upwards of $3 million per year & reduced workflow time by 99%. (480 hours, full-time over 12 weeks).
- Part time Chick-Fil-A since junior year of HS -> freshman & sophomore year of college, front of house worker (150 hours)
Relevant honors or awards
- 2x winner of prestigious departmental award
- President's list x4, Dean's List x10
- Full-tuition scholarship
- Graduating Summa Cum Laude
LORs:
- Science Professor that I designed teaching lab with, he's super wordy, likely strong. (1st STEM letter)
- Head of ChemEng department, previous professor, knows me pretty well (2nd STEM letter)
- PI, supports my work, likely strong. (Research letter)
- Medical Anthropology class, not as strong as the others (Humanities letter)
- Physician letter from scribing, still building relationship, hopefully strong (Physician letter)
- Letter from CEO of my medical device design job, she loves me, super strong (Job/additional letter)
Other Information
- 1 withdrawal, took a graduate orgo class because I was curious about this for research, but this helped me rule out PhD. It was also taking time away from my major & important ECs.
- Pell grant recipient, financially disadvantaged. Have been working part time throughout college to pay for living expenses.
- Lived in Europe for 11 years, speak French, English, and some German.
- I want to center my story around how I want to be a physician to assist patients in the most difficult parts of the process and help families remain close during hardship brought on by illness.
My "why medicine" relates to my personal story, as I had not met most of my family until I moved back from Europe and was able to reconnect with my aunt for a few years shortly before she passed from a very aggressive cancer. I was able to connect with her, my cousins, and other family in the room with the help of the physician who counseled us through end of life. There is more to this, but that is the gist. My time with medical devices, volunteering, and the ED have shown me that only physicians can supervise these trials and are uniquely positioned to spearhead device design to address gaps in clinical care, which is my secondary motivation.
- 3.95 cGPA 3.95 sGPA
- 523 (130 CARS/130/131/132)
- Florida, US citizen
- White male
- Senior @ University of Florida, Chemical Engineering (taking gap year)
Clinical Experience:
- 2 years of paid scribing in the ER, 2000 hours by time of applying. My job also includes frequent interactions with patients, including helping with ambulation, delivering food/blankets, generally conversing, and occasionally helping with physical exam. We see the entire healthcare process from arrival to discharge/admission & frequently document in high-intensity situations. Very meaningful.
- 1 year (150 hours) of volunteering with patients going through cancer infusions, involves welcoming them into the center, helping them get settled and occupying them throughout the infusion through conversation, games, & other activities. Inspired by a close family member.
Research:
- 1500 hours of research in synthetic biology by time of applications. This will include 3 mid author pubs, 1 first author publication which will be my senior thesis, 2 poster presentations at my local university, and 1 at a national convention this winter. Work is very cutting edge and technical, I am deeply involved in this.
Shadowing:
- 150 hours shadowing, including orthopedics, neurosurg, IM, EM, FM, anesthesia
Non-clinical volunteering:
- 150 hours volunteering at a thrift shop in rural PA over summers with my aunt (this activity was very significant to me)
- 150 hours volunteering at a thrift shop & homeless shelter in my local town, inspired by work above
- 200 hours of volunteering with a local pre-health honor society chapter, this is not focused on one group/population, but spread out around many different causes, so less impactful to me.
- Tentative: would-be 150 hours volunteering with a local health center focusing on community outreach & screenings. This is something I recently discovered and I'm really interested in but weighing if this will add substantially to my application.
Other extracurricular activities:
- 3 different directorship positions in my local pre-health honor society chapter. These were in outreach volunteering with local farms, pre-health student development through educational seminars, Q&A sessions with medical professionals, and inviting a prominent pre-health application advisor to speak with us, and fundraising, raised $35,000 for our charity with this. (~180 hours combined)
- Part-time job as Electronic Data Capture Design Lead for an engineering company which works with the FDA & medical device startups to bring devices to market. I essentially design the data capture forms that are used to build reports that are sent to the FDA for approval. I meet regularly with physicians and engineering teams who are building these devices, do data analysis & build reports, and survey over subject data. Have worked with institutions such as HSS, UPenn, NYU, Ohio State, & other small medical clinics to support patient enrollment. (500 hours).
- Calculus II TA for 1 semester (50 hours)
- Organic Chemistry II TA for 2 semesters (120 hours)
- Assisted in developing a new teaching lab for the ChemEng department with a prof. over the summer & advocated for more biotech-centric experiments. This included ordering the equipment, building, testing, writing the theory manual & standard operating procedure (100 hours). I now TA for this lab (80 hours).
- Internship with a Fortune-200 engineering & utility company, included working with 2 teams of established engineers to build an automated prediction algorithm which will save upwards of $3 million per year & reduced workflow time by 99%. (480 hours, full-time over 12 weeks).
- Part time Chick-Fil-A since junior year of HS -> freshman & sophomore year of college, front of house worker (150 hours)
Relevant honors or awards
- 2x winner of prestigious departmental award
- President's list x4, Dean's List x10
- Full-tuition scholarship
- Graduating Summa Cum Laude
LORs:
- Science Professor that I designed teaching lab with, he's super wordy, likely strong. (1st STEM letter)
- Head of ChemEng department, previous professor, knows me pretty well (2nd STEM letter)
- PI, supports my work, likely strong. (Research letter)
- Medical Anthropology class, not as strong as the others (Humanities letter)
- Physician letter from scribing, still building relationship, hopefully strong (Physician letter)
- Letter from CEO of my medical device design job, she loves me, super strong (Job/additional letter)
Other Information
- 1 withdrawal, took a graduate orgo class because I was curious about this for research, but this helped me rule out PhD. It was also taking time away from my major & important ECs.
- Pell grant recipient, financially disadvantaged. Have been working part time throughout college to pay for living expenses.
- Lived in Europe for 11 years, speak French, English, and some German.
- I want to center my story around how I want to be a physician to assist patients in the most difficult parts of the process and help families remain close during hardship brought on by illness.
My "why medicine" relates to my personal story, as I had not met most of my family until I moved back from Europe and was able to reconnect with my aunt for a few years shortly before she passed from a very aggressive cancer. I was able to connect with her, my cousins, and other family in the room with the help of the physician who counseled us through end of life. There is more to this, but that is the gist. My time with medical devices, volunteering, and the ED have shown me that only physicians can supervise these trials and are uniquely positioned to spearhead device design to address gaps in clinical care, which is my secondary motivation.
