Well, I'll make this short and sweet since I am sooooooo busy getting ready to leave on saturday. In answer to people's questions: 1) Yes I am taking a year off, I graduated last June. 2) Yes, I had to take a lot of courses that were not required for my major (med school prerequisites and for the MCAT). I ended up with minors in biology and chemistry. 3) An update letter is a good thing to do if you are either waitlisted for an interview or for acceptance. You tell them what you have been doing since they last heard from you, and let them know that you are still very interested in their program, etc.
Anyways, so here is the big news of the week: I got an interview at Dartmouth!
So hell yeah, I'm really excited now. That just practically blows my mind.......
The great thing about it is that they want to interview me the third week of february, and I'll already be in virginia doing Virginia Commonwealth that week. So instead of making two seperate trips I can combine it, and also Virginia will be a great warm-up for Dartmouth. Yay!!!
So I pick my mom up at the airport tomorrow (she's coming from Arizona), and we leave for Rochester on a red-eye Saturday night. Don't laugh at me cause I'm taking my mom please......
I just thought it would be nice to have a little company and also some moral support.
Well, wish me luck people. Not that I need it. (sorry, another one of my little jokes)
And I'm leaving.......on a jet plane
Well I hope everybody had a good break. Ready to start winter quarter?
I still kind of miss school, so I'm sad that I don't get to start with you guys. Oh well.
So the med school stuff is really quite a roller coaster. One minute you're confident, the next you think you're doomed. The last couple months were real downers for me, but at the moment all is well. Despite all odds (i.e. MCAT score), and doing pretty much everything wrong during the application process (i.e. night before the deadline), I, the HMP3 Guru, have four interviews and three holds for interviews. Interviews are: U of Rochester, New York Med, Virginia Commonwealth, and USC. Holds are: UCSD, UCSF, and Yale.
Pretty good stats, only one rejection out of the eight schools I've heard back from post-secondary. I'm feeling very encouraged at this point. I also composed a very nice update letter, regarding my new line of work, for UCSD and UCSF. I really think it will kick things into gear for getting the interview. In fact, I'm almost sure of it. Not a whole lot of people take the time to do things like that. It shows real sincerity about wanting to get into their program, and shows that you're willing to actively pursue it rather than just sit around and hope for an e-mail or letter. That's what I think anyways. Sometimes I'm wrong, but usually not :)
I'm actually kind of overwhelmed all of the sudden. I'm thinking about all the days I have to request off work, and all the arrangements I have to make. Med schools sure aren't very considerate of people who have to work for a living. I mean my boss knows that I'm an applicant and would probably have to take a few days off here and there, but now I feel like the flood gates have opened. What happens if I get more interviews? I guess I just need to be upfront about it, and make sure they know that I will try my best to minimize the time off that I need. If that means fly in the night before and come back directly after the interview, then so be it. Stressful, but doable.
So it looks like I'm probably getting into med school, one way or another. I think this because I am very confident about interviewing. It's getting the interviews that is the hard part, getting them to look past my MCAT score. A very wise person once told me that at the interview stage numbers don't matter anymore. At that point, you and the five hundred other people that they're interviewing are on an equal playing field, all deemed highly qualified. It is then that your personality either makes you or breaks you, along with how well they think you would actually fit with their school. That's why schools often conduct blind interviews, where the faculty member interviewing you has not seen and does not have access to your file.
So there's some food for thought anyways. I know January is going to be a huge month for many of us applying, and I wish everyone luck on getting those interviews and acceptances. Till next time.....
