Things have been a bit quiet on the blog here recently, but that's not because I've forgotten to write, it's just because I haven't accomplished anything lately. Good news?
However, I just completed my secondary application for Albany Medical College, which unsurprisingly took far longer than I expected. But that's okay. The hardest question?
"Describe yourself: (1000 character maximum)"
My answer:
Hello, mystery-admissions-committee member, my name is Alex Bonte and I have found that "Describe yourself" is a deceptively simple prompt. Nevertheless:
I am an independent and open-minded individual who makes a supreme effort to provide an equal amount of respect to every person I meet. That personal principle stems from the fact that I genuinely care about those around me. These traits, along with a healthy amount of personal confidence, have helped me become an excellent leader.
I love to be challenged. I have done best in my most difficult classes, and enjoy exercising the skills necessary to solve complex problems. Incorporating and making links to many bits of information is something my brain tends to be good at, and is something I find quite exhilarating. I am a man of integrity that possesses a sharp mind and a big heart. I also like to think sometimes that I can be a fairly funny guy, at least on a good day.
Characters: 933
Deadline: December 15, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Resolution
It turns out the message center provided to prospective UC Davis medical students is more like a slightly sluggish instant messaging center. I had answers to my questions when I logged in this afternoon, and a "You're welcome!" minutes after I sent a thank you.
So kudos, UC Davis. The verdict was to leave everything as it was on my transcript. No unit conversion necessary, and they were familiar with UC Berkeley's course schedule so shuffling my requirements was okay. Hooray!
Lesson learned from this experience: contact the admissions office with any questions without hesitation, and the eternal lesson, start early. So early.
UC Davis secondary complete! Let the waiting game begin for interview invitation.
So kudos, UC Davis. The verdict was to leave everything as it was on my transcript. No unit conversion necessary, and they were familiar with UC Berkeley's course schedule so shuffling my requirements was okay. Hooray!
Lesson learned from this experience: contact the admissions office with any questions without hesitation, and the eternal lesson, start early. So early.
UC Davis secondary complete! Let the waiting game begin for interview invitation.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
It Goes On and On
I am almost finished with my UC Davis secondary application. All my extra essays are written (seven of them), my three most significant experiences are listed and explained (unnecessarily redundant!), and all I have left to do is enter my required coursework. My obstacle?
Inconsistency.
First, UC Daivs counts in quarters, not in semesters. Thus, the minimum units they list for pre-requisites are much larger numbers than I could ever hope to achieve with my semester units. The provide a conversion factor for semester "hours" to quarter "units" and ask for "units", but concede that each school counts "credit" in their own way. I decided it would be safest to put whatever is on my transcript on my application, so I went with that. That and an email to them with a calendar reminder set up to call them first thing tomorrow morning.
When looking on their admissions page for more information about this, their required coursework is described in number of semesters. So while under the unit/hour/credit count I would be 1.5 units shy of the upper division biology requirement (because that course was only 3 semester hours, but they want 6 quarter units. The conversion gives me 4.5 quarter units), according to their web site, all I need is one semester of upper division biology, which I actually have. But not enough...units.
Thus far I've encountered 3 different ways for measuring how much work I did. Isn't that nice.
Also, the categories given to me to satisfy requirements are, for example, "Organic Chemistry w/lab". All you Cal students out there know that this categorization is problematic considering lecture and lab are two separate classes, for which you receive two different grades. This is the same for one semester of general biology, but not the other. Again, to resolve this I just entered them separately like it is on my transcript, but it does not exactly match the called-for format.
Finally, another thing potentially very relevant to my fellow Golden Bears regards the one year requirement of General Chemistry. The Career Center's website very calmly claims that most students take one semester of general chemistry (Chem 1A), two semesters of Organic Chemistry (Chem 3A/L and 3B/L), and then one semester of Biochemistry (MCB 102). This is where the Career Center starts to get potentially very very wrong. They go on to claim that in order to fulfill the typical one year of General Chem and one year of Organic Chem required by (most, not all of course) medical schools, students usually use the one semester of Gen Chem and the first semester of O-chem to count for the first year of Gen Chem, and the second semester of O-Chem and the one semester of Biochemistry to count for the one year of Organic Chemistry. That makes huge amounts of sense, right? Yeah, I thought so too.
Then UC Davis throws you a curveball and asks you for "Organic Chemistry w/lab". First of all, the problem above applies. Further, if you tried to use Biochem in this category, there is no lab. Woo hoo! Go Career Center! UC Davis also requires an additional upper division biology course, without lab, for which they suggest, you guessed it, biochemistry. Luckily genetics also qualifies, which I'm taking now, so if they let me do this requirement shuffling I won't have to take Chem 4A. But you know what? This seems to be the case on all the secondaries I've examined thus far. So thank you, Berkeley advisers, for living up to your infamy.
Needless to say, spending two hours figuring out just how to do the mindless data entry sort of burned me out for the night medical-school wise. And the bottom line? I'm probably going to be taking Chemistry 4A next semester. Along with an R1A class. So many freshmen to meet! And 18 units to earn.
(Avett Brothers anyone?)
Inconsistency.
First, UC Daivs counts in quarters, not in semesters. Thus, the minimum units they list for pre-requisites are much larger numbers than I could ever hope to achieve with my semester units. The provide a conversion factor for semester "hours" to quarter "units" and ask for "units", but concede that each school counts "credit" in their own way. I decided it would be safest to put whatever is on my transcript on my application, so I went with that. That and an email to them with a calendar reminder set up to call them first thing tomorrow morning.
When looking on their admissions page for more information about this, their required coursework is described in number of semesters. So while under the unit/hour/credit count I would be 1.5 units shy of the upper division biology requirement (because that course was only 3 semester hours, but they want 6 quarter units. The conversion gives me 4.5 quarter units), according to their web site, all I need is one semester of upper division biology, which I actually have. But not enough...units.
Thus far I've encountered 3 different ways for measuring how much work I did. Isn't that nice.
Also, the categories given to me to satisfy requirements are, for example, "Organic Chemistry w/lab". All you Cal students out there know that this categorization is problematic considering lecture and lab are two separate classes, for which you receive two different grades. This is the same for one semester of general biology, but not the other. Again, to resolve this I just entered them separately like it is on my transcript, but it does not exactly match the called-for format.
Finally, another thing potentially very relevant to my fellow Golden Bears regards the one year requirement of General Chemistry. The Career Center's website very calmly claims that most students take one semester of general chemistry (Chem 1A), two semesters of Organic Chemistry (Chem 3A/L and 3B/L), and then one semester of Biochemistry (MCB 102). This is where the Career Center starts to get potentially very very wrong. They go on to claim that in order to fulfill the typical one year of General Chem and one year of Organic Chem required by (most, not all of course) medical schools, students usually use the one semester of Gen Chem and the first semester of O-chem to count for the first year of Gen Chem, and the second semester of O-Chem and the one semester of Biochemistry to count for the one year of Organic Chemistry. That makes huge amounts of sense, right? Yeah, I thought so too.
Then UC Davis throws you a curveball and asks you for "Organic Chemistry w/lab". First of all, the problem above applies. Further, if you tried to use Biochem in this category, there is no lab. Woo hoo! Go Career Center! UC Davis also requires an additional upper division biology course, without lab, for which they suggest, you guessed it, biochemistry. Luckily genetics also qualifies, which I'm taking now, so if they let me do this requirement shuffling I won't have to take Chem 4A. But you know what? This seems to be the case on all the secondaries I've examined thus far. So thank you, Berkeley advisers, for living up to your infamy.
Needless to say, spending two hours figuring out just how to do the mindless data entry sort of burned me out for the night medical-school wise. And the bottom line? I'm probably going to be taking Chemistry 4A next semester. Along with an R1A class. So many freshmen to meet! And 18 units to earn.
(Avett Brothers anyone?)
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Here and Now
Okay, long boring explanations of what one has to go through accomplished, now actual details on what schools I applied to, when, and how many I've heard back from so far. Actually, this has the potential to be quite boring also, but oh well.
The earliest you can start working on the AMCAS is May 1st, and the earliest you can actually submit it is June 1st. I wish I'd started filling it out May 1st, but I didn't, and ended up submitting it on June 6th, because of how much longer than expected it took for me. Still, June 6th is pretty good considering the first application deadline I know of is about October 15th, and AMCAS received my transcript on the 8th, and processing was complete by the 21st. Fifteen days of processing is awesome and a huge benefit of applying super early.
The 14 schools to which that application was made available are:
The earliest you can start working on the AMCAS is May 1st, and the earliest you can actually submit it is June 1st. I wish I'd started filling it out May 1st, but I didn't, and ended up submitting it on June 6th, because of how much longer than expected it took for me. Still, June 6th is pretty good considering the first application deadline I know of is about October 15th, and AMCAS received my transcript on the 8th, and processing was complete by the 21st. Fifteen days of processing is awesome and a huge benefit of applying super early.
The 14 schools to which that application was made available are:
Albany Medical College - Albany, NY
Dartmouth Medical School - Hanover, NH
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Keck School of Medicine - University of Southern California
Loma Linda University School of Medicine - Loma Linda, CA
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Oregon Health and Science University
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science - Chicago, IL
University of California San Diego
University of California San Francisco
University of California, Davis School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine- College/Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine - Spokane, WA
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine - Dayton, OH
And, so far, I have received secondaries from these schools:
Albany Medical College - Everyone who applies gets a secondary
Dartmouth Medical School - We all get secondaries
Loma Linda - Everyone gets secondaries...
Rosalind Franklin - Everyone gets a secondary
UC Davis - They screen their applicants! Which means they saw my AMCAS and wanted more info from me. Hooray! Due July 22nd. AKA Saturday. Ahh!
Wright State University - All applicants get a secondary.
So really the only impressive part so far is the secondary request from UC Davis. But hopefully I will get more impressive as time goes on!
And from here on, I will update as I receive news. Bring it on, med schools.
(I don't know why the font is smaller down here.)
(I don't know why the font is smaller down here.)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
What's Left
All right, things are really going now. AMCAS is submitted, and in 4-6 weeks those phantom judges on admissions councils are actually going to be looking at all those characters that were so meticulously counted.
Then what?
Secondaries
Secondary applications are a request for supplemental information to the AMCAS, and come from each individual school that is applied to. Some schools screen their primary applications and only ask a select number of applicants to submit a secondary application, some schools do not and ask everyone. All schools ask for more money. This is also when letters of recommendation have to actually exist. Consistency is already evaporating, but it goes on:
All the deadlines are, again, school-specific and never the same. For example, I have a secondary from UC Davis that is due next week, but the secondary for Dartmouth is not due until January 1st, 2012.
Most secondaries I've received ask for a few more short personal essays. More like personal paragraphs, but however you look at it, more writing is afoot. Some do not, some just want letters. Some want headshots too.
I've also been asked to re-write my grades for the pre-med requirements that that school requires. Because pre-med requirements are different from school to school. Some have none (according to the MSAR, at least).
Costs of secondary applications vary (of course), but for me the average has been about $100 per application. UC Davis is $80, but Dartmouth wants $130. Maximum cost if I'm as impressive as I'd like to be: $1,400.00
Interviews
If the application people like your stuff still, you get invited to an interview at the school. I don't know much about this because I'm far far away from that point, but I do know that the applicant must pay for transportation costs. Projected cost: loads of money.
If they still like you, you get accepted! Hooray! It's March now, how was the school year?
Then what?
Secondaries
Secondary applications are a request for supplemental information to the AMCAS, and come from each individual school that is applied to. Some schools screen their primary applications and only ask a select number of applicants to submit a secondary application, some schools do not and ask everyone. All schools ask for more money. This is also when letters of recommendation have to actually exist. Consistency is already evaporating, but it goes on:
All the deadlines are, again, school-specific and never the same. For example, I have a secondary from UC Davis that is due next week, but the secondary for Dartmouth is not due until January 1st, 2012.
Most secondaries I've received ask for a few more short personal essays. More like personal paragraphs, but however you look at it, more writing is afoot. Some do not, some just want letters. Some want headshots too.
I've also been asked to re-write my grades for the pre-med requirements that that school requires. Because pre-med requirements are different from school to school. Some have none (according to the MSAR, at least).
Costs of secondary applications vary (of course), but for me the average has been about $100 per application. UC Davis is $80, but Dartmouth wants $130. Maximum cost if I'm as impressive as I'd like to be: $1,400.00
Interviews
If the application people like your stuff still, you get invited to an interview at the school. I don't know much about this because I'm far far away from that point, but I do know that the applicant must pay for transportation costs. Projected cost: loads of money.
If they still like you, you get accepted! Hooray! It's March now, how was the school year?
A Road Map
MCAT is taken, scores are back, and now on to actually filling out the application. And then....just waiting, right? Nope. Filling out the primary application is actually the simplest part of the whole darn thing.
I'm going to lay out the the three parts of applying to the wonderfully intimidating medical schools, so that when updates are given you'll know where that lies in the grander scheme of things. Also, so that the wayward internet-cruising pre-med (hereafter, WICPM because everything that has to do with college needs an acronym) can have an idea of what to expect, something that really prevented me from getting started as fast as I should have.
Here we go!
Oh, first, BUY THIS BOOK NOW (if you happen to be the WICPM):
Medical Schools Admissions Record (the "MSAR", man I love acronyms)
Most useful book to a pre-med
The MSAR will answer all of your hard statistical questions about average accepted GPA, MCAT score, demographics, percentage of accepted applicants who had research experience, deadlines; you name it, it's in there.
And seriously, it's the easiest and most reliable place to find that information and it keeps you away from the wonderfully helpful and relaxing forum folk.
I'm going to lay out the the three parts of applying to the wonderfully intimidating medical schools, so that when updates are given you'll know where that lies in the grander scheme of things. Also, so that the wayward internet-cruising pre-med (hereafter, WICPM because everything that has to do with college needs an acronym) can have an idea of what to expect, something that really prevented me from getting started as fast as I should have.
Here we go!
Oh, first, BUY THIS BOOK NOW (if you happen to be the WICPM):
Medical Schools Admissions Record (the "MSAR", man I love acronyms)
Most useful book to a pre-med
The MSAR will answer all of your hard statistical questions about average accepted GPA, MCAT score, demographics, percentage of accepted applicants who had research experience, deadlines; you name it, it's in there.
And seriously, it's the easiest and most reliable place to find that information and it keeps you away from the wonderfully helpful and relaxing forum folk.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Step 1: MCAT
(Please note: I don't plan on counting all the steps, but the MCAT is totally Step 1)
I don't intend to write too much about the Medical College Admissions Test, because it is a monster of its own that could spawn its very own blog on the topic, but it certainly deserves to be mentioned. To start, an introduction to what the whole MCAT is.
I don't intend to write too much about the Medical College Admissions Test, because it is a monster of its own that could spawn its very own blog on the topic, but it certainly deserves to be mentioned. To start, an introduction to what the whole MCAT is.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Only the beginning...
I have begun the process of applying to medical school.
It's way more complicated than I expected.
Through this blog I hope to keep anyone who is interested updated on how applying to medical school is going for me. Additionally, I personally had a miserable time finding any sort of reliable information on how the process actually proceeds so I also hope that by giving my account, some wayward internet-cruising pre-med student may find some of this whole business helpful.
The best word I've heard used to describe the application adventure?
"Inconsistent"
It's way more complicated than I expected.
Through this blog I hope to keep anyone who is interested updated on how applying to medical school is going for me. Additionally, I personally had a miserable time finding any sort of reliable information on how the process actually proceeds so I also hope that by giving my account, some wayward internet-cruising pre-med student may find some of this whole business helpful.
The best word I've heard used to describe the application adventure?
"Inconsistent"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)