2014 application cycle, by the numbers:
- 27 - Schools to which I applied
- 26 - Schools from which I received a secondary
- 22 - Secondaries I submitted
- 7/5 - Interviews offered/interviews attended
- 4 - Waitlists
- 1 - Acceptances
- 4 - Rejections (all waitlists turned into rejections)
- 6/11 - AMCAS submitted
- 7/2 - AMCAS verified
- 7/4 - Earliest date my application was complete at a school
- 9/6 - Last date my application was complete at a school
All in all, I am satisfied with how this process ended up for me. It would've been nice to have gotten accepted to more than one school and had some sort of a choice. After-all, I still have some pride left over after two very humbling application cycles. On the other hand, I suck at making decisions for myself, so maybe it's better this way.
Honestly, though, after looking into schools in more depth, there are only one or two schools I would have considered attending over School E. I was waitlisted at one that was a complete reach for me (School A), so I got close but no cigar. The others I viewed through rose-colored glasses so I don't actually know if I would've been happier elsewhere.
Regardless, I am incredibly grateful to have an acceptance, especially to a medical school that I am so excited to attend. I couldn't have done this without the help and support of family, friends, and even strangers I met online. It is so humbling to know that so many people rallied behind me and allowed me to achieve what seemed like a pipe dream at times.
Maybe I'll write up a more detailed post about what got me accepted this time, but if I don't then the short version is the following:
- Earlier primary application and thus earlier secondary submissions
- Tailoring my secondary essay answers to the mission of each school
- Putting on my happy, joyful, enthusiastic face during interviews and selling myself shamelessly
I'm so happy to hear about your acceptance! as someone who has been following your blog for a while and reading about your journey, it is so great to see all of your hard work finally paid off. Your story is very inspiring to me as a fellow non traditional student/underdog. you're probably super busy, but if you ever do find the time to write a more detailed post about what you think got you accepted this time around, it would be very helpful and much appreciated by us reapplicants who are trying to improve our apps and gain an acceptance.
ReplyDeleteCongrats again and best of luck as you continue your journey!
Thank you for your kind words! I most likely will write something because I tend to write when I'm procrastinating, hence the long silence in recent months when I had nothing of great importance to do. I have a lot of packing and unpacking coming in the next few weeks so I'm sure I'll be looking for distractions.
DeleteI wish you the best of luck as well during your medical school applications. Thanks for reading!
Congratulations! Getting into medical school is no easy feat; and now that it is upon you, I hope you're up to the challenge! Being a doctor is a gratifying profession, especially once you have established yourself; you get to help people and you could become financially stable. While that may still be quite a some time from now, if you put your mind and put your effort to it, you can do that and more. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteRavi Agarwal @ MediQ Financial