Recent content by Alejandro

Hi all, Anyone scheduled for the september exam? Was hoping to find some people to practice with. Thanks!

I might advise shadowing someone in primary care based on your exposures. Its pretty clear that you're highly successful and so forth, but I do think doing some lip service to at least say you have explored outpatient medicine/primary care would be an asset. Plus some of the schools on your list...

I agree with @Moko - it is a little tight but that is your decision to make. Kinda funny, this reminds me of patients who don't want to take your advice as a physician. Kinda like, when a patient comes in with non-specific symptoms but you're worried enough about them that you recommend...

Yeah, when I applied I thought september'ish was when they should be in by. So as one mentioned, august should be fine. Generally speaking, I don't think an adcom will block on interviewing you pending a PI letter.

So I'm a little mixed. Stories are not bad, but there is one huuuuuuuge caveat that makes stories 95%+ bad. Its because stories are often written starting out with describing the scene, blah blah blah, and then here I AM, with a relatively modest role. And so basically I learned that Dr. John...

Again, there are many ways to help others. Being a physician is one way, but certainly not the only way. I feel like I am a social worker every day I am at work. I feel like I am a therapist even when I have never had any training to do it. Funny, I had a patient who likely needed a...

Hm. Sorry I'm late to the party. my .02: It is a weed out game, but just consider what it is on the other side of the table. If you've ever been the hiring manager for a job, for example, there are lots of similiarities to being an adcom. You get like 200+ applications...how do you expect to...

I assume you will probably apply to your state institution, and many of them have a primary care agenda-I would make an effort to shadow a FM/Peds/IM physician in clinic as that can be helpful. I think many premeds come into medicine through the ED (ironically thats how patients also get into...

For me, although some people may think differently, even if you're paid, it really does matter what/where you did it more so than if it was paid or volunteer. For example, if you were a volunteering in an affluent part of town, I think that there is less 'service' compared to being paid to...

To be honest, I think its a cool story. Good news is that your mcat is strong, and therefore schools won't think you're an academic liability which is important. GPA, well they shouldn't ding you for a gpa when you were going to be a park ranger (not to badmouth park rangers).

Regarding the activities aspect, when someone asks about whether or not you have the activities, the truth is that there will be matriculants who will have not had those activities. If you just crush your interview, nobody will care if you had non clinical extracirriculars. That said, the goal...

I'd remove UCSF and UCLA. No need to spend precious time working on secondaries with lower yield potential especially OOS. yeah remove Washington. Remember, your secondaries will come as one large wave even if you're OOS. don't apply to places where you'll be wasting time trying to write a...

Im lost. Did I understand correctly that DO is off the table because you want to do surgery!?!?!

Age: no Grades: no I think just doing activities that really show clinical exposure and nonclinical volunteerism will be good for you. Other than that, just hit the grades. that'll be the biggest thing for you.

This is an example for which people often need to be prepared when they apply, rather "preparING" while they're applying. The application year I often think as a dead year because it usually doesn't move the needle all that much and a lot of people come in with everyone done rather than...