AACOMAS SUBMITTED!!!

I finally took the plunge and hit the submit button on my DO school applications. Don’t know why, but I procrastinated all day. I even went shopping for an extension cord two towns away just to avoid it.

I couldn’t help but go over it two more times and make some minor tweaks to the essay. I will probably make the same adjustments to the MD app tomorrow. I feel like an OCD patient that just walked into this:

To give you an idea of the damage, it cost me some where between $500-1000 just for DO apps. And that is not including the price of getting transcripts sent and cost of secondary apps.

Time to go have a few beers to celebrate. I wonder if it will affect my blood test tomorrow………

Waiting to push the button…….

I’ve managed to complete all the finishing touches on my DO apps in the past couple of days.

– I updated the description of my internship at the Family Practice I’m shadowing.

– I cut down my Personal Statement to 4500 characters. It was quite easy actually, I simply deleted the entire paragraph detailing my experience in the horrible, dirty,  and immoral world of politics. On the plus side, taking out the paragraph made the essay more unified to the military theme.  However it also contained in that paragraph is a minor explanation of why my grades were so terrible. There was just no where else to add it to in other sections since the whole essay had been cut down from the 5 page monster it was before! However I think it will be OK because of the more “overall-big picture” approach DO schools take to applicants. I think that is my ace in hole for DO school… or at least a king… maybe a Jack-Queen suited? Man I hate it when I have to fold pocket face cards.

– I also finalized the list of DO schools I’m applying to. The easiest ones to eliminate were the ones requiring a rec letter from an pre-medical councilor, committee, or (get this) THE DEAN OF THE COLLEGE WHERE YOU EARNED YOUR BACHELORS….. the heck? First off I went to 4 colleges which equal no time to kiss that much butt. Second, do you know how inaccessible administrators are in public schools with enrollments over 25,000? I mean they have people that work full time for $10 an hour who’s job it is to simply make sure you don’t bother administrators.

Dropping those were no-brainers. Anyway I would share how many DO schools I am applying to, but I think it supposed to be one of those thing you don’t want each school to know about…..who knows how many admissions councilors have found this blog already. But to give you an idea…….definitely more than the average applicant.

TL:DR: Everything is done with DO applications. Maybe I’ll submit tonight.

On the MD front:

– Virtual Evals have been ordered from UCSD to AMCAS. I plan to snail mail the last rec letter from my internship when I receive it in two weeks. Maybe I’ll submit the app even before I get it in.

The Domino Effect

I have officially applied to medical school! *whew* I finished my 3rd “optional” essay for St. George’s on Tuesday and mailed it out today. I must have looked over the entire app at least 5 times to make sure everything was in place. It was kinda nerve racking dropping it off at the post office, I probably thought about turning around and walking back to my car twice.

This will have a domino effect on the other apps going in. MD and DO apps are both around 98% complete.

DO app tasks:

– Cut personal statement down to 4500 characters

– Finalize list of schools to submit to

– Update volunteer experience to include shadowing at DO clinic.

MD app tasks:

– Get rec letters processed (big pain in the butt)

– Finalize list of schools to submit to (probably 3 to 6)

– Expand descriptions of all extracurriculars and work experience

Tel Aviv Univ, Israel app is at 0%, but I’ve looked it over and I should be able to complete it in a day or two.

Other tasks:

Consider applying to Philippine Medical Schools

Apply for research position in a University in the South

Apply for MPH? Maybe?

Oh Thank God!

3 weeks, 7phone calls, and 10 E-mails later…… UCSD Rec Letter and File Service is finally back online!

Wow I feel like the parking break on my life has been removed. It really feels like Christmas.

On the Caribbean front, I’ve beefed up my personal statement and completed the auxiliary essay.  Now if I can just finish the last 250 words for the optional “explain why your grades suck” essay, I can mail it out by the end of the weekend.

Also I’ve looked into the med school in Isreal…..and it’s definitely peaked my interest.

Just Another Stick in the Beaver Dam

Just finished the auxiliary essay in my Caribbean school app concerning “Issues in health care delievery in the country you intend to practice”.  My main focus was military medical issues (including Walter Reed).

So the only pending issues on Caribbean app are:

1. Beefing up AMCAS Personal Statement to 1500 words

2. Writing 250 word optional essay on my why grades suck big fat appendages

and 3. Getting Rec Letters being held hostage at UCSD sent….. I heard the terrorists have dropped their demands of an escape helicopter in trade for pizza….. if only Rainbow 6 was real… man a sweet MP10SD would be so sick…bang and breach!bangandbreach!….*weep*

About time!

Well I finally finished my Personal Statement…..5 versions later. Wow. It took a lot more effort than I ever put in any single paper in college.

The only issue is that it is the 5300 character AMCAS version (approx 950 words) and I have to whittle it down to 4500 characters for AACOMAS and pump it up to 1500 words for the Caribbean.

I now have everything done with MD/AMCAS applications EXCEPT… LETTERS OF REC WHICH UCSD is still holding hostage! I find it amazing how many external factors outside of my control have been kicking my butt.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

To continue that grand practical joke that is my medical school applications; I woke up late this morning to the sound of the cleaners working in my house. They usually show up at 0800,  so I knew instantly I was gonna be late to my internship  if I didn’t start haulling you know what.

I threw on my work clothes and in a sleepy daze made my way towards the kitchen to find what…….. one of the maids had placed a DIRTY, WET, SMELLY RAG ON TOP OF MY HANDWRITTEN PAPER APPLICATION TO A CARIBBEAN MEDICAL SCHOOL…..SERIOUSLY>>>>>WTF!

Lucky for her I was still half asleep and did not have enough brain function to yell and curse at her in Spanish……. and every second I would spend telling her what’s up would be time wasted getting to the office….. *sigh* FML

D.O. Shadowing Week 2

I’ve finally got settled into the Family Practice clinic here. I’ve learned some of the day to day office operations so now I can work on the patient charting system they have when there are no patients or interesting cases to shadow.

As for interesting cases these week, there was a 13 yr old male with juvenile full body alopecia. That was a real head scratcher. No a hair on him except for some patchy eyebrows and other than that the kid was completely healthy. I read on some journal articles latter that early life onset usually means the condition is unresponsive to treatment. I wish I could see the case through with the endocrinologist we referred the patient too.

Interesting case of the week #2 was a 60 year old male who had been in a severe car accident the day before. He was taken to the ER via ambulance and released. It was the primary care doc’s responsibility to document the patient’s condition for insurance purposes. I learned a lot about what areas are frequently injured and what questions to ask. I must have taken 3 or 4 pages of notes during the examination.

Highlight case #3 was a patient who reported skin inflammation around a cut and was worried about it being infected. Turn out it was just an allergic reaction to overuse of neosporin! LoL.

Major Hold Up in Applications

I finally had time to really work on my Caribbean medical school applications. Unlike US school, they are asking for everything at the same time. This includes rec letters to accompany the primary app.

There’s just one thing…… UCSD Career Center’s servers are down and all of my rec letters which are stored there electronically are locked away! THERE IS NO WAY TO ACCESS OR ORDER THEM RIGHT NOW. The worst part is they don’t know when they will have the issue resolved. It could possible take a week or two. Talk about a heart attack………..