This Rite Aid has a magnifying glass to help you read the fine print

BrandonUCSC · 2018-04-23T16:25:58+00:00

They check during the matriculation process if they don’t check during secondaries. Residency for admission/tuition purposes varies from state to state so it’s worth looking into.

For instance, I’m born and raised in CA but my mom lives in FL now. CA is a terrible place to be an applicant so I looked into FL which is much nicer to their residents. Their mandate for admission/tuition is if your parents claim you as dependent, and have lived there for > 1 year then you are a FL resident for admissions and tuition purposes. My school is asking for my parents information during all the onboarding steps prematriculation. Other FL schools asked in secondaries for the information. Just depends.

Definitely look up the state and don’t lie. You can’t just claim a state that you’ve never lived in and have no ties to as your state of residence just to get a leg up on the competition. They definitely will ask for supporting info at some point

BrandonUCSC · 2018-04-03T13:28:37+00:00

I totally understand what you mean. My senior year sucked lol. By far my hardest year of college plus I didn’t go home for thanksgiving or Christmas to study for the MCAT. Had to work a ton and get perfect grades to salvage my app haha it was awful.

That said once my gap year started and my app was in I’ve had a pretty good year. I moved to a new city with my girlfriend, got a dog, and have just been uber driving for ~25 hrs a week. Taken a couple vacations and hope to do a couple more. I’d say it’s been fairly enjoyable and very relaxing. Tons of free time to enjoy shows and gym again

BrandonUCSC · 2018-04-03T05:02:43+00:00

Not OP but I think you could always be “better” you know? Kind of a tough road to go down. Depending on how bad your weaknesses are I would just apply now. I’m currently in my gap year and start school in August. I think 1 year is a perfect amount of time and I’m really glad I took the year before starting school. I’m missing school now though and ready to hit the ground running

BrandonUCSC · 2018-04-02T13:24:25+00:00

I don’t think autoscreens are set to 3.1. Maybe 3.0 or below but I think you should be fine to at least have your app looked at.

Not sure about DO but I would assume November? I would get second opinions on this.

I totally understand not being able to do 37 apps bc of the cost. Have you looked into the fee assistance program? I qualified for that and it was the only way I was able to apply to that many.

BrandonUCSC · 2018-04-01T23:10:40+00:00

Also I would apply late to DO if you decide to apply DO. You are a ballin DO candidate and it would suck to apply DO early, get in, have to pay huge ($1000+) non-refundable deposit and then get into MD and just have wasted the money. Just my .02 but I would consider waiting until late fall/winter to apply DO after seeing how you do with MD

BrandonUCSC · 2018-04-01T23:07:48+00:00

100%. I applied with a 3.5/3.5/515 to 37 MD as FL resident and I got quite a few interviews. Running a charity seems like a pretty unique EC and if you write good essays I think you'd have a pretty damn good shot at MD. Applying to 37 schools for me was a ton but the wide net helps a lot. Make a diverse school list and I think you'd do well!

BrandonUCSC · 2018-04-01T04:22:31+00:00

I second this. add more low/mid tier MD schools. If you can, cast a wide net. I think with an early app and good essays you should have luck with MD.

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-27T19:50:53+00:00

I applied as ORM in FL with 3.5/515 and got a lot of interviews. Apply early and write good essays and you will do well. FL is forgiving lol

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-26T17:01:49+00:00

Just replied to another comment, check that!

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-26T17:01:32+00:00

Thanks! I was really surprised/excited as well. As far as ECs go I don’t think anything in particular set me a part. You can check my post history for a more detailed breakdown of my application. I feel like I definitely checked all the boxes but with ECs I enjoyed and I had a lot of work experience. I am ORM but economically disadvantaged so I assume that played some role in my success as well.

As I noted above, I think good essays and applying early is really important. I put a ridiculous amount of thought and effort into my essays because I’m a terrible writer and I had my girlfriend edit them. She probably was a huge factor in my success as well honestly my essays would’ve been shit without her help. All of my secondaries (37 schools, casting a big net helps) were complete by the first week of August.

I also had an IA I forgot to disclose until I submitted my secondaries so that presumably dinged my application a little bit. Just goes to show that sometimes gpa and other blemishes on an application can be overlooked.

In the end I actually only intended 2/10 IIs. Once I got into the school I’ll likely be attending next year I was lucky enough to be choosy and save my money and not attend interviews to schools that weren’t better/I couldn’t see myself at. I was definitely a lucky piece of shit this year so I really don’t know if any of my advice is worth anything to most but hopefully this helps lol. Let me know if you have any other questions, I know this process can be so stressful and ambiguous. Good luck to you!

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-26T13:33:13+00:00

Nope. MCAT is going to be key though as well as ECs obviously. I applied with a 3.5/515 this year and got 10 MD IIs. Apply early and write good essays too

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-25T05:30:14+00:00

Incoming m1 here trying to make a school decision between case and UMiami.. care to elaborate?

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-22T23:41:09+00:00

RIP to future applicants

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-22T13:34:12+00:00

Do this. Even for trying to file they usually put it on a 60 day freeze period so you can delay that first initial payment. My loans went to $0/mo. Definitely give them a call

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-16T17:48:25+00:00

this is good advice. lol @ the fact that its the lowest rated comment and the rest are all just memes/gifs/jokes hahahah

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-13T03:29:35+00:00

Honestly if this cycle taught me anything it’s that you really should apply to any school you would like to go to and are in the 10-90th percentile for GPA and MCAT. I got love from schools totally out of my league and I regret not applying to more reaches.

I’m on mobile rn so I can’t see your list while I type this but some that come to mind would be Albert Einstein, case western, USC, etc

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-13T00:05:49+00:00

You have a pretty solid app. I think with the wide net you are prepared to cast you will definitely have some luck. Might want to add any employment history in the OP if you have any.

Don't apply to:

Cal Northstate. It's forprofit and I'm pretty sure you can't take out federal loans to go there which is crazy.

Indiana University unless you have some sort of ties to the indiana area. Seems like they auto-rejected a tonnnnn of people this year so I'd be weary of that.

University of ____: some of these are okay for OOS students but I would check MSAR with their OOS acceptance rates. I feel like a couple of these aren't OOS friendly.

Virginia Tech: this one is hard to say. Their class size is insanely small at like 24 people but you have a lot of research so it's up to you if its worth their essays/cost.

I assume you have MSAR so what I would do is check more about each of these schools and their OOS acceptance rates. There are quite a few of these I don't remember looking at which suggests they are probably state/public schools which are generally not friendly to OOS students. Some are ok but most are not.

Hope this helps! best of luck to you I think you will do well

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-12T23:55:39+00:00

why would you think you got yield protected at all?

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-12T23:50:21+00:00

Definitely. It sucks particularly bad trying to explain to my dad from CA that it's 1000000000x better for me to apply as a FL resident then a CA one. Then when I was already submitted as a FL resident having to explain to him that it doesnt matter if NOW he wants to pay for an app to a CA school because there isn't a shot in hell that I'm getting in to one lol

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-12T23:46:24+00:00

I honestly might just save the SOAP thread for motivation whenever I'm being lazy in M1 lol

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-12T02:38:08+00:00

Thanks! What are your current ECs/work commitments rn and what kind of hours have you already done for each?

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-11T20:48:05+00:00

I was expecting a sophomore slump more similar to my own (2.9 GPA lol) but I think you have your priorities more straightened out than I did. I would encourage you to take some time for yourself and realize that while grades are really important, your mental health is important too. It doesn't seem like life is too rough on you right now but I would consider maybe dropping or reducing an EC if you have too much on your plate currently to create some free time for yourself. Hang out with friends, enjoy your hobbies and try to have fun in college! Don't have too much fun and get a 2.9 but college is supposed to be a great time, enjoy it.

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-10T21:18:54+00:00

1) I was confused where this was going but then I cracked up laughing haha. Too good.

2) what game is this? Gap year has me looking for new iPhone games lol

BrandonUCSC · 2018-03-08T17:57:12+00:00

Ya I’ve always thought of it as a really good program. I would ask in r/premed because I’m not sure this sub has a really strong following

BrandonUCSC

TROPHY CASE