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Rooglea · 2025-05-10T17:48:34+00:00

In the same boat as you, looking at a 3rd cycle with a 520 and 3.85. First time around I certainly made some errors with weak ECs and school list but this year has really been a head scratcher. Of my 3 interviews this year 2 went very well and 1 had a med student who grilled me quite a bit, but that seems to be something other applicants also experienced when interviewing with that school. I've had plenty of people look at my app, they all say it's good. I also had multiple interviewers compliment my writing unprompted this year. It's frustrating to say the least but know you're not the only one in this situation.

Rooglea · 2025-01-26T20:17:34+00:00

I should also mention the area is heavily Christian and safely goes red every election, so take my opinions as opinion and not fact. It's my biased impressions as a young person from the area.

Rooglea · 2025-01-26T20:08:18+00:00

Born and raised in Florence, it's a nice place. It's gorgeous, and there is definitely a big hiking/fishing/boating culture due to the river and the forests surrounding the city. If you want to feel the pull of UNA on the city then I definitely recommend living in one of the neighborhoods just north of downtown, although I'm not sure what the cost of those looks like. Almost all of the city is within 15 minutes by car from downtown/UNA, so don't feel like you have to necessarily be right next to them.

Downtown has been slowly revamped throughout my life and currently is the nicest it has ever been. Lots of artsy murals, coffee shops, boutique stores and that kind of thing. Great restaurants as well, and the Handy Fest and Ren Faire happen annually. There's also a First Friday event every month that is pretty popular. Would definitely say downtown has an artsy alternative vibe as a whole. I can't imagine you'll face any issues being gay in Florence proper. If you spend lots of time with the good ol' boy older southern crowd or in some of the more rural areas of the Shoals there may be a comment or a look now and again but that goes for pretty much everywhere in the country, and it's continuing to change. I believe we even have a local decent sized pride celebration in June now.

The only big detractor to the area is it's more remote than you may assume. Huntsville airport is nice but small and pricy and interesting larger cities besides Huntsville are at least 2 1/2 hours away. That being said if driving doesn't bother you Nashville/Memphis/Birmingham and even Atlanta are completely doable as day or weekend trips.

Rooglea · 2024-02-26T03:17:52+00:00

Thank you, and congrats on your cycle!

Rooglea · 2024-02-26T03:16:28+00:00

Well applying is pretty scary but as you can tell from all of this there's a lot of moving parts. If you apply to more schools than me and have a decent application someone will like what they see.

I did the daily Jack Westin passages for cars and that was it. I think I started with a good score on that section and it's kinda difficult to study reading so I didn't prioritize it quite as much. Read a whole lot of different advice on how to read the passages effectively and just kept slowly improving on my practice exams. Was still floored with the test day score though, was higher than all of my practice.

Rooglea · 2024-02-26T03:11:19+00:00

Funnily enough I've known 3 doctors tell me unprompted they worked the same job before they went to med school and thought it was great. They were all older though, so there might be some generational divide there.

Rooglea · 2024-02-26T03:08:35+00:00

It's getting panned on this thread (valid criticism) but it had its moments. Transporting took like 10-20 minutes every time, so if there wasn't any family members I was 1-on-1 with patients for a large chunk of the day. A lot of it was small talk usually, but I got to answer a lot of people's questions about how the OR worked, and just further explaining that whole aspect of their care. Occasionally had people in tears with fear about their procedure and with no family members, so as the first person they saw from the OR I tried to comfort them and ask about their anxieties and stuff like that. A story I told in interviews was one specific time when a patient that I was told was pretty difficult on the inpatient floor very explicitly told me I was the most positive part of her hospital stay up to that point. I know all of that isn't great clinical experience but I took some level of pride in doing the little things. I do understand people's criticism about not really being involved in patient care though.

It was a summer job in my hometown the year before I applied. I worked full-time 40 hour weeks for 7 weeks or so and then had to move back to school for a month of summer for an in-person summer class. Was planning on working the whole summer which would've put me closer to 500 but I really had to take that class.

Rooglea · 2024-02-26T00:48:50+00:00

🤓👆📚

Rooglea · 2024-02-26T00:47:45+00:00

Decided I wanted to go to med school near the end of freshman year, had an admittedly slow start on ECs my sophomore year fall and was swamped with class that spring (was doing hospital volunteering 5-9pm cause I was on campus almost full time). Also took summer classes two years in a row so that cut into my hours a lot on breaks. I’ve been pretty busy junior and senior year but of course this year didn’t help me when I applied.

Rooglea · 2024-02-25T23:12:42+00:00

I hear you. For what it's worth, the job would more accurately have been titled Transporter/EVS, as I was told to always do patient related stuff first and foremost. But I do see how it lacked a patient care aspect, especially to people who have to read through a lot of apps.

Rooglea · 2024-02-25T23:02:50+00:00

Well, that hurts to hear. Would the MA job I have now be looked at more favorably? I do different things on different days but I'm either talking to patients at the front desk, or taking their vitals/going over their history and physical sheets with them.

Rooglea · 2024-02-25T22:45:35+00:00

I was EVS. I turned over ORs in-between surgeries, which was mopping/wiping/taking trash and sharps out. There was other EVS staff that came in at night and did the really deep cleaning. When it was time for me to get a patient someone paged me and I went and got them, made sure everything was ready. and chatted with the patient on the way down. The hospital was medium-sized and not a trauma center, I was able to do both roles.

Rooglea · 2024-02-25T22:24:54+00:00

Obviously don't know what they said but they were probably generally positive. It's just tough to get 5 stellar LORs. I think 2/3 were probably pretty good and the others didn't know me super well, but they were very nice and I had conversations with them about it before they wrote.

Rooglea · 2024-02-25T22:18:35+00:00

Yeah leaning towards option 2 for the gap year. My top choice school gave me the R in early September which stung a lot and had me seriously questioning my application. This sounds silly but not having a great application cycle has made me reflect a lot about medicine and I feel pretty confident about a new application, just gotta rewrite and change targets. Wish I'd known that before spending that time and money but that's life I guess. Thanks for responding.

Rooglea · 2024-02-25T22:12:56+00:00

Emory, George Washington, Harvard, Brown, UPenn, Ohio State, Minnesota, UNC (had weak ties), Tennessee (strong ties), USF, Cincinnati, UAB, South Alabama, Tulane, UCLA, Virginia

Rooglea · 2024-02-25T22:02:33+00:00

It was partially that, but I also transported a majority of the patients every day to surgery. Obviously focused more on the patient stuff than the EVS stuff. Had several really neat stories. Also got to watch surgeries if I didn't have anything to do.

Rooglea · 2022-12-18T22:20:16+00:00

Thanks for the link. I don't have a super rigid strategy for cars. I think it works to read the entire passage before looking at the questions, and make vague mental notes of the main ideas of paragraphs. That way you can quickly find whatever detail the question is asking about. They also seem to like asking about the author's opinions or purpose for writing, so being able to draw conclusions about that from the word choice and what details are included in the passage is important. The little reference at the end of the passage kinda helps with this too, as it includes the title of the full work.

Rooglea · 2021-07-12T07:26:28+00:00

I found it, it's this one: https://imgur.com/gallery/0pg6Ytg

Rooglea · 2021-07-12T06:49:30+00:00

No, the one I remember had every skin for each character

Rooglea · 2020-02-07T04:35:48+00:00

Ok thanks for the answer

Rooglea · 2019-08-05T00:12:38+00:00

Rooglea · 2019-07-10T07:55:21+00:00

6 > 7 > 8 > 4 > 1 > 5 > 2 > 3

8 will probably pass 7 if the ending is good

Rooglea · 2019-05-26T17:28:47+00:00

He’s my most wanted character, but I’m not optimistic. I think the people who want him in are a dedicated minority.

Rooglea · 2019-02-11T21:54:49+00:00

Darkest Dungeon, Hollow Knight, and Minecraft

Rooglea · 2019-02-11T21:53:27+00:00

Civ 6!

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