Update on Applications/Interviews/Acceptance ... plus NEW BLOG!

Okay, so here is the scoop on the rest of my application and interview cycle, plus acceptance and making decisions.

So, last time I was telling you about my first interview request.  It was so exciting, especially because it happened so fast after sending in that particular application.   The next week I finished my application for Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) and two days later heard from them, requesting me for an interview.  Things were finally starting to look up, and for the first time in several months, I thought, "I am going to get into medical school!"  That was how I reacted at first.  Then I got very nervous and worried.  I have never been good at interviewing.  And now, my interview for VCOM was going to come before the one for Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine.  To be completely honest, VCOM was always WAY ahead of Kirksville on my list and I was hoping to have some practice with a school that mattered less to me first.  Oh well, that was not about to happen.  My VCOM interview was scheduled for a week and a half later, February 10.  

I frantically started looking online for interview tips and suggestions.  I contacted Health PAC at NCSU and set up an interview preparation meeting.  And, best of all, my sister had a friend who has lots of experience with mock interviews and was very willing to take time out of her schedule to help me prepare. 

The interview prep at school was great.  I found out the main points I needed to get across in the interview, things I should and should not wear, they way I should sit ... all the practical stuff. However, I was hoping for more of a practice with actually interviewing   - though I am sure at that time I was not ready.

I came home from that session and went through everything I learned and came up with how I thought I wanted to emphasis the important parts of the experiences I have had over the years. Then, I had a mock interview that Sunday before my real interview with my sisters friend.  I went into that very nervous, but became more comfortable as she began asking questions.  There were a few questions that completely caught me off guard (I had emailed her questions I found online and she had other medical school friends email her questions as well).  After the "interview" we went through everything, the good and the bad, and the times when I had no answer.  Then we came up with points from my life that I could use to answer those or similar questions AND how to determine what the interviewer was really trying to get out of the question he or she is asking.  

I owe a lot to this mock interview!!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, February 10, 2009 8:00AM.

I arrive at VCOM nervous, but having surprisingly slept pretty well the night before.  We had three interviews that morning, followed by a campus (really just building) tour, lunch, a tour of the town, and a financial aid session.   

The first interview was the hardest, not because of the questions asked, but because I became extremely nervous upon walking in the room.  I felt much better when he began asking me questions, and feel like I answered all but one of them pretty well.  I was able to cover all of the topics that we decided was important for me to talk about in the interviews, but none in depth. 

The second interview was up stairs on the third floor and I was suffering from allergies (at least that is my excuse) so by the time I made it to the third floor I was completely out of breath.  It took until someone interupted us in the middle of the interview, for me to catch my breath.  I think being out of breath made me sound more nervous than I actually was during this interview.  This time, I tried really hard to discuss my senior project, creating an artifical esophagus (probably the most important point) but the interviewer had other ideas and I could not say what I wanted.

The third interview was definitely the best.  This interviewer was very interested in my trip to Honduras, and the artificial esophagus.  I was able to talk to her with great ease and feel like I said everything I needed and wanted to say. 

After the interviews were over, the stress was over, and all of us interviewees were tired.  The day finished out and I was definitely ready to go home, feeling good about the interviews for the most part, but trying not to get too excited.  There were certain things I could remember the interviewers saying to me that made me realized this was definitely not a sure thing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TWO DAYS LATER, on February 12, I got the phone call they said they would only make if you were accepted, no conditions.  However, I was at work and they did not say on the phone, you are accepted, they just said, please call us back.  This was aweful, again I did not want to get ahead of myself there are other reasons why they might have called, but I did feel more confident.  Friday morning, first thing, I called them back and was told I had been ACCEPTED!!!

WOW.  This was a day I had dreamed about for many years, but the biggest day is still four years in the making. 

I worked at the hospital that Friday afternoon and before I left just about everyone knew that I was going to medical school and they seemed to treat me differently and wanted me to get even more out of the experience ... to learn or see everything I can.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As excited as I was, I wanted to wait the three weeks that I had to see if I would hear from other schools.  I had visited VCOM, I knew I loved it.  However, I had not visited all the other schools I applied to and thought I should give them a chance, too.

I called every school I had not heard from and asked the progress of my application.  Most said it was on hold, waiting for further evaluation.  UNC outright rejected me while I was on the phone with them.  And, ECU said they would look at it again right away.  I got an email an hour later asking me to come for an interview.  So, I set one up.  It was for after the time I would have to accept VCOM, but I thought the experience would be good to have and I could always take back my acceptance to VCOM if I really liked ECU that much better.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ECU interview was also before the Kirksville interview.  However, two weeks before the Kirksville interview I received an email that said their class was already full. They would continue to interview for waitlist seats, but since I already had an acceptance, AND because I really didn't want to live completely in the middle of nowhere, I decided to relinquish my spot for an interview.  My mom and I did still take the trip to Kansas City though.

As for my ECU interview:  There were two.  The first interview went great!  The interviewer was very easy to talk to and seemed truly interested in my career choice and passions.  However, the second interviewer hardly let me open my mouth.  They were supposed to be 30 minute interviews, I was in his office for OVER one hour, and I spoke for only about 15 minutes of that time (not for lack of trying).  He wanted to know that I had people skills, I think, but the way he asked the question, and the way he limited my answer, kept me from telling him what he wanted to know.  Eventually, after I thought I had lost the interview, I said, "THAT is why I am a pharmacy tech, a volunteer EMT, and work at the hospital in the ER.  That is why I went to Honduras and spent time with the patients there......."  

Anyway, the remainder of that day was fun, and I liked the school, but I was just not impressed. I still had not heard from GWU, the only real competition (in my mind) to VCOM.  And there were other schools I was looking forward to hearing from, including USC (University of South Carolina).

Since that time, I have received rejections from both, and while there are other schools I have not heard from, I no longer have any hesitations AT ALL about going to VCOM.  Now, I just have to see if I can actually make it through medical school to the biggest day of my life, four years from now. 

It is still all so Surreal!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am also in the process of applying to the Navy Health Professional Scholarship Program.  I am hoping to get everything put together quickly so that I can go to Officer Development School this summer.

The Navy pays for medical school and gives you a monthly stipened, in exchange for year-per-year service after graduation and residency.  I have looked into this a lot and definitely think this is for me. I am really looking forward to it.  I will post more about this as I get further into the process.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am starting a new blog in August "The Next Chapter..." for my musings on medical school and residency.  I will do my best to keep this up to date with all of my FREE TIME while in school .... haha.  

Until then, have a great summer!!!

Acceptance!!!

This post is very late in coming, but ... I was ACCEPTED to medical school!!!!  I will be attending Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in the fall!  I cannot wait!

There is lots more to post, lots of paperwork to finish filling out and mailing/faxing to the school, but I am off to work for now.

Working at the hospital and the pharmacy has been great, I only wish I could have continued to volunteer at Cary EMS for some hands on experience.  

Now, the biggest news is that I am applying to the Navy Health Professionals Scholarship Program.

I will try to keep this updated more with news on the possible scholarship, school and Navy life.  

For now, I am off to work!

INTERVIEW #1

Ok, it has been a while.  I have filled out lots of applications, worried a lot about not hearing anything and wondering if I ever will.  Then I filled out more applications, and more supplementary applications.  I say, even if it is late in the process, definitely apply somewhere you are interested in.

It is definitely better to get all of your letters of recommendation done early, but if you don't know any DOs (Doctor of Osteopathy), but know you will eventually meet one in your job, or elsewhere it is better to wait.  I had been told just to call up random DOs and ask them to write me a letter of recommendation even though they did not know who I was.  It is required by some osteopathic schools that you have a letter from a DO.  They require this so that they know you have some knowledge of what osteopathy is.  I, personally, think there are better ways to get a potential student to learn about the osteopathic profession; however, this is what they require.  I was lucky enough to meet several DOs over the past few months while working at WakeMed in the Emergency Department.  I decided that I would wait until they got to know me, and then ask one of them to write a letter of recommendation for me.  Apparently this was a wonderful plan.

Not one week after I submitted my completed application, letter of recommendation and all, to Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO, did I receive an invitation to interview at their school.  This is my first interview invitation and I was soooooo very excited when I received it.

The interview is not until March 6 or March 9, I get to choose the date.  I am waiting to decide based on if my mother is going to be able to fly out with me.  There is a slight problem, however. 

Apparently, you cannot get from Raleigh, NC to Kirksville, MO.  It is virtually impossible.  It seems that no airlines fly into the airport in Kirksville.  The next closest airport is Columbia, MO.  That is two hours away.  In order to get to Columbia, MO from Raleigh, NC one must fly to Philadelphia to Memphis or JFK to Mississippi, or any other combination of random, out of the way places, taking about 14 hours.  It is only a 18 hour drive in comparison.    This is of course making choosing a flight difficult.  Of course, I could try to fly into a different airport that is 3+ hours away.  Kansas City, MO, Iowa City, Iowa, etc. and all of these possibilities will be researched.  I just have never gone to a town that is "inaccessible" before.  

I am quite interested to see what it is like.

Anyway, hopefully more interview invitations are soon to arrive.

Praise God for his perfect timing and planning.  

~Rachel

I have received 2 denials and 1 interview invitation ... that leaves about 8 schools left to hear back from :-D

Supplementary Applications

So, I have been filling out supplementary applications for a while now. Some of them I have delayed in filling out way too long and hope to remedy that soon. Others I filled out right away. Mostly the difference is in the detail they require such as extra essays. Some of the essays asked are quite ridiculous and many a phrased in such a way that they do not make sense.

I have also started my new job as an ER Scribe which I believe will be very great experience. I will be working with some DOs and hope to be able to get a letter of recommendation from one of them for Virginia Tech. However, I am going to go ahead and finish that supplementary (one of the ones with an essay I really didn't want to sit down and write immediately but have put off too long) and have the doctor send in the LOR separately when it is completed.

I recommend that completeing supplementary applications is not put off. You may be passed over for an interview that you otherwise would have gotten if you had just turned in your supplementary a bit earlier.

I hope this is not the case with George Washington. I actually filled out that supplementary the day I received it and mailed it in immediately. I have only received one thing from them since which states that they have received all of my information and will keep me posted on my status, but that has been a while and I and getting egar.

Good things come to those who wait, but I have never been a patient waiter. I guess this will just be one of those things - like so many others - that I will truely have to put all of my trust and faith in God and know that what He has planned for me is perfect and He will reveal that to me in His perfect time. I know these things with my heart, but my head is slow to learn and accept.

For now I am trusting in the Lord and praying hard!!

Lesson Learned

Well, I learned a lesson - always ask questions if you are not completely sure of the answer.

I found out just a few days ago that GWU has an Early Decision Program (EDP) also. I thought I might be too late to apply in this method because it stated that the AMCAS application had to be reviewed and received by Aug 1 and Secondary by Sept 1. However, that was all it said. There was no information about how to designate this. I only had experience with VCOM about how their EDP worked so I assumed it might be similar.

I was afraid not to go ahead and sumbit my application to AMCAS because if I was going to make the deadline - which I still was unsure of - I had to submit ASAP. I called the GWU today to ask how I designate EDP and was told that it is done completely through AMCAS. I looked again on the AMCAS site and saw nothing about designating EDP. So, I called AMCAS and was told that once you submit this cannot be changed. I told them that I saw no where to designate it which is why I went ahead and submitted. I asked how I was supposed to go about doing this and was told that I had to have prior permission from the school and if I had this permission the school would be able to open up a space on my application for me to indicate EDP.

Now, again I was probably not going to make the deadline, so I did not argue - and the rules are pretty strict so I don't think I could have made them change it anyway; however, I just got off the phone with GWU before I called AMCAS and was not told even after asking about it that I needed their permission.

How was I supposed to know about this? It was not indicated on any website, form, etc.

Well, now I am in the process of completing my GWU and VCOM secondary applications and will begin to submit applications to other schools as well - early decision is now out of the question.

I still have to contact DOs to find someone willing to write me a letter of recommendation; however, this is not quite as urgent because I am no longer applying for early decision.

I am about to schedule a trip to Iowa to visit Iowa University in the next few weeks and will have many more secondary applications to fill out. Hopefully, interviews will start popping up as well.

As for my EMT stuff - I had a meeting Monday night at Cary to discuss time commitment if I was voted onto the crew. Then I stayed for the business meeting where they did the voting and was accepted, conditional on becoming certified.
I also received my scores for the certification test and I passed! Which means I am just waiting for them to complete the background check and to receive the certification card in the mail. Then I will start volunteering at Cary!

I also just signed up to take the pharmacy technician certification exam, so I plan on taking that in the next month. I am very excited about all of these opportunities, but I am feeling very overwhelmed right now with everything.

On top of all that, I am getting ready to move to a new apartment which means my room and apartment are a mess and make my productivity decrease greatly.

More Visits bring more Decisions

Over the past week and a half, I have been traveling from Raleigh, NC to Portland, ME and back again. I visited several schools - UNECOM, PCOM, and GWU. We also had the opportunity to visit many old family homes and museums along the way.

My favorite school of these three is most definitely George Washington University right in the heart of Washington, DC. The hospital has been newly built (opened in 2005 - I believe) across the street from its original location. It is the only hospital in the area to be built to Secret Service specifications which means it is where the President and everyone comes for treatment. It also has a great Emergency Medicine program and because it is in the heart of DC, a wonderful opportunity to learn how to deal with different religions and ethnicities and what they think about health care.

The BIGGEST downfall is that the area is extremely expensive for living, and it doesn't get much better as you move further from downtown.

Now, I have to make the decision - and I have to make it fast - whether I am going to submit to Virginia Tech for early decision. I had made this decision and was DEFINITELY going to do this until I visited GW, and now I am torn.

The average MCAT score for GW is higher than the score I have; however, my GPA is slightly higher than their average. Also, they place great emphasis on volunteer clinical time and I don't have a whole lot of that. All I have comes from Honduras, and they might count the time I spent with Dr. Moran this past summer.

However, I did just take my certification exam for my EMT this morning, and I have an interview Monday for a volunteer position at Cary Area EMS. If all goes well, I will be a regular on the schedule within the next two months (my acceptance will be pending the score of this exam - which I am told takes about a month to process).

Then, if I don't just do early decision to VTech then I have to decide what other schools I am going to apply to, because I don't want to take for granted that I might get into either GW or VT. At this point, I am not really interested in any other schools. I will of course apply to the in state schools, but beyond that I don't know.

If I do early decision at VT, I have to find an Osteopathic doctor in the next week and a half or so who is willing to write me a letter of recommendation to medical school even though they will be meeting me for the first time. It is not that I have been putting this part off - I knew that it was necessary. I just have not been able to find anyone in the Raleigh area who has returned my call/request to shadow. I have, however, probably not been as active about this as I should have been, so I definitely suggest that if you want to go to an Osteopathic school, you should start pursuing this very early on in the process. Also, my secondary application is due by August 12 if I decide to do early decision.

There are some DO schools which do not REQUIRE letters from an osteopath; however, even those strongly recommend it. (UNECOM, PCOM - for example)

The downfall of VT is that there is not really an emphasis on emergency medicine at all. However, there is more of an emphasis on overseas and stateside missions of all sorts.

Well, that is about all for now. I have sumbitted my application to AACOMAS for VT, I have completed my application on AAMCAS as well, but will not hit submit until I make the above decisions. And that WILL be soon!!!

Almost done with Apps!

I am finished filling out my medical school applications except for two things. Figuring out which schools I am going to apply to first (am I doing early decision somewhere or not) and including my personal statement.

I have written my personal statement, but I sent it to my friend's mother for review (and she is very busy). So, as soon as I hear from her I can make the necessary changes and hit submit!

I am very excited about this.

The next step is writing my intent to do the Early Decsion Program (if that is what I decide to do) at Virginia Tech.

This past weekend I visited West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. I like both programs, but was more impressed by Wake Forest. However, in order to have a more competitive application at Wake Forest I should retake the MCAT (I really don't want to do this at this point.) If I do not get in to any medical school, then I will retake the MCATs and reapply for the following year. If I can get into medical school without having to retake the MCATs then I will be very happy.

I do not like the PBL (small group learning) ciriculum at WVSOM, but I might be interested in their normal lecture based learning program. I think the small group method is a good idea, but they have set it up so you are almost completely on your own learning everything you need to know in your first two years of medical school.

Wake Forest has a similar program; however, theirs is integrated with lecture, and the "clinical sessions" are only one week long. So you have the advantage of the program WVSOM is using, as well as professor interaction and your success is not quite as dependent on you.

I am excited about my next trip to visit UNECOM, PCOM, and George Washington Univ School of Medicine and Health Sciences mid July. However, I will have already submitted applications by that point, so it will just help me to know if I am interested in filling out the secondaries if I receive them.