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!!!