Thank you so much, AggieDoc!
Most of my friends were out of town this summer, so I was left to cope with application and MCAT stress all by myself. Well, here goes the venting! AHHHHHHHHHH! The MCAT was hard. I spent so much time and effort preparing and practicing for the August administration, and I won't even know how it went for six weeks or so. And after all the notecards I went through learning all the chemistry and physics formulas, I bet I used only five on the actual exam! I have to say, I'm so relieved that it's over and that I got throught it in one piece.
Enough venting, here are my main questions. Should I include my greek involvement on my applications? Also, I've been working on my personal statement for months and it never seems to be long enough. The AMCAS idea of "one page" and my idea of one page differ by about half a page. Should I continue writing to fill up the space or should I be satisfied about 600 characters short of the 5,300 character limit (that's about one small paragragh)? Also, I am applying to two New York schools that have their own application, Columbia and NYU. The NYU application went well, but the Columbia one is totally in a stalemate. They don't have a "Personal Comments" section, because they outright ask essay questions. All that is fine and dandy, except for the question "What satisfaction you expect for your activities in medicine?" What kind of question is that?!?!?! Are they completely insane? The word "satisfaction" is SO incredibly subjective. I know why I want to be a doctor and I know what my motivations are, but the only satisfaction I expect to get is to simply be satisfied with my life... to be a ble to look at myself everyday in the mirror and be content with where my life has taken me. How do you answer that question in 36 lines, when all I want out of medicine is to be happy? It wouldn't matter that much, but Columbia is my number 1 choice! I've wanted to go there since I decided I wanted to be a doctor. If I don't get in for legitimate reasons, that's fine, but I don't want to get denied because I can't answer a simple essay question. Here is my last question. I have been told over and over again to apply to a variety of schools, some very competitive and som not so competitive. I am a FL resident. Here is a list of schools I am applying to (let me know if there are any on this list I should forgo or any that I forgot that would be worth looking into:
(this is my list they way I ranked my choices) 1) Columbia, 2) Cornell, 3)Yale, 4) NYU, 5) Mount Sinai, 6) U of Chicago, 7) U Penn, 8) Loyola, Chicago, 9) Boston U, 10) U of South Florida, and 11) U of Miami. I can't apply to any schools requiring biochemistry and/or calculus. Thank you so much for any input you may have !!!!!! By the way, what are you doing your residency in?
