Where is everyone?

[Lil_ChiO_Lady]

Originally posted by XOMichelle

Lill Chi O- What class are you taking? What is your major?


I have exciting news.... So, AMCAS (american medical college application service) finally verified my application! And today I got a secondary from the Univeristy of Southern California AND a letter from Washington Univeristy in St. Louis saying they think I am a competitive canidate and should apply. Wash U is one of the best med schools in the country, and I am a bit floored that they would think I am a good canidate... but hey!!! It has made my day.

-M

I am taking a Poli Sci class..woohoo j/k ..I am a Theatre/Dance Education major. I wanna teach dance after i graduate but i would really like to open up my own performing arts school for underprivledged kids. So i guess we will see whenever i start substituting in the next year or so.

Congrats that is soo exciting!!keep us posted on that.

[XOMichelle]

Originally posted by oncelurked
Congrats on the letter Michelle! Thats awesome Though I have to say, it would be nice to have you in LA.

and I have to "ditto" everything Michelle said

As for me, I've finally got a permanent lab, so I can start concentrating on my thesis project. It's going to have to do with a protein family that appears to be part of a molecular stress response/immune response. I have 4-5 years to go, now that I've got a lab and a topic. Just so y'all know, this sort of thing usually takes 6 years or so. I know people who've done it in 4 years and people who've taken 10 years. I guess that's what a biology PhD is about, though - research, research, publish, and research some more

ETA: I've already finished one year....

Good luck darling! I know you can do it. :-)
Go find something that will be useful to me in 10 years when I have my MD

[oncelurked]

Thanks Michelle! How are the secondaries coming?

KellyB369 - Hope work is slowing enough for you to catch your breath. What kind of work are you doing and what kind are you looking to do when you change jobs?

LilChiOLady - Good luck with your classes. Keep us updated on how things go with class and the dance school.

And something new for me..I should be moving in a few weeks =) My honey and I are moving into a 1 bedroom apartment across the street from UCLA (where we are both getting PhD's in Molecular Biology, concentration in Gene REgulation)

[XOMichelle]

This is turning into "Michelle's Med School Application Updates"
So far I have 6 secondaries:

Medical College of Wisconsin
Jefferson Medical College
University of Southern California
Ohio State
NY Medical College
George Washington

I've turned in 4, and am working on USC and Ohio State. So it's going fairly well, even though I had the most serious writers block this weekend. Cross your fingers for some interview calls in 4-6 weeks.

[xo_kathy]

OK, Michelle, to continue your thread , what exactly are secondaries. And while NY Medical College isn't *super close* to me, it's kinda close! And close enough that you could come to Eleusinia with the NYC alum chapter at least!!!!

[XOMichelle]

Kathy,
There are 3 rounds of applications in the Med School admission process.

Round 1 aka Primaries- A centralized application service called AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service), collects your MCAT scores, your transcript and an essay. For $30 a school, you pick which ones you would like to apply to. They verify your grades and send all of your information off to the various medical schools. This process is on line, and starts on June 1. All but about 10 medical schools in the country use AMCAS (the Texas schools have their own application service). You MUST do this first round in order to go on to the second.

Round 2 aka Secondaries- Once receiving your AMCAS application, Medical Schools invite you to complete a secondary application. Secondaries always ask for letters of recommendation and more money ($50-100), and generally ask for another essay. Some are very involved and ask for 5 or 6 essays. Some schools screen the primaries and only invite some candidates to complete the secondary application. Other schools send secondaries to everyone. It depends on the school.

Round 3 aka Interview- After reading your primary and secondary application, the medical school then decides if you are worthy of an interview. If you are, they call or write you with a date they would like you to come to their school. You go, and spend the day touring the school and talking to professors, the admissions staff and students. After the interview you can get 1 of 3 decisions: Deny, Accept, or Wait List. Medical Schools generally have very long wait lists since they want to have a full class each year Also, many students hold more than one acceptance until May 15th, when they must decide on a school. Thus, at the end of the spring, there is a huge shuffle of students.

Whew! Sorry that was so long. It’s complicated.

I applied to 24 schools for the primary round, and have been invited to complete 7 secondaries so far! I got UC Irvine today

[XOMichelle]

Oh my... the work just piles on... I got University of Pittsburg today, UC Irvine yesterday....and I still need to finish Ohio State and USC. I am drowning in essays!

But, it's a good thing.

[KellyB369]

Michelle - I have to say I admire you for putting in all the time and effort to find a school. I know that's what you have to do but I just can't imagine filling out all those applications and writing all those essays. Not to mention the $ you have to spend. I think it's funny that the secondary round is when schools "invite" you to apply and send them more $. Good luck with the process! 7 so far out of 24 sounds pretty good to me!

Oncelurked, things are starting to slow down now. I work for an IT Staffing company so we do recruiting and placements of IT type people. We usually place them on 3, 6 or 12 month projects doing programming or testing or something like that. I'm the admin for the office. I was actually doing some recruiting for about 20 Customer Service positions, which is why things were so hectic for me. We don't usually do Customer Service type positions but when 20 open positions come along you don't pass that up. We have placed 10 people now and if the client hires the other 10 people it will be down the road so yes, to answer your question, I am finally able to breathe again.
I would really like to get into HR although those kinds of jobs are hard to find. Other than that I am really open as far as what kind of job I get next. At this point I would just really like to be making more $ and be doing something new and different.

[XOMichelle]

Originally posted by KellyB369
At this point I would just really like to be making more $ and be doing something new and different.

Tell me about it!!! I can not wait to go to grad school (and get out and get a real job).

Speaking of which, I got more secondaries! The full list as of today:
George Washington
Jefferson Medical College
New York Medical College
University of Southern California
MCW
Ohio State
Creighton
University of Pittsburg
UC Irvine
Rush

That's 10! I expect to get about 5-7 more (that's the invite rate I had last time). The big jump will be in interviews. I hope to get 4 or 5!

[oncelurked]

Glad things are looking good for your secondaries! From what I can recall they are all very good schools. I still want you in LA, but I hope you get interviews everywhere For sure more than the 4 or 5 you're hoping for (only because I want you to get the very best).

KellyB - that sounds like a very interesting job; I've only been the person placed and never the person matching people and positions. I hope you find your change of pace and $$ job in HR

I think I'll be wanting a position making more $$ and doing something new and different when I get done with grad school. Hopefully I won't "sell my soul" to biotech for the cash. If I don't, maybe I can come up with something for Michelle to use when she gets her MD

[XOMichelle]

Originally posted by XOMichelle

Speaking of which, I got more secondaries! The full list as of today:
George Washington
Jefferson Medical College
New York Medical College
University of Southern California
MCW
Ohio State
Creighton
University of Pittsburg
UC Irvine
Rush

Add Northwestern to this mix.

Does anyone here have experience editing?