Reviewing my MD-PhD AMCAS application that got me into Harvard, Hopkins, UPenn, and more!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ค. 2024
- Hey guys! In this video, I go over my full 2020-2021 AMCAS primary application, including my stats, activities, and school list. I talk a little bit about what you can expect from the application cycle as an MD-PhD applicant.
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Chapters ⏱
00:00 Introduction
02:50 Undergraduate Courses
09:10 GPA/MCAT Stats
10:51 Activities Section
20:53 Essays
25:54 Letters of Recommendation
26:48 School List
33:51 Conclusion
About Me 👨🏻💻
I graduated from Caltech with a BS in Applied Physics in March of 2021 and am an incoming MD-PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm interested in applying physics-derived and computational tools to advance our ability to treat and diagnose human disease.
About My Channel 🩺
dotMD is all about combining my interests in physics and computer science with a career in medicine. Subscribe to follow me on my journey to save lives one integral at a time!
Music Credits 🎧
Middle School (ft. Magnus Klausen) by Blue Wednesday
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Title: how I got into an MD PhD at Harvard, Upenn
Me: see's Caltech, 4.0 GPA, and 520 MCAT. Quickly clicks out and proceeds to cry on my pillow.
Got another pillow? I need to cry as well.
@@jayrollo1352 lool
@Itachi Uchiha The next best engineering school after MIT and Stanford
need third pillow
Add another pillow plz. Bur med school has wholistic admission. If I did Physics I might have to be in college for like 7 or 6 yrs.
This dude literally had a 4.0 GPA and a 520 MCAT, 3.6K hours in a lab...ofc he got into harvard, hopkins, upenn and more
Congratulations on your acceptance! You were definitely not a typical pre-med student.
This is the kind of person that Asian parents compare their children to...😅 All jokes aside, congratulations man 🎉
I wonder what do his parents do for living and what are their educational credentials.
Not only Asian parents but Greek parents too😂
@@xueli7998 that's the most important part but no med TH-camr includes it
This is so impressive!! Congratulations on your acceptance, and thank you for this helpful video!
Wow! You are a stellar applicant that I think any program would be glad to have! It’s weird to me that you would be admitted into the Harvard program, but get rejected from Stanford without even a final interview, despite coming out of Caltech (a very challenging school in the first place) with top grades. I guess it’s just one of the quirks of grad school admissions.
thank you so much for sharing this!! I'm a sophomore and I find this is very helpful. Good luck in med school :)
Very inspiring! I also went to a competitive undergrad but switched to a pre-med track later on in my undergrad career from the humanities. I've never been more excited to be in the field I'm in and my only regrets are not having gone for it sooner
Congratulations!!! Such inspiring experience.
Yes! So glad I found you, your biggest fan :)
subscribed! congrats on your journey, you’ll be an incredible doctor scientist, no doubt
This is so helpful! Thank you!!
So helpful. Please make a video on how you did interviews!
Coming soon! :)
Could do possibly do a video going over your personal statement (strengths, weaknesses, etc) and secondaries with tips for helping pre-meds write them? Thank for this video BTW it was very helpful :)
Hi long time no see!! Ahhhhh love that you’re putting this out there!!
Hey it's been a while! Trying out this TH-cam thing haha, hope you're doing well!
Wonderful! It’s very great and vital for me(a Harvard Extension School student currently) if you release two videos about WHY you choose UPen instead of HMS and HOW to prepare from now(a college guy) for a most possibly successful admission to these medical schools! I subscribed your channel and wait for them! I will appreciate it much to see them as well!
omg how were you able to do all this in just 3 years that's crazy!! congrats though!
this was an incredible application. I wish you shared with us the descriptions of each activity and the personal statement. I feel like that would have been very beneficial for us but I respect your choice not to share them.
But anyway I salute you on this incredible achievement. this was so good that i subbed to your channel. waiting to see more videos from you.
Amazing - great job
Those physics courses man. You are brilliant.
Congrats on getting accepted to UPenn and all of those other amazing programs! Would you be able to make a video or discuss your "lifestyle" on how you study, manage to be so productive, and stay motivated and dedicated with your studies? Do you have a system that you use such as Pomodoro?
I'm going back to school in order to apply to medical school. I'm currently an RN working in the Medical ICU and would love to learn from you. Thank you again!
Video topic noted, thanks for your support!
Awesome application! Could you please do a video on how you studied in undergrad and particularly how you did so well in your physics courses. I am really struggling currently in physics and would love to get some tips on how to study for it.
Noted, thanks for the suggestion!
Yes! I would also love to see a video on your study habits!
Congrats!
I graduated from Havard School of Medicine years ago cause they gave me a full ride. For med school, I also got in at Johns Hopkins, Duke, Perelman (UPenn), Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Northwestern, Virgina Commonwealth University, University of Pittsburgh, Thomas Jefferson, University of Michigan, Baylor college of medicine, New York University, University of Maryland, and Brown University.
THANK YOU! I am fighting towards getting into medical school and your accomplishments motivate me. I am an incoming “freshman” (actually a sophomore, did dual credit in high school) at a state college so it will be tough, but I will do it. Congratulations and good luck!
"How to get into Harvard. Take the hardest subject available and get the highest grades possible". I'm obviously jealous. Incredible job.
Could you do a video on how you formulated your school list :)
You already this dude a genius if he went to CalTech holy shit
Is there a specific kind of imaging research you are interested in pursuing?
Thank you so much for doing this! There are so few youtubers who cover the MD/PhD app so I really appreciate your insights!
I was wondering if you had any advice for the amcas activities section. I see a lot of conflicting information on how to describe your activities (e.g., mini stories vs. bullet points; connecting each experience to medicine vs. not). In particular, I'm struggling with describing my research. There's already so much space on the MD/PhD app to describe your research, and I feel like I'm just constantly repeating myself. Is it okay if I repeat myself a bit, or should I use the activities section to highlight a different perspective of my research that isn't covered in the other essays?
Yes, in general I don’t know if there’s one “right” way of writing the activities section. Personally though I would recommend staying away from bullet points. I like doing mini-stories - in my activities section, I tried to tell a very particular story that exemplified a key thing that I learned from that activity. If it was directly related to medicine, then I made the connection, but if it was too far off or sounded corny at all then I left it alone. It’s also a fine balance between telling a story and actually explaining what you did. I’ll give you three examples from my own application:
- Teaching Assistant: I’m pretty sure most people knew what TAing was so I just dived right into a story.
- Student Body Rep: This was for an organization specific to Caltech, so I took 1-2 sentences in the beginning to explain what I did in this role first before discussing a particular instance.
- Honors and Awards: For this one, it’s really weird to tell a “story” here, so I actually just plainly stated the awards and briefly discussed selection criteria.
Regarding talking about research experience, I used the activity section to talk about some of the “soft-skills” that I learned through my research - things like explaining how my research led me to pursue MD-PhD, or how it taught me about resilience. I also thought that the activities section was a good way for me to introduce my research at a high level before diving into more of the specifics, motivation, and implications in the Significant Research essay.
@@dotMDlive This is so helpful thank you!!
@@dotMDliveso I have a question do you have to do all this crazy things just to apply to MD/PHD? And what’s the point of a MD/PHD? Just curious
Just curious, did you have any publications or an award like Goldwater? I am applying MD/PhD this cycle and I have very similar stats. MCAT 520+, GPA 3.9+ (congrats on 4.0!) in an academically rigorous program at a t10 school (Go Cats!), 3500+ hrs research, and decent clinical experiences/shadowing. I really want to do biomedical devices (particularly machine learning for deep brain stimulation etc.) I've been active on two research projects, both of which I hope to have published by the time I graduate (as second and third author). I know Goldwater's and other awards look really good and I wasn't sure if my lack of one would put me at a disadvantage against other great applicants like yourself. Congrats on all the success man I hope you fulfil your research dreams.
I would say that awards like the Goldwater Scholarship might help an applicant, but not having one does not matter whatsoever. From my own experience as both an applicant and now an interviewer, the most important thing is definitely just commitment/dedication/tangible interest in research and just a passion for what you do! No one is going to count your honors and awards to make sure you have "enough"
Congratulations! If you don't mind sharing, did you able to get any publication to get in the md-phd program?
I did have a couple of clinical papers published, but nothing from my lab research! Going into the application process, this was definitely something that I was concerned about, but what I learned from my personal experience this past cycle is that while having papers from your research is helpful, it's nowhere near as important as being able to talk coherently and meaningfully about your research in your essays and interviews. My personal opinion is that a first-author project that hasn't been published yet is much stronger than any number of fourth- or fifth- author papers.
Excellent application. Very impressive. You're an integrative and dynamic thinker clearly. I admire you immensely. Out of curiosity, what do you think would be stronger in the eyes of an MD/Ph.D. admissions committee: a clinical case report 1st authorship, or a wet lab 1st authorship? I have the potential to acquire both before I apply, but may need to focus on one over the other. What are your thoughts? It may not even matter, in which case I apologize for the question.
I don't want to say anything definitive, but my personal advice would be to focus on the project that adds to the story you're conveying in your application. A 1st authorship can only help you, no matter if it's clinical or wet lab. First and foremost I would focus on the project that you enjoy more, I think it'll make for a more compelling application when you go on to describe your research and your motivations behind it!
Hi! If you apply at the end of junior year, are senior year courses accepted for admissions requirement? (Ex. if one year of writing is required for HMS, can you do that senior year if you apply as a junior? Will that be accepted?)
The majority of these courses are all pass/fail or not reported. At the UC system, they don't let you take all your classes the first two quarters as pass/fail. They start judging you the moment you step foot in class.
congrats! did you have any publications?
I hope you can help society not age. immortality for all. also for yourself so you can help us live long enough to live forever. btw very inspiring.
hi! can you please make a video on how to study bio? I'm very logic oriented and not really good at memorization, which is why i aced chem and phy but not bio
I wonder if the requirements for clinical experience is different between MD-only programs and MD-PhD programs? I feel like MD-only programs want to see applicants with years of clinical experience and have a solid reason for choosing MD. This doesn’t seem to be the case for MD-PhD programs, and I wonder why? I bring this up because watching several Dr. Gray videos (from Ask Dr. Gray youtube videos), he’s shown MD applicants who had amazing numbers (GPA/MCAT), but because of a lack of clinical experience, may not have gotten into their preferred MD program. Just thought that was interesting. Thank you for sharing your video!
Definitely, the requirements are very different between the two! For some context, my partner applied MD-only this cycle and I applied MD-PhD, so we both got to compare and contrast some of the differences in each application process. Clinical volunteering in particular is something that's not heavily emphasized in the MD-PhD application. In my opinion, the most important aspects to a successful MD-PhD application is showing a huge commitment to research, and showing that you know at least a little bit about medicine (ie some clinical shadowing). Many MD-PhD applicants are able to do well with minimal/no volunteering (clinical or non-clinical) but I would still recommend during a little bit in what you're interested in. For example, you might be able to tell from my activities section I had a lot of shadowing hours put in, but zero traditional clinical volunteering hours.
(Let me know if an MD vs MD-PhD application video would be helpful!)
@@dotMDlive Thank you so much for your response! What you said makes sense. An interesting video would be how you chose amongst your MD-PhD program options. I know for MD, sometimes a large factor is cost, but since MD-PhD programs are funded (please correct me if I’m wrong), cost might not be a factor. So it’d be interesting to know what factors contributed to you selecting UPenn. Congrats on your acceptances!
I also only applied with 30 or so clinical hours and was accepted into several Md-Phd programs
I thought I had hope...😅 lol I'm the complete opposite of you. Congrats!!! Will you be sharing your journey in UPenn?
Could you share your activities descriptions? I'm curious about your writing style for this section.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm planning on releasing a future video on this topic although I have no idea when haha, but stay tuned!
Congratulations! Love your glasses! Can I ask where you got them? :3
Here's the link! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085XRML6C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They're blue-light glasses that really helped me with eye strain especially since everything's virtual rn 😁
@@dotMDlive AMAZING, didn't think they were this affordable.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the blue-light feature highly ^_^;
good luck with your channel!
Crazy how you managed to do everything simultaneously.
Like 2019 alone you
2019
-volunteer tutoring 10/19-06/21 (125 hrs)
-Shadowing 06/19-07/19 (120 hrs)
-TA 01/19-06/21 (1050 hrs)
-Medlife pres 11/17-06/21 (600 hrs)
-editor of jrnl 10/17-06/21 (300 hrs)
-research comm rep 10/17-06/19 (300 hrs)
-Shapiro lab 09/17-06/21 (3600 hrs)
-Presid. of volunteering 04/18-08/21 (1500 hrs)
-deans Tutor 10/18-06/21 (375 hrs)
That’s 9 activities all while taking a lot of credits?! Not sure how people even manage this
In my opinion I think he exaggerated those hours just a bit
Can you make a video on how you studied for the MCAT. I am in the same boat as you...aiming to study this summer btw my soph and junior yr + taking before Biochem. It would be really appreciated. Awesome vid btw!!
Thanks! I'll add an MCAT Video to my todo list :)
Did you have to take organic chemistry? Wondering what the prereq requirements are for mdphd programs; do you know where I can find these prereqs?
hey! for the prereqs, you'll have to look at the school's website that you are interested in and explore that to find out all the requirements. For example, you can search something like "harvard mdphd prerequisite requirements."
Did you have any publications at the time of applying ?
would love to hear why you ended up choosing penn!
Wow dude. You are the man I want to become. Congrats
Congrat and Thank you for your in-depth detail. Could you elaboarate more how can you get accepted medical school wihtout completing all prerequsite courses? I see some missing courses, such as psychology or one year writing/english on your under-grad courses.
I think it was a combination of two things (neither of which I'd necessarily advise to anyone else haha):
(1) Based on my experience, many of the "top" med schools that people think of actually don't have strict requirements, but rather "suggestions" on competencies that applicants should have before matriculating. For example, theoretically at some of these institutions, you could take no biology courses and still technically get accepted if biology is framed as a "recommended coursework" in their matriculation requirements (I am by no means recommending this). For me, this involved doing a lot of extensive research beforehand on the schools I was applying to, and I was fortunate that most of the schools on my list were flexible and were looking for individual strengths instead of a checkbox set of specific courses. That being said, I still ended up applying to a few schools that had "actual" course requirements, and if I had matriculated there I would have been in the awkward situation of potentially getting my acceptance rescinded in the worst possible case. (Thankfully I didn't even get invited to interview at these particular schools so I didn't have to worry about this lol)
(2) I didn't take any gap years, which means that I put down senior-year courses on my application that I was planning on taking during my last quarter that would satisfy my premed requirements. Ultimately I found out I was accepted to Penn before the spring term at Caltech, and because they were one of the schools mentioned above that don't really have a strict set of "premed requirements," I was able to forgo finishing up my all my requirements and still be able to matriculate. Especially for applicants that are taking gap years, obviously this isn't really an option.
@@dotMDlive Thank you
Asking out of curiosity: you got accepted into Hopkins and Harvard, arguably the best medical schools in the world, what made you choose UPENN over the last two?
probs research interests bro
Because those are just namesake. A lot of other medical schools are better in different specialties
Cool video
In High School, this would’ve scared the heck outta me. College Freshman me is unsurprised. It’s good to know exactly what I should do; get all As. Which isn’t all that hard in college once you’ve adapted. I dunno if it’s wrong, but I’m happy that COVID ruined my freshman year; I can pass/fail my two Bs from my first semester. Also, the fact that you did all of that and you got rejected or didn’t hear back from that many schools is terrifying.
Those schools he didn’t hear back from preferred instate applicants more that’s why he got into those schools that don’t care about instate status just as Havard Medical School
@@xplicitgoofy1015 that’s wrong, that’s not a thing for md phd.
@@kitneikirk3020 MD PHD is only a academia thing though it’s only pursued by those who are interested in working at a academic institution
Did you go to Lowell?
can you please talk about why you chose UPenn? what factored into your decision?
I actually answer your question in another video on my channel, linked here! th-cam.com/video/5fOtZpDyqPU/w-d-xo.html
Curious - I see that you took around 4.2 credits each semester in freshman year, 13.5 in sophomore year and 9.7 in junior year. Is this typical at caltech? Perhaps might be useful to note for other undergrads - taking few classes and doing really well in them maybe is far better than taking many classes and doing okay in them?
If it's helpful, Caltech is on the quarter system and there's three quarters per school year. At the time of submitting my primary application (meaning during the spring of junior year), I only could report 2 quarters of junior year work, 3 quarters of sophomore year, and 1 quarter of freshman year. There's only 1 quarter of freshman year because the first 2 quarters for us are P/F and don't contribute towards the AMCAS GPA. That (roughly) translates to the 4.2/13.5/9.7 ratio as you've noted. I'm actually not too sure how the whole AMCAS credit system works, but if it's helpful I typically averaged between 5-6 courses per quarter.
In arranging course schedules, of course getting good grades is very important. However, I'd be hesitant to recommend taking fewer classes as well - I certainly had the option to take a lot fewer courses during some terms, and often took classes out of interest. I definitely didn't *love* the extra work while going through it, but looking back I'm really happy I got to take courses outside of the traditional "premed" curriculum and learn something because I was really interested in it!
I see you were accepted MD-only at UCSF. Did you ask to be considered for MD/PhD and MD or do they automatically consider you for MD if you don’t get the MSTP?
For UCSF specifically, they give you the option of applying to both MD and MD-PhD, or one or the other. In my experience, most schools give you this option so that you can be automatically considered for the MD program if you don't get admitted to the MSTP. The only school that I came across that required you to exclusively apply for one or the other was UPenn. This means that if you were not admitted to Penn's MSTP, you could not be considered for their MD program during the same application cycle.
why did you choose UPenn over all the other programs?
I actually answer your question in another video on my channel, linked here! th-cam.com/video/5fOtZpDyqPU/w-d-xo.html
I have a question; if you know and answer me, I don't know how to appreciate you. And this is... can bachelor students from Canada apply to MD-PhD in university of USA? and are there limitations on them?
The majority of funding for MD PhD comes from the US government so it is very difficult for international students to get accepted, and for the ones that do accept international students, most require your undergraduate degree to be from a US institution.
Did you describe your experiences in the activities section or leave it blank?
Can you please explain more in depth why you declined the interview for some of these schools. I’m very curious, thanks🙃
Each program where I declined the interview had its own specific reason, but I think in general it boiled down to three categories: (1) there was something about the program or culture that was non-negotiable for me (for example, paying for the MD portion of my training); (2) for my interview invites later in the cycle, I didn't attend if I had already been admitted to a program I would definitely go to over the school I was scheduled to interview at; (3) just general interview fatigue. Each interview is usually multiple days long and combined with balancing classwork, research, and other ECs it just became too unmanageable for me as the cycle went on.
Did you know that you wanted to go as far as pursuing an md or phd before entering undergrad?
Not really, I would probably say I was more interested in pursuing the PhD route when entering undergrad, although I also had a strong interest in medicine. I got really interested in MD-PhD after shadowing during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, and I knew for sure I was going to pursue this route after my second shadowing experience at the City of Hope the following summer. A lot of back-and-forth debating but I think I made a good decision!
@@dotMDlive wow that’s so impressive that you sought out all these cool opportunities in 3 years! I wish I had your mindset at your age
nice pfp and initials cuz I literally have the same initials lmao
Congrats, and i don’t want to diminish your success at all. But I genuinely don’t think this kind of application is attainable for anybody who supports themself. Great job on the great GPA, but the amount of time you spent volunteering or researching is the same amount of time most students have to spend at work. Watching this makes it feel impossible for someone in a lower class to become a doctor.
If you want to go to the best schools, you need to be part of the best . A lot of his stats may be overkill, but I think that it’s just a testament to how passionate he is about medicine and how driven he is to become a doctor. If this doesn’t seem like you, that’s fine, but it was his choice to work that hard! ❤️🙌
Such an Asian goal😂 Thanks for sharing
4.00 and a 520. Got it! 🙂
actually no. His extracurriculars are incredible. Also, my jaw dropped when I saw A pluses in physics core courses and this is coming from a physics major. Physics major is HARD!! let alone getting A pluses. It's not like A's in biology. trust me. This was an absolutely outstanding application all around.
@@313Violator313I know I wonder how is he so smart does he like study the second he leaves school? Because damn he has so much leadership positions but luckily watching other medical school application videos you don’t have to do these crazy things he has done
WTF? An ORM who got into Harvard Med actually made a video?
To me I dont like to see...TOO MANY P/N= NOGOOD N NATGUZ
what
My guess is you’ll be a radiologist.
Typical Asian DR!!! Congrats DoC….You Asians are too smart please share some knowledge to us .
Hi! This was super helpful!! I was wondering if you can kindly make a video explaining how you started your nonprofit organization AtriaConnect.