Student S Gets Accepted to Harvard Medical School!

Student S - Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UCLA and University of Michigan Medical School with Full Scholarships, WashU, Cornell, UCSD, BU, Vanderbilt, and more！

Student S was a pre-med student who was interested in applying to top medical schools. By working with her to craft a compelling AMCAS application and secondary essays, we helped her achieve her medical school admissions goals!

Application Persona

The student-athlete who always overcomes challenges.

GPA

3.9/4.0

MCAT

519

Areas of Interest

Human Development and Regenerative Biology

Extracurricular Activities

Varsity Athlete
Co-Founder and President of Club
Mentor
Sorority Member
Various Research Work

The Challenges

Student S had a lot of great experiences, awards, and academic achievements, but did not know how she should present herself in her applications. Though talented, she did not know what medical school admissions officers look for in applicants.
Student S struggled to write a personal statement that accurately reflected her personality and that came across as genuine.

How Did InGenius Prep Help?

We paired Student S with a Former Admissions Officer from Alpert Medical School at Brown and a Graduate Coach from Yale Medical School.
The work started off by getting to know one another and helping Student S figure out how she wanted to market herself to the admissions office. During this strategy phase, they decided that Student S would focus on how the challenges she faced as an athlete prepared her for a career in medicine.

Personal Statement:

Choosing a Topic: Before she started working with us, Student S had two drafts of completely different personal statements. When read alone, neither worked. After reading both versions and spending time discussing over video chat, her Graduate Coach recommended that she combine these two themes to make for one powerful personal statement topic.
Editing: Student S’s counselors edited over 10 drafts of her personal statement.
- High-Level Feedback: In the beginning, her counselors’ edits were more high-level. They focused on shaping the content, theme, tone, and structure of the essay.
- Line-by-Line Edits: Then, her counselors’ edits became more detailed. These edits worked on Student S’s writing structure, word choice, and grammar.

Experiences Section:

Student S’s counselors helped her decide which of her many activities to include on the AMCAS experience list. They then edited more than 5 drafts of that list. Their edits focused on:
Content: These edits focused on getting Student S to dig deeper in some areas and cut fluff from others. We wanted to make sure that she included the most strategic content.
Impact: These edits focused on getting Student S to demonstrate her impact. We wanted to show the scope of her involvement and achievements by providing the reader with context.
Word Choice and Grammar: These edits focused on sharpening her writing.

Secondary Essays:

Preparation: Before Student S received her secondaries, her counselors sent her a list of common questions. This allowed her to prepare and stay organized.
Editing: When Student S’s secondary essays started rolling in, her counselors helped her edit all of them, which amounted to over 15! They sent these essay edits back-and-forth via email.

Preparation:

List of Questions: That fall, when 18 interview invites came in, Student S’s counselor sent her a list of questions to expect. They then strategized how to answer common questions and discussed exactly what she should highlight in her interview.
Resources to Prepare: Her counselors also sent her scientific resources and news articles so that she had up-to-date medical news to discuss during her interview.
Mock Interviews: Student S’s counselor then conducted several mock interviews to make sure that she was ready to nail her interviews when the days arrived.

“My counselors provided invaluable assistance during my medical school application process, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that I would not be attending Harvard Medical School without them. I started working with InGenius about two months before I submitted my AMCAS, and they provided individualized mentoring from the very beginning. With their expertise, they were able to ask the right questions about my past experiences and activities that helped me begin my self-reflection process that ultimately led to my personal statements and secondary essays. Their edits and comments on all my drafts were extremely helpful, and were always returned in an extraordinarily timely manner (during within 1-2 days). This was especially impressive during the secondary application season, when I would send her up to 5 responses every couple days. I was also able to enter interview season with confidence, after doing a couple mock interview sessions with my counselors. Overall, I cannot imagine having better mentors during this process. They provided timely help and guidance every step of the way, and taught me self- reflection skills that will help me throughout my life.”