My personal statement was about how my family has really pursued the American Dream. Each generation becomes more and more successful than the previous generations. My grandfather is a Spanish immigrant and promised his children a life better than that of his own. He did not even complete high school when he had to begin working. My father completed high school, but because of financial reasons was not able to attend the college in which he was offered a position...

Getting into medical school gets more and more difficult each year. But here's some advice from students in med school right now and practicing doctors that I know: cast a wide net when applying (UCLA and Johns Hopkins aren't the only med schools). try your hardest to get into a US school (it's very hard to get US residency when you attend a foreign school and then almost impossible to get a US job). shadow, shadow, shadow (research is cool if you want to go into medical RESEARCH. what...

You need to have recs written by people that know you pretty well and have enough to say about you for an entire letter. Just because it might look cool to have a letter written from the president of the school, if he/she doesn't know you, it...

I only interviewed with one school, Yale, and it was hands down the weirdest experience ever. It was a skype interview with a recent grad who was originally from my area but had since moved. I'm pretty sure he was high and my side of the webcam didn't work so...

Okay so before I committed to Notre Dame I was actually being recruited to D1 universities to play softball (true story). As far as recruitment goes, email call email call email call write letters bug them bug them bug them. They will eventually bite. Technically they can't contact you until you're a junior, BUT they can contact your coach. So once you get that email back saying they can't talk to you have your coach call (preferably your club coach or private instructor) (side note: if you don't play club softball, I'm sorry but there's no shot). Then when you...

If you plan to continue your education after undergrad, which most people will opt to do coming out of a top university, you have to do something with your summers. Don't waste them! you only have 3 really. Pre-Med: shadow a doctor. Med schools like to see long term shadowing but they also don't want to see you doing the same thing every summer (I know, it doesn't make all...