Penn Engineering Students & Alumni | Engineering Career Services Home

Your major and date of graduation:
Bioengineering, 2007

What are you doing after graduation?
Medical school at UVA pursuing an MD/PhD in bioengineering

What is the one piece of advice you have for underclassmen about deciding on a career or graduate school?
Don’t take the August MCATs your junior year if you plan on applying in the fall of your senior year. Most schools have rolling admission and receiving your scores so late in the game puts you at a disadvantage. MD/PhD programs are looking for people to do research that they are currently doing, not to train new people for new projects.

What career paths have you been considering?
8th grade – Commercial pilot
11th grade – Clinical medicine
Junior Year – Research medicine

What influenced your decision for your post graduation plans?
Graduate/med school acceptance letters, graduate/medical school location, grad school strength in bioengineering.

When did you start looking at graduate programs?
Summer before senior year

Did you have internships during the summers and were they related to the graduate field you are pursuing?
Sort of – I did research at Penn as part of the LRSM NSF REU program sophomore year and junior year summer. I did research of polymeric drug delivery systems.

What do you think made you a successful candidate for admission into the graduate school you will be attending?
Grades, research, recommendations, personal skills during interview and excitement/enjoyment while visiting.

What is the one thing you wish you knew as an undergraduate at Penn?
1a – Don’t take the MCAT in August if you are applying the following September. (You can take whichever is best)
1b – Publications/presentations are very important when applying to MD/PhD
1c – About CURF

Your recommended links for careers/job searching?
School websites, US News and World Report