Sarah’s Feedback
The positive things I can say about Barry are endless! He and I have worked together for about two and a half years, and it has been a wonderfully positive experience since Day 1. I started my medical school journey in undergrad, but struggled with my grades the first couple of years. By the time I had graduated, I had shown significant GPA progression, but wasn’t sure that it was enough to apply to medical school and get accepted. Prior to reaching out to Accepted for help, I had been told by several school advisors and advising companies that I was not good enough of an applicant and should consider looking into other careers. Accepted told me otherwise, and paired me with Barry based upon my needs and personal circumstances.
From the start, Barry was very encouraging and never once told me I couldn’t achieve my dreams of going to medical school. He had me start by inputting all of my courses and grades into a spreadsheet that he had created, which allowed him to calculate exactly how many credits I needed to take and get good grades in in order to make my GPA competitive enough for my applications. Because I am a Type A kind of person, this was very helpful. It gave me the exact recipe of what I needed to do before I could start working on my applications! We also sat down before the registration period for each quarter and discussed potential course options I could take, and Barry helped narrow down which courses I should take that would make the biggest impact on my transcripts. It was a very easy and simple process knowing which courses to take, and any questions I had, Barry was happy to quickly answer them.
After I had completed the necessary number of credits to start my applications, Barry was ready and able to help at every step of the process. He sent me documents that he had curated that helped brainstorm personal statement topics and points of interest and also documents that helped prompt me with writing up my experiences. He even helped me determine which experiences to write about, taking out a lot of the guess work. It was a seamless process writing up everything, filling out his prompts and questions, and sending them off to him to edit. He then cut out unnecessary information, tailored it into an essay, and helped me formulate an impactful personal statement and experience paragraphs. Barry also helped me narrow down which schools to apply to, again alleviating the stress from guesswork and strategic planning, and provided an excel sheet to assist me with tracking the progress from each school and keeping everything straight. I felt supported and guided through the entire primary application, and felt confident in my submission. Barry also helped edit my secondary essays for the different schools, reviewing them for both content and grammatical errors and providing feedback to help ensure they were top-notch essays.
Once interview invitations started rolling in, which were quite early in the application cycle, Barry was once again there ready to help. He provided me with documents that aided in being aware of likely questions and brainstorming answers I might need to be prepared with. We then did weekly mock interviews that were tailored to each specific school that I had an upcoming interview for. By the time my first interview rolled around, I felt confident and well-prepared, and ended the interview feeling amazing! I knew I had answered the interviewers’ questions well and really had a great conversation with all of them. It was a truly positive experience. This continued to be the case after each of my interviews thereafter, and this would not have been possible without Barry’s help.
Within two weeks after my first interview, which happened to be at my top choice for attendance (and an MD school no-less), I got a phone call from the Dean of Admissions that I had been accepted! They even told me that I was a very competitive applicant and one of the first people accepted into their class. I was over the moon by this news, and Barry was one of the first people I reached out to regarding this. I felt like we had reached this accomplishment together as a cohesive team working toward a common goal. And we did it!
Whenever anyone asks me about how I got to this point of holding an acceptance at one of the top medical schools in the country, I explain that I couldn’t have done it without Accepted, specifically with Barry. Here I am, an applicant who was initially told by others to give up, now labeled as one of the most competitive applicants they have had this year. I tell everyone to reach out to Accepted whenever they’re ready to start the process. Admissions companies are expensive, but Accepted is far more reasonably priced than others, and the money is well-worth it! You will not be disappointed in your investment; it is the best choice I have made in years.
- Sarah
