AspiringGC

I sent this email last year "I am currently working on my Genetic Counseling application for the Fall 2017 admission; however I am having issues finding the essay questions that will be used for the Personal Statement as noted in the Genetic Counseling Brochure. Could you point me in the right direction for these questions? I did notice that the brochure is from 2004, has this requirement changed?" To which I got a response of "The personal statement information is explained in the application itself. The brochure is up to date, for some reason the Tab description is wrong." Honestly didn't help me much, but it's the response I got. Hmmm I'll be interested to see if this actually gets accredited. Even getting the hybrid Bay Path program accredited took a while. I know many people are hoping for an online program to accommodate their needs, but I just don't see how that's feasible if you aren't near GCs that you can do rotations with.

There are several schools that offer the dual degree, such as USF, Michigan, and Pitt. But from your signature, I'm assuming you're asking about Michigan. I'd suggest looking through the final pages of the GC 2017 thread and see if anyone was accepted to Michigan last year and shoot them a message

The Stanford director mentioned that it's important only for the fact that upon graduating from a GC program you have to pass another standardized test to become a CGC. There's no point to put in the training and schooling if you can't pass the test. So for Stanford, that was really the main reason they looked at the GRE scores for. Typically the 50th percentile in the GRE proves this enough. It may not make you stand out or anything, but 50th + is enough to show you can pass a standardized test when the time comes. For reference, I scored closer to 50-60th percentile for two sections on my GRE and 75-80th percentile on the other section and only one school mentioned that retaking it might be helpful (out of 7 that gave me feedback). Most were more interested in me getting more experience or retaking a class or two. And if your scores are really that bad and you don't have the experience or grades to make up for the as @hfj23 mentioned above, then go ahead and retake. Otherwise I think it's a waste of money and unnecessary stress added on to you.

Yeah, that is true. I really think they'll get accredited no problem, I'm not going to stress until interviews. I'm sure it will be discussed in detail what to expect for Match. I'll keep everyone updated if I hear anything more.

Exactly, that's what I'm afraid of. I don't want to look wishy-washy and have only spent time for 3 months in my current position. I think it might be worth it for me to just suck it up another 9 months. My commute would change to around 30 minutes one way, only 10 more minutes than now. I could live on the paycut, but it would be really really tight. I'd have just enough to pay all my must have expenses and my car loan/student loans, but not enough to save any money for grad school or anything. I know my mom is will to help if I get in a bind and need some money here and there, but I really don't want to rely on that. I'm going to go to the interview, see what the hours are and what exactly I'll be doing and then see if it's worth it/if I even get offered the job. Thanks for the feedback!

Oh gosh, I have a big dilemma. I received a call yesterday for a job interview from a position I applied to in February.. It's a position at the Access and Disability Resources as a support tech/program coordinator at the local CC. I set up an interview for next Tuesday. It technically pays more than my current position at a Client Manager at a home care agency, but it only 30 hours/week, so annually comes to $6k less than I make now. I could always get a part time job to make up that difference, but still. I'm not exactly sure what it entails, but I would obviously get some good hands-on experience with people with disabilities. At my current job, I work mainly with elderly people and their families to provide assistive care for them to stay after in their homes. I get really great almost health care experience, some clients have dementia/Alzheimer's which is good exposure too. I am learning lots of good counseling skills as well, but I don't love it. When it's good, it's good, but bad is bad too. A majority of my job is spent staffing shifts, which isn't always easy or fun. Basically, my question is: If I were to be offered the other position, is the pay cut worth it for the disability experience? Is it worth it to change jobs after 3 months and ideally (if I were to get into grad school), leave in 9 months. Depending on the hours I could volunteer more/shadow more with the GCs I'm with. It's also a further drive from my home.

As it's a new program, they are not offering any financial aid until the second year. So, the first year would be completely out of pocket. For in-state, it comes out to around $18K/year as there is the normal tuition and then a $3k/semester special fee to help pay for clinicals etc.

If you can afford to apply twice, and really don't want to take a gap year, it is definitely for your benefit to apply this year. If you can't afford/don't want to pay twice, you may benefit from a gap year to gain that experience. Really think hard about what is best for you. Maybe this year only apply to your top 2 or 3 schools to get a feel of the process and see what happens instead of all 6 or 8 you might be interested in. If you get in, great, if you don't at least you know how the process works a bit more, saved some money, AND you can get direct feedback on your application from directors at your top choice schools and use that to your advantage for next cycle. So I just had my meeting with the program director, so I will be very thorough with what she told me. If you've looked, the application is half up. So, definitely still expecting to take applicants and the deadline is going to be January 1st. You can enter your basic info and pay the fee (and technically submit, but don't do that), but there isn't areas for the specific items, such as your Personal Statement or references. They are in the process of finishing up the specifics on the application and should have that up within the next couple of weeks (the program coordinator has been on maternity leave). Second, they hope to have the website up within the next month. It is basically completed on their side, with just the FAQ section that needs to be put together before it goes live. Third, the director is hoping to have the application submitted to ABGC in a week. She is completely done with the application and is only waiting on her supervisor to read and sign off. Unfortunately, many schools have reaccreditations coming up, plus the other new programs that have submitted their application already. She was told it could take up to 8 months for the application to be reviewed and accreditation to be given. This deadline puts getting accredited very close to or after the Match deadline. If Arizona is not accredited by that deadline, they CANNOT participate in the Match. They would be allowed to participate in the Unmatched process and extend acceptances to students then. These programs work really hard on the back end to get everything needed for accreditation and need a lot of support. To get to the point of accreditation, I feel most schools will almost always get it, unless some big glaring problem comes up. Arizona thankfully used to have a well run program, has tons of support from the school and administrators, and a director who has put everything into this to make it a possibility. I have no doubts that accreditation will be give, but the when is the biggest factor. Let's say for example Arizona is your top choice, but they aren't accredited in time and you go ahead with match. You get matched with Program B (your second choice), but then Arizona gets accreditation and wants to extend you an offer. Your Match with Program B is binding. You cannot go to Arizona if Program B doesn't withdraw their offer. You are stuck going to Program B or not going at all. This would be the same scenario for ANY school that is pending accreditation come Match.. It puts students in a kind of tricky spot, especially if their top choice is one of those schools waiting, do you wait and risk the school not getting accreditation or do you do Match and risk not getting your top choice if you are Matched and then they get accredited? This is kind of the spot I will be in.. It's still a ways off, so I'm not going to stress over it until interviews, which will really show me which school is the right one for me. If that means I don't participate in Match and hold out a chance, then I will or vice versa. The director did give me a draft of the student handbook, which is basically what is on the website. If anyone is interested/looking into Arizona, feel free to PM me your email and I can scan and send it to you. It has information about pre-reqs, where rotations will be, tuition, etc.

@hfj23 I was largely rejected for lack of experience, I hadn’t shadowed any genetic counselors when I applied, I’d only had a mentor like relationship with a non practicing GC. Secondly, some of my pre-req grades were poor (had a few C’s here and there) and my GPA wasn’t what I’d hope. My GRE was around average and my advocacy experience isn’t quite what the “typical” experience is. My LORs and PS we’re fine but one school noted that they may not have helped make me “stand out”. I needed to dive a little deeper, find a writer who could attest more to my character and how I’d be a great GC. Obviously now, I have shadowed GCs, I volunteer weekly with GCs, my GPA went up with my last year of grades, I’m retaking a select pre-req course, and the job I found has some really good transferrable skills and is giving me a better insight into health care. I was extremely bummed and upset about not getting in. I did not want to take a gap year at all. But now that I’m here, it’s not that bad. It feels nice to actually be supporting myself, putting money away for grad school, and just further shows me that being a GC is where I want. Not getting in has just motivated me even more. I think also it’ll help make me more serious in course work come grad school. I might have halfassed coursework like I did throughout undergrad if I’d gotten in right away, now I know that I know the alternative I’m going to be 110% into grad course when the time comes. From what you’ve noted, I wouldn’t be too stressed if I were you. Your grades and GRE are great. You have the advocacy and shadowing experience, three days are more than most people can get. And you have other relevant Genetics experience. As long as your PS and LORs don’t hinder you, I think you can expect some interviews

@lex94 was accepted and is attending this year. I know she doesn't get on here too much anymore. She posted something on the second page of this thread and in last years. Maybe shoot her a PM and see if she has more insight into this!

I understand how you feel about Northwestern as that's how I'm feeling about the new Arizona program. I live in Tucson now and really love the area, went to UofA for undergrad and loved the school. I would really love to continue my graduate career here, plus in state. I also really like the director and when I meet with her next Monday I am going to ask more about rotations and more program specific questions. For me, the three biggest factors in choosing programs, both last year and this year, were 1. location 2. cost and 3. rotations. But to you, it looks like rotations and location are both important. I'd suggest looking into EVERY SCHOOL and reading up on their rotations. If they start early or mention the ability to go abroad, put it on your list. If you can't find that information, you can always shoot the program director a quick email asking. Let's hope that gives you more programs than you want to apply, then try to narrow down based on proximity to Chicago, if you need to narrow down even more than think about other factors you don't want, maybe you don't want to go to a newly accredited school, remove those, etc. Narrow down until you've got the number of programs you want to apply to and you're set There's really no sure fire way to pick besides what your preferences are. Definitely reapply to schools you got waitlisted at if you're still interested! Those schools thought you already had the makings for a GC and anything you've done since applying to boost your app plus reapplying will definitely shine a good light on your application. Look into UW-Madison as that's still close to Chicago, both the schools in Indiana and maybe Ohio schools? I'm not sure how many you want to apply to, but that's just based on lcoation.

I'd love for you guys to share about what you learn at the Symposium this weekend when possible

All of this! I moved to Tucson for undergrad and am now working here and hoping to get into grad school. I love Tucson. It has a small town vibe, but still plenty to do. I love the weather, yes it's hot, but you have to adapt. If you like being outdoors, just work around the sun. The early morning and evenings are so pleasant and a wonderful time to be out. I love not needing a jacket when I'm out at 10pm. Winter time is awesome when only a light coat is needed. Campus is a good main hub of the city and there's always events, shows, or performers coming to town. Tucson has good food in general, it was ranked #1 city of gastronomy. I really just love the desert vibe and how Tucson looks and feels. It's definitely a place I could see myself settling in.

Most prefer double spaced, but if it doesn't specify then you can use whatever you prefer. I submitted a single spaced to UTHealth last year cuz I needed the extra room

Ooh that's exciting. I used to live in the Salt Lake area and we visited Boise a lot, I really like the area. It's possible they'll be ready for Fall 2018 acceptance and if so I'll probably apply. But with how long a lot of those programs have been listed on the Letter of Intent list, it's unlikely they'll be ready for this cycle.

Just had my first day of volunteering with the two cancer GCs through the local cancer center. I'm super excited for the opportunity! I'll be going every week for 4 hours. I'll get to help with patient prep, drawing pedigrees, figuring out a better system for them to use, when there's appointments I will get to shadow, and then over small projects/administrative stuff that comes up. The one GC I've had the most contact with did mention that if everything goes well, she would be happy to write a LOR for me, so yay for that! And the new GC I just met today helped encourage me as she said she didn't get into a program the first time she applied either. So, all in all, a really great day GC wise

You do rank only to what you want AND be extremely aware of which schools you prefer over others and rank them to your preferences, not to where you think you'll get into. Of course, your best chance at getting into that specific school would be to rank all options they have. Because if they want you, but without the partial scholarship, and you only rank the partial scholarship option, then you can't get matched to them for no scholarship. But of course, financially if you can only afford the school with the partial scholarship, it makes complete sense to only rank the partial scholarship option.

Yes, that's a great way to think of those members. Both Baylor and Arizona were on that list as affiliated members before sending in their info for their programs. I do not have any additional info about any of those members, but I do recall hearing somewhere about Vanderbilt wanting to start a program within the next few years

I'm meeting with the director on the 25th of this month. I'll get more info then! But, I keep getting told information will be up on their website by "the end of summer" and anticipate hearing back about accrediation in Spring 2018. If so, they will have classes start Fall 2018.

I believe I remember from a GC Career Day that I attended at Utah, 6 is typically a good number. If you are a stronger candidate, 4 would probably be fine. After 6 schools, there doesn't seem to be a correlational to improving your chances to get in. That didn't stop me from applying to 8 last year and I am applying to 8 this year as well. As for Peds, I know UCI and Cincinnati are both located out of peds departments or work closely with the children's hospital. I believe Denver also has a strong peds program. Oklahoma and UW-Madison are based out of the peds department as well I believe. ---- Unrelated note, several applications open up tomorrow and on the 5th we can register for the match How exciting and nerve-wracking!

I think the only class that might even be worth taking would be Anatomy/Phsiology. And even then I wouldn't recommend to, considering your GPA. I don't believe A/P is required by any programs and only recommended by a few. My GPA is only a 3.39 with a couple Cs in some prereq science classes. No program director has strongly pushed me towards retaking any besides Biochem and I was strongly discouraged on taking classes that I thought would "look good", such as grad level psych classes. They have recommended embryology, medical terminology, bioethics, and other genetic-related courses. Only take more science classes if your science GPA is low AND you can get an A in them, otherwise it doesn't matter. I have the same struggle with needing to save time off for interview season. But I would suggest at least one day of shadowing, even though you've been through the process. It's different than being in the patients spot. Yes, that will be a huge plus for you in the future, to know how your patients feel. But getting to see the behind the scenes/prep aspect of the process is hugely beneficial. You can supplement your lack of shadowing by talking about your own experience going through the process though! Keep up your Crisis Text advocacy and try your best to keep volunteering with the disabled children. Overall, I think you'd have a shot this cycle. My mentor suggested both "Middlesex" and "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down". I've only read excerpts but they both sound super good!

Lol no you're fine. I haven't been told to get research experience. Just advocacy/more GC experience is the main focus. The laboratory side of GC is still up and coming so it's not something schools expect or even look for, but doesn't hurt especially if it is research in genetics or related. Based on what you told me, I'd expect to you get at least one interview if not more this cycle. But that's just off of numbers, they look at so many other things.

I'm not applying there, but I remember this question or a similar one has come up. Take Augustana for example, you can spend your second year in San Diego or in South Dakota. So for the matching process, the school enters how many spots there are for each option. When ranking you'd have to option to put either Augustana 2nd year San Diego or Augustana second year SD, and could rank your preferred option over the other. And then the match does its thing and you'll get matched with one of the two options if I recall correctly. So you'd know exactly where you'd be spending your second year upon notification of being matched. I'd assume it'd be the same for Virgin, maybe there's 2 spots for the PhD option but 6 for just GC. You will probably get to rank both the PhD option and the GC masters only option. Definitely a good question to ask the school though, maybe they already know!

@JN212 that's really good to hear that you think the other tasks are helpful ? I'm hoping it looks favorable on my application this cycle. I didn't have any shadowing experience last cycle. I had just met with a couple genetic counselors and many schools recommended I get more experience, so this will help drastically.

I just helped sort of set up, or at least get in motion, a volunteer position with genetic counselors at the cancer center through my university. It took a while (asked back in fall 2016 time) and am just starting in September (could've started July but my job interfered). But I'm so excited it's finally happening. I'll be shadowing/ volunteering 4 hours weekly starting September 11th. It'll include a lot of GC Assistant tasks, such as pedigrees, getting family history, calling and making appointments etc. but I will get to sit in on applintments and such too. So I'll have close to 60 direct hours of shadowing by the time most applications are due and around 100 by interviews ? Anyway the point of that was to def reach out and see if a GC would be interested in ongoing commitment of shadowing/volunteering and maybe help with pre-appointment stuff like I will be. I am planning on having one of the GCs write a letter of rec. I re-reached out to the four programs I haven't heard from and already got responses back from two and set up times to talk/gave me a timeframe for when they'll email me back. (Augustana and UTHealth if anyone's wondering). Started the draft of my personal statement yesterday too.