TAGC
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Everything posted by TAGC
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You don't need to volunteer at planned parenthood to have a strong application. The Youth Crisis Helpline sounds perfect for the counseling experience they're looking for. The shadowing experience is one of the toughest parts of the application to fulfill, but it is pretty important. I applied two years ago and didn't get any interviews and the main feedback I got was shadowing. When I applied last year I started getting interviews, and the shadowing was really the only thing that changed. Right now I'm taking an online course through The University of South Carolina called "Genetic Counseling: Career for the Future" which is meant for prospective students. I think I've learned more about genetic counseling through this course than I did through shadowing. If you take this course, I bet they'd overlook the lack of shadowing.
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Thanks, that's really helpful! I guess that means I should just answer the question as written.
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Has anyone started the application for the University of Colorado - Denver? I started their application first to see what their admission questions were since the brochure says that the application will have "several list and essay questions addressing your past achievements, past experience relevant to your proposed study in the field of genetic counseling, and future plans for graduate study and a professional career in genetic counseling." Then it goes on to say "Do not substitute a previously prepared standard “personal statement” document in place of these individual essay questions, as each is asking you for somewhat different information. Together, your responses to all of these questions constitute your personal statement to the Admissions Committee." But in the application there's just a section for uploading the personal statement that says "Describe your motivation and plans for graduate study and a professional career, and discuss how this program will contribute to them." I'm worried that this might be the generic graduate school application instructions and I'm missing the list of questions from somewhere else in the application. Has anyone else come across this?
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Those are both really awesome sounding opportunities! I know that some of the genetic counseling programs like to see commitment, so showing that you have spent more time at your current position might look favourably. How much further would your commute be? If you're spending a big chunk of your time commuting, then it might not be that easy to find a part time job on top of the new position. That being said, if you're okay with taking the pay cut, then you'll have more free time, so the extra commute won't be so bad. Personally, I think it's worth it to take a pay cut for more free time (more time to work on your applications), but it might be tough if you have student loans to pay down. I think that no matter what you decide you'll have some great experiences to talk about in your applications.
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I used a very similar statement for all of the schools I applied to, because my experiences and personality traits that I wanted to show the schools didn't change. That being said, I ended with a paragraph about why I was applying to that specific school, and that part was tailored. I'm not that creative of a writer, so finding the right words to get across why I want to be a genetic counselor wasn't easy for me, which is why I used very similar statements for each program. That being said, some of the programs ask specific questions, or have different styles for their personal statement, and in those instances you might have to write something completely new in order to give them what they're looking for.
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If it doesn't say, then I'd do single-spaced for the extra room. All of the programs I submitted to last year specified. Two of them were double-spaced essays, one was a single-spaced essay, and the other was a form where you had to answer the questions "in the space provided".
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I think it may be because your choices will change depending on if you get a scholarship or not. So I might say I prefer Rutgers over Bay Path if I get a scholarship at Rutgers, but I prefer Bay Path over Rutgers if I'm not offered the scholarship. So then I'd rank 1. Rutgers scholarship (11610), 2. Bay Path (10310), 3. Rutgers Partial scholarship (11611), 4. Rutgers No Funding (11612).
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I read on one of the program's websites that 6 is a good number as well. I only applied within Canada last year (because I hadn't written the GRE) which has 4 schools. Out of 4 schools I interviewed at 2. This year I'm planning on adding 4 American schools to my list, just because I'm a little anxious about getting in this year. Here's a brochure with some helpful information and tips on applying to programs. It's a little out of date, as it says there are only 30 accredited programs, but I believe there are over 40 now. This map shows all of the ABGC accredited programs with some information about class sizes and tuition (though the information might not be 100% accurate). I haven't heard anything about certain programs more well-known for pediatrics, but I have noticed that quite a few programs are run out of Children's Hospitals. For example, Toronto runs their program out of Sick Kids and UBC runs their program out of BC Children's Hospital. All of the programs have rotations to other sites, but if the main office is located in a Children's Hospital then you might get more exposure than you would otherwise.
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I was told by the Canadian programs that shadowing experience is one of the most important aspects of the application. If you can take 1 or 2 days of vacation from your work in order to shadow, I think it'll do wonders for your application. Everything else looks great. If you're missing the psychology prerequisites, then either of those courses look great, but I don't think you need to take both. The most important part of the advocacy experience is that it came with a training portion (so that you learn the counseling skills they teach like empathy and active listening), and that you stick with it to show commitment. Even if you can't get your shadowing experience this year, still apply, because the rest of your application looks really strong. @KCGC@freckledgenes@AspiringGC Thanks for all of the book recommendations! I really enjoyed Inside the O'Briens, by Lisa Genova. She's the same author that wrote Still Alice.
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It's kind of interesting that both the programs that require letters from GCs are in the same state. I checked The University of Pittsburgh's website to see if they had the same requirement too, but they were a little vague on their reference letter requirements. I think that unless someone worked as a Genetic Counseling Assistant, then a lot of the applicants will be in the same boat as you. As much as it seems like a drag to not be able to use someone who can give you a really strong letter of recommendation, if you did a full day of shadowing with someone then they can still write you a letter confirming that you did do the shadowing, and that you have a good grasp of what a career in the field looks like, etc. I don't really have any advice on being able to do longer shadowing periods. The hospital I shadowed at required me to go through volunteer/privacy training, and because it's a lot of effort to do the training they wanted a longer commitment from me. There is the Find A Genetic Counselor tool that might help you find other genetic counselors in your area that can do longer shadowing.
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Out of curiosity, what programs are asking for reference letters from a GC? All of the programs I'm applying to ask for letters from someone who can comment on your counseling skills, but these typically come from your volunteering or advocacy work.
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I have a Master's in Bioinformatics, which isn't the most relevant field, but still a similar enough field. I've never asked explicitly, but I've always assumed they just look at my undergraduate GPA. I only had to take 4 courses in my Master's, so it's not really comparable to the 20 courses I took in my undergrad. That being said, some of the applications will ask you to give the name and grade of a specific prerequisite and you can use your Master's courses there. So if you took an undergraduate level Biochem course and got 70%, but then took a Master's level Biochem and got 90% you can use that course and grade as your prerequisite, which gives you a bit of a boost. I've never written the GRE (It's not required in Canada, so I'm writing it for the first time this fall), but I know that some schools say you can wave the 5-year cut-off for the GRE if you already have a Master's degree. All of the American schools require that you've written the GRE at least once.
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Hey Everyone, I created this map of all the different ABGC-certified programs with information like application deadline, and number of students accepted, etc: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M57n5YZeNsw7nwxEwfXTAWsmsCw&usp=sharing Some of the information was hard to get from the websites and some of the schools haven't updated their application deadlines from last year, so I can't guarantee that all of the information is 100% correct. All of the tuition information is for the full 2-years of study and is out-of-state tuition, because I figured that was more applicable to most people. We can work on updating the information together, so if anyone notices anything that needs to be changed just PM me. I also didn't include any of the up and coming programs, so if anyone has information on those let me know.
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@GCBrittany I do Bereavement Peer Support volunteering. It's not that out of the ordinary, but it's a bit different from crisis lines because I'm assigned to one person for a long stretch of time. Most of the Canadian schools say "counseling experience" as apposed to "advocacy" which doesn't leave much space for alternate types of advocacy. A few years ago I also volunteered in the eating disorders unit at a rehab. I wouldn't consider it counseling or advocacy, it was just hanging out with patients while they ate their breakfast and then for an hour afterwards, but I got a couple of questions about it during my interview last year, which surprised me.
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I got 4 rejections. One of my rejection letters specifically gave an e-mail address to contact and one of the program directors told me on match day to e-mail her directly. For the other two, I e-mailed the administrative assistant that was listed on the school's program website, and they either forwarded my e-mail to the director or gave me the appropriate e-mail address to contact. I just got feedback from the last school today, and it made me feel pretty motivated for next year's applications.
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Thanks for this, I'm going to find it really useful in figuring out which schools have differing tuition for residents vs non-residents. Just a warning to double check the tuitions on the website, because I noticed a couple of discrepancies. For example, UC Irvine's website has "Non Resident Supplemental Tuition" listed as $24,490 for the full program, but that's what non-residents pay on top of the regular tuition of $22,440 plus the "Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition" of $19,848. The website only seems to list the $24,490 as the tuition for non-residents.
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This might be a little early, but I RSVPed for Wayne State's August 11th open house and booked a hotel room for August 10th about 1mile away. The room has a bunk bed, so if anyone is interested in going to the open house and want to bunk with me send me a PM.
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Athabasca University offers these online Psyc courses: http://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/psyc/psyc228.php http://www.athabascau.ca/syllabi/psyc/psyc388.php I've never taken them, but I was looking into it when I thought I might have to update my pre-reqs.
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@KCGC Your resume is honestly amazing. I can't see anything that you need to improve on. Just make sure that you have all of the pre-requisites for each program, and you work hard on your personal statement. Some advice that I got for the personal statement is to think about what skills are required to be a genetic counselor and try to tell a story that shows you have those skills. It's not enough to just say "I have good communication skills." You have to show them an example of how you have good communication skills. Also, from my own personal experience, don't get too many people to read your personal statement. Just get a few solid people (who you trust are good at editing, etc) to read it over. I find that too many people have too many contradictory opinions. Recruitment days are really helpful for figuring out if you like the school's atmosphere and the types of student's they're looking for, but they're not a requirement at all. It's already going to be really tough for everyone to travel to all of their interviews, so they don't expect you to go to all the recruitment events on top of that. If you can, try going to one or two that are in your area. Some programs also do webinar events.
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I took the GC7050, I didn't know there was another option. The MEDS 4021 syllabus looks identical to the course I took and the professor is the same. The course seemed like it would have been relevant to both medical students and genetic counseling students, but I had the impression that it was only genetic counseling students in the physical lectures.
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I took it last year and thought it was really great. It was 100% go at your own pace, and they send a letter in pdf with your grade on it the day after you write your final exam. It was about $350 if you take it as a "non-credit" course.
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I just got really excited to see someone else from Ontario! (And with such a similar username too). If you're from the GTA, maybe we could PM each other and potentially meet for coffee and exchange application notes. I've been pretty straight forward in my e-mails. If they invited me to interview then I say something along the lines of "Thank you for inviting me to interview with your genetic counseling program this year. I am eager to start preparing for next year's application cycle, and was hoping that you would be able to provide me with feedback on this year's application and interview." Otherwise I just say something like "I was wondering if I would be able to receive feedback for my application to the MSc Genetic Counseling program."
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I found it here: http://www.reg.uci.edu/fees/2016-2017/genetic.html Looks like it's about $26,000/year for residents and $39,000/year for non-residents, but I don't know if you have to pay the spring tuition in the second year.
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I think it depends on the schools your applying to, but @Nefelibata said in a previous post (quoted below) that some of the programs said that the BioChem grade was specifically taken into consideration. I think that "principles of biochemistry" is just a fancy way of saying "introductory biochemistry" and should count as a prerequisite unless the program specifically states that an intro course won't do.
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Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions on this thread. From my undergraduate degree I already have "Introductory Biochemistry" and "Structures and Functions in Biochemistry", so I think those count towards the biochem prereqs for the schools that don't have a time limit on courses. McGill doesn't require organic chemistry, but does require a biochem course within the past 5 years, so I'm hoping that they would consider me have 2 old biochem courses plus a new organic chemistry course good enough. I'm definitely planning on asking them when I get my feedback.