"Hello! My name is Allen and I am an aspiring child/adolescent psychiatrist. I graduated this year from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (GPA: 3.97) with a major in psychology and minor in chemistry. I scored a 5 on the AP Calculus BC and AP Psychology tests. I was recently accepted to both MD and DO medical schools.

I have always had a passion for teaching. In high school, I was a math and Chinese TA as well as Chinese yo-yo club founder and teacher. During COVID, I tutored math and chemistry to underpriveleged high school students 1-1 online. I served as research coordinator for my clinical psychology lab for 3 years and was responsible for teaching research assistants how to take psychophysical data. After college, I became a behavior technician, teaching children ages 2-7 with autism communication skills. For the last two years, I also continued teaching Chinese yo-yo to children at a mental health summer camp.

In college, I encountered my most difficult academic challenge: the Medical College Admissions Test. While it normally took 3-6 months for people to crack, it took me 18 months. After meeting with over five different tutors and making no progress for over a year, I felt defeated. Every day, I woke up feeling anxious and worried my dream of becoming a doctor would be lost. After trying countless strategies like process of elimination, avoiding extremes, and sticking to the main ideas along with the over 10,000 practice questions and 25 practice tests I took, I finally achieved a 130 (96th percentile) in Chemistry/Physics with the guidance of my tutors. I realized everyone learns differently. Progress requires patience, adaptation, and time. Using what I learned from previous teaching experiences and the MCAT, I will tailor study plans to match each student's learning style and guide them towards success." less...