Veronica T.
5.0
Stanford MD with 15+ Med School Acceptances | Expert Essay Writer
Studied at Stanford University School of Medicine
Works at Cedars-Sinai
Available Thursday at 3:00 AM UTC
Usually responds within 48 hours
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Veronica’s Medical School Qualifications
20+ people coached for Medical School
Open to working with clients outside the U.S.
Veronica has helped clients get into these schools:
I have gotten to where I am with the help of many mentors along the way and I am all for paying it forward! I started tutoring elementary school kids when I was in middle school and since then have always had a passion for helping others on their educational path. I continued to tutor in high school and college, and went on to become a teaching assistant in medical school. Since getting into medical school, I have coached many other students into acceptances at Stanford, Columbia, UCSF, Michigan, Emory and other medical schools. Some of my coaching tactics come from having been trained to become an interviewer at Stanford Medical School, other come from having helped to proofread many application essays along the years. As a prior rowing coach, I am very invested in the success of those I train. I am very excited to get to know your story and help you share it with others in a way that makes you shine!
Veronica can help with:
Financial Aid & Scholarships
AMCAS Application Edit
Multiple Mini Interview
Traditional Interview
Waitlist Strategy
Personal Statement
Letters of Evaluation
School Selection
Application Strategy
Activities List Edit
Secondary Essays
TMDSAS Application Edit
About Veronica
I was born and raised in the beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I attended Academia San Jose (a school that has seen shut down). As a child I enjoyed dancing ballet, playing volleyball and softball, going to the beach, and competing at the Math Olympics. In 2012, I moved to Boston to study Biological Engineering at MIT. During my time at MIT I picked up rowing, was part of the leadership of the MIT Medlinks, ran the Colleges Against Cancer Relay for Life Event, tutored in organic chemistry and biology, and founded the Minority Pre-Medical Students MIT Chapter. In 2016 I moved across the country to attend medical school at Stanford, where I founded the Cardiovascular Student Interest Group and was part of the Latino Medical Students Association Leadership. In the middle of my medical school career, and during the COVID pandemic, I moved to Miami to train in rowing and become an Olympic rower.I also started mentoring and coaching students to get into medical school. After competing in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, I finished my last two years of medical school and graduated in June 2023. Currently, I live in Los Angeles where I am a first year resident of the Cardiac Surgery residency program at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.
Why do I coach?
The BIG truth is I have not gotten to where I am by myself... There has been an innumerable number of people along my path that have helped me in my professional, athletic, and personal accomplishments. When I was in high school I asked a trauma surgeon who came to give a talk at my school how he dealt with when patients died in his operating room. We spoke for a while and then he asked me to come shadow him in the operating room and the rest is history- I fell in love with surgery, he mentored me through the years and now I am a cardiac surgeon in training at Cedars Sinai. After joining the rowing team at MITI saw an article in a Puerto Rican newspaper about the Puerto Rico Rowing Federation so I contacted and I asked how I could become part of the tem. Eight years later, with the help of many coaches that trained and mentored me along the way, I qualified to the Tokyo Olympics as the first Puerto Rican female Olympic rower. The biggest thing I have learned from these experiences, and something I teach all of my mentees is to never be afraid to ASK - ask when you don’t know something, ask for help when you need it, ask for guidance to achieve your goals, ask because you are curious of something, ask so you can get to know people, ask so you can find opportunities for yourself. Coaching is my way of paying it forward for all those times someone answered yes in my path.
Work Experience
MD
Cedars-Sinai
June 2023 - Present
Resident in the Cardiothoracic Surgery Integrated Residency Program
Professional Athlete
The Olympic Games
June 2013 - Present
First Puerto Rican Female Olympic Rower • Competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Other International Competitions: • World Rowing Beach Sprints Finals 2022 • World Rowing Championships 2019, 2018, 2015, 2014 • Lima 2019 Pan-AmericanGames • Baranquilla 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games • Veracruz 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games
Study Coordinator
Stanford University
December 2021 - June 2023
Interdepartmental Collaboration at Stanford University • Designed, coordinated and executed animal studies to test an implantable device designed to mechanically induce ventricular growth in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. • Performed surgery on rabbits to implant the device onto the epicardial surface of the ventricle with the guidance of Dr. Michael Ma. • Contributed to the design process of the device led by Professor Alison Marsden, Professor Mark Cutkosky, Dr. Michael Ma and Dr. Daniel Bernstein. • Additional Ventures Innovation Fund Single Ventricle Disease Research Program
Principal Product Designer
Stanford Health Care
December 2021 - June 2023
Cardiac Surgical Arrythmia Research Lab: • Lead engineer in the design of a minimally invasive device to map arrythmia pathways on the epicardial surface of the heart, directed by Dr. Anson Lee. • Mentored two Stanford undergraduate engineers involved in the project
Medical Researcher
Stanford Health Care
March 2018 - June 2023
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery: • Collaborated in multiple retrospective studies led by Dr. Joseph Woo investigating surgical techniques in type A aortic dissection, heart transplant and mitral valve repair performed at Stanford Department of General Surgery: • Performed all statistics for a study investigating the effects of COVID-19 on the presentation and outcomes of acute surgical conditions (see publications and abstracts). Publications: • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Toro Arana, V., Williams, K.M., Shudo, Y., Oyer, P.E., & Woo Y.J. (2021). The Stanford experience of heart transplantation over five decades. European Heart Journal, 42(48): 4934–4943. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehab416 • Farber, O.N., Gomez, G.I., Titan, A.L., Fisher, A.T., Puntasecca, C.J., Toro Arana, V., Kempinsky, A. Wise, C.E., Bessoff, K.E., Hawn, M.T., Korndorffer, J.R., Forrester, J.D., & Esquivel, M.M. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on presentation, management, and outcomes of acute care surgery for gallbladder disease and acute appendicitis. World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 13(8): 859-870. doi:10.4240/wjgs.v13.i8.859 • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Tao, J.J., Toro Arana, V., Khoo, J.W., Williams, K.M., Al-Rahman Traboulsi, A., Hammond, H.C., Lee, A.M., Hiesinger, W., Boyd, J., Oyer, P.E., Stinson, E.B., Reitz, B.A., Mitchell, R.S., Miller, D.C., Fischbein, M.P., & Woo, Y.J. (2020). Type A Aortic Dissection-Experience Over 5 Decades: JACC Historical Breakthroughs in Perspective. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 76(14): 1703-1713. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2020.07.06 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery: • Collaborated in multiple retrospective studies led by Dr. Joseph Woo investigating surgical techniques in type A aortic dissection, heart transplant and mitral valve repair performed at Stanford Department of General Surgery: • Performed all statistics for a study investigating the effects of COVID-19 on the presentation and outcomes of acute surgical conditions (see publications and abstracts). Publications: • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Toro Arana, V., Williams, K.M., Shudo, Y., Oyer, P.E., & Woo Y.J. (2021). The Stanford experience of heart transplantation over five decades. European Heart Journal, 42(48): 4934–4943. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehab416 • Farber, O.N., Gomez, G.I., Titan, A.L., Fisher, A.T., Puntasecca, C.J., Toro Arana, V., Kempinsky, A. Wise, C.E., Bessoff, K.E., Hawn, M.T., Korndorffer, J.R., Forrester, J.D., & Esquivel, M.M. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on presentation, management, and outcomes of acute care surgery for gallbladder disease and acute appendicitis. World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 13(8): 859-870. doi:10.4240/wjgs.v13.i8.859 • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Tao, J.J., Toro Arana, V., Khoo, J.W., Williams, K.M., Al-Rahman Traboulsi, A., Hammond, H.C., Lee, A.M., Hiesinger, W., Boyd, J., Oyer, P.E., Stinson, E.B., Reitz, B.A., Mitchell, R.S., Miller, D.C., Fischbein, M.P., & Woo, Y.J. (2020). Type A Aortic Dissection-Experience Over 5 Decades: JACC Historical Breakthroughs in Perspective. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 76(14): 1703-1713. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2020.07.06 Skills: Scholarly Research · General Surgery · Cardiac Surgery · Clinical Research · Statistica
Research Scholar
Stanford University
April 2017 - June 2023
Cardiovascular Biomechanics Computation Lab: • Studied the right-ventricular outflow tract and pulmonary artery geometry in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot and the associations between this geometry and their outcomes after pulmonary valve replacement surgery. • Worked on the construction of patient specific models from angiography for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery planning. • Investigated the association between aneurysm hemodynamics and wall enhancement on 3D vessel wall MRI. Awards/Funding: • Stanford Medical Scholars Research Fellowship • Dorothy Dee and Marjorie Helene Boring Trust Award Publications: • Khan, M.O., Toro Arana, V., Najafi, M., MacDonald, D.E., Natarajan, T., Valen-Sendstad, K., & Steinman D.A. (2021). On the prevalence of flow instabilities from high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics of intracranial bifurcation aneurysms. Journal of Biomechanics, 127:110683. • Khan, M.O., Toro Arana, V., Rubbert, C., Cornelius, J.F., Fischer, I., Bostelmann, R., Mijderwijk, H.J., Turowski, B., Steiger, H.J., May, R., & Petridis, A.K. (2020). Association between aneurysm hemodynamics and wall enhancement on 3D vessel wall MRI. Journal of Neurosurgery, 134(2): 565–575. • Toro Arana, V., Chan, F.P., Schiavone, N.K., Reddy, S., Hanley, F., Marsden A.L., & McElhinney D.B. (2021). Right Ventricular Outflow Tract and Pulmonary Artery Geometry in Patients with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot Prior to Pulmonary Valve Replacement: Characterization and Longitudinal Association with Bioprosthetic Valve Function. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 77(18; Suppl 1): 1410. • Toro Arana, V., Chan, F.P., Schiavone, N.K., McElhinney, D.B., Reddy, S., & Marsden, A.L. (2018). Pre-Operative Right Ventricular Outflow Tract and Pulmonary Artery Geometry Predicts Pulmonary Valve Replacement Outcomes in Patients with Tetralogy of Fallot. Circulation, 138: A17390.
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Stanford Medicine
March 2022 - June 2022
Course taught: Science of Medicine I - Cardiovascular Block (INDE 221) This is the cardiovascular physiology and pathology course for all first year medical students at Stanford Medicine. During the course I was responsible for organizing weekly office hours and review sessions for the exams.
Project Engineer
Stanford Biodesign
May 2020 - December 2020
• Designed and built a hardware and software prototype for a system that automatically regulates oxygen flow from an oxygen tank based on a patient’s oxygen saturation with a team of 3 other engineers. • Biodesign Summer Extension Grant • Provisional patent application filed 06/2020
Assistant Editor
Stanford Health Care
June 2020 - September 2020
Stanford Medicine’s COVID Surge Handbook • Wrote and edited sections of the “subspecialty care” and “clinical care for providers” pages. https://icuhandbook.notion.site
Clinical Data Analyst
Stanford University
January 2018 - December 2018
Stanford University & San Francisco State University Collaboration • Worked in conjunction with members of Russ Altman’s Lab and Dragutin Petkovic’s graduate students on the prototype for a mobile application for adverse event reporting to the FDA. • Conducted research on mobile technology features that improve the completion rate and accuracy of the reports.
Course Coordinator
Stanford Medicine
March 2018 - June 2018
Organized the following courses: • Introduction to Cardiac Image Processing Techniques, Stanford University School of Medicine •Introduction to Cardiac Surgery Skills, Stanford University School of Medicine
Teaching Assistant
Stanford Health Care
June 2017 - July 2017
Taught in the Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Center's Summer Internship
Intern
Fundacion Dr. Garcia Rinaldi
June 2017 - July 2017
Clinical rotations in Cardiothoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Cardiology, Radiology, Urgent Care at the Mayagüez Medical Center, the Hospital HIMA Fajardo, Centro Medico de Puerto Rico, and small community clinics around the island. Clinical rotations in Cardiothoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Cardiology, Radiology, Urgent Care at the Mayagüez Medical Center, the Hospital HIMA Fajardo, Centro Medico de Puerto Rico, and small community clinics around the island.
Undergraduate Researcher
Massachusetts General Hospital
January 2013 - August 2016
Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication: • Studied the effect of recombinant Dentin Matric Protein I on Mesenchymal Stem Cell differentiation to bone and its application to synthetic bone scaffolds Publications: •Toro, V., Grottkau, A., Pong, Y., Grottkau, B., & Neville, C. (2014). Enhancing Synthetic Bone Scaffolds with Dentin Matrix Protein I.
Product Designer
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
August 2015 - June 2016
• Designed and prototyped a novel surgical ultrasound debridement tool with a group of 5 students and a mentor. • Created a fluorescent Staph. Aureus biofilm model to test the efficacy of the device. • Patent pending: No. 62/592627.
Math and Science Tutor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
September 2013 - May 2015
Tutored MIT students in biology, organic chemistry, and biological engineering through the Office of Minority Education.
Tutor
Cambridge Community Center
September 2013 - May 2015
Reading and literacy tutor for underserved elementary school students at through the MIT ReachOut program.
Undergraduate Researcher
USP - Universidade de São Paulo
June 2014 - August 2014
Cell and Molecular Therapy Center: • Investigated the expression of metalloproteinases, MMP2 and MMP9, in fresh biopsy samples from patients with endometriosis.
Undergraduate Researcher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
September 2012 - January 2013
Hammel Chemical Engineering Lab: • Worked on the optimization of the production of Avastin (Bevacizumab) from Chinese hamster ovary cells in a bioreactor.
Education
Stanford University School of Medicine
MD, Medicine
2016 - 2023
Teaching Assistant for the Cardiovascular Physiology and Pathology first-year course Scholarly Concentration in Biological Engineering Research in Cardiovascular Medicine and Cardiothoracic Surgery Completed several courses in Stanford Biodesign Worked on Medical Device Development Founded the Cardiovascular Student Interest Group at Stanford Medicine
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BS, Biological Engineering
2012 - 2016
Majored in Biological Engineering Humanities Concentration in Portuguese TBP Honor Society Member Women’s Crew Varsity Rower Tutor for Organic Chemistry, Biology and Biological Engineering Courses
11 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Knowledge
5.0
Value
5.0
Responsiveness
5.0
Supportiveness
5.0
Veronica has helped clients get into these schools: