Happy UVM Anniversary To Me!
Reflections after a year of being a Catamount...aka I had a lot of time to contemplate whilst driving back to the PNW from Vermont, so I've mentally churned through my preparations for med school.
It has been a month since my last post, and I feel I must apologise for that lack of updating you, my readers. But as today is the beginning of Summer Semester 2025 at UVM, as such, my one-year anniversary at UVM, it feels like a worthwhile time to catch all of you up on my last month and fill you in on a few things.
As for my year in Burlington, to say “it was an experience” is a tautology, true, but doesn’t say very much. So, let me describe more in detail, and my apologies to my regular readers for summarising content described in detail in previous Substack posts, but of course, I have to assume that people reading this post may not have read all of the others prior to now.
Given I started at UVM as a post-bac pre-med certificate student, to say that, one year later, I’d be a biomedical engineering thesis-track masters student would definitely be surprising to me if you had just told me what my current status would be a year ago. However, if you’d told me that I’d have to adapt to the fact that the University of Vermont would not give me in-state tuition privilege given the fact that I do not receive VA educational benefits (which was not expected and different from what I’ve experienced at other public universities), thus would seek to find a way to enrol as a graduate student at UVM to make up the difference in the only way possible given federal student loans…I would have probably rolled my eyes, grumbled, and not been surprised at this news.
The Previous Two Semesters in Short (for New Readers and Those Who Would Like a Recap)
Summer 2024 and all of the things regarding my summer of general chemistry, combined with both the issue of my housing insecurity & the change of instructors during general chemistry 2, as well as the funding issues that initially motivated my application to become a biomedical engineering master’s student in the first place - all in all - definitely rough, but at the same time, considering that whilst I may have gotten a flat B in general chemistry 1, that I was able to attain an A+ in general chemistry 2 as well as successfully attain admission as a BME master’s student feels somewhat remarkable given all of that. I also managed to try all of the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavours that the Burlington location offered in shake form last summer, which was less noteworthy, although more enjoyable.1
Fall 2024, as a semester, was certainly a whole lot more orderly than Summer 2024, however, it was not issue-free. Yes, having to drop organic chemistry 1 in October to free up the time I needed to prepare what I needed for my hearing with the Board of Veterans’ Appeals in early November 2024 was most certainly a disappointment, however, considering that I was able to make solid foundational progress in my work in the An-Cockrell Lab, as well as the A grades I got in Clinical Devices & Instruments (BME 5800) and Epidemiology & Biostatistics (STAT 5000), to say I was mostly satisfied with these results would be quite fair to say, so definitely chuffed, but most certainly not elated to the point of being giddy.
Spring Semester 2025 - Wading Through The Cold to Find My Place
Spring 2025, as a semester, on net, was also definitely positive, but came with its own challenges, especially in the beginning. Yes, the bitter cold and snow helped feed into the depressive episode I had felt early on in the semester, but also the family issues that I had to consider/evaluate that eventually led me to restructure my UVM BME MSc degree plan did as well. Yes, once it became clear that I had to return to Seattle after the end of the Spring Semester, and once I had a plan in place, my disposition most certainly improved.
Relatedly but separate from this was:
1) My thesis adviser is on board with my thesis proposal draft that I submitted to him, to describe what I’m doing in a 1-paragraph summary: I’m building and comparing two simulation models of immune system behaviour—one based on agent-based modelling (ABM) and the other on delay-differential equations (DDE). Both are designed to explore how inflammation unfolds in scenarios like cytokine storms, anti-cytokine therapy, and recurrent infections. The models are grounded in prior work from the An-Cockrell Lab, and I’m implementing them in Python with modular structure and spatial dynamics. The goal is to assess which approach better balances interpretability, biological realism, and usefulness for future clinical or experimental applications—like organ-on-chip studies or decision support tools. It’s a challenging project that blends computational modelling, systems physiology, and translational relevance, and it’s been a great way to apply what I’ve learned across my coursework.
2) How Rehabilitation Engineering went for me - yes, I ended up with an A+ grade for the course, which is great, however, I definitely gained a lot from the course, not just did I work on a practical project with undeniably practical results in the health care field (a gait assistance device for those diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease) which will be useful knowledge, regardless of whether or not I go to medical school in the future; but also, for it, I was required to, as my final individual submission for the class, describe both: a) The class and the project as a whole, and, b) My contributions to it. For (a), I said:
My goal was to always do my share of working on the gait assist device has been one of the most collaborative and multidimensional projects I’ve taken part in, not just at UVM, but in my entire time as an engineering student anywhere. While I contributed primarily to the software and the project management aspects of the team, I have been consistently & constantly impressed with the work, insights, and commitment shown by every student on every team.
I do want to be mindful of not turning this into “the Everett show”, given I hate discussing the “Great ‘I am’” (a primary emphasis of my father’s influence on me in my youth). Given my prior work in project management, systems engineering, and software engineering, it almost surely led me to take a more vocal or structuring role than strictly necessary. My hope, though, is that these instincts helped the group clarify responsibilities, streamline integration points, and reduce friction across teams in order to drive greater work efficiency and effectiveness in implementing the gait assist device. From outlining the RACI matrix to maintaining the integration plan, my goal was to make sure we had shared scaffolding for success, not to dominate.
Ultimately, the biggest success of this project was not just the progress we made technically, but the way multiple disciplines were able to converge toward a unified, patient-focused tool. That’s something I hope we all carry forward into future biomedical design work.
Also, it was a great pleasure to get to know, not just the fellow students I had in Clinical Instruments & Devices last semester much better (Alyssa, Bella, Bila, and Nick) but to get to know and work with everyone else. I hope to remain in contact with all in the future and to have the opportunity to work with everyone in the future, assuming that the universe allows for such an occurrence.
For (b), I said:
My goal was to always do my share of the task, however given that I have more “real world” experience than the rest of the class in several areas, I may have in fact done the work of at least two students in theory. From writing most of the real-time gait quantification code to co-developing the auditory feedback logic and drafting the engineering specs for both, my aim was to ensure that we had working, verifiable core systems.
My primary focus has been on creating modularity and forward-compatibility in the software, not only to meet the current semester’s goals but also to position the project for future expansion - including to two-foot tracking or real-time mobile deployment. I also helped translate signals from the sensors team into formats usable by the feedback group, and maintained consistency in variable naming, JSON formatting, and performance targets.
Throughout, I tried to be an accessible and humble team member - offering support in debugging, helping others scope their work, and making sure documentation was clear and version-controlled. While others brought brilliant ideas and execution to the table, I hope I was able to provide enough infrastructure to help those ideas shine.
My apologies for any limitations of my word smithing above, but I hope it is obvious that every word is genuine, heart-felt, and I undeniably mean it WRT my rehab engineering classmates - they are truly a great bunch of folks and I loved the experience I had with them, and with Sam (our instructor).
My Trip Home to the Pacific Northwest
I will discuss this in a later post that will allow me to discuss in detail the roughly 4,200 kilometres I drove from Burlington to my parents house in the Seattle suburbs from 2 May to 11 May, but the highlights of it are:
I got to see friends in both Toronto and Montana.
I got to see four baseball games (in Rogers Centre (Toronto), Wrigley Field (Chicago), American Family Field (Milwaukee), and Target Field (Minneapolis)
I got to see three state capitol complexes (in St. Paul (first time), Bismarck (second time), and Helena (second time)), but since the last time I saw the latter two I was a wee slip of a lad as they say, I’d forgotten some of the salient details of them.
I got to spend a little bit of time in Theodore Roosevelt National Park
I promise to try to get this done by this Friday (23 May 2025) and I hope it is of interest to all of you, regardless of if you are regular readers of my Substack or new to it.
Details of my UVM Degree Planning & What I have Left to Do for my Pre-Med Pre-Reqs
This means, for those keeping track of my academic plans and planning, for my UVM BME MSc degree, my final degree plan (barring any unexpected changes) is (and with my marks for my UVM courses included (or assumed for the public health courses I am taking this summer):
BME 5800 – Clinical Devices & Instruments - A
BME 5990 – Rehabilitation Engineering - A+
PH 6010 – Public Health & Health Policy - TBD but I’m guessing no worse than A-
PH 6060 – Social & Behavioural Public Health - TBD but I’m guessing no worse than A-
Stat 5000 – Biostatistics & Epidemiology - A
[The Three Transfer Courses from Cornell]
BME Thesis Credits
Which means, assuming I am correct as far as assessing my performance, whilst my GPA at UVM will fall from its currently perfect 4.00 if I do earn two A-’s this summer in the two public health courses, it will fall to a (slightly) better than my Cornell GPA of a 3.87/4.00.2
This also means, given that UW will accept the Biology 1 course I did at UMD (BSCI 170 (lecture) and BSCI 171 (lab)) as the equivalent of BIO 200 - which is the second quarter of the introductory biology series at UW, as well as the acceptance of the general chemistry series I did at UVM last summer (CHEM 1400 and 1450) for its equivalent at UW (CHEM 142, 152, & 162), that, at a minimum, I will be taking at UW the following courses (all course descriptions taken from the UW course catalogue):3
BIO 220 - Introductory Biology 3 - For students intending to take advanced courses in the biological sciences or enroll in preprofessional programs. Animal physiology, plant development and physiology. Final course in a three-quarter series (BIOL 180, BIOL 200, BIOL 220). Maximum 15 credits allowed between BIOL 180; BIOL 200; BIOL 220 (or equivalents); and BIOL 240. Course equivalent to: B BIO 220. Course overlaps with: T BIOL 140. Prerequisite: minimum grade of 2.0 in either BIOL 200, B BIO 200, or T BIOL 130. Offered: AWSpS.4
CHEM 237 - Organic Chemistry 1 - First course for students planning to take three quarters of organic chemistry. Introduction to physical properties, structure, nomenclature, and stereochemistry of organic compounds. Reactions of alkenes and alkynes. No organic laboratory accompanies this course. CHEM 237; CHEM 238; and CHEM 239 (or equivalents) must be completed in sequence. Course equivalent to: B CHEM 237. Course overlaps with: CHEM 220; CHEM 223; CHEM 257; and T CHEM 251. Prerequisite: a minimum grade of 1.7 in either CHEM 153, CHEM 162, or CHEM 165. Offered: AWSpS.
BIOC 405 - Introduction to Biochemistry 1 - Survey of basic principles of biochemistry and molecular biology, emphasizing broad understanding of chemical events in living systems in terms of metabolism and structure-function relationships of biologically important molecules. Suitable for pre-majors, for students interested in careers in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, medical technology. Cannot be taken for credit if credit has already been earned for BIOC 440. Prerequisite: BIOL 200; either CHEM 223, CHEM 237, or CHEM 335. Offered: AW.
BIOC 406 - Introduction to Biochemistry 2 - Survey of basic principles of biochemistry and molecular biology, emphasizing broad understanding of chemical events in living systems in terms of metabolism and structure-function relationships of biologically important molecules. Suitable for pre-majors, for students interested in careers in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, medical technology. Cannot be taken for credit if credit has already been earned for BIOC 441. Prerequisite: BIOC 405. Offered: WSp.
This will mean, that, once complete, I will have covered two full years worth of chemistry courses, 1 semester + 1 quarter of the intro biology series (since a semester is normally considered to have 15-16 weeks, let’s just say 15 for this example, plus the 10 weeks of the third quarter of intro bio, yielding for me 25/30ths (aka 5/6ths) of the intro biology series), my UVM BME MSc, plus everything else, including, at least from an academic credit perspective:
My undergrad education up to and including my two original baccalaureate degrees (the bulk of which accomplished at UW),
My first masters from UVA in systems engineering,
My second masters from Cornell in computer and information sciences,
The wilderness medicine course credits I gained from the University of Utah for doing the Wilderness First Aid and Wilderness First Responder courses for NOLS.
So where does that leave me, heading into the next application cycle when I in fact start applying to medical schools?
Academically, I will have completed or exceeded all core prerequisites, with two full years of chemistry (including organic chemistry and biochemistry), five-sixths of the full introductory biology sequence, and additional graduate coursework in biomedical engineering (which assumes having a full year’s worth of biology at a minimum), epidemiology/biostatistics, and public health. On that basis alone, I’d rate myself around a 9 out of 10 for meeting AMCAS expectations for applicants to medical school.
Compared to a traditional applicant, I may not have followed the clean, four-year pipeline (or the almost as traditional bachelors degree plus post-bac pre-med certificate pipeline) but what I lose in that narrative simplicity I undeniably bring a much broader foundation: three graduate degrees (the most recent of them directly relevant to the practice of medicine), recent upper-division science work, and roughly two decades of lived experience in research, public service, and healthcare (my consulting work in federal health systems (via Booz Allen and Deloitte), along with my experiences as both a disabled veteran and a caregiver), so, say 8.0-8.5 when compared to that more traditional applicant.
When you factor in my AMCAS 15 experiences (discussion of which will also be a future Substack post), which include - military service, simulation and modelling work of various systems, clinical immersion, as well as technical and policy-oriented consulting, caregiving, and long-form research - I’d give myself 9.5 out of 10 for experiential preparation. Which is to say that I am not claiming to be perfect designed/composed applicant to medical school, but I am deeply (if not always traditionally) prepared, and I’ve built this foundation mostly deliberately, even if most of it was intended for my previous career path, working primarily in the federal-sector as a technical worker with a security clearance.
I do know that I will almost certainly be unique, given I’ll be roughly double the age of the average applicant and with a lot more distinctive of a professional and academic history, so even if you assume an average grade of 9.0 out of 10, I will almost surely be more memorable, for good or for ill.
And on that note, my good readers, is a full lid. Happy Monday, everyone!
I still owe my friends a formal evaluation of the various Ben & Jerry’s ice creams as milkshake flavours…which I will get to, I swear I haven’t forgotten about it.
My Cornell MEng cumulative GPA was/is a 3.83.
For anyone curious, the Biology 1 course I took at UMD (described here) - BSCI170 Principles of Molecular & Cellular Biology (3 Credits) - Basic principles of biology with special emphasis on cellular and molecular biology. - as well as its associated lab - BSCI171 Principles of Molecular & Cellular Biology Laboratory (1 Credit) - Basic laboratory principles of biology with special emphasis on cellular and molecular biology. - was considered the equivalent of BIO 200 (Introductory Biology 2) at UW: For students intending to take advanced courses in the biological sciences or enroll in preprofessional programs. Metabolism and energetics, structure and function of biomolecules, cell structure and function, developmental patterning. Second course in a three-quarter series (BIOL 180, BIOL 200, BIOL 220). Maximum 15 credits allowed between BIOL 180; BIOL 200; BIOL 220 (or equivalents); and BIOL 240. Course equivalent to: B BIO 200. Course overlaps with: T BIOL 130. Prerequisite: a minimum grade of 1.7 in either BIOL 180, B BIO 180, or T BIOL 120; and either CHEM 143, CHEM 145, CHEM 223, CHEM 237, or OCEAN 295, or concurrently taking either CHEM 152, CHEM 153, CHEM 155, or CHEM 220. Offered: AWSpS. - as it covered all of this material as well as the Mendelian genetics material, which is covered at UW in BIO 180, along with, evolution, biodiversity of life forms, ecology, and conservation biology.