jesse120

SR 10/3 | R1/30: Did not complete secondary -- realized I had no real reason to apply to schools in Chicago, far away from friends/family.

SR 9/15 | SS 9/25 | C 11/15 | "Continue to Review" 12/8 | R 4/18

SR 9/26 | SS 9/27 | R 5/8

SR 9/19 | SS 9/30 | C 10/3 | R 10/16

SR 9/29 | SS 10/3 | R 3/6

SR 9/29 | SS 10/4 | R 1/25

SR 9/19 | SS 10/4 | C 11/10 | R 1/30

SR 10/4 | SS 10/4 | R 4/13

SR 9/29 | SS 10/5 | C10/6 | R 1/12

SR 10/6 | SS 10/9 | R 1/26

SR 10/5 | SS 10/12 | R 2/29: Leap Day rejection an hour before my Albany interview :(

SR 10/12 | SS 10/13 | C 10/25 | R 3/2

SR 10/1 | SS 10/17 | R 3/15: I spent quite some time on this secondary. Disappointed but not surprised.

SR 10/18 | SS 10/18 | C 12/7 | R 5/5

SR 9/29 | SS 10/25 | C 11/15 | R 2/15:

From what I've read on SDN, having your application complete after October leaves you virtually zero chance to get an interview (I was complete Nov 15th, of course). I'm not sure whether this is true, but it's something worth looking into if you're getting ready to apply to schools. I probably wasted money and lots of time on the secondary essays.

SR 9/26 | SS 10/25 | C 12/5 | R 3/23

SR 9/29 | SS 10/13 | C 10/27 | II 2/8 | IA 3/30 | R 4/20:

Loved it! This gorgeous $200 million medical school is state of the art, very modern, very impressive. There is a strong sense of community at this school and the surrounding area. My interviewer said “TCMC students are like rock stars around here.” I don’t remember what the faculty:student ratio is, but it’s something ridiculous. There’s like 800 volunteer clinical science faculty members within the TCMC campuses (the main one is in Scranton, but there are two others in the surrounding northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA) region).

The first two years are organ based I think (I was kind of zoning out during the presentation) and grading is pass/fail. Much more interesting is third year, though. The clerkships aren’t divided into blocks like every other school I’ve seen. Instead, throughout the entire year, you’re taking all your clerkships at once. For example, on Monday morning, you have internal med, then during the afternoon, surgery; Tuesday morning ob/gyn, afternoon: psych, etc. Each half day is a different clerkship that you continue throughout the year (a couple of them may be twice a week, like surgery). They feel there is better continuity of care this way, and you’re more likely to remember the skills learned. During these rotations, you’re actually with an attending the whole time, unlike other schools where you might be with just the residents. It’s probably not uncommon at other schools for attendings to give out grades based on what the residents tell them because they don’t spend enough time with the students. Here, the attendings know their students very well.

The professors are willing to do whatever they can to help their students succeed. After all, the students’ success makes the school look good. Win-win. My interviewer was telling me about how he’s friends with a lot of the residency directors and will make phone calls to them to discuss his students when it comes time to match. Obviously, he’s not going to lie since his credibility is on the line, but he could very well have a strong influence if he feels his student deserves it. I checked out his credentials online, and he’s definitely legit lol. I wouldn’t have expected someone with his pedigree to be here, but here he is. I’m willing to bet that those phone calls could be a serious advantage in the match. In medicine, i.e. business, sometimes who you know is more important than what you know.

The three students we ate lunch with, all MS2s, were very cool. My student interviewer, however, was pretty dull. It was a boring half hour of her asking questions off a piece of paper: strength, weakness, how do you deal with stress, greatest challenge, etc. – the typical generic questions one after another with little actual conversation. That was a bit of a turn-off. Why even volunteer to be an interviewer if you’re not going to make an effort to get to know the applicants? But anyway, my faculty interview was great. He was a really interesting guy and did most of the talking. Both of those interviews are semi-blind, i.e. they have your personal statements and secondary essays but no stats. The exit interview is supposed to be open file, but my interviewer was really busy and didn’t get a chance to read my app. She was really nice though and we talked about other things. Overall, I had a really good vibe from everyone there.

I asked my interviewer about research (his background was from research heavy schools) and he assured me that for such a new school, the research opportunities here are great and are only going to get better. Other than that, I don’t know much about how good the research is at this school. Like every other school I’ve interviewed at, I assume it’s adequate for competitive specialties.

The 16-county area of NEPA has a significantly higher % of residents over 65 than average, making this location an excellent choice for those who are interested in geriatrics. The area has cheap housing near campus and quite a few colleges in the area. A car is absolutely necessary as the rotations sites may be a bit scattered. There is talk about an affiliation with the University of Scranton. There’s nothing official yet, but it’ll probably happen. That affiliation will certainly benefit both TCMC and the U of S. TCMC is on financial probation by the LCME, but they emphasized that they’re not worried at all about getting fully accredited. Not even the students seemed the least bit worried.

For out-of-staters, TCMC does have a strong preference for PA residents, but there were at least a couple fellow interviewees from out of state. One interviewee and one current student were from California. Don’t be too discouraged to apply if you feel you won’t have a shot here without strong ties to NEPA.

This school is by far the closest one to home and I think I would be a great fit here. There is really nothing about the school that I didn’t like. I’ll get the decision on April 20. Fingers crossed.

Withdrew

SR 9/29 | SS 9/29 | C 10/1 | II 12/8 | IA 1/26 | WL 2/16 | W 5/3:

Meliora

The philosophy of the school sets them apart from every other school I’ve looked into. They strongly emphasize the art of medicine and humanism involved in patient care over just a mastery of the sciences. Their approach to medicine and medical education can best be understood by looking up “biopsychosocial model.” One of my interviewers told me that, “in order to understand a disease, you must first understand your patient.” Interestingly, he did his best to dissuade me from considering attending Columbia because he feels that, due to the way they teach, there is too much of a disconnect between patients and medicine there. (Why did he tell me that? I have no idea. I didn’t mention Columbia at all beforehand.)

Like Pittsburgh, my fellow interviewees were from top schools: Cornell (15% of the class comes from there), Dartmouth, Stanford, Duke, and Johns Hopkins come to mind. The school is strong on research (but a project isn’t required for graduation) and has a five year academic research track that I’m very interested in – I definitely don’t want to pursue a Ph.D. but would be happy to spend a year doing research in a program tailored for a career in academic medicine. I was told that Rochester graduates are well suited for academic medicine and that if you look at all the current Deans of Medicine in the country, the highest frequency went to Harvard Medical School; the second highest went to Rochester. Interesting.

The curriculum here is uniquely organized in what they call the “Double Helix Curriculum.” Again, that is also something you should look up on their website. There are basic sciences and clinical experiences throughout all four years. As far as I know, no other school I’ve looked into has basic sciences in the clinical third and fourth years. These classes cover the sciences related to the clerkships that were just completed. Essentially, they cover “extra stuff” that other schools don’t in order to help you appreciate the basic sciences as you go through your rotations. Just to be clear though, it’s not as if two years of basic science is spread out over four. You spend the first two years learning what everyone else is learning and take Step I. During the clerkship years however, there are additional basic science classes between some of the rotations. Pretty cool, right? Also, their first two years are pass/fail. There doesn’t seem to be any competition among students here. The overall atmosphere is very relaxed.

Lectures aren’t recorded! When I first heard that, I was almost ready to run away. But after talking with current students, I realized that it’s not a big deal at all. One student told me only about 60% of people show up for lectures, and the ones who don’t do just as well on exams anyway. Everything is on the syllabi, so class attendance isn’t mandatory. It’s not as if I plan on skipping out on lectures, but rather that I wouldn’t want to be in an “attendance is mandatory or else…” kind of environment. Also, starting next year, all students are getting iPads with all the notes preloaded onto them. No more paper syllabi. Sweet!! They do a lot of PBL and all of the students I talked to loved it. One of the students said that because they do PBL so often, (three times a week, two hours each, I believe) they’re really good at it and enjoy it.

The hospital complex is huge, attractive, and I think all connected. It’s a bit of a maze – I had to ask for help locating my second interviewer’s room, and even then they had trouble pointing me in the right direction. Rochester isn’t the largest city, but they do get trauma from Buffalo and Syracuse. Some people don’t like how much snow they get, but I love snow, so that’s a good thing to me. It felt like a nice place to live, somewhere I’d be very comfortable. There is plenty of housing on and off campus with very affordable rent. Right across the street is the School of Nursing and the undergrad campus is nearby as well (I didn’t see it though).

Overall, I love the school and think I’d be a good fit. I’m hoping they agree. We’ll see what happens.

Withdrew

SR 9/30 | SS 9/30 | II 11/1 | IA 2/17 | WL 3/26 | W 5/3:

Don’t judge a medical school by its cover. On SDN, some people talked about Hofstra as if it were a safety school. It isn’t. This medical school is new, innovative, and definitely promising. Hofstra University is a private school in Long Island with a great reputation. The North Shore-LIJ healthcare system is among the largest in the US and already has residency programs well established throughout. It was only natural for the two to come together to create a medical school. Last year they admitted their inaugural class of 40. Their average MCAT was 33. This year’s incoming class will be composed of 60.

One of the many advantages of starting up a medical school is that they get to create their own curriculum. To divide the years into preclinical and clinical would be an oversimplification. All four years are heavily clinical. The beginning of first year starts off with an EMT crash course to be certified in NY. I forget how often they run on the ambulances, but it’s significant. They are active EMTs throughout the first year, maybe even the second year as well. The students (MS1s) already have a ton of clinical experience, well beyond any first or second year student I’ve met at other schools. Throughout the first two years is ongoing (at least a few hours per week, but as much as you want) training in being a clinician. Students have already (under supervision) done history and physical exams, participated in differentials, delivered a baby, scrubbed in on surgeries, etc. The idea is simple: you learn by doing. The students were sort of thrown into the lion’s den on week one. The faculty are convinced that Hofstra graduates will be the most experienced interns in the country.

There are no lectures. Well, maybe an hour or two a week, tops, but that’s it. Most of the learning is based on PBL and self study. The material is divided into systems. Anatomy spans the entire two years. There are also no multiple choice tests. The assessments are based on essays, presentations, and real or simulated scenarios on a pass/fail basis.

The simulation lab is huge! I think they said it’s the largest in the country.

With a health system so large, research is aplenty. One of my interviewers told me that, based on how much research funding they have, he would expect Hofstra to rank at least in the top 20 on the USNews research rankings.

This school almost sounds too good to be true. And unfortunately, there is no proof that this curriculum actually works. The current MS1s took a leap of faith to attend, and they don’t regret it at all. They’re the happiest students I’ve met so far.

The medical school is on the Hofstra University campus, but the clinical sites are scattered. A car is definitely needed as you’ll have to do a lot of driving.

Withdrew

SR 9/30 | SS 10/3 | C 10/19 | II 12/19 | IA 3/16 | "High Priority" WL 4/10 | W 5/3:

I didn’t get much sleep, left early anticipating traffic, and drove two hours the morning of. What a bad idea that was lol.

I’ll start with the interview. My interviewer was perfectly nice, but I was tired. She didn’t ask a single difficult question and yet there was barely a modicum of coherency in any of my answers. I’ll make sure to contribute to the “Worst Interview Answers” thread on SDN when I get rejected here. For now, I’ll leave it at that. Interviews #1-4 (Pitt, Temple, Rochester, Hofstra) were good, #5 (Albany) was wonderful, and now #6 was just garbage. I would be very surprised to not be rejected. Moral of the story: sleep well before your interviews!!

The preclinical curriculum is very traditional. Many schools tend to organize the information in different ways, but it doesn’t seem as if it makes a big difference. Most of the learning is self-study anyway. What is great here is that the grading is true pass/fail. Most other pass/fail schools, Pitt for example, have internal rankings for Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA). Not here. You get a pass and move on with no lasting record of how you did. Only clerkship grades are considered for AOA membership. I met quite a number of students, and they all emphasized how non-competitive the class is. The friendliness of the class reminded me a lot of Temple. The students here are very laid back.

Research seems excellent. The Price Center/Block Pavilion is pretty huge and aesthetic, though I didn’t go inside. I heard they recruited researchers from other NYC schools. A thesis is required for graduation and there is a lot of research funding. There is generous support for doing research abroad, of which many students have taken advantage. I interviewed on Match Day. I’ll admit I don’t know much about residency programs, but the match list for this year seemed impressive.

There is guaranteed, cheap housing on campus for all four years. The school is in a nice area in the Bronx and the undergrad campus is in upper Manhattan about five miles away. It takes about half an hour to get to midtown Manhattan. They are affiliated with large hospitals throughout NYC. Clinical experience seems great here. A car probably isn’t needed.

The tour guides had an earlier class than normal and had to cut the tour short. But overall, I was very impressed with Einstein. Like I already mentioned, I’m not expecting an offer of admission here as I’m sure I didn’t leave a good impression on my interviewer, but we’ll see.

Update: It is worth mentioning that virtually no one on SDN who interviewed after January 1st received an outright offer of admission. They were either rejected, waitlisted, or high priority waitlisted. There seemed to be good waitlist movement in May.

Matriculating

SR 9/29 | SS 10/5 | II 10/6 | IA 11/16 | WL 12/15 | A 4/4 | SL 4/27 | FA 5/1 | M 5/3:

Updated: 5/8/12
Since Pitt was my first interview, my earlier review didn’t reflect how I currently feel about the school now that I’ve interviewed at six others. Hopefully this review will better represent Pitt for future applicants.

My first impression was that Pittsburgh was a little overwhelming. After going back for second look, I still feel the same way. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is one of the largest hospital systems in the US. Both the hospital and the medical school are consistently ranked in the top 20 according to USNews (currently 12 and 15 respectively). A major advantage that Pitt has over schools in larger cities (e.g. Philadelphia, NYC, Boston) is that they don’t have to share hospitals or patients with other medical schools. The major disadvantage is that their location isn’t all that attractive to many applicants who prefer to live in a large city full of excitement. Of course, this isn’t a disadvantage for everyone. I’ve never lived in a city, so I probably wouldn’t be that comfortable in a large city. Pittsburgh feels about right for me.

Pitt does block scheduling for the preclinical years. Students tend to like block scheduling since they get to focus on one topic at a time. There are also longitudinal courses which include clinical experiences, ethics, law, medical decision making, scientific reasoning, etc. Most of the first year is just the basic sciences while the second year is organ system pathophysiology. This is fairly typical among schools. Grading is now pass/fail (formerly honors/pass/fail). I do believe there will be an internal ranking going on for Alpha Omega Alpha membership (medical honor society), but I’m not positive. Either way, pass/fail is definitely a good thing. Unranked would’ve been better. I forget how often they do PBL – probably a few hours a week? Some like it, some don’t. It’s supposed to help develop important skills, so I’ll do my best to approach it with an open mind.

It’s difficult to gage the quality of third year rotations as an applicant, but I have no reason to doubt that they are of the highest quality here, given their exclusivity to UPMC. Their match list is outstanding! Roughly two thirds matched into the most prestigious academic medical centers. Pitt obviously has a great reputation among residency program directors for their clinical excellence.

Pitt is #6 in terms of NIH grants, i.e. research is a big deal here. The research opportunities are endless. If you can think it, you can do it. A scholarly project is required and there is a lot of support given to students. They understand when a student goes three months without working on their project at all to concentrate on studying. So although it’s required, it’s not as if they’ll be hounding you to work x hours per week or something. You have a lot of freedom with it.

According to Forbes, Pittsburgh is the most livable city in the US. It’s very affordable, has plenty of apartments within walking distance to the school, has decent public transportation, has one of the lowest crime rates compared to other cities, and has over a dozen colleges or campuses. I know I’ll like living here. For me, the only downside is that home is about five hours away. But, it’s not that bad.

Like many, many people, I was waitlisted after my interview. I don’t know the exact numbers, but they waitlist ~75%, accept ~10% , and reject ~15%. My fellow interviewees were from top colleges: Harvard, Stanford, Duke, etc. I was honestly pretty intimidated by interview day and didn’t think I would be pulled off the waitlist. After interview season was over, Pitt was unquestionably my top choice, so I was ecstatic to get accepted. Second look was awesome and it made me like the school even more. After getting my financial aid package (awarded $36k need-based scholarship, re-evaluated each year), the decision was easy. Even if I were offered more money from any of the remaining five schools, I wouldn’t have turned Pitt down. So, in fairness to other applicants, I promptly withdrew from the other five schools and will be matriculating. This is definitely the right school for me.

Pitt Med is simply amazing. While I liked all seven schools for different reasons, Pitt easily stands out from the rest. And by that, I don’t mean their USNews rankings. Of the seven schools, Pitt seems to be the best in each of these categories: match list, research, hospitals, world-renown faculty, cost of living, reputation among residency program directors, and need-based financial aid.

Being a late applicant, I went into the application game with the mindset of “I’ll take whatever I can get. If I can score one acceptance, I don’t care where, I’ll be happy.” It’s unbelievable how things turned out. Pitt Med class of 2016!!

Withdrew

SR 9/29 | SS 9/30 | II 11/7 | IA 11/30 | A 12/20 | SL 3/23 | W 5/3:

Temple just spent somewhere around $160 million on a brand new, state-of-the-art medical school a few years ago. It is seriously amazing. Although it is situated in the middle of a very bad neighborhood, the medical school is very safe, shiny, and fully equipped. All in one building are the anatomy labs that barely smell of formaldehyde thanks to their air filtration system, simulations labs, research labs, classrooms, libraries, etc. I didn’t see much of the hospitals, but they’re right across the street. Aesthetically and practically, the facilities are wonderful.

Although Temple isn’t a research heavy school (no required research or anything), I think their research opportunities are more than adequate for those who want to get involved and published. On interview day, they seemed to be really proud of their clinical rotations. Their emphasis was more on that rather than their research.

It’s hard to describe why exactly, but I think I just fit in more with the student body at Temple than at a more “prestigious” school like Pittsburgh or Rochester. As a stark contrast to my interviews at those two schools, none of my fellow interviewees were from Ivy-level undergrads. I’m not trying to imply that Temple students aren’t as smart, but rather they weren’t quite as haughty as some others I met on the interview trail. The interview day had a totally different feel to it. I was a bit more comfortable talking with my fellow interviewees and current students here than at those other schools. The professor who interviewed me emphasized how the students here are more like a family than just classmates, and I definitely got that impression as well. For me at least, this carries a lot of weight when it comes time to make a decision if I’m fortunate enough to have multiple acceptances. Above all else, I want to be comfortable at whichever school I decide to attend.

Temple grades honors/pass/fail for preclinical years. Current students emphasized that although there is honors, there is no competition among students since honors is based only on your grade (I think 92% and could be lowered for particularly difficult exams) and not on class performance. Meaning, everyone can honor a course if they all score 92% (i.e. it’s not just top x% or something). Do honoring preclinicals matter for residency placement? Not nearly as much as Step I scores. I slightly prefer pass/fail over honors/pass/fail to reduce the stress a little, but it’s only a minor consideration.

Temple organizes the preclinical years into blocks. I have heard from many people that block scheduling is the way to go. You’re able to really focus in on one topic at a time and get much needed breaks in between the blocks. The only downside I can foresee about blocks is that, if you don’t like the topic(s) of a particular block, you’re stuck with it for several weeks. You have to “get through it” before you move onto something you enjoy more. I’m sure everyone has a topic or two that they won’t care for, and those blocks might suck. There seems to be a lot of PBL. I’m not quite sure yet whether this is a positive or negative. My gut tells me positive.

Throughout the preclinical curriculum is ongoing clinical experience. This is a plus. It’s not just a dichotomy of books for two years and patients for two years. They seem to be meshed together nicely.

Temple’s location has some good and some bad. Being in the middle of a bad neighborhood, there is no student housing near campus. Students have at minimum a 10-15 minute commute. Also, the medical school is isolated from the undergrad campus. I forget how far away they are, probably like 20 or so blocks? It probably seems farther to me than it actually is. As a big plus though, Temple is big on trauma. Being interested in surgery, this is appealing.

I was accepted five days before Christmas. Talk about an amazing Christmas present! I would be perfectly happy to attend here. Any other acceptances at this point is gravy.

Update: Withdrew after receiving financial aid package from Pittsburgh. Didn't receive a scholarship here and was told that financial aid packages would be sent out after May 15th. Seriously? Sorry, Temple, but I just can't wait that long. I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Withdrew

SR 10/4 | SS 10/9 | II 1/10 | IA 2/29 | A 3/8 | W 5/3:

I left the school feeling as if I hadn’t learned a whole lot about it. I only saw two students the entire day, just one faculty member (my interviewer), and the tour was very brief (like 15 minutes?). The day started at 11:15am and finished before 3:00pm. It was by far the shortest interview day. It doesn’t mean I was unimpressed by the school, it just means I want to learn a lot more about it. Without an official second day look (which I think would have been immensely helpful), I’ll have to revisit sometime in late April/early May before May 15.

The emphasis was on their clinical training. Albany Medical College is the only medical school and teaching hospital within a 120 mile radius. They provide primary to tertiary care for 3 million residents in 25 counties throughout NY and New England. So, unlike schools in metropolitan areas (e.g. Philly and NYC), there is no need to share patients with other medical schools. This is a big plus.

The preclinical curriculum is based on organ system modules. There are longitudinal themes that run throughout, including clinical skills, ethics, evidence-based medicine, nutrition, and informatics, with the focus on clinical presentations. All of that sounds great. The only problem I have is with their so called “modified pass/fail” grading system. It’s definitely a misnomer. The top x% get honors (I think they call it “high excellence” or something), next y% get high pass, and the rest pass or fail based on their grade. Yuck. It’s an H/HP/P/F grading system. The two students I met said there is zero competition at the school, but honestly, I find that a little hard to believe. When only five or so (I forget how many) students can honor a course, I’d be willing to bet there is going to be some competition and added stress among the top ten or twenty students, even if the other 80% of the class is relatively non-competitive. That’s the problem with meeting two students, I can really only speculate right now.

In terms of research, I don’t really know. The two students (MSI and MSII) weren’t involved with much research yet. They said it was easy to get involved though. There hasn’t seemed to be any problems with research opportunities at any of the other schools I’ve interviewed at, and I wouldn’t expect there to be any problems here either. Considering that there is an MDDR track (MD with Distinction in Research), I assume the research here is more than adequate for competitive specialties.

AMC isn’t affiliated with a university, i.e. there are no undergrad or grad programs easily accessible to the medical students. Some people have said that it’s a good thing since then those pesky premeds aren’t getting in the way of your clinical training. I don’t really buy it. I think there are definite advantages to being affiliated with a university. For example, there are no official dual degree programs here. I’m interested in possibly pursuing an MBA. It would be a little tricky to do here. Not impossible, but tricky. Then again, I can also earn the degree later on as well, during residency for example.

The one exceptional highlight about the school was the interview. Without question, this was the best interview I’ve had so far. The professor was one of the friendliest people I have ever met. She was genuinely interested in my story and the entire one-hour interview was stress-free. I just felt so comfortable the entire time. Toward the end of the interview, she actually said to me, “What else can I say to you to convince you to come here?” I was accepted a week later and she wrote a very nice email that same day. This school gets serious points for such an outstanding faculty member. However, it’s worth noting that based on the interview feedback on SDN, some interviews at this school were very high-stress. I might have just lucked out.

I asked the two students why they choose this school and neither had actual reasons other than family nearby. There’s certainly nothing wrong about wanting to stay close to family, but they didn’t give any other reason. Because I don’t know as much about this school as I would like, there’s nothing that really stands out enough for me to choose it over Temple. Don’t get me wrong, it seems like a great school, and I'm very grateful for being offered admission, but I’m just not sold yet. If I weren't already accepted to Temple, I wouldn't hesitate to attend AMC.

Update: Withdrew after receiving financial aid package from Pittsburgh. Didn't receive a financial aid package from AMC, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I knew I wouldn't choose AMC over Pitt.