2009-2010 University of Virginia Application Thread

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shemarty

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Prompts

1. Why are you interested in attending the University of Virginia School of Medicine? (300 word limit)

2. How will you contribute to the diversity of your medical school class and the University of Virginia School of Medicine? (300 word limit)

3. What do you think will be your greatest personal challenge as a physician, and how will you address this? (300 word limit)

LOR Reqs

The School of Medicine prefers a premedical advisor evaluation, or if this service is not available, a minimum of two letters, preferably from science professors or the equivalent. You may also have individual letters sent to AMCAS in addition to a premed advising evaluation. While there is no limit to the number of letters you may submit, please keep in mind that it is better to have a few meaningful letters from individuals who know you well than to have a larger number of superficial letters of recommendation.

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Hey fellow UVA Applicants!

So I did some research on secondaries this morning and here is what I found:

UVA's secondary is available via email. There is no screen for applicants. More info can be found here. Just for reference, last year someone posted the secondary prompts on June 30th. Post whenever you hear anything. :)

Best of luck this year. :luck:
 
Much more OOS friendly than UNC. How do you Virginia residents feel about that? Do the other state medical schools favor IS students more? I think Pennsylvania state schools also take a significant amount of OOS students.
 
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Much more OOS friendly than UNC. How do you Virginia residents feel about that? Do the other state medical schools favor IS students more? I think Pennsylvania state schools also take a significant amount of OOS students.

My two state schools take ONLY IS students. But that's rare.
 
Hi fellow UVA applicants. :hello:. Yes UVA is more OOS friendly than most. I'm personally glad that my state schools don't just allow all in-staters. That sort of takes away from the credibility in their admissions process IMO.
 
Much more OOS friendly than UNC. How do you Virginia residents feel about that? Do the other state medical schools favor IS students more? I think Pennsylvania state schools also take a significant amount of OOS students.


blahhh... true unfortunately. they don't give enough love to us IS :(
 
i wish uva gave more love to instate peeps..especially those that went there for undergrad =)
 
Well, I guess you can see from my name that I'm trying to be a double 'Hoo. ;)

Good luck to all.
 
As somebody who spent the last four years in Charlottesville as an undergrad and will spend the next four as a med student, if anybody needs to know anything or wants a little advice, PM me!
 
Hey fellow UVA Applicants!

So I did some research on secondaries this morning and here is what I found:

UVA's secondary is available via email. There is no screen for applicants. More info can be found here. Just for reference, last year someone posted the secondary prompts on June 30th. Post whenever you hear anything. :)

Best of luck this year. :luck:
So everyone gets a secondary?
 
How's the climate? :)
Virginia's climate is so hard to describe. In mid-April we still had mornings in the 30s. The bad part is when one of those days is followed by a day in the 80s.

Summers get hot and humid. Winter days are mostly in the 30s-40s. You'll maybe have a handful of days in the teens. Not a lot of snow, but we've been getting a lot of rain lately.
 
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Virginia's climate is so hard to describe. In mid-April we still had mornings in the 30s. The bad part is when one of those days is followed by a day in the 80s.

Summers get hot and humid. Winter days are mostly in the 30s-40s. You'll maybe have a handful of days in the teens. Not a lot of snow, but we've been getting a lot of rain lately.

Ha. I live in Colorado. We had a day of 70 degree weather, and the next day it was snowing... a good couple inches. The next day was back up in the 70's. It's not unheard of to be sunbathing in January and skiing in June. Crazy weather doesn't faze me.
 
Has anyone received a secondary from UVA yet? If so, could you post the secondary questions so we can get an early start? Thank you.
 
I just got my secondary today.

The essays are the same as last years

1. Why are you interested in attending the University of Virginia School of Medicine? (300 words.)

2. How will you contribute to the diversity of your medical school class and the University of Virginia School of Medicine? (300 words.)

3. What do you think will be your greatest personal challenge as a physician, and how will you address this? (300 words.)

Aggronote: This just means "what's your biggest weakness and how to overcome it".

Letters: Committee letter.
 
just got it today, obvi got some love for my uva
 
what do you guys think about that greatest challenge one?

-possibly dealing with the long hours of no sleep/ away from your family?

- having to face the families during their most difficult times/ perhaps give them very bad news?
 
I am suspicious of the secondary they sent out...it keeps referring to the applicant's "2009 AMCAS" and UVA's matriculant info for 2007-2008...What if they prematurely sent out last year's secondary by mistake? Howard University did the same thing last week then sent an e-mail out later in the day asking people to ignore the secondary they sent for the same reason...
 
Update: Just called adcom office. Yes, indeed they forgot to update the dates on their application. They will fix it by this afternoon.

Note, the essays are still the same though.
 
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what do you guys think about that greatest challenge one?

-possibly dealing with the long hours of no sleep/ away from your family?

- having to face the families during their most difficult times/ perhaps give them very bad news?
I think that your examples don't fit in with "personal" challenge. Those are challenges that every single physician has to face, and they all deal with it by adapting and learning. Try to think of problems that you face that others might not. Do you focus on small details and miss the big picture (not seeing the forest for the trees)? Do you worry about things long after they're out of your hands? Are you afraid of disappointing those around you? Stuff like that.
 
I think that your examples don't fit in with "personal" challenge. Those are challenges that every single physician has to face, and they all deal with it by adapting and learning. Try to think of problems that you face that others might not. Do you focus on small details and miss the big picture (not seeing the forest for the trees)? Do you worry about things long after they're out of your hands? Are you afraid of disappointing those around you? Stuff like that.

I don't know. By answering the way you suggest, you may be answering the question: "why would you make a horrible doctor?" If you do answer the question with something that personal, you have to make darn sure you have a good resolution to the problem. You know what, play it safe and have a darn good resolution in any event.
 
I think that your examples don't fit in with "personal" challenge. Those are challenges that every single physician has to face, and they all deal with it by adapting and learning. Try to think of problems that you face that others might not. Do you focus on small details and miss the big picture (not seeing the forest for the trees)? Do you worry about things long after they're out of your hands? Are you afraid of disappointing those around you? Stuff like that.
You're thinking too much into it.

I'd answer to what you truly believe you think the biggest challenge will be for you. I said balancing my professional life with my family life. I turned out okay.
 
I think that your examples don't fit in with "personal" challenge. Those are challenges that every single physician has to face, and they all deal with it by adapting and learning. Try to think of problems that you face that others might not. Do you focus on small details and miss the big picture (not seeing the forest for the trees)? Do you worry about things long after they're out of your hands? Are you afraid of disappointing those around you? Stuff like that.

But they ask specifically what will your biggest difficulty be as a physician. It's that role that they're looking at, and while your examples can be applied to that role, some personal challenges won't necessarily affect that role. For instance, I can't sit still, but that's not going to be a challenge of mine in the role of a physician, whereas it might be if I were going to be working in a desk job all day.

So, if you feel that the biggest challenge you'll face is something simple like weird hours, then it's a personal challenge. Just because you won't be the only one facing that challenge doesn't make it impersonal. All the examples you list are things that others will face as well, so there's not much difference.
 
NooooOooOoo!!! I just read the app and the earliest acceptable MCAT is 4/2007 and mine is from 1/2007. Their website and MSAR agree with the dates on the app. How could I have missed this?!

At least you OOSers have one less app to worry about :)
 
I think that your examples don't fit in with "personal" challenge. Those are challenges that every single physician has to face, and they all deal with it by adapting and learning. Try to think of problems that you face that others might not. Do you focus on small details and miss the big picture (not seeing the forest for the trees)? Do you worry about things long after they're out of your hands? Are you afraid of disappointing those around you? Stuff like that.

I agree. I'm sure that writing about some of the other struggles common to the majority of doctors is fine, but I think if I were on the committee, I would appreciate reading more specific and unique challenges to each individual. It just gives more insight into who a person really is and what makes them tick. Just my personal opinion.
 
Er, okay. You guys interpret it however you like, but I think it's silly to write an essay about how hard it will be to work long hours or how hard it will be to tell people they're going to die. Those seem like things that are well in the realm of completely obvious and pointless to write about.

The example of balancing family life works, I think, because it can be of particular personal importance. Yea, everyone works the long hours, but if it affects you more because you've a wife and kid, that's worth noting.

I imagine that in the end, it doesn't really matter, but I think making it something that's truly personal makes for a stronger essay. It also makes it easier to write the second half of the essay: how you'll overcome it. Just my two cents -- feel free to ignore me.
 
I think everyone is thinking about this too much. There's not a right answer. I think as long as we answer the question and don't say "it'd be so hard for me because all the gold-diggers will be after my money", we'll be fine.
 
Well yea, there's not a right or wrong answer, but there's definitely a variety of ways to go about it, some of which may be better than others. It obviously doesn't matter for you ksmi, because your stats are so ridiculous that you could write, "It'll be hard for me to practice medicine in Virginia because the state has a really funny shape," and still get in.
 
Well yea, there's not a right or wrong answer, but there's definitely a variety of ways to go about it, some of which may be better than others. It obviously doesn't matter for you ksmi, because your stats are so ridiculous that you could write, "It'll be hard for me to practice medicine in Virginia because the state has a really funny shape," and still get in.

I think it matters for everyone. But I really think it's just important to be honest. They ask these questions to figure out what we are like. Of course, we're not gonna know now what's gonna suck the most, but knowing ourselves and a little about what doctors do, we can kinda guess. I think it's a good idea to mention something that you actually can overcome, not just get used to though.
 
NooooOooOoo!!! I just read the app and the earliest acceptable MCAT is 4/2007 and mine is from 1/2007. Their website and MSAR agree with the dates on the app. How could I have missed this?!

At least you OOSers have one less app to worry about :)
I'd go ahead and contact them anyways. It can't hurt, right?
 
I'd go ahead and contact them anyways. It can't hurt, right?
I did and am waiting for a reply, but the only schools that have made exceptions so far are schools that have conflicting dates on the MSAR, app, and website.

:(
 
Is it OK to cut and paste essays from Word, or is it necessary to type directly into the boxes?
 
You can copy of paste, but just ensure that in Word you are typing single-spaced with no extra spaces for paragraphs and that you're not indenting.
 
You can copy of paste, but just ensure that in Word you are typing single-spaced with no extra spaces for paragraphs and that you're not indenting.

Rather than risk it I simply typed my essays into the app itself, but it raises a question - I notice that it doesn't leave the paragraphs separated...is what I see on the printout what they will see? Is there anyway to preserve the paragraphs?
 
Rather than risk it I simply typed my essays into the app itself, but it raises a question - I notice that it doesn't leave the paragraphs separated...is what I see on the printout what they will see? Is there anyway to preserve the paragraphs?

I think if you leave an entire line between the paragraphs it does, but it doesn't if you don't leave a blank line. Try it and see how that works out.
 
I think if you leave an entire line between the paragraphs it does, but it doesn't if you don't leave a blank line. Try it and see how that works out.

Nope, that doesn't do it.

Did the "new form" that you could print out after each save show paragraphs? It is not a huge deal to me, but it is annoying that what I see is simply a run together string of sentences with no paragraph breaks.
 
Nope, that doesn't do it.

Did the "new form" that you could print out after each save show paragraphs? It is not a huge deal to me, but it is annoying that what I see is simply a run together string of sentences with no paragraph breaks.

I honestly didn't try that for this app. But I was having the same problem with Baylor's and it fixed it there. Didn't work for me either on UVA's. No paragraphs is annoying. :thumbdown:
 
FYI, no joy if your MCAT is older than April 2007. The only way you can apply is if you retake the test.
 
So does having an interest in art etc. make me diverse or are they looking for something more substantial?
 
UVA or UVa? Does it matter?

You see it both ways, but I think purists use UVa.

I used UVA - just looks better on paper - look at their website and you see UVA.

Whatever you do, don't use or say UV.
 
also random question, not just for this school but any school. they say they prefer a LOR from a pre med advisor/ committee, which I have. Is it poor form to submit additional letters if you think they are good and would help you out?? I don't want to be annoying, but I dont want all my good letters to go to waste.
 
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