2011-2012 Albany Application Thread

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The AMC Orientation Coordinators will start the Facebook group after May 25th, since acceptees are more likely to know where they're going once they can only hold onto one acceptance.

You're welcome to start your own if you don't want to wait, though everyone will likely transition to the "official" group after May.

Anyone up for starting our own a bit early?

I'm all for it!

I created an unofficial facebook group for the class of 2016:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/182611468526928/

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Originally Posted by wpittman

I created an unofficial facebook group for the class of 2016:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/182611468526928/

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Thanks for doing this!

JUST ACCEPTED off the WL today! YAY!

Originally Posted by SDapplicant

JUST ACCEPTED off the WL today! YAY!

Congratulations!!

Congratulations! When did you waitlist? I thought they weren't even placing people on the Waitlist from UC until June....

Originally Posted by Icruise

Congratulations! When did you waitlist? I thought they weren't even placing people on the Waitlist from UC until June....

People have been accepted from the UC list over the past few months. It depends on the score you were assigned at the adcom meeting. As the season goes on, the score required for admission slowly decreases. I think if you were on the UC list, and ended up getting a score that surpassed this benchmark, you were offered an acceptance.

Originally Posted by wpittman

I created an unofficial facebook group for the class of 2016:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/182611468526928/

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Thanks! So exciting!

Originally Posted by phnerd1105

People have been accepted from the UC list over the past few months. It depends on the score you were assigned at the adcom meeting. As the season goes on, the score required for admission slowly decreases. I think if you were on the UC list, and ended up getting a score that surpassed this benchmark, you were offered an acceptance.

That was my same understanding Phnerd! I was just confused because he said waitlist and not UC. So I wanted to know if SDapplicant was placed on a waitlist after UC and then accepted or if it was a typo and he meant UC...

Hey guys, sorry if I confused you. I was never given a formal waitlist. I was always uc. The reason I said wl is because uc meant wl
To me. Formally it was still uc and was accepted yesterday around 12:45 pm. Gl!

Originally Posted by SDapplicant

Hey guys, sorry if I confused you. I was never given a formal waitlist. I was always uc. The reason I said wl is because uc meant wl
To me. Formally it was still uc and was accepted yesterday around 12:45 pm. Gl!

Sweet, thanks SDapplicant! Would you mind posting your stats? gpa/mcat

Congrats again

GPA >3.6
MCAT>30
Strong UG school

Does this mean that for those of us yet to interview, the criteria for acceptance may not be as high?

why do you say that?

Originally Posted by SallySparrow

It doesn't matter when you interview. You are never interviewing for a Waitlist spot. If it's cheaper to go later, then go later, it's completely fine. They will in essence hold spots for anyone who is interviewing later in the season by the way that they dole out acceptances.

After you interview, they will meet the following week and give your application a score. If your score is above the admit cutoff, you will get admitted. If it is below, you may get put Under Consideration, or perhaps rejected (hopefully not!). They will initially be conservative about the acceptances they give out, but towards the end of May when people have dropped their multiple acceptances and the school has a better idea of how many seats they have, they will lower the cut off appropriately.

This is why. People getting accepted off UC implies they're already lowering the score threshold.

Interview Invite yesterday! Seems they are interviewing pretty late.

I tried scheduling my date through their site, but I can't the Interview packet link on my main menu. Has anyone has this problem? I got the invite yesterday, but they said I have to schedule by 4/15, which is tomorrow. I tried calling them, but no one picked up. I left a message, and sent them an email. I just hope I don't have my app withdrawn because I didn't do it by a prescribed time lol

make sure your pop up screen works? or try another program like IE. Thats so weird that they are still giving out interview invite,,, what does that all mean you guys think?

it probably means that some people didn't respond to their invite or dropped out

Does anyone know how often albany sends out acceptances? Is it every Tuesday?

Originally Posted by kpcrew2oo2

it probably means that some people didn't respond to their invite or dropped out

so unfortunately, people who are just getting their invites now are the last one on the list

would you rather be rejected?
i'm not sure what you're sad about.

Bit of self-school promotion, but one of our own is on SDN's Featured Article (20 Questions) post: http://studentdoctor.net/2012/04/20-...-dunckley-m-d/

She's also a California expat like me, lol.

Has anyone received financial aid packages or know when we should expect them?

Originally Posted by jesse120

Has anyone received financial aid packages or know when we should expect them?

Nothing here yet.

http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/index.html

Originally Posted by jesse120

Has anyone received financial aid packages or know when we should expect them?

I got my award letter this morning through Webadvisor

Originally Posted by slcall

I got my award letter this morning through Webadvisor

nice. were you notified via email or did you just check webadvisor randomly?

What an awesome time to forget my WebAdvisor login information. Sigh.

Originally Posted by phnerd1105

What an awesome time to forget my WebAdvisor login information. Sigh.

you can try your frist name (period) last name as your user id and your usual password

Originally Posted by jesse120

you can try your frist name (period) last name as your user id and your usual password

Thanks for the help. I had forgotten mine, but your suggestion was correct and I was able to log in.

Unfortunately, I don't have an award letter yet, so I'm guessing you must have been notified before

Originally Posted by RedSox10

Thanks for the help. I had forgotten mine, but your suggestion was correct and I was able to log in.

Unfortunately, I don't have an award letter yet, so I'm guessing you must have been notified before

Same.

I did not get an email, I just checked webadvisor and it happened to be there

Does AMC offer scholarships or just loans? Anyone get scholarships?

I got almost 10k in scholarships, but that's because I'm turning into 2nd year. You get more as you progress through the school year.

Did you get any your first year? Thanks!

Originally Posted by lyzi88

Did you get any your first year? Thanks!

I didn't because I came off waitlist. My other friends typically received around $3k, given that they had low EFCs.

Thanks.. seem like Albany is stingy on financial aid

Would you be able to tell me how you like Albany so far and why you picked Albany? Thanks!

Hey Jinobi,

So i ended up getting accepted off the WL. a week or so ago. Is it even worth filling out the financial aid info? I still obv. hope to get financial aid this year. Also, you were saying you Do get more financial aid 2nd and 3rd year? What determines if you do get that 10 K (thats a big difference)? Does everyone get 10 K second year? Thanks! And also like above, whats your favorite things about med school at AMC.

Still haven't gotten any finaid info

Originally Posted by phnerd1105

Still haven't gotten any finaid info

+1. Almost May and I haven't gotten anything from other schools either.

Tomorrow is my fateful day.

Be kind to me, AMC admission gods! I loved your foliaged hillyness!

Originally Posted by centrigeugle

Tomorrow is my fateful day.

Be kind to me, AMC admission gods! I loved your foliaged hillyness!

Good luck!

Alright, so this is for all the people who want more info on Albany (I'm a MS-I right now). My knowledge is neither encompassing nor truly accurate - they're just my reflections and my experiences. Your situation will vary, but still - congrats on getting in to AMC, and good luck to those who are still waiting.

Financial Aid
Financial aid is heavily need-based at AMC. I received about $7500 from AMC for my MS-II year, as well as $2500 from an external scholarship I applied for (remember to apply to those too, as institutional scholarships are in limited supply at any medical school you go to). Fill out the AMC Financial Aid application when you get it, and make sure that you put effort into the essays. The donors for our endowed scholarships look over them to make sure that you're the type of person they want to give their funds to. Funds are allocated with priority going to M4s, M3s, M2s, and then M1s. There are also alumni association scholarships as well.
Remember to apply for the Loans for Disadvantaged Students program too in the beginning of your Fall quarter; they can give you about $10k at 4.9%, which is better when compared to GradPLUS.

Pros:

• Clinical skills are heavily emphasized at AMC. I love our new sim center (who doesn't like shiny things?), and all our interactions with standarized patients are recorded. We have a clinical skills session every 3 weeks, and they build up on each other.
• We're attached to the AMC hospital, which gives us great connections with attendings who want to teach - the head of endocrinology may come in with a patient, a rockstar organ transplant surgeon will just show us what she considers cool and clinically useful, and students may be asked to come down to demonstrate respiratory function. The teachers here area always open for questions and shadowing opportunities.
• Systems-based block curriculum is a huge advantage. We can focus on integrating anatomy, histology, physiology, and biochemistry all in one organ-system, rather than struggling to remember what we learned in anatomy back in October.
• Smaller school, with class size of 141, no undergrads, and smaller residency programs (e.g. Anesthesiology here has 6 residents, versus some who have 25+ residents). Therefore, a lot of the resources here are dedicated just for the medical students, and it's easy to get a lot of hands-on exposure in the hospital if you want it. We can go on EMS helicopter ride-alongs, follow attendings as they do house calls in the area, go into mock simulation centers for ICU crisis management, attend stitching workshops held voluntarily by surgery attendings/residents...
• Podcast and video-recorded lectures. Nuff said.
• This is class dependent, but I feel that our classmates are pretty cohesive as a whole. We just had a chili cookoff for the Class of 2015, and people are still giving me high-fives for it lol. Our facebook group is the nexus for impromptu events; ultimate frisbee games, weekly rock climbing trips, Game of Thrones viewing parties, tiki parties in the middle of the theme...there's always something to do, in addition to what you'll be doing with your own inner group of friends.
• Community service is widespread; there's the Konohoa Primary Care Clinic, where students follow their own patients longitudinally for all four years. I'm in IMANA, where we give histories and blood testing to Muslim patients at a local mosque. There are also health fairs sponsored by Family Medicine, Med-Peds, and the Opthalmology departments. Other community service includes pick-up after-school basketball games with middle school students, teaching shelter kids how to cook, reading to patients in the pediatric wards, being a mentor to teenage single mothers, consult and support for AIDS patients, clean-up days around Albany...
• Match list keeps getting better year after year (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35000992/AMC...tch%20List.pdf) - 4th years give us matched student panels and tell us exactly what they did to get in. Super useful.

Cons:

• Well, it's Albany. Not much chance you'll have friends/neighbors in the upstate NY area, since it's more sparsely populated. Patient caseload is great still, since we serve the surrounding 28 counties around us (about 3 million patient population base). Albany isn't going to be like NYC, but there's a lot of outdoor activities (rock climbing, hiking, laser tag) and bars to keep us entertained. Most of our time is spent with each other anyways.
• Organization can be a pain in some lectures, but you quickly learn which professors to just podcast. PhDs who teach towards their own research can be particularly painful - it's something you'll have to deal with by gradually recognizing what's important on their slides.
• Tuition is high at 52k this year. Financial aid is here, like I said, but not everyone will receive it unless you're baller or you're low-income.
• I've talked to upperclassmen, and it seems that AMC could prepare us better for boards. We have about 2 NBME-style exams this year, and we'll have nearly 10 of them next year - AMC is doing some things right, but they could also be implementing board review sessions, in my opinion (e.g. at VCU, Costanzo herself gives physio reviews, so that's awesome). This relates back to the problem of our PhDs teaching towards their research - you don't quite know what's relevant. Smart students will reference First Aid during 2nd year to hone in on what's important, and will sacrifice their pre-clinical grades for better board scores (in the grand scheme of residency, USMLE Step 1 >> pre-clinical grades). Don't get me wrong - our lectures cover all the information necessary to kick ass on boards, but there's sometimes TOO much information to retain - and the important board-relevant material gets a bit lost in theres. Talk to us upperclassman for advice on how we handled it, and just focus on assimilating the deluge of material you'll receive M1 before you even THINK about tackling board studying.
• Some of our facilities are kinda dated, though administration is working on it; they're renovating our student lounge right now, getting new chairs for the library, and building a new hospital next door.

This isn't comprehensive, but it's a start. I still think that your med school experience is surprisingly generalizable across schools; just look at http://whatshouldwecallmedschool.tumblr.com/, and realize that our whole class can emphasize with the antics contained within.

UC listed.

Wow. Big dream crusher for this cycle.

Originally Posted by centrigeugle

UC listed.

Wow. Big dream crusher for this cycle.

No worries dude, finger crossed for movement come next month!

Just got accepted.
I didn't see where I could confirm my acceptance on the site so I called the office and they said it will be updated by 8pm tonight or tomorrow.

I'm going to be a doctor!

Originally Posted by Lora86

Just got accepted.
I didn't see where I could confirm my acceptance on the site so I called the office and they said it will be updated by 8pm tonight or tomorrow.

I'm going to be a doctor!

CONGRATS and welcome to the class! For those on the UC list there is honestly so much time left - you are in a good spot. Don't give up hope!

congrats! join the fb group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1826...26928/members/