2011-2012 University of Colorado Application Thread

[bassvp]

Along these lines, do people know if waitlisted people get any financial aid offfers?

My guess is no.

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[ZooeyGlass]

Have any admitted students been able to access their preliminary financial aid packages?

 

[bassvp]

Have any admitted students been able to access their preliminary financial aid packages?

This may be the most pertinent to the above questions:
http://www.ucdenver.edu/student-ser...dProcess/Pages/ReceivingYourFinancialAid.aspx

Based on my FAFSA alone (they also make you fill out the NeedAccess form if you haven't), they have given an estimated financial aid package in its most basic form (Unsubsidized Stafford and GradPLUS loans only) on:
www.ucdenver.edu/UCDAccess under Student Center. They emailed me about this as well.

I assume that if a scholarship is granted it will show up on the UCDAccess site and an email sent.

see above

 

[pdxjazz]

Along these lines, do people know if waitlisted people get any financial aid offfers?

Probably not. Also, if you are waitlisted there really is no need to try and fill out the Need Access form. I'm waitlisted at 3 schools that require it, two of which said it only needs to be filled out after you are accepted. The third one, Colorado, requires a school code that they give you after you are accepted so you can't even add that school to the list. The Need Access form asks for allot more personal info from parents (home value, retirement accounts, etc.) as compared to the FAFSA.

Forgot to mention that you also have to pay to submit the Need Access form...

 

[ZooeyGlass]

see above

Sorry, I should have stated my question more clearly.

I am having trouble logging into UCDAccess in order to view my estimated award package. Has anyone else been able to claim their account and view this information?

 

[Billiken09]

Sorry, I should have stated my question more clearly.

I am having trouble logging into UCDAccess in order to view my estimated award package. Has anyone else been able to claim their account and view this information?

When you log in, click the student tab. There are going to be a whole bunch of links on the left. In many of the paragraphs of the main page, click one of the many Hilighted "Student Center" links. Once there, you can see your student profile and other junk, including some basic fin aid info.

Hope this helps.

 

[bassvp]

Sorry, I should have stated my question more clearly.

I am having trouble logging into UCDAccess in order to view my estimated award package. Has anyone else been able to claim their account and view this information?

Have you been able to claim your email addy, yet? If not, get your student ID# from the admissions office. Did you get the email about claiming your email?

 

[littleman25]

I don't think you need to claim your email to see your financial aid package. I was able to see it before I even got the activating email...email.

 

[bassvp]

I don't think you need to claim your email to see your financial aid package. I was able to see it before I even got the activating email...email.

Oh...I thought you needed to do that to log into UCDAccess

 

[ZooeyGlass]

Have you been able to claim your email addy, yet? If not, get your student ID# from the admissions office. Did you get the email about claiming your email?

Sigh. Unfortunately not. I have only received one email from CU regarding finacial aid (Subject: Estimated Award Notice) and this contained my student ID # and two weblinks - one to UCDAccess and another one to activate your portal/email address. The UCDAccess site requires a username and password which as far as I can tell I was never given and second site asks for my student ID, last name, and DOB, however, upon entering my info it says my account cannot be found. Quite frustrating.

I spoke with the office and they said they were having issues

 

[pinacolada]

Hey guys, when do we hear back in regards to scholarships? I realize it's separate from fin aid.

 

[bassvp]

Hey guys, when do we hear back in regards to scholarships? I realize it's separate from fin aid.

They'll likely tell us on Friday (if you're in town that is)...there's financial aid info sessions at 2:45pm and 3:45pm.

 

[TBarr]

CUSOM web page indicates that they don't accept 'updates' to applications.
I want to write a letter of intent, does anyone think it is worthwhile?


***EDIT***

I just called the admissions office and was told that my letter of intent would not be added to my file nor would it be likely to be read by anyone in the office..... So does anyone else know otherwise? I was advised by a current 3rd year to write the loi in the first place. Waste of time? Or Complete waste of time?

The person at admissions told me there was absolutely nothing I could do aside from wait to hear from them.

 

[haloschief]

CUSOM web page indicates that they don't accept 'updates' to applications.
I want to write a letter of intent, does anyone think it is worthwhile?


***EDIT***

I just called the admissions office and was told that my letter of intent would not be added to my file nor would it be likely to be read by anyone in the office..... So does anyone else know otherwise? I was advised by a current 3rd year to write the loi in the first place. Waste of time? Or Complete waste of time?

The person at admissions told me there was absolutely nothing I could do aside from wait to hear from them.

I asked a current med student on the adcoms and they do not accept updates post-interview.

 

[Airman01]

I called Ms. Patel back in February (I interviewed in January) and asked if they would accept a letter of intent. She told me that they would absolutely accept the letter. I sent my letter to Dr. Winn, cc'd the adcom, and I was accepted 2 weeks later. Now is the time to pull out the stops and go for it

 

[TBarr]

WTF? Why do different people in the office tell us different things? That is ridiculous. I will write my loi the first chance I get.

 

[music2doc]

WTF? Why do different people in the office tell us different things? That is ridiculous. I will write my loi the first chance I get.

Because it depends upon whose perspective. When I asked him for clarification during some 1 on 1 time with him, Dr. Winn basically told me it would not likely be read by the adcom and probably won't have any impact.

 

[Caprica6]

It was also a different situation: letter of intent before an admissions decision had been made versus letter of intent after one has been wait listed.

 

[lalalaaaaaa]

I was always under the impression that they say they will accept these things, but never actually add them to your file. I asked Mrs. Patel very directly if it would be added, and she said, "It might be." Which I got the impression meant no.

I am not sending them anything for this reason.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I called and asked the admissions office of there was anything I could do to increase my chances of getting off the waitlist, and was told there was not. I'm assuming this includes all updates and letters of intent...but I guess sending one couldn't hurt? Worst case scenario it just wouldn't be looked at, best case it gets in your file and noticed by the dean.

 

[centrigeugle]

Guessing not much has happened here in a while.

Does anything in particular happen on the 15th for those of us on the alternate list? Or do we just languish as usual?

 

[bassvp]

Guessing not much has happened here in a while.

Does anything in particular happen on the 15th for those of us on the alternate list? Or do we just languish as usual?

We'd all love to say "Yes! More acceptances will roll out on such and such a date"...but we've been wrong before. I doubt anyone will try to help with a prediction.

 

[music2doc]

We'd all love to say "Yes! More acceptances will roll out on such and such a date"...but we've been wrong before. I doubt anyone will try to help with a prediction.

Haha... so true.

Now if only they'd just decide to open 20-40 more spots (seeing as the MHS contract is being pushed through and Dean Krugman stated we should be able to increase capacity by at least 20 and up to 40 students once that happens).... Com'on Dr. Winn, you're hippie granola, right? I know you're a bettin' man. Let's bring in so'more CU Gold with 20 more med students in the Class of 2016 -- a not too shabby ~1-2 million dollars in student tuition opportunities right there....

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Guessing not much has happened here in a while.

Does anything in particular happen on the 15th for those of us on the alternate list? Or do we just languish as usual?

Last year, waitlist movement started May 24th. I'm guessing this year will be similar.

 

[lalalaaaaaa]

Last year, waitlist movement started May 24th. I'm guessing this year will be similar.

does anyone know how many people are on the waitlist this year?

 

[natureisneat]

Haha... so true.

Now if only they'd just decide to open 20-40 more spots (seeing as the MHS contract is being pushed through and Dean Krugman stated we should be able to increase capacity by at least 20 and up to 40 students once that happens).... Com'on Dr. Winn, you're hippie granola, right? I know you're a bettin' man. Let's bring in so'more CU Gold with 20 more med students in the Class of 2016 -- a not too shabby ~1-2 million dollars in student tuition opportunities right there....

I guess I'm not up on all of my medical acronyms...what does MHS stand for? Can you provide a link to any articles regarding this issue? I ran across a ppt from 2004 that was proposing the increase to 156 which did occur. It seemed as though the same reasons for increasing then could stand now: national need for physicians, applicant pool continues to be excellent, campus and faculty could withstand having increased load of students, etc.

I suppose if I were in the shoes of an accepted candidate I would want to keep the class size smaller for more individualized attention, exclusivity, availability of preceptors, etc....But as it stands, I'm just on the outside looking in and procrastinating overhauling my application...


And about knowing the number of people on the waitlist, I doubt that we'll find out unless someone in the admissions office slips up, which I'm pretty sure won't happen. They are a Lockbox!

 

[music2doc]

I guess I'm not up on all of my medical acronyms...what does MHS stand for? Can you provide a link to any articles regarding this issue? I ran across a ppt from 2004 that was proposing the increase to 156 which did occur. It seemed as though the same reasons for increasing then could stand now: national need for physicians, applicant pool continues to be excellent, campus and faculty could withstand having increased load of students, etc.

I suppose if I were in the shoes of an accepted candidate I would want to keep the class size smaller for more individualized attention, exclusivity, availability of preceptors, etc....But as it stands, I'm just on the outside looking in and procrastinating overhauling my application...


And about knowing the number of people on the waitlist, I doubt that we'll find out unless someone in the admissions office slips up, which I'm pretty sure won't happen. They are a Lockbox!

MHS is Memorial Health System. It's the major health system in Colorado Springs (Colorado's second largest metro area -- about 3/4 of a million people and about 1 hr south of Denver). MHS is made up of two hospitals and countless outpatient facilities and is owned by the City of Colorado Springs. It has about a 60/40 split of patient volume with the other major health system in the area (Penrose St. Francis Health Services/Centura Health). The Memorial ED (a Level 2 Trauma Center) serves about 120,000 patients/year and is considered the 1st or 2nd busiest ED in the state (ranks in the top 10 nationally). As a municipal entity, it also serves as the primary provider for indigent patients.

UCH-Poudre Valley (which is the primary/home hospital system of UCSOM) is in the process of establishing a 40-year lease of the MHS system. If all goes as planned, it is estimated that MHS could easily handle 40 additional medical students rotating. (They already serve as a clinical site for RVU as well as several other nursing and health careers programs and the intention has been to open it to UCSOM students for quite some time.)

There has been a plan for a few years now to open a UCSOM satellite clinical (M3/M4) campus at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs. I am unsure of what the timeline is, but I do recall 2013 being the year for at least part of it being established. I believe they are breaking ground this summer to move Peak Vista Community Health Services onto the campus there, which will provide training opportunities for medical students in the future as well as for the health professions students already being trained on that campus.

 

[MT Headed]

Last year, waitlist movement started May 24th. I'm guessing this year will be similar.

I thought we learned that this year (unlike prior years) Colorado deliberately overaccepted, so we can expect a lot less waitlist movement, if any. That is to say, that top third of the waitlist that always gets an acceptance anyway has already been accepted this year. If I wasn't on my phone I'd go dig up the post myself.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I thought we learned that this year (unlike prior years) Colorado deliberately overaccepted, so we can expect a lot less waitlist movement, if any. That is to say, that top third of the waitlist that always gets an acceptance anyway has already been accepted this year. If I wasn't on my phone I'd go dig up the post myself.

This policy (getting rid of the tiered waitlist) was put in place last year, so this year's waitlist movement, about 50-60, should hopefully be similar.

 

[zmxcm]

This policy (getting rid of the tiered waitlist) was put in place last year, so this year's waitlist movement, about 50-60, should hopefully be similar.

I hope there are 60 on the waitlist.

 

[bjtwolve88]

I thought we learned that this year (unlike prior years) Colorado deliberately overaccepted, so we can expect a lot less waitlist movement, if any. That is to say, that top third of the waitlist that always gets an acceptance anyway has already been accepted this year. If I wasn't on my phone I'd go dig up the post myself.

My advisor told me that CU always over accepts when they make the big round of offers in March. The top third of the waitlist after that still usually gets in. But this year it's not ranked, and I have a feeling that the waitlist is bigger than previous years. Maybe just a fourth of the waitlist will get offers. Obviously no one knows because they won't tell us anything.

 

[music2doc]

My advisor told me that CU always over accepts when they make the big round of offers in March. The top third of the waitlist after that still usually gets in. But this year it's not ranked, and I have a feeling that the waitlist is bigger than previous years. Maybe just a fourth of the waitlist will get offers. Obviously no one knows because they won't tell us anything.

Yeah... from what my contacts have said, the Admissions staff is being WAAAY more hush hush this year than last. Ms. Patel won't say a thing. CU Admissions is also super political, so who knows what's going on on the inside.

 

[vanquishS]

I really don't understand the need for such secrecy.

 

[music2doc]

I really don't understand the need for such secrecy.

Neither do I.... but I'm gonna go with politics. You have to be careful about things when you're making this kinds of decisions.

 

[MT Headed]

My advisor told me that CU always over accepts when they make the big round of offers in March. The top third of the waitlist after that still usually gets in. But this year it's not ranked, and I have a feeling that the waitlist is bigger than previous years. Maybe just a fourth of the waitlist will get offers. Obviously no one knows because they won't tell us anything.

I stll think they are doing something fundamentally different this year, because there really wasn't the traditional round of acceptances in March like they had previous years. They sent out a lot of rejections in march, and a lot of waitlist notices, but the acceptance ship had already sailed by then.

 

[bjtwolve88]

I stll think they are doing something fundamentally different this year, because there really wasn't the traditional round of acceptances in March like they had previous years. They sent out a lot of rejections in march, and a lot of waitlist notices, but the acceptance ship had already sailed by then.

Yeah, but they did have a big round of acceptances on 2/29. On another note, I am getting nervous because it is 5/11, and I have not seen any withdrawals from CU post on this page. I have seen a few withdrawals on other schools' pages. I know it is a small sample size and it is not 5/15 yet, but it doesn't look like there will be much waitlist movement.

 

[gerfan]

I withdrew on 5/14 ... Good luck!

 

[wafflesauce2k]

Just got an acceptance via email this morning! Feeling absolutely ecstatic, definitely wasn't expecting anything this soon. Best of luck to everyone!

 

[zmxcm]

Just got an acceptance via email this morning! Feeling absolutely ecstatic, definitely wasn't expecting anything this soon. Best of luck to everyone!

Have there been any people in-state that were accepted off the waitlist yet?

 

[Colorado79]

There is an info session tomorrow. If anyone is going, I'd love to see a recap posted on here. Thanks in advance.

 

[hja]

I went to the info session today.

707 interviewed
Accepted 212 as of May 1st
Accepted Median GPA 3.7 (Range 3.03-4.0)
Median MCAT 33 (Range 26-42)

As of Now they have 52% IS and 48% OSS, this past week they pulled 23 people off the waitlist to give a grand total of 238 offers. There are currently 256 people on the waitlist. So its a mixed bag of news. On the bright side, if you are a IS applicant the 52% represents ~83 people where they would like it to be closer to 70% ~112. Additionally, last year they ended up giving 302 offers. But realistically I would imagine maybe 40 more or so offers this year. Dimple said that they will not have another big acceptance date, but the offers will "trickle out". This year operated fundamentally the same as last year, and next year will be the same but they may tweak the secondary question.

 

[bjtwolve88]

I went to the info session today.

707 interviewed
Accepted 212 as of May 1st
Accepted Median GPA 3.7 (Range 3.03-4.0)
Median MCAT 33 (Range 26-42)

As of Now they have 52% IS and 48% OSS, this past week they pulled 23 people off the waitlist to give a grand total of 238 offers. There are currently 256 people on the waitlist. So its a mixed bag of news. On the bright side, if you are a IS applicant the 52% represents ~83 people where they would like it to be closer to 70% ~112. Additionally, last year they ended up giving 302 offers. But realistically I would imagine maybe 40 more or so offers this year. Dimple said that they will not have another big acceptance date, but the offers will "trickle out". This year operated fundamentally the same as last year, and next year will be the same but they may tweak the secondary question.

Thank you for going and sharing this with us. Yeah I'd hope that they would give preference to in staters at this point to get the numbers back up. Good luck everyone.

 

[music2doc]

I went to the info session today.

707 interviewed
Accepted 212 as of May 1st
Accepted Median GPA 3.7 (Range 3.03-4.0)
Median MCAT 33 (Range 26-42)

As of Now they have 52% IS and 48% OSS, this past week they pulled 23 people off the waitlist to give a grand total of 238 offers. There are currently 256 people on the waitlist. So its a mixed bag of news. On the bright side, if you are a IS applicant the 52% represents ~83 people where they would like it to be closer to 70% ~112. Additionally, last year they ended up giving 302 offers. But realistically I would imagine maybe 40 more or so offers this year. Dimple said that they will not have another big acceptance date, but the offers will "trickle out". This year operated fundamentally the same as last year, and next year will be the same but they may tweak the secondary question.

Doesn't that directly violate the directive of the CU Regents (or a related committee)? Is CUSOM authorized to have <70% of their students be IS? My understanding was that it was 70/30 minimum IS by a directive that had originated somewhere above Admissions...


Regardless, from the site...

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/education/Admissions/apply/Pages/FAQ.aspx

Do you give preference to residents of the state of Colorado?
Yes. As a state institution, Colorado residents are our highest priority. The class normally has 75 percent or more students from the state. Students from Wyoming and Montana (students in the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education - WICHE) have the potential, if selected by our medical school and their state, to receive financial support that enables them to pay similar costs to those of Colorado's residents. The non-resident applicant pool is about three times the size of Colorado's, and competition is much greater.

 

[bassvp]

Doesn't that directly violate the directive of the CU Regents (or a related committee)? Is CUSOM authorized to have <70% of their students be IS? My understanding was that it was 70/30 minimum IS by a directive that had originated somewhere above Admissions...


Regardless, from the site...

That's probably just their experience in that their retention of OOS apps will be much worse and eventually even things out. But when I look at it more, if the only people that drop from here on out are OOSers to get down to the class size of 160, then they're down to 22.5%OOS/77.5%IS. Seems cutting it kinda close to get to even 70/30. We shall see...as always...we shall see.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I went to the info session today.

707 interviewed
Accepted 212 as of May 1st
Accepted Median GPA 3.7 (Range 3.03-4.0)
Median MCAT 33 (Range 26-42)

As of Now they have 52% IS and 48% OSS, this past week they pulled 23 people off the waitlist to give a grand total of 238 offers. There are currently 256 people on the waitlist. So its a mixed bag of news. On the bright side, if you are a IS applicant the 52% represents ~83 people where they would like it to be closer to 70% ~112. Additionally, last year they ended up giving 302 offers. But realistically I would imagine maybe 40 more or so offers this year. Dimple said that they will not have another big acceptance date, but the offers will "trickle out". This year operated fundamentally the same as last year, and next year will be the same but they may tweak the secondary question.

Great, thanks for the info. And idea how many people on the waitlist are IS vs. OOS?

 

[Colorado01]

Well shoot does not look promising for those of us on the wait list. Maybe 10% chance of getting off the wait lost at this point?

 

[pdxjazz]

So currently out of 160 seats, 48% (77) are held by OOS applicants. Ideally they want 30% (48). So 29 must drop out just to break even, and more than that before they would consider pulling anyone off the OOS waitlist. That's seems to be a fair amount of "trickling" that needs to happen, but I guess it's possible.

 

[music2doc]

That's probably just their experience in that their retention of OOS apps will be much worse and eventually even things out. But when I look at it more, if the only people that drop from here on out are OOSers to get down to the class size of 160, then they're down to 22.5%OOS/77.5%IS. Seems cutting it kinda close to get to even 70/30. We shall see...as always...we shall see.

True, but I recall them making statements to the effect of "CU has always been 75-80% in the past but we are now allowing for up to 30% OOS." I think one could also make the argument (and it has been made) that it is harmful to our state to have high numbers of OOS matriculants due to the fact that very large parts of CO are medically underserved (including much of the metro area, not to mention all the mountain towns that Dr. Grenardo and others travel through to provide care). Dr. Krugman even pointed out a few years ago that the only state with a worse acceptance rate than CO was AZ (this was fixed for AZ by their opening of another med school.... It is still a major problem for CO).

That is harmful to our community and the physicians around here do complain about not being able to provide for the population effectively because of workforce shortages. CO is a beautiful place but few want to practice here (for a number of reasons... very low reimbursement compared to the national average being a major one -- it's often more cost-effective to live in a place like Florida and fly into Colorado to go skiing every other weekend during the winter than it is to live here and go skiing whenever you want).

Great, thanks for the info. And idea how many people on the waitlist are IS vs. OOS?

Unless Ms. Patel gave out those details yesterday, it would probably would require a CORA request to get that information as it sounds like Ms. Buswell has been pretty tight-lipped.

 

[bassvp]

True, but I recall them making statements to the effect of "CU has always been 75-80% in the past but we are now allowing for up to 30% OOS." I think one could also make the argument (and it has been made) that it is harmful to our state to have high numbers of OOS matriculants due to the fact that very large parts of CO are medically underserved (including much of the metro area, not to mention all the mountain towns that Dr. Grenardo and others travel through to provide care). Dr. Krugman even pointed out a few years ago that the only state with a worse acceptance rate than CO was AZ (this was fixed for AZ by their opening of another med school.... It is still a major problem for CO).

That is harmful to our community and the physicians around here do complain about not being able to provide for the population effectively because of workforce shortages. CO is a beautiful place but few want to practice here (for a number of reasons... very low reimbursement compared to the national average being a major one -- it's often more cost-effective to live in a place like Florida and fly into Colorado to go skiing every other weekend during the winter than it is to live here and go skiing whenever you want).



Unless Ms. Patel gave out those details yesterday, it would probably would require a CORA request to get that information as it sounds like Ms. Buswell has been pretty tight-lipped.

I completely agree. It's funny that in some of these forums, CO still has a bad rep for OOSers being at an abnormal disadvantage. Gimme a break.

Didn't realize CO had lower reimbursement than other states...care to expand on that?

 

[music2doc]

I completely agree. It's funny that in some of these forums, CO still has a bad rep for OOSers being at an abnormal disadvantage. Gimme a break.

Didn't realize CO had lower reimbursement than other states...care to expand on that?

Well, first the numbers:

For at least the past two years (2011 and 2012 reports), Medscape's Physician Compensation Report has indicated Colorado's region (the Southwest region) is the lowest-compensated region in the country:

According to Physician's Practice, here is how we rank (lower numbers being better rankings; there are 56 locations because a few states have been split into smaller regions):

Cost of Living: #34 (39th percentile)
Tax Burden: #35 (37th percentile)
Least Disciplinary Actions: #47 (16th percentile -- the 84th percentile for MOST actions!)
Lowest Malpractice -- Internal Med: #39 (30th percentile)
Lowest Malpractice -- Surgery: #46 (17th percentile)
Lowest Malpractice -- OB/GYN: #28 (50th percentile)
Reimbursement Adjustment (CMS): #26 (53rd percentile)

We are basically average reimbursement with a fairly average cost of living and tax burden. We have a pretty high number of disciplinary actions (read: high risk for lawsuits) and moderately high cost of malpractice insurance relative to most states. As a result, while CO is a beautiful place to live and offers many amenities, it is often not on people's top list of places to move/practice medicine unless they have strong ties here already.

Anecdotally, my dad is in a moderate-size (8-12 physicians and a few PA/NPs) physician group that serves a large portion of the Front Range. They are, for all practical intents and purposes, the only group in this (not so uncommon) specialty in the area and their affiliated hospitals serve somewhere around a million people. They oversee around 70-90 hospital beds as a group. They have been attempting to hire about 1-2 physicians/year for the past 12 years or so in order to keep up with demand. The reality is they have only been able to get about 1 physician every 18 months (on average). There is another group in town but that group has not been able to keep physicians at all. (They are now down to <4 FTE docs.) As a result, this larger group has had to pick up their slack to ensure patients' access to care. CU actually has a residency program in this specialty; however, students who grew up elsewhere tend to want to return home (not CO) when they finish residency and students who grew up in CO may not get into residency in CO and may end up moving elsewhere as a result. Along with the relatively low rate of acceptance/matriculation to medical schools by CO residents, this results in a net loss of talent from the state of CO.