2012-2013 Hofstra University Application Thread

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Off campus is cheaper. On campus while convenient and fairly nice, just didn't have enough pull for me to want to live there
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So to current students, especially MS2s now that your year is coming to a close (already ended?):

1) After two years, how do you now feel about Hofstra's curriculum? I absolutely believe that case-based learning helps with retaining material (big picture), but there are arguments that it's less time efficient in terms of learning massive amounts of material (small picture). Step 1 is obviously a whole lotta material to memorize. Do you think the trade-off is still worth it now that Step 1 studying is ramping up (or already over with)?

2) Can someone describe what third year will be like? How will it be different from other med schools? Are other med students (Albert Einstein?) still rotating through there and how will that affect things? How will students be evaluated and assessed?

3) Does anybody know what opportunities there are for away rotations? Is anybody trying to match outside of NYS for residency and worried about not having any strong connections? What are people doing to help with that?

Thanks in advance !
 
I'm also interested in the answers to Anguisette's questions. Particularly the first one. I found that in my undergrad classes like biochem where there were loads of material, extensive discussion and debate about small and specific stuff didn't help get through the millions of pathways that we had to cover. Do you feel like Hofstra's emphasis on case-based learning detracted from the breadth of material you could review with professors and peers?

Anguisette, I noticed you on other forums for Top 40 schools. Are you considering Hofstra over those schools?
 
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dicer said:
I'm also interested in the answers to Anguisette's questions. Particularly the first one. I found that in my undergrad classes like biochem where there were loads of material, extensive discussion and debate about small and specific stuff didn't help get through the millions of pathways that we had to cover. Do you feel like Hofstra's emphasis on case-based learning detracted from the breadth of material you could review with professors and peers?

Anguisette, I noticed you on other forums for Top 40 schools. Are you considering Hofstra over those schools?
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I've already withdrawn from most of my schools. I'm seriously considering Hofstra :).

somefun said:
Anyone hear back in terms of financial aid?
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I got my award letter today.
 
It was via email. You can try checking the portal and clicking on the financial aid link (you might have to click a few tabs to find it).

I got a hofstra scholarship which was substantial, but still far from a full ride. Seeing these big numbers after the word Loan makes me a little nervous...haha
 
Nothing on my portal yet (and no email), but I figured out where it's posted:

On portal, click the "student" tab, then pick "financial aid-- overall status" from the middle of the left side menu. You have to enter an emergency contact # before they let you see the page, but once you're there it shows you the financial aid info. Mine shows cost of attendance but there's no award section yet.
 
OldGrandDad said:
Anyone know of anyone with any recent waitlist movement?
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I was recently accepted off the waitlist. I was told there is a lot of movement so don't lose hope!

I had a question about financial aid since everyone seems to be talking about it. How does this work if you are accepted off of the waitlist? I'm assuming I won't be hearing anything by May 15th, so if I choose Hofstra am I just keeping my fingers crossed that they'll come through with something? This is all so stressful :(
 
Onebyone said:
I was recently accepted off the waitlist. I was told there is a lot of movement so don't lose hope!

I had a question about financial aid since everyone seems to be talking about it. How does this work if you are accepted off of the waitlist? I'm assuming I won't be hearing anything by May 15th, so if I choose Hofstra am I just keeping my fingers crossed that they'll come through with something? This is all so stressful :(
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Congratulations! How did you hear?
 
Onebyone said:
I was recently accepted off the waitlist. I was told there is a lot of movement so don't lose hope!

I had a question about financial aid since everyone seems to be talking about it. How does this work if you are accepted off of the waitlist? I'm assuming I won't be hearing anything by May 15th, so if I choose Hofstra am I just keeping my fingers crossed that they'll come through with something? This is all so stressful :(
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Congrats! Would you mind sharing your stats?

In regards to your financial aid question - did you submit your FAFSA to Hofstra already (in advance of your acceptance)? If you did, they might be able to get back to you before May 15th, but it's probably best to call the Financial Aid office to check on timing. If you didn't submit your FAFSA to Hofstra yet, you are probably right in assuming you won't hear back in time. Are you considering Hofstra over other acceptances?
 
Fafsa and their specific institutional need application needs to be sent in before you get a financial award letter.
 
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Does anyone know of facebook groups etc for the 2017 class?
 
anguisette said:
So to current students, especially MS2s now that your year is coming to a close (already ended?):

1) After two years, how do you now feel about Hofstra's curriculum? I absolutely believe that case-based learning helps with retaining material (big picture), but there are arguments that it's less time efficient in terms of learning massive amounts of material (small picture). Step 1 is obviously a whole lotta material to memorize. Do you think the trade-off is still worth it now that Step 1 studying is ramping up (or already over with)?
Click to expand...

I think the case-based PEARLS curriculum has been great. There is a lot of study time each day to learn on your own and there are relatively few meaningless lectures to attend. Four hours of required class each day, with two of those hours being PEARLS is a better use of a school day than six or more hours of watching a tape of someone read slides to you at 2x speed. It's good to be engaged in class when you are required to be here. If you motivate yourself and don't need to be told exactly what to read for when, it's a great system.

I think the "trade off" is worth it in that we are learning through clinical vignettes from day 1 -- and answering questions based on clinical vignettes is the name of the game for Step 1. Anyone with enough time, a book and a Qbank can learn the stupid things you need to memorize for step 1, like which agar you use to culture Neisseria.


2) Can someone describe what third year will be like? How will it be different from other med schools? Are other med students (Albert Einstein?) still rotating through there and how will that affect things? How will students be evaluated and assessed?
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Third year has six six week rotations, Psych, Neuro, Peds, OB/Gyn, Medicine, Surgery. There are three two-week selectives in between the main rotations there.
The rotations haven't started yet, but they are supposed to introduce more than just inpatient hospital medicine (time in a stroke rehab center during neuro, for instance). There has been an emphasis on "whole illness" experiences for patients so that we can see undifferentiated patients come through the system. I don't know how this will work, exactly because we do not start until July.
There is a surgical component to each rotation (neurosurgery, Gyn, pediatric, cardiovascular) for each rotation, so there will be OR time throughout third year, not just in the surgery block. We will also have every two weeks (biweekly?) time in a continuity medicine clinic.
I don't know about the other school med students' head count, to be honest. I imagine there will be fewer, but I can't say for sure. As the Hofstra class grows by 20 each year, I imagine students rotating in will be fewer...

Assessments are a positive part of third year. The first two years are straight P/F which is great. Third year is H/HP/P/F or something like that. There may be a low pass, but it's graded. The grade is based on shelf score, assessments from residents and attendings on everything except medical knowledge and our end of rotation assessment week. Our direct supervisors only assess our professionalism, patient interaction skills and thinking. They do not give us grades based on how much (they think) we know. This is supposed to make it easier to ask questions of residents and attendings and reduce the amount of "Oh no! I didn't remember the interaction between fibrates and statins! Now I will get a bad grade for medicine!." Since you are only graded on medical knowledge in the shelf exam, it should be easy to ask questions and admit when you do not know something.

After each two rotations we have an exam week and study time. In that week we take the shelf, have clinical skills assessments and are formally assessed on the previous rotations.

The grading percentages are spread out over several things, so everything does not hinge on the shelf or your (in)ability to elicit reflexes or take a social history.

3) Does anybody know what opportunities there are for away rotations? Is anybody trying to match outside of NYS for residency and worried about not having any strong connections? What are people doing to help with that?
Thanks in advance !
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Fourth year has some required clerkships and Sub-I's (Emergency, CC and one or two more), but the rest is elective time and it can all be away. No one will be planning that for 10 months, but the answer so far has been "Yes, go away all you want." That may change in two years, but it may not.

I am sure people will want to go outside of NYS for residency. That's far into the future right now and I haven't given it thought.
 
anguisette said:
So to current students, especially MS2s now that your year is coming to a close (already ended?):

1) After two years, how do you now feel about Hofstra's curriculum? I absolutely believe that case-based learning helps with retaining material (big picture), but there are arguments that it's less time efficient in terms of learning massive amounts of material (small picture). Step 1 is obviously a whole lotta material to memorize. Do you think the trade-off is still worth it now that Step 1 studying is ramping up (or already over with)?

2) Can someone describe what third year will be like? How will it be different from other med schools? Are other med students (Albert Einstein?) still rotating through there and how will that affect things? How will students be evaluated and assessed?

3) Does anybody know what opportunities there are for away rotations? Is anybody trying to match outside of NYS for residency and worried about not having any strong connections? What are people doing to help with that?

Thanks in advance !
Click to expand...

In addition to everything my classmate said above,

1) I have a friend from high school who is an MS2 at NYU. They actually defer taking Step 1 until 3rd year. I think that's a bad idea, but the reason they do it is so that their students think more "clinically" during the exam and are better able to handle clinical vignettes (aka board questions). They swear it prepares their students better for the boards. I think it's crazy because who wants to study for Step 1 when you're worrying about 3rd year grades (yikes!). Luckily at HNSLIJ, you get the best of both worlds, since our curriculum is super-clinically based (PEARLS case = giant clinical vignette), we see patients starting in first year, and our 2nd year (while we're studying for boards) is 100% pass/fail.

2) Lots of schools (Einstein, NYU, NYCOM, Stony Brook, others) rotate through the Health System. But I view that as a good thing. Especially considering we get priority over them :)

3) Outside the "Big Name" schools you should realize that medical schools have the most pull in their own respective regions, because that's where the faculty have connections. I have no doubt some of my classmates will match all over the place in great programs across the country, but I'm also fairly confident that our "best" match results will be in NYC since thats where the majority of our faculty come from and have connections with (e.g. one Dean trained a huge chunk of a certain department at Cornell, so we will probably match better into that department at Cornell than, say, the same department at Hopkins).
 
Thanks to both of you for answering my questions :)
 
amaranth said:
It was via email. You can try checking the portal and clicking on the financial aid link (you might have to click a few tabs to find it).

I got a hofstra scholarship which was substantial, but still far from a full ride. Seeing these big numbers after the word Loan makes me a little nervous...haha
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I was just wondering, does anyone have some idea regarding what hofstra offers for institutional aids? Are they mostly scholarships/grants or other forms of loans, and how large are they (ie 5K vs +10K)
 
withdrew today. hope everyone stays compassionate throughout med school :)
 
also withdrew today- was a tough decision because i really liked hofstra! good luck to everyone still waiting!!
 
Just withdrew as well-- good luck to all those on the waitlist!
 
FutureDocsWife said:
Any more waitlist movement after these recent withdraws?
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Sigh, I also just withdrew. It was kind of heart breaking. I hope my spot goes to someone off the waitlist who can really appreciate what Hofstra has to offer. Good luck everyone !
 
Accepted today off of the waitlist!

IS, 3.9 sGPA 3.85cGPA 35 MCAT

I'm very excited, but I have my concerns about how new the school is and the opportunities that will be available to me upon graduation. Any current students willing to weigh in on how you feel about the education you've received so far and the support you're getting from Hofstra and LIJ (do you think LIJ will likely match a lot of people from Hofstra when it comes time?)

I'm excited at the prospect of attending, just want some info!
Thanks so much :)
and congrats everyone!!
 
Had a huge fright when I saw an email from Hofstra admissions. Unfortunately, they just thanked me for confirming my place on the waitlist.
 
jshei0625 said:
Had a huge fright when I saw an email from Hofstra admissions. Unfortunately, they just thanked me for confirming my place on the waitlist.
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I got the email too. I wonder if it's because I recently got accepted to another school in the area. Most likely it's just a reminder to everyone on the wait list that if you're not interested be responsible and drop from it.
 
jshei0625 said:
Had a huge fright when I saw an email from Hofstra admissions. Unfortunately, they just thanked me for confirming my place on the waitlist.
Click to expand...

HopefullNonTrad said:
I got the email too. I wonder if it's because I recently got accepted to another school in the area. Most likely it’s just a reminder to everyone on the wait list that if you’re not interested be responsible and drop from it.
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Everyone got it I believe. Wish there had been a subject like: reminder or even: not a decision.
 
Hey everyone...any one get accepted after the May 16, 2013.
 
Just got accepted this morning! I was waitlisted by all 3 schools I interviewed at. Hofstra, Quinnipiac and University of Arizona - Phoenix. So glad to not have to worry about what to do with another year!
 
after a painful decision, I have withdrawn. Good luck to those on the waitlist!
 
Hey everyone,
I just was accepted off the waitlist for a MD spot and was trying to find a FB page to figure out what people are doing for housing and stuff. Also, does anyone know when they start classes? I couldn't find this year's calendar and am in Norway so have no clue if they sent stuff to my house in the US with the info.
 
Orientation is end of July, first day is August 1st. Many people are living off campus but on campus is still nice/convenient. About equal cost, though off campus can be cheaper
 
VassarGrad said:
Hey everyone,
I just was accepted off the waitlist for a MD spot and was trying to find a FB page to figure out what people are doing for housing and stuff. Also, does anyone know when they start classes? I couldn't find this year's calendar and am in Norway so have no clue if they sent stuff to my house in the US with the info.
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Congratulation...do you minds sharing your states and when you got the acceptance email?
 
Got in off the waitlist this morning!! Stats: 3.55 and 36. Super pumped, will be attending!
 
Came off the waitlist yesterday! 3.88cGPA 3.98sGPA 36Q OOS M

This was my first choice the second I met the people there, can't wait to get started. Does anybody have any resources for off-campus housing? Please PM me if anyone is looking for a roommate!
 
Does anyone know if they'll release USMLE scores from their first class? Those scores should be coming out soon
 
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