2013-2014 Boston University Application Thread

[mushuwu158]

"If you are not expecting to go directly to medical school after completing your undergraduate work, please explain."

Does this include gap years? Because I have a year between graduation and entering med school.

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[Reggerson]

"Are you expecting to go on to medical school directly after completing your undergraduate degree?"

How detailed of a response do they expect for this?

Is it enough for me to just state what I am doing and why, or should I go further into a little bit like I would for an essay prompt.

I am getting a Master's in Physiology and Biophysics at USC. I am considering explaining the program a little bit as well my thesis project and my lab, etc. Does this seem reasonable?

It is always better to tell them more, right?

Thanks!

 

[hopefulMD12]

Finally got my secondary :/

 

[love123]

If anyone here has the MSAR, could you please tell me the 10th and 90th percentile GPA and MCAT scores? Thanks

 

[milkphlegm]

"If you are not expecting to go directly to medical school after completing your undergraduate work, please explain."

Does this include gap years? Because I have a year between graduation and entering med school.

I think so. I would assume it only not apply to someone applying their junior year of college and entering directly after college. You'll hopefully do something in the next year and I'm sure they'd like to hear about it!

 

[hopefulMD12]

if anyone here has the msar, could you please tell me the 10th and 90th percentile gpa and mcat scores? Thanks

30-->38
3.48-->3.97

 

[Nirvanium]

110$ secondary fee. Steep!

 

[BurberryDoc]

110$ secondary fee. Steep!

Tulane was $125

 

[neuroasp]

finally submitted...I've been sitting on this one for a while.

 

[neuroasp]

Tulane was $125

Yankee...i'm starting to believe we applied to ALL the same schools

 

[McMeowerson]

Yankee...i'm starting to believe we applied to ALL the same schools

I second that

 

[BundleofHis]

I second that

third. But I'm applying to 35 so I have no room to talk

 

[milkphlegm]

Yankee...i'm starting to believe we applied to ALL the same schools

I second that

third. But I'm applying to 35 so I have no room to talk

Fourth that.

 

[Nirvanium]

Crap I'm applying there...oh well

 

[LiveLoveLearn]

For those asking if they should answer the optional secondaries, I would say only do it if you have something to put there that you truly believe is additive and is not repetitive of what is in your PS or somewhere else in your app. I worked very hard to make my primary application give a good comprehensive representation of me, as an applicant. Therefore, I didn't answer the optional BU questions, and it worked out for me. N=1, or course, but just my thoughts.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[mttamgirl]

Hi Everyone! I just recently added BUSM to my list of schools, and received the secondary yesterday. I'm having trouble with the prerequisite grid. Here's what's going on:

I filled out 2 semesters of Gen Chem with lab, 2 semesters of Orgo with lab, as well as one semester of Bio Chem. I am still receiving an incomplete/error signal on the grid. Does anyone know what's missing or what's going on?

Thanks!

 

[C.glabrata123]

Is anyone else having trouble with the course grid? I put down 2 gen chem classes with lab, 2 orgo classes with lab, and 1 biochem class with lab as taken at my primary institution. I did this a week ago and all looked fine but when I came back last night I noticed the general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry sections were red (!) as if I had not completed these requirements. Just wondering if the system is glitching.

 

[Rocktapus]

Is anyone else having trouble with the course grid? I put down 2 gen chem classes with lab, 2 orgo classes with lab, and 1 biochem class with lab as taken at my primary institution. I did this a week ago and all looked fine but when I came back last night I noticed the general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry sections were red (!) as if I had not completed these requirements. Just wondering if the system is glitching.

Had the same issue. Were your labs and lectures separate courses? Mine were but if I entered them as lab/lec combined then the red went away. I just put a note saying my university grades each component independently- I imagine the system is just fickle.

 

[C.glabrata123]

Had the same issue. Were your labs and lectures separate courses? Mine were but if I entered them as lab/lec combined then the red went away. I just put a note saying my university grades each component independently- I imagine the system is just fickle.

No, they were combined and I listed them as lab/lec combined. Still red.

 

[mttamgirl]

Is anyone else having trouble with the course grid? I put down 2 gen chem classes with lab, 2 orgo classes with lab, and 1 biochem class with lab as taken at my primary institution. I did this a week ago and all looked fine but when I came back last night I noticed the general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry sections were red (!) as if I had not completed these requirements. Just wondering if the system is glitching.

I just posted above, but I'm having the same issue. I may BU a few hours to iron it out, and if nothing changes I may call or email. Glad I'm not the only one with this issue!

 

[C.glabrata123]

Okay, it's probably a glitch then. Phew.

 

[ewelling]

I just posted above, but I'm having the same issue. I may BU a few hours to iron it out, and if nothing changes I may call or email. Glad I'm not the only one with this issue!

I called them a few weeks ago about this and they said it was a glitch and not to worry about it.

 

[dancingmate]

Love that comment about "why here" essays being useless.

Does it say this in the application?

 

[random1234]

Never mind, I figured it out. sorry about that

 

[eagle34]

Does it say this in the application?

The "why here" essay on the secondary is absolutely useless. If you get invited to interview, you'll hear a big shpiel from dean of admissions about how you can't know where you want to go to medical school until you have interviewed at several medical schools and truly understand what it is about BU that you like. I think that doing a letter of interest in December or March before the 1st/2nd admissions cycle is useful, though - that is, if you truly are interested in attending BUSM.

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

anyone having trouble logging in to the secondary? says 404 error when i try?

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

did anyone else not have a health committee letter? i'm supposed to justify why but i didn't know having a health committee letter was so important?

 

[GemelloMD]

Hey guys, looking for some of that hive wisdom.

So I have been verified and submitted my app with all LoR already sent out to schools as of Friday. BU was pretty fast and looked into my LoR's and notified me, by way of putting my application on hold, that one of my character reference writers did not use institution letterhead AND didn't sign the letter. Annoying because its confidential and there's no way I could have done something about it until now. I contacted the letter writer but he will be out of the office until 8/1. Now, I have a committee letter and 3 other letters, one character and two hospital supervisors where I work, so I already fulfill the LoR requirement. However, the LoR in question I believe would be a great asset towards my application by ways of beefing up my leadership qualities.

So, two options. Wait for the writer to get me an updated later in 3 weeks and thereby keep all my applications on hold until then, OR Contact every medical school and tell them to disregard the letter and simply send the corrected letter in later as an application update.

Thoughts?

 

[ewelling]

Hey guys, looking for some of that hive wisdom.

So I have been verified and submitted my app with all LoR already sent out to schools as of Friday. BU was pretty fast and looked into my LoR's and notified me, by way of putting my application on hold, that one of my character reference writers did not use institution letterhead AND didn't sign the letter. Annoying because its confidential and there's no way I could have done something about it until now. I contacted the letter writer but he will be out of the office until 8/1. Now, I have a committee letter and 3 other letters, one character and two hospital supervisors where I work, so I already fulfill the LoR requirement. However, the LoR in question I believe would be a great asset towards my application by ways of beefing up my leadership qualities.

So, two options. Wait for the writer to get me an updated later in 3 weeks and thereby keep all my applications on hold until then, OR Contact every medical school and tell them to disregard the letter and simply send the corrected letter in later as an application update.

Thoughts?

I had the same thing happen. I told BU to process it without that LOR, but had my letter writer reupload to AMCAS a few days later. AMCAS said I didn't need to notify my schools that my letter changed bc they notify the schools. Anyone know if this is true? Should I be calling all the schools that I have submitted my secondary to?

Thanks!

 

[LiveLoveLearn]

I had the same thing happen. I told BU to process it without that LOR, but had my letter writer reupload to AMCAS a few days later. AMCAS said I didn't need to notify my schools that my letter changed bc they notify the schools. Anyone know if this is true? Should I be calling all the schools that I have submitted my secondary to?

Thanks!

Nope - this is true. I had a letter writer last year that wrote on both sides of a sheet of paper, and the pre-med office only scanned in one side. His letter just stopped right in the middle! I notified my school, they fixed in, and everythign was dandy

 

[ewelling]

Nope - this is true. I had a letter writer last year that wrote on both sides of a sheet of paper, and the pre-med office only scanned in one side. His letter just stopped right in the middle! I notified my school, they fixed in, and everythign was dandy

So did you have to notify each school or AMCAS did it for you?

 

[Vienna2007]

I recieved secondary from Boston U on 7/2. I think the essay portion is just to discuss things that you did not get a chance to talk about in your primary apps.

 

[blc]

What document type should I choose if I want to upload an abstract as an additional document?

 

[milkphlegm]

What document type should I choose if I want to upload an abstract as an additional document?

I think PDFs look the nicest.

 

[SN12357]

What document type should I choose if I want to upload an abstract as an additional document?

PDFs are always your best bet.

 

[blc]

PDFs are always your best bet.

Er, whoops. I didn't phrase myself well at all.

By document type, I meant which categorization as BU's additional documents page has a set of categories to choose from (Update Letter, Letter of Intent, etc.), rather than file type.

 

[LiveLoveLearn]

So did you have to notify each school or AMCAS did it for you?

AMCAS did it for me. I called them to make sure, and they said that when the letter is re-uploaded, it automatically sends a notification to each school.

 

[kb and dh]

AMCAS did it for me. I called them to make sure, and they said that when the letter is re-uploaded, it automatically sends a notification to each school.

So to re-upload, you just put in the same information like the ID numbers?
And it will resend to all schools?

BU is the only school that has told me this letter was not signed, and the original writer told me it was signed, but she'll reupload anyway.

 

[LiveLoveLearn]

So to re-upload, you just put in the same information like the ID numbers?
And it will resend to all schools?

BU is the only school that has told me this letter was not signed, and the original writer told me it was signed, but she'll reupload anyway.

I don't know what the school did to reupload. They just told me that they did it. I was only informed by one school that I was missing half of my letter and that it stopped mid-sentence, so I wouldn't look into it too much that your other schools didn't notify you.

 

[ewelling]

So to re-upload, you just put in the same information like the ID numbers?
And it will resend to all schools?

BU is the only school that has told me this letter was not signed, and the original writer told me it was signed, but she'll reupload anyway.

Use the same ID number, they just append the new one to the old one

 

[GemelloMD]

I'm just going to have a new letter sent to interfolio electronically and then transfer that new letter to AMCAS with the same ID, also electronically. Should cut some snail mail time out of the equation.

 

[Asclepios3]

Question about this prerequisite grid: Are we supposed to only add the minimum for the required prerequisites or should we list everything? Example: I took the year intro biology series but was also a neurobiology major. Should I just include the one year of the premed bio or should I list a whole bunch of biology since I took a lot.

As for the quarter system to semester system calculations I'm just writing all my amounts and how they translate in the box to make it super clear to them... I can't really tell if thats what they want or if they just want us to state our school is on the quarter system. Any thoughts from other quarter system people?

 

[starlight15]

Question about this prerequisite grid: Are we supposed to only add the minimum for the required prerequisites or should we list everything? Example: I took the year intro biology series but was also a neurobiology major. Should I just include the one year of the premed bio or should I list a whole bunch of biology since I took a lot.

As for the quarter system to semester system calculations I'm just writing all my amounts and how they translate in the box to make it super clear to them... I can't really tell if thats what they want or if they just want us to state our school is on the quarter system. Any thoughts from other quarter system people?

I am also curious about your first question, I tried looking for an answer on their site but didn't find anything. For example, for the humanities course should I put in the 2 semesters I took that was required or should I include all semesters/courses that go under this category?

 

[underscore]

I am also curious about your first question, I tried looking for an answer on their site but didn't find anything. For example, for the humanities course should I put in the 2 semesters I took that was required or should I include all semesters/courses that go under this category?

It's a prerequisite grid, not a grid of every course you've taken. BU wants to know that you've met their requirements. They have your transcript.

 

[starlight15]

It's a prerequisite grid, not a grid of every course you've taken. BU wants to know that you've met their requirements. They have your transcript.

Okay thanks. I was just confused because they gave us the option to include more than 2+ semesters for each prereq...

 

[Heisenberg5]

Okay thanks. I was just confused because they gave us the option to include more than 2+ semesters for each prereq...

Same. Wouldn't it make more sense to put the actual number of courses you've taken? Even if they have the transcript, you could just put a note

 

[BurberryDoc]

Same. Wouldn't it make more sense to put the actual number of courses you've taken? Even if they have the transcript, you could just put a note

If you are on a quarter system you put more than 2. If you are on a semester system you put 2. If your lab was separate from the lecture course in a semester system, you use the 3rd space for the lab.

 

[Heisenberg5]

If you are on a quarter system you put more than 2. If you are on a semester system you put 2. If your lab was separate from the lecture course in a semester system, you use the 3rd space for the lab.

I think you're looking at the wrong posts. I meant if you've taken more than the required number of classes what's the harm in putting the actual number you've taken? I feel like it would be weird to say you've only taken 2 bio courses if you're a bio major

 

[m82145]

anyone have thoughts on explaining bad grades? I had one semester where I messed up (3.2 vs. 3.8 the rest of the semesters) because I had a sick family member and was travelling home a lot. I know that a 3.2 isn't THAT bad for one semester and I dont want to draw attention to any negatives..but I'm not sure if giving up the chance to explain it on the secondary app would be the best idea? As of now, I'm not planning to write the optional essay unless I think I should explain those grades..

 

[basketcase0a0]

anyone have thoughts on explaining bad grades? I had one semester where I messed up (3.2 vs. 3.8 the rest of the semesters) because I had a sick family member and was travelling home a lot. I know that a 3.2 isn't THAT bad for one semester and I dont want to draw attention to any negatives..but I'm not sure if giving up the chance to explain it on the secondary app would be the best idea? As of now, I'm not planning to write the optional essay unless I think I should explain those grades..

I am in a similar situation (3.125 vs. 3.6) and I did not write about it because I felt it would come off as whiny. Trying to justify a 3.2 one semester, even to a medical school, seems unnecessary to me. Especially given BU's otherwise fairly straightforward secondary that downplays frivolous essays.