2013-2014 SUNY Upstate Application Thread

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JJMrK

JJMrK

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Essay prompt will go here. PM me when it's available. GL all!
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I'm applying here.
Non-trad, OOS (Jersey), did undergrad in CUNY system.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
From KY applying here. I'd love to come north.
 
thinking of applying here mcat 30 and GPA 3.98 CA resident worth the application?
 
3.3 undergrad, 3.3 sGPA, 3.85 grad GPA (in basic medical sciences), 30 S MCAT. NYS resident. Would love to go here!
 
JJMrK said:
Essay prompt will go here. PM me when it's available. GL all!
Click to expand...
Does anyone know if they will require a secondary essay this year and if so, the topic? Last year a first year student stated that there were 5 mini interviews and that there was a question prompt before you enter each room and then you had a minute to think and then enter the room and provide an answer in 5 minutes. In addition, at the end you went to a terminal and had to write a short essay then on a particular subject.

Any idea of the process for this year?
 
ny2la said:
Does anyone know if they will require a secondary essay this year and if so, the topic? Last year a first year student stated that there were 5 mini interviews and that there was a question prompt before you enter each room and then you had a minute to think and then enter the room and provide an answer in 5 minutes. In addition, at the end you went to a terminal and had to write a short essay then on a particular subject.

Any idea of the process for this year?
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That sounds pretty intense!


On a side note, I emailed them with this big detailed scenario and question, and they just replied with "That's fine." That was the whole message. Haha, like yea Ts1991, it's chill.
 
Applying here from OOS. I have strong ties to the Upstate NY area, specifically Syracuse. If they do not have a secondary application, I won't be able to indicate this. Good idea to send an LOI now, or wait until secondaries are released to see if I have an opportunity to explain my interest in SUNY?
 
magnumbonum said:
Applying here from OOS. I have strong ties to the Upstate NY area, specifically Syracuse. If they do not have a secondary application, I won't be able to indicate this. Good idea to send an LOI now, or wait until secondaries are released to see if I have an opportunity to explain my interest in SUNY?
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At the risk of sounding naive, what is an LOI?
 
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Hey all,

I'm a current MS1 taking summer anatomy right now. Feel free to PM me or post if you have any questions about the school. Obviously I won't be able to answer all your questions, as I haven't finished a full year or started the full course load yet, but I'll try my best to answer any questions about housing, or the gym situation, what to do in Syracuse, etc.

Also, as someone mentioned above, apparently we're off probation (yay! but it sounded like it was inevitable), and we are now doing pass/fail for all our classes.

Lastly, someone asked about the interview format. The way it worked last year was there was actually 8 stations (which is a good thing, trust me). For each, you got 1 minute to prepare outside with the prompt, and then you'd walk in, introduce yourself, and then start talking. I think we got like 5 minutes or something, but don't quote me on that. 1 of the stations was an essay, where you'd have a computer to just type however much you could. The others could be either an ethical dilemma, or just a basic interview question, like "why medicine" or one of those. By the second or third station, I (and a lot of other people I talked to) realized that it's not bad at all. You get to formulate your thoughts, you get set (relatively short) times for a conversation about a topic so there isn't ever an awkward "oh man...we don't connect...what'm i gonna talk about for the remaining 20 minutes" situation, and I found that all the interviewers were really nice and interesting in hearing what I had to say rather than trying to grill me about my response.

That being said, there's no guarantee that this year will be the same. Last year was their first year doing MMI, after all.
 
Hey everyone - Syracuse guy here - 3.6 PB GPA, 32 MCAT.

Pushing hard for this one. Good luck to everyone!
 
Secondary received this afternoon! I am OOS. Doesn't look like there are any essay questions.
 
Yup, no essays, just have to tediously enter in your coursework.

Just submitted!
 
I see that biochem with lab is a requirement as a pre-req. I only have a biochem without lab.. I wasn't aware that I was supposed to have it with lab..

Does it mean I am ineligible to apply and don't even bother submitting my secondary?
 
Lya said:
I see that biochem with lab is a requirement as a pre-req. I only have a biochem without lab.. I wasn't aware that I was supposed to have it with lab..

Does it mean I am ineligible to apply and don't even bother submitting my secondary?
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I just emailed them about this. I'm just a bit anxious. If you look at their website (http://www.upstate.edu/com/admissions/faqs.php), the first item concerns pre reqs. Biochem is clearly listed, but lab is not.
If you look at the current MSAR, Biochem is listed as a requirement but lab is not.

personally, I took biochem combined with cell bio in a 6 credit class in an SMP, but there was no lab component. I just emailed the admissions office to ask if that would be adequate, if it would hurt my application, or where I ought to go from here. I will let you all know what I hear.


SourD21 said:
they do not require biochem with the lab

http://www.upstate.edu/com/admissions/faqs.php
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If you look at checklist item 7 on the secondary, it clearly states Biochem with lab.
 
No medical school requires biochemistry LAB; what the hell is this lol. I took 6 credits of biochem lecture, and a 4 credit biochem lab ELECTIVE, which I got a C in. that's my only C on prerequisites at downstate - I really hope it's not a dealbreaker, because this is craziness.
 
NeuroNYC said:
I just emailed the admissions office to ask if that would be adequate, if it would hurt my application, or where I ought to go from here. I will let you all know what I hear.
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received an answer.


This is an error. No lab is required and we are working on removing the incorrectly noted lab requirement ASAP. 3hrs of Biochem is all you need. We apologize for the confusion!
 
NeuroNYC said:
received an answer.


This is an error. No lab is required and we are working on removing the incorrectly noted lab requirement ASAP. 3hrs of Biochem is all you need. We apologize for the confusion!
Click to expand...


Thanks!

Actually I got the exact same, verbatim answer =] Just submitted and still waiting on my LORs.
 
just submitted! I really like this school hoping for some instate love- my college does premed trips to visit and its very friendly and welcoming.
 
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Does anyone have problems with STATISTICS pre-requisite? I only took a couple of upper calculus classes, but no STATs.
 
orgostar said:
just submitted! I really like this school hoping for some instate love- my college does premed trips to visit and its very friendly and welcoming.
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Is that college Cornell University? lol
 
NeuroNYC said:
received an answer.


This is an error. No lab is required and we are working on removing the incorrectly noted lab requirement ASAP. 3hrs of Biochem is all you need. We apologize for the confusion!
Click to expand...

I need to call them and see if they will redact something from my app. I volunteered that I got a C in biochem lab. Yes, they will see this on my transcript, but no need to highlight this information on the secondary when everything else is an A or some kind of B.
 
YankeeBean said:
I need to call them and see if they will redact something from my app. I volunteered that I got a C in biochem lab. Yes, they will see this on my transcript, but no need to highlight this information on the secondary when everything else is an A or some kind of B.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid you might not be able to un-ring the bell on that one.
 
NeuroNYC said:
I'm afraid you might not be able to un-ring the bell on that one.
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Looks like I'm just showing up at Weiskotten Hall in person then. Syracuse is just 4 hours away. Lol
 
does anyone know i if i can round up? all my classes are 4 quarter units meaning 2 2/3 semester hours
 
Did anyone select committee letter, AND letter from 2 other people? Would really like to include the letter from my current PI.
 
Plato1 said:
Does anyone have problems with STATISTICS pre-requisite? I only took a couple of upper calculus classes, but no STATs.
Click to expand...

I did not take stats either. I explained that I plan on taking it Spring 2014. There is a university near me that offers it. If I get an interview, then I will take it :)
 
Brpremed said:
I did not take stats either. I explained that I plan on taking it Spring 2014. There is a university near me that offers it. If I get an interview, then I will take it :)
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Yep, I did the same with Biochem. Screw the interview, if I get ACCEPTED I'll take it :)
 
II today! My first one! This process is becoming real now.

Complete 7/12...but submitted my secondary and had my LORs in several days before that. Took a while to get the complete e-mail.
 
Received an interview invite at 4pm; anyone else? Scheduled for the 4th.
 
Got one too, but I went with September 11th.
 
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How does SUNY know that you want to include additional optional letters, on top of the 2 mandatory letters? I assigned them on AMCAS, but there isnt an option on the secondary to indicate this
 
For prerequisites, is it ok to use ANY courses that fall under the umbrella (with lab) or are they specifically looking for the most basic level courses in biology, physics, etc?

For example, I did pretty horribly as a freshman in a biology course but I took a biology course later on as a senior and aced it. Would the later course work for the biology prereq?
 
I submitted my secondary yesterday, but received an email today saying I had "missing items"... I logged in to my account and can't see anything missing. Anyone else have this issue?
 
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uphillBattle said:
For prerequisites, is it ok to use ANY courses that fall under the umbrella (with lab) or are they specifically looking for the most basic level courses in biology, physics, etc?

For example, I did pretty horribly as a freshman in a biology course but I took a biology course later on as a senior and aced it. Would the later course work for the biology prereq?
Click to expand...

same question!
 
uphillBattle said:
For prerequisites, is it ok to use ANY courses that fall under the umbrella (with lab) or are they specifically looking for the most basic level courses in biology, physics, etc?

For example, I did pretty horribly as a freshman in a biology course but I took a biology course later on as a senior and aced it. Would the later course work for the biology prereq?
Click to expand...

I think they're looking for your Intro courses...at least that's what I put. Either way they have your transcripts from AMCAS so they can look at whatever they want.
 
Same here. Contemplating calling or waiting it out
 
Strategy99 said:
I submitted my secondary yesterday, but received an email today saying I had "missing items"... I logged in to my account and can't see anything missing. Anyone else have this issue?
Click to expand...

I got the same email. I called them and the woman that answered was very friendly, she explained that it said incomplete for me because they haven't downloaded my committee letter from AMCAS yet, plus my MCAT scores are not available yet. She said both of those problems will be resolved by next week, not to worry. You can check if they got your letters by clicking on Fall '14 on the application screen and scrolling to the bottom of the page. If you're still worried, I'd suggest giving them a call. Hope that helps. :)
 
For those who received an interview invite, did you receive an email or did you have to check your status?
 
REC28 said:
For those who received an interview invite, did you receive an email or did you have to check your status?
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I had to check my status. Interviewing 9/23!

for anyone curious, I was complete on 7/20 and logged in to check my status 7/23 to find out I was invited for an interview.
3.23 ugrad gpa, 3.54 postbac gpa, 37S, instate
 
Quick update: I logged on to check my status and saw an interview invite. When I attempted to schedule a day the system did not register. After a call to admissions, it is not possible to officially schedule your interview until you get an email. Apparently the system will drop the slot after a few minutes UNTIL that email is sent.


AND those emails are sent in batches. You might get one tomorrow or august or september. If anyone had that experience, double check you are still registered for your interview spot!
 
REC28 said:
Quick update: I logged on to check my status and saw an interview invite. When I attempted to schedule a day the system did not register. After a call to admissions, it is not possible to officially schedule your interview until you get an email. Apparently the system will drop the slot after a few minutes UNTIL that email is sent.


AND those emails are sent in batches. You might get one tomorrow or august or september. If anyone had that experience, double check you are still registered for your interview spot!
Click to expand...

where do you check your status?
 
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