2013-2014 University of Chicago (Pritzker) Application Thread

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At the University of Chicago in an atmosphere of interdisciplinary scholarship and discovery, the Pritzker School of Medicine is dedicated to inspiring diverse students of exceptional promise to become leaders and innovators in science and medicine for the betterment of humanity."

Essay Question 1. Our Mission Statement above is an expression of our core purpose and educational philosophy. In particular, it highlights the value we place on diversity since we regard the diversity of the entering class as essential for educational excellence. Please write an essay on how you would enhance diversity at Pritzker and advance the Pritzker mission. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.

Essay Question 2. Tell us about a difficult or challenging situation you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills you called upon to resolve the dilemma, and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 400 words.

Additional Information. Please feel free to use this space to convey any additional information that you might wish the Committee to know. We suggest that you limit your text to about 200 words.

Good luck to everyone applying! :luck:

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Hey (future) applicants!

I know it's early, but if you'll be applying to Pritzker and have any questions about the app, the school, or what being a student is like here, please don't hesitate to ask! I'm a soon-to-be MS3, though there are many of us that peruse this thread from time to time.

Best of luck!
 
Making myself known in this thread! This is my dream school. It's a huge reach, but I am hoping for a little luck. The administrators I've met from here were awesome :thumbup:

Good luck everybody!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Applying next summer, but I'm gonna hang out in here just to see how it goes! Good luck to everybody! :D
 
I also will be around to answer questions. Of course since I am an incoming MS1, I barely know more about the school than you can figure out online but I will try to answer your questions. Especially since NickNaylor will probably be busy saving people or something haha...
 
Applying with a sub-median gpa, glad they're looking at applications holistically. Guess I've to see if I "fit" :)
 
I also will be around to answer questions. Of course since I am an incoming MS1, I barely know more about the school than you can figure out online but I will try to answer your questions. Especially since NickNaylor will probably be busy saving people or something haha...

You chose Chicago?!? Congrats! :thumbup: Your always a great help in the forums!

Pritzker is such a reach school for me. Still debating whether I shovels apply or not. Would be ecstatic to get an interview here.
 
Good luck to everyone applying this cycle! I'm a rising 3rd year as well and will also be happy to answer questions :)
 
I'm pretty interested in this school. It looks great and has a great reputation, definitely a reach though. Question for students, whats the cost of living like? I hear Chicago is crazy expensive...
 
Cost of living is relative--Chicago is certainly more expensive than many places out west, but it's also cheaper than some places on the east coast. Pritzker is sensitive to your concerns and provides financial aid/scholarships that take Chicago's cost of living into account. Living with roommates saved me a lot of money during the first two years, so I would definitely recommend looking into that.
 
I'm from the south, so obviously the COL in Chicago is going to be much higher than what I'm used to. That said (and as Invin mentioned) there are many ways to reduce your costs. I should also add that the COL budget provided by the school is more than ample to cover your needs. I've talked to multiple students that have actually forgone loans for a quarter at the end of the year because they have enough remaining from the previous quarters.

So yes, the COL generally is high in Chicago, but if you're careful about how you spend your money and are somewhat frugal, it can be pretty affordable.

Sent from my SGH-M919
 
I also will be around to answer questions. Of course since I am an incoming MS1, I barely know more about the school than you can figure out online but I will try to answer your questions. Especially since NickNaylor will probably be busy saving people or something haha...

Congrats on choosing Pritzker, Tots. Would be honored to even get an interview here.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I'm from the south, so obviously the COL in Chicago is going to be much higher than what I'm used to. That said (and as Invin mentioned) there are many ways to reduce your costs. I should also add that the COL budget provided by the school is more than ample to cover your needs. I've talked to multiple students that have actually forgone loans for a quarter at the end of the year because they have enough remaining from the previous quarters.

So yes, the COL generally is high in Chicago, but if you're careful about how you spend your money and are somewhat frugal, it can be pretty affordable.

Sent from my SGH-M919

I PM'd you something. I'm not sure if you got it, but I would really like to get your opinion.
 
Do they typically change the secondary essays from year to year?


I'm definitely applying, although I have zero chance of actually getting admitted hahaha

Good luck to everyone else! SDN is full of great applicants, so I'm sure quite of few people will eventually be admitted.
 
Do they typically change the secondary essays from year to year?


I'm definitely applying, although I have zero chance of actually getting admitted hahaha

Good luck to everyone else! SDN is full of great applicants, so I'm sure quite of few people will eventually be admitted.

For the last few years that I've been following Pritzker, the secondary questions haven't changed.

Sent from my SGH-M919
 
For the last few years that I've been following Pritzker, the secondary questions haven't changed.

Sent from my SGH-M919

Sweet!

I know people can look them up in the thread from last year, but I can also post them here if people wanted to get a head start:

Uchicago Secondary Essays:
"At the University of Chicago in an atmosphere of interdisciplinary scholarship and discovery, the Pritzker School of Medicine is dedicated to inspiring diverse students of exceptional promise to become leaders and innovators in science and medicine for the betterment of humanity."

Essay Question 1. Our Mission Statement above is an expression of our core purpose and educational philosophy. In particular, it highlights the value we place on diversity since we regard the diversity of the entering class as essential for educational excellence. Please write an essay on how you would enhance diversity at Pritzker and advance the Pritzker mission. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 550 words.

Essay Question 2. Tell us about a difficult or challenging situation you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills you called upon to resolve the dilemma, and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice. We suggest that you limit your essay to about 400 words.
 
I see that the "difficult experience" essay is common on a lot of secondaries. What if my most difficult experience was talked about in my PS? Should I write about something new in the secondary, even if it is less meaningful?
 
Good luck - that's a great program.

Sent from my SGH-M919

Thanks! Hey, any chance you'd be able to connect me to a participant in the program? I'd love the opportunity to ask them a few questions about their experience.
 
this is your app cycle? i guess i always assumed you were already in, but from your mdapps i see that isn't the case.

Yep I'm taking gap years :thumbup:

I see that the "difficult experience" essay is common on a lot of secondaries. What if my most difficult experience was talked about in my PS? Should I write about something new in the secondary, even if it is less meaningful?

I would still write on it if that's truly your most difficult experience. Surely with 550 words you can create a more robust story than what was in your PS.
 
Thanks! Hey, any chance you'd be able to connect me to a participant in the program? I'd love the opportunity to ask them a few questions about their experience.

To be honest I don't actually know anyone in the program, but I'll see if I can find someone.

Sent from my SGH-M919
 
I see that the "difficult experience" essay is common on a lot of secondaries. What if my most difficult experience was talked about in my PS? Should I write about something new in the secondary, even if it is less meaningful?

I'm just a fellow applicant, so take this with a grain of salt.

I would choose to write about something else. The application offers very little space for you to present yourself to the adcom. It would be good if you let them see multiple aspects of who you are and the experiences you faced.
 
I'm just a fellow applicant, so take this with a grain of salt.

I would choose to write about something else. The application offers very little space for you to present yourself to the adcom. It would be good if you let them see multiple aspects of who you are and the experiences you faced.

:thumbup:

they make it clear in the podcast that they will read every word you wrote on both primary and secondary applications. why double up?
 
There was a podcast? Where?

Google Pritzker Podcast. It's a series of podcasts and interviews with Pritzker people designed to give you some insight about the school. They were created by a soon-to-be-graduating Pritzker MD/PhD.

Sent from my SGH-M919

Edit: Here's the link: http://pritzkerpodcast.com/.
 
Last edited:
Google Pritzker Podcast. It's a series of podcasts and interviews with Pritzker people designed to give you some insight about the school. They were created by a soon-to-be-graduating Pritzker MD/PhD.

Sent from my SGH-M919

Edit: Here's the link: http://pritzkerpodcast.com/.

Thanks for the link! Lots of good stuff here.

I listened to the Waitlisted students podcast and apparently Pritzker really likes to hear interest from students who are on the waitlist. That might come in handy in the future.
 
Couple of questions for the current and incoming students (by the way, let me be the nth person to congratulate you on your acceptance to such a great institution!):

1. Any notable administrative snafus that have affected you or those you know?
2. Are there any significant negatives or drawbacks to attending this program that we should know about?

Feel free to PM me if you prefer discretion.

(On the one hand, I could wait until I have a dozen acceptances under my belt to start comparing schools based on their red flags... On the other hand, maybe your answers will help me feel better if I fail to score an interview.)
 
Couple of questions for the current and incoming students (by the way, let me be the nth person to congratulate you on your acceptance to such a great institution!):

1. Any notable administrative snafus that have affected you or those you know?
2. Are there any significant negatives or drawbacks to attending this program that we should know about?

Feel free to PM me if you prefer discretion.

(On the one hand, I could wait until I have a dozen acceptances under my belt to start comparing schools based on their red flags... On the other hand, maybe your answers will help me feel better if I fail to score an interview.)

In my opinion, the best part of being a Pritzker student is the incredible and nearly unconditional support the administration provides to its students. Granted I have yet to enter the clinical arena where I imagine issues like this are more likely to come up, but in the pre-clinical curriculum at least I felt that the school would do everything in its power to support you and your interests, whatever they may be. Students, faculty, and staff really do form a family, and members of the Pritzker community have an interest in supporting one another as much as possible.

As far as your second question, I don't think there are any huge problems or drawbacks to be aware of. The only thing that might be noteworthy is that I think UCMC (the university medical center) is smaller than those of Pritzker's peer institutions. However, we have great affiliations throughout the Chicago area that provide many different clinical experiences, and UCMC is still a well reputed medical center. It will likely be something you notice if you interview here and at similar schools, though. I'm not sure it's really all that much of a negative as it doesn't seem to impact the education of Pritzker students or their ability to seek whatever residency they want.

Of course, there are small things that are irritating, but that will be true everywhere. In terms of huge, institution-wide problems, though, I have yet to encounter any.

Hope that helps.

Sent from my SGH-M919
 
I've heard Pritzker offers its students a lot of opportunities with regards to med ed and its one of the things that has really attracted me to UC. Could anybody comment on some specifics on the scholarship and discovery program and/or other med ed opportunities for students? Thanks in advance :)
 
Ok so I started writing this a few days ago but since I am traveling it has been hard to finish it/get internet to post it. Some of it is very similar to Nick's post above but I decided to leave it how I originally wrote it for fear making it incomprehensible.


Why I choose Chicago

So I have decided to write up a synopsis on why I choose the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. I remember a year ago being clueless about what I wanted in a medical school and appreciating any insight I could get on the schools I was applying to. Being ignorant at this stage is not necessarily a negative though. As a result of my ignorance I applied all over the place. This was a blessing in disguise because some of my favorite schools post-interview were at the bottom of my list pre-interview. My first choice school pre-season(someplace I honestly thought I would attend if I was accepted no matter what) became one of my last choices post-interview. I came very close to not applying to Pritzker. It's crazy out there and there are so many awesome schools but I hope you can find a school that excites you as much as the University of Chicago excites me.

Disclaimer: I am a bright-eyed incoming student. I may be completely wrong about some things I elaborate on below but I welcome any dissenting options and/or additional information. Obviously I am biased.

Financial Aid

It is well known around these parts that UChicago has a decent amount of merit money floating around. Medical school is ridiculously expensive and even at my state school I was looking at 250k debt. As a recent college grad I had a difficult time grasping the magnitude of the debt I was considering incurring. UChicago was my cheapest option and it came to down to money equaling flexibility. I don't know what my future career is going to look like, but I wanted as much future flexibility as possible. Especially since most of my interests don't pay particularly well(public health, academics, pediatrics, etc). You will need to decide how important debt is for you and your future. As cheesy as it sounds, I think some of best advice I was given was: "Money comes and goes, but you will only be in medical school, and be this young, once"(<---my grandfather is apparently no stranger to YOLO).

You probably knew all that. A little more relevant to UChicago is what I think all that merit aid says about the school. I listened to my fair share of financial aid presentations on the interview trail and almost every school mentioned how they were concerned with student debt and rising tuition costs. After seeing many facts and figures I was blown away with how little tuition generally mattered to schools(one school told us 2% of their budget came from tuition), and yet even an extra 5k a year could make a huge difference to an individual student. What I took away was that if student debt was truly a priority every school could do more to address the issue. I think the reality is that most schools have other priorities for their money that they deem more important. UChicago being one of a handful of exceptions. From what I have heard, they allocate an impressive amount of discretionary money to aid and even decreased their class from 100-->88 a few years ago with one of the reasons being so they could provide adequate aid to everyone(there may be more to this story than I know, this is what I was told).

Pritzker's aid policies made me feel like Pritzker values it's students greatly. I like being valued, what about you?

The People

I had great experiences with all the faculty, staff, and students I met during interviews and second look. There is obviously some luck involved in this fact but it mattered anyway. Something like 60 out of the 88 first years were involved in second look and every student I met seemed genuinely happy to be at Pritzker. It is hard to describe but I felt comfortable at Chicago; I felt like it was a place where I "fit." Also where else do you have social rounds where faculty serve you beer?

Earlier in the season I thought it was odd that I was interviewed by not only a faculty member and a student but also an admissions staff member. It turned out that this was a genius move by the admission staff. The staff member who interviewed me literally became my connection to the school. A job he was well suited for since he both read my application and interviewed me. He sent me personalized emails making sure I had the information I needed to make my decision and when I showed up at second look he made sure I was aware of particular activities and information he thought I would be interested in based off my application/interview. Some schools I felt like nothing more than a cog in a large admissions machine but at Chicago I felt like a person and that felt good.

Surrounding University

Being on a university campus was a huge plus to me and the opportunity to take an elective or two outside of the school of medicine seemed awesome. I previously did research at the intersection of social science and medicine and with UChicago I couldn't really go wrong in this area.

Location

I wanted to leave California(apparently this makes me odd) so I knew it was going to be cold pretty much anywhere I went. Since I spent my life in suburbia I was looking forward to getting closer to a city and Hyde Park seemed like a happy medium. Definitely urban environment but not exactly downtown. I am living in Hyde Park the first year with the plan to move to the south loop eventually. The south side of Chicago also seemed like a great place to learn medicine since I am very much interested in underserved medicine.

Not going to lie, I also bought lollapalooza tickets way before I knew I was going to Chicago. If I decided to go elsewhere I would of had to sell them or something...and then how would I see alt j, phoenix, vampire weekend and the cure all in one day? Let's be real.

New hospital

A cruise ship has landed in Chicago and the university turned it into a hospital(google "center for care and discovery" if you are confused). It's huge, it's new, it's pretty(on the inside at least). This is probably not a great reason to choose a school but I like pretty things.

Traditional curriculum

The curriculum at Pritzker made me cringe a bit. I was a very big fan of the 1/1.5 yr curriculums I saw at other institutions. Comparatively Pritzker seems to have more classroom time and less PBL(might not be a negative for you). Luckily there are plenty of redeeming factors: lecture attendance not required, getting anatomy out of the way early, time to take electives outside the school of medicine, and a lot more health disparities and social medicine stuff incorporated into the curriculum than I could find anywhere else.

Small clinical enterprise

This is probably the biggest weakness I could identify. I honestly don't know if it is truly a weakness since I got a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people. Compared to other places I was considering, Uchicago's hospitals are small. They don't have a VA. You do get Northshore hospital though. All the fourth years I met during second look seemed very happy with their clinical experience though and had only good things to say(this was not the same everywhere, I definitely got some scary responses from 4th years, could totally be biased by who I talked to though).



Good luck, I hope to see some of you around Chicago interviewing this upcoming year!
 
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Thanks, Tots - Speaking as one illustrated mouse to another, information like this is priceless.
 
Ok so I started writing this a few days ago but since I am traveling it has been hard to finish it/get internet to post it. Some of it is very similar to Nick's post above but I decided to leave it how I originally wrote it for fear making it incomprehensible.


Why I choose Chicago

So I have decided to write up a synopsis on why I choose the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. I remember a year ago being clueless about what I wanted in a medical school and appreciating any insight I could get on the schools I was applying to. Being ignorant at this stage is not necessarily a negative though. As a result of my ignorance I applied all over the place. This was a blessing in disguise because some of my favorite schools post-interview were at the bottom of my list pre-interview. My first choice school pre-season(someplace I honestly thought I would attend if I was accepted no matter what) became one of my last choices post-interview. I came very close to not applying to Pritzker. It's crazy out there and there are so many awesome schools but I hope you can find a school that excites you as much as the University of Chicago excites me.

Disclaimer: I am a bright-eyed incoming student. I may be completely wrong about some things I elaborate on below but I welcome any dissenting options and/or additional information. Obviously I am biased.

Financial Aid

It is well known around these parts that UChicago has a decent amount of merit money floating around. Medical school is ridiculously expensive and even at my state school I was looking at 250k debt. As a recent college grad I had a difficult time grasping the magnitude of the debt I was considering incurring. UChicago was my cheapest option and it came to down to money equaling flexibility. I don't know what my future career is going to look like, but I wanted as much future flexibility as possible. Especially since most of my interests don't pay particularly well(public health, academics, pediatrics, etc). You will need to decide how important debt is for you and your future. As cheesy as it sounds, I think some of best advice I was given was: "Money comes and goes, but you will only be in medical school, and be this young, once"(<---my grandfather is apparently no stranger to YOLO).

You probably knew all that. A little more relevant to UChicago is what I think all that merit aid says about the school. I listened to my fair share of financial aid presentations on the interview trail and almost every school mentioned how they were concerned with student debt and rising tuition costs. After seeing many facts and figures I was blown away with how little tuition generally mattered to schools(one school told us 2% of their budget came from tuition), and yet even an extra 5k a year could make a huge difference to an individual student. What I took away was that if student debt was truly a priority every school could do more to address the issue. I think the reality is that most schools have other priorities for their money that they deem more important. UChicago being one of a handful of exceptions. From what I have heard, they allocate an impressive amount of discretionary money to aid and even decreased their class from 100-->88 a few years ago with one of the reasons being so they could provide adequate aid to everyone(there may be more to this story than I know, this is what I was told).

Pritzker's aid policies made me feel like Pritzker values it's students greatly. I like being valued, what about you?

The People

I had great experiences with all the faculty, staff, and students I met during interviews and second look. There is obviously some luck involved in this fact but it mattered anyway. Something like 60 out of the 88 first years were involved in second look and every student I met seemed genuinely happy to be at Pritzker. It is hard to describe but I felt comfortable at Chicago; I felt like it was a place where I "fit." Also where else do you have social rounds where faculty serve you beer?

Earlier in the season I thought it was odd that I was interviewed by not only a faculty member and a student but also an admissions staff member. It turned out that this was a genius move by the admission staff. The staff member who interviewed me literally became my connection to the school. A job he was well suited for since he both read my application and interviewed me. He sent me personalized emails making sure I had the information I needed to make my decision and when I showed up at second look he made sure I was aware of particular activities and information he thought I would be interested in based off my application/interview. Some schools I felt like nothing more than a cog in a large admissions machine but at Chicago I felt like a person and that felt good.

Surrounding University

Being on a university campus was a huge plus to me and the opportunity to take an elective or two outside of the school of medicine seemed awesome. I previously did research at the intersection of social science and medicine and with UChicago I couldn't really go wrong in this area.

Location

I wanted to leave California(apparently this makes me odd) so I knew it was going to be cold pretty much anywhere I went. Since I spent my life in suburbia I was looking forward to getting closer to a city and Hyde Park seemed like a happy medium. Definitely urban environment but not exactly downtown. I am living in Hyde Park the first year with the plan to move to the south loop eventually. The south side of Chicago also seemed like a great place to learn medicine since I am very much interested in underserved medicine.

Not going to lie, I also bought lollapalooza tickets way before I knew I was going to Chicago. If I decided to go elsewhere I would of had to sell them or something...and then how would I see alt j, phoenix, vampire weekend and the cure all in one day? Let's be real.

New hospital

A cruise ship has landed in Chicago and the university turned it into a hospital(google "center for care and discovery" if you are confused). It's huge, it's new, it's pretty(on the inside at least). This is probably not a great reason to choose a school but I like pretty things.

Traditional curriculum

The curriculum at Pritzker made me cringe a bit. I was a very big fan of the 1/1.5 yr curriculums I saw at other institutions. Comparatively Pritzker seems to have more classroom time and less PBL(might not be a negative for you). Luckily there are plenty of redeeming factors: lecture attendance not required, getting anatomy out of the way early, time to take electives outside the school of medicine, and a lot more health disparities and social medicine stuff incorporated into the curriculum than I could find anywhere else.

Small clinical enterprise

This is probably the biggest weakness I could identify. I honestly don't know if it is truly a weakness since I got a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people. Compared to other places I was considering, Uchicago's hospitals are small. They don't have a VA. You do get Northshore hospital though. All the fourth years I met during second look seemed very happy with their clinical experience though and had only good things to say(this was not the same everywhere, I definitely got some scary responses from 4th years, could totally be biased by who I talked to though).



Good luck, I hope to see some of you around Chicago interviewing this upcoming year!

Thanks a ton.
 
Ok so I started writing this a few days ago but since I am traveling it has been hard to finish it/get internet to post it. Some of it is very similar to Nick's post above but I decided to leave it how I originally wrote it for fear making it incomprehensible.


Why I choose Chicago

So I have decided to write up a synopsis on why I choose the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. I remember a year ago being clueless about what I wanted in a medical school and appreciating any insight I could get on the schools I was applying to. Being ignorant at this stage is not necessarily a negative though. As a result of my ignorance I applied all over the place. This was a blessing in disguise because some of my favorite schools post-interview were at the bottom of my list pre-interview. My first choice school pre-season(someplace I honestly thought I would attend if I was accepted no matter what) became one of my last choices post-interview. I came very close to not applying to Pritzker. It's crazy out there and there are so many awesome schools but I hope you can find a school that excites you as much as the University of Chicago excites me.

Disclaimer: I am a bright-eyed incoming student. I may be completely wrong about some things I elaborate on below but I welcome any dissenting options and/or additional information. Obviously I am biased.

Financial Aid

It is well known around these parts that UChicago has a decent amount of merit money floating around. Medical school is ridiculously expensive and even at my state school I was looking at 250k debt. As a recent college grad I had a difficult time grasping the magnitude of the debt I was considering incurring. UChicago was my cheapest option and it came to down to money equaling flexibility. I don't know what my future career is going to look like, but I wanted as much future flexibility as possible. Especially since most of my interests don't pay particularly well(public health, academics, pediatrics, etc). You will need to decide how important debt is for you and your future. As cheesy as it sounds, I think some of best advice I was given was: "Money comes and goes, but you will only be in medical school, and be this young, once"(<---my grandfather is apparently no stranger to YOLO).

You probably knew all that. A little more relevant to UChicago is what I think all that merit aid says about the school. I listened to my fair share of financial aid presentations on the interview trail and almost every school mentioned how they were concerned with student debt and rising tuition costs. After seeing many facts and figures I was blown away with how little tuition generally mattered to schools(one school told us 2% of their budget came from tuition), and yet even an extra 5k a year could make a huge difference to an individual student. What I took away was that if student debt was truly a priority every school could do more to address the issue. I think the reality is that most schools have other priorities for their money that they deem more important. UChicago being one of a handful of exceptions. From what I have heard, they allocate an impressive amount of discretionary money to aid and even decreased their class from 100-->88 a few years ago with one of the reasons being so they could provide adequate aid to everyone(there may be more to this story than I know, this is what I was told).

Pritzker's aid policies made me feel like Pritzker values it's students greatly. I like being valued, what about you?

The People

I had great experiences with all the faculty, staff, and students I met during interviews and second look. There is obviously some luck involved in this fact but it mattered anyway. Something like 60 out of the 88 first years were involved in second look and every student I met seemed genuinely happy to be at Pritzker. It is hard to describe but I felt comfortable at Chicago; I felt like it was a place where I "fit." Also where else do you have social rounds where faculty serve you beer?

Earlier in the season I thought it was odd that I was interviewed by not only a faculty member and a student but also an admissions staff member. It turned out that this was a genius move by the admission staff. The staff member who interviewed me literally became my connection to the school. A job he was well suited for since he both read my application and interviewed me. He sent me personalized emails making sure I had the information I needed to make my decision and when I showed up at second look he made sure I was aware of particular activities and information he thought I would be interested in based off my application/interview. Some schools I felt like nothing more than a cog in a large admissions machine but at Chicago I felt like a person and that felt good.

Surrounding University

Being on a university campus was a huge plus to me and the opportunity to take an elective or two outside of the school of medicine seemed awesome. I previously did research at the intersection of social science and medicine and with UChicago I couldn't really go wrong in this area.

Location

I wanted to leave California(apparently this makes me odd) so I knew it was going to be cold pretty much anywhere I went. Since I spent my life in suburbia I was looking forward to getting closer to a city and Hyde Park seemed like a happy medium. Definitely urban environment but not exactly downtown. I am living in Hyde Park the first year with the plan to move to the south loop eventually. The south side of Chicago also seemed like a great place to learn medicine since I am very much interested in underserved medicine.

Not going to lie, I also bought lollapalooza tickets way before I knew I was going to Chicago. If I decided to go elsewhere I would of had to sell them or something...and then how would I see alt j, phoenix, vampire weekend and the cure all in one day? Let's be real.

New hospital

A cruise ship has landed in Chicago and the university turned it into a hospital(google "center for care and discovery" if you are confused). It's huge, it's new, it's pretty(on the inside at least). This is probably not a great reason to choose a school but I like pretty things.

Traditional curriculum

The curriculum at Pritzker made me cringe a bit. I was a very big fan of the 1/1.5 yr curriculums I saw at other institutions. Comparatively Pritzker seems to have more classroom time and less PBL(might not be a negative for you). Luckily there are plenty of redeeming factors: lecture attendance not required, getting anatomy out of the way early, time to take electives outside the school of medicine, and a lot more health disparities and social medicine stuff incorporated into the curriculum than I could find anywhere else.

Small clinical enterprise

This is probably the biggest weakness I could identify. I honestly don't know if it is truly a weakness since I got a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people. Compared to other places I was considering, Uchicago's hospitals are small. They don't have a VA. You do get Northshore hospital though. All the fourth years I met during second look seemed very happy with their clinical experience though and had only good things to say(this was not the same everywhere, I definitely got some scary responses from 4th years, could totally be biased by who I talked to though).



Good luck, I hope to see some of you around Chicago interviewing this upcoming year!

Great post - I second everything here.

Sent from my SGH-M919
 
What's the opportunity for interaction with the rest of UChicago like? For example, I'm coming from a pretty heavy social sciences background; could you feasibly see someone getting involved with research in departments outside of Pritzker, or perhaps auditing/taking courses on research methods (statistics, epidemiology, etc.)?
 
What's the opportunity for interaction with the rest of UChicago like? For example, I'm coming from a pretty heavy social sciences background; could you feasibly see someone getting involved with research in departments outside of Pritzker, or perhaps auditing/taking courses on research methods (statistics, epidemiology, etc.)?

of course you can. everything uchicago has is open to you for the most part. the limiting factor will be your free time
 
What's the opportunity for interaction with the rest of UChicago like? For example, I'm coming from a pretty heavy social sciences background; could you feasibly see someone getting involved with research in departments outside of Pritzker, or perhaps auditing/taking courses on research methods (statistics, epidemiology, etc.)?

Yes, absolutely. I took a course at the college on Chaucer as an elective in place of an elective at the med school. Many people do things like this. As Milk said, it's all about making that interest a priority while still meeting your goals for med school.

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Excellent .. And UofC just rocketed up my list ...
 
This is my dream school! I have always regretting not going here as an undergrad :( . They really do look at their applicants holistically (my stats were average). It's a reach but I hope I get such an amazing opportunity again! Good luck to everyone applying :)
 
This is my dream school! I have always regretting not going here as an undergrad :( . They really do look at their applicants holistically (my stats were average). It's a reach but I hope I get such an amazing opportunity again! Good luck to everyone applying :)

Good luck!

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Small clinical enterprise

This is probably the biggest weakness I could identify. I honestly don't know if it is truly a weakness since I got a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people. Compared to other places I was considering, Uchicago's hospitals are small. They don't have a VA. You do get Northshore hospital though. All the fourth years I met during second look seemed very happy with their clinical experience though and had only good things to say(this was not the same everywhere, I definitely got some scary responses from 4th years, could totally be biased by who I talked to though).

First, I know you were giving your opinion and impression which is perfectly fine, but as a student who has been through it all, I have to disagree strongly with this statement. The clinical years at Pritzker are what make it so amazing and when you look at the whole picture, our clinical experience is by no means small.

The student experience consists of UCMC (main hospital/CCD), Comer Children's, Mercy (community hopsital staffed by U of C), Northshore University Healthsystem (a private system on the northside consisting of Evanston, Glenbrook, Highland Park, and Skokie) for a total of 1,887 in patient beds. Furthermore, during rotations like family medicine, peds, psyc students are placed at clinics throughout the chicagoland area. That is far from a "small" experience.

Furthermore, Univeristy of Chicago is a quaternary care center. The hospital exists to be at the cutting edge of medicine. We often joke that our patients at U of C that are on the regular floors are community hospital ICU level patients, and our ICU patients would be dead at community hospitals. The medicine you see at our main hospital is spectacular and at the same time it's exhausting. Which is what makes our complement of hospitals so nice. When we go to northshore/mercy we get to see a more regular slice of medicine. And that's not to say that norhtshore doesn't have some huge names in medicine. It's just that at u of c there are daily 30 hour surgeries where an entire woman's pelvis is being reconstructed from abdominal flaps. Go to northshore and your routine surgeries are hysterectomies and lap choly's.

The hopsital system at U of C is spectactular. The main medical center boasts an awesome group of specialists that are at the top of their field.

I hope this helps, and I wasn't trying to be argumentive with the above poster. 3rd and 4th years aren't around for revist so it's hard to get an accurate picutre of the clinical years at pritzker so I hope this helps!
 
First, I know you were giving your opinion and impression which is perfectly fine, but as a student who has been through it all, I have to disagree strongly with this statement. The clinical years at Pritzker are what make it so amazing and when you look at the whole picture, our clinical experience is by no means small.

The student experience consists of UCMC (main hospital/CCD), Comer Children's, Mercy (community hopsital staffed by U of C), Northshore University Healthsystem (a private system on the northside consisting of Evanston, Glenbrook, Highland Park, and Skokie) for a total of 1,887 in patient beds. Furthermore, during rotations like family medicine, peds, psyc students are placed at clinics throughout the chicagoland area. That is far from a "small" experience.

Furthermore, Univeristy of Chicago is a quaternary care center. The hospital exists to be at the cutting edge of medicine. We often joke that our patients at U of C that are on the regular floors are community hospital ICU level patients, and our ICU patients would be dead at community hospitals. The medicine you see at our main hospital is spectacular and at the same time it's exhausting. Which is what makes our complement of hospitals so nice. When we go to northshore/mercy we get to see a more regular slice of medicine. And that's not to say that norhtshore doesn't have some huge names in medicine. It's just that at u of c there are daily 30 hour surgeries where an entire woman's pelvis is being reconstructed from abdominal flaps. Go to northshore and your routine surgeries are hysterectomies and lap choly's.

The hopsital system at U of C is spectactular. The main medical center boasts an awesome group of specialists that are at the top of their field.

I hope this helps, and I wasn't trying to be argumentive with the above poster. 3rd and 4th years aren't around for revist so it's hard to get an accurate picutre of the clinical years at pritzker so I hope this helps!

I know the clinicals at UofC are great, but I have to agree with Tots. Our medical center is tiny compared to other top schools. 1887 beds, but 908 of them are Northshore's. Compare that to Northwestern's 2,224 beds (don't know how many are actually on NW's campus and how many are VAs). But whatever, bed number doesn't really matter a whole lot.

Question about rotations. Which sites are highly recommended for the rotations? I hear Northshore is good for ob/gyn to see more normal cases instead of the really specialized and complex cases at UC. With the clinics throughout Chicago, does that mean it would be impossible to get by without a car 3rd year?
 
First, I know you were giving your opinion and impression which is perfectly fine, but as a student who has been through it all, I have to disagree strongly with this statement. The clinical years at Pritzker are what make it so amazing and when you look at the whole picture, our clinical experience is by no means small.

The student experience consists of UCMC (main hospital/CCD), Comer Children's, Mercy (community hopsital staffed by U of C), Northshore University Healthsystem (a private system on the northside consisting of Evanston, Glenbrook, Highland Park, and Skokie) for a total of 1,887 in patient beds. Furthermore, during rotations like family medicine, peds, psyc students are placed at clinics throughout the chicagoland area. That is far from a "small" experience.

Furthermore, Univeristy of Chicago is a quaternary care center. The hospital exists to be at the cutting edge of medicine. We often joke that our patients at U of C that are on the regular floors are community hospital ICU level patients, and our ICU patients would be dead at community hospitals. The medicine you see at our main hospital is spectacular and at the same time it's exhausting. Which is what makes our complement of hospitals so nice. When we go to northshore/mercy we get to see a more regular slice of medicine. And that's not to say that norhtshore doesn't have some huge names in medicine. It's just that at u of c there are daily 30 hour surgeries where an entire woman's pelvis is being reconstructed from abdominal flaps. Go to northshore and your routine surgeries are hysterectomies and lap choly's.

The hopsital system at U of C is spectactular. The main medical center boasts an awesome group of specialists that are at the top of their field.

I hope this helps, and I wasn't trying to be argumentive with the above poster. 3rd and 4th years aren't around for revist so it's hard to get an accurate picutre of the clinical years at pritzker so I hope this helps!

Thanks for this perspective! I am happy you disagree with me since that was honestly my biggest concern with choosing Pritzker :p
 
It doesn't seem that it's the case based on the posts I've seen, but does the UChicago undergrad slogan of "where fun goes to die" at all apply to Pritzker*? :p
 
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