2020-2021 Loyola (Stritch)

[TheDataKing]

Please tag a pre-allo moderator when the second prompt is posted.

Good luck to everyone applying!

Interview Feedback: Loyola University

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[NathanB]

Hello!

I’m a rising m4 at Loyola and I just wanted to share a podcast interview with the current Dean of Admissions, Darrell Nabers. He talks about the admissions process at Stritch and gives good advice to applicants about improving their chances of acceptance. He also shares some useful info for re-applicants like when to request feedback on your application and how to communicate with the admissions office.

You can listen to it on the web here, but also on many different podcasting apps such as: apple | spotify | google.

In last year’s thread I shared a similar episode that we recorded with the previous dean of admissions. She is now working at UC Riverside, but her advice is still applicable to Stritch and probably all of the other schools that you apply to. Thousands of people listened to it last year and told us that they found it very helpful so we decided to record a new interview with the current dean and share them both! You can find last year’s episode here: Web | Apple | Google | Spotify

Good luck on the cycle!

 

[AegonTargaryenVI]

Hello!

I’m a rising m4 at Loyola and I just wanted to share a podcast interview with the current Dean of Admissions, Darrell Nabers. He talks about the admissions process at Stritch and gives good advice to applicants about improving their chances of acceptance. He also shares some useful info for re-applicants like when to request feedback on your application and how to communicate with the admissions office.

You can listen to it on the web here, but also on many different podcasting apps such as: apple | spotify | google.

In last year’s thread I shared a similar episode that we recorded with the previous dean of admissions. She is now working at UC Riverside, but her advice is still applicable to Stritch and probably all of the other schools that you apply to. Thousands of people listened to it last year and told us that they found it very helpful so we decided to record a new interview with the current dean and share them both! You can find last year’s episode here: Web | Apple | Google | Spotify

Good luck on the cycle!

This was very insightful and interesting, thank you! The part where he mentioned an adcom at UChicago googling some applicants' addresses was a rather funny yet bewildering moment.

 

[genie_o_glossus]

I am an M2 at Loyola, and I am loving it here! Happy to answer any questions about Loyola Good luck everyone!

 

[doglover23]

Does anyone know if Loyola will review your application before receiving a MCAT score? I have my MCAT scheduled for July 23rd and my score won't be back until August.

 

[premed1996]

Does anyone know if Loyola will review your application before receiving a MCAT score? I have my MCAT scheduled for July 23rd and my score won't be back until August.

In the same boat, so definitely interested in the answer!

 

[deleted959268]

Does anyone know if Loyola will review your application before receiving a MCAT score? I have my MCAT scheduled for July 23rd and my score won't be back until August.

they wait for your score to come and then review your app.

 

[2021Hope]

they wait for your score to come and then review your app.

Even with all of April and May being canceled this year? Many schools are adapting their policy on when they require the mcat score.

 

[InfectiousDiseasesH&TM]

Even with all of April and May being canceled this year? Many schools are adapting their policy on when they require the mcat score.

I have heard that most schools will review app, invite you for an interview, and then hold off on an admissions decision until your MCAT score is released.

 

[doglover23]

Does anyone know if Loyola will review your application before receiving a MCAT score? I have my MCAT scheduled for July 23rd and my score won't be back until August.

I know I posted this already, but a lot of schools have updated their sites about how the application cycle will be different due to COVID-19, however, I have yet to see any updates from Loyola. Does anyone know anything or do I have better luck just emailing them?

 

[stayathomemom]

This was very insightful and interesting, thank you! The part where he mentioned an adcom at UChicago googling some applicants' addresses was a rather funny yet bewildering moment.

Totally. I grew up disadvantaged (that question on AMCAS is very specific about being for ages 0-18) but I'm in my 30's now and wonder what he would infer from my current living situation, which is >1000 miles away from where I grew up....

 

[stormking]

Waiting for secondary

 

[deleted959268]

Emailed admissions and they said they r keeping II on time which is late August. My MCAT score is going to be released at the end of August so do yall think that would hurt my application? my exam was cancelled twice lol.

 

[Rapsidy]

Emailed admissions and they said they r keeping II on time which is late August. My MCAT score is going to be released at the end of August so do yall think that would hurt my application? my exam was cancelled twice lol.

Don’t think so, a bad score will hurt you more than a delayed score. Plus they haven’t even sent out secondaries yet.

 

[stormking]

Emailed admissions and they said they r keeping II on time which is late August. My MCAT score is going to be released at the end of August so do yall think that would hurt my application? my exam was cancelled twice lol.

Wow that's so late for secondary

 

[Tacocalifornia]

Wow that's so late for secondary

II = interview

 

[stormking]

II = interview

ohhhh. Know when the secondary comes out though?

 

[hayleyjp]

Has anyone gotten a secondary yet?

 

[Rapsidy]

Just got an invitation for secondary in state.

 

[ice cheems]

Has anyone gotten a secondary yet?

nope

edit: right as I posted that it showed up in my inbox. +1 IS

 

[ice cheems]

yo they make you pay the fee before filling out the supplemental application, that's kinda wack. if anyone bites the bullet and pays $105, would you mind posting the prompts?

 

[future_dr_j]

OOS secondary received!

 

[vroom14]

prompts?

 

[Microtubules]

+1 IS Secondary Received

 

[theoriginalyaga]

1. Explain how you know that you want to spend your life studying and practicing medicine. Describe how the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) can help you develop into the kind of person and physician you hope to become.
Minimum 100 Words

2. Social justice in the Jesuit tradition, justice due each person by virtue of their own inherent human dignity, is an essential dimension of education at SSOM. Describe what you have you learned about yourself from your concrete social justice experiences. Explain how you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician. Inherent human dignity is an essential dimension of Jesuit education at SSOM. What have you learned from your concrete social justice experiences? How do you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician?
Minimum 100 Words

3. Serving underserved and under-resourced communities is an expression of social justice. Describe an impactful experience in working with and for under-resourced communities. Explain what you have you learned about yourself through this service OR what has hindered your efforts to serve others in these environments.
Minimum 100 Words

4. Describe your leadership style. Provide a specific example of how you have applied your leadership style.
Minimum 100 Words

5. Describe a non-academic personal/professional challenge or conflict that you have experienced. Explain what skills, resources and/or strategies you employed to resolve the problem.
Minimum 100 Words

*******COMPLETE QUESTIONS 6-12 IF APPLICABLE*******
6. Please indicate additional grades earned, amendments to your proposed coursework or graduation date, address changes, additions to your list of experiences, and anything else you feel we should know.

7. Please explain in more detail (in less than 1500 characters) anything that would help us understand any gaps or delays in your education, academic missteps, or personal challenges not listed elsewhere.

8. If you have not been enrolled in coursework for over two years, please let us know what you have been doing since your coursework ended.

9. Have you applied to SSOM prior to this application? If so, please list the years of your previous application submissions to SSOM and tell us how your application has improved since your previous submission.

10. Are you currently, or have you been, enrolled in any of the following programs?

11. Have you ever been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic or parking violation? If the answer is yes, please explain below.

12. If you did not submit an advisor or committee letter, please tell us why.

thank you for posting! do you know the character/word counts for questions 6-12 for the ones not listed? thank you in advance!

 

[AegonTargaryenVI]

1. Explain how you know that you want to spend your life studying and practicing medicine. Describe how the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) can help you develop into the kind of person and physician you hope to become.
Minimum 100 Words

2. Social justice in the Jesuit tradition, justice due each person by virtue of their own inherent human dignity, is an essential dimension of education at SSOM. Describe what you have you learned about yourself from your concrete social justice experiences. Explain how you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician. Inherent human dignity is an essential dimension of Jesuit education at SSOM. What have you learned from your concrete social justice experiences? How do you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician?
Minimum 100 Words

3. Serving underserved and under-resourced communities is an expression of social justice. Describe an impactful experience in working with and for under-resourced communities. Explain what you have you learned about yourself through this service OR what has hindered your efforts to serve others in these environments.
Minimum 100 Words

4. Describe your leadership style. Provide a specific example of how you have applied your leadership style.
Minimum 100 Words

5. Describe a non-academic personal/professional challenge or conflict that you have experienced. Explain what skills, resources and/or strategies you employed to resolve the problem.
Minimum 100 Words

*******COMPLETE QUESTIONS 6-12 IF APPLICABLE*******
6. Please indicate additional grades earned, amendments to your proposed coursework or graduation date, address changes, additions to your list of experiences, and anything else you feel we should know.

7. Please explain in more detail (in less than 1500 characters) anything that would help us understand any gaps or delays in your education, academic missteps, or personal challenges not listed elsewhere.

8. If you have not been enrolled in coursework for over two years, please let us know what you have been doing since your coursework ended.

9. Have you applied to SSOM prior to this application? If so, please list the years of your previous application submissions to SSOM and tell us how your application has improved since your previous submission.

10. Are you currently, or have you been, enrolled in any of the following programs?

11. Have you ever been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic or parking violation? If the answer is yes, please explain below.

12. If you did not submit an advisor or committee letter, please tell us why.

lol well that was a waste of time pre-writing

 

[vroom14]

1. Explain how you know that you want to spend your life studying and practicing medicine. Describe how the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) can help you develop into the kind of person and physician you hope to become.
Minimum 100 Words

2. Social justice in the Jesuit tradition, justice due each person by virtue of their own inherent human dignity, is an essential dimension of education at SSOM. Describe what you have you learned about yourself from your concrete social justice experiences. Explain how you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician. Inherent human dignity is an essential dimension of Jesuit education at SSOM. What have you learned from your concrete social justice experiences? How do you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician?
Minimum 100 Words

3. Serving underserved and under-resourced communities is an expression of social justice. Describe an impactful experience in working with and for under-resourced communities. Explain what you have you learned about yourself through this service OR what has hindered your efforts to serve others in these environments.
Minimum 100 Words

4. Describe your leadership style. Provide a specific example of how you have applied your leadership style.
Minimum 100 Words

5. Describe a non-academic personal/professional challenge or conflict that you have experienced. Explain what skills, resources and/or strategies you employed to resolve the problem.
Minimum 100 Words

*******COMPLETE QUESTIONS 6-12 IF APPLICABLE*******
6. Please indicate additional grades earned, amendments to your proposed coursework or graduation date, address changes, additions to your list of experiences, and anything else you feel we should know.

7. Please explain in more detail (in less than 1500 characters) anything that would help us understand any gaps or delays in your education, academic missteps, or personal challenges not listed elsewhere.

8. If you have not been enrolled in coursework for over two years, please let us know what you have been doing since your coursework ended.

9. Have you applied to SSOM prior to this application? If so, please list the years of your previous application submissions to SSOM and tell us how your application has improved since your previous submission.

10. Are you currently, or have you been, enrolled in any of the following programs?

11. Have you ever been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic or parking violation? If the answer is yes, please explain below.

12. If you did not submit an advisor or committee letter, please tell us why.

thanks! So is there no upper word count limit on the first five questions?

 

[GroundDigger]

thanks! So is there no upper word count limit on the first five questions?

There is, they say to limit it to 500 words

 

[theoriginalyaga]

lol well that was a waste of time pre-writing

i know... basically gotta start all over now

 

[ice cheems]

Luckily they made us pay beforehand so we didn't know they changed right?

thanks for taking the L, not sure if I want to pay until I 100% know I can answer all of these prompts well.

 

[Wuzzle123]

i know... basically gotta start all over now

ya this is definitely a morale killer especially when you have to rewrite 4 out of the 5 new prompts

 

[Tacocalifornia]

1. Explain how you know that you want to spend your life studying and practicing medicine. Describe how the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) can help you develop into the kind of person and physician you hope to become.
Minimum 100 Words

2. Social justice in the Jesuit tradition, justice due each person by virtue of their own inherent human dignity, is an essential dimension of education at SSOM. Describe what you have you learned about yourself from your concrete social justice experiences. Explain how you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician. Inherent human dignity is an essential dimension of Jesuit education at SSOM. What have you learned from your concrete social justice experiences? How do you plan to sustain your efforts to advocate for current social justice issues as a medical student and as a physician?
Minimum 100 Words

3. Serving underserved and under-resourced communities is an expression of social justice. Describe an impactful experience in working with and for under-resourced communities. Explain what you have you learned about yourself through this service OR what has hindered your efforts to serve others in these environments.
Minimum 100 Words

4. Describe your leadership style. Provide a specific example of how you have applied your leadership style.
Minimum 100 Words

5. Describe a non-academic personal/professional challenge or conflict that you have experienced. Explain what skills, resources and/or strategies you employed to resolve the problem.
Minimum 100 Words

*******COMPLETE QUESTIONS 6-12 IF APPLICABLE*******
6. Please indicate additional grades earned, amendments to your proposed coursework or graduation date, address changes, additions to your list of experiences, and anything else you feel we should know.

7. Please explain in more detail (in less than 1500 characters) anything that would help us understand any gaps or delays in your education, academic missteps, or personal challenges not listed elsewhere.

8. If you have not been enrolled in coursework for over two years, please let us know what you have been doing since your coursework ended.

9. Have you applied to SSOM prior to this application? If so, please list the years of your previous application submissions to SSOM and tell us how your application has improved since your previous submission.

10. Are you currently, or have you been, enrolled in any of the following programs?

11. Have you ever been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic or parking violation? If the answer is yes, please explain below.

12. If you did not submit an advisor or committee letter, please tell us why.

bruh.. they really changed almost all their prompts. i had a fire essay for their "becoming a person for others" prompt.

 

[premed1996]

Anyone else NOT hear anything today? Im OOS, but no email or anything yet. I dont believe they pre-screen either so just curious if others are still waiting?

 

[Rapsidy]

bruh.. they really changed almost all their prompts. i had a fire essay for their "becoming a person for others" prompt.

I’m feeling the hurt right now as well. I had already put a lot of time and effort into the secondaries from last year because they asked so many questions compared to many schools.

also social justice is so subjective to personal experience and such a broad term, I feel like every person can write about it and have a different perspective they can justify. I don’t envy Loyola when they get 10,000 applications with different definitions that what they thought they would get.

 

[purplebourdain]

DAMN, they really just went ahead and changed everything wow

 

[theoriginalyaga]

Anyone else NOT hear anything today? Im OOS, but no email or anything yet. I dont believe they pre-screen either so just curious if others are still waiting?

im still waiting (patiently)

 

[stormking]

I have a question on the under served and under resourced community impact. Do you think serving dinner in juvenile detention center considers as doing just that? Or visiting church elderly members, who live by themselves in government buildings? Or shadowing a doc in nursing homes? I really don't have much besides these.

 

[sports215]

DAMN, they really just went ahead and changed everything wow

Yeah this one hurt

 

[Rapsidy]

I have a question on the under served and under resourced community impact. Do you think serving dinner in juvenile detention center considers as doing just that? Or visiting church elderly members, who live by themselves in government buildings? Or shadowing a doc in nursing homes? I really don't have much besides these.

Better than writing nothing. I think the church elderly and dinners in juvie would both be fine topics. Shadowing in a nursing home probably less impactful on the question.

 

[purplebourdain]

Does the question "If you have not been enrolled in coursework for over two years, please let us know what you have been doing since your coursework ended" refer to two years till matriculation or now? I have taken one gap year so far, and it seems like I can't write about it according to the wording in this question. Any one else have similar issues?

 

[AegonTargaryenVI]

The social justice question is really throwing me off. Is it really that common for applicants to have activities related specifically and directly to social justice? The only thing I can think of that is remotely social justice-related is advocating for minority hospice residents while I volunteered there.

 

[squids82]

The social justice question is really throwing me off. Is it really that common for applicants to have activities related specifically and directly to social justice? The only thing I can think of that is remotely social justice-related is advocating for minority hospice residents while I volunteered there.

I think you can interpret it semi broadly. So for your example, working with underrepresented residents to get them appropriate care/accommodations would fall into that category. I'm using my example with teaching and work in city government related to those things.

 

[ice cheems]

The social justice question is really throwing me off. Is it really that common for applicants to have activities related specifically and directly to social justice? The only thing I can think of that is remotely social justice-related is advocating for minority hospice residents while I volunteered there.

If possible, I would approach this by answering question 3 first on volunteering with underserved communities, since that itself is an expression of social justice. Reflect on what these experiences have taught you about inherent human dignity (and write it down!), then think about how you can get involved as a medical student or physician in these conversations. Maybe research some student advocacy groups, or organizations that you want to join at CMS. TL;DR, Question 3 seems to be more of a "what have you done so far" relating to underserved communities, and what has this taught you about yourself, whereas Question 2 is more of a "what have your experiences taught you about inherent dignity" and "what do you plan to do in the future"

 

[brobamacare]

bruh.. they really changed almost all their prompts. i had a fire essay for their "becoming a person for others" prompt.

SAME HERE. I spent like 3 days on the "becoming a person for others" prompt

 

[brobamacare]

I'm annoyed at question #1 lol. Wasnt that basically the prompt for the AMCAS personal statement?

 

[stormking]

I'm annoyed at question #1 lol. Wasnt that basically the prompt for the AMCAS personal statement?

Strict really threw a curve ball this time

 

[AegonTargaryenVI]

I'm annoyed at question #1 lol. Wasnt that basically the prompt for the AMCAS personal statement?

Real talk, "how do you know you want to spend the rest of your life studying and practicing medicine". Go read my primary

 

[deleted1058832]

We would write our gap year plans in #7, right?

 

[stormking]

Real talk, "how do you know you want to spend the rest of your life studying and practicing medicine". Go read my primary

Minimal words 100

 

[ice cheems]

Real talk, "how do you know you want to spend the rest of your life studying and practicing medicine". Go read my primary

They totally knew that would be a common reaction too: "Please note that the response, ‘Please refer to my AMCAS application’ is not considered an acceptable response to any of the questions or prompts within the supplemental application."