FlexMed 2015

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Oh you can still ask high school teacher for recs? I didn't know that! thanks.

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I thought the app just needed 2 rec letters. I asked my English prof and a research PI from the summer
 
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They do need three recommendations, one has to be from high school, one has to be from a college faculty/advisor and the third can be from whomever you'd like.
 
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I think they said that about 750 applied
 
This year over a thousand applications have been started, no clue how many will actually submit tho (source: info session)

could someone supply a source that you need one high school recommendation?
 
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We require three letters of recommendation. Typically students get them from:
High school teacher/guidance counselor
College professor/faculty advisor
Other person who knows you well academically or professionally. This person could be another teacher/professor, employer, etc.
This year over a thousand applications have been started, no clue how many will actually submit tho (source: info session)

could someone supply a source that you need one high school recommendation?
https://icahn.mssm.edu/education/medical/admissions/flexmed/faqs
 
Surprisingly much less traffic than on last year's thread.
 
there's still time. I know I for one have yet to start my application.... lol. Gotta finish out these exams first
 
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there's still time. I know I for one have yet to start my application.... lol. Gotta finish out these exams first

Understandable. Good luck. If it stays quiet then you know your chances are higher haha
 
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lol Yalies. Yale's admit stats speak for itself. I'm shocked that Columbia only gets 20-25 into elite schools a year; that's extraordinarily low compared to HYP.

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Does anyone know how many total Yale students apply each year? These numbers are pretty jaw-dropping but it would make it even more poignant if we knew how many people this was out of.
 
Ya, I've been premed freak outing and it's hard when no one here is saying anything :p Reduced to actually writing my essays instead of procrastinating. You think there's any real correlation though with amount of noise here and amount of competition? Part of me wants to say the scariest applicants(I myself am not one of them) would be the ones who obsess over SDN :p So low noise is a good thing?

Also - question - 250 word essay minimum...what should my target be?
 
What does it generally take to get in? I'm a freshman right now at a top LAC, but I'm really interested in applying next year. I finished my first semester with a 3.96. I have a 2200 SAT and a good high school record (academically and EC-wise). I don't have all that many college ECs yet (have an internship at a hospital, part of a program that teaches middle schoolers nutrition, recently got a job mentoring high schoolers on the SAT and getting into college), but I'm planning on doing quite a bit more starting this next semester, and I'm applying to some research internships for summer (if I'm lucky, I might get something for the spring too).
 
Does anyone know how many total Yale students apply each year? These numbers are pretty jaw-dropping but it would make it even more poignant if we knew how many people this was out of.

Probably ~250 ish, but remember that those numbers contain massive overlap. Someone posted the non-overlapped version, which contains much fewer people per school (as applicants with many acceptances can only matriculate to one).
 
What does it generally take to get in? I'm a freshman right now at a top LAC, but I'm really interested in applying next year. I finished my first semester with a 3.96. I have a 2200 SAT and a good high school record (academically and EC-wise). I don't have all that many college ECs yet (have an internship at a hospital, part of a program that teaches middle schoolers nutrition, recently got a job mentoring high schoolers on the SAT and getting into college), but I'm planning on doing quite a bit more starting this next semester, and I'm applying to some research internships for summer (if I'm lucky, I might get something for the spring too).

Excellent start (similar to me). Keep doing what you're doing, make sure you develop relationships with people for good letters of rec, and you'll be fine.
 
Probably ~250 ish, but remember that those numbers contain massive overlap. Someone posted the non-overlapped version, which contains much fewer people per school (as applicants with many acceptances can only matriculate to one).

Is that post in this thread?
 
Does anyone know how many total Yale students apply each year? These numbers are pretty jaw-dropping but it would make it even more poignant if we knew how many people this was out of.

Our class size is about 1300. I doubt much more than 10% of us end up applying to med school... I'd guess like 150 or so?

Man I intend to apply to this program but I still haven't found the motivation to start a single essay lol and one of my letter writers is being nonresponsive lately haha. Might just bang out the whole thing the week after New Year's... not sure if my heart's really in it but I'd love to at least get an interview to see what the process is like
 
I gave up on it after I saw my grades for this semester(although all of my recommenders submitted their recommendations)...not applying to this great program unfortunately...Good luck to everyone whoever is applying
 
If you already have your rec letters, why not just throw an application in? You don't have anything to lose really, right?
 
I'd definitely recommend applying regularly if you're unable to put your best self forward at the moment.
 
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Well, I wish you the best of luck in your applications in the regular process! I'm sure you'll do great! :)

Honestly, I'm really curious about how admissions will change this year. The previous messages on this thread say last year they accepted 51 people(36% of their class), and the program has said it intends to get to half the class very quickly, so I would expect them to complete the jump to 50% this year. Last year they had a ~7% acceptance rate...so I guess I see a few scenarios:

1. If they plan to accept ~70 and keep a 7% or lower accept rate then they'd need almost 40% more applications to be completed this year than last. That could happen, although it's curious that this SDN thread is so much quieter if they expect 40% more applications. I mean, if there was as much noise as last year maybe, but there's materially less conversation, which just doesn't fit very well with materially more completed apps.
2. They could accept fewer than 70. Possible, but I really doubt that they only accepted 50 last year out of lack of talent. Sure, it could be less than the full 70, but seems likely that they'll at least increase their numbers.
3. They could have a higher acceptance rate this year.

I'm also noting that there's probably a decent application non-completion rate - lots of people probably either just finished Orgo1 and noted they have a solid chance at finishing out their premed classes with a top-10 GPA or realized they don't have the grades for Flexmed and prefer their shot at regular admissions.

thoughts?
 
Well, somebody told us earlier (I think it was @litotes ) that there were ~1300 applicants that she got to know from a viable source. And, many people might not want to participate in the SDN post because of their competitive premed mentality, they are just watching over us LOL
If my grades for this semester were better (my cum. GPA is lower than 3.5), then I would have thought about it. I did not even take Orgo 1 and not taking it next semester either.
So, yeah- I am aiming for regular admission...
 
Do we need to write a personal statement on top of the three essays? Or do we need to just write the three essays?
 
Well, I wish you the best of luck in your applications in the regular process! I'm sure you'll do great! :)

Honestly, I'm really curious about how admissions will change this year. The previous messages on this thread say last year they accepted 51 people(36% of their class), and the program has said it intends to get to half the class very quickly, so I would expect them to complete the jump to 50% this year. Last year they had a ~7% acceptance rate...so I guess I see a few scenarios:

1. If they plan to accept ~70 and keep a 7% or lower accept rate then they'd need almost 40% more applications to be completed this year than last. That could happen, although it's curious that this SDN thread is so much quieter if they expect 40% more applications. I mean, if there was as much noise as last year maybe, but there's materially less conversation, which just doesn't fit very well with materially more completed apps.
2. They could accept fewer than 70. Possible, but I really doubt that they only accepted 50 last year out of lack of talent. Sure, it could be less than the full 70, but seems likely that they'll at least increase their numbers.
3. They could have a higher acceptance rate this year.

I'm also noting that there's probably a decent application non-completion rate - lots of people probably either just finished Orgo1 and noted they have a solid chance at finishing out their premed classes with a top-10 GPA or realized they don't have the grades for Flexmed and prefer their shot at regular admissions.

thoughts?

This isn't 100% true. When I spoke to admissions last summer they said that they were initially determined to keep the number of accepted students between 30 and 35. They decided to raise the cap to 51 solely because of the caliber of the applicants so they may or may not stay at 51 again this year (I think they were planning on increasing to 70 over the course of 3 years). Also the yield rate was 100%, with all 51 choosing to matriculate. It will be interesting to see what they do this year.
 
Posted this by mistake in the 2014 thread, didnt see this one.

Hey all, I just discovered this program as a high school senior. I've wanted to become a doctor because I have very serious passions about the humanistic side of health care and health disparities. As an African, health disparities have always been something more than statistics for me, so I'm really passionate about creating meaningful change in my community.

But my intellectual passions have always been History and English. I have been very successful in science classes, but the classes that really excite me have always been in Social Studies and English. I'd rather engage in historical research(I'd love to) than research in a lab setting. I've been stressed thinking about how I'm going to combine my intellectual interest with my call-to-service until I discovered this program. I don't want to get my hopes up, but its almost perfect for the type of student I am; skilled in sciences and wants to become a doctor but LOVES the humanities.

Right now I'm sitting at a 3.9 HS GPA, a 33 on the ACT. I'm taking AP Bio and AP Chem as we speak and I finished the first semester with an A. I have confidence in my academic abilities, but what type of extracurriculars should I engage in between now and Sophomore Year of college to make me competitive for this program? I have already done hours of tutoring and athletics but I doubt thats hardly enough for something like this.
Oh and I don't know where I;m going to school yet but I've applied to most schools in the Top 20.
 
Hey guys! I'm trying to complete the application, but on the "courses" page, there seems to be an error when entering my high school courses. I click "Add Another Highschool" button, and it goes to an error screen that says "Page cannot be found". I've tried on different browsers and a different computer, but I keep having the same problem. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, have you figured out a way to get around this glitch?
 
Hey guys! I'm trying to complete the application, but on the "courses" page, there seems to be an error when entering my high school courses. I click "Add Another Highschool" button, and it goes to an error screen that says "Page cannot be found". I've tried on different browsers and a different computer, but I keep having the same problem. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, have you figured out a way to get around this glitch?

I saw that you had to click "add another highschool" to add another course, I guess it's a typo, but it worked for me, and I was able to add another course by clicking that. Do you know if we need to write a personal statement on top of the 3 essays?
 
I saw that you had to click "add another highschool" to add another course, I guess it's a typo, but it worked for me, and I was able to add another course by clicking that. Do you know if we need to write a personal statement on top of the 3 essays?

It doesn't really say anywhere that you have too, but it does seem a bit odd not to write one for a medschool app...
 
It doesn't really say anywhere that you have too, but it does seem a bit odd not to write one for a medschool app...

The essay topics basically cover what a personal statement would consist of for an early acceptance program.
 
The essay topics basically cover what a personal statement would consist of for an early acceptance program.
Well, the last essay on how my educational plan would change is fairly straightforward, but the other two seem built to just give them a sense of who I am, and while of course I'm hoping to show qualities that would make me a good doctor, there doesn't seem to be any direct "I want to be a doctor because..." kind of thing.
 
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So does this mean a personal statement is optional? Do you think the adcom would find including a personal statement as negative because it is not stated to do so anywhere?
 
So does this mean a personal statement is optional? Do you think the adcom would find including a personal statement as negative because it is not stated to do so anywhere?
I think it's wholly unnecessary. There is ample opportunity to express everything you want to express in three essays; brevity is viewed favorably ;)
 
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On the activities section, are you guys writing a brief description of each activity and your roles, say 2 - 3 sentences? Or are you guys describing what you do in depth?
 
I personally am doing a couple sentences for most of them but a couple that are important to me, I am adding in a little more detail.
 
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Lol we already have to write three essays why are you guys trying to write another

@aegistitan I'm just doing a sentence or two, no sense in making them read any more than they already have to

P.S. the 1300 number was sourced from a flexmed info session at my college, where one of the deans said that many applications had been started (not finished)
 
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So does this mean a personal statement is optional? Do you think the adcom would find including a personal statement as negative because it is not stated to do so anywhere?
You need to follow directions. The directions say to write the 3 essays, so do that.
 
Hi guys! I am a freshman at Penn and I really want to apply to FlexMed next year. I am a little worried though, because my first semester GPA was a 3.51. I am taking easier classes next semester (not calculus), and am also taking summer classes at Penn in order to boost my GPA before applying. Does anyone know what the minimum GPA is to be considered for FlexMed? I hope to have a 3.7 GPA before I apply but I can not be certain of that. The only thing holding me back from being competitive for FlexMed is my college GPA. I really want to get into this program. I am very dedicated any would be very devastated if one mediocre semester killed my chances. Any advice? Much appreciated. Best of luck to those applying this year!
 
i mean... if you have a 3.7 GPA next year then you probably should apply... there's no use in questioning hypotheticals it's not like you have to decide now what to do
 
The third question states: Describe how FlexMed will change your educational plan and enhance your future career in medicine. Please concentrate on how you will use the flexibility afforded by FlexMed, and not on the FlexMed requirements.

Do you think it is safe to include something that will not necessarily enhance my future career in medicine (I was thinking along the lines of website development), or is it better to only include things that could directly enhance a future career in medicine?
 
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