For those interested about MCW

[Mr. Seeds]

Just thought I'd let people know as an FYI that MCW seems to be selecting applicants from their "interviewable" pool for interviews. I received that email from them a few weeks ago that said I was interviewable, but that they couldn't offer me an interview at that time and that I might hear from them down the road about an interview. Well, they sent the invite via email today, so it looks as though they do in fact actually select from that pool. They said they are interviewing for the few remaining spots in the entering class and also for spots on the alternate list.

Hope that helps someone.

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[sdnstud]

Since MCW is reviewing applications based on completion date/credentials, it would be great if those of you who got the actual interview invites post your completion date and stats.

NO invite. Completed late oct. Stats (see profile)

 

[premedgeek]

Just thought I'd let people know as an FYI that MCW seems to be selecting applicants from their "interviewable" pool for interviews. I received that email from them a few weeks ago that said I was interviewable, but that they couldn't offer me an interview at that time and that I might hear from them down the road about an interview. Well, they sent the invite via email today, so it looks as though they do in fact actually select from that pool. They said they are interviewing for the few remaining spots in the entering class and also for spots on the alternate list.

Hope that helps someone.

I got invite today, too.

Completion Date: Sept 23

 

[sunUCB]

hmmm...complete late july....no invite....i smell a rejection

 

[skoaner]

'

 

[brats800]

good luck you all! and feel free to ask questions about the interview. let's hope the stress goes away soon

 

[sunUCB]

oh cool, thanks skoaner ....that would definitely explain my situation, hehe....they'll get back to me eventually, when they get way down to my numbers bracket.

If you got an e-mail from MCoW saying your in the interviewable pool they'll get back to you eventually for an interview. They typically run a long ways through their Wait-List pool (some freinds I have there say up to 60% or so). However, they don't pull your file based ONLY on date completed; they still stratify applicants by academics. So basically (the way I understand it), they run through the 4.0's in chronological order (by complete) then the 3.9's and so on.

 

[Uegis]

good luck you all! and feel free to ask questions about the interview. let's hope the stress goes away soon

Is the interview pretty laidback? Are there a lot of ethical questions asked? How many interviewers are there? I'm interviewing in three weeks. Thanks for any info!

 

[Jason110]

Is the interview pretty laidback? Are there a lot of ethical questions asked? How many interviewers are there? I'm interviewing in three weeks. Thanks for any info!

I'm assuming you've already looked at the interview feedback page on SDN...

 

[Uegis]

I'm assuming you've already looked at the interview feedback page on SDN...

Haha, sorry for my premature questions. Your assumption is correct. I actually have been looking. But I'd much rather hear it from someone who has actually interviewed and got into the school. thanks for subtly trying to direct me to the feedback section of the site. I have found the feedback section to be very helpful so far in the interview process for me. I encourage everyone else to look at it.

 

[Thrice]

I spoke with the Dean yesterday at MCW.

I had told him I have another interview on the 20th of Jan in the general area and then asked him when I'd know if I'd have an interview so I didn't have to make two trips.

He told me the review board was going to meet once more before christmas, and that they review based on date complete/stats. The people offered interviews this round would schedule in late January he told me.

I have a 30 MCAT and a 3.85 GPA and was complete 11/1 (don't ask, my school failed to send a letter for over a month, I'm still pissed) and he told me they MIGHT/PROBABLY would get to my file for this round.

Whatever that means, Hope it helps.

-J

 

[sdnstud]

Awesome. Thanks for the info. An invitation to MCW would make my christmas

I spoke with the Dean yesterday at MCW.

I had told him I have another interview on the 20th of Jan in the general area and then asked him when I'd know if I'd have an interview so I didn't have to make two trips.

He told me the review board was going to meet once more before christmas, and that they review based on date complete/stats. The people offered interviews this round would schedule in late January he told me.

I have a 30 MCAT and a 3.85 GPA and was complete 11/1 (don't ask, my school failed to send a letter for over a month, I'm still pissed) and he told me they MIGHT/PROBABLY would get to my file for this round.

Whatever that means, Hope it helps.

-J

 

[brats800]

Is the interview pretty laidback? Are there a lot of ethical questions asked? How many interviewers are there? I'm interviewing in three weeks. Thanks for any info!

hey. good luck with the interview. i found the whole day really laid back. if you are able to get to the social the night before, i'd recommend it. you might not learn a ton, but the medstudents answer lots of questions about the school and it just helped relieve some of the night-before jitters. plus, its a free place to stay that night. i also got a chance to talk to the student that i spent that night with, asking questions in their own apartment while watching tv...talk about really relaxed.

so i can't really remember any super hard questions...the interviewer asked something like:'your gpa is lower than what we like. care to explain why?' and as i see my acceptance slipping through my fingers, i explain as best i can how i didn't always have time to study as long as i should because i was on the swim team and that if he looked at the specific grades its really only like 2 or 3 classes that really pulled the gpa down (darn orgo!)...yada yada yada...i swear i was sweating bullets. anyway, after i tried my hardest, he smiled and said something like 'don't worry. we don't invite anyone who we don't feel is academically strong enough to attend.' trick question?! later the dean confirmed this by saying that our acceptance really hung on how the interviews went, because everyone invited was seen as 'strong enough' students.

hmm...ethical...i don't really remember specifically any ethical questions. i know my interviewer asked one or two about like 'what would you do in this situation', the kind of questions where there really aren't any right or wrong answers...i think one of them was 'how would you respond if during your m4 year you saw a patient who refused to be seen by a medical student, claiming that they only want to see a REAL doctor...'...questions like that. anyway, that's the kind of question that i remember as the 'ethcial' ones. nothing like do you believe something is right or wrong.

i had 2 interviewers...the first was a doctor at the hospital there, the second was an m4. with the doc i probably stressed more than necessary, because it was still a bit relaxed, but i knew that it was an interview for medschool, so of course there is some stress involved. the interview with the m4 was really relaxed. she told me about the school, what she liked, what she didn't like, why she went there, etc...then she asked if i had any other questions...i might've asked one or two, but i didn't really have too many, since they'd been answered the night before or whatnot. so really relaxed. good luck. don't stress out. feel free to ask more questions or PM me or whatever.

 

[leiface]

Though I didn't goto the social, I would definitely recommend it as other students have said good things. I really enjoyed my day at MCW. I have heard mixed feedback about the interviews. Both of my interviewers were really great. One was faculty member and the other was an M3 student. The faculty member had highlighted parts of my application and recommendations so I was really impressed about that. He did ask me an ethic question or two but it wasn't anything very difficult. The student interview was very relaxed. She essentially asked me if I had any questions for her and for the rest of the interview talked about everything from traveling to fun things to do in Wisconsin. It was a very chill interview. However, the girl sitting next to me didn't like her interviewer very much because he grilled her on healthcare problems so I think the interviews can really vary too.

 

[Agent Splat]

I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but here's some info I learned...

I interviewed on 12-3 (accepted 12-11!!!) along with 56 other students...we were told the following...that there were 204 slots available, with those 4 being for MD/PhD students. He said that around that time they had filled approximately 185 spots in the class. They "oversubscribe," meaning that they officially accept around 225 (I think), knowing that a certain number decline their acceptances. Also, he said the waitlist movement is very unpredictable, moving only 40 spots one year and much more another (90 sticks in my head, but I dunno). I'd say if you interview in the next several weeks you are probably still within a good timeframe.

The interviews were laid back but professional. I interviewed with a very pleasant professor and an M4. The professor's interview was much more conversational and didn't have many specific, planned out questions...it was actually a pretty enjoyable conversation. Good luck! Hope to see you in the Fall.

Oh...secondary certified on 8-31-04, last LOR received on 9-21-04. Interview invitation received on 11-1-04.

 

[sdnstud]

I interviewed on 12-3 (accepted 12-11!!!) along with 56 other students...we were told the following...that there were 204 slots available, with those 4 being for MD/PhD students. He said that around that time they had filled approximately 185 spots in the class. They "oversubscribe," meaning that they officially accept around 225 (I think), knowing that a certain number decline their acceptances. .

185 spots filled? Does that mean 185 accepted or 185 turned in letter of intent? It's hard to imagine MCW accepting 225 to fill a class of 204. In fact, according to USnews, MCW accepted 422 to fill a class of 205 last year.

If you're talking about 185 accepted, then we still have great chance of getting invites and accepted since they should accept at least 240 or so more people.

If you're talking about 185 turned in letter of intent and dead certain they are going to MCW next year, then that's another story.

 

[Agent Splat]

185 spots filled? Does that mean 185 accepted or 185 turned in letter of intent? It's hard to imagine MCW accepting 225 to fill a class of 204. In fact, according to USnews, MCW accepted 422 to fill a class of 205 last year.

If you're talking about 185 accepted, then we still have great chance of getting invites and accepted since they should accept at least 240 or so more people.

If you're talking about 185 turned in letter of intent and dead certain they are going to MCW next year, then that's another story.

That wasn't made clear. Those were just the numbers the Director of Admissions gave us.

 

[premedgeek]

185 spots filled? Does that mean 185 accepted or 185 turned in letter of intent? It's hard to imagine MCW accepting 225 to fill a class of 204. In fact, according to USnews, MCW accepted 422 to fill a class of 205 last year.

If you're talking about 185 accepted, then we still have great chance of getting invites and accepted since they should accept at least 240 or so more people.

If you're talking about 185 turned in letter of intent and dead certain they are going to MCW next year, then that's another story.

I would guess its 185 with letter of intent turned in. In the email, it says something about interviewing for few spots and alternate list.

I am just guessing here.

 

[premedgeek]

That wasn't made clear. Those were just the numbers the Director of Admissions gave us.

How many people were there in your interview group?

 

[MADSTAB]

Hey, did any of your status pages change once you got an interview invite?

 

[YzIa]

That wasn't made clear. Those were just the numbers the Director of Admissions gave us.

Not to contradict you, but I remember hearing (at the interview) that MCW will initially invite ~325 students for the 204 seats. That is a number they deem safe where they will not over accept. After that the remaining acceptance offers would be off the waitlist as seats open up.

Not all of the 325 will accept, and maybe at this point they have 184 accepting the offer for now, while they may have already offered 250 acceptances.

 

[brats800]

If you're talking about 185 accepted, then we still have great chance of getting invites and accepted since they should accept at least 240 or so more people.

i'm pretty sure that i remember the dean saying at our interview that they don't accept more people than they have spots. so in order to have them accept more than 204 people, they'd need to have people start to decline acceptances...that's how the total accepted number can get to 400ish...

 

[UCLAstudent]

Hey, did any of your status pages change once you got an interview invite?

I think the status page serves more to let you know if you are complete. They didn't put acceptance or interview information on it for me.

 

[premedgeek]

Hey, did any of your status pages change once you got an interview invite?

Nope. Same old App Complete.

 

[MADSTAB]

Interesting. I only ask because I accidentally deleted and purged my mail today (damn touch pad) without seeing any of it. Hope theres an invite for me.

 

[leiface]

Interesting. I only ask because I accidentally deleted and purged my mail today (damn touch pad) without seeing any of it. Hope theres an invite for me.

Madstab, are you a girl or boy? I know that MCW's women's society sends a snailmail invitation if you get an interview so you can always check that way.

 

[Agent Splat]

Not to contradict you, but I remember hearing (at the interview) that MCW will initially invite ~325 students for the 204 seats. That is a number they deem safe where they will not over accept. After that the remaining acceptance offers would be off the waitlist as seats open up.

Not all of the 325 will accept, and maybe at this point they have 184 accepting the offer for now, while they may have already offered 250 acceptances.

You're probably right. I was at the back of the room and probably didn't hear him right. That makes more sense anyway.

For whomever asked earlier...we had 56 people at the interview. I believe this was the week after thanksgiving, when they didn't do interviews, so we probably had more than usual.

 

[MADSTAB]

Madstab, are you a girl or boy? I know that MCW's women's society sends a snailmail invitation if you get an interview so you can always check that way.

Im a guy, but thanks for trying

 

[YzIa]

You're probably right. I was at the back of the room and probably didn't hear him right. That makes more sense anyway.

For whomever asked earlier...we had 56 people at the interview. I believe this was the week after thanksgiving, when they didn't do interviews, so we probably had more than usual.

There was about 60 applicants at my interview in October as well. I think that is typical.

 

[Medikit]

There was about 60 applicants at my interview in October as well. I think that is typical.

Yeah, I'd say it was my most uncomfortable interviewing experience for this reason. Fortunetly the students are extremely friendly.

 

[akpete]

I got an invite for MCW too. And I had also gotten that "you're acceptable to interview" email a few weeks ago too. Complete date = late October (25ish). I worked all day so I can't call until the morning. Hope that 1-21 date doesn't fill up before then; I don't want to have to wait until early Feb.

 

[Code Brown]

i'm pretty sure that i remember the dean saying at our interview that they don't accept more people than they have spots. so in order to have them accept more than 204 people, they'd need to have people start to decline acceptances...that's how the total accepted number can get to 400ish...

This is what Istwan (the director) said (please correct me if I am wrong):

MCW gives out around 325 initial acceptances (they realize that they usually need about 400 to fill the class so they are not worried about over-booking initially - it would be nice if other schools would do this, at least to some extent). As of 12-3, they were at 185, with 59 people interviewing that day (it may have been 56). Based on their high acceptance rate, they probably took 45-50 people from that day, so they are around 225 or so for now. They continue offering until they hit 325 and everyone after that goes on the waitlist. Last year, they made it to #91 on the waitlist and in 2003, they only made it to #21 (although they did take more than 325 initially). According to the director, if you interview after mid-feb, you are probably interviewing for the waitlist (ask over the phone and they will tell you), so if you get a late accectance, try your best to get it moved up (call everyday to check for cancelations).

Good luck all!