The Republic of Texas XXXIII: Lone Star State Pride

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Earl Simmons

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The "Republic of Texas" threads have been a tradition on SDN, so it's about time we made one for the 2014-2015 application cycle!

Use this for discussion of everything and anything related to the Texas medical schools.

Cheers and best of luck to everyone! ~60 days until pre-match!
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I really hope I get to interview at more than 1 TMDSAS school, so I have some schools to rank lol.
 
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I really hope I get to interview at more than 1 TMDSAS school, so I have some schools to rank lol.

If you got an II at Baylor, I'm sure it's just a matter of time with the TMDSAS schools!
 
As a longhorns fan my whole life, I have really mixed feelings about visiting A&M SOM in a few weeks. Should I put my animosity aside, or let them know how I truly feel about Aggies during my interview? ;)
 
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As a longhorns fan my whole life, I have really mixed feelings about visiting A&M SOM in a few weeks. Should I put my animosity aside, or let them know how I truly feel about Aggies during my interview? ;)
Show them how you really feel!! Withdraw yourself from the applicant pool and write a letter to the dean saying you are too good of an applicant to go to a medical school like A&M since you are a longhorn 4 lyfe. That will really show them!
 
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As a longhorns fan my whole life, I have really mixed feelings about visiting A&M SOM in a few weeks. Should I put my animosity aside, or let them know how I truly feel about Aggies during my interview? ;)
Be a proud Aggie doctor, as I would be. I'm a Longhorn with two degrees from UT, but A&M has something Austin doesn't - a medical school that is already open, with a great tradition. But I think you already knew that...
 
As a longhorns fan my whole life, I have really mixed feelings about visiting A&M SOM in a few weeks. Should I put my animosity aside, or let them know how I truly feel about Aggies during my interview? ;)

Just play along on interview day but secretly think you're better than them and liveblog it on tumblr.

It's what I would do.
 
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As a longhorns fan my whole life, I have really mixed feelings about visiting A&M SOM in a few weeks. Should I put my animosity aside, or let them know how I truly feel about Aggies during my interview? ;)
You would probably be attacked by all the aggie student interviewees! On my day, half of the interviewees (half!) attended A&M. It was also the day before a football game and everyone was super pumped about it. I didn't realize what school spirit really looked like until then. haha

I actually really liked the school, though!!:)
 
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As a Texan who attends an out of state public school, I feel so out of place at UT med school interviews.
 
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Does anyone know if TMDSAS schools will accept a LOR post-interview if we already submitted 3 initially?
 
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Does anyone know which schools respond favorably to pre-interview letters of interest, if any?
 
Does anyone know which schools respond favorably to pre-interview letters of interest, if any?

I am curious about this too, if anyone has any experience. So excited, this thread will be my lifeline for the rest of the cycle! :D
 
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I am curious about this too, if anyone has any experience. So excited, this thread will be my lifeline for the rest of the cycle! :D
It will probably be best to call each school you have in mind and ask.
 
I know it's a little early to be thinking about pre-match but I think it would be helpful for people to post what they've found out about school's preference for pre-matching/matching?
I was told that Southwestern seems to pre-match about 60% of their acceptances (although even this source admitted she didn't know too much). UTMB implied that they also tend to pre-match over half of their class. Anyone heard anything else?
 
I know it's a little early to be thinking about pre-match but I think it would be helpful for people to post what they've found out about school's preference for pre-matching/matching?
I was told that Southwestern seems to pre-match about 60% of their acceptances (although even this source admitted she didn't know too much). UTMB implied that they also tend to pre-match over half of their class. Anyone heard anything else?
A student told me that UT San Antonio pre-matches about half of their acceptances.
Edit: I wrote the wrong school before o_O sorry!
 
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How does prematch work? I know we rank the schools that we interviewed at and they rank us. Does that mean we get the highest pick where we are prematched? Are we prematched to only one school?
 
How does prematch work? I know we rank the schools that we interviewed at and they rank us. Does that mean we get the highest pick where we are prematched? Are we prematched to only one school?

All schools have the opportunity to prematch you, and in theory, you can have and accept all 8 prematches. However, you will need to rank the schools you interviewed at regardless. If you already have been accepted to your top choice, you can use TMDSAS to withdraw from schools you already prematched at. Also, if you didn't get a prematch from your top choice that you interviewed at, you can hold on to your prematch but rank your top choice first in the rankings. Then, if you get matched to your top choice, then your prematch automatically drops and you are accepted to your top choice.
 
All schools have the opportunity to prematch you, and in theory, you can have and accept all 8 prematches. However, you will need to rank the schools you interviewed at regardless. If you already have been accepted to your top choice, you can use TMDSAS to withdraw from schools you already prematched at. Also, if you didn't get a prematch from your top choice that you interviewed at, you can hold on to your prematch but rank your top choice first in the rankings. Then, if you get matched to your top choice, then your prematch automatically drops and you are accepted to your top choice.

Oh cool. Do you know the reasoning behind the prematch?
 
Oh cool. Do you know the reasoning behind the prematch?

The reasoning? Not really lol. Some people get their acceptances only from the match, not everyone prematches (I don't have any idea what the stats are, and it varies a LOT by school). Some schools love the match (get most of their students through the match), some don't (they almost 100% prematch). I personally like the system, although I didn't really deal with the match at all and I dealt mostly with the prematch. I think it just helps keep all of the Texas schools organized with interviews/acceptances/waitlists, etc. I can't imagine if they had vastly different cycle times. Some out of state schools stop interviewing in December while others keep going through April, and so its nice that those big differences are avoided in Texas.
 
Oh cool. Do you know the reasoning behind the prematch?

The march is all about getting the maximum number of Texas students into schools. So pre-match is when they get to act like amcas schools...just a month late...
 
Perhaps the logic is that by sending out some acceptances early to candidates schools like the most and giving the candidates the opportunity to hang on to them or decline, schools can better gauge who to accept later on. For example, if a high flying candidate receives several prematch offers and chooses to just hang on to one or two, those schools that were declined now have a better idea of how many more they need to accept in the match to field their class. I can imagine in Texas, where a lot of applicants interview at multiple schools, the schools get a lot of cross-admits and it's a way to help out the schools and the students. It works similar to the residency matching process to mathematically sort out the confusion that could occur. It's a way to optimize students getting in and also schools protecting their yield and not over/underfilling their classes.
 
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UT Houston does not prematch much at all. Not sure about the actual numbers.
 
Starting to get a little nervous about the match...what's a good number of schools to have interviewed at?
 
Starting to get a little nervous about the match...what's a good number of schools to have interviewed at?

Pre-match or match? Match is a long way away, but I think about 4 interviews as a TX resident and you should be set for at least 1 acceptance if not more! Of course, this being SDN, pre-match is already on our minds! However, I'm trying to keep my expectations as low as possible for pre-match so that I'm not set up for disappointment lol
 
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As a longhorns fan my whole life, I have really mixed feelings about visiting A&M SOM in a few weeks. Should I put my animosity aside, or let them know how I truly feel about Aggies during my interview? ;)

I'd be sure to talk about the exciting state of Longhorn football right now and how Charlie Strong put the "T" back in Texas with that big win over UNT. Or how the quality education produces incidents like this: http://www.burntorangenation.com/fo...nghorns-coin-toss-ucla-bruins-desmond-jackson

Oh cool. Do you know the reasoning behind the prematch?

A long time ago we only had the match, and a lot of Texas students were being accepted OOS, and leaving this great state. In response, they started the pre-match, so that Texas students would get accepted earlier and would be less inclined to apply OOS and/or accept an OOS acceptance before the match.
 
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I thought this thread would never get made, lol.

Y'all can ask me any questions you want. I interviewed at most of the Texas schools and am at Tech now.

Just tag me or quote me so I get the alert reminder to check here! ;)
 
I thought this thread would never get made, lol.

Y'all can ask me any questions you want. I interviewed at most of the Texas schools and am at Tech now.

Just tag me or quote me so I get the alert reminder to check here! ;)

Nice username ;)
 
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I thought this thread would never get made, lol.

Y'all can ask me any questions you want. I interviewed at most of the Texas schools and am at Tech now.

Just tag me or quote me so I get the alert reminder to check here! ;)

Hey Chillbo,

What school did you end up choosing (Lubbock or El Paso)? And what was your second choice?

Also - what do you think of the new curricular changes at the TX schools? Several are switching to a 1.5-year pre-clinical curriculum and are also restructuring the clinical years.

Thanks!

-Bill
 
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UT Houston does not prematch much at all. Not sure about the actual numbers.

Based on past cycles, I think UT-H places a heavier emphasis on filling their class through the match as opposed to other Texas schools. That being said, I think the majority of my classmates applying with me prematched to UTH, so who knows how the adcom there actually operates.

Just a fun fact: in the past, UTMB has set up their prematches so they get sent out the moment it hits midnight on Nov. 15 (or whatever the date is now). Although I didn't end up going there, I will be forever grateful to the school for fulfilling my need for instant gratification.
 
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Hey Chillbo,

What school did you end up choosing (Lubbock or El Paso)? And what was your second choice?

Also - what do you think of the new curricular changes at the TX schools? Several are switching to a 1.5-year pre-clinical curriculum and are also restructuring the clinical years.

Thanks!

-Bill
I'm in Lubbock. Technically, it was second choice, and I had ranked UTSW #1, but in hindsight I'm much happier that I came here.

From what I've heard, a lot of people are happy with 1.5 year preclinicals, so that they get more hands on experience and a much better of what they want to do before residency applications. Also, it could help them do better on Step because of their increased clinical knowledge. That being said, there's not really anything wrong with the standard 2 year preclinical curriculum. The way I thought about it was that in undergrad, you didn't really have a choice in how your professors decided to teach their classes; every one had a different style. Yet, you still managed to adapt to that and do well. It'll be the same no matter what medical school you go to.
 
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Under 'Pending Actions' on TMDSAS, does anyone have a link that reads: "Pre-Match Offer Withdrawal"? It just showed up on my page today. Doesn't mean anything, correct?

It tells me to visit the page at a later date to withdraw offers (Jan 21 at 12:00AM until 5:00PM on the same day)... Kind of strange considering the TMDSAS 'policies and procedures' states that we have from Nov. 15 - Jan. 21 to make such changes.

Curious if other people have this as well.
 
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Under 'Pending Actions' on TMDSAS, does anyone have a link that reads: "Pre-Match Offer Withdrawal"? It just showed up on my page today. Doesn't mean anything, correct?

It tells me to visit the page at a later date to withdraw offers (Jan 21 at 12:00AM until 5:00PM on the same day)... Kind of strange considering the TMDSAS 'policies and procedures' states that we have from Nov. 15 - Jan. 21 to make such changes.

Curious if other people have this as well.

Mine has that too.
 
Has anyone actually started to input their rankings? 3/5 schools show up on mine, but I don't think I'll actually input rankings until January.
 
Has anyone actually started to input their rankings? 3/5 schools show up on mine, but I don't think I'll actually input rankings until January.

I did just to make myself feel better and like I was doing something haha
 
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Interviewing at all these awesome schools makes you realize how lucky we are to live in this state...
 
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Wait how did we have 33 of these threads? The wiki said this site was founded in 1999.
 
This might be a dumb question, but do the two UTHSCSA campuses send interview invites separately? :bear:
 
Wait how did we have 33 of these threads? The wiki said this site was founded in 1999.
So, originally, these threads used to be stopped at around 1000 replies and another was formed. I don't know the exact reasoning behind it, but my guess is that large threads put a load on the servers because I've known other websites that said that was the case. Regardless of the reason, that tradition died about 4-5 years ago from what my research indicates. I also believe that at some point someone didn't realize that there was an actual numbering, and just jumped the gun and used a roman numeral combination that looked cool (like XXX). When I made the thread my application year, no one had made one for almost half the application cycle, so I searched up and down through SDN to find the right number, and I ended up basing it off the highest number I could find and then just adding one.

Anyways, I hope my breif history of the Republic of Texas threads is accurate and didn't bore you. Maybe one day in the future, if the ROT threads die, a young pre-med will stumble upon my post and resurrect them to carry on the tradition of letting every other state know how much more awesome than them we are.

Also, Earl Simmons messed up with the OP. There's supposed to be a Gonzalez come and take it flag and a Texas flag, like the one below. Please edit if you read this. Also remember to correct next year's applicants if they do the same thing.

cVoQXac.jpg
 
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So, originally, these threads used to be stopped at around 1000 replies and another was formed. I don't know the exact reasoning behind it, but my guess is that large threads put a load on the servers because I've known other websites that said that was the case. Regardless of the reason, that tradition died about 4-5 years ago from what my research indicates. I also believe that at some point someone didn't realize that there was an actual numbering, and just jumped the gun and used a roman numeral combination that looked cool (like XXX). When I made the thread my application year, no one had made one for almost half the application cycle, so I searched up and down through SDN to find the right number, and I ended up basing it off the highest number I could find and then just adding one.

Anyways, I hope my breif history of the Republic of Texas threads is accurate and didn't bore you. Maybe one day in the future, if the ROT threads die, a young pre-med will stumble upon my post and resurrect them to carry on the tradition of letting every other state know how much more awesome than them we are.

Also, Earl Simmons messed up with the OP. There's supposed to be a Gonzalez come and take it flag and a Texas flag, like the one below. Please edit if you read this. Also remember to correct next year's applicants if they do the same thing.

cVoQXac.jpg

I didn't see the image on the ROT thread from last year, but I edited the OP!
 
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Just to make sure, but after we submit the TMDSAS application, we cannot make any changes to the activity section or contact TMDSAS to change it? I realized that I forgot a 400-hour activity, but I doubt it really matters at this point anyways.
 
Just to make sure, but after we submit the TMDSAS application, we cannot make any changes to the activity section or contact TMDSAS to change it? I realized that I forgot a 400-hour activity, but I doubt it really matters at this point anyways.

No, you can't make any changes. I called and emailed to see if I could but I was told that no changes are allowed after submission.

You can update the schools directly if you think the activity is valuable to your application.
 
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