USF MSMS 2016 Application Thread

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I have been accepted into the MSMS Women's Health concentration. I'd love to get in touch with someone who is also starting the program this fall.

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I have been accepted into the MSMS Women's Health concentration. I'd love to get in touch with someone who is also starting the program this fall.

Awesome! I listed women's health as one possible concentration consideration. I've yet to hear back, but will hopefully join you soon.
 
I'll be attending this program in the Fall, mostly to boost my GPA (~3.45 cGPA, sGPA). It's also probably a little late to apply for med. schools for this cycle, but I'm still getting everything ready in case there's a slim chance it might be ok. In any case, I live in the Tampa area, but I'm looking to move closer to USF, so if anyone is looking for a roommate, let's see if we can work something out!
 
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I have been accepted into the MSMS online program! So if anyone wants to network let me know, and I can send you my Facebook and contact info. Good luck to all those still waiting to hear back :)
 
Hey everyone! I got into the MSMS anatomy concentration program so if anyone else is in the same boat, feel free to message me! :)
Good luck to everyone who applied, I hope you get into the program you want!
 
Hey guys,

USF MSP3 alumni here and current M1 at FSU College of Medicine. After perusing this thread a little, I figured I would provide answers to some of the questions I've seen so far.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message I'm more than happy to help. Also, once you guys start there is a facebook group called "MSP3 Alumni Network"...it's purpose to connect current students with alumni across the country to answer all you application and school related questions.

Who this program is for: Applicants who are in need of GPA repair from undergrad or need to prove themselves academically.
  • If you have a 3.7+ GPA and only lack a good MCAT score or EC's etc. this is NOT for you.
Can you work during this program?
  • I wouldn't, but anything is possible I suppose.
Will this program increase your odds of gaining acceptance to professional school?
  • If you do well, yes. If you do poorly, then no. The application process is 90% your effort, 10% luck. You could have great stats and poor EC's or write bad essays and not get any acceptances or you can have mediocre stats with good essays & EC's and be more competitive than 50% of the application pool. One thing is for sure, just having grad work on your resume isn't going to magically get you an acceptance anywhere. You have to put in the work and make sure you have the best application you possibly can.
Will this increase your chance of getting into USF-COM?
  • Honestly, No. I know very few people out of my class who matriculated into USF-COM. However, there is a high percentage of MSP3 graduates in professional schools all over the country. For whatever reason, USF doesn't pull from this program very much. I know a current M1 at USF who did this program and went through 2 app cycles and 2 interviews at USF before getting accepted.
Lastly, Here is a list of schools that I personally know MSP3 alumni are currently at:

- FSU College of Medicine (MSP3 highly represented here..at least 10-15 students in between M1 & M2 class)
- USF College of Medicine
- UCF College of Medicine
- Univ. of Miami
- SUNY Downstate
- New York Medical College
- Creighton SOM
- LECOM-B
- NOVA
- PCOM-GA
- Alabama Coll. of Osteopathic Med.
- Kansas City University (KCUMB)
- Campbell University College of Osteopathic Med.
- Lincoln-Memorial Debusk Coll of Osteopathic Med.
- Univ. of Pikeville - Kentucky Coll. of Osteopathic Med. (UP-KYCOM)
- VCOM-Auburn
- Liberty University School of Osteopathic Med.
- Tulane
- Tufts Dental


You seem like a good person to ask this specific question, but first let me introduce myself and give you some background info.
I was accepted into the MSP3 program and currently building my experiences for my med school application, which I plan to submit for next app cycle.
Now, there are a couple of things I want to get done during the program.
1) I need to get involved with a research study as I have yet to involve myself with any undergrad research.
2) I will surely need to retake my Mcat. First time I took it I didn't get a desirable score, second time I took it I voided the score (didn't feel confident enough to score it)
3) I want to maintain good grades during this program to get the most benefit from it (both for admissions and personal improvement)

What do I want out of this program?
1) I want to gain excellent study skills and essentially master the foundations of learning
2) I want to network with students/professors at the MCOM
3) I want to come out of this program a better applicant for Med School (with a variety of new experiences, shadowing, volunteering, and again research.

My question for you is, How did you balance out your schedule and stay on top of things, basically what was your formula for success? What advice could you give to me (given my expectations) to succeed?
Also, when is the most ideal time to leverage the Princeton course in conjunction with the masters courses If I want to apply for next years cycle?
thanks in advanced.
 
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You seem like a good person to ask this specific question, but first let me introduce myself and give you some background info.
My name is Adam, I was accepted into the MSP3 program and currently building my experiences for my med school application, which I plan to submit for next app cycle.
Now, there are a couple of things I want to get done during the program.
1) I need to get involved with a research study as I have yet to involve myself with any undergrad research.
2) I will surely need to retake my Mcat. First time I took it I got a 496 (so embarrassing), second time I took it I voided the score (didn't feel confident enough to score it)
3) I want to maintain good grades during this program to get the most benefit from it (both for admissions and personal improvement)

What do I want out of this program?
1) I want to gain excellent study skills and essentially master the foundations of learning
2) I want to network with students/professors at the MCOM
3) I want to come out of this program a better applicant for Med School (with a variety of new experiences, shadowing, volunteering, and again research.

My question for you is, How did you balance out your schedule and stay on top of things, basically what was your formula for success? What advice could you give to me (given my expectations) to succeed?
Also, when is the most ideal time to leverage the Princeton course in conjunction with the masters courses If I want to apply for next years cycle?
thanks in advanced.

To answer your first question:
I didn't always go to lecture to be quite honest, I usually watched them from home.(That has changed now that I am in med school though as I go to almost every lecture these days) Anyways, I would watch the lectures and make notes on them. For certain subjects (Anatomy, Biochem, Genetics, Path, Embryo) it really helped to read the books and make notes from that as well. The others you can pretty much just use the lecture slides to study and if you come across anything that doesn't make sense then use additional resources to dive in deeper on those subjects individually. I would say studying about 4-6hrs per day outside of class is adequate depending on your learning style, but about 1-2 weeks out from the exam I would study 10-12hr/day.

My biggest piece of advice: Try your best to not fall behind, manage your time wisely based on your learning style, and don't put off studying.

If I could do it again here's how it would go:
- Preview lectures the day before (allows you to be familiar w/ the material prior to lecture and know when to absolutely pay attention/ask questions during lecture)
- Go through the material from that particular day and make notes before the next day comes
- Review the material over the weekend
- If you do it right, you should be able to see the material at least 3-4 times prior to the exam
**This is what I do in med school now and it seems to be working really well**

2nd Question:
I don't know if anytime is a good time to co-study for the MCAT but I did it during the fall semester and took the test in January. Having the Micro/Immuno & Biochem that semester really helped on the MCAT (granted I took the old one, so I know very little of the new version). Again, it'll depend on your learning style and what you can effectively make time for. However, I always managed to crank out 50-100 practice questions per day & review them. That way I could identify my weaknesses, review those subjects in detail using PR, EK, Youtube videos etc before doing more practice questions on that subject.

In the end, don't over extend yourself w/ EC's. Get a couple of good volunteer gigs (Shriner's, VA, Hospice, Judeo Christian Clinic, etc.) & if you absolutely want to, try to get into someones lab for some research (if I were you, I would start my search w/ Dr. Blanck as he takes a bunch of students in his lab). Your main priority should be focusing on academics & crushing the MCAT so make sure to settle in first and get through the first couple of block exams before exploring these opportunities so that you know what your limit is.

PS - Protip: you might want to edit your original post & screenname to provide a little more anonymity...always better to be more private when it comes to online communities/social media in the world you are about to enter.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
 
To answer your first question:
I didn't always go to lecture to be quite honest, I usually watched them from home.(That has changed now that I am in med school though as I go to almost every lecture these days) Anyways, I would watch the lectures and make notes on them. For certain subjects (Anatomy, Biochem, Genetics, Path, Embryo) it really helped to read the books and make notes from that as well. The others you can pretty much just use the lecture slides to study and if you come across anything that doesn't make sense then use additional resources to dive in deeper on those subjects individually. I would say studying about 4-6hrs per day outside of class is adequate depending on your learning style, but about 1-2 weeks out from the exam I would study 10-12hr/day.

My biggest piece of advice: Try your best to not fall behind, manage your time wisely based on your learning style, and don't put off studying.

If I could do it again here's how it would go:
- Preview lectures the day before (allows you to be familiar w/ the material prior to lecture and know when to absolutely pay attention/ask questions during lecture)
- Go through the material from that particular day and make notes before the next day comes
- Review the material over the weekend
- If you do it right, you should be able to see the material at least 3-4 times prior to the exam
**This is what I do in med school now and it seems to be working really well**

2nd Question:
I don't know if anytime is a good time to co-study for the MCAT but I did it during the fall semester and took the test in January. Having the Micro/Immuno & Biochem that semester really helped on the MCAT (granted I took the old one, so I know very little of the new version). Again, it'll depend on your learning style and what you can effectively make time for. However, I always managed to crank out 50-100 practice questions per day & review them. That way I could identify my weaknesses, review those subjects in detail using PR, EK, Youtube videos etc before doing more practice questions on that subject.

In the end, don't over extend yourself w/ EC's. Get a couple of good volunteer gigs (Shriner's, VA, Hospice, Judeo Christian Clinic, etc.) & if you absolutely want to, try to get into someones lab for some research (if I were you, I would start my search w/ Dr. Blanck as he takes a bunch of students in his lab). Your main priority should be focusing on academics & crushing the MCAT so make sure to settle in first and get through the first couple of block exams before exploring these opportunities so that you know what your limit is.

PS - Protip: you might want to edit your original post & screenname to provide a little more anonymity...always better to be more private when it comes to online communities/social media in the world you are about to enter.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.


I really do appreciate the detailed response as well as the pro-tip. The insight you've provided me is invaluable and I plan to implement your suggested study structure to see how it works for me. I think my biggest stressor is the Mcat. As you said I shouldn't over extend myself, however I wouldn't want to apply to med school late either. My original plan was to take the MCAT Princeton course during the spring semester (under the assumption that I've become a more efficient "studier" in the fall) and have the exam cranked out by early June. I've read online that the spring semester is more difficult than the fall. My question for you is, would you consider it more wise to take the Princeton course during the fall semester (take MCAT January), the spring (take MCAT June), or perhaps neither and during the summer (take MCAT in late July). Again thanks for your advice thus far I am both excited and nervous beyond words for orientation tomorrow :)
 
I really do appreciate the detailed response as well as the pro-tip. The insight you've provided me is invaluable and I plan to implement your suggested study structure to see how it works for me. I think my biggest stressor is the Mcat. As you said I shouldn't over extend myself, however I wouldn't want to apply to med school late either. My original plan was to take the MCAT Princeton course during the spring semester (under the assumption that I've become a more efficient "studier" in the fall) and have the exam cranked out by early June. I've read online that the spring semester is more difficult than the fall. My question for you is, would you consider it more wise to take the Princeton course during the fall semester (take MCAT January), the spring (take MCAT June), or perhaps neither and during the summer (take MCAT in late July). Again thanks for your advice thus far I am both excited and nervous beyond words for orientation tomorrow :)

It all depends on how you're doing in the program. I took the class during the fall and the test in January. The second semester is harder than the first so I can't say that I'd take it in the spring. Summer semester is the easiest in terms of workload. Honestly, the class wasn't that big of a help as I did better with independent study and practice questions. To each their own.
 
I'm also a recent MSP3 grad. Let me know if you have any questions!

Just to add, this program also helps tremendously in the job market. I suppose just having a master's degree would help but the classes in this program are really helpful if you want to work in any type of medical research.
 
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From what I understand several graduates for the program were accepted to LECOM-Bradenton. According to one of my MCAT instructors (O Chem) whom graduated from the MP3 program and was accepted to LECOM-B, they like students from this program.

If anyone is in the online program, you might want to consider taking Embryology online in the Spring for sake of completion. As of this time it is not in the online Health Science curriculum but should be offered Spring 2017 as a part of the Anatomy concentration.

Also, Gross Anatomy I while an elective class is worth your while to take if you haven't had exposure to cadaver dissection. The MCAT class too is a worth your while if you actually have the time to do the assigned homework, reading, and use the online content. Certainly cheaper than going to Princeton or Kaplan yourself. One word of caution, you will have multiple instructors, one for each subject/section of the test. Some will be good even superb, some not so much.

Hope this helps!

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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I have been accepted into the MSMS Women's Health concentration. I'd love to get in touch with someone who is also starting the program this fall.
Hi! I am considering applying to this concentration and was wondering if you could give more information about the track. How was the research, the classes, and if you enjoyed it. Also, if I will get more out of this track than the pre-professional? The fact that a lot of the courses are online deters me a little bit. Thank you in advance!!
 
Hey everyone! I got into the MSMS anatomy concentration program so if anyone else is in the same boat, feel free to message me! :)
Good luck to everyone who applied, I hope you get into the program you want!
Hi! Can you provide me some more insight on the anatomy track? If you enjoyed it, etc. I am deciding which tracks to apply to! Thank you!
 
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