2013-2014 Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University

BU Medical Sciences
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I guess I'll start this off with a question,

How strict is Jefferson on their letters of recommendation? They request one biology, one chemistry, one physics, and one humanities, but I have been out of school for a bit and do not have all of these types. Are they really necessary?
 
rfenzo said:
I guess I'll start this off with a question,

How strict is Jefferson on their letters of recommendation? They request one biology, one chemistry, one physics, and one humanities, but I have been out of school for a bit and do not have all of these types. Are they really necessary?
Click to expand...

I'd like to know as well. I've searched that they aren't too strict and if they want you, they'll look over it. But it'd be nice to find out from a someone who got accepted at Jefferson!
 
I emailed admissions with the same question as you. My undergraduate institution does not write committee letters. I have a neuroscience, chemistry, and psychology (my major) letter. She said mine should suffice.
 
joonage said:
I'd like to know as well. I've searched that they aren't too strict and if they want you, they'll look over it. But it'd be nice to find out from a someone who got accepted at Jefferson!
Click to expand...
Hi all,

This is taken directly from the JMC admissions brochure: So, it seems like it's not required, only preferred. It seems like it's fine if you don't have that--especially if you have a committee letter.

"We prefer to receive a recommendation from a preprofes-
sional committee. If there is no such committee, letters
should be provided by individual faculty members (one let-
ter each from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Humanities,
if possible). Applicants who have been involved in graduate
programs are encouraged to provide additional letters from
their graduate schools. The deadline for the receipt of letters
of recommendation is January 1st."
 
Hi I have a quick question regarding the physics reference letter requirement.
I took the physics class 5 years ago at another school. There were several professors teaching one course, so I don't know any of the physics professors very well. Even if I find them, I am afraid that they won't remember me at all, and probably end up writing a very mediocre/nondescript recommendation letter at best.

In this case, should I bother with getting a reference letter from this physics prof at all?
 
Incoming M1 at Jefferson here.

I had 0 letters from physics, chemistry, or humanities. I got in.
 
lmnop75 said:
Incoming M1 at Jefferson here.

I had 0 letters from physics, chemistry, or humanities. I got in.
Click to expand...

Hi
Can you share who you asked for reference letters?

My school does not have a premed advisor, so I am currently in the process of asking people for reference letters. But I already asked the same people for letters in the past, so I wanted to make sure.

Also, when asking profs to write you a reference letter, what kind of things should I ask them to include?
 
sugarmouse said:
Hi
Can you share who you asked for reference letters?

My school does not have a premed advisor, so I am currently in the process of asking people for reference letters. But I already asked the same people for letters in the past, so I wanted to make sure.

Also, when asking profs to write you a reference letter, what kind of things should I ask them to include?
Click to expand...

I asked a Bio professor, lab PI, volunteer coordinator, and MD that I shadowed. My premed advisor/committee also wrote one (mandatory at my undergrad).

And from my experience I didn't ask writers to include anything in particular. I just asked if they would write it and left the rest up to them, which they all seemed to be fine with.

Good luck to everyone applying to Jefferson this year.
 
lmnop75 said:
I asked a Bio professor, lab PI, volunteer coordinator, and MD that I shadowed. My premed advisor/committee also wrote one (mandatory at my undergrad).

And from my experience I didn't ask writers to include anything in particular. I just asked if they would write it and left the rest up to them, which they all seemed to be fine with.

Good luck to everyone applying to Jefferson this year.
Click to expand...

Can I ask what your stats were and if you were IS or OOS?
 
Incoming M1 here.

I'd be happy to answer any questions I can about my experience thus far with the school. I interviewed at 5 schools, my in-state school, one top 10, and 3 other privates, and Jefferson by far gave me the best impression. I'm by no means an SDN rock star, but then again there's only a few of those so my opinion is limited!
 
Does anyone know if their suggestion of having all the prerequisites completed in the past 5 years is a hard and fast rule? I'm a nontrad and while I've taken some of the courses in the past year and a half, my physics and humanities is from 10 years ago.
 
Elewynne said:
Does anyone know if their suggestion of having all the prerequisites completed in the past 5 years is a hard and fast rule? I'm a nontrad and while I've taken some of the courses in the past year and a half, my physics and humanities is from 10 years ago.
Click to expand...

It's more of a guideline I would guess, not a rule. Contact admissions and ask.

However, I'm matriculating here this fall and graduated college in 2005. Several of my prerequisites were very old, so I took all upper-level science courses for my post-bacc to show current academic competence. Also, a solid MCAT score indicates mastery of the basic sciences and critical thinking, so that will also show that you know your physics from long ago. You should be just fine if you have a couple old prereqs as long as you have high grades in your recent work and a high MCAT. Apply away because Jefferson is an amazing school!!
 
Thanks for the information, I appreciate it! Jefferson does sound like a great school, I hope to get some <3 here! 🙂
 
Oh, and the large class size (260) means that Jefferson has a very diverse class and lots of love for non-traditionals. It's a huge asset in my opinion.
 
Ok, so on the website, it does say they prefer all three sciences but that one directs requests to be exempt from the bio/chem/physics LORs on the optional information section on the secondary.

Do they require a specific explanation for exemption or does a simple "I request exemption for chemistry and physics letters of recommendation" suffice? If any Jefferson students could answer with how they handled this, I would really appreciate it.

Cheers,
- DC
 
Drag0ncl0ud said:
Ok, so on the website, it does say they prefer all three sciences but that one directs requests to be exempt from the bio/chem/physics LORs on the optional information section on the secondary.

Do they require a specific explanation for exemption or does a simple "I request exemption for chemistry and physics letters of recommendation" suffice? If any Jefferson students could answer with how they handled this, I would really appreciate it.

Cheers,
- DC
Click to expand...

Just to be sure - a committee letter resolves all these issues right?
 
Does Jefferson still average all of the recent MCAT scores? I'm taking it for the third time and I did pretty horrible on the previous 2 tries so I was wondering if I should even bother to apply here?
Also my older sister is currently attending Drexel Medical School. Does Jefferson take this kind of ties/connection into account?
 
On the preview of the secondary application I saw they ask for SAT scores...

Is this required? Would it be frowned upon to not include them? I didn't do poorly but I also didn't have stellar scores. What's the point? I tried to search their website where it said that information would be mentioned but couldn't find it.
 
Member011 said:
On the preview of the secondary application I saw they ask for SAT scores...

Is this required? Would it be frowned upon to not include them? I didn't do poorly but I also didn't have stellar scores. What's the point? I tried to search their website where it said that information would be mentioned but couldn't find it.
Click to expand...

I don't think the SAT scores have anything to do with admissions but rather are used for statistical analysis purposes. My guess would be looking for links between high school performance and college/MCAT performance.

sshung said:
Does Jefferson still average all of the recent MCAT scores? I'm taking it for the third time and I did pretty horrible on the previous 2 tries so I was wondering if I should even bother to apply here?
Also my older sister is currently attending Drexel Medical School. Does Jefferson take this kind of ties/connection into account?
Click to expand...

99.99% sure that the answer is no.
 
Can someone here speak to what Jefferson's exam schedule is like? Are there regular exams during the blocks, or just at the end of each ~2month period?
 
Soulstice said:
Can someone here speak to what Jefferson's exam schedule is like? Are there regular exams during the blocks, or just at the end of each ~2month period?
Click to expand...

Expect a Friday exam every 3-4 weeks. Exception: Neurosciences at the end of the year has a Monday exam almost every week.
 
penndoc said:
Expect a Friday exam every 3-4 weeks. Exception: Neurosciences at the end of the year has a Monday exam almost every week.
Click to expand...

Welppp. Time to change the part of my essay about how block scheduling gives me flexibility between exam weeks. Thanks 🙁
 
Soulstice said:
Welppp. Time to change the part of my essay about how block scheduling gives me flexibility between exam weeks. Thanks 🙁
Click to expand...

Neuroscience was only 5 or 6 weeks long though. Otherwise, you do get a lot of flexibility in between block exams in both 1st and 2nd years.
 
Secondary today! Looks like the prompts are the same as last year.

8. Have you ever been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic or parking violation? If you answer yes, please provide an explanation in the space provided. (*** Please limit your response to 4000 characters and do not cut and paste. ***)

9. If there is any additional information you would like to provide please include it in the box below. (*** Please limit your response to 4000 characters and do not cut and paste. ***)
 
Do we have to put down our SAT scores?? mine kinda sucked
 
Heads up! I got the following error message after submitting:

"*ERROR* Invalid characters found. Please contact the site administrator or re-enter your information. "

I pasted my essay directly from Word - might have caused some problems. I emailed admissions. Might be best that you manually type up your (optional) essay.
 
EZR said:
Heads up! I got the following error message after submitting:

"*ERROR* Invalid characters found. Please contact the site administrator or re-enter your information. "

I pasted my essay directly from Word - might have caused some problems. I emailed admissions. Might be best that you manually type up your (optional) essay.
Click to expand...

It says in the essay prompt not to copy paste.
 
EZR said:
Heads up! I got the following error message after submitting:

"*ERROR* Invalid characters found. Please contact the site administrator or re-enter your information. "

I pasted my essay directly from Word - might have caused some problems. I emailed admissions. Might be best that you manually type up your (optional) essay.
Click to expand...

I copy/pasted from TextEdit. A very basic word processor like TextEdit or Notepad is usually okay for copy/paste into these fields, but Word is not so good. I had the opposite problem as I started writing in the box directly (b/c it said not to paste) and then when I hit submit, there was a session timeout... GAHHH. So I re-did it in TextEdit, pasted, and it was fine.
 
thisandthat said:
Would you mind sharing with us what you used the optional essay for?
Click to expand...

I had the same question! I'm graduating early so I thought maybe it would be a good idea to talk about what I am planning on doing during my semester off.. Not sure if I should cover anything else?
 
Does anyone know if the SAT/ACT scores are required? I seriously can't remember mine, and don't know where I would go to find out
 
I seriously can't remember my SAT score. I know what it is around, but not exactly. Do you think it matters if we just leave it blank?
 
For those needing SAT score help (if it turns out it's required) this is from the collegeboard website:

"If you cannot use online options to retrieve information and you no longer have access to an email address to retrieve the information, please call customer service for help. They'll verify that you are you and help you access your account.

SAT Services can be reached at 866-756-7346 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Eastern Time)."
 
IgA said:
I seriously can't remember my SAT score. I know what it is around, but not exactly. Do you think it matters if we just leave it blank?
Click to expand...

I left it blank.
 
One of the previous years' threads says SAT scores are optional. I dug into collegeboard.com and retrieved my account info to get them, but if it doesn't give you an error if you don't input them, I'd say its fine. I missed a required field and it made me go back, so it definitely alerts you.
 
Is anyone using the "any additional information" section to talk about why Jefferson? Or are you guys using this space to explain any possible red flags in your application?
 
Noggin said:
Is anyone using the "any additional information" section to talk about why Jefferson? Or are you guys using this space to explain any possible red flags in your application?
Click to expand...

I used it for a why Jeff essay
 
anyone else have the errors appear after submitting the application...it might be due to copy and paste...any news on this situation?
 
I never took the SAT or ACT. I went to the community college, and I transferred. What should I put?
 
Gust said:
anyone else have the errors appear after submitting the application...it might be due to copy and paste...any news on this situation?
Click to expand...

It says not to copy and paste. Someone else suggested writing the essay in text edit or another very basic program.
 
ya, i realized that after submitting.
 
IgA said:
I think I will do this too, but I'm having a hard time finding anything in the curriculum to talk about specifically.
Click to expand...

I had a very hard time with that as well. I ended up ditching the admissions brochure and combing through the website for non-curriculum things that stood out to me.
 
When people are saying they will address why Jefferson in the supplemental portion, are you all reaching 4000 characters? You'd have to have a lot of reasons to chose this school...
 
... I still haven't received my secondary...

Lol, literally 2 minutes after I posted this I got it.
 
Last edited:
Got the secondary today and submitted. Just wrote a general essay about what makes me unique. Didn't really address "Why Jefferson?"

Did anybody get an email thanking you for your app? I only got a payment receipt...
 
Anybody use letters other than the ones they listed? Not sure I can track down professors from each of those classes.
 
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