UT-Austin premeds

i am applying to like 20 schools, recs from my teachers and my PI, pres of one campus organization and heavily involved with one particular EC, GPA is good, MCAT who knows.

ill get in somewhere, ill be happy.

I'm pretty sure UT is well represented at every Texas medical school. For fall 2004, 33 UT grads matched to UT-Houston (out of 216), and another 39 matched to San Antonio (out of 218). I am not aware of UT representation at the other TX med schools, but those numbers for SA and UT-H show that UT grads make up very sizable percentages of their respective incoming classes.

Relax

I got into UTSW.

I did 2 yrs of research out of the psych department
held 3 officer positions throughout college
lots of clinical experience at a summer program
letters of rec from a bio prof, my PI, and a liberal arts prof.
Only applied in state.

I am getting pretty scared about applications. Currently, I don't have any letters of rec but hopefully I will by the end of the week. As far as GPA I am looking at a 3.7 right now overall and a 3.9 BCMP. Thankfully the MCAT went well for me last August (P-15, V-11, B-10, Q). I was an officer in one organization and have been involved with Iron Spikes since my freshman year. I do not have research experince and lack much clinical volunteer experince (I did not get kicks out of answering phones at St. Davids). I do how ever have clinical experince through my study abroad program in Denmark.

I will be applying to all the Texas schools, including Baylor, and a few out of state reach schools (Yale, JHU, Columbia, NYU, Vanderbilt, and Cornell).

SteveUTexas said:

I am getting pretty scared about applications. Currently, I don't have any letters of rec but hopefully I will by the end of the week. As far as GPA I am looking at a 3.7 right now overall and a 3.9 BCMP. Thankfully the MCAT went well for me last August (P-15, V-11, B-10, Q). I was an officer in one organization and have been involved with Iron Spikes since my freshman year. I do not have research experince and lack much clinical volunteer experince (I did not get kicks out of answering phones at St. Davids). I do how ever have clinical experince through my study abroad program in Denmark.

I will be applying to all the Texas schools, including Baylor, and a few out of state reach schools (Yale, JHU, Columbia, NYU, Vanderbilt, and Cornell).

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You need to hustle and get those letters. Otherwise, you are fine.

ut_stephen said:

This is a shot in the dark...but did anyone get a rec from Kalthoff or hear about how well he writes recs? He teaches Bio 346 and 349...

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How should I study for his final?

ndi_amaka said:

How should I study for his final?

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which class? human or developmental?

I had 346 and that class was the most memorization.... and I heard 349 was even worse by a lot! Luckily I had Stein and Shankland. I did still enjoy human bio, I learned a bunch of stuff.

For the final, just memorize every fact in your notes for the whole semester and you'll be fine.

ut_stephen said:

That's a good question...I'm in his Human Bio class right now. Are you in that class?
I started studying tonight. The new stuff that wasn't covered on the previous exams doesn't seem too bad. A lot of it is fairly straightforward. For the old stuff, I'm just gonna go over his lecture notes...and reread the articles.

Did you ever go in to talk to him in office hours? I went in 3 or 4 times...I can't really get a read on him or how glowing a rec letter he'd actually write. He seems very conservative with words.

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I will start studying Thursday at 12:30 and just pray that it all gets into my head.

ut_stephen said:

Well, considering you got into Southwestern...it doesn't really matter how well you do...

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Actually.....I did poorly on most of the pop quizzes and didnt do any of the extra credit so if I'm not careful I can end up failing the class.

Hey there you guys! This thread could be really great, I know there's a zillion premeds at UT.

I just took the MCAT, but I'm thinking about putting off the application until next year since I don't really have much in the way of clinical or hospital experience. What's the process of LORs with the HPO? I wanted to go to one of those workshops, but I either had work or class every single time they offered it. Anyway- you guys keep in touch!

MoCookiess said:

Hey there you guys! This thread could be really great, I know there's a zillion premeds at UT.

I just took the MCAT, but I'm thinking about putting off the application until next year since I don't really have much in the way of clinical or hospital experience. What's the process of LORs with the HPO? I wanted to go to one of those workshops, but I either had work or class every single time they offered it. Anyway- you guys keep in touch!

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Approach your prof and ask them if tey will write a positive LOR

Go to HPo, get the forms LOR forms (they'll know what you are talking about) and fill out the top half.

Hand that form in with a copy of your CV or resume and your personal statement (it gives them a broader picture of who you are besides grades).

Try to get an approximate time when the letter will be completed and turned into the HPO office.

Keep in contact with the HPo office to make sure the profs have turned it in.

If they haven't, wait a week or so and email them a warm letter of how much you appreciate them writing your letter or recommendation. (That will jog their memory in a friendly way).

Once you find out where you got into med school, send a thank you card informing them of your admission to X school of medicine.

Also, HPO requires you to have 3 UT faculty letters in their file. They really want 2 science professors and 1 non-science professor. Since many of us have fallen into the abyss of upper division science classes, it is really hard to go back to our freshman year LA profs and ask for letters. So they will accept 3 from science profs/research mentors.

The only type of letter they won't accept is from someone not affiliated with UT. I had a real problem with getting my third recommendation, but eventually got one from my advisor, and maybe one from my volunteer position (I volunteer at the University Health Center).

The way HPO does things can be a pain sometimes, but they do streamline the process for us.

You really didn't miss much at the workshop. SDN is probably a better resource for the application process. You just need to get that yellow card from the HPO and fill it out and attach a picture so they can get a file started.

MoCookiess said:

Hey there you guys! This thread could be really great, I know there's a zillion premeds at UT.

I just took the MCAT, but I'm thinking about putting off the application until next year since I don't really have much in the way of clinical or hospital experience. What's the process of LORs with the HPO? I wanted to go to one of those workshops, but I either had work or class every single time they offered it. Anyway- you guys keep in touch!

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SteveUTexas said:

I was an officer in one organization and have been involved with Iron Spikes since my freshman year.

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my roommates and i were supposed to play you guys in IM softball a few weeks ago, but it rained or something and the game got cancelled... we couldnt get enough people for the makeup game unfortunately. it wouldve been a thrashing though, we were 0-1-2.

bump

I go to SFA. Do the UT medical schools prefer UT graduates? I've always wondered that. I know TAMU is like 90 percent aggie graduates.

hey i just graduated and i am going to UTMB and so are a few other dudes. when you guys get interviews, you should PM me and stay in my house with my friends and it will be a good time.

also if any of you read this, austin kaplan drinking society should happen again.

Hey y'all. I was born and raised in Austin and worked there after law school, yet somehow managed not to attend UT for either UG or law school I am going to do my post-bac classes somewhere in Texas starting in the fall... my first preference of course would be UT. I will need to keep working and take evening courses, however, which presents a bit of a dilemma. Most of the basic bio and chem lecture courses are offered through UT extension at night, but the labs are not, which I would have to take as a regular nondegree student. Anyone know how hard it is to get into labs this way? Searching the fall schedule, it appears that virtually everything is already filled up, and I assume I would be at the bottom of the totem pole as far as registration priority.

Oh well, I may just end up going somewhere like UTSA, UTA or UH, but I would like to get back to Austin.

samurai_lincoln said:

Hey y'all. I was born and raised in Austin and worked there after law school, yet somehow managed not to attend UT for either UG or law school I am going to do my post-bac classes somewhere in Texas starting in the fall... my first preference of course would be UT. I will need to keep working and take evening courses, however, which presents a bit of a dilemma. Most of the basic bio and chem lecture courses are offered through UT extension at night, but the labs are not, which I would have to take as a regular nondegree student. Anyone know how hard it is to get into labs this way? Searching the fall schedule, it appears that virtually everything is already filled up, and I assume I would be at the bottom of the totem pole as far as registration priority.

Oh well, I may just end up going somewhere like UTSA, UTA or UH, but I would like to get back to Austin.

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i have a quick question, have you ever called the health professions office about this? maybe, in the past week? if not, nm, im thinking of someone else.

if you havent even taken any basic premed courses yet, then you dont need to worry about labs till next semester anyway, because most labs are second semester scheduled (except physics)

IndyZX said:

i have a quick question, have you ever called the health professions office about this? maybe, in the past week? if not, nm, im thinking of someone else.

if you havent even taken any basic premed courses yet, then you dont need to worry about labs till next semester anyway, because most labs are second semester scheduled (except physics)

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No, wasn't me... though now that you mention it I really should give them a jingle. I have called UT and TMDSAS a bunch in the last week to verify my residency status, but that is it.

I took intro bio, chem and physics as an engineering major, but that was eons ago (over a decade), and I want to start from the beginning. Thanks for the pointers.

the undergrad intern at the HPO who will answer the phone will most likely have no clue; also, try talking to the admissions people directly, and see what your options are.

PM me if you have specific questions

southwestern class of 2008 here.

plan II
a year of research from psych dept
debakey summer surgery program
psychology/philosophy thesis
lots of music stuff
church stuff
club/organization stuff

wow didn't think there were so many from UT. impressive! hoooooooookem.

btw -- did any other people in class of 2008 feel like the HPO was useless until application time? they were really good with keeping up with rec letters and copies and stuff -- but they kept giving me bad advice during my first two years. and this one girl there is really condescending and not very constructive... and very critical. man i dunno.

has anybody here sent a transcript to amcas from acc? if so how long did it take for em to get it and process it?

latinfridley said:

has anybody here sent a transcript to amcas from acc? if so how long did it take for em to get it and process it?

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i HIGHLY recommend doing this in person. or doing it over the fax. calling in your transcript request is a bad idea because 1) you'll never get through 2) if you do, they'll probably forget it and send it to the wrong place.

i tried 3 times last year and it wasn't until i went in and told them that they got it right. acc's staff is really unhelpful sometimes.

Fellow classmate here.....boy was HPO completely useless! I went there maybe 2 or 3 times my first two years and then never again. I kind of got sick of wasting all my time just for them to tell me I have a slim possibility of getting into med school or that I need to volunteer more (common sense information i could get off the street).

They did a good job with my letters but past that it's a huge waste of my student fees.

sunkists said:

southwestern class of 2008 here.

plan II
a year of research from psych dept
debakey summer surgery program
psychology/philosophy thesis
lots of music stuff
church stuff
club/organization stuff

wow didn't think there were so many from UT. impressive! hoooooooookem.

btw -- did any other people in class of 2008 feel like the HPO was useless until application time? they were really good with keeping up with rec letters and copies and stuff -- but they kept giving me bad advice during my first two years. and this one girl there is really condescending and not very constructive... and very critical. man i dunno.

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bump?

latinfridley said:

has anybody here sent a transcript to amcas from acc? if so how long did it take for em to get it and process it?

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This is probably late, but ACC took 2 attempts to get it right (when I got through their busy 1 person phone line, that is)

I wish I was still living in atx so I could have done it in person....

-tx