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2012-2013 University of Massachusetts Application Thread
- Thread starter gettheleadout
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I got mine yesterday too. Yeah, lot's of tax questions! And why do they need my registration number for my car and the date I registered to vote? Seems a little excessive.
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I think they care deeply about residency. I would love to apply as a MA native, but alas I'm no longer a resident!
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I would guess you'll be fine if you're still a resident/paying taxes, etc. On the other hand, I am most certainly no longer a resident.
If you are reapplying to UMMS, please describe how you have strengthened your credentials since your last application. Limit your answer to 200 words.
Have you ever worked/volunteered or otherwise participated in any UMASS Medical School or UMASS Memorial Health Care sponsored activities/programs (Example: Area Health Education Center (AHEC), Pipeline Program, Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), Research) If Yes, please describe. A letter of recommendation from your program supervisor is strongly encouraged. Limit your answer to 200 words.
Please provide a description of a personal dilemma relating to ONE of the nine following personal compentencies that are important to success in medical education and physician practice. Limit your answer to 500 words. Any additional information beyond one page will not be evaluated.
COMPETENCIES:
Integrity & Ethics Competency - Behaves in an honest and ethical manner; adheres to ethical principles and follows rules and procedures; resists peer pressure to engage in unethical behavior and encourages others to behave in honest and ethical ways.
Reliability & Dependability - Consistently fulfills obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner; takes responsibility for personal actions and performance.
Service Orientation - Demonstrates a desire to help others and sensitivity to others' needs and feelings; demonstrates a desire to alleviate others' distress.
Social & Interpersonal Skills - Demonstrates an awareness of others' needs, goals, feelings, and the ways that social and behavioral cues affect peoples' interactions and behaviors; adjusts behaviors appropriately in response to these cues; and treats others with respect.
Capacity for Improvement - Sets goals for continuous improvement and for learning new concepts and skills; engages in reflective practice for improvement; solicits and responds appropriately to feedback
Resilience and Adaptability - Demonstrates tolerance of stressful or changing environments or situations and adapts effectively to them; is persistent, even under difficult situations; recovers from setbacks.
Cultural Competence - Demonstrates knowledge of social and cultural factors that affect interactions and behaviors; shows an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity; recognizes and appropriately addresses bias in themselves and others; interacts effectively with people form diverse backgrounds.
Oral Communication - Effectively conveys information to others using spoken words and sentences listens effectively; recognizes potential communication barriers and adjust approach or clarifies information as needed.
Teamwork - Works collaboratively with others to achieve shared goals; shares information and knowledge with others and provides feedback; puts team goals ahead of individual goals.
Step1: Review each competency
Carefully read each competency definition to be sure you understand what is important. Carefully reflect on each competency and think about a dilemma you encountered in your activities, experiences, or accomplishments and relate that to it.
Step 2: Choose what you will write about for ONE competency
Choose one dilemma that best describes your demonstration of your chosen competency. The dilemma may be specific, such as a challenging person, situation or assignment. Alternately, it may be an example of a dilemma you witnessed, in which case your relay what your response would have been.
Step 3: Provide a narrative description of the dilemma
Carefully describe the dilemma you have selected. Your response should clearly reflect your individual experience or understanding of this dilemma related to that competency. Your description must reflect the quality of your understanding of the dilemma including how it relates to the specific competency and its scope and impact. Specifically, you should describe:
a) the situation in which the activity, experience or accomplishment occured;
b) actions you took and the resulting consequences of those actions;
c) what you learned from the experience
Have you ever worked/volunteered or otherwise participated in any UMASS Medical School or UMASS Memorial Health Care sponsored activities/programs (Example: Area Health Education Center (AHEC), Pipeline Program, Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), Research) If Yes, please describe. A letter of recommendation from your program supervisor is strongly encouraged. Limit your answer to 200 words.
Please provide a description of a personal dilemma relating to ONE of the nine following personal compentencies that are important to success in medical education and physician practice. Limit your answer to 500 words. Any additional information beyond one page will not be evaluated.
COMPETENCIES:
Integrity & Ethics Competency - Behaves in an honest and ethical manner; adheres to ethical principles and follows rules and procedures; resists peer pressure to engage in unethical behavior and encourages others to behave in honest and ethical ways.
Reliability & Dependability - Consistently fulfills obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner; takes responsibility for personal actions and performance.
Service Orientation - Demonstrates a desire to help others and sensitivity to others' needs and feelings; demonstrates a desire to alleviate others' distress.
Social & Interpersonal Skills - Demonstrates an awareness of others' needs, goals, feelings, and the ways that social and behavioral cues affect peoples' interactions and behaviors; adjusts behaviors appropriately in response to these cues; and treats others with respect.
Capacity for Improvement - Sets goals for continuous improvement and for learning new concepts and skills; engages in reflective practice for improvement; solicits and responds appropriately to feedback
Resilience and Adaptability - Demonstrates tolerance of stressful or changing environments or situations and adapts effectively to them; is persistent, even under difficult situations; recovers from setbacks.
Cultural Competence - Demonstrates knowledge of social and cultural factors that affect interactions and behaviors; shows an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity; recognizes and appropriately addresses bias in themselves and others; interacts effectively with people form diverse backgrounds.
Oral Communication - Effectively conveys information to others using spoken words and sentences listens effectively; recognizes potential communication barriers and adjust approach or clarifies information as needed.
Teamwork - Works collaboratively with others to achieve shared goals; shares information and knowledge with others and provides feedback; puts team goals ahead of individual goals.
Step1: Review each competency
Carefully read each competency definition to be sure you understand what is important. Carefully reflect on each competency and think about a dilemma you encountered in your activities, experiences, or accomplishments and relate that to it.
Step 2: Choose what you will write about for ONE competency
Choose one dilemma that best describes your demonstration of your chosen competency. The dilemma may be specific, such as a challenging person, situation or assignment. Alternately, it may be an example of a dilemma you witnessed, in which case your relay what your response would have been.
Step 3: Provide a narrative description of the dilemma
Carefully describe the dilemma you have selected. Your response should clearly reflect your individual experience or understanding of this dilemma related to that competency. Your description must reflect the quality of your understanding of the dilemma including how it relates to the specific competency and its scope and impact. Specifically, you should describe:
a) the situation in which the activity, experience or accomplishment occured;
b) actions you took and the resulting consequences of those actions;
c) what you learned from the experience
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For "Capacity for Improvement", do you think it would be all right for me to mention becoming healthier and losing ~60 lbs in the past year? No pills or surgery, just slightly healthier eating, cardio, and strength training.
The weight-loss journey has been a significant part of my life since August. I have been taking progress photos, keeping a spreadsheet of my weight loss, and more recently, using a journal for tracking my lifts. I know people my size have lost a lot more in a shorter amount of time, so I worry the adcom will just roll their eyes at my essay and go on to a more interesting read.
The weight-loss journey has been a significant part of my life since August. I have been taking progress photos, keeping a spreadsheet of my weight loss, and more recently, using a journal for tracking my lifts. I know people my size have lost a lot more in a shorter amount of time, so I worry the adcom will just roll their eyes at my essay and go on to a more interesting read.
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I personally think that's awesome. I would enjoy reading it and I'm sure adcoms would, too.
+1 That's great! Keep it up : )
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Would going further in depth about a disadvantaged status work for "resilience and adaptability?" I barely wrote anything on my AMCAS disadvantaged status section on it, and it feels like the best option for me but I don't want to sound whiny or obnoxious. I would definitely put a positive spin on it.
Also, 500 words is SO SHORT!
Also, 500 words is SO SHORT!
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With the right spin it should work really well. It only sounds whiny if you start being all "woe is me" and using your disadvantaged status as an excuse for not making positive changes in your life.
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Do the taxes questions need to be filled out even if you graduated from a MA highschool? Im out of state right now and feel like it would be a pain if I had to gather all that information.
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Why is the online portal so junky? I don't even know how to submit my application. I think it just saves automatically, but in that case, shouldn't my secondary not be on my "to do" list anymore?
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So how strict is this 500-word limit if it's still under a page?
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There is no official submit botton for the UMass Med secondary. Your application status will change to "submitted" as soon as the school receives the secondary fee.
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I can't believe we have to pay by check, snail-mail style.
Interview invite for 9/19!! 👍👍🙂
Thank you!! I think I was complete around 8/6!
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I submitted both my secondary and check around when I got the secondary (July 18). But my letters weren't in until August 2 and I was listed as complete less than a week after that. So my timeline is a little weird. Sorry I can't be of more help!!
Has anyone ever visited the campus to see what it looks like? Is the surrounding area nice? I've lived in Boston my whole life but I have ever been to Worcester >.< thinking to take a trip there in the next few weeks just to check it out.
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lol it's not the most attractive city... i went to high school nearby and we would go there for tacos because there's a great mexican restaurant. other than that, it's a pain in the ass to drive there and it's kind of ugly.
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Sent in my check last Friday, and II today 4 days later. Wow they act fast, I didn't even think I was complete yet
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Definitely not as nice as Boston, but not as bad as the reputation it gets. Great city to see music, there's minor league sports, colleges (so other college students) and main street seems fun (never been there as a 21 yr old). Also, it's pretty close to Amherst, Hartford, Boston and Providence, so if you want to get out of town you have many choices. As far as safety, a lot of the crime is domestic in nature, so I think the crime statistics are a little skewed. Worcester doesn't have the same type of gang violence as Boston does from what I understand.
Campus has several brand new beautiful buildings. Worcester is a city that is becoming a hub for healthcare, with the new Med City St. Vincents center, and other new science centers such as Worcester Poly's bio science buidling, and Mass College of Pharma which are both part of the 12-college consortium in greater Worcester.
Cost of living in Worcester is not bad, great and affordable restaurants, ever-improving train and bus service to/from Boston/airport. Excellent recreation in the greater Worcester area: hiking, golf, alpine and nordic skiing, rafting, cycling groups from local bike shops, running/clubs/road races & triathlons, nice botanical garden nearby, volunteer opportunities/clinics, agricultural & country fairs, incredible Fall foliage, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, kayaking, ice skating. Rowing on Lake Quinsigamond adjacent to campus. Twilight league adult sports (soccer, etc.). Worcester is within driving distance for trips to coastal Maine, Plum Island, the Vineyard & Nantucket, Newport, plus ski destinations in VT, NH, Maine and local Mt. Wachusett day & night skiing. Worcester concert venue getting a major facelift this year. Does have street crime & knife-crime, as many major cities do.
Cost of living in Worcester is not bad, great and affordable restaurants, ever-improving train and bus service to/from Boston/airport. Excellent recreation in the greater Worcester area: hiking, golf, alpine and nordic skiing, rafting, cycling groups from local bike shops, running/clubs/road races & triathlons, nice botanical garden nearby, volunteer opportunities/clinics, agricultural & country fairs, incredible Fall foliage, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, kayaking, ice skating. Rowing on Lake Quinsigamond adjacent to campus. Twilight league adult sports (soccer, etc.). Worcester is within driving distance for trips to coastal Maine, Plum Island, the Vineyard & Nantucket, Newport, plus ski destinations in VT, NH, Maine and local Mt. Wachusett day & night skiing. Worcester concert venue getting a major facelift this year. Does have street crime & knife-crime, as many major cities do.
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I have a question about the coursework section for those of you who submitted -- did you enter the year the course was taken (as I believe it states), or did you enter the AMCAS year (as in 2010 S1 and 2010 S2).
No one picked up on the other end at UMASS...
No one picked up on the other end at UMASS...
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So, I am a current MSI at Umass, so I just went through all of this.
The most important thing to remember about Umass is to be respectful to EVERY single person who you encounter. Adcom members routinely walk around and talk to interviewees to see how they interact with people.
For the actual interview, however, make sure you are at least somewhat informed about healthcare and the current politics. Not every interviewer will ask you about this, but there are a few who will ask you how to make healthcare better. Also, be sure to do some research about the upcoming things at Umass (i.e. the new Albert Sherman Building) and formulate some questions about these things to ask your interviewer. Other than that, Umass is really chill and they do everything to make sure you feel comfortable on the day of the interview. When I had my interview here, everyone was extremely welcoming and encouraging.
After your interview, make sure you send thank you letters to the admissions office for each of your interviewers. Do not get discouraged about not hearing anything right away. I interviewed in September and was accepted in April. I was not waitlisted, so I literally had to suffer that long.
By the way, if you do get accepted, we have a orientation camping trip to Maine in early August. We call this MOE. It is by far the best experience ever and no other medical school has anything quite like it!
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I was just wondering, did you have any experience with working at any UMASS affiliated communities before applying? I noticed they asked a question about that both this year and last year in the secondary...I am considering applying ED next year. Thanks!
No, I didn't work for any Umass Medical affiliated companies. It will help you as long as you made a good impression with what you did. Don't worry if you didn't though. I would say a good majority of my class has had no prior affiliation with the medical school.
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Yes, I am interviewing 10-02, and I believe I was complete around 8-25 - 8-27, but hard to tell with UMass.
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First II this morning, was just marked as complete last friday (9/14). Initially was scheduled for 10/17, but was forced to reschedule and the only date they gave me was 11/28. Wish I could have interviewed at that original date, but still very happy
It has been the trend in the past that re-applicants are offered interviews later in the application cycle. They change things a little every year, however.
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