2012-2013 University of Texas Medical Branch - Galveston Application Thread

Applying to Med School? Get In Or Your Money Back
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Hi everyone! Just wanted to wish everyone lots of luck on applications this year :luck:

I'm an MS2 (almost MS3!) at UTMB, so if anyone has any questions about UTMB or medical school in general, feel free to post them here or PM me and I'll check periodically and answer as I can.

That said, sorry in advance if it takes a while for me to get back to you -- studying for the infamous USMLE Step 1 right now, which is a beast, but I will do my best to reply at least once a week if not more! :)
 
DrHiner said:
Hi everyone! Just wanted to wish everyone lots of luck on applications this year :luck:

I'm an MS2 (almost MS3!) at UTMB, so if anyone has any questions about UTMB or medical school in general, feel free to post them here or PM me and I'll check periodically and answer as I can.

That said, sorry in advance if it takes a while for me to get back to you -- studying for the infamous USMLE Step 1 right now, which is a beast, but I will do my best to reply at least once a week if not more! :)
Click to expand...

Do you help interview/decide who to accept? If so, what do you look for?

Also, what would you are some pros and cons of UTMB versus other texas schools?

Thanks!
 
2nd choice next to UTH. Actually it probably should be 1A and 1B for me. Parents live really close. I'm very excited for this school.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
Do you help interview/decide who to accept? If so, what do you look for?

Also, what would you are some pros and cons of UTMB versus other texas schools?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Nope, medical students don't have any part in interviewing or deciding who gets interviewed / accepted. All medical students do on interview day is 1) give tours, 2) host a lunch panel question & answer session (there aren't any administrators at this - just med students and interviewees, so you can ask literally anything without any consequence, promise :)). Also, the night before, medical students host a "night before" get together in Galveston. This takes place on Thursday before your Friday interview. If you're in town, it's another opportunity to hang w/ the med students and ask them anything you want, again, without any admins or effect on your chances. If anything, you might learn stuff or get interview tips that would help you on Friday! But mostly it's just to relax, eat a bit and get ready for Friday :)

While I can't speak definitively about the pros and cons of UTMB vs. other schools because I really only know stuff about UTMB and my very transient impressions of other schools on interview day, I can tell you what I like and don't like about UTMB (and a thought or two about UTMB vs other schools, again, JUST from my own personal interview days -- so don't take it as gospel or anything :laugh:)

Cons:
1) Galveston has mediocre grocery stores. I actually live up the road in Texas City (30 min from campus during rush hour), so I don't suffer from this, but I hear classmates complaining.

2) Tourists can be annoying, as can the motorcycle rally that happens one or two weekends a year... it gets loud. Again, just what I've heard. I don't generally go down to campus on weekends. Mardi gras, depending on if it's near a test or not, is fun or annoyingly loud. Or both.

3) Sequestered tests - I think this is really common among all med schools, but I still don't like it (though I have gotten used to it, and don't care nearly as much anymore... especially since I literally just took my last final exam EVER! Woohoo, MS3... haha). Sequestered tests = you don't ever see the test, or the questions you missed, after the exam. You can't challenge questions or anything. They do run stats analysis and throw out / double key generally at least 1 question a test because it turned out to be a bad question, so it's not unfair.. just irritating if you want to truly learn from your mistakes. You can request a list of the question numbers you missed to compare to a (pretty vague) keyword list. So you might learn you missed an oncology question, or an anemia question, or a pharm question, but that's about it.

4) Classmates complain about mosquitoes... I think I've been bit maybe once so far... But again, I live off the island.

Pros:
1) The people, especially your classmates... they are amazing. Like I truly adore basically everyone in my class that I've met. Sure there are some more "gunner" personalities that can be less easy to get along with at times, but 99% of the time, I love the heck out of all of them. Made some AMAZING best friends :love: They are super friendly, compassionate, so smart.... everything you want in a person, really.

2) Galveston is super chill so it's easier to keep stress at a more manageable level. Perk: you can study at the beach, or run along the coast, etc. It's quite nice.

3) Island weather -- yes that means it's also super hot for a few months, but it's generally gorgeous. Unless it's just been a dry 2 yrs, there has been much less rain than I expected. Winter is also pretty mild, too. Really, just great weather most of the time.

4) People in general are friendly and really helpful... like go out of your way to help you. I once lost a gift certificate for the school bookstore (didn't have my name on it or anything)... and someone turned it back into the bookstore instead of using it. Had that kind of thing happen with my phone, etc.

5) Basically half day schedule. In MS1 - morning classes primarily; MS2 - afternoon classes. Lots of time to have a life, study, exercise and live. Until you hit 2nd semester of MS2 that is... then you start studying for Step 1 ... ugh, but lets not talk about that :smuggrin:

6) Close enough to Houston that I can see family, eat at my favorite restaurants, etc. w/o feeling it's a hassle. Again, 30 min off the island so it's only 30-40 min to downtown Houston for me.

Really, I could go on and on about the pros of UTMB. I adore it and would choose it again in a heartbeat. Initially thought I would go to UT-H... did 5 summers of research there, Houston native and I love the city... but I didn't have the best impression of them on interview day. Felt like there was... I don't know how to say it, but like ... institutionalized stress, just because it was med school and thus had to be stressful or you weren't doing it right. Not at all like UTMB, where everyone was laughing and smiling on interview day.

Also interviewed at Tech in Lubbock -- 2nd choice by the end of interviews, but Lubbock was far from my family, hard for my husband to get a job and ... it was SNOWING when I got there... and everything was brown. Now, I don't really "do" snow, as it basically never snows in Houston... so that was a no go. Too cold, too brown, too far... but as far as the people and the school -- easily very friendly, tight community -- until they divide you all up 3rd/4th year and ship you all over rural Texas. Blech! But again, city girl here.

Finally, A&M -- not bad, not amazing .. just not an Aggie I guess lol. I enjoyed myself, but I didn't think I'd fit in as well as I did at UTMB. And again, hard to find job for my husband. Also, I think A&M had these extra semester or yearly cumulative exams... no thanks!

Anyway, sorry this is so long, but I figure more info is better than less info. As a side note, probably the main things I wish I knew before starting med school:

1) If you study by cramming, STOP NOW. It will hurt you so bad, so start learning how to study now so you don't have to learn in med school. You'll hit the ground running much better than I did if you can get this figured out.

2) Do NOT, under any circumstance, pre-study before medical school starts.. like the summer before or whatever. Enjoy any time you have off between now and med school starting -- you'll never have it again. And anything you pre-study, you'll probably forget or it won't help you anyway. Just enjoy life until med school starts. You've got 4 yrs to be a med student and work/study like one.. so don't make it any longer than it has to be! :thumbup:

Let me know if you guys have other questions!
 
DrHiner said:
Nope, medical students don't have any part in interviewing or deciding who gets interviewed / accepted. All medical students do on interview day is 1) give tours, 2) host a lunch panel question & answer session (there aren't any administrators at this - just med students and interviewees, so you can ask literally anything without any consequence, promise :)). Also, the night before, medical students host a "night before" get together in Galveston. This takes place on Thursday before your Friday interview. If you're in town, it's another opportunity to hang w/ the med students and ask them anything you want, again, without any admins or effect on your chances. If anything, you might learn stuff or get interview tips that would help you on Friday! But mostly it's just to relax, eat a bit and get ready for Friday :)

While I can't speak definitively about the pros and cons of UTMB vs. other schools because I really only know stuff about UTMB and my very transient impressions of other schools on interview day, I can tell you what I like and don't like about UTMB (and a thought or two about UTMB vs other schools, again, JUST from my own personal interview days -- so don't take it as gospel or anything :laugh:)

Cons:
1) Galveston has mediocre grocery stores. I actually live up the road in Texas City (30 min from campus during rush hour), so I don't suffer from this, but I hear classmates complaining.

2) Tourists can be annoying, as can the motorcycle rally that happens one or two weekends a year... it gets loud. Again, just what I've heard. I don't generally go down to campus on weekends. Mardi gras, depending on if it's near a test or not, is fun or annoyingly loud. Or both.

3) Sequestered tests - I think this is really common among all med schools, but I still don't like it (though I have gotten used to it, and don't care nearly as much anymore... especially since I literally just took my last final exam EVER! Woohoo, MS3... haha). Sequestered tests = you don't ever see the test, or the questions you missed, after the exam. You can't challenge questions or anything. They do run stats analysis and throw out / double key generally at least 1 question a test because it turned out to be a bad question, so it's not unfair.. just irritating if you want to truly learn from your mistakes. You can request a list of the question numbers you missed to compare to a (pretty vague) keyword list. So you might learn you missed an oncology question, or an anemia question, or a pharm question, but that's about it.

4) Classmates complain about mosquitoes... I think I've been bit maybe once so far... But again, I live off the island.

Pros:
1) The people, especially your classmates... they are amazing. Like I truly adore basically everyone in my class that I've met. Sure there are some more "gunner" personalities that can be less easy to get along with at times, but 99% of the time, I love the heck out of all of them. Made some AMAZING best friends :love: They are super friendly, compassionate, so smart.... everything you want in a person, really.

2) Galveston is super chill so it's easier to keep stress at a more manageable level. Perk: you can study at the beach, or run along the coast, etc. It's quite nice.

3) Island weather -- yes that means it's also super hot for a few months, but it's generally gorgeous. Unless it's just been a dry 2 yrs, there has been much less rain than I expected. Winter is also pretty mild, too. Really, just great weather most of the time.

4) People in general are friendly and really helpful... like go out of your way to help you. I once lost a gift certificate for the school bookstore (didn't have my name on it or anything)... and someone turned it back into the bookstore instead of using it. Had that kind of thing happen with my phone, etc.

5) Basically half day schedule. In MS1 - morning classes primarily; MS2 - afternoon classes. Lots of time to have a life, study, exercise and live. Until you hit 2nd semester of MS2 that is... then you start studying for Step 1 ... ugh, but lets not talk about that :smuggrin:

6) Close enough to Houston that I can see family, eat at my favorite restaurants, etc. w/o feeling it's a hassle. Again, 30 min off the island so it's only 30-40 min to downtown Houston for me.

Really, I could go on and on about the pros of UTMB. I adore it and would choose it again in a heartbeat. Initially thought I would go to UT-H... did 5 summers of research there, Houston native and I love the city... but I didn't have the best impression of them on interview day. Felt like there was... I don't know how to say it, but like ... institutionalized stress, just because it was med school and thus had to be stressful or you weren't doing it right. Not at all like UTMB, where everyone was laughing and smiling on interview day.

Also interviewed at Tech in Lubbock -- 2nd choice by the end of interviews, but Lubbock was far from my family, hard for my husband to get a job and ... it was SNOWING when I got there... and everything was brown. Now, I don't really "do" snow, as it basically never snows in Houston... so that was a no go. Too cold, too brown, too far... but as far as the people and the school -- easily very friendly, tight community -- until they divide you all up 3rd/4th year and ship you all over rural Texas. Blech! But again, city girl here.

Finally, A&M -- not bad, not amazing .. just not an Aggie I guess lol. I enjoyed myself, but I didn't think I'd fit in as well as I did at UTMB. And again, hard to find job for my husband. Also, I think A&M had these extra semester or yearly cumulative exams... no thanks!

Anyway, sorry this is so long, but I figure more info is better than less info. As a side note, probably the main things I wish I knew before starting med school:

1) If you study by cramming, STOP NOW. It will hurt you so bad, so start learning how to study now so you don't have to learn in med school. You'll hit the ground running much better than I did if you can get this figured out.

2) Do NOT, under any circumstance, pre-study before medical school starts.. like the summer before or whatever. Enjoy any time you have off between now and med school starting -- you'll never have it again. And anything you pre-study, you'll probably forget or it won't help you anyway. Just enjoy life until med school starts. You've got 4 yrs to be a med student and work/study like one.. so don't make it any longer than it has to be! :thumbup:

Let me know if you guys have other questions!
Click to expand...

Thanks for info, especially UTH versus UTMB bit, which could be a very real choice for me in the coming months.
 
I really hope I get an interview here! I've loved Galveston since I was a kid. I feel like a lot of Aggie undergraduates got in here last cycle - not necessarily a disproportionate share, but among pre-meds I know, more of them ended up going to UTMB than anywhere else. Wondering if this is just a sampling bias or if there is any truth to it.
 
10% from OOS. So 23 spots at the most, probably less than that this year.
 
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YouNeverKnow22 said:
I think MSAR had 10% OOS interviewing...hmm...idk if it's worth it.
Click to expand...

most schools (besides in-state at public schools) interview about 10% of applicants. i made an excel for all the schools i'm applying, and the range is about 5% (usc) to 20% (ohio state). most are between 7% and 13%.
 
espagueti said:
most schools (besides in-state at public schools) interview about 10% of applicants. i made an excel for all the schools i'm applying, and the range is about 5% (usc) to 20% (ohio state). most are between 7% and 13%.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know, I don't know why I said that :laugh:
 
BlueLabel said:
I really hope I get an interview here! I've loved Galveston since I was a kid. I feel like a lot of Aggie undergraduates got in here last cycle - not necessarily a disproportionate share, but among pre-meds I know, more of them ended up going to UTMB than anywhere else. Wondering if this is just a sampling bias or if there is any truth to it.
Click to expand...

I worked in a research lab at UTMB last summer and I was told that a very large number of aggies attended school there.
 
Does anybody know when they typically start sending out interview requests?
 
did anyone get an email from utmb saying they received the tmdsas primary?
 
I'm starting to think i didn't submit my TMDSAS soon enough. I thought early meant verified before June 29th like the AMCAS. Feels like Texas schools get started earlier
 
dwills said:
I'm starting to think i didn't submit my TMDSAS soon enough. I thought early meant verified before June 29th like the AMCAS. Feels like Texas schools get started earlier
Click to expand...

That is very very early. I know it's hard but please try not to worry about stuff like this. It will be a long and hard year if you do.
 
Earlier today I cruised through last year's forums for the TMDSAS schools and determined the earliest interview invite date reported on SDN. Assuming SDNers are sufficiently fiendish applicants (which they are), this is most likely the earliest date they were handed out last year. Here is what I found:

TCOM: 6/23
UTMB: 6/27
El Paso: 6/29
Lubbock: 7/6
TAMU: 7/11
UTSA: 7/18
UTSW: 8/12
UTH: 8/15

Of course this isn't a guarantee for this cycle, but if nothing else it's at least a rough standard for comparison. Really, I just wanted to be in ahead of the June-inviting schools to give myself a shot at the earliest possible interviews. Then again, it's not like missing out on the first round prevents you from getting in. My pre-med advisor is very hardcore about early apps and I guess that mentality has rubbed off on me to some extent.
 
Solid work. You beat me to the punch. And I'm still waitlisted from last year. I just realized my own neuroticism. LoL
 
c5r4c5542 said:
did anyone get an email from utmb saying they received the tmdsas primary?
Click to expand...

I just got an email today saying they received and are processing my primary.:)

I submitted my primary around the 18th of May
 
Just got the same email, almost gave me a heart attack. I jump every time i get an email now.
 
i received the same e-mail, but my LORs still aren't uploaded in TMDSAS. not sure if that will hold things up.
 
I didn't get an email :( My MCAT score is not in yet though.. I assume that is why. Everyone else complete?
 
Ashh said:
I didn't get an email :( My MCAT score is not in yet though.. I assume that is why. Everyone else complete?
Click to expand...


I submitted 5/16, and I've been complete for a couple weeks. But I didn't get an email. Not sure why.

Anyone else?
 
I got the confirmation email from UTMB a few days ago. My app was done with processing June 14th.
 
TMDSAS sent me an email a while back saying that my app was sent to the schools, but no email from UTMB...
 
Ashh said:
TMDSAS sent me an email a while back saying that my app was sent to the schools, but no email from UTMB...
Click to expand...

You may want to email them to confirm that they received your application. Last year, I completed my TMDSAS application in the middle of August. I got confirmation emails from all of the Texas schools, but not from UTMB (or A&M). The beginning of December was around the corner, and still no email from UTMB. I decided to email them, and lo and behold, they responded the next day and said they received my application, and not only that, they also invited me for an interview on their very last interview date. Originally I was content with not interviewing at UTMB bc my heart was set on UTH, but when I interviewed at UTMB I fell in love with them and ended up ranking it #1. I matched to Tech on match day but got pulled off the waitlist at UTMB last minute before the deadline, after two letters of intent. So after a series of close calls I'm at my dream school!

Lesson to take home: call or email them to make sure they received your application. :)
 
Got another email from them earlier, exactly the same as the one they sent out a little over a week ago. Glitch maybe?
 
SpacemanSpifff said:
Got the same email confirming app has been received and it is being reviewed by the committee. Leggo!
Click to expand...

Just got it too. Heart nearly jumped out of my throat, today is the anniversary of the first round of interview invitations last year. I suppose they are getting started a bit later this year, but I suspect they'll start going out soon (uneducated guess)
 
Last edited:
SpacemanSpifff said:
Got the same email confirming app has been received and it is being reviewed by the committee. Leggo!
Click to expand...

Unless you're telling someone to unhand your delicious frozen breakfast waffles, this is nails on a chalkboard.
 
Still haven't received the email. I guess I should make a call...
 
Ashh said:
Still haven't received the email. I guess I should make a call...
Click to expand...

When did you submit, and when did TMDSAS tell you they transmitted? My app was transmitted on 6/21, for reference.
 
Is it possible that they didn't send it if you still haven't taken the mcat?
 
transmited 6/11
havent receive it either. maybe tomorrow
 
tn4596 said:
transmited 6/11
havent receive it either. maybe tomorrow
Click to expand...

One thing that might make a difference: all of my supporting docs were in before TMDSAS transmitted my app. That may have expedited the process on UTMB's end, not sure though.
 
bhandal said:
Is it possible that they didn't send it if you still haven't taken the mcat?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking this may be the issue. I'm still waiting on my scores.

Submitted 5/11
Transmitted 5/16
 
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