2008-2009 Boston Secondary Application Thread

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nina7123 said:
Thanks Jacqui! Hopefully you're right about calls going for a few days. I thought my interview went really well and I didn't get a phone call so I'm bummed. But Congratulations to all of you who heard!! 🙂
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I am pretty sure that not all the interviewers call those accepted. So not getting a call may not mean anything.
 
I'm not sure how many students to an interviewer there are, but I'm guessing some of it is your interviewer's schedule, and also, I think the committee is still meeting - it wasn't just done on Wed. So, yeah, I think there will be more acceptances coming out this round. I hope I get one. 😀 Congrats to those who have! 👍
 
breeak said:
I'm not sure how many students to an interviewer there are, but I'm guessing some of it is your interviewer's schedule, and also, I think the committee is still meeting - it wasn't just done on Wed. So, yeah, I think there will be more acceptances coming out this round. I hope I get one. 😀 Congrats to those who have! 👍
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Breeak, is your avatar a picture of you? For some reason I thought you were a girl...it must have been the little girl in your last one. Wow, SDN has made me neerdier. I didn't even know what an avatar was until a few months ago
 
nina7123 said:
Breeak, is your avatar a picture of you? For some reason I thought you were a girl...it must have been the little girl in your last one. Wow, SDN has made me neerdier. I didn't even know what an avatar was until a few months ago
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Nope, it's not me, it's my ex boyfriend. I'm a tattoo designer, and that's my favorite one in my portfolio.
 
Just got an email - I'm in!! Status change on website says "Congratulations! An acceptance letter has been mailed to you"

And I did NOT receive a phone call from my interviewer, so to those of you who didn't get a call, there's still hope!
 
Accepted via e-mail and status change at 4:55 PM today...no phone calls either
 
I guess now its getting down to hoping for a "continued consideration" vs a "not accepted" notice.
 
For those that were accepted, did your email have the attached medical standards form?
 
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I didn't get the form either. Ii'm guessing they'll mail us a hard copy, which we have to sign and mail it back in.
 
sss403 said:
For those that were accepted, did your email have the attached medical standards form?
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No, i didn't have any forms attached. it was just like "check your status page on our web-site cause we are accepting you, and here's the full text of the formal letter that you'll get in a few days." I didn't read it actually...i'll wait for the formal letter...i like how those acceptance letters feel, smell and i like to read them 🙂
 
Congratulations to all who got acceptance phone calls & e-mails.

I tried looking for Residency Match List for BU and cant't find it. Can someone provide a link ?

Thanks a bunch
 
Boston is the best city in the world.
Go celts, pats, and sox
 
Here's the match list for BU:
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm-osa/match-results/

Forms will be in the mail that will be sent out tomorrow.

If you have any questions about BU, feel free to ask, either here or PM me. Congrats to everyone accepted and to those deferred, do not worry, many more people get accepted in March than in January.
 
Thank you very much for the link and also for offering to help with questions.
 
medseek1 said:
Boston is the best city in the world.
Go celts, pats, and sox
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except for celts, pats, and sox...any other factors that make Boston the best city at least in the US? 🙂 housing pricing is outrageous (double for what you'll have to pay in Philly center city), winters are cold, area around BU didn't impress me much.... am i missing something?
 
violet7 said:
except for celts, pats, and sox...any other factors that make Boston the best city at least in the US? 🙂 housing pricing is outrageous (double for what you'll have to pay in Philly center city), winters are cold, area around BU didn't impress me much.... am i missing something?
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I think Boston is a very rich cultural city. It has great museums, and a very academic atmosphere in the city in general, as well as a great relaxing atmosphere on Boylston St/Tremont St/Newbury St. I've lived in Boston almost my whole life and I've really enjoyed it. I don't know if I would say it's the best city ever or in the US, but I'm really happy living here and attending BUSM.
 
eagle34 said:
I think Boston is a very rich cultural city. It has great museums, and a very academic atmosphere in the city in general, as well as a great relaxing atmosphere on Boylston St/Tremont St/Newbury St. I've lived in Boston almost my whole life and I've really enjoyed it. I don't know if I would say it's the best city ever or in the US, but I'm really happy living here and attending BUSM.
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i'm sure if you spend your entire life in Boston, you know it much better than someone who came over just for one day to interview...it's just i'm in a tough situation where i have to judge based on what i've seen..and i didn't see much...i liked the school, but i'm not sure if i'll fit in...do you have a lot of time as a med student to get out of the area surrounding medical school and explore better places in Boston? i don't think so...i think you're pretty much stuck in medical school for the first two years...so i might not even visit those nice areas that you're talking about. also, during the interview day i didn't get much information about housing...i seems like BU is building some housing for med students but it won't be ready till 2010... in the meanwhile, i stayed with BUSM students, a tiny 2 bedroom apartment 15-20 minutes away from the school costs $1900...i guess it'll all come down to financial aid offers...
 
violet7 said:
i'm sure if you spend your entire life in Boston, you know it much better than someone who came over just for one day to interview...it's just i'm in a tough situation where i have to judge based on what i've seen..and i didn't see much...i liked the school, but i'm not sure if i'll fit in...do you have a lot of time as a med student to get out of the area surrounding medical school and explore better places in Boston? i don't think so...i think you're pretty much stuck in medical school for the first two years...so i might not even visit those nice areas that you're talking about. also, during the interview day i didn't get much information about housing...i seems like BU is building some housing for med students but it won't be ready till 2010... in the meanwhile, i stayed with BUSM students, a tiny 2 bedroom apartment 15-20 minutes away from the school costs $1900...i guess it'll all come down to financial aid offers...
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To get you ready for financial aid offer, I can say that you won't get much except loans. Actually, you'll only get loans. And actually, in terms of your questions of getting out much and seeing places around BU and Boston, I think you definitely have time for it, especially in your first two years. Ask most of the MSI in my class and they'll tell you that they definitely have enough time to go out on weekends and have fun, in both area surrounding BU and Boston itself. Yes, there's not much BU housing and it can get expensive, but you can also get some good deals if you look for them decently early. Lots of people live around undergrad campus where it's a lot cheaper and then take the shuttle to the med campus. But for me, it's not these things that made me pick BU when I was choosing between schools. It was the clinical experience that I would be in during my clinical years...I was really happy to hear how much you get to do as a medical student and how diverse the population you're serving. You will learn a lot on the wards, and especially also at the largest Trauma I center in New England. So that was really important to me personally, but each person has to choose a school for his own reasons and where you think you will be most happy.
 
Can anyone provide information on BU's grading system? Thanks!
 
eagle34 said:
To get you ready for financial aid offer, I can say that you won't get much except loans. Actually, you'll only get loans. And actually, in terms of your questions of getting out much and seeing places around BU and Boston, I think you definitely have time for it, especially in your first two years. Ask most of the MSI in my class and they'll tell you that they definitely have enough time to go out on weekends and have fun, in both area surrounding BU and Boston itself. Yes, there's not much BU housing and it can get expensive, but you can also get some good deals if you look for them decently early. Lots of people live around undergrad campus where it's a lot cheaper and then take the shuttle to the med campus. But for me, it's not these things that made me pick BU when I was choosing between schools. It was the clinical experience that I would be in during my clinical years...I was really happy to hear how much you get to do as a medical student and how diverse the population you're serving. You will learn a lot on the wards, and especially also at the largest Trauma I center in New England. So that was really important to me personally, but each person has to choose a school for his own reasons and where you think you will be most happy.
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so would you say that your expectations of clinical exposure have been fullfilled? how long does it take to commute from the undergrad campus to medical school? how often does the shuttle run? is there something that you personally don't like about BU? what about the gym? I heard there's a very nice gym at undergrad campus, but the one at medical school is not so nice...so i guess, it's another reason to live close to undergrad campus...did you have to spend a lot of money on textbooks or can you rely on the notes/materials distributed by professors? how did you like the classes during the first two years? are professors good/available to the students?

I'm not saying that I didn't like the school, I'm actually thrilled to be accepted! It's just I like to think critically, I've been accepted to some good medical schools, I like all of them for different reasons, so it'll be a very tough choice, that's why I hope that this discussion will help me to come up with good reasons to pick BU 🙂
 
violet7 said:
so would you say that your expectations of clinical exposure have been fullfilled? how long does it take to commute from the undergrad campus to medical school? how often does the shuttle run? is there something that you personally don't like about BU? what about the gym? I heard there's a very nice gym at undergrad campus, but the one at medical school is not so nice...so i guess, it's another reason to live close to undergrad campus...did you have to spend a lot of money on textbooks or can you rely on the notes/materials distributed by professors? how did you like the classes during the first two years? are professors good/available to the students?

I'm not saying that I didn't like the school, I'm actually thrilled to be accepted! It's just I like to think critically, I've been accepted to some good medical schools, I like all of them for different reasons, so it'll be a very tough choice, that's why I hope that this discussion will help me to come up with good reasons to pick BU 🙂
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All great questions! Even though I'm not in clinical years yet, I'm only MSI, even now, clinical exposure has been great! Through Intro to Clinical Medicine, from the very first week of interview, you learn how to interview patients, communicate with them correctly to get the info you need, and now, at the start of second semester, we're learning how to do physical exams (vitals, cardiopulmonary exams, abdominal exam, etc). And to do that, we spend 3 hours/week shadowing a doctor (it can be someone from family medicine or some specialist...personally, I have a urologist). So clinical exposure has been better than I ever expected.

I believe the shuttle from undergrad campus runs every half-hour on weekdays and maybe every hour on weekends? I'm not totally sure but it's really easy to find this info on BUSM site. If you're actually looking for it and can't find it, let me know and I'll try to get it for you. The gym on the undergrad campus is realllllly nice, since BU is a D1 school....they have great workout equipment, many bball courts, any stuff you'd want. The South End gym (med school campus gym) is decent...it's not big, but it has a bball court where a bunch of us always play pick up ball a few days a week, a pool, and then workout equipment (cardio and lifting). So it's not big and it prob doesn't have "complicated" equipment but it's totally find if you need to do some cardio/lift for an hour.

Now in terms of textbooks....you usually don't need them because the syllabi are so well-put together and so full of info already. The only book I've really used so far has been Netter's for anatomy, Neuroscience atlas, and biochem review book...oh and the physical exam book....but I feel like you could use that book your whole life, it's pretty awesome. So, I think you can get by most classes without getting the textbook.

Professors do a great job with feedback. All of the course directors so far have done an excellent job with really listening to students and asking for feedback on almost everything. If you are ever struggling and need help, there are many people you can ask, starting from your classmates, and then tutors, and professors doors are always open. We also have SAC committees, where around 10 classmates meet with professors every week or so and provide feedback about class or give concerns, and the professors give feedback right away. So, that's been pretty great too since I've been on a SAC committee myself.

Biggest negative is prob the cost. BU is expensive and there's no way getting around it. But personally, for me, I am really happy with BU so far and at least for now,I think it's worth it.

Any more questions?
 
eagle34 said:
All great questions! Even though I'm not in clinical years yet, I'm only MSI, even now, clinical exposure has been great! Through Intro to Clinical Medicine, from the very first week of interview, you learn how to interview patients, communicate with them correctly to get the info you need, and now, at the start of second semester, we're learning how to do physical exams (vitals, cardiopulmonary exams, abdominal exam, etc). And to do that, we spend 3 hours/week shadowing a doctor (it can be someone from family medicine or some specialist...personally, I have a urologist). So clinical exposure has been better than I ever expected.

I believe the shuttle from undergrad campus runs every half-hour on weekdays and maybe every hour on weekends? I'm not totally sure but it's really easy to find this info on BUSM site. If you're actually looking for it and can't find it, let me know and I'll try to get it for you. The gym on the undergrad campus is realllllly nice, since BU is a D1 school....they have great workout equipment, many bball courts, any stuff you'd want. The South End gym (med school campus gym) is decent...it's not big, but it has a bball court where a bunch of us always play pick up ball a few days a week, a pool, and then workout equipment (cardio and lifting). So it's not big and it prob doesn't have "complicated" equipment but it's totally find if you need to do some cardio/lift for an hour.

Now in terms of textbooks....you usually don't need them because the syllabi are so well-put together and so full of info already. The only book I've really used so far has been Netter's for anatomy, Neuroscience atlas, and biochem review book...oh and the physical exam book....but I feel like you could use that book your whole life, it's pretty awesome. So, I think you can get by most classes without getting the textbook.

Professors do a great job with feedback. All of the course directors so far have done an excellent job with really listening to students and asking for feedback on almost everything. If you are ever struggling and need help, there are many people you can ask, starting from your classmates, and then tutors, and professors doors are always open. We also have SAC committees, where around 10 classmates meet with professors every week or so and provide feedback about class or give concerns, and the professors give feedback right away. So, that's been pretty great too since I've been on a SAC committee myself.

Biggest negative is prob the cost. BU is expensive and there's no way getting around it. But personally, for me, I am really happy with BU so far and at least for now,I think it's worth it.

Any more questions?
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eagle, you're awesome!!! you should really get involved with recruiting applicants...you are so enthusiastic and passionate about the school! every time I read your responses, i feel like i should really give up all other acceptances and go to BU, and who knows maybe I will 🙂

thanks so much for answering all my questions!!!:luck:
 
violet7 said:
eagle, you're awesome!!! you should really get involved with recruiting applicants...you are so enthusiastic and passionate about the school! every time I read your responses, i feel like i should really give up all other acceptances and go to BU, and who knows maybe I will 🙂

thanks so much for answering all my questions!!!:luck:
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The cool thing is that most of the MSI are this excited about BU and really would love to recruit applicants. You'll prob meet me and a number of MSI during the admitted students weekend and I definitely suggest you coming because it's really helpful and the administration and students work really hard to make it a great day. Again, any questions, just let me know and I'll do my best to answer.
 
Thanks in advance. Should not be a deciding factor but just curious
 
Got in! They sent an email last night... I never received a call either.
 
What does being deferred mean? Is it like a wait-list? Should I send a letter of interest? Help a fellow SDN! thanks!
 
MDAndrogen said:
What does being deferred mean? Is it like a wait-list? Should I send a letter of interest? Help a fellow SDN! thanks!
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my status page also says deferred. i think we'll be waiting until march for a final decision although previous posters have said that a large portion of acceptances go out in march.
 
MDAndrogen said:
What does being deferred mean? Is it like a wait-list? Should I send a letter of interest? Help a fellow SDN! thanks!
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Deffered as well here. I think I will let them know first that I am still interested and then maybe send a letter of interest some time in February.

Really, in most cases a letter of interest (if carefully crafted) can't hurt your chances, but only improve them.
 
takeittothetop said:
my status page also says deferred. i think we'll be waiting until march for a final decision although previous posters have said that a large portion of acceptances go out in march.
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You are correct.

By the way, to all those who were deferred: be sure to read the deferral email carefully, as you are required to "confirm" that you want to remain under active consideration via the message center. I am pointing this out because I almost missed that part, and wouldn't want anyone to lose their spot because of such a small oversight.
 
Deferred here as well. How do you "confirm" that you want to remain under consideration? I didn't see anything on the status page, but maybe I missed it?

Greonis said:
You are correct.

By the way, to all those who were deferred: be sure to read the deferral email carefully, as you are required to "confirm" that you want to remain under active consideration via the message center. I am pointing this out because I almost missed that part, and wouldn't want anyone to lose their spot because of such a small oversight.
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snowflake2 said:
Deferred here as well. How do you "confirm" that you want to remain under consideration? I didn't see anything on the status page, but maybe I missed it?
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The details are in a deferral email message that you should hopefully receive soon. They ask you to send them a message with "Defer Response" in the subject line prior to January 26th.
 
Thanks!

Greonis said:
The details are in a deferral email message that you should hopefully receive soon. They ask you to send them a message with "Defer Response" in the subject line prior to January 26th.
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Did everyone get deferred? Or did someone got rejected as well?
 
MDIC said:
Did everyone get deferred? Or did someone got rejected as well?
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Not everyone will get deferred. In the follow-up letter after the interview Witzberg wrote this "In mid-January we will send a status update letter to each individual who has interviewed prior to that time, accepting a small number of candidates, declining some, and deferring a final decision on some."

Not sure what "some" means according to him but people do get rejected according to this email
 
did any of you who got in already interview with Witzburg?
 
Yes- I was accepted and interviewed with Dr. Witzburg. He called me last Tuesday night actually and left a message and called me back Wednesday morning.

I really liked BU a lot, but don't think that I'll be going. I was also accepted to Pitt, and I'll probably be going there. I'll try to decide soon and hope that my seat goes to one of you hopefuls!
 
Hey fellow BU interviewees,

I got an e-mail about 30 min after my interview day at BU saying, 'new information regarding your application to BUSM has been posted at MyApplication...'

But when I checked the MyApplication page, as requested, my status changed to, 'Your application is now under consideration by the Committee on Admissions'. what does this mean ? Is this just standard procedure after everyone interviews at BUSM ?

AtG
 
AtheGre said:
Hey fellow BU interviewees,

I got an e-mail about 30 min after my interview day at BU saying, 'new information regarding your application to BUSM has been posted at MyApplication...'

But when I checked the MyApplication page, as requested, my status changed to, 'Your application is now under consideration by the Committee on Admissions'. what does this mean ? Is this just standard procedure after everyone interviews at BUSM ?

AtG
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Yup....your status changes to that right after you interview.
 
accepted!!! :soexcited:

i still can't believe it!
 
medseek1 said:
Thanks in advance. Should not be a deciding factor but just curious
Click to expand...

The average is 222. (National Average is 218). Scores usually range between 160-240. Apparently last year was a really impressive year with several students 240+. This is what they told us in our most recent board review meeting.
 
MDAndrogen said:
What does being deferred mean? Is it like a wait-list? Should I send a letter of interest? Help a fellow SDN! thanks!
Click to expand...

Deferral is not a waitlist. It just means that you will be considered again in March when they review the post-December interviewees.

At that time they will create a waitlist.
 
So did anyone get rejected today? It seems like everyone just got deferred.
 
EMmedic said:
The average is 222. (National Average is 218). Scores usually range between 160-240. Apparently last year was a really impressive year with several students 240+. This is what they told us in our most recent board review meeting.
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Thanks, but when I was there, the student who was with us at lunch said they had 15 pts above the national median.
 
I was accepted (such a relief, this is my first acceptance), but no, I did not interview with Dr. Witzburg. Nor did I receive a phone call from my interviewer.
 
I was deferred as well. 🙁 Did anyone get a rejection e-mail?? Does anyone know how many "deferred" applicants are accepted? (probably not)
 
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