2008-2009 Case Western Secondary Application Thread

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hmm looking at the spreadsheet that's a sticky...seems like case gives out a lot of interviews but they cut a lot after the interview stage....

the odd seem to be 1:~6-7 for an interview and 1:~10 for post-interview acceptance.
 
I remember something about ~1000 being interviewed, and 137 matriculating (for OOS). If 137 matriculate, then they must have accepted way more than that to begin with. Maybe double??
 
yeah number given there must be marticulated instead of accepted. I saw 137 too. Ok, so not as bad. around 1:~5.
 
Quoted, in support of my application :meanie:
😀 👍

i called and the lady on the phone marked me complete 🙂

looking at last yrs thread, it looks like interviews came at different times for Cleveland clinic and case... is that right? i was hoping i could schedule them around the same time and save money.... i guess this just means ill get to visit twice!
If you've applied to both programs and they both invite you, they will try to schedule your interviews back to back so you won't have to come out to Cleveland twice. That's what they've always done in the past, anyway, and I haven't heard of it being different this year. For those of you who applied to both programs, it will probably take you longer to hear back because of this. In other words, the UP and CCLCM both will consider your app before either or both sends you the invite. If they don't do it this way, they won't be able to coordinate the interviews.

To those who are writing the essay on your research experience:

So it seems to me that they do want to hear some details on the actual project itself, "the question you pursued and how you approached it, your results and interpretation of the results."

How much scientific background are you presenting? It would take me a big paragraph to even just explain what's going on, and probably another big paragraph to explain my particular project, why it's any use at all, and why my research group wanted to pursue this project (I'm doing p-chem-ish stuff, mixed with a pinch of synthetic organic chem and inorganic metal chemistry).

Results (really?!) and interpretation: I'm not really sure how to approach this, since most of the interpretation came from the grad student (not me!) who was much more familiar with this material (besides, he pretty much expected what was going to happen; this was a rather simple and smaller part of his bigger project).

I feel like unless I have the background info, the results won't make much sense... and at this rate, I'm not going to be able to spend a lot of characters on describing what the experience meant to me, AND the essay will be probably very dense and technical.... any thoughts?!
You need to be able to explain your research so that someone with no training in that field can understand it. In other words, write to the level of an intelligent layman. You should be able to give an "elevator pitch" of your research in one normal sized paragraph. If you can't, then you're going into too much detail. Focus on explaining the conceptual idea behind what you did, not the technicalities of how you did experiments or reviewing the history of your whole field. Even though you didn't do the interpretation on your own, you hopefully understand what the results mean and can explain them to someone else.

Good luck, everyone.
 
Umm... I just got a weird email. The email address is mine, but the name in the salutation is not.

"Dear -----:

Welcome to Case Western Reserve University.

The University has a new registration system with a robust and flexible web-based PeopleSoft Student Information system (SIS). Listed below are instructions for obtaining your CWRU network ID and for registration:"

This was a mistake, right? I'm not even complete yet.
 
Umm... I just got a weird email. The email address is mine, but the name in the salutation is not.

"Dear -----:

Welcome to Case Western Reserve University.

The University has a new registration system with a robust and flexible web-based PeopleSoft Student Information system (SIS). Listed below are instructions for obtaining your CWRU network ID and for registration:"

This was a mistake, right? I'm not even complete yet.
Yeah, that's got to be a mistake. SIS is for current students, not applicants.
 
To those who are writing the essay on your research experience:

So it seems to me that they do want to hear some details on the actual project itself, "the question you pursued and how you approached it, your results and interpretation of the results."

How much scientific background are you presenting? It would take me a big paragraph to even just explain what's going on, and probably another big paragraph to explain my particular project, why it's any use at all, and why my research group wanted to pursue this project (I'm doing p-chem-ish stuff, mixed with a pinch of synthetic organic chem and inorganic metal chemistry).

Results (really?!) and interpretation: I'm not really sure how to approach this, since most of the interpretation came from the grad student (not me!) who was much more familiar with this material (besides, he pretty much expected what was going to happen; this was a rather simple and smaller part of his bigger project).

I feel like unless I have the background info, the results won't make much sense... and at this rate, I'm not going to be able to spend a lot of characters on describing what the experience meant to me, AND the essay will be probably very dense and technical.... any thoughts?!


I'm definitely in the same boat as you...too much space writing about the project and not enough about what the research meant to me......does anyone know if the character limit really gets cut off at 3500, or do we have more space to keep going....that would solve the problem.
 
I'm definitely in the same boat as you...too much space writing about the project and not enough about what the research meant to me......does anyone know if the character limit really gets cut off at 3500, or do we have more space to keep going....that would solve the problem.

I got cut off after the character limit.
 
did you figure that out ever.. i got the same thing??

Sorry about not getting back sooner! Just to clarify what had already been posted above, for everyone who gets the "status update" email, wait about 3-4 hours for iApply to be updated and allow you to schedule an interview.

I was freaking out when I got the email and didn't see anything (thought I had already gotten a rejection!!) Looking forward to meeting those of you doing the 9/15 interview!!
 
I got cut off after the character limit.



Really how so? When you press "print application at the end" my essays don't get cut off, and they're around 4500 characters...does this change when you actually submit?
 
Really how so? When you press "print application at the end" my essays don't get cut off, and they're around 4500 characters...does this change when you actually submit?

nope it wouldnt let me paste the whole thing in... it would cut off the end .. but then again im might be confusing this with another secondary 🙂
 
Monday, August 04, 2008Dear ******:

Your status with the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has been recently updated. Please log onto iApply and check the status page to see your most recent messages.

Troy Frazier
Case School of Medicine

I assume this same exact e-mail goes out when the application is first marked as complete?

Edit: It would appear not. The changes showed up 3-4 hours later as others said. I just didn't expect an interview invite the same day my letters we marked received (granted the rest of the app was done several weeks ago). See you guys the 12th!?
 
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I just looked at the secondary invite, and they said that they prefer that you fill it out within 2 weeks, even though the deadline is sometime in December.

Do they really know when they sent it to you and do they check? i mean... lots of people here haev had problems getting it... do you think this should be a concern?

sorry, always worried about these deadline things.
 
I assume this same exact e-mail goes out when the application is first marked as complete?

Edit: It would appear not. The changes showed up 3-4 hours later as others said. I just didn't expect an interview invite the same day my letters we marked received (granted the rest of the app was done several weeks ago). See you guys the 12th!?


yeah i'll be there the 12th!
 
I just looked at the secondary invite, and they said that they prefer that you fill it out within 2 weeks, even though the deadline is sometime in December.

Do they really know when they sent it to you and do they check? i mean... lots of people here haev had problems getting it... do you think this should be a concern?

sorry, always worried about these deadline things.


I called them about this and the lady said it's not strict AT ALL. It's just a way of them to get us to get on our @sses and not dawdle too long on the app.
 
This thread needs an ongoing list of when people completed their application and when they got their interview invite. But I'm too lazy to start it. 🙁 Any takers?
 
So how is Cleveland anyway? I only hear sad stories about it from my OH buddies.


ohio.jpg
 
I am from Cleveland, and that pretty much sums it up right there.
 
ARGH- i just submitted my secondary for UP and CP and was surprised that they havent gotten my supplemental rec from my research adviser yet- I realized I was stupid and forgot to tell her to put my AMCAS ID on it, so it just has my name. ARGH! did this happen to anybody else? should i ask my adviser to send another one, or wait it out and hope that whoever comes across it at Case is nice enough to put in the extra effort to make sure it gets to my file? the recommendation was sent on august 12, so it might be too early to worry? ARGH! any thoughts?
 
I'm definitely in the same boat as you...too much space writing about the project and not enough about what the research meant to me......does anyone know if the character limit really gets cut off at 3500, or do we have more space to keep going....that would solve the problem.

It's always hard to cut down your research. But think of it this way - a med student is reading a stack of application essays 6 inches thick and their attention span is about 45 seconds. So you don't really want to go over the max. If anything, shorter and more concise is better. I ended writing an essay that was definitely longer than the limit but that I felt explained my research and results thoroughly. After a day, I sat down with a friend and read through it out loud. When you do that, it's easier to cut stuff out, and you can make sure that you actually answer the question posed in the prompt. Hope this helps. I'll be at Case on the 15th!!!
 
So I scheduled my interview yesterday (Oct 27...anyone else??...I am starting work on Sept 15th and can't take off right when I start 🙁) I got an email today about a status update but obviously nothing will show up for a few hours. I already got the update email to say my interview is confirmed...now I'm freaking out that I'm going to see "Oh Whoops. you don't get an interview, we had a computer glitch. sorry for the inconvenience" :scared: Did anyone else get ANOTHER status update email post interview confirmation???!?!
 
anyone have any news about CCLCM? Last year, interviews started Sept 4.... im so tempted to call :/
 
I'd call..at the very least you can get to speak with the nice reception people 🙂
 
Anyone have any good ideas for the personally challenging experience essay? My best option was already used in my personal statement, and I wouldn't want to repeat. Also, apparently it is unwise to apply to just the UP and not the CCLCM? Thanks for the help!
 
I wouldn't say it's unwise..I applied to the UP program only because I had somewhat limited research experience (no science research, only did 2-3 psych research). Still got an iview though. Personally, while research is somewhat interesting to me, I'm mostly interested in the clinical aspect of medicine. The 4-month research requirement sounds perfect for me. Spending more time than that..hm, that's a little too much.
 
hmm looking at the spreadsheet that's a sticky...seems like case gives out a lot of interviews but they cut a lot after the interview stage....

the odd seem to be 1:~6-7 for an interview and 1:~10 for post-interview acceptance.

I remember something about ~1000 being interviewed, and 137 matriculating (for OOS). If 137 matriculate, then they must have accepted way more than that to begin with. Maybe double??

Click on the "Introducing the Class of 2011" Grey Box
http://casemed.case.edu/admissions/class_profile.cfm

It looks like for the UP, 17% are interviewed and 42% were accepted!! 👍
 
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Anyone else have any responses about just applying to UP? Bad idea? Will I be asked why I only applied to the one program in an interview?
 
Do you know if CW is unusually slow with processing electronic LORs?

I submitted my LORs through interfolio, electronic, on 7/31 and it's still not marked as received (app submitted mid-Aug). Should I try sending again?
 
Do you know if CW is unusually slow with processing electronic LORs?

I submitted my LORs through interfolio, electronic, on 7/31 and it's still not marked as received (app submitted mid-Aug). Should I try sending again?

You should e-mail/call them. I sent mine much later and have already been marked as complete.
 
Am I the last one to realize this? I just ran across this info on Case's website. Wish I would have seen this a few weeks ago...🙁 I was wondering what was taking so long.



CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

SECONDARY APPLICATION INFORMATION

UPDATE August 11, 2008

We are happy to report the source of our email problems has been discovered and resolved. The central University server was blocking our outgoing emails since a large number of emails were continuously coming from one address ([email protected]). Essentially, the server thought the iapply emails to our applicants were spam leaving the University. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused. It is still considered early in the application cycle so please complete and submit our secondary application in a timely manner. Thank you!

August 4, 2008
Our secondary application became available to applicants with verified AMCAS applications on Friday, July 20, 2008. Typically, once we receive a verified application from AMCAS an email is automatically sent from our iApply email service within 72 hours inviting the applicant to complete our secondary. This year it appears a high rate of these email invitations are being blocked. We are currently working on several solutions to solve this issue.

In the interim, if you have a verified AMCAS application and have not yet received this iApply email invitation, please follow the instructions below for accessing our secondary application web site:
  1. Visit the secondary web site: https://iapply.case.edu/
  2. Click the "retrieve your password" button, and fill out the fields for your email address, SSN, and AMCAS ID number.
  3. Once you submit this information a new iapply password will be emailed to you.
Thank you!
 
got an interview from both programs today! :]
 
Awesome Amph! Mind me asking what date you were complete? Thanks.

July like 25th or something.

Am I dreaming? I think I am, haha. This can't be real.
 
I'm being ignored for some reason...anyone else only applying to the UP program? Does it look bad to not apply to CCLCM? Thanks priam for responding to my first question...
 
I'm being ignored for some reason...anyone else only applying to the UP program? Does it look bad to not apply to CCLCM? Thanks priam for responding to my first question...

I don't know if it looks bad if you don't apply to CCLCM...I only applied to the UP and got an interview. I don't see why it would look bad, for all they know you have a good reason for not applying to CCLCM. I think that people are just saying you may as well apply to both because part of the secondaries overlap and you only have to pay one fee even if you do both. So it seems more cost effective.
 
July like 25th or something.

Am I dreaming? I think I am, haha. This can't be real.

Congrats! I applied to both too and was complete around the 8th of August-ish. Gives me hope!
 
Nevermind, I'm an idiot.
 
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Nevermind again, no I'm not an idiot. I got an e-mail saying I'm supposed to schedule my interviews at Case electronically. How do I go about doing that? Is it a website orrrrrrr should I just call in orrrrrrrr am I still an idiot? Anyone else get such an e-mail?

HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEE
 
Nevermind again, no I'm not an idiot. I got an e-mail saying I'm supposed to schedule my interviews at Case electronically. How do I go about doing that? Is it a website orrrrrrr should I just call in orrrrrrrr am I still an idiot? Anyone else get such an e-mail?

HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEE

On your status page under "correspondence" there is a link saying "you have been invited to interview" right? Click on that and then there is another link where you can schedule. At least that's how it was for UP
 
On your status page under "correspondence" there is a link saying "you have been invited to interview" right? Click on that and then there is another link where you can schedule. At least that's how it was for UP

Hmm something is busted. There isn't any link for me after I click on the original message. Mine is different though maybe, because I was invited to both programs?

blah
 
Received the following e-mail around 2pm EST - this is the first e-mail I've received from Case.

"Dear Applicant: Hello! On August 26th you were emailed an invitation to interview at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. We are using an electronic calendar this year which will enable you to schedule your interview date electronically. If you run into any problems scheduling your interview please don't hesitate to contact me. I look forward to meeting you on your interview day! Best wishes.

Ellen Rosenblum - Admissions
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine"

First, I was complete only yesterday -- August 26. Second, I didn't receive an e-mail invite to interview on Aug. 26. Third, there is no link on my status page.

What's going on???
 
Received the following e-mail around 2pm EST - this is the first e-mail I've received from Case.

"Dear Applicant: Hello! On August 26th you were emailed an invitation to interview at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. We are using an electronic calendar this year which will enable you to schedule your interview date electronically. If you run into any problems scheduling your interview please don't hesitate to contact me. I look forward to meeting you on your interview day! Best wishes.

Ellen Rosenblum - Admissions
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine"

First, I was complete only yesterday -- August 26. Second, I didn't receive an e-mail invite to interview on Aug. 26. Third, there is no link on my status page.

What's going on???

Haha, something is going crazy somewhere. I'll call in tomorrow and ask what's up and pass along what they say.
 
Ok...I just got an email from case saying my status has been updated...but it hasnt!!! What's up with that? If there was an interview invite, where would that be on my status page?!?!
 
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