2008-2009 Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Secondary Application Thread

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PremedIowa said:
My primary was verified early August and they haven't even sent me a secondary yet. All the other schools I applied to sent secondaries to me weeks ago.
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You might want to call them. I recieved the secondary two days after I submitted my AMCAS to them in the middle of august.
 
Apparently my school was nice enough to reject the email without even allowing it into my spam folder. I got the problem fixed-they have really nice admissions people there.
 
I completed on the July 15th, so far not a word from MCW, I am OOS, is this normal, any one else?
 
just to let everybody know, MCW looks at the MCAT numbers individually. they require min of 8's in each section, but they will take your best numbers from the last three MCAT attempts. They also typically value GPA over MCAT.
 
Having read through the posts (as opposed to studying for my step 2's) I wanted to clear some stuff up. BTW, I'm an M4 who is a student interviewer for the admissions committee so this is not heresay.

First of all, MCW has plenty of money so there is no incentive to get another $5K from an applicant. The school has state of the art equipment, new library, 3 or 4 new buildings (lose track). Heck, the main hospital we spend most of our M3 and M4 years at just cleared $80million in profit last year. Add to that the $130+ Million in grants we get per year. You get the picture. Anyway, from what I recall, our split is somewhere around 40% IS/60% OOS. We are a private school so don't have any residency requirements.

Second, we usually interview on 2 days each month. Right now the set interview dates are Oct 2nd and the 17th. Invites for Nov should be out in 1-2 weeks. We interview between 40 and 60 people at a shot. Around 500-600 per year and accept around 400 for a class of around 200.

If you applied before the end of August, you probably won't be considered late. We have rolling admissions which means we fill up around the end of Jan and then it's wait list time. Waitlist movement can vary - one year it was 90 and another it was only 12.

Milwaukee is cold. People from California, consider this when applying. 6 months are nice, 6 months kinda suck alot. That said, the 6 months when it sucks make for fewer distractions which equals more studying.

MCW is great at placing residents into competitive specialties. Speaking with different PD's, our residency placement is in the top 25% of medical schools. This is important.

Regarding the MCAT. The higher the better. That said, there are plenty of people who have 28's and 29's so don't worry about this. Regarding your GPA, this kind of depends. If your MCAT is a 36+, a 3.3 will be fine, but if you only have a 28 or 29, you ought to have a 3.7+ to make up for it. As for where you went to school, it doesn't matter. Period. That's why you take the MCAT.

Good luck to all of you during the interview cycle.
 
Thanks Code Brown, Great Post.

P.S.
Does your name have anything to do with medical gas?

Code Brown said:
Having read through the posts (as opposed to studying for my step 2's) I wanted to clear some stuff up. BTW, I'm an M4 who is a student interviewer for the admissions committee so this is not heresay.

First of all, MCW has plenty of money so there is no incentive to get another $5K from an applicant. The school has state of the art equipment, new library, 3 or 4 new buildings (lose track). Heck, the main hospital we spend most of our M3 and M4 years at just cleared $80million in profit last year. Add to that the $130+ Million in grants we get per year. You get the picture. Anyway, from what I recall, our split is somewhere around 40% IS/60% OOS. We are a private school so don't have any residency requirements.

Second, we usually interview on 2 days each month. Right now the set interview dates are Oct 2nd and the 17th. Invites for Nov should be out in 1-2 weeks. We interview between 40 and 60 people at a shot. Around 500-600 per year and accept around 400 for a class of around 200.

If you applied before the end of August, you probably won't be considered late. We have rolling admissions which means we fill up around the end of Jan and then it's wait list time. Waitlist movement can vary - one year it was 90 and another it was only 12.

Milwaukee is cold. People from California, consider this when applying. 6 months are nice, 6 months kinda suck alot. That said, the 6 months when it sucks make for fewer distractions which equals more studying.

MCW is great at placing residents into competitive specialties. Speaking with different PD's, our residency placement is in the top 25% of medical schools. This is important.

Regarding the MCAT. The higher the better. That said, there are plenty of people who have 28's and 29's so don't worry about this. Regarding your GPA, this kind of depends. If your MCAT is a 36+, a 3.3 will be fine, but if you only have a 28 or 29, you ought to have a 3.7+ to make up for it. As for where you went to school, it doesn't matter. Period. That's why you take the MCAT.

Good luck to all of you during the interview cycle.
Click to expand...
 
has anyone received the smaller pool email since 9/3? or anymore interview request?
 
I got into the smaller pool as well.
if by smaller pool, you guys are referring to being waitlisted to interview that is.
my stats are currently the suck, but i must have a really good profile picture that screams out "doctor!"
I get new MCAT scores on tuesday though, so who knows what will happen?
 
So does everyone that recieves an interview first get the smaller pool email, or are there people that just get the interview invite immediately?
 
I got my smaller pool email on 9/3 as well. I am a reapplicant with stats of 3.71/29N. Last year I got the smaller pool email on 10/8 and got an invite to interview in january. I interviews first week of feb and made 3rd quarter of the waiting list. i can only hope that being over a month ahead this year helps me a ton. i think that if you have made the smaller pool at this point, you have a good chance at getting an interview.
 
joponoda said:
Thanks Code Brown, Great Post.

P.S.
Does your name have anything to do with medical gas?
Click to expand...


My volunteer badge at Froedert (MCW's partner hospital) says a Code Brown is a Hazardous Waste Emergency...maybe it was an accident but I am guessing someone in the room was laughing when they made that decision.
 
Code Brown said:
Having read through the posts (as opposed to studying for my step 2's) I wanted to clear some stuff up. BTW, I'm an M4 who is a student interviewer for the admissions committee so this is not heresay.

First of all, MCW has plenty of money so there is no incentive to get another $5K from an applicant. The school has state of the art equipment, new library, 3 or 4 new buildings (lose track). Heck, the main hospital we spend most of our M3 and M4 years at just cleared $80million in profit last year. Add to that the $130+ Million in grants we get per year. You get the picture. Anyway, from what I recall, our split is somewhere around 40% IS/60% OOS. We are a private school so don't have any residency requirements.

Second, we usually interview on 2 days each month. Right now the set interview dates are Oct 2nd and the 17th. Invites for Nov should be out in 1-2 weeks. We interview between 40 and 60 people at a shot. Around 500-600 per year and accept around 400 for a class of around 200.

If you applied before the end of August, you probably won't be considered late. We have rolling admissions which means we fill up around the end of Jan and then it's wait list time. Waitlist movement can vary - one year it was 90 and another it was only 12.

Milwaukee is cold. People from California, consider this when applying. 6 months are nice, 6 months kinda suck alot. That said, the 6 months when it sucks make for fewer distractions which equals more studying.

MCW is great at placing residents into competitive specialties. Speaking with different PD's, our residency placement is in the top 25% of medical schools. This is important.

Regarding the MCAT. The higher the better. That said, there are plenty of people who have 28's and 29's so don't worry about this. Regarding your GPA, this kind of depends. If your MCAT is a 36+, a 3.3 will be fine, but if you only have a 28 or 29, you ought to have a 3.7+ to make up for it. As for where you went to school, it doesn't matter. Period. That's why you take the MCAT.

Good luck to all of you during the interview cycle.
Click to expand...

hey should you be complete by end of August to not be considered late? I intend to be complete by next monday(have 1 more lor). also if an out-of-stater applies to mcw and feels like it's a longshot but is interested in the area (upper midwest), should he also apply to UW, or basically if you get rejected by MCW, u should forget about UW? and would it be too late to add UW to my amcas now? thanks
 
its kind of crap about the where you went to school not mattering part. ive taken classes at schools not anywhere near as prestigious as mine and they were cake. ive also talked to people and they just weren't doing the same difficulty as work who took the same classes as other institutions. im not complaining too much, cause i do have a high gpa, but i gaurantee id have .1-.2 points higher had i gone to a "lesser" school. basically you are rewarding people for not going to as tough of a school.
 
airmax said:
its kind of crap about the where you went to school not mattering part. ive taken classes at schools not anywhere near as prestigious as mine and they were cake. ive also talked to people and they just weren't doing the same difficulty as work who took the same classes as other institutions. im not complaining too much, cause i do have a high gpa, but i gaurantee id have .1-.2 points higher had i gone to a "lesser" school. basically you are rewarding people for not going to as tough of a school.
Click to expand...

i absolutely concur
 
airmax said:
its kind of crap about the where you went to school not mattering part. ive taken classes at schools not anywhere near as prestigious as mine and they were cake. ive also talked to people and they just weren't doing the same difficulty as work who took the same classes as other institutions. im not complaining too much, cause i do have a high gpa, but i gaurantee id have .1-.2 points higher had i gone to a "lesser" school. basically you are rewarding people for not going to as tough of a school.
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If your school is so prestigious and gives you such a good education, your MCAT will show it.
 
ChubbyChaser said:
If your school is so prestigious and gives you such a good education, your MCAT will show it.
Click to expand...

Agree.

My personal opinion is that it's not meaningful to compare schools based on their prestige. It all depends on the strengths and the weaknesses. One department, or hell, even one class in one school might be completely different/harder than at another. The MCAT should show it if your education has prepared you.
 
Mod spam lol.

And I disagree, I dont think classes prepare you for the MCAT at all since it is supposed to be testing the way you think/how well you think for the MCAT, not your understanding of basic science.
 
airmax said:
its kind of crap about the where you went to school not mattering part. ive taken classes at schools not anywhere near as prestigious as mine and they were cake. ive also talked to people and they just weren't doing the same difficulty as work who took the same classes as other institutions. im not complaining too much, cause i do have a high gpa, but i gaurantee id have .1-.2 points higher had i gone to a "lesser" school. basically you are rewarding people for not going to as tough of a school.
Click to expand...
I took orgo 2 at a crappy state school, and we literally got to bring in an entire sheet of paper with whatever we wanted on it for every test... it was a joke. i took orgo 1 at my actual college which is a top 25, and it was SO much harder. So yea, it does matter.
 
Well I have taken courses at four colleges. The most prestigious had some courses that were harder while others were much easier. It all depends on the school, department, and actual classes. Making a blanket statement that all classes taking at a prestigious school are more difficult is naive.
 
I believe this current topic is discussed on other treads, but I will bite...

I have attended three universities around the US and have good friends at other universities including three ivies. From our experience (we have had this discussion before) undergraduate courses do not vary much, if at all, in difficulty or material covered between most reputable universities. So, if you go to a mid-sized state school your O-chem is not going to be different than that of an ivy. However, they are always the exceptional teachers and pampas ass teachers that make or ruin a course - this is fairly stochastic though. In fact the rating most people refer to our not relevant to average undergrads since they usually use determinants such as research funding. This being said there are differences in the type/amount of research opportunities are various universities which is why I have attended two other universities beyond the main one I will graduate from.

Anyways, I am really interested in MCW so maybe we should get back on target. Anyone have any news on MCW?
 
joponoda said:
I believe this current topic is discussed on other treads, but I will bite...

I have attended three universities around the US and have good friends at other universities including three ivies. From our experience (we have had this discussion before) undergraduate courses do not vary much, if at all, in difficulty or material covered between most reputable universities. So, if you go to a mid-sized state school your O-chem is not going to be different than that of an ivy. However, they are always the exceptional teachers and pampas ass teachers that make or ruin a course - this is fairly stochastic though. In fact the rating most people refer to our not relevant to average undergrads since they usually use determinants such as research funding. This being said there are differences in the type/amount of research opportunities are various universities which is why I have attended two other universities beyond the main one I will graduate from.

Anyways, I am really interested in MCW so maybe we should get back on target. Anyone have any news on MCW?
Click to expand...

Well said...and back to MCW it is 🙂
 
genswim24 said:
Well said...and back to MCW it is 🙂
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I got a secondary back in mid august from MCW, with my old MCAT score, but didn't receive my new MCAT score till Sept. 8th. which is the same day that I got an e-mail from them telling me that I was complete....so i guess NOW i have to wait 6-8 weeks, i hope not every med school that i applied to waited to put me in the 6-8 week pile until my new score came out 👎

29Q sGPA 3.69 cGPA 3.68
 
Why 6-8 weeks? is that how long it takes mcw to review completed files?
 
joponoda said:
I believe this current topic is discussed on other treads, but I will bite...

I have attended three universities around the US and have good friends at other universities including three ivies. From our experience (we have had this discussion before) undergraduate courses do not vary much, if at all, in difficulty or material covered between most reputable universities. So, if you go to a mid-sized state school your O-chem is not going to be different than that of an ivy. However, they are always the exceptional teachers and pampas ass teachers that make or ruin a course - this is fairly stochastic though. In fact the rating most people refer to our not relevant to average undergrads since they usually use determinants such as research funding. This being said there are differences in the type/amount of research opportunities are various universities which is why I have attended two other universities beyond the main one I will graduate from.

Anyways, I am really interested in MCW so maybe we should get back on target. Anyone have any news on MCW?
Click to expand...

YEah, I don't know who those gouchos think they are, all drinkin' their mate like they're better than us.
 
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ChubbyChaser said:
If your school is so prestigious and gives you such a good education, your MCAT will show it.
Click to expand...

yes, and lets trust 5 hours of work one one day vs thousands of hours of work over 4 years. im not saying that the MCAT shouldnt be important; its the only way to objectively compare students (even though it has its faults). im just saying that schools shouldn't toss out institutional difficulty. but like others said, this isn't a thread about that.

for those who do get an interview at MCW remember that they rely a lot more on the interview than other schools do. if you are a strong interviewer it will help you a lot.
 
Does MCW give out scholarships?
 
Okay, so code brown said that there will be more interview invites in 1-2 weeks. Its been about a week (maybe a little more), so lets everyone cross our fingers and hope we get selected!!!🙂 MCW I LOVE YOU!!!😍😍😍
 
ayushman80 said:
Okay, so code brown said that there will be more interview invites in 1-2 weeks. Its been about a week (maybe a little more), so lets everyone cross our fingers and hope we get selected!!!🙂 MCW I LOVE YOU!!!😍😍😍
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please send me one!!!:luck:
 
Code Brown
As for where you went to school, it doesn't matter. Period. That's why you take the MCAT.
Click to expand...

That's not true. Period. Coming from an Ivy certainly trumps coming from a State U. The MCAT would have to be significantly higher to make up for a mediocre or less challenging undergraduate institution.
 
BrainBuff said:
Code Brown

That's not true. Period. Coming from an Ivy certainly trumps coming from a State U. The MCAT would have to be significantly higher to make up for a mediocre or less challenging undergraduate institution.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your worldly opinion. I don't know how I lived without it.

Now, stop :beat: or go beat that horse on a different thread.
 
BrainBuff said:
Code Brown

That's not true. Period. Coming from an Ivy certainly trumps coming from a State U. The MCAT would have to be significantly higher to make up for a mediocre or less challenging undergraduate institution.
Click to expand...


But I took pre-calculus at a community college after my freshman year and thought it was really hard. I’m not sure if you’re right about the Ivy League being better theory. If the class is hard, it’s hard.
 
BrainBuff said:
Code Brown

That's not true. Period. Coming from an Ivy certainly trumps coming from a State U. The MCAT would have to be significantly higher to make up for a mediocre or less challenging undergraduate institution.
Click to expand...

UCSD, UCLA, and UCSF are state universities that have given ivies a huge run for heir money.
 
chessknt87 said:
UCSD, UCLA, and UCSF are state universities that have given ivies a huge run for heir money.
Click to expand...

UCSF isn't an undergrad. UC Berkeley, UCLA and UMichigan are probably the state U's on the same level as the top privates.
 
Man, I'm getting anxious about MCW. Any small poolers get interview invites yet? Anyone know if the adcom for MCW will be sending out invites soon?
 
So I got small-pooled today which means I have to wait longer to find out about an interview. Anyone else in the same boat? Anyone know how fast their turn-around is on smalled pooled applicants?
 
herkyMD said:
So I got small-pooled today which means I have to wait longer to find out about an interview. Anyone else in the same boat? Anyone know how fast their turn-around is on smalled pooled applicants?
Click to expand...

You're in good company pal, there are a lot of us like you. Supposedly a bunch of people with this email last year ended up with invites later on. Just gotta be patient. Good luck to you.
 
I got small-pooled today, too. I'm hoping to get puddled next.
 
I got small pooled today too. I think that they sent me an e-mail earlier and I missed it or it went to my spam box. I called the admissions office today and they said that I should have gotten an e-mail. Since I had not, she said she would have them resend it. I probably deleted the first one because it didn't have MCW in the topic line. Oh well.
 
Hey - best of luck to those getting small pooled. Even though there's still hope for you, the waiting game has got to be frustrating.

I've been complete at MCW for two months now but haven't heard peep. Are other people in the same boat? If not, I'm givin' 'em a ring.
 
brucecanbeatyou said:
So I've been complete since August 12, with no news. Are you guys getting these small pool messages from the secondary application status check?
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You should probably call them. I got an e-mail with this in the subject line: "Update - Medical College of Wisconsin." The status page hasn't changed one bit since I've been complete.
 
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