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2009-2010 Mayo Medical School Application Thread
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Akasha
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Just a heads up for those waiting to see if you get reviewed tomorrow, my "reviewed" email came to me at 7:30 p.m. PST (10:30 EST), instead of the typical 2:30 a.m. EST. I hope that doesn't make some of you more neurotic tomorrow evening, but I figured some of you may have wanted to know that.
hahaha, I was just about to ask when the email came. i appreciate it, man.
let's keep our fingers crossed orange4me!
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Received an invite this morning! Verified in mid-August, LOR request late August.
I've got a quite mediocre (in the true sense of the word, not SDN "mediocre") MCAT score, so there is hope!
Look forward to visiting.
I've got a quite mediocre (in the true sense of the word, not SDN "mediocre") MCAT score, so there is hope!
Look forward to visiting.
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Congrats! Mayo is probably the only top school where a mediocre MCAT will not lead to your doom. Good luck. This was definitely an incredible experience to interview here.
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Akasha
Congrats!
Also, it's better to have a mediocre MCAT than a mediocre GPA for Mayo, so don't worry too much about it. Just read up on Mayo and prepare for the interview well.
not that it really matters because i think Mayo is definitely the best med school in the US 😍 (and its current rank is actually more than respectable)...but what is keeping Mayo from being in the top-10 or even top-5 in the US News rankings especially since Mayo Clinic is consistently ranked number 1 or 2 in the US in many specialties and Mayo is one the most selective if not the most selective medical schools?? is it the money it receives from NIH grants?? i cant think of anything that would keep Mayo behind some of the schools that are ranked higher than it...like i said it really doesn't matter but I am just curious..
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Mayo is very clinically driven. Thus, while the institution itself gets a very large amount of NIH dollars, the dollars:faculty ratio is not as high as at purely research-driven institutions like Harvard. The reason for this is that many faculty at MMS do little or not research, while almost all of the faculty at some other schools do extramurally funded research. This is party of the reason I think the US News rankings aren't a great metric for choosing a med school. Mayo is the 2nd most selective school in the nation and gives you a phenomenal medical education (some of the highest USMLE scores in the nation).
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I'm going to be "that guy" and say what I'm sure at least some others are thinking. One week left!!! Hopefully around this time next week we should have a decent idea of our fates with Mayo (or at least our temporary fates for those of us put on hold). I know the chances are slim, but I hope at least one of us SDNers gets an early acceptance. As for me, I'd just like to know my short-term or long-term fate with Mayo. I'm sending positive vibes out for this next week and lots of these 
. The wait is almost over.
. The wait is almost over.I'm going to be "that guy" and say what I'm sure at least some others are thinking. One week left!!! Hopefully around this time next week we should have a decent idea of our fates with Mayo (or at least our temporary fates for those of us put on hold). I know the chances are slim, but I hope at least one of us SDNers gets an early acceptance. As for me, I'd just like to know my short-term or long-term fate with Mayo. I'm sending positive vibes out for this next week and lots of these
hahaha, nothing wrong with being "that guy." although it may have be tough and we may not recognize it just yet, this whole application process is a very exciting part of our lives. I have really just been enjoying the ride. specifically with regard to Mayo though, I just hope I get ranked today so I can have like a 7 or 8% chance of hearing some wonderful news this time next week 🙂
When were you complete? I've been compulsively checking my inbox for the last 3 weeks since completion and no news yet...
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Have to jump in here. We do a ton of research; most of the first year class is involved in one or more research projects already. Mayo is also unlike most places in that they fund a lot of their own research internally, doubling what our scientists get from NIH in grants.
But you are right, we have a lot of faculty that are dedicated towards just exceptional clinical practice and education. That last one makes more of a difference than you might think.
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Congrats! That means you're in the running now.
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While Mayo is all about integrating the three shields in the practice of medicine (research, clinical practice and education), it is true that not all consultants at Mayo are extremely involved in research, and instead may focus on education (which, for example, could mean that they're the head of a Mayo residency/fellowship program, as well as teach in the med school).
And regarding PremedIowa's comment above, absolutely. In fact, many of our professors talk about how the six weeks they get to teach us are a highlight of the year. At the end of our last block, our cardiovascular professors (all practicing physicians, of course) got together to host a catered party for us at one of their homes after the final. Just because they appreciated teaching us. How cool is that? And the cardiologists that taught the first half of the course invited us out for drinks after the midterm.
Honestly, the vast majority of instructors here are phenomenal. They're eager to teach us, available to shadow, and can help with research interests as well. And while I was initially a little put off by the idea of having a bunch of different instructors for one class, I've found it's usually a great strength. You get to learn from physicians with many different areas of specialization within the field, and have even broader exposure to people in the department. That could come in handy if it ends up being an area you want to pursue further for shadowing or research, and especially for putting together some great selectives.
Speaking of selectives, I think this is one of the strongest educational components of Mayo, and really makes it stand out from other schools. If you haven't already heard about our selectives, after each six week block of classes (purely pass/fail), we get two weeks with no classes scheduled for "selectives." A selective could be shadowing a physician, volunteering at a clinic, doing research, presenting at a conference, etc. And if you are presenting at a conference or helping an underserved community, you can use Mayo's travel stipend to cover the costs (you can also use the travel stipend to do third and fourth year rotations at Mayo's Scottsdale, AZ and Jacksonville, FL locations).
Last year a large group of students used the travel stipend during a selective to help provide healthcare in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, assisted by Mayo physicians. I went to El Salvador, and I can confirm that it was a truly amazing experience. I've also used selectives to shadow in dermatology, medical genetics, lower limb orthopedic surgery, upper limb orthopedic surgery, ENT surgery at Rush in Chicago, interventional radiology, transplant surgery at Mayo in Scottsdale, two weeks to do research, and recently, to attend an amazing symposium in Switzerland (although I wasn't able to use the stipend since I wasn't presenting). So, you can get exposure to a ton of different areas of medicine before third year even starts. For people like me who are interested in everything, I think it's a huge benefit. And for someone who already knows what they're interested in, it gives you the opportunity to focus on research in that area, or to really spend some time shadowing and getting to know physicians in that field. Of course, most blocks we also have several days a week with either 1pm-5pm free (first year), or 8am-12pm free (second year), and some students use those days to shadow as well.
Good luck to those waiting anxiously to be ranked!
Thanks! now for the longest week of my life, lol 🙂
While Mayo is all about integrating the three shields in the practice of medicine (research, clinical practice and education), it is true that not all consultants at Mayo are extremely involved in research, and instead may focus on education (which, for example, could mean that they're the head of a Mayo residency/fellowship program, as well as teach in the med school).
And regarding PremedIowa's comment above, absolutely. In fact, many of our professors talk about how the six weeks they get to teach us are a highlight of the year. At the end of our last block, our cardiovascular professors (all practicing physicians, of course) got together to host a catered party for us at one of their homes after the final. Just because they appreciated teaching us. How cool is that? And the cardiologists that taught the first half of the course invited us out for drinks after the midterm.
Honestly, the vast majority of instructors here are phenomenal. They're eager to teach us, available to shadow, and can help with research interests as well. And while I was initially a little put off by the idea of having a bunch of different instructors for one class, I've found it's usually a great strength. You get to learn from physicians with many different areas of specialization within the field, and have even broader exposure to people in the department. That could come in handy if it ends up being an area you want to pursue further for shadowing or research, and especially for putting together some great selectives.
Speaking of selectives, I think this is one of the strongest educational components of Mayo, and really makes it stand out from other schools. If you haven't already heard about our selectives, after each six week block of classes (purely pass/fail), we get two weeks with no classes scheduled for "selectives." A selective could be shadowing a physician, volunteering at a clinic, doing research, presenting at a conference, etc. And if you are presenting at a conference or helping an underserved community, you can use Mayo's travel stipend to cover the costs (you can also use the travel stipend to do third and fourth year rotations at Mayo's Scottsdale, AZ and Jacksonville, FL locations).
Last year a large group of students used the travel stipend during a selective to help provide healthcare in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, assisted by Mayo physicians. I went to El Salvador, and I can confirm that it was a truly amazing experience. I've also used selectives to shadow in dermatology, medical genetics, lower limb orthopedic surgery, upper limb orthopedic surgery, ENT surgery at Rush in Chicago, interventional radiology, transplant surgery at Mayo in Scottsdale, two weeks to do research, and recently, to attend an amazing symposium in Switzerland (although I wasn't able to use the stipend since I wasn't presenting). So, you can get exposure to a ton of different areas of medicine before third year even starts. For people like me who are interested in everything, I think it's a huge benefit. And for someone who already knows what they're interested in, it gives you the opportunity to focus on research in that area, or to really spend some time shadowing and getting to know physicians in that field. Of course, most blocks we also have several days a week with either 1pm-5pm free (first year), or 8am-12pm free (second year), and some students use those days to shadow as well.
Good luck to those waiting anxiously to be ranked!
Just when I don't think I can get any more excited about Mayo, Phoenix comes along, lol. Seriously though, thank you the great post (as usual! 🙂 ). I didn't know that if you do any 3rd or 4th yr rotations in Arizona or Florida the cost of the flights come out of your $4,800 travel stipend. Still, hard to complain. Am I correct that Mayo does pay for your housing and a car if you choose to do your rotations at one of the other sites? The car part is the one that really gets me 🙂 How long can you go to AZ or FL for these rotations (in other words, is there a limit on the time/number of rotations you can do at the other sites)? Are there limited number of spots? Is placement not guaranteed? These questions just kind of came to me as I wrote this response, lol.
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Same here. This is going to be a long week. At least we have a holiday weekend to distract us. I'm prepared for a long wait though. It would be tough to wait until January thinking that you have a chance and then get rejected. I guess that's what we signed up for though...
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You can have as much contact with the other Mayo sites for clerkships as fits your goals. I know we had one student that just graduated that spent multiple 3rd year core clerkships and nearly all of her 4th year in Scottsdale, AZ. There is not really a limited number of spots; the other Mayo sites do not have medical schools so all their resources are available to MMS students from Rochester. Certain clerkships might fill up for a given time period, but that is about it. And yes, they do pay for your housing and car and give you $600 for expenses out of your stipend for core clerkships (not sure about electives).
The wait's over for me - I just got a rejection email last night (2:30 am, lol). LOR Request 7/28, Complete 9/17 (yeah it took my school an insane long time to post the letters)
Good luck to everyone still in the running! MAYOOO
Good luck to everyone still in the running! MAYOOO
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I got my ranking e-mail today! I got worried when OMSTR got his last night and I didn't have one until today... I didn't think I could handle waiting for a third review meeting to be complete!
Yeah, me too. LOR received 9/30, no news.
Pumped to hear something, but I know it could be a very long while.
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Really should be called "rating" in my opinion, but they call it ranking, and it means that your application is ranked from 1-5 (5 being the best) after you interview. Not sure how this plays into the final decision though; a 24-member committee decides your rank, then a group of 3 people makes the ultimate decision on your file. Ranking decisions are made weekly on Thursdays I think, and you are notified when you've been ranked. Both of your interviewers must be present at the meeting for you to be ranked. After ranking, you are eligible for appointment the next time they are given out; if you are not appointed, you are put on hold. In January, all holds either become waitlisted or rejected (though you can be appointed between getting put on hold and the end of the year). Hopefully that makes some sense...
Seems like Thursday/Friday thus far. The Admissions Committee meets on Thursdays (every other Thursday I believe?) to rank applicants post-interview...so it seems like they get the news out shortly thereafter. 🙂
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My understanding was that they meet every week, but I might be wrong. I guess if they met every week they would only have 2 days of interviews to review (in addition to reconsidering people on hold), so maybe it's every other week. I know that 7 or 8 appointments will be going out every two weeks until the end of December. Not sure if those will always go out on Thursday, but next week's should be going out on the 15th at least. But yeah it seems like the ranking emails go out varying times on Thursday nights, maybe it depends on when their meeting finishes up.
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I didn't know they were going to be doing 7-8 appointments every two weeks. That is kind of good to hear.
Neither did I. I thought it was 7-10 appointments every month. Well, I guess they had to switch it up because of the accelerated schedule this year.
It's so close to the 15th!!!! ahhhhhh!!!! 🙂
I gotta say that this is a gigantic stretch. Mayo is an excellent institution but it definitely has significant weaknesses. You see a very limited patient population due to the location in Rochester. Mayo gets really interesting cases as referrals, but it really can't compete with Harvard or UCSF in terms of the breadth of clinical exposure. Also, with a class size of only 40, you have limited privacy and significant drama within each class.
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prepare for a grilling
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Well, I think its 7-8 every two weeks because they plan to have a complete class (42+) by the end of the year. If we just have October, November, December, you would need about 14 each month, or 7ish every couple weeks. Maybe I misunderstood Marcy, but that's just my interpretation of what she said.
I agree that Mayo is in a less diverse area than San Francisco or Boston, but don't act like Mayo is some community hospital that serves a homogeneous population. Mayo (Minnesota campus) has 1.5 million outpatient visits annually, the same number as Mass General, for example. Mass General has 900 inpatient beds; Mayo's two Rochester hospitals have over 2000 combined. Mass General has 37,000 operations per year, Mayo has over 52,000. I know that MGH is only one of Harvard's hospitals, but still, I highly doubt that Mayo's students are lacking in seeing a diversity of cases. People travel from all of the country and world to see Mayo physicians, and having only about 40 kids in each class means that there are way more patients per student than many other medical centers. As for the small class size, yeah, some people like it, others might not, but I don't think that has any bearing on Mayo's standing as a medical school.
Fair points, but your argument is kinda out of scope, as you mentioned yourself. Mass Gen is just one of many hospitals Harvard students have access to (Brigham and Women, Beth Israel, etc.). Also, you have to look at UCSF which has access to literally all of the hospitals (dozens) within SF and also in Fresno. I found that to be one of the most incredible aspects of that school and why it is known to train incredible clinicians.
Obviously the Mayo model is a unique one and it absolutely has its merits. I'm just saying that there are weaknesses that come with essentially being a tertiary referral center. IMO, Mayo is analogous to Stanford except that Stanford does a lot more cutting-edge research and is in a better location (at least weather-wise! 😉). I think Mayo definitely deserves to be in the top 15 but it's obviously not the best school in the country.
lol, I'm just trying to keep things in perspective. How's your cycle going?
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lol ya. pretty well, just trying to enjoy life and not freak out. seems like you are also doing well
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Mayo is certainly not perfect, and I think that its location is in many ways a limiting factor. But you mentioned the Mayo model, and to me, that is what makes it special and that's the reason why I want to go there. It's true that if you want the #1 most diverse patient population and the #1 most cutting-edge research, Mayo is not going to be that place. I might not end up getting into Mayo, but the Mayo system is the #1 way that I think medicine should be practiced, and to me that takes precedence over everything else.
Oh most definitely! Mayo has an incredible program and it does train excellent physicians. I hope I didn't give the impression that I thought they do otherwise. I love Mayo and actually a lot of the docs I work for refer patients down there for surgeries.
I think UChicago is actually copying Mayo's program. UChicago is a great example of a school that Mayo is WAY better than even though the rankings don't reflect that fact. UChicago students are overfocused on research and ultimately are not that great of clinicians. They also have board scores that are about the national mean.
Mayo, on the other hand, accepts numerous students with MCATs around the national mean (32) and has mean board scores around 235 or better (I think). That fact alone should prove two points: 1) Rankings are not that useful 2) Mayo is a great school.
My first post was just meant to say that it's a stretch to say it's the best school in the country because it, like many other schools, has its faults.
Awesome man. Me too... my senior year has been a lot more relaxed so far although it's still hectic in terms of time because I've essentially missed 3 weeks of class for interviews. I can't wait for next Thursday and
an acceptance from Michigan... then I can decline my interview at WashU and maybe Duke. I wish UCSF would get back to its applicants in October... that place has my heart lol... Also, I remember I flamed you a few weeks back for some random post and I'm sorry about that. Best of luck with everything!
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Yeah, fair enough. I remember at my Mayo interview, they said exactly what you just did, that their high board scores cannot be explained by their entering class' MCAT scores. I didn't know what you mentioned about UChicago, but I do think that some schools focus too much on admitting excellent medical STUDENTS and not as much on excellent future clinicians. Mayo is a school that definitely tries to avoid that. I agree that rankings aren't really useful at all, but I guess there's no getting rid of them now...
Anyways, good luck this fall!
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