2009-2010 The Commonwealth Medical College Application Thread

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Acceptance email this morning. I probably will be withdrawing though. I'm pretty sure there will be a good number of acceptances off the waitlist.
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i submitted my secondary the end of october (late, i know)....it took about 3 weeks before i was marked complete and it has yet to be marked as "sent to evaluators for screening".....is this common/did it take this long for everyone?

thanks!
 
skeptic29 said:
Acceptance email this morning. I probably will be withdrawing though. I'm pretty sure there will be a good number of acceptances off the waitlist.
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Thank you for doing this early, I'm really hoping for an acceptance from this school. (waitlisted)
 
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I've just gotten waitlisted. To members of the charter class: is there a decent amount of students who came in off the waitlist?
 
call me x said:
i submitted my secondary the end of october (late, i know)....it took about 3 weeks before i was marked complete and it has yet to be marked as "sent to evaluators for screening".....is this common/did it take this long for everyone?

thanks!
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For my application, it took them about a week after being complete to update the status page to "sent to evaluators for screening". Hope that helps.
 
Accepted!! :)
I think I'm definitely going to accept my seat. Is anyone else definitely going here next year?
 
dudechiefboss said:
For my application, it took them about a week after being complete to update the status page to "sent to evaluators for screening". Hope that helps.
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thanks for the info.....perhaps i'll shoot them another e-mail, but i sent one when it was taking so long to be marked as complete and i don't want to pester them too much....but it's sooo late ugh
 
I'm not sure...I did like the school, but I just got accepted to Virginia Tech Carilion, and I really liked their program, too. Never thought I was going to be the one having to decide where to go, lol.

What did you like the most about TCMC? I'm interested to hear what convinced you that this is the school for you.
 
KTDseven77 said:
What did you like the most about TCMC? I'm interested to hear what convinced you that this is the school for you.
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I like the small class size, that's a definite plus for me. I also like that clinical experience is going to be integrated into all 4 years rather than just the last two. On interview day, it just felt like a really good fit for me. Everyone was very friendly and the charter class seems happy. And I'm from the native of the Scranton area, and would like the practice medicine in that region.
 
hearyoumex23 said:
I like the small class size, that's a definite plus for me. I also like that clinical experience is going to be integrated into all 4 years rather than just the last two.
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+1

definitely the two things that attracted me. I'll most likely accept my seat here as well!
 
They just seem so student-centered, particularly with the Dean being willing to make phone calls for residency placements for us.

Plus the cadaver room did not smell at all ;)

Right now it is the only school I am accepted at, but even if I get more acceptances I am going to hold the seat until I have all of the information about federal loans, scholarships, etc.

I truly do love this school :D
 
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Did anyone send Thank You cards to their interviewers or the admissions office? What would be the protocol for this/is it acceptable?
 
Patagonia said:
Did anyone send Thank You cards to their interviewers or the admissions office? What would be the protocol for this/is it acceptable?
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Yes! I sent thank you cards to my interviewers. I called and asked them where I should send them to, and they told me to send them to the PO Box address for the Admissions Office (its on the website) and write "Attn: [name of interviewer]".
 
Ok so have they been saying anything about scholarships for class of '14?
I think at my interview group they said they "hoped to do something" similar to the charter class.

Any news on this front?
 
I haven't heard anything about the scholarships. I'm hoping for something though. It would be awesome if we all got half scholarships like the charter class!
 
anybody on here interviewing this Friday 12/11?
PM me if you wanna go explore the city a little after the interviews, grab a couple of drinks, exchange war stories?
also, def PM me if you're staying at the Hilton Scranton (that just doesn't sound right) any of the nights. it'd be cool to have a buddy to walk over to the campus with.
 
oh yeah and for those interested in my stats, etc:
sGPA: 3.34 cum GPA: 3.4 MCAT: 8V 10P 12B = 30S
had a bunch of solid extracurriculars as an undergrad, graduated from a top tier school, published on a paper, one presentation, research, lots of clinical volunteering, a bunch of leadership, and most importantly (probably the only thing that made them overlook my below avg grades) 1.5 years as an EMT on an ambulance and as a Trauma Tech in the ER. also i like to think my PS was pretty strong.
Timeline:
Secondary Received: July 10th
Secondary Submitted: Sep 14th
Secondary Marked Complete: Sept 23rd
Interview Given: Sept 24th
Interview: Dec 11th

Hope that means something to somebody
 
Hey guys,
I know someone asked this before but I was wondering if those of you who have interviewed would mind sharing what your interview was like, maybe the general format and any exceptional Q's or if it was just a getting to know you type of thing. I'm interviewing soon and it's tough feeling totally clueless. you can PM me or just post :) Thanks VERY much! :xf:
 
hearyoumex23 said:
I haven't heard anything about the scholarships. I'm hoping for something though. It would be awesome if we all got half scholarships like the charter class!
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i highly doubt that will happen - but I guess we can hope! :xf:
 
Hey holyhekshler, I just PMed you about my interview experience.
 
holyhekshler suggested that I post my PM regarding interviewing on here to help out anyone else who has an upcoming interview so here it is:

My interview at TCMC was very conversational. They asked about a lot of stuff on my AMCAS app.
"What did you chose to study at your undergrad institute"
"What do you do in your research lab? How is your project going so far?"
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years"
"So I see you play violin...tell me about that"
"Out of the 3 docs who wrote your letters of rec, who do you most like to be like 20 years from now" (I'm from the area, and my interviewer knew these docs personally, so I think that's why he asked that)
"Do you have any questions for us?"
"Whats the most embarassing song on your ipod"

It's a very low stress situation. Everyone at the school is very friendly, and the interviewers weren't intimidating at all. Those are all the questions I can remember from my interview. I was interviewed on 11/20 and accepted 12/2. Let me know if you want to know anything else.
 
hearyoumex23 said:
holyhekshler suggested that I post my PM regarding interviewing on here to help out anyone else who has an upcoming interview so here it is:

My interview at TCMC was very conversational. They asked about a lot of stuff on my AMCAS app.
"What did you chose to study at your undergrad institute"
"What do you do in your research lab? How is your project going so far?"
"Where do you see yourself in 15 years"
"So I see you play violin...tell me about that"
"Out of the 3 docs who wrote your letters of rec, who do you most like to be like 20 years from now" (I'm from the area, and my interviewer knew these docs personally, so I think that's why he asked that)
"Do you have any questions for us?"
"Whats the most embarassing song on your ipod"

It's a very low stress situation. Everyone at the school is very friendly, and the interviewers weren't intimidating at all. Those are all the questions I can remember from my interview. I was interviewed on 11/20 and accepted 12/2. Let me know if you want to know anything else.
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:thumbup:
 
I'm getting the 1111 character limit on the question "For each attribute, describe one or two of YOUR experiences that correlate or demonstrate that attribute about you. Please answer in the space provided." So, they want one or two experiences PER attribute for ALL five of the attributes in 1,000 characters? I wrote short ones and I'm still at about 3,000 characters. Someone tell me I'm misinterpreting the question or there's not supposed to be a character limit...
 
Just found omzy's post sorry to be repetitive. That's really annoying, wow.
 
I just checked my response and I was at a little over 1400 characters. I would call the admissions office on Monday morning and see what is going on.
 
read earlier in this thread - they changed the character limit halfway through the application cycle because people were writing way too much. 1111 characters is the correct amount. i know its hard to keep it that short!
 
yeah, i guess it was yesterday. even though i got rejected. bummer.
some info about the interview:
you start off with lunch from 12-12:30. food is decent but i just ended up eating a late breakfast bc i didnt want pieces of spinach or lettuce stuck in my teeth during the interview. 12:30-1pm the dean gives a presentation and some other notable faculty make a quick introduction. 1pm or 2pm your interview will start.
questions i was asked were pretty standard, you should have no problem if you made any sort of preparation:
"describe your research"
"why do you want to be a doctor"
"where do you see yourself in 10 years"
the one curveball i had that i really shoulda been prepared for is when they asked me to explain some of my crappy grades, which i did not do very gracefully. so if you have a low gpa get ready to have a good explanation.
overall the interview was pretty relaxed and kind of like a regular conversation. while one of my interviewers was very engaging, the other one looked pretty bored which just kept throwing me off.
after that we got a bunch of presentations. i got a pretty good impression of the school and faculty. i got to hang out with some of the students from the charter class that night and they were a great group of people and everyone gets along really well which was probably the part i liked best about this school.
if you travel, i recommend the Hilton or Radisson, they are all within a 10 minute walk from the "campus." also, if you're a guy, throw your dress shirt in the laundry before you wear it for the first time. trust me.
 
Unmuzzled and anyone else who has interviewed. When did you get done with the day's activities? I am staying with family about 30 mins away and I need to know when they should pick me up. The itinery says there's a "reception" at 5pm... what is that about? About when did you actually leave?

Thanks for the info. I'm interviewing tomorrow btw so speedy response would be awesome!
 
all official activities get done at 5pm. there wasn't really a reception. most students left by 5:15ish
 
medmed said:
I've just gotten waitlisted. To members of the charter class: is there a decent amount of students who came in off the waitlist?
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A few, not many though. Granted, we definitely had the big scholarship so TCMC was probably harder to turn down for us than it is for you guys. Either way though, I loved this place and would have came for full price.
 
ElwayFan said:
A few, not many though. Granted, we definitely had the big scholarship so TCMC was probably harder to turn down for us than it is for you guys. Either way though, I loved this place and would have came for full price.
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Couldn't agree with you more, ElwayFan. With regard to our education, TCMC is a first-rate medical school. While our facilities and research labs may not be as impressive at those at other places (for the time being), this school really has something special going for it. I get the feeling that come time for step-1 this will all be validated, but for now, it's really amazing how much the environment here is set up for us to simply learn and enjoy studying medicine.
 
medmed said:
I've just gotten waitlisted. To members of the charter class: is there a decent amount of students who came in off the waitlist?
Click to expand...

Don't you like the way emails for waitlisters are written? With a quick glance, I thought it is a rejection email. Then, the last sentence about our application being viewed favorably sounds like an acceptance email.
 
Interviewed here yesterday. It seemed like a really awesome school and everyone seemed really excited about it. I left the interview feeling pretty enthusiastic about what this school has to offer. Even though I already have an acceptance at a in state school, I would definitely keep this school under consideration if I get accepted.

Now to wait out the snow storm.... I'm stuck in PA on my birthday :(
 
futureNCmed said:
Interviewed here yesterday. It seemed like a really awesome school and everyone seemed really excited about it. I left the interview feeling pretty enthusiastic about what this school has to offer. Even though I already have an acceptance at a in state school, I would definitely keep this school under consideration if I get accepted.

Now to wait out the snow storm.... I'm stuck in PA on my birthday :(
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Good luck with getting out of PA! Did they give you a timeline regarding a decision? Good luck.
 
dudechiefboss said:
Good luck with getting out of PA! Did they give you a timeline regarding a decision? Good luck.
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They said the committee is meeting this Tuesday to make decisions on yesterday's interview group especially so we can have our decisions before the Holiday, which I thought was pretty cool and really nice of them!
 
yeah it's really nice of them... unless of course you don't get in
 
Hi folks,

For those who have already interviewed or have planned their interview day, I was wondering if you could suggest if I should:

1) Stay the night before at a neighboring INN for convenience. What is the name of the closest INN everyone stayed at and price?

OR

2) Just drive up to Scranton the morning of. Perhaps leave early. 8am to be safe! I'm driving up from North East Philadelphia.

Interview is Mid-Jan. Thanks a lot!
 
NdNThunder said:
Hi folks,

For those who have already interviewed or have planned their interview day, I was wondering if you could suggest if I should:

1) Stay the night before at a neighboring INN for convenience. What is the name of the closest INN everyone stayed at and price?

OR

2) Just drive up to Scranton the morning of. Perhaps leave early. 8am to be safe! I'm driving up from North East Philadelphia.

Interview is Mid-Jan. Thanks a lot!
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I would suggest the hotel the night before. Then you are well-rested and don't have to worry about snow storms...or car accidents...or any number of things.

Go on TCMC's web site, there is TONS of information about hotels. I stayed at the Lackawanna Station Radisson and it was very nice, got a TCMC rate of $89/night.
 
I actually think you would be fine driving from Philly - it's not that far.

I drove up from 5+ hrs south of Scranton the morning of - and I was totally fine... except for the fact that I had to change into my business suit in a gas station bathroom haha!

IMHO - you will have plenty of time to get there (the school is really easy to find) - and you won't even have to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn the way I did. And most importantly, you save some $$ on the hotel.
 
mooshooblue said:
I actually think you would be fine driving from Philly - it's not that far.

I drove up from 5+ hrs south of Scranton the morning of - and I was totally fine... except for the fact that I had to change into my business suit in a gas station bathroom haha!

IMHO - you will have plenty of time to get there (the school is really easy to find) - and you won't even have to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn the way I did. And most importantly, you save some $$ on the hotel.
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But aren't you guys having crazy snowstorms?

I guess yeah if the weather is fine in January then drive.
 
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