2009-2010 University of Iowa (Carver) Application Thread

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allenthecowboy said:
I got an interview here! I'm from AZ although I sometimes dwell in the Bay Area. 😎

They like you, but who cares anyway? You're going to get into Mayo 😛
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I wish I was confident enough to believe that, but I am not. I think even if I did get accepted to Mayo, I would have to keep pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. It is just discouraging that I haven't heard from any schools in over a month now, except for a rejection, and I think every school I applied to has started giving out interview invites. Oh well, that is enough whining for now.🙄

Congrats on your interview!
 
grotto said:
I almost hate to ask this question, but is there a chance that the interview day will be done before 5? I have a buddy driving me and the last flight to the east coast leaves a little after 7. I'm flying out of Quad City and the only reason I'm cutting it close is because I have to work the next day.
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There's a good chance, depending on what time your interview is assigned. They say plan for 6-7 hours for the day, and mine in particular says arrive 8:30, done at 2:00. You can try calling to request a day when you can have an early interview.

Quad Cities is a pretty small airport, so I imagine the security line shouldn't take 2 hours.
 
The Day that I went the schedule was from 10:30 - 5 but I was done about 4:15. This was with the second to last interview time.

For questions asked:

Why Medicine?
What would you do if a patient refused to follow your advice?
How will you handle the stress of Medical School?

Unstructured

Questions about family, volunteering, clinical experience, shadowing, etc.

Did I have any research experience? It was more like a back andforth they would ask me something, i would answer and then they would try to sell me on Iowa. If only they knew they didnt have to work that hard to "sell me" on UofI
 
MaryLennox said:
Yup . . . Iowa is actually the closest school to where I am from even though I am an IL resident. so we may be from the same area . . . i took my MCAT in Bettendorf IA 🙂
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never been to iowa but I'm from Chicago (close is 3 hours to me lol) Good luck at IL and Iowa...I'm so surprised I got an interview so early being oos.

Does anyone know when we find out about the time? Do we have to pick a date first then we find out the time?
 
Interview invite! I knew they couldn't hate me, I just knew it!

OOS, complete mid-Julyish

Sandey said:
If only they knew they didnt have to work that hard to "sell me" on UofI
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This is so true of most interviews, but it does make me feel special...😎
 
congrats on the interviews guys!!! Make sure you sign up for one asap...I just got the invite last night, was talking it over w/ my family and decided on a date...went to schedule it this morning and 4 of the dates available last night were gone (including the one we had decided on of course)!
 
macduke09 said:
congrats on the interviews guys!!! Make sure you sign up for one asap...I just got the invite last night, was talking it over w/ my family and decided on a date...went to schedule it this morning and 4 of the dates available last night were gone (including the one we had decided on of course)!
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😱 Ahhh, I'm gunna go sign up now then!
 
For anyone who has already interviewed, did they tell you how long before you should hear back on a decision?
 
labgirl said:
For anyone who has already interviewed, did they tell you how long before you should hear back on a decision?
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I don't think until 10/15, no? That' the earliest for all the schools.
 
If I remember correctly, the adcom has their first meeting Tuesday, October 13, and then every couple Tuesdays after. So anytime after the 15th sounds about right. However, they stressed that a large number of applicants will not be accepted until the final pool. I'm dreaming of hearing in October, but it's probably unlikely.
 
for those of you OOS who got interviews, what kind of stats do you have? I'm OOS, filled out my secondary only about a week ago (31R,4.0)... but just curious.
 
Nothing uber-crazy... OOS, 33R, sGPA: 3.94, cGPA: 3.98
 
abi246 said:
for those of you OOS who got interviews, what kind of stats do you have? I'm OOS, filled out my secondary only about a week ago (31R,4.0)... but just curious.
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I'm oos as well...but from Illinois. The turnaround time for me was pretty quick. I turned in the secondary probably the day after I received it on Sept 9th and got an invite a couple days ago. I was really surprised to hear back from them so quickly let alone at all! The more I hear about Iowa the more I'm starting to love it (don't tell anyone on the UIC thread 😉) and I haven't even visited yet.

Good luck to you though...my gpa is no where near yours but I'm guessing my undergrad institution helped me out (for once) with that. I wouldn't be surprised if you hear back from them really soon (good news of course)!
 
OOS 34S, 3.96 sGPA, 3.97 cGPA, applied June 24 and turned in my secondary the next day.

Interviewed on Friday sep 25, school is gorgeous, iowa city is just one big college town and a beautiful one at that.

People are super friendly, my host was great and really helpful, drove me to campus to show me how to get there and where the admin office is.

Carver is Case Based Learning with pass/fail, which I love.

Interview is with 2 people, 25 min, closed file, they ask 3 questions which have been preselected for them, don't provide feedback at all. Then its a conversation after that. Super nice and the least stressful interview I have had yet.

My questions where, 1. why medicine, 2. what would you do to increase the number of organ donors, 3. what makes a good doc

Overall I would say Iowa is the nicest civilian school I've seen so far and maybe the best in the country.

I am seriously thinking about putting it as my number 2 school.
 
xmsr3 said:
OOS 34S, 3.96 sGPA, 3.97 cGPA, applied June 24 and turned in my secondary the next day.

Interviewed on Friday sep 25, school is gorgeous, iowa city is just one big college town and a beautiful one at that.

People are super friendly, my host was great and really helpful, drove me to campus to show me how to get there and where the admin office is.

Carver is Case Based Learning with pass/fail, which I love.

Interview is with 2 people, 25 min, closed file, they ask 3 questions which have been preselected for them, don't provide feedback at all. Then its a conversation after that. Super nice and the least stressful interview I have had yet.

My questions where, 1. why medicine, 2. what would you do to increase the number of organ donors, 3. what makes a good doc

Overall I would say Iowa is the nicest civilian school I've seen so far and maybe the best in the country.

I am seriously thinking about putting it as my number 2 school.
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I was there yesterday too, I thought they did a great job. Based on whether or not you have a British accent I know who you are, since there were only 2 OOSers. It's okay, I won't blow your cover. 😉

It's not totally pass/fail, but it's close enough, and really the people are what make it an excellent school in my opinion. 👍
 
xmsr3 said:
Overall I would say Iowa is the nicest civilian school I've seen so far and maybe the best in the country.

I am seriously thinking about putting it as my number 2 school.
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What schools are you comparing it to, if you don't mind my asking?
 
Yeah I was the bloke with the british accent.

I have interviewed at 4 schools so far with 2 more upcoming and waiting to hear from 8 more.

So far I have interviewed at U of Hi, Uniformed Service University of Health Science, St. Louis and Carver.

My #1 school is USUHS because my life's calling is military medicine and no school can offer what USUHS can offer due to it being a military school.

I rank #2 Carver, because of the great facilities, iowa city being a great community and CBL and pass/fail allowing you to focus on learning from day 1 in a less stressful environment.

#3 is Hawaii because of a great campus, and also CBL and pass/fail, it sucks that because I am missing 1 pre-req and its non rolling admissions I can't go there even if I get in, which I have an 8% shot at.

#4 SLU, the people are great and its also pass/fail but no CBL, the facilities are older but they have some nice buildings but the location of the campus sucks, (its in an ugly part of the city).

I still have yet to interview at U of MN and Medical college of Wisconsin, the latter I know is a nice school since I am an U of MN undergrad. I have heard rumors that they are changing to pass/fail as well, which I will have to verify at my interview.

MCW I have heard is really nice and has a great community atmosphere.

Still waiting on Creighton, Rosalind Franklin, Duluth, Moorehouse, Harvard, U of VT, U of Miami and OHSU. I estimate I have a decent shot at interviewing at 5 of those schools.

Of course, my #1 school will be calling us on Oct 16 if we get accepted, so for me my journey to med school may end in 20 days.
 
xmsr3 said:
Yeah I was the bloke with the british accent.

I have interviewed at 4 schools so far with 2 more upcoming and waiting to hear from 8 more.

So far I have interviewed at U of Hi, Uniformed Service University of Health Science, St. Louis and Carver.

My #1 school is USUHS because my life's calling is military medicine and no school can offer what USUHS can offer due to it being a military school.

I rank #2 Carver, because of the great facilities, iowa city being a great community and CBL and pass/fail allowing you to focus on learning from day 1 in a less stressful environment.

#3 is Hawaii because of a great campus, and also CBL and pass/fail, it sucks that because I am missing 1 pre-req and its non rolling admissions I can't go there even if I get in, which I have an 8% shot at.

#4 SLU, the people are great and its also pass/fail but no CBL, the facilities are older but they have some nice buildings but the location of the campus sucks, (its in an ugly part of the city).

I still have yet to interview at U of MN and Medical college of Wisconsin, the latter I know is a nice school since I am an U of MN undergrad. I have heard rumors that they are changing to pass/fail as well, which I will have to verify at my interview.

MCW I have heard is really nice and has a great community atmosphere.

Still waiting on Creighton, Rosalind Franklin, Duluth, Moorehouse, Harvard, U of VT, U of Miami and OHSU. I estimate I have a decent shot at interviewing at 5 of those schools.

Of course, my #1 school will be calling us on Oct 16 if we get accepted, so for me my journey to med school may end in 20 days.
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I never could have guessed.🙄
 
first interview invite! :soexcited:
so excited!
(OOS)
 
After watching Iowa knock off Penn State, I want to catch a football game here after my interview.
 
red10 said:
first interview invite! :soexcited:
so excited!
(OOS)
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Congrats! I am an OOS Iowa applicant as well. Do you mind me asking your MCAT scores/GPA? Someone just told me on another thread that Iowa rejects all OOSer's with any MCAT section score below a 10! Overall my MCAT is a 31R, but i have a low verbal (10PS,8VR,13BS). Why would Iowa send me a secondary if they had no intentions to consider my application? (GPA = 4.0) Anyone else heard this about OOS applicants?
 
First interview invite, OOS. Really looking forward to this, Iowa looks like it has a great program.
 
abi246 said:
Congrats! I am an OOS Iowa applicant as well. Do you mind me asking your MCAT scores/GPA? Someone just told me on another thread that Iowa rejects all OOSer's with any MCAT section score below a 10! Overall my MCAT is a 31R, but i have a low verbal (10PS,8VR,13BS). Why would Iowa send me a secondary if they had no intentions to consider my application? (GPA = 4.0) Anyone else heard this about OOS applicants?
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umm . . . seriously hope this isn't true? my overall is 36 but with a 9 in PS.

i don't know anything about Iowa specifically but the impression i get about rules like that, in general, is that they are more of guidelines than inflexible rules. although hopefully at iowa it's neither and that was just an untrue rumor. 🙁
 
MaryLennox said:
umm . . . seriously hope this isn't true? my overall is 36 but with a 9 in PS.

i don't know anything about Iowa specifically but the impression i get about rules like that, in general, is that they are more of guidelines than inflexible rules. although hopefully at iowa it's neither and that was just an untrue rumor. 🙁
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Just got an interview invite!!!!! (my first!! AND it's my birthday!!) so that person who told me that was WRONG!!!!!!!!
 
Woot! Congratulations! Nice to hear that rumor was a myth! Kick some butt at the interview!
 
abi246 said:
Just got an interview invite!!!!! (my first!! AND it's my birthday!!) so that person who told me that was WRONG!!!!!!!!
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kick ass! i'm glad that person was wrong. congrats and happy birthday! 👍 i got my first invite today too although it was not at Iowa (MCW😀.)
 
Interviewing tomorrow, So stoked! I hope I'm interviewing early enough to have my name in the first applicant pool.
 
This is the last place that I really wanted an invite to that I haven't either gotten one or been rejected from. I would love to go to a school in a smaller city. Plus this is pretty close to my in laws. Come on Iowa!!!
 
Submitted my secondary on Saturday night and received an interview invite today. However, I am a resident. Good luck to everyone waiting for invites.
 
Interview Invite!! OOS Complete 9/08
 
xmsr3 said:
OOS 34S, 3.96 sGPA, 3.97 cGPA, applied June 24 and turned in my secondary the next day.

Interviewed on Friday sep 25, school is gorgeous, iowa city is just one big college town and a beautiful one at that.

People are super friendly, my host was great and really helpful, drove me to campus to show me how to get there and where the admin office is.

Carver is Case Based Learning with pass/fail, which I love.

Interview is with 2 people, 25 min, closed file, they ask 3 questions which have been preselected for them, don't provide feedback at all. Then its a conversation after that. Super nice and the least stressful interview I have had yet.

My questions where, 1. why medicine, 2. what would you do to increase the number of organ donors, 3. what makes a good doc

Overall I would say Iowa is the nicest civilian school I've seen so far and maybe the best in the country.

I am seriously thinking about putting it as my number 2 school.
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Glad you liked uiowa and I hope your interview went well. I just wanted to mention that CCOM is not really pass fail but rather Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail and it is not a Case Based Learning heavy program. In fact, there are about 2 hours a week for cbl compared to about ~20ish hours of lecture and 2-8 hours of lab a week. It is a really great school though and facilities are beautiful.
 
buffywannabe said:
This is the last place that I really wanted an invite to that I haven't either gotten one or been rejected from. I would love to go to a school in a smaller city. Plus this is pretty close to my in laws. Come on Iowa!!!
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i hope we both get an invite 🙂

i see you in all the same threads as me, i think we are applying to about half the same schools. i was sorry to see about MCW for ya. but it's great you have so many other interviews. are you applying md-phd or just md this year?
 
xmsr3 said:
OOS 34S, 3.96 sGPA, 3.97 cGPA, applied June 24 and turned in my secondary the next day.

Interviewed on Friday sep 25, school is gorgeous, iowa city is just one big college town and a beautiful one at that.

People are super friendly, my host was great and really helpful, drove me to campus to show me how to get there and where the admin office is.

Carver is Case Based Learning with pass/fail, which I love.

Interview is with 2 people, 25 min, closed file, they ask 3 questions which have been preselected for them, don't provide feedback at all. Then its a conversation after that. Super nice and the least stressful interview I have had yet.

My questions where, 1. why medicine, 2. what would you do to increase the number of organ donors, 3. what makes a good doc

Overall I would say Iowa is the nicest civilian school I've seen so far and maybe the best in the country.

I am seriously thinking about putting it as my number 2 school.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that response, it makes me even more excited to visit Iowa!
 
MaryLennox said:
i hope we both get an invite 🙂

i see you in all the same threads as me, i think we are applying to about half the same schools. i was sorry to see about MCW for ya. but it's great you have so many other interviews. are you applying md-phd or just md this year?
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yup just md this year. i am not too bothered by mcw, but it makes me think that i must really suck at interviewing. 2/3 schools that i interviewed at last year flat out rejected me this year. is iowa close to your home as well? one of the physicians i shadowed did his residency there and he was telling me how much he loved it which just makes me want to go there more. oh well, i guess i will just be happy with my list so far! way better than the other years.

have fun at your mcw interview, it is a great school. i saw the cadavers during my interview! (not on the tour, they were across the hall from the interview rooms so keep an eye out 🙂) it is in a cute little neighborhood NEAR milwaukee not in milwaukee. sucks for illinois residents though since it is on the north side so you will have to drive completely through milwaukee to get there. it was nice for me coming from appleton, 80 minute drive!

have to say the fact that people who were complete just a few days ago got interviews already is kind of disheartening about my chances 🙁
 
Can't wait till they start handing out acceptance letters. First one's should come out next week! Does anyone know how they determine who gets accepted in the rolling phase verses the general applicant phase?
 
Obviously if you've interviewed early, you will have a better chance at being accepted during rolling admissions. Beyond that, I'm guessing they take their "best" applicants earlier in the process, while saving plenty of room for others while interviews continue. However, I'm hoping they accept some close to average in-staters early as well!
 
CalCyclone said:
Obviously if you've interviewed early, you will have a better chance at being accepted during rolling admissions. Beyond that, I'm guessing they take their "best" applicants earlier in the process, while saving plenty of room for others while interviews continue. However, I'm hoping they accept some close to average in-staters early as well!
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Although I hope there is some validity to it :xf:since I have an "early" interview and am oos (and there certainly is at other schools) I'm not so sure about this...according to what a lot of people have been saying (and from reading last years thread) some people will not hear until much later....not necessarily in March (unless they're in the final applicant pool) but could be much longer than 3-6 weeks. Some people waited 2 or 3 months others heard back in 2 weeks. ie. some people who interviewed in October still didn't hear back until January last year.
 
macduke09 said:
Although I hope there is some validity to it :xf:since I have an "early" interview and am oos (and there certainly is at other schools) I'm not so sure about this...according to what a lot of people have been saying (and from reading last years thread) some people will not hear until much later....not necessarily in March (unless they're in the final applicant pool) but could be much longer than 3-6 weeks. Some people waited 2 or 3 months others heard back in 2 weeks. ie. some people who interviewed in October still didn't hear back until January last year.
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Good info....shows there are no guarantees. Good luck!
 
Okay... my first post here, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all for posting some of the interview questions, seems like at least some are carried over from last year. My interview at Iowa is tomorrow and I am NERVOUS as all hell.

I am:

- Iowa resident (Iowa City more specifically)
- have been volunteering at UIHC (Carver's hospital) for several years in the intensive care units
- graduated 2008, worked full-time in MERF last year. Co-authorship on 2 pending PNAS publications.
- 39R MCATs

So based on what I've read I have a sneaking suspicion that the odds are stacked in my favor, HOWEVER not sure that that will stop me from melting down. I guess with all of this preparation I've probably built it up to be more terrifying than it actually is. Wish me luck!!
 
thenthdegree said:
Okay... my first post here, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all for posting some of the interview questions, seems like at least some are carried over from last year. My interview at Iowa is tomorrow and I am NERVOUS as all hell.

I am:

- Iowa resident (Iowa City more specifically)
- have been volunteering at UIHC (Carver's hospital) for several years in the intensive care units
- graduated 2008, worked full-time in MERF last year. Co-authorship on 2 pending PNAS publications.
- 39R MCATs

So based on what I've read I have a sneaking suspicion that the odds are stacked in my favor, HOWEVER not sure that that will stop me from melting down. I guess with all of this preparation I've probably built it up to be more terrifying than it actually is. Wish me luck!!
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good luck dude. interviews youll find are not stressful and very easy. At least the 3 ive been on have been and it seems many others experience are the same.
 
thenthdegree said:
Okay... my first post here, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all for posting some of the interview questions, seems like at least some are carried over from last year. My interview at Iowa is tomorrow and I am NERVOUS as all hell.

I am:

- Iowa resident (Iowa City more specifically)
- have been volunteering at UIHC (Carver's hospital) for several years in the intensive care units
- graduated 2008, worked full-time in MERF last year. Co-authorship on 2 pending PNAS publications.
- 39R MCATs

So based on what I've read I have a sneaking suspicion that the odds are stacked in my favor, HOWEVER not sure that that will stop me from melting down. I guess with all of this preparation I've probably built it up to be more terrifying than it actually is. Wish me luck!!
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Good luck sounds like you've got a really good shot like you said. Everyone keeps telling me how "conversational" they are and not to worry...but then I come across those horror interview feedback responses and I start to get nervous all over again. I have my first interview tomorrow and Iowa on the 22nd...surprisingly I'm not "nervous" yet. But anyways, let us know how it goes!
 
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