2010-2011 Oregon Health & Sciences University Application Thread

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"The stuff is in the mail" would've been a great way for them to phrase it.
And what are we supposed to do with the hard copy, exactly? We can't submit it, so I guess it saves a buck twenty five at Kinko's?
Anyway, it's exciting to get started, even if is an unscreened secondary.
 
Here are the secondary prompts:

All applicants have two required essays:

1. Personal Essay, 4000 chars:
Please answer the following: "Future physicians are expected to work in an interprofessional environment, meaning in a team of other health care professionals that may include people with a variety of backgrounds and skills. Using your own experiences, tell us how you have developed the qualities and values you believe are important and will bring to your role as physician-leader of the health care team."

2. Diversity Essay, 4000 chars:
Please discuss the diversity that you would bring to the OHSU School of Medicine and the profession of medicine. You may want to consider important aspects of your life experience such as early educational opportunities, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or life/work experiences and how these circumstances have shaped your perspective of medicine and better prepared you to become a physician.

They want the last 5 years of Work/Activities, 150 chars to describe each.

If you mark down that you experienced Adversity in childhood (akin to AMCAS' disadvantaged status) you have a 4000 char space to describe this.

If you have any criminal stuff, you have a 1500 char space to describe this.

MD/MPH essay, 4000 chars:
Please explain: 1) why you are applying for the MD/MPH Combined Degree Program at OHSU and 2) how you think you will use the medicine and public health training offered at OHSU in your career plans.

MD/PhD essay, 4000 chars:
The School of Medicine requires a statement explaining your desire for admission to the MD/PhD Combined Degree Program that outlines your goals regarding your career development. Include any comments that might be helpful to the Admissions Committee in their evaluation of your application. To this statement add a list of any academic honors, awards, or honor society memberships you have received and any publications of which you are the author or in which you were cited for assistance. Also, include any job or extracurricular experiences you have had which you consider relevant to your career development in biomedical research.

Please submit your statement below, using the text area provided. Your essay cannot exceed the 4000 character limit. No particular formatting or spacing is required.
 
Northwesterly said:
"The stuff is in the mail" would've been a great way for them to phrase it.
And what are we supposed to do with the hard copy, exactly? We can't submit it, so I guess it saves a buck twenty five at Kinko's?
Anyway, it's exciting to get started, even if is an unscreened secondary.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't know why they're mailing us stuff, if the secondary app is all online. Maybe that's just in case someone misses the email? 😕
 
oh dear god that one looks brutal.. luckily I havent gotten the email yet (OOS)
 
QuesoAndFromage said:
oh dear god that one looks brutal.. luckily I havent gotten the email yet (OOS)
Click to expand...

Well, at least they're questions with vaguely objective answers--especially the first one. I was having more trouble with last year's "How will you evaluate your success as a medical student?" that I'd been outlining.
 
Northwesterly said:
Well, at least they're questions with vaguely objective answers--especially the first one. I was having more trouble with last year's "How will you evaluate your success as a medical student?" that I'd been outlining.
Click to expand...
I'm glad they got rid of that question! They used it several years running. I like this new one much better. 😎

I also feel better now about procrastinating. I had meant to get started drafting essays based on last years prompts but was just relaxing after the big push to get my primary in early. 🙄
 
have any md/phd applicants (particularly oos) gotten the secondary?
 
IS, 3.83 34 mcat, AMCAS verified on June 5. Still have not got the sec. Any explanations?
 
ohsunumber1 said:
IS, 3.83 34 mcat, AMCAS verified on June 5. Still have not got the sec. Any explanations?
Click to expand...

I also haven't received a secondary, but I'm OOS.

However, I wouldn't sweat it. Many schools send out secondaries in batches. For some of my schools, SDNers received secondaries 1-2 weeks before I received mine. I was verified on June 1st with competitive stats. I'm also towards the end of the alphabet though... I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to it.

:luck: to you!
 
I'm WICHE and still haven't received it yet. According to the MSAR they don't screen so I wouldn't worry about it. They must do them in batches. I have a few on the back burner I need to finish up anyways so at least this will give me some time.
 
sweetlb331 said:
have any md/phd applicants (particularly oos) gotten the secondary?
Click to expand...

Washington resident here, and I haven't gotten it either! No worries, I think MD/PhD admissions always lags behind MD a bit. (And with that MD/PhD essay I'm not sorry about not having to think about it yet!)
 
I just got off the phone with admissions and they told me they only sent out a few random applications to test and see if the server worked. They said there going to officially send it in the next couple weeks some time.
 
ohsunumber1 said:
I just got off the phone with admissions and they told me they only sent out a few random applications to test and see if the server worked. They said there going to officially send it in the next couple weeks some time.
Click to expand...
Huh, cool. Guess I got lucky. :luck:
 
Just got their secondary today. The two essays seem eerily similar to each other. Nice website though.
 
The Mull said:
How likely are they to grant you in-state status after a year? What if after you move to Portland your spouse finds a job there, you buy a house, etc?
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Unfortunately, there is no shot of being granted IS status after a year of medical school. In order to become an in-state resident, you need to move to Oregon and reside here a year for non-academic reasons. Medical school disqualifies you from that.

Sorry for the bad news.

sweetlb331 said:
have any md/phd applicants (particularly oos) gotten the secondary?
Click to expand...

In general, MD/PhD interview invites go out a bit later than MD-only invites, but your secondary invite should happen at about the same time as the rest of the pool.

Northwesterly said:
I was having more trouble with last year's "How will you evaluate your success as a medical student?" that I'd been outlining.
Click to expand...

chrisoc13 said:
Just got their secondary today. The two essays seem eerily similar to each other. Nice website though.
Click to expand...

OHSU has been making a big push towards diversity as of late - these essay questions are just an extension of that. For what it's worth though, I agree that they are more relevant than the old "success as a medical student" question. I definitely had some less-than-pleasant feelings about answering that one back in the day...

Anyway, good luck everyone! OHSU is a great school, and Portland is a great city. 🙂
 
OOS WICHE got my secondary on the thirtieth and am ready to turn it in...is it bad that one essay is almost the whole four thousand and the other one is only about half that? Thanks!
 
BTW how about that secondary fee? $100? They must be hurting for money...no pre-secondary screening right?
 
MTMed, I don't think it is bad at all. They give you a character max but they do not require you to fill all the space. These people are going to be reading thousands of these essays and trust me they do not want to read an essay where a person just filled space for the ****s of filling all 4000 characters. I think you clear in the water.

As for me, where the F*** is my secondary. I was verified on June 5,
I am an IS, 3.86, 34 MCAT,

I hope I get it today.
 
are people actually writing 4000 chars
 
Received and submitted today. feels great. Thanks to who ever posted the essay questions last week, it allowed me to finish them over the weekend and get that app out ASAP.

To the person who asked if people actually wrote 4000 char.

My diversity essay was 3900 and my leadership essay was 3100.
 
Phew. What a monster of a secondary. I spent 6 hours on this today and I'm happy to say that I am done. I much prefer the questions in this secondary to the "evaluate your success...." question of the past.

My leadership essay was about 3950 chars and my diversity essay was around 2950.

Good luck to everyone still waiting on secondaries and hopefully I will be seeing some of you as future classmates!
 
oregon secondary rundown

required essay 1: How will diversity make you a better leader?
required essay 2: What types of diversity have you experienced?
optional essay: Any more diversity you want to talk about?
optional section: Fill out this survey about adverse circumstances.

oregon, you're dumb. and i hate you. I am no longer applying to you. How about you care about some part of medicine besides hardship.

These is by far the stupidest secondary i have seen. This is the type of crap that makes people dislike affirmative action/ special consideration. While I believe that diversity/ adversity should play a strong role in admissions, Oregon somehow believes it is the ONLY thing worth discussing.
 
handsomepete said:
oregon secondary rundown

required essay 1: How will diversity make you a better leader?
required essay 2: What types of diversity have you experienced?
optional essay: Any more diversity you want to talk about?
optional section: Fill out this survey about adverse circumstances.

oregon, you're dumb. and i hate you. I am no longer applying to you. How about you care about some part of medicine besides hardship.

These is by far the stupidest secondary i have seen. This is the type of crap that makes people dislike affirmative action/ special consideration. While I believe that diversity/ adversity should play a strong role in admissions, Oregon somehow believes it is the ONLY thing worth discussing.
Click to expand...

Most (but far from all!) students at OHSU are pale in their color and from middle class backgrounds or higher. I think the essay prompts are fair game. They want you to talk about your experiences and who you are, who ever that is. It is a lot of of thoughtful writing. Not much room for copying and pasting from other secondaries.
 
hobbes23 said:
Most (but far from all!) students at OHSU are pale in their color and from middle class backgrounds or higher. I think the essay prompts are fair game. They want you to talk about your experiences and who you are, who ever that is. It is a lot of of thoughtful writing. Not much room for copying and pasting from other secondaries.
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👍This.


As a person of color, I can tell you that other than checking a box on my AMCAS application, I have not ONCE mentioned my race in any question about diversity and/or adverse circumstances in applications. Why? Because my experiences are worth so much more than that.

Broaden your idea of diversity and maybe you will find something to write about yourself.
 
handsomepete said:
These is by far the stupidest secondary i have seen. This is the type of crap that makes people dislike affirmative action/ special consideration. While I believe that diversity/ adversity should play a strong role in admissions, Oregon somehow believes it is the ONLY thing worth discussing.
Click to expand...
This statement says a lot more about you than it says about OHSU. As hobbes23 pointed out, the student body of OHSU (as well as the rest of Oregon) is predominantly white and heteronormative.

If merely being asked to discuss your diversity and privilege is enough to send you on a rant like this, then perhaps this will encourage you to select yourself out of a school where you don't fit.
 
a 4000 char limit is beautiful because I love writing a long essay and telling a good story.

But i must complain about putting in all my activities over the last 5 years... hope there isn't a limit here cause listing job shadow experiences alone might take some space, ya know what im saying!

Love you all. Go wiche applicants!
 
CougarMD said:
Broaden your idea of diversity and maybe you will find something to write about yourself.
Click to expand...

👍 Exactly. These essay prompts are broad and big. You have room to frame the issue and tell a longer story of yours there.

In no way does your essay need to be about race or class (but those are still good topics).
 
I'm a little worried because both of my essays involved me being a music major. They're by no means the same essay, they just happen to both have to do with my being a nontraditional major...does anyone think that'll be a problem? Thanks in advance! 😀
 
hey guys

that question that asks "list work/activities. 150 characters for each"

are they pretty much asking us to repeat what we have in our AMCAS application? Because that is what im getting out of it? or do they mean just clinical experiences?
 
Does anyone know approximately when they start sending out 2ndaries to OOS?
 
OOS. Got my secondary this afternoon. Not sure what took so long....
 
whatupron said:
hey guys

that question that asks "list work/activities. 150 characters for each"

are they pretty much asking us to repeat what we have in our AMCAS application? Because that is what im getting out of it? or do they mean just clinical experiences?
Click to expand...

can somebody help me out here? what do you guys think??
 
whatupron said:
hey guys

that question that asks "list work/activities. 150 characters for each"

are they pretty much asking us to repeat what we have in our AMCAS application? Because that is what im getting out of it? or do they mean just clinical experiences?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure they mean "everything" that's related to work, activities, volunteering, clinical experience for the last 5 years. Except probably school since that would be in your transcripts, but I don't know.

I don't know if there is a limit in the OHSU system since I haven't filled that section out yet (but will soon), and they're specifying "last 5 years". This is different from the AMCAS 15 item limit that is pretty much a free-for-all as far as what you include (or omit). As a non-trad with 15 years of stuff, I was pretty selective about what I put into AMCAS and there were plenty of things I omitted that will show up in the OHSU list. Also, there are some things I listed on AMCAS that I haven't done in >5 years and those will drop off. And then the characters... AMCAS gives you 1325 chars per activity. I'm sweating at the thought of cutting this all down to 150 chars for each. That's basically a sentence.

So, I'm guessing it's meant to be a nice clean-cut summary of all your recent activities to make it easier to quickly scan and screen applications. My concern with all this is is that they may not even look at the AMCAS Work/Activities. I would hope this is just a convenient summary and if they want to dig deeper and read about the more interesting ones they can look at the AMCAS primary.
 
I thought the activities section of the secondary could have been more clear. From what I gathered, it is asking for 5 years of activities during the period immediately prior to entrance to medical school. So, if you have a gap year, your list would only include college and things you did/will do until the date you start school. For a college junior applying this year they could put activities from the year before school started and also list upcoming or pending activities.

As far as the content of activities to put on there, I only included things which required a consistent or large chunk of time, such as work and volunteering. For my hobbies and other assorted "stuff" they can look at AMCAS. Considering how widely responses on here vary about this one topic, I think it is safe to assume that the committee will see a number of interpretations of that section.
 
does anyone know the percentage of OOS applicants they accept?

I'm from IL, so none of this WICHE stuff I guess....

This massive character limit really encourages procrastination... ugh.
 
NHBPFA5 said:
does anyone know the percentage of OOS applicants they accept?

I'm from IL, so none of this WICHE stuff I guess....

This massive character limit really encourages procrastination... ugh.
Click to expand...

According to the MSAR last year they took 32/120 from OOS. So a decent percentage. I don't know if they put WICHE students in the OOS or IS column though (it's done both ways depending on the school.) WICHE in Oregon only really applies to Montana and Wyoming according to the MSAR as well.
 
OOS - just received my secondary (verified end of June)! Does anyone know what kind of screening they do? Is it just stats or do they also read your primary app?
 
I don't think they screen at all for the secondary. Before you pay money to submit a secondary you should make sure you fit this category if you are OOS:

Non-resident applicants with superior achievements in academics and other related experiences. For the 2011 cycle, superior academics is defined as a cumulative Total GPA, as reported by AMCAS, of 3.65 or higher and a cumulative score of 32 or higher on the most-recent eligible MCAT.
Click to expand...
 
ugh... I don't think I should bother then....
 
Last edited:
Simplify said:
I don't think they screen at all for the secondary. Before you pay money to submit a secondary you should make sure you fit this category if you are OOS:
Click to expand...

But I know someone who got in with a 29 MCAT last application cycle.
 
NHBPFA5 said:
that's hopeful!

do you know their GPA?

Were they like published a bunch of times?
Click to expand...

His GPA was high, around 3.9 and he had amazing ECs. My GPA and ECs are not as good as his but I still decided to apply here because I want to give myself a chance. My MCAT is not that high either (definitely below 32). 🙁
 
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