2010-2011 University of Virginia Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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They'll give both of those to you at the interview day. You have to ask for the board scores, but they'll print them out for you. The match list should be in the folder they give you.
 
So just out of curiosity, why did they overhaul their whole curriculum if students were doing so well on their boards?
 
mcctwist1 said:
So just out of curiosity, why did they overhaul their whole curriculum if students were doing so well on their boards?
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that's a great question to ask during your interview.....

those of us from the old gen curriculum dont have a great answer, other than it was in the works/planning stages for years before the actual switch was made... and apparently they feel this new stragedy is even more geared toward the boards.
 
They definitely know that people are going to be full of questions regarding the new curriculum. It's expounded upon with glorious detail during the Dean's session on interview day. Essentially it boils down to the AAMC pushing schools to get rid of traditional lectures and develop more interactive learning formats. The statistics they quoted during the interview day were something like 15% of material is retained at the end of an academic year by students being lectured at and 80% of material is retained at the end of an academic year when you're under the tutelage of UVa's newly implemented curriculum - group work ftw (according to "various studies").

On that note, the interview day was very enlightening. Lunch was amazing. First years roaming the new med ed building were very good about coming in to talk to us interviewees. They seem to be really enjoying the new curriculum for the most part.
 
NeuroKidd said:
First years roaming the new med ed building were very good about coming in to talk to us interviewees. They seem to be really enjoying the new curriculum for the most part.
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There is an open invitation to join us for our lectures. Today wasn't as good, because we had labs that we couldn't take the interviewees into, but most other days, we're sitting in our classroom all morning. I know a couple people have sat in on our lectures this week, but I also know a few students were hosted and opted to stay at their host's place sleeping, rather than attend class. We can tell you all you want to know about how the curriculum works on a practical standpoint and can answer a lot of questions for you guys, but really, the best way to see it is to come in and see it for yourself. If you aren't staying with a host, feel free to just wander in looking confused at 8 am... someone will come over and talk to you eventually.

As a side point, if it's after noon and you guys are on your tour, don't feel shy about actually walking into the classrooms if there are people there... 99% of the time, it's just an interest group meeting/lecture.

As far as the question about why they changed the curriculum... we were told that there seemed to be a disconnect between Step 2 and Step 1, and Step 1 was much lower. They felt that this new curriculum would bring step 1 up so that it was more in line with the Step 2 scores. I don't know if there's any truth to that, but it results in an extra two months of rotations, so I'm not going to complain.
 
I agree with mvenus--the first year students love it when you guys come and sit in on our lectures before your interview day starts. It gives us a chance to meet you guys and answer your questions, and it allows you to see what a typical lecture feels like.
 
I got an interview invite today for late October (OOS). I'm pretty stoked! I was only complete last week, so I wasn't expecting anything so soon. What a pleasant surprise!
 
State residency form received on 8/16. Secondary was completed a week before. Still no word... When can I start panicking?
 
Hey, does anyone know if we can call the admissions office on Oct 15 to find out our decision? I know they said it would be mailed on the 15th, but it would be great to find out that Friday.
 
I know it hurts to have to wait, but I don't really see that working. They would probably be concerned about breaking away from the letter set-up and getting a deluge of phone calls asking for admissions decisions. They're certainly not going to want to tell people over the phone that they've been rejected, either.

:luck:

You guys are so close to finding out! I know how much it can hurt to have to wait to hear your decision after interviewing early on, but it's almost over. The first people will probably start getting their letters on the 18th or 19th.
 
I'm pretty sure they didn't even mail out our decisions last year until Oct 16th... after Oct 15th. So, I don't know if your letters will be dropped in the mail close of business Friday, or if they'll wait til Monday. Either way, I wouldn't expect to hear next week.
 
Will UVa send out letters to everyone who interviewed before the 15th? (Who are included in the last adcom meeting before the 15th?) Or is it like some other places where you still have to wait a few weeks?
(I'm interviewing on Monday, and I know I won't hear about the first three schools at which I've interviewed until November...so it would be nice to get a definite something from some school in October 😛)
 
tr0gd0r said:
Will UVa send out letters to everyone who interviewed before the 15th? (Who are included in the last adcom meeting before the 15th?) Or is it like some other places where you still have to wait a few weeks?
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If the process is the same as last year (maybe not, since they bumped it up from 6 people to 8 a day), everyone who interviews October 11th-14th would be included in the initial decision release.

I doubt it's much harder to go through 32 people this year than it was to review 24 people a week last year, so I agree with justinbaily's estimate. Letters will probably start being received on the 18th, going in the mail on the 15th.
 
Anyone know how receptive UVa is to "in the area" emails? I'll be interviewing at VTC and would love to save the cost of flying out again. Plus I REALLY love UVa (so far).

Any ideas?
 
Hey Everyone,

I'm interviewing at UVA on November 1st. I'm flying in to Richmond on October 31st. Any advice on what's the best and cheapest way to get to Charlotsville from Richmond?

Thanks for the info! 🙂
 
Allig8r said:
Hey Everyone,

I'm interviewing at UVA on November 1st. I'm flying in to Richmond on October 31st. Any advice on what's the best and cheapest way to get to Charlotsville from Richmond?

Thanks for the info! 🙂
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I'm gonna say the cheapest *and* easiest way will be to rent a car from Enterprise - they'll rent to under-25's, and have a counter in Richmond. It's pretty much a straight-shot on I64 from the airport to Charlottesville

Second-cheapest/convenient, try Greyhound - but you'll need transportation from the airport to the bus station. I'd recommend Groome transportation for that.

Finally, there's Amtrak - which is either a bus to Charlottesville, or a round-about trip through D.C - they only run like one of each a day, and again, you'll need transportation between the airport and the train station.

hth.
 
interview invite today! i've been complete for about 2 months and was seriously about to start losing hope. uva is my first choice so i am in utter disbelief
 
ilikepancakes said:
interview invite today! i've been complete for about 2 months and was seriously about to start losing hope. uva is my first choice so i am in utter disbelief
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Congrats on the invite! UVA would be a great school to go to, I'm hoping to interview there too. Do you mind sharing your stats? Are you IS or OSS? Again, congrats and good luck at your interview!
 
Interviewed here about two weeks ago and have mixed feelings about the school. The students definitely seem like they're enjoying the new curriculum but I just don't know if I fit in here. The biggest deterrent for me is that students are required to do some of their rotations away. I get the idea that it's good to get some outside perspective... but if I want to go to UVa it's because I want to go to UVa. Supposedly I'll hear from them via snailmail sometime next week. Interview day was really laid back and the food was awesome. I thought the interviews themselves were a little short and one of my interviewers seemed a little disengaged. Good luck to everyone hoping to get an interview here!
 
NeuroKidd said:
Interviewed here about two weeks ago and have mixed feelings about the school. The students definitely seem like they're enjoying the new curriculum but I just don't know if I fit in here. The biggest deterrent for me is that students are required to do some of their rotations away. I get the idea that it's good to get some outside perspective... but if I want to go to UVa it's because I want to go to UVa. Supposedly I'll hear from them via snailmail sometime next week. Interview day was really laid back and the food was awesome. I thought the interviews themselves were a little short and one of my interviewers seemed a little disengaged. Good luck to everyone hoping to get an interview here!
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I wasn't sure what to think about away rotations either, but when I interviewed at the University of Colorado (after my UVa interview) and asked about scut work, a student mentioned that doing an away rotation at a community hospital where there aren't residents can mean you get a lot more responsibility. He used the example of surgery. At the University hospital you'll have residents assisting and the med student might just stand around watching or hold a leg, but at one of the community hospitals the med student will be doing first assist. Rotating at outside institutions that don't have residents could potentially provide a lot of responsibility and good experiences.

The other point the student made was that at community hospitals where people are used to functioning without residents or students there is the potential for less scut work.

I left UVa with only positive impressions. Everyone from the interviewers to the administrative staff to the students to other applicants and even the janitor who helped me find the med ed building were great. The program seemed solid and the students happy. I asked about 20 3rd and 4th years for negatives or concerns at an off campus event, but I didn't hear anything concerning.

Also, if you have a family or other reason to stay in Charlottesville, UVa will work with you to reduce the number of away rotations. It might even be possible to do them all in Charlottesville if that's your goal, but I didn't pursue this question.
 
accidentprone said:
...a student mentioned that doing an away rotation at a community hospital where there aren't residents can mean you get a lot more responsibility. He used the example of surgery. At the University hospital you'll have residents assisting and the med student might just stand around watching or hold a leg, but at one of the community hospitals the med student will be doing first assist.
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Yeah, this is basically it.

As a current UVa student, away rotations were one of the less appealing aspects of the school for me. I like Charlottesville a lot, so leaving to go elsewhere and live in school housing doesn't sound that fun. However, I'm perfectly willing to make those sacrifices if I feel I'll get more autonomy. The above quote is exactly what I've heard. Doing your surgery rotation at Salem is supposed to be amazing. So while I would love to stay at UVa for all of my rotations, there is definitely more crowding at academic hospitals and you're going to get more experience away from all that.
 
Steeler7588 said:
As a current UVa student, away rotations were one of the less appealing aspects of the school for me. I like Charlottesville a lot, so leaving to go elsewhere and live in school housing doesn't sound that fun. However, I'm perfectly willing to make those sacrifices if I feel I'll get more autonomy. The above quote is exactly what I've heard. Doing your surgery rotation at Salem is supposed to be amazing. So while I would love to stay at UVa for all of my rotations, there is definitely more crowding at academic hospitals and you're going to get more experience away from all that.
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I totally see the point that you might get to be more hands on if you're not in a densely populated tertiary center with students, interns, residents etc. all looking to get in on the action. But any thoughts on if an away experience detracts from the quality of your rotations as far as how much you learn? I suppose I'm wondering if there are any differences in performance on shelf exams for students who do their rotations away vs in cville? And say for example that you're really interested in IM - can you do something to ensure that you stay local for that clerkship? Wouldn't you want to stay in order to secure LORs for residency?
 
NeuroKidd said:
I totally see the point that you might get to be more hands on if you're not in a densely populated tertiary center with students, interns, residents etc. all looking to get in on the action. But any thoughts on if an away experience detracts from the quality of your rotations as far as how much you learn? I suppose I'm wondering if there are any differences in performance on shelf exams for students who do their rotations away vs in cville? And say for example that you're really interested in IM - can you do something to ensure that you stay local for that clerkship? Wouldn't you want to stay in order to secure LORs for residency?
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I'd like to hear what an existing student has to say about this too.

I think UVa splits the required rotations into smaller blocks so that people can get an overview early in the third year. For example (and this may be a bad example), if x weeks of IM are required, maybe you only do .5x weeks early in the third year. Then if you've picked a specialty, you can tailor the remaining requirement to dovetail with the specialty. So if you want to do neurology, the first half of your surgery rotation may be general surgery, but you could elect to make the remaining weeks neurosurgery.

Also, for LORs, I think you'd want to do electives and a sub-internship in your specialty, and you can pick where this is. You can even do a sub-i at one of the residency locations you're interested in to get a closer look at the program and introduce yourself to the people there.

Does this sound accurate to you med students? I'm hardly qualified to give answers at this point.
 
From what I understand, you have a maximum of 20 weeks at away-sites, but we have roughly 120 weeks of clinical rotations (2.5 X 12 X 4). I think that you can guarantee yourself a particular site for a particular rotation, and then you rank the other ones based on preference.

When you're at the away rotations, the school pays your room and board. The housing is either in the hospital or at a random location nearby like a bed and breakfast.

I hear that there are some locations that are kind of small, but there are also sites in Salem, Roanoke and Fairfax (Inova) that could be considered more desirable than UVa. Personally, I like the idea of having much more responsibility and supervision, like Steeler and accidentprone pointed out.

Regarding whether students pick up adequate clinical skills, just taking one look at our Step 2 scores should answer that question: http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/academics/licensure.cfm#results. The number scoring over 245 is just awesome. Also, in terms of practical clinical reputation, this thread has an Excel spreadsheet of the residency director's scores from USNews. The fact that we rank higher than NYU and Sinai, two schools that have kick-ass, huge medical centers, shows that UVa knows what its doing with the clinical education: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=720207.

Is there a third or fourth year student who can help here?
 
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NeuroKidd said:
And say for example that you're really interested in IM - can you do something to ensure that you stay local for that clerkship? Wouldn't you want to stay in order to secure LORs for residency?
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There are some rotations that are actually better to have away than stay local for. Pediatrics at Fairfax/INOVA is supposed to be the best, while Surgery at Salem is supposed to be much more hands on. If you're interested in those specialties, it may not be 'better' to stay at UVA.

accidentprone said:
I think UVa splits the required rotations into smaller blocks so that people can get an overview early in the third year. For example (and this may be a bad example), if x weeks of IM are required, maybe you only do .5x weeks early in the third year. Then if you've picked a specialty, you can tailor the remaining requirement to dovetail with the specialty. So if you want to do neurology, the first half of your surgery rotation may be general surgery, but you could elect to make the remaining weeks neurosurgery.
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From what I understand (and keep in mind that I'm only a first year), there are separate rotations. You do a general surgery rotation, and then you do surgery subspecialties as part of fourth year. I remember some of the current fourth years complaining that while there was an 'extended' fourth year, it wasn't really extended because they made them take the subspecialty clerkships early in fourth year. We now get an additional two months, so it's really an extended fourth year now.

You also do sub-internships during your fourth year (usually early on, through September), where you can either go away (do an acting internship at a hospital that you might want to do residency at), or stay at UVA to get further recommendations in your specialty of choice. So if you really want to do internal medicine and end up getting your hospital-based internal medicine (there's inpatient and outpatient) away, you can always do a sub-I at UVA.

Oh, we're also getting new away rotations, because VT is taking Roanoke away from us. So there will be at least one away rotation that we don't know the location of yet.
 
Alright - I'm a fourth year here so I'll bite...

Yes - you have to do "away rotations." Most people have to do 4ish months. The sitez for us were Roanoke, Salem, INOVA for peds, and then you get scattered about to work one on one with family practice physicians and outpatient medicine physicians. The one on one months can be awesome if you get the hook up for housing and get a great attending. You are sent an email approx 5 weeks before that rotation with "available sites" for your block - so if you have an uncle that lives in Blacksburg, you can pick a nearby site and live with them, etc. There IS "compassionate consideration" for people with kids and other good excuses to do more of your time at uva.

What else... so I personally had Psych and OBGYN in Roanoke. Both were awesome. Both were my highest shelf scores. Yes, teaching on the wards is important - but dont kid yourself, its the studying at home out of the hospital and reading about your patients that gets you the grade. For the 4 weeks I was away, I'd go to work, eat, sleep, and study. There were fewer distractions so I was way more efficient studying. Also - I dont remember who published it - but a poster was presented at UVA last year that demonstrated no significant difference in evaluation scores OR shelf scores for the different rotation sites. Also [especially in medicine] you see more "bread and butter" cases in roanoke/salem than UVA because we are a referral center. As cool as some random genetic disease is, its more important to understand CHF and diabetes for the shelf.

In terms of experience - you do get more hands on typically at the other hospitals. Surgery in salem is a VA hospital and you get more responsibility and basically act as an intern. OBGYN in roanoke you get more freedom as well - I delivered several babies, whereas my friends at UVA did not. Psych in salem/roanoke is awesome as well - more of the serious psych issues and less everyday outpatient stuff [ie: patient who think the virgin mary is ringing their doorbell, and not the i'm a little depressed patients]. Peds in INOVA is supposed to be one of the better rotations. Tons more patients than at UVA so you get more exposure, and you stay with other UVA students in a townhouse.... and you are in D.C. Win-win-win!

Your 3rd year surgery clerkship is 8 weeks divided into 2, 4 week blocks. You do "general surgery" at uva/roanoke/salem. Then you typically have 4 weeks of surg specialty at uva [thoracic, cardiac, vascular, transplant, trauma, etc]. Almost everyone does at least 4 weeks of their surgery clerkship at UVA. In addition, you have 2, 2 week surgery subspeciality during 3rd year [plastics, neurosurg, ortho, optho, urology, ent.. probably missing some but u get the idea].

People have no problem getting letters regardless of where they do their rotations. You will have PLENTY of time with the new schedule to do more focused rotations at UVA to get letters / do away rotations / sub-internships [called ACE at UVA].

Any other specific 3rd/4th year questions? I'm on vacation and just hanging out anyway 👍
 
Thanks to all the UVa students who responded! Totally answered all of my questions and I'm definitely getting more and more excited to hear back from the school (hopefully in the next week). Will definitely post if I have any more questions.
 
I know it's been such a long process, and what's another two days, but honestly I do not want to wait until Monday to hear from them. Can't do anything about it though, besides curse the USPS.
 
So I know that UVA told us during our interview that they were going to mail our decisions on Saturday (to honor the October 15th rule), but does anyone know if now they're going to wait til monday because of AAMC changing the day to the 18th?
 
BiochemGuy said:
Where did you hear they changed it to the 18th? It still looks like its on the 15th to me..
http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/policies/admissionofficers.htm
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I interviewed at Temple recently, and they said something about the date technically being the 16th, but she said (the director of admissions) "we've been doing the 15th for years and I'm not holding decisions past then."

Seems like maybe something changed and some schools are adhering to it and others aren't. And then, since the 16th is a weekend, they're waiting 'til the 18th.
 
DrTica said:
So I know that UVA told us during our interview that they were going to mail our decisions on Saturday (to honor the October 15th rule), but does anyone know if now they're going to wait til monday because of AAMC changing the day to the 18th?
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If they said the 16th, they'll probably mail them on the 16th. The AAMC probably changed it to the 18th because the 16th is a Saturday... if some admissions office wants to mail out decisions on Saturday, I'm sure the AAMC won't care. Not that it matters much either way... no one will get their decision til Monday anyway.
 
Mail just came. No letter. 🙁 Whyyyy snail mail?@!

Edit: Just called the admissions office. The woman said that they just mailed them out today.
 
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danh489 said:
Mail just came. No letter. 🙁 Whyyyy snail mail?@!

Edit: Just called the admissions office. The woman said that they just mailed them out today.
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I wonder if there is any way it could be in California by Tuesday...🙁
 
curlytop said:
Any recent interview invitations?
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Got one today for Nov, and I was complete back in July. I'm sure they were just testing me to see if I'd break down and harass the admissions dept.
 
So today is the big day right? (well for those who live close enough to cville) good luck everyone! mine will come tomorrow hopefully (live in md).
 
😱 Accepted! Snail mail, Upper 30s MCAT, 3.9/3.9 IS
 
tr0gd0r said:
Woo! Congrats!

Wish I had asked them to send my letter to my parents' house in NoVa rather than my place in CA 😛
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Haha, I go to school in Virginia, explaining the quick turnaround after they sent out letters yesterday!
 
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