2010-2011 University of Virginia Application Thread

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med355618 said:
Received an interview invite today around noon. I'm out of state, so I was a bit surprised. I'd love to visit here, but I'm not exactly sure I'll have the funds to make it possible. Any easy/cheap ways to get to Charlottesville?
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can u combine it with your trip to georgetown? uva is so much better anyway 😎
 
I combined my interview at UVA with my interview at Georgetown last year. I interviewed at Gtown, drove a car down to Charlottesville and then drove to Richmond for my flight back to school. The differences between Georgetown and UVA were, uh, striking.

Perhaps you could take a bus from DC to Cville or vice-versa. Are there trains from Cville to DC? That's how I got between interviews in Philadelphia and New York.
 
justinbaily said:
I combined my interview at UVA with my interview at Georgetown last year. I interviewed at Gtown, drove a car down to Charlottesville and then drove to Richmond for my flight back to school. The differences between Georgetown and UVA were, uh, striking.

Perhaps you could take a bus from DC to Cville or vice-versa. Are there trains from Cville to DC? That's how I got between interviews in Philadelphia and New York.
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I know there are trains from DC to Cville, but I'm not sure about the reverse. I found it really, really cheap, though, to fly into DC, take a greyhound bus down to Cville (if you order tickets like 2-4 weeks in advance, it's only like $20 round trip), interview, then ride the bus back up and fly back out of DC. It was kind of a pain to arrange, since I didn't know the area, but I managed to make it work just fine. Just be aware that the bus can be delayed, so if you're taking it back up to DC, allow yourself more than enough time to get to the airport that evening, or stay an extra day or something.

There's a free trolley that runs through the UVA campus and to downtown. It will take you right by the greyhound station and the Amtrack station (I live between them, and ride the free trolley to class most everyday), and picks up right outside Jordan Hall, really close to the new med ed building.

Try Kayak for cheap flights.
 
mvenus929 said:
I know there are trains from DC to Cville, but I'm not sure about the reverse..
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There is for sure a Cville --> DC train. I think its similar to greyhound in that if u book early, its pretty cheap [i paid $24 one way for thanksgiving]. Takes about 2hrs, which a lot of times is quicker than driving 2/2 traffic.
 
I'm having a bit of difficulty finding information on the new facilities. Can anyone help me out?
 
mvenus929 said:
I know there are trains from DC to Cville, but I'm not sure about the reverse. I found it really, really cheap, though, to fly into DC, take a greyhound bus down to Cville (if you order tickets like 2-4 weeks in advance, it's only like $20 round trip), interview, then ride the bus back up and fly back out of DC. It was kind of a pain to arrange, since I didn't know the area, but I managed to make it work just fine. Just be aware that the bus can be delayed, so if you're taking it back up to DC, allow yourself more than enough time to get to the airport that evening, or stay an extra day or something.

There's a free trolley that runs through the UVA campus and to downtown. It will take you right by the greyhound station and the Amtrack station (I live between them, and ride the free trolley to class most everyday), and picks up right outside Jordan Hall, really close to the new med ed building.

Try Kayak for cheap flights.
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Well, I decided to book my interview for UVA yesterday, and I'm pretty excited!

What do you think about flying into Richmond and then taking a bus to Charlottesville? I'm finding that flights into Richmond are about the same price as into Reagan. How did you get your way to and from the train stations? I appreciate all of the help!
 
med355618 said:
Well, I decided to book my interview for UVA yesterday, and I'm pretty excited!

What do you think about flying into Richmond and then taking a bus to Charlottesville? I'm finding that flights into Richmond are about the same price as into Reagan. How did you get your way to and from the train stations? I appreciate all of the help!
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I've never been to Richmond, so I'll let someone else address your question there. I chose DC because I have a friend living in DC (well, she's on an away rotation in San Antonio now, but normally, she lives in DC). The subway goes right past Reagan, so it's really easy to hop on it to get to Central Station in DC.

As for transportation in Charlottesville... my student host was nice enough to pick me up from the (Charlottesville) airport and bring me to the school in the morning. I'm a host, and I'm similarly picking up my applicant from the train station when she arrives. Not sure about when she leaves, but we'll figure that out when she gets here. I highly recommend a student host, by the way. We have lots of people willing to host you, and we do the best to match you with someone with similar interests.

That afternoon, the admissions office was going to call a cab for me to take to the bus station, but I interviewed with a 4th year and she offered to drive me to the bus station. We took the bus down to her apartment, then she drove me down to the station.

There's also a free trolley that stops right outside the school (bit down the block from the medical education building) and will bring you around UVA, then down Main Street to the bus station. Or, you can walk. It's only like a 20 minute walk or so. You walk up the hill on JPA, take a right when you reach University, and stay on that street until you get to the bus station (you'll pass the Amtrack station as well), which will be on the right.
 
I highly recommend using priceline's name your own price for car rentals. there is less of a "risk" in comparison to flights/hotels. You just put in the style of car you want and bam.

I just got back from a 2 day trip to nashville and booked a car for $12/day - ended up costing $30 with airport taxes/fees. Much better than a bus because you can explore the city a bit on your own, etc.
 
Richspiders07 said:
I highly recommend using priceline's name your own price for car rentals. there is less of a "risk" in comparison to flights/hotels. You just put in the style of car you want and bam.

I just got back from a 2 day trip to nashville and booked a car for $12/day - ended up costing $30 with airport taxes/fees. Much better than a bus because you can explore the city a bit on your own, etc.
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I like the sound of this. It'll be a little bit more for me because I'm under 25. How bad is the drive from Richmond to Charlottesville?
 
med355618 said:
I like the sound of this. It'll be a little bit more for me because I'm under 25. How bad is the drive from Richmond to Charlottesville?
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From the airport itself like 70ish miles - straight shot down I-64. Very rare traffic [5pm in downtown will have congestion like any city... but not even remotely close to D.C. traffic!].

The airport itself is much easier to fly into than Reagan - right off the highway outside the city. Small, never crowded. I've parked, taken shuttle, checked in, gone through security, and arrived at my gate in 20min.
 
For some reason I can't access the secondary application page after entering my login information. Is anyone else getting this message?

500 ErrorPage

Sorry, it appears the page you were looking for doesn't exist anymore or might have beeen moved!
Please go back to Home Page, and then look for links to the information you want.
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Hi,
My secondary was complete on 07/23 and I haven't heard anything since then. Should I send a letter of interest? Contact admissions to make sure they don't need any more info?
 
That is 3 weeks. This process is long, try to be patient. It can take them many weeks.
 
O i was thinking August, man the summer went fast.
 
AsanteSana said:
Hi,
My secondary was complete on 07/23 and I haven't heard anything since then. Should I send a letter of interest? Contact admissions to make sure they don't need any more info?
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Most of our class did not interview in September or October. I know several people who interviewed in January and got in. Be patient.
 
justinbaily said:
I would talk about early clinical exposure, but I think that mvenus already said everything that I could think of.

BigValbowski--I must say that you're being a little bit harsh regarding some pretty trivial things. I agree that the paperless system is a drag. I had to fill out one of the surveys this week and I asked specifically for some sort of a compromise regarding printed packets. I have personally been working with a number of people in the administration about setting up a third-party printing subscription for those who want to purchase hard copies rather than do the online/computer-based thing. I am also annoyed that we weren't told about the paperless thing before matriculating, but many schools are beginning to go paperless for budget reasons. When I interviewed at NYU, not a single administrator mentioned that they were paperless, and I had to hear it from the students when I specifically asked.

Lecture is absolutely not mandatory and I rarely go unless I feel like it is necessary. If we have a lab or small-group thing then yes, that is mandatory. Small group and lab activities are mandatory at every medical school. The difference with ours is that the labs and group activities are scheduled within the 8-12 time-frame as far as I can tell. I do agree with you that some of the small-group things could be structured better--I was not a fan of the Southern blot exercise--but there are also a number of activities that are very helpful like the Radiology exercise. They get feedback for every activity, so I'm sure that they're aware of the class's experience.

I'm not hearing a very substantive critique of the curriculum's structure. You have to admit that it's almost entirely traditional in terms of how they're actually delivering content, don't you?

mvenus--yeah, they seemed to drop that immediately.I was neutral about that, but I can see why people would prefer to not have them.
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All I am trying to say is that the lectures which they assign points to generally seem to be the most useless lectures and those are the ones I would want to skip. For instance, on monday we had a lecture about team based learning. We actually had a team based learning assignment about team based learning (and feedback)... This is something that I would want to skip because it is meaningless. Now if the lecture were about radiology and more like a lab, then I would definitely have no problem going to that. I thought that was a very good use of time. I just think they are beating us to death with group activities. When the lectures are more traditional and actually teach us about stuff that will be on the boards I have no problem showing up. I think our professors are great teachers when they are not forced by administration to make us do dumb activities.

As far as handouts are concerned, I'm not sure why we should have to pay for them, all of the previous years got them for free. You could argue that they were included in their tuition and maybe they didn’t charge us in our tuition for the handouts but last time I checked tuition didn't get any cheaper this year. The cost of one of those useless pillars in the learning center (even the dean made fun of them during orientation) would probably pay for our handouts for the year. It seems like I've traded lecture handouts for in-class lottery scratch quizzes and laminated color pieces of paper to hold up during class.

I don’t think I am the one rogue student who doesn’t like the curriculum, since our SMEC reps started the "complaint blog" many others have voiced similar concerns.

Anyways, I'll quit complaining... I just thought prospective students may want to hear some of the downside of the new cirriculum, sometimes group learning isnt for everyone...
 
Fair enough, but it's not as though the lectures on team-based learning are a common, repeated thing--obviously that would be absurd. I like that they're showing us their thought-process behind things. It's a good bet that that lecture won't make it to next year after the evaluations :laugh:. Did you like Dr. Normaly's biochem lecture today? That seemed like an effective combination of traditional lecture and active learning stuff.

SMEC is trying to figure out what the chief complaints for the class are, just like every SMEC rep ever. Obviously the first class to go through a re-vamped system is going to have some issues that need to be worked out. I think that we're basically free to change the whole things as we go, though. If the consensus of the class is that we don't want to do a particular thing, then I'm pretty sure that they'll throw it out or modify it.

And don't hate on my columns. 👎
 
Having interviewed at UVA, I would say that the new curriculum is definitely NOT the shining part of UVA, at least for now. I don't know why the school's presentation made such a high pitch of the curriculum (claiming a fivefold increase of retention rate of learning). What UVA has really impressed me are (not in any order): the new building and facilities including truly advanced&fancy classroom and simulation center, rich resources as a public schol and many opportunities in both general medicine and advanced research, laidback happy students who talked to me even when I just wandered around by myself, unique 3rd-year rotations across many locations of VA (require some travel but you get exposed to diverse clinical settings), nice interviewers who shared with me their episodes in practice (indicating that they love to teach students), and excellent match results. I got only positive impressions, and UVA is still my top choice. The bottom line is, don't be obssessed with the new curriculum. After all, UVA's classroom teaching is only 1.5 years long, so whether you like it or not, you will enjoy more with UVA's clerkships and other offerings.

I really pray for an admittance offer from UVA in October. GL to u all.
 
schlieren said:
After all, UVA's classroom teaching is only 1.5 years long, so whether you like it or not, you will enjoy more with UVA's clerkships and other offerings.
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That's because of the new curriculum now. I'm certainly not going to deny that there are problems with the curriculum. Yesterday in CPD, we had a rant session about it and the five other people in my group and I all said the same thing. But, it does shorten the basic science study by a few months, allowing us more time on the wards. You can't deny that we're one of the first schools to get a class out on the wards.

Since we're focusing so much on board testing, it's supposed to help us on the boards too. Since we still have a year and a half before we get to that point, we can't really judge that, but it makes sense.

But, I think the hallmark of it is that UVA recognized that the way they were teaching before wasn't working, and they changed it. There's bumps and it'll undergo changes, but they are really receptive to suggestions. I mean, look at how much they've changed in the month we've been here already, and they're really trying to make it better for us.
 
hey do you guys think i would be at a significant advantage if i were to submit the secondary around now? (everything else is complete, i've just been working on other apps and avoiding this really long one!)
 
Interview invite this afternoon...I was complete within a few days of the secondary coming out, so don't give up hope if you haven't heard from them yet!
 
Interview invite today! Complete 9/11 OOS (so fast!)

Quick question - I know they meet on Fridays, but do they also offer Friday interviews? My schedule this quarter is an unavoidable M-W block which means the earliest I can be in Virginia (west coast + 3 hour time difference) is 11am on Thursday. The dates it's showing me now are M-W but I know I saw a Thursday somewhere on here, so is there hope?

Thanks, all! 🙂
 
I'm pretty sure that Friday is the only day that they don't interview applicants.
 
After interviewing here, all I have to is WOW. I'm very impressed with UVa's facilities/grounds and students. I talked to a number of students and they all seemed very happy/excited about the school. The only negative I found was the 20 week away rotations. Not sure if I wanna go to Salem, but I could see myself at INOVA (I'm from Maryland anyway).

I am counting down the days till Oct 16...please oh please UVa!!
 
afob100 said:
After interviewing here, all I have to is WOW. I'm very impressed with UVa's facilities/grounds and students. I talked to a number of students and they all seemed very happy/excited about the school. The only negative I found was the 20 week away rotations. Not sure if I wanna go to Salem, but I could see myself at INOVA (I'm from Maryland anyway).

I am counting down the days till Oct 16...please oh please UVa!!
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One thing to note about away rotations... what they are now may or may not be what they will be when you get on the wards. Roanoke, at least, is going to VA Tech (so it'll start affecting our class, since they'll be hitting the wards around the same time we will).

Apparently the surgery rotation at Salem is very good, as is the Peds rotation at INOVA. Just what I've heard.

And umami... they do not interview on Fridays.
 
afob100 said:
after interviewing here, all i have to is wow. I'm very impressed with uva's facilities/grounds and students. I talked to a number of students and they all seemed very happy/excited about the school. the only negative i found was the 20 week away rotations. Not sure if i wanna go to salem, but i could see myself at inova (i'm from maryland anyway).

I am counting down the days till oct 16...please oh please uva!!
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+1
 
Totally echoing the other recent interviewees, the day at UVA was AMAZING!!!
I feel like my interviews went well, both interviewers were incredibly nice. But I also met some really amazing fellow interviewees and I have no idea how they're going to reject half (or more) of us! It's going to be a looooonnngggg month.


For those of us who interviewed so early (September), are the post-interview chances in our favor?
 
Tippyboat said:
For those of us who interviewed so early (September), are the post-interview chances in our favor?
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Those who interview early are the stronger candidates, and thus are more likely for admission.

Out of the 6 people in my interview group, 2 of us showed up to second look, and I'm the only one that matriculated. That being said, I don't know how many of the other 4 either got accepted, but chose not to come, or just got rejected/waitlisted.
 
afob100 said:
The only negative I found was the 20 week away rotations. Not sure if I wanna go to Salem, but I could see myself at INOVA (I'm from Maryland anyway).
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Trust me - its much better to have 25 people split up between different hospitals, than 25 students on inpatient medicine at the same time. There simply wouldn't be enough patients / opportunities / procedures / time to shine.

I've also found its nice to work in a different hospital setting. You see more "bread and butter" pathology when you aren't at a tertiary care center. While it's cool/fun to see zebras, you'd much rather get comfortable with what you will regularly encounter when on your own.

Supposedly the "new clinical sites" will be closer to UVa. We could have fun speculating which ones will replace Carilion....
 
mvenus929 said:
Those who interview early are the stronger candidates, and thus are more likely for admission.

Out of the 6 people in my interview group, 2 of us showed up to second look, and I'm the only one that matriculated. That being said, I don't know how many of the other 4 either got accepted, but chose not to come, or just got rejected/waitlisted.
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Thank you for the insight. Do you know if the student and faculty interviewers we had have the same weight in the final decision making? Thanks!

Also, can anyone comment on the safety of the area? The town looked so nice and quaint that I was shocked to find out that Charlottesville has a higher-than-national-average crime rate!
 
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Tippyboat said:
Also, can anyone comment on the safety of the area? The town looked so nice and quaint that I was shocked to find out that Charlottesville has a higher-than-national-average crime rate!
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Like any city - there are the bad parts of town. Most students dont live there - and the crime gives us some interesting trauma cases in the ED 🙂.

There have been rare incidents with students. We get emails from the UVA police chief anytime something happens in/around campus. The fact that he actually sends an email shows you how infrequently it happens - think about it. There was an armed robbery a few months ago, but apparently the students left their house unlocked.

I walked to the hospital daily - 25 min walk each way - through part of the "bad area." Never had any problems, but I won't do it alone after dark. Just like other places, common sense goes a long way.
 
Tippyboat said:
Thank you for the insight. Do you know if the student and faculty interviewers we had have the same weight in the final decision making?
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Yup. Same weight. Students are full voting members of the committee.

Richspiders07 said:
There have been rare incidents with students. We get emails from the UVA police chief anytime something happens in/around campus. The fact that he actually sends an email shows you how infrequently it happens - think about it. There was an armed robbery a few months ago, but apparently the students left their house unlocked.

I walked to the hospital daily - 25 min walk each way - through part of the "bad area." Never had any problems, but I won't do it alone after dark. Just like other places, common sense goes a long way.
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There were a couple e-mails over the summer relating to rape attempts. From what I gathered, they were girls walking home alone at night. Other than testing, I'm pretty sure there hasn't been anything since I got to town at the beginning of August.

The hospital locks down at some point in the evening and on weekends, and it's all badge access after that. So once you're inside the hospital, you're safe, and you can get around to basically wherever you need to at night. There are a variety of ways UVA tries to make sure that no one is walking home by themselves. There's Safe Ride, and a contract with one of the taxi companies where if you show your ID, they'll charge the school, and you just pay the school back (so if you don't have money on you, you can still get home).
 
Does anyone know if the committee meets these Fridays before Oct 15? Have acceptance/rejection decisions been made already for those who have interviewed, and won't be released till Oct 15?
 
I am almost certain that they do. On Fridays there is typically a piece of paper hung up on the admissions office stating that they are having a confidential meeting, or something. I would assume that they are making decisions then.

If it is like last year, then they will mail out decisions on October 16th--if you read the guidelines carefully, the rule is to not release decisions until "after October 15th"--and you will receive the decision by snail mail. I interviewed in September as well, and I received my letter in the mail on the 18th, post-marked for the 16th. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. After that, I was finally able to withdraw a number of applications and cancel a number of interviews.

The acceptance letters from last year were in normal-sized envelopes, but mine was packed with forms and a return envelope to accept my seat in the class. They did not require a deposit.

Edit: :luck:
 
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justinbaily said:
I am also certain that they do. On Fridays there is typically a piece of paper hung up on the admissions office stating that they are having a confidential meeting, or something. I would assume that they are making decisions then.

If it is like last year, then they will mail out decisions on October 16th--if you read the guidelines carefully, the rule is to not release decisions until "after October 15th"--and you will receive the decision by snail mail. I interviewed in September as well, and I received my letter in the mail on the 18th, post-marked for the 16th. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. After that, I was finally able to withdraw a number of applications and cancel a number of interviews.

The acceptance letters from last year were in normal-sized envelopes, but mine was packed with forms and a return envelope to accept my seat in the class. They did not require a deposit.

Edit: :luck:
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Thanks for all the info. But September 16th is a Saturday for us!!!! 🙁. I REALLY hope our letters go out on the 15th, in which case they won't reach us until after 15th anyway.
 
Tippyboat said:
Thanks for all the info. But September 16th is a Saturday for us!!!! 🙁. I REALLY hope our letters go out on the 15th, in which case they won't reach us until after 15th anyway.
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SO exciting!! I would love to attend UVA.
 
Hejman said:
SO exciting!! I would love to attend UVA.
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Agreed. Dunno how I will stand waiting 1 month till Oct 15th. I can't even focus on my other interviews knowing that my UVa decision has already been made and is waiting for me...got my Maryland interview on Wednesday and haven't even thought about it..
 
Anyone know how much the interview weighs in in the final decision? I felt confident after my interviews but both of my interviewers made the comment "Well, we can't accept everyone we interview."

This made feel like I was already rejected. Again, I thought the interviews were very conversational and the interviewers seemed very interested in my file. This is why the comment caught me off guard.

So, does the adcom take into account the whole app along with the interview or mostly just the interview? I feel like I messed up the interview without even knowing why.
 
afob100 said:
Anyone know how much the interview weighs in in the final decision? I felt confident after my interviews but both of my interviewers made the comment "Well, we can't accept everyone we interview."

This made feel like I was already rejected. Again, I thought the interviews were very conversational and the interviewers seemed very interested in my file. This is why the comment caught me off guard.

So, does the adcom take into account the whole app along with the interview or mostly just the interview? I feel like I messed up the interview without even knowing why.
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Maybe they were just testing your response to a nerve wracking statement like that. Did you do/say anything to prompt such a statement? Just curious btw- are you an in state applicant? (for VA?) Did you go to a state school?
 
Hejman said:
Maybe they were just testing your response to a nerve wracking statement like that. Did you do/say anything to prompt such a statement? Just curious btw- are you an in state applicant? (for VA?) Did you go to a state school?
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They said this at the very end of the interviews as I was leaving their offices..before that I said something to the effect of "I could certainly see myself attending this university." Dunno if that was a definite no, no.

I'm a Maryland resident, but I go to VCU undergrad (hopefully that will help me out..since one of my interviewer's questions was "would you actually attend a Virginia school?").

edit: I'm prob thinking about it too much and should just wait till ~Oct. 18. This feels exactly like the month after MCAT all over again...
 
I wouldn't obsess over it. They may have just been trying to keep your expectations in check just in case things don't work out for whatever reason. I'm glad to hear that people are enjoying the interview day.
 
afob100 said:
They said this at the very end of the interviews as I was leaving their offices..before that I said something to the effect of "I could certainly see myself attending this university." Dunno if that was a definite no, no.

I'm a Maryland resident, but I go to VCU undergrad (hopefully that will help me out..since one of my interviewer's questions was "would you actually attend a Virginia school?").

edit: I'm prob thinking about it too much and should just wait till ~Oct. 18. This feels exactly like the month after MCAT all over again...
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I really wouldn't obsess over it. They were probably instructed to say that to everyone because of their overflow of deferred students from last year.
 
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