2010-2011 Virginia Tech Carilion Application Thread

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To maybe give a ray of optimism, last year I received my call on some random Sunday at 4:30 in the afternoon on some date other than the announced call dates(obviously, since it was a Sunday!). Not sure if that will be the case this year, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to share that tidbit for the folks anxiously waiting.
 
krofar803 said:
Thanks so much abyz! The waiting is just getting so frustrating 🙁
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Yeah, it might be frustrating, but if nothing else there's the magic May 15th date to look forward to. So keep your hope up! 🙂

Thats when everyone sitting on multiple acceptances has to choose just one acceptance to keep so a lot of seats should open up in various med schools and hopefully there will be movement in a lot of waitlists after that.
 
I'm sorry for those who didn't make the cut. I also apologize if my question came off as insensitive. I am still trying to get a feel for the process since I interviewed in the last group.
 
Don't worry about it, it's a valid question - especially since the school is so new, no one has a feel for how it works yet.

I can't believe they got ~1000 more apps this year!
 
hey all.. just wanted to congratulate those of you who have gotten admissions offers and extend a "hang in there" to everyone else! it can be very stressful waiting on those phone calls/emails, but we all have/had to go through it... all in all, dont lose hope... we had students offered admission a few days before orientation last year... as in any school, it takes a while for all the seats to be settled...

for those of you who have gotten admissions offers and plan on moving to the roanoke area, feel free to contact me if you have any questions, need some help getting settled, or just want to hang out with some fellow VTCers... oh and fyi, several of us are planning a currently unofficial "welcome" for the class of 2015 the saturday following your orientation week... i think we are all excited to see some new faces around here!
 
have any of the recent acceptees received the paperwork/scholarship info in the mail yet? thanks.
 
can one of the current vtc students please clarify what is meant by "special studies" week that follows each exam period? thanks.
 
abyz said:
can one of the current vtc students please clarify what is meant by "special studies" week that follows each exam period? thanks.
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Special studies week is remediation week. Our curriculum is pass/fail with the bar set at 75% for passing. If you score between a 70% and a 75% you will have to give a presentation on the information that you did not do well on in the exam. So say that you missed all of the physiology questions on the exam, that will be what you focus on for your remediation. If you get below a 70%, you have the entire week to study and then you will retake the test at the end of special studies week. So far we have had people do remediation for research, basic science, and clinical skills but everyone who has done this has said that the experience isn't too bad at all. The only bad part is that people who got flights out on Thursday or Friday morning had to cancel them if they had to stay for remediation meetings Friday morning (this is where they tell you what you have to work on for the week). [My advice would be to NOT GET FLIGHTS until the Friday afternoon or the Saturday after exams].

Even if you have to remediate, you can still go home. It is not required that you stay in Roanoke for the remediation week.

I haven't had to go through this yet, so I can't say much more but I think that having this "second chance" cushion is actually very nice and I don't get too stressed for exams. If you pass remediation, nothing goes on your record either. Pretty awesome.

For further clarification: If you fail two exams or PBL (patient based learning), you have to do summer remediation of the block. Nobody has done this yet and it is really really hard to fail PBL. If you fail remediation week, then you have to do summer remediation as well. One person has to do this but it isn't summer yet so I can't tell you more about how that is going to work.

Hope that helps 🙂
 
Freezer said:
for those of you who have gotten admissions offers and plan on moving to the roanoke area, feel free to contact me if you have any questions, need some help getting settled, or just want to hang out with some fellow VTCers... oh and fyi, several of us are planning a currently unofficial "welcome" for the class of 2015 the saturday following your orientation week... i think we are all excited to see some new faces around here!
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I would be totally excited to be a part of this 😛 I just got my official mail stuff on Saturday yay! Are there apartments or areas that med students tend to sort of live together in or how does one actually go about finding a place in roanoke - it seems a bit spread out and I'm not sure how difficult or not it is to get to the school in say... less than ideal weather/traffic conditions.

Another question though maybe the charter class wouldn't know but how does one go about figuring out the loan issue to make up the difference in whatever they didn't offer as merit scholarship? Or will more info be made available once they get our deposits? Normally I'd do a FAFSA and the school will tell me but since this school is new, I believe they said that they can't do fed govt loans as of yet. Does anyone know?
 
Junebloom said:
I would be totally excited to be a part of this 😛 I just got my official mail stuff on Saturday yay! Are there apartments or areas that med students tend to sort of live together in or how does one actually go about finding a place in roanoke - it seems a bit spread out and I'm not sure how difficult or not it is to get to the school in say... less than ideal weather/traffic conditions.

Another question though maybe the charter class wouldn't know but how does one go about figuring out the loan issue to make up the difference in whatever they didn't offer as merit scholarship? Or will more info be made available once they get our deposits? Normally I'd do a FAFSA and the school will tell me but since this school is new, I believe they said that they can't do fed govt loans as of yet. Does anyone know?
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Current VTC student here. Congrats on your acceptance, and we're excited to meet your class! Roanoke has a small city center (clustered around Campbell/Jefferson/Church streets if you're looking at a map) and there are large apartment buildings here that a fair number of students live in. It's ~1 mile from the VTC campus and 2 miles from the hospital. A lot of students also live in the South Roanoke neighborhood (<1 mi south of VTC around Jefferson/Avenham/22nd/25th streets). The last major hub of student living is in the Old Southwest neighborhood (Walnut/Franklin/Washington streets, <1 mi). For pricing, Old Southwest < South Roanoke < downtown city center. Safety and apartment quality are generally get-what-you-pay-for. Weather this year was a non-issue for everyone living within a couple miles of school.

As for loans, we don't have a lot of info on our financial situation for next year yet either. VTC wasn't eligible for federal loans this year and I don't know what next year's situation will be yet. This year, we were able to borrow from VT at the federal 6.8% rate for any extra costs. We had to submit the FAFSA for 2010-11 (and for 2011-12) to be considered for these loans even though they aren't federal, so filling it out might be a good idea for you, too. Use VT's school code. Hope this helps!
 
KTDseven77 said:
As for loans, we don't have a lot of info on our financial situation for next year yet either. VTC wasn't eligible for federal loans this year and I don't know what next year's situation will be yet. This year, we were able to borrow from VT at the federal 6.8% rate for any extra costs. We had to submit the FAFSA for 2010-11 (and for 2011-12) to be considered for these loans even though they aren't federal, so filling it out might be a good idea for you, too. Use VT's school code. Hope this helps!
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I was just wondering how these loans from VT worked out. Did VT subsidize any of the loans like federal loans would? or are they essentially a private unsubsidized loan at the federal interest rate?
 
sk2fz said:
I was just wondering how these loans from VT worked out. Did VT subsidize any of the loans like federal loans would? or are they essentially a private unsubsidized loan at the federal interest rate?
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It is my understanding that the loans we were offered privately through Virginia Tech were of comparable amounts, interest rates and grace periods to those of the government issued loans. As for subsidized loans, we were offered up to $8,500 in them this year from VT. I believe the federal government offers the same amount to graduate students. If any fellow classmates understand anything to the contrary, feel free to chime in.
 
Just got a call from Dr. Workman! The waitlist is moving! Good luck to everyone!!!!
 
Hey all,
I know that some of you on here have already accepted a position at VTC (which is awesome) and some of you are on the waitlist crossing your fingers (and I know how that feels!). For people looking for places to live, I (and my landlord/peer/roommate) are looking for someone to take a spot at our place. It is a 3 story (basement, 1st, 2nd floor) 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath very close to the school and in a nice neighborhood. Rent is 400$/month and utilities usually runs at 60$/month. The apartment is co-ed. It is in walking distance from school, Kroger (grocery store), Walgreens, a post office, and Fork (bar/awesome hangout/great food) and of course in walking distance of all the students that live in the neighborhood! You will be sharing the upstairs with me and I don't have any problems with living with a guy or a girl (but if you have a problem sharing a bathroom with a girl or sharing an apartment with a guy, then this place probably isn't going to work out for ya). The bedroom measures 11'3 by 11'10. I just posted some new photos on the facebook page for our apartment: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118533848176354&v=wall#!/group.php?gid=118533848176354
I would have done this through facebook if the school had actually set up a facebook group for you all (but they haven't yet, leh sigh).
Let me know if any of you are interested in our place by either PM on SDN or through the Facebook page.

~A Very Tired Med Student (exam time!!!!)
 
Hello Carilion-ers,
I was accepted last year but deferred until this year. Last year I was given a generous scholarship offer but told that they could not guarantee it every year. Sure enough, this year I was offered about half of last year's amount. For those of you who matriculated this past year, how different was the amount of money you received for 2011-2012 from the first-year amount? Also, are the loans you had to take out comparable to federal loans in interest rate and other features (such as the ability to defer when you are in residency or out of work)? Any more info on this would be really useful. Thanks!!
 
cyclenerd said:
For those of you who matriculated this past year, how different was the amount of money you received for 2011-2012 from the first-year amount? Also, are the loans you had to take out comparable to federal loans in interest rate and other features (such as the ability to defer when you are in residency or out of work)? Any more info on this would be really useful. Thanks!!
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We're still waiting on a package with all of that info. Loans last year were through VT and were below federal loans in interest rate. We (current students) are under the impression those are not the plan for the upcoming year. Options for loans at/near the federal rate are being prepared, but I'm not sure how the "options" or "deluxe packaging" will work out for private loan sources.

Sorry we can't really answer that for you right now! You'll get a better answer in 2-3 weeks.

EDIT: Also, I will vouch for PandaP9's post. Her and her roommate are cool and their place is nice. You'd be lucky to live there.
 
Just received an email this morning! My phone was stolen so they couldn't reach me via cell so they emailed me. First acceptance!!

Waitlist is moving!

Good luck to everyone else!
 
I just withdrew my acceptance. Good luck to everyone else out there waiting for a position. This is a great school, and I feel very fortunate to have been given this opportunity.
 
JUST GOT THE CALL FROM DR. WORKMAN!!! SOOOO EXCITED!!!!😍
 
I am sure this has been asked, but for some reason I never enter the right search terms but...

Is there a facebook group, or some other group where accepted students can talk about housing, and other various school-related things?


Ps-Congrats!!
 
I found one, but it only has like 3 people in it. It is the official one as the admissions officers created it.

Just search VTC class of 2015. And thanks!
 
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Would people be interested in a vtc class of 2015 thread in the allo forums?
 
For current students:

How should future students go about finding apartments in the Roanoke area? Are there better areas than others?
 
jwentwo1988 said:
For current students:

How should future students go about finding apartments in the Roanoke area? Are there better areas than others?
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Congratulations on your acceptance 🙂

I posted a pretty long post a couple weeks ago about where students live, so check that out for location information. As for where to find an apartment, I found mine through Craigslist, and roommates through the VTC 2014 facebook group. You can also try apartmentfinder.com (enter Roanoke, VA), mostly for places a little farther from the city center. Downtown buildings include the Cotton Mill lofts, the Patrick Henry, the Lawson building, etc. Spend some time on Google and you'll get an idea for price ranges and rental options. Good luck!
 
I am trying to make a decision this week between this school and another Va school. I was wondering if any current med students could help me by answering a few questions. My most important ones are 1. How happy are you? I know that sounds silly, but staying relatively stressfree is important to me. 2. How well do you think the curriculum is preparing you for the boards? 3. Do you have any idea what they are planning for m3 and m4 years? 4. I literally just forgot this one, hopefully I can remember and post it later.
 
aparks said:
I am trying to make a decision this week between this school and another Va school. I was wondering if any current med students could help me by answering a few questions. My most important ones are 1. How happy are you? I know that sounds silly, but staying relatively stressfree is important to me. 2. How well do you think the curriculum is preparing you for the boards? 3. Do you have any idea what they are planning for m3 and m4 years? 4. I literally just forgot this one, hopefully I can remember and post it later.
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i think VTC is something different for each of us in the charter class... so i will try to find some more of us to post on here so we can see some diversity in this response (we just finished our first year and a lot of us fled the city)...

anyways, for me VTC is culture... when you talk about great companies such as Google or Microsoft or Apple, you cant help but talk about the culture... a work environment that fosters community and subsequently fosters an environment where great accomplishment can occur.... VTC, to me, has adopted this strategy... when you come to VTC, you are not a number or just another face as i've seen in many other medical programs... instead, you become part of a family of sorts... i know each one of my peers here and they all know me (strengths and weaknesses)... we help each other out, write study guides, practice exams, share resources, etc, daily.... we're a team... further, there is a lot of interaction between the students and faculty/deans... i can recall several occasions this year when our dean of medical education stopped by my study room just to see how we were doing... a casual chat... he also knows his way around the kidney which came in handy during block 3, but i digress... i guess my point to all of this is that we are a culture that strives to improve ourselves through improving those around us... for me, i love it here... but i also recognize that this environment is not for everyone... some students need competition to thrive and you wont find that here... still, anyone who is offered admission to VTC, i believe was offered a seat because it was the schools belief that they could thrive here... that's what i saw in the mmi, anyways...

as for USMLE prep... i can't really speak on this as none of us have taken the usmle yet... however, the class has done a lot on its own to prepare for the usmle... a lot of us are already diving into BRS books, etc... further, many of our small group presentations will include high yield topics for usmle prep... we are also given a large block of time from Feb-test day to finalize our preparations... i guess one thing i can comment on is that i am glad that our lectures are finished well before usmle... i see some programs that finish topics a week prior to the usmle... i don't know how they do it... ha!

m3 m4 years should be good times... the schedule for those years is pretty much standard wherever you go... personally, i havent given it much thought where i may wish to explore during my electives... i remember i used to think about it constantly during my application process, but when you actually arrive in your program, you find yourself focusing less on m3/m4 and more on today and tomorrow... =) by the way, if you haven't done so already, check out the excel spreadsheet of our schedule on the VTC website... shows up on the right side of the curriculum page...

one thing i want to add... the research component here is a great opportunity... all of us are required to complete a research project and they give us plenty of time to do it... further, the researchers you will work with here are of the highest caliber... i've heard some applicants say that the research requirement seems burdensome and irrelevant... and although i could write books on how wrong those statements are, i would rather just say that the research component is a great opportunity for those that see it as just that... further, it doesnt conflict with study time...

anyways... that has been my experience in a nutshell... i know i paint an overly rosy picture... but thats how i see it... sure there have been bumps in the road for the charter class... but A. the bumps have been miniscule compared to what i was expecting for a charter class, and B. the bumps have been, for the most part, resolved...

feel free to msg me with any questions you may have... congratulations to all and good luck in all your decisions!!!
 
Thank you so much for your response. Over the last couple of days I have gotten several responses from current vtc students, and it has proved to be a huge factor in my decision making process- much more than I was even expecting/hoping. Once again thank you for taking the time to speak with me!
 
For current students: how do you like pbl? How much effort do you put into it? From what I read on other med students on sdn is that is just adds so much more to the work load and is very stressful (but hey, who says medschool isnt stressfull 🙄).
 
expendible said:
For current students: how do you like pbl? How much effort do you put into it? From what I read on other med students on sdn is that is just adds so much more to the work load and is very stressful (but hey, who says medschool isnt stressfull 🙄).
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pbl is time consuming, but it is productive... you are in pbl group sessions for 8 hours a week(2h on mon, 3h on wed and 3h on fri)... you are given a patient case and you work through it with your group of about 6 other students... as you progress through, you are learning how to reason through a case clinically as you apply what you know to the case... what you dont know in the case becomes a learning objective(also we are given some specifc objectives on wednesday from the case)... on wed and fri each student in the group gives a presentation on their assigned learning objective so by the end of the week, we know the case... what can be time concuming are those learning objective presentations... on average, it takes us 2-4 hours to put together a presentation... maybe less for some and more for others... however, many of our LOs are centered around what we have to know for the block anyways... its not like we are presenting on material we will never see again... when you get the hang of it, your group will often have some empty presentation slots on friday which we usually fill with group usmle prep quizzes or lecture review topics... many of us incuding myself, find the presentations given through the block great study guides for the exams...

anyways... 8 hours of pbl groups sessions... and 4-8 hours(between 2 presentations) a week for LO prep... eats up time, but it can be a constructive use of time if you make it that way... hope this helps clarify!
 
I already asked this, but I was just wondering if any of the current students could tell me what apartment complexes in particular students live in? I've been trying to search by street and area, but am having trouble searching using this criteria. Any help would be much appreciated!

In particular, I've been looking at Heritage Hall, Allison Ave and the Cotton Mill lofts so if anyone has any opinion about these buildings, I'd really love to hear!
 
jwentwo1988 said:
I already asked this, but I was just wondering if any of the current students could tell me what apartment complexes in particular students live in? I've been trying to search by street and area, but am having trouble searching using this criteria. Any help would be much appreciated!

In particular, I've been looking at Heritage Hall, Allison Ave and the Cotton Mill lofts so if anyone has any opinion about these buildings, I'd really love to hear!
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unfortunately i dont know much about the apartments in this area, but i will try to find someone who can speak on it... i've heard cotton mill are nice(and new) but can be pricey... i also know a lot of us are interested in seeing what the new patrick henry apartments are going to look like.. amazing location!!!!

anyways, i will see what news i can dig up for you...
 
Disregard this message as I found the info I was looking for.
 
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some apartments where I know some current students live:

sunscape
summer tree
cherry hill (though they may have just moved...rent went up)
patrick henry
hancock building
various houses throughout the neighborhood of South Roanoke and OSW

hope this helped!
 
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