2011-2012 Duke Application Thread

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FACS444 said:
Interview invite! Submitted almost 2 months ago. I really am intrigued by DukeMed, can't wait for the interview!
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Complete early August. Interview Invite October 7th! Thank you Duke for giving me an opportunity! 👍👍
 
candav said:
Do you know when we can expect to hear back about hosting? Just wondering because I submitted my hosting form a few weeks ago and haven't heard back. Then again, my interview is in November, so it isn't urgent.
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I wouldn't worry about it unless you haven't heard back by two weeks before your interview date (not sure when in November you are). I'm hosting this upcoming week, and I found out (was CC'd on the email to the applicant) the beginning of last week.

There are a ton of my classmates hosting this year, so rest easy that you will have someone to stay with if you requested to do so! 🙂
 
Has anyone on SDN interviewed here yet? I'm interested to hear impressions regarding the newly implemented MMI format...
 
ZooeyGlass said:
Has anyone on SDN interviewed here yet? I'm interested to hear impressions regarding the newly implemented MMI format...
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some questions are hard. some are easier. some raters are borderline antagonistic. some just smile and nod. some have on a poker face. there's a traditional interview station, and a communication/teamwork station, and an essay station. there are kinks to be worked out. but overall it's fun. you're rated on some scale. then it gets normalized (translated into z-scores per rater).

i hear (from someone at another school that does MMIs) that even though you have the impression that you do well at some stations and not at others, at the end of the day there are some applicants who are consistently good and some who are consistently not.
 
chronicidal said:
some questions are hard. some are easier. some raters are borderline antagonistic. some just smile and nod. some have on a poker face. there's a traditional interview station, and a communication/teamwork station, and an essay station. there are kinks to be worked out. but overall it's fun. you're rated on some scale. then it gets normalized (translated into z-scores per rater).

i hear (from someone at another school that does MMIs) that even though you have the impression that you do well at some stations and not at others, at the end of the day there are some applicants who are consistently good and some who are consistently not.
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We have to write an essay? At an interview? Whhhhaaaaaaaa?
 
ZooeyGlass said:
Has anyone on SDN interviewed here yet? I'm interested to hear impressions regarding the newly implemented MMI format...
Click to expand...

Kind of off topic, but the MMI format (along with PBL, among other things) originates from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Last year, McMaster introduced a new pre-interview screen called CASPer (see http://casperworld.ca) -- basically, a series of videos and accompanying questions on moral/ethical situations, worth ~50% of the pre-interview score. Presumably a more objective method for evaluating applicants compared to whatever screening method has traditionally been used. Of course, CASPer doesn't really take into account things like academic accomplishment, extracurriculars, etc. -- it's all about personal character.

Anyway, the reason I'm going off on this tangent is because I applied to McMaster (I'm Canadian) and did the CASPer today, and it was actually super stressful. Definitely makes me a bit wary of MMI, which looks to be about the same thing.

It seems a lot of things coming out of McMaster are adopted by med schools across North America, so it will be interesting to see is CASPer is widely adopted in future cycles. Luckily, it doesn't apply to us! 🙂
 
YAY II this morning 😀
Kind of scared about MMI...and an essay wtf?? If anyone else has interviewed already, please share your experiences!!
 
candav said:
Kind of off topic, but the MMI format (along with PBL, among other things) originates from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Last year, McMaster introduced a new pre-interview screen called CASPer (see http://casperworld.ca) -- basically, a series of videos and accompanying questions on moral/ethical situations, worth ~50% of the pre-interview score. Presumably a more objective method for evaluating applicants compared to whatever screening method has traditionally been used. Of course, CASPer doesn't really take into account things like academic accomplishment, extracurriculars, etc. -- it's all about personal character.

Anyway, the reason I'm going off on this tangent is because I applied to McMaster (I'm Canadian) and did the CASPer today, and it was actually super stressful. Definitely makes me a bit wary of MMI, which looks to be about the same thing.

It seems a lot of things coming out of McMaster are adopted by med schools across North America, so it will be interesting to see is CASPer is widely adopted in future cycles. Luckily, it doesn't apply to us! 🙂
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silly canadians with their fancy video's an siich
 
You're pretty late, but you never know what will happen. If you get an interview, your shot's as good as anyone else's. Good luck. 🙂
 
hey guys! for those of you who have interviewed did they say if their admissions are rolling?

do they let you know some time after your interview?

or do they wait until they are done interviewing in January to make decisions and let applicants know?
 
Duke has non-rolling admissions; they wait to make acceptance decisions until everyone has been interviewed and start letting people know in March.
 
So I haven't heard back from any student hosts, and I'm interviewing next week. How much longer should I wait before making my own arrangements?
 
kc1919 said:
So I haven't heard back from any student hosts, and I'm interviewing next week. How much longer should I wait before making my own arrangements?
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Did you receive an email from the hosting committee with your student host CC'ed on it? If not...did you fill out a form for hosting? I'll check with my classmates who are in charge of it and see what's up; in the meantime, double check your spam inbox, etc.
 
Cinclus said:
Duke has non-rolling admissions; they wait to make acceptance decisions until everyone has been interviewed and start letting people know in March.
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Duke has a rolling internal process (the executive committee reads and decides on your application pretty soon after you interview) but a non-rolling notification process (everyone finds out in the first week of March). Thus, Dr. Armstrong said not to send update letters post-interview.
 
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew anything about Dukes financial aid or other schools like Cornell, Johns hopkins, Stanford. I am applying to my few states schools and I have pretty good stats and i was thinking of taking a shot at a few top 20 schools. Do any schools provide real money or is their financial aid simply access to various loans?
 
Friendly PSA: The contents of the entire MMI is confidential. This means discussion of station-types, prompts, and scenarios. Several of you are in violation of this policy. Please respect the request for confidentiality.
 
InsultedViper said:
Friendly PSA: The contents of the entire MMI is confidential. This means discussion of station-types, prompts, and scenarios. Several of you are in violation of this policy. Please respect the request for confidentiality.
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Could you remind me what the agreement we signed said about station types?
 
So there deadline (oct. 15), is really a "you need to have your AMCAS verified by this date" deadline.

I applied to the school late Sept., submitted my AMCAS late Sept., didn't get verified till Oct 22. I really didn't have any intentions at this school, but since I am an late application, I decided to throw it in. More upset that AMCAS allowed me to add the school when the school indicated to AMCAS they would accept applications till Oct. 15.

I know two other students one from my undergrad, one 3.7/41 and another on mdapplicants 3.9/38 apply in Oct., which means their application won't be looked at?

I don't get it, since AMCAS takes about a month to verify, this is, essentially saying... everyone that applied that last month (sept 15 - oct 15), won't get invited?
 
drphilisnotadoc said:
So there deadline (oct. 15), is really a "you need to have your AMCAS verified by this date" deadline.

I applied to the school late Sept., submitted my AMCAS late Sept., didn't get verified till Oct 22. I really didn't have any intentions at this school, but since I am an late application, I decided to throw it in. More upset that AMCAS allowed me to add the school when the school indicated to AMCAS they would accept applications till Oct. 15.

I know two other students one from my undergrad, one 3.7/41 and another on mdapplicants 3.9/38 apply in Oct., which means their application won't be looked at?

I don't get it, since AMCAS takes about a month to verify, this is, essentially saying... everyone that applied that last month (sept 15 - oct 15), won't get invited?
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I think that's a pretty legitimate grievance I think, even though you could argue that Duke warns you about it. I say pursue either getting your money back unless you hear from Duke that they will give your app consideration.
 
Per http://dukemed.duke.edu/modules/flash_articles/,
AMCAS Student Submission Deadline:10/15/2011

In order to meet Duke's non-negotiable AMCAS Deadline of October 15th, your AMCAS application MUST BE submitted to AMCAS NO LATER THAN October 1st.

On a related note, does anyone know if Duke is open to pre-interview updates?


drphilisnotadoc said:
So there deadline (oct. 15), is really a "you need to have your AMCAS verified by this date" deadline.

I applied to the school late Sept., submitted my AMCAS late Sept., didn't get verified till Oct 22. I really didn't have any intentions at this school, but since I am an late application, I decided to throw it in. More upset that AMCAS allowed me to add the school when the school indicated to AMCAS they would accept applications till Oct. 15.

I know two other students one from my undergrad, one 3.7/41 and another on mdapplicants 3.9/38 apply in Oct., which means their application won't be looked at?

I don't get it, since AMCAS takes about a month to verify, this is, essentially saying... everyone that applied that last month (sept 15 - oct 15), won't get invited?
Click to expand...
 
Phenomenal place, just interviewed. Dr. Armstrong and Richard Wallace sell the place really well.
 
Anyone interviewing Friday? Very excited (and a bit nervous) for MMI!
 
I love how tech-savvy Duke admissions is! (Currently completing the online interview check-in)
 
Anyone have a clue how many IIs they still have to give?

also ditto on the pre-interview update question
 
Just got an Interview Invite!!!!!!
11/11/11 must be my lucky day :luck:
 
Yui said:
Just got an Interview Invite!!!!!!
11/11/11 must be my lucky day :luck:
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Me too!

Secondary Submitted: End of July.

If it means anything, I actually wrote them this morning with an in the area email and within a couple hours received the invite.
 
I submitted my secondary 10/27... I was actually super surprised by their fast turn around time since I've still not heard back from other schools that I submitted to in august...
 
It's a Saturday night and I'm in my room studying virology - just another thrilling day in the life of JasonicBoom - when I get an II from Duke :O! On the weekend!? YAY! What a nice surprise. So grateful for this opportunity!
 
JasonicBoom said:
It's a Saturday night and I'm in my room studying virology - just another thrilling day in the life of JasonicBoom - when I get an II from Duke :O! On the weekend!? YAY! What a nice surprise. So grateful for this opportunity!
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i'm going to miss this process next year, no matter how crazy and heartbreaking it can be. those II's are what christmas used to be when i believed in santa :laugh: congrats!
 
Interview invite today - pleasant surprise! The dates they provided do not work for me...does anyone know how flexible the admissions office is with issues like this?

Also, I saw earlier in the thread that they plan to interview somewhere between 600-700 applicants...does anyone know how many they would roughly accept based on previous ratios?
 
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indonacious said:
Interview invite today - pleasant surprise! The dates they provided do not work for me...does anyone know how flexible the admissions office is with issues like this?
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They only hold interviews on Monday and Friday, but within that constraint it couldn't hurt to call and ask.
 
They said they plan to accept about 250 out of 700-750 interviewees this year for approximately 110 spots.

P.S. AMAZING school! 🙂 And enjoyed the MMI too - a much welcome change from the usual "tell me about yourself" and "why do you want to do medicine" routine.
 
ncrassa said:
They said they plan to accept about 250 out of 700-750 interviewees this year for approximately 110 spots.

P.S. AMAZING school! 🙂 And enjoyed the MMI too - a much welcome change from the usual "tell me about yourself" and "why do you want to do medicine" routine.
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Thanks for the info. Those are better odds than I thought!
 
ncrassa said:
They said they plan to accept about 250 out of 700-750 interviewees this year for approximately 110 spots.

P.S. AMAZING school! 🙂 And enjoyed the MMI too - a much welcome change from the usual "tell me about yourself" and "why do you want to do medicine" routine.
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They said 200 when I was there
 
Most wonderful interview experience I had this cycle so far. Can't wait to hear back from Duke. Good luck to everyone still waiting and interviewing as well!
 
When I called them before my interview, they said they would ask the applicant for updates after they conducted all the interviews. They told me to wait till then.
 
GoingBig said:
For those of you who have an interview coming up, you're probably experiencing a little anxiety considering it is Duke, and they are trying this new, mysterious MMI format. If there's one thing I'd like to share, it's that you don't need to stress about preparation. The system is designed to get at the intangibles of your personality. In my experience, I don't feel like there was much I could have done in preparation to make my interviews any better short of actually knowing the prompts and rehearsing responses. Just take it easy and enjoy the opportunity to interview at Duke. It's already an honor to be considered.
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👍 Thanks, we appreciate it 😀
 
GoingBig said:
For those of you who have an interview coming up, you're probably experiencing a little anxiety considering it is Duke, and they are trying this new, mysterious MMI format. If there's one thing I'd like to share, it's that you don't need to stress about preparation. The system is designed to get at the intangibles of your personality. In my experience, I don't feel like there was much I could have done in preparation to make my interviews any better short of actually knowing the prompts and rehearsing responses. Just take it easy and enjoy the opportunity to interview at Duke. It's already an honor to be considered.
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I feel like this is a passive attitude that we all tend to take because we have little idea of how MMIs are rated.

If someone actually knows the rating criteria, I'm sure there would be ways to prepare.

For instance, if cogency of thought can be determined by how thorough your initial response to the scenario is, it would behoove applicants who are normally reticent to push back against urges to merely be concise. In MMIs, perhaps it would be better to vocalize all the different possibilities, pros and cons, contingencies, of each scenario upfront, rather than assuming and dismissing some internally and then bluntly stating your position. The more prompting questions that the rater has to give you, the more indicative of your incompleteness of thought. Maybe.

For the few ethical scenarios there are, helpful frameworks exist for thinking about your answer. You seem more competent when you can organize your thoughts about some ethical dilemma into neat categories like, 1) what's good for the patient, 2) what allows the patient most autonomy, 3) what's most fair and just, 4) are there social/legal context considerations.

It also might be helpful (but lower yield) to read generally about medically-relevant topics like giving bad news, overcoming guilt, overcoming addiction, cultural competency, insurance, pharma, malpractice, evidence-based medicine, role of residents and students in care, discrimination, medical errors. For many of these, I felt it helped a little to read the health/medicine columns in the NYTimes.
 
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