2011-2012 Oregon Health & Sciences University Application Thread

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Complete. Submitted around a month ago.

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Based on everyone's responses it sounds like we should expect to wait around a month to be complete unless we are an md/phd applicant. At least two more weeks of waiting for me then.
 
That's basically what mine says now, too:


Application Status:
NOTE: You may need to scroll down to see all of the status information.

Preliminary application information received from AMCAS: Yes

A secondary application notice was emailed to you on 08/10/2011.

Your secondary application was submitted on 09/14/2011.

Your secondary application has been processed.

Your file was complete on 09/22/2011.

You have been invited for an interview. An email was sent to you with an interview deadline of 10/07/2011.
When they said that your file is processed, did it take a while for the interview date to appear or it appeared at the same time that it said the file is processed?
 
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When they said that your file is processed, did it take a while for the interview date to appear or it appeared at the same time that it said the file is processed?

It said "Your file was complete on 09/22/2011." until I got the interview invite via email last Friday (September 30). I checked my status page immediately after receiving the email and saw "You have been invited for an interview. An email was sent to you with an interview deadline of 10/07/2010." Now that I've scheduled a date (via email) it says, "Your interview has been scheduled for 10/26/2011."

I hope this helps. It seems that that updates to your status page are immediate with any news. Hopefully after you're processed, you'll hear back from them quickly. It's been my experience that MD/PhD applicants are under review longer (most likely because more people have to review the apps). Good luck to you!
 
It said "Your file was complete on 09/22/2011." until I got the interview invite via email last Friday (September 30). I checked my status page immediately after receiving the email and saw "You have been invited for an interview. An email was sent to you with an interview deadline of 10/07/2010." Now that I've scheduled a date (via email) it says, "Your interview has been scheduled for 10/26/2011."

I hope this helps. It seems that that updates to your status page are immediate with any news. Hopefully after you're processed, you'll hear back from them quickly. It's been my experience that MD/PhD applicants are under review longer (most likely because more people have to review the apps). Good luck to you!
Hey,
thank you so much for the information. my file was processed yesterday..so I guess I will have to sit around and wait for a little while haha. But it is good to know that they get back to you pretty soon!
Good luck in your interview :)
 
Hey, I know today is the first day of interviews, and I'm really curious to hear what it was like. I have my interview on the 14th, and since this is the first year that OHSU is doing MMI's, I'd really like to hear what the day is like from people interviewing today. Thanks!
 
Six weeks and still not complete...should I call them?
 
Saw a batch of nervous faces in dark suits wandering around campus yesterday. Chillax, kids, the interview is the easy part. MCATs and secondary apps are tough. Med school is tough. I'm sure residency is tough. But try to have fun on your interview day! :luck:
 
Wow I'm making my second post of the day... it's been a while since I've done that! A pre-med interested in OHSU wrote to ask me some questions, and I thought I might as well share my response with the rest of the group. This is just one person's answers, and I'm only a first-year student, so take it for what it's worth :) but anyway here it goes:

1) What is the student culture like? Collaborative? Competitive? Do people help each other there?

It's a bit of both. There are cliques and people study in groups. Most of the time there are people who are willing to help, but there's still competition. The culture is mostly chill and not overtly competitive, but I have heard people say things that betray some hidden competitiveness. I would not worry about the culture at OHSU, and of course that's something you are in a position to help shape as a student.​

2) How is the school for preparing students for boards - I mean, what amount of time is given for study?

I'm not there yet, but I'm told that there are a few weeks set aside at the end of the second year for Step 1. Looking at my schedule, that's how it appears. I've heard that they give enough time that some rare exceptional students take the Step 1 after only a week or two of studying, and then kick back for a couple weeks of vacation. But take my word with a grain of salt because I'm only passing along tidbits.​

3) What are research opportunities and/or global health experience opportunities like for medical students there?

Both are possible. Research you might have to do more of the work getting hooked up with a PI or project. I was able to do this before even officially starting classes. I don't know much about the global health experience, other than that there are groups that are interested in this.​

4) What is the day-to-day schedule? Do exams come in blocks or do you have an exam every few weeks?

Your daily class schedule is this for the first two years:
4 hours of morning class, 5 days/week
4 hours of afternoon class, 1 day/week
4 hours of afternoon preceptor, 1 day/week​

This is the schedule for taking two courses at a time. The 20 hour/week morning class changes from term to term, but the 4 hour/week afternoon class runs all year long.

Additionally, you have to take some electives during your four years of medical school, and most students are doing some of that during their first two years. That can add a couple of afternoon/evening hours to your schedule.

But ignore the electives for a moment so I can answer your question about exams. If you only consider the 20 hours/week morning class and the 4 hours/week afternoon class, your exams from these two classes will only overlap at the end of the term. The morning class will have exams throughout the term, and the afternoon class has exams at the end, so that's the only time they overlap.​

Okay, hopefully that answers some questions. Again, I'm only one person so there might be some errors but other people can probably correct me. It's a lot of work but when I stop to really think about it I am having fun. Kiss a lot of your free time goodbye though ;)
 
Are the afternoon class and preceptorship always on the same day? Say Monday and Tuesday or something? Or do they vary each week? What do most students do the rest of the Afternoon/evenings? Do they voluteer, do research, or is it mainly studying? Does anybody work part time in addition to going to school?
 
Are the afternoon class and preceptorship always on the same day? Say Monday and Tuesday or something? Or do they vary each week? What do most students do the rest of the Afternoon/evenings? Do they voluteer, do research, or is it mainly studying? Does anybody work part time in addition to going to school?

Bubbles, the afternoon class (PCM) is always on the same day which is Wednesday for us. However, the preceptorship is dependent on how the doc's schedule matches up with yours.

Most students spend their afternoons studying but there are plenty of research and volunteer opportunities. Really it's up to you what you feel like you need to do. It sounds like you'll be awash in free time but it's amazing how fast it fills up.

I've heard of people working VERY limited part time jobs and by very limited I mean a few hours on Sunday morning. From the orientation they made it sound like employment is frowned upon. Medical school is your job now.
 
In case anyone is interested in another student's perspective. (Note: I have pirated hopefuldoc's questions)

1) What is the student culture like? Collaborative? Competitive? Do people help each other there?


This will change with each incoming class. My class, for example, was almost annoyingly collaborative. There were students who would make study guides or lecture summaries for the entire class. Other students would hold supplemental lectures on things they knew very well (for example, students with MPH degrees would hold epidemiology/stats sessions). Either way, there were at least 10 helpful diagrams, study tips, session announcements, etc in my inbox every morning.

I have heard rumors that at least one of the more recent classes is fairly competitive, but I have no firsthand experience with that.

2) How is the school for preparing students for boards - I mean, what amount of time is given for study?


This is something OHSU is trying very hard to work on. When I took Step 1, students were given less than a month to study. Now, current students are given a full month at the very least. In addition, the school has modified its exam questions to better reflect what will appear on the boards, and has rearranged the order of second year classes so that the MS2s end the year with something that is extremely boards-relevant and easy to self-study.

So...boards prep is getting better, but it is still very much a personal responsibility at OHSU. If your study skills are good, you will be just fine. If you need a school to tell you exactly what to study and when to study it, you may have some trouble here come boards time.

3) What are research opportunities and/or global health experience opportunities like for medical students there?


Because OHSU has no undergraduates, there are plenty of research opportunities here just waiting to be filled. Many students will find clinical research through lecturers or their preceptors, but a few have conducted basic science research during the summer after MS1.

As for global health, there is actually a global health center that will give students money to do clinical work abroad during the summer between MS1 and MS2. I had many classmates pursue that option. Many of those same classmates did rotations abroad during MS3/4.

4) What is the day-to-day schedule? Do exams come in blocks or do you have an exam every few weeks?

I agree with everything hopefuldoc said here, but I do want to talk about electives a little bit.

At OHSU, you can get credit for both clinical and non-clinical electives. You are required to take clinical electives during MS3/4, but you can have up to 8 (I think this number is right) non-clinical elective credits. I took several classes that fell into this category and some were absolutely amazing - I would highly recommend medical spanish, living with life threatening illness, and reproductive healthcare choices. You can also get credit for being a student host, giving tours to applicants, etc.


Are the afternoon class and preceptorship always on the same day? Say Monday and Tuesday or something? Or do they vary each week? What do most students do the rest of the Afternoon/evenings? Do they voluteer, do research, or is it mainly studying? Does anybody work part time in addition to going to school?

The afternoon clinical medicine class is always on the same day, but you will have occasional "extra" things that fall on different days - for example, clinical exams (OSCEs).

Preceptorship usually falls on the same day for the entire term (you may go to clinic on Mondays fall term, on Fridays winter term, etc), but sometimes the date varies. If you have a preceptor who is on call for something interesting, it is usually worth checking it out. I did overnight trauma call with one of my preceptors a few times and it was exceptional.

As for life outside of medical school...some students have one and others don't. I think that there will be a list of "student activities" in your interview brochures this year, that will mostly include volunteering opportunities that are recommended by current students. To speak from personal experience, I knew many classmates with outside hobbies and volunteering commitments, several who did research, and a handful with outside jobs.
 
Saw a batch of nervous faces in dark suits wandering around campus yesterday. Chillax, kids, the interview is the easy part. MCATs and secondary apps are tough. Med school is tough. I'm sure residency is tough. But try to have fun on your interview day! :luck:


lolololol hopefuldoc
 
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Does anybody work part time in addition to going to school?

I've heard of people working VERY limited part time jobs and by very limited I mean a few hours on Sunday morning. From the orientation they made it sound like employment is frowned upon. Medical school is your job now.

I've only heard of three people in the class of 2015 who have jobs, and I'm one of them. There are probably a few more, but Gara is right, they're all very part-time. My lab partner's job is a half day on Saturday, and my job isn't even every week. It's kind of crazy, because you talk to these older docs and a lot of them worked real jobs with real hours in the hospital all through medical school as orderlies, phlebotomists, etc., and that's a big part of how they paid their way through school. Now we're spoiled and we just take loans, simultaneously complaining of how much debt we'll be in :)
 
It's kind of crazy, because you talk to these older docs and a lot of them worked real jobs with real hours in the hospital all through medical school as orderlies, phlebotomists, etc., and that's a big part of how they paid their way through school. Now we're spoiled and we just take loans, simultaneously complaining of how much debt we'll be in :)

While I'm very glad that "resident" isn't a literal description these days, it's hard for me to be too sorry for docs that had to pay their way with an inflation-adjusted tuition of five or ten grand a year. :laugh:
 
While I'm very glad that "resident" isn't a literal description these days, it's hard for me to be too sorry for docs that had to pay their way with an inflation-adjusted tuition of five or ten grand a year. :laugh:

Yeah it was a different game back then for sure.
 
Anyone else get anymore interview invites? Anyone who interviewed on the 7th want to provide some insight for those of us still waiting please. It would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
 
Anyone else get anymore interview invites? Anyone who interviewed on the 7th want to provide some insight for those of us still waiting please. It would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I'm not sure if this is much help, but here was my timeline for OHSU:
Secondary submitted 8/16/11 and marked complete soon after I think.
Interview invite 9/26/11 by email (from a person at OHSU, not from the usual "MD Admissions" email address).

It was reflected right away in the admissions portal, and I responded to the email with the date I wanted. The dates they offered me were October 7th, 14th, 21st, and 26th. I got my second choice (October 14th). I will try to post here after the interview about what it was like.

I'd really like if somebody from the October 7th interview day could post about their experience sometime soon :)
 
Complete via status update a few days ago, no email notification.

Submitted secondary late August/early September. Good luck everybody! Hope to see some of you up on the hill.
 
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I'd really like if somebody from the October 7th interview day could post about their experience sometime soon :)

I'm totally speculating here, but my guess is that the MMI is confidential and that people are supposed to keep it all secret. Again speculating, but I wouldn't be surprised if you signed a confidentiality form at some point, or if they consider the whole process confidential anyway.

So let's keep it as general and non-specific as possible when the comments come out. That said, I'm as curious as anyone to know what your interviews are like! :)
 
I'm not sure if this is much help, but here was my timeline for OHSU:
Secondary submitted 8/16/11 and marked complete soon after I think.
Interview invite 9/26/11 by email (from a person at OHSU, not from the usual "MD Admissions" email address).

It was reflected right away in the admissions portal, and I responded to the email with the date I wanted. The dates they offered me were October 7th, 14th, 21st, and 26th. I got my second choice (October 14th). I will try to post here after the interview about what it was like.

I'd really like if somebody from the October 7th interview day could post about their experience sometime soon :)

what do you mean you got an interview invite from a person at ohsu not the usual md admissions? you mean you got a personal interview invitation? i am a little confused by that statement. also, are you an in-state or out-of-state applicant if you don't mind sharing. thank you for the information!
 
what do you mean you got an interview invite from a person at ohsu not the usual md admissions? you mean you got a personal interview invitation? i am a little confused by that statement. also, are you an in-state or out-of-state applicant if you don't mind sharing. thank you for the information!

Sorry, I meant that it came from a woman who is on their admissions staff, and not from the email address OHSU used to send me the secondary ([email protected]).

I'm out of state, so this interview invite was actually a big surprise :)
 
I'm totally speculating here, but my guess is that the MMI is confidential and that people are supposed to keep it all secret. Again speculating, but I wouldn't be surprised if you signed a confidentiality form at some point, or if they consider the whole process confidential anyway.

So let's keep it as general and non-specific as possible when the comments come out. That said, I'm as curious as anyone to know what your interviews are like! :)

I would assume you are correct.
 
I would assume you are correct.

As would I (I spoke with some guys on another interview that had done MMIs before and they would only talk about the structure because they sign a confidentiality notice on the situations).
 
Interview invite earlier today! But I think I'm going to have to withdraw because of financial/time constraints. Congrats to whoever takes my place, and good luck to all of you! :thumbup:
 
Interview invite earlier today! But I think I'm going to have to withdraw because of financial/time constraints. Congrats to whoever takes my place, and good luck to all of you! :thumbup:

Congrats on the invite, and good luck with UCSF!
 
Does anyone who interviewed the past couple weeks care to give an opinion about the mmi? Harder or easier than the ctraditional system? Do they split up the 9 or do you do all 9 in a row? Thanks for any info!
 
Does anyone who interviewed the past couple weeks care to give an opinion about the mmi? Harder or easier than the ctraditional system? Do they split up the 9 or do you do all 9 in a row? Thanks for any info!

I've heard that they do the MMI rotations in a back-to-back sequence. There is supposedly one station that is a 20 minute "conventional" interview that is apart of the sequence. The rest of the stations are of a shorter duration. There is a morning group and an afternoon group. However, this is second-hand information so take it with a grain of salt.
 
Does anyone who interviewed the past couple weeks care to give an opinion about the mmi? Harder or easier than the ctraditional system? Do they split up the 9 or do you do all 9 in a row? Thanks for any info!

Hey, so I did my interview at OHSU yesterday. I did sign a confidentiality agreement (like people here were speculating that we might have to), so I can't say any of the specific scenarios that I saw. However, I can tell you the structure etc. We had 7 mini (8 minute) interviews and one longer (22 minute) more traditional interview. They were back to back, and there was an overhead speaker to tell you when to change rooms. We had 2 minutes to change rooms and then 2 minutes to read the scenario before entering the room. I think the word of the day from us applicants was that it was "interesting." This was my first interview of the cycle, so I couldn't tell you if it was harder or easier than the traditional system. Although, my feeling is that I would probably prefer the traditional system. Some of the scenarios were kind of fun though :)

The admission staff was really nice, and overall I had a great day. My only real issue was that parking was A PAIN. The structure of the day was check in, watch a presentation on OHSU and "demistifying the MMI," then the 2 hour long interview circuit, then lunch with current med students, and lastly we did a tour of the campus. I really hope I get an acceptance here because I really like OHSU.
 
At OHSU, you can get credit for both clinical and non-clinical electives. You are required to take clinical electives during MS3/4, but you can have up to 8 (I think this number is right) non-clinical elective credits.

According to the MS Handbook, we can earn 4 credits of non-clinical elective in MS 1/2 to use towards our MS 3/4 electives which can be converted into a free block for interviews or a break. Total we can take up to 12 credits of non-clinical/research electives.
 
So I'm assuming since a lot of IIs have already went out, and I've been complete for over a month, I shouldn't expect much from OHSU?

3.55 GPA, 36S MCAT, OOS.
 
i feel like a lot of people posting on this thread are OOS. any IS interviewees? I was really hoping my IS status would help me get an interview, but haven't heard anything yet (complete 9/7).
 
II 10/14!
OOS marked complete 9/12

Anyone have recommendations on wheres a good place to stay?
 
II 10/14!
OOS marked complete 9/12

Anyone have recommendations on wheres a good place to stay?

You can do the host program. I know a lot of my class expressed interest in hosting an interviewee.
 
Invite this afternoon! Woot!

I'm waiting on a couple of post-interview decisions, but this is by far the best single piece of news I could have gotten today!
 
Invite this afternoon! Woot!

I'm waiting on a couple of post-interview decisions, but this is by far the best single piece of news I could have gotten today!

wtf. :( WHERE IS MY INVITE. congratulations though!
 
You can do the host program. I know a lot of my class expressed interest in hosting an interviewee.

Just received an interview invite today; does anyone know where can I find more information on the host program?

OOS, interview dates possible: Fri 10/21, Wed 10/26, Fri 10/28
 
Just received an interview invite today; does anyone know where can I find more information on the host program?

OOS, interview dates possible: Fri 10/21, Wed 10/26, Fri 10/28

You should get host info in Katy Guertin's confirmation email.

And they're not kidding around with the last minute dates, are they? Four days! (I'd figured maybe it was in in-state thing, but if you're OOS and not just over the border in WA or something, I guess not.)
 
You should get host info in Katy Guertin's confirmation email.

And they're not kidding around with the last minute dates, are they? Four days! (I'd figured maybe it was in in-state thing, but if you're OOS and not just over the border in WA or something, I guess not.)

Northern CA. Not too bad - I can drive it in a day.
 
for those who already interviewed did they mention when they would start giving out acceptances after interviewing? do they doing it on a rolling basis etc?
 
All the people who got interview invites, how long were you complete for before you got an interview invite?

It would've been four weeks tomorrow since I was marked complete, though it's been nearly eight since my application was submitted. Most of the (non-MD/PhD) people who've posted dates on here have been in the 3-4 week range, I think, though I'm sure that'll go longer as the season progresses.
 
i feel like a lot of people posting on this thread are OOS. any IS interviewees? I was really hoping my IS status would help me get an interview, but haven't heard anything yet (complete 9/7).

I'm OOS, but on my interview day I think 5 out of the 8 people were IS. So, I would definitely say that your IS status should help you get an interview.


for those who already interviewed did they mention when they would start giving out acceptances after interviewing? do they doing it on a rolling basis etc?

They told us that the timeline for us would be 4-6 weeks, but later in the cycle it will be longer (about 6-8 weeks). They send out acceptances/rejections/holds throughout the cycle, but it's technically not rolling because they save spots for people later in the cycle. So if you interview late then you should have just as much of a chance to get in as those that interview earlier.
 
I'm OOS, but on my interview day I think 5 out of the 8 people were IS. So, I would definitely say that your IS status should help you get an interview.

There are only 8 people per interview day?!
 
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