2011-2012 Penn State Application Thread

Getting into Med School is Hard? Not with BeMo.
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Sammich117

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If not currently enrolled in a full-time academic program, please summate your activities from the time of graduation from your baccalaureate program through the time of this application, as well as your plans between now and your matriculation to medical school. (Maximum 50 words)
Explain the negative aspects of medicine that you considered in making this career decision. (Maximum 50 words)
Is there a unique aspect of your application that should be considered by the admissions committee? (Maximum 50 words)
Explain why you decided to apply to Penn State College of Medicine. (Maximum 50 words)

Best of luck with your application :luck::luck::luck:!
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Anyone know details about how the order of interviews are selected for MD/PhD? Is it rolling or all-at-once in selective dates? The website (last time I checked) just tells that it lasts two days, so I'm wondering how soon people can hear the decisions.
 
whats the atmosphere like at penn state?
 
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Is anyone else not getting much of a feel for the MD program from their website?
 
aaa131 said:
whats the atmosphere like at penn state?
Click to expand...

I will be attending here this upcoming August. I loved it here especially b/c of the atmosphere. The students are very friendly and laid back. You get the feel that everyone is like one big family.

While I haven't started yet, if anyone has any questions feel free to PM me and I will try my best to answer them.
 
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give me more! haha, what else sold you? have you heard from any current students about the curriculum or extracurricular stuff? (i'm trying to decide if i want to apply... and currently i need to be reducing my school list)
 
Very interested! Have fam in PA. Bring on the secondary!
 
Hopefully a medical student here can give you some better insight than me but these were some things that I liked and disliked about it.
Pros:
An integrated curriculum. I'm not a big fan of learning one subject at a time. I'd rather have an integrated approach where I can connect the dots between multiple subjects.
The humanities are included into the curriculum to help keep things in perspective for you.
All lectures are video recorded so if you miss a class you can watch it online.
The Medical Student Research Program: All students are required to complete a research project. If you browse the website you will see that students in the past have done research on a wide variety of topics.
Seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, the campus is secluded (which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it).

The Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is awesome. Everything is interconnected. This is where you will have both preclinical classes and clinical rotations.
The facilities are really nice. I especially liked the simulation lab, and during my tour I got to see the dummy they use to practice child birth delivery and a dummy that goes into cardiac arrest
Campus housing is offered which is within walking distance to the medical center (and off campus housing isn't very far away).
An awesome fitness center located right next to the medical center.
If you are interested in pediatrics, the Children's Hospital!!!! It is a level I pediatric trauma center and I forget the numbers but I think over a million children are in that referral area so you will get to see a lot. I really want to get into a residency program there.
There are so many student organizations it's impossible to not be able to find one that interests you.
For being an unranked school by the US News (they don't participate), they have a great match list. Check out the match for 2011.
Every student is assigned a faculty advisor that will help you along the way.
If you're a PA resident, this school has the lowest in-state tuition in our state (which unfortunately isn't saying much as it's still pretty expensive).

Cons:
If you want to be at a school located in the city, this is not the place for you. Harrisburg is I think 30-40 minutes away, but there isn't much to do in Hershey other than drinking.
The grading scale is H/HP/P/LP/F (essentially A/B/C/D/F). It really doesn't bother me that much, but I know a lot of people are looking for schools with P/F.
Hershey Park is overpriced so don't plan on going there often (like I was going to do :laugh:).

Hope this sort of helps.

Also get your app out there as soon as you can (especially if you're OOS). They receive ~7,000 applications and give out about 900 interviews. Their class size is 140ish with half the class being OOS.
 
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As long as there's a fitness center I can deal with not being in a huge city.

How's the library?
 
n3xa said:
As long as there's a fitness center I can deal with not being in a huge city.

How's the library?
Click to expand...

It's nice and is located within the medical center. We walked by it and didn't actually go inside so I can't really give you too many details about it. I don't remember the hours but I know it's not a 24 hour library. There are also group study rooms that only students can use but you have to make reservations in advance.
 
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Tapepsi said:
Harrisburg is I think 30-40 minutes away, but there isn’t much to do in Hershey other than drinking
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Harrisburg is more like 15-20 minutes away (by car, there is not any sort of good public transport in area as a whole). Even Harrisburg only has a limited amount to offer though. The closest big cities are Baltimore and Philadelphia which are not by any means close.
 
david06 said:
Harrisburg is more like 15-20 minutes away (by car, there is not any sort of good public transport in area as a whole). Even Harrisburg only has a limited amount to offer though. The closest big cities are Baltimore and Philadelphia which are not by any means close.
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I second this. Harrisburg, despite being the capital of the state, really doesn't offer a lot of things. Plus, when you hear people talking about Penn State in undergrad, they mean State College, so there aren't even that many people who are undergrads and hence, smaller College town for Harrisburg. Central PA isn't exactly known for its excitement...
 
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Silverfalcon said:
I second this. Harrisburg, despite being the capital of the state, really doesn't offer a lot of things. Plus, when you hear people talking about Penn State in undergrad, they mean State College, so there aren't even that many people who are undergrads and hence, smaller College town for Harrisburg. Central PA isn't exactly known for its excitement...
Click to expand...

Yes I think that a lot of people get confused and think that the medical school is located at State College when actually it's 2 hours away.

If location is a big factor for you and you want a lot of city life then Penn State might not be a good fit for you. I personally liked it b/c I've lived in suburban and rural areas all my life so I am used to that kind of setting. It has a small town feel and you get to know everyone.

I'd recommend everyone to also check out the interview feedback as you can get insight from other applicants who have visited the school in terms of what they liked and disliked. I'd say the best feedback you can get though is from an actual student who is already there.
 
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does everyone agree that they're pretty friendly to OOS'ers? how beastly is the 2ndary? also, are they very conscious of the numbers or more holistic? i have no ties to PA but i really like this school. my numbers are kinda below avg but the rest of my app is solid and i'm non-trad.
 
DIVA01x said:
does everyone agree that they're pretty friendly to OOS'ers? how beastly is the 2ndary? also, are they very conscious of the numbers or more holistic? i have no ties to PA but i really like this school. my numbers are kinda below avg but the rest of my app is solid and i'm non-trad.
Click to expand...

No idea on how it treats OOS'ers, but I know lots of PA students apply because it's cheaper (say compare to Drexel). PSU does take research seriously though, so if you have that and decent stats, you may be OK. Don't quote me on it though; I'm just citing from what I've seen from peers in recent years (2-3 years).
 
DIVA01x said:
does everyone agree that they're pretty friendly to OOS'ers? how beastly is the 2ndary? also, are they very conscious of the numbers or more holistic? i have no ties to PA but i really like this school. my numbers are kinda below avg but the rest of my app is solid and i'm non-trad.
Click to expand...

Yes Penn State is very OOS friendly (as well as the majority of PA's med schools). According to my 2009-2010 MSAR ~620 interviews were given to ~5600 OOS applicants, and 73 OOSers matriculated there (for a class size of 144). The average GPA/MCAT stats for accepted applicants (not matriculants) for 2009 were 3.8/32. I will also second what Silverfalcon said that having research can be beneficial and that the majority of accepted applicants (~85%) have it.

Also, if you look at the very beginning of the 2010-2011 Penn State Application Thread you will get an idea as to what their secondary is like.
 
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Do you know if the earliest mcat test scores are taken from 2008 or from 2009?
 
2010hope said:
Do you know if the earliest mcat test scores are taken from 2008 or from 2009?
Click to expand...

This is from their website under Requirements for Admission:

The College of Medicine will not accept MCAT test scores earlier than three calendar years previous to the year of matriculation, nor those taken during the year of matriculation (January dates).

So scores before 2009 will not count if you plan on matriculating there for 2012.

Another thing to note as I know this question comes up frequently. If you are OOS, you will not be considered a PA resident for tuition purposes after your first year at Penn State.
 
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Is it just me, or does the MSAR say that they don't accept OOS apps?
 
They most definitely accept out OOS applications and applicants.

Does anyone know when we can expect to get the secondary?
 
the humming sea said:
They most definitely accept out OOS applications and applicants.

Does anyone know when we can expect to get the secondary?
Click to expand...

I don't know about others but last year I didn't have access to the secondary until late July/early August.

Regardless, if this is anything like last year you're going to have to wait a while before getting it. I would recommend everyone interested in this school to look at last year's secondary prompts and answer them as PSU has been using the same three q's for several years now. That way when the secondary comes out you'll be ahead of the game.
 
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Any info on the primary care training here? I would imagine since they're away from the big cities...rural med might be pretty good?
 
Alejandro said:
Any info on the primary care training here? I would imagine since they're away from the big cities...rural med might be pretty good?
Click to expand...

From what I've been told the primary care training is great but maybe a current medical student could give you more info on this.

Oh and here's the 2011 match list for PSU. It can give you an idea as to what type of specialties tend to be popular at Penn State.

Specialty Location
Anesthesiology St Lukes-Roosevelt-NY*
Anesthesiology Case Western/MetroHealth Med Ctr-OH*
Anesthesiology Johns Hopkins Hosp-MD*
Anesthesiology UMDNJ-R W Johnson-Piscataway*
Anesthesiology NYP Hosp-Columbia Univ Med Ctr-NY*
Anesthesiology U Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics*
Dermatology U Florida COM-Shands Hosp*
Dermatology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Dermatology U Tennessee COM-Memphis*
Dermatology Mayo School of Grad Med Educ-MN*
Dermatology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Dermatology Boston Univ Med Ctr-MA*
Dermatology Geisinger Health System-PA*
Emergency Medicine Christiana Care-DE*
Emergency Medicine York Hospital-PA*
Emergency Medicine UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Emergency Medicine UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Emergency Medicine U Texas Med Sch-Houston*
Emergency Medicine Case Western/MetroHealth Med Ctr-OH*
Emergency Medicine U Arizona/UPHK GME Consortium*
Emergency Medicine Synergy Med Ed Alliance-MI*
Emergency Medicine Case Western/MetroHealth Med Ctr-OH*
Emergency Medicine York Hospital-PA*
Emergency Medicine Yale-New Haven Hosp-CT*
Family Medicine Arrowhead Reg Med Ctr-CA*
Family Medicine Altoona Family Phys-PA*
Family Medicine UPMC St Margaret-PA*
Family Medicine University of Toronto
Family Medicine Altoona Family Phys-PA*
Family Medicine UPMC St Margaret-PA*
Family Medicine York Hospital-PA*
Family Medicine Montana Family Med-MT*
Family Medicine UPMC St Margaret-PA*
Family Medicine U Michigan Hosps-Ann Arbor*
Family Medicine UPMC St Margaret-PA*
General Surgery Vanderbilt Univ Med Ctr-TN*
General Surgery B I Deaconess Med Ctr-MA*
General Surgery U Massachusetts Med School*
General Surgery NYU School Of Medicine*
General Surgery Mayo School of Grad Med Educ-AZ*
General Surgery Lehigh Valley Hosp-PA*
General Surgery Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
General Surgery Pitt County Mem Hosp/Brody SOM-NC*
General Surgery Univ of Chicago Med Ctr-IL*
General Surgery U Arkansas-Little Rock*
General Surgery Baystate Med Ctr-MA*
General Surgery Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
General Surgery U Illinois COM-Chicago*
Internal Medicine Yale-New Haven Hosp-CT*
Internal Medicine Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Internal Medicine U Minnesota Med School*
Internal Medicine Thomas Jefferson Univ-PA*
Internal Medicine University of Vermont
Internal Medicine Indiana Univ Sch Of Med*
Internal Medicine U Massachusetts Med School*
Internal Medicine Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Internal Medicine Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Internal Medicine Prov Portland Med Ctr-OR*
Internal Medicine St John Hospital-MI*
Internal Medicine UMDNJ-R W Johnson-Piscataway*
Internal Medicine Baylor Coll Med-Houston-TX*
Internal Medicine U Rochester/Strong Mem-NY*
Internal Medicine University of Virginia*
Internal Medicine Mt Sinai Hospital-NY*
Internal Medicine Loyola Univ Med Ctr-IL*
Internal Medicine Hosp of the Univ of PA*
Internal Medicine U Maryland Med Ctr*
Internal Medicine Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Medicine-Pediatrics Baystate Med Ctr-MA*
Medicine-Preliminary Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Medicine-Preliminary Thomas Jefferson Univ-PA*
Neurological Surgery George Washington Univ-DC*
Neurological Surgery Northwestern McGaw/NMH/VA-IL*
Neurological Surgery Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Neurology Thomas Jefferson Univ-PA*
Neurology UMDNJ-R W Johnson-Piscataway*
Neurology U Maryland Med Ctr*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Tripler Army Medical Center
Obstetrics-Gynecology UMDNJ-R W Johnson-Piscataway*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Pennsylvania Hospital*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Abington Mem Hosp-PA*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Case Western/MetroHealth Med Ctr-OH*
Obstetrics-Gynecology U Rochester/Strong Mem-NY*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Reading Hospital Med Ctr-PA*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Northwestern McGaw/NMH/VA-IL*
Obstetrics-Gynecology U North Carolina Hospitals*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Brigham & Womens Hosp-MA*
Obstetrics-Gynecology Lehigh Valley Hosp-PA*
Obstetrics-Gynecology St Barnabas Med Ctr-NJ*
Ophthalmology Duke University
Ophthalmology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA
Orthopaedic Surgery UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Orthopaedic Surgery Carolinas Med Ctr-NC*
Orthopaedic Surgery Massachusetts Gen Hosp*
Orthopaedic Surgery Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Orthopaedic Surgery Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Orthopaedic Surgery U North Carolina Hospitals*
Otolaryngology UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Otolaryngology U Illinois COM-Chicago*
Otolaryngology Thomas Jefferson Univ-PA*
Otolaryngology Ohio State Univ Med Ctr-OH*
Otolaryngology Case Western/Univ Hosps Case Med Ctr-OH*
Otolaryngology/Research Barnes-Jewish Hosp-MO*
Pathology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Pediatrics Childrens Hosp of Michigan*
Pediatrics Univ of Chicago Med Ctr-IL*
Pediatrics Yale-New Haven Hosp-CT*
Pediatrics UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Pediatrics Johns Hopkins Hosp-MD*
Pediatrics U Tennessee COM-Memphis*
Pediatrics UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Pediatrics U Utah Affil Hospitals*
Pediatrics Rhode Island Hosp/Brown U*
Pediatrics Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Pediatrics NYP Hosp-Weill Cornell Med Ctr-NY*
Pediatrics Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Pediatrics Rhode Island Hosp/Brown U*
Pediatrics Case Western/Univ Hosps Case Med Ctr-OH*
Pediatrics Jefferson Med Coll/duPont Childrens-PA*
Pediatrics UCLA Medical Center-CA*
Pediatrics Carolinas Med Ctr-NC*
Pediatrics NYP Hosp-Columbia Univ Med Ctr-NY*
Pediatrics Childrens National Med Ctr-DC*
Pediatrics Medical College of Georgia
Pediatrics U South Florida COM-Tampa*
Pediatrics Mt Sinai Hospital-NY*
Pediatrics U South Florida COM-Tampa*
Phys Medicine & Rehab Thomas Jefferson Univ-PA*
Plastic Surgery (Integrated) Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Plastic Surgery (Integrated) Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Psychiatry U Maryland Med Ctr*
Psychiatry Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Psychiatry Long Island Jewish Med Ctr-NY*
Psychiatry Portsmouth Naval Medical Center
Psychiatry UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Psychiatry Hosp of the Univ of PA*
Radiation Oncology UC Davis Med Ctr-CA*
Radiology-Diagnostic UPMC Medical Education-PA*
Radiology-Diagnostic Mayo School of Grad Med Educ-MN*
Radiology-Diagnostic Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA*
Radiology-Diagnostic Stanford Univ Progs-CA*
Radiology-Diagnostic Allegheny Gen Hosp-PA*
Radiology-Diagnostic Allegheny Gen Hosp-PA*
Surgery- Preliminary Temple Univ Hosp-PA
Surgery- Preliminary Orlando Health-FL
Urology Univ. of Arkansas College of Med
Urology UMDNJ/New Jersey Medical School
Urology Hershey Med Ctr/Penn State-PA
 
Tapepsi said:
I don't know about others but last year I didn't have access to the secondary until late July/early August.

Regardless, if this is anything like last year you're going to have to wait a while before getting it. I would recommend everyone interested in this school to look at last year's secondary prompts and answer them as PSU has been using the same three q's for several years now. That way when the secondary comes out you'll be ahead of the game.
Click to expand...


The character limits are some of the shortest I've seen. :eek:
 
n3xa said:
The character limits are some of the shortest I've seen. :eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah with a 50 word limit you can't say a lot. I personally liked it though as it keeps it short and straight to the point.
 
Students at Hershey are also eligible for student football tickets for games in State College (1.5 hours away)
 
I spent the first 18 years of my life about 30 minutes south of Hershey and Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has Pittsburgh and Philly, and everything else is middle of nowhere. I escaped rural nowhere for Pittsburgh for undergrad, but I'm still excited to apply to Hershey! I would say not being in a city is a big con for me, but I like too many things about it to completely turn it down.

Definitely go for the HersheyPark season pass. Pays for itself in 2 visits and it's good for a whole year. :thumbup:
 
anyone know how they treat children of alumni (im OOS but my dad did a fellowship here and is considered alumni of the medical college)
 
IDFsoldierboy said:
anyone know how they treat children of alumni (im OOS but my dad did a fellowship here and is considered alumni of the medical college)
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Hmm...I'm not sure. It is possible that having a family history there could help convince them that you'd go to PSU if accepted. I think the best mindset though is to assume that you will have no advantage over other applicants.

Also IDFsoldierboy, and I don't know if Penn State does this or not (but there are definitely schools out there that do), there is a thing called a "courtesy interview". Each school that has this handles it differently, but essentially it is an interview offered based on the fact that you have some connection to the school (such as being the child of an alumni). If your stats fall within their ranges and your app is pretty competitive then I wouldn't worry too much about it, but if say your GPA and/or MCAT are significantly below the averages you might want to proceed with caution.

sheep88 said:
I'm in-state and haven't received on yet... waiting impatiently!
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Yes unfortunately if it's like last year you still have some more waiting to do...
 
Why have you forsaken me penn state!? God this waiting game is unnerving
 
yea I dont remember getting the secondary last year until real late July/ early August. Don't stress about it.
 
.
 
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Glad to see more of you not having received the secondary. I was worried for a second there :cool:
 
I'm in-state, and have yet to receive a secondary as well. Maybe they're trying to be nice and let us poor, overworked med-school hopefuls recover from our other secondaries before they give us theirs??

Go Penn State! One of my top choice schools! :)
 
duke2121 said:
My application was verified yesterday...anybody get secondaries yet?
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Good to know duke2121! Penn State should be sending out secondaries within the next week or so.
 
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