Sorry to hear- When were you complete?
2011-2012 University of Illinois Application Thread
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Sorry to hear- When were you complete?
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Congrats everyone! 
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Can you please tell me the main differences (academic curriculum, social life, rotation sites) between Peoria, Urbana, and Rockford? Thanks.
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Can you please tell me the main differences (academic curriculum, social life, rotation sites) between Peoria, Urbana, and Rockford? Thanks.
I would like to know the answer to this too.
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This has been covered so many times over the years. The search box really is a magical tool. I just typed in "Peoria vs. Rockford" and got multiple pages of hits.
Not trying to be a jerk. But generally what happens is people don't read previous pages or search through previous years' threads, and every month someone new will get accepted into the UPR track and post the same questions. It reeks of laziness when someone comes on SDN with about 3 total posts and asks a complex question that's already been touched on many, many times.
I'll try to post my thoughts on this when I get more time. However kai35 covered this very well in multiple years:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9801034#post9801034
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=10641915#post10641915
A few minor details I'd disagree with. The gym membership (if things like that matter) is $10 (total) for Peoria students. So essentially the same as Urbana.
The bigger thing that's changed about the Peoria campus: starting this year, M2s are given 3 half-days off per week. It was demanded from the accreditation board, I believe. Thankfully they stepped in, because Peoria really was pushing its students to the limit. So that's a big change to take into account - Peoria became much more like the other campuses in terms of its M2 curriculum.
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Snoops! Thanks SO much! 🙂 So happy to have a SDN whiz around here.
Oh, and not trying to be a jerk, but you posted the same link TWICE. Reeks of laziness when you don't check before you post.
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To organize it better, I'll add my own thoughts on the campuses separately:
Around 125 M1's go to Urbana each year. Roughly 50 go to Peoria for M2-4, 50 to Rockford, and 25 stay in Urbana.
Rockford: One of their main advantages is the low # of residency programs. So as an M3/M4 student, you may be the first person assisting on a surgery. You get more direct exposure, and having talked to several Rockford graduates, it makes their clinical rotations more like Sub-Is than typical med school rotations. The downside is that if you rotate solely in Rockford, you may not get a feel for what a typical academic hospital hierarchy is like.
Rockford students are allowed to rotate at Chicago hospitals without it counting as an away rotation. I've heard of M4's that simply move to Chicago during their senior year and rotate there. That's a big advantage over the Peoria/Urbana campuses (for us, it counts as an away). They also have brand-new facilities, from what I've heard (a big change from the Stone-Age facilities in Urbana). The primary care aspect has been hammered home so many times about Rockford, so I won't touch on that. They definitely do emphasize primary care, but I'd caution against thinking they don't match their students into top specialties across the country. Check out the residency match lists from the different campuses.
Peoria probably has the strongest hospital system outside of Chicago. Historically they ran their students into the ground with 40 hours of lecture a week, but that's changed now. Peoria now gives 3 half-days off per week, which has made it more like the other campuses in terms of courseload. They've also just finished construction on a huge new cancer research center, and have plans to open up a top-notch simulation training center (along with OSF St. Francis) which could greatly impact clinical training.
Only a small number of traditional students stay in Urbana. The majority of the M2 class is made up of MD/PhD students - so if you stay in Urbana, you'll be separated from most of your M1 friends. The advantage is being in a huge campustown, of course. Their hospital system (Carle/Provena) is smaller than the other campuses.
Here's one important thing to note: switching within the UPR track is fairly easy. Switching into Chicago is the hard part (hence the petition).
Meaning the decision you make now isn't permanent. You shouldn't have problems switching into Peoria or Rockford, as long as there's not a lot of students in your class who are also pushing to switch to the same site (and even then, just about everyone in our year that wanted to switch was successful).
In spring of your M1 year, you'll be given the opportunity to switch sites within the UPR track if you want. The deans from Peoria/Rockford will visit at some point during your M1 year and you'll be given more information in general. Switching into Urbana takes a bit more effort - you'll need some solid reason (family close to Urbana, wanting to do research, etc.) But switching from Peoria to Rockford or vice versa is easy, and it's done multiple times every year by people following their friends.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. I'll add more thoughts on the campuses as I remember them.
Edit: Searching SDN will bring up some great threads, it's good to get as many opinions as possible. Here's a thread I found with the 2008 Match List for Rockford, if anyone's interested: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=261751
Around 125 M1's go to Urbana each year. Roughly 50 go to Peoria for M2-4, 50 to Rockford, and 25 stay in Urbana.
Rockford: One of their main advantages is the low # of residency programs. So as an M3/M4 student, you may be the first person assisting on a surgery. You get more direct exposure, and having talked to several Rockford graduates, it makes their clinical rotations more like Sub-Is than typical med school rotations. The downside is that if you rotate solely in Rockford, you may not get a feel for what a typical academic hospital hierarchy is like.
Rockford students are allowed to rotate at Chicago hospitals without it counting as an away rotation. I've heard of M4's that simply move to Chicago during their senior year and rotate there. That's a big advantage over the Peoria/Urbana campuses (for us, it counts as an away). They also have brand-new facilities, from what I've heard (a big change from the Stone-Age facilities in Urbana). The primary care aspect has been hammered home so many times about Rockford, so I won't touch on that. They definitely do emphasize primary care, but I'd caution against thinking they don't match their students into top specialties across the country. Check out the residency match lists from the different campuses.
Peoria probably has the strongest hospital system outside of Chicago. Historically they ran their students into the ground with 40 hours of lecture a week, but that's changed now. Peoria now gives 3 half-days off per week, which has made it more like the other campuses in terms of courseload. They've also just finished construction on a huge new cancer research center, and have plans to open up a top-notch simulation training center (along with OSF St. Francis) which could greatly impact clinical training.
Only a small number of traditional students stay in Urbana. The majority of the M2 class is made up of MD/PhD students - so if you stay in Urbana, you'll be separated from most of your M1 friends. The advantage is being in a huge campustown, of course. Their hospital system (Carle/Provena) is smaller than the other campuses.
Here's one important thing to note: switching within the UPR track is fairly easy. Switching into Chicago is the hard part (hence the petition).
Meaning the decision you make now isn't permanent. You shouldn't have problems switching into Peoria or Rockford, as long as there's not a lot of students in your class who are also pushing to switch to the same site (and even then, just about everyone in our year that wanted to switch was successful).
In spring of your M1 year, you'll be given the opportunity to switch sites within the UPR track if you want. The deans from Peoria/Rockford will visit at some point during your M1 year and you'll be given more information in general. Switching into Urbana takes a bit more effort - you'll need some solid reason (family close to Urbana, wanting to do research, etc.) But switching from Peoria to Rockford or vice versa is easy, and it's done multiple times every year by people following their friends.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. I'll add more thoughts on the campuses as I remember them.
Edit: Searching SDN will bring up some great threads, it's good to get as many opinions as possible. Here's a thread I found with the 2008 Match List for Rockford, if anyone's interested: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=261751
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Fixed it for you. Considering I spent a decent amount of time hunting down those posts for you, I wouldn't call it laziness. I'd call it being a med student with cardio/renal/pulm exams in a week.
Hope those posts help everyone else. PM if anyone has any specific questions.
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Snoopy, genuinely, thank you for the information.
As you noted, I haven't spent a lot of time on SDN, so after I searched this thread without finding the info I was looking for, I posted my question. I didn't know one could go to past years' threads. And I was just joking about the laziness! 😉
Thanks again!
As you noted, I haven't spent a lot of time on SDN, so after I searched this thread without finding the info I was looking for, I posted my question. I didn't know one could go to past years' threads. And I was just joking about the laziness! 😉
Thanks again!
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No problem. Congrats on the acceptance 👍 Reading your MDapps profile, you've got a really interesting background. This is the fun of medical school - you get to meet people with all sorts of very cool backgrounds and previous careers.
No worries. Sorry if I came off snippy. It's that time of the month (PES, Pre-Exam Syndrome).
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PES!Congrats to those who got accepted! 🙂 if you wanna be added to the facebook group go here https://www.facebook.com/groups/135915903178274/ or search UIC College of Medicine - Class of 2016
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I hope all you future M1s are aware of the tuition situation at UIC. Your yearly tuition during M1 and M4 will be 40k. During M2 and M3, it will be more like 50-55k. That is just tuition alone.
It may seem like getting into med. school is the end point, but please be aware of the financial ramifications of your decision. I leave the rest up to you.
It may seem like getting into med. school is the end point, but please be aware of the financial ramifications of your decision. I leave the rest up to you.
Care to explain? Tuition is currently listed at $35,000.
I don't know where he's getting all his numbers, but I do know that M2 and M3 have tuition that is about $11,000 higher because you are at school year-round instead of just 2 semesters.
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This right here. They haven't publicized the new figures yet. But I posted previously is 100% accurate for the upcoming year.The current tuition is listed at $33,000 on the website. An M1 told me last week they found out that the tuition will be increased to $40,000 next year.
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You are correct as to why it is higher during M2 and M3. The number will go up to a bit over 13k from 11k though.
Interesting... this conflicts with what was given to us in the financial aid packets on interview day. Does anyone know when they are planning to release this new information? It's definitely a major factor in my decision, so I'd like to have all the facts before committing... 😕
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Recently approved. No idea when it will be up.
Finally moved to applicant in process! I submitted by secondary on ~Nov 30. I'm guessing there is no chance of me getting into Chicago anymore right?
If not, I guess I might be going to Rockford since that is the second closest to my home. Does anyone know for sure that there is absolutely no way to switch to Chicago once you start Rockford? At least not until M4? Is it possible to switch during M3?
If not, I guess I might be going to Rockford since that is the second closest to my home. Does anyone know for sure that there is absolutely no way to switch to Chicago once you start Rockford? At least not until M4? Is it possible to switch during M3?
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The tuition information above is right. 1) Tuition has always been higher for M2 and M3 years, and 2) There will be a substantial jump up to $40,000. The jump is for incoming students only, not current ones.
For any out-of-state students who are wondering how this affects them, don't worry. Your tuition is so ridiculous that the administration is only bumping it from ~$70,400 to $71,000. Small comfort, probably.
For any out-of-state students who are wondering how this affects them, don't worry. Your tuition is so ridiculous that the administration is only bumping it from ~$70,400 to $71,000. Small comfort, probably.
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this made me cringe but thanks for posting it. was any reason given for such a huge price hike?
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Hello again cycle twin. Your odds of acceptance are pretty excellent post interview at UIC, so this is big news indeed. I did the calculation once, and it came out to about 85% for instate applicants. Best of luck on the interview!
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If that made you cringe, try being an OOS student. The rate is $71K for M1/M4 and $93K for M2/M3 (just for tuition). By the time I'll be done, I'll be around $500K in debt. Talk about an incentive to not go into primary care!
Hope they have some need-based scholarships to bring it down to in-state rates for us folks who are already poor going into medical school, but I'm not counting on it due to the state budget crisis.
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Some info for those of us interested in the Chicago campus: the Chicago Medical Student Council at UIC-COM recently conducted a student survey regarding the tuition increases. A summary of the results, plus responses from the Deans, may be found here: http://cmsc.uicmed.net/filestore/Student%20Survey%20Tuition%20Results%20and%20Response.pdf
Thank you for posting that document. I was really hoping to go home for med school, but this tuition hike means I can go to basically any other med school for a comparable price (or cheaper). I just can't rationalize paying the price. 🙁
Does anyone know when the committee will be meeting to decide on ppl who interviewed late jan/early feb? I was looking at the earlier threads and some year it's the 3rd Thr and sometimes its the 4th. Just wondering...
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Thanks for posting!
I think what surprised me most was the 88% or so of student who would have gone elsewhere, or considered going elsewhere.
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uic cannot justify this price hike and frankly, it makes no sense to go to uic anymore. a wild inequality exists between what you pay and what you get
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I think it's pretty easy for them to justify the hike.
They're broke. The state isn't giving us any money, and UIC needs to raise funds on its own, through fundraising and tuition. The consequences of pissing off current and future students are minor compared to those of insolvency.
It sucks, but we're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
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VisionaryTics and Snoopy -- maybe i'm just super naive and this might be true about other medical schools but it seems liek the administration and deans and even professors don't care about their students -- at least that's what i'm getting out of the comments from actual students in that powerpoint. I was really turned off by the whole "profs only care about their research, that's why there's no class attendance by m2 year" and "the facilities and buildings suck." How much does this stuff ultimately matter in choosing a med school though and do you have the same feelings? I don't want to feel like a "number" instead of a person and worse, I don't want to feel like a voiceless number 🙁 This is the first disparaging thought I've had about UIC, damn.
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I think the administration and deans care a lot about the students. I think the students bitching about tuition increases don't realize the dire position that the school has been put in by the Illinois state government. I think OSA, Deans Hyderi and Weiner, and others have been very up front about issues related to the school including finances, curriculum changes, etc. I don't have a bead on Dean Azar (Dean of the COM); too new.
As far as professors, they're more hit or miss, but that's a common quality to a lot of schools. Plenty of lecturers are simply fulfilling tenure requirements (I'm looking at you, immunology and microbiology department), but we also have plenty of great course directors and lecturers (anatomy, pathology, clinical pathophysiology).
For lecture attendance, everyone learns differently. Some people are class goers and some aren't, some courses are worth attending and some aren't (pharmacology). This is true at pretty much every medical school.
Yes, the facilities suck.
Does it really matter where you plunk your ass for a year and a half before hitting the wards (i.e. where you'll be doing 90% of your learning)?Everything isn't roses and sunshine at UIC. There are issues, but I think the deans have been pretty good about being honest with us.
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I can only speak to my experiences at my campus. I was really surprised by the comments about the professors. Keep in mind that survey only contained results from Chicago students. I've felt, overall, the professors I've had (esp. in Peoria) have been solid to good. I personally never got the impression that the Urbana profs cared more about their research than teaching. In Peoria we are often taught by Ph.D researchers from the cancer research center, who can sometimes go into more detail than clinically necessary. It's an annoyance, but not one that happens too often, and not really a huge deal.
The facilities in Peoria are pretty good. In Urbana? Yeah, they sucked. But it was more minor annoyances, like chalkboards instead of whiteboards, creaky chairs, etc. Nothing that affects your M1 studies. I've never seen Rockford but they have brand-new facilities, from what I've heard. Chicago and Urbana are just older overall.
I actually have a very difference experience compared to Visionary as far as being informed by the administration - and this may reflect the differences among the campuses. Down here, we had the tuition hike sprung on us completely by surprise. There was no communication, and as far as I know, there still has been no explanation from the administration. The overall Dean came down to visit our campus once last year, and aside from that, I can't remember ever receiving a single email or notice from his office. I feel like the communication is the thing most lacking from our administration. Most students aren't just angry about the higher tuition (let's face it, the current students won't have to pay it), but the fact that big changes are being made quickly without keeping the student body updated, or even explaining things after the fact.
I do agree that it isn't necessarily all UIC's fault. They were put in a bad hole by the state. But the execution of these changes and their communication is lacking.
One thing, though - while I feel out of the loop in terms of overall administrative changes, I've never felt like "a number" in terms of my individual future. In Urbana, Dean Few was great about calling us in to her office and was willing to listen to any problems we were having. In Peoria, Dr. Aiyer plays a similar role. She meets with you individually and is always available for personal career advice or questions about classes, clerkships, and residencies. I've always felt like I have someplace to go to for any personal questions I have.
Sorry for the essay. I'd say in general, every med school has its issues. The state of IL has been hit so hard that UIC is struggling more than most medical schools financially. I think student anger is coming from the lack of transparency and communication in terms of policy change. But as a student and not a policy-maker, I felt like I've received individual attention at the Urbana and Peoria campuses. I also feel like I've received a good education here. The tuition hike was abrupt and not well communicated, so there's an immediate reaction of anger, but I wouldn't let that student survey sway you one way or another.
For you guys, what's most important (besides financial picture) is talking to multiple M1s/M2s at the Chicago campus and finding out if they share the opinions in the survey as far as the teaching is concerned. If there is an overwhelming opinion that classes are poorly taught by disinterested professors, then that's a legitimate concern. This is true for every school you consider - hence the importance of asking your tour guides questions on interviews!
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Just a note: that comment about professors being more interested in research than teaching at the Chicago campus is a sample size of n=1. It could be from an M1 who's struggling to adjust and is pointing blame elsewhere. It could also be that s/he has a very legitimate point. That's why it's so important to talk to as many students as you can at that campus (if you're heading there) and get an overall feel, not just 1 opinion from someone who may have just had a bad test last Wednesday.
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A very, very good point. In conversations I've had with current students, the overarching complaint seemed to be about the suddenness of the whole thing. Keep in mind that this decision was announced fairly recently, and the survey conducted shortly afterward. It is likely that the responses contain varying levels of hyperbole (and anger). That being said, I think Snoopy's advice is very important - none of the students I've spoken with (N=3) seemed at all dissatisfied with the education they are receiving.
Also, I doubt the facilities comment was directed toward the athletic sites. UIC's gyms look mind-boggling awesome 😍.
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VERY helpful, VisionaryTics and Snoopy and tomatosauce, thank you guys! 🙂 I am just starting to become very scared of being in debt...I was already struggling with wrapping my head around the 32K and now i'm like "whaaaaaaaaa" about the 40K. But...I guess most med students end up paying their loans right?
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I can't seem to find more information on the Summer Prematriculation Program (SPP). Does anyone have any information on how it is structured and approximately how many students participate in the program each summer?
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40+53+53+40 = 186k in tuition alone. add-on however much for living/books/etc.
you are looking at OVER a quarter million guaranteed unless you find someone who is willing to pay your expenses
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It is a lot more than n=1. It's been a point of contention for years now. Just putting this out there.
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I'm not debating that the state of Illinois massively effed UIC...that is a fact no one can reasonably argue against. What I'm saying is that given this fact, UIC is just not a reasonable deal...unless it is your sole option. This was not the case even 2-3 years ago.
I couldn't agree more. I was seriously considering UIC because I thought it would be the best school to educate me in becoming a physician to practice in Illinois after graduation. Bottom line... The school is still a good school, but nothing near the other state schools in the Midwest (Iowa, Wisconsin). It's IS tuition would be MORE expensive than the OOS tuition at the other state schools in the Midwest for me. Unfortunately, it would be irresponsible of me to attend my state school. Illinois is in a bad place and it's not getting better. They will be forced to take more and more students who only have UIC as their sole option (not a bad thing necessarily, but I imagine that it won't help their deteriorating reputation, as well as decrease their average student test scores).
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