2011-2012 University of Miami Application Thread

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I was never able to save my application before submitting it. Each time i would try, I'd go back and there would be random phrases and sentences cut out of my essays. What I ended up doing, using Internet Explorer, was copying and pasting everything in all at once and clicking submit, without going "back". Before you submit, it let's you see a "Preview" of what you're about to submit. Everything seemed to work that time. Hope that helps!
 
But that's the thing; I don't even have the option to save it at all, or preview it. Literally the only button I can click is "continue" at the bottom. Also, I did copy and paste all of the essays into the program in one sitting using Internet Explorer. I know a lot of people did have problems when they tried to save it, so that's why I decided to try to do everything in one sitting. I really appreciate your help, though! Seems like a pretty squirrely program.
 
Cinclus said:
It's been a while for me, too. I'm also wondering about sending a follow-up email, but I'll probably wait a bit longer.
Click to expand...
I just emailed admission and got this reply:

We are sending out the secondary applications in groups of 100 because we are using a new application this year. Expect to receive your application within the next week or so.




 
FattySlug said:
I just emailed admission and got this reply:

We are sending out the secondary applications in groups of 100 because we are using a new application this year. Expect to receive your application within the next week or so.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. I no longer feel like I've been forgotten. 🙂
 
Same. Thanks for e-mailing. I received the first e-mail from on 6/27 -- but have not heard anything since.

I am IS female, 3.8GPA but not so great MCAT (I'm re-taking this Saturday). My thought was maybe they are waiting for the MCAT scores? Is anyone else in this boat?
 
Just got my secondary. I am excited for the school but dreading filling this out.
 
I got an invitation to fill out the secondary today. Weird thing is I got an invitation to fill out the secondary last week too...only if I could give my extra invitation to one of you that hasn't received it yet :laugh:
 
JSU said:
Just got my secondary. I am excited for the school but dreading filling this out.
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Yea I got mixed feeling about getting secondary from Miami: don't want to be behind but also buried under 9 other secondaries.
 
Just looking for advice/interpretation:

The current MSAR says that the oldest MCAT Miami will take for this cycle is 2009. The website says MCATS will be considered "if they are no more than three years old at the time of application." I interpreted this as meaning that scores 1, 2, and 3 years old at the time of application are okay; that once your MCAT hits its 4th "anniversary" it will no longer be considered.

Soooo, I went ahead and sent my AMCAS to UM with my 2008 score. Just called admissions and the admissions coordinator said that they won't take my score from 2008 since it just hit its 3 year anniversary. Is she mistaken, am I, or is the website just plain wrong?

Wondering if I get a secondary that means that the date of my score is ok...

Thanks!
 
eliz220 said:
Just looking for advice/interpretation:

The current MSAR says that the oldest MCAT Miami will take for this cycle is 2009. The website says MCATS will be considered "if they are no more than three years old at the time of application." I interpreted this as meaning that scores 1, 2, and 3 years old at the time of application are okay; that once your MCAT hits its 4th "anniversary" it will no longer be considered.

Soooo, I went ahead and sent my AMCAS to UM with my 2008 score. Just called admissions and the admissions coordinator said that they won't take my score from 2008 since it just hit its 3 year anniversary. Is she mistaken, am I, or is the website just plain wrong?

Wondering if I get a secondary that means that the date of my score is ok...

Thanks!
Click to expand...

For anyone that may be interested:

I called back, because this is what is on Michigan State's admissions site: "The College of Human Medicine will accept only MCAT scores that are no older than four years old (i.e., 2008 scores for 2011-12 application cycle)." I thought that since other med schools counted in years, UM would too, i.e. UM's "no more than three years old at the time of application" means 2008 as well.

Apparently not. 🙁 UM admissions said that the day after it hits its third year, it is too old to be used (ex: test taken Sept 10, 2008 is over three years old Sept 11, 2011).

Just FYI!
 
I finally finished writing all my essays for this secondary, filled out the entire application and hit submit...only to get this error message:

System Error Occurred
You seem to have encountered an error in the application.
org.springframework.dao.InvalidDataAccessResourceUsageException: Could not execute JDBC batch update; nested exception is org.hibernate.exception.DataException: Could not execute JDBC batch update
If you would like to report this error, you may email the site administrator, or call him directly.
Else, please navigate back to the Home page and try again.

I'm assuming my application didn't go through, I tried the entire process again and got the same message. I am using a mac with firefox, but haven't had any issues with any other aspect of this application or any other for that matter. This happen to any one else?
 
topherP said:
I finally finished writing all my essays for this secondary, filled out the entire application and hit submit...only to get this error message:

System Error Occurred
You seem to have encountered an error in the application.
org.springframework.dao.InvalidDataAccessResourceUsageException: Could not execute JDBC batch update; nested exception is org.hibernate.exception.DataException: Could not execute JDBC batch update
If you would like to report this error, you may email the site administrator, or call him directly.
Else, please navigate back to the Home page and try again.

I'm assuming my application didn't go through, I tried the entire process again and got the same message. I am using a mac with firefox, but haven't had any issues with any other aspect of this application or any other for that matter. This happen to any one else?
Click to expand...

I think I got that same error message using IE on Windows; I figured maybe the page expired or something. Fortunately I had all of my important essays and stuff saved in word. I copied and pasted it into the app a second time and submitted as quickly as possible, and it worked.
 
topherP

I had the same thing happen to me, and it ended up being a word limit error for the essay sections. Though it says it takes 1500, I think it can't quite actually handle that much. What I did was copy and paste my essays into something like notepad to make them text only, and then re-pasted them into the essay boxes. When I did this, for some reason it cut off right at the number of words it was having trouble getting passed. That will tell you how many words you need to cut, and when I whittled the essays down past that limit, it worked fine. Just be careful when you finally do get it to work because I had some really weird problems with gibberish and chunks of paragraphs missing once it was processed. However, you have the option to edit your essays even after you submit the application, so I went back and changed it to the correct versions and everything was fine (I called the office to confirm that they had the error free version and it had gone through just fine.) I hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the response, I heard back from the admissions office and that was the case. Although it said 1500 words, all the essays actually had to be shorter. They changed the website down to 500-1000 words. Either way, I shortened some of my essays and everything worked out...now just to wait for an interview hopefully!!!
 
Bluepanda87 said:
topherP

I had the same thing happen to me, and it ended up being a word limit error for the essay sections. Though it says it takes 1500, I think it can't quite actually handle that much. What I did was copy and paste my essays into something like notepad to make them text only, and then re-pasted them into the essay boxes. When I did this, for some reason it cut off right at the number of words it was having trouble getting passed. That will tell you how many words you need to cut, and when I whittled the essays down past that limit, it worked fine. Just be careful when you finally do get it to work because I had some really weird problems with gibberish and chunks of paragraphs missing once it was processed. However, you have the option to edit your essays even after you submit the application, so I went back and changed it to the correct versions and everything was fine (I called the office to confirm that they had the error free version and it had gone through just fine.) I hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Sorry for the noob question, but how do you go back and view what you wrote in the submitted version?
 
minerva3121,

No worries! You'll need them to send you a password to access the secondary after you've already begun it (not the one UM sends you with the secondary invite; it's a password sent by acteva after you save it once.) Once you have this, you put in your e-mail and this password and it'll bring you to a screen showing your submission. Click on it, and it should take you to a page that says "Order Receipt." Directly under that is a link that says "Change this order." That should let you view and edit your submission. I hope this helps!
 
Bluepanda87 said:
minerva3121,

No worries! You'll need them to send you a password to access the secondary after you've already begun it (not the one UM sends you with the secondary invite; it's a password sent by acteva after you save it once.) Once you have this, you put in your e-mail and this password and it'll bring you to a screen showing your submission. Click on it, and it should take you to a page that says "Order Receipt." Directly under that is a link that says "Change this order." That should let you view and edit your submission. I hope this helps!
Click to expand...

It worked! Thanks, bluepanda. I initially ignored that e-mail from acteva because for some reason I assumed it was only for retracting the application if you decided to withdraw.
 
so on my personal statement, i actually started it out with a clinical exp that made a big impact on me.

and the first ques of the UM secondary asks that, but also says do not replicate your amcas ps.

soo should i write about a different clinical exp or does it mean dont cope and paste your ps again?
 
blackandgold1 said:
so on my personal statement, i actually started it out with a clinical exp that made a big impact on me.

and the first ques of the UM secondary asks that, but also says do not replicate your amcas ps.

soo should i write about a different clinical exp or does it mean dont cope and paste your ps again?
Click to expand...

I was in a similar situation. I decided that, since the experience in my personal statement truly was the experience that made the single largest impact on me, picking another in the secondary would constitute just making stuff up. So I tried to write about that same experience from a different angle. Not sure how successful I was, but I said more or less the only thing I could have said.
 
Haven't gotten a secondary yet, submitted over a week ago
 
Nomdeplume said:
I was in a similar situation. I decided that, since the experience in my personal statement truly was the experience that made the single largest impact on me, picking another in the secondary would constitute just making stuff up. So I tried to write about that same experience from a different angle. Not sure how successful I was, but I said more or less the only thing I could have said.
Click to expand...


relating to this question,
do you guys think the most important clinical experience refers to one particular moment while you were shadowing/etc., like.. the one time the patient came in and yada yada...
or did you take it as the experience as a whole, like shadowing at such and such place was more influential than other clinical experiences.

I understood the question to be 'as a whole' and i wrote about my recent shadowing experiences with a particular doctor, but my bf was reading it and was like.. why arent you talking about one particular time there.?

so now im wondering how other people understood the question.
 
Maryslittlelamb said:
relating to this question,
do you guys think the most important clinical experience refers to one particular moment while you were shadowing/etc., like.. the one time the patient came in and yada yada...
or did you take it as the experience as a whole, like shadowing at such and such place was more influential than other clinical experiences.

I understood the question to be 'as a whole' and i wrote about my recent shadowing experiences with a particular doctor, but my bf was reading it and was like.. why arent you talking about one particular time there.?

so now im wondering how other people understood the question.
Click to expand...

I wrote about my "aha" moment which, surprisingly, was nowhere on my amcas application.
 
Maryslittlelamb said:
relating to this question,
do you guys think the most important clinical experience refers to one particular moment while you were shadowing/etc., like.. the one time the patient came in and yada yada...
or did you take it as the experience as a whole, like shadowing at such and such place was more influential than other clinical experiences.

I understood the question to be 'as a whole' and i wrote about my recent shadowing experiences with a particular doctor, but my bf was reading it and was like.. why arent you talking about one particular time there.?

so now im wondering how other people understood the question.
Click to expand...

I also wrote about the one specific day when things fell into place for me. However, I think it's probably not a huge deal if you wrote about a more long-term experience, as long as you're still answering the main question.
 
Anyone here had an issue with the prereqs section? On my secondary, there's only one wide textbox for all three columns, and the titles aren't even lined up. I tried another computer but it's still not loading right...😕
 
Yeah I had that problem too! I just entered it all in the one giant box. Hopefully it will be easy enough for them to figure out... The question seemed vague enough that i wasn't too worried.
 
That makes sense. I actually emailed them just to make sure it wasn't a weird error, and they said just to enter everything in the textbook all spaced out. Now I think the secondary's supposed to look like that, though it still seems a little weird...oh well
 
hey what does your guys' "application preference" say on your main page?

Mine says "not entered"

sorry wrong thread!
 
Just submitted the secondary. Really happy to be done with this one because it was definitely a pain to fill out.
 
on the secondary if i talk about loyally supporting my college sports team under the sports part and the advances we made on a national level this year.....and UM is somewhat a rival of my school...would that make them hate me lol? i dont wanna damage my chances whtsoever.
 
blackandgold1 said:
on the secondary if i talk about loyally supporting my college sports team under the sports part and the advances we made on a national level this year.....and UM is somewhat a rival of my school...would that make them hate me lol? i dont wanna damage my chances whtsoever.
Click to expand...

Black and Gold, eh? Do you go to UCF?

You ain't on the Canes' level... 😛

But seriously, I don't think they'll look poorly on that at all. Just my two cents, though.
 
blackandgold1 said:
on the secondary if i talk about loyally supporting my college sports team under the sports part and the advances we made on a national level this year.....and UM is somewhat a rival of my school...would that make them hate me lol? i dont wanna damage my chances whtsoever.
Click to expand...

I sure hope not, that would be pretty biased and morally wrong. lol

At any rate, titletown is in Gainesville. GO GATORS!!!! haha

Also, I talked to the dean of admissions yesterday about my application last year. It definitely reflected well on UM to allow me to speak directly with Dean Weisman. When I talked to UF, FIU and FSU I only talked to people on the admissions committee. I mean, I didn't specifically ask to speak with the dean or anything at any of those schools, but at UM they transferred me directly to the dean. Anyway, he was really nice, super honest and very straightforward. The funny thing was, he said my application last year was completely one of bad timing. I wasn't complete till Nov 1. Hoping for some better luck this time around. :luck: everyone!
 
Nomdeplume said:
Black and Gold, eh? Do you go to UCF?

You ain't on the Canes' level... 😛

But seriously, I don't think they'll look poorly on that at all. Just my two cents, though.
Click to expand...

damnit gave it awayyyy. lol but okiee hoping they dont care that i love my school too much.
 
So other then the first two essay, how long should all the rest be? And when they say provide a chronology are they looking for a list, a list with descriptions, or an actual essay? Help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Finally got it in! So do we wait for an email confirming they got our app? I have a receipt...what about a status page?
 
Also, did anyone else get an email asking for a photo? I sent one in, but now I'm wondering why it wasn't on the secondary...
 
Can anyone provide any insight into my question above please. I would really appreciate it. Thanks
 
allstrmvp said:
So other then the first two essay, how long should all the rest be? And when they say provide a chronology are they looking for a list, a list with descriptions, or an actual essay? Help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

1) how long--don't blab on and on. you should reach a point where you feel that you got your point across. this isn't high school and you don't have to reach a word/character limit to be successful.

2) i did a list with descriptions, because a chronology to me indicates that they'd like a general idea and not a novel.

good luck!
 
Thanks for your input. The only problem I forsee with a list format, is that essentially that is what was done in our activities section of the primary application. I don't want to copy and paste, but this seems very redundant and its hard to deduce what they are trying to get at here.
 
You know a secondary is bad when you long for those carefree days of MCAT studying. If I wanted to write essays, I would have been an English major.
 
for the chronology of experiences, are you guys also including a description of the activity?
 
I included about 3-4 sentences, pretty much what I stated in the primary just worded slightly different.
 
CaliBalla said:
Ya me too....I'm gonna assume to disregard the second secondary invite if we've already submitted lol.
Click to expand...

Yeah same. I saw "Congratulations" in my email and i thought OMG could it be?! and then i was disappointed and now don't feel like being at work 🙄
 
So tempted to put "See AMCAS" on all of these secondary questions...I've already said all this stuff in my primary, just read my application! That's why I spent $33 to send it to you! ughhh...

Sorry, I'm on my 13th secondary and just venting lol...
 
How did everyone enter there pre reqs. It seems odd that they don't want the course title or number.

Also after you have checked out and paid the $75 fee, are we able to still go back and make changes to our application? How do we know if the application was officially sent to the school?
 
Last edited:
latrala2300 said:
Yeah same. I saw "Congratulations" in my email and i thought OMG could it be?! and then i was disappointed and now don't feel like being at work 🙄
Click to expand...

I just got my second invitation to the secondary application today. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one; otherwise I'd keep worrying that my first submission got lost and I'd have to send it again :scared:
 
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