2012-2013 Loyola University (Stritch) Application Thread

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SO who's interviewed already? What did you think?

I really liked the facilities. Amazing new gym, a good amount of study rooms. Decent computer lab. The anatomy lab, although in the basement, is large and bright. The hospital is awesome.

All the people seemed really nice there and seemed to enjoy themselves.

However, I just didn't get the feeling from it that I was looking for. Maybe it was that everything was SO new. There wasn't the character in a medical school that I was looking for. I'm not sure if "character" is the best factor to choose my future medical school, but it just didn't feel like a place I necessarily could see myself. I think I have to go and see it again.

Also I'm not sure how I feel about the block system.
 
Finally Complete!!!! Submitted August 17th. Now we play the waiting game...
 
Blaughable said:
it just didn't feel like a place I necessarily could see myself.
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Honestly, this seems like really useful information to take into account. I would pay attention to yourself on this one - different people love different schools for their own reasons and not being able to see yourself somewhere is totally valid.
 
Blaughable said:
SO who's interviewed already? What did you think?

I really liked the facilities. Amazing new gym, a good amount of study rooms. Decent computer lab. The anatomy lab, although in the basement, is large and bright. The hospital is awesome.

All the people seemed really nice there and seemed to enjoy themselves.

However, I just didn't get the feeling from it that I was looking for. Maybe it was that everything was SO new. There wasn't the character in a medical school that I was looking for. I'm not sure if "character" is the best factor to choose my future medical school, but it just didn't feel like a place I necessarily could see myself. I think I have to go and see it again.

Also I'm not sure how I feel about the block system.
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I agree with everything you say about the school, but I can definitely see myself there next year. It was one of my top choices going into the interview, and it is my definite #1 now that I've seen what they have to offer. I really feel like I'll fit well there and I'm really really hoping I get in.

It's a little hard for me to imagine anyone not being able to see themselves there, but that's because I feel so strongly about wanting to attend.
 
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Blaughable said:
Also I'm not sure how I feel about the block system.
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What did you not like about the block system?

Also--to those who have interviewed or current students--how does their block system play out in terms of time in class vs time to study on your own?
 
eefen said:
What did you not like about the block system?

Also--to those who have interviewed or current students--how does their block system play out in terms of time in class vs time to study on your own?
Click to expand...

We have plenty of time to study on our own. Whether that means going to class or not it is up to you but we will likely only have 1 or 2 mandatory items to attend in a given week. Those culminate to less than 4 hrs of required time a Stritch. I am here a whole heck more than that because I enjoy being a school but you can make study time your own however you like.

As for the block system, I mean almost every medical school I can think of is on some sort of "block" system. In reality Stritch doesn't do blocks until the second year. First year is just classes: Molecular Cellular Biology and Genetics--MCBG, Behavior and Development--BD, Structure of the Human Body--SHB, Host Defense--HD then Function of the Human Body---FHB.

Blocks start your second year like I am currently in the "bugs and drugs" block of Mechanisms of Human Disease--MHD.

All in all the schools that aren't in blocks, to my knowledge, take more than one class at once. Something like Micro, Path, Histo and Pharm (IDK I'm spit balling here) seems like a lot of midterms and finals to worry about to me. I'd rather take a more integrated approach to things with our block format. Just me though.
 
Typical week in MS2:

Monday: 3 lectures 8:30-11:30
Tuesday: 2 Lectures 9:30-11:30, PCM in afternoon for a couple hours
Wednesday: 3 lectures 8:30-11:30 and a small group 12-1:30
Thursday: idk like 3 lectures
Friday: 2-3 lectures and a small group

Not so bad I think. I have time to do service projects, research, study, work out, go out, be involved in whatever organization peaks my interest.

Oh and throw in an OSCE or examination every 3-4weeks
 
Goober11 or any other Stritch student- is there still a medical spanish program there? I remember reading a couple years ago that they had a student run program that ends with a certificate in medical spanish. Any insights?
 
Thanks, Goober! That's really helpful.👍
 
Goober11 said:
We have plenty of time to study on our own. Whether that means going to class or not it is up to you but we will likely only have 1 or 2 mandatory items to attend in a given week. Those culminate to less than 4 hrs of required time a Stritch. I am here a whole heck more than that because I enjoy being a school but you can make study time your own however you like.

As for the block system, I mean almost every medical school I can think of is on some sort of "block" system. In reality Stritch doesn't do blocks until the second year. First year is just classes: Molecular Cellular Biology and Genetics--MCBG, Behavior and Development--BD, Structure of the Human Body--SHB, Host Defense--HD then Function of the Human Body---FHB.

Blocks start your second year like I am currently in the "bugs and drugs" block of Mechanisms of Human Disease--MHD.

All in all the schools that aren't in blocks, to my knowledge, take more than one class at once. Something like Micro, Path, Histo and Pharm (IDK I'm spit balling here) seems like a lot of midterms and finals to worry about to me. I'd rather take a more integrated approach to things with our block format. Just me though.
Click to expand...







Goober11 said:
Typical week in MS2:

Monday: 3 lectures 8:30-11:30
Tuesday: 2 Lectures 9:30-11:30, PCM in afternoon for a couple hours
Wednesday: 3 lectures 8:30-11:30 and a small group 12-1:30
Thursday: idk like 3 lectures
Friday: 2-3 lectures and a small group

Not so bad I think. I have time to do service projects, research, study, work out, go out, be involved in whatever organization peaks my interest.

Oh and throw in an OSCE or examination every 3-4weeks
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info!

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
Is M2 systems based?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
ComfortCreature said:
Goober11 or any other Stritch student- is there still a medical spanish program there? I remember reading a couple years ago that they had a student run program that ends with a certificate in medical spanish. Any insights?
Click to expand...

I think our Spanish Program is super unique. I actually hadn't heard about it until I came here, but it's awesome. There is a lot of information that you can read here: http://www.stritch.luc.edu/medspanish/

Teachers are M1's and M2's who are fluent/near fluent who lead 1 hour classes once a week. Responsibilities include: creating lesson plans each week, giving/receiving feedback from fellow teachers, going to 2-3 lectures on teaching adults, and doing a capstone reflection project. In return, these students receive 2 week's worth of elective credit for the 4th year which is also mentioned in your dean's letter. It also a great way to keep your Spanish up and moving forward.

Student's (not teachers) who attend 90% of weekly classes receive a small weekly financial stipend for attending language school while on the ISI program. The program directors are trying to get more incentives for students that attend class such as transcript credit. Students also, improve their Spanish skills.

Between 2nd and 3rd year, anyone can become a certified bi-lingual medical student with the "Hablo espaNol" tag if they pass a series of tests put on by the hospital and an outside agency allowing that student to translate during clerkships. Participation in the Stritch Medical Program is not necessary to take these certification tests.

Being conservative, I would say 60 students are active in the program either going to a weekly class or leading a class.

There are also opportunities for M1s and M2s to translate/conduct patient interview in Spanish at the Community Health Clinic, the largest free clinic in the state of Illinois who are always looking for volunteers.
 
immunology89 said:
I think our Spanish Program is super unique. I actually hadn't heard about it until I came here, but it's awesome. There is a lot of information that you can read here: http://www.stritch.luc.edu/medspanish/

Teachers are M1's and M2's who are fluent/near fluent who lead 1 hour classes once a week. Responsibilities include: creating lesson plans each week, giving/receiving feedback from fellow teachers, going to 2-3 lectures on teaching adults, and doing a capstone reflection project. In return, these students receive 2 week's worth of elective credit for the 4th year which is also mentioned in your dean's letter. It also a great way to keep your Spanish up and moving forward.

Student's (not teachers) who attend 90% of weekly classes receive a small weekly financial stipend for attending language school while on the ISI program. The program directors are trying to get more incentives for students that attend class such as transcript credit. Students also, improve their Spanish skills.

Between 2nd and 3rd year, anyone can become a certified bi-lingual medical student with the "Hablo espaNol" tag if they pass a series of tests put on by the hospital and an outside agency allowing that student to translate during clerkships. Participation in the Stritch Medical Program is not necessary to take these certification tests.

Being conservative, I would say 60 students are active in the program either going to a weekly class or leading a class.

There are also opportunities for M1s and M2s to translate/conduct patient interview in Spanish at the Community Health Clinic, the largest free clinic in the state of Illinois who are always looking for volunteers.
Click to expand...

Yeah the Spanish program is definitely one of the things that is making me want to go here. I speak Spanish, but there is terminology and phrases in Spanish that a doctor should be able to use that I have never had to use in my life. The Dean of Admissions also said that they place you in groups based on your current level of Spanish. So basically you wouldn't have to worry about being around people too much better or worse than you.
 
MedPR said:
Is M2 systems based?

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Click to expand...

Kinda, like we are learning anti-microbial drugs as we learn the bugs. Happens throughout most of second year.
 
Goober11 said:
Kinda, like we are learning anti-microbial drugs as we learn the bugs. Happens throughout most of second year.
Click to expand...

By systems I meant do you cover embryo/physio/path/pharm for each organ system? For example the schedule might look like this:

Aug-Oct: Neuro
Oct-Nov: Cardio
Nov-Dec: Respiratory
Dec-Jan: Renal
Jan-Feb: GI
Feb-March: Skin, Bone, Joint
April-May: Endocrine

And within each system you learn all the associated clinical stuff.

Edit: Just re-read the M2 curriculum and it sounds like the year is system's based.

The second year begins with the Neuroscience course in which students learn the basic science of the human nervous system and the pathophysiology of diseases affecting the nervous system. Neuroscience is combined with Therapeutics and Pharmacology. This course spans the entire second year and coordinates information about drugs, other therapeutic modalities, and alternative medicine with the appropriate organ system being studied. From October to May, Mechanisms of Human Disease runs in parallel with Therapeutics and Pharmacology. This course emphasizes the pathophysiology of disease and considers clinical processes that affect various organ systems.
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Do you guys have class notes/syllabi? If so, do you feel like they are fairly comprehensive (i.e., if it's gonna be a test, it'll be in the notes)?
 
Officially been under review for 6 weeks now! Getting kinda worried...
 
Hey everyone, I was under review for almost 2 months but received an II recently. Keep your heads up if your still waiting for some information from stritch

If you want stats PM me
 
Warick22 said:
Hey everyone, I was under review for almost 2 months but received an II recently. Keep your heads up if your still waiting for some information from stritch

If you want stats PM me
Click to expand...

Ooohh maybe the fact that I've been under review for 6 weeks is a good thing then! Thanks for the info 🙂
 
Warick22 said:
Hey everyone, I was under review for almost 2 months but received an II recently. Keep your heads up if your still waiting for some information from stritch

If you want stats PM me
Click to expand...

Yep, I was under review for ~7.5 weeks before my II.
 
I was complete and under review since 8/13 so I hope I get an II call soon!
 
eefen said:
Do you guys have class notes/syllabi? If so, do you feel like they are fairly comprehensive (i.e., if it's gonna be a test, it'll be in the notes)?
Click to expand...

Hey eefen,

We're on break right now which my explain that lack of an answer to your question. I've only been here for 2 months, but I'm pretty sure that for the most part we do have class notes/syllabi that are super comprehensive. For our first class, Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, I would go to lecture and just listen and then use the class notes as my notes outside of class. Very few tested concepts were not in the notes. The majority of the class wrote their own notes on the class notes, just adding in a few small details and charting what was most emphasized.
 
immunology89 said:
Hey eefen,

We're on break right now which my explain that lack of an answer to your question. I've only been here for 2 months, but I'm pretty sure that for the most part we do have class notes/syllabi that are super comprehensive. For our first class, Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, I would go to lecture and just listen and then use the class notes as my notes outside of class. Very few tested concepts were not in the notes. The majority of the class wrote their own notes on the class notes, just adding in a few small details and charting what was most emphasized.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Thanks for your reply. Enjoy your break!
 
I WONDER if they are going to start giving out acceptances on Monday (OCT 15).
I am SO anxious.
 
Dean Jones said that the adcom meets at the end of October, so the earliest you would find out is around Halloween.
 
Sheridan1900 said:
Dean Jones said that the adcom meets at the end of October, so the earliest you would find out is around Halloween.
Click to expand...

Nice try, troll. He told us during out interview day that they meet on 10/8 and will have make phone calls on 10/15.
 
mirimonster said:
No need to be throwing around the t word. At my interview they also told us end of October. I think it just depends when your interview date was.
Click to expand...

Yeah The 15th is for the September interviewees while the 29th date is for us October interviewees. Man I'm nervous. I'm not sure if the date's coming too fast or too slow.
Good luck to everyone being considered on the 15th!
 
i believe the first adcom meeting date was Sept 17, so for the earliest of us the decision has already been made. best of luck everyone....
 
I interviewed in September, if I dont get a phonecall on Monday I'm going to flip!
 
Big day tomorrow! Some will be accepted some will be waitlisted some will be, well you know. If you do not receive a call tomorrow all hope is not lost! I dunno exactly what admissions is doing, but they have a lot of numbers to dial so they might not get to all of them tomorrow. That is if they even call tomorrow, I have no idea.

I am just mainly stopping by to say the show is not over until you receive WRITTEN CORRESPONDENCE in the next week or two. Not everyone gets calls for one reason or another.

All in all, keep those phones nearby the next few days and answer those out of area code calls! Even ones outside (708).

-GOOB
 
Hey applicants - congrats to those who have already scored an interview. I graduated from Loyola Med in June, and just started my internship. Loyola's clinical training is absolutely superb -- I was well prepared to hit the ground running, and thus far intern year has been much less stressful than it likely would have been had I attended a school with alot of "big names" / big egos on the faculty who didn't have time to teach me how to be a good clinician. I did fairly well at Loyola academically, and while the H/HP/P/F system seems like scare-tactics to most pre-meds coming through the door, it's actually very useful to you as a student when it comes time for AOA selection and residency applications. If you go to a school where it's P/F for the 1st two years, it might seem like you get to relax and forget about competition, but the flip side is you have almost *zero* way to distinguish yourself for your residency app during those years (unlike pre-med, residency program directors won't really care how many clubs you belonged to during medical school), and often the entire weight of those years in your residency application gets transferred to your Step 1 score. And no matter how rockstar you are, ANYONE can have a bad day when they take Step 1, so it's nice to have a fall-back, objectively defined record of your activities over two years, rather than just some secret-back-door-faculty-meetings that keep tabs on the "good" students under the veil of the P/F system. If nothing else, it takes some of the pressure off of the test day when you take Step 1, so your performance won't be negatively impacted.

For your residency application, programs will indeed have access to your entire transcript, and will be able to see all your grades for all 3.3yrs-er-so that you have completed when you are applying. Most attention will fall on your clinical marks (especially the medicine and surgery rotations), and Alpha Omega Alpha status. Some folks could care less about AOA, because they're entering a less competitive specialty, or don't have a particular geographic region in mind for residency, but for others, AOA membership can actually be quite important to the residency application process. At Loyola, Alpha Omega Alpha status is awarded at the end of the third year (just once, some schools have "junior" AOA based on just the first two years), and is granted to the top ~16% of the class, based on a semi-objective weighted composite of information:
1) 75% Grades - This includes your pre-clinical grades AND your clinical grades. And as you will discover during your 3rd year rotations at any medical school, clinical grades are highly subjective depending on the physicians who evaluate you (thus the "semi-objective" selection process mentioned above). The "weighting" of the grades on your transcript is heavily skewed toward the clinical clerkships in the 3rd year -- with the combined weight of the medicine and surgery clinical clerkships almost completely equaling the first two years of basic science curriculum grades.
2) 25% Step 1 Score - Just the raw score vs the other people in the class.

This selection process (for those who care) is different at every medical school -- a few schools don't have AOA, for some it is chosen only based on your 3rd year grades, at some it is just a faculty panel nominating and selecting students. In any case, Loyola has an AOA chapter, and if you want to do something competitive, it's nice to know that the selection process for it takes ALOT of objective data into consideration, rather than just being a popularity contest, as it is at other institutions.

Some people don't like talking about all of the above issues, because in the end they are quite silly and have no bearing on how good a physician you will ultimately be, but it's important to at least mention it, because it can have a profound impact on your residency application process if you choose something competitive -- and it's worth considering this information for each school that you apply to.

In addition, for those applying from outside of the mid-west, or with desire to match outside of the mid-west for residency -- I came from the west coast, and was a little concerned that the lack-of-national-recognition of Loyola's name would influence where I received interviews. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Loyola is much better known than I thought and/or program directors really didn't care where I went to school -- I ended up getting interviews at all of the big academic places I applied to on both the west and east coast, and ultimately matched at my #1 choice on the west coast.

Drop me a line if you have any other questions! Good luck!
 
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Anyone get a call?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
no calls yet?
or maybe the people getting calls are not posting bc they're busy celebrating haha
 
BillyStudent said:
no calls yet?
or maybe the people getting calls are not posting bc they're busy celebrating haha
Click to expand...

No call for me. I'm posting here immediately if I do get a call.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
Anyone considering calling and asking for your decision?
 
Just got the call!! Accepted! I could barely hold the phone my hands were shaking so badly :laugh:
 
Just received the call as well 🙂 🙂 🙂
 
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