2012-2013 Oregon Health and Science University Application Thread

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elevenses said:
Secondary received here as well. It is indeed a beast. Just enough overlap with my other secondaries to be supremely irritating, as it's just different enough to require completely new essays.
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Seriously.

I tried reusing some essays, but eventually said screw it and wrote completely new essays for ever question.
 
I have received mine as well... I had pre-written, so I'm going to try to get my secondary submitted in the very near future... A strange system of "groups have different submission deadlines"...
 
secondary receieved! 3.8/30 oos. i guess i got through that part as least!! im going to apply md-mph. i think the secondary will deter a lot of ppl tho, im hoping so anyway!!
 
+x for the secondary....haven't looked at it but sounds beastly

3.8-3.9, 35, oos
 
Are any of you using up all 1500 characters to elaborate on each question? - asking because for some questions that seems like I would intentionally have to make it wordy... and sometimes less is more.
 
Schrdngrs Ct said:
Are any of you using up all 1500 characters to elaborate on each question? - asking because for some questions that seems like I would intentionally have to make it wordy... and sometimes less is more.
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3 of mine are pretty close (~1450) and the other 3 are not (1000-1200).

:luck:
 
Schrdngrs Ct said:
Are any of you using up all 1500 characters to elaborate on each question? - asking because for some questions that seems like I would intentionally have to make it wordy... and sometimes less is more.
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Agreed. I would answer the question as succinctly as possible. However, if you have enough room to include another story, or make an additional point, I would take it.

Because we're allocated a whopping 2000 characters for the diversity essay, I would make an attempt to fill it with rich detail. Use interesting, eye-grabbing language and experiences. SHOW, don't just tell, in any secondary but especially on the diversity essay. That's the advice of some OHSU students/professors. Thought I would pass it along ;o

Good luck everyone! At least OHSU has an interesting secondary, albeit time-consuming.
 
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elevenses said:
Secondary received here as well. It is indeed a beast. Just enough overlap with my other secondaries to be supremely irritating, as it's just different enough to require completely new essays.
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I thought I was going to have this problem... but I could still, for the most part, copy and paste. Only one prompt required an entirely new essay.
 
Submitted! From the good ol' State of Jefferson (Medford), did my undergrad (and currently my master's) down at Tulane in New Orleans. Looking forward to a chance to get back to mountains!
 
Okay vent session...what is the point of AMCAS if we have to fill out all our activities again??? Isn't that what the whole work/activities section I spent so much time on was for???
 
sean842 said:
Okay vent session...what is the point of AMCAS if we have to fill out all our activities again??? Isn't that what the whole work/activities section I spent so much time on was for???
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Here is a hoop. Jump through it. How much do you want to be a doctor?

In all seriousness, I agree. Why do they have stuff for us to enter again when most of it is already on the primary application? It is not like we will suddenly give new and exciting responses. Especially with the word/character limit that is imposed. BLAH!

dsoz
 
dsoz said:
Here is a hoop. Jump through it. How much do you want to be a doctor?

In all seriousness, I agree. Why do they have stuff for us to enter again when most of it is already on the primary application? It is not like we will suddenly give new and exciting responses. Especially with the word/character limit that is imposed. BLAH!

dsoz
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Yea, I get it...hoops. It's still busy work, blah...I'll do it, but the inefficiency of it all drives my OCD self crazy.
 
Primary verified today. Secondary received. SO HAPPY right now!

dsoz
 
For the question:
Give an example of a time when you tried your best to work with a person or a group but the problems still remained. What did you learn from the experience?

Would it be appropriate to use family conflict? My little brother is 19, a dropout, doing drugs, pathologically lying to family....it's stressing the hell out of everyone, we've all been trying to figure out how to get him on some kind of track, but it hasn't been working. I can't tell if this is an appropriate topic.

Also, I feel like my response to essay 4 could be "Sigh heavily. Have a beer. Be patient. Try harder."
 
It would be appropriate as long as you actually learned something from it. From your description, it's hard to tell if that's the case. What you learned doesn't have to be deeply insightful, I would guess; just true.
 
2. What will be your greatest challenge in becoming a physician?

Hmm.. BEFORE being a physician? or AS a physician? I wonder if we can answer either way.. Any opinion appreciated! I don't want to say.. getting into medschool or cost or blah blah lol

Thanks 🙂
 
encephalon said:
2. What will be your greatest challenge in becoming a physician?

Hmm.. BEFORE being a physician? or AS a physician? I wonder if we can answer either way.. Any opinion appreciated! I don't want to say.. getting into medschool or cost or blah blah lol

Thanks 🙂
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I had to do this secondary last year but I interpreted this as before. If the question asked greatest challenge AS a physician I would interpret that as after. I think you could argue it either way.

A way to approach this question is to maybe consider what your weaknesses are. How are you going to overcome those to become a physician? Will they affect your ability to be a good physician. Hope that helps.
 
mybubbles627 said:
I had to do this secondary last year but I interpreted this as before. If the question asked greatest challenge AS a physician I would interpret that as after. I think you could argue it either way.

A way to approach this question is to maybe consider what your weaknesses are. How are you going to overcome those to become a physician? Will they affect your ability to be a good physician. Hope that helps.
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Also, I analyzed some physicians I shadowed. There were definitely moments when I thought "wow, that would be really difficult for me to say/do." My advice: dig into your shadowing experiences for concrete examples to back up any hypotheticals.
 
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rachelkj said:
For the question:
Give an example of a time when you tried your best to work with a person or a group but the problems still remained. What did you learn from the experience?

Would it be appropriate to use family conflict? My little brother is 19, a dropout, doing drugs, pathologically lying to family....it's stressing the hell out of everyone, we've all been trying to figure out how to get him on some kind of track, but it hasn't been working. I can't tell if this is an appropriate topic.

Also, I feel like my response to essay 4 could be "Sigh heavily. Have a beer. Be patient. Try harder."
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I had the same question. I decided against a familial setting in favor of a professional example. I thought it was more relevant to medicine...
 
Ugh, so annoyed with this secondary. Currently working on the third essay. After submitting 18 previous secondaries, I'm so over essay writing.
 
Yeah I took like a four day secondary break after turning in OHSU. It drains all your energy and motivation!
 
Anybody else having trouble accessing the secondary application website today? I cannot get the application to certify. The website does not load.
 
Finally submitted! Took me 8 days. This one was a beast.
 
Finally have completed and submitted the application. That one was a monster!
 
Should I put my undergrad in the activities section? It says include major activities and college is pretty major...
 
jeez this one was the BEASTLIEST of them all!!!!!!!!!!!! BTW, they don't screen, even says so in the secondary email but I guess they send them out in batches...
 
cinamin said:
jeez this one was the BEASTLIEST of them all!!!!!!!!!!!! BTW, they don't screen, even says so in the secondary email but I guess they send them out in batches...
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The only secondaries that I have received that even come close to the difficulty of OHSU was East Virginia and Arizona at Tucson. The thread for Arizona at Phoenix has the prompts for that school and they seem difficult as well.

But none of them hold a candle to OHSU. Maybe because I am IS, I want this one to be PERFECT. Just one more proofreader to go over it tomorrow evening, then I can submit it by the end of the week.

dsoz
 
holy moly I'm starting to think I shouldn't even bother with ohsu - not finding my essays to be captivating at all. wow. lol
 
What is everyones opinions on writing about getting rejected from med school for the personal feedback question? I cant think of any other good examples and i already wrote a work related situation for the not getting something you deserved one. So do you think that can work if i focus on the feedback and how i reacted and how i improved my app? Or would something else be better? Im just having bad writers block and this is my last essay to write!!
 
I think as long as you write it well it could be a strong response to that question. It fits the prompt for sure. Someone asked the same question in the duke thread this year for the same "toughest feedback" prompt and someone gave some really good advice on how to do that so you might want to take a look at what was said there maybe.
 
So besides those questions for the secondary, there is no other section where you mention any adversity or disadvantages you might have faced?? :S I think they had one last year...but not this year?

Since I'm waiting I might as well do all the questions now :X
 
Botan said:
So besides those questions for the secondary, there is no other section where you mention any adversity or disadvantages you might have faced?? :S I think they had one last year...but not this year?

Since I'm waiting I might as well do all the questions now :X
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No.. that section is there. Education, economic, ethnic/cultural, and family disadvantages ranging from none to severe with a given 4000 characters to explain.
 
You know, except for the diversity question, I really like OHSU's questions. In that, I feel they are actually GOOD questions, much as they're tough to answer.

Anyone find them a bit negative though? I mean, "a time you tried to work with someone but couldn't, a time you didn't get something you deserves, tough criticism, you're biggest challenge" ?

I think I'm doing my riskiest essays here...
 
Done and submitted. Oy, that was mind numbing. I am taking the rest of the day off from writing essays!

dsoz
 
I decided I'm not going to fill this one out. Ridiculous essays and 100 bucks = not worth it for me 😛

Good luck everybody!
 
dsoz said:
Done and submitted. Oy, that was mind numbing. I am taking the rest of the day off from writing essays!

dsoz
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I submitted today too. I was excited when I finished writing that sixth essay, only to find out I had to write one more on adversity. I nearly cried.

I am so glad to be done with this one!

👍
 
charmedj7 said:
You know, except for the diversity question, I really like OHSU's questions. In that, I feel they are actually GOOD questions, much as they're tough to answer.

Anyone find them a bit negative though? I mean, "a time you tried to work with someone but couldn't, a time you didn't get something you deserves, tough criticism, you're biggest challenge" ?

I think I'm doing my riskiest essays here...
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I agree. While I really enjoyed answering this same set of questions last year, I thought it was kind of telling that OHSU feels the need to ask such "entitled brat screenout" questions in the first place. 😉
 
Just submitted. Not my best work but at least it's in.
 
Dianyla said:
I agree. While I really enjoyed answering this same set of questions last year, I thought it was kind of telling that OHSU feels the need to ask such "entitled brat screenout" questions in the first place. 😉
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Dainyla: I followed your story in the thread from last year. What are you going to do for this year's application cycle? Did you retake the MCAT?

dsoz
 
Okay guys, I have been stuck on the personal feedback question for quite some time so I'm going to ask your guys' opinions. Are you guys writing about PERSONAL feedback, as in someone thought you are a negative person, or someone thought you were immature, or something like that. Or are you going with basically any old criticism that was difficult to take. Like someone went off on you for messing up on a group project?

Please help. I am going crazy with this question! 😕
 
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DAPI said:
Okay guys, I have been stuck on the personal feedback question for quite some time so I'm going to ask your guys' opinions. Are you guys writing about PERSONAL feedback, as in someone thought you are a negative person, or someone thought you were immature, or something like that. Or are you going with basically any old criticism that was difficult to take. Like someone went off on you for messing up on a group project?

Please help. I am going crazy with this question! 😕
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I wrote about how when I was a smoker, I couldn't hear any of the feedback my loved ones gave me about what a destructive habit it was. It was honest, well-intentioned feedback about my health, but I could only hear it as harping criticism or as naive truisms because I thought I knew best. It took some maturing on my part to realize that the problem wasn't what they were saying: it was what I was hearing. Not sure if this is what the question was looking for, but it felt right for me to talk about it as an example of the difficulty of listening to others' contradictory perspectives of myself.
 
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I wrote about how I was applying last year and my teenage daughter told me I was putting my pre-med stuff before her when all along I told her that family comes before anything else (meaning friends).

So I withdrew my application last year. Now my daughter will be in her last year of high school so when she goes off to college, I can go off to med school.

Probably the cheesiest example, but I hope it tugs on some heartstrings of adcoms. My luck will be that the adcom that reads my essay will have given up everything (family and friends) to become a doctor and he/she will not relate to my story at all.

dsoz
 
dsoz said:
I wrote about how I was applying last year and my teenage daughter told me I was putting my pre-med stuff before her when all along I told her that family comes before anything else (meaning friends).

So I withdrew my application last year. Now my daughter will be in her last year of high school so when she goes off to college, I can go off to med school.

Probably the cheesiest example, but I hope it tugs on some heartstrings of adcoms. My luck will be that the adcom that reads my essay will have given up everything (family and friends) to become a doctor and he/she will not relate to my story at all.

dsoz
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I wrote about the same thing for "the greatest challenge question". Developing a work life balance and not neglecting my family.

For the feedback question I wrote about the phone interview I had for my current position. I was talking to the postdoc that interviewed me (I have known her for a year) and I asked her what her one critique of me was during my interview. She said I sounded kind of cocky and arrogant. She said that since the interview, I have backed up what I said with quality work and "knowing my ****". My intension was to sound competent and knowledgable in the interview, not cocky. I discussed how interactions such as these may be misinterpreted by patients later when I am a physician. eg. being strait forward and confident in a diagnosis may come across as being cold and indifferent to their situation.
 
For someone like me who hasn't gotten their secondary yet...could someone post what the optional adversity essay is about and if there are any questions other that the 6 already posted? Many thanks and good luck, everyone!
 
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