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Nooooo, they're doing that thing again. That thing where they reject people. 🙁 I wonder if I'll get the axe this time.
Nooooo, they're doing that thing again. That thing where they reject people. 🙁 I wonder if I'll get the axe this time.
btw, does your status change online or any other indication when you receive a snailmail rejection??
Can anyone comment on the quality of the clinical training and opportunities at Stanford? I recently was accepted to the University of Washington. UW is reputed to be strong in both clinical training and in research but Stanford has had this reputation of having very strong basic science research but lacking in clinical training compared to, for example, UW, UCSF, Harvard...It's an important factor that I'm kind of worried about. For me, it will probably be down to UW vs. Stanford but I'm in an unenviable position because my Stanford interview is next January, so I will be thinking about this decision for the next 3 months. LOL. Please help me out...confirm or allay my concerns? Thanks so much!!! =)
This is the relatively unfounded reputation that Stanford gets because it is located in a very beautiful medium sized town with pretty much continuous perfect weather and very low crime and is basically a kind of Pleasantville. Just because the town is like that, doesn't mean that reflects your clinical exposures.
They also used to not have grades for any aspect, and now they have them for the clinical clerkships, so I think residency directors of other programs had a hard time evaluating the clinical skills of applicants, so they probably got a few paper tigers (ie lots of publications, but no clinical skills), and then a few had a bad attitude about Stanford's clinical training in general. The school has instituted grading for the clerkships, which makes people work a bit harder in their rotations, so getting more out of it.
The Stanford hospital is a big tertiary care hospital (613 beds) that gets lots of complex cases (e.g. a big center for heart transplants and kidney transplants, bone marrow transplants, the most complex neurovascular neurosurgeries like moyamoya disease, etc.), and it is undergoing a massive expansion and the whole hospital complex is under construction. It also has a large very modern children's hospital (Lucile Packard Children's Hospital). Lots of adult and pediatric trauma are directly airlifted there via Life Flight from all over Northern California. It's important to remember that emergency medicine isn't just penetrating wounds from guns or knives, but accidents from rock climbing or skiing, burns in industrial accidents, construction injuries, frostbite and hypothermia, etc, all of which you can see in abundance because of the variety environments around Stanford, where surfing is a half hour drive west, and skiing is a couple hours drive northeast. They receive trauma cases from Life Flight from all the way down in Bakersfield (right outside of LA). 11,996 annual inpatient and 13,294 outpatient surgeries.
However, med students do their clerkships split between the Stanford hospitals, the Palo Alto VA, and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC). The Palo Alto VA has ~900 beds and serves a huge chunk of Northern California veterans and is a major site for treatment and recovery of soldiers wounded in the Middle East (e.g. brain & spinal cord injuries, PTSD). SCVMC has ~575 beds and is the primary hospital for San Jose (a city even larger than San Francisco), and you can see a wide range of emergency cases in that big city environment. Santa Clara and San Jose counties are both extremely ethnically diverse, and being right in the heart of Silicon Valley, the hospital is very advanced.
Let's compare that to UW. Harborview has 413 beds (10,489 annual inpatient and 4,383 outpatient surgeries), UW Med Center with 450 beds, and Northwest with 281. Obviously size is not everything, but it does help establish sufficient things going on for your learning experiences. Lots of technology money in Seattle keeps the area current and up to date, so that part is similar. Basically all large cities have a decent amount of cultural and ethnic diversity, but be aware that Seattle is "one of America's whitest cities" (although Portland is even more racially homogenous). You're going to see lots of diversity wherever you go, but it does help to practice with people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Lots of students at Stanford (as do students at other schools) also do rotation clerkships abroad, and there are many partnerships and programs for those opportunities around the world, so if you are interested in native american medicine, dive medicine, working in Peru, etc. you can do an elective. If you are interested in models of chronic care, or touchy-feely aspects of patient care, there are tons of people around who are into that who can serve as mentors. If you want to see some of the most technical aspects of medicine, there is of course plenty of that.
One of the great things about Stanford is that the research opportunities are not just what you find going on in professors' labs, but there is tons of infrastructure, mentoring, and financial support for any projects you dream up. If you are interested in technology or tinkering, there is a whole phalanx of people around to help turn your ideas into something that gets out into the market and into clinical practice. At the same time, there is a huge amount of money and interest in all kinds of international and domestic development efforts, what they are calling "social entrepreneurship".
If you can come up with an interesting research or service project, you have to really go out of your way through apathy or laziness to avoid getting your ideas funded. You also get to interact with people outside of medicine who are transforming the world in dramatic ways, whether through technology, at the business school, or in other disciplines.
You will get excellent clinical training at any of the places you listed. Good luck.
Interview invite for MD and MD/PhD!! So pumped.
Does anyone know if the welcome reception the night before the interview has any role in the admissions process? Are any students or faculty on the Adcom present that day to "observe" or evaluate us (especially since the reception is in the same building as where the interviews are held)? My flight won't be reaching the city until after the reception, but I want to make sure that I won't be at a disadvantage.
could you share stats and complete date?
Any thoughts on when Stanford will start releasing decisions for the first interview dates??
Wow, congratulations! 🙂accepted on sunday 11/11. best veterans day ever?
accepted on sunday 11/11. best veterans day ever?
accepted on sunday 11/11. best veterans day ever?
could be trolling, seems unlikely that they'd do something differently than they said they would at interview day
and sorry to double-post, but to people who interviewed here this year.. did you get to talk about your research in the interview? just not sure how to prepare for this.
I interviews on October 3rd. Gregory Vaughn called me on Sunday. He said they made their first decisions last Thursday and he started making calls over the weekend. So it does seem like their committee meetings are on Thursdays. good luck everyone! sorry i'm not "trolling"
oh man 😱 if the great tatertots doesn't get into stanford, the rest of us are screwed!!!! sorry about that...at least you have like 8 other acceptances now lol. still crushing it!
any other acceptance calls for 10/3? you know you're silently reading this thread and giggling to yourself from our neuroticism. mathematically, there should be at least 12 (40% of 30) that go out!
oh man 😱 if the great tatertots doesn't get into stanford, the rest of us are screwed!!!! sorry about that...at least you have like 8 other acceptances now lol. still crushing it!
any other acceptance calls for 10/3? you know you're silently reading this thread and giggling to yourself from our neuroticism. mathematically, there should be at least 12 (40% of 30) that go out!
Got a call from Dean Garcia a few hours ago. Best early Thanksgiving present ever, might not even need to go shopping anymore! 😛
Congrats!Got a call from Dean Garcia a few hours ago. Best early Thanksgiving present ever, might not even need to go shopping anymore! 😛
Got a snail mail indicating I am put on the waitlist... Anyone know if there was any movement on the list last year?
Got a snail mail indicating I am put on the waitlist... Anyone know if there was any movement on the list last year?
I got a second waitlist letter from Stanford that is exactly the same as the first except with a more recent date.I get it Stanford, I am waitlisted, no need to remind me.
I got a second waitlist letter from Stanford that is exactly the same as the first except with a more recent date.I get it Stanford, I am waitlisted, no need to remind me.