2012-2013 Stanford University Application Thread

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Hey, I'm going to need to reschedule my interview, but I was wondering what dates were open for you guys? I also had mine originally in January (mid Jan). Is early January available by any chance? thanks!
 
spf15 said:
Hey, I'm going to need to reschedule my interview, but I was wondering what dates were open for you guys? I also had mine originally in January (mid Jan). Is early January available by any chance? thanks!
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Only 2 dates available, period. Mid to late Jan and nothing in Feb for me.
 
I was complete 9/12 and no word yet 🙁

Stanford doesn't accept updates pre-interview right?
 
Agh, just got an e-mail that said there are no hosts available for my interview date. Where did you guys stay, if not with a host?
 
GreyEarl said:
Agh, just got an e-mail that said there are no hosts available for my interview date. Where did you guys stay, if not with a host?
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I stayed at the Red Cottage Inn. Had no problems there. They even let me keep my luggage in their staff area after I checked out so I could pick it up after my interview. Kind of expensive though...if you decide to stay there, make sure to let them know you're interviewing at Stanford so they can give you a discount.
 
An MD Hopeful said:
I stayed at the Red Cottage Inn. Had no problems there. They even let me keep my luggage in their staff area after I checked out so I could pick it up after my interview. Kind of expensive though...if you decide to stay there, make sure to let them know you're interviewing at Stanford so they can give you a discount.
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what's the rate with the discount?
 
spf15 said:
what's the rate with the discount?
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Still expensive unfortunately, lol. About ~$175 for one day including taxes. But I think that's only because I was sharing the room with a friend who came along, so we got a room with 2 queen beds. I also didn't book the room too far in advance so it might have been cheaper if I had booked the room earlier. I'm sure you could probably find a hotel nearby with cheaper rooms. I just had a very bad hotel experience the night before my MCAT so I'm very careful in going through hotel reviews and making sure that I only stay at places where I will not have problems with noise. And I got really great sleep at that hotel.

This might sound silly, but if you decide to stay there, if you ask for a taxi service to take you to the school, ask for Miguel. He was my taxi driver and I swear he calmed my nerves both before and after the interview. Very kind person.
 
Holy crap! Interview invite! I was complete 8/10. For those that are curious, interview dates are in February already.
 
II Thanksgiving morning (complete 8/20)!! I could only pick from 2 dates in February...seems pretty late. Considering Stanford is rolling, does a February interview mean we're probably just competing for waitlist spots? (First SDN post!)

-Thanks
 
chhotu007 said:
II Thanksgiving morning (complete 8/20)!! I could only pick from 2 dates in February...seems pretty late. Considering Stanford is rolling, does a February interview mean we're probably just competing for waitlist spots? (First SDN post!)

-Thanks
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nice.. stats?
 
bearintraining said:
nice.. stats?
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gpa 3.8, mcat 34. any thoughts about the february interview? do you think i am competing for a waitlist spot, or does everyone have equal opportunity regardless of interview date? i know that with rolling admissions, later interview dates are not ideal...but i don't know if February is late enough to make a negative impact!?
 
chhotu007 said:
gpa 3.8, mcat 34. any thoughts about the february interview? do you think i am competing for a waitlist spot, or does everyone have equal opportunity regardless of interview date? i know that with rolling admissions, later interview dates are not ideal...but i don't know if February is late enough to make a negative impact!?
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Stanford's acceptance rate is ~ 41%... which is pretty good.. It seems like about half turn them down.. so my guess is you still have a good chance.
 
bearintraining said:
Stanford's acceptance rate is ~ 41%... which is pretty good.. It seems like about half turn them down.. so my guess is you still have a good chance.
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Thanks for the stats bearintraining...sounds reasonable and somewhat reassuring. I just need some advice on MMI prep...this is going to be my first and only MMI...anyone have any advice and prep tips?
 
chhotu007 said:
Thanks for the stats bearintraining...sounds reasonable and somewhat reassuring. I just need some advice on MMI prep...this is going to be my first and only MMI...anyone have any advice and prep tips?
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I have my Stanford interview in January, but had my Duke MMI about a month ago (I imagine they're fairly similar). Imho, I really don't think anything can prep you for MMI. Some questions that I got were completely out of left field (nothing I ever would have considered even if I did try to prep).

This may sound kinda cliche, but the best advice I would think is to be yourself and answer the questions honestly. I imagine there won't be many clearly defined right/wrong answers, that's what ethical dilemma's are after all, so long as you can defend your POV, you should be fine 👍
 
Anyone have an idea of when Stanford stops interviewing? I have been complete since July. I really think that my rejection letter got lost in the mail but my optimism doesn't want to give up. Ugh. 🙁

Stanford, give me closure in some form.
 
chhotu007 said:
Thanks for the stats bearintraining...sounds reasonable and somewhat reassuring. I just need some advice on MMI prep...this is going to be my first and only MMI...anyone have any advice and prep tips?
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I have had to do both the Stanford and Duke MMIs (along with 2.5 other ones) and they were all drastically different from each other. The Stanford one being particularly out of the left field. Not much you can do to prepare for it, but just be prepared to defend whatever your opinion will be. The Dean also gives a nice introduction to the format and rating before and that really helped, I think.

The best advice I heard was that it was more about how you approach the topics/answer the questions rather than your actual answers.
 
speakwhales said:
I have had to do both the Stanford and Duke MMIs (along with 2.5 other ones) and they were all drastically different from each other. The Stanford one being particularly out of the left field. Not much you can do to prepare for it, but just be prepared to defend whatever your opinion will be. The Dean also gives a nice introduction to the format and rating before and that really helped, I think.

The best advice I heard was that it was more about how you approach the topics/answer the questions rather than your actual answers.
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MMI is a very commonly used format at Canadian medical schools (It was developed by McMaster), because of it's much higher predictive value of med school and medical practice success than any other interview format.

The goal? Essentially to assess your ability to think on your feet, make decisions and have logical rationale for what you are saying or doing -- similar skills that will be required of you when you are a practicing physician. Furthermore, MMI is also meant to assess "non-cognitive traits or personality characteristics", which is why most people will tell you there is not much you can do to prepare for it. Remember that often times MMI questions or scenarios do not have an explicit right or wrong answer. There are some practice questions and scenarios out there...
 
WWPWillis52D said:
Anyone have an idea of when Stanford stops interviewing? I have been complete since July. I really think that my rejection letter got lost in the mail but my optimism doesn't want to give up. Ugh. 🙁

Stanford, give me closure in some form.
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Same question
 
BurghStudent said:
Same question
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Not looking good if there are only two interview dates left to choose from this cycle. Hope for the best, but realistically start preparing to move on.
 
Hi Everyone,

Schools only open up a couple of interview slots at a time. So just because some dates aren't available to choose from does not mean that those dates are booked.
 
Hey everyone!!

We interview until the first week of March I believe, and for those of you getting II's now, don't worry at all, the school is very good about being frugal with its acceptances so that it can admit people from each interview date.

Best of luck everyone!!

And if you're coming for a II, I'll see you guys here.
 
If I was complete early September and I haven't received a rejection in the mail, what does that mean? Is Stanford good with keeping rejects (lol) updated on their rejection?
 
BurghStudent said:
If I was complete early September and I haven't received a rejection in the mail, what does that mean? Is Stanford good with keeping rejects (lol) updated on their rejection?
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+1 Complete around the 20th of August and still haven't gotten anything in the mail from them
 
I was complete in July and didn't get a II until I woke up on new years day 🙂 was nice to wake up to.
 
I did! I ended up interview in january, about two weeks after my invite and loved it here, it was a perfect fit, felt comfortable from the minute I got here (although i still feel like they made a mistake and im waiting to for them to give me the boot hahaha).

Honestly, we're busy here (as any school) but its amazing. Best classemates I could ever ask for, tons of resources. Top notch all around guys. If you get II's and are on the fence, just post any of your questions for me. I'll do my best to get back to you ASAP.
 
OldMan707 said:
I did! I ended up interview in january, about two weeks after my invite and loved it here, it was a perfect fit, felt comfortable from the minute I got here (although i still feel like they made a mistake and im waiting to for them to give me the boot hahaha).

Honestly, we're busy here (as any school) but its amazing. Best classemates I could ever ask for, tons of resources. Top notch all around guys. If you get II's and are on the fence, just post any of your questions for me. I'll do my best to get back to you ASAP.
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Hey 707, I was wondering if you could tell me what you think about Stanford from a clinical as opposed to a research perspective. I've read some concerns about the clinical facilities and overall clinical experience not being as great as other top tiered medical schools, but I find this hard to believe. Thanks
 
alamo4 said:
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.
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Here was a post a few weeks back by a current Stanford student talking about the concerns with the clinical training.

My understanding is you won't be missing out too much in terms of clinical breadth, but Stanford is not yet on the level of UCSF or Harvard. We'll see if that changes after the new hospitals are built!
 
Has anyone from the 3rd group of interviewers heard back yet? (I'm not in that group, btw.) I think they usually meet on Thursdays and then call people on Fridays, with waitlisted or rejected ppl getting mail that weekend. Based on that pattern, since they didn't meet last week obviously (for Thanksgiving), I thought they might have met this Thursday...anyone hear any news?
 
GreyEarl said:
Agh, just got an e-mail that said there are no hosts available for my interview date. Where did you guys stay, if not with a host?
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Hey, not sure when your interview date is, but if you still need a place to stay, you can stay with me. I live in Redwood City (about 25 min away) and work at Stanford, so I would be able to drive you in the morning. Let me know: klstaves[at]stanford.edu
 
kellery said:
Hey, not sure when your interview date is, but if you still need a place to stay, you can stay with me. I live in Redwood City (about 25 min away) and work at Stanford, so I would be able to drive you in the morning. Let me know: klstaves[at]stanford.edu
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Thanks, that's so nice of you! Unfortunately I already booked a hotel that charges a $48 cancellation so I think I'll just stay there since it's 1 mile from campus. Thanks again though, I appreciate it. 🙂
 
wangers5270 said:
Received a call from Dean Garcia yesterday afternoon!!!!! Interviewed 10/17. SO EXCITED OMGOMGOMG 😍😍😍😍

Truly a blessing. Haven't been able to update my MDApps unfortunately because it's been down for a while, but I'm going to withdraw quite a few schools out of courtesy (and others should seriously do the same!!!)...probably not necessary to discuss on the Stanford thread lol.

ohmansososososoexcited

Edit: MDApps is back up and running!
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Congrats!! Maybe see you in the class of 2017? 😉
 
Hey all! Is anyone interviewing next Thursday (December 13)? It seems like there are no hosts and no welcome reception the night before because of finals. I'll be flying in from the East coast and landing at SFO at around noon, then heading to my hotel in Palo Alto and then.. nothing. So, if anyone would like to meet up and maybe grab dinner next Wednesday send me a PM!
 
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