2012-2013 University of Illinois Application Thread

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phnerd1105 said:
I believe so. It just means that they decided to interview other candidates before you, and have put your file aside for later. Don't quote me on it though. Good luck! :luck:
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aah I hope you're right!! I want to stay in Illinois so bad! I already go to U of I in Champaign...so going to UIC would just be ideal for me.:xf:
 
I got in! But because I'm out of state for work, I didn't know my "fat packet" came in (UIC only has my home address) until my dad got back home and checked the mail tonight :laugh:
 
Leslie508 said:
Is the OOS tuition as horrible as I heard?
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I just interviewed today and yes, it's obscene! Even the IS tuition is crazy.
 
ANyone familiar with housing costs? The CoA estimates about 15K a year. Let's say we live in the dorms, would that be enough? For years two and three, they estimate it at 20K. I know we go full year during that time, but doesn't that sound like a bit too much? Any current students like to chime in?
 
Any idea how far the ii's have been filled already? End of December? Beginning of January?

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk 2
 
still an applicant in process. ughh. hoping for some love soon! uic is my dream school!
 
SoulinNeed said:
ANyone familiar with housing costs? The CoA estimates about 15K a year. Let's say we live in the dorms, would that be enough? For years two and three, they estimate it at 20K. I know we go full year during that time, but doesn't that sound like a bit too much? Any current students like to chime in?
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I've lived in Chicago for the past 5 years, and cost to rent a decent place to live are pretty high. Not to mention I believe the housing number you're quoting includes food too. If you're going to live in Chicago, 1k/month before utilities is about the minimum for a small place in a nice area.

The good thing about UIC though is that it is right off the Blue and Pink lines, so you can extend where you're living pretty easily to places that are cheaper to live in.
 
After 3 months of waiting, FINALLY "APPLICANT IN PROCESS!" yay, now more waiting...
 
ikestoys said:
I've lived in Chicago for the past 5 years, and cost to rent a decent place to live are pretty high. Not to mention I believe the housing number you're quoting includes food too. If you're going to live in Chicago, 1k/month before utilities is about the minimum for a small place in a nice area.

The good thing about UIC though is that it is right off the Blue and Pink lines, so you can extend where you're living pretty easily to places that are cheaper to live in.
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Disagree. I have also been living in Chicago for the past 5 years and am paying less than half of your minimum quote for a place that I would say is actually too big 😛. Honestly, it just depends what you're looking for - we probably have different definitions of 'decent' - but I think you can find a decent place for $500/month without too much difficulty. Depends on the neighborhood as well.
 
Irish Football said:
After 3 months of waiting, FINALLY "APPLICANT IN PROCESS!" yay, now more waiting...
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Congrats!! I just turned to applicant in process after 3 months of waiting as well! I kept rereading the word "applicant" just to make sure the "tion" was not there...
 
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status just changed to "applicant in process"
does anyone know how long it takes to get an interview invite?
 
I've been 'Applicant in Process' since July or early August...any thoughts on this?
 
Thank Jeebus, just went to applicant as well after about 2.5 months. Although my genius self didn't realize that they take more than 3 letters of recommendation. Sooo, sent a fourth via AMCAS a couple of weeks ago but it's not posted on that first page yet. Oh well, should probably just be happy that I'm finally being reviewed.
 
ikestoys said:
I've lived in Chicago for the past 5 years, and cost to rent a decent place to live are pretty high. Not to mention I believe the housing number you're quoting includes food too. If you're going to live in Chicago, 1k/month before utilities is about the minimum for a small place in a nice area.

The good thing about UIC though is that it is right off the Blue and Pink lines, so you can extend where you're living pretty easily to places that are cheaper to live in.
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I live in Chicago too. I'm just saying, I believe it was made clear at our interviews that there are dorms available for med students there.
 
tinysock said:
I've been 'Applicant in Process' since July or early August...any thoughts on this?
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I think you should call, I was only an "applicant" for 2 weeks. From what I heard, people usually have status updates between 2week-month from the applicant stage until a decision is made.
 
Do all applicants go through applicant in progress?
 
YAY! I had gone from 'application in process' straight to 'application is in process', which made me think I was on hold, but now I'm 'applicant in process'! Exciting! 😀
 
Heyyyy there applicants.

I'm a current M1 at the Chicago campus. Was in your shoes last year, interviewed in January and got accepted off the waitlist mid-June. Sooo ya hang in there posters and lurkers who haven't gotten an invite, or an applicant in process or whatever status change, and feel free to ask me anything about our school, I'll do my best to answer.

And to those of you with invites, a couple of us students can host you guys before your interviews. This is a straight-up student run thing so don't ask admissions about it, it's been mentioned before but i will post the link again

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgJfwz1qYwTUdHVXTHJETUdNTkIwcC1pRnRRVXl3elE#gid=0

Go ahead and message me and I can contact the person off that list.
 
SoulinNeed said:
I live in Chicago too. I'm just saying, I believe it was made clear at our interviews that there are dorms available for med students there.
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Yup, and those are 10354 for about 9 months. Housing in chicago is expensive. Nice options that are cheap are hard to find.
 
lakeview227 said:
So what exactly does that mean? Is it definitely an interview if you go to 'applicant in process'?
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Nope. Not necessarily. Apparently it means your application is actually getting reviewed. A buddy of mine went from application to applicant and then back to application.
 
Another question for current Medical students. Preferably Chicago campus.

Can you describe what M1 year is like?

I interviewed at Peoria and got accepted to Chicago. Peorians mentioned that in there preliminary Urbana year there was almost no clinical/patient exposure. I wanted to know what Chicago was like
 
Sodium22 said:
Nope. Not necessarily. Apparently it means your application is actually getting reviewed. A buddy of mine went from application to applicant and then back to application.
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and subsequently rejected?
 
Sodium22 said:
Another question for current Medical students. Preferably Chicago campus.

Can you describe what M1 year is like?

I interviewed at Peoria and got accepted to Chicago. Peorians mentioned that in there preliminary Urbana year there was almost no clinical/patient exposure. I wanted to know what Chicago was like
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M1 year, I think, is pretty similar to other schools. We have the same basic sciences: physio, anatomy, embryo, histo, immuno, micro, biochem, etc. You have to work hard and a lot of people spend the first semester dialing down to a study method that works for them. Spring semester, you get hit hard -- you start off with neuroanatomy (which, IMHO, was the toughest class of M1 year) + H&N gross anatomy (again, I thought this was the toughest unit of gross). Overall though, if you keep studying everyday instead of waiting a couple of weeks before the exam, you'll stay afloat just fine.

As for clinical experience, there's a decent bit. We have this thing called IPC; it's basically a preceptorship. Anyways, you are paired up with a physician preceptor and you have to go into the hospital/clinic with them a minimum of 6 times over the course of the year. You practice H&Ps, presenting to the attending, etc. A lot of this comes down to how the attending you're assigned to is like. Some of my classmates basically had a shadowing experience, which sucks. My attending was awesome in giving me some autonomy and emphasizing teaching -- I got to spend 30 min doing an H&P by myself with every patient we saw in clinic, then I'd present to the attending, then we'd discuss the case and try to think through what was going on with the patient (teaching points here), and finally, we'd both go into the patient room together. It was a great experience for me.

There are also other programs, such as the Mentor's program, where you're paired up with a physician in a specialty you're interested in. This is more shadowing type than you actually doing anything, though. Other than that, there are a bunch of free clinics and other health care clinics that you can volunteer at and get experience taking HPIs, practicing physical exams, presenting to attendings, etc. I think, starting this year, the M1s learn all the physical exams whereas last year, we only learned a couple. So, you can dive right in and get practice with physical exams at an earlier time-point.

Basically, if you want to be involved clinically, there are a good number of opportunities to do so.

Hope that helps.
 
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Well shoot, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

EDIT: Corrected for bad language.....
 
SoulinNeed said:
Isn't the curriculum changing?
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Yes, but not vastly. The general trend is reduced didactics, increased peer/small-group stuff plus more integration across classes (not a full integrated curriculum, though). UIC still sits on the "lecture-heavy" side of the lecture-PBL continuum.

Any specific concerns?
 
Hey everyone!
My status changed last week to Applicant in progress! I've been skimming this thread and this means an II may or may not come soon. I've also seen others say they had that status for months!! Seeing as it is a bit late, I wonder if it will still take so long?? Has anyone in a similar position called the admissions office and asked about this?
 
imcanadaian said:
How do you know??
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Yea they respond to your request in the mail. Mine took about 5 days. I was actually surprised by how quickly it came.

Reek said:
Same here. Glad to know I'll be able to live in the city next year 🙂
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I know! I was keeping other interviews just in case I was placed on the UPR track since the Chicago campus is what had me excited. Now I can confidently say I'm attending UIC College of Medicine!
 
This likely has been asked before, but here goes: I'm interviewing in Peoria, and I know that doesn't have any bearing on which campus I would attend. However, in the case of accepted students, how does the committee determine which campus the student matriculates at? Can you indicate a preference for one of the four at some point in the application process?

Looking forward to checking out the campus and learning more about the program!
 
Blaughable said:
Yea they respond to your request in the mail. Mine took about 5 days. I was actually surprised by how quickly it came.



I know! I was keeping other interviews just in case I was placed on the UPR track since the Chicago campus is what had me excited. Now I can confidently say I'm attending UIC College of Medicine!
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Congrats on getting your top choice, then. I'm also feeling pretty good that I'm going to be a student here next year 😎

colonel23 said:
This likely has been asked before, but here goes: I'm interviewing in Peoria, and I know that doesn't have any bearing on which campus I would attend. However, in the case of accepted students, how does the committee determine which campus the student matriculates at? Can you indicate a preference for one of the four at some point in the application process?

Looking forward to checking out the campus and learning more about the program!
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You get a preference card when you're accepted. You just rank the campuses then they put you somewhere based on that.
 
Reek said:
Congrats on getting your top choice, then. I'm also feeling pretty good that I'm going to be a student here next year 😎
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😎 indeed

I really can't wait for undergrad to end and to be in the city already. We'll eventually have to plan for a pre-COM social gathering.
 
Blaughable said:
😎 indeed

I really can't wait for undergrad to end and to be in the city already. We'll eventually have to plan for a pre-COM social gathering.
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Same here. All my classes post-acceptance have been 😴 I'm taking a lot of music courses next term, hopefully that helps.
 
Does anyone know how long it takes for UIC to convey an acceptance if they say they are going to meet on the 15th of November? Also, how do they send it out? Is it by mail or online? Thanks!
 
lakersk8b said:
Does anyone know how long it takes for UIC to convey an acceptance if they say they are going to meet on the 15th of November? Also, how do they send it out? Is it by mail or online? Thanks!
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I live in the chicago-land area and it took a week from the day they made a decision (status change). You find out in the mail.
 
Blaughable said:
I live in the chicago-land area and it took a week from the day they made a decision (status change). You find out in the mail.
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Indeed - they make a point of absolutely not telling you anything over the phone 😛 - all levity aside though, for a state school system that must be swamped with applicants/applications every year, I am actually impressed at how efficient their office actually is.

For those of you curious as to how the timeline works, there's another post from a previous cycle (I think the 2008-2009 thread, actually, which someone was kind enough to repost in the earlier parts of this thread, if I'm not mistaken) that explains it quite well. My own timeline (which fits in with the points from that outline of the UIC admissions process) goes as follows:

1. Submitted AMCAS in mid June (I'd actually finished it in the first week of June, but there was an anomaly that I'd missed and AAMC required correction before it could be submitted)
2. Received UIC secondary request July 3 (? - I don't recall the exact date, only that it was in the first few days of July)
3. Submitted UIC secondary July 7 (? - again, I don't recall the exact date, only that I submitted it within days of receiving the request)
4. Invited to interview September 10 (? - sometime in the second week of September)
5. Interviewed (at Urbana campus) October 19
6. Decision made (i.e. accepted) October 25
7. Learned of decision (admission! yay!) second week of November

So from start to finish the overall process took approximately 4.5 months. Granted, there was a lot of dead air in there (e.g. between interview scheduling and the actual interview) and I don't know when I went from "application in process" to "applicant in process" because I was busy finishing and submitting secondaries to other schools and applying to jobs all summer, but it seems to me that, if you're a competitive applicant, the whole process takes between 3-5 months. Once all of your stuff (i.e. your secondary supplemental materials) is in, I think what affects the duration the most is based on, in addition to your competitiveness relative to the rest of the applicant pool, 1) the time of year (later in the cycle = larger applicant pool and therefore longer turnaround) and 2) your in-state/out-of-state status (UIC is a state school; therefore in-state students are likely to be given more preference, though perhaps not to the degree afforded in-state applicants to Cali or Texas med schools). I am from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, did my undergrad in the Chicago area (Northwestern Univ.), and have had an IL drivers license since I was 16 (I am 29 now) - so yeah, pretty heavily invested in IL, which I think was a large factor in my admission this cycle.
 
lakeview227 said:
So what exactly does that mean? Is it definitely an interview if you go to 'applicant in progress'?

Everyone posting here is saying "process" any idea what the difference is between progress and process in UIC language??
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I was wondering the same thing...I went from application in process to applicant in progress; there must be a difference in progress versus process, curious if anyone knows
 
BadgerFan2012 said:
I was wondering the same thing...I went from application in process to applicant in progress; there must be a difference in progress versus process, curious if anyone knows
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I'm also "applicant in progress" now, no idea what that means.
 
Irish Football said:
I'm also "applicant in progress" now, no idea what that means.
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Hmm... me too. I dont know if I was always in progress or if it changed from "process." I was only paying attention to the application/applicant part of it... did it really change?
 
This should really just be put at the top ALL the time .


APMD said:
Just noticed that my status went from "application in process" to "applicant in process"


START

I. Submit Primary.

II. Wait for the email from UIC giving you your login information for the Applicant Status Check site (usually arrives within 2 weeks of submitting your primary): https://mercury.comd.uic.edu/appstat

III. Login, and check your status in the second page. [At the bottom of this post I link to a program I made that makes checking your status as easy as double clicking your mouse.]

---

A. "Application Not Complete" = Secondary not yet complete.

B. "Application in Process" = You are complete. --> Goto C.

C. "Applicant in Process" = Your file is being reviewed, 3 Possible Status Changes:
1. "Select Interview Date" = You are good enough for an interview. --> Goto D.
2. "Application in Process" = You are not good enough to grant an interview yet, but might be later on in the cycle. Check back periodically. --> Go back to B.
3. "Final Decision Made ..." = You are not good enough. --> Goto X.

D. "Select Interview Date" (A grid of dates shows up) = Call and schedule an interview date, after which "Interview Scheduled on ... " shows up. After the interview, Goto F.

F. "Decision Pending" = File pending review at the next adcom meeting (every 3rd Thursday of the month). There are 2 options from here, depending on the month:
1. Before May. --> Goto M.
2. On or After May. --> Goto N.

M. Before May, 2 Possible Status Changes:
1. "Final Decision Made ... " --> Goto S.
2. "Decision Pending" (No Status Change) + "We'll keep reviewing you" Email (a few days later) = You are a good candidate, but not good enough to grant an acceptance yet. UIC will keep reviewing you at every adcom meeting. --> Go back to F.

N. On or After May, 2 Possible Status Changes:
1. "Final Decision Made ... " You are (very likely) rejected. --> Goto X.
2. "Applicant is Waitlisted" = Waitlisted. --> Goto Y.

S. There are 2 additional conditions from here:
1. There is an "Additional Correspondences" Tab in the upper-right corner on your status page AND you get a CBC Email (a few days later) = You are (very likely) accepted. --> Goto Z.
2. There is no "Additional Correspondences" Tab and/or you don't get the CBC Email = Rejection. [Note: This is tricky. The CBC email usually comes a few days after (1-4 is the consensus) the status change. Be patient. Sometimes, the email never comes, which might be because you already had a CBC done due to an acceptance at another school. In some instances, the CBC Email even comes after the snail-mail. If after a week, neither the tab nor the CBC email shows up, it's very likely a rejection. You've probably already received snail-mail by now alerting you to it.] --> Goto X.

X. "Final Decision Made ..." = Rejection ... Wait for a "Thin Letter" via snail-mail.

Y. "Applicant is Waitlisted" = Waitlisted. ... The CBC Email no longer acts as an indicator of an acceptance. If you get accepted off of the waitlist, then Goto Z, else Goto X.

Z. "Final Decision Made ..." + "Additional Correspondences" Tab + CBC Email = (very likely) Acceptance ... Wait for a "Fat Packet" via snail-mail. [Note: Sometimes CBC emails come after the packet. CBC emails also might never arrive if you got an acceptance to another school that also does CBC through AMCAS.]

FINISH

---

*** NOTE: There are no guarantees in the above information, since there is always the chance that UIC changes things up. Just always keep in mind that the above is of what has happened, and not what will happen.


**********************************
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