2012-2013 University of Texas Southwestern Application Thread

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StrikeX2 said:
According to MSAR

OOS: 761 apps, 96 interviews, 33 matriculates, MD and 9 MD/PhD. No stats on number of acceptances though.
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Thanks, looks comparable so hopefully it can be inferred that acceptances are similar...at least I hope so.

Thanks for placating my neurotic side, the waiting game post interview may be worse than pre interview 😛
 
annonymous819 said:
Thanks, looks comparable so hopefully it can be inferred that acceptances are similar...at least I hope so.

Thanks for placating my neurotic side, the waiting game post interview may be worse than pre interview 😛
Click to expand...

ahaha yea, I feel you man. This wait sucks. When did you interview?
 
My experience at Parkland has been mixed. As a nurse at Parkland, I saw the most critical patients in the metroplex and also the rarest diseases. Due to the close association between Parkland and UTSW, patients with conditions that could not be treated anywhere else were flown into Parkland for treatment. However Parkland itself was always suffering from a lack of funding such that critical items including IV flushes were always out of stock. It is difficult to provide excellent patient care when basic supplies are unavailable.

Dallas County has passed a budget to build a new Parkland across the street from the old Parkland. The new building looks very nice.

I can say one thing is for certain. I learned more at Parkland than I did doing nursing at any other facility in the MetroPlex. Parkland is a fantastic place to learn. Parkland is not a fantastic place to be a patient.
 
During my tour of the campus, the M4 that was giving us the tour told us about some of the problems that Parkland was having. It's currently being audited by CMS and that is scheduled to end sometime next spring(?). He told us how Parkland use to have very lacking protocols as to which procedures residents and medical students could be performing and who should be supervising over them. There was also an issue with some docs walking out of ORs with blood on their shoes still walking the halls. Some of the more basic problems included not having foam in and foam out procedures at every patient room and general sanitation procedures like that. But my impression is that most of this stuff has improved, though I have not heard about issues regarding to the funding as mentioned previously. That is certainly very interesting.

In any case, the new Parkland and University hospitals that are due to finish in 2 years will be excellent no doubt. Since students at UTSW don't start doing start their clinical clerkships until after Step 1, the timing works out perfectly for future classes.
 
Walking out of the OR with blood on your shoes is not the most grievous of "sins". The problem with Parkland comes down to the principle of too many people involved in each patient's care.

As a nurse, you're essentially in charge of coordinating care for a single patient. Whether you are in the OR or on the floor, there are no fewer than 12 additional people caring for a single patient. You have med students, residents, chief residents, nursing students, respiratory therapy students, nutrition students, etc. They are all writing orders for the patient, but it is impossible to figure out who's orders take priority over other orders. So some patients get double dosages of medicines, while other patients don't get a blood transfusion that they need.

I can't imagine it is any different at any other teaching hospital in the US. I think this is just the nature of having a very large teaching hospital which is poorly funded.

I personally love working/training at Parkland. Best hospital experience I have had so far.
 
Justin Stuart said:
Walking out of the OR with blood on your shoes is not the most grievous of "sins". The problem with Parkland comes down to the principle of too many people involved in each patient's care.

As a nurse, you're essentially in charge of coordinating care for a single patient. Whether you are in the OR or on the floor, there are no fewer than 12 additional people caring for a single patient. You have med students, residents, chief residents, nursing students, respiratory therapy students, nutrition students, etc. They are all writing orders for the patient, but it is impossible to figure out who's orders take priority over other orders. So some patients get double dosages of medicines, while other patients don't get a blood transfusion that they need.

I can't imagine it is any different at any other teaching hospital in the US. I think this is just the nature of having a very large teaching hospital which is poorly funded.

I personally love working/training at Parkland. Best hospital experience I have had so far.
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Our EMR order system is regulated per the hierarchy: Anyone can enter, beginning with nurse, but only the resident can release the orders. Between the residents, if the junior res tells the intern to enter, s/he'll do so and it ends there. If there were no verbal orders given to the intern, it's left to the junior or senior res (senior takes over more difficult cases on an individual basis depending on the res's level of competence). Does that make sense? We rarely have order mix ups. They tend to occur during management and txfr of critical pts.

But I guess our teaching institution is unique in that it's a top 10 institution for EMR innovation and monitoring for preventable SAEs (e.g., medication and order errors)...
 
I left Parkland right before the EMR system was put into place. It sounds like EMR has solved the problem I am describing with the old paper records. Good news.
 
Justin Stuart said:
I left Parkland right before the EMR system was put into place. It sounds like EMR has solved the problem I am describing with the old paper records. Good news.
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Just to clarify, in case anyone was thinking this, I'm not at Parkland. I was just pointing out that other academic institutions don't suffer the same problems.
 
Last month, Parkland had to pay a record $1 million, the largest fine of its kind in the state, in fines with state regulators for repeated patient safety violations.

I hear now that Parkland and UTSW are both going to settle another whistleblower lawsuit, the third one revealed in the last two years, for Medicare fraud. They are also going to be placed on probationary terms with the feds and state to monitor billing for some time now.

The news seems to be getting worse, not better. (See http://theparklandhouseofhorrors.blogspot.com/p/news.html for a complete list of news articles.)
 
Even if Parkland Memorial Hospital has not sufficiently improved and/or revised all of its practices, for an aspiring healthcare student it is still a fantastic place to train and offers many opportunities for the student to provide the patient with enhanced care. In places such as the ER and the L&D, you will find tens if not hundreds of people waiting for services. You see severely injured people waiting in long lines outside the ER waiting for triage. You see pregnant women laboring in the middle of the hallway. The majority of these patients have no healthcare insurance, and many of them do not have a home to return to. A simple kind gesture such as bringing a patient a hot cup of coffee, or even providing a patient with a packet of graham crackers, can make all the difference to someone who has been waiting in line for several hours.

Two succeed at Parkland as a student, there are three things you must do:

#1. Learn to speak Spanish fluently
#2. Learn to be resourceful
#3. Learn how to deal with chaos and confusion

You simply do not find the same learning opportunities at the for-profit hospitals where every patient has a private room and the supply cabinet is always full.
 
I have a mcat of 29(9/10/10), and a GPA of 4.0. Good extracurricular activity. Do you think I have chance at ut southwestern?

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using SDN Mobile
 
Woke up to a very unexpected Saturday morning interview invite 😀 Great way to start the weekend!
 
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II for Nov 17th, I needed some love after getting my first rejection this week!

Oos but went to UT Austin, lots of ties to the state. 3.8 science and overall, 35, good ECs
 
So after stalking this site for a year I finally decided to make an account.

Interview October 26. Anyone else on this site going that weekend?
 
annonymous819 said:
Thanks, looks comparable so hopefully it can be inferred that acceptances are similar...at least I hope so.

Thanks for placating my neurotic side, the waiting game post interview may be worse than pre interview 😛
Click to expand...

Those numbers are incorrect. They have 23 seats for out of state students. For some reason, the numbers they posted on MSAR are their acceptances, not matriculants.

They basically send 2 acceptances for every 1 matriculant among OOS's. (Not inferring this, admissions folks at UT Southwestern told us this during the tour/rounds day)
 
quadomatic said:
Those numbers are incorrect. They have 23 seats for out of state students. For some reason, the numbers they posted on MSAR are their acceptances, not matriculants.

They basically send 2 acceptances for every 1 matriculant among OOS's. (Not inferring this, admissions folks at UT Southwestern told us this during the tour/rounds day)
Click to expand...

So your saying that according to MSAR, its 96 interviews, 33 acceptances?
 
quadomatic said:
Those numbers are incorrect. They have 23 seats for out of state students. For some reason, the numbers they posted on MSAR are their acceptances, not matriculants.

They basically send 2 acceptances for every 1 matriculant among OOS's. (Not inferring this, admissions folks at UT Southwestern told us this during the tour/rounds day)
Click to expand...

Wouldn't this make the data approximately correct? If only 10% of a 230 person class is OOS and it's a 2:1 acceptance:matriculant ratio you should be looking at roughly 50 +/-10 OOS acceptances to get 23 OOS matriculants. Depending on how many people accept/decline.

Was last year just an odd year and 33 acceptances yielded the maximum 23 matriculants?
 
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annonymous819 said:
Wouldn't this make the data approximately correct? If only 10% of a 230 person class is OOS and it's a 2:1 acceptance:matriculant ratio you should be looking at roughly 50 +/-10 OOS acceptances to get 23 OOS matriculants. Depending on how many people accept/decline.

Was last year just an odd year and 33 acceptances yielded the maximum 23 matriculants?
Click to expand...

The problem is that the MSAR data is supposed to be matriculants, not acceptances. For some reason they listed acceptances. It's not really listing 33 acceptances, because you have to include the additional deferred and MD/PhD students.

Wes Norred (admissions guy at UT Southwestern) had told us they sent 40-some acceptances to OOS's (I can't remember the exact number) for a class with 23 OOS's. With that, the numbers listed on MSAR as matriculants cannot be correct. The numbers Wes gave match MSAR numbers if you recognize that the numbers they listed are for acceptances, not matriculants.

Given the apparent reality, it seems that nearly half of the people who interview from OOS at UTSW will get an admissions offer.
 
quadomatic said:
The problem is that the MSAR data is supposed to be matriculants, not acceptances. For some reason they listed acceptances. It's not really listing 33 acceptances, because you have to include the additional deferred and MD/PhD students.

Wes Norred (admissions guy at UT Southwestern) had told us they sent 40-some acceptances to OOS's (I can't remember the exact number) for a class with 23 OOS's. With that, the numbers listed on MSAR as matriculants cannot be correct. The numbers Wes gave match MSAR numbers if you recognize that the numbers they listed are for acceptances, not matriculants.

Given the apparent reality, it seems that nearly half of the people who interview from OOS at UTSW will get an admissions offer.
Click to expand...

Okay that makes sense, more sobering numbers...but meh, only one more month of waiting :xf:
 
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quadomatic said:
The problem is that the MSAR data is supposed to be matriculants, not acceptances. For some reason they listed acceptances. It's not really listing 33 acceptances, because you have to include the additional deferred and MD/PhD students.

Wes Norred (admissions guy at UT Southwestern) had told us they sent 40-some acceptances to OOS's (I can't remember the exact number) for a class with 23 OOS's. With that, the numbers listed on MSAR as matriculants cannot be correct. The numbers Wes gave match MSAR numbers if you recognize that the numbers they listed are for acceptances, not matriculants.

Given the apparent reality, it seems that nearly half of the people who interview from OOS at UTSW will get an admissions offer.
Click to expand...

i'm pretty sure the data on MSAR or USNWR lags behind at least 1-2 years (so the current edition would have numbers from the 2010 cycle at best. the current edition of MSAR was released in the spring, before the 2011-12 cycle was officially over, so there's no way in could include the final numbers from last year's cycle
 
imymemine said:
i'm pretty sure the data on MSAR or USNWR lags behind at least 1-2 years (so the current edition would have numbers from the 2010 cycle at best. the current edition of MSAR was released in the spring, before the 2011-12 cycle was officially over, so there's no way in could include the final numbers from last year's cycle
Click to expand...

Even if that is the case, UT Southwestern is limited to 10% OOS. I don't think their class size has halved (from 400 something to 200 something) in the last couple years, has it? The only way they could have matriculated as many out of state students as are listed in MSAR is if their class size was in the 400 something range at the time those statistics were collected.
 
quadomatic said:
Even if that is the case, UT Southwestern is limited to 10% OOS. I don't think their class size has halved (from 400 something to 200 something) in the last couple years, has it? The only way they could have matriculated as many out of state students as are listed in MSAR is if their class size was in the 400 something range at the time those statistics were collected.
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I'm insanely bored at work and SDN is my go to on Oct 15. I checked AMCAS matriculant data and for 2011 it shows a class size of 230 with 14.3% of matriculants OOS. That gives 33 OOS matriculants, consistent with MSAR.

https://www.aamc.org/download/161128/data/table1.pdf
 
Administration at UTSW says, "23 OOS applicants are admitted each year to the MD program."

MSTP applicants are not included in this number. That's probably the reason the stats indicate a larger number.
 
Justin Stuart said:
Administration at UTSW says, "23 OOS applicants are admitted each year to the MD program."

MSTP applicants are not included in this number. That's probably the reason the stats indicate a larger number.
Click to expand...

The number on MSAR is 33 matriculants excluding MSTP students.
 
I thought I remembered them telling us at my interview that they would release acceptances on Oct 15 to OOS....am I off here? Does anyone know anything else?
 
hi blood press said:
I thought I remembered them telling us at my interview that they would release acceptances on Oct 15 to OOS....am I off here? Does anyone know anything else?
Click to expand...

That would be nice, but definitely not what I heard or what UTSW has done historically.
 
Official word is that no acceptance letters for anyone will be mailed before November 15th.
 
hi blood press said:
I thought I remembered them telling us at my interview that they would release acceptances on Oct 15 to OOS....am I off here? Does anyone know anything else?
Click to expand...

Last year I got my OOS accept at midnight, Nov 15, via email. Prematch offers went out to IS acceptees the same time/way. An official letter came in the mail a few days later, which included any scholarship awards.
 
Hi everyone!

After looking through this forum for the past month, I wanted to get some perspective (and a little calm for my neuroses).

I applied to UTSW mid-August, as soon as I could after taking my MCAT. I have received interview offers for schools in El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston. But UTSW is my dream school; I want to be a medical researcher and I know UTSW places a premium on research. I visited the campus and just knew it was where I needed to be. (Also, doesn't hurt that my fiancée lives in Dallas...)

My stats/EC are:
30 MCAT
3.8 GPA
IS applicant
non-traditional
Spanish speaker
> 2 years research experience
1 year as a bilingual elementary school teacher

I saw someone mentioned that the first acceptance letters don't go out until November 15th. Is there still hope I will score an interview? Is there anything more I could be doing right now? I'm starting to get antsy.

Thanks!
 
ek915 said:
Hi everyone!

After looking through this forum for the past month, I wanted to get some perspective (and a little calm for my neuroses).

I applied to UTSW mid-August, as soon as I could after taking my MCAT. I have received interview offers for schools in El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston. But UTSW is my dream school; I want to be a medical researcher and I know UTSW places a premium on research. I visited the campus and just knew it was where I needed to be. (Also, doesn't hurt that my fiancée lives in Dallas...)

My stats/EC are:
30 MCAT
3.8 GPA
IS applicant
non-traditional
Spanish speaker
> 2 years research experience
1 year as a bilingual elementary school teacher

I saw someone mentioned that the first acceptance letters don't go out until November 15th. Is there still hope I will score an interview? Is there anything more I could be doing right now? I'm starting to get antsy.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Not that this is the end-all-be-all, but traditionally UTSW rarely offers interviews to people with a lizzy score <70
(gpax10+mcat). You've got a 68.
I'm in the same boat as you, so lets keep our fingers crossed that they decided to change up their selection process this year.
 
ek915 said:
Hi everyone!

After looking through this forum for the past month, I wanted to get some perspective (and a little calm for my neuroses).

I applied to UTSW mid-August, as soon as I could after taking my MCAT. I have received interview offers for schools in El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston. But UTSW is my dream school; I want to be a medical researcher and I know UTSW places a premium on research. I visited the campus and just knew it was where I needed to be. (Also, doesn't hurt that my fiancée lives in Dallas...)

My stats/EC are:
30 MCAT
3.8 GPA
IS applicant
non-traditional
Spanish speaker
> 2 years research experience
1 year as a bilingual elementary school teacher

I saw someone mentioned that the first acceptance letters don't go out until November 15th. Is there still hope I will score an interview? Is there anything more I could be doing right now? I'm starting to get antsy.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Sorry dude, your stats might be too low :/

Good luck though!
 
ek915 said:
Hi everyone!

After looking through this forum for the past month, I wanted to get some perspective (and a little calm for my neuroses).

I applied to UTSW mid-August, as soon as I could after taking my MCAT. I have received interview offers for schools in El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston. But UTSW is my dream school; I want to be a medical researcher and I know UTSW places a premium on research. I visited the campus and just knew it was where I needed to be. (Also, doesn't hurt that my fiancée lives in Dallas...)

My stats/EC are:
30 MCAT
3.8 GPA
IS applicant
non-traditional
Spanish speaker
> 2 years research experience
1 year as a bilingual elementary school teacher

I saw someone mentioned that the first acceptance letters don't go out until November 15th. Is there still hope I will score an interview? Is there anything more I could be doing right now? I'm starting to get antsy.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I know of quite a few people who scored interviews here with a ~30 MCAT. I believe that most of them interviewed in late November / December, so they didn't receive their invites until late October / early November.

Keep your hopes up 🙂
 
UTSW, like all medical schools, look at the applicant as a whole person. While the scores on a particular standardized exam certainly figure into the decision, there are other factors as well which are of importance. If you have a serious (and not fake) interest in primary care, this would probably factor quite highly in the adcom decision process.
 
Thanks for the input everyone! I know my stats are just shy of what they prefer but I hope I get the chance to interview. I'm sure my genuine interest would more than make up for it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed. :xf:

Thanks again everyone!
 
c5r4c5542 said:
does anyone know how receptive UTSW is to rescheduling???
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They're generally pretty flexible (usually, you should have a list of dates to choose from when they send you the initial interview invite).
 
for the friday activities, did women wear suits? Or just slacks and a nice top and blazer? Or skirt suit? Thanks!!
 
for the friday activities, did women wear suits? Or just slacks and a nice top and blazer? Or skirt suit? Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Although your actual interview is only 50 minutes on Saturday, from the moment you step on campus until the moment you get back into your car, the people who have a part in determining your acceptance are watching you. They are seeing how you interact with the other students, and how you present yourself. And part of their assessment is determined by the way you dress.

In other words, if you want to go to UTSW, then dress to impress for ALL activities while you are on campus.
 
Justin Stuart said:
Although your actual interview is only 50 minutes on Saturday, from the moment you step on campus until the moment you get back into your car, the people who have a part in determining your acceptance are watching you. They are seeing how you interact with the other students, and how you present yourself. And part of their assessment is determined by the way you dress.

In other words, if you want to go to UTSW, then dress to impress for ALL activities while you are on campus.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they are around you during most of the time but I highly doubt they'll be taking active notes for all 60+ interviewees during the entire two days unless something drastic happened. I don't think they are actively assessing you, especially regarding the outfit you chose to wear.

As for the Friday events, it was variable mostly. As for the guys, I saw 60% suits and 40% shirt+tie, but everyone looked presentable. Highly doubt the adcoms would be taking notes of the number of wrinkles to your shirt or subtract 5 from your LizzyM had you chosen not to wear a suit to the clinicals. :laugh: For the guys, I'd say just make sure you wear a tie and a nice pair of pants and comfortable shoes.
 
cest la vie said:
Yeah, they are around you during most of the time but I highly doubt they'll be taking active notes for all 60+ interviewees during the entire two days unless something drastic happened. I don't think they are actively assessing you, especially regarding the outfit you chose to wear.

As for the Friday events, it was variable mostly. As for the guys, I saw 60% suits and 40% shirt+tie, but everyone looked presentable. Highly doubt the adcoms would be taking notes of the number of wrinkles to your shirt or subtract 5 from your LizzyM had you chosen not to wear a suit to the clinicals. :laugh: For the guys, I'd say just make sure you wear a tie and a nice pair of pants and comfortable shoes.
Click to expand...

what about the women?
 
If the adcom people don't know who you are by Saturday afternoon, then you haven't done your job. As for women's clothing, dress to impress. I will say it again. Dress to impress.
 
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