2012-2013 University of Wisconsin Application Thread

[McPoyle]

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^^^ Wow, thanks for the candid opinion. As someone also with a SO, being forced into many weeks worth of "away" time during 3rd/4th year is my main reservation about this school.

Is there an option to rank your preferenced sites? If so, are there a lot of sites within 1-2 hours of madison?

Yes, to some extent you can rank locations. However, when it comes to it, you will be placed wherever they want you to be placed. I had numerous people in my class pulled from Madison on short noticed and informed they would be in Green Bay instead (~3hrs away). We are always provided housing, though you are not allowed to have spouses stay with you (at least at the sites I was at). The housing usually consists of dorm style living or traditional apartments. However, those I know that were pulled to go to Green Bay were forced to share hotel rooms with each other... And, when it comes to fourth year, you will have to travel for at least one six week rotation (at least this year, the rest of your year could be in Madison if you wish), at many of these fourth year sites either no housing is provided or they give you a "hospital room in a quiet area of the hospital". Some give you hotel rooms which could be nice for short periods, and others have you shack up with random faculty at that site - which to me is just as bad as a hospital room

 

[GreyEarl]

^ Yikes to all of this! I am worried because the admissions people said you get your "real" clinical experience when you're on your away rotations, but apparently not. As a recently accepted OOS applicant, this all kind of worries me. I liked Madison a lot, but I know nothing about any other areas in Wisconsin. Thanks for your input, ericL.

 

[mngopher112]

Hearing about ericL's rotations experience is really disappointing... any other perspectives out there regarding the away rotations? I'm OOS and not interested at all in rural medicine.

 

[Sconniemed]

Anyone receive any post interview news recently?

 

[UW med student]

Hey drizzt, or any other M3 and above here.. can you comment/discuss your opinion on living outside of madison for rotations? From what i know so far about this it is the biggest (and really the ONLY) con for uw for me

Hi everyone, I'm a current M3 and for anyone who has questions about UW please feel free to post them here or PM me.

I also wanted to offer my opinion on life as a med student here at UW and rotations here and away. First I think everyone has to realize that no matter where you go for med school there will be large adjustments you have to make with subjective grading and different expectations for your learning during M3 compared to M1/M2. Some students are used to scoring very highly on multiple choice exams and have a tougher time adjusting to clinical evaluations and responsibilities compared to others. UW is no exception to this, but keep in mind that once you're out of med school you will still be evaluated subjectively for the rest of your career and you will still be expected to learn in a clinical environment and be reading independently regardless of what specialty you go into or where you practice. So you might as well get practice with this now because it will be beneficial to you in the future...there are no anonymous professor evaluations once you graduate, you will actually have to develop the skills to address problems with your co-workers face-to-face.

As far as various locations I think UW does a very good job during our interview days informing our applicants that 12-16 weeks will be spent out of Madison during M3 year on average. More if you are a WARM or TRIUMPH student, less if you are a Madison-only student for part or all of the year (for various reasons, not just children/pregnancy). The advantage to this system is that as a medical student you will be exposed to an academic medical center in a moderate-sized city here in Madison, an urban center in Milwaukee, and rural areas. The idea is that it will make you better prepared as an M4 to apply to residencies in your preferred type of location because you have actually experienced them yourself. What if you thought a big city was for you and ended up hating MKE and loving rural? Might change how you select the programs you apply to, and even if it doesn't it helps you understand your colleagues working in those types of locations better...the idea after all is to make you a better doctor no matter where you practice. The bottom line is that on every acceptance letter each applicant agrees to out-of-Madison rotations in order to accept their spot in the class, so we were all well aware of the situation and signed up for it when we came here. This school isn't for everyone and only you can decide that for yourself but UW has provided me with an awesome education and I believe the vast majority of my classmates would agree with that as well.

As for out-of-Madison rotations vs Madison rotations there are pros and cons for each but the education in out-of-Madison rotations is certainly not lacking. Many of our clinical educators who receive the highest evaluations from students year after year are actually outside of Madison. Outside of Madison/Milwaukee there are no residents to compete with so you often are paired with one attending and having one-on-one teaching with them. Because you get to know them better they often allow you to be more involved and independent in caring for your patients. You also will typically have a lighter schedule as you may not have call or have call from home and may have shorter days during the week or not have to work weekends depending on the rotation/location. WI does have quite a bit of diversity which is exactly what doing these rotations shows you when comparing locations. Depending on your location you may be working predominantly with low-income families, homeless populations, hispanics, african americans, hmong, amish, native americans, and even among different white populations in WI they each have their own unique challenges and health care needs. Unfortunately there will always be those who come into a rotation with the attitude that they will already hate it, and miss out on the opportunity to obtain a good education because of their poor attitude...nothing anyone can really do about that.

Of course UW is not perfect (no med school is) and of course a down-side to out-of-Madison rotations is that you are out of Madison and may be away from family or significant others. And it's true that being married alone is not reason enough to stay in Madison all year, most of each class will be married/in a committed relationship by M3 so this would not be feasible. Some couples have a hard time with this and end up separating (usually due to many more problems than just a few weeks apart) and this understandably can colour a person's perspective about their rotation. At least housing is provided for you at other locations and you can always do away rotations out of state during M4 as well if that interests you more. It is not true however that out-of-Madison rotations are a way to increase class size when we have no where else to put students, these rotations were very carefully and thoughtfully constructed by the med school and the result of many years of hard work by our faculty.

As for the more urban sites Madison and Milwaukee tend to see more rare conditions being tertiary care centers but you often have attendings, residents, and M4s on the team which means it's harder to get to know those that evaluate you and you're competing with others to learn procedures, etc. Your attendings also don't usually get as much time with you one-on-one so they don't know you as well, which often means they let you do less. You also tend to have more required on-site hours which makes studying for shelf exams and OSCEs more difficult. I've already written quite enough 🙂 so I'll leave it there, but if you're wondering about anything else please let me know.

 

[cocoapelli]

Sconniemed - nope. Around the 6 weeks mark for me, and waiting on pins and needles.

 

[Juan Solo]

I believe that I read to expect the interview to be done around 3:00pm. So is it reasonable to book a flight out of the Madison airport for 5:30pm?

 

[Ellie Arroway]

I believe that I read to expect the interview to be done around 3:00pm. So is it reasonable to book a flight out of the Madison airport for 5:30pm?

That should work fine, in my experience. We were definitely done on schedule.

 

[Juan Solo]

That should work fine, in my experience. We were definitely done on schedule.

Awesome. Thank you for the help!

 

[Sconniemed]

Sconniemed - nope. Around the 6 weeks mark for me, and waiting on pins and needles.

You must have been in the 11/30 group too. I feel like the days are getting longer and longer. Here's to hoping for some good news soon!

 

[1289]

You must have been in the 11/30 group too. I feel like the days are getting longer and longer. Here's to hoping for some good news soon!

just for reference i'm in state interviewed 11/2 and was notified on 12/18 of their decision -- unfortunately you might have a few more weeks to wait! sorry! I'm pretty sure I was discussed in the last adcom meeting before the holidays

 

[MLeeBee]

I think it will be a couple more weeks. I interviewed 11/20 and have yet to hear.

 

[Ironhorse3]

I think it will be a couple more weeks. I interviewed 11/20 and have yet to hear.

Please let us know when you do hear back!

I plan to call after 6 weeks (from 11/30), I got the impression they were fine with us checking in after 6 weeks.

 

[Sconniemed]

Sconniemed - nope. Around the 6 weeks mark for me, and waiting on pins and needles.

Per UW's admissions committee twiter "@UWiscMedAdmiss: Are you on pins & needles waiting to hear back? The committee took a holiday break, but are back at work. Shouldn't be much longer!"

I think we're being watched haha 😏

 

[oncosankenobi]

Interviewed this morning. What a great school! I love my faculty interviewer. My student interview went well, but I thought it was really weirdly structured. It felt like one of those impersonal job interviews where you interview with five candidates and you know there's only one job. Needless to say, it made the whole process very awkward. I wanted to say so much more, but didn't want to make the other interviewees feel intimidated. Also, I know the student questions were meant to be light and fun, but I thought it verged more on the silly and sophomoric. Really not the best interview format if the hope is to get to know us better.

However, the school is great, the opportunities are great. If accepted here, I would have a tough choice to make.

 

[oncosankenobi]

Also, for all those on "pins and needles," they're currently reviewing mid-November/late-November files. We were told to expect to hear back in 7-8 weeks. That's going to be a fun wait.

 

[IRASNA]

Thanks for the info! Anyone know if there's a trend as to what days they call accepted applicants? (Mailed out acceptances will obviously be variable)

 

[IRASNA]

Got the acceptance call this morning! IS, interviewed 11/20

 

[Sconniemed]

Got the acceptance call this morning! IS, interviewed 11/20

Congrats! I am getting more anxious every day...

 

[MLeeBee]

I will now be keeping my phone in hand every moment of today...

 

[doctorwho101]

Just got the letter...rejected. I'm a little sad but for the most part I'm doing okay. I would be more upset if I didn't have another acceptance under my belt cause I really liked the school and the program. Oh well!

OOS, 33/3.6, interviewed 12/4.

Congrats to those who were accepted!!

 

[cocoapelli]

I think we're being watched haha

too funny! Although they should really watch their use of your Vs. you're 😛

doctorwho101- 🙁, although you're going to med school so congratulations! 😀
I'm going to be really anxious about opening my mailbox this week.

 

[drizzt3117]

If you were outside of madison for 24 weeks, you must have certainly filled out your grid incorrectly. The vast majority of people do 10-12 weeks. If you top choice an away site and rank an away medicine month and don't rank any other sites, you'll almost certainly only get 12 weeks away. The people who got screwed over ranked aways for all of their rotations; if you do that, you'll almost certainly get them.

As far as teaching at the rural sites; I would agree that the teaching at some of the sites isn't as good (marshfield). That being said, I think the teaching at the la crosse site is at least as good as UW if not better (although I certainly could be biased, being here for TY) and students tend to have much more experience for patient care, procedures, etc, as compared to at UWHC. Milwaukee was pretty good as well. In M3 I rotated for 4 weeks in Marshfield for medicine, 8 weeks in Mke for PCC, and that was the entirety of my time outside of Madison. That's probably the absolute minimum time that you could spend outside of Madison without having a family here, etc, because I got a preceptorship here. As far as the being married thing, a lot of people do have that take into account; there was a guy in my class who was married w/o kids and got all Madison rotations. The current M4 class had it a bit differently because they are SUPER non-traditional heavy with probably 30 students with kids, so that probably saturated the Madison-only rotations.

All in all, I thought my away rotations were fun and it was nice to be out of Madison for a bit; I think 10-12 weeks is ideal. I do think La Crosse/GL is the best of the away sites, though, primarily because we already have a pretty good graduate education program with our residency here, as well as attendings and residents who like to teach and have time to do it.

Hey, I am a current fourth year at UW and this was a huge issue for me. I really wish I would not have bought into this whole "Wisconsin Idea" bs. I traveled outside of Madison for 24 weeks last year and to a large extent the teaching was absent from these sites (Marshfield, La Crosee) with Milwaukee being the only site I went to where I felt I might be getting my money's worth. I was married during this time and despite what they told me on interview day, the administration absolutely DOES NOT take this into consideration. So, unless you are a woman who gets herself pregnant, or possibly a man who gets his SO pregnant plan on traveling to hickville Wisconsin to receive what they call "education".

Fourth year has been a bit better, though I will still have to travel for six weeks, though I scheduled this after match day so... yeah...

Honestly, I was really happy with my decision first and second year. The teaching was great, the faculty are approachable, lots of opportunity to explore research and such. However, third year changed everything. Those lucky ones who have to travel very little, or none at all, definitely are receiving a better clinical education - the teaching is better, the expectations are higher, and while there is no patient diversity in Madison there is more here than rural Wisconsin.

I really wish I would have put more thought into this. Especially as an OOS student. I could have gone to my state school but was sold on UW's shiny appearance, the friendliness of everyone on my IV day, and how they sold this "Wisconsin Idea" - which is really "Hey we want to add more seats but don't have the necessary faculty here in Madison, lets farm them out to these rural community hospitals" . Now that I am almost done, I can honestly say that I whole heartedly regret coming here based purely on my experience third year. I'm sure I could have gotten a great preclinical education anywhere, without the hassle of how UW handles third and fourth year.

So for me, as an OOS student, coming from a real city, I would encourage anyone in a similar position to me to take some time and rethink things. Do you really want to spend more than you should to get your "clinical education" at a hospital in rural Wisconsin where teaching is lacking. Do you really want to live in Madison with its lack of culture and lack of diversity? For some people these things are not issues, they like small college towns, they don't mind the travel, and maybe they are set on a career in primary care - for them, this would be the ideal school.

And, obviously, if you are in state then things change. You'll be close to family, plus you'll pay far less than I did.

Feel free to PM if you have any other questions.

 

[drizzt3117]

Yes, to some extent you can rank locations. However, when it comes to it, you will be placed wherever they want you to be placed. I had numerous people in my class pulled from Madison on short noticed and informed they would be in Green Bay instead (~3hrs away). We are always provided housing, though you are not allowed to have spouses stay with you (at least at the sites I was at). The housing usually consists of dorm style living or traditional apartments. However, those I know that were pulled to go to Green Bay were forced to share hotel rooms with each other... And, when it comes to fourth year, you will have to travel for at least one six week rotation (at least this year, the rest of your year could be in Madison if you wish), at many of these fourth year sites either no housing is provided or they give you a "hospital room in a quiet area of the hospital". Some give you hotel rooms which could be nice for short periods, and others have you shack up with random faculty at that site - which to me is just as bad as a hospital room

There are at least 7 preceptorships within driving distance of Madison (Monroe, Platteville, Sauk Prairie, Deforest, Beaver Dam, Janesville, Beloit, probably quite a few more) if you don't want to be away from Madison as a M4. Your class was an anomaly because there were something like 30 people with families doing Madison only as M3s.

^ Yikes to all of this! I am worried because the admissions people said you get your "real" clinical experience when you're on your away rotations, but apparently not. As a recently accepted OOS applicant, this all kind of worries me. I liked Madison a lot, but I know nothing about any other areas in Wisconsin. Thanks for your input, ericL.

I got to do much more as a M3 at the away sites than I did in Madison. I did central lines, arterial lines, and knee/joint injections at the away sites; that's much harder to come by at UWHC with lots of residents and fellows around.

Hearing about ericL's rotations experience is really disappointing... any other perspectives out there regarding the away rotations? I'm OOS and not interested at all in rural medicine.

I posted about this recently; 24 weeks away is a crazy amount; most people do far less. My housing situation on the aways was pretty awesome; I had my own room in both places, and had queen/king sized beds and very nice apartments. The housing in Milwaukee is two blocks from the Bradley Center and 4 blocks from Water street; it was awesome for nightlife on weekends where we stayed in Mke.

 

[McPoyle]

Nope, there is no science to filling out the grids "correctly"...

Obviously not everyone can have the same experience. I was just offering my non-trad experience as an example. Some, mainly traditional students, loved third year-good for them.

As for the teaching, in my experience the whole "there are no residents and/or fellows to compete with" thing was largely not true. At UW I was much, much, much more active in getting procedures than at away sites and my eagerness/desire to do them was no different at any of the locations.

I didn't realize out class was an anomaly in regards to the number of non-trads, though I know we had a large number PhDs returning to join our year. With that said, my perception given how my third year worked out would be that as a non-trad with different obligations it wasn't worth it.

Like I said, I know others have had different experiences, but if it were my OOS tuition to spend again, I would not spend it here. Not for the travel, and certainly not for the "education" at out of Madison sites.

Again, your experience may vary, and so far fourth year has been great - no complaints save for the required out of Madison preceptorship. Oh, and as far as those being "driving distance"... thats simply a lie.

 

[drizzt3117]

As for the teaching, in my experience the whole "there are no residents and/or fellows to compete with" thing was largely not true. At UW I was much, much, much more active in getting procedures than at away sites and my eagerness/desire to do them was no different at any of the locations.

I can only speak to my program but certainly students have more opportunities to do procedures here. We don't have fellows and we get to do a ton of procedures. On icu I did 15 central lines and 20 A-lines a month. By week 3 I was happy to let our med students do all the procedures. I think our teaching is very good. Certainly we have more time to spend with our med students than interns at UW.

Like I said, I know others have had different experiences, but if it were my OOS tuition to spend again, I would not spend it here. Not for the travel, and certainly not for the "education" at out of Madison sites.

Fair enough; I prefered to be away from Madison; furthermore, the away sites appeared to be far more generous with grading which is pretty key.

Again, your experience may vary, and so far fourth year has been great - no complaints save for the required out of Madison preceptorship. Oh, and as far as those being "driving distance"... thats simply a lie.

Sauk prairie is a 20-25 min drive. I didn't have any problems commuting there for my six weeks. Waunakee and Deforest are similarly close. Beaver Dam, Monroe, and Beloit are ~45 min; that's far but certainly doable. Reedsburg and Platteville are an hour commute.

 

[medpaty2458]

Hello.

I got my acceptance last Monday and since then I have been looking for places to live. Anyone here on the same boat? I currently go to UW for undergrad and was looking for 2 bedroom/2 bathrooms apartments on the University Ave. neighborhood. I am looking for a female roommate to share an apartment with. Rent will be approximately $650/month + utilities.

The apartments are new and in great condition and at a walking distance from the medical school, bus line, gym and undergrad campus. See the link if interested. 🙂

http://www.goldleafdevelopment.com/list.asp?id=127
http://www.goldleafdevelopment.com/list.asp?id=125

 

[Ellie Arroway]

This is kind of a silly question, but do med students get free bus passes?

 

[Sconniemed]

This is kind of a silly question, but do med students get free bus passes?

Yes all students of the university can get a free bus pass

 

[UW med student]

As far as filling out grids for M3 schedules I would say that there definitely isn't one way to fill them out correctly but for the applicants here's how it went for my class which was the most recent class to do this. Grid assignment is lottery-based and we rank order first. There's 40 or so different grids with different orders for the rotations and you rank them from most to least desirable. You can rank however many or few you want so some of my classmates who only ranked 10-15 and ended up getting picked out of the lottery closer to the end got a grid they didn't rank on their list because the 10-15 they did rank were already taken. So ranking more or all the grids helps in that regard although order doesn't really matter that much. Then names are randomly drawn and grid order is assigned.

Once you know what order you will do your rotations in we do another lottery for rotation locations. There are WARM or TRIUMPH students who by definition of their program have agreed to do rotations in more rural or urban sites so they do their locations separately. For the regular program students we rank locations for each rotation and the lottery is run in reverse order from what popped out for the order lottery so that students who got a less desirable grid order can still get a desirable location for the rotation that is most important to them. Otherwise the lottery is run based on how many vs few weeks away from Madison you ranked. If you wanted 16 weeks away from Madison you will get your locations before someone who ranked 12 weeks away so it's a trade-off. You can rank more away locations to get put through the lottery sooner and have a better chance to get the away rotations you want, or you can rank fewer weeks away but take the chance that a particular rotation (peds, OB/GYN, etc) will be in an away rotation that was less desirable for you and depending on the number of weeks you ranked away you may get more than that (if you rank 0 weeks away from Madison you're not going to get it whereas if you rank 12-16 weeks you probably won't get any more than that).

Ultimately no matter what you do with grids everyone should have 4 weeks neuro, 4 weeks psych, 8 weeks surgery, and 4 weeks internal medicine all in Madison. This leaves a maximum of 6 weeks OB/GYN, 6 weeks peds, 8 weeks primary care, and 4 weeks internal medicine outside of Madison. In my class you typically would get 12 weeks away (either 4 wks IM plus 8 wks PC or 6 wks OB plus 6 wks peds). A minority ended up with 16 weeks away and a very few ended up with 18. I don't know of anyone in my class who got more than 18 weeks away unless they specifically ranked it that way. And there is also a grid swap for all of this so you can swap grid orders or locations assuming you can find a willing classmate. Whether you're trad or non-trad doesn't make any difference for scheduling, the lottery is the same for everyone. The only exception is for those students who are approved by the committee to be Madison-only for all or part of their third year and although they are more often non-trad they can be either. Many non-trad students also enjoy their third year, I don't really think being non-trad has anything to do with it especially regarding the quality of the education as opposed to missing a sig other. I'm non-trad too but it's just as difficult for my trad classmates to leave behind their SO as it is for me. Although having children could certainly make that harder that would qualify someone (among other things) for Madison-only (unless you're WARM or TRIUMPH) so this typically takes care of itself.

 

[drizzt3117]

My point is that the class of 2013 had more ppl with children than most classes ( actually I'm told the most of any class in the history of UW smph) so fewer Madison spots were available because lots of people got waivers.

Furthermore if you signed up for 12 and only 12 weeks away you'll almost certainly get exactly that. Ranking more than 12 weeks away essentially guarantees you'll get that.

As far as filling out grids for M3 schedules I would say that there definitely isn't one way to fill them out correctly but for the applicants here's how it went for my class which was the most recent class to do this. Grid assignment is lottery-based and we rank order first. There's 40 or so different grids with different orders for the rotations and you rank them from most to least desirable. You can rank however many or few you want so some of my classmates who only ranked 10-15 and ended up getting picked out of the lottery closer to the end got a grid they didn't rank on their list because the 10-15 they did rank were already taken. So ranking more or all the grids helps in that regard although order doesn't really matter that much. Then names are randomly drawn and grid order is assigned.

Once you know what order you will do your rotations in we do another lottery for rotation locations. There are WARM or TRIUMPH students who by definition of their program have agreed to do rotations in more rural or urban sites so they do their locations separately. For the regular program students we rank locations for each rotation and the lottery is run in reverse order from what popped out for the order lottery so that students who got a less desirable grid order can still get a desirable location for the rotation that is most important to them. Otherwise the lottery is run based on how many vs few weeks away from Madison you ranked. If you wanted 16 weeks away from Madison you will get your locations before someone who ranked 12 weeks away so it's a trade-off. You can rank more away locations to get put through the lottery sooner and have a better chance to get the away rotations you want, or you can rank fewer weeks away but take the chance that a particular rotation (peds, OB/GYN, etc) will be in an away rotation that was less desirable for you and depending on the number of weeks you ranked away you may get more than that (if you rank 0 weeks away from Madison you're not going to get it whereas if you rank 12-16 weeks you probably won't get any more than that).

Ultimately no matter what you do with grids everyone should have 4 weeks neuro, 4 weeks psych, 8 weeks surgery, and 4 weeks internal medicine all in Madison. This leaves a maximum of 6 weeks OB/GYN, 6 weeks peds, 8 weeks primary care, and 4 weeks internal medicine outside of Madison. In my class you typically would get 12 weeks away (either 4 wks IM plus 8 wks PC or 6 wks OB plus 6 wks peds). A minority ended up with 16 weeks away and a very few ended up with 18. I don't know of anyone in my class who got more than 18 weeks away unless they specifically ranked it that way. And there is also a grid swap for all of this so you can swap grid orders or locations assuming you can find a willing classmate. Whether you're trad or non-trad doesn't make any difference for scheduling, the lottery is the same for everyone. The only exception is for those students who are approved by the committee to be Madison-only for all or part of their third year and although they are more often non-trad they can be either. Many non-trad students also enjoy their third year, I don't really think being non-trad has anything to do with it especially regarding the quality of the education as opposed to missing a sig other. I'm non-trad too but it's just as difficult for my trad classmates to leave behind their SO as it is for me. Although having children could certainly make that harder that would qualify someone (among other things) for Madison-only (unless you're WARM or TRIUMPH) so this typically takes care of itself.

 

[Akeelah Bee]

Hi Guys,

I have my interview with UW this Friday and am really nervous. I'm IS and a graduate of the UW so I would really love to go to my home university. Does anyone have any advice or can give me a little information about their experience interviewing here? I really appreciate it! 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

[IRASNA]

Hi Guys,

I have my interview with UW this Friday and am really nervous. I'm IS and a graduate of the UW so I would really love to go to my home university. Does anyone have any advice or can give me a little information about their experience interviewing here? I really appreciate it! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Congrats on the interview. Don't be too.nervous--UWs interviews are not at all stressful. Youll have a group interview with a student or two that is extremely laid back. My faculty interview was slightly laid back with fairly straight forward questions pertaining to medicine, UW, and my app. The informal social the night before will definitely help in easing your nerves and help answer questions you have. Good luck!

Sdn has an interview feedback section that has some questions asked in previous years. I'm on my phone otherwise I'd send you a link.

 

[medpaty2458]

Hi Guys,

I have my interview with UW this Friday and am really nervous. I'm IS and a graduate of the UW so I would really love to go to my home university. Does anyone have any advice or can give me a little information about their experience interviewing here? I really appreciate it! 🙂 🙂 🙂

My interview was really relaxed as well. My faculty interviewer was late and I was getting anxious but she took her time to ask me questions and get to know me. I would say know the general ones about why medicine and know your application well. Be yourself though because they want to get to know you!
For the student interview, mine was mostly us asking the med students question. Just make sure that it is a conversation rather than a monologue. Maybe acknowledge what other students have to say, it will show you are a team player.

Good Luck!

 

[oncosankenobi]

Your faculty interview will go well. The one advice I wish I could've gotten before the group interview is not to be thrown off by the dynamic. You will be interviewing with 2 students (1st and 2nd years) and 2-3 other applicants. It's a strange structure, so you really have to make yourself stand apart (not in a forceful way). What they're looking for is oral competency, empathy, and interest in madison. Get those points across and you will be golden.

 

[Akeelah Bee]

Congrats on the interview. Don't be too.nervous--UWs interviews are not at all stressful. Youll have a group interview with a student or two that is extremely laid back. My faculty interview was slightly laid back with fairly straight forward questions pertaining to medicine, UW, and my app. The informal social the night before will definitely help in easing your nerves and help answer questions you have. Good luck!

Sdn has an interview feedback section that has some questions asked in previous years. I'm on my phone otherwise I'd send you a link.

My interview was really relaxed as well. My faculty interviewer was late and I was getting anxious but she took her time to ask me questions and get to know me. I would say know the general ones about why medicine and know your application well. Be yourself though because they want to get to know you!
For the student interview, mine was mostly us asking the med students question. Just make sure that it is a conversation rather than a monologue. Maybe acknowledge what other students have to say, it will show you are a team player.

Good Luck!

Your faculty interview will go well. The one advice I wish I could've gotten before the group interview is not to be thrown off by the dynamic. You will be interviewing with 2 students (1st and 2nd years) and 2-3 other applicants. It's a strange structure, so you really have to make yourself stand apart (not in a forceful way). What they're looking for is oral competency, empathy, and interest in madison. Get those points across and you will be golden.

Thanks you guys! Those are all really good pieces of advice. Fingers crossed that I will remain a badger!

 

[1289]

Thanks you guys! Those are all really good pieces of advice. Fingers crossed that I will remain a badger!

Just an fyi about "how you feel" post interview: I was sure I bombed them both and got accepted. So don't get too discouraged if you leave w a bad feeling that day ha

 

[Akeelah Bee]

Just an fyi about "how you feel" post interview: I was sure I bombed them both and got accepted. So don't get too discouraged if you leave w a bad feeling that day ha

Haha that is really good advice. Especially since I am one of those people that walk out of exams crying because I "failed" and find out later I got an A (not all the time of course, but more often than I'm cool enough to admit )... so I will try to stay calm! Thanks! 😳

 

[MLeeBee]

Just for everyone's reference, I called today and was told they are currently working on reviewing the 11/20 group.

 

[oncosankenobi]

Oh, boy. That's disappointing news. I thought they were up to 12/4 already.

 

[Ironhorse3]

Just for everyone's reference, I called today and was told they are currently working on reviewing the 11/20 group.

hmmm.....

someone from 11/20 posted they heard back a while ago

"Got the acceptance call this morning! IS, interviewed 11/20".......was posted on 1/14 (sorry I don't know how to double quote)

and

"Just got the letter...rejected. I'm a little sad but for the most part I'm doing okay. I would be more upset if I didn't have another acceptance under my belt cause I really liked the school and the program. Oh well!

OOS, 33/3.6, interviewed 12/4.

Congrats to those who were accepted!!" ......... was also posted on 1/14

so maybe they aren't going strictly in order ? idk?

Anyone else have hear anything back and not post yet?

 

[MLeeBee]

hmmm.....

someone from 11/20 posted they heard back a while ago

"Got the acceptance call this morning! IS, interviewed 11/20".......was posted on 1/14 (sorry I don't know how to double quote)

and

"Just got the letter...rejected. I'm a little sad but for the most part I'm doing okay. I would be more upset if I didn't have another acceptance under my belt cause I really liked the school and the program. Oh well!

OOS, 33/3.6, interviewed 12/4.

Congrats to those who were accepted!!" ......... was also posted on 1/14

so maybe they aren't going strictly in order ? idk?

Anyone else have hear anything back and not post yet?

I realize that, I'm just passing on what the Admissions department told me so others could use it as a rough estimate for timing. It depends on when your interviewer turns in their evaluation, etc so yes you're correct, it's not perfectly in time order.

 

[Ironhorse3]

I realize that, I'm just passing on what the Admissions department told me so others could use it as a rough estimate for timing. It depends on when your interviewer turns in their evaluation, etc so yes you're correct, it's not perfectly in time order.

Yeah sorry, I wasn't trying to make it seem like you were wrong, just trying to figure out the process. Thanks for the info! 🙂

 

[oncosankenobi]

Is there any chance they're reviewing OOS and IS students on different timelines?

 

[MLeeBee]

Yeah sorry, I wasn't trying to make it seem like you were wrong, just trying to figure out the process. Thanks for the info! 🙂

Haha as we all are... Wouldn't it be so much easier if we just knew and could stop playing the guessing game?

 

[IRASNA]

Is there any chance they're reviewing OOS and IS students on different timelines?

From what I gather, it seems like they are on slightly different timelines. Just based on some previous posts, so I could be wrong.

 

[oncosankenobi]

Yea, I noticed that trend as well on old posts. One can only hope I guess. Anyway, the school's twitter account suggests they might be reviewing 12/4 interviewees this week.

 

[Akeelah Bee]

For all those interviewees from this past Friday, Jan 25, I looked it up and yes, Kazakhstan is an actual country, not just a ridiculous place from the movie Borat. Felt kind of dumb for not knowing that but eh, oh well.

 

[Swartzlehman]

X

 

[potatochip]

hi guys,

I was accepted😀 on 1/14 and interviewed on 12/14. OOS, average stats.