2012-2013 Virginia Commonwealth University Application Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Post #93.


Describe your unique qualities and how they might contribute to or benefit our medical school class.
 
aarond said:
Post #93.


Describe your unique qualities and how they might contribute to or benefit our medical school class.
Click to expand...

But how did you know this? It shows up as a blank prompt on my computer.
 
Mine displayed out where it stated the character limit.
 
crazedpiggy said:
But how did you know this? It shows up as a blank prompt on my computer.
Click to expand...

If you save that page and then continue with the application you can go back and the prompt appears.

Now...is ANYONE even planning to come close to the 8000 character limit?
 
aspiringdoc1234 said:
If you save that page and then continue with the application you can go back and the prompt appears.

Now...is ANYONE even planning to come close to the 8000 character limit?
Click to expand...

Aha! I see it now! and absolutely not. I mean, I could probably talk about myself for awhile, but it would probably become very redundant and boring.
 
clown22 said:
I'll be the first to ask, how the heck did you write an essay ready to submit in a matter of 2-3 hours.
Click to expand...

Pre-written and/or copy and paste something together from other similar prompts. I've done a lot of that so far.

Also, the more you pre-write, the more things you come up with and the easier it is to apply them to "new" or "unique" essay prompts.

As an example, you could use the almost exact same essay to answer the following prompts.

1. Greatest personal achievement.
2. Unique qualities/reason why we should accept you into the class of 2017.
3. Greatest obstacle or hardship.
4. Anything else you want to share that isn't included on your AMCAS.
5. What can you offer to our class?
6. In what ways can you have a positive impact on our school and your classmates?

etc.
 
MedPR said:
Pre-written and/or copy and paste something together from other similar prompts. I've done a lot of that so far.

Also, the more you pre-write, the more things you come up with and the easier it is to apply them to "new" or "unique" essay prompts.

As an example, you could use the almost exact same essay to answer the following prompts.

1. Greatest personal achievement.
2. Unique qualities/reason why we should accept you into the class of 2017.
3. Greatest obstacle or hardship.
4. Anything else you want to share that isn't included on your AMCAS.
5. What can you offer to our class?
6. In what ways can you have a positive impact on our school and your classmates?

etc.
Click to expand...

+1 I've been out of school for a while so I had the time to pre-write all my secondaries from last year's threads. Most of them haven't changed at all so I've been doing < 24h turnarounds as well. For the ones that have changed it's usually a simple copy and paste of another school's secondaries to answer them. Hope it continues this way! :xf:
 
Wow 1 year college math requirement? I'm glad I took the calc series now, but I've never run across any other school that needed so much math!
 
Goobs said:
Wow 1 year college math requirement? I'm glad I took the calc series now, but I've never run across any other school that needed so much math!
Click to expand...

Yea.. I only have 1 semester so I don't know if I should bother completing the secondary.
 
"Please briefly explain any lapses in your undergraduate education"

is this like why i skipped a year of college? or why my grades were bad through x period?
 
MooCowJoe said:
"Please briefly explain any lapses in your undergraduate education"

is this like why i skipped a year of college? or why my grades were bad through x period?
Click to expand...

Either.
 
Just received the secondary. 3.6/32 OOS

aarond said:
Post #93.


Describe your unique qualities and how they might contribute to or benefit our medical school class.
Click to expand...

Well that's certainly much nicer than last year's prompt.
 
Anyone know if the character limit includes spaces? 150 characters isnt nearly enough to indicate my improvements from last years application.

Edit: Or am I just supposed to list them? Any thoughts?
 
on last years thread, someone quoted admissions as saying about 60% of applicants who receive the secondary are interviewed -- can anyone backup/refute this? it doesn't seem like they are very selective about who's receiving it....
 
Do they take AP credit for their math requirements?
 
Finally done with that secondary. I like last years essay better because I had that one finished when I sent my thank you letter to the interviewer.
 
Wow I feel super behind. My primary was verified this morning, how long after did it take yall to get your secondary?
 
sinam said:
Wow I feel super behind. My primary was verified this morning, how long after did it take yall to get your secondary?
Click to expand...

Primary was sent out on 6/29. Received secondary the day before yesterday (or yesterday).

Does anyone know if 1 semester of math == 1 "year" of math?
 
MedPR said:
Primary was sent out on 6/29. Received secondary the day before yesterday (or yesterday).

Does anyone know if 1 semester of math == 1 "year" of math?
Click to expand...

I would image 1 year of math = 2 semesters of 3 quarters
 
Goobs said:
I would image 1 year of math = 2 semesters of 3 quarters
Click to expand...

That's what I figured. I didn't know any schools required 2 semesters of math. I guess I'll not bother with this secondary.
 
crazedpiggy said:
Man, I must have a weak heart or something. Got a sudden loss of appetite, heart rate elevated, and my hands were trembling as I incorrectly entered my login information. If I'm gonna get so worked up about something like getting screened in for a secondary, I'm gonna have a loooooong application cycle ahead of me. :|
Click to expand...

Me too! Checked my e-mail right after waking up from a nap, saw the "Your status has changed in the past 24 hours" and instantly thought, "Here comes the first rejection". I kept entering different variations of my standard password for things, getting increasingly nervous, until I noticed they were asking for my PIN. I guess I better get used to high stress email checking. It's gonna be a long year.

I fail as an anal premed. I don't remember my SAT scores =/ I took it twice, and made an 800 in Verbal once, but I seriously can't remember either overall score. Nor can I log in to College Board because I used an e-mail address specific to my high school, which I don't have access to anymore.
Arghhh, guess I'll check to see if my parents kept my scores somewhere...

Also, statistics counts in BCPM...but does it count as a semester of math for VCU?
 
Last edited:
haha finding my SAT scores was fun. I found out my collegeboard account name was "dasexybeast"

Unfortunately I am much lamer now :/
 
MsPlasmodesmata said:
Me too! Checked my e-mail right after waking up from a nap, saw the "Your status has changed in the past 24 hours" and instantly thought, "Here comes the first rejection". I kept entering different variations of my standard password for things, getting increasingly nervous, until I noticed they were asking for my PIN. I guess I better get used to high stress email checking. It's gonna be a long year.

I guess I fail as an anal premed. I don't remember my SAT scores =/ I took it twice, and made an 800 in Verbal once, but I seriously can't remember either overall score. Nor can I log in to College Board because I used an e-mail address specific to my high school, which I don't have access to anymore.
Arghhh, guess I'll check to see if my parents kept my scores somewhere...

Also, statistics counts in BCPM...but does it count as a semester of math for VCU?
Click to expand...

Yep! (http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/admissions/md/prerequisites.html)
 
So my file isn't complete because I lack my LORs. They were sent through AMCAS, I'm assuming they just haven't paired them together with the application, yet?
 
Does your choice for hospital rotation site have any bearing on your likelihood of receiving an interview invite?

i.e. does choosing that you would be fine with either site mean you would be more likely to be interviewed?
 
sinam said:
haha finding my SAT scores was fun. I found out my collegeboard account name was "dasexybeast"

Unfortunately I am much lamer now :/
Click to expand...

My undergrad's banner has all of my test scores listed (SAT/ACT/MCAT)
 
Will be applying here too! 🙂
 
Just to confirm what was said above, if I took calc 1 and also took a statistics course, that means I have fulfilled the math requirements right?
 
typicalindian said:
Just to confirm what was said above, if I took calc 1 and also took a statistics course, that means I have fulfilled the math requirements right?
Click to expand...
that's what I took and I'm going with it.
 
I never took the SAT. joys of being a midwesterner I guess
 
what is the point of looking at our SAT scores? Maybe they want to compare how we do on standardized tests or something? ie..mcat vs sat? Although, I don't know how they can make such a comparison...
 
typicalindian said:
what is the point of looking at our SAT scores? Maybe they want to compare how we do on standardized tests or something? ie..mcat vs sat? Although, I don't know how they can make such a comparison...
Click to expand...


If they are, then that'll be another upward trend to help me 😀
 
1289 said:
I never took the SAT. joys of being a midwesterner I guess
Click to expand...

Same here. I haven't started the secondary yet, but maybe there is a place for ACT scores instead?

Edit: nevermind, I just checked the app.
 
Last edited:
I got an email to login...

and this is what I get..

"The School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University on the Medical College of Virginia Campus has received your preliminary application from AMCAS. Your application will be reviewed. Decisions are made at that point as to which candidates will be granted supplemental application from us. It has always been our committee's policy to grant supplemental applications to those candidates who are deemed competitive within our applicant pool.

Depending on the volume of applications coming from AMCAS it may take several weeks to complete the initial review of your application. Thank you for your interest in our school and best of luck with the application process."

Does this mean I'm screened already?

3.86/3.95/29/CA Applicant Here...
 
When you guys log in to fill out the secondary, which year are you selecting, 2012 or 2013? Also, did you receive TWO emails from VCU; one about "Application Status" and a second inviting you to do the secondary?

Odd situation for me: I sent my AMCAS app to VCU last year but did not fill out a secondary. A couple days ago I got the "Application Status Update" email and I couldn't log in for the 2013 cycle, only the 2012 cycle. When I did that, I got a message saying:

"We notify applicants that once that file completion deadline is past we can no longer consider the application. Since you have not yet completed your file, we are assuming that you do not intend to do so. We are therefore categorizing your file as "not accepted"..."

I interpret this to be a rejection for last year's cycle, but I guess it's worth an email to the admissions office to double check. Anyone else have a similar issue?
 
I got the same thing! I got the same message when I tried to log into the link VCU and they posted that on the log-in. So idk I guess we wait and see what happens :/
 
NCPremed said:
When you guys log in to fill out the secondary, which year are you selecting, 2012 or 2013? Also, did you receive TWO emails from VCU; one about "Application Status" and a second inviting you to do the secondary?
Click to expand...

I got two emails. One saying they received my prelim and one two days later with the title "VCU School of Medicine Application Update Status", which tells you to log on to check your status. After logging in it said congrats you've been invited or whatever.
 
Goobs said:
I got two emails. One saying they received my prelim and one two days later with the title "VCU School of Medicine Application Update Status", which tells you to log on to check your status. After logging in it said congrats you've been invited or whatever.
Click to expand...

Wait, you got interview invite already?
 
Bumbl3b33 said:
oh haha, i was about to say....whose 11th finger did you have to suck to get an interview THIS early!
Click to expand...

Haha sorry I quoted someone that was talking about a secondary email, but I probably should have mentioned that in my response as well :laugh:
 
found this on last years thread. it was copied from the year before:

F A Q s

GENERAL APPLICATION PROCESS

1. What is a priority score?

A priority score is assigned to every applicant in order to determine the candidacy of each applicant to enter the next stage in the process. A file reviewer will give you a priority score to determine if you meet requirements for a secondary. Post-secondary, a file reviewer will determine if you deserve an interview. These two scores have little to do with you getting in. After an interview the ADCOM assigns a third priority score to determine if the applicant is to be accepted, put on hold, or rejected. - Instatewaiter

2. Do any out-of-staters get an acceptance in the first batch? Do you have to have stellar stats?

The first batch is the hardest to get in from and they tend to have the highest stats. It is very common that people who interviewed early get pushed along until the committee reaches that priority score. For example: let's say Bob gets a score of 2.5 (1 is the best, 3.5-5 is a rejection). In October they may only offer to a 1.5 (Bob doesn’t get in and gets pushed to the next batch) . In December a 2.0 (Bob doesn’t get in). In January, a 2.2 and in March a 2.5. So Bob would have to wait until March to get in. - Instatewaiter

POST-SECONDARY

1. My application was just complete, how long does it take for them to make a decision about an interview?

VCU has a response time faster than most other schools. The committee usually takes about 1-2 weeks to review a completed application. Keep in mind that this estimate can increase depending on where they are in the application cycle. The length of time also depends on your priority score.

2. I recently got a status update post-secondary, but it was very vague. What does this mean?

I have done some research and it seems that there are 2-3 possible updates that the adcoms send out post secondary review:

A) The committee's file review indicates that they are interested in your candidacy. However, due to the increase in the applicant pool this year, it is clear we MAY be unable to interview all the candidates at your priority score. If we do find that we are able to grant an interview you will be notified by e-mail.

B) The committee's file review indicates that they would like to consider your file further. We are now in the process of scheduling interviews and will continue to do so through February. Unfortunately, the committee indicates interest in far more candidates than we are able to interview. Since we are dependent on the Committee member's schedules for interview spaces, we are unable to predict when or if we will be able to schedule you this year. Please continue to check this site to learn when further action has been taken.

What do these mean? The committee has looked at your file and decided you meet the qualifications for an interview. They do not want to guarantee you an interview right now because they do not know what the schedule will be like 4 months in advance. It would not be fair to guarantee an interview and later rescind it due to a lack of interview spots. Just take this as a good sign. People from the past 2 cycles usually recieve an invitation ranging from two days to a month. So be patient and wait. It could take anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks.
It has been speculated that the two messages could be correlated to a certain priority score, but this has not been substantiated by the ADCOM.

C) The committee's file review indicates that they wish to consider your file over the next several weeks before making a decision about interview. Since they have some reservations about granting an interview, your file will be reviewed again by a small sub-committee before making a final decision. Please continue to check this site to learn when further action has been taken.

This is pretty straightforward, but it is important to note it is NOT a rejection. It only means that the person giving the priority score could not come to a decision. Additional staff will look at the file to collaborate for a decision.

POST-INTERVIEW

1. How does the ADCOM determine your priority score?

Your file is projected onto a screen and people start tearing you down based on weaknesses. Your file reviewer (one who initially read your file) and interviewer are your advocates and push for you to get in. They field questions and there is a discussion about you. Each member on the adcom gives you a score from 1-5. The highest and lowest score are thrown out and the rest are averaged. This is your priority score. 1 is the best basically the ideal candidate and 5 is the worst. Anything above a 3.5 is an automatic rejection.
 
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