2013-2014 Albany Medical College Application Thread

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Interview!!! Scheduled for Oct 4. Goodluck all 🙂 And btw, if anyone would like to carpool from Albany to Boston after the interview on Oct 4th, send me a pm!
 
II! Gonna be tricky getting there though :/


**again, it showed up in the 'promotions folder' in gmail
 
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What if none of the dates work for me......does anyone know if we can reschedule the interview dates?
 
Just got an interview invite this afternoon. I don't know when my file was complete, but I submitted my secondary on August 13th.

33 MCAT/3.63cGPA/3.49sGPA
 
smile8888 said:
What if none of the dates work for me......does anyone know if we can reschedule the interview dates?
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Did you find out if they can offer any other dates? Oct 4 would have worked for me, but its full. 🙁
 
It's supposed to say "pending" when you've submitted your payment/application and it's being processed right?
 
LuciusVorenus said:
It's supposed to say "pending" when you've submitted your payment/application and it's being processed right?
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Mine said pending, then in 2 days turned to Yes.

But even though I have been 'amcas" verified since July. (mcat available aug.6th). They have not downloaded my letter 🙁
 
Brpremed said:
Mine said pending, then in 2 days turned to Yes.

But even though I have been 'amcas" verified since July. (mcat available aug.6th). They have not downloaded my letter 🙁
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If it makes you feel better, it took them a full 2-3 weeks to download and process my letters. I think it's because they do it by hand.
 
LuciusVorenus said:
If it makes you feel better, it took them a full 2-3 weeks to download and process my letters. I think it's because they do it by hand.
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Thanks.

Do you know what is worse than not having your secondaries completed? Having it all turned in and waiting for responses, completions, and rejections!
 
Brpremed said:
Thanks.

Do you know what is worse than not having your secondaries completed? Having it all turned in and waiting for responses, completions, and rejections!
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We're in the same boat right now. It's awful :laugh:
 
I really hope that I may hear back from AMC sometime this week or next.....fingers crossed!
 
I've been pushing this secondary off until the end, and here we are... How on earth did you guys answer the "describe yourself" question?!?!?

Worst secondary out of the 20 that I did😡
 
I submitted 8/4 and my application is still not complete. I assigned my letters with my primary, so there should not have been a delay. Is anyone in a similar situation?
 
ukae said:
I submitted 8/4 and my application is still not complete. I assigned my letters with my primary, so there should not have been a delay. Is anyone in a similar situation?
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I am. Best bet is to e-mail them and ask what is the hold-up.
 
MS1 at AMC here.

Happy to answer any questions you might have about the interview process, impressions of the school, curriculum, etc to to the best of my abilities.

Best of luck to all.
 
NeuroSpeare said:
MS1 at AMC here.

Happy to answer any questions you might have about the interview process, impressions of the school, curriculum, etc to to the best of my abilities.

Best of luck to all.
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Do you by chance know if there is any sort of student hosting program available? I'm interviewing in October and it would be awesome to stay with a current student.
 
trapper0817 said:
Do you by chance know if there is any sort of student hosting program available? I'm interviewing in October and it would be awesome to stay with a current student.
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I believe when I interviewed they had something set up, but it wasn't entirely clear and I didn't use it.

I'll ask and get back to you.
 
NeuroSpeare said:
MS1 at AMC here.

Happy to answer any questions you might have about the interview process, impressions of the school, curriculum, etc to to the best of my abilities.

Best of luck to all.
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Hey!! Could you explain a little bit about how the MMIs work? This is something new for Albany, right? Also, what's the set up of the curriculum?
 
Chi1989 said:
Hey!! Could you explain a little bit about how the MMIs work? This is something new for Albany, right?
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http://www.mcgill.ca/files/caps/MMI_FAQ.pdf

The name says it all. It's a series of ~10 interviews, each ~10 minutes long, with various members of the college faculty, administration, and student body. You rotate through a series of stations, each with their own prompt. Prompts range from ethical dilemmas to traditional interview questions (Why do you want to be a physician?) to more creative situations that access your creativity and interpersonal skills. Generally speaking, the process is "closed file," meaning that each interviewer doesn't have your complete admissions profile in front of them.

To the best of my knowledge, Albany started using MMI last year and is continuing this year. Every school puts their own spin on the process, so don't take my generalized summary as gospel. Once you get your II you'll receive more information regarding the specifics.

For the most part, interviewees find the MMI less stressful than the traditional one-on-one. Since your "score" for the day is spread over 10 interviews/interviewers, one bad response doesn't spell your doom. After the first one or two rooms I usually ended up having a lot of fun with it.


Chi1989 said:
I'm only a month in so I'm still green, but the curriculum is broken up into "themes." For example, we are currently in the Medical Cell Biology and Genetics - so we've gone through lectures ranging from cellular structure and organelles to protein transcription/translation/trafficking. It's more or less your entire undergraduate life science pre-req block...in 6 weeks 🙂 The next theme we have is the musculoskeletal system + anatomy.
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thanks for that reply! I also PM'ed you some more personal questions! Please read it when you get a chance!
 
NeuroSpeare:

Thanks for the MMI information.

Can you explain more about what MS3 clinical experiences and MS4 away rotations, based on what you learned/heard? I understand that they have VA and AMC (Level 1 Trauma Center serving 25 counties), but do you know any specifics about the patient populations there? For the MS4 away rotations, there are only 4 electives and I am worried about the inflexibility of MS4 schedules for students to do away rotations. If there is any info you know or heard before, can you share with us?
 
Please explain any inconsistencies in your university, graduate, or professional school academic performance and/or MCAT scores. (1,000 character limit)

My MCAT score was inconsistent with my practice exams - got an 8 on verbal and 12 on the other sections when I usually scored 10+ on each section and averaged a 35 on my practice exams. It was probably a result of the zero sleep I got that night due to anxiety and the poor mood I was in that day :|| I don't really know how I'd go about explaining this though without sounding whiny...
 
Lya said:
NeuroSpeare:

Thanks for the MMI information.

Can you explain more about what MS3 clinical experiences and MS4 away rotations, based on what you learned/heard? I understand that they have VA and AMC (Level 1 Trauma Center serving 25 counties), but do you know any specifics about the patient populations there? For the MS4 away rotations, there are only 4 electives and I am worried about the inflexibility of MS4 schedules for students to do away rotations. If there is any info you know or heard before, can you share with us?
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I can't speak to the away rotations. I know of upperclassmen that have completed them, successfully. I've just not heard anything, good or bad, to make any judgements. But in terms of clinical exposure, I've heard nothing but great things. We had a Med-Peds chief resident speak to our class during a lunch meeting recently and she kept going on about how varied the patient population is and how it provides a a very broad range of clinical cases. If anything, I've been given the impression that AMC's clinical preparation is one of the strengths of the program.

Sorry I can't be more specific - as an MS1, my attention is pretty squarely set on keeping up with lecture and beasting the exams 😳 But I know some of my classmates have already begun setting up shadowing with some of the residents and attendings from pretty much any specialty you can think of. They've been extremely receptive thus far.
 
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NeuroSpeare said:
I can't speak to the away rotations. I know of upperclassmen that have completed them, successfully. I've just not heard anything, good or bad, to make any judgements. But in terms of clinical exposure, I've heard nothing but great things. We had a Med-Peds chief resident speak to our class during a lunch meeting recently and she kept going on about how varied the patient population is and how it provides a a very broad range of clinical cases. If anything, I've been given the impression that AMC's clinical preparation is one of the strengths of the program.

Sorry I can't be more specific - as an MS1, my attention is pretty squarely set on keeping up with lecture and beasting the exams 😳 But I know some of my classmates have already begun setting up shadowing with some of the residents and attendings from pretty much any specialty you can think of. They've been extremely receptive thus far.
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Thanks for the reply. I have another quick question.

What have you heard about the NY Department of Health nearby Albany? I've read that their virology and biochem laboratories are great, but are there any med students researching there? I am guessing probably not, because they are not clinical research?
 
Lya said:
Can you explain more about what MS3 clinical experiences and MS4 away rotations, based on what you learned/heard? I understand that they have VA and AMC (Level 1 Trauma Center serving 25 counties), but do you know any specifics about the patient populations there? For the MS4 away rotations, there are only 4 electives and I am worried about the inflexibility of MS4 schedules for students to do away rotations. If there is any info you know or heard before, can you share with us?
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Current MS3 here - I've only been through 1.5 rotations so far, but here are my impressions:

Basics - MS3 is all required rotations (12wks of Medicine, 8 wks each of Surgery and Peds, 6 weeks each of Ob/Gyn, Family Med, and Psych.) Each has a variety of different sites that are available. Family Med can be done away at sites all over the country.

MS4 - There are 10 4-week periods, 5 of which will consist of required courses, some of which may possibly be done away (Neurology, Emergency Med, Critical Care, a sub-I, and Learning to Teach/Teaching to Learn.) The other 5 blocks are up to you, with a maximum of 2 in any given discipline. Many people who are shooting for more competitive specialties will do 2 away rotations in their desired specialty before interview season. I talked to a graduating senior a couple of years ago that did at least 5 away rotations because she just wanted to get out of Albany, and another who did a similar number of aways because she wanted to spend time with family in California.


AMC does serve a wide region and gets all sorts of interesting cases. I did my first rotation at Albany Med and my current rotation is at a community hospital. Albany's really the only academic center for miles, so lots of more advanced cases get sent there, sometimes including patients from western Mass. or Vermont. Initially on my current rotation, I was bummed that all the interesting high risk cases were being shipped down to Albany right after we evaluated them, but then my classmates said they wished they saw a little more "normal" like I am seeing, and that they got more teaching time and 1-on-1 attending time like I am. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side😉

My roommate was at the VA last month, and my impression is it's your typical VA population of elderly men with your typical issues.

Besides the university medical center and the VA, for Psych the state psychiatric hospital is also right next door. There are rotations at nearby hospitals such as Saint Peter's Hospital, Samaritan Hospital in Troy, and Ellis Hospital in Schenectady. There are also some rotations at places farther out, for example if you are interested in rural medicine Basset Healthcare in Cooperstown, NY or the Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, PA might be options you'd like to try. I also heard someone mention a rural medicine opportunity up in the Adirondacks, which I think might have been an elective or a family med preceptor location. Although perhaps they were referring to the outpatient medicine month available in Glens Falls which is about an hour north. The furthest south I've heard of is an outpatient medicine spot an hour south in Hudson, NY.

Is there a specific patient population you're hoping to encounter or experience you are looking for?

We have most specialties represented here with the exception of Dermatology. You don't necessarily get exposure to all of them (e.g. Rad Onc) but if you are interested and seek those opportunities out, people seem very willing to teach and help set up experiences. Maybe it's just that all of a sudden the physicians see and treat you as colleagues instead of preclinical students, or that the subject matter is suddenly a lot more relevant, but I've found the enthusiasm for teaching to be great so far as a third year. There is a bit of needing to be assertive and proactive about your education, but if you want to learn about things or try procedures, I have found excellent support for that so far.
 
Lya said:
Thanks for the reply. I have another quick question.

What have you heard about the NY Department of Health nearby Albany? I've read that their virology and biochem laboratories are great, but are there any med students researching there? I am guessing probably not, because they are not clinical research?
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I don't personally know of anyone doing research there at the moment; my classmate who did ID-type research did it with one of the professors (PhD) at Albany Med. There are folks who do clinical research, but there are also students who do research in basic science labs at AMC and at nearby institutions (e.g. RPI and SUNY Albany's Nanotech campus), so I don't see why you couldn't pursue something at the Dept. of Health, especially since they are so close. One of our deans very recently used to work for the state health department, so I'm sure she'd have some connections and could help introduce you to the appropriate people. The Public Health club set up a trip over there a couple years ago, so they must be receptive to the medical students.
 
Thank you, Sally! That's more information than I needed!

Probably the last question, but what are things that you wish to see improved, besides more representation of derms?


Thanks again for all of your comments, including Neuro's. They are very helpful for my upcoming interview in 2 days!
 
http://www.ucalgary.ca/mdprogram/admissions/mmi/samples

I was looking through online resources for MMI and came across this.

After you go to that website, click "here" for video MMI and other MMI sample scenarios. It gave me a good overview about the format of my answers, so I thought other people who might not know how to prepare for MMI might find this useful!
 
Lya said:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/mdprogram/admissions/mmi/samples

I was looking through online resources for MMI and came across this.

After you go to that website, click "here" for video MMI and other MMI sample scenarios. It gave me a good overview about the format of my answers, so I thought other people who might not know how to prepare for MMI might find this useful!
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing! Good find.

Haha the video a bit awkward since it seems so real/I can almost feel the interviewee's nervous energy... But it's nice to see that someone so nervous can still come across as very competent.
 
I just drove home from Albany and want to give some feedback for my interview day today.

#1. It was a blast. It was my second interview this cycle, but I have to say, I am now a big supporter for MMI instead of a traditional, one-on-one interview.

Don't worry about MMI at all. No station was particularly difficult at all. They are typical topics that we as college students, as pre-meds, should have thought at least once. Literally, I was just as nervous, but after one or two stations, time flies and you will be on the roll. The single best advice I could give is, stay confident and remind yourself that you are there to share your insights to discuss the both sides of a given argument. Don't freak out. Sit up straight, smile, and just talk about your thoughts. You will be given 2 full minutes to read the scenario and think about it, so by the time you go in, you will definitely have 1-2 thoughts you want to mention. And as you discuss further, you will have other thoughts or points pop up. There are some stations where you have to ask yourself, "Okay what is a typical effect or consequence we would expect? What are some side effects or unintended consequences that may occur? How can we find a common ground or make a compromise?" But I truly stand by the advice above. If you stay confident and remind yourself that you are there to simply share your thoughts and discuss with a colleague, it is more likely that you will have other thoughts popping up in your head while you are giving a response.

#2. One of adcom members (I don't remember exactly what his position was) said at the very beginning of the interview day that he did not live in Albany in the past until his fellowship. He has been in Albany for many years now and he told us that his professional learning environment is superb. Interesting cases consistently emerge to keep his professional life interesting. Sure, it is not the big city like NYC, but I was convinced that there are enough things going around to keep students entertaining and busy. The diversity and richness of pathology coming into Albany seem very appealing.

#3. Students and faculties were all laid back. I would say that they were as down-to-earth and easy going as some of the nicest people I met in midwest. Some interviewers who were doctors treated me as a colleague, rather than a student or interviewee. Their follow-up questions during MMI were genuinely asked to discuss more in depth into a given topic, rather than trying to trick the students. I appreciated that they listened to my responses and came up with their questions out of curiosity, rather than having standard follow-up questions and simply reading them from their cheat sheet. (there was no cheat sheet, of course, even for interviewers.)

#4. Interior areas of the buildings look old, and some areas might benefit a lot from renovations. But I don't think it is a big deal considering a lot of times will be spent in library/home studying and in hospital doing clerkships.


Ask questions more about the interview day if you have one. I have very good, positive experiences at Albany, and the MMI is very well organized and structured that I appreciated all the staff taking a lot of their time to coordinate the interview days.
 
My letter of recommendation has not been received according to the status page on the website... and it says that it may take up to 10 days to process the letter. I submitted my application on 8/28/13. Should I contact the admissions office to check?

And is anyone else having the same problem? Letter not processed?
 
dodream said:
My letter of recommendation has not been received according to the status page on the website... and it says that it may take up to 10 days to process the letter. I submitted my application on 8/28/13. Should I contact the admissions office to check?

And is anyone else having the same problem? Letter not processed?
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I submitted around the same date, and just today they processed my letters. Wait a couple more days.
 
dodream said:
My letter of recommendation has not been received according to the status page on the website... and it says that it may take up to 10 days to process the letter. I submitted my application on 8/28/13. Should I contact the admissions office to check?

And is anyone else having the same problem? Letter not processed?
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I submitted 8/29 and today my letters were put up in my status, but my application is still not marked as complete so yeah I agree with the wait a few days thing
 
Hey guys,

I just started here at AMC as an M1 a month ago. I'd be happy to answer any questions you guys have on this thread or via private message!

Good luck!
 
burbbs said:
Hey guys,

I just started here at AMC as an M1 a month ago. I'd be happy to answer any questions you guys have on this thread or via private message!

Good luck!
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How many interviewees are usually present for each MMI interview?
 
osprey099 said:
How many interviewees are usually present for each MMI interview?
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I can probably answer that since I just had MMI interview at Albany a while ago.

There are 8 stations, but there are 16 total stations so that 2 groups of 8 people can do the MMI at the same time. In other words, there will be 16 total MMI going on at any given moment. After these 16 interviewees finish the whole 8 MMI stations, they leave. And then a new group of 16 interviewees enter for another round of MMI.
 
Lya said:
I can probably answer that since I just had MMI interview at Albany a while ago.

There are 8 stations, but there are 16 total stations so that 2 groups of 8 people can do the MMI at the same time. In other words, there will be 16 total MMI going on at any given moment. After these 16 interviewees finish the whole 8 MMI stations, they leave. And then a new group of 16 interviewees enter for another round of MMI.
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Do you know if Albany just transitioned into the MMI format this application cycle? I thought Albany was still one-on-one interviews..
 
osprey099 said:
Do you know if Albany just transitioned into the MMI format this application cycle? I thought Albany was still one-on-one interviews..
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They started MMI since last year. But this year, MMI is so nicely constructed and organized that you won't even notice it's only their 2nd year doing MMI.

But I can assure you, it will not be as stressful as one-on-one interviews. In one-on-one interviews, you cannot think about your answers for 2 full minutes. You don't do, "Let me think about that. (2 minutes later) Okay so I think...." But in MMI for Albany, you can. You will feel SO much easier articulating your answer. Furthermore, it will be much more naturally conversational once you go into MMI. It won't be like question, answer, question, answer, etc. like in one-on-one interviews.
 
Lya said:
They started MMI since last year. But this year, MMI is so nicely constructed and organized that you won't even notice it's only their 2nd year doing MMI.

But I can assure you, it will not be as stressful as one-on-one interviews. In one-on-one interviews, you cannot think about your answers for 2 full minutes. You don't do, "Let me think about that. (2 minutes later) Okay so I think...." But in MMI for Albany, you can. You will feel SO much easier articulating your answer. Furthermore, it will be much more naturally conversational once you go into MMI. It won't be like question, answer, question, answer, etc. like in one-on-one interviews.
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Thank you for your informative posts. I have my interview at Albany next month so I was doing some planning ahead. Do you think the MMI questions were hard? I see that most people feel that MMI is very conversational and even sometimes fun but I already had a MMI this cycle and I didn't like it that much because the questions seemed like it required extensive background knowledge.
 
LuciusVorenus said:
I submitted 8/29 and today my letters were put up in my status, but my application is still not marked as complete so yeah I agree with the wait a few days thing
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I submitted around the same time (end of august) and just today there is a yes next to "Application complete and ready for review by our Admissions Committee"

Now... time to wait 🙂
 
osprey099 said:
Thank you for your informative posts. I have my interview at Albany next month so I was doing some planning ahead. Do you think the MMI questions were hard? I see that most people feel that MMI is very conversational and even sometimes fun but I already had a MMI this cycle and I didn't like it that much because the questions seemed like it required extensive background knowledge.
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Look at my previous post about my interview day in the previous page.

But in short, no they weren't hard questions at all. There might be one or two questions might throw off some people at first, but you should have some thoughts to begin with after 2 minutes of thinking. Overall in general, these are topics that we as college students and as pre-meds might have encountered (or should have encountered) in the past.

Background knowledge might help, but being confident (sit up straight, remind yourself that you are there to share your thoughts and insights) and thinking both sides (What are expected consequences or results we hope to get in this scenario? What are unintended consequences or side effects we should expect? How can we find a common ground?) will be definitely a key.


If you want, you can look into the MMI practice/info links I posted in the previous page. That might be a good way to start if you are too worried. I skimmed through it a night before, and it was very helpful.


The bottom line is, I enjoyed the MMI at Albany so much that I am now a big supporter for MMI. I thought it required a lot of background knowledge, just like you. But it changed afterwards.
 
Lya said:
Look at my previous post about my interview day in the previous page.

But in short, no they weren't hard questions at all. There might be one or two questions might throw off some people at first, but you should have some thoughts to begin with after 2 minutes of thinking. Overall in general, these are topics that we as college students and as pre-meds might have encountered (or should have encountered) in the past.

Background knowledge might help, but being confident (sit up straight, remind yourself that you are there to share your thoughts and insights) and thinking both sides (What are expected consequences or results we hope to get in this scenario? What are unintended consequences or side effects we should expect? How can we find a common ground?) will be definitely a key.


If you want, you can look into the MMI practice/info links I posted in the previous page. That might be a good way to start if you are too worried. I skimmed through it a night before, and it was very helpful.


The bottom line is, I enjoyed the MMI at Albany so much that I am now a big supporter for MMI. I thought it required a lot of background knowledge, just like you. But it changed afterwards.
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Ok, great! Also, do you know when the interview day ends? I know it starts at 8am but I don't think it mentions when it ends.
 
osprey099 said:
Ok, great! Also, do you know when the interview day ends? I know it starts at 8am but I don't think it mentions when it ends.
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If you interview first and then do tour (you get selected randomly for which group you will be in. I was in the group that did interview first), you will get done quicker than the other group who does tour first and interview later. For me, I got done at 3:00-3:30 ish, depending on how fast the tour gets done. Officially in schedule, my group was supposed to end at 4 pm at the latest. If you are in the other group that does tour first and interview later, you will get supposedly done by 4:30 at the latest, but I am not sure actually when, because I left the campus before 3:30 pm.

So plan on being there until 4:30 pm, but most likely you will be done before that.
 
Hey guys, are there any days interviews are not available on? I'm trying to choose a date for another school wisely in case albany shows some love! thanks
 
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