2013-2014 Michigan State University Application Thread

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okokok said:
Anyone have any preference for whether they're placed at Grand Rapids or East Lansing?
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I'm going to indicate Grand Rapids. I interviewed there and really liked the atmosphere, new facilities and city center location.
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Alternate list via email. Interviewed on 11/22. :yuck:

Don't care tho... got accepted into my top choice!! :soexcited:
 
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Interview invite on 1/22! Secondary submitted 7/17, complete 7/19, forwarded to preliminary review 7/21, and was placed on hold for an interview decision 1/16 (looks like they got back to me soon after!).

My interview is scheduled for Friday, March 28th. Would anyone happen to know if there is a student host program? Or any hotel recommendations that are closest to the school and would offer a shuttle service to and from the airport?? I'm trying to save on expenses and planning ahead of time for the trip! I'm from OOS and this is will be my first time in Michigan!
 
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Hey Guys!!!!
Current ABLE student, so should be starting with the class of 2018 in August..let me know if you guys have any questions. I went through all this last year, so I know what's up.
Go Spartan M.D, Go Green!!!
 
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mmee said:
Interview invite on 1/22! Secondary submitted 7/17, complete 7/19, forwarded to preliminary review 7/21, and was placed on hold for an interview decision 1/16 (looks like they got back to me soon after!).

My interview is scheduled for Friday, March 28th. Would anyone happen to know if there is a student host program? Or any hotel recommendations that are closest to the school and would offer a shuttle service to and from the airport?? I'm trying to save on expenses and planning ahead of time for the trip! I'm from OOS and this is will be my first time in Michigan!
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Are you interviewing in EL or GR? And are you male or female?
 
Sharpie8507 said:
Hey Guys!!!!
Current ABLE student, so should be starting with the class of 2018 in August..let me know if you guys have any questions. I went through all this last year, so I know what's up.
Go Spartan M.D, Go Green!!!
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What is the best way to prepare for the MMI interview, I know there is not much beforehand preparation needed this type of interview, but what do you think can help?
 
Hey there. I found that "How to ace your medical school interview: includes multiple mini interview questions and answers for medical school" by Dr Peter Griffiths was a really good book to read. Its a fun and fast read and shouldnt take you too long to complete. I bought mine through Amazon.com and did the kindle version so I could have access to it immediately instead of wait for a hard copy. I think it was only 6 bucks too. Also I would suggest just searching "MMI" on the internet and there you will also find some great resources. I just interviewed at MSU last month and I really found the MMI to be very fun and enjoyable. The key is to realize that there is no right or wrong answer. Just be yourself because thats the whole point of MMI's. It evaluates how you would respond to different scenarios. After this experience im sure you will want all of your interviews to be in this format. Good luck! I hope you rock it.
 
Just been fully accepted (conditionally accepted 10/15). (The only difference between conditionally and fully is the criminal background check).
 
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Backtothebasics8 said:
Just been fully accepted (conditionally accepted 10/15). (The only difference between conditionally and fully is the criminal background check).
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Congrats to you. I got the same email.
However, I'll be giving up my spot to go to that Michigan school with a lesser football team.

Go Green Go White, and forever, GO BLUE!!
 
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Canadian Applicant
On hold since September
II- Jan 21
Interview date offered: Feb 28th in Grand Rapids but I had to change to March 28th because it conflicted with a Canadian University interview

Stoked!
 
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Beautiful Game said:
What is the best way to prepare for the MMI interview, I know there is not much beforehand preparation needed this type of interview, but what do you think can help?
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Check out Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) for the Mind if you're looking to develop a framework to MMIs and want some practice scenarios. Google or search on Amazon. Good luck!
 
Does anyone know if there is a Facebook group for people who are accepted; they did that at CMU, just wondering if there is anything like that for MSU.
Thanks!
 
I have to say, I haven't interviewed yet, but I am so far pretty impressed by how responsive they are to the questions their applicants pose to them, especially those of us who are OOS and have concerns.

I just got off the phone with one of the faculty members to find out what resources I need to know about for next week so they can give it to me at the interview. I will also be possibly meeting with faculty Thursday, having dinner with students Thursday, staying with a student Thursday night, and then the interview on Friday.

In my three years of applying to medical school, I don't think I have ever seen so much "How can we help you before your interview?" going on. I really appreciate that in a school.

Do they treat their students as well?

Right now the main drawback to the school is that it is cold, but I suppose one can’t have everything! Now I feel bad about not finishing their secondary last year because I was scared of a news report that came out of MSU.
 
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I know MSU doesn't accept updates or LOIs, but I received an interview for this school and have a couple of newly published research papers that I'd like to tell them about. Do people just bring them up during the interview or send in updates post-interview?
 
they only accept LOIs and updates post interview
 
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Could any current GR students tell me how parking is and how often you have to be to campus in first & second years? If I'm placed in GR, I'm thinking about living with family a 15-minute drive away.
 
familyaerospace said:
Do they treat their students as well?
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A school will never make everyone happy and I know plenty of students who like to complain about the curriculum/administration/hospitals/residents/faculty etc. here at MSU. BUT here is my opinion: If you have your head on straight and have a generally good attitude then you will be able to appreciate the awesomeness of the people who make CHM happen day in and day out.

For example. There is an older retired physician who organizes a lot of the hands-on clinical experiences. He has an office in the Secchia center and I mentioned to him once that I was interested in ophthalmology. Well, he proceeded to organize a private private slit lamp practice session for me in one of the simulation rooms. He bought two ophthalmology textbooks, printed out a manual on basic slit lamp technique, bought night lights to plug into the outlets so that when the room was dark we could still see a bit, and hauled the 500lb slit lamp all the way from storage to the sim room.

All because I expressed interest in a field that MSU students are not commonly interested in.

Yeah.

If you have a good attitude, treat people with respect, and show appreciation, then you will be blown away by how faculty and staff treat the students. If your MO is to complain, sulk and whine constantly, then you may be one of the students who ends up griping about the school.

My two cents.
 
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okokok said:
Could any current GR students tell me how parking is and how often you have to be to campus in first & second years? If I'm placed in GR, I'm thinking about living with family a 15-minute drive away.
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Parking options:
1) Pay to park in garage under school ($130/mo)
2) Free parking on Ionia Ave right next to school (have to get there early)
3) Pay for parking pass in a Spectrum lot 10 minute walk from school ($30/mo)
4) Park for free in Heritage Hill neighborhood 10-15 minutes walk from school (have to get there early)

Most people choose option 1 or 2. Third and fourth year you get parking passes for hospital lots in GR including the Spectrum Hospital lots near the school.
 
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First and second year bank on being at Secchia about 3 days per week. Some weeks more, some weeks less.
 
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Just got the alternate list email today(interviewed 2/14). I will definitely keep sending updates as this is my top school. Maybe we'll see some movement this year. Last year it seemed pretty stagnant based off posts on here.
 
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DOC9090 said:
Just got the alternate list email today(interviewed 2/14). I will definitely keep sending updates as this is my top school. Maybe we'll see some movement this year. Last year it seemed pretty stagnant based off posts on here.
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I got the alternate email today as well. Can anyone shed some light on how likely it is to get a spot in med school from an alternate list. I'm keeping my hopes up but also trying to be realistic as well
 
i've called twice to the admissions office and im pretty sure i talked to the same guy both times unfortunately. I got waitlisted back in October. Interviewed in September. He said that they are constantly looking at the waitlist (which seems inaccurate since at my interview day they said they won't pull anyone off the waitlist until after May 15 when people drop spots) But he also said a lot of people have been calling in to drop their acceptances. Many people also hold spots at schools they dont intend to go to just to increase their chances of getting scholarships at the schools they do want to go to.
In past years I've heard that they had a problem with more than usual people accepting their spots at CHM and so they ended up having to offer some people automatic acceptance to the next years class if they drop their spot in the current years class, so they had less spots than usual for the next year (hopefully that makes sense)
To my knowledge, they arent having that problem this year nor did it happen last year (last year they were conservative with acceptances due to the previous years being over capacity)
Fingers crossed for a lot of (early) waitlist movement!!
But if anyone gets any other/different information please let me know! :)
 
deandean25 said:
But if anyone gets any other/different information please let me know! :)
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Well they said they still have open spots in the class as of last week when I interviewed and that they extend about 300 acceptances to fill 190 spots, not sure if they include ABLE in that. I'd assume that if MSU is like other schools, to not expect to see much movement until April or so.

I really do like the school, so I see why people want to go, but man the weather scares me!
 
PlayUltimate15 said:
A school will never make everyone happy and I know plenty of students who like to complain about the curriculum/administration/hospitals/residents/faculty etc. here at MSU. BUT here is my opinion: If you have your head on straight and have a generally good attitude then you will be able to appreciate the awesomeness of the people who make CHM happen day in and day out.
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This.

Another MS3 who did preclinicals at Grand Rapids, but now in a different clinical campus. I would echo PlayUltimate15's thoughts, especially regarding doctor's willingness to be helpful. After only one week of working with a neurosurgeon, he had already made a call to a program director for me to guarantee me an away rotation there. Don't come off as entitled, be friendly to your fellow students, and appreciate this incredible experience you're all about to partake in this August. Still get goosebumps thinking about those first few weeks of anatomy ;)
 
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PlayUltimate15 said:
First and second year bank on being at Secchia about 3 days per week. Some weeks more, some weeks less.
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hmmm.... I'd say this might be more representative of the minimum you HAVE to be there, for those of you thinking of commuting. However, a lot of people choose to study at Secchia because the building is incredible. With that said, in East Lansing (did my undergrad at MSU), there's a ton of off-campus spots to study at [law library is always a solid choice].
 
fobaby19 said:
I got the alternate email today as well. Can anyone shed some light on how likely it is to get a spot in med school from an alternate list. I'm keeping my hopes up but also trying to be realistic as well
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Totally anecdotal, but I know two students from my class who came off the waitlist [one mid-May; the other 1 week before we started in August!!]. Best of luck.
 
:shrug:e GR campus is absolutely awesome! However I was surprised to find out there were only 190 seats total. For some reason I always thought there was about 300 avail:shrug:

Edit: not sure why that first emoticon is there lol it won't delete
 
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I agree the GR campus is really nice! ...and I thought that too about the class size, until I went to the white coat ceremony last year. I was probably thinking of Wayne State's class size of 290
 
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love123 said:
Hey guys, just wondering... Did any of you send a thank you note/e-mail/card/letter to your student interviewer? :)
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I forgot to but got accepted anyway.

Oh yeah I got pin and pad numbers today. Can't wait to meet some of you in August. Hopefully in East Lansing since it's closer to my family, even though the Secchia Center seems nicer.
 
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Today is a decision day, right? Anyone hear back??
 
is anyone else torn between michigan state vs. wayne state / other schools in michigan? can anyone with a similar decision please message me if they have thoughts / input?
 
ripped said:
is anyone else torn between michigan state vs. wayne state / other schools in michigan? can anyone with a similar decision please message me if they have thoughts / input?
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If you get any feedback, please post it here! I'm also torn.
 
ripped said:
is anyone else torn between michigan state vs. wayne state / other schools in michigan? can anyone with a similar decision please message me if they have thoughts / input?
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I was torn by this decision ~3 years ago. I was accepted at WSU and Oakland's, then new, medical school.

Positives and negatives:

MSU +) The satellite campus structure allows opportunities to work in rural, suburban and urban areas across michigan. In addition, the rural campus' provide a more hands on experience (first assistant in the OR, delivering babies day 1 of OB/GYN, starting central lines/art lines etc on anesthesia); Very collegial atmosphere here; Huge research development in Grand Rapids currently underway, with already plenty of opportunities in EL
-) Some people were not huge fans of having lectures streamed because the actual lecturer was not present to ask questions [although this has been very accommodated for, given that staff from the lecturer's department is always present on site during the lecture, and there's the ability to ask questions in class]; MSU is not nationally recognized as a research powerhouse [despite the fact that a lot of my classmates have been involved with some great research]; we're notorious for being more of a primary care oriented school [our more recent match lists have been 80% specialty programs vs 20% primary care, or at least that's what's been reported to me

WSU as a quick aside, I will say that I did not like my interviewer, and I thought for sure that this would result in me not receiving an acceptance here. +)More residency fields available here (MSU does not have residencies in fields such as ophthalmology, otolaryngology, neurosurgery, dermatology, etc), which allows you to interact with residents and ideally get support from your home institution when it comes time to apply to residency [that is if you go into one of these fields]; Likely more research available, given the broader residency programs; definitely considered a commuter school [if you live in metro detroit area you could save a ton in loans]; -) the interview I had here, made me concerned that the faculty would also be cold and less willing to help [fwiw, the MSU faculty have always been extremely accommodating and fair]; theres ~300 students in your class, who you probably won't end up knowing half of because so many commute; you live in big, bad Detroit [you can actually live in places like Royal Oak, which has a great night life, with lots of young professionals]

OU My interview experience here was magnificent. Beaumont facilities are top notch, and the faculty was incredibly caring. I even was offered a scholarship to offset some of the cost, so that it was more comparable to the other two schools cost. I don't feel that it would be fair for me to give a +/- list because I don't know as much about this school. The only reason that I didn't go to this school was that I would have been apart of their first matriculating class. I was concerned about being a test rat to see if the curriculum they set up was actually successful. I think that when their first match-list comes out this will be telling of the strength of the school.

I hope that was helpful, and if you have more specific questions I can try to field them.
 
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gettheleadout said:
Space reserved for prompt.

Please PM the essays or lack thereof to me when the secondary is available and I will update this.

Good luck to everyone applying! :luck:
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  1. Hey guys here are my stats. Looking to apply to all schools in Michigan and Chicago area. Michigan resident and currently a junior at Michigan State University. I am also in a social fraternity and was wondering if that would hurt my chances. I know my academic stats are below the median for most MD schools, but do give your honest opinion on my chances at the schools I'm interested in.

    Academics:
    3.47 Science gpa
    3.49 Overall gpa
    30 MCAT

    Extra Curricular:
    1 year of research at MSU Department of Surgery on a clinical trial
    hospital volunteering during the school year and summer for 2.5 years
    consistently shadowed a ENT DO for a year (he's my mentor and will write a great rec letter)
    Executive board for two student organizations
    Philanthropy chair for my social fraternity for 3 semesters (lots of charities, fundraisers, and events and was responsible for hosting events that raised over $7000 in my time at the position) devoted a great deal of time into my fraternity
    That will the GPA that goes into AMCAS, I plan on submitting within the first couple days when you can submit AMCAS around first week of June, Im retaking the MCAT on May 17 so whenever that score gets in it will be added to my AMCAS app.
 

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Has anyone heard any news after being placed on the wait list? Either acceptance or rejection?
 
member48103 said:
Has anyone heard any news after being placed on the wait list? Either acceptance or rejection?
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People placed on wait list will not know until May 15th when regular accepted people have their deadline to make a decision if they will go to MSU or not. If there are seats left over, then they go through the alternate list until they fill seats. It is my understanding that wait list candidates are not ranked. But I am not sure what their criteria is. Who knows, maybe they just go down the list, alphabetically by name. They dont really specify who gets a call off the wait list....
 
Another Decision Date!!! Good luck to everyone that's still waiting to hear back (like myself)! Has anyone had any news lately?
Also good luck to those that are interviewing Friday! I believe that's the last interview date right?
 
And I was rejected just now, I am somehow not hurt by this. My family had already stated in no uncertain terms that I was not going to Michigan.
 
familyaerospace said:
And I was rejected just now, I am somehow not hurt by this. My family had already stated in no uncertain terms that I was not going to Michigan.
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I'm really sorry to hear that :( good luck to you the rest of the way!!!
 
Just put on the alternate list today, interviewed 2/28. At least I'm in at wayne!!
 
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Rejected. Interviewed 2/28 ... Good Luck to everyone that are still waiting and congrats to those accepted, such a great school! Go Green!
 
Accepted!!! I AM SO EXCITED, MSU was my one and only MD invite...and I loved the school even before I went to the interview! The assistant dean called around 6 pm PST, I was such an emotional mess, felt like crying (it's been a really long process for me...2 application cycles, an SMP, a personal event that left me with nothing and multiple attempts on the MCAT later). I just couldn't believe it!

Interviewed March 28 - met some really wonderful people, I hope to see you guys in the Fall!

Good luck to all and may you end up at a campus you're happy with! <3
 
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