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got deffered 🙁
🙁....life is such a struggle
🙁....life is such a struggle
2013-2014 The Commonwealth Medical College
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Did anybody interview in early January and receive a decision today/recently. I was just notified my application has been deferred. I have to admit I am a little devastated, as I had my heart set on this school after my interview (which I thought could not have gone any better).
Has anyone been deferred and then accepted? If so, how long did you wait for your acceptance from the time you were first informed of your deferral? I know everyone's case is probably unique I'm just trying to gauge the the frequency of applicants gaining acceptance after an initial deferral.
Well my morning just went from fine to horrific. If any one as any advice on moving forward it is certainly welcome! Good luck to all!
Has anyone been deferred and then accepted? If so, how long did you wait for your acceptance from the time you were first informed of your deferral? I know everyone's case is probably unique I'm just trying to gauge the the frequency of applicants gaining acceptance after an initial deferral.
Well my morning just went from fine to horrific. If any one as any advice on moving forward it is certainly welcome! Good luck to all!
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deferred as well....so did a friend of mine....:-(
I got accepted elsewhere but really wish to go here. Any suggestions?
I got accepted elsewhere but really wish to go here. Any suggestions?
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yaa..i interviewed late jan
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Just deferred for the first time... I interviewed on Dec 7th! I had forgotten all about this school by now (I thought my rejection letter got lost) hehe.
Hope isn't lost! I was deferred initially (interviewed in September, deferred in October/November ish) and was accepted in early December. A lot of people accepted came off the deferral list, so don't get down on yourself!
To be completely honest (and this is a very rough approximation), I've been following this thread since the summer and I THINK there have been more deferrals -> acceptance than deferral -> rejection. Granted, this was earlier in the cycle than it is now, but I don't remember too many people posting about rejections.
I've seen a few rejections so far. There was at least one I know of that was rejected post-interview, and there were a few that were rejected pre-interview
Which post-interview? For me, defer was by email. Acceptance was also by email, followed by a snail mail letter (about 2 days to a week later, I can't remember exactly). Both of these were also posted as status on the application website.
I can't comment on rejections, I don't remember seeing whether they were emailed or sent out with the post
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Many people said they were accepted after 1+ deferrals (on previous pages) in Dec. & Jan. I just went back and looked today and there were several rejections in Dec. (pg.7) post-interview by email or postal mail. Also, if you were deferred before, they won't contact you again until they've made a decision (according to the deferral email), which makes the wait even more unbearable! In December there were deferrals a few days before a wave if acceptances, so no news today may not be all that bad. Please, anyone correct me if I am wrong, I'm just trying to share what I found.
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I love this thread....now m optimistic again🙂...i hope we all get in !!
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Except for that post 8 days ago. Haha
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I mean forgot about any possibility of going there. Like... I was sure I had a rejection letter on the way, since I seemed to be the only one from early December that had heard nothing what so ever.
I guess my train of thought didn't go well with my words hehe
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I guess expect the unexpected during the application process!
I'm still waiting for a few schools to get back to me. One has taken nearly 12+ weeks and counting!
has anyone definitively decided that they'll be in Scranton next year?
I know there was talk of this a few weeks ago, but does anyone know if there's any kind of facebook group other than the Page that TCMC created with our second look invite?
I know there was talk of this a few weeks ago, but does anyone know if there's any kind of facebook group other than the Page that TCMC created with our second look invite?
Pretty sure I'll be attending TCMC.
Doesn't seem like there's a group yet. Anyone wanna volunteer to start a Facebook group for the Class of 2018? I'd volunteer, but I don't even have a FB account yet so I'm a total FB noob haha...I'd start one to join the group, though--I've heard class FB groups can be a great resource both pre and post-matriculation. 👍
I'm pretty sure I will be too, but I'm not totally positive so I don't necessarily want to be the maker of the group 🙂
For a FB group, I think that you might need another person to make the group. If anyone wants to make it, PM me and I'll friend you so you can
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Yes! I've decided to matriculate and I'll definitely make the group! I've been wanting to for a while now. And yeah, you need someone else to make the group. I'm not sure how many others you need, however.
Sweet, thanks for volunteering. I probably won't get around to making my FB account till later in the week (got some deadlines to meet).
You should PM @emdee89 (see post above yours), so you guys can get the ball rolling. 🙂
@Aquab1ll or @plasmamorris would you mind sharing what kind of laptop TCMC gives students and a brief review (i.e. is it good enough for all school-related tasks or should I plan on buying a desktop to supplement?)...thanks!
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It's done, and up! For anyone who has thoughts about matriculating at TCMC this fall, here is the link the our class Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/511713548949726/
And here is a link to my Facebook page if you're unable to join yourselves: https://www.facebook.com/conor.murphy.336
I would be happy to accept your friend request, make it facebook official as they say, and add you to the group!
And here is a link to my Facebook page if you're unable to join yourselves: https://www.facebook.com/conor.murphy.336
I would be happy to accept your friend request, make it facebook official as they say, and add you to the group!
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Anyone get accepted yet??
Last edited:
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XPS 13 (225-2506)
2nd Generation Intel Core i5-2467M processor (1.60 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.30 GHz) TPM (318-2188)
4GB, DDR3, 1333MHz (317-8859)
It's not a fantastic laptop but it gets the job done. I use mine exclusively because it's just easier. It automatically connects to the network at school (our WiFi is capable of taking outside devices but it can be a hassle logging on everyday). Also you can print from the TCMC laptop anywhere in the school and you get $25 of printing credit each semester (you can put more on later). It has full versions of important software like Office and Adobe. Also the school has a ridiculous warranty on them - you can do anything to them and they'll replace it no questions asked. One girl ran her laptop over with her car. She was issued a new one shortly after that. I put the exact specs up that the school releases to students if anyone really wants to know more.
I still use my personal laptop at home - but not for school stuff. I work exclusively at school. If you're someone who won't really work at school - I'd say go for it and get your own cause it'll definitely be better than the school laptop. It's not really necessary though in my opinion. Hope that helps!
^Thanks for the thorough response @plasmamorris! Really appreciate it. 🙂
1st year here...thought i'd chime in...
North - Scranton campus and Poconos "east stroudsburg" campus. This is the largest of the 3 campuses & you may have to drive pretty far for some rotations like Honesdale (~50 min away). I talked to some MD2's and they weren't happy about the Poconos campus, seeing as they were notified that they had to switch to the Poconos campus a few weeks ago. From what I have heard, the rotations are not good there. They lottery off the Poconos spots to people that choose Scranton/north campus (2nd years weren't told about this lottery until a few weeks ago...so I can understand their anger). If you do pick this campus first, you should really ask administrators to give you current Poconos' students e-mails and ask for their honest opinion. Obviously, no school administrator will bash their own campus! This campus is in the middle of the driving time...Wilkes barre you will have to drive the longest to your rotations...Williamsport you will have to drive the least...
South - Wilkes Barre is a very big clinical area. That is, if you do get into this campus, you will have to drive pretty far, maybe daily. Some places you would commute to include Hazelton, Bloomsburg. Luckily, I don't have to drive that far. You could move out there during 3rd & 4th year, but from what I've heard & seen, WB is not a nice area to live in...most students still stay in Scranton. The room for the 3rd & 4th year students in the hospital is really cramped...they really need to expand this. My preceptor is really nice. I really think it is luck of the draw when it comes to these preceptors. Some of my friends have perceptors that do not teach at all. So they end up just hanging around an office all day doing nothing. The problem is that most preceptors at this school are volunteer and not paid, so they really don't have incentive to do anything. Alot of my friends from college are in med school in the NY/NJ area, and none of them have encountered this problem.
West - Williamsport. Like the other student said above, it is the smallest campus & from what I heard, the preceptors are really nice to students. Although I've never been out there, people have described it as a very rural area. It might be the best campus for you, or it might be the worst thing. A negative of this campus would be that they don't have as many specialties as North & South because it is such a smaller area. Also, you have to move away from your friends from 1st & 2nd year! And, you don't have access to the TCMC building itself, which is a negative if you need those resources.
PM me if you need more info.
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In most school threads, people don't seem to post much about post-interview rejections, but I know this school definitely does.
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Other first yrs seem to be all over campus selection so I thought I'd add my perspective as well. First and foremost - you'll be fine at whatever campus you select. We're all first years - we know nothing about what 3rd yr is like so take everything we say with a giant grain of salt. The wealth of our experience is literally 2 days - 2 entire days in each of these campuses with a preceptor. Another thing to note is that TCMC is always changing and adapting. The clinical portion of TCMC is a picture in flux. New clinical sites are always being discussed, preceptors are being added and dropped, campuses are expanding or splitting off into their own campuses.
Ranking your clinical campuses is obviously a multifaceted decision. Location, preceptors, amenities, housing costs, research, specialties - all factor into your decision. At the end of the day - I think pre-meds and first yrs are far too caught up in things that don't really matter. As an incoming student you should care the most about stability and the quality of preceptors. That's all your 3rd yr translates into. Distance, research and specialities don't really matter because you won't really have too much time to worry about any of them. That and you can find comparable equivalents in all three of the campuses. For example - one of the West students from the charter class matched into Orthopedics. That's a pretty competitive specialty. You can do anything coming out of any of the campuses. You need the grades and the letters to make it happen, but it's definitely possible and none of the campuses will hold you back.
I would agree with @Aquab1ll in terms of how to rank campuses. As a south campus student, I would say that West is absolutely the best campus of the three. It's the most stable and has the best administrative team in place. Students out in the West can't seem to say enough good things about it. During community weeks - the school puts up all 20 of you in a hotel and pays for your meals. That doesn't happen at the other two campuses.
As for North and the Pocono issue - it's a non issue for incoming classes. You will know whether you're a Pocono student early in your first year. Our class was handled the same. The current M2 class is a special case where their students were not initially assigned to Pocono. In my honest opinion - Pocono might be going through growing pains right now, but it may end up being one of the best campuses. They are a huge reason TCMC is okay financially and they are doing everything they can from an administrative perspective to embrace TCMC students. They may end up having one of the nicest student areas of all of the campuses when all is said and done. They also have amenities such as $500 monthly for 3rd years to use in their hospitals for food. They have a TCMC house for students out in Pocono which has pretty low rent. Again the biggest issue is distance. It's about 45 minutes from Scranton.
South has Geisinger which apparently is an excellent program. It's a sub-campus and they have their own application process. The remainder of South, well is not as great. It's just a lot of driving and as a student who is currently with a preceptor in Bloomsburg, it's not the best having to wake up an hour early just to get somewhere at 7 am. So far though, I've had a good experience with my preceptor. Mine is also a situation where my first community week with him wasn't so great and I more or less just shadowed, but upon communicating what I wanted to do - he opened up more and had me do more my second community week. I suppose my 3rd week this yr will be even better.
@nycement1 - made a comment about preceptors not being the best and while I respect their opinion - I have to disagree. I think as first yrs we absolutely know nothing. It's hard for preceptors to educate us when we don't know pathology. We just started physical exam. Yes other preceptors may allow students to administer injections, take full patient histories, listen for heart and lung sounds - but if you're not prepared to do it, it's just a cool experience not necessarily one you'll retain. I think as we learn more - community weeks become more fruitful and 3rd yr will be much better. Unfortunately, first yrs tend to be the only ones with time to post on these forums, but I feel like a 3rd yr perspective would be really helpful. The 3rd yrs I've spoken to say that the preceptors are much better by 3rd yr. You have to understand - the idea of medical students in the first and second yr being in a clinical setting was not how they were trained. It's not intuitive what first yrs know as opposed to second yrs or third yrs. As the school ages and preceptors go through cycles of students - more students will have better and better experiences.
tl;dr - don't worry about which campus you end up in. You'll be fine. Each campus has pros and cons - try and maximize the pros and minimize cons for your own personal situation.
Ranking your clinical campuses is obviously a multifaceted decision. Location, preceptors, amenities, housing costs, research, specialties - all factor into your decision. At the end of the day - I think pre-meds and first yrs are far too caught up in things that don't really matter. As an incoming student you should care the most about stability and the quality of preceptors. That's all your 3rd yr translates into. Distance, research and specialities don't really matter because you won't really have too much time to worry about any of them. That and you can find comparable equivalents in all three of the campuses. For example - one of the West students from the charter class matched into Orthopedics. That's a pretty competitive specialty. You can do anything coming out of any of the campuses. You need the grades and the letters to make it happen, but it's definitely possible and none of the campuses will hold you back.
I would agree with @Aquab1ll in terms of how to rank campuses. As a south campus student, I would say that West is absolutely the best campus of the three. It's the most stable and has the best administrative team in place. Students out in the West can't seem to say enough good things about it. During community weeks - the school puts up all 20 of you in a hotel and pays for your meals. That doesn't happen at the other two campuses.
As for North and the Pocono issue - it's a non issue for incoming classes. You will know whether you're a Pocono student early in your first year. Our class was handled the same. The current M2 class is a special case where their students were not initially assigned to Pocono. In my honest opinion - Pocono might be going through growing pains right now, but it may end up being one of the best campuses. They are a huge reason TCMC is okay financially and they are doing everything they can from an administrative perspective to embrace TCMC students. They may end up having one of the nicest student areas of all of the campuses when all is said and done. They also have amenities such as $500 monthly for 3rd years to use in their hospitals for food. They have a TCMC house for students out in Pocono which has pretty low rent. Again the biggest issue is distance. It's about 45 minutes from Scranton.
South has Geisinger which apparently is an excellent program. It's a sub-campus and they have their own application process. The remainder of South, well is not as great. It's just a lot of driving and as a student who is currently with a preceptor in Bloomsburg, it's not the best having to wake up an hour early just to get somewhere at 7 am. So far though, I've had a good experience with my preceptor. Mine is also a situation where my first community week with him wasn't so great and I more or less just shadowed, but upon communicating what I wanted to do - he opened up more and had me do more my second community week. I suppose my 3rd week this yr will be even better.
@nycement1 - made a comment about preceptors not being the best and while I respect their opinion - I have to disagree. I think as first yrs we absolutely know nothing. It's hard for preceptors to educate us when we don't know pathology. We just started physical exam. Yes other preceptors may allow students to administer injections, take full patient histories, listen for heart and lung sounds - but if you're not prepared to do it, it's just a cool experience not necessarily one you'll retain. I think as we learn more - community weeks become more fruitful and 3rd yr will be much better. Unfortunately, first yrs tend to be the only ones with time to post on these forums, but I feel like a 3rd yr perspective would be really helpful. The 3rd yrs I've spoken to say that the preceptors are much better by 3rd yr. You have to understand - the idea of medical students in the first and second yr being in a clinical setting was not how they were trained. It's not intuitive what first yrs know as opposed to second yrs or third yrs. As the school ages and preceptors go through cycles of students - more students will have better and better experiences.
tl;dr - don't worry about which campus you end up in. You'll be fine. Each campus has pros and cons - try and maximize the pros and minimize cons for your own personal situation.
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Absolutely the worst school that I had experience of applying to. TCMC stole my hard-earned money for their secondary application due to the problem they had with their website and payment processing system. My application was marked incomplete until the deadline even though my card was charged $100. Last year I went there for an interview and the only thing they were proud of was the "state-of-the-art building" ?! Who cares about your f... building? I want to get the best possible medical education, so spend your money on state-of the-art professors and residencies.
Moreover, this school is very expensive. You`ll spend at least 75k each year. They keep deferring people each month or two, and in the end of the application cycle, they send you an email about their MBS program, which also costs at least 75k. According to the last year threads, only 5-10% of students that finish TCMC MBS get accepted to the medical school. MBS students who have 4.0 GPA and 30 mcat get rejected. I better spend $1,500 on an MCAT course, than 75k on a program that leaves you with a useless piece of sh... master`s degree.
Thank God, this app cycle I was accepted to one of my top choice med schools (one of the SUNYs), and I`m glad that I don`t have to deal with this artificial med school.
Moreover, this school is very expensive. You`ll spend at least 75k each year. They keep deferring people each month or two, and in the end of the application cycle, they send you an email about their MBS program, which also costs at least 75k. According to the last year threads, only 5-10% of students that finish TCMC MBS get accepted to the medical school. MBS students who have 4.0 GPA and 30 mcat get rejected. I better spend $1,500 on an MCAT course, than 75k on a program that leaves you with a useless piece of sh... master`s degree.
Thank God, this app cycle I was accepted to one of my top choice med schools (one of the SUNYs), and I`m glad that I don`t have to deal with this artificial med school.
Congrats on getting into your a top choice! That sucks that there was a payment system glitch, but I am sure their intention wasnt to simply take your money. Hopefully you find constructive things to post about in your suny thread (the things you said simply made you look bitter and childish, btw)
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Wow, I'm sorry you had such a tragic experience last cycle. But I have to ask, if you weren't excited about the program last year why did you apply again?
Also, it's very unfortunate all you got out of your interview was that students were excited about the new building. Don't get me wrong, the building is a huge plus! However, you must've gotten a rotten apple because during my visit I had quite the positive dialogue about faculty, research, camaraderie between students and teachers, curriculum, Board scores, and even residency placement. It sucks you missed out on these pioneers.
And speaking of pioneers, I have to disagree with your "artificial" claim. In fact, I believe TCMC has one of the boldest and most unique missions out there - to increase the number of PCPs not only in NEPA, but across the nation. And to increase the effectiveness and relevance of continuity of care. These people that design the curriculum around this mission are true pioneers in the way they view medical education. And I chose this school because their mission is so specific to a very real issue to a lot of underprivileged people and regions, including the area I'm from. Personally, I believe there is nothing artificial or superficial about it.
But anyway, congratulations on your other acceptance(s)! I hope everything works out for you in the future!
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It seems that you are both current students at this school. So, good luck! I will not continue arguing with you, since most likely this school was the only school that accepted you, and unfortunately you have to accept many things as they are. Just for your notice, primary care and research are two different and almost mutually exclusive things. The research conducted at TCMC is done by science grads, and yet I have to find any relevant and important scientific papers published by TCMC students/grads. According to the last TCMC thread, about 5-10 TCMC students didn`t match, and one of them had criminal activity while at the school. I wrote my first post for future applicants as a warning. Don`t repeat my mistakes. TCMC was a complete waste of my time and money.
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Wow! I was reading everything and so far... I was like... Ok, let the kid vent. But then you go on to insult others? What is your problem exactly?
Realistically speaking, you probably would have gone to TCMC in a heartbeat if you had no other choice (so much that you applied twice). Something about people like you makes my skin crawl and I need to remind you that the fact that this is your second cycle, either you a) do no have the credentials or b) they were able to smell your foul personality. Either way, you have no business talking down to anyone what so ever!
Hopefully with time you will learn to loose gracefully and learn "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".
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I would say your original post was more of a contradiction to your philosophy that "unfortunately you have to accept many things as they are", not a warning to future applicants. But regardless, I don't know why you're assuming TCMC is a last resort for those who matriculate. That's slightly offensive and I can see why you may have problems coming off as someone who should have direct contact with patients. Again, I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience because this is the first time I've heard of anyone having that kind of problem.
But if you are interested, you can follow TCMC Medical Library on Twitter to actually see articles that you must be missing. Recently in fact, they've posted several articles authored and/or co-authored by both professors and students posted in big name journals. Now admittedly there aren't many research projects going on all the time, but why else would there be at a school focused on primary care?
Could you link the TCMC thread where one student had a criminal record? That sounds like quite the interesting read haha.
Based on what you've been saying on this thread, I couldn't be more glad that you won't be one of my classmates.
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Nevermind, I found it!
They didn't go into the details of the criminal expulsion (sad).
However, one of the 4th years explain the disparities on match day. 65 matriculated and 56 matched. Here is his/her quote:
"[they did] not drop out.
1 was expelled for criminal reasons
1 decided to do a research year in order to graduate with significant other (who is in the year below)
1 failed Step 1 and had to take a significant time off to retake it
2 are doing international things...
2 are doing an extra year of research before applications (in order to get a stronger application)
1 had a tremendous amount of personal/family difficulties"
Just clarifying on your unsupported statement about match day, because you implied it was due to the school's "inability to teach".
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65 matriculated, but only 56 matched. 14% of students didn`t match after 4 years of medical school. Call it how you want, but "inability to teach" is one of the most contributing factors when one considers match results (in addition to the IQ of students). Good luck with the campus lottery and other funny things!
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If you actually take the time to read my last post, you'll see why those 8 or 9 people didn't match. For almost all of them, it was their own decision not to.
In the end, I think you're just angry and instead of doing something productive like venting your frustration somewhere it matters you're talking down others at the place that you just simply don't fit into. You got into medical school, an astounding accomplishment in itself since only 10% of applicants are accepted (on average of course). Why are you more focused on the place you didn't get into than the school and peers you're about to spend the next four years of your life with? Move on!
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morrinelli is very rude but I agree that the MBS program is kindaa not worth it now that I am being constantly deffered ....4.o first sem and 30 MCAT (ugad gpa 3.4) plus a local here n I was straight up deferred 🙁....felt like all those sleepless nights studying for 3 exams in a row went down the drain. I love the professors and the faculty here and the quality of education is definitely top notch . I will choose no other med school over TCMC as it truly feels like home and everyone around is genuinely nice. I just hope things work out for me because God knows I truly deserve an admission here.
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I'm so sorry that it hasn't helped you. Is there a reason they don't accept many MBS students? Honestly, it just doesn't make sense to me why they wouldn't take students whom they are already familiar with and whom have proven themselves at the school already.
