2013-2014 University of South Florida Application Thread

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How does everyone feel about the SELECT program? Are you all applying for this or are you just sticking to the regular program?
 
Noggin said:
How does everyone feel about the SELECT program? Are you all applying for this or are you just sticking to the regular program?
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I think SELECT is a great option for OOS applicants. I'm a FL resident, so I'll just be applying to the CORE program because I don't want to pay OOS tuition for all 4 years! I think the program sounds awesome, though. I know some in state residents who were accepted into it this past cycle.
 
Isn't it the same cost though if your OOS as the regular program?
 
Anybody else having a problem answering some of these questions? I feel like 2k characters is too...generous for some of these essays :/
 
YankeeBean said:
Blood is easy. I'd rather donate marrow lol
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I would actually donate blood and marrow and platelets to not have to do this.... And these essays are so unique so it's not like we can use old ones! Wahhhh
 
Question. For this secondary prompt... "Who is the best leader you have known in your life? Describe what made her or him so effective and how they made you feel when you were around them." Do you think we need to know the individual personally?
 
neuronerd24 said:
Question. For this secondary prompt... "Who is the best leader you have known in your life? Describe what made her or him so effective and how they made you feel when you were around them." Do you think we need to know the individual personally?
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Yes.
 
I received my secondary and AMCAS has received all of my letters, but the USF secondary page is saying they have not received my letters when on the AMCAS page I listed all my LOR to be sent to USF... Any ideas?
 
marinik said:
I received my secondary and AMCAS has received all of my letters, but the USF secondary page is saying they have not received my letters when on the AMCAS page I listed all my LOR to be sent to USF... Any ideas?
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The schools have to "receive" them manually even though they are automatically sent from AMCAS.
 
marinik said:
help on how to do this?
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No you don't need to do anything. They just check the LORs before marking them as "received". I think they check that they are on official letterhead and are signed. It takes them some time to do this. Don't worry!!
 
ewelling said:
No you don't need to do anything. They just check the LORs before marking them as "received". I think they check that they are on official letterhead and are signed. It takes them some time to do this. Don't worry!!
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Okay thanks! I received the secondary on the 30th and I wanted to submit it as quickly as possible. My AMCAS application was only verified on the 26th.. so maybe that's why it's not there yet?
 
marinik said:
Okay thanks! I received the secondary on the 30th and I wanted to submit it as quickly as possible. My AMCAS application was only verified on the 26th.. so maybe that's why it's not there yet?
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I don't think so because my AMCAS app was submitted and verified with all LORs on 06/10 and I submitted my USF secondary yesterday and my LORs aren't marked as received yet either. We'll just have to be patient 🙂
 
ewelling said:
I don't think so because my AMCAS app was submitted and verified with all LORs on 06/10 and I submitted my USF secondary yesterday and my LORs aren't marked as received yet either. We'll just have to be patient 🙂
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That makes me feel a lot better! Thank you!!! This is just one of my top schools.. and with a 3.95 science and non-science and a 28 MCAT.. I wanted to submit ASAP since my stats are a little low (well my MCAT).
 
marinik said:
That makes me feel a lot better! Thank you!!! This is just one of my top schools.. and with a 3.95 science and non-science and a 28 MCAT.. I wanted to submit ASAP since my stats are a little low (well my MCAT).
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There was a similar situation over for cooper. They are using the same software so it's likely not an instantaneous import from amcas.
 
I believed I am destined to +1 everything ewelling does! 🙂
Hopefully, I can do the same with acceptances in the future👍
 
Regarding the essay about the person who has helped you the most, what do you all think about talking about my 17 month old son. He has inspired me to be a better man to live up to the obvious unfailing trust he has in me. Good idea/Bad idea?
 
MrTobiasFunke said:
Regarding the essay about the person who has helped you the most, what do you all think about talking about my 17 month old son. He has inspired me to be a better man to live up to the obvious unfailing trust he has in me. Good idea/Bad idea?
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First of all, great name, that show is amazing 🙂.

Second, I think your story can be very good if you are willing to take a risk and write something unconventional like that. It is eventually your call, but it would definitely set you apart from other candidates 🙂. Just my two cents, however, I am simply a fellow applicant.
 
Just submitted this monster secondary, lol, and received the complete email right away. Good luck everyone!!!
 
Spica said:
First of all, great name, that show is amazing 🙂.

Second, I think your story can be very good if you are willing to take a risk and write something unconventional like that. It is eventually your call, but it would definitely set you apart from other candidates 🙂. Just my two cents, however, I am simply a fellow applicant.
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Thanks for your input. I'm not sure the risk is worth it. I feel like it could be an awesome and very different essay, but if they are wanting a lasting change that has been around for a while, than my son does not qualify.
 
Submitted finally.

USF wins the award for the worst secondary application. Ended up being 8 essays basically. The functionality of the website was just terrible. Constantly making you log in again, deleted all my answers multiple times, wasn't able to change my file for the residency stuff (so I had to email it to them), couldn't make the payment in IE. An overall miserable experience.

Not to mention making you do all that residency stuff at this stage of the game is pretty silly.
 
kmp0410 said:
Submitted finally.

USF wins the award for the worst secondary application. Ended up being 8 essays basically. The functionality of the website was just terrible. Constantly making you log in again, deleted all my answers multiple times, wasn't able to change my file for the residency stuff (so I had to email it to them), couldn't make the payment in IE. An overall miserable experience.

Not to mention making you do all that residency stuff at this stage of the game is pretty silly.
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And you can't change your password (at least I can't). I keep having to go back to the email for it.
 
I am having trouble writing enough for the scholarly concentrations essay. Any suggestions?
 
They don't start reviewing until your whole app is complete right? Does that include the residency form? I'm emailing that in today.
 
I'm a little confused by the residency form. I'm a FL resident and I'm not sure if I'm an independent or a dependent.

Also, if I am a dependent, do I submit my own drivers license/voter ID/vehicle registration or does the person claiming residency (aka my parent) do so?
 
neuronerd24 said:
I'm a little confused by the residency form. I'm a FL resident and I'm not sure if I'm an independent or a dependent.

Also, if I am a dependent, do I submit my own drivers license/voter ID/vehicle registration or does the person claiming residency (aka my parent) do so?
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Your parent
 
Hi everyone!

I'm an MSI (first year) at USF and would be happy to answer any questions you have--about the school, application process, anything.

Good luck and I hope to see you on campus next year!
 
mdorbust1 said:
Hi everyone!

I'm an MSI (first year) at USF and would be happy to answer any questions you have--about the school, application process, anything.

Good luck and I hope to see you on campus next year!
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Great, thanks! I guess I have a couple questions:

How do you like the scholarly concentrations? Are some better than others?

Where are most students doing their rotations? Are they able to rotate at TGH, Moffitt, and All Children's?

Where do most students live? I'm from the area, but don't know too much about the USF campus.

Thanks for helping us neurotic SDNers!!
 
Do students pay for international medical missions on their own or are there school fundraising activities for this purpose?

Will they assign physician mentors for each student?

What are your likes and dislikes?

Thanks in advance!
 
I am OOS and SELECT (I only applied to SELECT), but I do have a lot of friends in CORE who are MSIIs and MSIVs so I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

1.) We haven't actually started scholarly concentrations yet; we're supposed to choose them on Friday. SELECT students don't have to do them since we do additional work, but we're are welcome to choose and audit a scholarly concentration. All of the scholarly concentrations are great though, and it really depends on what your medical goals and interests are. The faculty/physicians who are in charge of the scholarly concentrations will come in to talk with you, and they also schedule sessions for students to talk to them. It's actually a great opportunity to expand your interests and also learn more about the health care system you're going to enter in.

2.) Students are able to rotate to the different hospitals, even doing rotations in Clearwater, but I think most are at TGH. Personally, I think it's good to have med students do rotations at different hospitals because it gives them experience with different hospital systems (no hospital will be the same) and you can see more of what type of hospital you would like to work at (e.g. not-for-profit, university, community). Simultaneously though, you may not see your classmates and friends as much compared to if you did rotations at one hospital.

3.) Students live all over. Some live in South Tampa near SoHo (S. Howard for those not in the area), others live near New Tampa, and a bunch live at the Lake Crest apartments (which are super nice). Choosing your location depends on your lifestyle choices. If you want to live near all the downtown action and bar scenes, live in South Tampa. Most 3rd years move down to South Tampa when they start rotations to be closer to TGH and the Clearwater/St. Petersburg hospitals/clinics. The second years always put together a housing guide and restaurant guide for the first years. You can check out this year's here: http://www.usfcompac.com. I came from a large, northern city with great public transportation, taxis, and everyone walked everywhere. Living in North Tampa has been a big change for me since public transportation isn't great and it isn't pedestrian (or bike) friendly here.

Just a side note: the faculty and physicians are extremely receptive to feedback and students truly feel like their suggestions are heard. Most universities don't have such a open communication, and I was surprised USF treats students like they are part of a team with faculty and administrators.

For those asking if they should apply and are OOS, there are tons of OOS students in our class, both in SELECT and CORE. So definitely apply! There are a lot of IS students as well, but we have much more regional diversity than what I expected.

Hope that helps!
 
OMG! THANK YOU SO MUCH! USF Just moved up to top three on my list of most wanted 🙂
 
mdorbust1 said:
I am OOS and SELECT (I only applied to SELECT), but I do have a lot of friends in CORE who are MSIIs and MSIVs so I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

1.) We haven't actually started scholarly concentrations yet; we're supposed to choose them on Friday. SELECT students don't have to do them since we do additional work, but we're are welcome to choose and audit a scholarly concentration. All of the scholarly concentrations are great though, and it really depends on what your medical goals and interests are. The faculty/physicians who are in charge of the scholarly concentrations will come in to talk with you, and they also schedule sessions for students to talk to them. It's actually a great opportunity to expand your interests and also learn more about the health care system you're going to enter in.

2.) Students are able to rotate to the different hospitals, even doing rotations in Clearwater, but I think most are at TGH. Personally, I think it's good to have med students do rotations at different hospitals because it gives them experience with different hospital systems (no hospital will be the same) and you can see more of what type of hospital you would like to work at (e.g. not-for-profit, university, community). Simultaneously though, you may not see your classmates and friends as much compared to if you did rotations at one hospital.

3.) Students live all over. Some live in South Tampa near SoHo (S. Howard for those not in the area), others live near New Tampa, and a bunch live at the Lake Crest apartments (which are super nice). Choosing your location depends on your lifestyle choices. If you want to live near all the downtown action and bar scenes, live in South Tampa. Most 3rd years move down to South Tampa when they start rotations to be closer to TGH and the Clearwater/St. Petersburg hospitals/clinics. The second years always put together a housing guide and restaurant guide for the first years. You can check out this year's here: http://www.usfcompac.com. I came from a large, northern city with great public transportation, taxis, and everyone walked everywhere. Living in North Tampa has been a big change for me since public transportation isn't great and it isn't pedestrian (or bike) friendly here.

Just a side note: the faculty and physicians are extremely receptive to feedback and students truly feel like their suggestions are heard. Most universities don't have such a open communication, and I was surprised USF treats students like they are part of a team with faculty and administrators.

For those asking if they should apply and are OOS, there are tons of OOS students in our class, both in SELECT and CORE. So definitely apply! There are a lot of IS students as well, but we have much more regional diversity than what I expected.

Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

Thank you for the inside info! Best of luck in your studies!!!
 
mdorbust1 said:
I am OOS and SELECT (I only applied to SELECT), but I do have a lot of friends in CORE who are MSIIs and MSIVs so I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

1.) We haven't actually started scholarly concentrations yet; we're supposed to choose them on Friday. SELECT students don't have to do them since we do additional work, but we're are welcome to choose and audit a scholarly concentration. All of the scholarly concentrations are great though, and it really depends on what your medical goals and interests are. The faculty/physicians who are in charge of the scholarly concentrations will come in to talk with you, and they also schedule sessions for students to talk to them. It's actually a great opportunity to expand your interests and also learn more about the health care system you're going to enter in.

2.) Students are able to rotate to the different hospitals, even doing rotations in Clearwater, but I think most are at TGH. Personally, I think it's good to have med students do rotations at different hospitals because it gives them experience with different hospital systems (no hospital will be the same) and you can see more of what type of hospital you would like to work at (e.g. not-for-profit, university, community). Simultaneously though, you may not see your classmates and friends as much compared to if you did rotations at one hospital.

3.) Students live all over. Some live in South Tampa near SoHo (S. Howard for those not in the area), others live near New Tampa, and a bunch live at the Lake Crest apartments (which are super nice). Choosing your location depends on your lifestyle choices. If you want to live near all the downtown action and bar scenes, live in South Tampa. Most 3rd years move down to South Tampa when they start rotations to be closer to TGH and the Clearwater/St. Petersburg hospitals/clinics. The second years always put together a housing guide and restaurant guide for the first years. You can check out this year's here: http://www.usfcompac.com. I came from a large, northern city with great public transportation, taxis, and everyone walked everywhere. Living in North Tampa has been a big change for me since public transportation isn't great and it isn't pedestrian (or bike) friendly here.

Just a side note: the faculty and physicians are extremely receptive to feedback and students truly feel like their suggestions are heard. Most universities don't have such a open communication, and I was surprised USF treats students like they are part of a team with faculty and administrators.

For those asking if they should apply and are OOS, there are tons of OOS students in our class, both in SELECT and CORE. So definitely apply! There are a lot of IS students as well, but we have much more regional diversity than what I expected.

Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

Wow thanks for those detailed responses! I really appreciate your time and your insight. I'm sure you must be very busy!!
 
Just received an interview invite! I'm an early decision applicant, if anyone was wondering. Hope to see you guys on interview day!!
Good luck to everyone 🙂
 
Pandapurse said:
Just received an interview invite! I'm an early decision applicant, if anyone was wondering. Hope to see you guys on interview day!!
Good luck to everyone 🙂
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Congratulations!! When is your interview?
 
ewelling said:
Congratulations!! When is your interview?
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Thanks! I was told to schedule it myself, so probably early-mid September. USF only interviews on Tuesdays, so I have to take that into consideration too.
 
Pandapurse said:
I just received the secondary application today! It's the same as last year:

1. What do you see as the most likely practice scenario for your future medical career? Private Practice
Health Policy
Academic Medicine
Public Health
Health Care Administration

Why do you feel you are particularly suited for this practice scenario? What knowledge, skills and attitudes have you developed that have prepared you for this career path?

2. The USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations program aims to support the educational development of medical students by providing opportunities for academic endeavors in areas of special interest. This program facilitates self-directed learning, enhances interactions between students and fosters relationships between students and faculty. Scholarly concentrations provide a forum where diversity of ideas and perspectives are valued. Each concentration includes elements of course work, practical application and scholarly presentation.
Please review our Scholarly Concentrations website to determine which concentration would be of interest to you and answer the following question. (http://health.usf.edu/medicine/educationalaffairs/scholarly_concentrations/)

How would the USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations Program help your personal career goals?

3. Describe a time in your life when you felt you were “at your best." Why did you choose this event, and how does it reflect your potential as a physician?

4. Who is the best leader you have known in your life? Describe what made her or him so effective and how they made you feel when you were around them.

5. Think about a person who has helped you the most in your life. Describe what they did and said, and the lasting impact they have had on you.

6. The University of South Florida, College of Medicine strives to educate a very diverse set of students who bring a variety of strengths and interests to the field of medicine. The definition of diversity is broad and includes (but is not limited to) lifestyle, race/ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status and distance traveled through life. The definition of strength is also broad and includes (but not limited to) humanism, scholarship, intellectual curiosity, research and leadership. How do you feel your particular experiences, interests, and passions will add to the strength and diversity of the USF class and ultimately to the field of medicine?

7. Describe your ideas about how the medical profession can best respond to disparities in healthcare.

8. If you have experienced academic difficulties, please explain the situation and how it was resolved. (Please explain all grades less than a “B” (including B-) or any “withdrawal” on your transcripts).

Good luck guys!
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word or character limit??
 
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