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2013-2014 Wayne State University Application Thread
- Thread starter gettheleadout
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H
HabisY
Congrats. What were your stats and when were you complete?
Also, has anyone been waiting for longer than a month for an II?
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I submitted my secondary on 9/6 I believe so I have been waiting 2 months. I didn't really expect to get an II though.
H
HabisY
That makes me more hopeful. I submitted mine a couple days before you (and now I have false hopes of a letter in my mailbox at home). WHY DIDN'T I CHECK BEFORE I LEFT THE HOUSE!?
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+1... mine was submitted a few days before 9/6. I hope they give my file a second look.
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I was accepted on Oct 23 and still dont have an acceptance package in the mail. Should I be worried?
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How do I confirm my acceptance at Wayne?
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Definitely give them a call, I got mine only a few days after and they will only hold your spot until 11/13 if your acceptance was on 10/23 (3 weeks).
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I just sent them an email but will call on Monday. How did you confirm your acceptance? I wonder if I could just confirm over the phone...
hey everyone, are the invites coming via email or snail mail? also are snail mail items coming to your perm address or preferred addresses? i recently had a very random change in perm address so i am worried about how that might work for me since rejections at least are coming via mail. anyone know theit address use preference?
Interview invites are sent through email. Don't know about the other things. 🙂
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You have to fill out a form and send in a brief note of acceptance. You can get the form from them probably over email and then just print it, sign it, scan it, and send it back. That's what I did. Then you don't have to worry about losing it in the mail and they can send you a confirmation e-mail.
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Out of curiosity, how do people feel about the traditional curriculum employed by this school? Any med students want to weigh in on this? 😀
Hey everyone, I'm a current M1. Dropped in out of curiosity to see how this year's thread was coming along. Congrats on everyone accepted, and as for those waitlisted or still waiting for an interview, don't despair. There's plenty of time left, and we had at least three people accepted in the very last week, and at least one during orientation week in late july. There's always a chance.
That being said, to weigh in on the question, I've only taken histology (final was yesterday) and anatomy thusfar out of the core classes. The tests can be a little convoluted and will ask small details on some questions, that being said there's so much material that to get the details or at least reason them out you have to wholly understand the big picture anyways. The class tests do very little to prepare us for step 1 from what I've seen, but that is why Wayne gives NBME (practice step 1 exams) after every class, so you know what to expect. Clin med has ramped down this year, no class test, but still pretty much weekly meetings. The lottery is wholly and completely random, no matter your living conditions or car situation.
I feel like the curriculum could be improved, but really its nothing that most people accepted can't handle. The course pace can be very very fast however. I never really studied much in undergrad but I find myself constantly studying at least 3-4 hours a day, and the week before the exam thats bumped to closer to 6-8 hours. It sounds daunting but literally everyone around you is studying or worrying just as much. It's a good driving factor and keeps you motivated.
Well, if anyone has any questions such as on living situation either on campus or off, or what to expect in first year, etc, I'll try to remember to check out the thread again- depends how distracted I get with anatomy since the final is next week and I literally know nothing atm.
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I don't mind the traditional curriculum at Wayne. There could always be improvements, and maybe systems-based would help us to learn the material better, but I haven't seen any real problems with how things are taught (other than a small handful of specific professors who should probably spend more time in the lab and less time teaching, but that is true anywhere.)
One of the biggest advantages at Wayne is the fact that most lectures are completely optional. Not only is attendance not required, but all non-required lectures are streamed online. I spend less than half as much time watching lectures as I would have to if attendance was mandatory, since I can stay home (cutting out travel time), stream the lectures at 2x speed (not difficult once you get used to it, so people do it a lot faster), and can take breaks, or not, as I want. This leaves a LOT more time to study than I would have if I went to lectures every day.
As far as the layout of what is taught when, I don't really have much to compare it to, but I think it works pretty well. All schools have to teach you the same amount in the first two years, so who likes what approach is pretty individual, and depends a lot on your learning style. Wherever you go, you will be forced to cram an unbelievable amount of information into your head in a short period of time, and I don't think there is a huge difference in efficiency of traditional vs. systems based methods of doing this. I don't have experience with a systems-based curriculum of course, but I don't think there are any major drawbacks with how Wayne does things.
Thank you! Anyone know about the snail mail preference for Wayne? Permanent or your preferred?
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Just to offer another voice to the whole traditional curriculum thing: I don't have much to compare it to but all in all I think it's been pretty good. Both traditional and systems-based have points in time when the material just doesn't work for one or the other method. An anecdote to explain my point -- I have a friend who attends University of Michigan, and he was going out of his mind during CNS because of the difficulty of everything at once. Anatomy, physiology, histology of the CNS is pretty complicated so he was really bumming out during that time and actually wishing that he could just tease it out as separate pieces like we do in traditional curriculum. On the other hand, systems based does seem to lend itself more naturally toward clinical relevance and might make learning more interesting (I don't know this first hand, though). I have no clue about type of curriculum and how that corresponds to Step scores or job placement in the long run though, but I'm constitutionally inclined to not worry about it too much.
Bottom line is that people go to the "best" med school they got in to, and the students who are happiest or most well adjusted are the ones who make the best out of what they are being taught regardless of method. Despite not being on the forefront of curriculum innovation, Wayne has a LOT of upsides -- an amazing clinical skills center to supplement the level of clinical experiences we will be getting in 3rd and 4th year, an immensely diverse pre-clinical volunteer experience landscape, and (I will claim) an administration that is infinitely more caring and responsive than I would have expected at a school of this size. This responsiveness actually lends itself well to curriculum feedback and there have already been a lot of changes that have happened in the last couple of years that have made a positive impact for students. None of these previous benefits I would have really been able to fully appreciate without being an actual student here, though.
Bottom line is that people go to the "best" med school they got in to, and the students who are happiest or most well adjusted are the ones who make the best out of what they are being taught regardless of method. Despite not being on the forefront of curriculum innovation, Wayne has a LOT of upsides -- an amazing clinical skills center to supplement the level of clinical experiences we will be getting in 3rd and 4th year, an immensely diverse pre-clinical volunteer experience landscape, and (I will claim) an administration that is infinitely more caring and responsive than I would have expected at a school of this size. This responsiveness actually lends itself well to curriculum feedback and there have already been a lot of changes that have happened in the last couple of years that have made a positive impact for students. None of these previous benefits I would have really been able to fully appreciate without being an actual student here, though.
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Alright, I'll bite too (nobody can say Wayne students aren't responsive after the replies you've gotten!), mostly because your username marks you as a (wo)man after my own heart. Any future surgeons I can entice to come to Wayne will be great.
I just wanted to offer perspective on the traditional curriculum from someone whose gone through all of it, Step 1/2 and rotations. It can be hard while you're currently in the first two year curriculum to see the end-game (not that anything they have to say is invalid, of course!). But, Salim271 is right when saying that first year courses don't prepare you for step 1, way too many minute details. With the exception of anatomy and part of physiology, I disliked first year - it was too deep into irrelevant details for my liking. The only exception is probably genetics which used to be run by a Step 1 question writer (she left a couple of years ago, but exams don't change much from year-to-year, honestly), so the questions were reflective at least of genetics, but that is a very small slice of step 1.
That changes in second year (way more work and more miserable, but I enjoyed it more than first year). The vast majority of the year is run by Dr. Bosch (if you come here you will come to know and love her), who teaches full-time. She runs the pathobiology course and a large majority of pathophysiology (which runs from Thanksgiving to May of 2nd year). Her questions are very reflective of step 1 (yes, a little more detailed, but the style is similar) and her and those who teach with her really do hit the important stuff you need to know for step without getting too bogged down in mind-numbing path BS. I can't tell you how many times I had Dr. Bosch's voice in my head when I was answering questions on step 1 and even got a few step 2 questions right only because of year 2 coursework. So yes, it is traditional and if you hate lectures you will hate Wayne, but if you're willing to put in the time you will do well on Step.
As for how a traditional curriculum works when you're in year 3, it doesn't matter. You could have been privately tutored by Osler and Halsted themselves for two years and still will walk into wards on your first day not having any idea on how to actually do anything. Wayne students do well on the NBME Shelf exams at the end of each rotation which comprise half your grade for each clerkship, so you're well prepared for that. The clinical training also prepares you well for residency - we have matched into very competitive residency programs in the last few years.
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Thanks so much to the current students for sharing your input and experiences! 😀 very helpful info
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Hi again. Something you should also know that I'm not sure was mentioned earlier is that this year (class of 2016) we are starting an all inclusive Step 1 study course designed by someone who is a current student (someone who delayed graduation due to starting a family and other reasons but will be finishing soon) but who was trained on a particular teaching model for step 1 preparation and has taken a few other current students through that same training. The classes will start in December and will meet 3 times per week from 5-7 pm at the school. In the course we will go over all step one material subject by subject, pinpointing areas of weakness, and learning a standardized annotation system as well as I'm sure other study methods. We are going to go through all the material necessary for step 1 and all do question bank questions every week (with homework questions included in this). The school is supplementing this course by providing a 6 month subscription to UWorld as well as a copy of first aid. Because this is the first year of the program, I'm sure there are things that will need to be adjusted but the students are really excited about the program and I think it's going to be really popular -- hopefully it will be really good and continue to exist for years to come. I do think that this course was designed in part to address issues regarding the curriculum's relevance with board preparation. Agreed with the above post regarding Dr. Bosch and year 2. Year 2 is about x1000000000 times better than year 1 so far. Dr. Bosch also will continue to do lunch time Step 1 reviews. Point is that while the school works out more ways to make year 1 more relevant they have made helping to prepare for step a real priority which I think is pretty cool.
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This is awesome! Definite plus for WSU. I like to see that they're willing to make changes and work to improve student success 🙂 thanks for the info.
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First year was a combination of many things for me. I moved from out of state so I was working through several adjustments at once. As a result my anxiety levels were pretty high throughout. It was a lot more information than I was used to getting at once (I was not a science major), and the course work in general was just less interesting and harder to engage with. For example, a lot of people really like anatomy, and there are a bunch of advocates for keeping anatomy lab and cadaver dissection around forever -- I just don't happen to be one of those people. It was clear from the start that cadaver dissection anatomy and I were just not going to get along, but I got through it and did my best (I just don't ever want to do it again). Physio and biochem were our next block of classes with physio being notorious around here for being a class that isn't taught all that well (a lot of PhDs teaching the classes with mixed levels of teaching ability, heavy focus on detail that we didn't really have to know). Biochem is just biochem -- a difficult subject for people to like unless you just happen to be into it. The class I liked the most out of first year I have to say was neuro -- very well organized, interesting, and clinically relevant. Neuro is a 2 month class taught in tandem with nutrition (1 month) and genetics (the 2nd month). Some people did not like genetics (too much memorizing tables for their taste) but we integrated some team-based learning things into the genetics curriculum and I thought that was actually kind of cool and helped me learn the stuff better. For me, first year wasn't *that bad* but in comparison it's really nice to now be learning about the cool stuff -- disease processes and infectious agents and all the multitude of things that can go wrong with a body -- the material is just more interesting. I'm also much more settled in so that helps a lot and probably adds to my liking this year as much as I do.
At the start of second year, we started learning about the immune system and pathogens right away in immuno/micro, which I just flat out like, and pharm wasn't fascinating to me by any means but I understood the utility of it. Pathobiology (which is what we are taking now) ties in a lot of things we learned last year in histology, is taught by Dr. Bosch, and is just a cool class. Psych is going on now too, which is interesting and very well taught but also not needlessly rigorous so it's nice to not to have to work as hard as I did in the first two months with piles of material and details to know for the exams. I should also mention that they switched the curriculum order around this year so immuno/micro and pharm are going on at the same time, instead of immuno/micro and psych, because they wanted us to get pharmacology context before psychiatry instead of the other way around. We had exams every monday for the first two months so it was definitely a grind, but now that I'm in this block and not on that schedule it's fine and I'm glad we did it the way we did. Once we are done with these classes (in a few weeks), we will start our systems-based pathophysiology course, which will tie in a lot of things we went over last year (supposedly), or at least get us caught up to speed with where we are supposed to be. Another really cool thing about year 2 is that I notice myself starting to make connections between stuff I've learned in different courses and integrating knowledge -- this process is just beginning for me but I really like when the fog starts to clear in my head about things so I think that's why I like this year a lot better too.
At the start of second year, we started learning about the immune system and pathogens right away in immuno/micro, which I just flat out like, and pharm wasn't fascinating to me by any means but I understood the utility of it. Pathobiology (which is what we are taking now) ties in a lot of things we learned last year in histology, is taught by Dr. Bosch, and is just a cool class. Psych is going on now too, which is interesting and very well taught but also not needlessly rigorous so it's nice to not to have to work as hard as I did in the first two months with piles of material and details to know for the exams. I should also mention that they switched the curriculum order around this year so immuno/micro and pharm are going on at the same time, instead of immuno/micro and psych, because they wanted us to get pharmacology context before psychiatry instead of the other way around. We had exams every monday for the first two months so it was definitely a grind, but now that I'm in this block and not on that schedule it's fine and I'm glad we did it the way we did. Once we are done with these classes (in a few weeks), we will start our systems-based pathophysiology course, which will tie in a lot of things we went over last year (supposedly), or at least get us caught up to speed with where we are supposed to be. Another really cool thing about year 2 is that I notice myself starting to make connections between stuff I've learned in different courses and integrating knowledge -- this process is just beginning for me but I really like when the fog starts to clear in my head about things so I think that's why I like this year a lot better too.
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I know friends who didn't get off the wait list until May and they still received a scholarship, though it wasn't a large scholarship it was still free money. Plus if you've been admitted early you might have a better chance receiving a larger scholarship.
I asked a current student the same question and he said they usually don't offer scholarships until after you've filled out your financial aid forms.
For the financial aid documents, don't you have to specify the school you'll be in next year in order for the school to receive your information? So does that mean that we won't know of scholarships until after accepting wsu offer?
H
HabisY
Anyone else still waiting on II's that's been complete for more than 2 months? Or am I kinda screwed . . . ?
you should call them. they are very helpful
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I've been complete since 9/6 lol. I just figured at this point it's a no... Which I was expecting from this school anyway.
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Anyone getting nervous/anxious for next Tuesday, November 26 decision day for next batch of interviewees?? I am!!
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I'm really surprised that I haven't even received a secondary application invite from Wayne State, especially considering I've already received multiple interviews from other schools. I wonder if they're even still sending out secondary application invites at this stage.
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Yep, I definitely am. By the way, I think it's this coming Wednesday, November 27 and not Tuesday. I'm on the alternate list...hoping for the best
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They tell you on your interview date when you will hear back from the school...
uh sorry, we're talking about different things. i was referring to an actual invite 🙂
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Oops! Sorry, I misunderstood :/
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VERY anxious myself. OOS so not expecting much but hoping for the best 🙂
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Yeah...now I'm starting to get pretty anxious about tomorrow's decision! Gahhh I hope we all get in!! I'll be checking my email obsessively all day until I see an email from them 😀 good luck! Please let us know how it goes for you and when you receive the email (that goes for everyone so that whoever gets it first can send the rest of us into a panic waiting for our email lol).
LOL I know- same here! Just waiting for that next batch of II's to see where I stand based on those guys' completion dates (I hope to be one of them, but being realistic here)
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Alternate list too, interviewed on 10/25. We'll see.
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Just received my word art (acceptance)! Yay! This is a top choice for me so there's a high probability I'll end up matriculating. Congrats to all those who have been accepted and to those who were wait listed--keep your head up! I had friends who go there now who were accepted in June! There's still hope 🙂
