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2014-2015 Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Application Thread
- Thread starter gettheleadout
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Based on last year's thread, it looks like they were making calls every day for at least a few days after 10/15, including that weekend. It seemed like Dr. Saguil called everyone personally, so I'm guessing unless he devotes an entire day to nothing but phone calls, they're spread out a bit.
Thanks for the info. It doesn't seem that anyone got calls today. But then again, this forum =/= represent the applicant pool.
@flowergirl123
@LaceyMD
When did you guys interview? You can PM if you don't want to make it public.
@LaceyMD
When did you guys interview? You can PM if you don't want to make it public.
Congrats!
But uh oh...I sure hope that I'll hear some news soon...
EDIT: do you mind sharing what time you got the call?
I have not heard back yet, interviewed Sept. 25th no prior service.
To be fair, Sept 25th is only three weeks before today. I do recall the school telling September and October applicants to wait 4-6 weeks for a result. But some people have already started receiving acceptance offers. We'll have to wait and see.
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I wouldn't stress too much here. You interviewed 9/18 yeah?
It's still less than a month since then (ok well basically exactly a month). If you still haven't heard anything in 2-3 weeks then you can stress 🙂
25th actually!
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yeah don't stress yet then 🙂 (I know way easier said than done)
Good advice.
But it seems people who've interviewed on the 25th have already started getting phone calls.
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Some have, but if it helps to keep it in perspective not everything moves at the same pace. Something held up my secondary for over a month before the review was complete. Things happen and I'd look at their 4-6 weeks as being the most accurate.
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To all the accepted students, are we just waiting to receive the formal acceptance letter? Is there anything else we should be looking forward to receiving in the mail? I missed a little bit of the info during my phone call. Thanks!
Ha! Me too! I have no idea what he actually said...waiting for something in the mail to confirm I didn't dream it up in my head!
Congrats 1183! Do you mind sharing when you interviewed?
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Congrats! and go Navy! 🙂
Hey fellow Sept 25th-er...
As far as I know, only one person from Sept 25th have received the phone call.
The anticipation is tough, I usually always have my phone on vibrate but now it's on max volume...
I know! It is driving me crazy!
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I received an acceptance call from Dr. Saguil this evening (just before 6pm EST). I was offered an Air Force position (my first choice). I interviewed on the 18th. (As an aside, he mentioned that my application went to the committee earlier this week). Best of luck everyone and hopefully I will see a lot of you this fall in Bethesda.
Are you saying that your post-interview application wasn't reviewed until THIS week?
I need to PM you something...
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I got a call from Dr. Saguil around 5pm EST with an acceptance for an Army position, and interviewed 9/25. Congrats to all the rest of y'all and good luck to those still waiting!
Congrats! I sure hope I get a call soon.
The way I figure, if I don't get a call early next week, then I'll shift my expectation to a wait-list.
Btw, does USUHS call on the weekends? I believe some people on last year's forum got calls on Sundays.
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I just checked my phone and it lasted 2min 14sec lol. But it surely felt way longer than that!
Let's say that a call is made every 3 minutes. That's 20 calls for day (assuming only an hour is spent each day on calling), and 60 acceptances over the past three days. Approximately 100 people interviewed in September. Sounds like all the acceptances have been given out of September's group.
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Sean!
I feel like you need a hug and a deep breath. Here's a virtual hug.
*hug*
Now take a deep breath.
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Hey everyone,
I'm currently a MS2 at USUHS and would be glad to answer any questions you might have about the school, the atmosphere, area, curriculum, military, the endo-repro system (module we just completed), or anything else I might have missed. This weekend's a bit slow for us so I figured I'd offer to answer any burning questions future colleagues might have.
And yes, USUHS is probably the best med school out there
I'm currently a MS2 at USUHS and would be glad to answer any questions you might have about the school, the atmosphere, area, curriculum, military, the endo-repro system (module we just completed), or anything else I might have missed. This weekend's a bit slow for us so I figured I'd offer to answer any burning questions future colleagues might have.
And yes, USUHS is probably the best med school out there
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Thanks for the offer! Not sure if this has already been discussed, but what is your typical weekday/ weekend like?
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Great question. Typical days are hard to come by, as they vary per module (i.e fundamentals is less dense than CardioPulmRenal), but I'll try to give you as accurate a representation of the average day as possible. You can expect 2-4 lectures everyday (I think the most we had was 6 or 7, definitely not more than 7). If you have 4, you usually have an afternoon skills/clinical/military session or the rest of the day off. If you have two, you probably have a medical/more science-y lab like pathology or histology. These can also be accompanied by the aforementioned afternoon sessions. The curriculum is great in that you get a mix of practical, medical, and military training. Lectures are often non-mandatory (95%) and you can watch them online at your pace (I'm a 1.7x kinda guy); but there are some mandatory ones (i.e guest speakers, ethics discussions, human context classes). Labs and skills sessions are always mandatory. How much time you spend studying depends on your style of learning- I have some classmates that study 12+ hours per day, but they don't study once they get home or on the weekends. Others break it up into more manageable bites.
As far as the weekend, there are certainly the lighter weekends where a bunch of people get together to do anything from hiking, visiting DC, going to a casino, anything really (it's certainly nice to have a salary as a student). Our class is very close, and this is true for most- if not all- of the classes. The sense of community is really incredible and unparalleled, and I think all the students can vouch for that. However, there are also heavy work weekends (i.e exams, assignments, dense lecture week). It probably averages to 2 weeks light then 2-3 weeks heavy, rinse and repeat.
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Wow! Thank you so much for the in depth response!!!! Very useful.... Doesn't sound all that different from other schools! Actually, it sounds sort of great... I'm very excited for my interview coming up and everything I learn about this school bumps it further up on my list
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Hi myleftorpatientleft!
I am so happy to keep hearing how close the classes are! 🙂 Is that mostly by year, or branch, or both? What's something that has been an unexpected plus for you at USUHS? Any unexpected negatives?
Edit. I guess that's really vague sounding. For example, at my really tiny former school, a considerable amount of everyone's time was eaten up by admin/prof drama. Admin forcing curriculum changes, which were resented by profs; profs doing what they want, getting fired mid-semester, etc
It's definitely something I had no idea was coming down the pipeline when I joined. But really, really sucked.
Thank you!!
I am so happy to keep hearing how close the classes are! 🙂 Is that mostly by year, or branch, or both? What's something that has been an unexpected plus for you at USUHS? Any unexpected negatives?
Edit. I guess that's really vague sounding. For example, at my really tiny former school, a considerable amount of everyone's time was eaten up by admin/prof drama. Admin forcing curriculum changes, which were resented by profs; profs doing what they want, getting fired mid-semester, etc
It's definitely something I had no idea was coming down the pipeline when I joined. But really, really sucked.
Thank you!!
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This post's a little long, but I've broken it down so you can look at the parts that are of interest to you:
Class closeness. It's mostly by year. At the beginning of each school year, you'll most likely hang out with the people you go to basic with (because you've spent a month with them. BTW this is not like "basic-basic" i.e young kid joining the military, so nothing like the movies where there's a lot of yelling. You'll still learn the military stuff, but there's a medical focus at least for the army. Oh and you get to do cool things like run field hospitals, do medivacs, shoot, and land-nav).
Something unexpected. I didn't realize that I was only going to be here for 1.5 years. With the revamped curriculum, we cover the preclerkship material in 18 months. My class is heading for our rotations all around the country (another great opportunity) in January. This gives us more clinical experience. Admittedly, I had my reservations about this- specifically with regards to Step 1- but the first class that did this curriculum crushed their step 1 so it's looking good so far. Hopefully it's more than just that class haha.
Negatives. Very few if any. You'll have to fill out paper work if you want to leave a certain radius (I think it's like 300 miles? Top border is New York City if that helps- i.e you can visit NYC without a pass). It's not really a problem as you can get the paper work filled out pretty easily and if you do it a week in advance you should be good. Also something that a few might consider a negative is some of the additional military stuff we have to do (i.e disaster response planning, mil history, etc.). Personally, I love those things as they're a welcome break from constant medicine, plus it makes one a more well rounded physician. Admittedly it can seem like a drag if it's on the week leading up to an exam, but you'll manage.
While we're on the topic of extra training, I just want to share how great this extra training is. We see see a lot of ultrasound (relatively speaking), we have tons of patient/sim patient interactions, we're now certified in ACLS (something most other students do in their internship year; we do it twice before internship!), we learn a lot of emergency-med/trauma skills even in our first year (like intubating, starting IVs, chest tubes, needle decompressions, etc), and we get to partake in field exercises where we get to do things like learn combatives and how to maneuver obstacle courses. The training is really unparalleled and if you're passionate about something you'll find that you can get training in that (i.e me and a whole bunch of students are already doing FLS- fundamentals of laproscopy- training at Walter Reed. This is something most people do in their surgical residency!). This is one of my absolute favorite things about this school and can go on and on, but hopefully you get the gist. I didn't even get to summer experiences!
Finally Admin/Prof Drama. Not a lot of that here, if there even is any. The professors are all very friendly and extremely willing to help. Most go above and beyond, but obviously you have to reach out to them (although module directors will reach out to you if they see your struggling).
Class closeness. It's mostly by year. At the beginning of each school year, you'll most likely hang out with the people you go to basic with (because you've spent a month with them. BTW this is not like "basic-basic" i.e young kid joining the military, so nothing like the movies where there's a lot of yelling. You'll still learn the military stuff, but there's a medical focus at least for the army. Oh and you get to do cool things like run field hospitals, do medivacs, shoot, and land-nav).
Something unexpected. I didn't realize that I was only going to be here for 1.5 years. With the revamped curriculum, we cover the preclerkship material in 18 months. My class is heading for our rotations all around the country (another great opportunity) in January. This gives us more clinical experience. Admittedly, I had my reservations about this- specifically with regards to Step 1- but the first class that did this curriculum crushed their step 1 so it's looking good so far. Hopefully it's more than just that class haha.
Negatives. Very few if any. You'll have to fill out paper work if you want to leave a certain radius (I think it's like 300 miles? Top border is New York City if that helps- i.e you can visit NYC without a pass). It's not really a problem as you can get the paper work filled out pretty easily and if you do it a week in advance you should be good. Also something that a few might consider a negative is some of the additional military stuff we have to do (i.e disaster response planning, mil history, etc.). Personally, I love those things as they're a welcome break from constant medicine, plus it makes one a more well rounded physician. Admittedly it can seem like a drag if it's on the week leading up to an exam, but you'll manage.
While we're on the topic of extra training, I just want to share how great this extra training is. We see see a lot of ultrasound (relatively speaking), we have tons of patient/sim patient interactions, we're now certified in ACLS (something most other students do in their internship year; we do it twice before internship!), we learn a lot of emergency-med/trauma skills even in our first year (like intubating, starting IVs, chest tubes, needle decompressions, etc), and we get to partake in field exercises where we get to do things like learn combatives and how to maneuver obstacle courses. The training is really unparalleled and if you're passionate about something you'll find that you can get training in that (i.e me and a whole bunch of students are already doing FLS- fundamentals of laproscopy- training at Walter Reed. This is something most people do in their surgical residency!). This is one of my absolute favorite things about this school and can go on and on, but hopefully you get the gist. I didn't even get to summer experiences!
Finally Admin/Prof Drama. Not a lot of that here, if there even is any. The professors are all very friendly and extremely willing to help. Most go above and beyond, but obviously you have to reach out to them (although module directors will reach out to you if they see your struggling).
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Here's a sentiment that's been shared by numerous people who are ahead of me (year wise, faculty, etc). Do with it what you will: If you got an interview to USUHS, the admissions committee has already deemed you as an academic fit. You've already cleared a huge hurdle, something literally thousands of people won't, once you've gotten that interview- so hopefully that's a little morale booster. If you don't get an interview, it's not necessarily a knock against you, it's just that your not at that moment, an academic fit for the curriculum. After that it's basically just to see if your a fit for the military and the community. Be yourself during the interview and be relaxed (remember you're already good enough!)- the fitting process is just to make sure that your experience and what the government gets is as good as possible. Judging from the my own class's vibe, they've done a great job of this.
Interviews go on until the end January I think. Personally, I interviewed at late October (so around now) and got in mid December (best Christmas present ever). I also know of a bunch of people in my class who got in off of the wait-list (we're talking some people haven't done basic training yet-late, so really it ain't over till it's over).
Thanks for the response! I interviewed in September, and I am anxiously waiting for the voice of God (aka Dean Saguil's phone call)
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Thank you so, so much for your wonderfully detailed responses!!
I read the new curriculum included a switch from discipline-based to systems-based. I realize you've only had experience with the new, but does it seem to make sense?
The extra bits, including basic, sound fantastic!!! I'm pretty sure no one here would mind hearing more about it, if you have the time! 🙂
Do you have any recommendations for us before we hopefully start somewhere next year? Anything you wish you did before classes started?
I read the new curriculum included a switch from discipline-based to systems-based. I realize you've only had experience with the new, but does it seem to make sense?
The extra bits, including basic, sound fantastic!!! I'm pretty sure no one here would mind hearing more about it, if you have the time! 🙂
Do you have any recommendations for us before we hopefully start somewhere next year? Anything you wish you did before classes started?
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Prettty disappointing to see people who interviewed during and after my interview date getting calls and i havent yet, i interviewed 9/18 and i love usuhs, i asked Dr Saguil a couple weeks ago if he could give me info early because i had a deposit due at another program, he told me the initial review was "very favorable" but that not all of the tertiary reviewers had seen my file... Still hopeful, i mean Saguil obviously doesnt call everyone the same day
Dr Saguil is really impressive. He's incredibly enthusiastic and friendly towards all the applicants, but you also get the hint that he's very professional and fair in the whole process.
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You and me both brotha!
me three! good luck to all
I interviewed 9/11.
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Just got an email from my host for my interview. Makes it feel a lot more real, in less than two days I'll be on a plane on the way to DC.
