2014-2015 University of Virginia Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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Shams al Deen said:
I got the background check email yesterday, although it could've been from my other waitlists or acceptance. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll be matriculating here next year as an out-of-state student. Loved the school on interview day and am looking forward to coming here.
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I did as well but I kinda suspect it may be from my other acceptances/WLs. I'm most likely matriculating too, hopefully we'll get to meet each other soon! What state are you from?
 
Are we supposed to be getting a background check e-mail from AMCAS?
 
I think someone asked about merit aid before- there is some merit aid (roughly ~$10k a year), but I believe only a handful of people (< 10 people) get any merit aid (I certainly didn't)...so take what I say with a grain of salt.
 
Anyone have any info regarding their receptiveness for letters of intent? UVA is my dream school, and I'm slowly losing hope. I haven't received an interview yet. Also, anyone have any info on the latest UVA can send out interviews? Latest I personally know of is late January.
 
dontblvmejuswatch said:
how many people typically go to second look?
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A fair number. Probably enough to fill the class. The people set on going to UVA use it as a time to scope out apartments, since it can be a little more difficult to find a place later in the year (since most people staying in Cville sign their leases in like October).
 
Has any one by any chance received any information about applying for financial aid? I remember hearing that we would receive some sort of instructions and/or links...?
 
Received e-mail regarding computing ID today, but no background check. Also messed up the password thing and cannot change it...did this happen to anyone else? Lol i thought it would go to a reset page but instead the one you type is the one you week.
 
Interview next week. Really looking forward to it. if you have a suggestion for a hotel please let me know. Unfortunately, the student host program did not work out for me. Also is greyhound the best option if I am traveling from northern VA? Thank you.
 
Krispy Kreme said:
Interview next week. Really looking forward to it. if you have a suggestion for a hotel please let me know. Unfortunately, the student host program did not work out for me. Also is greyhound the best option if I am traveling from northern VA? Thank you.
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The Cavalier Inn and is good. Inexpensive and had a free shuttle that dropped me right in front of the med school bldg.
 
Shams al Deen said:
The Cavalier Inn and is good. Inexpensive and had a free shuttle that dropped me right in front of the med school bldg.
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+1

Their shuttle also does airport pickup/drop-off so you can save yourself a small fortune in taxi/Uber fees.
 
Krispy Kreme said:
Interview next week. Really looking forward to it. if you have a suggestion for a hotel please let me know. Unfortunately, the student host program did not work out for me. Also is greyhound the best option if I am traveling from northern VA? Thank you.
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Greyhound is probably the cheapest option, but you can also look into Amtrak. More expensive, but you don't have to worry about how bad traffic is, and they drop off in essentially the same location.

Red Roof Inn is right down the street from the medical school, and Hampton Inn is just behind it. I'm not sure their prices/availability, but it might be worth looking into those as well.
 
mvenus929 said:
Greyhound is probably the cheapest option, but you can also look into Amtrak. More expensive, but you don't have to worry about how bad traffic is, and they drop off in essentially the same location.

Red Roof Inn is right down the street from the medical school, and Hampton Inn is just behind it. I'm not sure their prices/availability, but it might be worth looking into those as well.
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I second this. After using greyhound for most of my close interviews, I have to say that amtrak is worth the money.
 
Has UVA sent pre-II rejections throughout this year's admissions process?
 
Can any current students comment on what actually occurs at second look and if they think it's beneficial to attend? I'm really low on funds right now and dont wanna throw away money if it's not gonna be beneficial. Also do the schools think bad of you if you don't wind up attending second look?
 
yaoigirl said:
Can any current students comment on what actually occurs at second look and if they think it's beneficial to attend? I'm really low on funds right now and dont wanna throw away money if it's not gonna be beneficial. Also do the schools think bad of you if you don't wind up attending second look?
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You get a bunch of presentations on the school, curriculum, etc. You get to hear a panel of current students. You mingle with other accepted students.

Probably 1/3 to 1/2 of my class was at second look. No one will look down on you if you don't attend. Honestly, I didn't even remember most people were at second look until I went and looked through the pictures after knowing everyone for a few months.

How beneficial it will be to you personally depends on how conflicted you are. If you're planning on going to UVA regardless, probably not helpful. If you're conflicted between two schools and price wouldn't make a difference to you, it might be worth going. If you're waiting for financial aid packages to decide, and that is the bulk of your decision at this point, probably not worth it. There are other ways of finding out answers to any lingering questions you have if you choose not to go.
 
mvenus929 said:
You get a bunch of presentations on the school, curriculum, etc. You get to hear a panel of current students. You mingle with other accepted students.

Probably 1/3 to 1/2 of my class was at second look. No one will look down on you if you don't attend. Honestly, I didn't even remember most people were at second look until I went and looked through the pictures after knowing everyone for a few months.

How beneficial it will be to you personally depends on how conflicted you are. If you're planning on going to UVA regardless, probably not helpful. If you're conflicted between two schools and price wouldn't make a difference to you, it might be worth going. If you're waiting for financial aid packages to decide, and that is the bulk of your decision at this point, probably not worth it. There are other ways of finding out answers to any lingering questions you have if you choose not to go.
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Thank you for the reply it was very helpful.
 
I have an interview coming up next week and would like to know how long the outside part of the tour is. It looks like it may be a bit icy or snowy on my interview day so I am trying to decide if I need to bring more sensible shoes! Any advice would be appreciated!
 
I had an interview this week and we walked a lot outside. I think the tour was about an hour, and we were walking outside about 15-20 minutes. I changed to my flats and left my heels in the closet (it was locked up while we were gone. So you can leave anything you do not want to carry around during the tour and also interviews). So I definitely think it is a good idea to bring comfortable shoes. Also, some people in my group did not wear coat going to lunch but we went straight from lunch to the tour so they seemed to be very cold!

Good luck!
 
Krispy Kreme said:
I had an interview this week and we walked a lot outside. I think the tour was about an hour, and we were walking outside about 15-20 minutes. I changed to my flats and left my heels in the closet (it was locked up while we were gone. So you can leave anything you do not want to carry around during the tour and also interviews). So I definitely think it is a good idea to bring comfortable shoes. Also, some people in my group did not wear coat going to lunch but we went straight from lunch to the tour so they seemed to be very cold!

Good luck!
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Thank you for replying! And thanks for the heads up about the coat 🙂
 
womanofscience said:
I have an interview coming up next week and would like to know how long the outside part of the tour is. It looks like it may be a bit icy or snowy on my interview day so I am trying to decide if I need to bring more sensible shoes! Any advice would be appreciated!
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It depends on how kind you tour guides are. On good weather days, I stayed outside as much as possible, giving as much as a 30 minute tour outside. On bad weather days, especially when we had a lot of girls in heels, I tried to take a route that had us outside the least amount, but you will definitely spend at least 15 minutes outside just walking to lunch and back.

But yes, you should bring flats. There are a lot of stairs and hills no matter which way you go, and the area around the rotunda is brick lined, which isn't the greatest walking around in heels.
 
mvenus929 said:
It depends on how kind you tour guides are. On good weather days, I stayed outside as much as possible, giving as much as a 30 minute tour outside. On bad weather days, especially when we had a lot of girls in heels, I tried to take a route that had us outside the least amount, but you will definitely spend at least 15 minutes outside just walking to lunch and back.

But yes, you should bring flats. There are a lot of stairs and hills no matter which way you go, and the area around the rotunda is brick lined, which isn't the greatest walking around in heels.
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Thanks for the reply! It is supposed to be somewhere between 15 and 32F, but it is Virginia after all... And I'd say I'm used to the bricks since I attended Jefferson's alma mater 😉

And thanks for all of your input on this thread! It has made me incredibly excited for having a shot at UVa
 
I'm curious about the internal ranking during preclinical years. Is there any function that this internal ranking serves other than AOA consideration, or does it also come in to play for other stuff like dean's letter (and if so, is rank important for a good letter). Basically, is the internal class rank something that students should reasonably be cognizant of?

Also do you see having plus/minus letter grades for clinical years as a drawback? Is having the weird honors/high pass whatever system easier to do well in?
 
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Shams al Deen said:
I'm curious about the internal ranking during preclinical years. Is there any function that this internal ranking serves other than AOA consideration, or does it also come in to play for other stuff like dean's letter (and if so, is rank important for a good letter). Basically, is the internal class rank something that students should reasonably be cognizant of?

Also do you see having plus/minus letter grades for clinical years as a drawback? Is having the weird honors/high pass whatever system easier to do well in?
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I know that most schools that internally rank WILL DEFINITELY use it in Dean's letter that gets sent out when applying to residency with code words that signal to program directors which quartile the student is in or some other "rank."
 
I'm curious about third year and fourth year rotations at UVA. How much responsibility do medical students get on the wards and how many opportunities are there to pick up and practice skills before residency? How prepared do UVA students feel for residency? How are these years graded? What are the advantages and disadvantages of rotating at hospitals all over Virginia as opposed to staying in Charlottesville for them?

Very loaded post, but I would appreciate any responses!
 
Ace Khalifa said:
I know that most schools that internally rank WILL DEFINITELY use it in Dean's letter that gets sent out when applying to residency with code words that signal to program directors which quartile the student is in or some other "rank."
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Ok, I will try to address the recent questions. First, the "internal ranking" for the first 2 years doesn't really exist. In a sense, it is literally ONLY used for AOA purposes- let me explain. The top ~25% of students based on the first 2 year grades are ELIGIBLE for AOA, but our class votes on who we think deserves AOA (based on how smart/helpful/committed to community service/etc that we perceive our classmates to be). Then, based on who gets a high number of votes, they look at that person's record to determine if they are in the top 25% grades-wise. If they are, they get into AOA. If not, then they don't get in. So really, being a nice/genuine/helpful person that your classmates really like is just as important as scoring well on tests. Some people may be really smart and ace everything, but not get selected for AOA if no one knows they exist (cuz they sit in their room and study all day).

As far as ranking going in the dean's letter, THAT IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE AT UVA. I have read my own dean's letter...there was NO MENTION of the first 2 year grades other than "xyz passed the systems based curriculum." There were comments from my CPD mentor regarding my performance in CPD but that's about it. 90% of dean's letter addressed third year performance. On that note, UVA does an outstanding job of "hiding" how well or poorly their students do with the +/- grading system. For example, you could get a B+ on a rotation (and it's not exactly clear whether that's a really high or low grade)- and honestly it depends on the specific rotation. They do send a histogram of each clerkship with a breakdown of the grades received on each. But there is NO SUMMARY STATEMENT like xyz student is "outstanding" or "above average." It is up to each residency program to interpret each individual clerkship histogram (with its A, A-, B+, B) distribution to determine how "good" the student is.
 
The more I have to wait to hear back from my other schools, the more appreciative I become of how awesome UVA is for their policy of making prompt decisions on their interviewed applicants. Seriously, I really wish more schools would do admissions like UVA.
 
DoTheTrick said:
I'm curious about third year and fourth year rotations at UVA. How much responsibility do medical students get on the wards and how many opportunities are there to pick up and practice skills before residency? How prepared do UVA students feel for residency? How are these years graded? What are the advantages and disadvantages of rotating at hospitals all over Virginia as opposed to staying in Charlottesville for them?

Very loaded post, but I would appreciate any responses!
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Dude come on...these are questions you should have asked at the interview. I'm going to give a brief summary here but if you want more details, just PM me.

1. You get plenty of responsibility as a 3rd/4th year student. You will carry your own pts, preround on them every morning, write notes, and maybe put in the orders if you're later on in third year or a fourth year. You will get to do plenty of procedures depending on the rotation (tons of intubations on anesthesia, A lines, IVs- on medicine: ABGs, ?paracentesis if you're lucky. ER: IVs, suturing, splinting/casting. Surgery: suturing, driving camera, pulling chest tubes, etc.)- depends on what kind of opportunities present themselves and how comfortable your upper level resident is with you doing the procedure.

2. Residents are generally very well prepared- the one experience we could prob get more practice from what I've heard is putting in central lines (b/c of liability/risk, med students don't often get the opportunity at UVA).

3. Third year graded from A+, A, A-, B+, B, B- and so on- most people get from A- to B generally speaking.

4. Advantage to rotating at multiple hospitals is to see how different systems work- you get familiar with different EMRs, potentially different work ups depending on the resources available at that hospital. The surgery rotation at the Salem VA provides more opportunities to get hands on - you essentially get your own clinic room, examine your own pts, put in your own orders/surgery requests, etc. You also get to do a lot in the OR there. Overall, it's def a good thing to get exposed to other systems during med school.

Hope that helps!
 
afob100 said:
Dude come on...these are questions you should have asked at the interview. I'm going to give a brief summary here but if you want more details, just PM me.

1. You get plenty of responsibility as a 3rd/4th year student. You will carry your own pts, preround on them every morning, write notes, and maybe put in the orders if you're later on in third year or a fourth year. You will get to do plenty of procedures depending on the rotation (tons of intubations on anesthesia, A lines, IVs- on medicine: ABGs, ?paracentesis if you're lucky. ER: IVs, suturing, splinting/casting. Surgery: suturing, driving camera, pulling chest tubes, etc.)- depends on what kind of opportunities present themselves and how comfortable your upper level resident is with you doing the procedure.

2. Residents are generally very well prepared- the one experience we could prob get more practice from what I've heard is putting in central lines (b/c of liability/risk, med students don't often get the opportunity at UVA).

3. Third year graded from A+, A, A-, B+, B, B- and so on- most people get from A- to B generally speaking.

4. Advantage to rotating at multiple hospitals is to see how different systems work- you get familiar with different EMRs, potentially different work ups depending on the resources available at that hospital. The surgery rotation at the Salem VA provides more opportunities to get hands on - you essentially get your own clinic room, examine your own pts, put in your own orders/surgery requests, etc. You also get to do a lot in the OR there. Overall, it's def a good thing to get exposed to other systems during med school.

Hope that helps!
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Thank you for the extra perspective! I'm sorry! I don't have all the information that I learned from the schools during the interview season straight!🙂
 
giraffesuptop said:
@afob100 what's your opinion on the execution, efficiency, and benefit of the TBL preclinical curriculum?
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We have TBLs ~once a week. They are good for hammering home IMPORTANT concepts- although they get across a relatively LIMITED AMOUNT of information (if that makes sense). Like they will go into great depth into a really important topic even if they don't cover a huge breadth- that's why UVA uses case based learning, lectures, labs, and TBLs all together to get the info across.

For example, during the cardiology system, I still remember the TBL we had on myocardial infarction- we studied "door to balloon" times, work up, signs and sx of MI, acute management/tx, etc. I still remember the facts I learned from that TBL as a soon graduating fourth year. The TBLs are a good way to hammer home these concepts- while lectures and other case-based learning will help you cover the breadth of info you need to know. For example, the TBL only covered 1 cardiac disease (albeit an important one...MIs)...what about the 20+ types of cardiomyopathy, cardiac infections, pathology, heart failure, cardiac tamponade, pericarditis, etc.- there are 100+ other cardiac diseases that weren't covered in that TBL (and that's the point of how TBLs are used at UVA). This is where lectures/cases/labs, etc come in to play to round out your education.

I think TBLs are definitely useful- they force you to prepare ahead of time and be ready for the quiz at the beginning of class. Most of my classmates would agree that we wouldn't really have to restudy material from TBLs before an exam b/c we learned it so well the first time. I think a curriculum with too much TBL risks not covering enough breadth. And remember, we're able to cover the content of the whole basic science curriculum in only 1.5 years- this provides a huge leg up when applying for residencies (this is prob the most important thing to consider). I was able to do an away rotation in my desired field in June of fourth year (before most students even finish third year) after having done my home rotation at UVA. Also, I was able to make significant progress on a research project during fourth year before residency apps even went out.
 
Accepted today. Email came around noon. This is my top choice school and first acceptance. Very happy. I loved the school and people on my interview day.
 
Krispy Kreme said:
Accepted today. Email came around noon. This is my top choice school and first acceptance. Very happy. I loved the school and people on my interview day.
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CONGRATULATIONS!!! I got accepted today as well! I interviewed on Wednesday and I LOVED the school and the people as well! IS Lizzy~70
 
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Incontrol said:
CONGRATULATIONS!!! I got accepted today as well! I interviewed on Wednesday and I LOVED the school and the people as well! IS Lizzy~70
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Thank you! Congratulations, too! I also interviewed on Wednesday. 🙂
 
Anyone going down to second look from the Pittsburgh (ish) area and want to carpool?
 
found the accepted c/o 2019 fb page... but it would be super awkward to join without a formal invitation right haha
 
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