2014-2015 University of Virginia Application Thread

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Hello all, I'm a M2 popping in to say good luck! Please feel free to PM me any questions you may have. I was in your shoes not too long ago, and just yesterday I scheduled my Step 1! 🙂
 
Did you e-mail it directly to admissions? I am not finding an update option on their portal.
 
II today as well. First 1 of the cycle (after 3 rejections). Submitted 8/25, OOS, LizzyM 73-74. As @Ecologyman said, earliest II dates are [mid] December.
 
If I remember correctly, the day proceeds like the list that follows. The end of the Dean talk/beginning of the lunch time might be a little off though.

10:00AM: Talk with the Dean of Admissions about U.Va. SOM
11:00AM/11:30AM: Lunch with 4th Year Medical Students then a Tour, including a presentation of the simulation center
1:30-3:30PM: Interviews
3:30PM: Financial Aid Presentation

They don't give you a schedule when you get there either. Just a list of interviewers and times that you're being interviewed.
 
Hi guys. I was fortunate enough to receive an II on Friday. My secondary was submitted early September. LizzyM ~72-75, OOS.

By the time I looked at dates (yesterday afternoon), the earliest available was the beginning of January. I haven't received many interview invites, and I know it was my fault for waiting so long to book a date. My initial intention was to book a January date and then continually monitor the calendar to see if I could switch into an earlier date if someone else changed theirs. However, after booking a date, you lose access to the calendar... which makes sense.

My question is-- is it possible for me to send UVA an email to ask to be informed if an earlier date opens up? Absolutely not looking for special treatment here, and I'm sure most others want earlier dates as well. It just feels weird to have booked an interview so far away, especially after knowing later interview dates reduce chances of acceptances. Please let me know if I'm sounding like an idiot -- like I said I'm not as informed to this process as most others on this site. Thanks in advance and good luck to everyone.
 
Hi guys. I was fortunate enough to receive an II on Friday. My secondary was submitted early September. LizzyM ~72-75, OOS.

By the time I looked at dates (yesterday afternoon), the earliest available was the beginning of January. I haven't received many interview invites, and I know it was my fault for waiting so long to book a date. My initial intention was to book a January date and then continually monitor the calendar to see if I could switch into an earlier date if someone else changed theirs. However, after booking a date, you lose access to the calendar... which makes sense.

My question is-- is it possible for me to send UVA an email to ask to be informed if an earlier date opens up? Absolutely not looking for special treatment here, and I'm sure most others want earlier dates as well. It just feels weird to have booked an interview so far away, especially after knowing later interview dates reduce chances of acceptances. Please let me know if I'm sounding like an idiot -- like I said I'm not as informed to this process as most others on this site. Thanks in advance and good luck to everyone.
Assuming that you're able to essentially travel to UVA on a whim, I think it sounds like a perfectly reasonable request. Especially now that people are going to hear from schools soon, it wouldn't be surprising if some spots open up due to people cancelling. I feel like it would even make their lives easier if they had someone they could easily fill into one of those spots.
 
Anyone know whether they start accepting people today or tomorrow?
I'm pretty sure they said that emails will start going out the morning of the 16th.

+1 TOMORROW IS THE DAY!

Good luck, folks! :luck: UVA seems really prompt with their admissions timeline, so I'm looking forward to seeing this thread explode tomorrow!
 
If I remember correctly, the day proceeds like the list that follows. The end of the Dean talk/beginning of the lunch time might be a little off though.

10:00AM: Talk with the Dean of Admissions about U.Va. SOM
11:00AM/11:30AM: Lunch with 4th Year Medical Students then a Tour, including a presentation of the simulation center
1:30-3:30PM: Interviews
3:30PM: Financial Aid Presentation

They don't give you a schedule when you get there either. Just a list of interviewers and times that you're being interviewed.


Thank you! Do you remember how long the fin aid presentation is/when it ends? I need to know what time the interview day ends bc I'm searching for a flight that will depart VA the same day as the interview.
 
Thank you! Do you remember how long the fin aid presentation is/when it ends? I need to know what time the interview day ends bc I'm searching for a flight that will depart VA the same day as the interview.

They schedule you 2 interview sessions between 1:30 and 3:30, so you can leave after 3:30 or earlier if you finish your second interview before that. But if you are going to stay for financial aid, I think the latest you'll get out before 4:15.

Also does anyone know if UVA sends out final decisions at midnight tonight or regular business hours tomorrow?
 
You can also leave the Financial Aid Presentation early if you need to. They don't think it's rude or anything.

@Toddissox, I guess we'll find out soon. My guess is sometime during the day tomorrow, but it would be nice if it was midnight.
 
Nothing past midnight so I guess I'll have to be all anxious and what not for another night.
 
Do all decisions go out today, including wait list/ rejections? I felt this was my best interview, but no news yet.
 
Also accepted this morning! Congrats to everyone and good luck to those still waiting. Excited to meet you guys at second look!
 
Do all decisions go out today, including wait list/ rejections? I felt this was my best interview, but no news yet.

They said they would be emailing updates throughout the day for everyone that had a vote taken, which I think means anyone who interviewed before last Friday. No news yet isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. Good luck!
 
ACCEPTED OOS just now! Man, that little extra wait was brutal. I loved this school so much and am extremely excited!!
 
Accepted!

Email came in at 10:38 during the middle of my take home exam that was due at 10:45. It was a nice way to relax since I only started preparing last night due to another interview!

Go Hoos!
 
Woah nellie! Accepted and utterly surprised. Loved the school, but thought my chances were pooched due to some not-so-flawless interviews. Very glad to be proven that post-interview feelings don't really mean much.

Thank you, UVA! Congrats to all the other fresh acceptances!
 
Accepted IS love! Missed out on the cobbler, but great interview day! Congrats to all!
 
Congrats to those of you who were accepted. I highly recommend coming to second look, where you can get a feel for the school as well as your awesome upperclassmen. 😎
 
Congrats to those of you who were accepted. I highly recommend coming to second look, where you can get a feel for the school as well as your awesome upperclassmen. 😎
Is there a way to setup an official second look day through admissions or is it just on your own initiative? I was accepted yesterday but the m1s and m2s were on fall break when I interviewed so I would like a chance to talk to some of them or sit in on a class. Thanks!
 
Is there a way to setup an official second look day through admissions or is it just on your own initiative? I was accepted yesterday but the m1s and m2s were on fall break when I interviewed so I would like a chance to talk to some of them or sit in on a class. Thanks!
When you send your acceptance paperwork in they will tell u about this
 
I'm not much of a poster, but I thought I might give you guys a little bit of my experience at UVA med. Im a third-year med student here, and 3 years ago around this time I was as happy and optimistic as you all are. I thought UVA was a top-notch school, but boy was I wrong! I'm on my clinical rotations now, there are some nasty, nasty, and I mean NASTY attendings and nurses that just want to make you feel worthless and make themselves feel powerful since you can't say anything back to them. UVA really needs to do something about the way they run their clinical rotations - they revamped the first two years, and although there are some negative aspects to it, overall I enjoyed the first two year. After that, it just went downhill incredibly fast once you start to work with the faculty and get to know them. An OR nurse today called me worthless and useless, an attending talking to another nurse when they thought I couldn't hear them referred to me as the "brown kid" and another faculty member insulted my "foreign" name in passing. Seriously? Is that the kind of people UVA med is hiring as role-models for future docs?? I regret my decision to the max, I picked this school over Hopkins (which I can't express how much I regret today) just because of how appealing the whole deal sounded initially. I have a friend at another med-school with terrific faculty that are great role-models and really enjoy educating their students, and here I am feeling like **** day after day while paying 40K a year to "supposedly" get an education. If this is the only place you have gotten accepted to, then I understand why you would go here, but if you have even one more option, SERIOUSLY consider that other option before coming here, that would be my one major advice to all of you. I wish you guys the best with wherever you end up, and truly hope you guys have better experiences than I did at this medical school for those of you that decide to go here.
 
I'm not much of a poster, but I thought I might give you guys a little bit of my experience at UVA med. Im a third-year med student here, and 3 years ago around this time I was as happy and optimistic as you all are. I thought UVA was a top-notch school, but boy was I wrong! I'm on my clinical rotations now, there are some nasty, nasty, and I mean NASTY attendings and nurses that just want to make you feel worthless and make themselves feel powerful since you can't say anything back to them. UVA really needs to do something about the way they run their clinical rotations - they revamped the first two years, and although there are some negative aspects to it, overall I enjoyed the first two year. After that, it just went downhill incredibly fast once you start to work with the faculty and get to know them. An OR nurse today called me worthless and useless, an attending talking to another nurse when they thought I couldn't hear them referred to me as the "brown kid" and another faculty member insulted my "foreign" name in passing. Seriously? Is that the kind of people UVA med is hiring as role-models for future docs?? I regret my decision to the max, I picked this school over Hopkins (which I can't express how much I regret today) just because of how appealing the whole deal sounded initially. I have a friend at another med-school with terrific faculty that are great role-models and really enjoy educating their students, and here I am feeling like **** day after day while paying 40K a year to "supposedly" get an education. If this is the only place you have gotten accepted to, then I understand why you would go here, but if you have even one more option, SERIOUSLY consider that other option before coming here, that would be my one major advice to all of you. I wish you guys the best with wherever you end up, and truly hope you guys have better experiences than I did at this medical school for those of you that decide to go here.
I'm sorry to hear about your experience, but I do appreciate your insight. I imagine that there are probably nasty attendings everywhere (not trying to disagree with your post, you clearly have more experience than me), but nevertheless, thanks for sharing your honest opinion. I'm still trying to research more into all the schools where I may end up attending, so I appreciate any information I can get about them.
 
I'm not much of a poster, but I thought I might give you guys a little bit of my experience at UVA med. Im a third-year med student here, and 3 years ago around this time I was as happy and optimistic as you all are. I thought UVA was a top-notch school, but boy was I wrong! I'm on my clinical rotations now, there are some nasty, nasty, and I mean NASTY attendings and nurses that just want to make you feel worthless and make themselves feel powerful since you can't say anything back to them. UVA really needs to do something about the way they run their clinical rotations - they revamped the first two years, and although there are some negative aspects to it, overall I enjoyed the first two year. After that, it just went downhill incredibly fast once you start to work with the faculty and get to know them. An OR nurse today called me worthless and useless, an attending talking to another nurse when they thought I couldn't hear them referred to me as the "brown kid" and another faculty member insulted my "foreign" name in passing. Seriously? Is that the kind of people UVA med is hiring as role-models for future docs?? I regret my decision to the max, I picked this school over Hopkins (which I can't express how much I regret today) just because of how appealing the whole deal sounded initially. I have a friend at another med-school with terrific faculty that are great role-models and really enjoy educating their students, and here I am feeling like **** day after day while paying 40K a year to "supposedly" get an education. If this is the only place you have gotten accepted to, then I understand why you would go here, but if you have even one more option, SERIOUSLY consider that other option before coming here, that would be my one major advice to all of you. I wish you guys the best with wherever you end up, and truly hope you guys have better experiences than I did at this medical school for those of you that decide to go here.
I find it a little hard to believe that the staff of our hospitals would be so narrow-minded and insulting. All of the third and fourth years I've talked to have been incredibly satisfied, and have raved about the friendliness of the staff. I also find it hard to believe that there would be such blatant cultural disregard at a refugee center. Granted, I'm only an M1 and don't have any experience on the wards outside of CPD. Was it just a few isolated incidents that turned you off, or is there a pattern of behavior that you're dissatisfied with? There will be jackasses and people having bad days everywhere, and you may have just drawn the short stick in that regard. Any other M3s or M4s want to chime in on this one?

As for second look, it's a scheduled event in late March/early April for all accepted students. I highly recommend it, as you will get a feel for your potential classmates as well as some of the students currently attending.
 
I find it a little hard to believe that the staff of our hospitals would be so narrow-minded and insulting. All of the third and fourth years I've talked to have been incredibly satisfied, and have raved about the friendliness of the staff. I also find it hard to believe that there would be such blatant cultural disregard at a refugee center. Granted, I'm only an M1 and don't have any experience on the wards outside of CPD. Was it just a few isolated incidents that turned you off, or is there a pattern of behavior that you're dissatisfied with? There will be jackasses and people having bad days everywhere, and you may have just drawn the short stick in that regard. Any other M3s or M4s want to chime in on this one?

As for second look, it's a scheduled event in late March/early April for all accepted students. I highly recommend it, as you will get a feel for your potential classmates as well as some of the students currently attending.


Look, there have been a number of people on the faculty that I have truly enjoyed working with and seemed to be very compassionate and were ideal role-models, these were mostly in the first two-years. I don't mean to paint the entire faculty at UVA med with a single brush, however I have had a significant number of bad experiences on clerkships that I never encountered during the first two years. And I agree that there are always going to be rude people at every medical school, but the amount I have seemed to encounter here is way more than my other friends at different medical schools have encountered. And yes, UVA is a refugee center, but that doesn't mean all of the faculty necessarily are into "diversity" and all of the other things that come along with cultural awareness. I would never just randomly accuse someone of making inappropriate-racist type comments, and I've never said anything as such before on SDN. Another experience I just had today on the wards - I had a nurse say to my face that medical students are useless and "dead weight." My attending just stood there and said absolutely nothing. I asked my clerkship director a question the other day about a specific part of the schedule to which she replied "go look in the book" after I told her that I couldn't find it in the book. She later said that "this may go into my clinical evaluation" - seriously? I thought there jobs were to help us and not condescend, or perhaps I'm wrong. I'm not denying that other people may have had better experiences, I'm merely highlighting what I have been and currently am experiencing on the clerkships at UVA - constant disrespect, feeling discouraged, insulted in ways I've never been insulted, lack of compassionate individuals that run the specific clerkships, fear of voicing my feelings as this may affect my grade (since clerkships are not pass/fail as the first two-years are), etc. I'm almost 3/4's of the way through third-year, and I can truly say it's made me regret coming to this university in every possible way. Again, this is just my experience, and I'm only saying this as I was incredibly excited to be at a University that prided itself on respect, compassion, education, diversity, and innovation when I interviewed here, and now I feel that the exact opposite of that is what I am experiencing. I could sit here for hours writing about various experiences that would make most people cringe, but I have to wake-up early tomorrow for rounds despite the fact that I will be breaking the so called 80 hour rule (again I told my clerkship director about it, she insisted that I was not putting forth an adequate amount of effort and would encourage me to report my hours more "accurately".
 
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I find it a little hard to believe that the staff of our hospitals would be so narrow-minded and insulting. All of the third and fourth years I've talked to have been incredibly satisfied, and have raved about the friendliness of the staff. I also find it hard to believe that there would be such blatant cultural disregard at a refugee center. Granted, I'm only an M1 and don't have any experience on the wards outside of CPD. Was it just a few isolated incidents that turned you off, or is there a pattern of behavior that you're dissatisfied with? There will be jackasses and people having bad days everywhere, and you may have just drawn the short stick in that regard. Any other M3s or M4s want to chime in on this one?

As for second look, it's a scheduled event in late March/early April for all accepted students. I highly recommend it, as you will get a feel for your potential classmates as well as some of the students currently attending.


And CPD was great, but again it occurred during the first two years and it was a small group session in which faculty volunteered to participate in - these sorts of individuals are obviously going to be much more invested into medical students since they do these sorts of things by choice, whereas attendings/nurses/residents, etc on the wards don't necessarily want to deal with medical students and may have drastic differences in their opinions on various issues. As I said previously, I don't have much in terms of negative comments to say about the first two years at UVA, but third-year is a totally different animal at UVA given the variables that come in to play (not pass/fail, attendings/nurses that don't necessarily want to be around medical students, etc). My hope is that the administration at UVA SOM starts training the faculty on the wards on how to work with medical students and to make sure that they are being as inviting and friendly as they can be, even if they have to fabricate it. They need to either screen their employees with something that has a higher sensitivity in catching the bad apples, or they need to start training them to fake it regardless of how those specific individuals feel otherwise - as sad as that sounds.
 
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Is there a way to setup an official second look day through admissions or is it just on your own initiative? I was accepted yesterday but the m1s and m2s were on fall break when I interviewed so I would like a chance to talk to some of them or sit in on a class. Thanks!

There is an official second look weekend in March or April. You will get more information about it in the spring.

As I said previously, I don't have much in terms of negative comments to say about the first two years at UVA, but third-year is a totally different animal at UVA given the variables that come in to play (not pass/fail, attendings/nurses that don't necessarily want to be around medical students, etc). My hope is that the administration at UVA SOM starts training the faculty on the wards on how to work with medical students and to make sure that they are being as inviting and friendly as they can be, even if they have to fabricate it. They need to either screen their employees with something that has a higher sensitivity in catching the bad apples, or they need to start training them to fake it regardless of how those specific individuals feel otherwise - as sad as that sounds.

I'm sorry you have had such bad experiences on the wards, and I do hope you are reporting these instances to the SAC. That's what they are there for, and why they are so heavily weighted towards third and fourth year students.
 
And CPD was great, but again it occurred during the first two years and it was a small group session in which faculty volunteered to participate in - these sorts of individuals are obviously going to be much more invested into medical students since they do these sorts of things by choice, whereas attendings/nurses/residents, etc on the wards don't necessarily want to deal with medical students and may have drastic differences in their opinions on various issues. As I said previously, I don't have much in terms of negative comments to say about the first two years at UVA, but third-year is a totally different animal at UVA given the variables that come in to play (not pass/fail, attendings/nurses that don't necessarily want to be around medical students, etc). My hope is that the administration at UVA SOM starts training the faculty on the wards on how to work with medical students and to make sure that they are being as inviting and friendly as they can be, even if they have to fabricate it. They need to either screen their employees with something that has a higher sensitivity in catching the bad apples, or they need to start training them to fake it regardless of how those specific individuals feel otherwise - as sad as that sounds.

Dude, what. I can't tell if this is for real because as an anonymous poster on an Internet forum you kind of just sound like... someone with a hardcore and inexplicable vendetta against UVA SOM (or someone trying to get people to drop their interview/acceptance spots which, what). Can you verify that you're a real UVA med student with one of the moderators here?
 
Ok ya'll...I'm a fourth year medical student here at UVA. I don't normally post much, but I felt the need to chyme in. This idiot pureblazin is clearly a troll and/or extremely awkward student.

I had a fantastic time on clinical rotations- I've given 5 interview day tours during this past month in Sept/October and probably met many of you and explained why UVA's third year is so awesome (excellent teaching from attendings, daily didactics geared toward med students, and a supportive learning environment). I told many of you to really look at the difference between our school and others with regard to third year specifically (because of how awesome ours is and how meaningless the first 2 years in the grand scheme of things). I've never heard of any medical student coming close to the 80 hour work mark (other than possibly 4th year students on neurosurg/ortho who are trying to get letters/impress people). As a third year, I find it nearly impossible to work that much - residents/attendings will just send you home if it's near ~7pm and you're still there on surgery because they know you have to come in early the next day (and you need 10 hours off between clinical work sessions).

Either this poster is extremely socially awkward and can't talk to attendings/nurses normally... or he/she is clearly a troll. The UVA nurses are some of the nicest I've met (and I've worked at other hospitals as well). I don't think I've ever had to dress myself when going into an OR - I'm always dressed/gowned by the scrub nurse/tech. If you are a friendly and normal person, nurses/ancillary staff will be super nice to you. You'd be surprised how well people treat you if you simply offer to help move the stretcher out of the OR. Seriously, if you are a normal person, no one will disrespect you during third year (except the neurosurgery folks...they are intense/mean all the time [half joking, but half serious]).

Hope that clears up some stuff about UVA's third year. Please feel free to PM me if you have questions about UVA. And pureblazin, I would love to see proof that you are actually a student here.
 
Dude, what. I can't tell if this is for real because as an anonymous poster on an Internet forum you kind of just sound like... someone with a hardcore and inexplicable vendetta against UVA SOM (or someone trying to get people to drop their interview/acceptance spots which, what). Can you verify that you're a real UVA med student with one of the moderators here?
I know that this isn't proof, but if you look at pureblazin's message history, it's consistent with his/her claim that he/she's a UVA student.
So either this is a 3 year long troll in the making (as in someone pretended to be a normal SDN user with the intention of trolling people 3 years later), or pureblazin is being honest.
EDIT: To clarify, I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with anybody. I'm just pointing out some easily verifiable facts before anyone attacks anyone.
 
I know that this isn't proof, but if you look at pureblazin's message history, it's consistent with his/her claim that he/she's a UVA student.
So either this is a 3 year long troll in the making (as in someone pretended to be a normal SDN user with the intention of trolling people 3 years later), or pureblazin is being honest.
EDIT: To clarify, I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with anybody. I'm just pointing out some easily verifiable facts before anyone attacks anyone.

You're absolutely right -- I was on my phone earlier and not logged into SDN, otherwise I could've verified for myself. I know my tone was somewhat abrasive and apologize for that (did not mean to personally attack), I just found it somewhat perplexing that a 3rd year would spend the time to post on SDN when it would probably be more effective to choose other routes of action (since UVA-SOM will fill its class regardless).
 
@pureblazin thanks for providing your perspective. Would you attribute your negative experiences to particular away rotations and/or to the main UVA med center? I know UVA requires more away/rural rotations than most other medical schools, so if anyone could speak to their experiences at these other facilities, that'd be grand. Thank you all for your input!

UVA was probably one of my favourite curriculum setups and – pending my financial situation – I would love to head out for second look. (Here's to hoping they still have that peach cobbler). Good luck to all the upcoming interviewees!
 
It is of course entirely possible that this student had a bad experience personally, as unfortunate as it is. I would love to hear from more 3rd/ 4th year students about their experiences.
 
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