2015-2016 Northwestern University (Feinberg) Application Thread

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The Feinberg portal worked for me about half of the time...would just have to switch the browser but even then it sometimes didnt really work.
 
So I know everyone is miles ahead of me already receiving interviews or rejections, but due to various setbacks, I have not submitted my application yet. I tried to login today to do so, and it won't let me. When I enter in my AAMC ID and last name and click "Login" it just clears what I typed. No error message or anything, just gone. I haven't had issues before this. Is anyone else experiencing this or know what might be wrong?
 
Jody+Tinkles said:
So I know everyone is miles ahead of me already receiving interviews or rejections, but due to various setbacks, I have not submitted my application yet. I tried to login today to do so, and it won't let me. When I enter in my AAMC ID and last name and click "Login" it just clears what I typed. No error message or anything, just gone. I haven't had issues before this. Is anyone else experiencing this or know what might be wrong?
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Use Google Chrome Incognito mode.
 
Jody+Tinkles said:
So I know everyone is miles ahead of me already receiving interviews or rejections, but due to various setbacks, I have not submitted my application yet. I tried to login today to do so, and it won't let me. When I enter in my AAMC ID and last name and click "Login" it just clears what I typed. No error message or anything, just gone. I haven't had issues before this. Is anyone else experiencing this or know what might be wrong?
Click to expand...
I had to switch from Safari to Firefox for my secondary. Now when I login to check my status, sometimes it works on Safari, sometimes on Firefox, and sometimes on neither. 🙂
 
Voler said:
I had to switch from Safari to Firefox for my secondary. Now when I login to check my status, sometimes it works on Safari, sometimes on Firefox, and sometimes on neither. 🙂
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I'm having the same issues.. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.. very odd
 
Thank you all for sharing your honest opinions about Feinberg. That is very helpful for a premed like me who is considering applying there.
 
The more I think about it after my interview, it's not that I believe PBL is BAD, it's just that I don't have enough experience with it in the past I know if it's GOOD and since it is such a big part of the curriculum I feel like that's a pretty big gamble for me personally.
 
PBL is NOT a big part of our curriculum. It's definitely a component, but it's not the primary way we learn. For example, in the 4 week unit we're in right now, we have a total of 4 hours of PBL. In our 6 week unit, we had 10 hours of PBL.

panda16 said:
The more I think about it after my interview, it's not that I believe PBL is BAD, it's just that I don't have enough experience with it in the past I know if it's GOOD and since it is such a big part of the curriculum I feel like that's a pretty big gamble for me personally.
Click to expand...
 
panda16 said:
The more I think about it after my interview, it's not that I believe PBL is BAD, it's just that I don't have enough experience with it in the past I know if it's GOOD and since it is such a big part of the curriculum I feel like that's a pretty big gamble for me personally.
Click to expand...

Prior to coming to here, I'd heard on SDN about how much PBL is such a big part of Feinberg's curriculum. PBL is a small part of the curriculum to be honest. However, Feinberg is big on required group activities and group learning (for better or for worse).

I don't particularly love PBL, but I don't mind it. PBL is not a good way to learn material. It's way too inefficient (in terms of the yield of the material you learn vs the time you put in). But that's not why we do PBL. The point of PBL is to learn how to work together in a team setting. We do PBL to learn how to best approach a clinical case, do some independent research, and then present your findings to your group in a concise way.
 
john3298 said:
PBL is NOT a big part of our curriculum. It's definitely a component, but it's not the primary way we learn. For example, in the 4 week unit we're in right now, we have a total of 4 hours of PBL. In our 6 week unit, we had 10 hours of PBL.
Click to expand...

TaroBubbleTea said:
Prior to coming to here, I'd heard on SDN about how much PBL is such a big part of Feinberg's curriculum. PBL is a small part of the curriculum to be honest. However, Feinberg is big on required group activities and group learning (for better or for worse).

I don't particularly love PBL, but I don't mind it. PBL is not a good way to learn material. It's way too inefficient (in terms of the yield of the material you learn vs the time you put in). But that's not why we do PBL. The point of PBL is to learn how to work together in a team setting. We do PBL to learn how to best approach a clinical case, do some independent research, and then present your findings to your group in a concise way.
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Strange, my student host made it seem like there was a lot of required group work sessions throughout the typical week. He showed me that schedule PDF thing.
 
panda16 said:
Strange, my student host made it seem like there was a lot of required group work sessions throughout the typical week. He showed me that schedule PDF thing.
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Yes, there are a lot of small groups, but PBL itself is only a small part of the curriculum. If you want more detail about the different small groups, I'm sure the other students and I can help you out 🙂
 
Jody+Tinkles said:
So I know everyone is miles ahead of me already receiving interviews or rejections, but due to various setbacks, I have not submitted my application yet. I tried to login today to do so, and it won't let me. When I enter in my AAMC ID and last name and click "Login" it just clears what I typed. No error message or anything, just gone. I haven't had issues before this. Is anyone else experiencing this or know what might be wrong?
Click to expand...

Fellow later applicant here, just curious what the turnaround between submitting your primary and getting the secondary was
 
vanillabear55 said:
Fellow later applicant here, just curious what the turnaround between submitting your primary and getting the secondary was
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I submitted my primary 7/15 but it was not reviewed until 7/21 because one of my transcripts was delayed. AMCAS processed and completed 8/14. I have been working 2.5 jobs while trying to complete my secondaries, so it has been difficult trying to complete them in a timely manner. As a result, secondary was not submitted until 10/3 :/ I know that's really bad, but this was one of the last schools I applied to since it had more essays than most and thus would take longer to complete. Hopefully it doesn't kill my chances.
 
Jody+Tinkles said:
I submitted my primary 7/15 but it was not reviewed until 7/21 because one of my transcripts was delayed. AMCAS processed and completed 8/14. I have been working 2.5 jobs while trying to complete my secondaries, so it has been difficult trying to complete them in a timely manner. As a result, secondary was not submitted until 10/3 :/ I know that's really bad, but this was one of the last schools I applied to since it had more essays than most and thus would take longer to complete. Hopefully it doesn't kill my chances.
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Gotcha, so your AMCAS was sent to the schools on 8/14, but do you recall when Northwestern specifically sent you their secondary?

Best of luck!
 
vanillabear55 said:
Gotcha, so your AMCAS was sent to the schools on 8/14, but do you recall when Northwestern specifically sent you their secondary?

Best of luck!
Click to expand...
I submitted in September and got it within about a week of being verified. It wasn't immediate.
 
Montisumo said:
@resiroth PBL and group sessions seem inefficient. I love chicago and the prestige of northwestern, but the curriculum seems horrendous. I dont understand why schools are flocking to PBL, it just seems like a waste of time. The major benefits that will help your career as a physician are the group interaction which you will need when you are dealing with nurses, residents, attendings and patients. But wouldnt it be more effective to change how rotations are structured to include more on increasing group skills rather than doing this in preclinical years which is tailored towards helping students pass boards?

I'm oversimplifying suffice to say that I am not a fan of PBL 🙂 I welcome any responses, I'm in need of a good schooling (just no PBL pls).
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Is PBL inefficient? Sure. You could spent those 2 hours memorizing biochemical pathways and their regulatory enzymes.

However, PBL is an EXCELLENT way to learn clinical management, care, and diagnosis of many diseases that you'll see frequently as a clinician. Learning about these diseases in context is an awesome way to remember all of the little details and cement the cases in your head. I may only be 8 weeks into my medical education, but I already am familiar with the diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of sickle cell anemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, and spina bifida.

I haven't regretted for a second the "inefficiency" of PBL.
 
Do we know when the first round of acceptances is going to come out?
 
That's a shame, they seemed to have come out in October in previous years.
 
Can anyone else chime in on their "panel interview" structure? Is it generally one M4 and 3 interviewees this year?
 
Where the questions crazy left-field like they are on the SDN Northwestern page???
 
after_the_flood said:
Where the questions crazy left-field like they are on the SDN Northwestern page???
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One of my faculty interviews was PERFECT AND GREAT. The other asked some weird questions, and thinking back on my answers makes me cringe 😳
 
after_the_flood said:
Where the questions crazy left-field like they are on the SDN Northwestern page???
Click to expand...

I interviewed last year, but all of my interviews were very standard/conversational. The student (panel) asked a couple of odd questions but it was extremely casual/if you hesitated for more than a few seconds he would either let you think about it and go to someone else or modify the question. I have spoken to classmates who had a few somewhat bizarre questions asked of them, but it's all the luck of the draw. As long as you do the best you can and don't get super flustered/manage to laugh it off, it'll be fine 🙂
 
They said we should hear back 4-6 weeks after our interview, and last Friday marks 6 weeks for me! Hoping to hear back soon, but I also not holding my breath because I'm pretty sure they said that decisions wouldn't be released until sometime in November.
 
Congrat, Panda and Donut!! 🙂 Northwestern is like a beautiful city girl - it's our luck that we are chosen.
 
Hi Guys,
Where did you learn about the specific structure/timeline for FSM? For those who already had interviews: what was the day like? what kinds of interviews are there?
 
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