2015-2016 Rosalind Franklin University Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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Waitlist for interview today as well. What are the chances of getting off this waitlist?
 
Interview waitlist as well. Complete Sept. Staying hopeful! 🙂
 
After sending an email saying we want to stay on the interview waitlist, will we get a confirmation?
 
billeboi31 said:
A few on this thread have received II from the waitlist but some of us have been waiting on it since 12/22.
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Have you gotten any DO interviews btw? My application timeline looks similar to yours but I've gotten no DO interviews.
 
bunchesonothing said:
It didn't seem automated.
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Oh. I just got an automated message when I emailed them 🙁

Thank you for your email. We have received your message and will respond to your inquiry within 3 business days. We appreciate your patience and continued interest in RFUMS.
 
LuluLovesMe said:
Oh. I just got an automated message when I emailed them 🙁

Thank you for your email. We have received your message and will respond to your inquiry within 3 business days. We appreciate your patience and continued interest in RFUMS.
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Yeah, that's not what I got. I'm sure you'll get a real response soon.
 
LuluLovesMe said:
Oh. I just got an automated message when I emailed them 🙁

Thank you for your email. We have received your message and will respond to your inquiry within 3 business days. We appreciate your patience and continued interest in RFUMS.
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I got that but I'm expecting a real response too
 
Also got the interview waitlist email earlier today. Complete email received around mid September.
 
First time poster here. Just received a II about 10 minutes ago off of the interview waitlist (originally put on interview waitlist on 12/22/15).
For those who are still waiting for a II, don't lose hope. My stats to be honest aren't spectacular. I'm a non-traditional applicant with a PharmD degree and 5 years of experience working in community pharmacy with a LizzyM of only 67.

Keep your heads up guys.
 
Received an email yesterday about being placed on the Interview Waitlist, made a mental note to respond to the email with my intent to remain on the waitlist, but about 15 minutes ago, I received an II and scheduled it for March 2nd! Didn't even confirm my position on the waitlist yet, but I'm too thrilled to ask questions. Super excited for this school!
 
PsychUp said:
Received an email yesterday about being placed on the Interview Waitlist, made a mental note to respond to the email with my intent to remain on the waitlist, but about 15 minutes ago, I received an II and scheduled it for March 2nd! Didn't even confirm my position on the waitlist yet, but I'm too thrilled to ask questions. Super excited for this school!
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That's awesome man! I'm happy that you got such a fast turn-around time. Hopefully we'll see each other in the 2016 entering class.
 
Nextasy said:
First time poster here. Just received a II about 10 minutes ago off of the interview waitlist (originally put on interview waitlist on 12/22/15).
For those who are still waiting for a II, don't lose hope. My stats to be honest aren't spectacular. I'm a non-traditional applicant with a PharmD degree and 5 years of experience working in community pharmacy with a LizzyM of only 67.

Keep your heads up guys.
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What are the available dates for interview?
And what day did you reply to the interview wait-list email? I hear it's not ranked so I figure they sort by when students reply and accept a spot.
 
aspiring rapper said:
What are the available dates for interview?
And what day did you reply to the interview wait-list email? I hear it's not ranked so I figure they sort by when students reply and accept a spot.
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The dates that were available in the email sent to me earlier this morning:

2/5
2/12
2/19
3/2
3/11
3/18
4/1
4/8

I replied to the interview wait-list email within 5 minutes of receiving it (12/22). Based on the posts in this forum, it's not prioritized by who responds earlier. Many people who were invited to the interview wait-list weeks after I received my invitation got II's weeks before me.

Based on the dates available above, Rosalind is indeed confirming that they will be interviewing deep into April. I imagine that they will be sending out more II's later so don't lose out hope.
 
Nextasy said:
First time poster here. Just received a II about 10 minutes ago off of the interview waitlist (originally put on interview waitlist on 12/22/15).
For those who are still waiting for a II, don't lose hope. My stats to be honest aren't spectacular. I'm a non-traditional applicant with a PharmD degree and 5 years of experience working in community pharmacy with a LizzyM of only 67.

Keep your heads up guys.
Click to expand...
been on the waitlist since 12/23. really hoping for my first II
 
aspiring rapper said:
What are the available dates for interview?
And what day did you reply to the interview wait-list email? I hear it's not ranked so I figure they sort by when students reply and accept a spot.
Click to expand...

Some of us have been on it since 12/22 so I think they aggregate an interview waitlist as they review and re-review the general application pool, then they extend II randomly from the interview waitlist without regard to date the interview waitlist spot was accepted.
 
Nextasy said:
Based on the most recent MSAR statistics:
Average cumulative GPA: 3.7
Average MCAT: 31

LizzyM is probably closer to 68
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The handout they gave us at a campus visit in January had different numbers. May have been old, I guess. But they had 3.55 and 30.14

Or perhaps a difference in accepted vs matriculated.
 
bunchesonothing said:
The handout they gave us at a campus visit in January had different numbers. May have been old, I guess. But they had 3.55 and 30.14

Or perhaps a difference in accepted vs matriculated.
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Yes I forgot to add that the MSAR stats that I quoted are from the accepted applicant pool.
 
drcon said:
Can any current students talk about:
-the culture (both student body/faculty and admin)
-financial aid/scholarship opportunities you've come across

Thanks so much in advance!
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-I'm not a current student anymore but graduated last year and went through residency apps.
-I typed up something on a previous page but I can answer your questions again. Also note that alot of things you may not appreciate until you apply for residency/ on residency interviews (you will compare/contrast with alot of other med students)


-Culture of the class:
-every class is different but my class was great in terms of camraderie. I personally didn't meet any "hardcore gunner jerks". Obviously there were tons of competitive people because its med school. You really get to know your classmates through orientation and anatomy lab. You waste hours (while most schools use prosections, etc.) in the lab and really get to bond with your classmates. You will also get to know your classmates through clinical skills lab, etc.
-the library has great facilities for group and individual learning - there are also alot of large spacious areas to study - I noticed that after they started to expand enrollment (i.e. pharmacy, etc.) spaces came at a premium.

-culture of faculty:
-majority of faculty were not doing any ground breaking research (when I was there). So most focus on teaching. FOr the most part lots of office hours and nice. Visited the physio profs maybe once or twice but that was it.
-teaching IMO was over the top especially for the basic sciences - my understanding is that it has changed and is not as voluminous as the past - but honestly all my basic sciences learning was from studying First Aid STep 1 and doing UWORLD
-teaching during clerkships (most important for your career and beyond) is highly variable depending on who your resident or attending is - this is the same at every medical school.
-one thing of note - there are alot of things you learn on the fly in medical school t i.e. how to write prescriptions - this is not formally tuaught and you have to learn on the fly.


-culture of administration:
-honestly never talked to the dean - ever. May have e-mailed our student dean's office a half-dozen times (since they organize your clerkship schedule, residency match stuff). The administration impacts our schools in mysterious ways and because I hardly ever interact with them can't relaly comment on their culture

-Scholarships
-When I was at CMS no scholarships. I think in my last year they had some franklin fellowships or something. One person in our grade was on a full-ride. They kept on featuring her in the videos that they play in the main lobby like some 1984 stuff. Can't comment on this either.

-Bottom line : I had no choice this was the only school that accepted me; but if I got to choose probably leaning towards the other medical schools in Illinois over RFUMS ( main reasons - prestige, research, curriculum, electives availability, high tuition/student housing costs - everything across the board to prepare you for the residency match of your choice is done better at the other Illinois schools)

I will say that this school prepared me for intern year. I felt UIC students I rotated with in the beginning were more knowledgable/prepared for the first few clerkships. But later on by November-December I never felt inferior to other Illinois medical schools and other US students I rotated with on clerkship or electives. In the end I'm sure this school will help you get into the reesidency of your choice.

-Further explanation:

After going through the residency/match process the most important things to MATCH are your USMLE scores, grades, MSPE, LORs, and red flags (failures, unprofessionalism). Research is a huge plus, as well as school reputation. When you apply to the more presitgious schools unless you have done an audition rotation or have very high USMLE scores I felt the interviewers looked down on our school. i.e. asked alot about the school history, etc. Research (actual first author publications not just listing "research assitant) is a huge plus to your application esp. in certain residency programs. In fact almost all the interviews I got at prestigious schools because I did extensive clinical research in my field of interest.

Also there is a lack of research opportunities where you actually publish something as a first author (may have changed since I grad.) and lack of clinical electives (since school has no hospital - not sure about their surgical electives but definitely a lack of primary care electives).

There was close to zero guidance for USMLE step 1, 2CK, 2CS, and residency applications. KNOWLEDGABLE mentors (I didn't have a lack of mentors) but people who know what they are talking about (i.e. where to apply for residency, people with clout or actively involved in the admissions process) are hard to come by.

Your educational experience at RFUMS will vary highly depending on which hospital you end up rotating in - i.e. downtown hospitals tend to give you more autonomy, diversity, pathology compared to a suburban hospital site.

You will appreciate this when you start residency but the 4 basic things that you pay hundreds of thousands of $$ is to learn are the following (and a decent school should prepare you for these 4 things):
(1) Basics: History, Physical, Management (how to treat a patient and followup care), prescription writing
(2) read/interpret EKG, CXR
(3) read/interpet labs
(4) confidence and awareness when dealing with patients and their families
+/- other things you may need for your residency of choice (i.e. suturing skills for surgery, etc.)

Hope this makes sense - this was just a diarrhea of random thoughts
 
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Regardless...would still loooooooove to get admitted here. Just from my interview experience there was a wonderful atmosphere about the school. Students seemed to want to help each other rather than it being cutthroat...which is a wonderful thing. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.
 
altrock3 said:
Regardless...would still loooooooove to get admitted here. Just from my interview experience there was a wonderful atmosphere about the school. Students seemed to want to help each other rather than it being cutthroat...which is a wonderful thing. I'll just keep crossing my fingers.
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I agree. Loved the atmosphere.
 
songl4a said:
How did you find clinical research? Going to other schools' hospitals?
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Unfortunately I feel that you definitely need to build connections not only for research but for letters of recommendation etc. If you want to pursue research I recommend you hit it hard near the end of first year because you only have one summer.
 
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I also got an email about being placed on the Interview Waitlist.

For those of you who got an II off the waitlist (congrats!)... Did you receive the invitation over email or by phone?
 
monty55 said:
I also got an email about being placed on the Interview Waitlist.

For those of you who got an II off the waitlist (congrats!)... Did you receive the invitation over email or by phone?
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Email.
 
Is anyone else still under review and waiting to hear back? Received the under review email
back in September, and it's been way longer than 8-10 weeks


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
oznefu said:
Is anyone else still under review and waiting to hear back? Received the under review email
back in September, and it's been way longer than 8-10 weeks


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
Click to expand...
Since people are still being put on the interview waitlist and plenty of others have been rejected, I'd bet you're still under consideration.
 
Did anyone else get an email about housing? At the top of the email it says "Accepted Student Visit Day." But then it doesn't actually say anything more about it


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
Quick question for those who have interviewed: Did you bring copies of your resume to the interview, and if so, was there an opportunity to hand in your resume to any of the interviewers being that the interview format is MMI and not traditional?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
Nextasy said:
Quick question for those who have interviewed: Did you bring copies of your resume to the interview, and if so, was there an opportunity to hand in your resume to any of the interviewers being that the interview format is MMI and not traditional?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
Click to expand...

No. Not at all necessary. My understanding is that they know your qualifications. That's how you got there. This is about who you are as a person.
 
teeleaves27 said:
I'm in the accepted students FB, but there's no info about upcoming accepted students day... :/
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Hey guys. So there is another accepted students day in April, from what I heard on January's accepted students day. I would just email them and ask for the dates and times. Good luck!
 
I'm sure this is somewhere in this post, but anyone have any suggestions on how to prepare for this interview? Typical MMI format?
 
drpepper92 said:
I'm sure this is somewhere in this post, but anyone have any suggestions on how to prepare for this interview? Typical MMI format?
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Not sure there's is a way to prepare. Just be ready to quickly form opinions on topics you can defend coherently.
 
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