2015-2016 University of Illinois Application Thread

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609718 said:
Umed sent me a rejection letter yesterday.... I was pretty bummed but everything happens for a reason interviewed after the deadline as well and I applied before I knew I was accepted. I think they are done conducting interviews for Umed
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When did you apply, and when you did, did they send you a notification that they got it? I heard radio silence from them

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oshanimalia said:
When did you apply, and when you did, did they send you a notification that they got it? I heard radio silence from them

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I applied on the deadline March 15.. Yes they sent me notification that they got my app & yesterday they sent me a rejection. Nothing in between app and rejection letter
 
When do people typically start getting the acceptance "fat packets?" I am in the next state over (Madison, WI).

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jih said:
When do people typically start getting the acceptance "fat packets?" I am in the next state over (Madison, WI).

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Took my letter a week to arrive after I got the online portal notification.
 
iluvmori said:
Interviewed 4/08 and portal was updated to "final decision made WITHOUT the additional correspondence tab". Definitely feeling low as of now. But best wishes to those who did get accepted.
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Same status for me. IS. submitted secondary in mid August. Complete in September. Applicant in progress status in October...Applicant in process in early March..Application is in process in early April.. and yesterday "Final decision has been made on...." without additional correspondence. Guessing it is a pre-II decline.
 
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So, I got into both - MCW and UIC. However, I'd like to stay in or around Chicago and with the uncertainty of campus placement, MCW is the best option.

Does anyone know if they are still placing in Chicago or if appeals ever get through? Is Urbana placement the only option. I callex UIC but they weren't open to revealing if Chicago still had an opening. Someone please help!! Is there any way to get around this problem especially with the May 2nd deadline?
 
O 2 B A Gooner said:
So, I got into both - MCW and UIC. However, I'd like to stay in or around Chicago and with the uncertainty of campus placement, MCW is the best option.

Does anyone know if they are still placing in Chicago or if appeals ever get through? Is Urbana placement the only option. I callex UIC but they weren't open to revealing if Chicago still had an opening. Someone please help!! Is there any way to get around this problem especially with the May 2nd deadline?
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Appeals are heard starting on or after April 30th. People who are placed at other sites who get into UMED/GMED/RMED are also allowed to switch, but interviews for those programs are pretty much over. Generally, the success rate of being switched is low.
 
O 2 B A Gooner said:
So, I got into both - MCW and UIC. However, I'd like to stay in or around Chicago and with the uncertainty of campus placement, MCW is the best option.

Does anyone know if they are still placing in Chicago or if appeals ever get through? Is Urbana placement the only option. I callex UIC but they weren't open to revealing if Chicago still had an opening. Someone please help!! Is there any way to get around this problem especially with the May 2nd deadline?
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For the record, Peoria is only about 2.5 hours from Chicago. Rockford is even less, I think. Obvious Urbana is farther for first year, but you'll be closer after that.
 
I'm pretty sure 'decision pending' really means 'decision pending indefinitely' this is getting absurd
 
Spriteling said:
For the record, Peoria is only about 2.5 hours from Chicago. Rockford is even less, I think. Obvious Urbana is farther for first year, but you'll be closer after that.
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Only time I heard appeals get through is if you're actively supporting a family member that is dying or on life support

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jih said:
I wonder if they will send them out any sooner for this week's acceptances if they want those students to choose their university by Friday...

Edit: and the fact that the deposit is due on the 30th according to http://www.medicine.uic.edu/education/m_d_admissions/requirements_and_timeline

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I know the office is telling everyone different information, but I called and they said all decisions have been mailed out. I'm hoping that means we get something by the end of this week or early next week
 
Thank you guys for the quick responses. However, from northern suburbs, Milwaukee is 1h 15min and hence the reason. It's not so much the distance, but the availability at anytime is the concern for me, for personal reasons. Also, my SO lives in Chicago so that would definitely be a plus and I am an IL resident. Research is one of my top priorities. If I go for UIC, do all the campuses provide an equal amount of exposure to research? My only concern with attending UIC is that I won't have as much options as the Chicago campus (with respect to research) and the quality of education would trickle down. I have only visited the Chicago campus and hence the reason I know it is good, but honestly I have no idea about the other campuses. I would have been much prepared but I wasn't hoping for an answer since they took a long time to review my application and accepted this late into the cycle. I'd love to know more so that I can make an informed decision. Please guide.....Thanks a lot again!

Cheers!
 
O 2 B A Gooner said:
Thank you guys for the quick responses. However, from northern suburbs, Milwaukee is 1h 15min and hence the reason. It's not so much the distance, but the availability at anytime is the concern for me, for personal reasons. Also, my SO lives in Chicago so that would definitely be a plus and I am an IL resident. Research is one of my top priorities. If I go for UIC, do all the campuses provide an equal amount of exposure to research? My only concern with attending UIC is that I won't have as much options as the Chicago campus (with respect to research) and the quality of education would trickle down. I have only visited the Chicago campus and hence the reason I know it is good, but honestly I have no idea about the other campuses. I would have been much prepared but I wasn't hoping for an answer since they took a long time to review my application and accepted this late into the cycle. I'd love to know more so that I can make an informed decision. Please guide.....Thanks a lot again!

Cheers!
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I have friends that did the UPR track and the quality of education did not trickle down. They loved their time at UIC & Did well in the match.... If your priority is to be close to your SO it seems like MCW is closest to home for you. As far as petitions I think that they look very very significant/outstanding circumstances such as having children, having a illness that requires going to doctors in Chicago etc. in order to be granted the campus change request. There are many people who want the Chicago campus but there are only so many spots. Good luck! & I hope you make the right choice for your educational and personal goals.
 
ruralphysician2016 said:
The quality of education would trickle down? Please go to MCW.
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I think you are taking this a bit too personally. I meant to pose that as a question and am asking questions on the forum exactly to know more about the campuses. I still would like to know the research opportunities at the Urbana and the Rockford campuses. I don't mean to offend anyone and apologies if I did...
 
609718 said:
I have friends that did the UPR track and the quality of education did not trickle down. They loved their time at UIC & Did well in the match.... If your priority is to be close to your SO it seems like MCW is closest to home for you. As far as petitions I think that they look very very significant/outstanding circumstances such as having children, having a illness that requires going to doctors in Chicago etc. in order to be granted the campus change request. There are many people who want the Chicago campus but there are only so many spots. Good luck! & I hope you make the right choice for your educational and personal goals.
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Thank you for understanding my point of view. Also, any idea about the research opportunities through the UPR track? Are they equally good as the Chicago?
 
O 2 B A Gooner said:
Thank you for understanding my point of view. Also, any idea about the research opportunities through the UPR track? Are they equally good as the Chicago?
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I believe so... I'll ask my friend and get back to you
 
ruralphysician2016 said:
I guess I am the only one who is tired of hearing people complain about not receiving a Chicago site placement.
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Location is a huge part of the decision for a lot of people and it's hard to choose UIC if you don't even know where you will be placed. Regardless of which one you prefer. I even got the impression that a lot of parts of classes (e.g. exam schedules) were structured differently depending on where you end up.
 
I don't know how polite I can be but my intention was to know the pros of the UPR track since I interviewed at Chicago and that's all the in-person exposure I had.....anyways thanks to all those that replied.

Cheers! 🙂
 
CowboyNiceguy said:
Location is a huge part of the decision for a lot of people and it's hard to choose UIC if you don't even know where you will be placed. Regardless of which one you prefer. I even got the impression that a lot of parts of classes (e.g. exam schedules) were structured differently depending on where you end up.
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Despite what they say during interview day, I'd rather believe what the students say. They are very much aware that their curriculum varies greatly amongst campuses. That's why they're restructuring it for 2017.

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M1/2 's told me Rockford has the highest percentage of aoa, which means around top 5 or 10% of the entire uic class (upr and Chicago ). I think they also had a higher step 1 average, likely because there is nothing to do out there, and because a smaller class means more focused administrative support.

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Hey there,

So I was recently accepted to University of Illinois, which is my top choice school if I am completely honest. I am an out of state student, so the tuition is a bit higher, but the other schools I was accepted to are also out of state so until yesterday my choice was made. Then, one of the other schools I had been accepted to (Drexel Med) offered me a 40k a year scholarship.

So I guess my question is: how is University of Illinois in terms of aid? Should I reach out to the school and tell them the other offer and my problem? And would you choose a school based on price over experience?
 
mmtt3 said:
Hey there,

So I was recently accepted to University of Illinois, which is my top choice school if I am completely honest. I am an out of state student, so the tuition is a bit higher, but the other schools I was accepted to are also out of state so until yesterday my choice was made. Then, one of the other schools I had been accepted to (Drexel Med) offered me a 40k a year scholarship.

So I guess my question is: how is University of Illinois in terms of aid? Should I reach out to the school and tell them the other offer and my problem? And would you choose a school based on price over experience?
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Call UoI and ask them if they will be able to match the 40K offer from Drexel, if not then take the 40K. You'll thank yourself later in your career
 
As I've said multiple times in this thread, I went to Second Look Day at Peoria, and I was extremely impressed. There are tons of research opportunities (they just opened a huge new cancer research centre), they have the Jump Trading Simulation Centre, and the hospital facilities are amazing. You'll have just as much, if not more, clinical experience in Peoria as you will in Chicago. There are also a lot of research opportunities for the year you spend in Urbana, because of being at the flagship campus of the University of Illinois. If you get assigned to Peoria, you should have no doubts about the quality of your education or your opportunities for research. Go to Chicago if you want city life or whatever, but don't turn down UIC at Peoria because of fears about the standard of education you will receive.
 
jih said:
Just got my acceptance packet in the mail from 4/25!!!

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I hope I get mines today... My mail man comes whenever he wants lol literally sometimes at like 7 pm :laugh::laugh::laugh:​
 
ruralphysician2016 said:
I guess I am the only one who is tired of hearing people complain about not receiving a Chicago site placement.
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Some people want to live in a big urban environment - more diverse patient population, more people in the medical class (in the case of UIC), more diverse and larger dating population, more late night food, etc.

It's a very serious concern as a post-undergraduate; it's no longer about just campus life - older people want the opportunity to explore the city that they live in.

The poster you keep responding to had some very legitimate concerns. I know that I personally would prefer going to a slightly academically inferior med school that was in a big city than go to UIC if I were forced to do UPR track instead of Chicago. e.g. I would definitely choose Thomas Jefferson in Philly over UIC in Peoria/Rockford
 
KungFuPanda123 said:
Some people want to live in a big urban environment - more diverse patient population, more people in the medical class (in the case of UIC), more diverse and larger dating population, more late night food, etc.

It's a very serious concern as a post-undergraduate; it's no longer about just campus life - older people want the opportunity to explore the city that they live in.

The poster you keep responding to had some very legitimate concerns. I know that I personally would prefer going to a slightly academically inferior med school that was in a big city than go to UIC if I were forced to do UPR track instead of Chicago. e.g. I would definitely choose Thomas Jefferson in Philly over UIC in Peoria/Rockford
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Peoria is a city of 300,000 people. Their hospitals pull people from multiple surrounding counties. They see literally everything other than burns, heart transplants, and liver transplants. That's it. There's a brand new children's hospital that's a St Jude's affiliate, so you even have a large pediatric oncology area, there's a 60 bed NICU, etc. Seriously, I wish people would actually look into the UPR track before bashing it and saying you won't see what you see in Chicago. Do some freaking research. Also, seriously people, if you apply to UIC you have to know there's close to a 50% chance you won't get Chicago as a site placement. If that's a problem, don't apply.
 
Spriteling said:
Peoria is a city of 300,000 people. Their hospitals pull people from multiple surrounding counties. They see literally everything other than burns, heart transplants, and liver transplants. That's it. There's a brand new children's hospital that's a St Jude's affiliate, so you even have a large pediatric oncology area, there's a 60 bed NICU, etc. Seriously, I wish people would actually look into the UPR track before bashing it and saying you won't see what you see in Chicago. Do some freaking research. Also, seriously people, if you apply to UIC you have to know there's close to a 50% chance you won't get Chicago as a site placement. If that's a problem, don't apply.
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A lot of people are getting offended here. There are legitimate reasons to want to live in Chicago over Peoria both related and unrelated to the education you will receive. You can't honestly say a city of 300k is like living in Chicago. And to say not to apply or not to attend is pretty immature. For IL residents, UIC is the school most likely to offer an acceptance. I applied knowing that it was one of the lower ranked schools in my list (in terms of where I would prefer to attend) and I see no problem with that.
 
CowboyNiceguy said:
A lot of people are getting offended here. There are legitimate reasons to want to live in Chicago over Peoria both related and unrelated to the education you will receive. You can't honestly say a city of 300k is like living in Chicago. And to say not to apply or not to attend is pretty immature. For IL residents, UIC is the school most likely to offer an acceptance. I applied knowing that it was one of the lower ranked schools in my list (in terms of where I would prefer to attend) and I see no problem with that.
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I don't have any problem with preferring to live in Chicago. I do have a problem with people saying you get inferior education/research opportunities/clinical experience, when they haven't visited the campus/spoken to students/staff/etc.
 
Spriteling said:
I don't have any problem with preferring to live in Chicago. I do have a problem with people saying you get inferior education/research opportunities/clinical experience, when they haven't visited the campus/spoken to students/staff/etc.
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Then I suspect you didn't carefully read the post you quoted. He said that even if Peoria is a better school, he would prefer to go to one in a bigger city.
 
Spriteling said:
I don't have any problem with preferring to live in Chicago. I do have a problem with people saying you get inferior education/research opportunities/clinical experience, when they haven't visited the campus/spoken to students/staff/etc.
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Seconding this. Peoria is no joke. However...
CowboyNiceguy said:
Then I suspect you didn't carefully read the post you quoted. He said that even if Peoria is a better school, he would prefer to go to one in a bigger city.
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Also this. Having had the life experience of being in a non city environment in America (with few Asian Americans) and Chicago (with Asian Americans), I have found myself faced with less...culturally stupid people in the city, and it was better for my mental health.

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CowboyNiceguy said:
Then I suspect you didn't carefully read the post you quoted. He said that even if Peoria is a better school, he would prefer to go to one in a bigger city.
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I'll concede that point. But one of my main points, that I've been making over and over, is that Peoria doesn't have a less diverse patient population. It's still a good sized city and pulls from a large catchment area, and sees everything that Chicago does. Perhaps the poster was not trying to imply that Peoria has inferior clinical exposure, and I reacted defensively. But that was part of my point.
 
oshanimalia said:
Seconding this. Peoria is no joke. However...

Also this. Having had the life experience of being in a non city environment in America (with few Asian Americans) and Chicago (with Asian Americans), I have found myself faced with less...culturally stupid people in the city, and it was better for my mental health.

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That is the one thing I do miss about living in proper global cities. The midwest is so....boring and undiverse. And there are so few good restaurants.
 
Spriteling said:
That is the one thing I do miss about living in proper global cities. The midwest is so....boring and undiverse. And there are so few good restaurants.
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Visit Madison when you have some free time. Plenty of great restaurants here.

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jih said:
Visit Madison when you have some free time. Plenty of great restaurants here.

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Some of my partner's family lives near Madison. I've heard good things about it. UC isn't /bad/ per se....it's just... small? And far from everywhere.
 
Spriteling said:
Peoria is a city of 300,000 people. Their hospitals pull people from multiple surrounding counties. They see literally everything other than burns, heart transplants, and liver transplants. That's it. There's a brand new children's hospital that's a St Jude's affiliate, so you even have a large pediatric oncology area, there's a 60 bed NICU, etc. Seriously, I wish people would actually look into the UPR track before bashing it and saying you won't see what you see in Chicago. Do some freaking research. Also, seriously people, if you apply to UIC you have to know there's close to a 50% chance you won't get Chicago as a site placement. If that's a problem, don't apply.
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Read my post again - I didn't say anything about Peoria lacking in terms of hospital work. I guess what I meant by diverse patient population is in terms of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity in the patient population, not diversity in the treatments seen. Peoria really lacks in the Latino/Asian demographics.

Where did you get this 50% statistic from? People (like me) applied very early with the hopes of interviewing early (like me) with the intention of getting accepted post-interview (not me). Doing all of this fairly early gives you essentially a 100% chance of getting Chicago. If you read earlier in this thread, no one who requested Chicago was denied it (or at least posted about it) before Januaryish. I applied with the hopes of Chicago, and since at this point, I won't be getting Chicago, I don't plan on attending here even if I am ultimately accepted.

I would agree with you that people should not bother applying here if they don't want to do UPR if they aren't submitting their applications early. But many people who are interested in being placed in Chicago do apply early for this reason.

Also, man... you can't be comparing life in Peoria to Chicago with its 300,000 residents... Life in the 2 places is so different. And not to mention that Chicago has almost 10x the number of people living in it. And it's more of a cultural center in the Midwest than Peoria. And it's close to a large body of water. And it's got way better food. And on and on...
 
So if someone is still "decision pending" and interviewed within the last month, is it reasonable to assume this is a waitlist position? Or do we think anything will happen by tomorrow?
 
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