2015-2016 University of Pittsburgh Application Thread

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Congrats to everyone who was accepted!

Does anyone know how many waitlisted candidates there are in each of tier 1 and 2 and how many are generally accepted from each tier? I recall the adcom personnel stating at the interview that waitlistees from both tiers are accepted and that it is not necessarily ranked or linear. Can anyone else confirm this?

I also believe they said that they send out approximately 200-250 initial acceptances, while the remaining acceptance offers are extended to those on the waitlists.

I know this question has probably already come up at least once before in this thread, but the only information I'm aware of is from SDN threads from previous years and I'm afraid of how accurate or representative that information may be.

Thanks for any info and again congrats to your well-deserved acceptances! (And also, good luck to fellow waitlistees!)
 
Curioso06 said:
Congrats to everyone who was accepted!

Does anyone know how many waitlisted candidates there are in each of tier 1 and 2 and how many are generally accepted from each tier? I recall the adcom personnel stating at the interview that waitlistees from both tiers are accepted and that it is not necessarily ranked or linear. Can anyone else confirm this?

I also believe they said that they send out approximately 200-250 initial acceptances, while the remaining acceptance offers are extended to those on the waitlists.

I know this question has probably already come up at least once before in this thread, but the only information I'm aware of is from SDN threads from previous years and I'm afraid of how accurate or representative that information may be.

Thanks for any info and again congrats to your well-deserved acceptances! (And also, good luck to fellow waitlistees!)
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Yes I recall them saying at the interview the tiers aren't as linear as they sound. However the 1st tier status update on the portal says "first priority" so I am pretty confused.
 
First tier waitlist for me as well.


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Hi @trini818 Congrats on the acceptance to Pitt! I was just wondering if you happened to be an URM? Thanks for any input!
 
VaioSson said:
Hi @trini818 Congrats on the acceptance to Pitt! I was just wondering if you happened to be an URM? Thanks for any input!
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No. Not sure if it helped or not, but my dad grew up in Pittsburgh (born there in 1939) and since he did not go to college, they were able to see that he went to an area high school.
 
PakiMDDreamer said:
Yes I recall them saying at the interview the tiers aren't as linear as they sound. However the 1st tier status update on the portal says "first priority" so I am pretty confused.
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Just checked my notes from interview day. First tier is evaluated early, and second tier is evaluated later. It was mentioned though that they don't necessarily exhaust the first tier waitlist before going to the second tier.
 
First tier WL, definitely not upset. Congrats to everyone who got accepted!
 
CellPowerhouse said:
Just checked my notes from interview day. First tier is evaluated early, and second tier is evaluated later. It was mentioned though that they don't necessarily exhaust the first tier waitlist before going to the second tier.
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PakiMDDreamer said:
I just found out from reliable source (person involved with admissions) that 100% of 1st tier applicants are offered admission before 2nd tier ----- DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
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Does that mean that they're contradicting what they said earlier when they said that they accept students from both tiers? It's hard to tell what's accurate, since both explanations had been given from reliable sources..
 
First tier wait list. For anyone who knows about this stuff, when do you typically hear a final decision from first tier? And was anyone ITT second tiered? I haven't seen anyone
 
Congrats to everyone accepted!!! As far as financial info need based scholarships did not go out until about late march/early april last year. Someone else asked about the unit loan and I believe that is how it works. I recall the unit loan being around 25k for those interested.
 
PlatinumBody said:
Does anyone know the approximate cost of living per month?
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You mean what the school estimates for purposes of loans, or are you asking how much it typically costs to live in Pittsburgh?

I believe for MS1, they estimate about $17,000 per year as cost of living for loan purposes. This is more than enough if you are being financially responsible. COL goes up for later years as you are in school year round after MS1.

Rent varies widely depending on where in the city you live and if you have roommates. If you just want to ballpark for now, a conservative estimate would be $1000/month for rent + utilities, but I'd say most people pay less than that (and it's not hard to find less than that, unless you choose to live in a single in Darragh). If you have a car, you have to factor in upkeep as well as parking (no point/too expensive to park on campus unless you're a commuter or live in Darragh). Then you can estimate your food/personal expenses.
 
Congrats to everyone admitted!

The majority of people I know pay around $600-800 for rent+utilities, depending on neighborhood.
 
unnumzaan said:
Congrats to everyone admitted!

The majority of people I know pay around $600-800 for rent+utilities, depending on neighborhood.
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Yep, you can easily get that price if you have a roommate or two. The pricier places are the 1 bedrooms. I'm pretty sure a single in Darragh is over $1000.
 
CellPowerhouse said:
Just checked my notes from interview day. First tier is evaluated early, and second tier is evaluated later. It was mentioned though that they don't necessarily exhaust the first tier waitlist before going to the second tier.
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PakiMDDreamer said:
I just found out from reliable source (person involved with admissions) that 100% of 1st tier applicants are offered admission before 2nd tier ----- DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
Click to expand...

Sorry if I'm spamming this question, but can someone comment on how the tier system for the waitlist works? From what I understand, there has been more than one explanation of this mechanism and it's unclear which one is correct. Also, does anyone happened to know the number who are waitlisted on each tier, accepted, and rejected? Thank you!
 
Curioso06 said:
Sorry if I'm spamming this question, but can someone comment on how the tier system for the waitlist works? From what I understand, there has been more than one explanation of this mechanism and it's unclear which one is correct. Also, does anyone happened to know the number who are waitlisted on each tier, accepted, and rejected? Thank you!
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We're getting conflicting statements about how the tiers work, but I'm just gonna go with what was said during interview day. And I don't think they release the numbers for each tier, if they have in the past we would have seen them in previous threads. You can try calling them, but I don't think those numbers are something they give out as the trends can change every cycle.
 
nih15hopeful said:
Same! Fiancee and I got different results here - 1st tier for me and 2nd for him - and we've already been accepted to another school in a desirable location on the west coast.
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Do you mind sharing which school you and your fiance were accepted to? Also, did you happen to let the adcom at Pitt know that you were applying as a couple? Congrats on your other acceptances!
 
CellPowerhouse said:
We're getting conflicting statements about how the tiers work, but I'm just gonna go with what was said during interview day. And I don't think they release the numbers for each tier, if they have in the past we would have seen them in previous threads. You can try calling them, but I don't think those numbers are something they give out as the trends can change every cycle.
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I believe this tier system has only been in place for a few years (3 or 4?). I would assume it functions similarly to other schools' tiered waitlists, i.e., they pick from all tiers depending on what demographics/qualitiesetc. they need to balance out the class, not necessarily that it is rigidly ranked.
 
@VaioSson To preserve some anonymity, I'll go as far as to say it was a school on the west coast. And no, we didn't tell any schools we were applying as a couple...a bad idea in hindsight, but we're thankful things worked out for us in the end. 🙂
 
i forget what pitt's grading system is..pass/fail/honors or just pass/fail?
 
is it typical for schools to have a 5-tiered system during the clinical years? i definitely like the thought of pass/fail for the first two
 
Ismet said:
P/F first 2 years, H/HP/P/LP/F for last 2 years.
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That's some grading system during the clinical years. Is getting Honors hella difficult? What's the breakdown like for most rotations, if that's even something that can be remotely generalized at all?
 
Don't all schools have the same grading system for the clinical years? I remember a tour guide at some school saying that it's the only way residency programs can compare applicants
 
Accepted!! First acceptance of the cycle and I still can't believe that it's to such a great school! I keep signing into the portal to make sure I'm not dreaming :nailbiting: and then I'm like :banana: :zip::soexcited:
Does anyone know how long it will take to receive acceptance packets in the mail?

Also, for those on the waitlist, my student interviewer recommended that if waitlisted, you should send in a letter of interest every month and that Pitt responds very well to that.
 
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muzzy44 said:
is it typical for schools to have a 5-tiered system during the clinical years? i definitely like the thought of pass/fail for the first two
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Vast majority of schools have that exact grading system for the clinical years. It's very rare to see a school that is P/F in 3rd year.

peiwei789 said:
That's some grading system during the clinical years. Is getting Honors hella difficult? What's the breakdown like for most rotations, if that's even something that can be remotely generalized at all?
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You definitely have to work hard to get Honors, though how hard you have to work varies by rotation. There's really no generalization to make about rotations, as they each have their own breakdown of grading. Some emphasize the shelf exam more than others, some are like 80% based on clinical evaluations.

SweetFast said:
Step 1 scores are far and away the most important metric used by residency programs
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Step 1 can get your foot in the door or close the door in your face. After that, clinical grades, evals, and LORs are right up there in importance.

Your school's grading scheme is stated in the MSPE (dean's letter) that gets submitted to residency programs. I would think P/F clerkships still does a disservice to those students because of the importance of clinical grades, and they don't know if a P means passed by the skin of their teeth or that they're the best thing ever. I'd imagine the actual evaluation helps in that situation, but I'm obviously not on a residency adcom so I have zero idea of how that plays out.

Glazedonutlove said:
There is internal ranking right? How do you feel about the PBL there? Also, how necessary is it to have a car?
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I don't think there's internal ranking, I may be wrong. AOA is not determined by your grades in MS1/MS2, more like Step 1 score and other factors. At least that's what's been told to me by someone in AOA.

I'm not a fan of PBL but some people like it. It doesn't happen horribly often in MS1, and then in MS2 you have "workshops" which almost everyone agrees are super beneficial (and are more like what PBL SHOULD be, rather than what they do in MS1).

Not absolutely necessary to have a car, but you would be much happier with one. We get free use of buses, but that doesn't get you everywhere and you may have to bum rides off people or use Uber or something. For the regular stuff like groceries, it's no biggie to take the bus or maybe carpool with someone. I've had a car all 4 years but I still regularly take the bus into campus or to other hospitals just because cost of parking is atrocious on campus ($3/hour). But for errands and stuff, I really like having a car rather than waiting for the bus. It's doable though.
 
sweetsunshine said:
Just wondering if anyone knows any details about the merit scholarship UPitt may give. I can't find any specifics online.
thank you!
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would love to have concrete info about this as well! From past years' threads, it seems to be based on a combo of stats and research, but who knows.
 
ohnotornadooo said:
would love to have concrete info about this as well! From past years' threads, it seems to be based on a combo of stats and research, but who knows.
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Thank you so much for the reply! Would you happen to know the monetary amount of it, approximately? For example, I think I read it definitely is not a full tuition scholarship. I am guessing it greatly varies depending on the applicant, but would you happen to know the range perhaps?
 
Got my acceptance letter today, came with info for deposit, next steps, white coat ceremony/orientation, Facebook group, etc. nothing about scholarships--did anyone else receive a notification of a merit award in theirs?
 
meant4med said:
Got my acceptance letter today, came with info for deposit, next steps, white coat ceremony/orientation, Facebook group, etc. nothing about scholarships--did anyone else receive a notification of a merit award in theirs?
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Nope I didn't but I don't think we'll be hearing about scholarships/financial aid til later in the spring
 
I'm going to email and ask-- I did hear about merit awards on my interview day, and I also heard they would come with the admissions offer, (separate from need-based ones that come in the spring) so there's a lot of different information.
 
I'm under the impression that Pitt is receptive to letters of intent, but I really don't know if they take it into account or if they just say that they do. There are a number of adcoms, like @mimelim, @gyngyn, @Goro, and @LizzyM who basically discount the value of these letters of intent entirely (at least at their respective schools.) I think their rationale is logical.

However, as we know, every school is different. Anyone happen to know whether a letter of intent at Pitt is taken into consideration at all? Perhaps only in certain cases will it actually make a difference? Maybe it only functions to have the adcom look or think about your application for an extra second or two?

Any thoughts on this? Thanks!
 
meant4med said:
I'm going to email and ask-- I did hear about merit awards on my interview day, and I also heard they would come with the admissions offer, (separate from need-based ones that come in the spring) so there's a lot of different information.
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I'm pretty sure that if you were getting a merit scholarship, it would come with your admission letter.
 
Ismet said:
I'm pretty sure that if you were getting a merit scholarship, it would come with your admission letter.
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That's what I was under the impression of, I was asking because I thought I heard someone say that was the intention last year too but they ended up coming at a later time. So I was trying to see if anyone indeed did get a merit letter and that ship has sailed haha.
 
meant4med said:
That's what I was under the impression of, I was asking because I thought I heard someone say that was the intention last year too but they ended up coming at a later time. So I was trying to see if anyone indeed did get a merit letter and that ship has sailed haha.
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Ah, I guess that's also a possibility.
 
meant4med said:
That's what I was under the impression of, I was asking because I thought I heard someone say that was the intention last year too but they ended up coming at a later time. So I was trying to see if anyone indeed did get a merit letter and that ship has sailed haha.
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I would also love to know if anyone else got a merit scholarship. I didn't get one in my packet, so it would be great to know if there may be a possibility it will come at a later time.
 
Anyone else in PA (or mid-atlantic states) not get their packet in the mail yesterday?

edit: any other accepted students still waiting on the packet as of 2/2?
 
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