2015-2016 University of Wisconsin Application Thread

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GucciKitty said:
So I had a question for those who are in the know on this board. I was curious about what UW looks for in an OOS candidate? (And yeah, I know it's hard to predict)
Here's why I'm asking: I recently got accepted here, and am from Wisconsin, and I am curious of my fiance's chances (we will be married at the time she applies) She is OOS, and she will be applying to medical schools next year. Would me being an IS resident and attending the school give her a leg up on other OOS candidates since she has connections to the state? Or does UW look for extremely high qualified applications only and not care so much about Wisconsin connections?

For reference, I believe she will be a competitive applicant. She has a 3.8 gpa and good extra curriculars (MCAT will be taken this spring).

Anyway, sorry for the long post, just curious of your guys' opinions. Thanks!
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If you're married than I believe she would qualify as IS.
 
GucciKitty said:
So I had a question for those who are in the know on this board. I was curious about what UW looks for in an OOS candidate? (And yeah, I know it's hard to predict)
Here's why I'm asking: I recently got accepted here, and am from Wisconsin, and I am curious of my fiance's chances (we will be married at the time she applies) She is OOS, and she will be applying to medical schools next year. Would me being an IS resident and attending the school give her a leg up on other OOS candidates since she has connections to the state? Or does UW look for extremely high qualified applications only and not care so much about Wisconsin connections?

For reference, I believe she will be a competitive applicant. She has a 3.8 gpa and good extra curriculars (MCAT will be taken this spring).

Anyway, sorry for the long post, just curious of your guys' opinions. Thanks!
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I could be wrong, but I think in some states if you are married to a resident you are also a resident! It would be worth looking into.
 
sharpstix said:
Rejected post-interview. OOS, interviewed 11/6. Letter dated 12/8. 3.8 GPA and 37 MCAT.
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sorry to hear that, did you have any ties to the state of wisconsin or the university of wisconsin?
 
GucciKitty said:
So I had a question for those who are in the know on this board. I was curious about what UW looks for in an OOS candidate?
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Wisconsin's Laws are confusing about whether your spouse would count as IS (some info here and here). This is something you will want to clarify with the admissions people, since normally OOS students are considered OOS for all 4 years if the only reason they moved to the state is for school.

The tl;dr version to your question: there is no one size fits all formula to land an II, or even an acceptance at our school. However, I do genuinely believe UWSMPH is one of the most holistic schools out there in how they select folks.

The many components we look at - you can find this on our website as well.
1) Academics - ONLY ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE!
2) Background - SES, your "life story," first gen, or any significant factors such as having to work, supporting a family, non-tradition, URM, other relevant factors such as experience in PH, MPH, working with underserved.
3) What makes you unique compared to the 5000+ other applicants we have to look at.
4) PS/Secondary Essays - ESPECIALLY if you're out of state!
5) And this one might to mention for you - special ties to WI. Having a special reason for wanting to come here (and not just shot gun applying to every school) is taken into account as well.
------

I know this post will be hard to read for the folks who have been alternate listed/pre-II/post-II rejected, especially since nobody wants to believe that there are any flaws/reasons they were not selected in their application. However, realistically speaking, it is very difficult to get accepted here as a non-resident, and the total acceptance rate is somewhere around 2% (Interview 180/5500, accept about half from that). Even if you had a solid application, but for whatever reason got rejected here, it does not reflect on your qualities or whether or not you are qualified for other schools. We are limited in the number of seats we can provide to the OOS pool, so we have to go the extra distance to find those "unique" applicants.

Thus, it's misleading to look at applicants who have amazing stats and freak out/worry about yourself - it isn't the whole picture. People get rejected for a variety of reasons, from IAs [you can imagine we have seen everything], Poor letters of recommendation, terrible essays, red flags that come up in the interviews, lack of clinical exposure... the list could literally go on. And these happen a lot more often than applicants may think, or even be aware of. Make your application the best you can make it, apply early, and put a lot of time into your essays/secondaries, and your chances will be the best they can be, as with any school 🙂
 
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GucciKitty said:
So I had a question for those who are in the know on this board. I was curious about what UW looks for in an OOS candidate? (And yeah, I know it's hard to predict)
Here's why I'm asking: I recently got accepted here, and am from Wisconsin, and I am curious of my fiance's chances (we will be married at the time she applies) She is OOS, and she will be applying to medical schools next year. Would me being an IS resident and attending the school give her a leg up on other OOS candidates since she has connections to the state? Or does UW look for extremely high qualified applications only and not care so much about Wisconsin connections?

For reference, I believe she will be a competitive applicant. She has a 3.8 gpa and good extra curriculars (MCAT will be taken this spring).

Anyway, sorry for the long post, just curious of your guys' opinions. Thanks!
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I would email admissions for a direct answer. This is obviously a legitimate concern when choosing a school, so it's probably best to get an answer straight from the source instead of relying on speculation.
 
lilmiffy said:
Question to current students: Is there any more information about the new curriculum that is supposedly starting next year? I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time for the change. How is the grading going to change? How about testing? Will there be more smaller tests more frequently or will there be larger tests every couple weeks. Thanks in advance for anybody who could help me out on this! @Jennyfishy @Glandzburg @kittykattat
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I haven't been on EPC ("curriculum committee") since last year (and obviously 97% of the student body isn't on it) so I think I can speak for any current uwsmph students on sdn in saying that we wouldn't know what your curriculum will look like (the last presentation I got on it was probably 9 months ago and I'm sure a lot more details have been worked out since then). Although I CAN say that I remember thinking at the time of the presentation that it sounded awesome and I was pretty jealous of you guys! Less lectures, earlier clinical rotations, more freedom of when to take Step 1 and the ability to take it after some clerkships (correlated with higher scores at other schools), etc.

Perhaps some of the applicants who have interviewed in the last couple months can give a more detailed overview. And as always, I'm sure that Becky Duffy and Jane Shepard would be more than happy to answer any questions. You could probably even ask them to email you this year's interview handouts about the curriculum (if I remember correctly you deferred?).

Sorry that that wasn't much help! Hopefully some of the applicants can fill you in for now 🙂
 
kittykattat said:
I haven't been on EPC ("curriculum committee") since last year (and obviously 97% of the student body isn't on it) so I think I can speak for any current uwsmph students on sdn in saying that we wouldn't know what your curriculum will look like (the last presentation I got on it was probably 9 months ago and I'm sure a lot more details have been worked out since then). Although I CAN say that I remember thinking at the time of the presentation that it sounded awesome and I was pretty jealous of you guys! Less lectures, earlier clinical rotations, more freedom of when to take Step 1 and the ability to take it after some clerkships (correlated with higher scores at other schools), etc.

Perhaps some of the applicants who have interviewed in the last couple months can give a more detailed overview. And as always, I'm sure that Becky Duffy and Jane Shepard would be more than happy to answer any questions. You could probably even ask them to email you this year's interview handouts about the curriculum (if I remember correctly you deferred?).

Sorry that that wasn't much help! Hopefully some of the applicants can fill you in for now 🙂
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Exactly. It won't affect me so I honestly haven't inquired about it much. It sounds like they go through it in great detail with applicants on interview day... They won't leave you guessing about your education!
 
GucciKitty said:
So I had a question for those who are in the know on this board. I was curious about what UW looks for in an OOS candidate? (And yeah, I know it's hard to predict)
Here's why I'm asking: I recently got accepted here, and am from Wisconsin, and I am curious of my fiance's chances (we will be married at the time she applies) She is OOS, and she will be applying to medical schools next year. Would me being an IS resident and attending the school give her a leg up on other OOS candidates since she has connections to the state? Or does UW look for extremely high qualified applications only and not care so much about Wisconsin connections?

For reference, I believe she will be a competitive applicant. She has a 3.8 gpa and good extra curriculars (MCAT will be taken this spring).

Anyway, sorry for the long post, just curious of your guys' opinions. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I definitely think it will give her some boost if she mentions that her husband is a current student since UW and most state schools (I think) usually like it if OOS applicants have some sort of connection to the state. That being said, I would not bank on that being a complete game changer. As you mentioned, she will definitely still need to be a competitive applicant that can stand on her own and hopefully she can crush the MCAT and put together an application that will wipe any doubt from the Committee's mind!

In addition, tell her to look into MCW as well since it is a school that is nearby and I figure you two would rather be within an hour of one another rather than being in different states. Anyways, that sounds like it'll be stressful app cycle so let her know GL on the MCAT and I hope she gets into UW 🙂

Edit: All the previous responses to this quote did not show up until I responded 😛 If she is considered an IS resident, your life gets a lot easier so lets hope she qualifies. Like others said, this is definitely a question that should be directed to UWSMPH staff on admissions.
 
Does anyone have any advice on how to best prepare for the interview day at UW Madison? What would the medical student group discussion be like? Are there anything an interview should/should not do? or if you can show me the best post for this question, I would very much appreciate your time and help. Thanks!
 
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Pantaloooons said:
Does anyone have any advice on how to best prepare for the interview day at UW Madison? What would the medical student group discussion be like? Are there anything an interview should/should not do? or if you can show me the best post for this question, I would very much appreciate your time and help. Thanks!
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Another poster here asked me a similar question via PM and so I figured I could share my answer on the school-specific thread as well. Hope this helps!

"So you'll have two 30 minute interviews on your day. First will be the 1-on-1 faculty interview, and then later you will have a group interview. They will tell you that the faculty interviewer is not given any required questions to ask, and this is true! The interview is very conversational, just talking about your life story and your passions and how they led you towards medicine. Even though your interviewer may not ask specifically about your activities, many of the things I talked about were in relation to what I had done and listed on AMCAS. The only required question the interviewer has to ask you is "Do you have any updates?" My interviewer asked me a few other questions like, "Why medicine?" and "What non-clinical factors made you think that medicine would be a good fit for you?" But nothing ethical or crazy. Just be prepared with your application and also think of some good questions to ask your interviewer. If I recall correctly, the interviewer has your AMCAS activities and that's it, they don't know undergrad, GPA or MCAT but they will specify this information on your interview day.

As for the group interview, you sit around a table with 2 M2 students and three other interviewees including yourself and they will ask questions that you will all answer. BIG points here are to 1) pay attention to what everyone is saying 2) don't cut anyone off 3) try to answer at least one question first. They are looking for how you interact in a group setting so just don't try to dominate the conversation or not talk at all. Strike a good balance and be to the point with your answers. You can also comment on what other people say too if it interests you or you have stuff to add, but be smart with what types of questions you do that with (I did it when a fellow interviewee mentioned something about traveling to Australia, I just said how I would love to do that too). As long as you follow these things, the group interview will go smoothly! They do ask a few more "out there" questions since the M2 students have a list to go off of but don't get alarmed. The most difficult question we got in our group was "Tell us a time when you were humbled by something." Not crazy, but takes a little bit more time to think about it.

Overall, this was a relaxed interview and since I was on my home turf, it made it a bit more relaxed for me, but most of the other interviewees echoed my opinion of the day being fun and chill, so don't stress too much!

Post interview, you will probably here back between 4-6 weeks is what they say. I was fortunate to hear back a little earlier, but I'm also IS and there are different committees for IS and OOS so don't fret if you don't hear back right away. Let me know if you have any other questions! 🙂"
 
DrDorianTurkleton said:
Another poster here asked me a similar question via PM and so I figured I could share my answer on the school-specific thread as well. Hope this helps!

"So you'll have two 30 minute interviews on your day. First will be the 1-on-1 faculty interview, and then later you will have a group interview. They will tell you that the faculty interviewer is not given any required questions to ask, and this is true! The interview is very conversational, just talking about your life story and your passions and how they led you towards medicine. Even though your interviewer may not ask specifically about your activities, many of the things I talked about were in relation to what I had done and listed on AMCAS. The only required question the interviewer has to ask you is "Do you have any updates?" My interviewer asked me a few other questions like, "Why medicine?" and "What non-clinical factors made you think that medicine would be a good fit for you?" But nothing ethical or crazy. Just be prepared with your application and also think of some good questions to ask your interviewer. If I recall correctly, the interviewer has your AMCAS activities and that's it, they don't know undergrad, GPA or MCAT but they will specify this information on your interview day.

As for the group interview, you sit around a table with 2 M2 students and three other interviewees including yourself and they will ask questions that you will all answer. BIG points here are to 1) pay attention to what everyone is saying 2) don't cut anyone off 3) try to answer at least one question first. They are looking for how you interact in a group setting so just don't try to dominate the conversation or not talk at all. Strike a good balance and be to the point with your answers. You can also comment on what other people say too if it interests you or you have stuff to add, but be smart with what types of questions you do that with (I did it when a fellow interviewee mentioned something about traveling to Australia, I just said how I would love to do that too). As long as you follow these things, the group interview will go smoothly! They do ask a few more "out there" questions since the M2 students have a list to go off of but don't get alarmed. The most difficult question we got in our group was "Tell us a time when you were humbled by something." Not crazy, but takes a little bit more time to think about it.

Overall, this was a relaxed interview and since I was on my home turf, it made it a bit more relaxed for me, but most of the other interviewees echoed my opinion of the day being fun and chill, so don't stress too much!

Post interview, you will probably here back between 4-6 weeks is what they say. I was fortunate to hear back a little earlier, but I'm also IS and there are different committees for IS and OOS so don't fret if you don't hear back right away. Let me know if you have any other questions! 🙂"
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Thank you! You are more than awesome!
 
Glandzburg said:
You all are aware of the interview feedback section of this site, right? It's one of the most value resources on SDN for interviewees!
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I am aware of this site but was just wondering if there are any recent changes to the format or any specific/helpful advices for this cycle. Thank you very much for the helpful posts throughout this thread though. Have a happy holiday season!
 
Hey y'all, quick question. Do you happen to know when early December-interview applicants hear back regarding final decisions? Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Cheers.
 
DuckHunt said:
Hey y'all, quick question. Do you happen to know when early December-interview applicants hear back regarding final decisions? Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Cheers.
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They told us on December 4 that 3-4 weeks was expected, though since that falls on the holidays, that if we don't hear by the holidays, we shouldn't expect to hear until mid-January. Decisions have been coming out early in the week, so it's possible that we could hear something tomorrow or Wednesday. I was hoping we might have some news today. That said, last week, acceptances were given to those who interviewed on 11/20, so my money is on not hearing until 2016. Either way, phone calls = good news, and snail mail = wl/rejections, so if you get a call from a 608 number, pick it up, haha.
 
I interview 11/17 and still have yet to hear back. So I'm kinda assuming it is a snail mail response..
 
I called 4 weeks after I interviewed to ask about the status of my decision, and Becky Duffy told me that my file had already had its final review and that I would hear back soon. Being the obsessive premed that all of us on SDN are, I called again a couple days later and got the same response. A few days later, I received my rejection letter via snail mail.
What I should have realized before receiving that letter was that if I been accepted then I would have probably received an acceptance phone call before I thought of calling, or at least before I called the second time.
Tl;dr: 1) Rejections are only delivered through snail mail. 2) If you call and find out your file was given its final review and you don't receive a call within a couple of days after, then expect the worst 🙁
 
mr.mkitty said:
I interview 11/17 and still have yet to hear back. So I'm kinda assuming it is a snail mail response..
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Keep your chin up! The current med students have said that it's not 100% chronological order, depending on stuff like when your interviewers get their reports in. You never know until you know, so try to relax over the holidays!
 
I received the call in the afternoon, right after the scholarship meeting.
 
Just got the call with the merit based scholarship offer! Interviewed around 10/20 and was accepted mid-November; just in case ppl are wondering about how long it takes for scholarship offers 🙂
 
Does anyone know if this school will accept any additional information post-interview? I have multiple acceptances so I want to try something if at all possible, especially since I'm an OOS student and the chances of getting off the OOS waitless are really small.
 
Goldslugs said:
Does anyone know if this school will accept any additional information post-interview? I have multiple acceptances so I want to try something if at all possible.
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You cannot add anything to your file after your faculty interview. But if you mean that you want to let them know you have multiple acceptances, rest assured that they will soon be able to see those and what schools they are at, so you don't need to tell them yourself.
 
kittykattat said:
You cannot add anything to your file after your faculty interview. But if you mean that you want to let them know you have multiple acceptances, rest assured that they will soon be able to see those and what schools they are at, so you don't need to tell them yourself.
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Oh really... So schools share info regarding acceptances and whatnot? Just curious, how and why would that impact your candidacy at uwsmph or any other school?
 
JMULZ said:
Oh really... So schools share info regarding acceptances and whatnot? Just curious, how and why would that impact your candidacy at uwsmph or any other school?
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Some time in the spring, schools are allowed to see where their accepted applicants are holding other acceptances. Schools mainly use this information to offer "recruitment scholarships" to the applicants they like that have also been accepted elsewhere. I think it may also be used for waitlist purposes in some circumstances.

I do not think that holding other acceptances will make another school more likely to accept you.
 
Glandzburg said:
Some time in the spring, schools are allowed to see where their accepted applicants are holding other acceptances. Schools mainly use this information to offer "recruitment scholarships" to the applicants they like that have also been accepted elsewhere. I think it may also be used for waitlist purposes in some circumstances.

I do not think that holding other acceptances will make another school more likely to accept you.
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Got it, thanks. Tbh I was more curious about the opposite, i.e. Whether that info would have an adverse effect.
 
aspires7 said:
Does anyone know roughly how many students per class receive full tuition scholarship? Thank you in advance for the response!
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Hmm not sure. I'm curious about this as well... Maybe scour the financial aid website?
 
Glandzburg said:
Some time in the spring, schools are allowed to see where their accepted applicants are holding other acceptances. Schools mainly use this information to offer "recruitment scholarships" to the applicants they like that have also been accepted elsewhere. I think it may also be used for waitlist purposes in some circumstances.

I do not think that holding other acceptances will make another school more likely to accept you.
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Exactly this.
 
Does anyone know what can be considered an equivalent to a statistics course? I will be attending here in the fall and wanted to make sure that my Quantitative Biology class (which was essentially bio-statistics) would satisfy this requirement. I have left a voicemail, and emailed the admissions office but haven't heard back yet. Just want to make sure that my pre-medical requirements are satisfied as I start my last semester on the 11th. I go to a small school and the one stats class that is offered for this semester is full, so I'm really hoping UW will accept my Quant Bio course..

EDIT
Heard back minutes after posting this!
 
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Due to the holidays please add a couple weeks to the expected turn-around and dont get anxious! Adcom is meeting for the first time today since mid December. We havnt forgot about yall, just giving the hard working docs and admissions director a well deserved break 🙂
 
mindygotnothingonme said:
Has anyone who interviewed 12/4 or afterwards heard back yet?
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I interviewed 11/20 and haven't heard back either. When I called the admissions office before Christmas, they told me that I would hopefully hear back early January (my file had not yet undergone final review). Fingers crossed!
 
Ok. Thanks for the replies everyone! It's good to know that silence doesn't necessarily mean bad news.
 
Just got the axe pre-II. Not suprised, but it still stings
 
turtle_lover said:
I interviewed 11/20 and haven't heard back either. When I called the admissions office before Christmas, they told me that I would hopefully hear back early January (my file had not yet undergone final review). Fingers crossed!
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I also was told this. Hopefully we hear back with good news..
 
DuckHunt said:
I interviewed 12/1 and I haven't heard back yet. Anyone from 12/1 hear back? Anxious 🙁
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I also interviewed on 12/1. When I recently contacted them, they told me I should hear something next week ( Jan 11 - 15). Do your best to keep your spirit up.
 
Is UWSMPH true P/F for both M1 and M2? I thought it was but then I just saw on another thread from last year someone saying it was only P/F for M1?
 
occams_razor said:
Is UWSMPH true P/F for both M1 and M2? I thought it was but then I just saw on another thread from last year someone saying it was only P/F for M1?
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Under the current curriculum, it is true P/F M1 and ABCDF grading/ranking for M2.

I believe under the new curriculum (starting next year) it will be ranked P/F for all 1.5 years of pre-clinicals.
 
Glandzburg said:
Under the current curriculum, it is true P/F M1 and ABCDF grading/ranking for M2.

I believe under the new curriculum (starting next year) it will be ranked P/F for all 1.5 years of pre-clinicals.
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they said they were considering P/F for all 4 years for the new curriculum during my interview day.
 
Khaleesi3 said:
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they said they were considering P/F for all 4 years for the new curriculum during my interview day.
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I think that's what they said on my interview day as well.
 
Khaleesi3 said:
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they said they were considering P/F for all 4 years for the new curriculum during my interview day.
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That may very well be. All of you that attended an interview day are likely more knowledgeable about the new curriculum than I am!
 
So I went to a recent faculty/staff meeting at UWSMPH dedicated to the new curriculum and they talked about how they would use satisfactory/unsatisfactory for Phase 1 and 2 (so pretty much everything except the last year of school), but internally, there would be a continuous ranking of all students. So even though the transcript will only report Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, I think internal rank will still probably be used for the Dean's Letter, AOA, and other things like that. There is more info here at the UWSMPH Curriculum Transformation page for those interested: http://www.med.wisc.edu/curriculum-transformation/main/41927. They never explicitly state (or I just couldn't find where) the internal ranking thing, but I figure they probably don't want to emphasize that since most students do not like the ranked aspect.
 
Glandzburg said:
Under the current curriculum, it is true P/F M1 and ABCDF grading/ranking for M2.

I believe under the new curriculum (starting next year) it will be ranked P/F for all 1.5 years of pre-clinicals.
Click to expand...

A/AB/B/BC/C for M2
(not that that affects anyone else on here but it does affect you so I thought you might want to know!)
 
I made this for all the applicants who have posted acceptances and the date they interviewed in this thread. I think it's interesting, if anyone else cares to check it out. It would probably make sense to add two weeks for the holidays.
/neurosis

 
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