2016-2017 Pennsylvania State University Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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Penn State UPRC MSDP said:
Hey everyone,
I am a Medical Student Design Partner (MSDP) with the Penn State College of Medicine University Park Regional Campus and I wanted to make myself available if anyone has questions about the program. I applied to medical school last cycle, was accepted to Penn State College of Medicine, attended a secondary set of interviews at University Park, and ultimately accepted the job to defer my medical education for a year (so I would be your classmate if you end up here) to work with the preceptors here to develop our innovative curriculum. There are five of us MSDPs and we are now about two and a half months into our work designing, piloting, and critiquing the curriculum. It's been an adventure thus far, spending a great deal of time working in actual medical practices from day 1 and focusing on inquiry groups instead of lectures. If anyone has any questions about the program, feel free to ask them here or PM me. Having just gone through the whole application process last year, I can empathize with where you all are at this point. There is light at the end of the tunnel and you will get there. Best of luck and may you all have a hefty handful of IIs and acceptances soon.
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Hi! I was wondering if you knew if the University Park Regional Campus program has the same tuition as the Hershey campus? I think I read somewhere that there was reduced tuition but I can't seem to find it anywhere online. Thanks!

**edit: Nevermind! I think I found it on the secondary portal.
"Successful applicants will receive scholarships that cover 50% of their medical school tuition as well as housing expenses over the full course of the curriculum."
 
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sleepyturtle said:
Hi! I was wondering if you knew if the University Park Regional Campus program has the same tuition as the Hershey campus? I think I read somewhere that there was reduced tuition but I can't seem to find it anywhere online. Thanks!

**edit: Nevermind! I think I found it on the secondary portal.
"Successful applicants will receive scholarships that cover 50% of their medical school tuition as well as housing expenses over the full course of the curriculum."
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Um, wow..... I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing 🙂
 
Post II hold today via email. Interviewed first week of November. The wait continues...
 
Does anyone know if you can transfer into the University Park track after matriculation?
 
Also, just realized the Additional Info tab is back. I was accepted earlier this month via post mail; it seems like no one else accepted during that time received an email or change to their portal. But, all is apparently back to normal with an added email notification.
 
drechie said:
do you have ties to the general PA area?
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No ties at all. First time I ever went to the east coast was for this interview! I am a URM and from an underprivileged background with extensive experience working in rural areas.
 
Have any of you who have been accepted had the "accepted survey" tab disappear? I used to have this tab and I had not finished the survey, but I realized today that it disappeared so I do not know how to finish the survey. On another note, I just requested to join the accepted facebook group!
 
Nomtastic said:
Nope, once you matriculate, you cannot switch tracks.
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This is true. Out of the pool of students accepted to the broader PSUCOM, we are choosing interested students to continue the admissions with UP and we will be sending out a specific UP acceptance to those students in the coming months. Once you choose a program and start school, we do not plan any switching of students between UP and Hershey.
 
Penn State UPRC MSDP said:
Congrats to everyone on the first wave of acceptances to Penn State College of Medicine! I cannot personally confirm nor deny that the appearance of an Additional Info tab means an acceptance (I do not directly work in the admissions office at Hershey), but I did get one last year about 10 days before my acceptance letter came and it did seem that everyone last year who got the tab ended up getting accepted. For those yet to hear an admissions decision, please know that there are several different admissions committees that meet at different times due to the availability of their members, so you may hear sooner or you may hear later and that doesn't necessarily have any bearing on your eventual admissions decision.

For those who received an interview invitation and/or an acceptance and listed interest in the UP program on your secondary, we will be sending you a packet of information to better inform you about the program in the next week or two. If you are now interested in the UP program but didn't show interest on your secondary, let me know and we can see about adding you to our list. In the meantime, you are always able to PM me here on SDN, email the MSDP email account at [email protected], or check out our (still in the process of fully renovating) website at http://med.psu.edu/md/regional-campus. Best of luck to everyone as we enter the most exciting phase yet of the medical school admissions cycle!
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By any chance do you know if the UP acceptance is sent separately or along the standard Penn State acceptance letter? Do acceptance to the program is sent at the same time or does that happens sometime later? I got accepted recently into Penn State and I am actually interested in the UP program. There was nothing on that in the letter I got, so that's why I am asking.
 
puppyluv222 said:
Just got accepted!!! (apparently they are now notifying of acceptances via email, with snail mail to follow, I called the admissions office to confirm)

Interviewed 11/18
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Congratulations to everyone in this most recent wave of acceptances! I can confirm that the admissions committee, at least for this most recent batch, sent acceptance emails in addition to the traditional snail mail in order to speed up the process a bit for the UP admissions system. We are hoping to contact those applicants who have been accepted to PSUCOM and are interested in the University Park program for next steps. If you are interested in the University Park program and did not mark yourself as such on your PSUCOM secondary, please let me know.
 
LuisPE said:
By any chance do you know if the UP acceptance is sent separately or along the standard Penn State acceptance letter? Do acceptance to the program is sent at the same time or does that happens sometime later? I got accepted recently into Penn State and I am actually interested in the UP program. There was nothing on that in the letter I got, so that's why I am asking.
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No UP acceptances have been determined yet. We are looking at the pool of students who interviewed at Hershey and were accepted to the broader PSUCOM, and then we are selecting students out of that pool. We are actively talking with students about their interest and fit and then selecting a subset to attend a weekend of events in University Park to learn more about mutual fit. The first of these weekends is approaching; we plan to begin sending out UP acceptances shortly thereafter. If you were just accepted today and did mark interest in UP in your secondary application, you should hear from us next Tuesday about next steps. If you are accepted and did not mark your interest in UP but would like to learn more, please PM me.
 
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sleepyturtle said:
Hi! I was wondering if you knew if the University Park Regional Campus program has the same tuition as the Hershey campus? I think I read somewhere that there was reduced tuition but I can't seem to find it anywhere online. Thanks!

**edit: Nevermind! I think I found it on the secondary portal.
"Successful applicants will receive scholarships that cover 50% of their medical school tuition as well as housing expenses over the full course of the curriculum."
Click to expand...
Yes this is true. The tuition at UP will be identical to that at Hershey, but as you mention there will be a 50% scholarship for students entering in the class next year, in addition to free housing (that is actually quite nice). The UP Program is generously funded from a variety of sources such as the American Medical Association and various governmental bodies which want us to gather the best medical students possible for our innovative curriculum to succeed, and these are two of many perks of the program.
 
Penn State UPRC MSDP said:
No UP acceptances have been determined yet. We are looking at the pool of students who interviewed at Hershey and were accepted to the broader PSUCOM, and then we are selecting students out of that pool. We are actively talking with students about their interest and fit and then selecting a subset to attend a weekend of events in University Park to learn more about mutual fit. The first of these weekends is approaching; we plan to begin sending out UP acceptances shortly thereafter. If you were just accepted today and did mark interest in UP in your secondary application, you should hear from us next Tuesday about next steps. If you are accepted and did not mark your interest in UP but would like to learn more, please PM me or email me at [email protected].
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Do you know if there is a second look day for the Hershey campus? Love the school so much I'm looking for any reason to come back and visit before July!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
crzy4socr72 said:
Do you know if there is a second look day for the Hershey campus? Love the school so much I'm looking for any reason to come back and visit before July!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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Second look day is April 1st, but it's still in the making and we'll get an email about it later 🙂
 
Anyone else still "on hold" after having interviewed? Interviewed way back kn september. In November, got my "hold" status and haven't heard anything since. Strange... haven't experienced any other school doing this.
 
kaim10 said:
Anyone else still "on hold" after having interviewed? Interviewed way back kn september. In November, got my "hold" status and haven't heard anything since. Strange... haven't experienced any other school doing this.
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The hold seems like a spring waitlist, which alot of schools do.
 
Anyone have the link to the accepted students facebook page? I cant find it in the thread.
 
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Update: I now have an additional info tab, but only after I got an email saying they received my recognition of acceptance letter.
 
hungrybox said:
Completely off topic, but can I just say that I think it's RIDICULOUS that you only have 2 II's with those stats?

I'm convinced that the med school admissions process is broken.
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Mrlewy said:
Stats are good, but school list, essays, and ECs are just as (if not more) important. You can have great stats, but if that's all you have and you apply to all reach schools and you can't write well = bad cycle.
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Thanks fam <3 I literally struggled with this all cycle lol. However, I am 110% sure it wasn't my overall MCAT, but my individual scores that screwed me over because my CARS was ABNORMALLY low. (My Bio, Chem and Psych/Soc were super high, but CARS was below 40%. *cringe*) Anyway, moral of the story is that a bad MCAT section may slow you down, but it won't keep you out of medical school!

Mrlewy, I actually only applied to 1 'reach' school (John's Hopkins). Trust me when I say my ECs, essays and LORs were on point.
 
Is everyone being put on the hold's list since there doesn't seem to be any rejections being sent out!?
 
II! Complete early-mid September.

I'd love some more info about the school and surrounding area if anyone has it! 🙂
- What do people like about penn state? Is the area interesting?
- What's the post-interview acceptance rate?
- Bad aspects of penn state?

Thanks everyone!
 
plsmedschool said:
II! Complete early-mid September.

I'd love some more info about the school and surrounding area if anyone has it! 🙂
- What do people like about penn state? Is the area interesting?
- What's the post-interview acceptance rate?
- Bad aspects of penn state?

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
congratulations !! were you on hold?
 
plsmedschool said:
II! Complete early-mid September.

I'd love some more info about the school and surrounding area if anyone has it! 🙂
- What do people like about penn state? Is the area interesting?
- What's the post-interview acceptance rate?
- Bad aspects of penn state?

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Pros: out of every school I been to 10+ this school had the most nurturing and invovled faculty I have ever seen.
It's a pass fail curriculum
Students seen happy and are invovled in other things other than school.
Alot of opportunities to gain mentors and build relationships with faculty
Cons
The area sucks balls
Area didn't seem like the most welcoming to minorities and LGBTQ
Not very diverse
 
Chelsea FC said:
Pros: out of every school I been to 10+ this school had the most nurturing and invovled faculty I have ever seen.
It's a pass fail curriculum
Students seen happy and are invovled in other things other than school.
Alot of opportunities to gain mentors and build relationships with faculty
Cons
The area sucks balls
Area didn't seem like the most welcoming to minorities and LGBTQ
Not very diverse
Click to expand...
I thought the class was 43% non white
 
plsmedschool said:
II! Complete early-mid September.

I'd love some more info about the school and surrounding area if anyone has it! 🙂
- What do people like about penn state? Is the area interesting?
- What's the post-interview acceptance rate?
- Bad aspects of penn state?

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

1/3 post interview acceptance rate
 
JPSmyth said:
I thought the class was 43% non white
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Ze is talking about the surrounding area. Hershey, PA is white as wonderbread. I had dinner near campus at a local bar the night before my interview, right after the Donald was elected, and that was an... interesting experience.
 
Spoderman said:
Ze is talking about the surrounding area. Hershey, PA is white as wonderbread. I had dinner near campus at a local bar the night before my interview, right after the Donald was elected, and that was an... interesting experience.
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Oh yeah, that's rural PA for you. The only downside to the school is that the location is terrible. I didn't do much exploring, but is there any downtown/nightlife/area that isnt just farms?
 
JPSmyth said:
Oh yeah, that's rural PA for you. The only downside to the school is that the location is terrible. I didn't do much exploring, but is there any downtown/nightlife/area that isnt just farms?
Click to expand...
I honestly didn't see too much of the sort. It sounded like most students/faculty go visit DC/Philly on weekends if they want to get out.
 
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