2016-2017 University of Arizona - Tucson Application Thread

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Should this "still competitive" be worrying? I'm not sure if they are actually possibly interested or they looked at it and weren't interested at all but this e-mail was simply a formality. Does anyone have any insight?
 
When were y'all complete? I'm complete as of 7/22 so I might be behind the train on this. Getting worried though!
 
medicine4958 said:
Should this "still competitive" be worrying? I'm not sure if they are actually possibly interested or they looked at it and weren't interested at all but this e-mail was simply a formality. Does anyone have any insight?
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Last year people got an interview after the email. I'd just not pay attention or worry because you can't really change anything now. Now, if you see an actual interview invite, there you go! 😀



sammiesings said:
When were y'all complete? I'm complete as of 7/22 so I might be behind the train on this. Getting worried though!
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Yeah, I'm 7/20 and haven't received anything... RIP.
 
Hello I'm new to the forum but saw the messages regarding the hold email some of you have been receiving. I applied to UACOM last cycle and received that email, then was invited for an interview later in the cycle. From what I have been told, and experienced, it's more of an update email that way there's not prolonged radio silence between them and applicants. It is by no means a soft rejection waiting to happen. Good luck everyone on this application cycle I know the waiting can be rough!
 
netflixbinge said:
Hello I'm new to the forum but saw the messages regarding the hold email some of you have been receiving. I applied to UACOM last cycle and received that email, then was invited for an interview later in the cycle. From what I have been told, and experienced, it's more of an update email that way there's not prolonged radio silence between them and applicants. It is by no means a soft rejection waiting to happen. Good luck everyone on this application cycle I know the waiting can be rough!
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Perfect! Thanks for your input!
 
For this question: "Please share a meaningful experience you have had working or volunteering in the health professional field" could I write about a research experience? or is the question asking for a more clinical experience?
 
on hold email just now :|
 
Just got the we like just not enough to interview you yet hold email lol... Does anyone know if they send this to everyone or do they reject people too?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
kin1662 said:
Just got the we like just not enough to interview you yet hold email lol... Does anyone know if they send this to everyone or do they reject people too?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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I don't think so. I think some people just don't hear anything at all though. Like me! 🙁 Can I ask when you were complete?
 
gamieg said:
on hold email just now :|
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Hey, I just noticed you have "5 II's" Congratulations!!! May I please ask, where at?

Btw, don't worry about the "hold email". I've heard it can go either way. I have a hunch that it will go your way this time!
 
I got verified from AMCAS today and then an hour later was invited to complete a secondary so I'm super pumped right now!

My only concern is that I don't know how I'm going to get a physician letter in time. I leave for a mission trip in two weeks and won't return until the second week of October. I already have 5 LOR in my application too. I just don't know when I would fit in the time to gain a meaningful connection with a physician. Should I try to squeeze it in before I leave or should I wait until I get back. Does anyone have any advise on this? I'd appreciate any feedback.
 
NovaPreMed23 said:
I got verified from AMCAS today and then an hour later was invited to complete a secondary so I'm super pumped right now!

My only concern is that I don't know how I'm going to get a physician letter in time. I leave for a mission trip in two weeks and won't return until the second week of October. I already have 5 LOR in my application too. I just don't know when I would fit in the time to gain a meaningful connection with a physician. Should I try to squeeze it in before I leave or should I wait until I get back. Does anyone have any advise on this? I'd appreciate any feedback.
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Honestly, this should have been done years ago, but try to get it ASAP as you have to build the connection AND ask for a strong letter. Go out and start building that connection now! 🙂
 
teenagemutant said:
Honestly, this should have been done years ago, but try to get it ASAP as you have to build the connection AND ask for a strong letter. Go out and start building that connection now! 🙂
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I have shadowed several doctors. I had asked a doctor and they told me it would be weird if I had only shadowed them for a week, so I figured the only way to get a doctor to write one would be months of connection building. But I will take your advise. I know a doctor in my area who was awesome when I shadowed her a few months back. We had a lot in common in terms of our college experience and where we grew up. Do you think it would be awkward if I asked to continue shadowing her for a period of time?
 
NovaPreMed23 said:
I have shadowed several doctors. I had asked a doctor and they told me it would be weird if I had only shadowed them for a week, so I figured the only way to get a doctor to write one would be months of connection building. But I will take your advise. I know a doctor in my area who was awesome when I shadowed her a few months back. We had a lot in common in terms of our college experience and where we grew up. Do you think it would be awkward if I asked to continue shadowing her for a period of time?
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Well, for the ones that told you it'd be weird, you can follow up with, "How could I earn a strong reference from you? You've been an excellent mentor and it would be a great pleasure to have you as an advocate for me when I'm applying."

For the female physician that you shadowed a while back, you could ask her about continuing to shadow and be direct about the strong letter of reference. I do not think it would be awkward unless you make awkward.
 
teenagemutant said:
Well, for the ones that told you it'd be weird, you can follow up with, "How could I earn a strong reference from you? You've been an excellent mentor and it would be a great pleasure to have you as an advocate for me when I'm applying."

For the female physician that you shadowed a while back, you could ask her about continuing to shadow and be direct about the strong letter of reference. I do not think it would be awkward unless you make awkward.
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Thank you very much for the advise! It's greatly appreciated. I will definitely go through with what you said before leaving for my mission trip and see how it goes 🙂
 
II today, after getting that "hold" email last week! 3.8/509 in-state applicant. Wondering if anyone else with an invite only saw the one interview date in September. For some reason, I am not seeing any other dates on the calendar....
 
evqueste said:
II today, after getting that "hold" email last week! 3.8/509 in-state applicant. Wondering if anyone else with an invite only saw the one interview date in September. For some reason, I am not seeing any other dates on the calendar....
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nice! congrats! this gives me hope even though you are IS and your GPA is godly lol
 
evqueste said:
II today, after getting that "hold" email last week! 3.8/509 in-state applicant. Wondering if anyone else with an invite only saw the one interview date in September. For some reason, I am not seeing any other dates on the calendar....
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Yes! We're pretty similar, so there's still hope for that II. I got the hold email today. 😱 Boo Tucson.
 
evqueste said:
II today, after getting that "hold" email last week! 3.8/509 in-state applicant. Wondering if anyone else with an invite only saw the one interview date in September. For some reason, I am not seeing any other dates on the calendar....
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Just got my II today after being on hold as well! OOS
Also, i only see one interview date and that is in september...wondering if there are supposed to be more?
 
sammiesings said:
sounds like people get invites after that status though! By the way, when were you complete
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hoping for the best! I submitted my secondary and was complete 7/11.

ArtSci said:
Hey, I just noticed you have "5 II's" Congratulations!!! May I please ask, where at?

Btw, don't worry about the "hold email". I've heard it can go either way. I have a hunch that it will go your way this time!
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aw thank you! I'll PM you. 🙂
 
kaytee636 said:
Just got my II today after being on hold as well! OOS
Also, i only see one interview date and that is in september...wondering if there are supposed to be more?
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also just an update..i called admissions today and the only date avaialable is the saturday in september so far. they will continue to open up more slots as more interviews are granted
 
kaytee636 said:
also just an update..i called admissions today and the only date avaialable is the saturday in september so far. they will continue to open up more slots as more interviews are granted
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Interesting. I emailed them and they just said dates are open as they fill. Made it sound like they had a bunch of dates and they had already filled up!

Of course, I am traveling that weekend, flight and hotels already booked. Do you guys think I should ask to defer to a later interview date?
 
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evqueste said:
Interesting. I emailed them and they just said dates are open as they fill. Made it sound like they had a bunch of dates and they had already filled up!

Of course, I am traveling that weekend, flight and hotels already booked. Do you guys think I should ask to defer to a later interview date?
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They usually have one every saturday. I know a couple people who interviewed late September or into October/November last year and got in without an issue, so you should be fine.
 
Did you guys receive a complete email? My portal online says secondary app file complete but I haven't gotten an email confirmation and it's not listed under "communications" either.
 
medbunny56 said:
For this question: "Please share a meaningful experience you have had working or volunteering in the health professional field" could I write about a research experience? or is the question asking for a more clinical experience?
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The secondary prompt as listed on the first page states:
"Please share a meaningful experience you have had working or volunteering in the health professional field or a time in your past in which you were responsible for the care and well-being of someone else. What did you learn from this as it relates to becoming a physician? (Limit: 350 words)"

If you were somehow directly responsible for the care and well-being of someone else in your research, then research would be relevant to write about. If not, then yes, a clinical experience would be a much better fit for this prompt.
 
Anyone have thoughts on this question from the secondary:

If you have applied to medical school before, please share what you have done since you last applied.

I'm a re-applicant and non-traditional. Thankfully I have a job in healthcare. So I can say that I'm focusing on that for the clinical experience. Should I include anything else or just focus on how my nursing career will help me be a better doctor?
 
kin1662 said:
Just got the we like just not enough to interview you yet hold email lol... Does anyone know if they send this to everyone or do they reject people too?


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

I'm a reapplicant, and I don't recall them rejecting anyone until March (except for those screened out prior to receiving a secondary). For what it's worth, I received the - you're not hip enough - email last year and then received a -jk fam, here's your II - a month later. So while there's hope, sadly, there's no way to tell if you're among the 600 that will get an II or the 5000 others refreshing their inboxes until March. But who knows! You might get accepted to a school that fits you better. Then you can withdraw your application here to help your good friend wikijiki have a better chance of receiving an II this cycle!
 
dollface said:
Anyone have thoughts on this question from the secondary:

If you have applied to medical school before, please share what you have done since you last applied.

I'm a re-applicant and non-traditional. Thankfully I have a job in healthcare. So I can say that I'm focusing on that for the clinical experience. Should I include anything else or just focus on how my nursing career will help me be a better doctor?
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TL;DR: Including anything else.

I'm in the same boat, but I'm just a humble medical scribe. Did you happen to seek feedback on why you were not interviewed/accepted from the schools you applied to? If you did, then you should highlight how you addressed the deficits in your qualifications. Several schools told me it was due to my MCAT and lack of healthcare exposure. Therefore, ~180 words were dedicated to discussing my scribe experience and I threw in a sentence mentioning I retook the MCAT.

Last year, UA Tucson believed in me enough to grant me an II. During their presentation, they put great emphasis on helping the underserved in AZ. Unless you're a nurse working at a location that caters mostly to the underserved, I would mention any other tasks you may have that does. Even though my community service was never brought to question, I wrote a sentence saying that I tutor students from backgrounds not seen frequently in science.

Last but not least, the cool kids nowadays are dedicated to medicine, but that's not what they're all about; they have unique interests! Maybe on the weekdays, you're dollface RN, but on Saturday evenings you're dollface the clown who does kids' birthday parties, idk. I wrote a sentence about being the president of a video game club on my college campus.

Well..I hope this helps!*

*disclaimer. I'm just a person giving what I "think" is a good idea. As far as I know, an admissions board member is shaking his/her head 'no' while reading this.
 
WikiJiki said:
.

I'm a reapplicant, and I don't recall them rejecting anyone until March (except for those screened out prior to receiving a secondary). For what it's worth, I received the - you're not hip enough - email last year and then received a -jk fam, here's your II - a month later. So while there's hope, sadly, there's no way to tell if you're among the 600 that will get an II or the 5000 others refreshing their inboxes until March. But who knows! You might get accepted to a school that fits you better. Then you can withdraw your application here to help your good friend wikijiki have a better chance of receiving an II this cycle!
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Thanks so much for all the insight!! Would you happen to know if everyone gets put on hold? Or were there those who didn't hear anything at all?
 
@sammiesings I did not get placed on hold last year. I received the secondary confirmation via email and then I received the interview invite email.

@WikiJiki @dollface n=1, I was not a re-applicant, but for all of the "if not in school, what are you doing this year?" questions, I was working two jobs, so I described those jobs. I also included a hobby of mine that I was continuing to pursue. I think were I a re-applicant, I would look at what I have kept the same and what I have changed. Including that you are an RN would definitely be a good thing to write about for this section, but think about including anything that has changed/improved about your application since you last applied.
 
sammiesings said:
Thanks so much for all the insight!! Would you happen to know if everyone gets put on hold? Or were there those who didn't hear anything at all?
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Other than those blessed individuals who received an II straight up, I believe everyone will receive the - you ain't mhmm enough - email eventually.
 
@WikiJiki So I did seek feedback...I remember vaguely they sent out an e-mail about feedback but for whatever reason I did not receive any. I honestly forget about it until now. However, I'm pretty sure I messed up on the MMIs.

I think the struggle of this question for me is that a lot of the things I might write about here I already talked about in either my primary application or secondary. For example, I graduated with BFA in studio art so I already wrote about how drawing is my way of relaxing and helps find creative solutions to patient problems.

I’ve got some ideas thanks to some of the things you mentioned. I just want them to be more exciting than I read lots of books and medical research. My health didn’t cooperate after finishing up last year’s round of applications and I spent the last 8 months tracking down the cause and resting instead of bulking up volunteer activities or hobbies 🙁

@ifnotnowwren good idea writing what changes were made.

Thanks for the help y'all. Gonna finish that last essay now.
 
So, I have not received the "not hip enough" email yet, and I have been complete since 7/18. Is this something to be worried about? My status still just says "Secondary Application Complete," is there a status change after this and before the "not hip enough" or "gurl, u hip" notifications?
 
myboysiddartha said:
So, I have not received the "not hip enough" email yet, and I have been complete since 7/18. Is this something to be worried about? My status still just says "Secondary Application Complete," is there a status change after this and before the "not hip enough" or "gurl, u hip" notifications?
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It means you haven't been reviewed yet. I'm complete7/20 and Nada either.
 
Hopping aboard kinda late, oh well.
Submitted AMCAS (verified) 8/19
Secondary received 8/20. OOS (my state borders AZ however), LM 70

I'm surprised by the quick turnaround (it says on MSAR that they screen)!
 
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