2016-2017 University of Illinois Application Thread

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PSA they're starting to give out CE-Med decisions today by email.
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emw012 said:
Does anyone know if you have to accept University of Illinois before you know which campus you're in? Seems like for people with another medical school acceptance it's hard to commit to U of I (and lose your place at another medical school) before you know which campus you'll be in.
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emw012 said:
Does anyone know if you have to accept University of Illinois before you know which campus you're in? Seems like for people with another medical school acceptance it's hard to commit to U of I (and lose your place at another medical school) before you know which campus you'll be in.
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letsplaydoctor said:
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I was in that same situation. Considering we're at the point where we can only hold one medical school seat, Garie told me that "if you accept UIC you have to be okay with any placement." Last year I chose UIC over Rosalind Franklin. I ended up with Urbana/Peoria but I was okay with that since I knew Chicago was a long shot.

Because some people are getting accepted into the special curricular programs and moved to Chicago right now, I think people should just assume they would get Rockford or Peoria then base their decisions off that. Some people might still get Chicago but at this point I wouldn't plan for it. 🙁
 
Somnolence said:
I was in that same situation. Considering we're at the point where we can only hold one medical school seat, Garie told me that "if you accept UIC you have to be okay with any placement." Last year I chose UIC over Rosalind Franklin. I ended up with Urbana/Peoria but I was okay with that since I knew Chicago was a long shot.

Because some people are getting accepted into the special curricular programs and moved to Chicago right now, I think people should just assume they would get Rockford or Peoria then base their decisions off that. Some people might still get Chicago but at this point I wouldn't plan for it. 🙁
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How come you picked UIC over RF? Just curious
 
Surgeongirl said:
How come you picked UIC over RF? Just curious
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The big issue was that twice within a decade (2004 and 2013), RF had accreditation issues with LCME. Although they were put on probation each time, they got their act cleaned up and never lost their license. However, the fact that it could happen twice was significant. I think this hurt their reputation quite a bit. If I was only accepted at RF, I definitely would have gone and been happy, but since I had another option, I chose that one instead. (U of I was a good option anyway.)

The other thing was that all the U of I campuses had hospitals attached to them. RF has to partner with different hospitals. When all the professors are affiliated with one hospital, either in research or medicine, then it makes things much easier for students to find opportunities, especially if that hospital is just across the street. This is true for other med schools too: When I interviewed at Loyola/Stritch, an M1 told me that she already got to intubate a patient as part of her shadowing experience with an anesthesiologist. Because the hospital was so closely tied to the student and faculty, she said she could just pop in to the hospital to shadow in between classes. (The fact that a first-year med student could intubate a patient blew my mind! So cool!) Although it's still possible to find opportunities at RF, it's just harder. They do have a student-run clinic close to campus, but it's not the same.

Lastly, UIC is funded heavily by NIH which speaks to their research opportunities. I think UIC's special curricular programs are really good too.
 
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Somnolence said:
The big issue was that twice within a decade (2004 and 2013), RF had accreditation issues with LCME. Although they were put on probation each time, they got their act cleaned up and never lost their license. However, the fact that it could happen twice was significant. I think this hurt their reputation quite a bit. If I was only accepted at RF, I definitely would have gone and been happy, but since I had another option, I chose that one instead. (U of I was a good option anyway.)

The other thing was that all the U of I campuses had hospitals attached to them. RF has to partner with different hospitals. When all the professors are affiliated with one hospital, either in research or medicine, then it makes things much easier for students to find opportunities, especially if that hospital is just across the street. This is true for other med schools too: When I interviewed at Loyola/Stritch, an M1 told me that she already got to intubate a patient as part of her shadowing experience with an anesthesiologist. Because the hospital was so closely tied to the student and faculty, she said she could just pop in to the hospital to shadow in between classes. (The fact that a first-year med student could intubate a patient blew my mind! So cool!) Although it's still possible to find opportunities at RF, it's just harder. They do have a student-run clinic close to campus, but it's not the same.

Lastly, UIC is funded heavily by NIH which speaks to their research opportunities. I think UIC's special curricular programs are really good too.
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Yeah I totally agree. Which campus have you been placed at UIC?
 
acetaminoFINE said:
Do they give the option to defer admission to everybody, or did you have to make some sort of special request?
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Last year they gave the option to everybody because UIC was "oversubscribed." Basically what happened was that UIC accepted the same number of students as usual last year, but after the "traffic rules" deadline, where students could only hold one seat, admissions saw a lot less movement out of UIC than in other years. I think last year was particularly competitive; there were a lot more applicants than usual because everyone who took the old MCAT was under the gun to apply and get in. (I think, compared to this year fewer schools, if any, accepted the old MCAT so people just took the new MCAT on their own timeline instead of rushing.) In the end, I think a lot of students across many of the medical schools only held one acceptance last year, which had a trickle down effect and ultimately too many people accepted UIC's offer.

For those of you who are placed in a campus that you don't want, you could always ask if deferment is an option. I'm guessing it was just a one-time thing, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Waiting a year sucked, but in the grand scheme of things, for me personally, it was worth it. But honestly, even if I didn't get to defer and went to Urbana/Peoria, I would have been really happy to just be attending medical school. So for those of you going to Peoria or Rockford, I wouldn't feel too badly about it. 🙂
 
Are UMED, GMED and IMED exclusively going to be taking place on the Chicago campus? I know that CEMED will be taking place on all three campuses.
 
Did anyone receive a response to their withdrawal email? I have tried calling with no answer or callback.
 
acetaminoFINE said:
Same. I called to see when we could expect to see movement off of the waitlist and whoever knows that information had already left for the day so they said to call back tomorrow morning
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Can you post what they say if you call?
 
Looks like they split folks into quartiles in previous years. Folks seemed to find out via an official waitlist email. Here's hoping that trend holds. Need more data!
 
Alright, I checked the portal and I was also waitlisted. Why didn't they send an email? Does anyone have information about last year's waitlist and when we may see some movement?

Edit: It appears that last cycle, nobody was accepted off the waitlist because the school was "oversubscribed." Maybe this year they accepted fewer students so that they waitlist will actually have some movement.
 
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Jazmin said:
Does anyone suspect that this wave of waitlist decisions may actually be a soft rejection?
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While I do think it is weird that we didn't even get an email about being on a waitlist, I'm trying to remain optimistic. Maybe it's a soft acceptance! We are more than qualified to go to their school 🙂
 
wildbach said:
While I do think it is weird that we didn't even get an email about being on a waitlist, I'm trying to remain optimistic. Maybe it's a soft acceptance! We are more than qualified to go to their school 🙂
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I love your energy! Good luck :highfive:
 
Jazmin said:
I love your energy! Good luck :highfive:
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I'm hoping the earlier the waitlist the higher the spot on it (fingers crossed) and, more importantly, that last year's retention after April 30th was an anomaly!
 
Did anybody who interviewed in 2016 receive a waitlist status?

edit 4/26: just got waitlisted this morning as well.
 
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