2016-2017 University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley Application Thread

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Any current students want to chime in about this school?
 
TJ15 said:
I was told anything sub 3.0 is autoscreened, is that only at some schools?
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Gotta be homie... I have 3 II so far. Rio Grande, UTSW, and an oos DO school. To be fair, the rest of my app is overkill in every area. Applied to 46 schools and got secondaries from all of them (including the ones that say they screen).
 
zurc2014 said:
Gotta be homie... I have 3 II so far. Rio Grande, UTSW, and an oos DO school. To be fair, the rest of my app is overkill in every area. Applied to 46 schools and got secondaries from all of them (including the ones that say they screen).
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.
 
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zurc2014 said:
Gotta be homie... I have 3 II so far. Rio Grande, UTSW, and an oos DO school. To be fair, the rest of my app is overkill in every area. Applied to 46 schools and got secondaries from all of them (including the ones that say they screen).
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Was the 506 your first MCAT?
 
TJ15 said:
Wait you got a II at UTSW with a sub 3.0 gpa? I was told my 3.7/512 was too low. Did you have amazing EC's? Or are you a URM?
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Who told you that your stats were too low for UTSW?
 
jgear645 said:
Who told you that your stats were too low for UTSW?
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Lol people listen to crap all the time. I have multiple nonURM and URM friends with mediocre stats at UTSW.

The process is not as cut and dry and SDNers would have you believe.
 
TJ15 said:
Wait you got a II at UTSW with a sub 3.0 gpa? I was told my 3.7/512 was too low. Did you have amazing EC's? Or are you a URM?
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Yeah, you were misinformed. Although you are not the top 10% of matriculants at UTSW, you do have a 34 on the old MCAT. You are competitive for sure, and will be more so depending on the rest of your app!!
 
jgear645 said:
Who told you that your stats were too low for UTSW?
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Someone I spoke to at the medical school. Considering their average is a 35 MCAT, my 512 is actually a 32 barely. Haha it's technically between a 31-32 :/
 
SydSing said:
Lol people listen to crap all the time. I have multiple nonURM and URM friends with mediocre stats at UTSW.

The process is not as cut and dry and SDNers would have you believe.
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Haha that was actually going to be my next comment! There are at least a couple (if not more) exceptions to all these "rules" at every school and it's not a process that we will be made privy to
 
jgear645 said:
Haha that was actually going to be my next comment! That unless the dean came down and told you that, that's probably not true because I know of many "exceptions" to that comment at UTSW
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I actually have a family friend who is familiar with the admissions process there (being vagueish haha) and I reviewed my application with them lol
I would love to be wrong haha But the applicant with the 3.0 gpa/506 mcat must have amazing other parts of his/her app. I am average for my app haha
 
TJ15 said:
I actually have a family friend who is familiar with the admissions process and I reviewed my application with them lol
I would love to be wrong haha But the applicant with the 3.0 gpa/506 mcat must have amazing other parts of his/her app. I am average for my app haha
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There is no way. I know people who are over represented, well off financially, had average ECs, and had a 508-510 and got into to UTSW. Please, please do not listen! If you are applying to TMDSAS, UTSW is free to apply to! No secondary fee. And better yet, if you are applying to Tech Lubbock, the secondary essays are very similar. Please do apply. That being said, I am in the 503-506 range and even I applied to UTSW. I do not expect an acceptance, but I gave it a shot, because you never know! For you, it is more than that.
 
TJ15 said:
I actually have a family friend who is familiar with the admissions process there (being vagueish haha) and I reviewed my application with them lol
I would love to be wrong haha But the applicant with the 3.0 gpa/506 mcat must have amazing other parts of his/her app. I am average for my app haha
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I won't be vague. A lady at my church is an assistant dean and she has made it clear that much of what I hear on here is laughable.

I agree they probably have nice ECs or something else but the main point was that the initial assumption was misguided.
 
yellowbottlesippin said:
There is no way. I know people who are over represented, well off financially, had average ECs, and had a 508-510 and got into to UTSW. Please, please do not listen! If you are applying to TMDSAS, UTSW is free to apply to! No secondary fee. And better yet, if you are applying to Tech Lubbock, the secondary essays are very similar. Please do apply. That being said, I am in the 503-506 range and even I applied to UTSW. I do not expect an acceptance, but I gave it a shot, because you never know! For you, it is more than that.
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I did apply haha! I actually filled out the secondary before I received my MCAT since it was free. Thanks for being encouraging haha. I love when people with lower stats but amazing ECs get interviews, since it goes to prove that schools look at more than numbers. My sgpa is considered lower than average, but hopefully I'll get some love from somewhere! The wait is beyond difficult!
 
SydSing said:
I won't be vague. A lady at my church is an assistant dean and she has made it clear that much of what I hear on here is laughable.

I agree they probably have nice ECs or something else but the main point was that the initial assumption was misguided.
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I agree that much of what is on SDN is laughable. But I made my initial assumption based on the MSAR, school website, and information I received lol. Chances are I don't have a great chance. I applied, but I'm being realistic lol. Also: I WISH my 512 was equal to a 34......😵
 
TJ15 said:
I did apply haha! I actually filled out the secondary before I received my MCAT since it was free. Thanks for being encouraging haha. I love when people with lower stats but amazing ECs get interviews, since it goes to prove that schools look at more than numbers. My sgpa is considered lower than average, but hopefully I'll get some love from somewhere! The wait is beyond difficult!
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Okay, I am glad. I hope you get some love somewhere! Good luck!
 
TJ15 said:
I agree that much of what is on SDN is laughable. But I made my initial assumption based on the MSAR, school website, and information I received lol. Chances are I don't have a great chance. I applied, but I'm being realistic lol. Also: I WISH my 512 was equal to a 34......😵
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MSAR gives a great idea but at the end of the day outliers and below average matriculants exist.

Tis all. 🙂
 
SydSing said:
MSAR gives a great idea but at the end of the day outliers and below average matriculants exist.

Tis all. 🙂
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Absolutely haha. I don't care what medical school I go to, as long as I get in somewhere. So I'm hoping for a II anywhere. 🙂
 
TJ15 said:
Wait you got a II at UTSW with a sub 3.0 gpa? I was told my 3.7/512 was too low. Did you have amazing EC's? Or are you a URM?
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Did you truly and honestly believe someone who told you a 3.7/512 was too low? Like honestly, did you actually listen to them? I would have laughed if I had your numbers and someone told me that.

Yes I have amazing ECs (5 years of research, 4 Plastic surgery pubs from UTSW, 10+ years of direct patient care experience at UTSW, many many more...) and I am AA woman.
 
TJ15 said:
Was the 506 your first MCAT?
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Nope. First was in 2013, 20 mcat 🙁 applied to Drexel DPMS and made it to the interview with the 20. Ended up not getting it tho.
 
TJ15 said:
Someone I spoke to at the medical school. Considering their average is a 35 MCAT, my 512 is actually a 32 barely. Haha it's technically between a 31-32 :/
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Bull. It must have been a student that doesnt know the inside workings of their admissions process. I work with many of the ADCOMS there and I personally know they interview 3.0-3.2s.
 
zurc2014 said:
Did you truly and honestly believe someone who told you a 3.7/512 was too low? Like honestly, did you actually listen to them? I would have laughed if I had your numbers and someone told me that.

Yes I have amazing ECs (5 years of research, 4 Plastic surgery pubs from UTSW, 10+ years of direct patient care experience at UTSW, many many more...) and I am AA woman.
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For any other TX med school (sans Baylor) yes I would have laughed. But UTSW is one of the top med schools in the country. So I would think they would want the best of the best. I'm sorry I didn't laugh lol, but it's a realistic reasoning that I don't have a great shot. Congratulations to you though.
 
zurc2014 said:
Nope. First was in 2013, 20 mcat 🙁 applied to Drexel DPMS and made it to the interview with the 20. Ended up not getting it tho.
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Wait what?
"Hi, I wanted to know if you guys think I should apply this upcoming cycle or are my chances shot at this point. I am recently graduated and have too many credits under my belt to raise my gpa in a reasonable amount of time.
Stats:
2.85 cgpa/sgpa
35 mcat
AA urm"

I'm confused. I went to your posts to see if I could see what other people are doing EC wise and this popped up.
I'm not trying to accuse you, I"m just confused.
 
TJ15 said:
Wait what?
"Hi, I wanted to know if you guys think I should apply this upcoming cycle or are my chances shot at this point. I am recently graduated and have too many credits under my belt to raise my gpa in a reasonable amount of time.
Stats:
2.85 cgpa/sgpa
35 mcat
AA urm"

I'm confused. I went to your posts to see if I could see what other people are doing EC wise and this popped up.
I'm not trying to accuse you, I"m just confused.
Click to expand...
If I had to guess, I would say she applied a few years ago and that MCAT has since expired and she has since been able to improve her GPA. She took the new MCAT and got a 506. She did say that she did have 10 years experience in patient care, so I am sure she has tried applying in the past. Just a guess.
 
yellowbottlesippin said:
If I had to guess, I would say she applied a few years ago and that MCAT has since expired and she has since been able to improve her GPA. She took the new MCAT and got a 506. She did say that she did have 10 years experience in patient care, so I am sure she has tried applying in the past. Just a guess.
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Just got the mcat score this summer. - This was in Fall 2014, so I'm assuming it wasn't expired, and I don't know anyone that would retake a 35. I guess I"m just confused as to why they said they got a 20 then 506? I'm not trying to start a post war, I was just genuinely confused. I get when people want to stay anonymous due to potential adcoms being on here, but I don't get why someone would post vastly different things.
 
TJ15 said:
Just got the mcat score this summer. - This was in Fall 2014, so I'm assuming it wasn't expired, and I don't know anyone that would retake a 35. I guess I"m just confused as to why they said they got a 20 then 506? I'm not trying to start a post war, I was just genuinely confused. I get when people want to stay anonymous due to potential adcoms being on here, but I don't get why someone would post vastly different things.
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Yeah. Makes sense. All goes into why you don't trust SDN haha. :nono:
 
TJ15 said:
Wait what?
"Hi, I wanted to know if you guys think I should apply this upcoming cycle or are my chances shot at this point. I am recently graduated and have too many credits under my belt to raise my gpa in a reasonable amount of time.
Stats:
2.85 cgpa/sgpa
35 mcat
AA urm"

I'm confused. I went to your posts to see if I could see what other people are doing EC wise and this popped up.
I'm not trying to accuse you, I"m just confused.
Click to expand...

Ahhh 🙂 That post takes me back lol Good point out TJ15 and I completely forgot about that. Yea I posted that when in actuality I was getting my score back in a week or two. I just said that I got it because people will only reply with "we cant advise without a score" and I wanted the answer at that moment. Why did I post 35? That was a good average of my last few scores. (I uploaded screenshots from my last two practice tests below from aamc because I know no one will believe me). What happened on the test day for me to drop so low? Personal reasons out of my control but I wont go into detail due to remaining autonomous. Was assured that I got in the mid-upper 30s but yea....no. Biggest flop in history. Maybe I also do better without the high stress since I scored 508-510s on this one as well. But yea...thats it in a nutshell 🙂
 

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zurc2014 said:
Ahhh 🙂 That post takes me back lol Good point out TJ15 and I completely forgot about that. Yea I posted that when in actuality I was getting my score back in a week or two. I just said that I got it because people will only reply with "we cant advise without a score" and I wanted the answer at that moment. Why did I post 35? That was a good average of my last few scores. (I uploaded screenshots from my last two practice tests below from aamc because I know no one will believe me). What happened on the test day for me to drop so low? Personal reasons out of my control but I wont go into detail due to remaining autonomous. Was assured that I got in the mid-upper 30s but yea....no. Biggest flop in history. Maybe I also do better without the high stress since I scored 508-510s on this one as well. But yea...thats it in a nutshell 🙂
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No worries. I'm glad you're not a troll- the last thing neurotic premeds need is to get more neurotic. Good luck on your cycle.
 
zurc2014 said:
Ahhh 🙂 That post takes me back lol Good point out TJ15 and I completely forgot about that. Yea I posted that when in actuality I was getting my score back in a week or two. I just said that I got it because people will only reply with "we cant advise without a score" and I wanted the answer at that moment. Why did I post 35? That was a good average of my last few scores. (I uploaded screenshots from my last two practice tests below from aamc because I know no one will believe me). What happened on the test day for me to drop so low? Personal reasons out of my control but I wont go into detail due to remaining autonomous. Was assured that I got in the mid-upper 30s but yea....no. Biggest flop in history. Maybe I also do better without the high stress since I scored 508-510s on this one as well. But yea...thats it in a nutshell 🙂
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Well, tbh, I am just glad that you have been able to snag 3 IIs this cycle. Seems like you have been through a lot and you obviously have great ECs! Hopefully you snag an acceptance this cycle. Praying for you!
 
TJ15 said:
No worries. I'm glad you're not a troll- the last thing neurotic premeds need is to get more neurotic. Good luck on your cycle.
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You too! Glad you applied! Was hesitant to reply but needed to clear that up lol. Just want to remain autonomous since I know certain adcoms I know read sdn (look at you Ann M.). You can PM me if you want to know more.
 
yellowbottlesippin said:
Well, tbh, I am just glad that you have been able to snag 3 IIs this cycle. Seems like you have been through a lot and you obviously have great ECs! Hopefully you snag an acceptance this cycle. Praying for you!
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Hopefully so. Im not too suprised about the II. I am anticipating a ton of waitlists. Im willing to accept that. I think my story interests some schools and they want to meet me. But at the end the numbers matter. But rest assured, I will kill these interviews like my life depends on it.
 
zurc2014 said:
Hopefully so. Im not too suprised about the II. I am anticipating a ton of waitlists. Im willing to accept that. I think my story interests some schools and they want to meet me. But at the end the numbers matter. But rest assured, I will kill these interviews like my life depends on it.
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That is the way to approach it!
 
whatTREEisTHAT? said:
why?
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The school sent an email to the current class instructing them not to post on this site. A current student BreadNbutter quit posting after the email went out.

As a new school they want to do all they can to protect their image and reputation.

The interim Dean did give a Spanish proficiency test to the current class so; this is probably not the year to falsely claim your ability to speak Spanish.
 
texasmedicalstudent231 said:
The school sent an email to the current class instructing them not to post on this site. A current student BreadNbutter quit posting after the email went out.

As a new school they want to do all they can to protect their image and reputation.

The interim Dean did give a Spanish proficiency test to the current class so; this is probably not the year to falsely claim your ability to speak Spanish.
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Should we even bother applying to this school if we do not speak spanish?
 
nousername4444 said:
Should we even bother applying to this school if we do not speak spanish?
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Be willing to learn it because McAllen is 77% Hispanic and Brownsville is >90% Hispanic. Even if you are not fluent, patients truly appreciate that you make an effort.
 
texasmedicalstudent231 said:
The school sent an email to the current class instructing them not to post on this site. A current student BreadNbutter quit posting after the email went out.

As a new school they want to do all they can to protect their image and reputation.

The interim Dean did give a Spanish proficiency test to the current class so; this is probably not the year to falsely claim your ability to speak Spanish.
Click to expand...

All of this is not true.

Some of us, however, have decided to stop feeding the trolls.
 
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texasmedicalstudent231 said:
The school sent an email to the current class instructing them not to post on this site. A current student BreadNbutter quit posting after the email went out.

As a new school they want to do all they can to protect their image and reputation.

The interim Dean did give a Spanish proficiency test to the current class so; this is probably not the year to falsely claim your ability to speak Spanish.
Click to expand...
Current student here, chiming in. None of this is true, as my classmate breadNbutter said. No required proficiency test, but there were optional sessions during orientation to polish up on your language skills if you so desired. Emphasis on optional. And we haven't been banned from posting, most of us are just too busy studying. 🙂 Also, trolls.

Looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you guys on your interview days!
 
WonderandWander said:
Current student here, chiming in. None of this is true, as my classmate breadNbutter said. No required proficiency test, but there were optional sessions during orientation to polish up on your language skills if you so desired. Emphasis on optional. And we haven't been banned from posting, most of us are just too busy studying. 🙂 Also, trolls.

Looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you guys on your interview days!
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So looked on the website and saw some good things but was wondering if there are some research opportunities at utrgv
 
WonderandWander said:
Current student here, chiming in. None of this is true, as my classmate breadNbutter said. No required proficiency test, but there were optional sessions during orientation to polish up on your language skills if you so desired. Emphasis on optional. And we haven't been banned from posting, most of us are just too busy studying. 🙂 Also, trolls.

Looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you guys on your interview days!
Click to expand...

Wow. Thank you for clearing that up. I thought that it was odd. Kind of irritating that people would like to ruin the reputation of a school like that.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
II !!!!!!!!!!! IS, LizzyM- 68ish, non- URM, no ties to South Texas, complete end of July. So thrilled!!! This is my first one.
Anyone know if they have student hosts or if we should use one of the hotels suggested on the portal?
 
TJ15 said:
II !!!!!!!!!!! IS, LizzyM- 68ish, non- URM, no ties to South Texas, complete end of July. So thrilled!!! This is my first one.
Anyone know if they have student hosts or if we should use one of the hotels suggested on the portal?
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There are on campus rooms for really cheap. You just have to bring your own bedding and such.
 
SydSing said:
There are on campus rooms for really cheap. You just have to bring your own bedding and such.
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Are these like dorm rooms ? Also, is there a link to these? I would prefer not to spend too much money since I'm already spending a lot on airfare.
Thanks 🙂
 
TJ15 said:
II !!!!!!!!!!! IS, LizzyM- 68ish, non- URM, no ties to South Texas, complete end of July. So thrilled!!! This is my first one.
Anyone know if they have student hosts or if we should use one of the hotels suggested on the portal?
Click to expand...
Check with admissions, but I think there are options for student hosts.
 
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