*2016-2017 Washington State University Application Thread

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If you read your packet of information you obtained on interview day, I believe it stated that we would get a call directly from Dr. Tomkowiak (the dean) if we get in, and an email if we are SUC'd or waitlisted. I also remember them saying MCATs and GPAs don't matter any longer. So our metrics would be what we have accomplished in life, how our goals fit with the school and how we did on interview day. All of which aren't really comparable (at least in a simple manner), nor are we allowed to discuss the interviews... so alas, we just wait 🙂
 
mavric1298 said:
And if they really don't look at MCAT/GPA after II's, then it's not a fair metric to bet on either.

Anyone else heading over tomorrow?
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psychedskier said:
If you read your packet of information you obtained on interview day, I believe it stated that we would get a call directly from Dr. Tomkowiak (the dean) if we get in, and an email if we are SUC'd or waitlisted. I also remember them saying MCATs and GPAs don't matter any longer. So our metrics would be what we have accomplished in life, how our goals fit with the school and how we did on interview day. All of which aren't really comparable (at least in a simple manner), nor are we allowed to discuss the interviews... so alas, we just wait 🙂
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Alright, I'll switch the bet: Volunteered in Africa or not?

😛
 
Based on the adcoms responses to the survey amcas does - I'm going to go with "none" under international medical volunteering. Seems there is a big push/fear of voluntourism, inappropriate care being provided by premeds (doing things you are actually trained to do, IE, literally any medical care), to be very hesitant about it. If I remember correctly they listed it as something that can potentially be very harmful to your app.

Edit; to clarify - it wasn't WSU specific - rather AMCAS compiled responses from various adcoms
 
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mavric1298 said:
Based on the adcoms responses to the survey amcas does - I'm going to go with "none" under international medical volunteering. Seems there is a big push/fear of voluntourism, inappropriate care being provided by premeds (doing things you are actually trained to do, IE, literally any medical care), to be very hesitant about it. If I remember correctly they listed it as something that can potentially be very harmful to your app.

Edit; to clarify - it wasn't WSU specific - rather AMCAS compiled responses from various adcoms
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Is that available somewhere? Sounds really interesting
 
For clarification about when people have heard the adcom meeting would be....I vaguely remember hearing on our interview day (1/28) that it would be 2/20. Can anyone else concur with that date?

I can't find that date in any notes I took but I thought I remember Dr. Teraguchi saying that date. The reason why I'm not so sure anymore is because 2/20 is a holiday. Would the adcom meet on a holiday??
 
Mo3 said:
For clarification about when people have heard the adcom meeting would be....I vaguely remember hearing on our interview day (1/28) that it would be 2/20. Can anyone else concur with that date?

I can't find that date in any notes I took but I thought I remember Dr. Teraguchi saying that date. The reason why I'm not so sure anymore is because 2/20 is a holiday. Would the adcom meet on a holiday??
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I mean, they sent out interviews on Christmas Eve (a Saturday). Anything is possible here.
 
I recall 2/20 or 2/21 for some reason. It's definitely next week.
 
Mo3 said:
For clarification about when people have heard the adcom meeting would be....I vaguely remember hearing on our interview day (1/28) that it would be 2/20. Can anyone else concur with that date?

I can't find that date in any notes I took but I thought I remember Dr. Teraguchi saying that date. The reason why I'm not so sure anymore is because 2/20 is a holiday. Would the adcom meet on a holiday??
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I remember them saying it would be on 2/21, that this would be the first review of all the interviews, and that they would be making their first 60 offers by 3/15.
 
The Office of Admissions prepares periodic ballots for the committee members to vote on acceptance to the College of Medicine. Following the vote, the Associate Dean for Recruitment and Admissions prepares a spreadsheet of the results, and forwards it to the Admissions Committee chair for review and approval.
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This is from their accreditation section on the website, not sure which part of the process the meeting on the 21st is referring to.
 
808s_and_ECGs said:
This is from their accreditation section on the website, not sure which part of the process the meeting on the 21st is referring to.
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I'm assuming the meeting on the 21st is referring to the committee members meeting. I wasn't sure on whether it was the 20th or 21st but I do clearly remember them saying that it would be the admissions committee that would be meeting to make acceptance decisions.
 
808s_and_ECGs said:
This is from their accreditation section on the website, not sure which part of the process the meeting on the 21st is referring to.
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Hmm ... interesting to see their selection process. Seems like AdCom chair has final say?
 
joonage said:
Showing their process or AdCom chair having final say?
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Dean having final say. Dean can't overrule the committee for an MD school. DO I believe they can.
 
freak7 said:
Dean having final say. Dean can't overrule the committee for an MD school. DO I believe they can.
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Seems like dean forwards results and chair has final say. I guess that's kosher then?

Quite interesting that they have all these rules in place. Never knew haha
 
Anyone else have any post interview thoughts on the school? I really enjoyed yesterday, the associate dean and all the staff were great and alleviated many of the concerns I had...and they are definitely trying to be very innovative and cutting edge. I came away reassured of a lot of things - but have two lingering worries. First, just that they are going to overextend themselves trying too do too many new things, the latest and greatest things. Not that any of them aren't going to work out, but it seems like they are really shooting for the moon. Second is more an ignorance on my part - but LIC's and not having blocks for 3rd and 4th year is a bit scary. Seems like you'd be dabbling in a bit of everything and bouncing around a lot, and lose any sort of cohesiveness. I know several of my friends have complained that on their short selectives/electives/blocks that because they are endlessly the "new" person, that often their attendings/residents/nurses just end up doing things themselves because it's quicker than showing the "new person" - especially when they haven't established any sort of professional relationship yet. Seems like you'd be bouncing around so much you'd never get comfortable enough with any of the specialties. It's like when you take a class, it's not until you feel good with the basics and the vernaculars can you really start to get a handle on the bigger picture. On the other hand, having a longitudinal relationship with patients seems great, both for the patient and the student. Anyone have any thoughts on 3rd and 4th year? Time to go study up on LIC's and how other places are doing with them.


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Hey guys,

so for those of you that flew out... will I make a 7:40 flight after the interview?
 
mavric1298 said:
Anyone else have any post interview thoughts on the school? I really enjoyed yesterday, the associate dean and all the staff were great and alleviated many of the concerns I had...and they are definitely trying to be very innovative and cutting edge. I came away reassured of a lot of things - but have two lingering worries. First, just that they are going to overextend themselves trying too do too many new things, the latest and greatest things. Not that any of them aren't going to work out, but it seems like they are really shooting for the moon. Second is more an ignorance on my part - but LIC's and not having blocks for 3rd and 4th year is a bit scary. Seems like you'd be dabbling in a bit of everything and bouncing around a lot, and lose any sort of cohesiveness. I know several of my friends have complained that on their short selectives/electives/blocks that because they are endlessly the "new" person, that often their attendings/residents/nurses just end up doing things themselves because it's quicker than showing the "new person" - especially when they haven't established any sort of professional relationship yet. Seems like you'd be bouncing around so much you'd never get comfortable enough with any of the specialties. It's like when you take a class, it's not until you feel good with the basics and the vernaculars can you really start to get a handle on the bigger picture. On the other hand, having a longitudinal relationship with patients seems great, both for the patient and the student. Anyone have any thoughts on 3rd and 4th year? Time to go study up on LIC's and how other places are doing with them.


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Click to expand...

To your first point, I have a similar concern but I feel a bit better knowing that a lot of the professors have taught at other med schools. So I trust we'll be in good hands. To you second point, couldn't those concerns just be mitigated with doing away rotations?
 
mavric1298 said:
Anyone else have any post interview thoughts on the school? I really enjoyed yesterday, the associate dean and all the staff were great and alleviated many of the concerns I had...and they are definitely trying to be very innovative and cutting edge. I came away reassured of a lot of things - but have two lingering worries. First, just that they are going to overextend themselves trying too do too many new things, the latest and greatest things. Not that any of them aren't going to work out, but it seems like they are really shooting for the moon. Second is more an ignorance on my part - but LIC's and not having blocks for 3rd and 4th year is a bit scary. Seems like you'd be dabbling in a bit of everything and bouncing around a lot, and lose any sort of cohesiveness. I know several of my friends have complained that on their short selectives/electives/blocks that because they are endlessly the "new" person, that often their attendings/residents/nurses just end up doing things themselves because it's quicker than showing the "new person" - especially when they haven't established any sort of professional relationship yet. Seems like you'd be bouncing around so much you'd never get comfortable enough with any of the specialties. It's like when you take a class, it's not until you feel good with the basics and the vernaculars can you really start to get a handle on the bigger picture. On the other hand, having a longitudinal relationship with patients seems great, both for the patient and the student. Anyone have any thoughts on 3rd and 4th year? Time to go study up on LIC's and how other places are doing with them.


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Click to expand...
I agree about the Dean. I like that hey want to be innovative. I have similar reservations on the clerkships. I'm going to ask some doctors I know what their opinion is.
 
SSSMDt said:
To your first point, I have a similar concern but I feel a bit better knowing that a lot of the professors have taught at other med schools. So I trust we'll be in good hands. To you second point, couldn't those concerns just be mitigated with doing away rotations?
Click to expand...

That's actually something I'm going to ask - I don't know how away rotations would work or fit in with LIC's (if they are compatible ).

However I did spend a bit of time today reading some studies and seems like a majority of the literature indicates outcomes are equal or better than traditional blocks. Their use is also more widespread than I knew - so some of my concerns were for sure down to my own ignorance on the subject.

All in all though, I was very impressed - and see what others meant by the interview day left them excited. Also very, very glad I moved my date up before the adcom meeting on Tuesday.


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mavric1298 said:
That's actually something I'm going to ask - I don't know how away rotations would work or fit in with LIC's (if they are compatible ).

However I did spend a bit of time today reading some studies and seems like a majority of the literature indicates outcomes are equal or better than traditional blocks. Their use is also more widespread than I knew - so some of my concerns were for sure down to my own ignorance on the subject.

All in all though, I was very impressed - and see what others meant by the interview day left them excited. Also very, very glad I moved my date up before the adcom meeting on Tuesday.


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Click to expand...

Did the adcom meeting come up at all during your day? Or anything about the turnaround time between the meeting and letting applicants know about decisions?
 
mavric1298 said:
That's actually something I'm going to ask - I don't know how away rotations would work or fit in with LIC's (if they are compatible ).

However I did spend a bit of time today reading some studies and seems like a majority of the literature indicates outcomes are equal or better than traditional blocks. Their use is also more widespread than I knew - so some of my concerns were for sure down to my own ignorance on the subject.

All in all though, I was very impressed - and see what others meant by the interview day left them excited. Also very, very glad I moved my date up before the adcom meeting on Tuesday.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
I have the same concerns/questions. I'm going to wait until the second look to ask them some tough questions on that.
 
Mo3 said:
Did the adcom meeting come up at all during your day? Or anything about the turnaround time between the meeting and letting applicants know about decisions?
Click to expand...

It did - they said it was going to be on Tuesday with the first 60 offers going out by the mid march deadline - but that's if we didn't get accepted in the first batch not to worry (basically that there would be a bunch of movement via declined offers especially after the April traffic date) it was asked if they had any idea on expected or guesstimated yield rate and they said they had no idea


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mavric1298 said:
It did - they said it was going to be on Tuesday with the first 60 offers going out by the mid march deadline - but that's if we didn't get accepted in the first batch not to worry (basically that there would be a bunch of movement via declined offers especially after the April traffic date) it was asked if they had any idea on expected or guesstimated yield rate and they said they had no idea


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This gives me the impression that even though theyre meeting next week, the first 60 wont hear back for a couple of weeks.. is this correct?
 
SSSMDt said:
This gives me the impression that even though theyre meeting next week, the first 60 wont hear back for a couple of weeks.. is this correct?
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It sounds like that. But that would be really weird seeing as how many of us are trying to make our final decisions between them and other schools. I wouldn't say that they necessarily have time on their side at this point.
 
colormecolorful said:
Hey guys,

so for those of you that flew out... will I make a 7:40 flight after the interview?
Click to expand...

I think you should able to make that. Interview ended around 5:30 PM for me. But Spokane is such a tiny airport that I don't think you really need to get there too early.
 
mavric1298 said:
It did - they said it was going to be on Tuesday with the first 60 offers going out by the mid march deadline - but that's if we didn't get accepted in the first batch not to worry (basically that there would be a bunch of movement via declined offers especially after the April traffic date) it was asked if they had any idea on expected or guesstimated yield rate and they said they had no idea


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Click to expand...
Did they happen to mention how your application gets a "point" for every aspect of your app that matches their mission, like being underserved, low income, first generation? I wasn't exactly sure what these "points" were being added to, but assuming our interview scores..
 
Husky28 said:
Did they happen to mention how your application gets a "point" for every aspect of your app that matches their mission, like being underserved, low income, first generation? I wasn't exactly sure what these "points" were being added to, but assuming our interview scores..
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I don't recall them saying anything like this. I think each MMI gets a score from 0-9 but I didn't hear anyone say you get additional points for coming from a disadvantaged background. I'm sure you get points for "life experiences" because it makes you come across stronger in the interviews but that can mean a wide variety of things.
 
SSSMDt said:
This gives me the impression that even though theyre meeting next week, the first 60 wont hear back for a couple of weeks.. is this correct?
Click to expand...
Back when I interviewed in January they made it seem like we would hear after this 2/21 meeting. I'm not sure why they would wait much after that meeting to start sending out acceptances but does anyone have any other insight?
 
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amdg77 said:
Back when I interviewed in January they made it seem like we would hear after this 2/21 meeting. I'm not sure why they would wait much after that meeting to start sending out acceptances but does anyone have any other insight?
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It wouldn't make any sense to me that they would wait to notify people if they are accepted. Once they decide on if someone is accepted, why wait? It seems that the normal turnaround time with other programs that I've heard back from is within 48 hours of the decisions being made and in one case it was the same day that I heard back about an acceptance.

Also, we were told that they would appreciate if we would get back to them asap with whether or not we are going to accept the offer. They said that we would have two weeks to accept the offer but to not delay in letting them know. They also said the second meeting would be before March 15th. Based on the timing I'm assuming that they will notify people asap after tomorrow and then the next meeting will happen after the two week window that they are giving accepted students but before March 15th. It wouldn't make sense if they notify people reviewed tomorrow in a couple of weeks and then have another adcom meeting before they would hear back from the first batch of decisions.

Does my reasoning seem sound or am I crazy?? Haha
 
Mo3 said:
It wouldn't make any sense to me that they would wait to notify people if they are accepted. Once they decide on if someone is accepted, why wait? It seems that the normal turnaround time with other programs that I've heard back from is within 48 hours of the decisions being made and in one case it was the same day that I heard back about an acceptance.

Also, we were told that they would appreciate if we would get back to them asap with whether or not we are going to accept the offer. They said that we would have two weeks to accept the offer but to not delay in letting them know. They also said the second meeting would be before March 15th. Based on the timing I'm assuming that they will notify people asap after tomorrow and then the next meeting will happen after the two week window that they are giving accepted students but before March 15th. It wouldn't make sense if they notify people reviewed tomorrow in a couple of weeks and then have another adcom meeting before they would hear back from the first batch of decisions.

Does my reasoning seem sound or am I crazy?? Haha
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No not crazy at all! Your timeline is exactly what I was thinking too, but we all like a little reassurance and I just wasn't sure if they had changed their tone at one of the later interviews for some reason on whether or not we might hear something this week. Sounds like it's the same plan still. I know the dean will call people but any idea on if we are going to get the email first? Most schools call first, but I got the impression we'd get the acceptance email first, followed by the dean's call.
 
amdg77 said:
No not crazy at all! Your timeline is exactly what I was thinking too, but we all like a little reassurance and I just wasn't sure if they had changed their tone at one of the later interviews for some reason on whether or not we might hear something this week. Sounds like it's the same plan still. I know the dean will call people but any idea on if we are going to get the email first? Most schools call first, but I got the impression we'd get the acceptance email first, followed by the dean's call.
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I can't remember how they said it would happen. I interviewed on 1/28 so some of those details are cloudy. I do however remember them specifically saying two meetings before March 15th and that we would have two weeks to respond to an offer. So I would be really surprised if they don't notify people this week. And I also agree that it would be weird for the email to come before the call but who knows!
 
amdg77 said:
No not crazy at all! Your timeline is exactly what I was thinking too, but we all like a little reassurance and I just wasn't sure if they had changed their tone at one of the later interviews for some reason on whether or not we might hear something this week. Sounds like it's the same plan still. I know the dean will call people but any idea on if we are going to get the email first? Most schools call first, but I got the impression we'd get the acceptance email first, followed by the dean's call.
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I also got the impression that we would get the email and then a call. Which kind of makes sense in this case because it seems like dean will be the only person making calls and not the excom members.


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Do two quick things. Dr. Harrison talked about how she actually follows this thread - and mentioned rather than speculating or guessing amongst ourselves that we should just ask them if we having question.

Second - I may have heard wrong - but it sure seemed like they would be waiting to send out notifications. It may have just been the wording that she was implying that 60 would be out by the 15th and not necessarily that they were going to wait until that time...so if you really want to know just send them an email or quick call.

Also - we didn't hear anything at all about points, just FYI from our day


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amdg77 said:
No not crazy at all! Your timeline is exactly what I was thinking too, but we all like a little reassurance and I just wasn't sure if they had changed their tone at one of the later interviews for some reason on whether or not we might hear something this week. Sounds like it's the same plan still. I know the dean will call people but any idea on if we are going to get the email first? Most schools call first, but I got the impression we'd get the acceptance email first, followed by the dean's call.
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I think you're right, I think we get an email and then the phone call.
 
I already sent a letter of intent and Dr. Harrison sent a very nice reply back. She said feel free to reach out to her with any questions.
 
mavric1298 said:
Do two quick things. Dr. Harrison talked about how she actually follows this thread - and mentioned rather than speculating or guessing amongst ourselves that we should just ask them if we having question.
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hopefuldoc24 said:
She said feel free to reach out to her with any questions.
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ESFCOM should consider doing what U AZ did this year on SDN. U AZ created an SDN account to answer questions that applicants have about the admissions process and quelled quite a bit of speculation.
 
freak7 said:
ESFCOM should consider doing what U AZ did this year on SDN. U AZ created an SDN account to answer questions that applicants have about the admissions process and quelled quite a bit of speculation.
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That's a good idea. I know some other schools used twitter.
 
Is anyone else traveling to Spokane this weekend alone and doesn't know anyone also? I will be arriving on 2/23 in the early afternoon and was wondering if anyone wanted to grab coffee and chat and hopefully kill some nerves/time while we wait lol..
 
Done with this process! I have been waitlisted in two schools; I have to wait until June, or July! Crazy.
 
MD4lif3 said:
Is anyone else traveling to Spokane this weekend alone and doesn't know anyone also? I will be arriving on 2/23 in the early afternoon and was wondering if anyone wanted to grab coffee and chat and hopefully kill some nerves/time while we wait lol..
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Well if you don't mind third wheeling it, my fiance and I are coming in on Thursday as well 😀
 
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