2017-2018 Des Moines University (DMU-COM)

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Interviewed 2/2 and was placed on the alternate list. Pretty bummed about it, but I have a good feeling about getting off the alternate list in due time!

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just got ANOTHER email saying that I have been identified as “high priority” WITHIN the waitlist.

>_>

Is this the quartile system?
 
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Sorry to hear about all the alternate list placements. Hopefully the waitlist has a lot of movement this year like it did last year. Best of luck to you all!
 
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just got ANOTHER email saying that I have been identified as “high priority” WITHIN the waitlist.

>_>

Is this the quartile system?
same here, i felt very positive about that message
 
just got ANOTHER email saying that I have been identified as “high priority” WITHIN the waitlist.

>_>

Is this the quartile system?

from what I understood from info on interview day, they don't do quartile rankings until the end of the cycle (late March) but I could be wrong???
 
Did anyone *not* get the second email?

So we are ranked, then ranked again, and then ranked into quartiles?!

:rofl:
 
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Alternate list just now. VERY surprised they didn’t give me a seat, as I thought I really killed this interview. KCU it is for me, then!

Same. Had a great interview and was Alt'ed. Currently holding down a KCU spot and Im content.
 
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Did anyone *not* get the second email?

So we are ranked, then ranked again, and then ranked into quartiles?!

I didn't get the second email (at least not yet). I'm wondering if it only went out to people who got acceptances today rather than yesterday?
 
Hi! I was pulled off the "hold" list and offered an interview the other day for March 9th. I am wondering if it is worth it to go? I have an acceptance elsewhere, but love this school!! I'm just not sure if it's basically interviewing for the alternate list?
 
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Hi! I was pulled off the "hold" list and offered an interview the other day for March 9th. I am wondering if it is worth it to go? I have an acceptance elsewhere, but love this school!! I'm just not sure if it's basically interviewing for the alternate list?

Congrats on the II! Did you send updates to DMU? Thanks. :)
 
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congratulations!!! would you mind sharing your stats?

My stats:
GPA: 3.95
MCAT: 515

Activities:
Alzheimer's Research: 200 hours (Protein Aggregation)
IBD Volunteer: 150 hours (helped physician gather data for his studies)
IBD Shadowing: 100 hours (on-going)
South East Asian Cultural Club: 200 hours (general volunteering and student empowerment)
Neuroscience Lab: 370 hours (Project leader)
Office Assistant: 400 hours (paid job)
Pediatrics Shadowing: 100 hours
Pediatrics Volunteer: 400 hours (Group leader)
Undergraduate anatomy assistant (250 hours)
Community service (200 hours) - weakest part of application
 
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My stats:
GPA: 3.95
MCAT: 515

Activities:
Alzheimer's Research: 200 hours (Protein Aggregation)
IBD Volunteer: 150 hours (helped physician gather data for his studies)
IBD Shadowing: 100 hours (on-going)
South East Asian Cultural Club: 200 hours (general volunteering and student empowerment)
Neuroscience Lab: 370 hours (Project leader)
Office Assistant: 400 hours (paid job)
Pediatrics Shadowing: 100 hours
Pediatrics Volunteer: 400 hours (Group leader)
Undergraduate anatomy assistant (250 hours)
Community service (200 hours) - weakest part of application

You have a fantastic application, I’m surprised this is your first acceptance, but congratulations! You certainly earned it.
 
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Hi! I was pulled off the "hold" list and offered an interview the other day for March 9th. I am wondering if it is worth it to go? I have an acceptance elsewhere, but love this school!! I'm just not sure if it's basically interviewing for the alternate list?
There are a lot of waitlist decisions going out, but there have been acceptances. I would recommend attending
 
The DMU wait list is not a bad spot to be. One of my buddies is a student interviewer and has candidly talked to me about the process a couple times. Supposedly, DMU rejects quite a bit of applicants post-interview to maintain a relatively small/selective waitlist. Also, they said that calling it a quartile ranking system is kind of misleading because they're not evenly distributed quartiles. They're basically tiered ranking with no size restrictions so one of the "quartiles" might have 2 people while another might have 15 people. Then within a quartile there isn't really a hard set ranking between applicants and more or less comes down to the committee's descretion on the day they're in need of someone. I thought it was pretty interesting, quite a bit different than I expected. Anywho, the odds for being pulled off the waitlist are pretty favorful so don't stress too much!
 
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Withdrew my on-hold application this morning after an acceptance at my #2 school and a great interview at my #1 school. I hope that frees up room for someone else who hasn't received an II to get a late one!
 
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Random question for current students:

Are there specific days of the weeks that tests/quizzes occur on? I'm trying to plan something back home during next school year, and I am trying to decide what day of the week would be best to miss. Thanks!
 
Random question for current students:

Are there specific days of the weeks that tests/quizzes occur on? I'm trying to plan something back home during next school year, and I am trying to decide what day of the week would be best to miss. Thanks!
It varies depending on the week. When you have two tests per week they're usually Tuesday-Friday with the occasional Monday-Friday/Tuesday-Thursday, but when its only 1 test it can fluctuate. Also the required classes are a little difficult if you live further away because they're kinda scattered.
 
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Random question for current students:

Are there specific days of the weeks that tests/quizzes occur on? I'm trying to plan something back home during next school year, and I am trying to decide what day of the week would be best to miss. Thanks!
You're probably not going to want to hear this but...do not schedule anything until you get your finalized schedule. I've had multiple friends plan vacations, trips back home, etc. based on the unofficial schedule and get completely screwed over. Even with the "final" schedule released, DMU can and will change it to include surprise mandatory things whenever they feel like it.

For example, they told us that we start clinical rotations on August 6th but just recently stated that this is site-dependent and you may have to be at orientation up to 2 weeks before this. Sucks for everyone who's already booked flights thinking that anything before the 6th was free game.
 
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You're probably not going to want to hear this but...do not schedule anything until you get your finalized schedule. I've had multiple friends plan vacations, trips back home, etc. based on the unofficial schedule and get completely screwed over. Even with the "final" schedule released, DMU can and will change it to include surprise mandatory things whenever they feel like it.

For example, they told us that we start clinical rotations on August 6th but just recently stated that this is site-dependent and you may have to be at orientation up to 2 weeks before this. Sucks for everyone who's already booked flights thinking that anything before the 6th was free game.
Thanks! That's super helpful. As an M1, is there anything (other than studying) that would be a requirement on a weekend?
 
Thanks! That's super helpful. As an M1, is there anything (other than studying) that would be a requirement on a weekend?

Generally, no. Unless you take an elective that meets on weekends...for example, the rural medicine elective second semester meets on Saturdays I believe. I have yet to have a Saturday consumed by anything school related, and I would be extremely surprised if they start requiring things on weekends.
 
Just heard back that I was wait listed from my 2/23 interview. I was surprised to be wait listed:/
At my interview session they estimated they had accepted 300 students for 220 spots. I figure that will leave at least some spots for wait listed applicants because most student who apply to DO use it as a back up and prefer MD.
Fingers crossed, good luck everyone!
 
Interviewed on 2/19. Today I recieved an email that I have been placed on alternate list. I've been waitlisted to all of the schools I've interviewed at this cycle so I'm currently feeling pretty down. Crossing my fingers that we'll see some good waitlist movement in the coming months!!!
 
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Just heard back that I was wait listed from my 2/23 interview. I was surprised to be wait listed:/
At my interview session they estimated they had accepted 300 students for 220 spots. I figure that will leave at least some spots for wait listed applicants because most student who apply to DO use it as a back up and prefer MD.
Fingers crossed, good luck everyone!

Supposedly DMU has a lot of waitlist movement. Can I ask your stats or LizzyM? I still haven’t heard back. I interviewed before you.
 
Just heard back that I was wait listed from my 2/23 interview. I was surprised to be wait listed:/
At my interview session they estimated they had accepted 300 students for 220 spots. I figure that will leave at least some spots for wait listed applicants because most student who apply to DO use it as a back up and prefer MD.
Fingers crossed, good luck everyone!


so does that mean people who are interviewing pretty late in the cycle are essentially interviewing for waitlist spots??
 
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so does that mean people who are interviewing pretty late in the cycle are essentially interviewing for waitlist spots??

I was told on my interview day (2/23) they were still issuing acceptances for our interview date but they were unsure of how long that would last.
 
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so does that mean people who are interviewing pretty late in the cycle are essentially interviewing for waitlist spots??

I've been under the impression that they're interviewing for a very limited number of spots (maybe like 10ish) that they're giving out to exceptional applicants (like the applicant that was accepted most recently on here that had like 3.9 515) but waitlisting everyone else. Then again, the waitlist is a pretty good place to be!
 
I've been under the impression that they're interviewing for a very limited number of spots (maybe like 10ish) that they're giving out to exceptional applicants (like the applicant that was accepted most recently on here that had like 3.9 515) but waitlisting everyone else. Then again, the waitlist is a pretty good place to be!
Gotcha! Makes sense though it is March
 
When is it too late to do FAFSA...been procrastinating way too hard
 
When do you guys think there will be movement off the waitlist?
 
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When do you guys think there will be movement off the waitlist?
Probably around April 25thish because the MD applicants have to choose one school by the 31st.
 
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For those looking to rent, there’s brand new apartments (Soll Apartments) less than a mile away from DMU. They’re opening in June. A bit pricey compared to the others but they’re really nice.
 
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I have two questions:
  1. Does DMU have a required OMM rotation?
  2. From the curriculum handout from the interview, it seems like there's 2 months of vacation between years 2 and 3. Am I correct in assuming that I could use the full two months to prep for boards if I wanted to?
Thanks
 
I have two questions:
  1. Does DMU have a required OMM rotation?
  2. From the curriculum handout from the interview, it seems like there's 2 months of vacation between years 2 and 3. Am I correct in assuming that I could use the full two months to prep for boards if I wanted to?
Thanks

Hopefully someone from a more senior year can give you a better answer, but as far as I know there is no required OMM rotation, unless you do the OMM fellowship through DMU. You may end up rotating through the DMU clinic, and you may be expected to retain a degree of OMM knowledge, but for 3rd and 4th year I've been told that OMM consists of writing up case reports on pts you did OMM on or would have done OMM on throughout clinicals.

As far as the summer goes, I think most people take boards in Juneish, and you'll probably be taking COMLEX and step 1, so you most likely won't have much dedicated time in the summer to prepare for both boards. I dunno what they expect from students in the summer before 3rd year as far as orientation and stuff goes, but hopefully this helps at least a little.
 
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Hopefully someone from a more senior year can give you a better answer, but as far as I know there is no required OMM rotation, unless you do the OMM fellowship through DMU. You may end up rotating through the DMU clinic, and you may be expected to retain a degree of OMM knowledge, but for 3rd and 4th year I've been told that OMM consists of writing up case reports on pts you did OMM on or would have done OMM on throughout clinicals.

As far as the summer goes, I think most people take boards in Juneish, and you'll probably be taking COMLEX and step 1, so you most likely won't have much dedicated time in the summer to prepare for both boards. I dunno what they expect from students in the summer before 3rd year as far as orientation and stuff goes, but hopefully this helps at least a little.
Do you feel that most students are prepared to take COMLEX and step 1 by June since classes end in may?
 
I got an email today with a scholarship not sure if this is the packet you’re referring to >.<

Oh damn nice! Do you mind sharing your stats, just curious as to what we needed in order to get one. My MCAT is on the lower side so im assuming thats whats holding me back


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