2017-2018 Oregon Health & Sciences University

Started by Lucca
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I would like to submit my summer school transcript as an additional document because it shows my cumulative GPA has increased. However, I don't see any indication on the OHSU website whether they accept (or do not accept) additional documents. Anyone know their additional doc policy, or have experience emailing additional docs to OHSU?
 
I would like to submit my summer school transcript as an additional document because it shows my cumulative GPA has increased. However, I don't see any indication on the OHSU website whether they accept (or do not accept) additional documents. Anyone know their additional doc policy, or have experience emailing additional docs to OHSU?

Once you are invited for interview they will have an email you can send additional documents to.
 
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Hey y'all. Usually I'm just a lurker on here but thought I'd share a bit.

I interviewed at OHSU on Tuesday and it was incredible. This was my #1 choice going into the interview, but I tried to dispel any expectations and to view it as objectively as possible.
The interview day only reinforced my belief that this place is truly special.

The interview day was relaxed and fun. I can't say anything about the MMI other than that I thought it was enjoyable and low-stress.
The students we met were all fantastic, down-to-earth, and honest.
The one-on-one interview was relaxed and conversational.

You will all have a fantastic interview day. Just be yourselves, and have fun!
Good luck, and don't panic!

p.s. be sure to hit up Voodoo Donuts while you're in Portland. You won't regret it.
 
Hey y'all. Usually I'm just a lurker on here but thought I'd share a bit.

I interviewed at OHSU on Tuesday and it was incredible. This was my #1 choice going into the interview, but I tried to dispel any expectations and to view it as objectively as possible.
The interview day only reinforced my belief that this place is truly special.

The interview day was relaxed and fun. I can't say anything about the MMI other than that I thought it was enjoyable and low-stress.
The students we met were all fantastic, down-to-earth, and honest.
The one-on-one interview was relaxed and conversational.

You will all have a fantastic interview day. Just be yourselves, and have fun!
Good luck, and don't panic!

p.s. be sure to hit up Voodoo Donuts while you're in Portland. You won't regret it.

Thanks for sharing! I'm excited to go visit PDX! My biggest concern is the oos cost. Did you get any hopeful news about aid or scholarships or projected debt from the fin aid discussion (if there was one)?

I'm also worried about getting there at 8am and burning out. My flight is supposed to get in the night before at 10pm and I'm coming from the east coast. Was it a long day? Did you get any breaks? Was there a ton of walking?
 
Thanks for sharing! I'm excited to go visit PDX! My biggest concern is the oos cost. Did you get any hopeful news about aid or scholarships or projected debt from the fin aid discussion (if there was one)?

I'm also worried about getting there at 8am and burning out. My flight is supposed to get in the night before at 10pm and I'm coming from the east coast. Was it a long day? Did you get any breaks? Was there a ton of walking?

I'm also an OOS, and it will definitely be costly. To be honest, there's not much financial aid for out of state students, and very little merit-based scholarship money. I've done a lot of research on medical school debt and financing, and although it will be stressful, I would tell you not to worry. Even with $200K debt upon graduation the 30-year ROI on medical school is still close to 40%, that's on a Family Medicine salary too.

As for feeling burnt out, I would recommend getting as much sleep as you can the night before. There wasn't a lot of walking, and if you're not a dual degree applicant then your day will take place exclusively within the CLSB (at least that's how it was on Tuesday). I'm a dual degree applicant, and had more interviews in the afternoon. To be honest, I felt pretty tired by that point. But the good news is there are coffee shops everywhere. A current med student made the joke that the coffee shops on campus are just far enough apart that right when you finish one cup, you're at a new shop. Just pace yourself, eat good meals, stay hydrated, and have fun with it!
 
I'm also an OOS, and it will definitely be costly. To be honest, there's not much financial aid for out of state students, and very little merit-based scholarship money. I've done a lot of research on medical school debt and financing, and although it will be stressful, I would tell you not to worry. Even with $200K debt upon graduation the 30-year ROI on medical school is still close to 40%, that's on a Family Medicine salary too.

As for feeling burnt out, I would recommend getting as much sleep as you can the night before. There wasn't a lot of walking, and if you're not a dual degree applicant then your day will take place exclusively within the CLSB (at least that's how it was on Tuesday). I'm a dual degree applicant, and had more interviews in the afternoon. To be honest, I felt pretty tired by that point. But the good news is there are coffee shops everywhere. A current med student made the joke that the coffee shops on campus are just far enough apart that right when you finish one cup, you're at a new shop. Just pace yourself, eat good meals, stay hydrated, and have fun with it!


I'm so glad you had such a good time! We do our best to make y'all feel the actual experience of going to school here so we try to be honest. And not to worry we all felt extremely exhausted by the time we got to our dual degree interviews in the late afternoon so totally understandable.
 
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Have you (or anybody else complete mid-August) been updated as complete on your portal yet? It's been 7 weeks since submission for me and nothing has updated, I'm wondering how much more patience I need to muster...

I was complete on August 8 and got my interview invitation about 2 weeks ago. Not quite mid-August, but close-ish. I hope that helps! 🙂
 
Have you (or anybody else who submitted mid-August) been updated as complete on your portal yet? It's been 7 weeks since submission for me and nothing has updated, I'm wondering how much more patience I need to muster...

EDIT: changed to say "submitted" mid-August in the parenthetical, not complete, as the time gap between submitted and complete here is pretty long right now

I submitted October 4th and was complete October 5th. I'm IS, RA. Last year it took a few weeks for me to be marked as complete.
 
Have you (or anybody else who submitted mid-August) been updated as complete on your portal yet? It's been 7 weeks since submission for me and nothing has updated, I'm wondering how much more patience I need to muster...

EDIT: changed to say "submitted" mid-August in the parenthetical, not complete, as the time gap between submitted and complete here is pretty long right now

I just became complete/processed earlier this week. I'd still wait a little more, because for me it ended up being about 2 more weeks than what they projected during the initial email.
 
Has anyone received an acceptance, rejection, or hold notice yet? 16th madness has come and gone...
 
II received today! I'm beyond stoked, this is a dream school for me. I may stick around Portland for a couple days, what are some cool places to check out around the area?
 
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II received today! I'm beyond stoked, this is a dream school for me. I may stick around Portland for a couple days, what are some cool places too check out around the area?

Congratulations!

The Oregon Coast is beautiful but cold, Cannon beach is ~1.5 hours away. I would recommend the Columbia Gorge highly but it just went through a major fire and is probably mostly closed still. There are a lot of other really cool outdoorsy areas around such as Oxbow Park (Kinda out of the way), Forest Park (Huge, beautiful), Mt Hood (Year-round skiing/boarding, 1 hour away), Sauvies Island, and the many other parks within city limits. If you are a fisherman you may be interested in a guide service if you will be there around Salmon/Steelhead season. Pittock mansion is a decent place to visit and gives a spectacular view of the city from the hills; also has connections to the 4T's hiking trail.

OMSI is a cool museum that often has some killer attractions. I've seen exhibits ranging from the Human Body exhibit to Retro Gaming. There is a jet-boat tour of the Willamette river if that is your kind of thing that is based out of OMSI.

Avoid any of the downtown haunted history tours or the Shanghai tours, they are ridiculous.

I do recommend The Saturday Market if you stay over the weekend, it has a lot of cool things to buy and look at.

I would recommend McMenamins establishments, food is fine if not somewhat overpriced but they have some very cool properties (Old schools, barns, etc) such as the Kennedy School and Edgefield (which has concerts too). These two McMenamins have multiple bars and restaurants on property and usually some cool other features such as warm water salt pools and theaters. Some of them also have hotel rooms, not sure which.

There is a good bar/club scene but I am not very familiar with it.

SE Hawthorne, NE Mississippi, NE Alberta arts district are all hip areas but certainly not the only ones.

Voodoo donuts is a popular tourist spot, it has strange donuts and a cool atmosphere, funny enough I hear locals always talking about how Blue Star donuts is vastly superior but I have hated every donut I have eaten from there.

Anyways... lots of cool things to do and see and I certainly did not include all of them. Have fun in PDX! p.s. the airport is awesome and has cheap food.
 
Congratulations!

The Oregon Coast is beautiful but cold, Cannon beach is ~1.5 hours away. I would recommend the Columbia Gorge highly but it just went through a major fire and is probably mostly closed still. There are a lot of other really cool outdoorsy areas around such as Oxbow Park (Kinda out of the way), Forest Park (Huge, beautiful), Mt Hood (Year-round skiing/boarding, 1 hour away), Sauvies Island, and the many other parks within city limits. If you are a fisherman you may be interested in a guide service if you will be there around Salmon/Steelhead season. Pittock mansion is a decent place to visit and gives a spectacular view of the city from the hills; also has connections to the 4T's hiking trail.

OMSI is a cool museum that often has some killer attractions. I've seen exhibits ranging from the Human Body exhibit to Retro Gaming. There is a jet-boat tour of the Willamette river if that is your kind of thing that is based out of OMSI.

Avoid any of the downtown haunted history tours or the Shanghai tours, they are ridiculous.

I do recommend The Saturday Market if you stay over the weekend, it has a lot of cool things to buy and look at.

I would recommend McMenamins establishments, food is fine if not somewhat overpriced but they have some very cool properties (Old schools, barns, etc) such as the Kennedy School and Edgefield (which has concerts too). These two McMenamins have multiple bars and restaurants on property and usually some cool other features such as warm water salt pools and theaters. Some of them also have hotel rooms, not sure which.

There is a good bar/club scene but I am not very familiar with it.

SE Hawthorne, NE Mississippi, NE Alberta arts district are all hip areas but certainly not the only ones.

Voodoo donuts is a popular tourist spot, it has strange donuts and a cool atmosphere, funny enough I hear locals always talking about how Blue Star donuts is vastly superior but I have hated every donut I have eaten from there.

Anyways... lots of cool things to do and see and I certainly did not include all of them. Have fun in PDX! p.s. the airport is awesome and has cheap food.

OMSI sounds cool (I'm a museum nerd), and I'll definately give McMenamins a try. Thanks for the art district recs, and I'll for sure be hitting up Voodoo doughnuts. Thanks dude.
 
II received today! I'm beyond stoked, this is a dream school for me. I may stick around Portland for a couple days, what are some cool places too check out around the area?

Congratulations! OHSU is an amazing school!
Mind sharing your complete date? Are you OS or IS?
 
OMSI sounds cool (I'm a museum nerd), and I'll definately give McMenamins a try. Thanks for the art district recs, and I'll for sure be hitting up Voodoo doughnuts. Thanks dude.

Voodoo Donut sucks. It's nothing but a tourist trap. You'll wait an hour in line from some stale donuts on par with the quality of Safeway, but with some cereal on top. Go to Blue Star Donuts if you want the real Portland donut experience.
 
Voodoo Donut sucks. It's nothing but a tourist trap. You'll wait an hour in line from some stale donuts on par with the quality of Safeway, but with some cereal on top. Go to Blue Star Donuts if you want the real Portland donut experience.
Not going to claim the voodoo is super high quality but I have never had a single Blue Star donut that did not taste awful. I have tried maybe 10 varieties in total from Blue Star, and they all tried way too hard to make a "unique" flavor donut that ended up tasting bad. Plus their shops are boring to be in. Voodoo may be ridiculous for many reasons but it at least does look cool. Voodoo Too off of Sandy BLVD is not nearly as crowded and has more area to sit.

Sent from my XT1254 using SDN mobile
 
Not going to claim the voodoo is super high quality but I have never had a single Blue Star donut that did not taste awful. I have tried maybe 10 varieties in total from Blue Star, and they all tried way too hard to make a "unique" flavor donut that ended up tasting bad. Plus their shops are boring to be in. Voodoo may be ridiculous for many reasons but it at least does look cool. Voodoo Too off of Sandy BLVD is not nearly as crowded and has more area to sit.

Sent from my XT1254 using SDN mobile

My deepest condolences for your sub-par taste buds.
 
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I apologize for jumping on the bandwagon of people wondering how long their status updates will take. I am concerned that it has been 7 weeks since I submitted my secondary and my status still says, "Once your file has been processed, updates about the status of your application, including the receipt and processing of all letters of recommendation, will appear on this status page. Before that time, your status here will NOT change. If you are concerned about the status of your letters, please verify with AMCAS that they have been submitted and that you have designated OHSU as a recipient. "

Should I be concerned? I understand that they can get behind. I'm right at the 3.7 GPA mark, (3.697) and am really nervous. Thanks for any feedback 🙂
 
Has anyone who interviewed on the 12th or the 14th heard anything? Yesterday was week 6 for the 14th interview... my obsession with checking my portal is getting out of hand.
 
I apologize for jumping on the bandwagon of people wondering how long their status updates will take. I am concerned that it has been 7 weeks since I submitted my secondary and my status still says, "Once your file has been processed, updates about the status of your application, including the receipt and processing of all letters of recommendation, will appear on this status page. Before that time, your status here will NOT change. If you are concerned about the status of your letters, please verify with AMCAS that they have been submitted and that you have designated OHSU as a recipient. "

Should I be concerned? I understand that they can get behind. I'm right at the 3.7 GPA mark, (3.697) and am really nervous. Thanks for any feedback 🙂

Maybe call and ask?

For reference, I submitted my secondary 9/11 and when I look on my status page it says my status was Complete as of 9/12. There are status updates before that saying that the secondary was received and processed. Do you have those messages on your status page or nothing at all? I think, especially given how long it's been, a friendly call just making sure they got your secondary is in order.
 
Has anyone who interviewed on the 12th or the 14th heard anything? Yesterday was week 6 for the 14th interview... my obsession with checking my portal is getting out of hand.

From what I understand, OHSU will sit on a decision for a VERY long time sometimes. Pull up a chair
Yeahh my friend interviewed December last cycle and got accepted in April... so... enjoy the ride I guess
 
I submitted 9 weeks ago come Monday, without being processed yet as complete. I looked through last year's thread, and 2-3 months between submitted and processed was not uncommon for August and September submissions (e.g. 2016-2017 Oregon Health & Sciences University Application Thread), so apparently they just take their time here. The bimodal nature of processing does seem weird though, since there are a couple of people on here with <1 week processing times, even with August or later submissions. I'm wondering if it's an IS/OOS thing or something...

If you do happen to call in, be sure to report back!
I believe on their website they explain that Mission Statement applicants are reviewed first and then non mission applicants.
 
That would make sense, but even so, I think I qualify as a mission applicant being URM/low SES/first-gen? I'm not actually sure about that though, the last bullet point in their definition of mission groups ("Diversity") seems very subjective, and might not be an obvious enough mission group definition to warrant quick processing. Anyway, things seem very loaded on the backend for OHSU, so I'm telling myself not to worry about things being slow to start!
It seems like 'diversity' can mean just about anything. If you dig deep enough, just about everyone can find something about themselves that could qualify them as 'diverse.'
 
Has anyone who interviewed on the 12th or the 14th heard anything? Yesterday was week 6 for the 14th interview... my obsession with checking my portal is getting out of hand.

For reference I was put on hold about 6-8 weeks after my interview. I was then given a waitlist number on April 30. I didn't get in until May 30. I interviewed end of Jan early Feb. So it takes them a lot of time. My friend was one of the first interviewers in October. She didn't get in until February.
 
That would make sense, but even so, I think I qualify as a mission applicant being URM/low SES/first-gen? I'm not actually sure about that though, the last bullet point in their definition of mission groups ("Diversity") seems very subjective, and might not be an obvious enough mission group definition to warrant quick processing. Anyway, things seem very loaded on the backend for OHSU, so I'm telling myself not to worry about things being slow to start!


So for the diversity group what they really mean are (just an example): refugee who fled death in Sudan lived on the street with family for several years, grew up in poverty became American citizen.

I am URM, first female in my family to go to College, grew up in poverty, had quite a few adverse life experiences, and supported myself through undergrad. I did not qualify as a diversity applicant mission group.
 
Does anyone know if they accept updates? I couldn't find any info on where we can submit that.
 
For reference I was put on hold about 6-8 weeks after my interview. I was then given a waitlist number on April 30. I didn't get in until May 30. I interviewed end of Jan early Feb. So it takes them a lot of time. My friend was one of the first interviewers in October. She didn't get in until February.
Thank you for the info! The wait continues.
 
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Got an II last week. LM 71, OOS. Anyone who has interviewed here have any tips or willing to share their experience?
Congratulations! MMI was a bit exhausting but it certainly kept us on our toes. In addition to MMI, there is also one 1-on-1 interview. Some of our group were told that their interviewer wasn't able to make it, and so they scheduled future phone conferences for them in lieu of an interview (yikes). The tour was pretty disorganized. They basically just gave us a map and set us loose after lunch. They give you a ticket to ride the gondola though, which was fun.
 
So I did interview with them. Do you know where to go to send the update?

You could call admissions and ask them if you could still send an update, but my understanding is they wanted your update when you were invited to interview. Once you have interviewed your application is solid. Make sure to confirm tho, this is just how it was last year.
 
Congratulations! MMI was a bit exhausting but it certainly kept us on our toes. In addition to MMI, there is also one 1-on-1 interview. Some of our group were told that their interviewer wasn't able to make it, and so they scheduled future phone conferences for them in lieu of an interview (yikes). The tour was pretty disorganized. They basically just gave us a map and set us loose after lunch. They give you a ticket to ride the gondola though, which was fun.

So after the "tour" did you just leave and go home or did you have to go to something else? What time were you done?
 
So after the "tour" did you just leave and go home or did you have to go to something else? What time were you done?
There is a short tour, perhaps a half hour or so (rather disorganized, lots of "so yeah.. idk.. what do you guys want to see?.. there's that.. and stuff"), after which they set you free. I'm unsure of the exact time, maybe 1ish, but you are free to explore the facilities and the hospitals at the top of the hill.
 
Got an II last week. LM 71, OOS. Anyone who has interviewed here have any tips or willing to share their experience?
Look up practice MMI questions to get an idea of what they will ask you. They are pretty straight forward and I think the best thing that you can do is be prepared to roll with the punches.