2017-2018 Pennsylvania State University

Applying to Med School? Get In Or Your Money Back
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Although the name Penn State may suggest otherwise, Penn State is a private medical school. So they don't heavily factor in the state of residence I believe.
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Awesome! Thanks for your replies!
 
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MDTOBE884 said:
Would any current students care to comment on their experience so far? Anyone know any of the following: grading system, avg step 1 scores, cost of living around Hershey?
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Grading is P/F with no internal ranking (they don't even announce what the average was on an exams - so you really cannot compare yourself to others unless you ask everybody how they did). I don't know the step scores but I assume there is a way to get that information online (?). Living in Hershey is very cheap. If you live on campus, you can get a fairly spacious 2-bedroom apartment for like $550 a month (assuming you have a roommate. Everything is included). You go 5 minutes away off-campus and rent will drop obviously but things will not be included in that payment (electric, internet, etc.). Definitely one of the cheapest/more affordable places I've ever lived in.
 
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ItsAMeMario007 said:
Although the name Penn State may suggest otherwise, Penn State is a private medical school. So they don't heavily factor in the state of residence I believe.
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This is correct. State residence has no effect on either admissions nor tuition. Obviously there are a bunch of PA residents here but only because lots of PA residents apply. I am OOS and it never came up in my interviews, and when I've worked with admissions the past two years it has never come up as a pro or con either.
 
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Congratulations to those of you who have been accepted to PSCOM! The UP admissions team just received our first real batch of PSCOM-accepted students to reach out to this cycle and we are excited to get the process rolling. If you have been accepted and are interested in learning more about the UP program, feel free to ask or PM me. For those of you not yet accepted to PSCOM, know that there have only been a few acceptances thus far with many more to come in the next few months. If you're waiting on a decision post-Hershey-interview, know that there are several (12 I believe?) admissions subgroups which all meet, fortunately or unfortunately, at their convenience which is why some students hear back in four weeks and others in ten. I am excited for you all and look forward to meeting some of you in the coming months.
 
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II just now! First one of the season! I love Penn State! :D
Re-applicant, URM, 508 MCAT 3.7 GPA from a top 10 school.
Complete late August
 
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Penn State UPRC MSDP said:
Congratulations to those of you who have been accepted to PSCOM! The UP admissions team just received our first real batch of PSCOM-accepted students to reach out to this cycle and we are excited to get the process rolling. If you have been accepted and are interested in learning more about the UP program, feel free to ask or PM me. For those of you not yet accepted to PSCOM, know that there have only been a few acceptances thus far with many more to come in the next few months. If you're waiting on a decision post-Hershey-interview, know that there are several (12 I believe?) admissions subgroups which all meet, fortunately or unfortunately, at their convenience which is why some students hear back in four weeks and others in ten. I am excited for you all and look forward to meeting some of you in the coming months.
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So would this mean that if we haven't heard something after 4 weeks, some kind of decision is "guaranteed" after 10?
 
baj2634 said:
So would this mean that if we haven't heard something after 4 weeks, some kind of decision is "guaranteed" after 10?
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Unfortunately not; there are no guarantees in the timing of the decisions. Instead I meant that the amount of time between your interview and your admissions decision is much more likely to be due to a slow-to-meet subgroup than an issue with your application. I wish there were a better answer, but all you can do after your interview is wait.
 
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hold. i guess my run in this cycle is over. nothing but hold and rejections since 2 IIs in september
 
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Hellohihihihello said:
hold. i guess my run in this cycle is over. nothing but hold and rejections since 2 IIs in september
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Don’t lose faith! Schools are still sending out those IIs.


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Hey ya'll, does this school accept pre-II updates? If so, how? Sorry if it was answered earlier.
 
Has anyone received the acceptance envelope yet? Or know of an accepted student Facebook group?
 
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mk059 said:
The one interviewer was great, had lots of awesome questions about my app and my life other than medical school. Showed me around his department while asking me questions for the second half of the interview because he thought it would be cool for me to see some things I didn't get to on the tour.

My second one was just all around horrible. Asked me why I didn't go to a better undergraduate institution (I went to Penn State...), asked why I wasn't "at least" in PSU's honors college, GRILLED about lack of research (which I expected questions about in the majority of my interviews but focused on the lack of it for a good 5 minutes). Then proceeded to tell me that his child had gotten so many scholarships to PSU that they had to give money back. The interview probably lasted a max of 20 mins. Left there almost positive it was going to be a rejection.
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Yeah I had a pretty brutal interview here too. The two of us who interviewed with a particular faculty member experienced extraordinarily militant "conversations." However, I am told that is far from the norm.
 
spinaltapper said:
Yeah I had a pretty brutal interview here too. The two of us who interviewed with a particular faculty member experienced extraordinarily militant "conversations." However, I am told that is far from the norm.
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I wonder if we had the same interviewer...
 
spinaltapper said:
Yeah I had a pretty brutal interview here too. The two of us who interviewed with a particular faculty member experienced extraordinarily militant "conversations." However, I am told that is far from the norm.
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Kind of surprising. I have a good friend who attended Penn State, and he has nothing but good things to say about the school when it comes to culture and supportiveness of faculty. I can't speak from personal experience, but I certainly get the impression that your experience is far from the norm as well.
 
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Does Penn State do silent rejections? Been complete since early sept and no word yet.
 
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medschoolbro said:
Congrats! Do you mind sharing stats?
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Sure! URM, 509 MCAT, 3.4 GPA. Graduated almost two years ago and have been working in a neurosurgery research lab since. I have a good amount of undergrad research experience too.
 
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fakenamesaremade2 said:
Do you mind me asking where you got twelve weeks from? And does the wait-time correlate with acceptance/rejection in any way?
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From what I've seen in last year's thread and this year's thread the latest I've seen anyone get accepted was around 12 weeks an the earliest was around 6 weeks like the previous guy said.
 
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terrapintennisplayer said:
From what I've seen in last year's thread and this year's thread the latest I've seen anyone get accepted was around 12 weeks an the earliest was around 6 weeks like the previous guy said.
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I am sitting next to a friend who waited 12 weeks to be accepted, and I waited five weeks to be accepted. In nearly every case, the wait time does not correlate with your eventual admissions decision.
 
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CheusChrist said:
Interview yet? what was it like? open or closed file?
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Not the person you quoted, but interviews here are open-file. Not too stressful, just know your application well and prepare for the usual questions.


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II today!! OOS, excited
 
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For interviews, are they at the Hershey campus?
 
kitkat13 said:
For interviews, are they at the Hershey campus?
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Mine was. I applied for the Hershey program and not the other one, but both programs were touched upon in the presentation if I remember correctly, so I assume everyone interviews at the Hershey campus?


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