2017-2018 Pennsylvania State University

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Rejected. On hold since basically the beginning of the application cycle. +pity+

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Well it's been real ya'll. Good luck to everyone going here! Peace :clap:
 
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Well now I feel like I’m missing out!! Where’s my rejection email!? Lol

Edit: JK... found my rejection in my spam folder from the 12th. And with that my season has come to an end.
 
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For those who went, how did people feel about second look day??

Anyone willing to chip in on this? I am on post-interview hold but I did like the school during the interview. Would like to hear other's opinions of the school/student body during the second look. Also, how many people showed up? Did they mention anything about the hold-list movement for the not outright accepted? Appreciate any insights.
~100 students and their families were registered for second look, but not sure if everyone came. Since only accepted students were invited, they did not talk about the hold-list movement.

Second look was great! Both students and faculty were super friendly. They really emphasized the student/faculty body being collaborative and the curriculum having a humanities focus.
 
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Hi, for anyone who is currently a student at Penn State Med, do you mind answering a few questions I have about the curriculum? Thank you, I really appreciate it!!

- When do you guys normally begin hardcore prep for Step 1 and Step 2? When do you usually take Step 1 + 2?
- Where are the clerkships usually located and have you had difficulty finding clerkships or getting to clerkships?
- For doing research, is it difficult to find time during your schedule to be dedicated to a research project? Also, how lenient are research advisors in letting you publish a paper?
- How early on do you guys get exposure to clinical work (like actually working with real patients)?
- What's the community like at Penn State?

Thanks again!
 
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Where are they in post interview decisions? I interviewed in late March. Do you think that I will have to wait until May to even get an initial answer?
 
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Did anyone receive scholarship/financial aid information?
 
Where are they in post interview decisions? I interviewed in late March. Do you think that I will have to wait until May to even get an initial answer?


Same, still waiting for my decision.
 
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No, haven't received financial aid yet.
 
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Same, still waiting for my decision.
I remember being told to expect to hear something around April 30.

I'm assuming the best we can do at this point is waitlist though.
 
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Where are they in post interview decisions? I interviewed in late March. Do you think that I will have to wait until May to even get an initial answer?
I interviewed late march as well, and they said 8-12 wks! So I think we’d find out late May, early June right?
 
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Me neither. They said at second look that FA info will go out end of April though, so I guess we should be hearing in the next couple of weeks.

dumb q but does FA include scholarship info?
 
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I interviewed late march as well, and they said 8-12 wks! So I think we’d find out late May, early June right?

The majority of movement in the cycle is basically over by then, I don’t see how they could wait until then to communicate anything. Does Amcas have a rule about giving an initial decision by a certain date?
 
dumb q but does FA include scholarship info?
Definitely not a dumb question... they did not mention anything about merit scholarships at second look, so I'm not sure whether they're a part of the financial aid packet we're supposed to receive in 1-1.5 weeks or separate.
 
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Definitely not a dumb question... they did not mention anything about merit scholarships at second look, so I'm not sure whether they're a part of the financial aid packet we're supposed to receive in 1-1.5 weeks or separate.

Did they mention if need-based scholarships should be apart of the financial aid package we are supposed to receive?
And this package.. its supposed to come before April 30th right?
 
Did they mention if need-based scholarships should be apart of the financial aid package we are supposed to receive?
And this package.. its supposed to come before April 30th right?

I called recently and they said that they will be awarding scholarships first. Once those are sent out, they will work on providing loan information, which will complete the financial aid package. This package is supposed to be out before the end of April.
 
The majority of movement in the cycle is basically over by then, I don’t see how they could wait until then to communicate anything. Does Amcas have a rule about giving an initial decision by a certain date?
Yes, I’ve heard that that date is April 30th. I want to call and find out, but don’t want to rush them.
 
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I logged on to lion path and clicked "finances". Under "Awards", I was able to click on the 2019 aid year to look at some aid. The full package is not available yet.
 
I logged on to lion path and clicked "finances". Under "Awards", I was able to click on the 2019 aid year to look at some aid. The full package is not available yet.

When did you get information about lionpath login? Would you be willing to share some information about getting that set up?
 
When did you get information about lionpath login? Would you be willing to share some information about getting that set up?
You should get an email from Penn State titled "Penn State Access Account Activation" with your user ID and a link to set up your account. I received the email beginning of March, but I would imagine that the date might be dependent on when you send in your deposit.

 
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- When do you guys normally begin hardcore prep for Step 1 and Step 2? When do you usually take Step 1 + 2?
- Where are the clerkships usually located and have you had difficulty finding clerkships or getting to clerkships?
- For doing research, is it difficult to find time during your schedule to be dedicated to a research project? Also, how lenient are research advisors in letting you publish a paper?
- How early on do you guys get exposure to clinical work (like actually working with real patients)?
- What's the community like at Penn State?

1. Your class will be taking the STEP after you finish your clerkships at the end of 3rd year.
2. Most clerkships are at the hospital, but there can be some further out in the area.
3. Between 1st and 2nd year you have a roughly 10 week summer break which is when most people do their research. For some that is enough, but not for all - however from my knowledge PIs are very understanding that school comes first and are lenient and allow you to work on your research as your schedule allows (and as project allows). Regarding publishing, it depends on the PI. My PI was very upfront from the beginning about shooting to publish and present at conferences. For most of this, YMMV.
4. During your first year you will have FPCC through which you will interact with lots of standardized patients and you will be required to do (probably) 6 sessions with your advisor throughout the year where you will spend 2 on shadowing your advisor and 4 "flex" sessions as ones where you will go in and see a real patient and present to your advisor/write SOAP note. At the end of your first year you will also have a primary care preceptorship week (it literally is happening right now) where you will be assigned to a primary care site somewhere in PA (or you can self-select a site somewhere in the country if that is more convenient for you if you want to stay at your house or something) where you will spend an entire week with an attending and you will do a mix of shadowing as well as seeing some patients and presenting/writing SOAP notes. I thought it was a really great experience (and I have no interest in primary care) but again, like most things, YMMV. Be ready to see lots of SPs. From talking to friends at some other med schools (in Philly primarily), we seem to have a lot more clinical exposure than some of those schools within the 1st year though.
While it's probably not the exposure you have in mind, it is incredibly easy to shadow here at Hershey since we are a big teaching hospital so in that aspect you can have patient exposure as much as you want and as early as you want.
5. This has been addressed previously in the thread so I won't go into huge detail but overall I think it's a good community. While some have complained of lack of diversity (read: lots of white people), I have not encountered any issues regarding that like racism or closed-mindedness. If anything, community is really pushing now to include more diversity into our training and even lectures. There are pushes right now to, starting with your incoming class, add more regarding handling people of different genders/orientations/identities into the mix to provide both exposure and education regarding such matters. All in all, I think the community is one that is receptive to feedback which is probably one of the most important things in my opinion.
 
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1. Your class will be taking the STEP after you finish your clerkships at the end of 3rd year.
2. Most clerkships are at the hospital, but there can be some further out in the area.
3. Between 1st and 2nd year you have a roughly 10 week summer break which is when most people do their research. For some that is enough, but not for all - however from my knowledge PIs are very understanding that school comes first and are lenient and allow you to work on your research as your schedule allows (and as project allows). Regarding publishing, it depends on the PI. My PI was very upfront from the beginning about shooting to publish and present at conferences. For most of this, YMMV.
4. During your first year you will have FPCC through which you will interact with lots of standardized patients and you will be required to do (probably) 6 sessions with your advisor throughout the year where you will spend 2 on shadowing your advisor and 4 "flex" sessions as ones where you will go in and see a real patient and present to your advisor/write SOAP note. At the end of your first year you will also have a primary care preceptorship week (it literally is happening right now) where you will be assigned to a primary care site somewhere in PA (or you can self-select a site somewhere in the country if that is more convenient for you if you want to stay at your house or something) where you will spend an entire week with an attending and you will do a mix of shadowing as well as seeing some patients and presenting/writing SOAP notes. I thought it was a really great experience (and I have no interest in primary care) but again, like most things, YMMV. Be ready to see lots of SPs. From talking to friends at some other med schools (in Philly primarily), we seem to have a lot more clinical exposure than some of those schools within the 1st year though.
While it's probably not the exposure you have in mind, it is incredibly easy to shadow here at Hershey since we are a big teaching hospital so in that aspect you can have patient exposure as much as you want and as early as you want.
5. This has been addressed previously in the thread so I won't go into huge detail but overall I think it's a good community. While some have complained of lack of diversity (read: lots of white people), I have not encountered any issues regarding that like racism or closed-mindedness. If anything, community is really pushing now to include more diversity into our training and even lectures. There are pushes right now to, starting with your incoming class, add more regarding handling people of different genders/orientations/identities into the mix to provide both exposure and education regarding such matters. All in all, I think the community is one that is receptive to feedback which is probably one of the most important things in my opinion.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer questions. Do you know what the step 1 score is on average for penn state?
 
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Anyone who interviewed March 2 hear anything?
I know some people in my group received acceptances and waitlist. But when I called they said not everyone in the same interview group would be considered and that different committees review different applicants.
 
Has anyone that interviewed not received a correspondence. I interviewed in Mar 2nd and have yet to hear anything yet...
 
It was a very tough decision, but I just withdrew my acceptance. Loved the vibe, loved the people, loved the program but you can't go to 2 med schools :unsure: I hope one of you on the waitlist gets the position!
 
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Has anyone that interviewed not received a correspondence. I interviewed in Mar 2nd and have yet to hear anything yet...

I interviewed 3/12 and haven't heard anything yet.
 
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Interviewed late March, waitlisted.
 
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Committee hold after late March interview. Not surprised but was hoping for better news.
 
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For those of us on post II hold, seems like our best chance is right after April 30th. But the fact this school puts everyone they don’t accept on post II hold doesn’t make me feel good about our chances :(
 
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I was just put on hold post-interview; interview was early March. Please does anyone know how significant the hold/waitlist movement is after April 30th for Penn State?
 
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this is what I found in MSAR.
 

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Accepted yesterday! Any one know how long it will take for the package to arrive? NYC based. Only got the email so far and saw someone posted previously saying deposit has to be in by April 30th?
 
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Forgive me if this question has already been answered, but is being on hold the same as being waitlisted, once you had an interview.
 
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Accepted yesterday! Any one know how long it will take for the package to arrive? NYC based. Only got the email so far and saw someone posted previously saying deposit has to be in by April 30th?
Congrats! When did you interview?
 
Forgive me if this question has already been answered, but is being on hold the same as being waitlisted, once you had an interview.
Hold=may get accepted before 4/30, Waitlist=After 4/30. At this late of the game, no difference.
 
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