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Just submitted my secondary this morning. Hope it is not too late :bored:
 
star.buck said:
Definitely, a LOT of people do this exact scenario. During ccc it’s definitely possible to commute up to an hour one way, some people even do more. The CCC period is a little more laid back and you will have a bit more time on your hands than you do during clinical rotations or the first two years for those who have to study a great deal.

There’s also many ccc sites within an hour or so of Saginaw, which increases your chances of getting a site that permits this. Many people who ranked Saginaw/Bay City/Midland - this is the tricities area, all within about 20 minutes of each other- sites higher even got those sites. This means you have a decent chance of having a very small commute for 3rd and 4th year.

Hope this makes sense!
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+1 to this. I'm in rotations right now, and my sequence has me bouncing between Saginaw, Lapeer (1h05m from Saginaw), and Owosso (45m from Saginaw), after which I go to Lapeer for CCC. The drives aren't bad at all. (In fact, the thing that spooks everyone about commuting, namely the winter weather - TBH, I've found that city/county snow clearing services are better up here than they are most places in metro Detroit.) There are also quite a few people in our class whose spouses work in the Tri-Cities area. It's entirely doable.
 
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II just now. Complete 7/26. There are only 2 dates listed for interviews. Next Friday, and the 19th. Anyone know if more dates will be added or if these are my only options?
 
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d72s466 said:
II just now. Complete 7/26. There are only 2 dates listed for interviews. Next Friday, and the 19th. Anyone know if more dates will be added or if these are my only options?
Click to expand...

Just got an II too and my only options were the same as yours, although I didn’t scroll through the calendar, just October.
 
d72s466 said:
II just now. Complete 7/26. There are only 2 dates listed for interviews. Next Friday, and the 19th. Anyone know if more dates will be added or if these are my only options?
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they only open up additional dates as previous ones fill up. that's what they told me, so you'll have to wait if you want a later day
 
JaxJax17 said:
Just got an II too and my only options were the same as yours, although I didn’t scroll through the calendar, just October.
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I'm in the same position, II today, and wondering if anyone has advice on whether to go ahead and take one of those earliest dates or to wait? I feel a bit nervous interviewing only about two weeks from today but interviewing earlier has got to be better, right?
 
Been complete since 8/15 :/


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wolverine1000 said:
I'm in the same position, II today, and wondering if anyone has advice on whether to go ahead and take one of those earliest dates or to wait? I feel a bit nervous interviewing only about two weeks from today but interviewing earlier has got to be better, right?
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If you're able to, I would take one of those dates. Earlier is better. I definitely would, but I don't think my schedule will allow me to take either of those, so I guess I'll be waiting for other dates. Might give them a call tomorrow.
 
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Out of curiosity for those with IIs: how long (estimate/average) were you "under review" for? *not application complete
 
Withdrew after II. Good luck everyone!
 
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JaxJax17 said:
Do you mind if I ask why you withdrew? OOS? Or not impressed/bad interviewer?
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I received the invite but I chose not to attended the interview. I've got quite a few II's elsewhere and the costs of both time and money are accumulating beyond what I am capable of sacrificing, so I have to be a little more selective with the ones I choose to attend. Im sure CMU is a great medical school that educates fantastic physicians, but I don't vibe with their mission statement and feel like it's not the best fit for me.
 
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so is october 15th the day of rejections for this school? or have people already gotten some... because ive been under review for too long
 
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II today! totally unexpected, considering the number of OOS they interview I thought I didnt have a shot at all.

Complete late July, a LizzyM of 64-65. Anyone know the best way to get around if you are not IS?
 
Incursio said:
II today! totally unexpected, considering the number of OOS they interview I thought I didnt have a shot at all.

Complete late July, a LizzyM of 64-65. Anyone know the best way to get around if you are not IS?
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Congratulations!! Looking forward to having you! I am not on the MMI team this year since clinicals claim all my Fridays, but I do occasionally get back to Mt Pleasant for events. Hope to see some of you there!

As for getting around during your visit, the only real workable option is to rent a car or find an IS friend who’s willing to drive you. Don’t even try to mess with Uber - there is extremely limited Uber service in Mt Pleasant, mostly limited to weekends, and to my knowledge it doesn’t go to any of the airports. Greyhound runs a service from Lansing to Mt P, but you still have to get from the airport to the bus terminal, and Mt P is a somewhat challenging city to walk, outside of the CMU campus. (Most of the hotels are on Pickard Street, which is two miles from CMU via five-lane state highway. The only places you could possibly walk from would be the Courtyard or the Best Western on the athletics campus.)

Flying in, your choices are Midland-Bay City-Saginaw (MBS), about 45 minutes driving from campus, serves Delta and United, requires a connection through either DTW, MSP or ORD; Capital Region (LAN), about 1h from campus, serves Delta, United and American, see above re: connections but also direct flights on American to DCA; Flint Bishop (FNT), 1h30m from campus, see above, except swap DCA on American for ATL on Delta; and Detroit Metro (DTW), 2h30m from campus, hub airport for Delta, serves pretty much all airlines.

In the past, candidates have used this board as a place to arrange group ride and housing sharing. You may also find this useful.

Best of luck to you!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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sendhelppls19 said:
so is october 15th the day of rejections for this school? or have people already gotten some... because ive been under review for too long
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Since this question comes up every year, I'm going to quote a pair of posts from last year's board:
Traumahawk said:
Categorically: No.

Every applicant, no matter what, will get the "interview decision pending" message until they actually get issued an interview or a rejection. CMED does not "front load" its interview roster, either; there is no difference in applicant GPA, MCAT, ECs, etc., between those who interview straight away and those who wait till the winter, nor is there any difference in your chances of being offered an acceptance, waitlist, or any other status. (In fact, several of the best students in our class, both by pre-admit numbers and current class performance, didn't interview until late January.)

Be prepared that you may be looking at that "pending" status for a very long time. It's just the way the system works. Again, and I cannot stress this enough: "Interview decision pending" IS NOT A REJECTION. Relax, take a deep breath, resist the urge to check the portal every 0.04 seconds. You will be fine. And when you do get your II, please come on up and see us. We will be delighted to meet you!
Click to expand...

Traumahawk said:
I can't stress this enough: there is no such thing as a too-late II. CMED doesn't send interview invitations to people they aren't interested in. IIs are offered at all different points in the cycle, and getting a later II does not mean your app is a loss, or that they're just interviewing you for the sake of appearances. The ADCOM continually evaluates the applicant pool and re-adjusts criteria to acquire the best candidates possible. You may get an II immediately, or not till January. There is no correlation between when you get your II and your chances of acceptance, waitlist or rejection.

"But Traumahawk, OMGWTH it's one third through the cycle and I haven't gotten an II! All I've got is this "under review" status! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!?!?"

It means: absolutely nothing. "Under review" is the catch-all category for every app that's been reviewed. It's not a hold. It's not a waitlist. It's absolutely not a rejection.

Take a deep breath. Relax. Don't fall into the trap of checking the portal every 37.2 seconds. If you get an II, come on up and see us. We're looking forward to meeting you!
Click to expand...

I will also add that numerical factors (GPA, MCAT, etc) are not considered in the II decision, which means the ADCOM is currently reading letters and essays. Lots and lots and lots of letters and essays. (Around 15/candidate between AMCAS and secondary, x 7000+ candidates per cycle = 105K documents. At a decidedly lowball estimate.) It takes time to review that many files and decide whether to issue IIs or not. There is no difference between candidates who got immediate IIs versus those who got them much later - all it means is that your application was somewhere near the top of the stack.

This school does not do silent rejections. Your application is still in play from secondary submission to the day of the last interview. There is no such thing as "too long" for review. This process has so far produced six classes of highly qualified, highly caring and empathetic physicians and future physicians. It will work for you too. Relax and let the ADCOM do their work. And as always, come up and see us if you get an II!

Best of luck to you!
 
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Traumahawk said:
Since this question comes up every year, I'm going to quote a pair of posts from last year's board:




I will also add that numerical factors (GPA, MCAT, etc) are not considered in the II decision, which means the ADCOM is currently reading letters and essays. Lots and lots and lots of letters and essays. (Around 15/candidate between AMCAS and secondary, x 7000+ candidates per cycle = 105K documents. At a decidedly lowball estimate.) It takes time to review that many files and decide whether to issue IIs or not. There is no difference between candidates who got immediate IIs versus those who got them much later - all it means is that your application was somewhere near the top of the stack.

This school does not do silent rejections. Your application is still in play from secondary submission to the day of the last interview. There is no such thing as "too long" for review. This process has so far produced six classes of highly qualified, highly caring and empathetic physicians and future physicians. It will work for you too. Relax and let the ADCOM do their work. And as always, come up and see us if you get an II!

Best of luck to you!
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Thank you. Is it bad if I sent 6 LOR?
 
Traumahawk said:
Congratulations!! Looking forward to having you! I am not on the MMI team this year since clinicals claim all my Fridays, but I do occasionally get back to Mt Pleasant for events. Hope to see some of you there!

As for getting around during your visit, the only real workable option is to rent a car or find an IS friend who’s willing to drive you. Don’t even try to mess with Uber - there is extremely limited Uber service in Mt Pleasant, mostly limited to weekends, and to my knowledge it doesn’t go to any of the airports. Greyhound runs a service from Lansing to Mt P, but you still have to get from the airport to the bus terminal, and Mt P is a somewhat challenging city to walk, outside of the CMU campus. (Most of the hotels are on Pickard Street, which is two miles from CMU via five-lane state highway. The only places you could possibly walk from would be the Courtyard or the Best Western on the athletics campus.)

Flying in, your choices are Midland-Bay City-Saginaw (MBS), about 45 minutes driving from campus, serves Delta and United, requires a connection through either DTW, MSP or ORD; Capital Region (LAN), about 1h from campus, serves Delta, United and American, see above re: connections but also direct flights on American to DCA; Flint Bishop (FNT), 1h30m from campus, see above, except swap DCA on American for ATL on Delta; and Detroit Metro (DTW), 2h30m from campus, hub airport for Delta, serves pretty much all airlines.

In the past, candidates have used this board as a place to arrange group ride and housing sharing. You may also find this useful.

Best of luck to you!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the detailed response.

I ended up buying a plane ticket for Saginaw because there wasn't much price difference from the other airports.

Do you have any tips/ any advice with regards to the interview and how to prepare for it? They have the link for a MMI-prep website, not sure how helpful it is.
 
Incursio said:
Thank you so much for the detailed response.

I ended up buying a plane ticket for Saginaw because there wasn't much price difference from the other airports.

Do you have any tips/ any advice with regards to the interview and how to prepare for it? They have the link for a MMI-prep website, not sure how helpful it is.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, I may not be much help with this one because I'm not on the MMI team for this year, as clinicals have consumed all my Fridays. Moreover, we're bound by honor code not to divulge what goes into our particular MMI process, so what I can tell you likely won't be much different from anything you find publicly available.

The best thing I can tell you is: be yourself. Interviewers are very, very good at spotting deception and personality fakes. The process is designed to test how you think on your feet, how you handle ethical and interpersonal situations, and how you interact with others. Memorizing a bunch of pat answers to canned questions in an attempt to "game" the process is a very sure path to a poor showing. Indeed, the candidates I've seen who have done the worst were those who had clearly looked up a bunch of stuff on the Internet at some point and regurgitated it for the scenario, and then when I asked them to explain why they answered the way they did, had no answer. We're far more interested in what you would say or do than what some coach told you was the "right" thing to say you would do.

Learning to manage both your time and your nerves will also stand you in very good stead. Many candidates exhibit either logorrhea or freezing behavior in MMI scenarios due to anxiety, and as a result they run out of time without ever really answering the question. Learning an anxiety regulation technique like brief guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, or tactical breathing will probably help you more than trying to guess the specific questions you'll be asked on an MMI day. (It'll also come in very handy for any other anxiety-provoking situation you might encounter.)

I hope this was at least a little helpful... anyone else care to chime in?
 
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Traumahawk said:
Unfortunately, I may not be much help with this one because I'm not on the MMI team for this year, as clinicals have consumed all my Fridays. Moreover, we're bound by honor code not to divulge what goes into our particular MMI process, so what I can tell you likely won't be much different from anything you find publicly available.

The best thing I can tell you is: be yourself. Interviewers are very, very good at spotting deception and personality fakes. The process is designed to test how you think on your feet, how you handle ethical and interpersonal situations, and how you interact with others. Memorizing a bunch of pat answers to canned questions in an attempt to "game" the process is a very sure path to a poor showing. Indeed, the candidates I've seen who have done the worst were those who had clearly looked up a bunch of stuff on the Internet at some point and regurgitated it for the scenario, and then when I asked them to explain why they answered the way they did, had no answer. We're far more interested in what you would say or do than what some coach told you was the "right" thing to say you would do.

Learning to manage both your time and your nerves will also stand you in very good stead. Many candidates exhibit either logorrhea or freezing behavior in MMI scenarios due to anxiety, and as a result they run out of time without ever really answering the question. Learning an anxiety regulation technique like brief guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, or tactical breathing will probably help you more than trying to guess the specific questions you'll be asked on an MMI day. (It'll also come in very handy for any other anxiety-provoking situation you might encounter.)

I hope this was at least a little helpful... anyone else care to chime in?
Click to expand...

Interviewed here earlier this season... Definitely over-prepared for the MMI. I second what @Traumahawk said, trying to prepare canned answers for scenarios is going to hurt rather than help. I think the best you can do is think about who YOU are, what you value and how you would want to be treated if you were in the scenario.

I will say that I watched the Course Grinder MMI series on youtube before my MMI and it helped me think about how to structure my responses.

Overall though, CMU's MMI is pretty laid back. They didn't have any super difficult or tricky scenarios, most of the situations were based on things that you commonly expect to encounter both in medical school and in a career as a physician. Just be confident in yourself, show them who you are as a person, and remember they picked you for an interview! They already like what they see!
 
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MichaelScofield said:
Thank you. Is it bad if I sent 6 LOR?
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LOL, you're fine. :) If you'd sent, say, 22 LORs or something equally ludicrous, you'd probably get some side-eye because of poor direction-following ability, but as long as you didn't go over what they asked for in the applicant packet (IIRC six is the max), you're good.
 
Traumahawk said:
LOL, you're fine. :) If you'd sent, say, 22 LORs or something equally ludicrous, you'd probably get some side-eye because of poor direction-following ability, but as long as you didn't go over what they asked for in the applicant packet (IIRC six is the max), you're good.
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I was wondering bc it says a maximum of 5 LOR on the website. But I have a new letter from a new experience that I have been doing since I submitted my application. But i guess its better to not go over the max?
 
Traumahawk said:
Unfortunately, I may not be much help with this one because I'm not on the MMI team for this year, as clinicals have consumed all my Fridays. Moreover, we're bound by honor code not to divulge what goes into our particular MMI process, so what I can tell you likely won't be much different from anything you find publicly available.

The best thing I can tell you is: be yourself. Interviewers are very, very good at spotting deception and personality fakes. The process is designed to test how you think on your feet, how you handle ethical and interpersonal situations, and how you interact with others. Memorizing a bunch of pat answers to canned questions in an attempt to "game" the process is a very sure path to a poor showing. Indeed, the candidates I've seen who have done the worst were those who had clearly looked up a bunch of stuff on the Internet at some point and regurgitated it for the scenario, and then when I asked them to explain why they answered the way they did, had no answer. We're far more interested in what you would say or do than what some coach told you was the "right" thing to say you would do.

Learning to manage both your time and your nerves will also stand you in very good stead. Many candidates exhibit either logorrhea or freezing behavior in MMI scenarios due to anxiety, and as a result they run out of time without ever really answering the question. Learning an anxiety regulation technique like brief guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, or tactical breathing will probably help you more than trying to guess the specific questions you'll be asked on an MMI day. (It'll also come in very handy for any other anxiety-provoking situation you might encounter.)

I hope this was at least a little helpful... anyone else care to chime in?
Click to expand...
Agreed. Also valuable, don't forget the importance of basic professionalisms that you should have for an interview, which goes for any interview in life. The impression that you give is a big part of determining who you are as a person.
 
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Question for current students: I see the is a portion of the curriculum called CARES, do most students typically have these "days off" or are they filled will curriculum fillers.

"days off" - Time to study/decompress/party/binge watch netflix/volunteer/extracurriculars
 
B4y 4RE4 N4Tiv3 said:
Question for current students: I see the is a portion of the curriculum called CARES, do most students typically have these "days off" or are they filled will curriculum fillers.

"days off" - Time to study/decompress/party/binge watch netflix/volunteer/extracurriculars
Click to expand...
Tuesday and Wednesday are usually extracurricular lectures, including but not limited to financial aid, study success, student wellness and similar activities, and may or may not run all day. Thursday is usually the "heavy" day and goes all day; historical topics have included cultural competence, intimate partner violence, public health, and the like. In the past Fridays used to contain EC lectures as well, but recently there's been a student-led push to consolidate all the EC material into Tuesday and Wednesday and leave Friday as a "day off." As a result, most students will take Monday night as their post-exam decompression night, do extracurriculars or volunteer duties after CARES events on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then whatever on Friday depending on whether there are CARES obligations or not.
 
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Traumahawk said:
Tuesday and Wednesday are usually extracurricular lectures, including but not limited to financial aid, study success, student wellness and similar activities, and may or may not run all day. Thursday is usually the "heavy" day and goes all day; historical topics have included cultural competence, intimate partner violence, public health, and the like. In the past Fridays used to contain EC lectures as well, but recently there's been a student-led push to consolidate all the EC material into Tuesday and Wednesday and leave Friday as a "day off." As a result, most students will take Monday night as their post-exam decompression night, do extracurriculars or volunteer duties after CARES events on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then whatever on Friday depending on whether there are CARES obligations or not.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification I'm gonna have to muster up some money for this interview.
 
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Does anyone who interviewed early remember if we're supposed to be hearing anything today?
 
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Zharp said:
Does anyone who interviewed early remember if we're supposed to be hearing anything today?
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I recall them saying that they will *start* contacting people today with acceptances but that it is perfectly possible to interview early but still not recieve an acceptance until later in the cycle. They really stressed that at the interviews!
It sure would be nice to hear good news early though :) Best of luck!
 
afcrbn said:
I recall them saying that they will *start* contacting people today with acceptances but that it is perfectly possible to interview early but still not recieve an acceptance until later in the cycle. They really stressed that at the interviews!
It sure would be nice to hear good news early though :) Best of luck!
Click to expand...

Good to know! Best of luck to you as well!
 
Accepted!! Got the call around 9pm. So excited!!
 
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Just declined my interview here. Not in the budget unfortunately. Hope it goes to someone waiting patiently for one!
 
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