2018-2019 Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

[Lucca]

Post Secondaries when you got 'em!

Good luck to everyone applying.

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[doc1994]

Just received an emailing saying they received my application and will send me a secondary soon if I meet their minimum requirements

 

[medschoolzombie]

Just received an emailing saying they received my application and will send me a secondary soon if I meet their minimum requirements

+1

Is this new? I don’t remember this happening last year. I wonder if this also means that they’re planning on changing prompts too

 

[Chicken Little]

+1

Is this new? I don’t remember this happening last year. I wonder if this also means that they’re planning on changing prompts too

Seems like the email is new. They screened last year.

 

[futuredoc0307]

Just received an emailing saying they received my application and will send me a secondary soon if I meet their minimum requirements

did you receive the secondary yet?

 

[showstooppa96]

did you receive the secondary yet?

I got the same email as the people above you on July 3rd. The email says a secondary will be sent after you pass their screening and I have yet to receive a secondary

 

[medschoolzombie]

I got the same email as the people above you on July 3rd. The email says a secondary will be sent after you pass their screening and I have yet to receive a secondary

I’m surprised it’s taking this long. There’s no way they’re doing a stringent screening

 

[Master Thinker]

Same, I got an AMCAS submitted email on 7/3. Still waiting for secondary, which is fine with me because getting swamped by essays lol

 

[Gram1027]

Received secondary on 7/6

 

[medschoolzombie]

Received secondary on 7/6

Prompts?

 

[Gram1027]

Prompts?

1. Optional: If applicable, please describe any connections you have to the OUWB communities.
2. How have your experiences serving others contributed to your personal growth?
3. If you have already graduated, briefly summarize your activities since graduation.
4. Optional: Is there anything you want the admissions committee to know about your qualifications for medical school that is not already represented in your application materials? Note: This space is provided for new information only, not to promote qualifications already highlighted in your other materials.

 

[Chicken Little]

Essay number 2 is super important!

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THAT ENOUGH.

OUWB is a very service oriented school.

 

[medschoolzombie]

Essay number 2 is super important!

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THAT ENOUGH.

OUWB is a very service oriented school.

Any tips for answering that? That’s a very open ended question

 

[Reader88]

Anyone else still not recieve a secondary? Says my app was recieved 4 July

+1

 

[Chicken Little]

Any tips for answering that? That’s a very open ended question

Personally, I did a lot of self-reflection and talked about how volunteering has impacted me and continued to build into how critical volunteering is as a physician for meeting underserved patients that you might see.

 

[futuredoc0307]

1. Optional: If applicable, please describe any connections you have to the OUWB communities.
2. How have your experiences serving others contributed to your personal growth?
3. If you have already graduated, briefly summarize your activities since graduation.
4. Optional: Is there anything you want the admissions committee to know about your qualifications for medical school that is not already represented in your application materials? Note: This space is provided for new information only, not to promote qualifications already highlighted in your other materials.

Dumb question here, but what is considered a connection? If I’m an undergrad at this school, and the hospital they teach at is 10 mins from my house, is that a connection?

 

[B4y 4RE4 N4Tiv3]

Dumb question here, but what is considered a connection? If I’m an undergrad at this school, and the hospital they teach at is 10 mins from my house, is that a connection?

If you can smell the school you go there!

 

[liutimot]

Anyone else still not recieve a secondary? Says my app was recieved 4 July

+1

 

[futuredoc0307]

If you can smell the school you go there!

Sorry I’m lost

 

[B4y 4RE4 N4Tiv3]

Sorry I’m lost

Your connection is "you are a student there"

 

[Chicken Little]

Fairly certain they mean if you have any family members that are a part of the school. I would not consider attending the undergrad a connection to the medical school.

 

[B4y 4RE4 N4Tiv3]

Fairly certain they mean if you have any family members that are a part of the school. I would not consider attending the undergrad a connection to the medical school.

I get the feeling that question was supposed to be vague because it states "OUWB Communities" not necessarily med school

 

[Chicken Little]

I get the feeling that question was supposed to be vague because it states "OUWB Communities" not necessarily med school

I would agree if it said Oakland University Communities and not OUWB Communities. Idk. Seems like it would be weird, if I answered "I attended Harvard for undergrad" to the question "Do you have any connections to the Harvard Medical School Communities?" OP can always call admissions for clarification. They never asked for my name when I called.

 

[futuredoc0307]

I actually respectfully disagree with @Chicken Little on this one, I think if you went to OU that's a pretty reasonable connection. Same if you have worked or volunteered at Beaumont, for instance.

I actually did not think of that! I did volunteer at one beaumont’s ER and also in the research lab at another Beaumont location. I’ll give them a call thank you

 

[futuredoc0307]

Called them. The question is more centered around personal connections. It makes sense since OUWB is a private school.

 

[Chicken Little]

They definitely could have made that more clear; understand the confusion on that one. Seemed weird they would have you report that you attended their undergrad when they have access to that information/see your activities section. Based my advice on similar connection secondary questions at other schools.

 

[Dr.BrownBean]

1. Optional: If applicable, please describe any connections you have to the OUWB communities.
2. How have your experiences serving others contributed to your personal growth?
3. If you have already graduated, briefly summarize your activities since graduation.
4. Optional: Is there anything you want the admissions committee to know about your qualifications for medical school that is not already represented in your application materials? Note: This space is provided for new information only, not to promote qualifications already highlighted in your other materials.

How many characters or words per prompt?

 

[Gram1027]

How many characters or words per prompt?

400 words for each

 

[Green_Goose]

Is anyone going to talk about diversity for the optional question? I know they said they prefer special circumstances/non-trad stuff for that essay, but I didn't mention anything from my diversity essay anywhere else in my primary app.

 

[NeuroticButCute]

Received secondary, it went to my spam box for some reason Just wanted to put that out there in case anyone else was wondering about their secondary and might need to check their spam!

 

[ZukosRedemption]

Is anyone going to talk about diversity for the optional question? I know they said they prefer special circumstances/non-trad stuff for that essay, but I didn't mention anything from my diversity essay anywhere else in my primary app.

They might ask in interviews but I don't think diversity essay belongs there.

 

[Hope2019]

is the additional info essay a good place to talk about why oakland?

 

[B4y 4RE4 N4Tiv3]

is the additional info essay a good place to talk about why oakland?

Hi everybody!

I'm an M4 at OUWB and just wanted to make myself available to answer your questions if you have any! Feel free to post here or PM me. I do want to stay as anonymous as possible so I can speak freely and not worry about classmates/administrators figuring out who I am. There are a couple other current students who drop by these threads occasionally as well. Good luck with your applications!

A couple FAQs that have come up in the application threads over the years...this is all based on my limited experience as an applicant from a few years ago (when we had a different admissions director) and a current student (not an adcom member!), so take it all with a grain of salt and definitely feel free to reach out to me if something is different from what you've heard from our admissions office.

Here is the FAQ on the OUWB website that will answer a lot of logistical questions about the application process and the school.

Should I answer the optional secondary question?
Per the admissions committee Twitter account: only for special circumstances.




When will OUWB start making interview offers / when will I hear back about my decision after my interview / when does OUWB make scholarship offers?
I am personally not involved in the admissions process so I can't answer these for you. However, OUWB's admissions office runs a Twitter account that occasionally posts about this kind of information - when interviews might be going out, when the adcom is reviewing the applicants who interviewed on a certain date, and when phone calls with scholarship offers are being made. Unfortunately it's not as active as it used to be since there have been some changes in staffing. Your best bet would probably be to check the old application threads over the last few years.

What is interview day like?
Long, but informative! This is how they have traditionally gone in the past:

• Breakfast / talk from admissions office
• Mock TBL - not evaluated or anything and no preparation required, just helps you see what some of your class sessions will be like if you come to OUWB
• Bus to Beaumont-Royal Oak hospital, where you will have:
  • Lunch with M3s/M4s
  • A tour of the hospital
  • Your interviews
    • Two one-on-one 30-minute interviews with OUWB faculty or Beaumont doctor (there may also be an M4 interviewing you along with the faculty/doctor)
    • Generally, very casual and conversational! They genuinely want to get to know you to see if you are a good fit at OUWB. There are a couple interviewers who tend to ask ethical questions related to your activities, but most won't.
• Bus back to OU campus
• Optional: tour of med school facilities at OU (classrooms, student lounge, med library, anatomy lab, etc.). This is truly optional and nobody will fault you for leaving, but I recommend going if you can!

Does OUWB have a student hosting program?
Yes! Here is the website. You should be contacted by the students in charge of the hosting program sometime after you get your interview invitation and can submit a request at that time. If you don't hear back shortly, I'd recommend booking a backup hotel with a refundable cancellation policy just in case - some weeks, it's tough to find a host if both the M1s and M2s have exams coming up or something like that.

I do highly recommend student hosting if it will not significantly disrupt your sleep - it's great to get to know the student body a bit, and it's free! Plus, talking to your host about their experiences at OUWB and on interview day can help ease your nerves a bit and help you come up with better questions to ask at your interview.

If you'd rather stay in a hotel, that's fine! If you'd still like to talk with a current student before your interview day, a group of M1s/M2s traditionally meet up with interviewing students for dinner at a restaurant across from campus the night before the interviews. Just ask your student host about it if you are staying with one, or contact the student hosting coordinators directly.

Which airport should I fly into? How do I get to/from OUWB and the airport?
I'd recommend flying into DTW, which is 45-60 minutes south of Rochester. Public transportation is not great in the Detroit area, so your best bet would be to take an Uber/Lyft or a cab. Split with other interviewees if you can. Also please note that there is construction on various parts of 75-south for the next god knows how long, so between that and rush hour traffic, to be safe I think you should allow yourself at least 1.5-2 hours to get to the airport at the end of interview day.

How does the post-interview decision process work?
The adcom meets every other week to review the files of interviewed applicants. They will review the applicants and you will get one of four responses: acceptance (usually phone call), rejection (email), third tier wait list (email), or silence. Silence means that they have not made a final decision on your application yet. THIS IS NOT BAD NEWS. You are still in the running! OUWB is pretty fair about rejecting people they know they don't want in a timely manner, so you still have a good shot at getting in. At the next adcom meeting, they will review the subsequent interview dates and re-review applicants from previous interview dates who did not receive a decision. So if you get silence, you are getting reviewed every 2 weeks and could receive a decision after any subsequent adcom meeting. At the end of April, they will do a final review of all the remaining interviewees, and you will receive a decision of accept, first tier waitlist, second tier waitlist, or reject. Historically, the school has accepted lots of people from the first tier waitlist, and I know of a few who came off the second tier waitlist in the last cycle as well.

When do scholarship offers go out?
Last year, it seems that some scholarship offers went out with admissions offers, and others went out separately on random dates via phone call.

What is the grading system? What's the attendance policy?
M1/M2: most classes are honors/pass/fail.

• Honors = >90% in class/exams + >70% attendance at class sessions.
• Pass = >70% in class/exams, no attendance requirement other than mandatory sessions.

This is not curved - theoretically everybody in the class could get honors if they scored well enough.

M3/M4: Honors/high pass/pass.

• Honors = exceeds expectations on clinical performance in rotations and >80th percentile nationally on standardized shelf exam.
• High pass = exceeds expectations on clinical performance or >80th percentile nationally on standardized shelf exam, but not both.
• Pass = meets expectations on clinical performance and pass shelf exam

Ranking: We do not know where we stand in the class throughout medical school (but you get a pretty good idea based on your exam scores compared to class averages, etc.). However, every single medical school, regardless of grading scheme or whether they say it's unranked, is required to submit a dean's letter (called the MSPE) as part of your residency application, part of which discusses your performance in comparison to your classmates. To meet this requirement, the school assigns us rankings based on our grades (certain amount of points for honors, less points for high pass, less points for pass), which we do not see. What goes into the MSPE, then, is our quartile - e.g. the letter will say you are in the top quarter of bottom quarter of the class. So bottom line: every school has to rank one way or another, OUWB minimizes it as much as they are allowed to do.

Use this post to guide your response in the optional essay portion

 

[smsch]

Anyone else still not recieve a secondary? Says my app was recieved 4 July

I'm also still waiting. I checked that I meet their requirements for a secondary so I'm not sure why its taking a long time

 

[Applicant5678]

I'm also still waiting. I checked that I meet their requirements for a secondary so I'm not sure why its taking a long time

+1

 

[Chicken Little]

Schools send out secondaries in batches so they don't get flagged by spam filters. Don't worry, you'll get it eventually. Took me like 2 months ot get Tulane and Wake.

 

[Freddywap]

Received Secondary today. Following

 

[MichiganSports3]

Hey everyone, rising M2 here. Just wanted to wish all of you nothing but success this cycle! If you have any questions regarding the application cycle or OUWB in general, feel free to post here/PM me and I'll do my best to help.

Quick bit of advice that was reiterated above: Take the OUWB secondary essay regarding service and personal growth very seriously. I honestly cannot stress this enough. There's a reason that this is the one essay they require of everyone. Please do not rush this essay, even if it means submitting the secondary a bit later than you wanted.

 

[MomJeansandDadJorts]

Hey everyone, rising M2 here. Just wanted to wish all of you nothing but success this cycle! If you have any questions regarding the application cycle or OUWB in general, feel free to post here/PM me and I'll do my best to help.

Quick bit of advice that was reiterated above: Take the OUWB secondary essay regarding service and personal growth very seriously. I honestly cannot stress this enough. There's a reason that this is the one essay they require of everyone. Please do not rush this essay, even if it means submitting the secondary a bit later than you wanted.

How would you approach it? I talked about both medical and non medical service and talked about 2 experiences in each of those (2 of them are most meaningful on my primary). I really like the prompt but I talked about growth a lot in my most meaningful essays and feel it may be a bit repetitive.

 

[hugh2012]

I haven’t received a seconday from them even though I was verified a long time ago. I got secondaries from many other schools . Should I be worried since I got an email saying I would eventually receive the secondary?

 

[Reader88]

I haven’t received a seconday from them even though I was verified a long time ago. I got secondaries from many other schools . Should I be worried since I got an email saying I would eventually receive the secondary?

I have not yet either and have been verified for a long time.

 

[Chicken Little]

I haven’t received a seconday from them even though I was verified a long time ago. I got secondaries from many other schools . Should I be worried since I got an email saying I would eventually receive the secondary?

I have not yet either and have been verified for a long time.

Y'all need to read through previous posts. I get it if it's a 15 page thread, but we're still on page 1 here

Schools send out secondaries in batches so they don't get flagged by spam filters. Don't worry, you'll get it eventually. Took me like 2 months ot get Tulane and Wake.

 

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

Secondary Received!

 

[FutureDoctor06]

Hey everyone, rising M2 here. Just wanted to wish all of you nothing but success this cycle! If you have any questions regarding the application cycle or OUWB in general, feel free to post here/PM me and I'll do my best to help.

Quick bit of advice that was reiterated above: Take the OUWB secondary essay regarding service and personal growth very seriously. I honestly cannot stress this enough. There's a reason that this is the one essay they require of everyone. Please do not rush this essay, even if it means submitting the secondary a bit later than you wanted.

Too late for that...

 

[MarkWatney]

Secondary received just now!

 

[mdyoyo]

Hey everyone!

The question about serving is getting me! Does it have to be volunteer/community service or something we got paid for but still serving others. I work for a homeless shelter and take care of autistic people! but I am getting paid for both..so not sure if I should use it or not!

 

[Asian1995]

Hey everyone!

The question about serving is getting me! Does it have to be volunteer/community service or something we got paid for but still serving others. I work for a homeless shelter and take care of autistic people! but I am getting paid for both..so not sure if I should use it or not!

following

 

[TobyFlendersin]

Can someone comment on the area of the school surrounding Detroit? Trying to decide if I should send in secondary.

Even though what you said doesn't really make sense if you know Michigan, I get what you're asking. But to be honest it does come off as condescending. Oakland (the school) isn't really that close to Detroit, it's in the upper-class area of Oakland County. Detroit is roughly 35 miles away from the school. Its the same setup as basically every other major city, where driving 30-40 minutes outside may put you into a rough area.

 

[UnderRepresentedMajority]

Hey everyone!

The question about serving is getting me! Does it have to be volunteer/community service or something we got paid for but still serving others. I work for a homeless shelter and take care of autistic people! but I am getting paid for both..so not sure if I should use it or not!

If you are getting paid it isn’t service IMO.

 

[TobyFlendersin]

If you are getting paid it isn’t service IMO.

I still think it is service even though you're getting paid. At some point, something has to give with the med school money requirement situation. I'm sure schools see it as a necessary evil but spending hundreds to thousands of hours volunteering without pay won't allow a large number of people to even pay for applications, especially non-trads. This person could've gone into pharmaceutical sales or something with great pay but is serving the homeless instead. The way I see it, members of the armed forces are literally serving our country every day but they still get paid. And nobody would really argue that they are not serving our country because of pay.