2018-2019 Ohio State University College of Medicine

[Lucca]

Please post the secondary questions once you receive them. Check last year's thread in the 2017-2018 SSD forum for last year's questions, they tend to not change very much from year to year.

Good luck to everyone applying!

Interview Feedback: Ohio State University College of Medicine

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[buckoh24]

If anybody has any questions about Ohio/Columbus/OSU let me know. Not a med student but know a decent amount from my time at OSU.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

To any former/current students, would you call the atmosphere more competitive or collaborative?

 

[altblue]

If anybody has any questions about Ohio/Columbus/OSU let me know. Not a med student but know a decent amount from my time at OSU.

How's Columbus?

 

[buckoh24]

How's Columbus?

Surprisingly really fun. OSU is my top choice mainly because of the city. The housing is cheap and the school is close to a lot of breweries, parks, etc. OSU is south of clintonville which was named one of the most hip area codes in the country. Its also a super young city because a lot of people stay around cbus after undergrad/grad school. Theres also german village which is the largest historic district in the country. I really like the city and people are pretty surprised when they come visit. Its a medium sized city and it has that midwest small town feel to an extent.

 

[liutimot]

Hello,

I have one question regarding undergrad requirement. I am a US citizen who is pursuing undergrad at the University of Toronto in Canada.
I called the other day to OSU but apparently they said I needed to submit foreign transcript to World Education Services to validate, and without that report my file would not be marked as complete. The guy on the phone said that AMCAS would not verify foreign grades, and OSU wouldn't consider my GPA but will look at other credentials such as MCAT, ECs, LOR etc. I feel there is a misalignment between me and the guy on the phone. I have always been under the presumption that Canadian undergrad is equivalent to US undergrad.

My understanding is that AMCAS verified my transcript and the verified primary had all the grades listed. I would assume "foreign" means non US or non Canada. Am I getting this assumption correct?

Is there a way to see how Canadian undergraduate degree is accredited in the eyes of US adcom?

 

[staygold83]

Any secondaries?

 

[freedoctor17]

Any secondaries?

Nada

 

[Waldcayut]

Secondary just received. OOS.

 

[661874]

Same prompt?

 

[Unlimited Apps]

Same prompt?

Yes, same prompts as last year.

 

[MomJeansandDadJorts]

Do you have to put all the previous schools if you are a reapplicant?

 

[hiragana]

heads up if there is an error after inputting your code and dob, try waiting a bit i called them and during the call tried again and the issue resolved itself after 15 min

 

[Blob_459]

Secondary Recieved!


*REQUIRED ESSAY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO REGULAR M.D., M.D./PhD AND THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
The mission statement of The Ohio State University College of Medicine is to "improve people's lives" through innovation in research, medical education, and patient care. Please describe how your past experiences predict your potential to contribute in two of these three areas. (250 words or less)

*REQUIRED ESSAY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO REGULAR M.D., M.D./PhD AND THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
The OSU COM Admissions vision statement states that the admissions committee will assemble a class that displays "diversity in background and thought." Why is "diversity in background and thought" a desirable characteristic for a medical school's student body? (250 words or less)

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED ESSAY ONLY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
Describe the experiences you have had in Primary Care and the influences they have had on your decision to apply to the Primary Care Track three year program. (500 words or less)

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED ESSAY ONLY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
"Health Is Primary" is a communications campaign to advocate for the values of family medicine, demonstrate the benefits of primary care, and engage patients in our healthcare system. The aim is to build a primary care system that reflects the values of family medicine, puts patients at the center of their care, and improves the health of all Americans. How do you plan to reflect the values of Family Medicine in your future career? (250 words or less)

 

[bigeman101]

This diversity prompt is weird. They don't want to know how we'll contribute to the diversity but just want to know why diversity is important in a medical school class?

 

[Wahkoon]

This diversity prompt is weird. They don't want to know how we'll contribute to the diversity but just want to know why diversity is important in a medical school class?

Yes, but you can incorporate how you will contribute into your response too. “For example, my experience in X has taught me the value of diversity in Y and this could be applied to medical school class...”

 

[DeadlyWarbler]

This diversity prompt is weird. They don't want to know how we'll contribute to the diversity but just want to know why diversity is important in a medical school class?

This is such a refreshing prompt! Most schools and jobs want to know how YOU will contribute to diversity, but rarely do you get to write on the value of diversity. I'm looking forward to writing this one! Secondary received today around noon. OOS. Woo!

 

[AspiringDoc169]

This diversity prompt is weird. They don't want to know how we'll contribute to the diversity but just want to know why diversity is important in a medical school class?

I agree. I don't like how asked they asked the question in my opinion.

 

[Wahkoon]

Has anyone else received 2 invites to complete the secondary? I received a second email this morning with another code. I am assuming this means that they are extra interested in my application.

 

[AspiringDoc169]

Has anyone else received 2 invites to complete the secondary? I received a second email this morning with another code. I am assuming this means that they are extra interested in my application.

+1, I'm planning on calling them to see what's going on.

 

[freedoctor17]

+1, I'm planning on calling them to see what's going on.

+2 I'm assuming it's just a glitch

 

[AspiringDoc169]

+2 I'm assuming it's just a glitch

So, probably just going to ignore the second newer email

 

[MomJeansandDadJorts]

+2 I'm assuming it's just a glitch

It is. I walk by admissions everyday and popped in to ask. She said to just ignore it if you already got the first email.

 

[deleted930295]

Does anyone know how to access the info that tells us our status like whether our LOR are in? I got the general OSU login information with the lastname.#, so I have that account info in addition to the account used to fill out the application.

 

[DeadlyWarbler]

Has anyone else received 2 invites to complete the secondary? I received a second email this morning with another code. I am assuming this means that they are extra interested in my application.

Yep, I got one this morning, but I submitted my secondary yesterday!

 

[LeGOATJames23]

Has anyone that has already submitted had trouble re-accessing to check on status? Once the submission is done their portal gets mad confusing lol

 

[GGFW123]

Has anyone that has already submitted had trouble re-accessing to check on status? Once the submission is done their portal gets mad confusing lol

I submitted earlier today and I believe you have to wait 3-5 business days for the application to process and then they'll send further steps to activate a profile where you can check status etc.

 

[The Silent Sentinel]

Has anyone that has already submitted had trouble re-accessing to check on status? Once the submission is done their portal gets mad confusing lol

^Like GGFW123 said,
The secondary submission website (osu.edu) and the portal for status / updates (vitals.osumc.edu) are indeed different, and I believe med students at OSU use the latter as part of their curriculum.

 

[LeGOATJames23]

^Like GGFW123 said,
The secondary submission website (osu.edu) and the portal for status / updates (vitals.osumc.edu) are indeed different, and I believe med students at OSU use the latter as part of their curriculum.

Ah ok. I did get the profile activation email and then proceeded to create a username and password. I can logon to the myosu site but for some reason the "vitals" portal isn't working. Maybe I'll give it some more time. Thanks!

 

[extrabrodinary]

Looking to swap this secondary with someone for peer-editing. Message me if you're interested!

 

[bmac7]

Anyone else see that their application status is "posted" after submission? Any idea what that means?

 

[staygold83]

Anyone else see that their application status is "posted" after submission? Any idea what that means?

Mine just says "submitted," but I submit about an hour ago, so I'm not sure if "posted" is the next step after "submitted." Anyone clarify this?

 

[Unlimited Apps]

Honest to God, working on OSU's secondary was the most enjoyable so far.

The two prompts require concise but specific enough material and I especially liked the unique approach to the common diversity essay!

 

[LeGOATJames23]

I've had the same issue and received another email from them tonight reminding me to activate my username if I have not already...I did..

Lol I emailed them and they said that we don't have access to vitals and to just call to check on status...guess I'll just hawk this forum until some people see some updates...

 

[DameJulie]

Secondary Recieved!


*REQUIRED ESSAY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO REGULAR M.D., M.D./PhD AND THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
The mission statement of The Ohio State University College of Medicine is to "improve people's lives" through innovation in research, medical education, and patient care. Please describe how your past experiences predict your potential to contribute in two of these three areas. (250 words or less)

*REQUIRED ESSAY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO REGULAR M.D., M.D./PhD AND THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
The OSU COM Admissions vision statement states that the admissions committee will assemble a class that displays "diversity in background and thought." Why is "diversity in background and thought" a desirable characteristic for a medical school's student body? (250 words or less)

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED ESSAY ONLY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
Describe the experiences you have had in Primary Care and the influences they have had on your decision to apply to the Primary Care Track three year program. (500 words or less)

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED ESSAY ONLY FOR THOSE APPLYING TO THE PRIMARY CARE TRACK:
"Health Is Primary" is a communications campaign to advocate for the values of family medicine, demonstrate the benefits of primary care, and engage patients in our healthcare system. The aim is to build a primary care system that reflects the values of family medicine, puts patients at the center of their care, and improves the health of all Americans. How do you plan to reflect the values of Family Medicine in your future career? (250 words or less)

Which of these essays are for the regular MD program applicants?

 

[Blob_459]

Which of these essays are for the regular MD program applicants?

The ones that say "required for those applying to the regular MD program"

 

[deleted930295]

Was emailed the link to set up a vitals account this morning at around 3am EST. Login will be your AMCAS# and then you set the password yourself

 

[DameJulie]

The ones that say "required for those applying to the regular MD program"

My fault. Totally skipped those prompts after seeing it's required for MD PhD.

 

[jessicaday95]

Did anyone do anything special about formatting for these essays? I wrote them in google docs but on the page to put them in it says
"*NOTE: Text exceeding word limit will not be saved to the application. To ensure word-limit compliance, you are encouraged to use word-count software to compose your answers.If you plan to copy and paste your essay, you must create the essay in Notepad. Creating the essay in another word processing program, then copying and pasting it into Notepad will cause formatting issues that CANNOT be corrected after submission."
So I can't just copy and paste it into notepad and then the app?

 

[freedoctor17]

Did anyone do anything special about formatting for these essays? I wrote them in google docs but on the page to put them in it says
"*NOTE: Text exceeding word limit will not be saved to the application. To ensure word-limit compliance, you are encouraged to use word-count software to compose your answers.If you plan to copy and paste your essay, you must create the essay in Notepad. Creating the essay in another word processing program, then copying and pasting it into Notepad will cause formatting issues that CANNOT be corrected after submission."
So I can't just copy and paste it into notepad and then the app?

I just ignored that and then read through it carefully in the prompt box to make sure there were no issues. Wasn't about to retype them all from scratch lol.

 

[NinjasAtMyDoor]

Did anyone do anything special about formatting for these essays? I wrote them in google docs but on the page to put them in it says
"*NOTE: Text exceeding word limit will not be saved to the application. To ensure word-limit compliance, you are encouraged to use word-count software to compose your answers.If you plan to copy and paste your essay, you must create the essay in Notepad. Creating the essay in another word processing program, then copying and pasting it into Notepad will cause formatting issues that CANNOT be corrected after submission."
So I can't just copy and paste it into notepad and then the app?

I copied my essays from word and found out that apostrophes and quotation marks get changed to question marks. Thankfully, I reread everything haha.

 

[AspiringDoc169]

I copied my essays from word and found out that apostrophes and quotation marks get changed to question marks. Thankfully, I reread everything haha.

Haha, thanks for the heads up!

 

[freedoctor17]

I copied my essays from word and found out that apostrophes and quotation marks get changed to question marks. Thankfully, I reread everything haha.

i didn't have that issue from google docs, at least I hope i didnt/ I reread them after pasting but couldnt find an option to print as pdf or anything like that to double check.

OSU's application system is so crappy compared to all the other ones I've used.

 

[Reader88]

I copied from google docs and didn't see any issues before submitting. Just went back and looked and there are question marks. Looks like I won't be joining any of you here but thought I'd let everyone know so you don't make the same mistake, it appears the formatting may not change until after you hit submit. Also this was the worst application system of any I have seen.

 

[freedoctor17]

I copied from google docs and didn't see any issues before submitting. Just went back and looked and there are question marks. Looks like I won't be joining any of you here but thought I'd let everyone know so you don't make the same mistake, it appears the formatting may not change until after you hit submit. Also this was the worst application system of any I have seen.

Rip, I just checked back and same thing happened to me. All my apostrophes and quotations turned into question marks after submitting.

Damn it, I should've listened to the warning they placed. I thought the fact that everything looked fine before submitting meant it was ok. Well this was one of my top in state choices and now I'm pretty bummed. My first essay looks ok anyways besides one random question mark but my diversity essay has one of my sentences ruined because of this. Let's just hope we get someone reviewing it who doesn't mind too much but I won't keep my hopes up.

 

[freedoctor17]

I copied from google docs and didn't see any issues before submitting. Just went back and looked and there are question marks. Looks like I won't be joining any of you here but thought I'd let everyone know so you don't make the same mistake, it appears the formatting may not change until after you hit submit. Also this was the worst application system of any I have seen.

And I agree its the worst system by a long shot. Looks like a kid designed it in their intro to web design class... Gonna be mentally slapping myself for a while over this mistake

 

[Reader88]

Rip, I just checked back and same thing happened to me. All my apostrophes and quotations turned into question marks after submitting.

Damn it, I should've listened to the warning they placed. I thought the fact that everything looked fine before submitting meant it was ok. Well this was one of my top in state choices and now I'm pretty bummed. My first essay looks ok anyways besides one random question mark but my diversity essay has one of my sentences ruined because of this. Let's just hope we get someone reviewing it who doesn't mind too much but I won't keep my hopes up.

Yeah, I wish I had listened to the warning too but stupidly thought I knew better. Definitely a bummer especially because it's in state for you, sorry to hear that! If you're a strong candidate otherwise maybe they will look past it.

 

[zimzamzoop]

Yeah, I wish I had listened to the warning too but stupidly thought I knew better. Definitely a bummer especially because it's in state for you, sorry to hear that! If you're a strong candidate otherwise maybe they will look past it.

How were you guys able to see your secondary? For me, I can't log onto the secondary application system (it says my code no longer works) and I can't find it on Vitals either

 

[freedoctor17]

Yeah, I wish I had listened to the warning too but stupidly thought I knew better. Definitely a bummer especially because it's in state for you, sorry to hear that! If you're a strong candidate otherwise maybe they will look past it.

Well I guess this is a lesson learned. I reread my essays and actually the sentence I thought was ruined just looks like I added an extra question mark by mistake because my quote was a question lol (although i guess that's only if they ignore the first quotation mark). Other than that though it actually looks fine since thankfully I didn't use any contractions. Although I might just be trying to convince myself it's not as bad as it seems

EVERYONE ELSE DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AND ACTUALLY TYPE IT UP IN NOTE PAD OR DIRECTLY INTO THE BOX TO BE EVEN SAFER.

 

[freedoctor17]

How were you guys able to see your secondary? For me, I can't log onto the secondary application system (it says my code no longer works) and I can't find it on Vitals either

I just logged into the initial link they sent. I bookmarked every school after first making an account so that's what I used. You should be able to click on the program info tab and read your essays.