2018-2019 SUNY - Downstate

BU Medical Sciences
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Mr. Peanutbutter said:
It took almost a full month for my student interviewer to reach out. Don't worry about it too much, you're fine! If you're worried, you could call admission in another week or two
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itsalwayssunny96 said:
I got mine 4 weeks after lol I emailed admissions at 4 weeks and got an email from my student interviewer like 2 days later
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Thanks for letting me know! I will definitely email them if I still don’t hear anything this week lol
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Has anyone ended up joining the Downstate COM 2023 Facebook page? I just checked out the group and there are only two members (the admins) in the group...I feel awkward sending a 'join' request and being the only potential candidate in that group haha
 
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mysonadoctor said:
Last year they sent out emails for Accepted, Rejections this week...
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That would be nice, but I feel like the AMCAS changes really messed up a lot of schools in their admissions strategies. Man tough luck for all of this happening our application cycle 🙁.
 
Yourtypicalgoon said:
That would be nice, but I feel like the AMCAS changes really messed up a lot of schools in their admissions strategies. Man tough luck for all of this happening our application cycle 🙁.
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I really don’t understand why the amcas changes affected anything in any way at all. Can someone explain to me? Greater opportunity to increase yield protection?
 
illmaatic said:
I really don’t understand why the amcas changes affected anything in any way at all. Can someone explain to me? Greater opportunity to increase yield protection?
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I don't entirely understand what the old rules were but I believe this year schools are receiving less information prior to April 30th about what acceptances applicants are holding and their only real info is the planning to attend tool that opened yesterday. So since there is more uncertainty for schools (supposedly) then they might have given out fewer acceptances because schools would rather pull students from the waitlist vs. having too many students.
 
houseofballoons said:
Has anyone ended up joining the Downstate COM 2023 Facebook page? I just checked out the group and there are only two members (the admins) in the group...I feel awkward sending a 'join' request and being the only potential candidate in that group haha
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I've tried to join, and I'm sure others have as well, they just haven't accepted our join requests yet....
 
II for March a couple days ago

Edit: I'm going
 
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I interview in the morning. How long should I expect the interview day to go? - not sure when the lunch and tour end
 
pepper37 said:
I interview in the morning. How long should I expect the interview day to go? - not sure when the lunch and tour end
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I finished the interview day around 1pm I believe. (While you're there you should definitely ask what the current timeline is, i.e. how far they are in giving out acceptances 🙂 )
 
Hey everyone! Same question as above for those who have interviewed, does the interview day consist of a tour and one on one interview? I have a PM interview. Thanks!!
 
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Anybody send a thank you letter (email)? If so, was it just through the admissions office?
 
If I interviewed in early January and received the "you'll be notified in early Spring" email, is it worth sending a letter of intent now? Or has my fate already been decided?
 
lakeboy1996 said:
If I interviewed in early January and received the "you'll be notified in early Spring" email, is it worth sending a letter of intent now? Or has my fate already been decided?
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Either way, it’s worth a shot if your heart is set on Downstate
 
MrsBrightside22 said:
Either way, it’s worth a shot if your heart is set on Downstate
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Yeah you're probably right. Are most letters of intent sent as an email or more so as a cover letter style? I don't really have many updates to add with it since this was just over a month ago.
 
lakeboy1996 said:
Yeah you're probably right. Are most letters of intent sent as an email or more so as a cover letter style? I don't really have many updates to add with it since this was just over a month ago.
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Definitely cover letter style. It’s totally okay to not have many updates or any at all since that’s not necessarily the purpose of the letter. Don’t get me wrong, some would probably help, but it’s not the end of the world 🙂
 
lakeboy1996 said:
If I interviewed in early January and received the "you'll be notified in early Spring" email, is it worth sending a letter of intent now? Or has my fate already been decided?
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I’d send one now as long as it is true that you would go if accepted
 
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lakeboy1996 said:
Yeah you're probably right. Are most letters of intent sent as an email or more so as a cover letter style? I don't really have many updates to add with it since this was just over a month ago.
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Cover letter style. Emphasize to them what you like so much about the school and what about you makes you a good fit for them. It’s not so much about what you have done between January and now, rather it’s about how your entire application shows that you are a great fit for Downstate.
 
lalalallala said:
Cover letter style. Emphasize to them what you like so much about the school and what about you makes you a good fit for them. It’s not so much about what you have done between January and now, rather it’s about how your entire application shows that you are a great fit for Downstate.
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Thanks so much for the advice. Who should I address the letter to and what email should I send it to? [email protected]?
 
MrsBrightside22 said:
Either way, it’s worth a shot if your heart is set on Downstate
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I thought you only send these if officially waitlisted??

I would send one, but I interviewed way back in mid Jan, I don’t want sending one to seem like desperation :\ because they are my only avenue for getting into med school this cycle. They were already one of my top choices
 
illmaatic said:
I thought you only send these if officially waitlisted??

I would send one, but I interviewed way back in mid Jan, I don’t want sending one to seem like desperation :\ because they are my only avenue for getting into med school this cycle. They were already one of my top choices
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I don’t think saying what about the school fits with your interests is desperate. It’s more so about what you say and how you articulate yourself that would make it desperate. Unless you are spamming them I don’t think letters of interest or intent will hurt
 
illmaatic said:
I thought you only send these if officially waitlisted??

I would send one, but I interviewed way back in mid Jan, I don’t want sending one to seem like desperation :\ because they are my only avenue for getting into med school this cycle. They were already one of my top choices
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Nope, not the case at all. A lot of people advise to only send a letter of intent if you already have an MD acceptance - I personally disagree with that because if that school is your #1 choice and you will absolutely go there even if you get another acceptance, I believe that’s important information they should know. That’s just my own opinion that can be considered objectively wrong *shrug*

But a letter of interest can be sent at any time. A lot of people will send them even if they haven’t gotten an interview yet to show they’re still interested. Some send them after interviews to demonstrate that they’re really fond of and serious about the school - without the commitment that comes with a letter of intent. Some people send them after they get waitlisted to hopefully increase their chances of getting accepted off of the waitlist compared to an applicant with similar stats who did not take extra measures to demonstrate interest.

Basically my take on it: this whole process is rather subjective and you should take any action you personally deem acceptable and worthwhile. Want to send a letter? Do it. It’s your future on the line so that’s your call to make - not others’
 
MrsBrightside22 said:
Nope, not the case at all. A lot of people advise to only send a letter of intent if you already have an MD acceptance - I personally disagree with that because if that school is your #1 choice and you will absolutely go there even if you get another acceptance, I believe that’s important information they should know. That’s just my own opinion that can be considered objectively wrong *shrug*

But a letter of interest can be sent at any time. A lot of people will send them even if they haven’t gotten an interview yet to show they’re still interested. Some send them after interviews to demonstrate that they’re really fond of and serious about the school - without the commitment that comes with a letter of intent. Some people send them after they get waitlisted to hopefully increase their chances of getting accepted off of the waitlist compared to an applicant with similar stats who did not take extra measures to demonstrate interest.

Basically my take on it: this whole process is rather subjective and you should take any action you personally deem acceptable and worthwhile. Want to send a letter? Do it. It’s your future on the line so that’s your call to make - not others’
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I agree with you wholeheartedly. Some people say they aren't helpful; others say they are. It's your life, so you should do what feels right to you. What my advisors have told me is that at a school like Harvard they don't care too much about letters of intent or interest because most people would want to go there, but these letters may be useful for schools where it is not so obvious why you want to go (state school that you are OOS to, close to your family, strong connection to the school's mission, special program at the school you want to take advantage of).
 
Applied MD/MPH, was accepted to MPH program mid-January pre-MD II. Just received an II right now, auto-scheduled for mid-March! 70LM OOS
 
Anyone hear any acceptance news from downstate? I called earlier this month and I'm starting to feel like this:

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After receiving the jan/feb email and sending in an update, they responded by thanking me for the update and telling me that my app "continues to be on hold."
 
So are we all on hold then? Nobody's gotten anything since the first wave of A's & the series of 5 rejection emails in a row?
 
illmaatic said:
wtf... how does this square with the people getting emails saying we'll hear back early/mid/late spring? 🙁
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The class has ~200 people so they only need to accept that many by March 15th but they’ll ultimately accept at least double that and theoretically all of those acceptances can come after March 15
 
emergentmorula said:
Do you think they sent out 200 acceptances in that first wave? My impression was that it was a very limited release, idk
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Based on the number of people who posted here which was around 20 I guessed that equals around 200 acceptances if we assume that 10% of premeds post on SDN. If we want to up that percent to say 15% since maybe more people post about an acceptance then that’s 133 but I can’t imagine it’s much less than that! Though I guess by March 15th well see for sure if they accepted enough for the whole class back in January haha
 
Smkronstedt0609 said:
II for March! What info do you all have on the interview? Any advice? Thanks!
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Pretty standard 1:1 with a faculty member/member of the committee that lasts about 45 min-1 hour. They'll ask you questions about your file and very standard med school interview questions. There's also a writing exercise that you just have to complete before you leave for the day. Idk when your interview is but mine was in the late afternoon so it was a lot of waiting around for me.
 
Mr. Peanutbutter said:
Pretty standard 1:1 with a faculty member/member of the committee that lasts about 45 min-1 hour. They'll ask you questions about your file and very standard med school interview questions. There's also a writing exercise that you just have to complete before you leave for the day. Idk when your interview is but mine was in the late afternoon so it was a lot of waiting around for me.
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What is the writing exercise?
 
thinklikeaproton2019 said:
Based on the number of people who posted here which was around 20 I guessed that equals around 200 acceptances if we assume that 10% of premeds post on SDN. If we want to up that percent to say 15% since maybe more people post about an acceptance then that’s 133 but I can’t imagine it’s much less than that! Though I guess by March 15th well see for sure if they accepted enough for the whole class back in January haha
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That's a pretty huge assumption. 10% of premeds on SDN? 15? You really have no way of knowing that.
 
Zathric said:
That's a pretty huge assumption. 10% of premeds on SDN? 15? You really have no way of knowing that.
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Yeah definitely! Obviously nobody knows for sure but if you actually google “how many premeds use SDN” there’s a whole thread of people speculating around that number. Most people lurk but don’t post. At the end of the day though it doesn’t matter and if they send no further acceptances in the next two weeks we’ll know about 10% is right
 
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so is the consensus here that we probably won't get any more decisions until April? I interviewed last week
 
to my early fall interviewees, just wanna make sure we're all giving up together? kk thanks
 
Withdrew an II for next week - hoping it can go to someone else!
 
Just got a hold for late spring email after waiting since my interview in October. Tbh that's the last nail in the coffin for me. Will probably withdraw my application.

EDIT: It's technically a "we haven't rendered a decision yet" email but I'm taking that to mean hold lol
 
Just got an email saying the committee has not made a decision on my application and that they will re-review my application in late spring... -.- making me wait after my interview was all the way back in October, not a good look SUNY, not a good look at all
 
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