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zimzamzoop said:
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it is ok to refer to the medical school as "UM" for character purposes? I'm at like 1499 characters with one of the essays lol but if they prefer "U of M" or "UM Medical School" or something, I'll rework some sentences to accommodate.
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I used UMMS
 
Is Michigan a research intensive school? Would not answering prompt 3 look bad?
 
bigeman101 said:
Is Michigan a research intensive school? Would not answering prompt 3 look bad?
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It says optional, right? Michigan is a Top-20 school or close to it, and they get a boatload of research funding. Of course they like applicants who are interesting in becoming physician scientists. However, like most other top schools they like to enroll a well-rounded class, which includes people who are interested in becoming doctors because they want to focus on clinical skills rather than research. If you did research in undergrad and it inspired you, then write about it. If not, then don't--it's optional. The advice I've seen most consistently is that optional essays are optional, and secondary essays should be written honestly and not just about what the school wants to hear.
 
In regards to the third prompt, what exactly is a physician scientist? I wanted to mention how I wanted to pursue academic medicine involving public health research, but combining that with my current experience in wet labs (so basically talking about molecular epidemiology, looking at disease makers in the population, working with data sets, etc.) Does this count as being a "physician scientist" even though it isn't bench research (although it may be considered clinical depending on the nature of the research I guess). I know some MSTP students get their PhD in epidemiology or something like that but I wanted to make sure...
 
zimzamzoop said:
In regards to the third prompt, what exactly is a physician scientist? I wanted to mention how I wanted to pursue academic medicine involving public health research, but combining that with my current experience in wet labs (so basically talking about molecular epidemiology, looking at disease makers in the population, working with data sets, etc.) Does this count as being a "physician scientist" even though it isn't bench research (although it may be considered clinical depending on the nature of the research I guess). I know some MSTP students get their PhD in epidemiology or something like that but I wanted to make sure...
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BOOST this question: If I'm interested in public health research and implementation, does that count as being a physician scientist? All of my "research" experience comes from molecular labs, but I'm really interested in the public health (advocacy and programming) aspect. Would that still be considered a "physician scientist"?
 
jessicaday95 said:
BOOST this question: If I'm interested in public health research and implementation, does that count as being a physician scientist? All of my "research" experience comes from molecular labs, but I'm really interested in the public health (advocacy and programming) aspect. Would that still be considered a "physician scientist"?
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Personally, I think this a valid response to the question. You could frame your essay as being an aspiring physician and social scientist. Perhaps you would also mention your interest in social determinants of health and how the social affects the biological etc and going to medical school (especially at Michigan, wink wink) would be the best way you feel you could achieve that goal while serving people directly as a physician.

I'm just another (MSTP) applicant though.
 
I get the sense that they want to hear a bit about how your career goals tie in to attending Michigan for the first prompt. Any thoughts/insights @m1s?
 
jessicaday95 said:
BOOST this question: If I'm interested in public health research and implementation, does that count as being a physician scientist? All of my "research" experience comes from molecular labs, but I'm really interested in the public health (advocacy and programming) aspect. Would that still be considered a "physician scientist"?
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I talked about something similar. I did focus on some of the public health research like HIV, Hep C, etc and how the basic science research can have translational qualities that will help the public health and education portions of medicine. I def think you can do something like this so you get to show both of these passions while still addressing the prompt (since we aren't 100% sure if public health/social science fits the prompt)
 
Does anyone know how to verify that UMich received your CASPer scores so the secondary is complete? I took CASPer in May and sent the score in June but I can't tell if they've received it on the portal.
 
num76 said:
Just submitted! I'm OOS but Michigan undergrad so curious to see how this goes.

I took CASPer in June and am wondering about how to view my status for that too — the "status message" on the checklist/portal just says to schedule it if I haven't, which seems like they don't have any info or score yet.
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They should receive your casper test 3 weeks from when you took it.
 
aleezard21 said:
Does anyone know how to verify that UMich received your CASPer scores so the secondary is complete? I took CASPer in May and sent the score in June but I can't tell if they've received it on the portal.
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I checked the CASPer site, and it had the status of my scores there
 
Has anyone been marked complete? Completed CASPer on June 3rd, submitted secondary on the 30th and it still just says "PRIMARY APPLICATION RECEIVED". Probably takes a little bit for them to turn around on everything due to volume of applications, but I just wanted to confirm if anyone had been marked complete or says anything other than they received the primary.
 
For the "choose one of these areas that you want to impact medicine" how exactly did you guys go about it? For example, say someone chose rural medicine, what more could you really say besides you want to practice in a rural setting? Did you guys give examples, etc?
 
Gilakend said:
For the "choose one of these areas that you want to impact medicine" how exactly did you guys go about it? For example, say someone chose rural medicine, what more could you really say besides you want to practice in a rural setting? Did you guys give examples, etc?
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I chose biomedical sciences, but FWIW I think it's more about what your goals are in that area of medicine. Remember that UMMS envisions its graduates as "leaders" and "agents of change" so I think they want to know what aspirations you have which may fit with their vision. For example, if you say you want to practice rural medicine you could talk about why you want to practice rural medicine and what you hope to accomplish by doing so. Following the rural medicine example, you could say you hope to expand healthcare to populations that are underserved, or even conduct studies looking at differences in disease populations between rural and urban settings, etc. It follows that you should pick an area that you're passionate about, and probably one that you are at least somewhat familiar with.

At least that's my 2 cents.
 
Gilakend said:
For the "choose one of these areas that you want to impact medicine" how exactly did you guys go about it? For example, say someone chose rural medicine, what more could you really say besides you want to practice in a rural setting? Did you guys give examples, etc?
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I chose underserved communities because I have work with them and have a very specific mission about decreasing health disparities for one of the underserved groups. Like above, I think talking about how you will be a part of leading the initiative for change is key. I was thinking about doing "Other" and doing healthcare policy so you can really just do whatever you think you are most passionate about.
 
BillDugRomans said:
Has anyone been marked complete? Completed CASPer on June 3rd, submitted secondary on the 30th and it still just says "PRIMARY APPLICATION RECEIVED". Probably takes a little bit for them to turn around on everything due to volume of applications, but I just wanted to confirm if anyone had been marked complete or says anything other than they received the primary.
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I am in the same boat as you, secondary and primary submitted (with LORs)casper sent in June, but it says only primary confirmed. Maybe they don't let you know that the secondary is complete? Or maybe it takes time to process? The problem is there is nowhere on the portal to really check. I'm sure it's fine, glad I'm not the only one worried about this though
 
aleezard21 said:
I am in the same boat as you, secondary and primary submitted (with LORs)casper sent in June, but it says only primary confirmed. Maybe they don't let you know that the secondary is complete? Or maybe it takes time to process? The problem is there is nowhere on the portal to really check. I'm sure it's fine, glad I'm not the only one worried about this though
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I got an e-mail that said "secondary submitted" but I also just see primary confirmed. I'd give it some time.
 
BillDugRomans said:
Has anyone been marked complete? Completed CASPer on June 3rd, submitted secondary on the 30th and it still just says "PRIMARY APPLICATION RECEIVED". Probably takes a little bit for them to turn around on everything due to volume of applications, but I just wanted to confirm if anyone had been marked complete or says anything other than they received the primary.
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Same CASPer date. Says its delivered on the CASPer site . My Michigan portal changed to

"APPLICATIONS RECEIVED -- We have received your primary and secondary applications and are waiting for your CASPer Score. We will review your file without the score, but will not send interview offers without your CASPer score."
 
This might sound like a dumb question but should I write the option essay about being a physician scientist if I wrote about rural medicine/Low SES medicine for my other prompt? I have a lot of research experience and think I could write a decent essay but they almost seem contradictory to me.

I also don't really know if I would want to do research but if I did it wouldn't be laboratory based, should I just skip it?
 
I'm not necessarily planning on lab-based research either and I wrote my first essay about underserved populations. I went ahead and wrote a physician-scientist essay because it was the best way to expand more on my past lab research and because I do want to do clinical/translational research down the line. The prompt kind of primes you to talk about a bridge between fundamental biomed research and other areas imo
 
dodolol21 said:
Same CASPer date. Says its delivered on the CASPer site . My Michigan portal changed to

"APPLICATIONS RECEIVED -- We have received your primary and secondary applications and are waiting for your CASPer Score. We will review your file without the score, but will not send interview offers without your CASPer score."
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Mine says the same, looks like it's just taking them a bit to verify receipt of everything. Hopefully they'll confirm receiving our CASPer score soon, I'm sure it's there already but it'll likely take some time before our portal reflects that. I'm gonna give a few days before thinking about it again.
 
I was paranoid about the CASPer status on the portal, so I emailed them. They said that it should be updated on the portal by the end of the week. Fingers crossed
 
Secondary submitted!

The more I looked into U Mich the more excited I got about the prospect of going there. What a fantastic program! I’m applying OOS. Will post updates as they come ~

Best of luck everyone!
 
SR09 said:
I was paranoid about the CASPer status on the portal, so I emailed them. They said that it should be updated on the portal by the end of the week. Fingers crossed
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Anybody get their status updated? Mine still says wating for CASPer
 
I have no bench research experience, but a significant amount of clinical research experience, which I would like to write about for Michigan's secondary.

1. Would it be a stretch to include this under "Biological and Biomedical Sciences"? Would I be better off entering "Clinical/Translational Research" under "Other"?
2. If I chose to write about something unrelated for Essay 1, could I write about clinical research under the optional essay? Hesitating based on phrase "laboratory-based research on fundamental problems"

Thanks in advance!
 
Potatoes&Avocados said:
I have no bench research experience, but a significant amount of clinical research experience, which I would like to write about for Michigan's secondary.

1. Would it be a stretch to include this under "Biological and Biomedical Sciences"? Would I be better off entering "Clinical/Translational Research" under "Other"?
2. If I chose to write about something unrelated for Essay 1, could I write about clinical research under the optional essay? Hesitating based on phrase "laboratory-based research on fundamental problems"

Thanks in advance!
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Just my 2 cents:

I think it would be better as "Clinical/Translational research" since that's you how yourself describe the research experience
The optional essay seemed to really be pushing towards wet-lab kinda stuff based on my reading. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but I think it'd be safer if you wrote about clinical research for prompt 1 and leave the optional one blank (it is optional after all). This is, of course, unless you have an extremely compelling alternative answer for the first prompt. Since that one is required I'd make sure thats solid
 
Anyone know if U Mich will evaluate your application before receiving your CASPer scores, or do they wait until everything is in first? I have my secondaries polished off and will be verified early next week but am taking CASPer tomorrow so they won't receive my scores until the end of this month.
 
Sheiko said:
Anyone know if U Mich will evaluate your application before receiving your CASPer scores, or do they wait until everything is in first? I have my secondaries polished off and will be verified early next week but am taking CASPer tomorrow so they won't receive my scores until the end of this month.
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They will still read the application, but won't send an II until they get the score
 
So I'm guessing no michigan monday tomorrow?
 
Lucca said:
why not? Interviews last year started coming out July 10th. In any case, Im taking CASPER in a few hours so my app wont be complete for another 3 weeks /shrug.
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Lol I am in the same boat. Taking CASPER today (had a chance to do it in June but chickened out and wanted to "prep" more which I now find pointless haha).
 
Unlimited Apps said:
Lol I am in the same boat. Taking CASPER today (had a chance to do it in June but chickened out and wanted to "prep" more which I now find pointless haha).
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yah haha I was this close to taking it and then I was like nahhh I dont want to take another test and changed my mind again because I actually rly want a chance at Michigan and U Wash MSTPs lol
 
jessicaday95 said:
For questions 1 and 2 I have quite a bit of overlap.
These are main points I could do for my diversity:
  1. Rural upbringing
  2. LGBTQ experience in rural
  3. Experience in teaching Supplemental instruction and passion for innovations in education + group learning
I really have quite a bit to talk about in terms of how my rural upbringing has shaped my values and how I interact/view people. However, my answer for 1 would be undeserved populations with the goal of improving rural healthcare delivery because that is 100% where I see myself practicing. Is it bad to talk about the rural theme in both answers if I discuss them in different ways?
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hniel15 said:
Wow, I also grew up rural and am LGBTQ+, and was planning on talking about those things in my diversity essay. However, I'm not as interested in rural health, although that perspective has changed how I think about healthcare across many spectrums. I'm sure you would be golden to discuss them different ways. Perhaps you could focus a bit more on the LGBTQ+ side for the diversity essay since it's more personal, and more generally rural healthcare for the first essay, from a career perspective? If you ever want to swap essays for another pair of eyes, feel free to message me!
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Lol fellow rural LGBTQ+ person checking in. I talked about that for my diversity statement and how it has helped me form my mission of decreasing LGBTQ+ healthcare disparities and help rural areas get more LGBTQ+ health resources. I talked about facing homophobia and having to be at ease with people who hated my existence without knowing me. And how the rural upbringing helped me learn to make the best of my situation even if you aren't given the most idea cards to play with. But I also dont have a strong desire to practice rural medicine (that may chance but I kinda wanna go into medical education to increase LGBTQ+ topics in the curriculum) so I dont think you need to say you want to go back to a rural area. Just show how the intersection of these 2 groups has given you a perspective that you wouldn't have if you only belonged to one of these groups. Hopefully we all get in!
 
Lucca said:
yah haha I was this close to taking it and then I was like nahhh I dont want to take another test and changed my mind again because I actually rly want a chance at Michigan and U Wash MSTPs lol
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Lol at-least the good thing about Michigan is that they will review your application with it but just won't send out an invitation for interview without the CASPer score.

I came into this cycle with the idea that only 1 of my schools needs it so I wasn't too worried about moving it to July 8th. But then over the last few weeks, I learned that 4 of my schools require it and a 5th strongly encourages it lol. I'll be taking it today just to get it out of the way.
 
Unlimited Apps said:
Lol at-least the good thing about Michigan is that they will review your application with it but just won't send out an invitation for interview without the CASPer score.

I came into this cycle with the idea that only 1 of my schools needs it so I wasn't too worried about moving it to July 8th. But then over the last few weeks, I learned that 4 of my schools require it and a 5th strongly encourages it lol. I'll be taking it today just to get it out of the way.
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good luck! I'm not too worried about it after the practice. Just sucked to drop more money on the cycle than I thought I had to lol
 
Lucca said:
why not? Interviews last year started coming out July 10th. In any case, Im taking CASPER in a few hours so my app wont be complete for another 3 weeks /shrug.
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Well I dont think anyone on this thread has reported that their CASPer marked as recieved yet. I submitted the secondary on 6/29 and my casper has been graded since mid June and still not complete lol.
 
dodolol21 said:
Well I dont think anyone on this thread has reported that their CASPer marked as recieved yet. I submitted the secondary on 6/29 and my casper has been graded since mid June and still not complete lol.
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ah Ok. Well, either they are a bit behind compared to last year for whatever reason or the website is not representative of the reality in the office. Either way, let's not pretend that people wont be anxiously jumping at every e-mail notification every day from now until next summer lol
 
Lucca said:
Either way, let's not pretend that people wont be anxiously jumping at every e-mail notification every day from now until next summer lol
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What a fun time that will be!
 
Regarding the first essay question, I have a good amount of experience in wet labs, and a lot less in clinical research (I started a full-time internship earlier this summer). However, I like what I'm doing now a lot more than what I did in my wet labs, and could see myself continuing clinical research in med school. Is it reasonable to pick bio/biomedical sciences for the first prompt, and talk about clinical research, even though I don't really have much experience in that arena yet?
 
Might sound silly but does anyone know if the 1500 character count includes spaces? I'm at about 1400 without spaces and it doesn't cut any part off when I paste it into the text box, but just want to be sure
 
Lucca said:
good luck! I'm not too worried about it after the practice. Just sucked to drop more money on the cycle than I thought I had to lol
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Lol I wasn't too worried prior to because in my opinion its not that crazy of a test.

Whatcha think?
 
My link to the secondary doesn't work, should l email or call them? Or would someone be able to post a link that I can follow to this forum. Wasn't sure if the link is different for each applicant
 
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