2019-2020 Brown (Alpert)

Started by PapaGuava
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Anyone else suddenly not able to log into the portal today? Looks like the login screen has changed from the one I bookmarked, it autodirected to a new one, and now gives a "Login Unsuccessful" error.
 
tinfoilforests said:
Anyone else suddenly not able to log into the portal today? Looks like the login screen has changed from the one I bookmarked, it autodirected to a new one, and now gives a "Login Unsuccessful" error.
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Haha—I’ve had the same problem since the beginning! Just keep refreshing and pasting the link into the browser and logging in a bajillion times, and eventually you’ll get to the portal :hungover:
 
AmaranthMoor said:
Haha—I’ve had the same problem since the beginning! Just keep refreshing and pasting the link into the browser and logging in a bajillion times, and eventually you’ll get to the portal :hungover:
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Good lord that's inconvenient, annoying, and any other word along those lines. I gave up after 3 tries, was like "alright cool on to check the next one."
 
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Student189045 said:
Having trouble writing 3000 characters about a future I definitely have not made any serious decisions about other than wanting to practice medicine with a few specialty interests. Should I just make up a scenario that sounds interesting? I feel like it’s naive to talk about a specific scenario because it obviously changes for 95% (or more) of people. But how else is one supposed to get 3000 characters?
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I wrote closer to 2000-2500 characters and I talked about my interests in academic medicine and certain causes that are important to me that I hope to continue working with and advocating for. I implied one specialty that I am interested in, but only because I have significant work experience in the field. It can be as general as you'd like. However, medical schools aren't naive, they know that 80% of students will change their intended specialty by the time they apply for residencies, so if you mention a specialty, back it up, but don't worry about it too much.
 
Ole_Toe said:
How long does their verification typically take? Do most people receive secondaries immediately, or do they pre-screen? Not sure if it's worth calling for a secondary if it's only been ~1 week.
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I don't think they screen. It took around a week or so for me to get mine, so don't worry! It should come any day. It went into my primary gmail inbox, but check your junk/spam just in case.
 
It took mine about two weeks. I finally emailed them and they said that it takes time to get credentialed in their system by IT.
 
gemcattini said:
Is Brown very interested in primary care over specialties, such as Oncology since there is no clinical dept for that?
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I can't speak to their curriculum, but if you check MSAR, about 11% of their class goes into FM which is higher than any similar program I could find (Dartmouth is 1% and USC is 8). On the other hand, only 15% go into IM, compared with 20-30+ for similar schools. Seems like they produce more family medicine docs for some reason
 
gemcattini said:
Is Brown very interested in primary care over specialties, such as Oncology since there is no clinical dept for that?
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Current M1 here. Brown emphasizes a broader, health systems approach earlier in the curriculum than most schools and integrates it throughout the 4 years. Either this attracts potential FM docs early on or converts people after they start. There's also a joint MD-MS program specifically for students interested in primary care fields. That said, there is plenty of research / scholarly work in every field, definitely including oncology: Department of Medicine - Alpert Medical School
 
The additional documents/upload portal on their website is only for updates (and not for anything else when we submit our secondary)
Is that correct?
 
On the Brown website, it says ~40% of the class is accepted from PLME. If there are any Brown med students or alum on this thread - out of curiosity, is there ever a sense of cliqueness or lack of intermixing between PLME and non-PLME students? I'm just wondering since maybe/probably the PLME students have known each other for years and are more likely to stick together
 
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tiny turtle said:
On the Brown website, it says ~40% of the class is accepted from PLME. If there are any Brown med students or alum on this thread - out of curiosity, is there ever a sense of cliqueness or lack of intermixing between PLME and non-PLME students? I'm just wondering since maybe/probably the PLME students have known each other for years and are more likely to stick together
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Disclaimer: I'm not an Alpert student.

But, hypothetically, if I were a Brown UG student, I might guess that PLME students have a close community due to all the PLME-specific events throughout UG. Also hypothetically, Brown in general might have a reputation of being cliquey, which I may hypothetically be able to corroborate through first-hand experience. Hypothetically, I would know several PLMEs and get along with them well as a normal premed. Furthermore, the Brown undergraduate experience is unique (and hypothetically even more so for PLMEs compared to traditional pre-meds) due to Brown's Open Curriculum and academic structure, so PLME students would have a shared culture of the four years together in this super weird place. A final hypothetical: PLME students can also be sociable and motivated to meet new people — I wouldn't think it's very different from med students from the same alma mater sticking together. Because of this, you'll see PLMEs who studied the coolest subjects in undergrad — contemplative studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, anything. They're open-minded and smart individuals, and if you make an effort to meet them, I'm sure you'll be able to get along with them 🙂

Hopefully at that point they won't come up to you and say "btw I'm PLME".
that's a meme here if you didn't know. if you show them you know about this, you'll be instantly recognized as a brunonian and be immediately accepted into their tribe
 
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tiny turtle said:
On the Brown website, it says ~40% of the class is accepted from PLME. If there are any Brown med students or alum on this thread - out of curiosity, is there ever a sense of cliqueness or lack of intermixing between PLME and non-PLME students? I'm just wondering since maybe/probably the PLME students have known each other for years and are more likely to stick together
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I'm not a Brown student so I can't speak to the reality, but I would guess that after 4 years with some of the same people, the PLME students would be excited to meet new students. At least, I am always excited when I get the chance to expand my circle of peers!
 
tiny turtle said:
On the Brown website, it says ~40% of the class is accepted from PLME. If there are any Brown med students or alum on this thread - out of curiosity, is there ever a sense of cliqueness or lack of intermixing between PLME and non-PLME students? I'm just wondering since maybe/probably the PLME students have known each other for years and are more likely to stick together
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Hello! I'm an M1, non-PLME, here to tell you that there is lots of intermixing between PLME and non-PLME students. Several PLME students take 0, 1, or 2 gap years so a lot of them weren't in the same undergrad class and thus are meeting for the first time as well.
 
strappysandals said:
OOS and non alum here. I notice brown has a consistently reported post-II acceptance rate of 80%+. Is this legit? Why?
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According to data from US World News, Alpert once interviewed 389 applicants and accepted 278, matriculating 143. This is 71%.

I am not entirely sure of how PLME data is reported, but they are definitely part of the matriculant and accepted numbers. Considering that PLME takes about 60 students, you can remove 60 from both of the latter two numbers. Consider accepting 220 out of 389 interviewees (57% effective acceptance rate), or 220 out of 329 interviewees exclusive of PLME, (67% effective acceptance rate)

What's also true is that Alpert simply interviews very few applicants in comparison to other schools. I never applied to PLME, so I cannot comment specifically on that, but I know that PLME does not conduct interviews for applicants, other than the general Brown alumni interview. This suggests that none of the 389 interviewees were PLME students, giving a more moderate acceptance rate of 57%.

Compare UVA, a similarly ranked medical school which has a 68% post-interview acceptance rate. 57% is now not as extreme.
 
II just now-- does anyone know how to tell if it's an interview for the combined MD-ScM program or just MD? I applied to the ScM program too but can't tell if the II is for one or both?
 
Droseraceae said:
II just now-- does anyone know how to tell if it's an interview for the combined MD-ScM program or just MD? I applied to the ScM program too but can't tell if the II is for one or both?
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Same here! When you fill out the secondary it says that you’re considered for ScM only after you’ve been accepted to MD. I do wonder if the MD interviewers will have read my ScM essays though
 
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