2019-2020 CA University of Science and Medicine

BU Medical Sciences
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Can any past or current students describe their experience at CUSM? I'm tight for money and trying to see if it would be a good fit. I heard that the school is basically a warehouse-type building with one hallway? If true, how does that work out? Thanks!
 
And it works again (no incognito or workaround needed). My heart can't handle this

Submitted 8/22
 
Gorpu said:
Did those who submitted get a complete email? I have not yet
Click to expand...
Same, I submitted on 8/21 and have not received any confirmation email yet, just the "thank you for submitting your secondary application" on the portal page.
 
MediumRareSteak18 said:
Can any past or current students describe their experience at CUSM? I'm tight for money and trying to see if it would be a good fit. I heard that the school is basically a warehouse-type building with one hallway? If true, how does that work out? Thanks!
Click to expand...

The school has only been open for two years so there are no past students yet. As far as the building is concerned, it's a temporary site while the permanent medical school building is being built. I can say for sure it has more than one hallway and everything else a school needs for the preclerkship years. Would if be nice if it were a more spacious location with larger lab space? Yeah sure, but that's nothing anyone applying right now has to worry about as the new building will be completed by the time the next class enrolls.

My experience:

Pros: Large emphasis placed on clinical skills and reasoning; highly available and responsive staff/faculty; a lot of study resources and options made available to students; a lot of opportunity to help shape the school (as its newer); we have our own hospital with residents/attendings who are eager to work with us

Cons: faculty can be a bit enthusiastic and drown us with extra work/projects sometimes (my opinion); no name recognition yet; I would say a slight lack of faculty but that should be different when more faculty are hired with the new building; as the curriculum is tweaked things can change abruptly (again should be a lot more smoothed out by next year); quality of anatomy lab is questionable sometimes, but again, something that should be greatly improved with the new building

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting but that's what I've got off the top of my head.
 
Apothecary Aquinas said:
The school has only been open for two years so there are no past students yet. As far as the building is concerned, it's a temporary site while the permanent medical school building is being built. I can say for sure it has more than one hallway and everything else a school needs for the preclerkship years. Would if be nice if it were a more spacious location with larger lab space? Yeah sure, but that's nothing anyone applying right now has to worry about as the new building will be completed by the time the next class enrolls.

My experience:

Pros: Large emphasis placed on clinical skills and reasoning; highly available and responsive staff/faculty; a lot of study resources and options made available to students; a lot of opportunity to help shape the school (as its newer); we have our own hospital with residents/attendings who are eager to work with us

Cons: faculty can be a bit enthusiastic and drown us with extra work/projects sometimes (my opinion); no name recognition yet; I would say a slight lack of faculty but that should be different when more faculty are hired with the new building; as the curriculum is tweaked things can change abruptly (again should be a lot more smoothed out by next year); quality of anatomy lab is questionable sometimes, but again, something that should be greatly improved with the new building

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting but that's what I've got off the top of my head.
Click to expand...

Do you have any insight into the student loan situation?
 
Apothecary Aquinas said:
The school has only been open for two years so there are no past students yet. As far as the building is concerned, it's a temporary site while the permanent medical school building is being built. I can say for sure it has more than one hallway and everything else a school needs for the preclerkship years. Would if be nice if it were a more spacious location with larger lab space? Yeah sure, but that's nothing anyone applying right now has to worry about as the new building will be completed by the time the next class enrolls.

My experience:

Pros: Large emphasis placed on clinical skills and reasoning; highly available and responsive staff/faculty; a lot of study resources and options made available to students; a lot of opportunity to help shape the school (as its newer); we have our own hospital with residents/attendings who are eager to work with us

Cons: faculty can be a bit enthusiastic and drown us with extra work/projects sometimes (my opinion); no name recognition yet; I would say a slight lack of faculty but that should be different when more faculty are hired with the new building; as the curriculum is tweaked things can change abruptly (again should be a lot more smoothed out by next year); quality of anatomy lab is questionable sometimes, but again, something that should be greatly improved with the new building

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting but that's what I've got off the top of my head.
Click to expand...

When is the new building supposed to open?
 
gadgor said:
Do you have any insight into the student loan situation?
Click to expand...

It's a bit complicated at the moment (transitioning between iHelp and Sallie Mae, most likely) but there will be federal funding by next year (Title IV) as the school has passed the appropriate accreditation steps.

cs123 said:
When is the new building supposed to open?
Click to expand...

Completion around April 2020 then should be officially opening around June-ish once everything is moved in, etc.
 
To add to the pros mentioned earlier: were P/F grading system, the faculty is responsive to feedback, our class is very tight-knit and supportive, and the school is close to a lot of good restaurants and shops (not school specific but I do appreciate it). Also one of our anatomy professors is super awesome and helpful and does his best to prepare us for boards.

Cons: we have a fair amount of mandatory stuff that at times I feel very overwhelmed (however the administration is attempting to fix the schedule to reduce this which is really nice). Living in the IE is not exactly the best part of California lol (though there definitely are some nice parts). It’s hot af here during late spring and summer (less of a concern if you’re inside with the AC on all the time).

Overall I enjoy it here and am really glad this is where I ended up. I’m excited to see how this school progresses and what it turns into over the years, there’s a big push to make this school take off and be up there with the UCs
 
Just wanted to chime in that I was verified 8/12 and received Secondary from here same as everyone else on 8/20. I'm hoping to submit by tomorrow afternoon. Good luck to everyone! 😀
 
Cjbridgman said:
I'm having the same issue. Emailed admissions but haven't gotten a response. I'm gonna try giving AMCAS a call tomorrow
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Did you have any luck? It's still not working for me.

Are you getting this error message:
We're sorry, the application activity you are trying to access is no longer available. This is due to a change you made to your AMCAS designation.
 
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CaptainPoopyPants said:
Any chance you guys could expand upon this a bit? What kinds of things do you find a bit much? Thank you 🙂
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Basically we have multiple components to our education, not just lectures (i.e. there's a clinical component). While I find these components to be very beneficial to my overall education and truly believe they will be of great help by the time I start clinical rotations, sometimes it feels like it can be a bit demanding and I get stressed out.

With that said, I recently switched up my study approach and it's actually gotten a lot better. I realized I was going way too tryhard and toned it down in order to help my mental health lmao. Also our admin is going to change up our schedule to give us more days off which I think will go a long way in helping us feel like we have adequate time and not overwhelmed. At the same time, I'm not sure how it's like at other schools so idk if this is a universal problem that med students face or not.

Overall, no complaints here and very glad that I chose here. Also nice getting to stay in CA lol
 
Anyone having difficulties accessing the portal 8/25/19?
 
Adang said:
Anyone having difficulties accessing the portal 8/25/19?
Click to expand...
Yes - it's not even working when I use an incognito window. I guess we need to call them tomorrow.

Edit: it's working now! Try the link in the original supplemental email rather than the follow up links.
 
Last edited:
Kiwi95 said:
Basically we have multiple components to our education, not just lectures (i.e. there's a clinical component). While I find these components to be very beneficial to my overall education and truly believe they will be of great help by the time I start clinical rotations, sometimes it feels like it can be a bit demanding and I get stressed out.

With that said, I recently switched up my study approach and it's actually gotten a lot better. I realized I was going way too tryhard and toned it down in order to help my mental health lmao. Also our admin is going to change up our schedule to give us more days off which I think will go a long way in helping us feel like we have adequate time and not overwhelmed. At the same time, I'm not sure how it's like at other schools so idk if this is a universal problem that med students face or not.

Overall, no complaints here and very glad that I chose here. Also nice getting to stay in CA lol
Click to expand...

Can you expand on the research that's happening on-campus? Are there opportunities for MD students to get involved?
 
Hypnosis said:
Can you expand on the research that's happening on-campus? Are there opportunities for MD students to get involved?
Click to expand...

There are a ton of research opportunities if that's what you want to do! In the official sense, there is a longitudinal research program for students who are very interested in basic science research (count me out lol) where they can spend two years working on research under the supervision of a faculty mentor and are provided a scholarship. For our class there will be 5-6 people in this but it might be more for your class since there will be more of you. We also have a required research project in M2 so that everyone graduating will have done one research project. There is also a paid summer research program you can apply for.

Apart from that, students can feel free to approach a basic science or clinical faculty member to do research with them on their own time, and our walls are covered in the posters of research projects from the students in the first class of only 64, so it's safe to say the research opportunities are pretty abundant even outside the ones mentioned above. And in addition to the research going on at our school, there is a lot of research going on at our affiliated hospital, ARMC, and you can feel free to reach out to a physician there if you want to get involved! Also if that's not enough, we're right next to two other med schools and if you wanna get crafty you can reach out to faculty there as well.
 
Secondary submitted last night, In-state and LizzyM 70.4, super excited about this school, good luck to everyone!
 
Is the page working for anyone today? Keeps saying failure to authenticate
 
Gorpu said:
Did those who submitted get a complete email? I have not yet
Click to expand...
ah5tt4y said:
Same, I submitted on 8/21 and have not received any confirmation email yet, just the "thank you for submitting your secondary application" on the portal page.
Click to expand...

I just received a secondary received/under review email (submitted Saturday, 8/24).
 
aeryna said:
Me too... is this a glitch or are we actually screened out?
I was verified on AMCAS 8/14 so I was hoping they're just taking a while...
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I sent an email just now asking for clarification. I hope they send us secondaries and not the R.
 
"Please disregard the previous email acknowledging your Secondary Application was received, as it was sent in error.
Thank you for your understanding."

Waiting for the dreaded R now...
 
Nugester said:
"Please disregard the previous email acknowledging your Secondary Application was received, as it was sent in error.
Thank you for your understanding."

Waiting for the dreaded R now...
Click to expand...
Had you sent a secondary to them???
 
Nugester said:
"Please disregard the previous email acknowledging your Secondary Application was received, as it was sent in error.
Thank you for your understanding."

Waiting for the dreaded R now...
Click to expand...
Same.... I received an email a week ago saying they had received my primary application. Now the pre-secondary interview invite and then an error email has me worried maybe they meant to send me a pre-secondary R....
 
mjgon55 said:
Same.... I received an email a week ago saying they had received my primary application. Now the pre-secondary interview invite and then an error email has me worried maybe they meant to send me a pre-secondary R....
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Or maybe they need to get their act together.

"Thank your for understanding" as now I think of the endless possibilities of what they are going to send me---all negative.
 
Nugester said:
Or maybe they need to get their act together.

"Thank your for understanding" as now I think of the endless possibilities of what they are going to send me---all negative.
Click to expand...
I have many thoughts also running through my head, but trying to stay positive!
 
Lol I submitted their secondary and still got both emails ("in review," then "jk disregard last email").
 
Primary verified: 8/20
Secondary received: 8/27

LizzyM of 68. Canadian Citizen with AOS, but has ties to CA (family and lived there one year in San Diego during HS) and completed HS in the states. I think my EC's/personal statement probably caught their attention more than anything (since they do a holistic screen).

Looking forward to this school!
 
Last edited:
I emailed them about the complete letters. Since theres a lot of applicants, its taking them a while to send those emails out. Just have to be patient.
 
starlord005 said:
I emailed them about the complete letters. Since theres a lot of applicants, its taking them a while to send those emails out. Just have to be patient.
Click to expand...

What does the email say? I just checked my inbox again, and I actually did receive an email the same day I submitted; I pasted it below.


Subject line: Application Received

Dear [name],
Thank you for submitting your application to the California University of Science and Medicine-School of Medicine! We sincerely appreciate your interest in our school.
We have begun reviewing applications and will be communicating with you as soon as possible regarding your status. Due to the number of applications received, we do request your patience. We will get back with you as soon as possible.
Thank you again for sending us your application. Best wishes and good luck!
Sincerely,
A. Peter Eveland, EdD
Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions
 
Hypnosis said:
What does the email say? I just checked my inbox again, and I actually did receive an email the same day I submitted; I pasted it below.


Subject line: Application Received

Dear [name],
Thank you for submitting your application to the California University of Science and Medicine-School of Medicine! We sincerely appreciate your interest in our school.
We have begun reviewing applications and will be communicating with you as soon as possible regarding your status. Due to the number of applications received, we do request your patience. We will get back with you as soon as possible.
Thank you again for sending us your application. Best wishes and good luck!
Sincerely,
A. Peter Eveland, EdD
Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions
Click to expand...

I got that email too but I think that one was just a confirmation of receipt of our primary application. I got that email before I submitted my secondary.
 
cs123 said:
I got that email too but I think that one was just a confirmation of receipt of our primary application. I got that email before I submitted my secondary.
Click to expand...

Lol I got my secondary application invite before this email so weird
 
Hypnosis said:
Same and I submitted on the first day they sent out secondaries lol
Click to expand...

I also submitted the secondary on 8/20 and haven’t received a “complete” or “in review” email. CA Med did say that they received my secondary though
 
aayz345 said:
I also submitted the secondary on 8/20 and haven’t received a “complete” or “in review” email. CA Med did say that they received my secondary though
Click to expand...
I submitted today and did NOT receive ANY confirmation email (payment or submission). It says on the portal that everything went through, so I wouldn't worry about this TBH.
 
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