2019-2020 Commonwealth (Geisinger)

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Korsakov said:
Thanks! Yeah I am planning on giving them a call tomorrow morning.

I'm also low-key pissed because I submitted this application well over a month and a half ago and felt like I was a very strong candidate for GCSOM. I wish I'd noticed this error sooner. Oh well.
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Maybe we should all check our applications for the sake of checking.
 
Korsakov said:
Okay strange situation here, hoping to get some advice.

I checked my applicant portal just now because I was hoping I'd missed an II email and for some reason decided to read over my essays again. Instead, I was shocked to find the essays saved in the 'supplemental application' tab simply aren't mine. I literally have someone else's essays saved in my application. I have no idea how this is possible. I want both myself and the other applicant to have a fair shot, especially if our essays were flipped somehow. I emailed the admissions people, but got an automatic response that they are out of the office until Sept. 13th (of course 🙄). Do y'all think i should call the admissions office tomorrow? Thanks

Edit: I can confirm that the essays aren't mine and I'm not just going for a re-write because I'm a man and the essays were all written around the experience of being a woman in medicine. Like they're just blatantly not mine. Argh.
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My friend actually had a similar situation occur to him and he notified admissions. They had some glitch in their system and said they fixed it. I'd definitely call them ASAP and let them know of your situation, don't stress 🙂
 
future_doctor_14 said:
My friend actually had a similar situation occur to him and he notified admissions. They had some glitch in their system and said they fixed it. I'd definitely call them ASAP and let them know of your situation, don't stress 🙂
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In case anyone was interested, I called them this morning and got no response. Someone finally emailed me in the afternoon, and told me I had to completely resubmit my application. Its a good thing I saved my essays.

I can't help but feel like my application won't be as competitive as when I originally submitted it over a month and a half ago. 🙁
 
Korsakov said:
In case anyone was interested, I called them this morning and got no response. Someone finally emailed me in the afternoon, and told me I had to completely resubmit my application. Its a good thing I saved my essays.

I can't help but feel like my application won't be as competitive as when I originally submitted it over a month and a half ago. 🙁
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Thanks for letting us know. I would encourage you to request them to use the original complete date since you had done your responsibility. If you haven't already asked them that, ofc.
 
KaioKaizen said:
Interview here last year was VERY chill for me personally.

The student interview was very conversational, as was the faculty one, albeit a little bit more professional. I absolutely love the campus and was pretty dejected when I got that R, but looks like I'm allowed a second chance this year lol.

Word to the wise: keep in mind the basis that the Commonwealth Medical College was founded on (a need for medical education in NE PA).
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Does anyone know what the interview day agenda is like? Is it 1/2 day, full day?
 
The interview email says park on E. Gibson st...can anyone comment on specifically where on E. Gibson...lol
 
Has anyone who has already interviewed taken advantage of the "stay with a student" option? I believe I recall them saying it is an option if you email them at least 2 weeks ahead of time. Just wondering if anyone went for it and how it worked out for them?
 
Jhepp23 said:
Has anyone who has already interviewed taken advantage of the "stay with a student" option? I believe I recall them saying it is an option if you email them at least 2 weeks ahead of time. Just wondering if anyone went for it and how it worked out for them?
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I didn't because I live within driving distance, but I have done it for other schools and it saved me a ton of money (biggest reason to do it IMO) and also gave me the chance to pick someones brain about the pros/cons of the school over dinner. A couple of the other interviewees mentioned staying with a host and had positive experiences.
 
anyone else's itinerary link from the interview confirmation email not working?
 
Jhepp23 said:
Has anyone who has already interviewed taken advantage of the "stay with a student" option? I believe I recall them saying it is an option if you email them at least 2 weeks ahead of time. Just wondering if anyone went for it and how it worked out for them?
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I'm doing this for my upcoming interview! I have to fly out, so I figured it would be easier to save on costs and as the person above mentioned, give me an opportunity to talk to a current student about the school.
 
ellah70 said:
II yesterday at 11:30 am!! (first one!!!)

IS, LM 71.5, complete 9/3
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Woah. So soon.
Here's hoping my app moves through in a few weeks ( at least a hold or something, which means they're looking at it).
I'm so happy for you! Already an II! You are on track 😉
Can I ask if you could vaguely describe your EC"s, if that's okay?
 
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mwsapphire said:
Woah. So soon.
Here's hoping my app moves through in a few weeks ( at least a hold or something, which means they're looking at it).
I'm so happy for you! Already an II! You are on track 😉
Can I ask if you could vaguely describe your EC"s, if that's okay?
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Thank you!! And sure, not sure how much detail youre looking for, but when Im reading ppls posts I always wish for more details lol

GPA: 3.75 (amcas adjusted), sGPA: 3.66 (amcas adjusted), MCAT: 515 (129/129/129/128)

Shadowing: 122 hours across multiple specialties (including surgical)

Volunteer: 85 hours mentoring kids(over almost 2 years), 62 hours at a soup kitchen (over 1.5 years), 47 hours assorted community service

Clinical volunteering: 138 hours at hospice (one year), about 1000 hours between 2 different internships at medical practices over 2 summers - did some clinical research and assisting with things like patient histories etc.,

Research: 850 hours during college - manuscript is in the works but not submitted yet.

Leadership: 54 hours with college admissions, 145 hours with a college group over 4 years where I held a leadership position, 200 hours over about 4 years with a national group that i was involved with in high school and freshman year of college

Jobs: 3500 hours summer camp counselor over multiple summers split bt high school and college, *not listed on AMCAS but included in secondaries- gap year job as a medical assistant
 
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@ellah70 Oh man. Your app is , like, amazing. No wonder you got such a fast II. While I'm glad you posted more info, I also suggest editing/deleting. I don't want your identity revealed because you tried to help me. Thank you , regardless. 🙂
I have to ask anybody who knows a bit more about MD admissions ( I'm guessing @limeyguydr fits the bill) ellah's EC hours are waaayyyy above average, right?
 
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mwsapphire said:
@ellah70 Oh man. Your app is , like, amazing. No wonder you got such a fast II. While I'm glad you posted more info, I also suggest editing/deleting. I don't want your identity revealed because you tried to help me. Thank you , regardless. 🙂
I have to ask anybody who knows a bit more about MD admissions ( I'm guessing @limeyguydr fits the bill) ellah's EC hours are waaayyyy above average, right?
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A lot of things can make it move up/fast track. If they meet an hours threshold for any "category" (research/nonclin/clin), IS status, MCAT score, GPA or some academic computation of both, and much more etc. No point in trying to figure out what it is, just wait your turn 🙂
 
aight I never wrote a review of this school but interviewed here earlier this month and wanted to put one out there

proscons
close enough to home (pro for me)rural location in PA and Scranton just doesn't have a lot/many places close early
lecture attendance isn't mandatory and is posted onlinein house exams (neuro NBME at end of 1st year)
P/F preclinical a lot of community service
cheap cost of livingdidn't get a good vibe
new building for med schoolgiven PCs (not MacBooks :/)
campus leaves a lot to be desired
Rank at end of M3 for MSPE
only 5 weeks of dedicated step study time
lack of areas to study in said new building
you'll end up at 1 of 4 locations for MS3 and MS4 so good luck staying in Scranton all 4 years
you absolutely need a car to get around
 
limeyguydr said:
aight I never wrote a review of this school but interviewed here earlier this month and wanted to put one out there

proscons
close enough to home (pro for me)rural location in PA and Scranton just doesn't have a lot/many places close early
lecture attendance isn't mandatory and is posted onlinein house exams (neuro NBME at end of 1st year)
P/F preclinicala lot of community service
cheap cost of livingdidn't get a good vibe
new building for med schoolgiven PCs (not MacBooks :/)
campus leaves a lot to be desired
Rank at end of M3 for MSPE
only 5 weeks of dedicated step study time
lack of areas to study in said new building
you'll end up at 1 of 4 locations for MS3 and MS4 so good luck staying in Scranton all 4 years
you absolutely need a car to get around
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Thank you limey! Good info
 
OxenFoxen said:
Biggest turnoff for me is the random assignment for clerkships (god bless whoever wants to gain experience in NEPA and is assigned to Atlantic City of all places)

Also the longitudinal clerkship sounds good in theory but I bet it’s pretty rough on the student to be doing 1/2 day rotations through 7-8 fields each week...also curious how shelf exams work with this business...
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lmfao I agree. I just got really bad vibes... and know a resident who just graduated and is now a PGY-1 and he said he and his friends made a pact that they'd never donate any money to Geisinger. Take that for what it is :/
 
limeyguydr said:
aight I never wrote a review of this school but interviewed here earlier this month and wanted to put one out there

proscons
close enough to home (pro for me)rural location in PA and Scranton just doesn't have a lot/many places close early
lecture attendance isn't mandatory and is posted onlinein house exams (neuro NBME at end of 1st year)
P/F preclinicala lot of community service
cheap cost of livingdidn't get a good vibe
new building for med schoolgiven PCs (not MacBooks :/)
campus leaves a lot to be desired
Rank at end of M3 for MSPE
only 5 weeks of dedicated step study time
lack of areas to study in said new building
you'll end up at 1 of 4 locations for MS3 and MS4 so good luck staying in Scranton all 4 years
you absolutely need a car to get around
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I would agree with everything here based on my interview as well! Good synopsis

On a related note, a student told me that the MS3/4 locations are *completely random* while at lunch, but I explicitly asked my faculty interviewer if it was random, and he said no (he said we could rank our clinical sites and people usually ended up where they "wanted" to go)? So I'm confused about what the reality is--can anybody confirm whether the student or the faculty I talked to is correct?
 
Just adding a data point to this thread.

II 9/24. Complete the first week of September. LM 69. IS and non-traditional. Also a reapplicant, so pretty happy the work I put in resulted in a relatively quick turnaround on an II this cycle!
 
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