2019-2020 Eastern Virginia

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Anyone who's interviewed have any tips or advice? or can share what their experience was like during the day? Interviewing this month
I agree with what @mh03 said. Interview day was really enjoyable and everyone at EVMS is super nice. Wednesday tours are at Sentara General and Fridays are at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. The children's hospital was nice and there are a few interactive devices that kids can play with that they showcased during the tour. If you interview on Friday I will say that it doesn't really matter what time you interview, there will be traffic near the bridge-tunnel if you go that way as my interview was at 2 pm and I got caught in some, but it will obviously get worse as the afternoon progresses.

@limeyguydr during the student tour they mentioned that attendance was not mandatory and that all lectures are posted online which is nice. The courses are also all pass/fail and the previous dean of students said that they do not keep an internal ranking of students since that would defeat the purpose of pass/fail. All in all, I was pretty impressed by the school, especially their focus on simulated patients (loved that portion of interview day) and wanting us to really practice how to interact with our future patients. There is also a heavy emphasis on community involvement and plenty of programs you can join to engage with the Norfolk population.
 
Last edited:
Flying in this afternoon, after reading a post on reddit about how yesterday's interview group was great I have some high expectations! If anyone else is coming in early and trying to catch dinner this evening, give me a shout.
My interview is tomorrow as well! See you then
 
Any statistics on acceptance rates for OOS applicants with no ties?
 
You will receive an email from Kerry Jones. She will request all the documents you said yes to on the secondary. Just be patient 🙂 she’ll get to you

Are you confident Kerry Jones is a woman? I am trying to write them an e-mail and I don't want to get it wrong lol
 
Anybody know if they receptive to ITA emails? Gonna be in the area for some other interviews.
 
Anybody know if they receptive to ITA emails? Gonna be in the area for some other interviews.
I would tend to doubt it just in the fact that most ITA receptive schools are in big cities like NYC or philly where schools are a matter of minutes apart. There are not any medical schools in virginia closer than like 2 hours away (UVA). Virginia tech is like 5 hours away, and VCU is like 2 hours away too.
 
Did you ever get a complete e-mail? I'm still waiting on one. All of my materials were in by 8/19 and I confirmed residency on 9/9.
No I never did, but I think I'll reach out to them! Supposedly my application is now in the queue according to the residency people but who knows
 
Dear _______,

We now have all of the materials necessary to complete your application. If you are invited for an interview you will receive an email invitation. Please note: From this point on, we do not send application status updates, unless you are invited to interview.

Please send any further grade or experience updates to: [email protected] only.

Thank you for applying to EVMS.

Kerry Jones
Office of Admissions
Eastern Virginia Medical School

The message I received , is that confirmation?
 
Dear _______,

We now have all of the materials necessary to complete your application. If you are invited for an interview you will receive an email invitation. Please note: From this point on, we do not send application status updates, unless you are invited to interview.

Please send any further grade or experience updates to: [email protected] only.

Thank you for applying to EVMS.

Kerry Jones
Office of Admissions
Eastern Virginia Medical School

The message I received , is that confirmation?
Yes that is confirmation that your application is now complete and is in queue for review
 
It's not looking great for me. Did anyone else have issues with their prereqs? I'm currently in contact with them and I'm not sure how strict they are with biology lab since I have mostly biochem labs due to my major.
 
It's not looking great for me. Did anyone else have issues with their prereqs? I'm currently in contact with them and I'm not sure how strict they are with biology lab since I have mostly biochem labs due to my major.

I would be kinda surprised if that wasn’t sufficient. I think generally biochem is used in place of orgo, but a lot of times those requirements are a bit soft or you can make them up later. I had one English class, but was a history major, so I cited those and “yeah I can read and write,” and I imagine several biochem labs communicates a similar message.
 
Interviewing on Friday 927, flying in early thursday morning...if anyone wants to get a weirdly awkward dinner and/or binge Grey's anatomy premiere, hmu
 
I'm not sure if this was already discussed in this thread (sorry if so!) but did anyone get a confirmation email after they called to schedule their interview? Like any confirmation at all before their interview?
 
I'm not sure if this was already discussed in this thread (sorry if so!) but did anyone get a confirmation email after they called to schedule their interview? Like any confirmation at all before their interview?

Didn’t get a confirmation after I called, but I did get a reminder email about a week and a half to two weeks before my interview
 
Didn’t get a confirmation after I called, but I did get a reminder email about a week and a half to two weeks before my interview


Same here. Their whole process was kinda weird...like having to call the admissions office when you got an II, absolutely no rescheduling, weird portal...it was very anxiety inducing lol
 
Same here. Their whole process was kinda weird...like having to call the admissions office when you got an II, absolutely no rescheduling, weird portal...it was very anxiety inducing lol
What do you mean by 'absolutely no rescheduling'?
 
What do you mean by 'absolutely no rescheduling'?

When I scheduled my interview, the woman I spoke with in admissions was like “are you POSITIVE you can be there? We do not reschedule so if you can’t make it then you will lose your spot”. Not sure if they wouldn’t let you schedule way later in the cycle if need be, but it was a slightly off putting vibe.
 
When I scheduled my interview, the woman I spoke with in admissions was like “are you POSITIVE you can be there? We do not reschedule so if you can’t make it then you will lose your spot”. Not sure if they wouldn’t let you schedule way later in the cycle if need be, but it was a slightly off putting vibe.
Dang. Yeah, I remember the woman in admissions asking if I was sure, but she didn't go as far as to say that second part. Good to know!
 
Sorry if this is elsewhere on the thread, couldn't find it...does anyone know their update policy? I have my interview tomorrow but I do have some updates that would be great to have concretely in my file
 
Sorry if this is elsewhere on the thread, couldn't find it...does anyone know their update policy? I have my interview tomorrow but I do have some updates that would be great to have concretely in my file

Yeah they’ll accept post-II updates, you can just email it to their admissions
 
Sorry if this is elsewhere on the thread, couldn't find it...does anyone know their update policy? I have my interview tomorrow but I do have some updates that would be great to have concretely in my file

I think they say on their website/portal to email their admissions email with updates.
 
would it still be worth it to submit a secondary here with my stats or does it seem like most of the IIs have gone out?
 
How strict are there course requirements? I got an email that I am missing one semester of biology lab (which is true). Does that mean I'm SOL? All it says is "if you wish to clarify your course(s), please email". I don't have anything to clarify, unless I try to make a case on why other classes that aren't biology filled the course req. Help!
 
interviewed here and really enjoyed it
ProsCons
P/F preclinical and not rankedonly 5 weeks dedicated for step 1
Students were all really friendly and I got a collaborative vibea good amount of traffic
all exams are NBME exams so you can get through by almost solely studying boards materialout of state tuition isn't great and you can't get in state tuition after living there for a year
They give you UWorld
fairly close to places on the East Coast and 25-30 min from the beach
integrate ultrasound really well into curriculum and POCUS on the wards
heavily involved in the community and you can make a difference
match well into competitive specialties
do really well on step 1 (likely bc all exams are NBME)
class size is larger which I prefer (150 students)
give a printing allocation
 
interviewed here and really enjoyed it
ProsCons
P/F preclinical and not rankedonly 5 weeks dedicated for step 1
Students were all really friendly and I got a collaborative vibea good amount of traffic
all exams are NBME exams so you can get through by almost solely studying boards materialout of state tuition isn't great and you can't get in state tuition after living there for a year
They give you UWorld
fairly close to places on the East Coast and 25-30 min from the beach
integrate ultrasound really well into curriculum and POCUS on the wards
heavily involved in the community and you can make a difference
match well into competitive specialties
do really well on step 1 (likely bc all exams are NBME)
class size is larger which I prefer (150 students)
give a printing allocation
Also interviewed there and agreed with a lot of your impressions. The STEP 1 time isn't great but their mean score is also pretty high so it's not a huge negative maybe?
 
The dean said 100% pass rate 236 I believe. It was 234 99% pass rate before that
Another nice thing about NBME curriculum which is a dirty little secret is that you can just study for step and do well in the classes. I have a friend who is an M2 who just studies step material and is getting like 95 percent. Hes also very smart tho haha.
 
interviewed here and really enjoyed it
ProsCons
P/F preclinical and not rankedonly 5 weeks dedicated for step 1
Students were all really friendly and I got a collaborative vibea good amount of traffic
all exams are NBME exams so you can get through by almost solely studying boards materialout of state tuition isn't great and you can't get in state tuition after living there for a year
They give you UWorld
fairly close to places on the East Coast and 25-30 min from the beach
integrate ultrasound really well into curriculum and POCUS on the wards
heavily involved in the community and you can make a difference
match well into competitive specialties
do really well on step 1 (likely bc all exams are NBME)
class size is larger which I prefer (150 students)
give a printing allocation
Another nice thing about NBME curriculum which is a dirty little secret is that you can just study for step and do well in the classes. I have a friend who is an M2 who just studies step material and is getting like 95 percent. Hes also very smart tho haha.
ya ya see that above!!!
 
interviewed here and really enjoyed it
ProsCons
P/F preclinical and not rankedonly 5 weeks dedicated for step 1
Students were all really friendly and I got a collaborative vibea good amount of traffic
all exams are NBME exams so you can get through by almost solely studying boards materialout of state tuition isn't great and you can't get in state tuition after living there for a year
They give you UWorld
fairly close to places on the East Coast and 25-30 min from the beach
integrate ultrasound really well into curriculum and POCUS on the wards
heavily involved in the community and you can make a difference
match well into competitive specialties
do really well on step 1 (likely bc all exams are NBME)
class size is larger which I prefer (150 students)
give a printing allocation
Is the 5 weeks dedicated the average amount of time that students take for dedicated or do you only have 5 weeks between end of M2 year before starting M3 rotations? I am currently an M4 and for us and the MD2021 class, M2 year ended mid-April and you have between then and the last week of June to take Step 1. On average, EVMS students take about 5 weeks for dedicated and I'm wondering if that's what you heard instead (I'm not saying you're wrong, I would just be shocked that they changed the curriculum so much that M2 year now goes through most of May).
 
Is the 5 weeks dedicated the average amount of time that students take for dedicated or do you only have 5 weeks between end of M2 year before starting M3 rotations? I am currently an M4 and for us and the MD2021 class, M2 year ended mid-April and you have between then and the last week of June to take Step 1. On average, EVMS students take about 5 weeks for dedicated and I'm wondering if that's what you heard instead (I'm not saying you're wrong, I would just be shocked that they changed the curriculum so much that M2 year now goes through most of May).
no I could def be wrong - they didn't provide info but I found a AAMC sheet online that had the dedicated amount for a bunch of schools and it said 5 weeks https://www.aamc.org/system/files/c/2/432966-designatedstep1study.pdf
 
no I could def be wrong - they didn't provide info but I found a AAMC sheet online that had the dedicated amount for a bunch of schools and it said 5 weeks https://www.aamc.org/system/files/c/2/432966-designatedstep1study.pdf
Ahh gotcha. Well, assuming they didn't do any drastic changes to the curriculum (which they shouldn't), M2 year ends around mid-April and you will have between then and July 1 to take Step 1 (way more than enough time for dedicated + vacation). Most students on average will take 5 weeks for dedicated (this is probably what that pdf reports; also note that the data is from 2015--our new curriculum started in 2016); our academic advisers also collect data from EVMS students every year and will present the latest in terms of length of study vs. average step scores (scores tend to peak around 4-5.5 weeks of dedicated and then start decreasing after 6 weeks of dedicated). My class (MD2020) had a Step 1 average of 236.
 
Ahh gotcha. Well, assuming they didn't do any drastic changes to the curriculum (which they shouldn't), M2 year ends around mid-April and you will have between then and July 1 to take Step 1 (way more than enough time for dedicated + vacation). Most students on average will take 5 weeks for dedicated (this is probably what that pdf reports; also note that the data is from 2015--our new curriculum started in 2016); our academic advisers also collect data from EVMS students every year and will present the latest in terms of length of study vs. average step scores (scores tend to peak around 4-5.5 weeks of dedicated and then start decreasing after 6 weeks of dedicated). My class (MD2020) had a Step 1 average of 236.
thank you!!!!
 
How long did it take for your application to be marked complete? I submitted the secondary around Labor Day, but still haven't received a complete email. VA residency confirmed 9/24
 
How long did it take for your application to be marked complete? I submitted the secondary around Labor Day, but still haven't received a complete email. VA residency confirmed 9/24
Patience when I interviewed on 9/13 they had already received 7000 applications. It takes time.
 
Top