2019-2020 Florida International

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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ai120808 said:
are these merit based, disadvantaged, or diversity?
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I'm not sure. The scholarship letter didn't specify...I'm assuming it's based on need/disadvantage since I haven't submitted my diversity scholarship application yet, and I'm fairly average so I doubt it's merit
 
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foodie96 said:
I'm not sure. The scholarship letter didn't specify...I'm assuming it's based on need/disadvantage since I haven't submitted my diversity scholarship application yet, and I'm fairly average so I doubt it's merit
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That’s interesting! I thought it was for the diversity essay that I turned in but it could’ve been need based.
 
scorpion2020 said:
That’s interesting! I thought it was for the diversity essay that I turned in but it could’ve been need based.
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At the interview day they said they start determining need-based scholarships for the first 30 students from the accepted cohort to have filed their FAFSA and they adjust it to the first 30 who filed that will be attending as they narrow down their final class.
 
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I'm shook. I got a call yesterday and they offered me a full tuition scholarship.
 
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Pfcoolio14 said:
I'm shook. I got a call yesterday and they offered me a full tuition scholarship.
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omg congrats! do you know if it was merit or need-based? also how long ago were you accepted?
 
As this cycle ends, just thought I'd like to provide a more detailed reflection on the NeighborhoodHELP program and my experience with it as a current 3rd year going into 4th year, especially since I got asked a lot about this during the interviews and tours I did. NHELP is like the main program of this school, where each student, at the start of their second year, is paired with a local household facing challenges, socioeconomic, medical, and/or legal. The student is then responsible for tackling these problems.This program has been something that my peers and I have found very difficult to provide positive feedback about. It actually has probably been one of the greatest contributors to stress over my first 3 years and has provided barely any benefit or learning experience. Me and my classmates have always complained about the tons of problems the program has.
  • Household assignment – Ive never had a household. I have spent the past 2 years being assigned and reassigned to different households, and am currently working on contacting the 4th household I have been assigned to. The first 2 I could never get in contact with, as they never responded to phone calls or texts. I later learned they ended up quitting the program. The 3rd household I could never schedule a meeting with, due to scheduling difficulties. To meet the requirements for household visits completed per year, I have been completing “alternative” visits, which basically means I shadow another student at their visit. Same goes for a ton of other people. Some households never pick up the phone. Others may finally pick up after 2-3 weeks, on your 20th attempt to contact them. When you complain or ask for help from faculty, the act like its your problem.
  • Scheduling – Scheduling household visits has been a huge pain for almost everyone. Depending on the schedules of other members in your team, it often is impossible to find a date that works before the required visit deadline. In addition, theres a rule prohibiting household visits from being completed during NON MANDATORY class time. I was reassigned from my 3rd household because the household worked afternoon + night, and I had non-mandatory class practically every morning, which was the only time that could work. Combined with the many exams and assignments we have and rotation schedule, the 1-2 weeks before each household deadline has most students stressed trying to schedule a visit.
  • Household willingness and activities – Some households seem like they simply do not want visits so frequently. From what I’ve seen through shadowing, the purpose of each visit isn’t to address the problems of each household, its to complete a series of mandated assignments provided and required by the faculty. Some are helpful, such as evaluation of socioeconomic needs and medication review and assessment. However, some, such as the household safety inspection, just seem unnecessary and even unwelcome by some households.
  • Difference in household difficulties – I never needed to do anything for this program besides attending visits where I “shadow” and do nothing. A friend of mine has an extremely difficult household that has needed multiple law referrals, health clinic visits, and follow up communications. On a scale of 1-10 in the amount of effort we have needed to contribute to this program, I am at a 0, and he is at a 15. Depending on the situation with your household, you may need to do practically nothing for 2 years, or will spend a ton of extra hours following up on working on the household problems you are expected to address by yourself with no help from anyone.
  • Legal issues – More of an issue concerning law referrals and the law school, but from talking to other people, it seems there are several problems with households requiring legal referrals. For one, some of these referrals take extremely long to process, with households receiving the legal resources they need 3-4+ month after a student submits a referral to the FIU law clinic. In addition, I have heard at least 1 case of the household eventually not being able to afford the legal help, as the FIU law clinic is not pro bono, but it defines its services as “low bono.”
  • Random assignments - Ton and tons of random assignments, such as meetings with faculty to talk about your progress with your household, or writing essays about your experience. These might be useful if I actually had an experience to talk about, but nearly everyone in the class has agreed that theyve mostly been useless and a waste of time, just adding more clutter into our already full schedules.
Time after time, every problem here has been repeatedly brought up to faculty. However, nothing has ever changed, and the difficulties of managing the tons of unorganized demands of this program have been unnecessarily stressful. All of this adds on and interferes with managing the workload from courses and rotations. If this program attracts you to coming to this school, heres a side of it that you might not have heard about and might want to consider and ask about. With all the difficulties that arise, the faculty and staff are of very little help, and some even make it seem like youre doing something wrong, when everythings out of your control, making your life unecessarily stressful.
 
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As another medical student (2nd year, entering 3rd year, so I have had a household for a year), I would like to offer another perspective on the NHelp program. I talk to a lot of friends at med schools around the country, from top 5 programs to other unranked schools like FIU, and none of them receive even a fraction of the social education that we receive. Thinking about the social determinants of health is not an afterthought in our education, it is continuously centered.

I promise you I have many of the same critiques of the NHelp program, and of other courses in the school. It is very difficult to coordinate the legal referrals, scheduling between 5 different teams can be a nightmare. It can be awkward to walk through someone's home that you've been welcomed into and try to tell to change things for safety. If we find it annoying to schedule a visit for a grade, imagine how annoying it must be to actually need medical care, but not speak the language to call and get it, and then try to get there on a bus. If we find it difficult to pick up the phone and call the law school that often doesn't reply because of over-work, imagine how annoying it must be to have your kid with constant asthma attacks that you can't fix without help of a lawyer because your landlord refuses to fix the moldy A/C. In some ways, you're learning as a student not just medicine, but how to navigate the medical system, which is unfortunately can be a frustrating thing. What you get out of the program is what you choose to get out of the program.

Beyond this, just this week they reversed the decision and we can now schedule meetings during non-mandatory class. They also changed the passive nature of alternative visits for the low percentage of students that don't have households assigned, allowing them to be more involved in the household care and documentation process. I've spoken with faculty and deans who are trying to develop solutions, for example- high-needs households may receive multiple students. But you can't do things overnight without thinking how it will affect the community partners, the houses, the nursing and social work schools, or the grading of our assignments (the smallest real-world concern, but the only concern of medical students who have to match.) These changes were made because of students offering their sincere, thoughtful feedback through appropriate routes.

I don't want to take away from the student's frustration, and if they said faculty dismissed them and made them feel bad, then that's what happened and it shouldn't have. However, I have never had that happen to me, and it is not necessarily the standard. In the end, I think, nothing is perfect, no job doesn't have paperwork, and what you learn from the program is what you choose to learn.
 
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Okay, please help. My status was “Interview completed” when I last checked the applicant portal (interviewed on 2/17). Now it says “Admissions Committee Scheduled.” Is this like a final review of my application to determine my fate? Should I be excited, concerned? They told us we would hear on or after March 24th, but I’m finding my patience to be quite diminished at this point in the cycle. Please put my mind at ease. Thank you all for indulging my neuroticism.
 
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neurofanatic213 said:
Okay, please help. My status was “Interview completed” when I last checked the applicant portal (interviewed on 2/17). Now it says “Admissions Committee Scheduled.” Is this like a final review of my application to determine my fate? Should I be excited, concerned? They told us we would hear on or after March 24th, but I’m finding my patience to be quite diminished at this point in the cycle. Please put my mind at ease. Thank you all for indulging my neuroticism.
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They told us March 24th, so just stay chill. There's nothing we can do now except wait it out :) But yeah! They're probably meeting to vote on us!!
 
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Patiently waiting on that finny aid........ submitted FAFSA super early
 
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Anyone know how/if waitlisted students are awarded scholarships? I'm assuming we can't send in a diversity scholarship application, but is there anything else I can do in the meantime?
 
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bestestmench said:
Anyone know how/if waitlisted students are awarded scholarships? I'm assuming we can't send in a diversity scholarship application, but is there anything else I can do in the meantime?
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+1


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flbro98 said:
omg congrats! do you know if it was merit or need-based? also how long ago were you accepted?
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I have no idea what the scholarship was based on. But if I had to guess, it may have been need. My LizzyM score is 66.30 so I don't think it was merit, cause I felt like my stats were average.

And I got the acceptance email on Jan 14th. I don't know when I got the call though, maybe a couple days before or after
 
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Pfcoolio14 said:
I have no idea what the scholarship was based on. But if I had to guess, it may have been need. My LizzyM score is 66.30 so I don't think it was merit, cause I felt like my stats were average.

And I got the acceptance email on Jan 14th. I don't know when I got the call though, maybe a couple days before or after
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That is so amazing, congrats. Did you submit the diversity essay?
 
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billnyethepremedguy said:
What are everyone's thoughts on this? That UPenn Dermatology match got me SHOOK
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I know FIU generally has pretty good match lists because they've historically had high step 1 scores but it makes me wonder if that will change with a switch to pass/fail step 1?
 
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flbro98 said:
I know FIU generally has pretty good match lists because they've historically had high step 1 scores but it makes me wonder if that will change with a switch to pass/fail step 1?
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Agreed, the step 1 change is huge and doesn't necessarily help FIU
 
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So today is the day that those of us in the last sets of interviews are due to hear back... any thoughts on whether or not this timeline may be skewed due to current events?
 
neurofanatic213 said:
So today is the day that those of us in the last sets of interviews are due to hear back... any thoughts on whether or not this timeline may be skewed due to current events?
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I feel pretty hopeful since they didn’t reach out to tell us otherwise. Fingers crossed! Also do you know if they call for wait list and acceptance?
 
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Does anyone know if they give out merit aid? Or just need-base?
 
lynforthewin said:
Does anyone know around when classes/orientation start?
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I heard 7/27 for orientation, 8/1 for White Coat, and 8/3 for classes, BUT I'm not sure if that was someone's guess or if these dates were verified. So take this with a grain of salt!
 
ayemcee said:
I heard 7/27 for orientation, 8/1 for White Coat, and 8/3 for classes, BUT I'm not sure if that was someone's guess or if these dates were verified. So take this with a grain of salt!
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You can look the schedule on their website. More than likely, the dates will change or go virtual
 
Just got a call for a 25% scholarship. OOS URM not sure if need or merit based.
 
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Does anyone know how many tuition scholarships FIU gives and if people who were accepted later in the cycle are less likely to get one?
 
flbro98 said:
Does anyone know how many tuition scholarships FIU gives and if people who were accepted later in the cycle are less likely to get one?
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Idk at this point... because I was accepted very early on and haven't heard anything back though I (would like to believe I) qualify for all 3 categories of scholarships
 
anyone know when they may start pulling from the waitlist if they end up doing so


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Did any of you guys who were accepted receive your panther IDs or FIU emails?
 
JustCallMeDoctor said:
Nope, got accepted October 15th and still no info about getting FIU IDs. They seem to be very quiet.
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The diversity essay application requires us to put in our panther IDs and email. But they haven't distributed any of that information yet ...
 
ai120808 said:
The diversity essay application requires us to put in our panther IDs and email. But they haven't distributed any of that information yet ...
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It says on the email the panther ID and email are not required so just leave them blank
 
To piggyback off @futuregyn, is anyone looking for a roommate?
I’ll be moving from another state and I’m kind of stressed about how medical students can afford to pay rent in Miami. It’s pretty expensive.
 
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