2019-2020 Kaiser (Tyson)

[CaptainPoopyPants]

There's no shuttle to Pasadena but you can take the FlyAway bus to Union Station downtown and then take the metro gold line to Pasadena. I only had to walk a couple of blocks to the hotel they put us up in from the metro station.

They put all interviewees up in a hotel? No other interview has done this. Is this only for FAP applicants?

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[deleted972488]

They put all interviewees up in a hotel? No other interview has done this. Is this only for FAP applicants?

It’s for everyone. It’s unique. It’s Kaiser.

 

[deleted1011020]

breakfast, lunch, hotel, free tuition... ill donate my kidney right now

 

[premed20172017]

Didn’t fly in since I’m semi local. Day is super chill andnprobably not much different than most interviews you’ve already had. They fed us breakfast AND lunch tho which made me really happy haha

Out of curiosity, did Kaiser give you less notice because you're local?

 

[GloballyMed]

breakfast, lunch, hotel, free tuition... ill donate my kidney right now

For real. I’ll trade all my IIs and A’s for an A at Kaiser .

 

[doa718]

Out of curiosity, did Kaiser give you less notice because you're local?

What do you mean by less notice?

 

[premed20172017]

What do you mean by less notice?

For example, did they schedule your interview with a month's notice rather than 3 month's (because you didn't have to worry about booking a flight).

 

[Aktak]

For example, did they schedule your interview with a month's notice rather than 3 month's (because you didn't have to worry about booking a flight).

KP could schedule me with a 3 hour notice, and I’d figure it out even if I had to DeLorean myself there!
I’d even have a love ballad composed upon arrival.

 

[doa718]

For example, did they schedule your interview with a month's notice rather than 3 month's (because you didn't have to worry about booking a flight).

Ah I see. Yeah I only had a month’s notice but I was also one of the first interview dates so idk if that had anything to do with it.

 

[doa718]

breakfast, lunch, hotel, free tuition... ill donate my kidney right now

On top of that, they’re just doing a lot of things right. They’re using studies from schools like Harvard to construct their curriculum and their incorporation or technology, such as augmented reality, is awesome. On top of that, they take student wellness very seriously. We’ll all get hooked up with their insurance, which covers therapy too! I was slightly skeptical given the “new school” status coming into the interview and was completely sold coming out.

 

[peachyhoney]

On top of that, they’re just doing a lot of things right. They’re using studies from schools like Harvard to construct their curriculum and their incorporation or technology, such as augmented reality, is awesome. On top of that, they take student wellness very seriously. We’ll all get hooked up with their insurance, which covers therapy too! I was slightly skeptical given the “new school” status coming into the interview and was completely sold coming out.

you basically summed up my thoughts exactly!

 

[IgEdoc]

"They’re using studies from schools like Harvard to construct their curriculum"
Not surprising with the dean of the school, Dr Schuster
"Prior to his appointment, he served as the William Berenberg Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and chief of general pediatrics and vice chair for health policy in the Department of Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital since 2007.

 

[dr.batman]

The school does not accept updates until you have been invited for an interview so similar to Case.

 

[Neuro244]

It’s for everyone. It’s unique. It’s Kaiser.

Damn, they actually paid for it? Wow...says a lot.

 

[deleted976595]

Damn, they actually paid for it? Wow...says a lot.

They explained it to us that money spent on the school counts toward maintaining KP's non-profit status. So basically they can dump unlimited money into this school and it definitely shows.

 

[Neuro244]

For the question on the secondary where it says:

During your career as a physician, you will potentially encounter many obstacles and be required to overcome many challenges. Resilience is a prerequisite for success in medical school and beyond. Describe your experience with a situation that had an unfavorable outcome. How did you react, and how might you have responded differently? What did you learn about yourself?

Can I/should I address my low MCAT score and discuss what I learned through that process? If so, what if my second MCAT score was only 4 points higher, do you think that would still be worth mentioning as an answer to this experience?

Thanks

 

[deleted688779]

For the question on the secondary where it says:

During your career as a physician, you will potentially encounter many obstacles and be required to overcome many challenges. Resilience is a prerequisite for success in medical school and beyond. Describe your experience with a situation that had an unfavorable outcome. How did you react, and how might you have responded differently? What did you learn about yourself?

Can I/should I address my low MCAT score and discuss what I learned through that process? If so, what if my second MCAT score was only 4 points higher, do you think that would still be worth mentioning as an answer to this experience?

Thanks

If that is the most meaningful for you, sure.

Otherwise, I would say write about something that isn't about grades/MCAT/studying.

 

[Neuro244]

If that is the most meaningful for you, sure.

Otherwise, I would say write about something that isn't about grades/MCAT/studying.

Yeah for me bombing the MCAT was the biggest "failure/setback" of my life since it meant everything to me. It's like God forbid someone said you lost a family member or a child.

 

[Neuro244]

Nononono don’t do this. Don’t do ANYTHING related to classes/MCAT if it’s just about the result. However, if there are more specific extenuating circumstances that affected your life in more ways than just your MCAT score, that could work. It also doesn’t have to be your biggest setback EVER.

What do you mean by "if there are more extenuating circumstances that affected your life in more ways than just your MCAT score, that could work"?

 

[doa718]

Literally anything besides just “My greatest challenge was the MCAT, getting a bad score was the worst thing ever to happen to me”. there has to be something outside of academics. Like you could write about how a challenge affected your relationships with loved ones in your life, struggles doing well at your job, or just surviving and trying to pay the bills, and incidentally you could add that it also made studying for the MCAT hard for one line. That might be the extent to which it’s okay to discuss the MCAT in this kind of essay.

There are many posts and words of advice written for applicants who have considered writing about a bad grade or test score that will explain it far better than I can. You can easily find this searching on google, Reddit, and SDN.

Also I think it should be something where you corrected the mistake or can demonstrate clear growth from it. I.e. got a low mcat score due to lack of work ethic and hit the grind to retake and jumped 6 points, or failed during a scribing training shift and studied tf out of medical terminology and practiced HPI’s to significantly improve/clear training.

 

[Neuro244]

Also I think it should be something where you corrected the mistake or can demonstrate clear growth from it. I.e. got a low mcat score due to lack of work ethic and hit the grind to retake and jumped 6 points, or failed during a scribing training shift and studied tf out of medical terminology and practiced HPI’s to significantly improve/clear training.

Well yeah that’s essentially what my situation is is that I’m talking about how I grew from the process and how I jumped up by four points the second time that I took it and how I transformed through this process that’s why I wanted to talk about that.

 

[doa718]

Well yeah that’s essentially what my situation is is that I’m talking about how I grew from the process and how I jumped up by four points the second time that I took it and how I transformed through this process that’s why I wanted to talk about that.

I still gotta agree with the other post about avoiding mcat and grades tho tbh they see both of your scores on your primary app and can infer growth. Your secondary is a chance to show them something unique about YOU. Lots of applicants retake the mcat once or even twice. But how many people talk about suffering a potentially career ending injury in a D1 sport and dedicating their self to rehab and eventually becoming a starter/captain? Or submitting a paper to Nature and getting rejected then reworking it and submitting again and getting published. It doesn’t have to be something as grand as those, but it should be something that paints YOU and gives an understanding of your character outside of pure academics.

 

[Neuro244]

I could be way off here, but I don't think there's anything in the prompt that implies that you should talk about research, although if your research is the result of an intellectual passion then go for it. To me, it sounds like they're just trying to see that you're intellectual and curious, so I chose to talk about something that didn't show up in great detail anywhere else on my application (being a musician).

What about if you have written poetry since you were in let's say in high school and up until now you have maintained that? Or perhaps writing hip-hops songs for fun as your hobby, would that qualify as a good example, or should I avoid something like that? Also, are there any moderators here who would be willing to give me some feedback on my answers thus far. I'm done with 2/3 of them and would like to have a couple of people familiar with editing secondaries give me some advice! Thanks in advance.

 

[imbesrs]

What about if you have written poetry since you were in let's say in high school and up until now you have maintained that?

Awesome.

 

[johndoe1234]

II today! Complete late July.

 

[MichiganGirl1221]

Interview invite today! So excited!! Also complete late July.

 

[Wolvvs]

Congrats!! What date did they schedule you?

 

[MichiganGirl1221]

Congrats!! What date did they schedule you?

January 23rd

 

[Neuro244]

Awesome.

Does anybody else have any opinions on this? Should I try to tie poetry to medicine or talk about how the use of it can help me a student/physician?

 

[Bond-HydrogenBond]

Does anybody else have any opinions on this? Should I try to tie poetry to medicine or talk about how the use of it can help me a student/physician?

Dude, just write about poetry. Honestly asking what you should write in my opinion is the worst thing you can do. Be yourself, write what you want not what you think they want to hear. I wrote about weightlifting & it had nothing to do with medicine. I focused on what I learned about myself and how I grew from my exploration of exercising. & I will be interviewing next month.

 

[deleted688779]

Does anybody else have any opinions on this? Should I try to tie poetry to medicine or talk about how the use of it can help me a student/physician?

Depends on execution. It’s one of those “get rich or die trying” things. It sounds like it can become a Harvard-tier response (ex: I’m a unique mf who hunt pheasants, write children’s books, and under-lava basket weaving, Harvard will accept me despite my 510 because I’m just so damn unique) or end up looking like a gunner waiting in front of Harvard hoping Harvard students’ talents will rub off on them.

Just my opinion though. Good luck.

 

[deleted993489]

Dude, just write about poetry. Honestly asking what you should write in my opinion is the worst thing you can do. Be yourself, write what you want not what you think they want to hear. I wrote about weightlifting & it had nothing to do with medicine. I focused on what I learned about myself and how I grew from my exploration of exercising. & I will be interviewing next month.

I talked about how I’ve always loved to learn about space exploration and I got one of the August interviews.

 

[Neuro244]

I talked about how I’ve always loved to learn about space exploration and I got one of the August interviews.

Jeff, I think you got one of the interviews due to your amazing stats more than that response lol. Your numbers are very impressive! Good job brother.

 

[johndoe1234]

Does anybody else have any opinions on this? Should I try to tie poetry to medicine or talk about how the use of it can help me a student/physician?

I wrote about classical music -- that I like it, how I pursue it as a hobby via practice / certain learning methods, and wrote 1 sentence talking about how learning helps me as a physician. I think you should just write on what you think defines you as a person, not necessarily what you want others to see.

 

[Kalmodulin]

Hmn Kaiser seem to forgot to send me an II

 

[Neuro244]

I was never given a user ID for Kaiser so I can't sign into the secondary application website. Has anyone come across the same issue?

 

[deleted976595]

I was never given a user ID for Kaiser so I can't sign into the secondary application website. Has anyone come across the same issue?

It should just be your AMCAS ID and a password you set when you first logged in.

 

[Neuro244]

It should just be your AMCAS ID and a password you set when you first logged in.

I just tried that as the user ID, it doesn't work. I don't remember ever creating a password either.

 

[deleted976595]

I just tried that as the user ID, it doesn't work. I don't remember ever creating a password either.

Are you sure you're not trying the faculty login side of the login page?

 

[Neuro244]

Beautiful, I see what I was doing wrong!

 

[futureMDhopefully!!!]

Hmn Kaiser seem to forgot to send me an II

They'll remember soon! Just send them a reminder

 

[Eponine1912]

Any get waitlisted or rejected post interview yet?

 

[Neuro244]

Any of you guys have any opinions on some of the low tier programs out there (i.e. Meharry college, Morehouse university)?

 

[Kalmodulin]

I don't know any low tier program, any program that accept me is top tier lol

 

[PrincessPunchy]

Any of you guys have any opinions on some of the low tier programs out there (i.e. Meharry college, Morehouse university)?

Since this thread is for Kaiser, its probably not the best place for that discussion.

 

[Neuro244]

Since this thread is for Kaiser, its probably not the best place for that discussion.

I thought I'd give it a shot lol.

 

[Etopn23]

Any of you guys have any opinions on some of the low tier programs out there (i.e. Meharry college, Morehouse university)?

They are US medical schools which confer you an MD at the end of the day. I met a pediatric orthopod from Howard at one of my interviews and she had nothing but positive things to say about her experiences there.

No one should feel ashamed or like they wouldn’t receive a great education at those programs.

The HBCUs are heavily mission based and as a black first generation student I applaud what they are doing.

 

[Qwerty122]

Does anyone know if Kaiser accepts updates? I've been trying to find info for the past hour but couldn't find any :/

 

[Eponine1912]

Does anyone know if Kaiser accepts updates? I've been trying to find info for the past hour but couldn't find any :/

They said they only accept updates post interview!

 

[jamchi16]

I submitted my secondary application for Kaiser beginning of Oct and have not heard back. About how long is the review process? My MCAT is 513 and GPA is 3.90