2019-2020 Michigan

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ThisIsMyUsername111 said:
Anyone who has already interviewed, do you have any general reflections/how stressful or relaxed did you find it? Trying to calm my nerves, thanks!
Click to expand...
Alright, I was questioning whether I should do this or not but after just doing my interview day (9/27) I am absolutely hyped about this school. I am going to give you what is probably the most thorough and most over the top review of a program that I possibly could, but to be honest University of Michigan genuinely deserves the praise. Everything was above and beyond and FAR exceeded all of my expectations. Here goes:

The night prior/the area:
I will preface this by stating this is from the perspective of a father and someone from a relatively small town (300,000-500,000 people). The walking tour comes before the dinner. In my honest opinion, Ann Arbor has EVERYTHING one would need. The downtown has maybe a few chain stores, but is absolutely filled to the brim with restaurants of al kinds ranging from burgers to indian food to Korean BBQ, all locally owned and operated and, according to the students, all fantastic. There is upscale, there is cheapo bar food...so many bars....I described it to my wife as "Imagine main street small-town USA...Downtown ann arbor is like 3 dozen of those all criss-crossing." The undergraduate Campus is absolutely gorgeous, the medical school campus and hospital are absolutely gorgeous, so is the arboretum and overall just a lot of green space. The housing is nice and you run the gambit on affordability and luxury - whatever you want and can afford (or if you wanna go cheap), they have it. Something that spoke volumes to me as a father was something I saw on my walk back to the hotel after dinner. It was around 9:20, it was dark....I passed nine families. Walking with toddlers and strollers. Downtown. At night. The residents feel safe enough to walk downtown at night with their children running ahead of them in multitudes. So not only did I like the area because it has some of the best public schools in the country, but because it is safe.

The dinner was fantastic. Best pizza I have had in a long time (better than UChicago's deep dish, I have to say). We ate with students and fellow interviewees. We talked about everything from ultra marathons to my smeagol voice (if you are reading UMich admissions, you now know who I am - I have a message for you at the end of this). We had a blast. Not only were all of the students fantastic people who spoke incredibly about everything, I could tell just how much thought they put in to the applicant selection process. Every one of my fellow interviewees was kind, honest, and a genuinely great person. Normally there are a few people at each interview that have given off that 'weird' vibe - but I could see myself as a classmate to all 36 people I met over these last few days, honest to God (and I am athiest).

The interview day:
After the continental breakfast came an hour of talks. First off, I would like to state that Carol Teener is phenominal. Several of the students stated "You are here because they loved you already, it is not a mistake - Carol does not make mistakes." And by golly I saw the gal for all of 3 hours and I can see that this holds true. She goes above and beyond to make sure every part of that interview day is part of the experience and that everyone there on interview day deserves to be there. She gives you a presentation at the beginning of the day about their programs, their facilities, their town, their culture (I will get to all of that later). She is thorough yet concise and extraordinarily positive. And everything she said was honest and reflected what I saw during the entire interview day in the students, the faculty, and everyone associated. That was followed by what had to be the most inspirational speech I have heard outside of a TED talk. Dr. Okanlami, MD - he is the physical embodiment of what UMich strives for. Coming from the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, he talked to us about diversity of background, diversity of thought, diversity of experience and TBH the message alone had me pumped . But then what followed? Dr. Gay , Assistant Dean for Admissions, comes in and brings the double whammy. His speech was not inspirational - it got me PUMPED UP about university of Michigan. Their goals, their mission, their cause in medical education....just WOW. I won't go over the contents...but.....get ready to be pumped. Now you are pumped to be there, it has only been an hour, the interviews start.

You are split into groups, one does MMI first, one does the longform interviews first. The longform interviews were extraordinarily conversational. In one the interviewer asked me a lot about leadership and teamwork and my schooling and my military activities etc. very conversational. In the other, my interviewer and I literally just shared anecdotes and they would relate it back to UMich. Nothing to stress over, very basic and traditional interview. The MMI was been my favorite interview experience thus far. Without too much detail, there is some discussion, some role play, some team building, whatever. I won't share any more (and I don't know if this is sharing to much.....?) But honestly it was fun. Nothing stressful. Novel, on your feet thinking. I had an absolute blast.

Next comes lunch, which was a very good spread of various sandwich types and salads - it was good. Then just came more med student and fellow interviewee conversation. We didn't ask a lot of the standard premed questions - we talked about sports, our hobbies, our favorite ways to cook a potato....genuinely, by this point almost everyone seemed to be on the same page that we already knew we wanted to a Michigan student and by lunch we were just having a good time.

Next came the 'untour' which was a little half hour tour of the campus followed by an hour long experience in one of their clinical simulation centers. You could be practicing stitches or laproscopic surgeries or whatever. It was very fun and a fantastic and light way to mostly close out the day. I very very very much preferred this to a traditional tour. It was a great and unique experience and kind of reminded me why I want to go in to medicine, which has kind of gotten lost in the haze of the interview cycle.

The day was closed out with a conference room (in which there is a surprise which I will not state). You get some closing remarks from Carol Teener and other faculty followed by like 20 students and faculty who stay for Q and A afterwards (and I think they were scheduled to stay for like...up to an hour....I left to tour the arboretum, but still they are available for questions).

The school/the facility:
12 month preclinical - everything is recorded, they have doctoring once a week, patients come in and talk about their illness relevant to the block that you are learning. It is al 'systems' based blocks. This means that your patients that talk, your anatomy classes, your lecture classes, your case based stuff will all be about the same thing (ie. Immunology and pharmacology, basic science/biochem oriented etc.). The biggest selling point: Flex quizzes and exams. You can take your quizzes (every other week) and exams (at the end of the block) any time between Friday Evening and mid-day Sunday. You must take it on campus, but it is honor system that you are not using your notes, you take it when you are most comfortable, it is UNPROCTORED.....like....it is legit.

Core clinical rotations in your second year. It is what it is. However, you have the option of choosing one of 16 different combinations of how your clinical are ordered, and most students get their top or one of their top choices. In addition to that, you can either do all of your clinicals at the Ann Arbr hospital OR across the greater southeast Michigan area - your call.

third and fourth year is absolutely amazing. Their are a few mandatory things, but by and large it is all elective. Instead of having 3-5 months between the end of M3 and ERAS deadline to decide what you want to do and prove you are ready for it, you have 18 months. You can do your research, your sub-Is, your abroad traveling, WHATEFVER YOU WANT (obviously in the medical school context and there are obvious limitations yaddda yadda, you get what I mean). Like, instead of just M4 being chill like everywhere else, it is chill here for half of med school (obviously it is difficult, but you get what you put into it and it is truly truly customizable and geared towards students being the architects of their own path).

The facilities...it has everything you would ever need. Literally, everything. There is money, there are faculty, there is....there is everything all located in one spot, less than a half mile from the undergrad campus, about a mile from downtown. It cannot get any better in terms of convenience.

The vibe and a message to admissions:
I have 'only' interviewed at 5 schools outside of my state, and 4 of those schools had just one standout feature. These features were what made me like the school or the area, negatives aside. UChicago had a strong sense of being one with the community. Pittsburg had green space and a very homie atmosphere as an affordable college town. Mayo had everything in one spot, was safe and had great schools for my daughter. Harvard had a completely customizable third and fourth year and all of the resources one could ever want. Michigan....Well University of Michigan had all of these things and more. Interviewing here, I felt like I was a part of a family after merely two days. I loved the area, I loved the curriculum, I loved the vibes. A lot of people say that "school fit" is overblown and doesn't mean much....But this school and Ann Arbor had everything me and my family would want and more. If you do scroll these threads, UMich admissions...You know who I am now based on my date and my fun fact. If you are reading this and in three weeks I am lucky enough to receive an acceptance, then this time next year I will be 2 months into my schooling in Ann Arbor. If I have a UMich acceptance, I would not choose anywhere else. Believe me however much you would like, but honestly and truly, your school could not be any better of a fit for me and Ann Arbor could not be any better of a fit for my family and I hope you liked me as much as I loved you.

To the applicants reading, I also run the Michigan Monday thread...I started that mostly because of the hype train. But let me tell you, the hype is real. I hope your Michigan Monday comes because this school is fantastic, Ann Arbor is a gem, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been considered.
 
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Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Alright, I was questioning whether I should do this or not but after just doing my interview day (9/27) I am absolutely hyped about this school. I am going to give you what is probably the most thorough and most over the top review of a program that I possibly could, but to be honest University of Michigan genuinely deserves the praise. Everything was above and beyond and FAR exceeded all of my expectations. Here goes:

The night prior/the area:
I will preface this by stating this is from the perspective of a father and someone from a relatively small town (300,000-500,000 people). The walking tour comes before the dinner. In my honest opinion, Ann Arbor has EVERYTHING one would need. The downtown has maybe a few chain stores, but is absolutely filled to the brim with restaurants of al kinds ranging from burgers to indian food to Korean BBQ, all locally owned and operated and, according to the students, all fantastic. There is upscale, there is cheapo bar food...so many bars....I described it to my wife as "Imagine main street small-town USA...Downtown ann arbor is like 3 dozen of those all criss-crossing." The undergraduate Campus is absolutely gorgeous, the medical school campus and hospital are absolutely gorgeous, so is the arboretum and overall just a lot of green space. The housing is nice and you run the gambit on affordability and luxury - whatever you want and can afford (or if you wanna go cheap), they have it. Something that spoke volumes to me as a father was something I saw on my walk back to the hotel after dinner. It was around 9:20, it was dark....I passed nine families. Walking with toddlers and strollers. Downtown. At night. The residents feel safe enough to walk downtown at night with their children running ahead of them in multitudes. So not only did I like the area because it has some of the best public schools in the country, but because it is safe.

The dinner was fantastic. Best pizza I have had in a long time (better than UChicago's deep dish, I have to say). We ate with students and fellow interviewees. We talked about everything from ultra marathons to my smeagol voice (if you are reading UMich admissions, you now know who I am - I have a message for you at the end of this). We had a blast. Not only were all of the students fantastic people who spoke incredibly about everything, I could tell just how much thought they put in to the applicant selection process. Every one of my fellow interviewees was kind, honest, and a genuinely great person. Normally there are a few people at each interview that have given off that 'weird' vibe - but I could see myself as a classmate to all 36 people I met over these last few days, honest to God (and I am athiest).

The interview day:
After the continental breakfast came an hour of talks. First off, I would like to state that Carol Teener is phenominal. Several of the students stated "You are here because they loved you already, it is not a mistake - Carol does not make mistakes." And by golly I saw the gal for all of 3 hours and I can see that this holds true. She goes above and beyond to make sure every part of that interview day is part of the experience and that everyone there on interview day deserves to be there. She gives you a presentation at the beginning of the day about their programs, their facilities, their town, their culture (I will get to all of that later). She is thorough yet concise and extraordinarily positive. And everything she said was honest and reflected what I saw during the entire interview day in the students, the faculty, and everyone associated. That was followed by what had to be the most inspirational speech I have heard outside of a TED talk. Dr. Okanlami, MD - he is the physical embodiment of what UMich strives for. Coming from the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, he talked to us about diversity of background, diversity of thought, diversity of experience and TBH the message alone had me pumped . But then what followed? Dr. Gay , Assistant Dean for Admissions, comes in and brings the double whammy. His speech was not inspirational - it got me PUMPED UP about university of Michigan. Their goals, their mission, their cause in medical education....just WOW. I won't go over the contents...but.....get ready to be pumped. Now you are pumped to be there, it has only been an hour, the interviews start.

You are split into groups, one does MMI first, one does the longform interviews first. The longform interviews were extraordinarily conversational. In one the interviewer asked me a lot about leadership and teamwork and my schooling and my military activities etc. very conversational. In the other, my interviewer and I literally just shared anecdotes and they would relate it back to UMich. Nothing to stress over, very basic and traditional interview. The MMI was been my favorite interview experience thus far. Without too much detail, there is some discussion, some role play, some team building, whatever. I won't share any more (and I don't know if this is sharing to much.....?) But honestly it was fun. Nothing stressful. Novel, on your feet thinking. I had an absolute blast.

Next comes lunch, which was a very good spread of various sandwich types and salads - it was good. Then just came more med student and fellow interviewee conversation. We didn't ask a lot of the standard premed questions - we talked about sports, our hobbies, our favorite ways to cook a potato....genuinely, by this point almost everyone seemed to be on the same page that we already knew we wanted to a Michigan student and by lunch we were just having a good time.

Next came the 'untour' which was a little half hour tour of the campus followed by an hour long experience in one of their clinical simulation centers. You could be practicing stitches or laproscopic surgeries or whatever. It was very fun and a fantastic and light way to mostly close out the day. I very very very much preferred this to a traditional tour. It was a great and unique experience and kind of reminded me why I want to go in to medicine, which has kind of gotten lost in the haze of the interview cycle.

The day was closed out with a conference room (in which there is a surprise which I will not state). You get some closing remarks from Carol Teener and other faculty followed by like 20 students and faculty who stay for Q and A afterwards (and I think they were scheduled to stay for like...up to an hour....I left to tour the arboretum, but still they are available for questions).

The school/the facility:
12 month preclinical - everything is recorded, they have doctoring once a week, patients come in and talk about their illness relevant to the block that you are learning. It is al 'systems' based blocks. This means that your patients that talk, your anatomy classes, your lecture classes, your case based stuff will all be about the same thing (ie. Immunology and pharmacology, basic science/biochem oriented etc.). The biggest selling point: Flex quizzes and exams. You can take your quizzes (every other week) and exams (at the end of the week) any time between Friday Evening and mid-day Sunday. You must take it on campus, but it is honor system that you are not using your notes, you take it when you are most comfortable, it is UNPROCTORED.....like....it is legit.

Core clinical rotations in your second year. It is what it is. However, you have the option of choosing one of 16 different combinations of how your clinical are ordered, and most students get their top or one of their top choices. In addition to that, you can either do all of your clinicals at the Ann Arbr hospital OR across the greater southwest Michigan area - your call.

third and fourth year is absolutely amazing. Their are a few mandatory things, but by and large it is all elective. Instead of having 3-5 months between the end of M3 and ERAS deadline to decide what you want to do and prove you are ready for it, you have 18 months. You can do your research, your sub-Is, your abroad traveling, WHATEFVER YOU WANT (obviously in the medical school context and there are obvious limitations yaddda yadda, you get what I mean). Like, instead of just M4 being chill like everywhere else, it is chill here for half of med school (obviously it is difficult, but you get what you put into it and it is truly truly customizable and geared towards students being the architects of their own path).

The facilities...it has everything you would ever need. Literally, everything. There is money, there are faculty, there is....there is everything all located in one spot, less than a half mile from the undergrad campus, about a mile from downtown. It cannot get any better in terms of convenience.

The vibe and a message to admissions:
I have 'only' interviewed at 5 schools outside of my state, and 4 of those schools had just one standout feature. These features were what made me like the school or the area, negatives aside. UChicago had a strong sense of being one with the community. Pittsburg had green space and a very homie atmosphere as an affordable college town. Mayo had everything in one spot, was safe and had great schools for my daughter. Harvard had a completely customizable third and fourth year and all of the resources one could ever want. Michigan....Well University of Michigan had all of these things and more. Interviewing here, I felt like I was a part of a family after merely two days. I loved the area, I loved the curriculum, I loved the vibes. A lot of people say that "school fit" is overblown and doesn't mean much....But this school and Ann Arbor had everything me and my family would want and more. If you do scroll these threads, UMich admissions...You know who I am now based on my date and my fun fact. If you are reading this and in three weeks I am lucky enough to receive an acceptance, then this time next year I will be 2 months into my schooling in Ann Arbor. If I have a UMich acceptance, I would not choose anywhere else. Believe me however much you would like, but honestly and truly, your school could not be any better of a fit for me and Ann Arbor could not be any better of a fit for my family and I hope you liked me as much as I loved you.

To the applicants reading, I also run the Michigan Monday thread...I started that mostly because of the hype train. But let me tell you, the hype is real. I hope your Michigan Monday comes because this school is fantastic, Ann Arbor is a gem, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been considered.
Click to expand...
Letter of interest through SDN....power move. But in all honesty, this was so well written and I hope I have the privilege to interview as well.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Alright, I was questioning whether I should do this or not but after just doing my interview day (9/27) I am absolutely hyped about this school. I am going to give you what is probably the most thorough and most over the top review of a program that I possibly could, but to be honest University of Michigan genuinely deserves the praise. Everything was above and beyond and FAR exceeded all of my expectations. Here goes:

The night prior/the area:
I will preface this by stating this is from the perspective of a father and someone from a relatively small town (300,000-500,000 people). The walking tour comes before the dinner. In my honest opinion, Ann Arbor has EVERYTHING one would need. The downtown has maybe a few chain stores, but is absolutely filled to the brim with restaurants of al kinds ranging from burgers to indian food to Korean BBQ, all locally owned and operated and, according to the students, all fantastic. There is upscale, there is cheapo bar food...so many bars....I described it to my wife as "Imagine main street small-town USA...Downtown ann arbor is like 3 dozen of those all criss-crossing." The undergraduate Campus is absolutely gorgeous, the medical school campus and hospital are absolutely gorgeous, so is the arboretum and overall just a lot of green space. The housing is nice and you run the gambit on affordability and luxury - whatever you want and can afford (or if you wanna go cheap), they have it. Something that spoke volumes to me as a father was something I saw on my walk back to the hotel after dinner. It was around 9:20, it was dark....I passed nine families. Walking with toddlers and strollers. Downtown. At night. The residents feel safe enough to walk downtown at night with their children running ahead of them in multitudes. So not only did I like the area because it has some of the best public schools in the country, but because it is safe.

The dinner was fantastic. Best pizza I have had in a long time (better than UChicago's deep dish, I have to say). We ate with students and fellow interviewees. We talked about everything from ultra marathons to my smeagol voice (if you are reading UMich admissions, you now know who I am - I have a message for you at the end of this). We had a blast. Not only were all of the students fantastic people who spoke incredibly about everything, I could tell just how much thought they put in to the applicant selection process. Every one of my fellow interviewees was kind, honest, and a genuinely great person. Normally there are a few people at each interview that have given off that 'weird' vibe - but I could see myself as a classmate to all 36 people I met over these last few days, honest to God (and I am athiest).

The interview day:
After the continental breakfast came an hour of talks. First off, I would like to state that Carol Teener is phenominal. Several of the students stated "You are here because they loved you already, it is not a mistake - Carol does not make mistakes." And by golly I saw the gal for all of 3 hours and I can see that this holds true. She goes above and beyond to make sure every part of that interview day is part of the experience and that everyone there on interview day deserves to be there. She gives you a presentation at the beginning of the day about their programs, their facilities, their town, their culture (I will get to all of that later). She is thorough yet concise and extraordinarily positive. And everything she said was honest and reflected what I saw during the entire interview day in the students, the faculty, and everyone associated. That was followed by what had to be the most inspirational speech I have heard outside of a TED talk. Dr. Okanlami, MD - he is the physical embodiment of what UMich strives for. Coming from the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, he talked to us about diversity of background, diversity of thought, diversity of experience and TBH the message alone had me pumped . But then what followed? Dr. Gay , Assistant Dean for Admissions, comes in and brings the double whammy. His speech was not inspirational - it got me PUMPED UP about university of Michigan. Their goals, their mission, their cause in medical education....just WOW. I won't go over the contents...but.....get ready to be pumped. Now you are pumped to be there, it has only been an hour, the interviews start.

You are split into groups, one does MMI first, one does the longform interviews first. The longform interviews were extraordinarily conversational. In one the interviewer asked me a lot about leadership and teamwork and my schooling and my military activities etc. very conversational. In the other, my interviewer and I literally just shared anecdotes and they would relate it back to UMich. Nothing to stress over, very basic and traditional interview. The MMI was been my favorite interview experience thus far. Without too much detail, there is some discussion, some role play, some team building, whatever. I won't share any more (and I don't know if this is sharing to much.....?) But honestly it was fun. Nothing stressful. Novel, on your feet thinking. I had an absolute blast.

Next comes lunch, which was a very good spread of various sandwich types and salads - it was good. Then just came more med student and fellow interviewee conversation. We didn't ask a lot of the standard premed questions - we talked about sports, our hobbies, our favorite ways to cook a potato....genuinely, by this point almost everyone seemed to be on the same page that we already knew we wanted to a Michigan student and by lunch we were just having a good time.

Next came the 'untour' which was a little half hour tour of the campus followed by an hour long experience in one of their clinical simulation centers. You could be practicing stitches or laproscopic surgeries or whatever. It was very fun and a fantastic and light way to mostly close out the day. I very very very much preferred this to a traditional tour. It was a great and unique experience and kind of reminded me why I want to go in to medicine, which has kind of gotten lost in the haze of the interview cycle.

The day was closed out with a conference room (in which there is a surprise which I will not state). You get some closing remarks from Carol Teener and other faculty followed by like 20 students and faculty who stay for Q and A afterwards (and I think they were scheduled to stay for like...up to an hour....I left to tour the arboretum, but still they are available for questions).

The school/the facility:
12 month preclinical - everything is recorded, they have doctoring once a week, patients come in and talk about their illness relevant to the block that you are learning. It is al 'systems' based blocks. This means that your patients that talk, your anatomy classes, your lecture classes, your case based stuff will all be about the same thing (ie. Immunology and pharmacology, basic science/biochem oriented etc.). The biggest selling point: Flex quizzes and exams. You can take your quizzes (every other week) and exams (at the end of the block) any time between Friday Evening and mid-day Sunday. You must take it on campus, but it is honor system that you are not using your notes, you take it when you are most comfortable, it is UNPROCTORED.....like....it is legit.

Core clinical rotations in your second year. It is what it is. However, you have the option of choosing one of 16 different combinations of how your clinical are ordered, and most students get their top or one of their top choices. In addition to that, you can either do all of your clinicals at the Ann Arbr hospital OR across the greater southeast Michigan area - your call.

third and fourth year is absolutely amazing. Their are a few mandatory things, but by and large it is all elective. Instead of having 3-5 months between the end of M3 and ERAS deadline to decide what you want to do and prove you are ready for it, you have 18 months. You can do your research, your sub-Is, your abroad traveling, WHATEFVER YOU WANT (obviously in the medical school context and there are obvious limitations yaddda yadda, you get what I mean). Like, instead of just M4 being chill like everywhere else, it is chill here for half of med school (obviously it is difficult, but you get what you put into it and it is truly truly customizable and geared towards students being the architects of their own path).

The facilities...it has everything you would ever need. Literally, everything. There is money, there are faculty, there is....there is everything all located in one spot, less than a half mile from the undergrad campus, about a mile from downtown. It cannot get any better in terms of convenience.

The vibe and a message to admissions:
I have 'only' interviewed at 5 schools outside of my state, and 4 of those schools had just one standout feature. These features were what made me like the school or the area, negatives aside. UChicago had a strong sense of being one with the community. Pittsburg had green space and a very homie atmosphere as an affordable college town. Mayo had everything in one spot, was safe and had great schools for my daughter. Harvard had a completely customizable third and fourth year and all of the resources one could ever want. Michigan....Well University of Michigan had all of these things and more. Interviewing here, I felt like I was a part of a family after merely two days. I loved the area, I loved the curriculum, I loved the vibes. A lot of people say that "school fit" is overblown and doesn't mean much....But this school and Ann Arbor had everything me and my family would want and more. If you do scroll these threads, UMich admissions...You know who I am now based on my date and my fun fact. If you are reading this and in three weeks I am lucky enough to receive an acceptance, then this time next year I will be 2 months into my schooling in Ann Arbor. If I have a UMich acceptance, I would not choose anywhere else. Believe me however much you would like, but honestly and truly, your school could not be any better of a fit for me and Ann Arbor could not be any better of a fit for my family and I hope you liked me as much as I loved you.

To the applicants reading, I also run the Michigan Monday thread...I started that mostly because of the hype train. But let me tell you, the hype is real. I hope your Michigan Monday comes because this school is fantastic, Ann Arbor is a gem, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been considered.
Click to expand...
As an undergad here, I can confirm Ann Arbor is an amazing place to raise a family. I honestly think it might be the best town in the country. Also football Saturday at the Big House is crazy (even though the team has been disappointing lately). So yeah, great school and even better town.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Alright, I was questioning whether I should do this or not but after just doing my interview day (9/27) I am absolutely hyped about this school. I am going to give you what is probably the most thorough and most over the top review of a program that I possibly could, but to be honest University of Michigan genuinely deserves the praise. Everything was above and beyond and FAR exceeded all of my expectations. Here goes:

The night prior/the area:
I will preface this by stating this is from the perspective of a father and someone from a relatively small town (300,000-500,000 people). The walking tour comes before the dinner. In my honest opinion, Ann Arbor has EVERYTHING one would need. The downtown has maybe a few chain stores, but is absolutely filled to the brim with restaurants of al kinds ranging from burgers to indian food to Korean BBQ, all locally owned and operated and, according to the students, all fantastic. There is upscale, there is cheapo bar food...so many bars....I described it to my wife as "Imagine main street small-town USA...Downtown ann arbor is like 3 dozen of those all criss-crossing." The undergraduate Campus is absolutely gorgeous, the medical school campus and hospital are absolutely gorgeous, so is the arboretum and overall just a lot of green space. The housing is nice and you run the gambit on affordability and luxury - whatever you want and can afford (or if you wanna go cheap), they have it. Something that spoke volumes to me as a father was something I saw on my walk back to the hotel after dinner. It was around 9:20, it was dark....I passed nine families. Walking with toddlers and strollers. Downtown. At night. The residents feel safe enough to walk downtown at night with their children running ahead of them in multitudes. So not only did I like the area because it has some of the best public schools in the country, but because it is safe.

The dinner was fantastic. Best pizza I have had in a long time (better than UChicago's deep dish, I have to say). We ate with students and fellow interviewees. We talked about everything from ultra marathons to my smeagol voice (if you are reading UMich admissions, you now know who I am - I have a message for you at the end of this). We had a blast. Not only were all of the students fantastic people who spoke incredibly about everything, I could tell just how much thought they put in to the applicant selection process. Every one of my fellow interviewees was kind, honest, and a genuinely great person. Normally there are a few people at each interview that have given off that 'weird' vibe - but I could see myself as a classmate to all 36 people I met over these last few days, honest to God (and I am athiest).

The interview day:
After the continental breakfast came an hour of talks. First off, I would like to state that Carol Teener is phenominal. Several of the students stated "You are here because they loved you already, it is not a mistake - Carol does not make mistakes." And by golly I saw the gal for all of 3 hours and I can see that this holds true. She goes above and beyond to make sure every part of that interview day is part of the experience and that everyone there on interview day deserves to be there. She gives you a presentation at the beginning of the day about their programs, their facilities, their town, their culture (I will get to all of that later). She is thorough yet concise and extraordinarily positive. And everything she said was honest and reflected what I saw during the entire interview day in the students, the faculty, and everyone associated. That was followed by what had to be the most inspirational speech I have heard outside of a TED talk. Dr. Okanlami, MD - he is the physical embodiment of what UMich strives for. Coming from the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, he talked to us about diversity of background, diversity of thought, diversity of experience and TBH the message alone had me pumped . But then what followed? Dr. Gay , Assistant Dean for Admissions, comes in and brings the double whammy. His speech was not inspirational - it got me PUMPED UP about university of Michigan. Their goals, their mission, their cause in medical education....just WOW. I won't go over the contents...but.....get ready to be pumped. Now you are pumped to be there, it has only been an hour, the interviews start.

You are split into groups, one does MMI first, one does the longform interviews first. The longform interviews were extraordinarily conversational. In one the interviewer asked me a lot about leadership and teamwork and my schooling and my military activities etc. very conversational. In the other, my interviewer and I literally just shared anecdotes and they would relate it back to UMich. Nothing to stress over, very basic and traditional interview. The MMI was been my favorite interview experience thus far. Without too much detail, there is some discussion, some role play, some team building, whatever. I won't share any more (and I don't know if this is sharing to much.....?) But honestly it was fun. Nothing stressful. Novel, on your feet thinking. I had an absolute blast.

Next comes lunch, which was a very good spread of various sandwich types and salads - it was good. Then just came more med student and fellow interviewee conversation. We didn't ask a lot of the standard premed questions - we talked about sports, our hobbies, our favorite ways to cook a potato....genuinely, by this point almost everyone seemed to be on the same page that we already knew we wanted to a Michigan student and by lunch we were just having a good time.

Next came the 'untour' which was a little half hour tour of the campus followed by an hour long experience in one of their clinical simulation centers. You could be practicing stitches or laproscopic surgeries or whatever. It was very fun and a fantastic and light way to mostly close out the day. I very very very much preferred this to a traditional tour. It was a great and unique experience and kind of reminded me why I want to go in to medicine, which has kind of gotten lost in the haze of the interview cycle.

The day was closed out with a conference room (in which there is a surprise which I will not state). You get some closing remarks from Carol Teener and other faculty followed by like 20 students and faculty who stay for Q and A afterwards (and I think they were scheduled to stay for like...up to an hour....I left to tour the arboretum, but still they are available for questions).

The school/the facility:
12 month preclinical - everything is recorded, they have doctoring once a week, patients come in and talk about their illness relevant to the block that you are learning. It is al 'systems' based blocks. This means that your patients that talk, your anatomy classes, your lecture classes, your case based stuff will all be about the same thing (ie. Immunology and pharmacology, basic science/biochem oriented etc.). The biggest selling point: Flex quizzes and exams. You can take your quizzes (every other week) and exams (at the end of the block) any time between Friday Evening and mid-day Sunday. You must take it on campus, but it is honor system that you are not using your notes, you take it when you are most comfortable, it is UNPROCTORED.....like....it is legit.

Core clinical rotations in your second year. It is what it is. However, you have the option of choosing one of 16 different combinations of how your clinical are ordered, and most students get their top or one of their top choices. In addition to that, you can either do all of your clinicals at the Ann Arbr hospital OR across the greater southeast Michigan area - your call.

third and fourth year is absolutely amazing. Their are a few mandatory things, but by and large it is all elective. Instead of having 3-5 months between the end of M3 and ERAS deadline to decide what you want to do and prove you are ready for it, you have 18 months. You can do your research, your sub-Is, your abroad traveling, WHATEFVER YOU WANT (obviously in the medical school context and there are obvious limitations yaddda yadda, you get what I mean). Like, instead of just M4 being chill like everywhere else, it is chill here for half of med school (obviously it is difficult, but you get what you put into it and it is truly truly customizable and geared towards students being the architects of their own path).

The facilities...it has everything you would ever need. Literally, everything. There is money, there are faculty, there is....there is everything all located in one spot, less than a half mile from the undergrad campus, about a mile from downtown. It cannot get any better in terms of convenience.

The vibe and a message to admissions:
I have 'only' interviewed at 5 schools outside of my state, and 4 of those schools had just one standout feature. These features were what made me like the school or the area, negatives aside. UChicago had a strong sense of being one with the community. Pittsburg had green space and a very homie atmosphere as an affordable college town. Mayo had everything in one spot, was safe and had great schools for my daughter. Harvard had a completely customizable third and fourth year and all of the resources one could ever want. Michigan....Well University of Michigan had all of these things and more. Interviewing here, I felt like I was a part of a family after merely two days. I loved the area, I loved the curriculum, I loved the vibes. A lot of people say that "school fit" is overblown and doesn't mean much....But this school and Ann Arbor had everything me and my family would want and more. If you do scroll these threads, UMich admissions...You know who I am now based on my date and my fun fact. If you are reading this and in three weeks I am lucky enough to receive an acceptance, then this time next year I will be 2 months into my schooling in Ann Arbor. If I have a UMich acceptance, I would not choose anywhere else. Believe me however much you would like, but honestly and truly, your school could not be any better of a fit for me and Ann Arbor could not be any better of a fit for my family and I hope you liked me as much as I loved you.

To the applicants reading, I also run the Michigan Monday thread...I started that mostly because of the hype train. But let me tell you, the hype is real. I hope your Michigan Monday comes because this school is fantastic, Ann Arbor is a gem, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been considered.
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Wow! There are some bold statements there, pat! What if you get better scholarships elsewhere? That’s the main reason people I know have turned down Michigan. It really does sound like an incredible program, though. I’m so glad you were able to interview someplace with such a great fit for you and your family!
 
premed20172017 said:
Wow! There are some bold statements there, pat! What if you get better scholarships elsewhere? That’s the main reason people I know have turned down Michigan. It really does sound like an incredible program, though. I’m so glad you were able to interview someplace with such a great fit for you and your family!
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They have some really good financial aid and I will take that in to consideration at the very end, but if it is not an obviously overbearing load of debt (>250-350k) then it is very strongly a no questions sort of thing (if you are still reading UMich, more financial aid is ALWAYS appreciated).
 
spontaneous23 said:
It’s so weird to know who an SDN user is now! I think I was sitting next to you in the conference room at the end of the day haha and agree with pretty much everything you said. I’m head over heels now I just need them to love me. Reading your write up got me excited all over again!

Don’t have much to add, just wanna agree with ya that this interview by far had the KINDEST people I’ve ever met, from the faculty member who interviewed me, to the students, to our fellow interviewees 🙂
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I would ask to my left or to my right but it was a long day and I don’t remember lol What was your fun fact? I am glad I was not the only one who felt this way!
 
6/28er here, my hope is at this point nonexistent... but was curious if people know if updates are ever helpful at this school?

I didn’t really go into depth about my gap year... and I have a paper that is being finished up in terms of its write up.. so the next step is... submission and waiting approval? Not sure but whatever that next step is, worth updating as well?
 
Doctors' Docta said:
6/28er here, my hope is at this point nonexistent... but was curious if people know if updates are ever helpful at this school?

I didn’t really go into depth about my gap year... and I have a paper that is being finished up in terms of its write up.. so the next step is... submission and waiting approval? Not sure but whatever that next step is, worth updating as well?
Click to expand...
Submitting a paper isn’t worth an update, but once it gets accepted (usually after multiple rounds of revisions), it will be.
 
EmbryonalCarcinoma said:
Submitting a paper isn’t worth an update, but once it gets accepted (usually after multiple rounds of revisions), it will be.
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Oof ok good to know. I wonder how long that takes lmao but I guess once it’s done and I haven’t gotten the R, I’ll throw in One last hail mary
 
MedSciHopeful77 said:
They prefer if you uploaded updates to your application portal. You have spaces to upload files under your app status “checklist”.
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My bad, thank you for the correction. I was giving you the info for Thank you letters not updates
texasvandy said:
You are too pessimistic for a meme warlord.
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she said at closing remarks “they probably won’t hurt or help.” Maybe that is just post-II
 
anyone else have the university of michigan view their linkedin profile?

edit: nvm went deeper into the thread and saw this was common lol
 
cactuscomma said:
anyone else have the university of michigan view their linkedin profile?

edit: nvm went deeper into the thread and saw this was common lol
Click to expand...
It means you’re going to get an interview within the next 5 to 9 business days. N equals one minutes what happen with me
 
How many more Michigan Mondays are left? Is it usually the same each year, or does it vary?
 
Since hearing from them twice, I'm praying for that II as soon as the CASPer posts!
 
Have any rejections for regular decision been sent out that we know of?
 
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