2020-2021 Rush

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MarcoEsquandolas said:
Ah. Misunderstanding of SDN lingo on my part is the cause of the confusion. I was reading "II" as roman numerals for two and thought that it was referring to secondaries but now know that it means interview invite. My apologies.
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No worries! I was just very confused because no one had posted about an interview on this thread. Totally makes sense. I thought the same thing at first!
 
anyone a current student at Rush who wouldnt mind me personally messaging them ?
 
The first invites sent out according to last years thread was on August 30th, so by that logic since this year cycle was delayed 2 weeks theoretically on the best possible timeline they could start sending out invites this week. If you add in Covid delays that might add another week or so. I would imagine though that they want to send out interview invites before September is over as many schools have started sending out and are conducting interviews already.

tldr: I would be surprised if invites didn’t start getting sent out this week.
 
Rapsidy said:
The first invites sent out according to last years thread was on August 30th, so by that logic since this year cycle was delayed 2 weeks theoretically on the best possible timeline they could start sending out invites this week. If you add in Covid delays that might add another week or so. I would imagine though that they want to send out interview invites before September is over as many schools have started sending out and are conducting interviews already.

tldr: I would be surprised if invites didn’t start getting sent out this week.
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wow ok. thanks for your inference. very helpful
 
Am I reading this wrong? The application says, "If you have submitted THREE or more individual letters please indicate which three letters you would like us to evaluate as part of your application."

Shouldn't this read "more than 3 individual letters..."?
 
ThatSerb said:
Am I reading this wrong? The application says, "If you have submitted THREE or more individual letters please indicate which three letters you would like us to evaluate as part of your application."

Shouldn't this read "more than 3 individual letters..."?
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I indicated what three I had submitted and what type they were.
For example: Dr. x ---physician letter, Dr. A--- Chemistry letter etc.
 
darkpauladin said:
I'm a current medical student in my clinical years here, wouldn't mind answering some Qs
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How is support from faculty? Is it easy to get mentorship here? How available/common is doing research/innovative projects? Do you feel close with your classmates?
 
sos-sos said:
How is support from faculty? Is it easy to get mentorship here? How available/common is doing research/innovative projects? Do you feel close with your classmates?
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Easy to get mentorship if you want it -- I've never had any problems with this. About 1/3-1/2 of our class will do research projects the summer after M1 year. I felt closer to my classmates M1+2 versus clinical years. For my class, we usually had a get together after block exams to blow off steam.
 
badger008 said:
What's it like living and working in Chicago? Do most students live in school owned housing?
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I like living in Chicago, it's got a nice big city vibe with good public transit. There's plenty of things to do around the city if you're bored and not studying. I believe a minority of students live in school sponsored housing. There's no dorms but our school sponsors an apartment building called Taylor lofts that has shuttles to our campus. I believe maybe 10% or less live in these units. Usually, most students live in off-campus housing they find on their own. Rent's pretty reasonable at ~$1000/month for a bedroom in a shared apartment close to school.
 
Color me somewhat surprised I really thought they would have started interview invites this week. Maybe they have and nobody on SDN has reported it but I thought it would have shown up somewhere. Hopefully next week someone will get an interview.
 
Rapsidy said:
Color me somewhat surprised I really thought they would have started interview invites this week. Maybe they have and nobody on SDN has reported it but I thought it would have shown up somewhere. Hopefully next week someone will get an interview.
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I can’t believe I have to wait through another weekend ‍:-(
 
Heck at this point they may just shift the entire interview season a month on both ends so I wouldn’t get hopes up till first week of October. I wonder if that’ll put them at a disadvantage though with first acceptance dates being October 15th and many of the candidates they may want as top choice will have acceptances even before Rush does the interview.
 
Rapsidy said:
Heck at this point they may just shift the entire interview season a month on both ends so I wouldn’t get hopes up till first week of October. I wonder if that’ll put them at a disadvantage though with first acceptance dates being October 15th and many of the candidates they may want as top choice will have acceptances even before Rush does the interview.
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Rush ends their interview season earlier than most schools (feb) so they have room to shift.
 
advanti said:
Hey all! Current M2 here, happy to answer any questions about the preclinical experience at Rush and/or Chicago in general! Unfortunately can't help with the status of the current application cycle as I'm not involved/up to date with that process, though.
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Hello thank you for that! If you don’t mind me asking what was it about Rush that ultimately made you decide them over other schools if you had multiple acceptances? Do you collaborate with students in the area particularly for example UIC as it’s basically across the street?
 
advanti said:
I'm a nontrad with a background in health equity research and service, so I loved that Rush is service oriented with a diverse patient population. Additionally, it's the primary academic affiliation of Stroger/Cook County Hospital, one of the most historic public hospitals in the country and the primary safety net hospital of the city. Access to that kind of patient population is just fantastic for someone like me.

And as someone who had been out of school a long time (and as someone who has historically been a colossal idiot in traditional lecture classes) I loved the idea of the systems and case-based preclinical curriculum. It's primarily self study and you come together once or twice a week to work through cases.

Finally, as someone who has kind of burnt out on the #gunnerlyfe and the cutthroat competition I'd seen at my previous institutions, the culture has been super important to me. I know you guys aren't having the traditional interview experience right now, but I'll tell you that at every single place I interviewed there's always a handful of insufferable gunners who feel the inexplicable need to show their entire ass to other interviewees. Miraculously, I didn't meet a single one of those people during my Rush interview, and so far that's representative of the culture here. Of course, you can't avoid competitive people in any environment, but my class is on the whole friendly and chill. This is something I might be biased on (again, based on somewhat traumatic experiences in the past at large research institutions), but I also find the faculty and administration incredibly supportive and open.

Some things were personal: I'm from the Midwest but I'm nontrad and have been living on the east coast for a long time, so I liked the idea of coming back closer to home but still staying in a big city. I've always kind of envisioned myself ending up in Chicago anyway! Some other schools I had gotten into were either prohibitively expensive or intolerably remote, which narrowed things down too.

Re: UIC- I have only interacted with them incidentally as a preclinical student. i.e. a physician I shadowed had dual appointments at Rush and UIC, so I shadowed them at both places and met med students there. There are also some service projects that involve both institutions, particularly during COVID- there's a very well organized Chicago-wide health professions student task force. Hilariously, there is a specific coffee shop in Wicker Park that is literally always full of UIC and Rush med students, so I've run into some there too. I imagine that later on I might see some crossover with them- Stroger takes med students from across Chicago, so if you rotate there you meet students from other schools.
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This was extremely helpful! Thank you! So Rush doesn't have any lectures? Do they just expect you to learn from a textbook?
 
advanti said:
Hey all! Current M2 here, happy to answer any questions about the preclinical experience at Rush and/or Chicago in general! Unfortunately can't help with the status of the current application cycle as I'm not involved/up to date with that process, though.
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How are the extracurricular and community service opportunities here?
 
advanti said:
Almost no in person lectures- there may be a panel here or there for a guest speaker, but I can't remember the last time that happened. Lectures are instead recorded, and self study material consists of those videos plus reading material that's written in-house. As an example, here's a lecture on Graves disease I was just reviewing. Most Rush lectures aren't publicly available, but Dr. Richards has since left Rush and her lectures are all up on her youtube page! For each case, you'll be watching these on your own time.

You will have in person sessions for clinical skills labs, histology and anatomy labs, communications skills sessions- stuff like that. But no more 90 minutes of sitting in a lecture hall listening to someone drone about the Krebs cycle here 😉
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Oh wow that's so nice!
 
While it is true we no longer have lectures per se, in pre-COVID times we did have 3 PBL sessions a week, each ~3 hours long. Total in person time each week is usually 12 hours.
 
advanti said:
Almost no in person lectures
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Without lectures bringing people together repeatedly, how do you make friends at Rush? How do they build community? Does it feel like a community or is it more independent? Especially given it is in a city, I feel like it could be hard to build reliable community. Thoughts?
 
Does anyone know if working during the summer/winter breaks in college would be considered employed while enrolled in undergraduate studies?
 
LiteralLungs said:
Does anyone know if working during the summer/winter breaks in college would be considered employed while enrolled in undergraduate studies?
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I don’t think that’s what they mean. They’re looking for barriers for academic performance. Getting a 4.0 is impressive for anyone. Getting a 4.0 while taking 16 credits and working 40 hours per week is much more impressive.
 
aeprab said:
Save your energy and sanity and apply DO or do a masters no offense you won’t get an interview
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Lots of assumptions being made here. How do you know they didn't also apply DO and/or already did a master's/post-bacc?

Also, unless you're an adcom at Rush who has seen chiismd's application, I don't know how you can definitively say that they're not going to get an interview. I'm all for realistic feedback (if the poster asks for it), but 1 MCAT score does not define an entire application.
 
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aeprab said:
Save your energy and sanity and apply DO or do a masters no offense you won’t get an interview
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Agree with everything the other people said in response to this, but just want to add in I have a friend who has a sub 500 MCAT and got 3 interviews to MD schools. MCAT is definitely not the only aspect of an application and does not define an applicant. I think saying no offense does not make it any less rude and offensive. I hope you do not continue to take this attitude to other applicants and future classmates. Everyone’s story is different and scores do not make one person better than anyone else.
 
DesignatedSurvivor said:
Agree with everything the other people said in response to this, but just want to add in I have a friend who has a sub 500 MCAT and got 3 interviews to MD schools. MCAT is definitely not the only aspect of an application and does not define an applicant. I think saying no offense does not make it any less rude and offensive. I hope you do not continue to take this attitude to other applicants and future classmates. Everyone’s story is different and scores do not make one person better than anyone else.
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I agree the person you quoted could have said it in a more sensitive way. But I think they were just trying to give the OP an honest opinion. Realistically, someone with a sub 500 MCAT will have a very low chance at MD schools ( just look at the statistics) unless that person falls under URM, amazing life experiences, veterans, etc. If you dont fall under one of those categories, your chance is slim to none. OP can gamble if they have the money, but think carefully if they dont. Dont want to be in thousands of dollars in debt and have to reapply again.
 
Nontraddddds said:
I agree the person you quoted could have said it in a more sensitive way. But I think they were just trying to give the OP an honest opinion. Realistically, someone with a sub 500 MCAT will have a very low chance at MD schools ( just look at the statistics) unless that person falls under URM, amazing life experiences, veterans, etc. If you dont fall under one of those categories, your chance is slim to none. OP can gamble if they have the money, but think carefully if they dont. Dont want to be in thousands of dollars in debt and have to reapply again.
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The whole problem is OP never asked for anyone's opinion about applying with a sub 500 MCAT. They were merely indicating that they received a secondary from Rush. I know we're all neurotic but worry about your own applications.
 
queenbeee said:
The whole problem is OP never asked for anyone's opinion about applying with a sub 500 MCAT. They were merely indicating that they received a secondary from Rush. I know we're all neurotic but worry about your own applications.
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You made a good point there. Let's move on. I am sure that person was just trying to help but came off the wrong way.
 
Are people listing hours for clinical experiences?
 
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