2020-2021 University of Washington

[mantistoboggan1]

Did y'all receive any sort of confirmation / email after confirming your position on the alternate list via the portal?

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[crossstr]

Did y'all receive any sort of confirmation / email after confirming your position on the alternate list via the portal?

No didn't receive an email confirmation. I keep refreshing waiting for rank list to change after the alternate #1 gets accepted. Is #1 here on SDN?? 😲

 

[UW Med_2025]

I'm not entirely sure how the system works, but I wonder if the accepted people and alternates that start accepting positions have to accept both in the UW system and the AMCAS system. I only mention that because I accepted in the UW system but my acceptance to UW isn't showing up in the "choose your med school" tool at all on amcas yet. I called to ask amcas and they said that's most likely because UW just hasn't sent the information on acceptances over to them yet. So that may cause a delay if the As have to be turned down in both systems.

But as I said that's just pure speculation on my part. I honestly have no idea, but wanted to throw it out there as a possible explanation if it takes a bit for there to start being movement on alternates.

Fingers crossed for the people on the alternate list!

 

[sadhzzz]

They said in the alternate email that they usually don't start accepting people off of the alternate until late April/May. If people withdraw acceptances and spots start opening up well before then, does anyone know if they still wait until late April/May to pull people off of it?

 

[crossstr]

They said in the alternate email that they usually don't start accepting people off of the alternate until late April/May. If people withdraw acceptances and spots start opening up well before then, does anyone know if they still wait until late April/May to pull people off of it?

I spoke to Stella Yee today and she said the rank list will change as soon as the first alternate is accepted, while that tends to happen around the April 30th date she said it could happen anytime before then once they start having withdrawals.

 

[anotherpremedstudent]

They said in the alternate email that they usually don't start accepting people off of the alternate until late April/May. If people withdraw acceptances and spots start opening up well before then, does anyone know if they still wait until late April/May to pull people off of it?

Probably not until April 15th according the last year’s thread. A lot of people are still waiting to hear back from other top programs + financial packages before withdrawing from other schools. 30+ people were accepted off the alternate on May 1st last year though.

Also, I wonder if the increase of people accepted off the alternate list last year was correlated at all with Step 1 going P/F.

 

[Idahomie]

Also, I wonder if the increase of people accepted off the alternate list last year was correlated at all with Step 1 going P/F.

Why do you think Step 1 p/f would lead to more acceptances off the waitlist? I feel like it would lead to the opposite. If step 1 is pass/fail, then it is no longer an equalizing factor between highly ranked schools and bottom-tier schools. So if people have multiple acceptances, they may be more inclined to go to the higher-ranked school because residency programs now have less information to objectively review applicants. School ranking might become a bigger deal to some folks because of step 1 p/f.

 

[anotherpremedstudent]

Why do you think Step 1 p/f would lead to more acceptances off the waitlist? I feel like it would lead to the opposite. If step 1 is pass/fail, then it is no longer an equalizing factor between highly ranked schools and bottom-tier schools. So if people have multiple acceptances, they may be more inclined to go to the higher-ranked school because residency programs now have less information to objectively review applicants. School ranking might become a bigger deal to some folks because of step 1 p/f.

I think this is an issue that primarily concerns people deciding between UW and other T20s, so I agree with your reasoning compared against low tier schools. If you look at the average Step 1 scores that UW has produced it is not very high compared to other T50 schools. People who care about prestige usually want to get into competitive specialties and UW is known for its focus on primary care. We don't know how program directors will look at schools now and they may look at the past averages to get an idea of what kind of score they may have earned based on their institution.

UW is tied for third lowest average Step 1 score amongst the Top50 USNWR rankings. So that's why I thought there was more WL movement last year compared to all the previous years. This is all conjecture though, it could've just been OOR people got into their home schools or a coincidental increase. I've also spoken to two medical students who said UW isn't "really a T20" (which I'm not sure I agree with).

From a Redditor who interviewed at multiple T20s: "My take on it is specifically based on the student population and the availability of resources. The resources at UW are extraordinary and as a university they are superb in every sense of the word. Specifically for the medical student though, those resources don’t really pan out. Students don’t have much of any protected time for research or specific electives due to the WWAMI rotations, they are limited to in-state applicants/don’t have the same universally high-standard seen among the quality of preclinical education seen elsewhere, and the campus (both Seattle and Spokane) is pretty run down for the name. I just learned today that UW is building a new Spokane campus (just drove past a few hours ago and it looks like it will be beautiful), and where UW really excels is in the clinical side of things - specifically rural and primary care. Excellent care on that."

If it's true that it's hard to do research, that also limits the ability to match into competitive specialties. With all that said I would still 1000% enroll here lol, but I am interested mostly in primary care and IS. Once WL movement starts I would love to hear why some people turn down their A to here.

 

[amandam206]

Probably not until April 15th according the last year’s thread. A lot of people are still waiting to hear back from other top programs + financial packages before withdrawing from other schools. 30+ people were accepted off the alternate on May 1st last year though.

Also, I wonder if the increase of people accepted off the alternate list last year was correlated at all with Step 1 going P/F.

My opinion is that there was more movement off of the WL because of COVID. I haven’t looked at the numbers to confirm but I am guessing that a lot of people, once finding out most of their classes were going to be online this year anyway, decided to go somewhere less expensive, closer to home, etc.

 

[Idahomie]

From a Redditor who interviewed at multiple T20s: "My take on it is specifically based on the student population and the availability of resources. The resources at UW are extraordinary and as a university they are superb in every sense of the word. Specifically for the medical student though, those resources don’t really pan out. Students don’t have much of any protected time for research or specific electives due to the WWAMI rotations, they are limited to in-state applicants/don’t have the same universally high-standard seen among the quality of preclinical education seen elsewhere, and the campus (both Seattle and Spokane) is pretty run down for the name. I just learned today that UW is building a new Spokane campus (just drove past a few hours ago and it looks like it will be beautiful), and where UW really excels is in the clinical side of things - specifically rural and primary care. Excellent care on that."

Lmao, I don't know who wrote that quote, but so much of that is wrong, so I want to address it for other people reading.

1. No time for research or specific electives? Take a look at the curriculum schedule. I'll address not being able to take specific electives first because that is so obviously wrong. There is one block at the end of 3rd year for electives, and you can do plenty of others during 4th year, with plenty of time to spare before submitting ERAS. You can take a research elective too, btw. Now from the actual students I've talked to, research depends wholly on the effort you put into it. As far as guaranteed research time, you get 10 weeks guaranteed if you choose that option for your Triple I. I've talked to several students who continued with their 1st-year research mentor throughout med school, working on projects when possible. All the faculty at WWAMI are very used to the fact that students are away for large chunks of the year, either from attending one of the satellite campuses or going on rotations outside of Seattle. Many faculty have projects that students can work on even during a long-distance relationship. Premeds always assume that they are going to have tons of time for research, but the reality is med school is tough. It's hard to find time for research anyway. If you are productive from your Triple I, meet and talk to faculty advisors for your specialty of choice, get involved as much as possible when available, and get a productive research elective in, you will have the research to be competitive for your specialty. I'm in the Idaho Cohort (Duh), and in last year's graduating class (E-17, I believe) only one student from Idaho took a research year, and there were several who matched into competitive specialties at regarded programs without a research year. Obviously, research wasn't an issue for them. Plus, as an added bonus, you get all the unique experiences offered by WWAMI that no other medical student can have.

2. The Quality of education is low. This one drives me crazy. Lower step 1 scores do not equal easier or poorer quality education. Because the curriculum is standardized across all campuses, you actually avoid some of the BS that happens at a lot of medical schools, i.e, lecturers only talking about their research or writing their own test questions that have no relevance to step 1. Not going to happen when 5 states are trying to be in sync.

I think the real issue is that some applicants are frankly elitist. They see the average GPA/MCAT and Step scores as inferior. They want to feel like they've earned being into a top-tier school where everyone else has 520's. They won't get that sweet elitist feeling attending UW. Plus, someone might think they got below a 520 on the MCAT because they go to UW, gasp! If you are the person who is going to be bothered by that, it will probably stick with you and you should just go somewhere else. If you want to go to school with people who know that there are more important things than grades, WWAMI is a great school. Idk, but if I'm a doctor, I would rather work with someone from the second group than the first. This isn't saying there aren't wonderful people at Top 20s. Of course there are. It's just that you are also more likely to encounter elitist gunners in that kind of environment. But don't for a second believe that the education is inferior because the student population had lower MCAT scores. People have talked about this ad nauseum, but the reason the Step 1 scores are lower as well is not because the students are dumb. It's because they have different goals: people want to go into the family medicine residency program in their home state, and those people are not interested in studying 1000 hours to get a 250. Once again, the students who want to get into competitive residencies have just as much opportunity to do so compared to any other top 20, and they are still quite successful at matching. It's fine if you want to go to a more selective medical school. There are plenty of reasons to do so, but please don't **** on UWSOM because it's not like the other top 20s. Plus, residency program directors seem to love the school, or at least they rate it that way. I trust their opinion more than an incoming MS1.

To summarize, I think this quote was written by someone with cognitive bias trying to justify not going to a fantastic in-state school. Either that, or they were poorly misinformed and missed out on a great school.

Also, yeah I've heard the facilities in Seattle are meh, but the new building in Idaho is awesome, so I've got that going for me.

 

[anotherpremedstudent]

Lmao, I don't know who wrote that quote, but so much of that is wrong, so I want to address it for other people reading.

1. No time for research or specific electives? Take a look at the curriculum schedule. I'll address not being able to take specific electives first because that is so obviously wrong. There is one block at the end of 3rd year for electives, and you can do plenty of others during 4th year, with plenty of time to spare before submitting ERAS. You can take a research elective too, btw. Now from the actual students I've talked to, research depends wholly on the effort you put into it. As far as guaranteed research time, you get 10 weeks guaranteed if you choose that option for your Triple I. I've talked to several students who continued with their 1st-year research mentor throughout med school, working on projects when possible. All the faculty at WWAMI are very used to the fact that students are away for large chunks of the year, either from attending one of the satellite campuses or going on rotations outside of Seattle. Many faculty have projects that students can work on even during a long-distance relationship. Premeds always assume that they are going to have tons of time for research, but the reality is med school is tough. It's hard to find time for research anyway. If you are productive from your Triple I, meet and talk to faculty advisors for your specialty of choice, get involved as much as possible when available, and get a productive research elective in, you will have the research to be competitive for your specialty. I'm in the Idaho Cohort (Duh), and in last year's graduating class (E-17, I believe) only one student from Idaho took a research year, and there were several who matched into competitive specialties at regarded programs without a research year. Obviously, research wasn't an issue for them. Plus, as an added bonus, you get all the unique experiences offered by WWAMI that no other medical student can have.

2. The Quality of education is low. This one drives me crazy. Lower step 1 scores do not equal easier or poorer quality education. Because the curriculum is standardized across all campuses, you actually avoid some of the BS that happens at a lot of medical schools, i.e, lecturers only talking about their research or writing their own test questions that have no relevance to step 1. Not going to happen when 5 states are trying to be in sync.

I think the real issue is that some applicants are frankly elitist. They see the average GPA/MCAT and Step scores as inferior. They want to feel like they've earned being into a top-tier school where everyone else has 520's. They won't get that sweet elitist feeling attending UW. Plus, someone might think they got below a 520 on the MCAT because they go to UW, gasp! If you are the person who is going to be bothered by that, it will probably stick with you and you should just go somewhere else. If you want to go to school with people who know that there are more important things than grades, WWAMI is a great school. Idk, but if I'm a doctor, I would rather work with someone from the second group than the first. This isn't saying there aren't wonderful people at Top 20s. Of course there are. It's just that you are also more likely to encounter elitist gunners in that kind of environment. But don't for a second believe that the education is inferior because the student population had lower MCAT scores. People have talked about this ad nauseum, but the reason the Step 1 scores are lower as well is not because the students are dumb. It's because they have different goals: people want to go into the family medicine residency program in their home state, and those people are not interested in studying 1000 hours to get a 250. Once again, the students who want to get into competitive residencies have just as much opportunity to do so compared to any other top 20, and they are still quite successful at matching. It's fine if you want to go to a more selective medical school. There are plenty of reasons to do so, but please don't **** on UWSOM because it's not like the other top 20s. Plus, residency program directors seem to love the school, or at least they rate it that way. I trust their opinion more than an incoming MS1.

To summarize, I think this quote was written by someone with cognitive bias trying to justify not going to a fantastic in-state school. Either that, or they were poorly misinformed and missed out on a great school.

Also, yeah I've heard the facilities in Seattle are meh, but the new building in Idaho is awesome, so I've got that going for me.

I’d just like to clarify that I was not ****ting on UW and no where said I agreed with that Redditor. I was going to argue with them, but internet arguments are never worth it in the end. The Redditor also did not get into UW-Seattle so...

But your comments on elitism is what I was getting at. For better or worse UW is unique amongst the T20s and some applicants are looking for different things in their programs. If people pass up on UW for a more “intense” or however you want to put it preclinical education, that’s okay. Just like it’s okay for us to prefer our clinical education. We’ll all we doctors at the end of it.

 

[tinypecans]

I'm a reapplicant and I had no trouble getting feedback from them last year. It took several weeks though, so make sure you request it early, so you have plenty of time to address those deficiencies before resubmitting next cycle. They do a written report sort of thing after you fill out their online forms. They will only do it for IS and only once but I found it very helpful, especially when rewriting my essays for this year. Having it in writing was nice for revisiting and using as a sort of checklist. I was able to really focus in on the areas they said I was lacking for my time this year and for my essays.

Good luck to you. I really hope you're able to get that A next year!

I know there have been lots of other offers for this on here, but I am also willing to read through essays or applications or do mock interviews based on my own interview for people for next year. I went from not even getting an II last year to getting the A this year, with mostly just changing wording on essays (covid prevented me doing much more than that!) so I would love to share my insight on what I changed if it can help someone else.

Good luck to you all, and to those with As, I can't wait to meet you all as we go through our training ❤❤❤

Hello! Do you remember approximately when you reached out regarding feedback? I emailed them earlier this month and they said it was too soon for feedback.

 

[UW Med_2025]

Hello! Do you remember approximately when you reached out regarding feedback? I emailed them earlier this month and they said it was too soon for feedback.

I want to say it was mid April. Their faq page on the website says you can request feedback January through April, so I'm surprised they told you that

Maybe try again in early March. Or email back to ask when the window opens, since the faq site says January. I know that I didn't get my feedback until late May and by that point it's hard to act on certain feedback items for reapplication next cycle (such as if you have to retake the mcat).

Hope that helps and good luck!

 

[LegdayMD]

I want to say it was mid April. Their faq page on the website says you can request feedback January through April, so I'm surprised they told you that

Maybe try again in early March. Or email back to ask when the window opens, since the faq site says January. I know that I didn't get my feedback until late May and by that point it's hard to act on certain feedback items for reapplication next cycle (such as if you have to retake the mcat).

Hope that helps and good luck!

Lurker here, rejected post-II. Requested an application review within an hour of rejection and received the following response:

“Due to unexpected demands created by COVID-19 and limited staffing and resources, we made the difficult decision to pause personalized individual feedback for 2021. We recognize that this may be a disappointment for many applicants. Although we are unable to provide this service this year, we hope to offer this again to our WWAMI re-applicants in 2022.”

Not looking good for personal application reviews lol.

 

[UW Med_2025]

Lurker here, rejected post-II. Requested an application review within an hour of rejection and received the following response:

“Due to unexpected demands created by COVID-19 and limited staffing and resources, we made the difficult decision to pause personalized individual feedback for 2021. We recognize that this may be a disappointment for many applicants. Although we are unable to provide this service this year, we hope to offer this again to our WWAMI re-applicants in 2022.”

Not looking good for personal application reviews lol.

Oh nooooo. That's unfortunate and a big blow to those looking to reapply next year
I am willing to share my app stats and feedback I received with anyone who thinks it might help. Just send me a message. I suspect they tell most people to focus on the same things, or at the very least it might help you have a checklist to compare your app against.

 

[Idahomie]

I’d just like to clarify that I was not ****ting on UW and no where said I agreed with that Redditor. I was going to argue with them, but internet arguments are never worth it in the end. The Redditor also did not get into UW-Seattle so...

But your comments on elitism is what I was getting at. For better or worse UW is unique amongst the T20s and some applicants are looking for different things in their programs. If people pass up on UW for a more “intense” or however you want to put it preclinical education, that’s okay. Just like it’s okay for us to prefer our clinical education. We’ll all we doctors at the end of it.

Shoot I didn't want it to come across like I was coming at you at all. I assumed that you didn't agree with that person. I was just trying to set the record straight for anyone else who reads this later on. I know I read old school threads when I was getting ready to apply, so I didn't want others to have the wrong impression!

 

[Agent407]

I spoke to Stella Yee today and she said the rank list will change as soon as the first alternate is accepted, while that tends to happen around the April 30th date she said it could happen anytime before then once they start having withdrawals.

what do you mean by 'rank list will change'? From the app it says: "The rankings are determined by the Executive Committee and do not change. Applicants will be accepted in the order of their ranking as seats in the entering class become available."

...or am I overthinking this and you are saying 'change' like who is on deck and at-bat will change?

 

[crossstr]

what do you mean by 'rank list will change'? From the app it says: "The rankings are determined by the Executive Committee and do not change. Applicants will be accepted in the order of their ranking as seats in the entering class become available."

...or am I overthinking this and you are saying 'change' like who is on deck and at-bat will change?

"Once we have accepted our first Washington/out-of-region alternate, the current status of the Washington/out-of-region alternate list will appear below. We anticipate that there will be most movement around April 30th when applicants can only hold one medical school acceptance."

 

[curiouslytart]

Does anyone know if UW has a second look weekend (virtual or otherwise)? I was accepted last week, but I haven't seen info on the portal or anywhere else about second look.

 

[WLDDMed]

Does anyone know if UW has a second look weekend (virtual or otherwise)? I was accepted last week, but I haven't seen info on the portal or anywhere else about second look.

Congrats on the acceptance! I can't speak for the other cohorts, but I emailed the Idaho site director, and they scheduled a one-on-one tour for me. The Idaho cohort will also have another opportunity to visit the campus and meet other students on Friday, April 2, 2021, between 10am – 2pm.

 

[thescientist117]

Congrats on the acceptance! I can't speak for the other cohorts, but I emailed the Idaho site director, and they scheduled a one-on-one tour for me. The Idaho cohort will also have another opportunity to visit the campus and meet other students on Friday, April 2, 2021, between 10am – 2pm.

Oh outstanding! I got accepted last week to the Seattle Cohort and was hoping for something like this! I will reach out today! You're a lifesaver.

 

[tosu.12]

I'm sure this has been asked, but is there an admitted facebook group set up yet?

 

[justacreator]

I'm sure this has been asked, but is there an admitted facebook group set up yet?

Indeed there is.

Log into Facebook

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[UW Med_2025]

I'm sure this has been asked, but is there an admitted facebook group set up yet?

There are different groups for different cohorts. Someone just posted the Seattle one, and there are also pages for the Spokane, Alaska, and Idaho cohorts. I don't think I've seen anything for Wyoming or Montana yet.

 

[tosu.12]

There are different groups for different cohorts. Someone just posted the Seattle one, and there are also pages for the Spokane, Alaska, and Idaho cohorts. I don't think I've seen anything for Wyoming or Montana yet.

Where can I find the spokane link? thanks for your help!!

 

[WLDDMed]

Where can I find the spokane link? thanks for your help!!

Log into Facebook

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[justacreator]

Where can I find the spokane link? thanks for your help!!

My bad! Probably should've confirmed which cohort you were asking about first lol

 

[nettiktac]

Does anyone know how generous UW (Seattle) is with their need based scholarships and grants? I want to stay close to home and love UW’s program but even the in state cost of attendance is super high, especially for M3 and M4 I have offers at OOS schools that would cost less if I don’t get aid at UW. I’m just wondering if anyone knows anything? I really would prefer to go here.

 

[HumblePerspective]

Rejected by UW (October Interview)
Good luck to the rest of you still being considered!

 

[meek20]

Current MS1 here in Seattle. Congrats to those accepted already and good luck to those still waiting! If anyone has questions about USWSOM or life as a med student during COVID feel free to ask away!

 

[Idahomie]

If there are any current students lurking around here, I would appreciate some help with a couple of questions.

1. How rigorous is clerkship grading? Is it difficult to get honors? Generally, what percentage of students get honors for any given clerkship? Can only a certain percentage get honors anyway? I haven't found anything about the clerkship grading on any of the websites.

2. Are there concerns about grading inconsistencies for clerkships? I would imagine that there can be a lot of variability within a 5-state region with a ton of preceptors.

3. On a personal note, my specialty of choice is Dermatology. Do you know anyone who has applied or is planning to apply for derm? I've had a few email convos with some students that are trying for competitive specialties, but no one in derm. I would love to get somebody's perspective about it, especially regarding the available derm research. It seems that there are far fewer research opportunities in the derm division at UW compared to other specialties. I want to email one of my site deans about this, but I don't want to be marked as the dude that's gunning for derm. (I also really don't want to come across as a gunner, and I hope that I'm not, lol.) Any advice?

 

[meek20]

If there are any current students lurking around here, I would appreciate some help with a couple of questions.

1. How rigorous is clerkship grading? Is it difficult to get honors? Generally, what percentage of students get honors for any given clerkship? Can only a certain percentage get honors anyway? I haven't found anything about the clerkship grading on any of the websites.

2. Are there concerns about grading inconsistencies for clerkships? I would imagine that there can be a lot of variability within a 5-state region with a ton of preceptors.

3. On a personal note, my specialty of choice is Dermatology. Do you know anyone who has applied or is planning to apply for derm? I've had a few email convos with some students that are trying for competitive specialties, but no one in derm. I would love to get somebody's perspective about it, especially regarding the available derm research. It seems that there are far fewer research opportunities in the derm division at UW compared to other specialties. I want to email one of my site deans about this, but I don't want to be marked as the dude that's gunning for derm. (I also really don't want to come across as a gunner, and I hope that I'm not, lol.) Any advice?

Granted just a lowly MS1 so any information I give you here is from what I have heard from more senior students/info from the UWSOM portal for students. Clerkships are graded both by evaluations from physician preceptors and a shelf exam. If you crush the shelf exam and get mediocre/poor evaluations, you can still end up with honors/high pass. And clerkship evaluations are a standardized rubric with benchmarks, so if you're meeting the expectations (which you know before you start a rotation) and you work hard you will have no issue. I believe the honors rate is about 20-30% depending on the rotation plus a significant chunk gets a high pass, but I'm not looking at actual stats on that. The point being, if you put in the work for shelf exams and show up and are interested in what you do during rotations, you should have no issue getting honors. At the end of the day, everything in medical school is dependent on the work you put in. UWSOM is fantastic with teaching clinical skills early on. We learn about them in SIM lab and practice with standardized patients and start in the hospital and clinic at the beginning of our first year. The thing I've realized is that the material isn't necessarily that difficult in medical school, but there is a TON of it. And this means the differentiating factor among students isn't necessarily intelligence but work ethic, much more so than I felt it was in undergrad. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I have no fears about succeeding during clinical clerkships and residency with the education I am receiving.

Regarding specialty choice, I am not considering derm but plenty of my classmates are interested in competitive specialties. UW has an insane amount of research opportunities. Just about anyone you email will be willing to collaborate on a project or connect you with someone who has interests that are closely aligned. With Step 1 P/F, preclinical P/F, ultimately the competitive specialties will be pretty research dependent (and of course now Step 2). I can guarantee that the limitation on research will be from your own time commitments, rather than finding a mentor. Just about every block the professors and small group leaders invite students into their clinic to learn more about their specialty. Faculty are receptive to student interest. Lucky for you, derm is covered in the first quarter of your first year, which will help you make those connections early on. If you put the work in and reach out to dermatologists at UW you shouldn't have a problem matching into it.

Best of luck and congrats on the A!

 

[perpetuallyastudent]

Does anyone know how generous UW (Seattle) is with their need based scholarships and grants? I want to stay close to home and love UW’s program but even the in state cost of attendance is super high, especially for M3 and M4 I have offers at OOS schools that would cost less if I don’t get aid at UW. I’m just wondering if anyone knows anything? I really would prefer to go here.

MS2+ (took STEP 1 recently, but don't start clerkships until end of March) here. The UW primarily gives need based aid that is not loans and has some programs for URM/mission statement advancement, but is otherwise providing students with loans. It's not at all transparent who gets awarded what and UWSOM has their own financial aid office separate from UW main campus. As you'll see in the coming paragraphs, my biggest advice (really with anything at UWSOM) as advocate like ****ing crazy for yourself and don't be afraid to escalate or reach out to multiple people to get what you need to succeed. My mentality with a lot of this stuff at UWSOM is to go in ready to flip tables and shake trees but start with honey and donuts.

Initially, the main campus will populate the UW loans/grants you're eligible for based on federal guidelines, and at this point is when some people learned about their scholarships for mission advancement. However, this leaves most students thinking they only received loans until AFTER they've already started school; see why.....

The UWSOM Financial aid office will also ask you to fill out an application for the UWSOM scholarship once you're accepted (deadline is usually May after your acceptance unless you're waitlisted/accepted later and then you have some flexibility). The UWSOM scholarships are mostly need based and require parental information unless you can explain a convincing case for why it should not be considered. On this note also, be sure to fill out the forms that request consideration for a change in financial situation b/c you're probably not going to keep working like the tax information they use to determine financial aid eligibility shows throughout medical school. Typically if you're married or have been financially independent for over 6 years they'll waive the requirement for parental financial information. However, you won't find out if you have been awarded any of these scholarships until December or even March after you apply for them. In the meantime, you'll be given loans....then when you've been awarded the scholarship(s) it'll typically be divided between Winter and Spring quarter financial aid disbursements and they'll pay back part of your winter quarter loans and disperse fewer loans for Spring with the scholarship covering the rest.

IMO, this is super messed up and not at all in the students' best interests b/c the loans have origination fees and interest accumulating (during non-COVID) and so the scholarship actually helps less in the long run b/c you have to pay more in fees and interest initially before they pay back the loans with the scholarship.

As far as amounts, everybody is different with regard to finances, I'm financially independent (they don't look at parental information) and my partner is working, but earning less than the median area income for Seattle, and my first year I received about 10K in scholarships/grants, this year was about 14K and who knows about the future. By my math, I expect to have about a year of school ($50k) be in grants and scholarships unless our financial situation changes drastically.

Hopefully, this answers the question, and if there are any more questions about this or anything else related to UWSOM, my DMs are always open!

 

[perpetuallyastudent]

If there are any current students lurking around here, I would appreciate some help with a couple of questions.

1. How rigorous is clerkship grading? Is it difficult to get honors? Generally, what percentage of students get honors for any given clerkship? Can only a certain percentage get honors anyway? I haven't found anything about the clerkship grading on any of the websites.

2. Are there concerns about grading inconsistencies for clerkships? I would imagine that there can be a lot of variability within a 5-state region with a ton of preceptors.

3. On a personal note, my specialty of choice is Dermatology. Do you know anyone who has applied or is planning to apply for derm? I've had a few email convos with some students that are trying for competitive specialties, but no one in derm. I would love to get somebody's perspective about it, especially regarding the available derm research. It seems that there are far fewer research opportunities in the derm division at UW compared to other specialties. I want to email one of my site deans about this, but I don't want to be marked as the dude that's gunning for derm. (I also really don't want to come across as a gunner, and I hope that I'm not, lol.) Any advice?

MS2/3 (starting clerkships at the end of March) chiming in here,

1 & 2. My understanding is to try, work hard, show enthusiasm, and do well on the shelf and you'll be fine. However, after talking to MS3/4s in preparation for clerkships, it actually sounds pretty hard to get Honours. After looking at the clerkship rubrics for each required clerkship it's very subjective and varies for each clerkship what the grading scheme is. From what I hear, the challenging part is being there for 6 weeks, but depending on where you're at, only working for a week or so with an individual preceptor, so they don't necessarily see that improvement over time (More difficult at the main Seattle sites, less so in WWAMI where there are fewer preceptors so more one-on-one time). I've linked the grading rubrics for each required clerkship so that you can see the variation in expectations and grading below....it's quite big and even still not transparent

Surgery (Note; the clinical performance rubric is not shared and I cannot find it anywhere, including on UWSOM's intranet): Grading sounds 1-4 with a good shelf boosting things +0.2
Psych (Note; the UWSOM ESPCC is not published and I cannot find it anywhere, this has not been shared with entering clerkship students): Grading is 1-5 with a good shelf boosting things +0.2
Pediatrics(Page 15 with objectives prior to that): Grading is 1-5 with a good shelf exam boosting things +0.15; also weighted by how long you spent with the attending evaluators
OBGYN (Everything is published!): Funky weighting of clerkship evals and +0.15 with a good shelf
FamMed(Everything is transparent!): +0.1 with a good shelf, -0.2 with a bad shelf
IM (Website is password-protected, but the link is the subjective evaluation form, NOTE only #20 determines the grade): Grade is made up of clinical eval, clinical decision making exam and standard NBME Shelf exam, a 4.7+ is honors

Students at our school have actually been pushing for true standardization and/or switching to P/F, especially after our dean of students (Raye Maestas) was on a paper with several other faculty (including faculty charged with equity initiatives) where they found racial and ethnic disparities in our MSPE (Dean's) letters that are a part of residency applications and clerkship grading in 2019.....but that change has yet to happen....

3. Exactly what meek20 said, so many opportunities for research, and if you need help finding something the College Mentor program is a good first start for connecting you with someone, upperclassmen are also helpful, and finally, UWSOM requires a Triple I mini-research/clinical experience over the summer between MS1/2 and they maintain a database of research projects for that. Once you're a medical student, it's also way easier to get a response if you feel the need to cold-email someone for shadowing or research.

 

[Idahomie]

The UWSOM Financial aid office will also ask you to fill out an application for the UWSOM scholarship once you're accepted (deadline is usually May after your acceptance unless you're waitlisted/accepted later and then you have some flexibility). The UWSOM scholarships are mostly need based and require parental information unless you can explain a convincing case for why it should not be considered. On this note also, be sure to fill out the forms that request consideration for a change in financial situation b/c you're probably not going to keep working like the tax information they use to determine financial aid eligibility shows throughout medical school. Typically if you're married or have been financially independent for over 6 years they'll waive the requirement for parental financial information.

Thanks for the input. This is really helpful advice! Once scholarship applications are available, is there a specific form we use to request to waive parental information, or do we just email financial aid and talk to them?

I didn't know that married students can sometimes get that information waived. I'm <30, married with kids, but have only been financially independent for 4-5 years. I'm curious whether or not that will apply for me.

 

[perpetuallyastudent]

Thanks for the input. This is really helpful advice! Once scholarship applications are available, is there a specific form we use to request to waive parental information, or do we just email financial aid and talk to them?

I didn't know that married students can sometimes get that information waived. I'm <30, married with kids, but have only been financially independent for 4-5 years. I'm curious whether or not that will apply for me.

Yes, so they've traditionally provided the information on how to get the parental information requirement waived jointly with the scholarship application. In my case, it was a letter citing when I was financially independent, why, for how long, and marriage /dependent information. Sometimes they're not the clearest, so when/if you email/zoom with one of them, absolutely go in stating that you don't think your parental information should be required, here are reasons 1-X why. My understanding is the official requirement is independent/married for 6+ years, but when I first advocated for myself I'd been married 2 years and independent 6. One of my classmates had only been married/independent 5 years and got told UWSOM financial aid couldn't do anything, but after we'd discussed things they went back to UWSOM Financial Aid, and rather than just trusting the information UWSOM had provided they advocated for themself and got a waiver for parental information.

This is quite a frustrating policy at least personally b/c federally once you have a bachelor's, are married, or have dependents you're considered financially independent for financial aid, it's just that from my understanding, UWSOM is trying to have a measure for better understanding intergenerational wealth and financial need that way. It's also a difficult policy to work with when you're someone without contact with your parents due to family issues. I was lucky that this and my financial independence were documented through undergrad as well, so my petition was quite strong. While I understand UWSOM has the requirement to try and better support traditionally economically disadvantaged people I don't think it's executed well and at the end of the day there is another policy in place that allows for financial aid officer discretion, so you just have to use that and your self-advocacy skills.

 

[gr33n7]

If there are any current students lurking around here, I would appreciate some help with a couple of questions.

1. How rigorous is clerkship grading? Is it difficult to get honors? Generally, what percentage of students get honors for any given clerkship? Can only a certain percentage get honors anyway? I haven't found anything about the clerkship grading on any of the websites.

2. Are there concerns about grading inconsistencies for clerkships? I would imagine that there can be a lot of variability within a 5-state region with a ton of preceptors.

3. On a personal note, my specialty of choice is Dermatology. Do you know anyone who has applied or is planning to apply for derm? I've had a few email convos with some students that are trying for competitive specialties, but no one in derm. I would love to get somebody's perspective about it, especially regarding the available derm research. It seems that there are far fewer research opportunities in the derm division at UW compared to other specialties. I want to email one of my site deans about this, but I don't want to be marked as the dude that's gunning for derm. (I also really don't want to come across as a gunner, and I hope that I'm not, lol.) Any advice?

I went through the UWSOM curriculum many years ago but have friends who recently graduated and it seems things haven’t changed. Clerkship grading is subjective. There is a test, sure, but that doesn’t dictate your grade. I’m not sure how different this is from other medical schools though. Depending on the site you are at and how well liked you are, the difficulty with obtaining honors varies. I can personally say I got honors when I definitely didn’t work very hard and then didn’t get it despite working the hardest I’ve ever worked. That being said, you show up and try to have a positive attitude and try your best, you’ll be fine. But clerkships are not “classes” and your people skills will matter instead of just your book learning.

 

[onesadmachine]

Have any MSTP applicants who have been put on hold post-interview heard back yet or know when we might?

 

[tahoe]

Have any MSTP applicants who have been put on hold post-interview heard back yet or know when we might?

I heard back yesterday. Hope you receive good news!

 

[MountainCat]

Hi I was accepted to the Montana cohort and I am very excited to be starting this year! I wanted to see if someone could answer a few questions I had.

1. Is Seattle your "base" if you choose the WWAMI safari? If yes are you responsible for the living situation in Seattle?

2. During the WWAMI safari you are required to do at least 3 rotations per year outside of Seattle correct?

3. For the research opportunity after year 1 can you choose to conduct research in the area you currently live in or go Seattle for the summer?

 

[GroundDigger]

Can't believe the waitlist has not moved by a single spot in about 2 months now

 

[ismyexistenceamemeyet]

Hi I was accepted to the Montana cohort and I am very excited to be starting this year! I wanted to see if someone could answer a few questions I had.

1. Is Seattle your "base" if you choose the WWAMI safari? If yes are you responsible for the living situation in Seattle?

2. During the WWAMI safari you are required to do at least 3 rotations per year outside of Seattle correct?

3. For the research opportunity after year 1 can you choose to conduct research in the area you currently live in or go Seattle for the summer?

Congrats on the acceptance!! To answer your questions:

1. Yes, Seattle will be your base if you choose to safari. You will be responsible for transportation and housing at your home base. UW will cover transport and housing outside your home base though, which is nice. Here is a little more info.

2. According to the UWSOM Intranet, it looks like you have to take 3 required rotations outside Seattle. Unfortunately, I don't know much more beyond that and would love an MS2/MS3/MS4's perspective on this.

3. Yes! So UWSOM has a database of research projects that's released every year. Depending on your site, there'll be varying numbers of projects available, but every site has something going on so there's some flexibility if you want to stay in the area or go to another WWAMI state. Certain research programs or projects may require you to go to Seattle. Really depends on the research you pursue.

Hope that helps!

 

[ismyexistenceamemeyet]

Can't believe the waitlist has not moved by a single spot in about 2 months now

Hang in there! It's rough, but keep your eyes open for April 15th and April 30th especially!

 

[MountainCat]

Congrats on the acceptance!! To answer your questions:

1. Yes, Seattle will be your base if you choose to safari. You will be responsible for transportation and housing at your home base. UW will cover transport and housing outside your home base though, which is nice. Here is a little more info.

2. According to the UWSOM Intranet, it looks like you have to take 3 required rotations outside Seattle. Unfortunately, I don't know much more beyond that and would love an MS2/MS3/MS4's perspective on this.

3. Yes! So UWSOM has a database of research projects that's released every year. Depending on your site, there'll be varying numbers of projects available, but every site has something going on so there's some flexibility if you want to stay in the area or go to another WWAMI state. Certain research programs or projects may require you to go to Seattle. Really depends on the research you pursue.

Hope that helps!

Thank you so much, that clears up everything for me!

 

[acornbarnacle]

Apologies if a question similar to this has already been asked.

My lovely parents got me a stethoscope for my birthday. I remember reading somewhere that UW gives us specific stethoscopes once we get to campus, but I can't find any details about it. Can someone clarify?

 

[ismyexistenceamemeyet]

Apologies if a question similar to this has already been asked.

My lovely parents got me a stethoscope for my birthday. I remember reading somewhere that UW gives us specific stethoscopes once we get to campus, but I can't find any details about it. Can someone clarify?

You'll be gifted one when you get to campus. They give them out to everyone in the incoming class.

 

[Doctorswithborders013]

Anyone else get invited to Pre-Mat? I'm thinking of doing it, but the essay questions seem eerily similar to the secondary questions, but insert Pre-Mat where UWSOM was...

 

[UWIdahoan]

If there are any current students lurking around here, I would appreciate some help with a couple of questions.

1. How rigorous is clerkship grading? Is it difficult to get honors? Generally, what percentage of students get honors for any given clerkship? Can only a certain percentage get honors anyway? I haven't found anything about the clerkship grading on any of the websites.

2. Are there concerns about grading inconsistencies for clerkships? I would imagine that there can be a lot of variability within a 5-state region with a ton of preceptors.

3. On a personal note, my specialty of choice is Dermatology. Do you know anyone who has applied or is planning to apply for derm? I've had a few email convos with some students that are trying for competitive specialties, but no one in derm. I would love to get somebody's perspective about it, especially regarding the available derm research. It seems that there are far fewer research opportunities in the derm division at UW compared to other specialties. I want to email one of my site deans about this, but I don't want to be marked as the dude that's gunning for derm. (I also really don't want to come across as a gunner, and I hope that I'm not, lol.) Any advice?

1. Depends on where you are rotating. See answer for number 2. More details on each clerkship's grading was already provided.

2. Grading is so inconsistent that it hurts. I remember having tons of conversations and meetings about this with no real solutions offered. They just can't control all the sites over a 5 states region, even though they pretend they can. They have rubrics and graphs and **** that are supposed to be standardized, but some rotations sites give everyone straight 5s, while other sites uses the rubrics the way they are supposed to be used. Shelfs theoretically matter, but in reality, they don't. The subjective scores from you attendings count for a much larger percentage of your overall grade and you usually can't break the barrier between p/hp/h by killing the shelf. I knew classmates who put in triple the work that I did and got a high pass, while I was working 30 hours a week and putting in zero effort for the same high pass.

3. From what I know, the derm department is very supportive. They won't think you're a gunner. Just say you are interested and want to learn more.

 

[c222]

Looks like Seattle WL started moving today !!

 

[sadhzzz]

I just got a call from my excom and I'm in (alternate #2)! I'll be getting the official email tomorrow. I hope to see some other good news in the near future!