2021-2022 Cincinnati

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Question about post-interview updates: I interviewed last week and they said we had two weeks to update them before they started reviewing our applications. Do you think an update on having an additional 150 service hours from August to now would be beneficial to include, or should I just leave my application as is? My service work was with children and cincy has such a great peds program which is why I think it might help, but I'm not sure
 
tsktsk28 said:
Question about post-interview updates: I interviewed last week and they said we had two weeks to update them before they started reviewing our applications. Do you think an update on having an additional 150 service hours from August to now would be beneficial to include, or should I just leave my application as is? My service work was with children and cincy has such a great peds program which is why I think it might help, but I'm not sure
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I mean it couldn't hurt if they interviewed you but if this is the continuation of a position you've already told them about I don't know how substantial it will be
 
it's a new position! i also started a new MA job but its similar to the one i had when I first applied so I wasnt planning on adding that
 
tsktsk28 said:
it's a new position! i also started a new MA job but its similar to the one i had when I first applied so I wasnt planning on adding that
Click to expand...
Oh if it's new you could add that. Sprinkle in some interest in there and it'll take you to a sweet spot for length of the update
 
Alternate list, Interviewed 01/26. Good luck everyone!
 
Last edited:
TisTheSeason25 said:
Tier 1
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yeah, i was Tier 1 as well. A few years back the thread said that they hardly ever use tier 1, but this year on this thread alone there are like 10 tier one people. I would kindly encourage you to consider the one acceptance you have and save some spots for sorry unaccepted people like me 🙂
 
marwilsum said:
yeah, i was Tier 1 as well. A few years back the thread said that they hardly ever use tier 1, but this year on this thread alone there are like 10 tier one people. I would kindly encourage you to consider the one acceptance you have and save some spots for sorry unaccepted people like me 🙂
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If they hardly ever use Tier 1, are Tiers 2-4 basically a soft R?
 
marwilsum said:
yeah, i was Tier 1 as well. A few years back the thread said that they hardly ever use tier 1, but this year on this thread alone there are like 10 tier one people. I would kindly encourage you to consider the one acceptance you have and save some spots for sorry unaccepted people like me 🙂
Click to expand...


This is from 2 years ago. Doesn't make sense that they'd hardly use tier 1?
 
marwilsum said:
yeah, i was Tier 1 as well. A few years back the thread said that they hardly ever use tier 1, but this year on this thread alone there are like 10 tier one people. I would kindly encourage you to consider the one acceptance you have and save some spots for sorry unaccepted people like me 🙂
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, I can't control who UCCOM decides to accept off the waitlist, but apparently it does happen, so I'm hoping the odds go in your favor!
 
DrMSSL said:
If they hardly ever use Tier 1, are Tiers 2-4 basically a soft R?
Click to expand...
I am on the Tier 1 waitlist right now, and from my understanding when they say "they hardly use Tier 1", that means Cincinnati rarely PUTS people on the Tier 1 waitlist. I've neurotically searched through the last 3 years of threads and it seems that Tier 2 is the start of their true waitlist, and Tier 1 is basically the waiting room before an acceptance.

There have been years in the past where no one is accepted off of Tier 2-4 waitlist, but in more recent years there have been some Tier 2 and even a Tier 3 accepted. Anyone with other information please correct me!
 
HeliumHippo said:
I am on the Tier 1 waitlist right now, and from my understanding when they say "they hardly use Tier 1", that means Cincinnati rarely PUTS people on the Tier 1 waitlist. I've neurotically searched through the last 3 years of threads and it seems that Tier 2 is the start of their true waitlist, and Tier 1 is basically the waiting room before an acceptance.

There have been years in the past where no one is accepted off of Tier 2-4 waitlist, but in more recent years there have been some Tier 2 and even a Tier 3 accepted. Anyone with other information please correct me!
Click to expand...
See, i hope that is true, but this thread seems to have a really abnormal number of Tier 1 people. What is up with this cycle?
 
HeliumHippo said:
I am on the Tier 1 waitlist right now, and from my understanding when they say "they hardly use Tier 1", that means Cincinnati rarely PUTS people on the Tier 1 waitlist. I've neurotically searched through the last 3 years of threads and it seems that Tier 2 is the start of their true waitlist, and Tier 1 is basically the waiting room before an acceptance.

There have been years in the past where no one is accepted off of Tier 2-4 waitlist, but in more recent years there have been some Tier 2 and even a Tier 3 accepted. Anyone with other information please correct me!
Click to expand...
I am officially deciding that this is true because it is healing my bruised ego. Thank you for your service, HeliumHippo.
 
marwilsum said:
See, i hope that is true, but this thread seems to have a really abnormal number of Tier 1 people. What is up with this cycle?
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Maybe they over-accepted but know that a decent number of people will drop their acceptance later?
 
Has anyone received a financial aid offer yet?
 
UltimateFrisbeeElite said:
are they still extending IIs?
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Doesn't look like it. According to their website, the interview season this cycle was through February.

Apply to Medical School | UC Cincinnati Medicine

The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine has a proud tradition of training outstanding clinicians and leaders in biomedical research and academic medicine. Accepted students embody the qualities of successful physicians; they have a firm understanding of the biological, physical, social...
med.uc.edu med.uc.edu
 
Our last scheduled interview was 2/25. Just BS/MD interviews in March unless something changed last minute.
 
Can any current UCCOM students speak about their experience at UCCOM? Some questions I had in mind are:

1. How many hours do you study a day? Do you think you have enough time to pursue hobbies and fun?
2. How stressed do you feel? Do you think UCCOM is a more/less stressful environment compared to other med schools (this might be hard to answer)?
3. Do you feel pressure from having student rankings? (Ive previously read some mixed answers regarding this)
4. Do you feel that the student body is competitive or collaborative? Are students close with each other and is it easy to make friends? (I know at some schools students don't consider each other close friends, while at other schools they become lifelong buddies)
5. Do students have healthy relationships with the faculty/administrators?
6. What are some reasons to choose UCCOM? Reasons to NOT choose UCCOM? (In relation to the school/academics... not the city, please 🙂
7. What are some fun things you enjoy doing outside of school?
8. What are some things you like or dislike about Cincy?
9. How does Step 1 becoming P/F affect your trajectory through med school? Does it make it easier and less stressful?
10. And lastly, if you are M3/M4, do you feel that UCCOM has prepared you well to match in a specialty of your choice?

Feel free to answer any, all, or none of these questions. And feel free to add anything else about your experience. Thank you for taking time to share!! 🙂
 
Has anyone been accepted after the Feb. 15 financial aid app deadline and gotten still been able to get financial aid? I saw that they offer deadline extensions but I'm wondering if this will lower my chances of getting aid.
 
Shosty12 said:
Has anyone been accepted after the Feb. 15 financial aid app deadline and gotten still been able to get financial aid? I saw that they offer deadline extensions but I'm wondering if this will lower my chances of getting aid.
Click to expand...
I was accepted Feb 1st and i havent even gotten aid yet. I dont think any of us have, so I would like to think you would be fine.
 
eaglebald said:
Can any current UCCOM students speak about their experience at UCCOM? Some questions I had in mind are:

1. How many hours do you study a day? Do you think you have enough time to pursue hobbies and fun?
2. How stressed do you feel? Do you think UCCOM is a more/less stressful environment compared to other med schools (this might be hard to answer)?
3. Do you feel pressure from having student rankings? (Ive previously read some mixed answers regarding this)
4. Do you feel that the student body is competitive or collaborative? Are students close with each other and is it easy to make friends? (I know at some schools students don't consider each other close friends, while at other schools they become lifelong buddies)
5. Do students have healthy relationships with the faculty/administrators?
6. What are some reasons to choose UCCOM? Reasons to NOT choose UCCOM? (In relation to the school/academics... not the city, please 🙂
7. What are some fun things you enjoy doing outside of school?
8. What are some things you like or dislike about Cincy?
9. How does Step 1 becoming P/F affect your trajectory through med school? Does it make it easier and less stressful?
10. And lastly, if you are M3/M4, do you feel that UCCOM has prepared you well to match in a specialty of your choice?

Feel free to answer any, all, or none of these questions. And feel free to add anything else about your experience. Thank you for taking time to share!! 🙂
Click to expand...
1. This is a difficult question to answer because it varies not only on the proximity to exams, but also how productive I am. In theory, I basically study from the time I wake up (like 11am or like 8am if we have mandatory classes) until one to three hours before bed. In reality, I'm not very productive and usually bleed a lot of time to distractions and end up studying later than I need to. Usually by 10-12 hours after I wake up I'm checked out and spend a few hours to eat/shower/exercise/video call my girlfriend/masturbat e/hang out with my pets/have a beer etc. I usually take one day per non-test-weekend totally off, and I usually can't get myself to study on days that I have an exam in the morning. I usually can't get myself to study more than a half day on Friday. I don't have nearly enough time as I would like for hobbies and fun but I do some of them anyway or else my mental health would collapse and I would bomb my classes. Other than being an MMI interviewer and my own hobbies I haven't gotten involved in any activitivies so it's all a matter of personal preference.
2. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I personally think the combination of quartile rankings and weekly exams first semester leads to more stress than other schools but I couldn't know for sure. To be honest, this has been the most stressed year of my life, but I have tons of friends at other med schools and I don't think that experience is unique unfortunately. I'm extraordinarily stressed but I think that would be the case regardless of the school I attended.
3. Unfortunately, a bit. As I discussed in an earlier post, M1 and M2 are worth a very small amount of your ranking and any of the pressure one feels is all internalized. That being said, it's hard to forget about. UCCOM does release statistics about the test scores and match placements separated by quartile. It's hard to elucidate if ranking makes much of a difference because Step scores are an enormous confounding variable. That being said, there are plenty of people in the bottom quartile who match to good schools and competitive specialties. As an example, you can se we've had people in the bottom two quartiles match Optho at Duke, Harvard, and Uchicago recently. This is slightly cherry picked and in most specialties the top quartiles have modestly more prestigious match lists (again, this might just be because they have much higher average test scores).
Screen Shot 2022-03-04 at 9.52.36 PM.png

4. Collaborative. I'm not exactly sure what competitive means in this context but students are very friendly. People constantly post helpful resources and discuss points of confusion in our class Discord and Groupme. I do think it's a little more difficult to make friends in medical school than undergrad because people are in vastly different life stages. Some people are fresh out of college, others are married with children. Students are very nice, we have a group of students that plays volleyball and basketball every week. The first month or two of M1 is very chill and people go out all the time. Once weekly exams hit people go to bars on Monday nights after exams, and then on weekends once things shift to biweekly exams during the second semester. Just in the last couple weeks people have sent out class invites to hiking and skiing trips.
5. I think so - I've made almost no effort to get close to professors. That being said, I've become close with one of our professors who has a shared hobby of mine. Our anatomy professor just invited a ton of us for dinner at his house for the dissection groups that successfully preserved the most cranial nerves during brain removal. In just a few weeks of LPCC (chill class where you work one on one under a primary care physician) I've become close with my attending and am helping his kids through the med school admissions process. During LC (class where you work in small groups through hypothetical cases) our preceptor has offered to let us drive his Teslas, and other LC professors have taken classes out to bars. Given I've made absolutely no effort to become close with professors, I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with them.

6. Cons - As you can probably tell from earlier points, I personally dislike rankings as well as weekly/biweekly exams. I also think that we have a fair amount of "busy work" in some of the non-hard science classes but I'm not sure how that compares to other med schools. Pros - We have a gorgeous dedicated medical school building equipped with nice atrium views, plenty of nice study spaces, cafeteria, Subway, lounge, and two gyms. I'm not sure if your applying class will be doing in person second looks but we have extremely nice facilities compared to other medical schools. As annoying as weekly and biweekly exams are, the 100% Step 1 pass rate and 14th highest Step 1 score average in the country ( ) speaks for itself. I imagine things will translate to Step 2 now that Step 1 is pass fail. We get NBME exams for our finals which are very representative of board questions. UC is strong mid tier program so reputation and cost could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on what other schools you've been accepted. Like I said I think the faculty are quite accessible. The other school I was considering had mandatory classes every day which I personally would have hated. I'm not great at answering this question because I'm not sure how different my experience is form that of students at other schools.
7. Pretty much the same hobbies I've had the rest of my life and in undergrad. It's certainly much harder to maintain them but it can be done. Welcome to med school.
8. As far as the city is concerned, I think a lot of people are surprised at how much they like it. I think Cincinnati has a lot more life than other Ohio cities like Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, etc, and I think it has a lot more culture and character than Columbus. It's also nice that it's a few degrees warmer than other Ohio cities. The cost of living is very low, and I personally find the hilly terrain beautiful. There are parks everywhere, and there are tons of neighborhoods that each have their own flavor. Having sports teams and a large undergrad make things exciting as well; UC making the college football playoff and the bengals make the super bowl was really big for the city and was cool to be apart of. Four years won't be enough to explore all the bars and restaurants here. Obviously, if your reference point is NYC or LA, Cincinnati won't seem nearly as cool as if you're coming from a small town.
9. For med school in general it will definitely make things better overall, especially during M2, even if it adds a little more pressure to Step 2. In the context of UCCOM, I think there's a couple ways to approach this question. On one hand, UCCOM has always had very high step 1 scores (see the above link) so that could be seen as a "disadvantage" that it's now pass fail. That being said, program directors have also stated that school reputation will become more important (too lazy to google the source on this one) - so is that good or bad for a mid-tier MD school with a reputation like UCCOM? Well, the program director rankings lists us at 48th ( ) out of around 200 schools. So just in American schools you would be in roughly the top quarter. However, around of half of the match applicants are American or foreign international medical graduates who will also be viewed below any continental MD school in terms of prestige. So overall, I think the shift is especially advantageous for students at a school like UCCOM.

Hopefully that helps and let me know if you want me to clarify anything. I'm too lazy to proofread all of that so sorry if it's full of grammatical mistakes.
 
JustJackie said:
anyone know when FinAid is coming out?
Click to expand...
Last year I got Financial Aid on April 15th. I think Financial aid other than loans is quite rare to unheard of unfortunately.
 
Isomerase said:
1. This is a difficult question to answer because it varies not only on the proximity to exams, but also how productive I am. In theory, I basically study from the time I wake up (like 11am or like 8am if we have mandatory classes) until one to three hours before bed. In reality, I'm not very productive and usually bleed a lot of time to distractions and end up studying later than I need to. Usually by 10-12 hours after I wake up I'm checked out and spend a few hours to eat/shower/exercise/video call my girlfriend/masturbat e/hang out with my pets/have a beer etc. I usually take one day per non-test-weekend totally off, and I usually can't get myself to study on days that I have an exam in the morning. I usually can't get myself to study more than a half day on Friday. I don't have nearly enough time as I would like for hobbies and fun but I do some of them anyway or else my mental health would collapse and I would bomb my classes. Other than being an MMI interviewer and my own hobbies I haven't gotten involved in any activitivies so it's all a matter of personal preference.
2. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I personally think the combination of quartile rankings and weekly exams first semester leads to more stress than other schools but I couldn't know for sure. To be honest, this has been the most stressed year of my life, but I have tons of friends at other med schools and I don't think that experience is unique unfortunately. I'm extraordinarily stressed but I think that would be the case regardless of the school I attended.
3. Unfortunately, a bit. As I discussed in an earlier post, M1 and M2 are worth a very small amount of your ranking and any of the pressure one feels is all internalized. That being said, it's hard to forget about. UCCOM does release statistics about the test scores and match placements separated by quartile. It's hard to elucidate if ranking makes much of a difference because Step scores are an enormous confounding variable. That being said, there are plenty of people in the bottom quartile who match to good schools and competitive specialties. As an example, you can se we've had people in the bottom two quartiles match Optho at Duke, Harvard, and Uchicago recently. This is slightly cherry picked and in most specialties the top quartiles have modestly more prestigious match lists (again, this might just be because they have much higher average test scores).
View attachment 351372
4. Collaborative. I'm not exactly sure what competitive means in this context but students are very friendly. People constantly post helpful resources and discuss points of confusion in our class Discord and Groupme. I do think it's a little more difficult to make friends in medical school than undergrad because people are in vastly different life stages. Some people are fresh out of college, others are married with children. Students are very nice, we have a group of students that plays volleyball and basketball every week. The first month or two of M1 is very chill and people go out all the time. Once weekly exams hit people go to bars on Monday nights after exams, and then on weekends once things shift to biweekly exams during the second semester. Just in the last couple weeks people have sent out class invites to hiking and skiing trips.
5. I think so - I've made almost no effort to get close to professors. That being said, I've become close with one of our professors who has a shared hobby of mine. Our anatomy professor just invited a ton of us for dinner at his house for the dissection groups that successfully preserved the most cranial nerves during brain removal. In just a few weeks of LPCC (chill class where you work one on one under a primary care physician) I've become close with my attending and am helping his kids through the med school admissions process. During LC (class where you work in small groups through hypothetical cases) our preceptor has offered to let us drive his Teslas, and other LC professors have taken classes out to bars. Given I've made absolutely no effort to become close with professors, I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with them.

6. Cons - As you can probably tell from earlier points, I personally dislike rankings as well as weekly/biweekly exams. I also think that we have a fair amount of "busy work" in some of the non-hard science classes but I'm not sure how that compares to other med schools. Pros - We have a gorgeous dedicated medical school building equipped with nice atrium views, plenty of nice study spaces, cafeteria, Subway, lounge, and two gyms. I'm not sure if your applying class will be doing in person second looks but we have extremely nice facilities compared to other medical schools. As annoying as weekly and biweekly exams are, the 100% Step 1 pass rate and 14th highest Step 1 score average in the country ( ) speaks for itself. I imagine things will translate to Step 2 now that Step 1 is pass fail. We get NBME exams for our finals which are very representative of board questions. UC is strong mid tier program so reputation and cost could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on what other schools you've been accepted. Like I said I think the faculty are quite accessible. The other school I was considering had mandatory classes every day which I personally would have hated. I'm not great at answering this question because I'm not sure how different my experience is form that of students at other schools.
7. Pretty much the same hobbies I've had the rest of my life and in undergrad. It's certainly much harder to maintain them but it can be done. Welcome to med school.
8. As far as the city is concerned, I think a lot of people are surprised at how much they like it. I think Cincinnati has a lot more life than other Ohio cities like Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, etc, and I think it has a lot more culture and character than Columbus. It's also nice that it's a few degrees warmer than other Ohio cities. The cost of living is very low, and I personally find the hilly terrain beautiful. There are parks everywhere, and there are tons of neighborhoods that each have their own flavor. Having sports teams and a large undergrad make things exciting as well; UC making the college football playoff and the bengals make the super bowl was really big for the city and was cool to be apart of. Four years won't be enough to explore all the bars and restaurants here. Obviously, if your reference point is NYC or LA, Cincinnati won't seem nearly as cool as if you're coming from a small town.
9. For med school in general it will definitely make things better overall, especially during M2, even if it adds a little more pressure to Step 2. In the context of UCCOM, I think there's a couple ways to approach this question. On one hand, UCCOM has always had very high step 1 scores (see the above link) so that could be seen as a "disadvantage" that it's now pass fail. That being said, program directors have also stated that school reputation will become more important (too lazy to google the source on this one) - so is that good or bad for a mid-tier MD school with a reputation like UCCOM? Well, the program director rankings lists us at 48th ( ) out of around 200 schools. So just in American schools you would be in roughly the top quarter. However, around of half of the match applicants are American or foreign international medical graduates who will also be viewed below any continental MD school in terms of prestige. So overall, I think the shift is especially advantageous for students at a school like UCCOM.

Hopefully that helps and let me know if you want me to clarify anything. I'm too lazy to proofread all of that so sorry if it's full of grammatical mistakes.
Click to expand...

Are you on adderall dude
 
Isomerase said:
Last year I got Financial Aid on April 15th. I think Financial aid other than loans is quite rare to unheard of unfortunately.
Click to expand...
so we should expect to get financial aid the day we are supposed to narrow our choices down to 3?
:blackeye::blackeye:🤒🤒
 
eaglebald said:
Can any current UCCOM students speak about their experience at UCCOM? Some questions I had in mind are:

1. How many hours do you study a day? Do you think you have enough time to pursue hobbies and fun?
2. How stressed do you feel? Do you think UCCOM is a more/less stressful environment compared to other med schools (this might be hard to answer)?
3. Do you feel pressure from having student rankings? (Ive previously read some mixed answers regarding this)
4. Do you feel that the student body is competitive or collaborative? Are students close with each other and is it easy to make friends? (I know at some schools students don't consider each other close friends, while at other schools they become lifelong buddies)
5. Do students have healthy relationships with the faculty/administrators?
6. What are some reasons to choose UCCOM? Reasons to NOT choose UCCOM? (In relation to the school/academics... not the city, please 🙂
7. What are some fun things you enjoy doing outside of school?
8. What are some things you like or dislike about Cincy?
9. How does Step 1 becoming P/F affect your trajectory through med school? Does it make it easier and less stressful?
10. And lastly, if you are M3/M4, do you feel that UCCOM has prepared you well to match in a specialty of your choice?

Feel free to answer any, all, or none of these questions. And feel free to add anything else about your experience. Thank you for taking time to share!! 🙂
Click to expand...
1. Varies by week, but probably 45-50 hours per week. I try not to study much on the weekends, maybe a few hours.
2. Not as stressed as I was at the beginning of the year. Like any job (which this basically is), once you find out your workflow you’ll be fine. I recommend Anki, being efficient, and staying on top of material. Most people I know who do not do all of three of those inevitably fall behind and become more stressed.
3. Other poster covered this well. In general, it’s stressful, but do the best you can and accept the results.
4. I haven’t detected any competition, everyone is collaborative, it was easy to make friends.
5. Id say generally speaking, absolutely. Compared to other med schools, I think our admin is very responsive to students needs/requests/questions. I am very pleased with this aspect of the school. Experiences may vary though.
6. I mean, only con is really the ranking and that’s a mixed bag. It’s useful for a resume if you apply to competitive specialties and it removes pressure from performing as well M3 year. That said, I think true P/F would be better for student mental health. Pros include good admin, GREAT professors (compared to what I’ve heard at other schools, again this is just my opinion), and a robust academic medical center attached which provides a lot of opportunity for shadowing and an abundance of research opportunities.
7. I love to read! And to work out. There’s a good amount of free time in my work flow for hobbies. Depends on the week sometimes though.
8. Cincy is fine, but northern KY is incredible. Love the place. It’s like a warm/southernish midwest. If you like that kind of thing. There’s also an NFL, MLB, and MLS team so always something there for sports. Plus UC sports is pretty good.
9. Again, mixed bag, but I would say overall less stressful. Definitely feel more capable to do extracurriculars to boost my app.


Feel free to PM me for more specific details!
 
Isomerase said:
1. This is a difficult question to answer because it varies not only on the proximity to exams, but also how productive I am. In theory, I basically study from the time I wake up (like 11am or like 8am if we have mandatory classes) until one to three hours before bed. In reality, I'm not very productive and usually bleed a lot of time to distractions and end up studying later than I need to. Usually by 10-12 hours after I wake up I'm checked out and spend a few hours to eat/shower/exercise/video call my girlfriend/masturbat e/hang out with my pets/have a beer etc. I usually take one day per non-test-weekend totally off, and I usually can't get myself to study on days that I have an exam in the morning. I usually can't get myself to study more than a half day on Friday. I don't have nearly enough time as I would like for hobbies and fun but I do some of them anyway or else my mental health would collapse and I would bomb my classes. Other than being an MMI interviewer and my own hobbies I haven't gotten involved in any activitivies so it's all a matter of personal preference.
2. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I personally think the combination of quartile rankings and weekly exams first semester leads to more stress than other schools but I couldn't know for sure. To be honest, this has been the most stressed year of my life, but I have tons of friends at other med schools and I don't think that experience is unique unfortunately. I'm extraordinarily stressed but I think that would be the case regardless of the school I attended.
3. Unfortunately, a bit. As I discussed in an earlier post, M1 and M2 are worth a very small amount of your ranking and any of the pressure one feels is all internalized. That being said, it's hard to forget about. UCCOM does release statistics about the test scores and match placements separated by quartile. It's hard to elucidate if ranking makes much of a difference because Step scores are an enormous confounding variable. That being said, there are plenty of people in the bottom quartile who match to good schools and competitive specialties. As an example, you can se we've had people in the bottom two quartiles match Optho at Duke, Harvard, and Uchicago recently. This is slightly cherry picked and in most specialties the top quartiles have modestly more prestigious match lists (again, this might just be because they have much higher average test scores).
View attachment 351372
4. Collaborative. I'm not exactly sure what competitive means in this context but students are very friendly. People constantly post helpful resources and discuss points of confusion in our class Discord and Groupme. I do think it's a little more difficult to make friends in medical school than undergrad because people are in vastly different life stages. Some people are fresh out of college, others are married with children. Students are very nice, we have a group of students that plays volleyball and basketball every week. The first month or two of M1 is very chill and people go out all the time. Once weekly exams hit people go to bars on Monday nights after exams, and then on weekends once things shift to biweekly exams during the second semester. Just in the last couple weeks people have sent out class invites to hiking and skiing trips.
5. I think so - I've made almost no effort to get close to professors. That being said, I've become close with one of our professors who has a shared hobby of mine. Our anatomy professor just invited a ton of us for dinner at his house for the dissection groups that successfully preserved the most cranial nerves during brain removal. In just a few weeks of LPCC (chill class where you work one on one under a primary care physician) I've become close with my attending and am helping his kids through the med school admissions process. During LC (class where you work in small groups through hypothetical cases) our preceptor has offered to let us drive his Teslas, and other LC professors have taken classes out to bars. Given I've made absolutely no effort to become close with professors, I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with them.

6. Cons - As you can probably tell from earlier points, I personally dislike rankings as well as weekly/biweekly exams. I also think that we have a fair amount of "busy work" in some of the non-hard science classes but I'm not sure how that compares to other med schools. Pros - We have a gorgeous dedicated medical school building equipped with nice atrium views, plenty of nice study spaces, cafeteria, Subway, lounge, and two gyms. I'm not sure if your applying class will be doing in person second looks but we have extremely nice facilities compared to other medical schools. As annoying as weekly and biweekly exams are, the 100% Step 1 pass rate and 14th highest Step 1 score average in the country ( ) speaks for itself. I imagine things will translate to Step 2 now that Step 1 is pass fail. We get NBME exams for our finals which are very representative of board questions. UC is strong mid tier program so reputation and cost could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on what other schools you've been accepted. Like I said I think the faculty are quite accessible. The other school I was considering had mandatory classes every day which I personally would have hated. I'm not great at answering this question because I'm not sure how different my experience is form that of students at other schools.
7. Pretty much the same hobbies I've had the rest of my life and in undergrad. It's certainly much harder to maintain them but it can be done. Welcome to med school.
8. As far as the city is concerned, I think a lot of people are surprised at how much they like it. I think Cincinnati has a lot more life than other Ohio cities like Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, etc, and I think it has a lot more culture and character than Columbus. It's also nice that it's a few degrees warmer than other Ohio cities. The cost of living is very low, and I personally find the hilly terrain beautiful. There are parks everywhere, and there are tons of neighborhoods that each have their own flavor. Having sports teams and a large undergrad make things exciting as well; UC making the college football playoff and the bengals make the super bowl was really big for the city and was cool to be apart of. Four years won't be enough to explore all the bars and restaurants here. Obviously, if your reference point is NYC or LA, Cincinnati won't seem nearly as cool as if you're coming from a small town.
9. For med school in general it will definitely make things better overall, especially during M2, even if it adds a little more pressure to Step 2. In the context of UCCOM, I think there's a couple ways to approach this question. On one hand, UCCOM has always had very high step 1 scores (see the above link) so that could be seen as a "disadvantage" that it's now pass fail. That being said, program directors have also stated that school reputation will become more important (too lazy to google the source on this one) - so is that good or bad for a mid-tier MD school with a reputation like UCCOM? Well, the program director rankings lists us at 48th ( ) out of around 200 schools. So just in American schools you would be in roughly the top quarter. However, around of half of the match applicants are American or foreign international medical graduates who will also be viewed below any continental MD school in terms of prestige. So overall, I think the shift is especially advantageous for students at a school like UCCOM.

Hopefully that helps and let me know if you want me to clarify anything. I'm too lazy to proofread all of that so sorry if it's full of grammatical mistakes.
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THANK YOU SO MUCH! This is really detailed and helps a lot. I appreciate you taking time to share, and thanks for being real about it all! 🙂

P.S. Do you have the link to where we can see what quartile matched where? I tried searching but cant seem to find it.
 
scatter-brain said:
1. Varies by week, but probably 45-50 hours per week. I try not to study much on the weekends, maybe a few hours.
2. Not as stressed as I was at the beginning of the year. Like any job (which this basically is), once you find out your workflow you’ll be fine. I recommend Anki, being efficient, and staying on top of material. Most people I know who do not do all of three of those inevitably fall behind and become more stressed.
3. Other poster covered this well. In general, it’s stressful, but do the best you can and accept the results.
4. I haven’t detected any competition, everyone is collaborative, it was easy to make friends.
5. Id say generally speaking, absolutely. Compared to other med schools, I think our admin is very responsive to students needs/requests/questions. I am very pleased with this aspect of the school. Experiences may vary though.
6. I mean, only con is really the ranking and that’s a mixed bag. It’s useful for a resume if you apply to competitive specialties and it removes pressure from performing as well M3 year. That said, I think true P/F would be better for student mental health. Pros include good admin, GREAT professors (compared to what I’ve heard at other schools, again this is just my opinion), and a robust academic medical center attached which provides a lot of opportunity for shadowing and an abundance of research opportunities.
7. I love to read! And to work out. There’s a good amount of free time in my work flow for hobbies. Depends on the week sometimes though.
8. Cincy is fine, but northern KY is incredible. Love the place. It’s like a warm/southernish midwest. If you like that kind of thing. There’s also an NFL, MLB, and MLS team so always something there for sports. Plus UC sports is pretty good.
9. Again, mixed bag, but I would say overall less stressful. Definitely feel more capable to do extracurriculars to boost my app.


Feel free to PM me for more specific details!
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Thank you as well for sharing this! You guys rock.

Im glad the faculty and administrators are great. They seemed really kind and awesome during my interview, so its great to know that it's not just a onetime show! 😀
 
eaglebald said:
THANK YOU SO MUCH! This is really detailed and helps a lot. I appreciate you taking time to share, and thanks for being real about it all! 🙂

P.S. Do you have the link to where we can see what quartile matched where? I tried searching but cant seem to find it.
Click to expand...
No problem! The quartile data is through our MedOneStop interface and is presumably only available to students, and I'm guessing our admin wouldn't be thrilled if I shared it. Based on Step data, it looks like each increase in quartile corresponds to a roughly 10 point increase in step scores. i.e, students in fourth quartile average about 225 step 1 and 235 step 2, going up to first quartile where students average roughly 255 step 1 and 265 step 2. If you know anything about step scores (if not you can google the percentile correlates) those differences are immense and likely make a huge impact on residency placement. Thus, it's hard to know if the quartile placements really holds much weight in its own or if it's just that students in upper quartiles have extremely high step scores. Of course, overall match data is public.
 
What are the chances of getting an interview from this school? I got an interview from Illinois even though they send interviews until February
 
Does anyone know if we are allowed to bring a guest to Second Look? If we are allowed to bring guests, it common to bring a parent, or would I look weird if I did that?
 
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Feel like putting a PSA out for all of you OOSers, because I feel like a lot of people don't quite realize this.

There's two pathways to receiving in-state tuition:

1. Live in Ohio for one year, while paying OOS tuition, then qualify for IS tuition for years 2-4

2. Live in Kentucky and pay in-state tuition instantly, the only catch is you have to pay a 300 dollar "Kentucky Metropolitan Rate" each semester. (And you would have to live in KY all four years, if you move to Ohio you'd need to follow the first pathway) This comes out to 3,000 dollars over the course of med school, which is much less than paying OOS tuition for one year. You also have to get a KY drivers license and things like that, but you can talk to John Stiles for more details about requirements. My commute is typically 15 minutes in the morning, I live right next to a bridge to cross into Ohio. Housing/CoL is also on average cheaper than Cincy proper.

I love KY, I recommend anyone OOS to consider this option 🙂 The process is pretty easy, and there's a lot of really cool areas in NKY especially in Covington, Newport, Bellevue, Dayton, and Florence.

A lot of people do choose to live right next to the med school, which is great too! If anyone has questions about the process, again I recommend to email John Stiles. If you have questions about anything else, feel free to PM me!
 
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