2021-2022 Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM-Virginia)

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phrenicnerve said:
got an email saying my application is scheduled to be reviewed by the committee on whether I will receive a secondary or not, and that the process could take a few months.
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MONTHS :(
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welkabonz said:
Current student… when schools ask this… and most of them did ask this and why DO… do a little homework on their mission statement, the surrounding area and why their program is a good fit for you.
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Sorry, I wasn't super clear in my question. I did end up answering this as a typical "why us" essay, which of course I know how to write. I was just a bit taken aback by their phrasing of it because it was"What influenced your decision to apply to VCOM? (e.g., personal or medical experiences; influences of friends/family/physicians/mentors; etc.) " which (to me at least) made it sound almost like they wanted to know who turned you on to VCOM...I haven't had a single other Why Us essay word it like that. It was just odd to me.
 
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I think that essay asks for a more mission-driven answer than just a generic "why us". Like they're pretty specific on primary care, they have different special programs, they pick their campus sites very deliberately etc. If I had to guess I would say they worded it so they don't get the same generic copy-paste-between-schools answer along the line of "you're a great school and have a great building".
 
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Does anyone else's portal still say their app is incomplete and that it's "at screening?" I submitted mine at the beginning of July
 
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brockhamptonfanacct said:
Does anyone else's portal still say their app is incomplete and that it's "at screening?" I submitted mine at the beginning of July
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My application says the same thing too but I went to one of their sessions and they said that they manually check everyone's application so it might take some time to mark it complete. I assumed that since I did not take the MCAT, it is marked as incomplete but that is not the case
 
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Secondary submitted July 1st. Still marked as incomplete. will they ever get back to us?
 
guestuser5300 said:
No secondary yet. Verified July 16
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As I said in another campus thread it may depend on the state. Are you from their target states or delta region? Edit: I just realized it was you asking there too :D Leaving for others.
See posts from #13 in the Loui thread: #13

With how VCOM rolls IMHO a one thread for all campuses would make sooo much more sense - they have the same 1°, the same 2°, share adcom members, have the same curriculum etc...

poly_123 said:
Secondary submitted July 1st. Still marked as incomplete. will they ever get back to us?
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If you sent everything and it says "Your application is incomplete." along with "Your application is at screening." it may take around a month for the committee to give some update (as they mentioned in their Q&A).
 
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For the CV part, did you guys select "College" for all the non-work/volunteering activities you did during college?
 
Kamill said:
For the CV part, did you guys select "College" for all the non-work/volunteering activities you did during college?
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IIRC they have "Other" for these.
 
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I spoke with the VCOM admission today and they informed me that I can share some links with you guys. They have plenty of legitimately good events for applicants to VCOM as well as Virtual Physician's Experience (aka panel with different physicians) which can be useful for applying to any medical school.

  1. Signup form to directly get into summer events
  2. Information/future events mailing list signup
  3. If you have any specific questions regarding e.g. MCAT/GPA combos, ECs or anything regarding admissions which is not really cut-and-dry with procedures Danielle Foutz is the person to contact: dfoutz [at] vcom.edu
Honestly? If the whole administration of that school works like the admission does I'm sold ;)
 
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dr.grey2021 said:
Do we include any presentations/awards/publications in the CV section?
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I don't think they expect these point-in-time activities. That section is meant for longitudinal commitments. When I asked them it's essentially for them to have a rough glanceable timeline and not something very detailed.
They have all the details regarding awards/publications/etc in the 1° repeating these in a timeline section will be more annoying for them than helpful.
 
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I emailed them and they have all my stuff im just not marked cimiente because someone has to go through my app by hand and verify everything is there, so it takes a while. Be patient! They’re working on it!
 
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still no secondary or anything since adding this school mid June.
 
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nuggeti0i said:
I emailed them and they have all my stuff im just not marked cimiente because someone has to go through my app by hand and verify everything is there, so it takes a while. Be patient! They’re working on it!
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That's reassuring, I got an email saying they were missing my LORs last month even though they were marked as complete on the portal. I guess I'll hold tight until they mark me complete!
 
toetheline said:
That's reassuring, I got an email saying they were missing my LORs last month even though they were marked as complete on the portal. I guess I'll hold tight until they mark me complete!
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They have problems somewhere between their software vendor and AACOMAS. If you've got an email that you're missing an LOR and it shows in your AACOMAS let them know so they can correct for that.
 
For the CV section on the secondary app what makes something a "college" experience vs. a "work/volunteer" experience. Many of my experiences were during college and I was wondering what to classify them as.

Also, for the experience section, what counts as healthcare volunteering? Would shadowing, research in cancer labs, or premedical clubs in college count? (I'm worried I might not have true healthcare volunteering) (I have worked in a nursing home but that was compensated)

Any input is appreciated!
 
Asparaginedoc said:
For the CV section on the secondary app what makes something a "college" experience vs. a "work/volunteer" experience. Many of my experiences were during college and I was wondering what to classify them as.
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"College" in the CV section refeerrs to actual education time, not your ECs during college. So regardless of when something happened (even if during college time) you put it as "Work/Volunteer" type.

Asparaginedoc said:
Also, for the experience section, what counts as healthcare volunteering? Would shadowing, research in cancer labs, or premedical clubs in college count? (I'm worried I might not have true healthcare volunteering) (I have worked in a nursing home but that was compensated)
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The safest choice is to go with AACOMAS definition. In general healthcare volounteering broadly means that you had an actual physical contact with patients. In case of nursing homes (as there are many types) it is accepted to really list this as "healthcare" only if you actually performed some CNA (or above) level procedures like feeding (but not just e.g. talking with them).
 
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greg129 said:
"College" in the CV section refeerrs to actual education time, not your ECs during college. So regardless of when something happened (even if during college time) you put it as "Work/Volunteer" type.


The safest choice is to go with AACOMAS definition. In general healthcare volounteering broadly means that you had an actual physical contact with patients. In case of nursing homes (as there are many types) it is accepted to really list this as "healthcare" only if you actually performed some CNA (or above) level procedures like feeding (but not just e.g. talking with them).
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Okay thanks for the response! What would be classified as a college experience then? Classes or something else in the classroom?

Also for the healthcare volunteering, I was performing CNA duties as a caregiver however the activity was a job and I was compensated (can I list a compensated activity as volunteering?). For the shadowing I did not have physical contact with the patients but I did talk to many as I observed (would this count as healthcare volunteering?)

Sorry about all the questions I'm just anxious to submit the VCOM secondary and their admissions office hasn't emailed back.
 
Asparaginedoc said:
Okay thanks for the response! What would be classified as a college experience then? Classes or something else in the classroom?
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If you're talking about "College" type for CV it's for taking classes. The CV section over all it's for them to see a timeline and discuss any gaps. IIRC there is also a question like "did you have any gaps of more than 2 years".

Asparaginedoc said:
Also for the healthcare volunteering, I was performing CNA duties as a caregiver however the activity was a job and I was compensated (can I list a compensated activity as volunteering?). For the shadowing I did not have physical contact with the patients but I did talk to many as I observed (would this count as healthcare volunteering?)
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Ok, this is more complex question . Let me address it in full.

First in their 2° they have multiple nested sections:
  1. Experiences:
    1. Volunteer Experience (hours)
      1. volunteering within the healthcare field
      2. volunteering outside the healthcare field
    2. Clinical, Healthcare, and Research Experience
  2. CV: list any activities and categorize volunteering separately

Section 1.1 - Hours of VOLUNTEERING: this part asks for a range of hours for volunteering. This means you should not count hours of employment as volunteering regardless of the field. From your description it looks like the CNA position will not count here.
These hours are further categorized into healthcare (1.1.1) and non-healthcare (1.1.2). What is or isn't a HC volunteering is probably the most commonly asked question in the pre-med circles. However, the general rule is contact with patients = HC. So, for example, if you were doing cancer research in the lab it is not HC (it's just related to HC like many things) but if you were questioning patients in a hospital to collect data for a cancer research it will be HC. The reasons schools want to know if you had healthcare volunteering is to make sure you do know how healthcare works from "the other side", you know how the interactions are etc. Regular people don't even know that scrubs colors mean something or what these weird metal dressers in the middle of the corridor are for ;)

Also, from what I heard from other schools, shadowing hours should not be counted as volunteering hours. Ultimatelly during pure shadowing you're not doing anything for others but observing. Sometimes it's a gray area: one of my experiences was partially shadowing and partially voluntering so I cut the hours in half (even thou it was probably like 90% volunteering) and informed adcoms.

This is why AACOMAS has different types which are worded very carefully:
  • Non-Healthcare Employment - employment, non-healthcare
  • Healthcare Experience - employment OR volunteering, healthcare only
  • Non-Healthcare Volunteer or Community Enrichment - volunteered/non-paid time
  • Extracurricular Activities - any ECs, no employment
This allows adcoms to fish out HC-related (paid or not) hours. VCOM wants to know it more specifically (but just hours): HC-related AND unpaid.
So your CNA position qualifies (imho) to AACOMAS "Healthcare Experience" but doesn't qualify to VCOM healthcare hours.

Section 1.2 - Details of EXPERIENCES: you should list any activities (including healthcare work, regardless of it being paid/non-paid) which isn't listed on your AACOMAS (i.e. if it is leave this section empty).
So assuming you filled in your AACOMAS recently and nothing changed since then your "Experiences > Clinical, Healthcare, and Research Experience" section in the 2° should be empty.

The simplest of all - CV (2). The CV section should contain longitudinal work AND volunteering regardless of HC/non-HC as "Work/Volunteer", and time in college (regardless of the overlap with other things) as "College". Keep in mind that CV section is really a very ROUGH timeline for them to glance over (e.g. dates there are only years without even months). Some schools are even open that CV is for them to use during the interview only to pull talking points from and is not really used in the II decision.


Asparaginedoc said:
Sorry about all the questions I'm just anxious to submit the VCOM secondary and their admissions office hasn't emailed back.
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That's why we are here for ;) VCOM adcom is pretty good at e-mailing back but especially on Fridays they are flooded with emails from what I heard.
 
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greg129 said:
If you're talking about "College" type for CV it's for taking classes. The CV section over all it's for them to see a timeline and discuss any gaps. IIRC there is also a question like "did you have any gaps of more than 2 years".


Ok, this is more complex question . Let me address it in full.

First in their 2° they have multiple nested sections:
  1. Experiences:
    1. Volunteer Experience (hours)
      1. volunteering within the healthcare field
      2. volunteering outside the healthcare field
    2. Clinical, Healthcare, and Research Experience
  2. CV: list any activities and categorize volunteering separately

Section 1.1 - Hours of VOLUNTEERING: this part asks for a range of hours for volunteering. This means you should not count hours of employment as volunteering regardless of the field. From your description it looks like the CNA position will not count here.
These hours are further categorized into healthcare (1.1.1) and non-healthcare (1.1.2). What is or isn't a HC volunteering is probably the most commonly asked question in the pre-med circles. However, the general rule is contact with patients = HC. So, for example, if you were doing cancer research in the lab it is not HC (it's just related to HC like many things) but if you were questioning patients in a hospital to collect data for a cancer research it will be HC. The reasons schools want to know if you had healthcare volunteering is to make sure you do know how healthcare works from "the other side", you know how the interactions are etc. Regular people don't even know that scrubs colors mean something or what these weird metal dressers in the middle of the corridor are for ;)

Also, from what I heard from other schools, shadowing hours should not be counted as volunteering hours. Ultimatelly during pure shadowing you're not doing anything for others but observing. Sometimes it's a gray area: one of my experiences was partially shadowing and partially voluntering so I cut the hours in half (even thou it was probably like 90% volunteering) and informed adcoms.

This is why AACOMAS has different types which are worded very carefully:
  • Non-Healthcare Employment - employment, non-healthcare
  • Healthcare Experience - employment OR volunteering, healthcare only
  • Non-Healthcare Volunteer or Community Enrichment - volunteered/non-paid time
  • Extracurricular Activities - any ECs, no employment
This allows adcoms to fish out HC-related (paid or not) hours. VCOM wants to know it more specifically (but just hours): HC-related AND unpaid.
So your CNA position qualifies (imho) to AACOMAS "Healthcare Experience" but doesn't qualify to VCOM healthcare hours.

Section 1.2 - Details of EXPERIENCES: you should list any activities (including healthcare work, regardless of it being paid/non-paid) which isn't listed on your AACOMAS (i.e. if it is leave this section empty).
So assuming you filled in your AACOMAS recently and nothing changed since then your "Experiences > Clinical, Healthcare, and Research Experience" section in the 2° should be empty.

The simplest of all - CV (2). The CV section should contain longitudinal work AND volunteering regardless of HC/non-HC as "Work/Volunteer", and time in college (regardless of the overlap with other things) as "College". Keep in mind that CV section is really a very ROUGH timeline for them to glance over (e.g. dates there are only years without even months). Some schools are even open that CV is for them to use during the interview only to pull talking points from and is not really used in the II decision.



That's why we are here for ;) VCOM adcom is pretty good at e-mailing back but especially on Fridays they are flooded with emails from what I heard.
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Wow thanks for such a detailed response! All of my questions were answered and I will probably submit the secondary in the coming days.
 
any international students applying to this school? I'm debating whether I should apply or not
 
Lula97 said:
any international students applying to this school? I'm debating whether I should apply or not
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It depends on how international you are, as the definition between premeds is very vague.

It's very case-by-case on VCOM thou as they even say themselves:
Citizenship

An applicant must be a U.S. citizen or permanent U.S. resident. International students who have questions regarding their application status should contact the Associate Dean for Student Affairs to determine eligibility for admission.
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all these interview invites and my app hasnt been complete.... its been sitting since July 2nd ):
 
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Great stats ! Congrats again !
@kaylant11 Quick question -- Did you actually receive a "Complete" email ?
 
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poly_123 said:
all these interview invites and my app hasnt been complete.... its been sitting since July 2nd ):
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It takes a long time to be marked complete. As long as it says it's at screening phase it's fine.
 
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firelordazula said:
It takes a long time to be marked complete. As long as it says it's at screening phase it's fine.
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Yeah so my application says its still on screening phase and there's a red X next to "Application Complete" But a green check mark next to everything else and I still haven't recieved an II, is that good? am i safe lol
 
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On their website, it says they don't require a physician letter, but on the secondary you need to fill out the physician letter form in in order to submit the secondary?

Anyone know how I should go about doing this?
 
Dr. Bones123 said:
Yeah so my application says its still on screening phase and there's a red X next to "Application Complete" But a green check mark next to everything else and I still haven't recieved an II, is that good? am i safe lol
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From my understanding that just means that you’re in the pile to be looked over before being marked “complete” for the adcom review, and subsequent II (ideally). In their HPSP meeting a couple weeks ago, a recruitment staff member said that if you’ve been in that status for 3-4 weeks it might not hurt to email the admissions committee just to check in/express interest. I’ve contacted them a couple times and they’ve been Uber friendly, so I don’t think it would hurt if that’s the boat you find yourself in.
 
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DiveDude17 said:
From my understanding that just means that you’re in the pile to be looked over before being marked “complete” for the adcom review, and subsequent II (ideally). In their HPSP meeting a couple weeks ago, a recruitment staff member said that if you’ve been in that status for 3-4 weeks it might not hurt to email the admissions committee just to check in/express interest. I’ve contacted them a couple times and they’ve been Uber friendly, so I don’t think it would hurt if that’s the boat you find yourself in.
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Will do! I appreciate it :)
 
Hoping back on to say I was finally marked complete !!!!! WOHOOOO. secondary submitted 7/2 complete 8/13!
 
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I submitted on 6/10 and still no secondary.. do you guys think they screen or should I contact them?
 
Are they interviewing you guys in person this year, or virtually?
 
Has anyone that submitted around the middle of July been marked complete yet?
 
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