2021-2022 Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM)

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Please feel free to tag a pre-medical moderator when the secondary prompt is posted.

Good luck to everyone applying!

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Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine

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Can anyone send the prompt for the secondary so we can prepare for it when we get it please?
 
Secondary Questions

Required Essay 500 Words Max

Describe a situation where you chose to advocate for someone who is different from yourself. What does advocacy mean to you and how has your advocacy developed? How do you see it linked to your role as a physician/leader? What risks, if any, might be associated with your choice to be an advocate?

All applicants are required to answer one of the following three questions in the form of a short essay, 250 words maximum. Make sure to include the question itself at the top of your essay; this will not count toward the 250 words. Please name the file using the following format: "last name, first name, selected essay".

1. Describe the community in which you were nurtured or spent the majority of your early development with respect to its demographics. What core values did you receive and how will these translate into the contributions you hope to make to your community as a medical student and later as a physician?

2. There are multiple paths that lead to medical school and many obstacles along the way. Please describe the unique path that has led you to medicine as well as any obstacle or adversity that you had to overcome in achieving this goal. How will this experience affect your career as a physician?

3. Part of OU-HCOM's mission is to embrace diversity and public service and improve the health and wellbeing of underserved populations. Describe what that means to you and how you would contribute to that mission as a student and as a future physician.

There is also an additional essay if you rank campuses other than Athens.
 
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So, if I'm understanding this correctly, if I don't have a committee letter, then OUHCOM only accepts 2 letters, and those two are from science professors?
 
BrontoPronto said:
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, if I don't have a committee letter, then OUHCOM only accepts 2 letters, and those two are from science professors?
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For the required letters they either need the committee letter or two letters from natural science professors. But they definitely accept additional letters!
I sent in the committee letter for the general requirement- then I sent in 2 additional letters (1 from science professor and 1 from an MD). I received the check marks on my secondary application as complete. And my app is now under review.
 
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So I am a 3x reapplicant. I am not sure if they even screen anything before sending secondaries out. I'm very certain i'm a great fit (lot of ec's/leadership/military/publication and intent on rural medicine) but I have a poor undergrad gpa (alleviated slightly with a much higher masters SMP GPA). Is it even worth doing the secondary? like it feels like they don't really care since i've gotten it every dang year and nothing after.
 
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santhosh100 said:
So I am a 3x reapplicant. I am not sure if they even screen anything before sending secondaries out. I'm very certain i'm a great fit (lot of ec's/leadership/military/publication and intent on rural medicine) but I have a poor undergrad gpa (alleviated slightly with a much higher masters SMP GPA). Is it even worth doing the secondary? like it feels like they don't really care since i've gotten it every dang year and nothing after.
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Oh man... have you pinpointed what you might have missed on your previous applications? If you've worked on and improved on those shortcomings, then I'd say go ahead and apply. Have you reached out to any advisors? If you're a non-trad, maybe directly reaching out to the school (someone on admissions or recruitment) and letting them know that this is your top school, and you're a reapplicant, and asking if they would offer feedback for improvement. I'm a reapplicant this cycle (not to this school), but I reached out to one of my top schools that I didn't even get an II from last cycle, and got to have an hour long, in-depth appointment with the director of admissions, who gave amazing advice and feedback. Keep in mind that they might not give feedback if you've already submitted your primary to them though. Best of luck!

Edit: Also, your EC's sound great and you sound very well rounded. How do you think your LORs were? Any potential red-flags?
 
BrontoPronto said:
Oh man... have you pinpointed what you might have missed on your previous applications? If you've worked on and improved on those shortcomings, then I'd say go ahead and apply. Have you reached out to any advisors? If you're a non-trad, maybe directly reaching out to the school (someone on admissions or recruitment) and letting them know that this is your top school, and you're a reapplicant, and asking if they would offer feedback for improvement. I'm a reapplicant this cycle (not to this school), but I reached out to one of my top schools that I didn't even get an II from last cycle, and got to have an hour long, in-depth appointment with the director of admissions, who gave amazing advice and feedback. Keep in mind that they might not give feedback if you've already submitted your primary to them though. Best of luck!

Edit: Also, your EC's sound great and you sound very well rounded. How do you think your LORs were? Any potential red-flags?
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Really the GPA is the ugly big red flag, 503 mcat was an improvement (debating a final 3rd retake) 2.5 sgpa to 3.45 SMP gpa taking hardass classes (took too many initially). I talked to Dr. Rice here who works with admission about 2 years ago and he said theres a shot, but hasn't responded to any emails for a very long time. Also went back post SMP to take 3 more classes and got A's in all of them. Re-did my personal statement/everything in my app this year made it much better imo after speaking to a few advisors. So yeah you might be right to just shoot the shot haha.
 
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santhosh100 said:
Really the GPA is the ugly big red flag, 503 mcat was an improvement (debating a final 3rd retake) 2.5 sgpa to 3.45 SMP gpa taking hardass classes (took too many initially). I talked to Dr. Rice here who works with admission about 2 years ago and he said theres a shot, but hasn't responded to any emails for a very long time. Also went back post SMP to take 3 more classes and got A's in all of them. Re-did my personal statement/everything in my app this year made it much better imo after speaking to a few advisors. So yeah you might be right to just shoot the shot haha.
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Take a chance and be sure to apply broadly and all over, especially if there are schools you haven't applied to before. May the force be with us!
 
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BrontoPronto said:
Take a chance and be sure to apply broadly and all over, especially if there are schools you haven't applied to before. May the force be with us!
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Unfortunately a lot of schools hard screen GPA especially osteopathic schools from experience. I applied to like 30 my first time around, and barely got anything, then less, then less down to like 9 right now.
 
santhosh100 said:
Unfortunately a lot of schools hard screen GPA especially osteopathic schools from experience. I applied to like 30 my first time around, and barely got anything, then less, then less down to like 9 right now.
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Oh boy, that's certainly a tough spot to be in. I genuinely hope your advisors have given you good advice for your new application. I'm only a fellow applicant and know nothing about the process, but my general advice is this: you should definitely advocate for yourself at this point, if you haven't already done so before. Submit your primary early, and then send the admissions office an email explaining your story. Be honest and tell them how you feel that you might get screened out because of a low early GPA. Hopefully you have an upward-trend SMP GPA you can also talk about, and hopefully you have strong LORs. Maybe mention some recent clinical/service experiences too, and showcase how you've improved yourself compared to what you were in previous applications. Also another thing to consider are state ties. I don't think it'll hurt you to be honest and ask them to at least consider looking at your application once, but obviously, be humble about it, and don't give off any aura of entitlement.
 
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Did anyone receive an email stating "Welcome to Family Navigator Program"?
 
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dr.batman said:
Did anyone receive an email stating "Welcome to Family Navigator Program"?
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Yes, not sure what this is about? I tried to login and it gives an error message...
 
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Dobrota said:
Yes, not sure what this is about? I tried to login and it gives an error message...
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Yeah so I contacted the school and they said they're updating the portal. And to ignore the email?
Did you say you were interested in Cleveland campus?
 
dr.batman said:
Yeah so I contacted the school and they said they're updating the portal. And to ignore the email?
Did you say you were interested in Cleveland campus?
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I listed Cleveland as the last choice for me.
 
Hi everyone!

I applied to OU-HCOM last year and while I was not offered an interview I was offered a position in their Summer Scholars program which I completed last month. I interviewed yesterday (very laid back interviews), and I am so thrilled to say that I have been accepted to Athens and have a position on the the waitlist for the Dublin campus.

Good luck to everyone as the cycle continues. I cannot wait to celebrate interviews and acceptances with you all! :)
 
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Ouiser said:
Hi everyone!

I applied to OU-HCOM last year and while I was not offered an interview I was offered a position in their Summer Scholars program which I completed last month. I interviewed yesterday (very laid back interviews), and I am so thrilled to say that I have been accepted to Athens and have a position on the the waitlist for the Dublin campus.

Good luck to everyone as the cycle continues. I cannot wait to celebrate interviews and acceptances with you all! :)
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Congrats! Is this for the 2021 or the 2022 start cycle?
 
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Ouiser said:
Hi everyone!

I applied to OU-HCOM last year and while I was not offered an interview I was offered a position in their Summer Scholars program which I completed last month. I interviewed yesterday (very laid back interviews), and I am so thrilled to say that I have been accepted to Athens and have a position on the the waitlist for the Dublin campus.

Good luck to everyone as the cycle continues. I cannot wait to celebrate interviews and acceptances with you all! :)
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Congrats! Was Dublin your first choice? Did they say why you were waitlisted there? I presume there isn't anyone else in that class yet
 
lillelsin said:
Congrats! Was Dublin your first choice? Did they say why you were waitlisted there? I presume there isn't anyone else in that class yet
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Thank you!

Dublin was my first choice; however, I am not an Ohio native, and I knew the likelihood of me going to Athens was going to be high if I was accepted. They are looking for people with ties to Cleveland and Dublin/Columbus for those campuses, but I will just have to wait till later in the cycle to see if it is possible for me to be placed there.

I am just happy to have a seat with the school. My husband is a medicinal chemist and is going to look at Columbus for potential jobs and that was one of the big factors that pushed me towards ranking Dublin first, but Athens isn't terribly far from Columbus so it is still a major win in my book. :)
 
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Been pretty quiet here lately.... anyone been blessed with an II yet?
 
finally got my "your app is complete" email. submitted secondary on 7/5
 
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I was finally marked complete yesterday after waiting several weeks! Now let's get those II rolling! :)
 
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I submitted my secondary 6/30 but still have not been marked as complete. Anyone else?
 
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Are in state applicants heavily preferred here?
 
MadScientist95 said:
Third-year OUHCOM student here! Feel free to ask me anything
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Hi there, I do have some questions!

1. Which campus were you at for the didactic portion?
2. Did your professors require a lot of text books for the courses, or were other resources utilized?
3. Did OU-HCOM provide scrubs for students to use during anatomy lab, or did you all just get some cheap scrubs to use?
4. Are most students able to do summer research projects between years one and two?
5. Any information you wish you would have known before starting school?
 
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Ouiser said:
Hi there, I do have some questions!

1. Which campus were you at for the didactic portion?
2. Did your professors require a lot of text books for the courses, or were other resources utilized?
3. Did OU-HCOM provide scrubs for students to use during anatomy lab, or did you all just get some cheap scrubs to use?
4. Are most students able to do summer research projects between years one and two?
5. Any information you wish you would have known before starting school?
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1. Athens
2. Technically yes, but all the textbooks are on a google drive so you dont need to pay for them!
3. We bought our own. There is no specific types of scrubs required
4. Yes! They do a program called RSAF where you can receive a 3,000 dollar stipend over the summer between 1st and 2nd year to do research! Its not that hard to get either as long as you apply.
5. Yes. During our interview they made it seem like your campus during didactic years does not affect where you can go during your clinical years. This is NOT the case. If you want to rotate with Ohio Health in Columbus or Cleveland Clinic, then you need to go to those respective campuses as there are no spots available for Athens-based students. I would also recommend applying for one of these campuses if going to a LARGE rotation site is important to you. Yes, you can still go to large rotation site if you choose to attend school in Athens however, there are only a certain amount of spots available for each rotation site and so Athens students rank where they want to go and are then put into a lottery system. Obviously the big city rotation sites are more popular so not everyone will get their first choice. I lucked out getting into a large city fortunately however, several of my classmates did not. In fact, some even got their last choice. However, I would note that of the smaller rotation sites in southern Ohio, Chillicothe is pretty nice as the hospital system actually owns an apartment building where they give medical students their own apartment completely free during their clinical years.
 
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anyone else get this email?

After reviewing your primary and secondary applications, you have been identified as a student who might be interested in applying for the Cleveland campus’ Transformative Care Continuum program, an accelerated Family Medicine track! Students selected for the program will complete a three-year medical school curriculum and commit to a three-year family medicine residency at either Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital or Cleveland Clinic Lakewood Family Health Center.
 
thenextmcdreamy said:
anyone else get this email?

After reviewing your primary and secondary applications, you have been identified as a student who might be interested in applying for the Cleveland campus’ Transformative Care Continuum program, an accelerated Family Medicine track! Students selected for the program will complete a three-year medical school curriculum and commit to a three-year family medicine residency at either Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital or Cleveland Clinic Lakewood Family Health Center.
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No, but if I remember correctly you had to indicate in the secondary if you were interested in this program. I'm interested in the Cleveland campus but not necessarily this accelerated program due to the commitment to family med.
 
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Hello,

My AACOMAS was recently verified. However, one of my four letters of rec is still pending. Does anyone know if they wait to send a secondary before all letters or recieved, or does it not matter?

Thanks!
 
labtech312 said:
Hello,

My AACOMAS was recently verified. However, one of my four letters of rec is still pending. Does anyone know if they wait to send a secondary before all letters or recieved, or does it not matter?

Thanks!
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They will send a secondary before all LOR are received, but will not review your app until all required letters have been received
 
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how do I update DO schools if I have any new grades, coursework, etc?
 
Does anyone know if the Campus Statements for Dublin and Cleveland can be seen by the other schools? (Can the Cleveland admissions team see the Dublin essay or vice a versa)
 
Hello! Does anyone know what's a good character/word count to shoot for when answering the campus selection essays? I'm assuming the school doesn't care so much about a specific count, but wants individuals to do their research and provide a well constructed answer.

I'm a little late on the secondary game it seems :) thanks!
 
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