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- May 26, 2020
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Does anyone know if spouses are allowed to live in the student dorms or if they are strictly for students?
strictly students. People with spouses/SO's typically live nearby in rented apartmentsDoes anyone know if spouses are allowed to live in the student dorms or if they are strictly for students?
I don't know if this is just someone on the WL trying to get other students to drop their A's or a salty applicant who got the R, but I'm a current student and happy to offer a point by point response to all of these:Are there any current students in this thread willing to comment on this?
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply!!I don't know if this is just someone on the WL trying to get other students to drop their A's or a salty applicant who got the R, but I'm a current student and happy to offer a point by point response to all of these:
1. There is a lot of research in Boston, but if you are at BU you can't go do research at Harvard/Tufts/UMass very easily. BU is super expensive so they know students would have a really hard time doing research, or primary care, post medical school so they don't let students get involved in research very much, masters students get more attention because BU churns them out like crazy. There are a literally dozens of schools that have more research than BU, and gobs more than have the same research opportunities.
This entire blurb makes no sense for many reasons. 1) part of the new curriculum actually incorporated a research track for students to find a PI and take part in longitudinal research throughout the first 2 year. Meaning we actually push for even more research than we used to, and more than other programs do. 2) BUSM has a summer program called MSSRP that many many many students do, where we get paid to do summer research. The program requirements are pretty easy and nearly everyone who applies gets the stipend. Meaning every student is able to do 8 weeks of just research, get paid, present a poster on it, and many get this work published too. I also know many students at BUSM doing research at Harvard/BWH/MGH etc. It's extremely easy for any medical student in Boston to work with Harvard PI's. Complete nonsense here
2. BU puts up a lot of stuff about mission on the Facebook/pamphlets, but really the school is disorganized and even if you do 'community' service type rotations the community physicians also work with Harvard and Tufts students and can look down on BU students and many BU students have a negative experience. Was straight up told when beginning a community rotation that "several students don't come back to do later rotations with us" and then they rolled their eyes . . . it quickly became apparent why! You can do community health stuff for sure, but you get treated like crap and maybe worse than other students.
More nonsense to clear up. I am unaware of any BUSM "service type rotations" that are done in conjunction with Harvard or Tufts students. We have many awesome community outreach projects like the Outreach Van, AHOPE, Homeless Health projects, etc to name a few. These are BUSM programs and done solely by BUSM students. Our community health centers we rotate at for primary care and family med are actually in the BMC system. I do not know of any non-BUSM students rotating in these. Also to make it clear, BUSM >> Tufts - and that's not an opinion that's just objective and evident by the hospital systems backed by both programs. There's a reason every peds doctor from Tufts had to leave and go to BMC.
3. There are major student harassment/abuse issues at BUSM. What they should really advertise is that they do clinical rotations on the 'old school' model of medical education and they gaslight students about the abuse and try to make you feel like it's your fault. The people in the student affairs/medical education office are some of the most pessimistic and unhelpful people you will ever met, and many times their efforts turn into sabotaging students, they gossip about students and can make your life difficult during third and fourth year. BU's public facade of social justice and community involvement isn't true unless that means just harassing students and abusing students by devaluing them.
While I'll preface my saying every medical school and hospital has some bad apples, BUSM keeps those bad apples away from students rotating. We have a committee of students, faculty, and physicians called "appropriate treatment in medicine" and ANY student can make an anonymous report to them. Every case is brought to committee and EVERY doctor found being unfair or treating students poorly will never have contact again with a student. Nobody is making our lives difficult. BU student affairs is delightful and so hopeful to any student who needs extra help. BU's public facade of social justice and community involvement is backed by the fact BMC is the largest safety net hospital in NE. No more debate to be had there...
4. Teaching isn't very good at BUSM, it is more important to read stuff outside of lectures, which are horribly disorganized, to do well on the USMLE. Same thing with clinical teaching, you'll be told constantly how lucky you are and that attendings spoon fed students too much, they don't focus much teaching on the students. You can take extra electives and literally not learn anything and just be ignored, attending at BUSM aren't as interested in teaching than at many other places.
I've had zero issues with BU's teaching and find so many of our professors to be great people to even have chats with outside of medicine. This year is a new curriculum, and with that comes some level of kinks to work out, but they're being worked out and the faculty keeps open dialogue with our class to improve the curriculum for you new M1's. What matters most is if the professors care, and I'm under the impression they do. In terms of outside resources, you'll have a tough time finding a med student in this country who didn't use Sketchy for microbio and Boards and Beyond for the occasional tricky topic. That's just what med school is. Every physician and professor at BU that I've come across has been passionate about teaching and loves what they do. TBH, every faculty member at BUSM could be paid a lot more elsewhere with lower cost of living, so why do they stay here? They ENJOY it.
5. BUSM's level 4 biosafety lab is sketchy, they did an "experiment" on COVID and made a virus that is both more transmissible than the original strain, but more deadly and they lied about it to the Boston public health commission. Congress wants to investigate, BU tried to gaslit the whole issue by saying that their work was important research, (it's not, they did it to generate publicity), and that people misunderstand and they lied said it wasn't gain of function research. BUSM gaslights everybody all the time.
This doesn't even deserve a response and if you are a genuine applicant you may want to work on finding credible resources and understanding science before starting school. All I'll say is do further research and everyone will come to the conclusion this news article was written by a source that had no idea what they were writing about and wanted to make an article title that would get attention.
6. More people match in Boston who go to BU because students rank some Boston programs higher than others and they might have a spouse in Boston after school, that's the only reason, but probably few BUSM students would want to match at BU for residency.
More people match in Boston who go to BU because 1) geographic location is the largest indicator of where you'll match for highly competitive specialties. It's all connections, if I want to match Ortho, odds are BU's ortho department knows someone at the Brigham and doesn't know someone in Texas. Simple reasoning. 2) People here love Boston. they fall in love with the patient population and the city. Plus they just simply don't want to move, 3) Every medical school has the vast majority of people match in the same city. 4) The match process is a tough process and creating your rank list is probably a top stressor in a medical students life. You will rank your match list where you have the highest chances, and based on data that would be programs in your city/region. Thats called interpreting data and leveraging the knowledge, another skill critical to medicine.
7. BUSM has problems getting quality rotations for students and they don't put a lot of work into improving or maintaining their own rotations. If you want to do global health they'll look at you like you have a third eye or something, it's a vicious gossip mill and only at BU would you be harassed for going to global health meetings or trying to setup an international elective. It sounds unbelievable until you experience it, BU takes advantage of students who are a captive audience and they don't really live in the world where there are at least minimal rules about abuse and harassment of students. Don't bother trying to have a conversation with faculty there about this in order to improve the school for future students, there are few things that BUSM understands.
BUSM has an established pipeline that's every growing too for students to rotate at. We also have a 4th year global health elective and if student's want they could even use their first-year summer to do a global health initiative then too. I think it's fair to say any medical school curriculum is fast paced and it's difficult to find free time to fit in very time-consuming things like this. Yet we still manage to do it, which is pretty uncommon for medical schools. The rest of your blurb just doesn't make much sense. The name of the game at any program is finding out which locations for certain rotations grade the easiest. BUSM has tons of options for where to rotate at making playing that game a bit easier. Really have heard nothing negative at all about rotations, while I have heard really bad things about other programs. The lack of poor comments regarding this makes me think BU is doing just fine.
I hope this helped clear up some confusion. Current MS1 here and really happy to be in Boston and at BUSM. Don't let some troll saying nonsense sway your thoughts.
I did - there’s a tab on the portal specifically for financial aid. There you can upload documents, get info for FAFSA, CSS, etc.Anyone know if we can submit financial aid applications before we are accepted? I don't want to be too late to the game if I get an acceptance but submit my financial aid stuff after that. Their website is slightly confusing to me.
Same!has anybody seen/made a groupme or facebook group for accepted students? I've been having trouble finding anything but would love to join one if it exists!
+1Same!
Review some of the questions on the SDN interview feedback page for BU and also prepare to be asked about your experiences in your activities sectionAnyone have any tips for the BU interview?
Honestly I’m not sure, but I’ve been told by pre-med advisors that the LOI has the most impact when you’re on the WL and if you send a LOI now and then get put on a WL, you don’t really have anything else to do to get their attention. Also I think I remember the dean of admissions saying something about the LOI having the most effect if you’re on a WL because they’re most likely to offer a spot to someone who just sent a LOI since they’re more likely to accept and prevent them from having to make multiple calls. But BU did encourage sending update letters, so I think sending an update with a paragraph about how you’re really interested would be goodDoes anyone know if it is more effective to send a letter of intent post interview before decisions OR after WL? Thanks in advance!
mine lasted 30 minutes too so you aren't alone, but I dunno what that means, if it means anythingHow long did interviews last? Mine was fairly short (30 min), which is making me nervous
Mine lasted 30 minutes and I got accepted shortest interview lolHow long did interviews last? Mine was fairly short (30 min), which is making me nervous
Nice! Did they email you when your aid letter was ready?Surprisingly got some need based aid from BU. Also submitted my FAFSA in December so that could have helped
Early MarchDoes anyone know when the second wave of acceptances/decisions will go out?
I really appreciate your input here!! I’m curious- Can any other MS1s talk about how they are liking the new curriculum?I don't know if this is just someone on the WL trying to get other students to drop their A's or a salty applicant who got the R, but I'm a current student and happy to offer a point by point response to all of these:
1. There is a lot of research in Boston, but if you are at BU you can't go do research at Harvard/Tufts/UMass very easily. BU is super expensive so they know students would have a really hard time doing research, or primary care, post medical school so they don't let students get involved in research very much, masters students get more attention because BU churns them out like crazy. There are a literally dozens of schools that have more research than BU, and gobs more than have the same research opportunities.
This entire blurb makes no sense for many reasons. 1) part of the new curriculum actually incorporated a research track for students to find a PI and take part in longitudinal research throughout the first 2 year. Meaning we actually push for even more research than we used to, and more than other programs do. 2) BUSM has a summer program called MSSRP that many many many students do, where we get paid to do summer research. The program requirements are pretty easy and nearly everyone who applies gets the stipend. Meaning every student is able to do 8 weeks of just research, get paid, present a poster on it, and many get this work published too. I also know many students at BUSM doing research at Harvard/BWH/MGH etc. It's extremely easy for any medical student in Boston to work with Harvard PI's. Complete nonsense here
2. BU puts up a lot of stuff about mission on the Facebook/pamphlets, but really the school is disorganized and even if you do 'community' service type rotations the community physicians also work with Harvard and Tufts students and can look down on BU students and many BU students have a negative experience. Was straight up told when beginning a community rotation that "several students don't come back to do later rotations with us" and then they rolled their eyes . . . it quickly became apparent why! You can do community health stuff for sure, but you get treated like crap and maybe worse than other students.
More nonsense to clear up. I am unaware of any BUSM "service type rotations" that are done in conjunction with Harvard or Tufts students. We have many awesome community outreach projects like the Outreach Van, AHOPE, Homeless Health projects, etc to name a few. These are BUSM programs and done solely by BUSM students. Our community health centers we rotate at for primary care and family med are actually in the BMC system. I do not know of any non-BUSM students rotating in these. Also to make it clear, BUSM >> Tufts - and that's not an opinion that's just objective and evident by the hospital systems backed by both programs. There's a reason every peds doctor from Tufts had to leave and go to BMC.
3. There are major student harassment/abuse issues at BUSM. What they should really advertise is that they do clinical rotations on the 'old school' model of medical education and they gaslight students about the abuse and try to make you feel like it's your fault. The people in the student affairs/medical education office are some of the most pessimistic and unhelpful people you will ever met, and many times their efforts turn into sabotaging students, they gossip about students and can make your life difficult during third and fourth year. BU's public facade of social justice and community involvement isn't true unless that means just harassing students and abusing students by devaluing them.
While I'll preface my saying every medical school and hospital has some bad apples, BUSM keeps those bad apples away from students rotating. We have a committee of students, faculty, and physicians called "appropriate treatment in medicine" and ANY student can make an anonymous report to them. Every case is brought to committee and EVERY doctor found being unfair or treating students poorly will never have contact again with a student. Nobody is making our lives difficult. BU student affairs is delightful and so hopeful to any student who needs extra help. BU's public facade of social justice and community involvement is backed by the fact BMC is the largest safety net hospital in NE. No more debate to be had there...
4. Teaching isn't very good at BUSM, it is more important to read stuff outside of lectures, which are horribly disorganized, to do well on the USMLE. Same thing with clinical teaching, you'll be told constantly how lucky you are and that attendings spoon fed students too much, they don't focus much teaching on the students. You can take extra electives and literally not learn anything and just be ignored, attending at BUSM aren't as interested in teaching than at many other places.
I've had zero issues with BU's teaching and find so many of our professors to be great people to even have chats with outside of medicine. This year is a new curriculum, and with that comes some level of kinks to work out, but they're being worked out and the faculty keeps open dialogue with our class to improve the curriculum for you new M1's. What matters most is if the professors care, and I'm under the impression they do. In terms of outside resources, you'll have a tough time finding a med student in this country who didn't use Sketchy for microbio and Boards and Beyond for the occasional tricky topic. That's just what med school is. Every physician and professor at BU that I've come across has been passionate about teaching and loves what they do. TBH, every faculty member at BUSM could be paid a lot more elsewhere with lower cost of living, so why do they stay here? They ENJOY it.
5. BUSM's level 4 biosafety lab is sketchy, they did an "experiment" on COVID and made a virus that is both more transmissible than the original strain, but more deadly and they lied about it to the Boston public health commission. Congress wants to investigate, BU tried to gaslit the whole issue by saying that their work was important research, (it's not, they did it to generate publicity), and that people misunderstand and they lied said it wasn't gain of function research. BUSM gaslights everybody all the time.
This doesn't even deserve a response and if you are a genuine applicant you may want to work on finding credible resources and understanding science before starting school. All I'll say is do further research and everyone will come to the conclusion this news article was written by a source that had no idea what they were writing about and wanted to make an article title that would get attention.
6. More people match in Boston who go to BU because students rank some Boston programs higher than others and they might have a spouse in Boston after school, that's the only reason, but probably few BUSM students would want to match at BU for residency.
More people match in Boston who go to BU because 1) geographic location is the largest indicator of where you'll match for highly competitive specialties. It's all connections, if I want to match Ortho, odds are BU's ortho department knows someone at the Brigham and doesn't know someone in Texas. Simple reasoning. 2) People here love Boston. they fall in love with the patient population and the city. Plus they just simply don't want to move, 3) Every medical school has the vast majority of people match in the same city. 4) The match process is a tough process and creating your rank list is probably a top stressor in a medical students life. You will rank your match list where you have the highest chances, and based on data that would be programs in your city/region. Thats called interpreting data and leveraging the knowledge, another skill critical to medicine.
7. BUSM has problems getting quality rotations for students and they don't put a lot of work into improving or maintaining their own rotations. If you want to do global health they'll look at you like you have a third eye or something, it's a vicious gossip mill and only at BU would you be harassed for going to global health meetings or trying to setup an international elective. It sounds unbelievable until you experience it, BU takes advantage of students who are a captive audience and they don't really live in the world where there are at least minimal rules about abuse and harassment of students. Don't bother trying to have a conversation with faculty there about this in order to improve the school for future students, there are few things that BUSM understands.
BUSM has an established pipeline that's every growing too for students to rotate at. We also have a 4th year global health elective and if student's want they could even use their first-year summer to do a global health initiative then too. I think it's fair to say any medical school curriculum is fast paced and it's difficult to find free time to fit in very time-consuming things like this. Yet we still manage to do it, which is pretty uncommon for medical schools. The rest of your blurb just doesn't make much sense. The name of the game at any program is finding out which locations for certain rotations grade the easiest. BUSM has tons of options for where to rotate at making playing that game a bit easier. Really have heard nothing negative at all about rotations, while I have heard really bad things about other programs. The lack of poor comments regarding this makes me think BU is doing just fine.
I hope this helped clear up some confusion. Current MS1 here and really happy to be in Boston and at BUSM. Don't let some troll saying nonsense sway your thoughts.
I am mentally preparing for it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the one after that, but my money is on this Wednesday for first day of calls.So... based on historical precedence, could we expect decisions starting next Wednesday?? I'm getting hella anxious already lol
Yes, they sent an email!Nice! Did they email you when your aid letter was ready?
In the interview follow-up email they did encourage sending one over, but I assume it's not a hard requirement.Do we have to submit an official transcript post-interview even if we haven’t heard back yet?
I'd say if no one reports anything by like 3:30 pm, then it will most likely be next week.Maybe they’re not releasing As this week?
I interviewed last week (February 28th) and was told decisions will come out most likely by the end of March because they’re meeting mid March. I don’t know if that applies for everyone waiting thoughI'd say if no one reports anything by like 3:30 pm, then it will most likely be next week.
Damnnn I thought they were done interviewing in JanuaryI interviewed last week (February 28th) and was told decisions will come out most likely by the end of March because they’re meeting mid March. I don’t know if that applies for everyone waiting though
That’s weird, they sent me an email after my interview that said the interview season ended at the end of January. So I guess they decided they wanted more options? But yeah at my interview they said decisions would be out by March 20th, so maybe the 10th or the 17th.And I meant to say I interviewed February 21st, the 28th was two days ago 🙃 but yeah she said it could be mid March but probably late March
Nope, nothing since I submitted in early JanFor those that have applied for financial aid, have you received your award letter yet?
Yes! Submitted my FAFSA and CSS in December, and received my letter the 2nd week of February. Got an email to the address I put on my AMCASFor those that have applied for financial aid, have you received your award letter yet?