2023-2024 Boston University

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OOS pre-II R 10/30! LM 75.1, secondary received 7/20, submitted 7/23, but was on hold until 9/11 (complete 9/11)
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Having trouble finding information on the admission timeline. I know its rolling, but does anyone know how long after the interview you can expect an answer?
 
TheSixYearGapYear said:
Having trouble finding information on the admission timeline. I know its rolling, but does anyone know how long after the interview you can expect an answer?
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They release decisions at two points of the cycle, in December and March. That's what I was told during my interview and from MSAR.

From previous cycles, most people are wait listed or rejected in December, and the bulk of acceptances come out in March. idk how true this part is but just from reading previous cycles thats what ive seen
 
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idk if im misremembering but has the side panel of the portal always had a “matriculation requirements” section?
 
This is an appeal to applicants who have taken Casper for admission to Boston University SOM.

Complete the 2023 Situational Judgment Test Experience survey.

HPSA/SDN has the 2023 SJT Experience Survey available to anyone preparing for SJTs (especially Casper and PREview). If you completed the 2022 survey, you are welcome to go ahead and complete the survey again. This survey consists of multiple pages and will take up to 10 minutes. You can also place yourself on a waitlist for a study focusing more on school-run SJTs run through platforms like Kira Talent, to be released later in the year.

Your feedback matters!
We learned a lot about how applicants prepared for Casper and PREview last year, but the number of PREview schools has almost doubled this cycle! Over 20% of all AMCAS applicants will likely have taken PREview, and up to 90% of all medical school applicants will likely have taken Casper this cycle (according to Acuity Insights). This does not include applicants in non-medical professions who have had to take these assessments for admission to physician assistant, anesthesiology assistant, dental, veterinary, pharmacy, or physical therapy programs, where we see a trend that applicants with higher Casper results are preferred. Medical residency applicants are also being asked to complete Acuity Insights Assessments, and very little is known about how program directors use these data. Your responses are vital to get objective insights on how admissions committees value the results of these exams.

Your feedback matters!
We want to hear from as many people as possible, especially those attending or applying outside of medicine (MD/DO). This year saw an expansion of SJTs in admissions, and more information has been made available on preparing for these assessments. We want to stay current with these trends to guide future applicants and students facing these SJTs.

Many of our findings from the 2022 survey align with the NAAHP Testing Task Force report released last summer. This includes concerns about proctoring, consistency of scoring, and concern that applicants are paying for validity research. But we need more student voices to gain a louder voice to advocate for future health professional school applicants.

Your feedback has helped HPSA develop a workshop focused on preparing for SJTs like Casper and PREview. This workshop is part of our Becoming a Student Doctor preparation course, and we have already had some positive results among those who have participated in our mock interview workshops. An updated workshop will be presented at the UC Davis Prehealth Conference on October 14, and we welcome opportunities to present the full-length SJT workshop to your campus!

Fill out this survey and help future applicants become physicians in their chosen profession!
 
For people who recently received II's, would you mind sharing when they are scheduling for right now?
 
futurist99 said:
For people who recently received II's, would you mind sharing when they are scheduling for right now?
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my portal was being wonky so i called to schedule and they gave me dates between 12/11 - 12/22! but i'm not sure if *all* of those dates are available since i didn't actually see a calendar or anything
 
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Also, if we already have our letters submitted, we choose the "Process my application upon receipt of the minimum required letters." option instead of the "Hold my app until all letters are received" one, correct?
 
Sandman23 said:
Anyone know the update policy at BU? I know their portal allows you to upload docs, including an update letter but don't wanna assume if that's pre-II, post-II or b
Sandman23 said:
Anyone know the update policy at BU? I know their portal allows you to upload docs, including an update letter but don't wanna assume if that's pre-II, post-II or both
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Also wondering the same thing. I’ve heard that in the past BU actually encouraged post II updates but don’t know if that’s still the case
 
Sandman23 said:
Also, if we already have our letters submitted, we choose the "Process my application upon receipt of the minimum required letters." option instead of the "Hold my app until all letters are received" one, correct?
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Anyone happen to know abt this?
 
BU M4 student here, can answer some questions if people have them. I'll check back sometime today to answer and probably over the course of the week.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my time at BU. Idk if anyone's truly in love with their medical school but I'm very happy with the training i've received. Nobody likes preclinical years and i didnt do the new flipped classroom stuff so can't really comment on that but I think some of the changes they've made to curriculum are great. I TA'd the anatomy course and have taught some m1 courses and I think that some of the early clinical/hands on things they've changed are great for students. The clinical years at BU are fantastic. BMC is an insanely good place to learn how to practice medicine. The complexity of patients and kindness of residents really works in your favor. Having done away rotations at other hospitals and having friends that have also done aways, I know that we're trained exceptionally well. Residents from other programs have commented on it. So yeah, I'm happy to answer questions y'all have.
 
For those who have interviewed, do we get the names of our interviewers beforehand?
 
BUSM24Student said:
BU M4 student here, can answer some questions if people have them. I'll check back sometime today to answer and probably over the course of the week.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my time at BU. Idk if anyone's truly in love with their medical school but I'm very happy with the training i've received. Nobody likes preclinical years and i didnt do the new flipped classroom stuff so can't really comment on that but I think some of the changes they've made to curriculum are great. I TA'd the anatomy course and have taught some m1 courses and I think that some of the early clinical/hands on things they've changed are great for students. The clinical years at BU are fantastic. BMC is an insanely good place to learn how to practice medicine. The complexity of patients and kindness of residents really works in your favor. Having done away rotations at other hospitals and having friends that have also done aways, I know that we're trained exceptionally well. Residents from other programs have commented on it. So yeah, I'm happy to answer questions y'all have.
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(1) did pre clinicals adequately prepare u for clerkships?
(2) Did BU prepare u well for step 2– what are the best rss they had
(3) pros and cons of the school?
(4) two things u would change about the school
 
dracotarg said:
(1) did pre clinicals adequately prepare u for clerkships?
(2) Did BU prepare u well for step 2– what are the best rss they had
(3) pros and cons of the school?
(4) two things u would change about the school
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1) Yea i think preclinicals prepared me for the clerkships. Its mostly like are you prepared for step 1 and if so then youll just learn the info on the clerkships. Preclinical medicine and actually clinically practiced medicine are not entirely the same. But yea, I was prepared quite well for step 1. I don't know anyone who didn't pass first try. I think I had a 6 week? dedicated and I used 5 weeks but was consistently passing practice exams by about 4 weeks.

2) Also prepared me well for step 2. I had a 18 day dedicated period and I took step and got a pretty high score. I have plenty of friends in the high 250s-270s on step 2 which are great scores.

3) pros: learning at BMC - probably one of the best hospitals to learn at as a student. It's a busy safety net hospital so you'll see patients from all walks of life and learn to feel comfortable practicing medicine with anyone as your patient. You'll get used to using interpreters and making the conversation understandable and flow well despite having a 3rd person translating. You'll see patients with all sorts of mental, physical, and substance illnesses. Another pro, the people at BMC are all quite friendly. I really had a great 3rd year because I genuinely found the residents and most attendings kind and considerate of me and my time. The other sites BU sends you to are also quite good, like the VA. Cons: I think having a new curriculum can be challenging. Just that they're still probably smoothing out the bumps and whatnot but I've heard decently positive reviews. I also think that some advisors at the school are better than others but I've also found that myself and most of my friends have developed relationships with faculty through rotations/research and those people have become our pseudo-advisors so not having a problem with advising myself.

4) things I'd change - COL is high. tuition is high. Boston is expensive. Everything hurts the bank. I'd also probably like if they did more activities for fun paid for by the school. Granted I was the Covid class so we just had nothing which sucked. I have seen the current M1s having more events so maybe that'll be an institutional change and increase as the years go forward.
 
BUSM24Student said:
1) Yea i think preclinicals prepared me for the clerkships. Its mostly like are you prepared for step 1 and if so then youll just learn the info on the clerkships. Preclinical medicine and actually clinically practiced medicine are not entirely the same. But yea, I was prepared quite well for step 1. I don't know anyone who didn't pass first try. I think I had a 6 week? dedicated and I used 5 weeks but was consistently passing practice exams by about 4 weeks.

2) Also prepared me well for step 2. I had a 18 day dedicated period and I took step and got a pretty high score. I have plenty of friends in the high 250s-270s on step 2 which are great scores.

3) pros: learning at BMC - probably one of the best hospitals to learn at as a student. It's a busy safety net hospital so you'll see patients from all walks of life and learn to feel comfortable practicing medicine with anyone as your patient. You'll get used to using interpreters and making the conversation understandable and flow well despite having a 3rd person translating. You'll see patients with all sorts of mental, physical, and substance illnesses. Another pro, the people at BMC are all quite friendly. I really had a great 3rd year because I genuinely found the residents and most attendings kind and considerate of me and my time. The other sites BU sends you to are also quite good, like the VA. Cons: I think having a new curriculum can be challenging. Just that they're still probably smoothing out the bumps and whatnot but I've heard decently positive reviews. I also think that some advisors at the school are better than others but I've also found that myself and most of my friends have developed relationships with faculty through rotations/research and those people have become our pseudo-advisors so not having a problem with advising myself.

4) things I'd change - COL is high. tuition is high. Boston is expensive. Everything hurts the bank. I'd also probably like if they did more activities for fun paid for by the school. Granted I was the Covid class so we just had nothing which sucked. I have seen the current M1s having more events so maybe that'll be an institutional change and increase as the years go forward.
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wow thank you so much this was super insightful! Appreciate you 🙂
 
also for the virtual student panel things yall have the option to go to - super chill. nobody is relaying info back to the admissions team about those unless you say some really suss stuff
 
BUSM24Student said:
BU M4 student here, can answer some questions if people have them. I'll check back sometime today to answer and probably over the course of the week.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my time at BU. Idk if anyone's truly in love with their medical school but I'm very happy with the training i've received. Nobody likes preclinical years and i didnt do the new flipped classroom stuff so can't really comment on that but I think some of the changes they've made to curriculum are great. I TA'd the anatomy course and have taught some m1 courses and I think that some of the early clinical/hands on things they've changed are great for students. The clinical years at BU are fantastic. BMC is an insanely good place to learn how to practice medicine. The complexity of patients and kindness of residents really works in your favor. Having done away rotations at other hospitals and having friends that have also done aways, I know that we're trained exceptionally well. Residents from other programs have commented on it. So yeah, I'm happy to answer questions y'all have.
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How's the med student housing? Do students tend to live in the school apartment for all 4 years? Close enough to the school/BMC?

How necessary is it to have a car while going to school there?
 
Mistahman said:
How's the med student housing? Do students tend to live in the school apartment for all 4 years? Close enough to the school/BMC?

How necessary is it to have a car while going to school there?
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So the med school's housing, the MSR, is actually not bad. All the units are 2 bedroom 1 bathroom. Fully furnished. They're not huge but they're also not tiny. There's no living room but there is a kitchen area. Frankly for the $1050/month you really can't beat it. Utilities are included, theres a small gym, theres security, laundry, and as a m1 - most of your friends will be there too.

After m1 year, a lot of people do end up leaving. If you can find people to be your roommate you can def find places nearby BMC for like $1200-1400/month per person. Living alone is def tougher... if you want to live solo in the South End (area around BMC) you'll have to pay >$2000/month and that's not for one of the luxury apartments.
Most people do end up staying around the south end/back bay area so that they can get to the school/BMC easily but I do have friends who live in other areas of the city like JP/dorchester because it's cheaper.

You can do your 4 years without a car, it's just a bit tougher. A decent # of people have cars so if you have a far rotation you can carpool. So you really don't need to have a car. If you do bring a car, once you get a bill sent to an address in Boston, you can apply for a free street parking permit. Your car does need to be registered in MA though. I did that, and it took maybe 2 hours in person at the RMV to get a new license plate and the sticker for resident parking.
 
BUSM24Student said:
So the med school's housing, the MSR, is actually not bad. All the units are 2 bedroom 1 bathroom. Fully furnished. They're not huge but they're also not tiny. There's no living room but there is a kitchen area. Frankly for the $1050/month you really can't beat it. Utilities are included, theres a small gym, theres security, laundry, and as a m1 - most of your friends will be there too.

After m1 year, a lot of people do end up leaving. If you can find people to be your roommate you can def find places nearby BMC for like $1200-1400/month per person. Living alone is def tougher... if you want to live solo in the South End (area around BMC) you'll have to pay >$2000/month and that's not for one of the luxury apartments.
Most people do end up staying around the south end/back bay area so that they can get to the school/BMC easily but I do have friends who live in other areas of the city like JP/dorchester because it's cheaper.

You can do your 4 years without a car, it's just a bit tougher. A decent # of people have cars so if you have a far rotation you can carpool. So you really don't need to have a car. If you do bring a car, once you get a bill sent to an address in Boston, you can apply for a free street parking permit. Your car does need to be registered in MA though. I did that, and it took maybe 2 hours in person at the RMV to get a new license plate and the sticker for resident parking.
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Thank you for this. I believe the rent in MSR has gone up to $1300, but still not bad.
 
sure-bar said:
Thank you for this. I believe the rent in MSR has gone up to $1300, but still not bad.
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Its $1300 but each student gets $275 subsidy so it becomes $1025 (my bad i said 1050). Idk why they say we get a subsidy instead of just saying the price is 1025... but hey I don't make the rules
 
I also got that! Was very strange but no update anywhere on email or portal
 
lenap3 said:
I also got that! Was very strange but no update anywhere on email or portal
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Yeah strange text message ... about had a heart attack when I saw because I thought decisions were out lol. Then had a second heart attack when I checked my email but it's just about their decision timeline. Looks like we got about over a month before first round decisions
 
I didn’t get anything over email yet, which isn’t surprising given they probably have to batch things to prevent spam. Would you mind sharing what it said?
 
lenap3 said:
I didn’t get anything over email yet, which isn’t surprising given they probably have to batch things to prevent spam. Would you mind sharing what it said?
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It's a survey for feedback on how the interview process went for you. They said its anonymous and won't be viewed by anyone making admissions decisions.

Then they just said what their timeline is for admissions decisions is (see my post above). They also re-iterated the importance of sending them updates throughout the cycle, and to withdraw your application if you are no longer interested.
 
lenap3 said:
I also got that! Was very strange but no update anywhere on email or portal
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Based on that email, are we supposed to also send the transcripts directly to them right now or only if we are accepted?
 
Yasuo23 said:
Based on that email, are we supposed to also send the transcripts directly to them right now or only if we are accepted?
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They said "we would appreciate seeing a final official transcript* from any institutions from which you currently hold a degree. If your degree is still in progress, we'd appreciate an unofficial transcript of the work completed to date"

I'd send them an unofficial transcript at the end of this semester just so they have on file, unless you're graduating early then send the official one.
 
soccercity15 said:
It's a survey for feedback on how the interview process went for you. They said its anonymous and won't be viewed by anyone making admissions decisions.

Then they just said what their timeline is for admissions decisions is (see my post above). They also re-iterated the importance of sending them updates throughout the cycle, and to withdraw your application if you are no longer interested.
Click to expand...
Did you just recently interview?
 
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