2023-2024 Florida International (FIU)

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chilly_md

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2023-2024 Florida International Secondary Prompts

Primary Activity/Employment
1. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please explain what you will be doing prior to your planned matriculation into medical school. (Not sure of character limit, but it is less than 1000 for sure)

2. If you have taken a gap year(s), please explain what you have been, or will be doing since graduating from your undergrad institution. (same as above)

Supplemental Essays
1. Miami is a vibrant and multicultural, multilingual city. You will be exposed to cultures and languages different than your own while living and studying in this city. Please explain in detail an experience in which you collaborated, worked, or were exposed to diverse backgrounds. Please describe the impact the experience had on you. (1200 characters)

2. Why did you choose to apply to FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine? (1200 characters)

3. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Focus on what you learned about yourself and how it will help you during the challenges you might face in medical school. Describe any support system you had at your disposal and how you utilized these resources. (1200 characters)

4. If you are accepted into medical school, how do you envision your lifestyle will change, and what challenges may await? Similarly, what do you think will be the most rewarding and difficult part of practicing medicine in the future? (1200 characters)

5. Use this area to explain any exception to the prerequisites at your institution. (OPTIONAL, 1000 characters)

6. Is there any additional information about your academic record that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? Please include any academic difficulties or course withdrawals. (OPTIONAL, 1000 characters)

COVID-19
1. Please share any disruptions and/or challenges you have experienced this application year as a direct result of COVID-19 that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider in conjunction with your application. The following are some examples of topics for consideration, but are not limited to: academic preparations; extracurricular activities and/or experiences; personal and/or professional opportunities; or lessons and insights gained as a result of COVID-19. (1000 characters)

For those who are not Florida residents, the following prompt will appear:

Please describe any connection to FIU, FIU HWCOM, or South Florida.


Good luck to everyone applying!

Interview feedback:


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Third year here, happy to answer questions! Feel free to PM
 
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For covid semesters that required P/NC grading option, the software won't let me add those courses to the box. Is this something we just explain in the prompt?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
IS Secondary not received 🤔 I wonder why
 
Thank you @1cas for sharing those questions.

If somebody can confirm that there is a question about connections to FIU or FL for non-residents, we will update the post to include it.
 
Thank you @1cas for sharing those questions.

If somebody can confirm that there is a question about connections to FIU or FL for non-residents, we will update the post to include it.
"Please describe any connection to FIU, FIU HWCOM, or South Florida." pops up if you are not a FL resident
 
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I'm confused on how to answer the primary activity/employment question if we're taking a gap year. It's basically the same question- are we supposed to answer both?
 
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If we don't have any connection to South Florida or FIU, should we put "Not applicable" in that box?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
anyone else's AP courses not showing up in the portal?
 
I'm confused on how to answer the primary activity/employment question if we're taking a gap year. It's basically the same question- are we supposed to answer both?
I am as well... I'm just going to break my gap year prompt in half for these 2 Qs
 
COVID-19
1. Please share any disruptions and/or challenges you have experienced this application year as a direct result of COVID-19 that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider in conjunction with your application.

Is it okay if we don't answer this question if COVID-19 did not impact our competitiveness for med school?
 
Just in case anyone was wondering there is a character limit of 600 for the first question asking abt what you will be doing before matriculating. Don't think there was one for the second gap-year specific one (its over 1200 for sure at least).
 
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COVID-19
1. Please share any disruptions and/or challenges you have experienced this application year as a direct result of COVID-19 that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider in conjunction with your application.

Is it okay if we don't answer this question if COVID-19 did not impact our competitiveness for med school?
... The following are some examples of topics for consideration, but are not limited to: academic preparations; extracurricular activities and/or experiences; personal and/or professional opportunities; or lessons and insights gained as a result of COVID-19.
I'm presuming this is an optional essay so you can leave it blank. HOWEVER, see highlighted... the committee opens itself up to reading quite a bit of self-reflection especially if you had thoughts about how public health succeeded or failed to vaccinate the population, exacerbated disparities in education or health access or consideration for essential workers, etc.
 
Does anyone know if this school has a big preference for IS/OOS with connections? Is anyone without Florida connections screwed?
 
Can someone clarify what we're supposed to put in the academic req boxes. So if it's 2 sems of bio with lab would it be four boxes (2 bio lectures and 2 accompanying labs?). ?
 
For the COVID essay, when it says disruptions/challenges experienced this application year, is it only referring to like 2023?
 
Is anybody else IS and still hasn't received a secondary? Don't see how I'd get screened out no IAs and LM Score 71.
 
For the COVID essay, when it says disruptions/challenges experienced this application year, is it only referring to like 2023?
I am wondering this same thing. There were several opportunities that COVID prevented me from engaging in a few years ago but not within this year. Can I still talk about those in this essay?
 
This is my top choice school, heard they send out first wave of interviews early August! They marked my application complete today.
 
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This is my top choice school, heard they send out first wave of interviews next week or the week after! They marked my application complete today.
Just out of curiosity, where did you hear this from?
 
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This is my top choice school, heard they send out first wave of interviews early August! They marked my application complete today.
This is my top choice too! Hopefully third time's a charm 🤞🥲
 
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anyone know the format of interview (i.e. group, 1 on 1, student interviews, etc)? There is not much information on the interview tab
 
anyone know the format of interview (i.e. group, 1 on 1, student interviews, etc)? There is not much information on the interview tab
1 interview with medical student, 1 with faculty member. I believe at least one of them is closed file, not sure if both
 
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I don't understand something, I submitted 7/6, fairly decent stats, and I've not received any communication regarding an interview. How is it they people who submit at a later date get a response but when I submitted early, I did not receive one?
 
I don't understand something, I submitted 7/6, fairly decent stats, and I've not received any communication regarding an interview. How is it they people who submit at a later date get a response but when I submitted early, I did not receive one?
I get where you're coming from but 503 MCAT is on the lower side for FIU (below the 10th percentile), but they value a lot of service and volunteering, its a big part of their mission. Don't stress an early interview, if your experiences are solid and community driven they'll circle back to you and offer and interview. Good Luck!
 
I don't understand something, I submitted 7/6, fairly decent stats, and I've not received any communication regarding an interview. How is it they people who submit at a later date get a response but when I submitted early, I did not receive one?
from what ive read about admission committees they dont sort through applicants in order of solely who submitted first (although helpful) they have a bunch of filters to sort applicants on stats, is/oos, etc etc and even if theyve gone through your application they may not necessarily want to send an invite right now. i know it sucks to not have heard anything but be patient its still really early in the cycle and they send invites out until next year iirc
 
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I don't understand something, I submitted 7/6, fairly decent stats, and I've not received any communication regarding an interview. How is it they people who submit at a later date get a response but when I submitted early, I did not receive one?
It doesn't matter if you submitted before them. No one is getting an interview at every school they apply to.
 
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