2023-2024 Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM)

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2023-2024 OU-HCOM Secondary Essay Prompts

1. All applicants are required
to answer the following question in the form of an essay. There is no specific word count, font or font size required. Please name the file using following format: "last name, first name, required essay".
"There are philosophical and tangible differences between osteopathic and allopathic medicine. Describe what being an osteopathic physician means to you, and what qualities make a good osteopathic physician. What have you done to gain knowledge and experience of osteopathic medicine?"

2. All applicants are required to answer one of the following three questions in the form of an essay. There is no specific word count, font or font size required. Make sure to include the question itself at the top of your essay. 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?
-OR-
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?
-OR-
3. What has been your most meaningful life experience (i.e., family situation, clinical or shadowing experience, volunteer experience, etc.) that influenced your decision to pursue medicine?

Good luck to everyone applying!

Interview feedback:

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Hello Everyone! I am a rising second year at OU-HCOM specifically the Athens campus — if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me and I will respond ASAP - Good luck everyone!
 
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Hello Everyone! I am a rising second year at OU-HCOM specifically the Athens campus — if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me and I will respond ASAP - Good luck everyone!
Sorry for the late reply! Are there major changes between the campuses? And do you have to serve for five years after residency in Ohio?
 
Anyone know if you have to have all letters in before being considered for a secondary?
 
What are the prompts?
All applicants are required to answer the following question in the form of an essay. There is no specific word count, font or font size required. Please name the file using following format: "last name, first name, required essay".

There are philosophical and tangible differences between osteopathic and allopathic medicine. Describe what being an osteopathic physician means to you, and what qualities make a good osteopathic physician. What have you done to gain knowledge and experience of osteopathic medicine?

All applicants are required to answer one of the following three questions in the form of an essay. There is no specific word count, font or font size required. Make sure to include the question itself at the top of your essay. 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. What has been your most meaningful life experience (i.e., family situation, clinical or shadowing experience, volunteer experience, etc.) that influenced your decision to pursue medicine?
 
I’m OOS with strong ties to Ohio and meet the minimum screening requirements by a decent margin, but haven’t gotten a secondary. Anyone get one recently? Should I reach out to them about it? I’m a reapplicant so I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it
 
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If we have no ties or connection to the state of Ohio, is that a big minus ?
 
For the campus specific prompts in the secondary application, is there a word limit. In the directions this is not specified.
 
If we have no ties or connection to the state of Ohio, is that a big minus ?
I've attended an event on campus with admissions and they do have a strong preference for those from Ohio or ties, but they do accept a decent amount of OOS so I wouldn't say it's a huge minus.

For the campus specific prompts in the secondary application, is there a word limit. In the directions this is not specified.
The prompts state there is no word limit, at least on my secondary
 
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I’m OOS with strong ties to Ohio and meet the minimum screening requirements by a decent margin, but haven’t gotten a secondary. Anyone get one recently? Should I reach out to them about it? I’m a reapplicant so I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it
They only send out secondaries typically once a week but if it's been longer than a week or so, I'd reach out.
 
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They only send out secondaries typically once a week but if it's been longer than a week or so, I'd reach out.

Yeah I submitted early June so I feel like it’s weird I haven’t heard anything. I’ll reach out. Thanks!
 
If we have no ties or connection to the state of Ohio, is that a big minus ?
Like someone else had mentioned earlier, they do have a preference for Ohio residents, but still always accept out-of-state students. This is on the website for Cleveland and Dublin campuses:
1689867104559.png
 
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Heard back about the TCC program and got sent the supplemental application for that for which I was told I would need to accept or decline in order to move forward in the normal cycle. Anyone else click "interested" for the TCC program?
 
What is a good length for the secondaries since they do not have a word limit?
 
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hi everyone! i’m an incoming OMS-1, please reach out if you have any questions about the process/any questions in general!
 
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Also did you decline tcc I actually declined it because I wanted to do internal medicine I hope that didn’t hurt me
 
CONGRATULATIONS 🎊 what were your stats? :( this is my first choice school
3.5, 3.4 sGPA, 517.
I declined TCC because as much as I want to do family medicine, I don't have a connection to Cleveland so I figured I would just take myself out of the running. At least for regular admissions to the Dublin and Cleveland campuses, I was told by adcom you almost have to have a legitimate connection to that region and I do not, I'm from the other side of the state. I think it's a really cool program, though, especially for those who want to practice in that region.
 
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Heard back about the TCC program and got sent the supplemental application for that for which I was told I would need to accept or decline in order to move forward in the normal cycle. Anyone else click "interested" for the TCC program?
I completed the TCC supplemental application last week and only just got confirmation today that they received it. It took me about two hours to complete.
 
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I decline it after like 7 days of thought and revived the email today as well
 
Got confirmation that they received my TCC application today as well.
 
Y'all I just got the secondary, surprised I was not screened out, I am out of state. my Mcat is the one thing holding me back, it is low low. 49x. I am debating if I should just apply or just not? Any advice is appreciated.
 
Pros And cons list
At the end of the day I don’t think it hurts you never know what could happen unless the $50 or so is a big factor i don’t think it would hurt to try especially if you’ve submitted a primary already
Y'all I just got the secondary, surprised I was not screened out, I am out of state. my Mcat is the one thing holding me back, it is low low. 49x. I am debating if I should just apply or just not? Any advice is appreciated.
 
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Got declined by TCC, but I was expecting it, I am not from the Cleveland area. Would have been nice if I got in though.
 
IS II complete on 6/30. Interview scheduled for me in the email virtually on 9/19.
 
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Anyone can share the format of interview and how stressful the interview is? The website says it consists of 3 half-hour individual interviews. It's a bit scary to me.
 
Anyone can share the format of interview and how stressful the interview is? The website says it consists of 3 half-hour individual interviews. It's a bit scary to me.
Having spoken with a few current med students, it’s a long interview day because of that but apparently the interviews themselves are very conversational and chill
 
Is this on the secondary? Waiting to receive mine and wanted to know if I should prep that essay
You have the option to rank campuses if that is what you mean. If you are OOS though, I would only choose Athens since the other two you need legitimate connections to the area in order to actually go there. If you meet their OOS reqs you should definitely go for it, you miss all the shots you don't take.
 
Finally got my secondary done and sent it in Friday. Hopeful for this school. IS, high stat, pretty strong personal ties to Columbus/the Dublin campus. Am I still on a good timeline?
 
Interviewed today. The nice thing about this school is they give you decision day off or the next morning. Got the A. So insanely grateful
 
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You have the option to rank campuses if that is what you mean. If you are OOS though, I would only choose Athens since the other two you need legitimate connections to the area in order to actually go there. If you meet their OOS reqs you should definitely go for it, you miss all the shots you don't take.
I would choose where you want to go. While you most likely will end up in Athens there are a few here in Dublin who are from places like New Jersey and Philly. Remember, first you get accepted to the school and then you are selected for the campus.
 
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