2023-2024 Ponce (St. Louis)

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For anyone who has been accepted, do you know when we have to make a down payment to save a seat?
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Does anyone know if all interviews have been offered already?
 
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3XL said:
Does anyone know if all interviews have been offered already?
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I hope not.

There are talks that MSMS candidates are going to be interviewed pretty soon. I mean...I hope so, considering that I'm a MSMS candidate who did half-decent in the program.
 
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3XL said:
Does anyone know if all interviews have been offered already?
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Based on what previous applicants/current MS students have said, they interview well into the spring (especially for MSMS graduates who are applying). The admissions office told me that interviews really get going after the holidays, which leads me to think they’re maybe halfway through their interviews
 
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MD.to.be said:
Based on what previous applicants/current MS students have said, they interview well into the spring (especially for MSMS graduates who are applying). The admissions office told me that interviews really get going after the holidays, which leads me to think they’re maybe halfway through their interviews
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That’s…terrifying, especially since their classes are small.

Hope there is some ample space for MSMS candidates.
 
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Does anyone who has already interviewed know how long it will take to hear a final decision?
 
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@Chibo @oorangetree idk if you guys paid the deposit yet but if you go to your portal, you'll see the acceptance letter and a way to put down your deposit of $100 non refundable! it says i have 10 days to do so btw idk if it's the same for you
 
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Can anyone tell if the MMI asks for traditional questions in the prompt? Or is it just casper like?
 
I’ve my interview this Monday and would really appreciate your help. I was wondering if the MMI has any traditional questions in addition to the scenario based questions? 😩🙏🏻
 
Just to ask, what is the class size for this crop? I recall that last year's crop was roughly 30 students.

It also seems like MSMS applicants either haven't been looked at yet...or aren't on this website. Just slightly worried about that because the cycle is running low and we're heading into the endgame.
 
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DocSherman said:
Just to ask, what is the class size for this crop? I recall that last year's crop was roughly 30 students.

It also seems like MSMS applicants either haven't been looked at yet...or aren't on this website. Just slightly worried about that because the cycle is running low and we're heading into the endgame.
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M2 here- the class size should be 30 again.

From what I know, the LCME-approved size for each year is 30 at this campus until they approve a larger class size for this campus. They just recently approved the increase from 150 to 180 total between both campuses (150 for the main campus, 30 for STL) when I started, so it will likely be the same for a while before being able to apply to expand again.

Can't be 100% certain it's this way this year, but historically, I believe the MSMS students are usually looked at towards the latter half. Wouldn't give up hope any time soon- it isn't over until it's over. Some people get more than one acceptance and end up either staying or going somewhere else, so there will be some shifting around as we get closer to the "endgame," and they also usually extend more acceptances than "seats available" for this reason knowing people will be waiting on results from other programs and possibly accepting elsewhere (pretty common practice for many institutions). But I can imagine they are keeping numbers in mind and will ensure MSMS representation- my year and the year below me have a number of prior MSMS students.
 
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boilededamame said:
M2 here- the class size should be 30 again.

From what I know, the LCME-approved size for each year is 30 at this campus until they approve a larger class size for this campus. They just recently approved the increase from 150 to 180 total between both campuses (150 for the main campus, 30 for STL) when I started, so it will likely be the same for a while before being able to apply to expand again.

Can't be 100% certain it's this way this year, but historically, I believe the MSMS students are usually looked at towards the latter half. Wouldn't give up hope any time soon- it isn't over until it's over. Some people get more than one acceptance and end up either staying or going somewhere else, so there will be some shifting around as we get closer to the "endgame," and they also usually extend more acceptances than "seats available" for this reason knowing people will be waiting on results from other programs and possibly accepting elsewhere (pretty common practice for many institutions). But I can imagine they are keeping numbers in mind and will ensure MSMS representation- my year and the year below me have a number of prior MSMS students.
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That is good that there was MSMS representation. I’m getting the feeling those folks were the super-duper cream of the crop - as close to 4.0 as possible.
 
DocSherman said:
That is good that there was MSMS representation. I’m getting the feeling those folks were the super-duper cream of the crop - as close to 4.0 as possible.
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Yes, the accepted MSMS students are students that succeeded in the MSMS program; however, I can definitely say that they did not all get 4.0's, and many had shaky undergrad GPAs to make up for.
 
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koffeekween said:
Yes, the accepted MSMS students are students that succeeded in the MSMS program; however, I can definitely say that they did not all get 4.0's, and many had shaky undergrad GPAs to make up for.
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Okay!

I did alright in the MSMS program (Dean’s List), but didn’t get Honors. Thus I’m worried I’m below par for what Ponce wants from MSMS applicants.
 
I would be interested in hearing what current students think about the program and their experiences! With it being a new program are there secure clinical rotation sites? Are the classes P/F?
 
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Pinkscrubz said:
I would be interested in hearing what current students think about the program and their experiences! With it being a new program are there secure clinical rotation sites? Are the classes P/F?
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Yes, there are secure clinical rotation sites affiliated - for us it is the Mercy Hospital system in St. Louis, or we can go to the other affiliated hospitals - 2 options in New York, or the numerous ones in Puerto Rico with the main campus if we want (but Spanish fluency required). I believe all of these affiliations besides Mercy have existed before the St. Louis expansion as it isn't an entirely new program.
Pretty sure this applies to both 3rd and 4th year, but as with any program, you are encouraged to apply for away/audition rotations at other hospitals/programs in your 4th year.

Yes, the classes are scored as fail (below 70%), pass (70-89%), and honors (90%+).
 
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boiled-edamame said:
M2 here- the class size should be 30 again.

From what I know, the LCME-approved size for each year is 30 at this campus until they approve a larger class size for this campus. They just recently approved the increase from 150 to 180 total between both campuses (150 for the main campus, 30 for STL) when I started, so it will likely be the same for a while before being able to apply to expand again.

Can't be 100% certain it's this way this year, but historically, I believe the MSMS students are usually looked at towards the latter half. Wouldn't give up hope any time soon- it isn't over until it's over. Some people get more than one acceptance and end up either staying or going somewhere else, so there will be some shifting around as we get closer to the "endgame," and they also usually extend more acceptances than "seats available" for this reason knowing people will be waiting on results from other programs and possibly accepting elsewhere (pretty common practice for many institutions). But I can imagine they are keeping numbers in mind and will ensure MSMS representation- my year and the year below me have a number of prior MSMS students.
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That inaugural class did NOT have a lot of MSMS students.
 
boiled-edamame said:
Yes, there are secure clinical rotation sites affiliated - for us it is the Mercy Hospital system in St. Louis, or we can go to the other affiliated hospitals - 2 options in New York, or the numerous ones in Puerto Rico with the main campus if we want (but Spanish fluency required). I believe all of these affiliations besides Mercy have existed before the St. Louis expansion as it isn't an entirely new program.
Pretty sure this applies to both 3rd and 4th year, but as with any program, you are encouraged to apply for away/audition rotations at other hospitals/programs in your 4th year.

Yes, the classes are scored as fail (below 70%), pass (70-89%), and honors (90%+).
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How many of the 30 are passing and will be able to sit for step one on time?
 
Pinkscrubz said:
Is there word of students not doing well in the program?
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I think they are generalizing to the Ponce System, which the concerns are valid. They have a graduation rate of 93%, STEP 1 and 2 pass rates of 87% and 88%, and aggregated 4 year match rate of 86%, post SOAP 89%. Around 10% of Ponces class gets lost
 
PoppyBobby said:
I think they are generalizing to the Ponce System, which the concerns are valid. They have a graduation rate of 93%, STEP 1 and 2 pass rates of 87% and 88%, and aggregated 4 year match rate of 86%, post SOAP 89%. Around 10% of Ponces class gets lost
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Yes I saw those stats online. I was assuming that since the St. Louis class is so small it would be a pretty tight knit group that the school really focused on. If they lost 10% of the 30 students it wouldn’t be a good look…
 
Med4sci said:
That inaugural class did NOT have a lot of MSMS students.
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Ten out of the 30 students in our inaugural class were MSMS. So, 33%. I guess it depends on what you mean by “not a lot.”
 
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Med4sci said:
How many of the 30 are passing and will be able to sit for step one on time?
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So far everyone is passing. In terms of who will be ready to sit for step this summer, it’s a bit early to tell since we have an entire semesters worth of information to learn still, and haven’t yet entered dedicated. I think we’ll have a better idea closer to the end of the semester, but the concerns are valid, and no one is as aware of the step pass rates as the current M2s. We’re being given plenty of support and resources from the school, so hopefully all will go will.
 
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PoppyBobby said:
I think they are generalizing to the Ponce System, which the concerns are valid. They have a graduation rate of 93%, STEP 1 and 2 pass rates of 87% and 88%, and aggregated 4 year match rate of 86%, post SOAP 89%. Around 10% of Ponces class gets lost
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Being in STL helps a lot for matching, plenty of great research opportunities and hospitals for networking. Our rotations at Mercy will put you in touch with program directors from various specialties. We have good connections with WashU and SLU students/residents too. You'll be mostly using 3rd party resources to study for STEP 1 and 2, which is common at most US med schools. Don't get too caught up with the numbers, if you put in the work and know who to connect with you'll match into the specialty and program of your choice from here
 
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Med4sci said:
That inaugural class did NOT have a lot of MSMS students.
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A third of our sitting class at our campus is from the MSMS program 😂

Med4sci said:
How many of the 30 are passing and will be able to sit for step one on time?
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Every person is passing and we are allowed to schedule Step 1 at our campus currently. But we will see as we enter dedicated. We already took a "practice" NBME CBSE that is representative, and we take another at the end of the semester before dedicated.

DocSherman said:
That…concerns me. Then again, the classes don’t have a lot of folks in general.
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I wouldn't be too concerned. 2 of us M2s are on here telling you that 10/30 of us were MSMS which is a good number, but also they are all people who have worked tirelessly and have well-rounded experiences and deserve to be in med school. Of course, with it being a small campus there is naturally the concern with numbers regardless-- very different than a campus of 150+, but hang in there- rely on your experiences and your app.
 
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PoppyBobby said:
I think they are generalizing to the Ponce System, which the concerns are valid. They have a graduation rate of 93%, STEP 1 and 2 pass rates of 87% and 88%, and aggregated 4 year match rate of 86%, post SOAP 89%. Around 10% of Ponces class gets lost
Click to expand...
Pinkscrubz said:
Yes I saw those stats online. I was assuming that since the St. Louis class is so small it would be a pretty tight knit group that the school really focused on. If they lost 10% of the 30 students it wouldn’t be a good look…
Click to expand...

I agree with koffeekween that the concerns are definitely valid. As these numbers only represent the main campus, I have no idea the environment and such there, but I can also imagine that taking one of the toughest exams in your second language can be a hurdle. Plus, I believe in the past the school wasn't the best at paying for/getting resources, but this year they have paid a few for us between Pathoma, Sketchy, etc. and providing some free tutoring/planning with Blueprint - some things they hadn't done in the past from what I understand. So it's definitely been a lot more proactive. Plus, each student had a 1 on 1 for academic advising to make sure we had our resources and a study plan in place. It's very easy to do that for us in a campus of 30, so I don't know how much they've done at main campus.
Regardless, the last year and half, I don't feel any gaps in material and such, as learning objectives are standardized.

However, Step studying is mostly an individual responsibility and one that needs to be taken seriously to follow through with a study plan. If you've made it to second semester of second year and still don't haven't cracked open a Step 1 First Aid book or Anki, then wtf are you doing. Not the school's fault, but I am glad to see they are trying to help from a more grassroots level, and I think we'll see more of it I'm hoping.
 
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boiled-edamame said:
I agree with koffeekween that the concerns are definitely valid. As these numbers only represent the main campus, I have no idea the environment and such there, but I can also imagine that taking one of the toughest exams in your second language can be a hurdle. Plus, I believe in the past the school wasn't the best at paying for/getting resources, but this year they have paid a few for us between Pathoma, Sketchy, etc. and providing some free tutoring/planning with Blueprint - some things they hadn't done in the past from what I understand. So it's definitely been a lot more proactive. Plus, each student had a 1 on 1 for academic advising to make sure we had our resources and a study plan in place. It's very easy to do that for us in a campus of 30, so I don't know how much they've done at main campus.
Regardless, the last year and half, I don't feel any gaps in material and such, as learning objectives are standardized.

However, Step studying is mostly an individual responsibility and one that needs to be taken seriously to follow through with a study plan. If you've made it to second semester of second year and still don't haven't cracked open a Step 1 First Aid book or Anki, then wtf are you doing. Not the school's fault, but I am glad to see they are trying to help from a more grassroots level, and I think we'll see more of it I'm hoping.
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I will say - in my Blueprint 1-on-1 tutoring session, my tutor mentioned that he has had quite a few main campus students work with him, and that some of them do really struggle with the language/syntax aspect of the exams, and many of them start step-specific studying far too late.

Most of their classes are in Spanish, so they're essentially learning medicine in Spanish, but then having to take exams in English, which I can't imagine is easy. And, he said that many students won't even look at Uworld, for instance, until dedicated has started, which is way too late IMO. So yeah, I think too many confounding factors are going to play into why the STL campus may or may not perform better, and we'll know more after this first Step season.
 
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boiled-edamame said:
A third of our sitting class at our campus is from the MSMS program 😂


Every person is passing and we are allowed to schedule Step 1 at our campus currently. But we will see as we enter dedicated. We already took a "practice" NBME CBSE that is representative, and we take another at the end of the semester before dedicated.


I wouldn't be too concerned. 2 of us M2s are on here telling you that 10/30 of us were MSMS which is a good number, but also they are all people who have worked tirelessly and have well-rounded experiences and deserve to be in med school. Of course, with it being a small campus there is naturally the concern with numbers regardless-- very different than a campus of 150+, but hang in there- rely on your experiences and your app.
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10 is not a good number😂 now if you said 20 or 25, that’s a good number.
 
Med4sci said:
10 is not a good number😂 now if you said 20 or 25, that’s a good number.
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i mean think about all of the classes in stl and all the partnered classes from other institutions that have done thus program 10/30 is a slap in the face, disrespectfully. If anything, 2/3 of the program should at least have msms students. I heard down in puerto rico many of their md classes are made up of msms students .
 
Just cuz you take some bull**** repair masters here makes you feel so entitled that you think you deserve entrance over more competitive applicants?
 
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PoppyBobby said:
Just cuz you take some bull**** repair masters here makes you feel so entitled that you think you deserve entrance over more competitive applicants?
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To be fair, the implication is that doing the Masters well (I did way above the average, personally speaking) should net you some good networking opportunities with Ponce. After all, the first year material taught at med school is exactly the same as the stuff the MSMS students went through - same notes and exam.
 
Med4sci said:
i mean think about all of the classes in stl and all the partnered classes from other institutions that have done thus program 10/30 is a slap in the face, disrespectfully. If anything, 2/3 of the program should at least have msms students. I heard down in puerto rico many of their md classes are made up of msms students .
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MSMS students take the same core classes as M1s. If they do well, it’s a good indication to the school that they will be able to pass medical school classes. However, if they do poorly, it’s a great sign that they will fail out of medical school.

Our former president, Dr. Lenihan, has said that and an “ideal” world, the whole class would be made up of former MSMS. However, they haven’t had strong enough MSMS pool to justify that. You still have to do well in the MSMS to get in, and simply finishing the MSMS doesn’t mean you did great, and it doesn’t guarantee you a seat.
 
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koffeekween said:
MSMS students take the same core classes as M1s. If they do well, it’s a good indication to the school that they will be able to pass medical school classes. However, if they do poorly, it’s a great sign that they will fail out of medical school.

Our former president, Dr. Lenihan, has said that and an “ideal” world, the whole class would be made up of former MSMS. However, they haven’t had strong enough MSMS pool to justify that. You still have to do well in the MSMS to get in, and simply finishing the MSMS doesn’t mean you did great, and it doesn’t guarantee you a seat.
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True.

I guess MSMS students aren’t here though. The IIs and As seem to be focused on non-MSMS folks as of late.
 
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MSMS grad here with a pretty competitive application (finished 1st in my cohort with 4.0, substantial research and clinical experiences, also with strong ties to MO). Honestly, not trying to talk myself up or anything like that, just wanting to be transparent.

I’ve had two MD interviews and one acceptance from other schools this cycle and STILL haven’t heard anything from PHSU yet. I genuinely think they set MSMS applicants aside until after they’ve interviewed all non MSMS peeps.

Keep your chin up and keep doing things to strengthen your app in the meantime. If I’m not mistaken, PHSU accepts update letters. Maybe consider giving them a worthwhile update to show you’re interested.
 
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