2023-2024 UT Rio Grande Valley

[wysdoc]

2023-2024 UTRGV Secondary Essay (and Video) Prompts:

Four Required Essays:
1. Which potential barriers and facilitators exist for medicine of the future? How will you make a difference in this regard? (350 words or less)
2. Describe how you decide if a person or source is trustworthy. (350 words or less)
3. Describe a time when the awareness of your own limitations resulted in a favorable outcome for you or someone close to you. (350 words or less)
4. In the event that you are accepted by two or more medical schools, what factors would you consider most important when choosing a school to attend. (100 word max; bullet points are acceptable)

Three Optional Essays: (truly optional)
1. [Optional] If you feel that the Admissions Committee should be aware of any academic discrepancies or extenuating circumstances, please explain them. (350 words or less)
2. [Optional] Describe any major hardships you have overcome to reach this point in your life. (350 words or less)
3. [Optional] How have volunteer work, hobbies, and/or extracurricular activities informed your beliefs about health care and a career in medicine? (350 words or less)

Required Video Response:
Submit a 2-minute video that answers one of the two questions below.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine prepares future physicians in accordance with the following values: patient advocacy, community focus, cultural awareness, collaborative leadership style, and lifelong problem solving. Select TWO (2) of these values and discuss what you have done in the past that resonates with them. How will you support and strengthen these two values when you practice medicine?


Good luck to everyone applying!

Interview Feedback:
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine Interview Feedback

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[xtrahotcheeto]

Has anyone received secondaries from here?

 

[wysdoc]

Has anyone received secondaries from here?

Work on your other schools as you get them, UTRGV is known to lag behind on their communications.

 

[purkinjekitty]

Secondary received just now, but the link is invalid. Anyone else?

 

[lolam]

Secondary received just now, but the link is invalid. Anyone else?

Yeah but what i did was remove the last part of the url so it'd send me to the login page then clicked on forget password and entered my TMDSAS ID. You should receive an email to make a new password and be able to login from there.

Also @wysdoc here are the prompts:

1. Which potential barriers and facilitators exist for medicine of the future? How will you make a difference in this regard? (350 words or less)
2. Describe how you decide if a person or source is trustworthy. (350 words or less)
3. Describe a time when the awareness of your own limitations resulted in a favorable outcome for you or someone close to you. (350 words or less)
4. In the event that you are accepted by two or more medical schools, what factors would you consider most important when choosing a school to attend. (100 word max; bullet points are acceptable)

Optional Essays:
1. [Optional] If you feel that the Admissions Committee should be aware of any academic discrepancies or extenuating circumstances, please explain them. (350 words or less)
2. [Optional] Describe any major hardships you have overcome to reach this point in your life. (350 words or less)
3. [Optional] How have volunteer work, hobbies, and/or extracurricular activities informed your beliefs about health care and a career in medicine? (350 words or less)

Required Video Response:
Submit a 2-minute video that answers one of the two questions below.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine prepares future physicians in accordance with the following values: patient advocacy, community focus, cultural awareness, collaborative leadership style, and lifelong problem solving. Select TWO (2) of these values and discuss what you have done in the past that resonates with them. How will you support and strengthen these two values when you practice medicine?

(i'm not seeing a second separate question- not sure if it the prompt above is the two questions [discuss for one and support/strengthen for the other] but if someone else could double check I'd appreciate it)

 

[wysdoc]

Yeah but what i did was remove the last part of the url so it'd send me to the login page then clicked on forget password and entered my TMDSAS ID. You should receive an email to make a new password and be able to login from there.

Also @wysdoc here are the prompts:

1. Which potential barriers and facilitators exist for medicine of the future? How will you make a difference in this regard? (350 words or less)
2. Describe how you decide if a person or source is trustworthy. (350 words or less)
3. Describe a time when the awareness of your own limitations resulted in a favorable outcome for you or someone close to you. (350 words or less)
4. In the event that you are accepted by two or more medical schools, what factors would you consider most important when choosing a school to attend. (100 word max; bullet points are acceptable)

Optional Essays:
1. [Optional] If you feel that the Admissions Committee should be aware of any academic discrepancies or extenuating circumstances, please explain them. (350 words or less)
2. [Optional] Describe any major hardships you have overcome to reach this point in your life. (350 words or less)
3. [Optional] How have volunteer work, hobbies, and/or extracurricular activities informed your beliefs about health care and a career in medicine? (350 words or less)

Required Video Response:
Submit a 2-minute video that answers one of the two questions below.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine prepares future physicians in accordance with the following values: patient advocacy, community focus, cultural awareness, collaborative leadership style, and lifelong problem solving. Select TWO (2) of these values and discuss what you have done in the past that resonates with them. How will you support and strengthen these two values when you practice medicine?

(i'm not seeing a second separate question- not sure if it the prompt above is the two questions [discuss for one and support/strengthen for the other] but if someone else could double check I'd appreciate it)

Thanks for your hints on the logging-in issue, @lkak

I'll update that Video thing if we hear more but I think they mean to address 2 of the values they listed in your video.

 

[cranberrylimeade]

I had an app review with them and they did say that they’re increasing their GPA minimums. This isn’t reflected on the MSAR yet.

So if you don’t get a secondary that may be why!

 

[wysdoc]

Good news for UTRGV in their quest for full accreditation: They have reached Full accreditation status.
Here is their press release: UTRGV meets final accreditation level

This is encouraging news, as they have had many issues holding them back and have taken almost 8 years to reach full accreditation status.
The remaining challenge will be to increase places for inpatient hospital rotations for MS3 and MS4 students; those are very limited at present.

 

[MaybeMatriculant]

I had an app review with them and they did say that they’re increasing their GPA minimums. This isn’t reflected on the MSAR yet.

So if you don’t get a secondary that may be why!

Do you know what the GPA minimum is? Haven't received a secondary yet (my cGPA is a 3.6X and sGPA is a 3.5X).

 

[purkinjekitty]

Do you know what the GPA minimum is? Haven't received a secondary yet (my cGPA is a 3.6X and sGPA is a 3.5X).

My stats are a bit less and I received one. Hold tight!

 

[cranberrylimeade]

Do you know what the GPA minimum is? Haven't received a secondary yet (my cGPA is a 3.6X and sGPA is a 3.5X).

you’re over it!

i remember something about a 3.2 for either the cGPA or sGPA but i forgot which. i think it’s sGPA.

 

[JamylT]

I wonder what decides their waves of secondaries. Only missing Dell and RGV now.

 

[purkinjekitty]

I wonder what decides their waves of secondaries. Only missing Dell and RGV now.

Dell heavily screens and essentially reviews your entire primary before sending a select few (I think 20%) of applicants a secondary

 

[texasvandy]

The smaller schools dont have an auto secondary since they dont want to deal with reviewing so many applications to admit 50 people. They consider their mission and fit to determine who gets secondaries based on the activities listed on your primary.

 

[stere0psis]

Secondary just now.

 

[Rite1234]

Just missing RGV's secondary personally.

 

[texasvandy]

Not sure where other schools are this year but RGV and EnMED (a small percentage apply) are the only two TMDSAS programs that required in person interviews in 2022-2023.

It might be a blessing if you dont want to travel not to get secondary and interview.

 

[Rite1234]

UT Tyler also has only in person interviews

 

[texasvandy]

UT Tyler also has only in person interviews

True, I missed that. I believe very few people complained because they were interviewing a lot of local or close by people.

If you read last year's thread, many didnt get to RGV interview because they already had an admission elsewhere.

 

[Bonehead11]

Just missing RGV's secondary personally.

Just curious, so you received Dell's? That's pretty cool

 

[texasvandy]

Just curious, so you received Dell's? That's pretty cool

Dell's early secondaries are given to people with high stats and/or interesting resumes.

 

[NotTradSlay]

Just curious, so you received Dell's? That's pretty cool

Following

 

[NotTradSlay]

Dell's early secondaries are given to people with high stats and/or interesting resumes.

Did you receive Dell’s secondary?

 

[texasvandy]

Did you receive Dell’s secondary?

I am not applying.

 

[wysdoc]

Did you receive Dell’s secondary?

Let's try to keep Dell discussion on the Dell page, thanks 2023-2024 Dell

 

[Luckydawg]

Still waiting on RGV. Pretty weird since I got it last year 🤷‍♂️

 

[Rite1234]

Just curious, so you received Dell's? That's pretty cool

Actually still missing it. Just meant out of the regular secondaries.

 

[yearofmagicalthinking]

Received a secondary about an hour ago

 

[Rite1234]

Received secondary this morning

 

[Rite1234]

Does anyone know what the personalized video is about in the portal. Do we also have to complete the personal video or only the video based on the prompt.

 

[SpaceNinja]

Hello everyone,

Did you notice that after uploading a video that meets all the size/format requirements from the right browser (safari/chrome) that when you click view file, it gives a black screen that says “Document Not Found” in the top left corner? I think it successfully uploaded but I’m not sure why it gives this message instead of playing the video in a separate window. I just want to confirm if this is normal as it has happened to me for a file upload for another AMP school and that program said they received the file as I reached out after submitting to confirm. Thanks in advance

 

[hulove]

Received the secondary. For the video uploading, is there any dress/attire code?
Thanks.

 

[JamylT]

Received yesterday morning. Was in junk folder (it wasn't last year?!). So, you guys may want to double check.

 

[colistincanape]

Received the secondary. For the video uploading, is there any dress/attire code?
Thanks.

Assume it's business professional for any video interview you have unless it explicitly states otherwise

 

[lolam]

Hello everyone,

Did you notice that after uploading a video that meets all the size/format requirements from the right browser (safari/chrome) that when you click view file, it gives a black screen that says “Document Not Found” in the top left corner? I think it successfully uploaded but I’m not sure why it gives this message instead of playing the video in a separate window. I just want to confirm if this is normal as it has happened to me for a file upload for another AMP school and that program said they received the file as I reached out after submitting to confirm. Thanks in advance

This keeps happening to me as well.

 

[longstoryshorty]

Anyone else having trouble with the video response? A two-minute video for me is about 6x their megabyte limit.... not sure how I can change that

 

[wysdoc]

Anyone else having trouble with the video response? A two-minute video for me is about 6x their megabyte limit.... not sure how I can change that

Grab a high tech friend for help on reducing file size or try it yourself.
Duplicate your original file and try out the size reduction on a copy so you don’t lose the original in case things go wrong
How to compress a video on iPhone, Android, Windows, and more

 

[Rite1234]

I compressed the video. Mine was around 220 MB and was compressed to roughly 23 MB. However I am also getting the black screen when trying to upload the video.

 

[Rite1234]

Hello everyone,

Did you notice that after uploading a video that meets all the size/format requirements from the right browser (safari/chrome) that when you click view file, it gives a black screen that says “Document Not Found” in the top left corner? I think it successfully uploaded but I’m not sure why it gives this message instead of playing the video in a separate window. I just want to confirm if this is normal as it has happened to me for a file upload for another AMP school and that program said they received the file as I reached out after submitting to confirm. Thanks in advance

I am seeing the same thing. Not sure if I should email them.

 

[longstoryshorty]

I also got the "Document Not Found," but after seeing this thread I'm assuming it is some permission-related thing on their website and it was uploaded properly.

 

[SpaceNinja]

I also got the "Document Not Found," but after seeing this thread I'm assuming it is some permission-related thing on their website and it was uploaded properly.

This is my suspicion as well. I think it did upload successfully but the view link may not give permissions to see the content and so it gives that message to everyone. Must be a setting that was left on from the AMP software.

 

[lolam]

I just called the admissions office and was told that it's an issue that they're currently trying to fix. They also advised me to wait until it's corrected before submitting my secondary and that they would email me once it's been resolved.

 

[cranberrylimeade]

just got a secondary despite being below the new stats screen so idk if they’re even looking at that yet

 

[purkinjekitty]

just got a secondary despite being below the new stats screen so idk if they’re even looking at that yet

hopefully because you fit their mission so freaking well!!

 

[cranberrylimeade]

hopefully because you fit their mission so freaking well!!

i had a reapplicant session with them for last cycle and they were basically like “we like everything but your stats” 😭

 

[purkinjekitty]

i had a reapplicant session with them for last cycle and they were basically like “we like everything but your stats” 😭

"LET MEE INN"

 

[firstfundamentalform]

I wrote such nice essays for this secondary, my gf said i looked like a churro in the video portion - so I'm guessing they'll be unimpressed. wish they didn't have a video portion...

 

[wysdoc]

I wrote such nice essays for this secondary, my gf said i looked like a churro in the video portion - so I'm guessing they'll be unimpressed. wish they didn't have a video portion...

Tell her you are sure she meant charro

Churro

Charro

 

[firstfundamentalform]

Tell her you are sure she meant charro

View attachment 373537 Churro


View attachment 373538 Charro

haha well played

 

[Rite1234]

I just called the admissions office and was told that it's an issue that they're currently trying to fix. They also advised me to wait until it's corrected before submitting my secondary and that they would email me once it's been resolved.

They told me the same thing.