2023-2024 UTMB (Sealy)

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bluebluepink said:
Thank you for your response! I got a reminder email for SparkHire from their standard email address before but this email is a bit different, its from the assistant dean and has a "soft" deadline to it. I am confused why I received a different email than the one I initially received
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Can you see anything that might indicate it is specific to you? Any slight clues of interest or such.
 
glucosedestroyer said:
Can you see anything that might indicate it is specific to you? Any slight clues of interest or such.
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The email is titled "Missing One Item" and it mentions that the SparkHire interview has not been submitted. It says, we are interested in application. It has a soft deadline to submit it and mentions that the admissions committee are going to meet on 7th Sept.
 
ravioli. said:
do we have to have a zoom pro account for virtual interviews? concerned bc my zoom account isn’t pro or whatever and has time limits on how long I can be in meetings and I want to be prepared if I need to purchase the pro version
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You will be fine, it's the Zoom account of the Med school that needs to be pro level, not that of the guests.
 
wysdoc said:
You will be fine, it's the Zoom account of the Med school that needs to be pro level, not that of the guests.
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Yes no one interviewing has to worry about their own zoom account.
 
ravioli. said:
do we have to have a zoom pro account for virtual interviews? concerned bc my zoom account isn’t pro or whatever and has time limits on how long I can be in meetings and I want to be prepared if I need to purchase the pro version
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The interview is actually not even on zoom.
 
bluebluepink said:
The email is titled "Missing One Item" and it mentions that the SparkHire interview has not been submitted. It says, we are interested in application. It has a soft deadline to submit it and mentions that the admissions committee are going to meet on 7th Sept.
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The real question is, have you done the SparkHire recording yet? They won't consider you for an interview until you have completed it.
 
Not necessarily a UTMB specific question, but how serious are schools with the “2 week soft deadline” everyone talks about? Or is that just a myth?
 
Guardians4312 said:
Not necessarily a UTMB specific question, but how serious are schools with the “2 week soft deadline” everyone talks about? Or is that just a myth?
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In reference to submitting the secondaries, it all depends on where you might fall stats wise for that school.

If your numbers are median for the school, they will review your app in the order received and if you have top 10%ile for that school, they will review ASAP. The point of 2 week timeline does not matter a whole lot early on since they have lots to review but the later your app, the less your chance of being reviewed at some schools in Texas.
 
Guardians4312 said:
Not necessarily a UTMB specific question, but how serious are schools with the “2 week soft deadline” everyone talks about? Or is that just a myth?
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mostly a myth but read each secondary invitation email for a deadline, if any.
 
texasvandy said:
In reference to submitting the secondaries, it all depends on where you might fall stats wise for that school.

If your numbers are median for the school, they will review your app in the order received and if you have top 10%ile for that school, they will review ASAP. The point of 2 week timeline does not matter a whole lot early on since they have lots to review but the later your app, the less your chance of being reviewed at some schools in Texas.
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I know for UTMB specific I’ll be sending in the essays today and maybe doing the interview today as well but I go out of town tomorrow until Monday so it might happen then. My GPA is a bit above average but my MCAT is a couple below. Hopefully all will still be okay. Thank you guys!
 
Guardians4312 said:
I know for UTMB specific I’ll be sending in the essays today and maybe doing the interview today as well but I go out of town tomorrow until Monday so it might happen then. My GPA is a bit above average but my MCAT is a couple below. Hopefully all will still be okay. Thank you guys!
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If you have not submitted your secondary, how do you have an interview?
 
Hey folks! I know some of y'all asked me earlier for pros/cons of UTMB and it took me a while to respond. We have our anatomy midterm next Tuesday (yep, after the long weekend), and that + getting super involved in student organizations has eaten up so much of my time, haha. Instead of just listing out pros/cons, because that feels too black/white to me, I just wanted to mention a few things I've enjoyed.

CECEs. Don't ask me what it stands for. This is a love/hate for most folks, but tl;dr we are required to do a certain number of clinical volunteering experiences beginning in first semester. For first year, the requirement is 2 inpatient, 2 Hospital to Home (think case management/discharge planning), 2 outpatient, and 1 community experience. The crappy thing is that it's required, so it can definitely feel like being voluntold to be somewhere you don't want to be. They do tend to be 4-5 hour long commitments in the afternoon so your days end up being super long. You're also a 1st semester med student so most of the things you're doing are patient care tech type experiences: taking vitals, turning inpatient pts, cleaning, etc. That said, you are literally getting clinical experience from your very first semester. If you go into it with an open mind you can definitely make it worthwhile. My first inpatient experience was on the neuro floor, and I'm interested in neuro. I got to help with 2 admits and now have a better idea of what the day-to-day looks like with these patients.

St. Vincent's Student Run Clinic. This is not unique to UTMB (e.g. the Houston folks have the HOMES Clinic), but wanted to pimp how awesome this experience is. I've been to two evening clinics so far and when they say student run, they mean it. I'm going in and doing a full HPI, ROS, and physical on these patients. Obviously I consult with the attending/residents/fellows who are supervising before moving forward, but for the most part that care plan is mine. The patients who show up are low SES (it's a free clinic) and they are so nice and grateful to be getting these much needed services.

META block. Also don't remember what it stands for. This is our first block and is a 4-week orientation to med school. Classes focus on things like how to do an HPI, how to write a SOAP, ethics, professionalism, ddx, things you need to buy for med school, resources, study strategies, etc. As a non-trad coming from healthcare, 90% of the classes were useless for me. However, I did like that I essentially had 4 weeks to ease myself into med school: I got to work on establishing good habits, figuring out where all my local needs are (PCP, post office, massage therapist, etc.), and finding friends. Don't discount the importance of that last one - I thought I'd be a total loner but it has been great to have a few groups of friends I can lean on for support or even for logistical things like "Hey I have to miss class can I get your notes?"

SO many opportunities to get involved. I think I'm actively involved in like 5 student groups and 2 research projects already and it's only the end of my 2nd month. I know classmates who are involved in even more lol.

But also, it can be as chill as you want. It's true P/F (none of that "high pass" stuff) and it is very possible to get through doing what fits your comfort zone. I will say, faculty are also very understanding of the demands of being a med student - I emailed one of my research advisors to tell her I was struggling with feeling overwhelmed one week and she said no problem, let's push our meeting to next month, no questions asked.

Shadowing. If you're still trying to figure out where to go specialty-wise, the faculty here are super open for shadowing. I have classmates shadowing derm, ortho, IM, you name it. One of the neurosurgeons who helps in cadaver lab literally told us point blank, if you think you want to do neurosurgery, please reach out and we'll get you in to shadow.

If you don't like Galveston, no worries. I live off the island because I didn't want to be that close to school or in the midst of a tourist city. Housing options on the island are not the best. It's roughly a 30 minute commute to school but I ride the bus that runs between two of UTMB's campuses, so I just study on the bus. Or nap.

NBME exams. Not in-house exams, thank god. Looking at you, Long.
 
chicandtoughness said:
Hey folks! I know some of y'all asked me earlier for pros/cons of UTMB and it took me a while to respond. We have our anatomy midterm next Tuesday (yep, after the long weekend), and that + getting super involved in student organizations has eaten up so much of my time, haha. Instead of just listing out pros/cons, because that feels too black/white to me, I just wanted to mention a few things I've enjoyed.

CECEs. Don't ask me what it stands for. This is a love/hate for most folks, but tl;dr we are required to do a certain number of clinical volunteering experiences beginning in first semester. For first year, the requirement is 2 inpatient, 2 Hospital to Home (think case management/discharge planning), 2 outpatient, and 1 community experience. The crappy thing is that it's required, so it can definitely feel like being voluntold to be somewhere you don't want to be. They do tend to be 4-5 hour long commitments in the afternoon so your days end up being super long. You're also a 1st semester med student so most of the things you're doing are patient care tech type experiences: taking vitals, turning inpatient pts, cleaning, etc. That said, you are literally getting clinical experience from your very first semester. If you go into it with an open mind you can definitely make it worthwhile. My first inpatient experience was on the neuro floor, and I'm interested in neuro. I got to help with 2 admits and now have a better idea of what the day-to-day looks like with these patients.

St. Vincent's Student Run Clinic. This is not unique to UTMB (e.g. the Houston folks have the HOMES Clinic), but wanted to pimp how awesome this experience is. I've been to two evening clinics so far and when they say student run, they mean it. I'm going in and doing a full HPI, ROS, and physical on these patients. Obviously I consult with the attending/residents/fellows who are supervising before moving forward, but for the most part that care plan is mine. The patients who show up are low SES (it's a free clinic) and they are so nice and grateful to be getting these much needed services.

META block. Also don't remember what it stands for. This is our first block and is a 4-week orientation to med school. Classes focus on things like how to do an HPI, how to write a SOAP, ethics, professionalism, ddx, things you need to buy for med school, resources, study strategies, etc. As a non-trad coming from healthcare, 90% of the classes were useless for me. However, I did like that I essentially had 4 weeks to ease myself into med school: I got to work on establishing good habits, figuring out where all my local needs are (PCP, post office, massage therapist, etc.), and finding friends. Don't discount the importance of that last one - I thought I'd be a total loner but it has been great to have a few groups of friends I can lean on for support or even for logistical things like "Hey I have to miss class can I get your notes?"

SO many opportunities to get involved. I think I'm actively involved in like 5 student groups and 2 research projects already and it's only the end of my 2nd month. I know classmates who are involved in even more lol.

But also, it can be as chill as you want. It's true P/F (none of that "high pass" stuff) and it is very possible to get through doing what fits your comfort zone. I will say, faculty are also very understanding of the demands of being a med student - I emailed one of my research advisors to tell her I was struggling with feeling overwhelmed one week and she said no problem, let's push our meeting to next month, no questions asked.

Shadowing. If you're still trying to figure out where to go specialty-wise, the faculty here are super open for shadowing. I have classmates shadowing derm, ortho, IM, you name it. One of the neurosurgeons who helps in cadaver lab literally told us point blank, if you think you want to do neurosurgery, please reach out and we'll get you in to shadow.

If you don't like Galveston, no worries. I live off the island because I didn't want to be that close to school or in the midst of a tourist city. Housing options on the island are not the best. It's roughly a 30 minute commute to school but I ride the bus that runs between two of UTMB's campuses, so I just study on the bus. Or nap.

NBME exams. Not in-house exams, thank god. Looking at you, Long.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the info!
 
chicandtoughness said:
Hey folks! I know some of y'all asked me earlier for pros/cons of UTMB and it took me a while to respond. We have our anatomy midterm next Tuesday (yep, after the long weekend), and that + getting super involved in student organizations has eaten up so much of my time, haha. Instead of just listing out pros/cons, because that feels too black/white to me, I just wanted to mention a few things I've enjoyed.

CECEs. Don't ask me what it stands for. This is a love/hate for most folks, but tl;dr we are required to do a certain number of clinical volunteering experiences beginning in first semester. For first year, the requirement is 2 inpatient, 2 Hospital to Home (think case management/discharge planning), 2 outpatient, and 1 community experience. The crappy thing is that it's required, so it can definitely feel like being voluntold to be somewhere you don't want to be. They do tend to be 4-5 hour long commitments in the afternoon so your days end up being super long. You're also a 1st semester med student so most of the things you're doing are patient care tech type experiences: taking vitals, turning inpatient pts, cleaning, etc. That said, you are literally getting clinical experience from your very first semester. If you go into it with an open mind you can definitely make it worthwhile. My first inpatient experience was on the neuro floor, and I'm interested in neuro. I got to help with 2 admits and now have a better idea of what the day-to-day looks like with these patients.

St. Vincent's Student Run Clinic. This is not unique to UTMB (e.g. the Houston folks have the HOMES Clinic), but wanted to pimp how awesome this experience is. I've been to two evening clinics so far and when they say student run, they mean it. I'm going in and doing a full HPI, ROS, and physical on these patients. Obviously I consult with the attending/residents/fellows who are supervising before moving forward, but for the most part that care plan is mine. The patients who show up are low SES (it's a free clinic) and they are so nice and grateful to be getting these much needed services.

META block. Also don't remember what it stands for. This is our first block and is a 4-week orientation to med school. Classes focus on things like how to do an HPI, how to write a SOAP, ethics, professionalism, ddx, things you need to buy for med school, resources, study strategies, etc. As a non-trad coming from healthcare, 90% of the classes were useless for me. However, I did like that I essentially had 4 weeks to ease myself into med school: I got to work on establishing good habits, figuring out where all my local needs are (PCP, post office, massage therapist, etc.), and finding friends. Don't discount the importance of that last one - I thought I'd be a total loner but it has been great to have a few groups of friends I can lean on for support or even for logistical things like "Hey I have to miss class can I get your notes?"

SO many opportunities to get involved. I think I'm actively involved in like 5 student groups and 2 research projects already and it's only the end of my 2nd month. I know classmates who are involved in even more lol.

But also, it can be as chill as you want. It's true P/F (none of that "high pass" stuff) and it is very possible to get through doing what fits your comfort zone. I will say, faculty are also very understanding of the demands of being a med student - I emailed one of my research advisors to tell her I was struggling with feeling overwhelmed one week and she said no problem, let's push our meeting to next month, no questions asked.

Shadowing. If you're still trying to figure out where to go specialty-wise, the faculty here are super open for shadowing. I have classmates shadowing derm, ortho, IM, you name it. One of the neurosurgeons who helps in cadaver lab literally told us point blank, if you think you want to do neurosurgery, please reach out and we'll get you in to shadow.

If you don't like Galveston, no worries. I live off the island because I didn't want to be that close to school or in the midst of a tourist city. Housing options on the island are not the best. It's roughly a 30 minute commute to school but I ride the bus that runs between two of UTMB's campuses, so I just study on the bus. Or nap.

NBME exams. Not in-house exams, thank god. Looking at you, Long.
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Current MS1 student here as well. You hit it right on the head!
 
for anyone that has already interviewed, is there a way for us to see who our interviewers will be? i know most schools are putting names in the portal but i don’t see anything in utmb’s and i’m interviewing tmrw!
 
milk_chocolate said:
for anyone that has already interviewed, is there a way for us to see who our interviewers will be? i know most schools are putting names in the portal but i don’t see anything in utmb’s and i’m interviewing tmrw!
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They are MMI stations. Why would they have interviewer names since people will be interchangeable at this stations.
 
if the timer cut off my interviewer while they were sharing about themselves, can I email them to thank them for their time + sharing
 
Hello all, pretty new here. I was wondering since UTMB is pretty pre-match heavy (not pre-matching to this school) and that I just had my interview last week, would it be appropriate to write a letter of intent to this school (JSSOM's website states that they do in fact accept these). After the orientation and having had some friends graduate from the program and rave about it, I would love to be able to go here. Would that be alright and what would be a good time estimate to send it in by? Thanks a lot for the great information already on this thread too!
 
Mr.Smile12 said:
Thank you for this information. I need to check if the website or MSAR reports the use of an asynchronous video as part of their admissions process. How does someone who requires accommodations request them?

I'm not interested in the content (this should come from the admissions office), but would preparing for Casper/situational assessment prompts help (refer to Casper/Situational Judgement Tests scenarios)?

I remember an admissions peer running similar recorded asynchronous videos, but they were on-site in front of a camera. I was able to predict which students got offers about 90% of the time (without knowing the prompts [one of which was selected randomly by the candidate] or the rubric) so take note of presenting yourself as professionally as possible.

Make sure you secure a place that you won't get interrupted with a solid connection. Don't use your bedroom... or if you do, clean it up.
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this is a while back but could you explain how you could with 90% certainty predict offers...was it based on like the content of the answers, appearance/professionalism? If you or someone could dig a bit
 
Neurostate said:
+1 IS II received LM 75 Complete 7/30 (Essays submitted 7/13, SOVI submitted 7/30). Really wasn't expecting an II from here after my awful SOVI performance and late turnaround
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Sometimes we're not a good judge of our own performance! Hope your real interview day goes smoother now that you got past the nerves.
 
Congratulations!! People will be lucky to have you as their interviewer, you’ve been so kind and helpful in this community 🤌 Thank you for your service
 
Please don't stress! We wanna get to know you through your thought process; MMIs usually don't have a "right answer". Sample CASPer questions will be helpful if you don't know what kind of questions to practice with.

My biggest interviewing tip (in general, not just MMI or med school... I'm also an interviewer for my undergrad alma mater in case anyone ever ends up there in the future >__>): don't just look at questions and answer in your head. Actually practice forming the words out loud and work on pacing, removing filler words, figuring out how to go from your hastily scribbled notes to organized thoughts, and also be mindful of how you are gesturing! Sometimes things sound and look great in our heads.... and then once we open our mouths it's like a whole 'nother skill - which it is, as my cranial nerve quiz tomorrow can confirm :'D
 
chicandtoughness said:
Please don't stress! We wanna get to know you through your thought process; MMIs usually don't have a "right answer". Sample CASPer questions will be helpful if you don't know what kind of questions to practice with.

My biggest interviewing tip (in general, not just MMI or med school... I'm also an interviewer for my undergrad alma mater in case anyone ever ends up there in the future >__>): don't just look at questions and answer in your head. Actually practice forming the words out loud and work on pacing, removing filler words, figuring out how to go from your hastily scribbled notes to organized thoughts, and also be mindful of how you are gesturing! Sometimes things sound and look great in our heads.... and then once we open our mouths it's like a whole 'nother skill - which it is, as my cranial nerve quiz tomorrow can confirm :'D
Click to expand...

Remember everyone, start all your student interviews with "ARE YOU CHICANDTOUGHNESS ON SDN?" that will really show the Adcom you're dedicated to learning about UTMB.
 
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