2024-2025 Virginia Commonwealth

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2024-2025 VCU Secondary Essay Prompts

1. Using specific examples, discuss how your mission and values align with those of VCU School of Medicine. (2000 characters)

2. How do you define “grit”, and how have you demonstrated this in the past? (2000 characters)

3. Please briefly explain any lapses in your journey to medicine that are not explained in your application. (2000 characters)

4. Please briefly explain any low GPAs or poor grades. (2000 characters)

5. If not addressed in your application, what are you currently doing now? (2000 characters)

Good luck to all applying!
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Remember to schedule your Casper exam.
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2024-2025 list of schools and their SJTs

Updated July 2, 2024 (page updated June 11) on The AAMC PREview® Professional Readiness Exam Participating Medical Schools and MSAR reports Look at the 2023 list to see if your school(s) wanted you to take an SJT. PREview scores are automatically released to AMCAS. Examinees do not need to...
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John1211 said:
What are your thoughts on the school so far? Pros and cons of the area and student life?
Click to expand...
overall satisfied, i like the way the school has 2 week blocks versus a final weeks, most blocks correlate good to well with anking (i never used anking but thats what my classmates say), tests are fair, theres a new pre clinical course director coming in this fall

pros:
Cheap COL (compared to CA)
everything medically related is in close proximity to each other
has all the specialities in house
8 week summer break

cons:
hot and humid in the summers/rly cold winters (again this is coming from someone in cali)
non-nbme exams
OOS cost of attendence is high (like over 100k for tuition + COL)

student life is p good from my experience, we pickle, play volley, have intermural, collaborate way
 
tzuyu&yuqi said:
overall satisfied, i like the way the school has 2 week blocks versus a final weeks, most blocks correlate good to well with anking (i never used anking but thats what my classmates say), tests are fair, theres a new pre clinical course director coming in this fall

pros:
Cheap COL (compared to CA)
everything medically related is in close proximity to each other
has all the specialities in house
8 week summer break

cons:
hot and humid in the summers/rly cold winters (again this is coming from someone in cali)
non-nbme exams
OOS cost of attendence is high (like over 100k for tuition + COL)

student life is p good from my experience, we pickle, play volley, have intermural, collaborate way
Click to expand...

Do you know how they view a Q1 CASPer score?
 
dizzylifeguard2001 said:
Can anyone post the prompts
Click to expand...

Using specific examples, discuss how your mission and values align with those of VCU School of Medicine. (2000 characters)
How do you define “grit”, and how have you demonstrated this in the past? (2000 characters)
Please briefly explain any lapses in your journey to medicine that are not explained in your application. (2000 characters)
Please briefly explain any low GPAs or poor grades. (2000 characters)
If not addressed in your application, what are you currently doing now? (2000 characters)
 
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StratteraCapsules said:
Using specific examples, discuss how your mission and values align with those of VCU School of Medicine. (2000 characters)
How do you define “grit”, and how have you demonstrated this in the past? (2000 characters)
Please briefly explain any lapses in your journey to medicine that are not explained in your application. (2000 characters)
Please briefly explain any low GPAs or poor grades. (2000 characters)
If not addressed in your application, what are you currently doing now? (2000 characters)
Click to expand...
Do these prompts specify whether the 2000 characters includes spaces?
 
+1 OOS. What do they mean by "were there any lapses in your journey to medicine?" Does that include gap years?
 
ucsdgrad said:
+1 OOS. What do they mean by "were there any lapses in your journey to medicine?" Does that include gap years?
Click to expand...
No, I think they're referring to taking time off from school for any reasons (mental health, physical illness, family death, etc). I talked about my gap year activities in question #5
 
+1 OOS
How strongly does VCU screen secondaries? I heard they only send them to ~40% of OOS. Is that true?
 
"You may use Pass/Fail or AP credits in this section if your college/university recognizes that these fulfill prerequisite requirements and are found on your official transcript. Click the green 'Add' button, check the 'Future Registration' checkbox, and manually enter the course name that has been met."

I'm confused, am I supposed to drag and drop the already existing classes I have on my list from AP credits or manually input them as future registration?
 
tzuyu&yuqi said:
overall satisfied, i like the way the school has 2 week blocks versus a final weeks, most blocks correlate good to well with anking (i never used anking but thats what my classmates say), tests are fair, theres a new pre clinical course director coming in this fall

pros:
Cheap COL (compared to CA)
everything medically related is in close proximity to each other
has all the specialities in house
8 week summer break

cons:
hot and humid in the summers/rly cold winters (again this is coming from someone in cali)
non-nbme exams
OOS cost of attendence is high (like over 100k for tuition + COL)

student life is p good from my experience, we pickle, play volley, have intermural, collaborate way
Click to expand...
Are OOS students able to qualified for in-state tuition after the first year?
 
sensorimotorstage said:
After reading the very strict attestation against AI and other outside sources, is Grammarly bad???
Click to expand...
I mean, I would not admit to using it. There is no way to really tell if people use it unless they admit to it. If they accuse you just deny it 🤷‍♂️ As long as you are not liberal with the AI function, grammerly should not make your writing sound like you did not write it.
 
ClashRoyaleKing said:
Are OOS students able to qualified for in-state tuition after the first year?
Click to expand...
Highly unlikely, you would need to purchase a house in VA in order to do so, or something akin to that, expect to pay OOS tuition all 4 years if u are OOS
 
tzuyu&yuqi said:
Highly unlikely, you would need to purchase a house in VA in order to do so, or something akin to that, expect to pay OOS tuition all 4 years if u are OOS
Click to expand...
What if you have family in Richmond, decided to live with them, and switched your residence and permanent address…Would that work?
 
sensorimotorstage said:
What if you have family in Richmond, decided to live with them, and switched your residence and permanent address…Would that work?
Click to expand...
ooo thats a good question, that sounds like a strong case! anyhow, there is a form you can fill out to appeal for instate tuition on the vcu website
 
wysdoc said:
2024-2025 VCU Secondary Essay Prompts

1. Using specific examples, discuss how your mission and values align with those of VCU School of Medicine. (2000 characters)

2. How do you define “grit”, and how have you demonstrated this in the past? (2000 characters)

3. Please briefly explain any lapses in your journey to medicine that are not explained in your application. (2000 characters)

4. Please briefly explain any low GPAs or poor grades. (2000 characters)

5. If not addressed in your application, what are you currently doing now? (2000 characters)

Good luck to all applying!
Interview Feedback:

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center School of Medicine Interview Feedback

Review of Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center School of Medicine Interview Feedback. Get the latest information, opinions of fellow students, and LizzyM and SDN Rankings.
www.studentdoctor.net www.studentdoctor.net
Click to expand...
are you guys taking #2 as a challenge essay or adversity essay?
 
Is 1 more focused on how I fit their mission and values or more specific on why I want I'm interested in applying to them?
 
I used challenge, but I chose a version of my challenge essay that included a challenge that occured over a bit of a longer period of time
 
bsajeev said:
how common are full rides at VCU?
Click to expand...
our M1 class was the first cohort of McGothlin scholars (full ride) which they gave to 12 ppl that is merit based, this is out of a class of 184
 
I have kind of a dumb question - what would be defined as a "lapse in your journey to medicine"? Does that mean gap years between college and medical school? or are they indicating a period of time where someone is inactive from both work and school? I understand that the wording for this prompt is different from the previous year's, and I'm wondering if that means the question is asking something other than time off during college.
 
fish_bowl_cat said:
I have kind of a dumb question - what would be defined as a "lapse in your journey to medicine"? Does that mean gap years between college and medical school? or are they indicating a period of time where someone is inactive from both work and school? I understand that the wording for this prompt is different from the previous year's, and I'm wondering if that means the question is asking something other than time off during college.
Click to expand...
So I called them about this question. I took a gap year in undergrad to do something healthcare related during COVID and continued that after graduating. Her response was essentially "if you think we will wonder about what this break in your education was for, go ahead and answer that question". I used it as a gap year essay and feel good about it!
 
medcarrot said:
"You may use Pass/Fail or AP credits in this section if your college/university recognizes that these fulfill prerequisite requirements and are found on your official transcript. Click the green 'Add' button, check the 'Future Registration' checkbox, and manually enter the course name that has been met."

I'm confused, am I supposed to drag and drop the already existing classes I have on my list from AP credits or manually input them as future registration?
Click to expand...
What did you end up doing? I am confused as well.
 
I have a question about their math prereq. On their website it says "6 credit hours of college-level math or statistics" but on their secondary it says "six credits of college level math/statistics".
When I first applied, I checked their website and understood it as "you need 6 credits of math OR you need stat" and since I have stat, i thought it fulfilled the requirement. But now looking at their secondary app, I feel like it's saying I need 6 credits total. I only have 4 credits (from stat) competed in my undergraduate career.
 
stinkygirl203 said:
I have a question about their math prereq. On their website it says "6 credit hours of college-level math or statistics" but on their secondary it says "six credits of college level math/statistics".
When I first applied, I checked their website and understood it as "you need 6 credits of math OR you need stat" and since I have stat, i thought it fulfilled the requirement. But now looking at their secondary app, I feel like it's saying I need 6 credits total. I only have 4 credits (from stat) competed in my undergraduate career.
Click to expand...
It definitely means you need at least 6 credits of math courses, period. They're just saying that either math or statistics courses can count towards that.

For example, you could take Basic Statistics (STAT, 3 credits), and Precalculus (MATH, 4 credits), and you would thus fulfill the requirement.
 
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