Alabama Schools Thread Part 2!!

Started by DoctorPardi
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How long is your SMP? Is it one years or two years? I know nothing about the progams FYI.

If you're program lasts until next year then they probably haven't interviewed you because they really, really dislike interviewing/accepting people that are in a program that won't complete before matriculation... dropping your program halfway through isn't something they want.

Just a thought.
 
never mind I saw where SMPs are 11 months long.

I don't know why you haven't gotten at least an interview at this point.
 
I know there are a few of us who have decent to average stats who have yet to even hear about an interview at South. Do you guys find email-less Wednesdays (their supposed day to send out invites) as hard to get through as I do? I don't know what I hate more: Fridays (UAB) or Wednesdays (South), haha.
 
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WiseGuy1 said:
I know there are a few of us who have decent to average stats who have yet to even hear about an interview at South. Do you guys find email-less Wednesdays (their supposed day to send out invites) as hard to get through as I do? I don't know what I hate more: Fridays (UAB) or Wednesdays (South), haha.
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I got my South invite on a Monday, but I don't know about the trend as of late.

UAB Fridays cause me much more anguish, because I can only check the snail mail once when I got home, but I can refresh Gmail all day long!
 
So I just talked to the secretary at UAB and she said that they are interviewing high school kids for the BS/MD program this week. Because of this they will not be discussing regular applicants so there will be no letters tomorrow. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I thought I would save everyone from having to check their email every 10 minutes.

In other news, she said that they have conducted about 2/3 of the interviews and will continue to interview every thursday until March 12. She also said that "no news is good news" at this point if you have already had an interview... not really sure what that means.

She didn't have any details about when they would let people in, how many have been accepted, etc. The adcom seems to want to keep everyone in the dark about most of the details, including their own people.
 
docbama said:
So I just talked to the secretary at UAB and she said that they are interviewing high school kids for the BS/MD program this week. Because of this they will not be discussing regular applicants so there will be no letters tomorrow. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I thought I would save everyone from having to check their email every 10 minutes.

In other news, she said that they have conducted about 2/3 of the interviews and will continue to interview every thursday until March 12. She also said that "no news is good news" at this point if you have already had an interview... not really sure what that means.

She didn't have any details about when they would let people in, how many have been accepted, etc. The adcom seems to want to keep everyone in the dark about most of the details, including their own people.
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ugh. Thanks for calling!
 
VanBrown said:
still haven't heard from south and I have been complete there since late october/early november.
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I haven't heard anything from South either. I have been complete there since the beginning of October. My stats are average for who they accept (3.8 gpa and 29) and I have good EC's.

Anyone know what the deal with South is??
 
Anyone know what the deal with South is??[/QUOTE said:
Wish I knew. I've been complete since the third week of October (3.5 and 31) and haven't heard a peep since I called to make sure I was complete.
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yea i heard they dont have as many people on the adcom that's why they are really slow! so ..... im sure the invites are coming soon!
 
how much sway do yall think one interviewer has? for example, if he/she says that they will make sure you get accepted... can they really?
 
Hey everyone, I guess I'll post my status. I had both South's and UAB's secondaries submitted by mid September and had all of my recs and the faculty evaluation in by Sept. 30. I got interviews at both school in mid October (UAB one week and South the very next week lol) and as of now I'm on hold for South and still under consideration at UAB. I talked to Mark Scott about two weeks ago and he said that few people have been accepted so far and that my scores are looking good for the next time they lower the bar. I thought my interviews went well; I had a lot to talk about.

I guess my questions is how often does South send out acceptances? I would prefer to go there. I'm from Mobile and my dad is an alumnus.
 
presto530 said:
Hey everyone, I guess I'll post my status. I had both South's and UAB's secondaries submitted by mid September and had all of my recs and the faculty evaluation in by Sept. 30. I got interviews at both school in mid October (UAB one week and South the very next week lol) and as of now I'm on hold for South and still under consideration at UAB. I talked to Mark Scott about two weeks ago and he said that few people have been accepted so far and that my scores are looking good for the next time they lower the bar. I thought my interviews went well; I had a lot to talk about.

I guess my questions is how often does South send out acceptances? I would prefer to go there. I'm from Mobile and my dad is an alumnus.
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That's a good question. Three of my friends got in on the first round, and that was a LONG time ago. I really liked South as well.
 
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Got the acceptance email at 4:26 pm today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooo
 
no it was from uasom. that was the only school I applied to. super-excited!

and thanks guys!
 
I find it strange for two reasons.

1) You should have been accepted a long time ago given your stats and ECs... but you are asian and the bar is ridiculous for you.

2) It isn't Friday.
 
VanBrown said:
I find it strange for two reasons.

1) You should have been accepted a long time ago given your stats and ECs... but you are asian and the bar is ridiculous for you.

2) It isn't Friday.
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I applied late. I was complete on Nov 19 (status change), got the interview two weeks later, scheduled it for jan 15 and got the acceptance today. Also, the acceptances are only sent out once a month after oct 15 and i dont think its on friday of every month. The dean said it was random. anyways, I hope all of you get accepted. Good Luck!
 
minhaj said:
I applied late. I was complete on Nov 19 (status change), got the interview two weeks later, scheduled it for jan 15 and got the acceptance today. Also, the acceptances are only sent out once a month after oct 15 and i dont think its on friday of every month. The dean said it was random. anyways, I hope all of you get accepted. Good Luck!
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Congrats... have you heard from other places as well?

My guess is that if you had applied earlier you would have got accepted back in October or whatever because you scored above the initial cutoff.

I bet the admissions committee has not met this week to consider "regular" applicants as they normally meet on Thursdays (this is confirmed). I think there is still a chance that they will accept more on Friday, but then again it seems like they really haven't been lowering the bar at all yet. The only ones who have gotten in since december are similar on paper to those who got in at the beginning (with a few exceptions). Does anyone have reason to think otherwise? Anyone know when they will start lowering the bar for real?
 
Congratulations!

A Tuesday acceptance is different, at least, if not strange.

What do you mean by "regular" applicants?
 
thanks guys! Do any of you know if they let you know about scholarships in the acceptance email or send out a different email with scholarship info? the one i got had nothing about scholarship.
 
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chemnerd89 said:
Congratulations!

A Tuesday acceptance is different, at least, if not strange.

What do you mean by "regular" applicants?
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"Regular" was probably not the right term to use. I meant to differentiate between the "superstars" that have been referenced earlier in this thread and the "average" applicant who gets into UAB, who has an MCAT of 30.1 and a GPA of 3.72. If the only people they are letting so far have MCATs of 35+ and near-perfet GPAs then at some point they have to let in people with lower stats or those averages would be higher. I think that this has not happened yet and guess that they have to start lowering the bar sometime soon.
 
Congrats!

I know that the South committee meets on Wednesdays. So perhaps they will meet today and lower the bar...

In any case, I searched my emails from last year and I got rejected from UAB on March 24th of last year. So, at least we only have a little over a month and half left to wait...??
 
docbama said:
"Regular" was probably not the right term to use. I meant to differentiate between the "superstars" that have been referenced earlier in this thread and the "average" applicant who gets into UAB, who has an MCAT of 30.1 and a GPA of 3.72. If the only people they are letting so far have MCATs of 35+ and near-perfet GPAs then at some point they have to let in people with lower stats or those averages would be higher. I think that this has not happened yet and guess that they have to start lowering the bar sometime soon.
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I see what you mean. They're definitely taking their time, it seems.
 
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Does any one know how each candidate is assigned a "score" or what is factored into that score? I assume MCAT and GPA count the most, but how much? Are interviews and EC's given an objective number and factored in as well? I'm sure they probably wouldn't share this info, but I though I'd ask.
 
VanBrown said:
Yeah they need to move that bar on down a few notches.
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First time poster, but I figured I'd add my own perspective to the stress fest. I know of over half a dozen IS folks hovering around my stats who haven't heard anything from UAB either, but one person I know with a 31 got in early decision. People with stats as low as a 26 MCAT and a 3.4ugpa are getting post January interviews. This particular applicant was complete in November and filled out a secondary later that month. I don't know if this adds much to the discussion, but hey, knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle, right?
 
WiseGuy1 said:
Does any one know how each candidate is assigned a "score" or what is factored into that score? I assume MCAT and GPA count the most, but how much? Are interviews and EC's given an objective number and factored in as well? I'm sure they probably wouldn't share this info, but I though I'd ask.
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From the UASOM website
http://www.uasom.uab.edu/PublicDocuments/Admissions/Assessment.pdf

That shows what they take into consideration but doesn't give a weight but it should be safe to bet that the "objective" portion of that link is weighed the most heavily.
 
BigBeefNCheddar said:
First time poster, but I figured I'd add my own perspective to the stress fest. I know of over half a dozen IS folks hovering around my stats who haven't heard anything from UAB either, but one person I know with a 31 got in early decision. People with stats as low as a 26 MCAT and a 3.4ugpa are getting post January interviews. This particular applicant was complete in November and filled out a secondary later that month. I don't know if this adds much to the discussion, but hey, knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle, right?
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Yeah, from my experience the lower stat folks get interviews in the spring at a much higher rate than in the fall. I interviewed 2 cycles ago at UAB in March with the stats I have on MDapps and I interviewed in early October this cycle.

I have been told by a committee member that the class is far from being filled so it should be safe to assume that having no news is a good sign.
 
oh I know that there is an equation they do to balance MCAT score and the GPA. I heard this during one of the meetings when a uasom adcom memeber came to make a speech....it was something like....20%overall gpa, 30%science gpa, and 50% mcat.....only if i remember the rest.....
 
VanBrown said:
Yeah, from my experience the lower stat folks get interviews in the spring at a much higher rate than in the fall. I interviewed 2 cycles ago at UAB in March with the stats I have on MDapps and I interviewed in early October this cycle.

I have been told by a committee member that the class is far from being filled so it should be safe to assume that having no news is a good sign.
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when he tell you that? recently?
 
When I interviewed at South (Oct. 8th)...they said this is how the applicants are chosen: you are given a score of 1-10. up to 3 points are given for your MCAT, up to 3 points are given for your GPA (these points are assigned to you before you interview) the last 4 points are voted on by the committee. One of your interviewers presents you to the rest of the committee and then they each say a number 1-4. These numbers are averaged and then added to the MCAT and GPA score. I believe Mark Scott said the bar starts at slightly over a 9. If you look at the scholarship webpage for UAB..it says you are considered for a scholarship if you have two of 3 of the following: 1. 30 or higher on first try of MCAT, 2. above a 3.75 GPA, 3. a score of 9 or higher by the committee.....soo i assume UAB uses the same scoring system.
 
angelhair said:
when he tell you that? recently?
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about 2 weeks ago


I think the important thing to remember with UASOM is that they set their acceptance pace and won't fill the class prematurely... if anything they will oversubscribe the class by a lot rather than just stop accepting people... especially in February.
 
I am currently a second year medical student at UASOM. Let me know if you have any questions about the "new curriculum," for those of you who might be deciding whether or not to accept your spot. We were the first class to experience the new curriculum, so I have an interesting perspective of where it started, and what they have done with particular modules to make it better.

On another note, the real reason I just signed up was to shamelessly put a plug in for my house that is for sale. I am about to start my clinical third year in Tuscaloosa, and my wife is finishing residency this year also. We need to sell our house in Hoover (a suburb of the city about 13 minutes from the med school) to be more convenient for my clinicals and my wife's new practice. We were going to wait for match day to advertise to other residents and medical students, but I remembered all the hours I spent on SDN when I was applying and thought it would be a great way to get the word out to those of you moving to Birmingham.

I apologize if this offends anyone, but again, I am also available to answer any questions regarding a second year's perspective on the medical school curriculum. Let me know if you are interested. It is a 3/2 with an extra office that I finished out for 199,900. We are about to lower the price on it, too. Click here to link to it. The MLS # is 405933. I will be happy to talk/meet with anyone interested in the house or my experience at UASOM so far.
 
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Make of this whatever you like:

I just walked over to Volker Hall at UAB to deliver my Application for Classification as a Legal Resident of Alabama. When I handed off my stuff to the admissions staff, I asked if any decisions are being sent out today. Two staff members replied that the Admissions Committee meets the last Thursday of each month, meaning that they will not meet again to "lower the bar" until February 26th.

Again...take that however you want to take it. If I were a med school admissions staff member, I would employ various disinformation tactics simply to amuse myself.


NOTE: Just in case anyone is alarmed by my mention of the "Application for Classification as a Legal Resident of Alabama," don't worry. If they need that information, they'll contact you. In my case, I'm not an Alabama native but have lived and worked here for the past 3 years.
 
LumberJack said:
Make of this whatever you like:

I just walked over to Volker Hall at UAB to deliver my Application for Classification as a Legal Resident of Alabama. When I handed off my stuff to the admissions staff, I asked if any decisions are being sent out today. Two staff members replied that the Admissions Committee meets the last Thursday of each month, meaning that they will not meet again to "lower the bar" until February 26th.

Again...take that however you want to take it. If I were a med school admissions staff member, I would employ various disinformation tactics simply to amuse myself.


NOTE: Just in case anyone is alarmed by my mention of the "Application for Classification as a Legal Resident of Alabama," don't worry. If they need that information, they'll contact you. In my case, I'm not an Alabama native but have lived and worked here for the past 3 years.
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Oh well...I was expecting this anyway given that somebody got in on Tuesday
 
Finally got some 😍 from UAB - Interview Invite.

Someone IS can have it though - too late for me. I withdrew shortly after recieving it (I'd honestly forgotten I had an open app there). My decision was made October 16th.

Sorry, UAB... I'll keep an open mine for fellowships. The Neo-Peri Med program there is wonderful.
 
Lame. I am so distraught I am going to leave work early and go play in the sun. That will show 'em...
 
I know it's taken forever for acceptances to be announced, but I was wondering if anyone knows if many rejections have been handed out? I know someone on this forum said they were told that the longer you don't hear anything, the better. It stands to reason that this means the adcom is "trimming the fat" before handing out a bulk of acceptances. One of my buddies in the 2012 class said they overaccepted last year and over half of those accepted heard by December. From what I understand, this is definitely not the case this cycle, but if this apprehension on the part of the adcom is true, I would have expected to hear about at least a few rejections by now. Has anyone else heard of anyone getting rejected?
 
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