Ask a Texas Med Student
Started by EvoDevo
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theblastopore said:
I left all of my interviews at each school feeling okay about them, but not like I had just convinced them for sure to let me in. I think it's hard to tell for sure sometimes exactly how to feel about them. I've a few (very few) classmates tell me that their interviewer told them "oh yeah you're definately in!" That never happened to me or most ppl I know. As long as you try to answer their questions and otherwise not make a complete a$$ of yourself, you'll be okay.
It looks like you have good stats, why do you think you did bad in the interview? Some people ask tough questions, but they know you haven't had all day to prepare, you have about 3 seconds to think, so I really don't think they're looking for award winning dialogue! Just that you can communicate like a normal person. I wouldn't worry 🙂
theblastopore said:
Unless you got into some sort of fight with your interviewer, I think you'll be fine. Also, there are plenty of people in our class that have an accent, so that's not a big deal.
Come to think of it..I sort of did get into a small fight with my (MD-only) interviewer about why my engineering degree was worth it (yes, even if it lowered my gpa)..and that yes, actually, I *will* be able to handle the "science in med school" despite my science gpa (I still can't believe she said that, given the classes I had taken). I was pissed when I walked out of that one...and that was at the school I'm now attending, so perhaps a little bit of fighting is still ok!
ps-- Thanatos, we'll have a little tank B6 field trip somewhere fun when exams are done 🙂
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EV0: please add me to the UTSW list. I changed my user name to something I like better - but you may remember me from last years paranoid TX post as MWhou.
I try to avoid agreeing with Alex (he's unethical -hehe/inside joke) but I agree about UTSW. You will find a group you like -one of the advantages of such a large class. Plenty of people party quite a bit (up to 3-5 x per week at times!) if that's your thing. A lot a people play sports - soccer, Softball, basketball etc. I've gotten email invitations to go rock climbing, running, workout, camping, salsa dancing.... Every week there are usually multiple free lunch meeting by clubs: dem interest group, Ortho, Em, wilderness medicine, prolife, pro-choice doctors, sports medicine, GLT, barbecue interest group...
Everyone does take school seriously though - by test time they know their stuff. The exams cover a ton of material, yet the averages are very high.
School is tough, and some classes could be done better. But this is true at every school. Overall, its a very good environment.
-Cram
potato51 said:
I try to avoid agreeing with Alex (he's unethical -hehe/inside joke) but I agree about UTSW. You will find a group you like -one of the advantages of such a large class. Plenty of people party quite a bit (up to 3-5 x per week at times!) if that's your thing. A lot a people play sports - soccer, Softball, basketball etc. I've gotten email invitations to go rock climbing, running, workout, camping, salsa dancing.... Every week there are usually multiple free lunch meeting by clubs: dem interest group, Ortho, Em, wilderness medicine, prolife, pro-choice doctors, sports medicine, GLT, barbecue interest group...
Everyone does take school seriously though - by test time they know their stuff. The exams cover a ton of material, yet the averages are very high.
School is tough, and some classes could be done better. But this is true at every school. Overall, its a very good environment.
-Cram
kaffy said:
Sorry, just saw this post now. I wouldn't send a letter of INTENT (this just says why you'd be a good good fit and let's the adcoms know that if accepted here, will come blah blah blah...) until after you've interviewed. At this point, a letter of INTEREST is more appropriate. You can go ahead and include why you'd like to go to Baylor and things you didn't include on AMCAS.
Best of luck
MadameLULU said:Sorry, just saw this post now. I wouldn't send a letter of INTENT (this just says why you'd be a good good fit and let's the adcoms know that if accepted here, will come blah blah blah...) until after you've interviewed. At this point, a letter of INTEREST is more appropriate. You can go ahead and include why you'd like to go to Baylor and things you didn't include on AMCAS.
Best of luck
Thanks MadameLULU,
How would you suggest I send this letter? Email or snailmail? Should I send it directly to the Dean or just address it to him, but send it to the adcom office?
thanks again 🙂
<waves> Hey, I remember you. I think I met you at a UTSW dinner thing, right?Cram said:
BTW, you gave some excellent advice on the "how to prepare for med school thread"
kaffy said:
I'd address the letter to Dr. Michael and snailmail it.
MadameLULU said:
Yea, at the pizza dinner & we bumped into each other at ms0, but were always going different directions! <waves back> Sounds like Baylor is going well for you - congrats! I keep in touch with a couple of people there; your curriculum at times makes me jealous (PF anatomy!!!), others make me cringe (I guess it cant be easy anywhere.) It would be nice to pick and choose just what we like!
Do you still have Tulane kids runng around at night/afternoon?
QofQuimica
Seriously, dude, I think you're overreacting....
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Baylor has P/F anatomy??? I thought that only electives were P/F.
Cram said:
We don't have P/F anatomy, although anatomy is much less intense here than at other TX schools.
Yeah, we are sharing our facilities with Tulane students until the end of the school year. I have a feeling the 3rd/4th years will be sticking around here for longer. My experiences with them have been positive for the most part, but Im sure some of my classmates would disagree.
MadameLULU said:
Man, how did I get that wrong? is lab pass/fail maybe? Ill have to have a chat w/my source!
Yea, we also have a lot of 3&4th years from LA - I think they are here for good. But, since we don't do clinical Stuff-I never see them.
Have you noticed the current TX thread doesn't seem as paranoid as we (I) were? Maybe its just early. -off to study!
nope. nothing's p/f except preclinical electives (not to sure about clinical electives). Going to lab isn't mandatory though. I think it may be at other tx schools.Cram said:
Yeah, I agree-- these guys are much more relaxed than we were last year, but just wait until Janurary rolls around. Everyone will be logging into the TMDSAS website trying to figure out what Last action means
I wonder if UTSW is going to goof like they did last year. Anyways, I kinda "miss" some ppl on that thread...for the most part, they were bunch of cool guys!
so what does last action really meanMadameLULU said:nope. nothing's p/f except preclinical electives (not to sure about clinical electives). Going to lab isn't mandatory though. I think it may be at other tx schools.
Yeah, I agree-- these guys are much more relaxed than we were last year, but just wait until Janurary rolls around. Everyone will be logging into the TMDSAS website trying to figure out what Last action means
Anyways, I kinda "miss" some ppl on that thread...for the most part, they were bunch of cool guys!
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MadameLULU said:Yeah, I agree-- these guys are much more relaxed than we were last year, but just wait until Janurary rolls around. Everyone will be logging into the TMDSAS website trying to figure out what Last action means
Anyways, I kinda "miss" some ppl on that thread...for the most part, they were bunch of cool guys!
heh... now I'm curious. what "goof" did UTSW commit? 🙂
NOooooooooooooOOODesiMcatAcer said:so what does last action really mean
*runs away*
potato51 said:
Well, there was this big sister/big brother and roommate finder website that accepted students could log onto before Feb 1. I think some of us found out the Thursday before the match. Apparently, the administration read SDN, found out about it, and cancelled our access to the site a day or two later.
Must have been a nice little experience 🙂MadameLULU said:
DesiMcatAcer said:
Eh, for some. others were kinda pissed off.
Cram said:Now look what you started!
Yeah that was great! Haha and no Lulu we don't have mandatory labs here either, do the other schools?
JIGGLE IT said:
Not a UTSW student, but I can answer part of this. Apparently, the new grading policy was short-lived and UTSW has reverted to its usual system, which is nice to hear.
I know little about the new dean except a 4th year did tell me that he's generally nice but you don't see him often.
jammin06 said:
I couldn't find the SA stats (only saw UTSW and UTH), but I know overall for Texas ~21% of out-of-state applicants get accepted. I imagine the percentage is quite higher for actual OOS interviewees.
I say accept the invite. UTSA is a good program, and from your profile, I think they'll like you a lot. They'll be over-accepting by at least two times their OOS allottment, so your chances might be good.
From 2004:
UTSW accepted 70 out of 121 OOS (51%) and 33 enrolled (wow, that's a high % of OOS in a class of 213)
UTH, though, accepted 14 out of 46 OOS (30%) and 9 enrolled.
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How could they enroll >10%? I thought there was a state-legislated cap. Or is the cap new?potato51 said:
As much as people might might balk at living in Galveston I have come to believe its one of the best in bets in Texas. They have an organ based curriculum and from what I hear score pretty high on the boards. In my opinion the biggest plus, is that students have the option of doing their clinical years in Austin. ACL, SXSW, Leslie!?! Aah the memories.
I don't know much about UTSW except that everyone rags on it for being overly competitive and having cocky students... but those people are probably just upset they didn't get in.
But just go where you feel most comforatable. If you are a true badass, you'll have a happy 4 years and you'll probably end up in the same superduper plastics residency anyway.
I don't know much about UTSW except that everyone rags on it for being overly competitive and having cocky students... but those people are probably just upset they didn't get in.
But just go where you feel most comforatable. If you are a true badass, you'll have a happy 4 years and you'll probably end up in the same superduper plastics residency anyway.
I'm having trouble on wear to rank UTSA and UTH in respect to eachother. I was wondering if anyone could comment on some pros and cons of each? and some STEP 1 Scores would be nice to see as well
Thanks,
SD
Thanks,
SD
The 'Texas Interviews' thread compiled a brief list of pros and cons of each school:Siamese Dream said:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=3187578&postcount=1336
Don't know how they compare with Step 1 scores though.
Remind me this weekend and I'll answer your question. Most of us prolly aren't respondign b/c we have finals this week. Cool?Siamese Dream said:
EvoDevo said:
Good Deal
I interviewed at UTH and I loved the place. I was wondering what I should do to somewhat ensure I end up matching there???
You can send your interviewers and/or the admissions director thank you notes and try to find a bigwig there to suck up to. One of the people I work for is faculty there, and a coworker/fellow pre-med has been trying to summon the courage to approach him/her to put in a good word.bluelotus1214 said:
EvoDevo said:
Bump...
I hope this is enough of a reminder
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for those of you who go to UTSW (or anyone else in TX could probably answer this).....
UTSW is my first choice, but mainly for it's location and not the typical reasons of status and whatnot. Basically, as cheesy as it sounds, my heart belongs in Dallas. I grew up here, all of my extended family lives here, I want to serve this community, and I want to raise a family here. I'm most content when I'm surrounded by my family, and I want nothing more than to move back here (I'm currently an undergrad at A&M) so that I can return to an environment that makes me deeply happy.
If any of you grew up in Texas, did you experience feelings similar to mine?
Also, I want to express my affection for Dallas (which I see as a positive thing) to UTSW, either in my application or in my interview, but I am afraid that I will come off as not expressing the proper interest in their institution. I LOVE the school itself, of course, but I just happen to love the environment equally if not more. How do you recommend I go about addressing this?
Thanks,
Ashley
UTSW is my first choice, but mainly for it's location and not the typical reasons of status and whatnot. Basically, as cheesy as it sounds, my heart belongs in Dallas. I grew up here, all of my extended family lives here, I want to serve this community, and I want to raise a family here. I'm most content when I'm surrounded by my family, and I want nothing more than to move back here (I'm currently an undergrad at A&M) so that I can return to an environment that makes me deeply happy.
If any of you grew up in Texas, did you experience feelings similar to mine?
Also, I want to express my affection for Dallas (which I see as a positive thing) to UTSW, either in my application or in my interview, but I am afraid that I will come off as not expressing the proper interest in their institution. I LOVE the school itself, of course, but I just happen to love the environment equally if not more. How do you recommend I go about addressing this?
Thanks,
Ashley
Beadle said:
Dude, I *still* haven't left Houston, and I won't for a while! So I think I know what you mean.
During interviews, family often comes up, and I would mention that it's a big plus for me to stay in town. You could work it into your general response to the "tell me about yourself" type question, and explain that having family in Dallas is part of the reason you applied. That's totally fine.
Beadle said:
I'm not sure that this is something that you should particularly harp on. Mention it, and express your enthusiasm for Dallas on their secondary and in the interview. The secondary asks you to envision how you will practice in the future...or something like that. I think you should focus rather on your commitment to service.
Whether you like Dallas or not will not likely weigh heavily on their decision to admit you or to interview you. More important factors will be your gpa, MCAT, research, and service activities.
More importantly you have like 6+ months till you apply. So I dunno. Don't worry about it so much. Do well on the MCAT. If you do well enough it won't really matter.
I've wanted to go to UTSW since I was 14 (I'm from Dallas). I went to college here because I really don't want to leave. My UTSW secondary made it very clear that I intend to serve DFW, that I work with UTSW faculty, and that I have family alumni. I also sent the school an additional letter about how close I have always felt to the school and how I've met the dean of admissions twice. When I applied this year, none of that stuff mattered because I simply didn't have the numbers to reach UTSW standards. Realize that it is THE top public TX med school and that it is extremely competitive. If you want to go to UTSW, concentrate on having great numbers cuz that's the only way to get through the door at that school. They are number ****** and to get in you have to become one too.
