Ben Gurion University - MSIH 2010-2011 Application Thread

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oddball55

As the new application cycle gets into full swing, I thought I'd start a new application thread for all of us applying (or thinking about applying) for a spot in the 2011 entering class at the Medical School for International Health at Ben Gurion University.

Please ask any questions, vent any frustrations and post anything else pertaining to the MSIH application and interview process.

Good luck!
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I'll be taking the MCAT August 13th and plan to have all of my application materials in by September. I know it's a little late in the cycle (out of necessity), but I'm hoping the additional MCAT prep will outweigh the timing disadvantage... we'll see.

What are other people's timetables looking like?
 
Ok, at the risk of looking like I'm having a conversation with myself (the only two replies to my own thread so far), I'm going to toss out a question and hope that someone can enlighten me.

I'm in the process of calculating GPA's for AMCAS, AACOMAS and the MSIH applications and am not sure which courses I should count toward the MSIH Science GPA? Should I use the narrow AMCAS guidelines, the broader AACOMAS guidelines, all of my science courses regardless of subject or some other guidelines?

If anyone has some insight here it'd be much appreciated.

Cheers
 
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I'd just use the AMCAS science GPA if the MSIH site doesn't specify.

If you want to be doubly sure, just email the admissions. They were always so prompt when I applied.

Good luck! :D
 
I'm very interested in Ben Gurion as well, though I want to be absolutely sure that the caliber of medical education in the first two years is on par with international health focused continental US medical programs.

Anyone know the pass rates for Ben Gurion? Anyone have a Match List? Any Ben Gurion graduates on the forums willing to give advice? I'd be much obliged.

MSIH looks like a top choice for someone (like me) interested in international health and medical advancement through global understanding.
 
Thanks doctaroo, I think I will email them to double check.

Cecil, I can't speak first-hand to the quality of education at MSIH, but they do have a list of all of their residency matches on the MSIH website. Their match list is very respectable, though I'm sure you would have to perform a bit better than your American-educated counterparts to match into a comparable residency...given the dreaded IMG status.
 
oddball55 said:
Thanks doctaroo, I think I will email them to double check.

Cecil, I can't speak first-hand to the quality of education at MSIH, but they do have a list of all of their residency matches on the MSIH website. Their match list is very respectable, though I'm sure you would have to perform a bit better than your American-educated counterparts to match into a comparable residency...given the dreaded IMG status.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the point in the right direction. I still haven't found a complete match list for any year at Ben Gurion / MSIH, but I did find this student profile summary:

http://cumc.columbia.edu/dept/bgcu-md/documents/StudentProfile2010.pdf

2010 Student profile
of the entering class:
Average GPA 3.45
Average MCAT score 29
24% hold advanced degrees

I plan on contacting Ben Gurion this week to find out more information and speak with a current student.

-C.J.
 
So, even though I spent almost an hour looking for the Match Lists, I stumbled upon them right after I gave up looking. The 2010 Match List is at the end of the PDF below (p14). Looks very impressive to me, though I know that at least one student chose not to enter the Match.

http://cumc.columbia.edu/dept/bgcu-md/documents/ChartYourCourse2010.pdf




Anesthesiology
PGY-2 Boston University Medical Center

Dermatology
PGY-2 Roger Williams Medical Center

Emergency Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center
University Hospitals Case Medical Center

Family Medicine
University of Arizona Affiliated Hospitals
Group Health Coop
Saint Anthony Hospital
The Medical Center
Bryn Mawr Hospital
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Brown University Medical Center

Internal Medicine
University of New Mexico SOM
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Providence Portland Medical Center

Medicine
PGY-1 Einstein-Jacobi Medical Center
PGY-1 Boston University Medical Center
Nassau University Medical Center

Obstetrics/Gynecology
New York Methodist Hospital
Drexel University COM/Hahnemann Hospital
Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education

Pediatrics
University of Maryland
University Hospitals Case Medical Center- Rainbow Babies
Children’s National Medical Center
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Jersey Shore University Medical Center
St. Christopher’s Hospital
University of Virginia
North Shore - Long Island Jewish Health Systems
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Eastern Virginia Medical School
University of Colorado/University Hospital

Psychiatry
University of Virginia
Indiana University School of Medicine
University of Toronto
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Surgery
SUNY Upstate Medical Center
St. Joseph Mercy
University of North Dakota School of Medicine
Waterbury Hospital
PGY-1 University of North Carolina
PGY-1 Baylor College Medical Center
PGY-1 University of Massachusetts Medical School

(I believe their are 45 names on this list. I don't know how many students were in the 2010 class, but I believe class size is normally between 30-50 people.)

Enjoy.

-Cecil
 
Cecil, glad you were able to find it. I believe an MSIH student (don't remember who) mentioned that the 2010 class had 45 people, which would mean everyone matched.
 
I was reading some other posts and started to get a little worried about the timing of my application. I had to push my MCAT back to 8/24 (took it last week), so I won't be getting my scores until the end of September, which means my application won't be complete until the beginning of October, I presume.

The rest of my application is decent, but not over-the-top, and is definitely non-traditional. Obviously, no one here is on the admissions committee, but for those with some idea, how much do you think I'm hurting my chances by applying when I am?
 
oddball55 said:
I was reading some other posts and started to get a little worried about the timing of my application. I had to push my MCAT back to 8/24 (took it last week), so I won't be getting my scores until the end of September, which means my application won't be complete until the beginning of October, I presume.

The rest of my application is decent, but not over-the-top, and is definitely non-traditional. Obviously, no one here is on the admissions committee, but for those with some idea, how much do you think I'm hurting my chances by applying when I am?
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Hey Oddball, I imagine you'll fair slightly better with MSIH/Ben Gurion than you will with other schools. You're applying outside the AMCAS, directly. I like the way the application is independent, it leaves much more freedom for individuality.

Call the school. That's the best advice I can think to give you. I'm in the same boat you are.

-C.J.
 
I did email them a couple days ago. They got back to me the same day and were incredibly helpful. They let me know that MSIH will continue to interview until the class is full (often into late spring), and encouraged me to apply as soon as I had all of my material ready. So, I'm getting everything together, getting all of my transcripts sent in, and will hopefully (barring any hold-ups) have my completed application in by early to mid October.

On a side note, they also clarified which classes to use when calculating the science GPA - use the AMCAS guidelines (essentially, all Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Math courses, but no natural, environmental, engineering, etc.).

Cecil, are you thinking about applying this year?
 
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oddball55 said:
Cecil, are you thinking about applying this year?
Click to expand...

I'll PM you my very complicated response. It's a wonderful school.

Thanks for the heads up about the science GPA, though if I'm off by a couple tenths of a point I don't think my application will be tossed.
 
Hey Guys,

I'm currently a first year at MSIH and Im loving it. Its a wonderful school and I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have , just PM me.

My stats
GPA 3.5
MCAT 29
Lots of extra currics

Our class size this year is 45 just in case your wonderig , and everyone matches in the US here. So far we've had some great classes and some not so great classes just like any other med school, but being in Israel is just amazing, its a lot of fun and the students at MSIH are really nice and its like one big family here. I highly recommend the school.
 
DocOptimus said:
Hey Guys,

I'm currently a first year at MSIH and Im loving it. Its a wonderful school and I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have , just PM me.
Click to expand...

DocOc, I love the fact that your post registered at 3:45am here. If you're not in Israel than you've got a really screwed up sleep cycle.

Thanks for the helpful offer, I'll be PMing you shortly.

-C.J.

...still no word from MSIH. Anybody have an interview lined up/acceptance?
 
Thought I'd get some activity going on here. I got an interview invitation yesterday, and I'll probably be there Dec. 14th. I'm waiting for confirmation on that date.
 
Just an update in case anyone is lurking. I've got my Dec. 14 interview date confirmed, so I'll be in NYC then!
 
That's great, congrats on the interview invite! Let us know how it goes.

I've got my application in (as of last week) and now just waiting to hear back. After your application was officially complete, how long did it take to get the invitation for an interview?
 
oddball55 said:
That's great, congrats on the interview invite! Let us know how it goes.

I've got my application in (as of last week) and now just waiting to hear back. After your application was officially complete, how long did it take to get the invitation for an interview?
Click to expand...

It was very quick turnaround for me. My application was officially completed on Nov. 16th and I got the interview invite on Nov. 19th.

HOWEVER, I submitted my application back in July, then waited for a transcript from a summer course and released that. I contacted Alice Mahoney in early nov. because I hadn't heard anything, and she told me that my transcript from my primary undergraduate school never came in, so I re-released it and got a complete e-mail a few days later. Since the turnaround was so fast from complete to invite, I suspect they might have been looking over my application before that last transcript got there. That could be false, but just something to keep in mind.
 
Has anyone interviewed yet? What is the interview like? What sorts of questions do they ask?
 
So I had my interview today. The two women who interviewed me were extremely pleasant and well prepared. I would say that is the important thing: anything in your application is fair game. Each had my application there with them with little notes all in the margins and marks by the things they wanted me to ask about. This included my grades and how they matched up with events in my life, quotes from my personal statements and essays, and my school activities. Still, it was overall very conversational and it seemed like they really wanted to hear what I had to say and even made some complementary remarks.

I think the question that they both asked and is likely to be asked of anybody is: where and how do you see yourself practicing medicine in the future? However, I didn't get the impression that they were holding out for a particular 'correct' answer. Also they each asked me if I had applied to med schools in the States and if I had received any interviews. I suspect that you could decline to answer this if you feel weird about it.

Also, Alice took time after the interview to go over the curriculum and timeline of the entire 4 years, bringing up the points that were distinct from a US school.

The only bad thing is that they don't have an admissions committee meeting scheduled until Jan 20th! Also, you get informed by snail mail :( A long time to wait.
 
Congratulations on making it through the interview! And thanks for posting the experience - sounds like a pretty pleasant interaction overall. Sorry to hear the admissions committee isn't meeting for another 6 weeks, though - the waiting's the worst part.
 
oddball55 said:
Congratulations on making it through the interview! And thanks for posting the experience - sounds like a pretty pleasant interaction overall.
Click to expand...

I'm right there with oddball--thanks for sharing your experience. You've done a lot to calm my nerves, AlmadeDr. No whining about the wait though, I don't get back to the US to interview until April! I received an invitation to interview around Christmas Day.

:cool:
 
Congrats Cecil on the interview invite! I had a really nice day with the ladies in the admissions office. I guess I'm also finally getting the hang of this interviewing thing.

Well, I suppose one nice thing about interviewing in April is that presumably they will let you know fairly quickly after that, seeing as how orientation starts during the summer.

Truly the wait hasn't been too bad, but now that it is getting to the point where they are close to meeting I'm starting to feel a little anxious again.

Anyway, good luck!
 
Hey guys,

I was accpeted a while back and am trying to figure out how the 3rd and 4th year clerkships go. Is it more difficult to get clerkships (and thus residencies) from a foreign medical school. and the 4 months of clerkship at columbia? do we have to comepete as visting students for those clerkships or do we have some sort of priority due to the affiliation status??
 
nielse2 said:
Hey guys,

I was accpeted a while back and am trying to figure out how the 3rd and 4th year clerkships go. Is it more difficult to get clerkships (and thus residencies) from a foreign medical school. and the 4 months of clerkship at columbia? do we have to comepete as visting students for those clerkships or do we have some sort of priority due to the affiliation status??
Click to expand...

At my interview, I was told that as far as rotations at Columbia go, we get priority after Columbia students, but ahead of all other visiting students.
 
Hey everyone...been lurking this thread for awhile and I wanted to get it going. I am finishing up my MPH in epidemiology at Columbia this May, and hoping to pursue medicine at a school dedicated to public health.

I've been complete since Jan 4th and I'm patiently/anxiously waiting for an interview invite...

For those of you that were invited to interview...how long did it take from the time you were complete until the offer?

Best of luck
 
tonyap23 said:
For those of you that were invited to interview...how long did it take from the time you were complete until the offer?

Best of luck
Click to expand...

Hi Tonya, I'm going to refer you to my post #20 for my answer to this question. Welcome to our little forum!

Hopefully I'll have reason to do some more posting soon; at my interview last month they told me to contact them if I didn't hear by the end of January.
 
Last edited:
AlmadeDr said:
Hi Tonya, I'm going to refer you to my post #20 for my answer to this question. Welcome to our little forum!

Hopefully I'll have reason to do some more posting soon; at my interview last month they told me to contact them if I didn't hear by the end of January.
Click to expand...


AlamadeDR, that mix-up of yours seemed really nerve-racking. Although i don't think there will be a chance of mix up with my application. Since i live 4 blocks from CUMC, i actually handed the MSIH administrator Hoping to hear back soon.
 
What kind of global health experiences do you'll have? BGU-CU MSIH def attracts very interesting students, and I'm excited to hear about what some people have done in the field.
 
tonyap23 said:
AlamadeDR, that mix-up of yours seemed really nerve-racking. Although i don't think there will be a chance of mix up with my application. Since i live 4 blocks from CUMC, i actually handed the MSIH administrator Hoping to hear back soon.
Click to expand...

I don't think that my mix up had anything to do with MSIH, I think it had to do with the ordering process for my transcripts. Basically, I think that although the option to order multiple transcripts at once was available to me, it wasn't a good idea for me to trust that.

As far as timing, I know that they just recently had an admissions committee meeting, at least as far as the date they gave me for when they would next be discussing already interviewed applicants. If they are busy with this, especially since they didn't have a meeting of this type in December, they might be a little behind on newer applications.
 
Hey AlmadeDr...thanks for the info about your interview. I have one coming up next week, and I am really excited. I'll def let everyone know how it went for those of you that will be having interviews soon.

Good luck everyone
 
So I heard back from the committee, and it looks like I won't be headed to Israel this year. They didn't want me. Good luck to all of you who have had interviews and received invites recently!
 
Anyone else here applying to MSIH? I applied back in November, interviewed in December, and was accepted at the end of January...
 
I just sent in my application this morning. Hopefully it's not too late. My older brother graduated from this school a couple years ago and he really loved it.
 
Looks like it's not working out for me either. I only wish that the interviewers and everyone from the school didn't act so positive and optimistic--it really set me up for heartbreak :( .

Standard (8-14) school cycle for me next year.
 
:( That's disappointing given your grades and international experience.

I agree, their positivity definitely makes you think you're set if you fit their profile.
 
CecilJacobson said:
So, even though I spent almost an hour looking for the Match Lists, I stumbled upon them right after I gave up looking. The 2010 Match List is at the end of the PDF below (p14). Looks very impressive to me, though I know that at least one student chose not to enter the Match.

http://cumc.columbia.edu/dept/bgcu-md/documents/ChartYourCourse2010.pdf




Anesthesiology
PGY-2 Boston University Medical Center

Dermatology
PGY-2 Roger Williams Medical Center

Emergency Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center
University Hospitals Case Medical Center

Family Medicine
University of Arizona Affiliated Hospitals
Group Health Coop
Saint Anthony Hospital
The Medical Center
Bryn Mawr Hospital
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Brown University Medical Center

Internal Medicine
University of New Mexico SOM
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Providence Portland Medical Center

Medicine
PGY-1 Einstein-Jacobi Medical Center
PGY-1 Boston University Medical Center
Nassau University Medical Center

Obstetrics/Gynecology
New York Methodist Hospital
Drexel University COM/Hahnemann Hospital
Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education

Pediatrics
University of Maryland
University Hospitals Case Medical Center- Rainbow Babies
Children’s National Medical Center
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Jersey Shore University Medical Center
St. Christopher’s Hospital
University of Virginia
North Shore - Long Island Jewish Health Systems
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Eastern Virginia Medical School
University of Colorado/University Hospital

Psychiatry
University of Virginia
Indiana University School of Medicine
University of Toronto
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Surgery
SUNY Upstate Medical Center
St. Joseph Mercy
University of North Dakota School of Medicine
Waterbury Hospital
PGY-1 University of North Carolina
PGY-1 Baylor College Medical Center
PGY-1 University of Massachusetts Medical School

(I believe their are 45 names on this list. I don't know how many students were in the 2010 class, but I believe class size is normally between 30-50 people.)

Enjoy.

-Cecil
Click to expand...

so when it says PGY-1 or PGY-2, what does that mean? does it mean that they took a year (or two) off, did a masters or something, and then entered the match?
 
WLed here. Anyone know if there was significant movement in previous years?
 
rabsa said:
WLed here. Anyone know if there was significant movement in previous years?
Click to expand...

Based on what I was told during the interview day, Alice said that the WL is pretty short meaning that it's about 10 people and that those on the WL have a good chance but obviously not a guarantee of getting in.
 
jonnboy said:
so when it says PGY-1 or PGY-2, what does that mean? does it mean that they took a year (or two) off, did a masters or something, and then entered the match?
Click to expand...


PGY= Post Graduate Year after obtaining a medical degree

Each numbered year represent a year in a residency or fellowship program. I.e., Internal Medicine requires 3 post-graduate years, so PGY-1, PGY-2, PGY3 would represent those three years.
 
Interview Invite this morning for April 8th! Can anyone tell me what to expect interview day in terms of schedule and actual interviews. Also, where did you stay in New York? Thank you very much for your help.
 
rcorn said:
Interview Invite this morning for April 8th! Can anyone tell me what to expect interview day in terms of schedule and actual interviews.
Click to expand...

You will have two interviews. Depending on the schedule, these may be back to back or you may have a break in between. I had about ~1.5 hrs in between both, during which Alice gave a presentation about the school (curriculum, logistics, etc). We also watched a promotional DVD produced by the school, which is kind of like a virtual tour. They also provide you with an information folder with residency placement lists, estimated costs, curriculum breakdown etc. See previous posts/threads for more info.

Your interviews will be with different faculty members at Columbia Presbyterian. You'll be provided with the names, locations and times when you arrive at the BGU office, and someone from the office will escort you to the locations so you won't get lost.

Also, where did you stay in New York? Thank you very much for your help.
Click to expand...

I stayed with family, but the school gives you a list of hotels you can stay at. There are not a lot of places around Columbia Presbyterian, so I would recommend staying somewhere close to a subway stop with lines that access the medical center. You can use Google maps to plan this out; they provide directions not only for driving, but also for walking and using public transport.

Don't rent a car.
 
I'm a current student and the 2011 Match List should be out shortly. I was able to speak to a number of the fourth year students that matched. There was a match ceremony last week and there were A LOT of happy people! Many people got their #1 choice.
 
JCaesar said:
I'm a current student and the 2011 Match List should be out shortly. I was able to speak to a number of the fourth year students that matched. There was a match ceremony last week and there were A LOT of happy people! Many people got their #1 choice.
Click to expand...


Did everyone in the class that went for the match matched?
 
Hey Robertch8,

Just from talking to the fourth years, there were a few prematches and there were a couple that scrambled. I know of at least one person that was picky with specialty and location and didn't match. I don't know of any others. Generally, the students are matching really well here. We should get the match list soon and I'll be able to see exactly how well we did.

Definitely take the chance to get the contacts of alumni and current students so you can ask specific questions about the school. I'm sure Alice would give you the emails of alumni. The MSIH office is very open. They'll give you alumni contacts, the residency match list, etc.
 
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