Florida Schools Application Thread (2008) part 2

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Is anyone interviewing at Boca on 12/13 or Miami on 12/14?

What is the interview format at UM?
 
A new thread! All I have to say is there must be a heck of a lot of premeds in texas since they're on like part 5 or something. Here's my question:
I'm wondering whether schools will hand out invites the weeks preceeding winter break. I know SouthFlaKnight received one for UF about a week or two ago, but since offices will be closed around the 22nd of Dec. I would think an invite for early Jan would be around a week or so before that. Who knows. Ultimately it doesn't really matter; it'll happen when it happens.
 
Welcome to all the newcomers to the Florida thread. Exciting times in Florida with 4 awesome allopathic schools with 2 new ones on the way! Good luck to everyone in the application process this year; it's a tough road but hang in there!
 
A new thread! All I have to say is there must be a heck of a lot of premeds in texas since they're on like part 5 or something. Here's my question:
I'm wondering whether schools will hand out invites the weeks preceeding winter break. I know SouthFlaKnight received one for UF about a week or two ago, but since offices will be closed around the 22nd of Dec. I would think an invite for early Jan would be around a week or so before that. Who knows. Ultimately it doesn't really matter; it'll happen when it happens.


When I talked to the admissions person at FSU, they said they were interviewing till Dec 17th. and many interview dates in January. They should still be inviting applicants this upcoming week.
 
anyone else waiting to hear back from miami this wednesday?
 
Good Luck Zissou 👍

I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you still confident with UF or would you reconsider with a Miami acceptance. Anyways, good luck and congrats with your acceptances!
 
i honestly dont have a favorite right now.. all the fl schools have something amazing about them that makes them stick out. I hope to hear good news from miami so I have the opportunity to compare the schools further.
 
i honestly dont have a favorite right now.. all the fl schools have something amazing about them that makes them stick out. I hope to hear good news from miami so I have the opportunity to compare the schools further.

I just got back from Miami, and I was blown away. The clinical experience is awesome, starting within the first couple of weeks. The stories about the staff hooking you up with an established doctor in any specialty you are considering is incredible. I interviewed and am on hold at UF, and can't speak about USF yet. But right now, hypothetically, if I get acceptances from both UM and UF, it would be the hardest decision of my life. It seems to boil down to this:

UF: traditional school with awesome board scores and excellent residency placement VS. UM: modernized approach preaching early patient contact, patient experience (several thousand beds) without parallel, opportunity to shadow any specialty, but slightly lower boards (compared to UF).

Of course there is probably some home town bias, but the students and faculty think UM (a great school already) is on the up and up with a new dean and loads of research money pouring in.
 
I have an interview invite to U of Miami!!! Uhm, do you guys know much about the Miami vs. the Boca Raton campus?
 
This was talked about a lot on the old Florida thread, but here is the class thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=458821

I would just tell you to keep an open mind when you see the campuses, and try not to compare the Boca clinicals with Miami's clinicals. In reality, very few schools, maybe UCLA, have clinicals that can compare with Jackson/Miami. But Boca's clinical setup is similar to other schools in this state and, in my opinion, to other schools I interviewed at.

Congrats with your interview, and good luck! 👍
 
Does anyone know if any of the FL schools combine your MCAT scores to get the best one or do they look at them separately?
 
Has anybody who interviewed at UF two Fridays ago (11/30) heard any news? I am assuming Im waitlisted at this point since I was never called.
 
Does anyone know if any of the FL schools combine your MCAT scores to get the best one or do they look at them separately?

I don't know about the other schools, but I believe University of Miami looks at each sitting separately. I don't think they make a cumulative score based on your best sub-section scores like many undergrad schools do with the ACT.

Thanks REL.
 
I don't know about the other schools, but I believe University of Miami looks at them separately at takes the best set of scores.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure all of the Florida programs take the best single test score over the last 3 years, though astute schools will pay attention to trends with two or more exams.
 
I just got back from Miami, and I was blown away. The clinical experience is awesome, starting within the first couple of weeks. The stories about the staff hooking you up with an established doctor in any specialty you are considering is incredible. I interviewed and am on hold at UF, and can't speak about USF yet. But right now, hypothetically, if I get acceptances from both UM and UF, it would be the hardest decision of my life. It seems to boil down to this:

UF: traditional school with awesome board scores and excellent residency placement VS. UM: modernized approach preaching early patient contact, patient experience (several thousand beds) without parallel, opportunity to shadow any specialty, but slightly lower boards (compared to UF).

Of course there is probably some home town bias, but the students and faculty think UM (a great school already) is on the up and up with a new dean and loads of research money pouring in.
I could not agree with you more. I interviewed there today and I could not have been more impressed. I can't think of one negative thing to say. Btw I think they have the best interview day food.
 
Wow, got an interview invite from Harvard today! Awesome!
 
I second the :bow::bow:

Lol, thanks. It's not until February, so hopefully I'm not just interviewing for a waitlist spot. But they are non-rolling, so I might have as good a shot as anybody.
 
Interviewed at USF today - pretty rad . . .
 
I think I remember reading this somewhere, but does anyone have the link for the posting where all of the Fl schools were compared?
 
Something new at USF in our gross anatomy lab. This year, all of our cadavers (about 30) were sent through a portable CT scanner, and all of the results have been provided to us for use and study during the dissections in class. I believe we are the first school to provide this to students, and so far it's been interesting to be able to see the internal structures before we dissect. We can also import the data into OsiriX (only for Macintosh, unfortunately) and generate 3D views of the surface and internal structures. Kinda interesting additional study information since we will be viewing anatomy in cross section (and 3D views) anyways during our careers.
 
Invite from West Virginia, rejection from George Washington. Needless to say, I don't care at all about the rejection, and am excited and getting ready for interviews coming up.

Before, just the thought of a rejection was depressing, and now my immediate response to looking at it was "whatever, moving on."
 
Invite from West Virginia, rejection from George Washington. Needless to say, I don't care at all about the rejection, and am excited and getting ready for interviews coming up.

Before, just the thought of a rejection was depressing, and now my immediate response to looking at it was "whatever, moving on."

That's exactly how I felt when I got my first rejection from Vandy. I didn't have any interview offers at the time nor an acceptance, and I was really depressed about it.

I've gotten a few other rejections since then, and now I just shrug it immediately and think about something else. It's funny how this process does that to ya.
 
Something new at USF in our gross anatomy lab. This year, all of our cadavers (about 30) were sent through a portable CT scanner, and all of the results have been provided to us for use and study during the dissections in class. I believe we are the first school to provide this to students, and so far it's been interesting to be able to see the internal structures before we dissect. We can also import the data into OsiriX (only for Macintosh, unfortunately) and generate 3D views of the surface and internal structures. Kinda interesting additional study information since we will be viewing anatomy in cross section (and 3D views) anyways during our careers.

Did i get to meet you yesterday or Sunday night? How was your test?
 
Does anybody know when the USF COM office closes for winter break? I guess lifetimedoc could best answer this. I remember someone saying they closed on Dec 22nd and opened the first or second week in Jan, but I'm not positive. Thanks.
 
Does anybody know when the USF COM office closes for winter break? I guess lifetimedoc could best answer this. I remember someone saying they closed on Dec 22nd and opened the first or second week in Jan, but I'm not positive. Thanks.

In recent years the Student Affairs Offices closed up between Christmas and New Years as they took their annual leaves. I saw to it that at least one person was in the Admissions Office on all days that were not actual holidays since Admissions services applicants who may be home for the holidays. I suspect the same policy will prevail this year.
 
I think I remember reading this somewhere, but does anyone have the link for the posting where all of the Fl schools were compared?

Hey,

I too saw the comparison and strengths of each school, and really appreciated it. When I noticed the thread getting dangerously close to the post limit, I copied them.

**These posts were written by gujudoc and not by me. **

Here are the old FL comparison posts:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As per the medical school, there is no doubt that there are schools out there with far greater budgets and that there are definitely negative points about USF like there is with any other school, i.e. their lack of libraries which are open longer, their lack of student study spots compared to FSU's learning communities which are kickass, hospitals that are far away, etc.

My only point about why I got pissed with you was because a pointed out by SMT it sounded like you were saying every single person there should drop their application there because of your one or two bad experiences.

I think the major problem with why there is such bad communication this year has to do with the fact that REL left USF.

When REL was the admissions director communication was very efficient. He was the kind of person who would once said he got the secondary to someone within 6 min. of their request, and he was the kind of person who'd be calling people every week for interview invites for the following week and calling on time for acceptance notification/waitlist notification. He was also the kind of person who was very frank and transparent for 99% of the time. There was one situation where someone got royally screwed over last year but not due to him, but rather due to people on the voting portion of the committee. I think when you change administrators things like this where there are massive problems always occur.

It was the same deal for me when I was volunteering at the VA and shadowing over there. The old coordinator was really really friendly like REL and bent his back backwards and forwards to help people but then some bad politics caused him to resign and the new lady was unhelpful and changed everything around completely that I left there. I think that's the same thing that's happening right now with USF.

As per USF and me, well I like the school but if I got into Miami main campus or UCF when I apply next year then it would have to be a very hard decision as Miami is kickass and my brother will be moving back down there in March so I'd have him around and UCF looks very promising too especially with ORMC and FL hospital system being already established as I always mention on here, plus the fact that i have friends who live in the area and can visit their families if I were to go there. Not sure what to make of FIU's new school. Don't think i'd have a shot at UF but my friend loves it up there and also have conflicting views about UF because they tend to have a lot higher budget yet they don't do much in the way of trying to make it easier on students through updated technology in the form of video-streaming for the kind who might get more done on their own time or need to go back to see the lecture if they missed something in class. Hell they don't even have white boards. There are just little things that conflict me about that school and freak me out esp whe I saw a friend who was so enthusiastic about it 2 years ago and is now implying a negative impression of the school after having an insiders point of view. Who knows, I guess where UF is concerned depends on the student. For my friend who went there I think it was a good choice for her but I think i'd feel out of place there. FSU I'd like with all its technological advances, friendly atmosphere, etc. if it didn't require students to go so far away for clinicals and not have a real clue where they'd be going for their clinical years since its on lottery system which I don't like. but I like their learning communities, the fact that they seem more about working together, and I kinda like how they separate out the Anat from other courses. I just wish there were better ideas towards clinicals and where one would be in 3rd and 4th year rather then random lottery system of deciding where one goes.
 
This is a tough question to answer because all the schools are very high quality schools and will give you a great education.


I won't say things in terms of drawbacks and high points but will highlight some major differences in terms of how classes are set up etc. to the best of what my knowledge and also some differences about their clinical facilities, etc. But before I do that I will say that people end up choosing the school they choose for a variety of reasons it is not about one being better then the other but a mix of different reasons. For those with multiple acceptances it might be due to the location (i.e. they have family in a particular area, they like a certain environment-rural vs. big city life.), it can be due to the class size (Boca has only 32 students at the moment compared to 165 at Miami, 135 roughly at UF, and 120-125 at USF, and 120 at FSU) so if you like that small class or big class size that will help sway decisions. For others it may be cheaper to go to one school vs. another. For some it may have to do with where their spouses will have best opportunities for their own career or educational goals. For yet others it has been the familiarity of already knowing the school intimately through its association with their undergrad institutions. These are just a few but there are more also in terms of differences in curricula and differences in patient care centers and general gut feeling of how the students were or wanting to go into rural medicine vs. research etc. Keep in mind I'm talking mostly from the standpoint of those who applied and got accepted to multiple schools. I'm not taking into acct the people who didnt' have a choice where they could go due to a single acceptance that was beyond their control.

now I'm going to make another post for the differences I've come to learn about regarding different schools.


So to continue my post from above......

UF: UF has a curricula that is more traditional in many ways. White coat ceremonies not held til 2nd year when the real clinicals start and mostly you work with patient dummies in years 1 and 2 and with standardized patients so as to help you ease into examining students rather then throwing you in the deep end. some people feel more comfortable doing this because they feel that they'd be more nervous if their first time was with a real patient. Others would prefer schools where they get to learn with real life patients from the get go. Another thing about UF is that they are different from USF in that rather then having 10 weeks of biochem and then starting anatomy in the middle of the fall and going into spring, they have a more semester like system where they take a set of classes over the period of a full semester. They also only have a 1 week orientation and get right into it whereas USF will have you take a 3 week course called POM. UF has two options: just getting an MD or doing their research track. For people highly interested in research, UF is an awesome school in terms of the fact that it has an abundance of research opportunities. One of the things that i think I did like better when I was reading up on UF and UMiami was that their neuro research was more extensive in that it was not just mostly geared towards aging and movmt disorders but more towards things that interest me like Epilepsy. Another thing a lot of people like about UF is that its hospital is on campus so you don't necessarily need to take a 30 minute drive to the hospital. Although all schools in Fl have high board passing rates, I've heard that UF's averages are roughly 230-235 which is one of their key selling points at interviews from what a few past interviewees from last year told me. Typically UF will start you from the beginning with courses like biochem, gross anat, histology, and a few others right from the get go and together. Like I said it is more like a semester sort of set up rather then block set up. Although I don't know if this is throughout the year, I know right now that their classes start at 12 in the afternoon and go til 5pm so you can sleep in. I'm not sure if they do videostreaming for lectures like USF and Miami do but attendance is not a requirement. Another thing abou UF is that they will take tests on computers in a format similar to the boards.

Ok so that's UF as far as my knowledge goes. For more specific questions you will have to PM that guy walter that was on here a few pages back or some of the other UF students.
 
Miami can be separated into two different campuses: The Boca Campus and the Main campus.

Both campuses have opportunities to the research opportunities and organizations etc. in the main Miami campus area of downtown Miami. However, the boca and main campus are about 45min to an hour away in distance and have very different feels to them.

Boca: Boca is a small 32 person program though they may increase seats at some point
(*Now it is a 64 seat program). At the moment their curricula focuses on using a problem based learning curricula in which there are small group sessions. Look up on wiki the exact definition of Problem based learning. Its hard to describe but involves less traditional lecture focus and more getting together and applying what you learn. It is similar to what LECOM bradenton DO school does. The board averages from what I understand are slightly higher at the Boca campus though this could be due to the smaller class size. Some speculate the PBL based schools often do very high on boards as well because of the learning style but I'm not too sure if that is the reason for the slight increase in scores. Their board scores are near what I said for UF. Umiami's main campus is closer to 224 or so as their average. They also have 5 times the students though that are present at the Boca campus. Boca does most of its clinicals in community hospitals around the boca campus. That is another difference between it and the main campus.

Main miami campus has the premier Jackson Memorial Hospital which is a pretty fast paced, highly busy teaching hospital. Lecture is more predominant over PBL although there are few sessions of PBL in second year. They use an organ based systems approach. Hence if you are taking pharm, pathology, and say immunology at some point, you will be focusing on the same system in all classes at the same time to help integrate things together. So They will have blocks like in second year for instance one of the blocks is called the Renal block so all classes you take at that time will do with only that system. One of the things they recently changed is that they put all of gross anat in year one whereas before they used to split it between two years. From my understanding, they do give year one and two students opportunities to do clinically related things through a preceptorship. I believe UF has some sort of preceptorship program as well. One of the benefits of UF or Miami main campus is their proximity to the hospital so you dont have to take a hike around town or across the state to do clinicals.

I forgot to mention regarding UF that they also have Shands Jacksonville which is where they do more of their high intensity rotations like EM. They also have had several students do away rotations at ORMC and a lot of students who stay in fl. match at ORMC the premier teaching hospital of Orlando that will soon be affiliated with UCFs new med school and that is currently affiliated with FSU's med school.
 
USF:

Years 1 and 2 use a block system of courses rather then a traditional semester approach or PBL approach. I'd say the closest thing to USF's way of doing things is Miami's main campus approach. They both have lectures which are videostreamed and tend to use the systems based approach through a more block like system rather then a semester system. UF uses the systems based approach but they use a more traditional semester like system. Lectures are morning lectures usually and go til mid afternoon or til late afternoon depending on the day and the course. The first 3 weeks include a course called professions of medicine in which they learn some basic clinical applications and study skills. its an extended orientation basically but it actually requires tests. In the past it was graded but now it is just pass/fail in nature. The real stuff starts shortly before the last week of POM and going into 10 weeks after which is the Molecular Medicine course. this will include histology, cell bio, genetics, biochem, etc. all integrated together. There will also be a medical ethics and humanities course during this time. After those 10 weeks, around the beginning of November you will start Gross anat and physiology which both go for about 5 months. You will also start preceptorships which you will do on a Tues or Thursday so which ever day you don't do preceptorships you will have free as a study day.

Other courses you will have to take in 1st year include coloquium, Phsyical Diagnosis I, clinical correlations class and diagnostic imaging classes which correspond with anatomy, and then after Anatomy and Physio block, you'll spend the last portion of year one in neuroscience and behavioral science.

During year 2 you will have 6 courses all at once and will include stuff like immuno, pathology, micro, pharm, etc. The basic idea is that year one you learn what the body is normally supposed to be like and during year two you learn what happens when things go wrong. You will also have a preceptorship and Physical diagnosis in this time. I also believe you have coloquium in year 2.

During the preceptorship you will have opportunity to learn clinical skills early on and interact with patients learning to take patient histories early on. You will also work with their new standardized patient center that they've gotten in the last few years to work with dummy patients or with actor patients.

During year 3 and 4 its your basic clinicals like elsehwere.

One of the things that is a slight drawback about USF is that it does not have as many good study spots and facilities in that sense as other schools like FSU, UF, or Miami from what I have seen and heard. However they are working on improving that. Recently in the last few years they've renovated their library to make more study areas in the library and more conference rooms available. Another thing they've done is make a new student lounge for the med students near the bookstore. They also have a new student gym so they don't have to go to main campus to work out. And I believe they have some study lounges near the grad school depts at the med school as well. And another thing they did to improve the school was create a new student computer lab near the IT office in which there is unlimited free printing as long as you bring your own paper. So those things that were drawbacks are slowly being improved. Another thing that I formerly saw as a drawback was their not having had an orthopedic or rad onco residency program but that has now been implemented. I think the new dean here is taking fast steps towards bringing a lot of good change to USF med in terms of adding new joint programs like the MD/MBA and official MD/PhD program or the IMS program implemented by the office of diversity affairs, or the new research buildings and facilities.

One thing a lot of people don't like about USF is the fact that the main teaching hospital is far away in that it is a 20-30 min drive to downtown tampa. Roughly it is 15 miles away from campus. Other facilities affiliated with clinicals at USF besides TGH include Shriners, Moffitt, the James A Haley VA, the USF medical clinic, the new South Tampa Center and 17 Davis, All Childrens, Bayfront care center, etc.


The board averages for USF are roughly 220-224 somewhere. Don't remember the exact number. But this is what I've read previously on
SDN.
 
Sorry the posts are long. USF is the longest only because I've done more extensive research into their program and know people here.

At the end which ever school you pick will be good.

one thing I will say is that people always say that the students are such and such at one school but such and such at another school. Don't listen to that because you can't predict who your classmates will be. One year a class might mostly have a bunch of gunners and another year they may be the most laid back people on earth. Its hard to predict who your classmates are so don't base your decisions on that. Also, I'd like to say go with your gut on what will be best for your goals and where you think you'll be most comfortable in terms of curricula, atmsophere, and other such factors.

Lastly, you can do well on the boards no matter where you go and if you really want it and do well you'll match into a good field though it might be harder to develop connections in certain schools within those fields. So just work hard no matter where you end up and at worst come to worse do away rotations if your school is not particularly strog in your desired field. Know that med school is what you make of it. So if you really want to do something then go after it in terms of research opportunities, clinical opportunities, and so forth.
 
Thank you so much! That really is a lot of information about all of the schools.

I agree (from what I've seen) with the writer about UF as being more of a traditional school. At my interview, they did sell their board scores, but it wasn't talked about nearly as much as I though it would be. Actually, they just give you some powerpoint slides in a packet and tell you to read them and don't really go over them that much (maybe for five minutes or so).

At my interview all of the students seemed friendly and approachable (and they had just gotten out of a test, too).

One thing I didn't like about UF was the fact that their lectures aren't video recorded, which can be helpful if you're sick and can't attend class or if you need clarification through hearing it again. I am a pretty self-taught learner as I learn better from reading textbooks and looking at powerpoint slides, so I don't think it will be an issue for me.
 
Thank you so much! That really is a lot of information about all of the schools.

I agree (from what I've seen) with the writer about UF as being more of a traditional school. At my interview, they did sell their board scores, but it wasn't talked about nearly as much as I though it would be. Actually, they just give you some powerpoint slides in a packet and tell you to read them and don't really go over them that much (maybe for five minutes or so).

At my interview all of the students seemed friendly and approachable (and they had just gotten out of a test, too).

One thing I didn't like about UF was the fact that their lectures aren't video recorded, which can be helpful if you're sick and can't attend class or if you need clarification through hearing it again. I am a pretty self-taught learner as I learn better from reading textbooks and looking at powerpoint slides, so I don't think it will be an issue for me.

The professors are also willing to go out of their way to help you understand the material, in case you do miss class or have trouble with a particular concept. The students told us that if they are ever studying on a Saturday for a class, such as Histology, on campus, a professor will walk in and help you if you have any questions.
 
Did i get to meet you yesterday or Sunday night? How was your test?
Unfortunately, I didn't meet with the interviewees this past Sunday but did the three weeks before that. Our next test (1st year) is on the 21st, our first anatomy practical!

Does anybody know when the USF COM office closes for winter break? I guess lifetimedoc could best answer this. I remember someone saying they closed on Dec 22nd and opened the first or second week in Jan, but I'm not positive. Thanks.

The offices should be closed when we end classes for the year which will be at the close of business on the 21st of December. They should open the first week of January. As REL said, they may have someone in the office during the break, but I don't really know.
 
Something new at USF in our gross anatomy lab. This year, all of our cadavers (about 30) were sent through a portable CT scanner, and all of the results have been provided to us for use and study during the dissections in class. I believe we are the first school to provide this to students, and so far it's been interesting to be able to see the internal structures before we dissect. We can also import the data into OsiriX (only for Macintosh, unfortunately) and generate 3D views of the surface and internal structures. Kinda interesting additional study information since we will be viewing anatomy in cross section (and 3D views) anyways during our careers.
Very cool; that will come in helpful. How are you liking med school so far?
I could not agree with you more. I interviewed there today and I could not have been more impressed. I can't think of one negative thing to say. Btw I think they have the best interview day food.
No way; Wash U by far wins the award for best interview day food. 😛 Gotta agree with you about Miami being an awesome school though. 🙂

P.S. Please, please, PLEASE tell me that you weren't born in 1991. OMG, I was a junior in HS!!!
 
Very cool; that will come in helpful. How are you liking med school so far?

😛 Gotta agree with you about Miami being an awesome school though. 🙂

I can't think of a more dynamic and up and coming school than Miami...with the relatively new dean and recent purchase of Cedars Sinai medical center, the school is skyrocketing 🙂
 
Just an FYI, UF doesnt officially record lectures but after a couple weeks of classes you will elect a communications chair which will end up recording audio for lectures which you will have access to. I know this has happened for at least the past few years. As long as attendance doesn't completely fall apart for classes the professors don't have a problem with this.

Thank you so much! That really is a lot of information about all of the schools.

I agree (from what I've seen) with the writer about UF as being more of a traditional school. At my interview, they did sell their board scores, but it wasn't talked about nearly as much as I though it would be. Actually, they just give you some powerpoint slides in a packet and tell you to read them and don't really go over them that much (maybe for five minutes or so).

At my interview all of the students seemed friendly and approachable (and they had just gotten out of a test, too).

One thing I didn't like about UF was the fact that their lectures aren't video recorded, which can be helpful if you're sick and can't attend class or if you need clarification through hearing it again. I am a pretty self-taught learner as I learn better from reading textbooks and looking at powerpoint slides, so I don't think it will be an issue for me.
 
Congrats Zissou!!👍

I myself just got in at UM-Boca!!! My first acceptance :banana:!!!
 
Congrats to all Miami acceptees!
 
in at miami!!!

Did you cure something I'm not aware of? congrats though. Wow, USF, UF, and now Miami gave the green light. Which one are you leaning towards? Suffice it to say, I wish I had your problem; which school to choose. Does the third acceptance still feel like the first?
 
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