Florida Schools Application Thread (2008) part 2

Started by greg1184
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I am so frickin' steamed right now😡😡

I could understand doing this crap to get into an undergrad program, but to ride on your frickin daddy's coat tails to get into medical school is the biggest pile of f&!k&^g bull#^*. Becoming a physician is hard for a reason. Peoples life will be in your hands, is this kids dad gonna save them when he realizes his kid's to stupid to do it himself. Oh and I will judge, even though I haven't met him. It's easy to see that this kid's an immature, spoiled brat, *****. How do I know this about him..... he wants to go to medical school and doesn't take the frickin MCAT or fill out his AMCAS. I hope I never meet this kid, you bet I will tell him about some of the friends of mine that would give the left and right [insert gametic organ her] to get into medical school. I'm with you UFmed, it is the biggest slap in the face!

PUNCHING A WALL RIGHT NOW!!!

And then to drive Dr. Watson away! HE was the nicest, grandest, most congenial and sincere individual I met during the entire interview process. WTF!😡

I can't wait to start hearing some good news. We should start a website to get Kone fired(if of course he is the root of the problem). Maybe firekone.com?
 
D-Bone said:
http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080410/NEWS/804100319/1007/NEWS
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I want my f&*($%g 30 dollars back!!! 😡

In fact, I want to see that Dean leave tomorrow, and the kid's admission should be revoked, NOW! They should let one of the many highly qualified waitlisted applicants get that spot. To think this MCAT-lacking political favor will keep a deserving waitlisted applicant from getting an acceptance is incredibly low.

Did he do any kind of application at all, special ******* permission? WTH is that? How can the med school accept an applicaiton without an MCAT nor AMCAS. WTF!! This kind of crap does NOT happen at other places and probably hasn't for a long time, so this is undefendable and the Dean and applicant in question should be booted out.
 
wow, I can't even jump on the bandwagon for this masacre. I am tempted to say it. I have to say it. Should I?


Yea what the hell.


I told you so. :barf::barf::barf:+pissed++pissed+:d:bullcrap::bullcrap::corny:
 
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I think the most disheartening comment was the one made by Lynn Romrell in the donor article: "There is a real risk that faculty will look at the situation and make the decision that I made to go somewhere the atmosphere is more supportive," 😱
 
I was reading the comments from the news paper and someone called him Darth Kone. I think it's quite fitting.
Episode_5_Darth_Vader.jpg
Can someone who is well versed in photoshop put you know who's face in this pic.
 
It just brings about a whole bunch of other questions that I hope can be answered at the Second Look. I certainly have a lot more respect for Dr. Gessner for sticking to his principles though - I had the fortune of meeting him, and seeing this happen is... well, can't think of an adjective.
🙁
 
Okay, I stand by my previous opinions that questionable things probably take place at most, if not all, schools from time to time, but...

The more I learn about this story, the more it pisses me off! I take this personally. I am a UF alum. I have a 33 MCAT. (Definitely not mind blowing, but a very competitive score at the school.) In addition, it is highly unlikely that this kid had a much higher GPA than mine. My AMCAS and secondaries were well done. I had very solid letters of rec (or so interviewers at other schools told me), mostly from UF profs. There is very little doubt in my mind that I would have at least secured an interview at UF, and I think I would have stood a very good chance of getting in, if I had turned in my app 3 or 4 months earlier. However, I made the idiotic move of applying (extremely) late. Now, I did not deserve to get into UF, because I turned in my app a week before the deadline, which is unacceptable. BUT THIS DIRTY JOKER DIDN'T EVEN TURN IN AN APPLICATION! OR TAKE THE MCAT! He didn't even apply until February! I demand to know what is so exceptional about him that none of the rules even appear to apply to him. Unless he won a Nobel Prize for curing cancer....(I just checked, he didn't)....then I don't see what could possibly BE so exceptional. I'm not saying that I'm the deserving student who will not get in because of this Kone jackass. I'm not. But there is one out there. And this kind of thing should make people furious.

Previously, I said that there is corruption in everything, and that this is not a unique problem at UF. But, in light of the latest details to come out of this story, I have to say that UF DOES HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM, AND HE SHOULD BE DEALT WITH. As for the Mendehlson guy, or whatever his name is...for all I know he's a good guy. Maybe he's had things handed to him like this his whole life, and he doesn't know anything different. I wouldn't encourage anyone to treat him badly because of this, but it's going to happen. Watch. He'll be an outcast in his class, because everyone else will be resentful that they had to work so hard to get where they're at, and he just had daddy buy it for him. And who can blame them?
 
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This issue better be addressed during the second look weekend. I think all future students deserve to know exactly what the college plans to do about this issue, what is going to happen to the dean, and if it will influence the students in any way.

If the dean is capable of admitting a student without taking the MCAT and applying past the deadline, what's next? What other faculty are going to leave the college? During my interview I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Watson and his encouraging words and kindness left me with a great impression of the school and its future. I really am disappointed he won't be there.🙁
 
Tertbutyl said:
This issue better be addressed during the second look weekend. I think all future students deserve to know exactly what the college plans to do about this issue, what is going to happen to the dean, and if it will influence the students in any way.

If the dean is capable of admitting a student without taking the MCAT and applying past the deadline, what's next? What other faculty are going to leave the college? During my interview I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Watson and his encouraging words and kindness left me with a great impression of the school and its future. I really am disappointed he won't be there.🙁
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AMEN
 
wally47 said:
I was reading the comments from the news paper and someone called him Darth Kone. I think it's quite fitting. Can someone who is well versed in photoshop put you know who's face in this pic.
Click to expand...

deanle4.jpg
 
This probably isn't the right thread for this, but I figured that I could take advantage of all the aspiring Floridian pre-meds to help me out with a question =P

Right now I'm at Palm Beach Community College in Boca Raton. I went this semester (spring) and I'm also going over the summer for another 12 credits. I haven't taken any pre-reqs, just a bunch of general education/nursing requirements since I wanted to start going to college right away when I got out of the Navy a couple of months ago. I'm transferring to a University in Fall, and I'm sure my GPA from PBCC will be a 4.0

My question is, how do the Florida schools view community college credits?
I heard that Nova doesn't accept ANY CC credits (not that I want to go to Nova, so it's no big deal). What about all the other major schools? Has anybody taken some courses at community colleges and had any negative experiences trying to get into Florida med schools?
 
ScratELT said:
This probably isn't the right thread for this, but I figured that I could take advantage of all the aspiring Floridian pre-meds to help me out with a question =P

Right now I'm at Palm Beach Community College in Boca Raton. I went this semester (spring) and I'm also going over the summer for another 12 credits. I haven't taken any pre-reqs, just a bunch of general education/nursing requirements since I wanted to start going to college right away when I got out of the Navy a couple of months ago. I'm transferring to a University in Fall, and I'm sure my GPA from PBCC will be a 4.0

My question is, how do the Florida schools view community college credits?
I heard that Nova doesn't accept ANY CC credits (not that I want to go to Nova, so it's no big deal). What about all the other major schools? Has anybody taken some courses at community colleges and had any negative experiences trying to get into Florida med schools?
Click to expand...

CC credits are okay as long as they are not for the main prerequisites (orgo, phys, bio, chm, upper level sciences, etc.). If you are transferring to a university this Fall, then I assume that you'll have about 24-36 credits from the CC; just as long as you continue to do well in university courses, you will be fine.
 
mdgator said:
In addition, it is highly unlikely that this kid had a much higher GPA than mine.
Click to expand...

There's something I'm not understanding about Ben Medelsohn. The news story said he applied for the UF undergrad/MD program a year before all this happened. And they say he did (or is doing) his undergrad at Northwestern. 😕

Anyone else confused? Either he's getting into UF COM as a college freshman, or he applied for the UF junior honors program as a college student.
 
Hermit, that pic is awesome!!!!!

Well axl, and the rest who called it in the beginning, good call on cronyism. It worked for the president (getting into Yale, into governorship, and into presidency) but it didn't work out for the American public. Just like it will work to get this kid in, but it will end up hurting the university or worse off future patients.
 
Norua said:
There's something I'm not understanding about Ben Medelsohn. The news story said he applied for the UF undergrad/MD program in 2007. And they say he did (or is doing) his undergrad at Northwestern. 😕

Anyone else confused? Either he's applying for med school as a college freshman, or he applied for the junior honors program as a college student.
Click to expand...

The article said he was accepted for regular admission to the MD program which is part of the reason why I am so outraged.

Did you guys see the email he sent to his staff? How many cliches can you use in one sentence? His letter seemed to suggest that he was some how saving the medical school(mother ship) by doing what he did. Big deal the kid's dad gave away 30,000 and helps raise 100,000 for Crist. That's chump change compared to the 5 million dollar donation they lost by driving away Dr. Watson. AGGHHHHHH
 
ScratELT said:
This probably isn't the right thread for this, but I figured that I could take advantage of all the aspiring Floridian pre-meds to help me out with a question =P

Right now I'm at Palm Beach Community College in Boca Raton. I went this semester (spring) and I'm also going over the summer for another 12 credits. I haven't taken any pre-reqs, just a bunch of general education/nursing requirements since I wanted to start going to college right away when I got out of the Navy a couple of months ago. I'm transferring to a University in Fall, and I'm sure my GPA from PBCC will be a 4.0

My question is, how do the Florida schools view community college credits?
I heard that Nova doesn't accept ANY CC credits (not that I want to go to Nova, so it's no big deal). What about all the other major schools? Has anybody taken some courses at community colleges and had any negative experiences trying to get into Florida med schools?
Click to expand...

I went to a community college for my first two years and transferred to a university and I've had two interviews (one high waitlist and I'm still waiting on a decision from the other school). I think that as long as you don't take CC classes after transferring to a university, you should be fine. For example, you decided to take Physics II at a CC because you felt that the university's Physics class was harder. Good luck :luck:

As for the UF issue, I've only been an onlooker of this argument for the last couple of days but I was shocked when I read that this student NEVER took the MCAT. I had to take the MCAT 3 times and never even received a Secondary from UF. Heck, they didn't even want my $30 this year 🙄. It almost seems like this kid decided 2 months ago that he wanted to go to med school. He obviously didn't prepare for it or he would've actually applied a lot sooner. Students like us have worked our butts off only to get waitlisted or rejected and this kid is handed a letter of acceptance for "nothing". I say "nothing" because they have yet to disclose what "exceptional" qualities this student has. However, the majority of the schools look for a good GPA AND a good MCAT score. Not one or the other.
 
ScratELT said:
This probably isn't the right thread for this, but I figured that I could take advantage of all the aspiring Floridian pre-meds to help me out with a question =P

Right now I'm at Palm Beach Community College in Boca Raton. I went this semester (spring) and I'm also going over the summer for another 12 credits. I haven't taken any pre-reqs, just a bunch of general education/nursing requirements since I wanted to start going to college right away when I got out of the Navy a couple of months ago. I'm transferring to a University in Fall, and I'm sure my GPA from PBCC will be a 4.0

My question is, how do the Florida schools view community college credits?
I heard that Nova doesn't accept ANY CC credits (not that I want to go to Nova, so it's no big deal). What about all the other major schools? Has anybody taken some courses at community colleges and had any negative experiences trying to get into Florida med schools?
Click to expand...

scarlet, actually this is the appropriate place for your question. the outrageous things going on at UF have temporarily taken over, though. Don't sweat the CC credits. I took chem and orgo at a cc, before I transferred to UF. I just saved a lot of money by staying at home an extra year. Adcoms understand things like this. When you transfer, just take a lot of upper level science courses, and excel in them. You'll be fine. It never came up at any of my interviews.
 
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mdgator said:
scarlet, actually this is the appropriate place for your question. the outrageous things going on at UF have temporarily taken over, though. Don't sweat the CC credits. I took chem and orgo at a cc, before I transferred to UF. I just saved a lot of money by staying at home an extra year. Adcoms understand things like this. When you transfer, just take a lot of upper level science courses, and excel in them. You'll be fine. It never came up at any of my interviews.
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sorry...SCRATELT...I misread that, obviously
 
mdgator said:
sorry...SCRATELT...I misread that, obviously
Click to expand...

Lol, no problem.. thanks for the reply. And to the other people who replied as well. I was pretty stressed about the whole CC credit thing.. my thought process was "oh great, I've aready started myself off behind everybody else in an already super-competitive race".
 
Don't worry about it. I took some CC classes in high school (just some gen-eds). I think generally you're fine if you don't take the pre-reqs at a CC. I know a lot of people at UCF who go to Valencia to take organic and physics.....not too sure how good that looks.
 
ScratELT said:
My question is, how do the Florida schools view community college credits?
I heard that Nova doesn't accept ANY CC credits (not that I want to go to Nova, so it's no big deal). What about all the other major schools? Has anybody taken some courses at community colleges and had any negative experiences trying to get into Florida med schools?
Click to expand...

I went to a CC and had no trouble transferring my credits to UF, and have been accepted to three schools, two in FL. I believe the rule in FL is that the community college credits are completely transferable to state universities by law. However, your GPA may not be transferable. UF for instance, does not recognize GPA's by other institutions including Ivy's, other state schools, wherever. UF gives every transfer student a new UF-GPA based on credits earned at UF, and your UFGPA is used to calculate honors, rankings, and such.

However, I have friends at other state schools including UNF and FSU and they said their GPA's transferred, so they didn't have to start out with a brand new GPA. They got to keep their 4.0 from their community college work and build on it at the university.

Also, once you start applying through AMCAS your TOTAL undergraduate credits are considered for you undergrad and science GPA, not just the credits or courses that were used for your degree.
 
Norua said:
There's something I'm not understanding about Ben Medelsohn. The news story said he applied for the UF undergrad/MD program a year before all this happened. And they say he did (or is doing) his undergrad at Northwestern. 😕

Anyone else confused? Either he's getting into UF COM as a college freshman, or he applied for the UF junior honors program as a college student.
Click to expand...

I wondered about this too. And while the consensus is he did not take the MCAT, we really don't know this for certain, though it appears this was confirmed by a committee member. Is it possible he took them and simply did not have to submit them? I'm not defending him at all...I think this whole situation is deplorable. We could ask the guy himself (NW e-mail??)
 
Tertbutyl said:
Don't worry about it. I took some CC classes in high school (just some gen-eds). I think generally you're fine if you don't take the pre-reqs at a CC. I know a lot of people at UCF who go to Valencia to take organic and physics.....not too sure how good that looks.
Click to expand...

Rule of thumb from adcoms seems to be that it is allright to take pre-reqs at a CC if they were part of getting an AA or something.

However, your example is the classic reason some adcoms frown at pre-reqs done at a CC. If you are already enrolled at a university, it is expected of you to continue to take your pre-reqs and the majority of your classes at your university, not just the ones you think will be easy.
 
Just a heads up, but it may be a violation of terms and services to have that picture up. I remember that in another thread a lot of posts had to be deleted because it had links and pictures of another person's myspace page.

I could be wrong though.
 
Dendrite said:
I remember that in another thread a lot of posts had to be deleted because it had links and pictures of another person's myspace page.
Click to expand...
Meh...if it's a problem, some hard working moderator who lists that as an EC will fix it.
 
D-Bone said:
I wondered about this too. And while the consensus is he did not take the MCAT, we really don't know this for certain, though it appears this was confirmed by a committee member. Is it possible he took them and simply did not have to submit them? I'm not defending him at all...I think this whole situation is deplorable. We could ask the guy himself (NW e-mail??)
Click to expand...

Haha, ya, I mean it really is freakin unbelievable that Kone is such an idiot as to admit a student that doesn't even have a MCAT score, and also applied past the deadline. I wouldn't find it hard to believe if Machen too had something to do with this whole situation. But I think it won't be long before Kone announces his resignation. There's no way he'll be around much longer, especially after that ridiculous e-mail. It will be interesting to see what happens to this Medelsohn guy though...
 
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chemcu said:
what's even more sickening is that it says UF Grad Student '12 on his page...an absolute travesty.

this whole thing (probably more appropriately Dean Kone) has really soured my view of UF :barf:
Click to expand...

Anybody else really tempted to facebook email the guy? Maybe a simple, "tsk, tsk, tsk..."
 
Quoting Kone's email (find it here):

"I followed University Policy and precedent (Dr. Tisher 2002, oddly enough), Delivered a great student. Took many bullets for the team. Protected the mother ship. More great things to come. Another obvious assassination attempt."

??? Some of what he's saying could be interpreted to mean he's protecting higher ups (Machen, perhaps?) But the rest of that paragraph is like gibberish to me.
 
Norua said:
Quoting Kone's email (find it here):

"I followed University Policy and precedent (Dr. Tisher 2002, oddly enough), Delivered a great student. Took many bullets for the team. Protected the mother ship. More great things to come. Another obvious assassination attempt."

??? Some of what he's saying could be interpreted to mean he's protecting higher ups (Machen, perhaps?) But the rest of that paragraph is like gibberish to me.
Click to expand...

Haha, well according to Machen:

Asked whether Kone's reference to protecting the "mother ship" implied that he was pressured to accept the student, Machen responded Wednesday, "Please don't make inferences that would be pure conjecture . . . I assure you neither I nor any member of my staff had any involvement in the medical student admission decision."

But can you believe him? 🙄
 
I was quick to jump on Kone too, and most likely he has something to do with it, but his email to Machen makes me think there is something else, much larger going on. First of all, Mendohlson's (spelling?) letters of rec were copied to Machen, and Machen has been a fixture in Florida a lot longer than Kone has, as far as political connections; Kone just got here from UT-Houston. The paragraph in the email, albeit a rant, points at something bigger. <"Took many bullets for the team. Protected the mothership"> If Kone was acting alone, why would he say protecting the mothership, i.e. the University of Florida. Unless Kone is actually so self-righteous as to believe he did nothing wrong, why would he write such a charged email, chewing out the President's office? If Machen was involved, all this stuff came out, and now Machen's using Kone as the fall guy, I hope Kone has some evidence to bring Bernie down with him. I mean, think about it, in my opinion, there is no other move left but for Kone to step down. Academic types like Kone want to be in a university setting, but what ethical institution is going to hire him right now?
 
SwampGator said:
I was quick to jump on Kone too, and most likely he has something to do with it, but his email to Machen makes me think there is something else, much larger going on. First of all, Mendohlson's (spelling?) letters of rec were copied to Machen, and Machen has been a fixture in Florida a lot longer than Kone has, as far as political connections; Kone just got here from UT-Houston. The paragraph in the email, albeit a rant, points at something bigger. <"Took many bullets for the team. Protected the mothership"> If Kone was acting alone, why would he say protecting the mothership, i.e. the University of Florida. Unless Kone is actually so self-righteous as to believe he did nothing wrong, why would he write such a charged email, chewing out the President's office? If Machen was involved, all this stuff came out, and now Machen's using Kone as the fall guy, I hope Kone has some evidence to bring Bernie down with him. I mean, think about it, in my opinion, there is no other move left but for Kone to step down. Academic types like Kone want to be in a university setting, but what ethical institution is going to hire him right now?
Click to expand...
If indeed this is true (and at this point, like Machen says, we're all just speculating), Kone has only one move left and that's to provide some sort of smoking gun proving that it was Machen who authorized this admission and pressured Kone into taking responsibility. I mean, if UF's going to force him to resign anyway and Kone is completely blameless, he's gonna have to clear his own name if he wants any kind of future in this business.

But I'm not so quick to believe Kone is that clean. It was still Bruce Kone who fired Dr. Watson seven months before he was scheduled to retire.
 
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"Aca hay gato encerrado"

What would possess a dean of a school of medicine to potentially taint a University's reputation and ruin his own academic career? All this for a spoiled little brat, son of an ophthalmologist (I did not know that ophtho had this much political pull), who happened to donate chunk change to Crist's campaign, whose administration is single handledly sinking florida higher education (budget cuts?), while at the same time the same dean is putting in danger a major direct donation to UFMed from the Watson fiasco.
Something here, just does not smell right.

PS: Are all people from this thread gonna have post acceptance rejections tomorrow from all FL schools?:scared::scared:😕😕:scared::scared:
 
I do find it very interesting that as stated above the rec letters from elected officials from Pruitt (sp?), Governor Crist, and maybe more, were not in the students admissions file at the medical college. Instead these letters were kept at Machen's office. I am now thinking the pressure from these officials came from the top downand as an above poster said, Dr. Kone himself may have been pressured to accept this student, and considering Dr. Kone is new to the school, he may be the intended fall guy for the UF administration.
 
By the way, to the people who inferred all those things from the Kone letter. You must have done pretty well in the VR section of the MCAT. You guys have some sharp skills. However, something tells me that Dr Kone is not the type of person that would be pupeteered but rather the pupeteer himself as past accounts have demonstrated.
 
Just to fix some confusion that has been in the last few pages. Alan Mendelsohn the campaign donor has his opthamology practice in Hollywood, FL near Ft. Laudy and that area. Not in Hollywood, California. He also got his MD from Northwestern by the way.

His practice's website is here: http://www.myeyesurgeons.com/
But appearantly it is not much of one.
 
ufgrad00 said:
Just to fix some confusion that has been in the last few pages. Alan Mendelsohn the campaign donor has his opthamology practice in Hollywood, FL near Ft. Laudy and that area. Not in Hollywood, California. He also got his MD from Northwestern by the way.

His practice's website is here: http://www.myeyesurgeons.com/
But appearantly it is not much of one.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the heads up UFGrad, otherwise it was just TOO fishy.
 
There's definitely something screwy going on in Gainesville. You've got Darth Kone on one side (with more than one professor accusing Kone of using fear of retribution to prevent faculty from speaking up), and on the other you've got Machen pressuring Kone to accept Mendelsohn. The two don't seem to compute.

I got in touch with a prof at UF about this whole situation...he's been away from campus for the past week and is in as much shock as we are. I hope someone gets to the bottom of this soon.
 
I want the Florida thread back 🙁

I'm down with bashing UF. I am an alum, volunteered 3 years at Shands, research at their new oncology wing, 32, 3.8, NO INTERVIEW... but I'm sick of hearing about it.

Can we either start a new thread for this UF garbage or can we start a new Florida thread. I asked a USF financial aid question yesterday and it got lost in the mess 🙁

::END RANT::
 
pandulce321 said:
I want the Florida thread back 🙁

I'm down with bashing UF. I am an alum, volunteered 3 years at Shands, research at their new oncology wing, 32, 3.8, NO INTERVIEW... but I'm sick of hearing about it.

Can we either start a new thread for this UF garbage or can we start a new Florida thread. I asked a USF financial aid question yesterday and it got lost in the mess 🙁

::END RANT::
Click to expand...

should we start usf bashing? jk
 
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