would sending in a loi after you've been waitlisted help you move up in ranking on the waitlist or does it not make a difference since they've already ranked you?
VERY unlikely to make any difference at USF
would sending in a loi after you've been waitlisted help you move up in ranking on the waitlist or does it not make a difference since they've already ranked you?
I believe UM's ranking system is akin to USF's; i.e. once you receive your "number" there isn't much you can do past that point. What gives with all these waitlists being handed out this week? Are schools basically filled at this point? Such a frustrating process![]()
would sending in a loi after you've been waitlisted help you move up in ranking on the waitlist or does it not make a difference since they've already ranked you?
Unfortunately, we cannot disclose where you are on the alternate list. The committee has a few more meetings to make final decisions. As of right now, it is only a matter of waiting. You will be contacted once the committee decides status change. Thank you for your patience and interest in the UMMSM.
Good luck!
Francia G Portacio
Just got the boot from Miami.FSU don't fail me now!
Just got the boot from Miami.FSU don't fail me now!
I'm beginning to wonder the same thing. I mean, I had a pretty good relationship with all of my LOR authors. One of whom I conducted research for, another was my former pediatrician, another a physics prof. who also was pretty close. I asked USF about it and they told me they weren't strong enough and that I needed more shadowing. It's very difficult to say because being confidential I can't really access the letters.
I don't mean to promote myself to the nth degree or anything, but I would think someone with a 3.9, a 29 mcat (not great but not terrible), shadowed a pediatrician, gen. surgeon, ophth, and a GP; did drug research, volunteered at a hospital for 4 years, non-profit chairman, shriners volunteer, ER volunteer, other clubs and orginizations, music therapy, etc. Sheesh, can't one school give me a green light?
I'm beginning to wonder the same thing. I mean, I had a pretty good relationship with all of my LOR authors. One of whom I conducted research for, another was my former pediatrician, another a physics prof. who also was pretty close. I asked USF about it and they told me they weren't strong enough and that I needed more shadowing. It's very difficult to say because being confidential I can't really access the letters.
I don't mean to promote myself to the nth degree or anything, but I would think someone with a 3.9, a 29 mcat (not great but not terrible), shadowed a pediatrician, gen. surgeon, ophth, and a GP; did drug research, volunteered at a hospital for 4 years, non-profit chairman, shriners volunteer, ER volunteer, other clubs and orginizations, music therapy, etc. Sheesh, can't one school give me a green light?
So UF waitlisters were informed this week, including myself. Did anyone receive or hear of any rejections this week?
Does USF even send rejection letters? Because interviews are over and I haven't even received that. Very weird. Oh well. Little more than 3 months until med school. 🙂
I completely disagree. SMPs are expensive and are usually for people who don't have enough coursework in upper level sciences or for GPA issues or for poor MCATs. *that does not sound like MedGuy83's situation. Find something cool to do for the year - like a funded research job - go to the NIH - people eat that up. Or do something that you wanna do and stay connected.if I were in your psoition, I'd quietly apply to SMP programs as a back up and hope for one of the more well known ones if the deadlines have not passed yet. Preferably seems like Gtowns would be good for you cuz then you could get new letters as well.
You're a sweetheart and a great resource my dear, but you're way too "SMP-happy". Not trying to start a fight, but I've been following your posts for at least a year now.if I were in your psoition, I'd quietly apply to SMP programs as a back up and hope for one of the more well known ones if the deadlines have not passed yet. Preferably seems like Gtowns would be good for you cuz then you could get new letters as well.
You're a sweetheart and a great resource my dear, but you're way too "SMP-happy". Not trying to start a fight, but I've been following your posts for at least a year now.
I completely disagree. SMPs are expensive and are usually for people who don't have enough coursework in upper level sciences or for GPA issues or for poor MCATs. *that does not sound like MedGuy83's situation. Find something cool to do for the year - like a funded research job - go to the NIH - people eat that up. Or do something that you wanna do and stay connected.
Honestly, it's a crapshoot, but you're still in the game. If you need to make plans for next year I might consider retaking the MCAT and doing what I said above. Also, this is not personal, but call up the admissions offices and find out how you can improve your application. A lot of schools set up meetings to do this and it can be VERY helpful.
How many LOR's does UFCOM requires?
how many from faculty?
how many from a physician? (shadowing)
or peers?
I'm not sure how many they require, but I had 6 letters (crap that seems like a lot). I know that they do indeed require a peer letter that you need to send in. I just had one of my close friends write that for me. I used my school's pre-professional office, so I had a letter from them, 2 from science professors, 1 from a non-science professor, and one from a doctor.
I think at a minimum, you would need 4-5 depending if your school has a pre-professional office that writes letters. 2 from science faculty, 1 from non science faculty, 1 from a peer, and maybe 1 from your school.
in the past I wouldn't have advised him to do that because his profile seemed solid but mroe and more I'm thinking it is bad letters and the fact that he needs to do something that can both show he can hack med school at the same time as giving him a way out of having to use bad professors and get better professor letters because it seems his most trusted professors were the ones who might have screwed him over. It is true that he should speak to an adcom member but if you read above it seems he already did that and that they told him that his letters are weak.
Also...third time applying...I want to nkow more and find out what the op did in his year off. Also, bad letters? For someone to tell you that you have bad letters...that must be really bad.... Sorry...I haven't heard that much in terms of BAD letters. I've heard of useless letters. AND...if it's a 3rd time application, and you did all this GREAT stuff in years off and have GREAT EC's, how do you get BAD LETTERS? I'm sorry, this is suspicious.Finally one last point, USF seems to be keen on taking a lot of people who've done SMP programs and that was his first choice if you read any of his past posts throughout the year. A good high percentage of people who've gotten in have done such things.
Again, let me reiterate that I would not advise this if it was not his 3rd time applying. But he's already done the year off thing once before and tried to do cool things and improve his application to no avail, so obviously there is something besides his ECs which seem to be the problem.
But Medguy83, do talk to Leila Amiri and Dr. Gonzalez of the USF adcom if you dont get into FSU this year. Ask them what their opinion is on this issue and also PM REL or email him.
Also...third time applying...I want to nkow more and find out what the op did in his year off. Also, bad letters? For someone to tell you that you have bad letters...that must be really bad.... Sorry...I haven't heard that much in terms of BAD letters. I've heard of useless letters. AND...if it's a 3rd time application, and you did all this GREAT stuff in years off and have GREAT EC's, how do you get BAD LETTERS? I'm sorry, this is suspicious.
I am just saying what I read above if you read his post. This is his second time applying this year. If he doesn't get in, it will be his 3rd time. Not bad as in extremely horrible, but he said his letters were weak is what he was told. You'd be surprised by how many people would not necessarily write good letters just because you got a good score or did good things. Some professors tell you they will write a good letter for you and then don't necessarily do what they promised...either it is weak because they don't care really and just right a standard letter or they don't like premeds and have written bad letters behind a person's back. I've heard stories of this nature many, many, many times on here.
I do get a huge suspicion that his LORs could be a problem if he himself is saying that he was told they were weak.
Furthermore, this was his second time applying and he did the year off, tried to do music therapy and volunteering in a clinical setting from his above post. What it looks like is that he didn't get in again and got the same position on the waitlist. Maybe it is time to start thinking about other options because ECs only do so much and if you've been keeping up with this thread you'd know his situation. I have been keeping up with it even when I've not read other things on SDN for a year and it seems that there are other thngs he ought to consider.
Also, you say that just because he has a 3.9 that should correlate to a higher MCAT score, but the fact of the matter is at USF there are many, many, many people who have a 3.7-4.0 GPA who can't get past maybe 27 even with taking it multiple times. USF's GPA says nothing about how they'll do on the MCAT because their courses are not all that difficult and depending on how you schedule your classes. Now I'm not saying that medguy can't do it, I'm just saying don't make assumptions as it is easy to do.
P.S. I don't advise people to do SMP as a first choice any longer even though I might have in the past. But if you are in the situation where you might end up applying for the 3rd time and have done the whole year off thing and other stuff, then I'd say there are certain last resorts that I'd consider.
Also...volunteering and music therapy in your year off...
NOT as impressive as year off of research with publications 🙂
Also...third time applying...I want to nkow more and find out what the op did in his year off. Also, bad letters? For someone to tell you that you have bad letters...that must be really bad.... Sorry...I haven't heard that much in terms of BAD letters. I've heard of useless letters. AND...if it's a 3rd time application, and you did all this GREAT stuff in years off and have GREAT EC's, how do you get BAD LETTERS? I'm sorry, this is suspicious.
I find it odd that they interviewed him 2 years in a row to put him low tier waitlist. That's what I found most suspicious and why i thought along with his post about the LOR situation because the only time I've heard of such things happening when other things have been decent.
From my recollection, I think he said his GPA and MCAT were not a problem (at least average). This shows you that there are multiple intangible aspects to the application process. The place where many great applicants (at least on paper) fall short are the essays and interviews. Plenty of people with 4.0 GPAs and 35+ MCATs are either low-tier waitlisted or rejected because of major problems in these categories. I urge you to recognize that it's not just about numbers folks.
I'm sorry to hear about this, it makes me upset. At the same time, please if you're going to listen to ANYTHING we've said, make sure it's that you TALK TO ADMISSION DIRECTORS! Get in touch with them, make appointments. You can even make appointments with people at schools you haven't applied to around april-may between application cycles to talk about how to make yourself more competitive.Wow, it's interesting to see my sad story has sparked such debate and discussion in the FL thread. I'm not sure if I have anything else significant to add. If I did retake the mcat I'd definitely study via a kaplan or princeton review course; something I opted not to do initially, so I would assume I could bump it up at least 1 or 2 points. I guess taking it a second time wouldn't be that much of a red flag. But that's really not the issue. From what I gathered my scores weren't really the problem.
When I interviewed with USF the first time around my interviews weren't very good. Two days before I came down with laryngitis, felt horrible, and everything just didn't go well. I was placed at the bottom tier and told that the main reason was clinical experience. I needed more patient contact and volunteer activities to show my dedication to the field.
So after volunteering at local hospital I started to volunteer at an ER, did some more shadowing, engaged in non-P work, got around 4-5 new LOR's, wrote to at least 30 physicians and clinics in order to get more clinical exp. My interviews this time around went very well. During this time of volunteer activities I had to hold down local part time jobs; not exactly working at moffitt (and believe me I've sent numerous applications there as well). I managed to talk with a researcher at moffitt involved in immunotherapy. When looking at my resume she commented that I was either a premed or someone on route to a doctoral program; she said either way they were looking for someone who would definitely be there for the long term and I apparently wasn't it. When I first applied to USF REL told me that many other applicants had been shadowing since they were around 12, so they had an upper hand of long term clinical experiences. Since basically deciding upon medicine upon entering college, I found going back in time in order to beat others to the punch very challenging.
The long and short of it is this; I worked very hard in order to succeed in college and be competitive enough for med school. I engaged in the type of EC's most applicants participate in; hospitals, shadowing, non-P, research, etc. I feel that instead of having spent my time getting A's and wiping down gurneys I should have forked over a few thousand bucks, gone to Africa, costa rica or something for a few years and come back with grandious stories of how I saved villages and built wells. I'm not against those types of experiences, believe me. In fact one of my main goals as a doctor was to engage in medical missions. All I'm saying is that it seems like applicants have to constantly keep pushing the bar higher in terms of "better" experiences in order to receive admittance.
Look, I understand getting into med school is a crap shoot. There are thousands applying for around 120 spots, so there's obviously an incentive to hand them out to those they think want it more. I've sent letter after letter detailing just how passionate I am about medicine. I've contacted dozens of doctors pleading for shadowing opportunities. The few who reply are only willing to give me a day in which to do so. It seems now I have to go $40k in debt to do an SMP and then the adcoms will take me seriously. The only problem being that there's still no guarantee. I envy those who go straight into med school from college. I've spent a year wracking my brain trying to do everything possible to get new letters and new experiences. At this point I'm honestly out of ideas. What I'm certain of is that the SMP probably won't be my golden ticket. Maybe carrib? Maybe DO? Maybe something else where I'll receive similar satisfaction in completing what I personally feel to be my calling. God knows. It's all in his will even though at times this path has been pretty brutal. I know this is a pretty long post but I figured it's best to explain my sad story fully. I just want this storm to end! Good luck to everyone else at this point and thanks for your advice.
I think it is sad that "Clinical experience" and "Patient contact" has turned into a currency where quantity far outweighs quality. No one is denying that clinical experience is important to get exposure in the field, but one would think what the person gets out of the experience would be more important than whether volunteering or shadowing X amount of hours is important. But I guess adcomms have to find other "objective" stats other than GPA/MCAT to be able to weed out applicants. I am just glad one of the Florida schools appreciate me. 🙂
Even after saying this, USF still baffles me. They haven't even sent me a rejection e-mail or letter and interviews have been far over. I thought I might have gotten an interview there. I heard that Tampa is a nice place. Oh well, I should be blessed, and I am. Maybe my application got buried under the pile and I was never found. lol.
I think it is sad that "Clinical experience" and "Patient contact" has turned into a currency where quantity far outweighs quality. No one is denying that clinical experience is important to get exposure in the field, but one would think what the person gets out of the experience would be more important than whether volunteering or shadowing X amount of hours is important. But I guess adcomms have to find other "objective" stats other than GPA/MCAT to be able to weed out applicants. I am just glad one of the Florida schools appreciate me. 🙂
Even after saying this, USF still baffles me. They haven't even sent me a rejection e-mail or letter and interviews have been far over. I thought I might have gotten an interview there. I heard that Tampa is a nice place. Oh well, I should be blessed, and I am. Maybe my application got buried under the pile and I was never found. lol.
Wow, it's interesting to see my sad story has sparked such debate and discussion in the FL thread. I'm not sure if I have anything else significant to add. If I did retake the mcat I'd definitely study via a kaplan or princeton review course; something I opted not to do initially, so I would assume I could bump it up at least 1 or 2 points. I guess taking it a second time wouldn't be that much of a red flag. But that's really not the issue. From what I gathered my scores weren't really the problem.
When I interviewed with USF the first time around my interviews weren't very good. Two days before I came down with laryngitis, felt horrible, and everything just didn't go well. I was placed at the bottom tier and told that the main reason was clinical experience. I needed more patient contact and volunteer activities to show my dedication to the field.
So after volunteering at local hospital I started to volunteer at an ER, did some more shadowing, engaged in non-P work, got around 4-5 new LOR's, wrote to at least 30 physicians and clinics in order to get more clinical exp. My interviews this time around went very well. During this time of volunteer activities I had to hold down local part time jobs; not exactly working at moffitt (and believe me I've sent numerous applications there as well). I managed to talk with a researcher at moffitt involved in immunotherapy. When looking at my resume she commented that I was either a premed or someone on route to a doctoral program; she said either way they were looking for someone who would definitely be there for the long term and I apparently wasn't it. When I first applied to USF REL told me that many other applicants had been shadowing since they were around 12, so they had an upper hand of long term clinical experiences. Since basically deciding upon medicine upon entering college, I found going back in time in order to beat others to the punch very challenging.
The long and short of it is this; I worked very hard in order to succeed in college and be competitive enough for med school. I engaged in the type of EC's most applicants participate in; hospitals, shadowing, non-P, research, etc. I feel that instead of having spent my time getting A's and wiping down gurneys I should have forked over a few thousand bucks, gone to Africa, costa rica or something for a few years and come back with grandious stories of how I saved villages and built wells. I'm not against those types of experiences, believe me. In fact one of my main goals as a doctor was to engage in medical missions. All I'm saying is that it seems like applicants have to constantly keep pushing the bar higher in terms of "better" experiences in order to receive admittance.
Look, I understand getting into med school is a crap shoot. There are thousands applying for around 120 spots, so there's obviously an incentive to hand them out to those they think want it more. I've sent letter after letter detailing just how passionate I am about medicine. I've contacted dozens of doctors pleading for shadowing opportunities. The few who reply are only willing to give me a day in which to do so. It seems now I have to go $40k in debt to do an SMP and then the adcoms will take me seriously. The only problem being that there's still no guarantee. I envy those who go straight into med school from college. I've spent a year wracking my brain trying to do everything possible to get new letters and new experiences. At this point I'm honestly out of ideas. What I'm certain of is that the SMP probably won't be my golden ticket. Maybe carrib? Maybe DO? Maybe something else where I'll receive similar satisfaction in completing what I personally feel to be my calling. God knows. It's all in his will even though at times this path has been pretty brutal. I know this is a pretty long post but I figured it's best to explain my sad story fully. I just want this storm to end! Good luck to everyone else at this point and thanks for your advice.
University officials today announced the completion of the first-of-its-kind scholarship fundraising campaign. That means each student in the schools charter class will receive a four-year scholarship worth $160,000 about $20,000 for tuition and $20,000 for living expenses and fees each year.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, no other medical school in the nation has provided full scholarships to an entire class. The scholarships are significant because the average debt of a medical school graduate in 2007 was $139,517, according to the AAMC.
This is a momentous occasion we have made history, said UCF President John Hitt. Through the generosity of our community, we reached our goal of raising $6.4 million for this remarkable scholarship program. I want to thank everyone who helped us make an investment in our collective future.
The College of Medicine is set to open in fall 2009. The college will begin taking applications on June 1. Students who are admitted will automatically receive the scholarship.
Anyone know when USF is going to start contacting people with waitlist positions? I jump a little every time I get an e-mail from them but it never gives out any real information 🙂