It probably won't be given much consideration because it will be so biased.
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Florida Schools Application thread (2008)
Started by greg1184
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It probably won't be given much consideration because it will be so biased.
for those tht have/had miami interview.. did they offer the interview by phone or email?
As opposed to, say, your best friend in college who wouldn't be so biased? 🙂
Not trying to be a smartass, but maybe I've got my head in the sand here and I can't really see it from the other side. Anyone else care to chime in and help explain why a spouse is no good?
If we have the option to choose our peer -- are you not going to pick someone who can write very well about your interest and qualities? I guess I wonder how much the adcom expects the peer writer to be unbiased, if at all. Or, if these letters are pretty much entirely just friends writing all good things about their friends. *shrug*
Not trying to be a smartass, but maybe I've got my head in the sand here and I can't really see it from the other side. Anyone else care to chime in and help explain why a spouse is no good?
If we have the option to choose our peer -- are you not going to pick someone who can write very well about your interest and qualities? I guess I wonder how much the adcom expects the peer writer to be unbiased, if at all. Or, if these letters are pretty much entirely just friends writing all good things about their friends. *shrug*
It was said earlier in this thread but yeah... all interview invites, acceptances, rejections, waiting lists verdicts are sent to you by email and then a hard copy is sent.
👍 congrats on uf
just got a usf interview👍 man it feels good.
Congrats!
I just got back from USF and I loved it. Now the waiting game starts... 😍
Thanks for the advice. I'll contact him soon; I'm applying next year. I hope I can make a phone appointment, because I'm 6+ hours away...
UF is a very fickle school. Sometimes they'll make you wait a long time for an interview and sometimes they wont. Sometimes they will give an early interview and make you wait ages for an acceptance. Things like this are how USF is.
Thanks for the post. Just one thing to clarify. What I said about them pushing down the idea of geriatrics and Primary care. I was only repeating what I have heard on here on SDN by some posters such as the MS 3 Biscuit79 and also what I've heard from someone who goes there when they posted on another mutual friend's facebook wall.
In no way shape or form was I saying no one can go into competitive fields but that the mission of the school was to try to aim to get people to go into those areas as that is the notion for which they were able to convince the Fl. govt to allow for a new med school under.
I will thank you for your clarifications though as it is nice to hear from those with in depth knowledge. i was just doing the best I could with my limited knowledge of the school and then referred them to those who I know who post on here that go to FSU or UF or other schools for which I don't have as much knowledge for and in FSU's case referred them to Biscuit79. Ok hope no hard feelings. Good luck with medical school.
yea ive heard nothing but good things about USF lately.. how were the interviews?? Very formal or more laid back?
Very laid back. I had a wonderful experience.
Congrats! I look forward to meeting you when you interview.
I am glad you had a great experience on your interview day. That is how I felt when I interviewed, and it really made it that much easier to pick USF. I was there in the morning, but unfortunately did not meet you personally. The waiting game sucks I know. Good luck.
Don't forget to update SDN feedback.
Same goes to all of you. As you interview if you could please kindly add updates to SDN feedback for future interviewers about your experiences and what positively and negatively impressed you as well as describing the questions which you were asked especially if it was anything different from the list I gave you that I collected from there. That would be awesome. Thanks.
I am with the others who say that it is better to not have your wife write the letter. Typically they want to hear about what you are like either from the perspective of a friend, classmate, or colleague like a work or volunteer colleague. I guess they want to see how well you work with other people while also being able to understand what kind of person you are.
Even though it would be a friend or classmate, it seems like it would be less biased and more professional if it is a peer. If it is a friend that has either worked with you or doing a similar thing to you it is nice to see someone who understands the field be able to tell from their perspective why they think you'd be able to do a good job.
I think it is an unsafe idea to have family members, spouses, or other such conflicts of interest write a letter for you. Even though other letters are only going to be from people with positive things to say they are not from those that are directly related to you which is what makes them more professional in manner and when they come from those within your turf i.e. classmates they are coming from people who can speak for how you are in terms of working together with other people, competence, etc. in a way your spouse if she is not your classmate will not be able to do.
This is a general rule of thumb not only for med school apps but also for job applications and other such things which require a peer recommendation.
Yes but as a general rule of thumb whether it is med school apps, job apps, etc. peer reviewed peer recommended etc. refers to those within the same line as you or people who've worked with you in some capacity that have known you well or taken courses with you and can attest to how well of a team player you are, how well you work with others, etc.
A friends perspective is much different then a family perspective because family will talk great about family even if they've done some of the most immature things. They will often not notice many things because they don't care. A peer who is within the field can and may tell the your strengths and weaknesses and be able to show a committee how you are as a team player, group members, leading and ability to help others if they don't understand a concept. They want to see from a student's perspective or a work colleague's perspective how you are at defining solutions to problems, whether you are willing to help others, have leadership potential, etc.
The point is that a colleague can give the perspective of what you might be like when you enter medical school in terms with how you will get a long with the different personalities within the classroom. Unless your wife is your classmate she has not seen that side of you and only sees how you are on the home front and with family friends and what not. She does not tell anything about your work relationships.
For those who've received USF invites, 1) did they invite three weeks in advance? 2) did they call on a Monday?
It sounds trivial, and probably is, but I'm just wondering how they're organizing their invitations this season. I know FSU invited me only 4 or so days ahead of time, and I have heard of a few people being invited to USF later in the week for the following Monday. Just trying to see if they're sticking to their protocol this season. Great to hear of everyone getting invites, UF, UM, USF, FSU, etc. Seems things are really picking up now that it's Oct.
It sounds trivial, and probably is, but I'm just wondering how they're organizing their invitations this season. I know FSU invited me only 4 or so days ahead of time, and I have heard of a few people being invited to USF later in the week for the following Monday. Just trying to see if they're sticking to their protocol this season. Great to hear of everyone getting invites, UF, UM, USF, FSU, etc. Seems things are really picking up now that it's Oct.
Hey Medguy, sorry that I didnt call ya to let you know that the chances were slimming out....in previous years I would have. The difficulty that I had was that I no longer had access to your data. I'm sure that you know that I left USF on June 30. Interview day 8-5??? Wow!!
I am glad you liked USF. I love it and I hope everyone else gets the opportunity to see what a great school it is. Keep us updated on the outcome! Good luck!
Hey REL! no worries. It's great to see you in the FL thread again. I hope things are going well at UCF. It seems like yesterday I was waiting to get an invite from USF. I personally felt you did an amazing job with us at USF during the app. process. Something I only realize now with many admissions offices giving me the "we'll call you" routine. Hopefully, this year USF will have some good news for me 😍 (please!!)
Agreed, no prob. If you got interviewed last year, and got interviewed in an early group this year, it probably means that you addressed any possible weaknesses. Let's pray that it does the trick (without the wait list!!).
So it was really an 8-5 interview day?
So it was really an 8-5 interview day?
This is why all respect you so much!!! Very few people would go out of their way to apologize for not letting the candidates know about what happened to their app status the way you just did. Hope it is going well over at UCF.
BTW I think your advice to do one of the regular masters programs at the COM and not IMS was a good idea. I'm liking the program i'm and doing well in it so far. 🙂
No problema. I'm sure you'll be able to find a classmate or someone you volunteer with or are in a student organization with or have worked with in the job capacity who will be able to do this for you. I know most of the students even the older married non trad students find it easy to find classmates or close friends or coworkers to this for them here at USF. I've done quite a few for different USF students in the past too who I've known pretty well. One of them ended up getting an interview to UF last year for whom I wrote a letter, but he was awesome as it was as an applicant. He ended up at a top tier ivy league school.
8-5, yep. At least from what I remember. Got at the COM around 7:45am, left probably around 4:30-ish pm, so pretty much a full day. Went by fast though as most interview days tend to be. The FSU interview day lasted only from 11:00am - 3:00pm, so it was basically lunch, a tour, interviews, and that was it. I think a little more time should have been spent on the program, financial aid, housing, etc, but that's just me.
BTW, how early is considered an "early group"? I'm thinking anything before
'08. Thanks for the help REL.👍
I'm not a reapplicant but I do wonder if there is something noteworthy about being in an "early group" beyond the rolling admissions advantage. Does an admissions office have time to rank the thousands of apps they get in order to get their most desired candidates in the door first? Are the "early groups" composed of people that they are really interested in or are they simply the apps that arrived first?
is this something i should be concerned about? I recieved interview invites to uf and miami pretty early (back in august for both) but I scheduled my interviews in november because of availability issues.
Does it adversely affect my acceptance chances to schedule a later interview? BOth schools wanted the interview date to occur within a couple weeks of the invite but i couldnt accomodate it.
Does it adversely affect my acceptance chances to schedule a later interview? BOth schools wanted the interview date to occur within a couple weeks of the invite but i couldnt accomodate it.
In general, the more qualified applicants (on paper) are interviewed earlier in the interview season....
I don't think it matters for you since it's still relatively early in the interview season. Most people who interview later (in the spring) tend to be waitlisted because the class is already filled. Whether schools fill their class before they finish interviewing everyone varies. USF aims to be able to tell all interviewing applicants that there is always an open seat even in the spring.
QofQuimica
Seriously, dude, I think you're overreacting....
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Not appropriate. Don't ever have a family member write you a letter.
QofQuimica
Seriously, dude, I think you're overreacting....
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Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
I can't speak for everyone, but here's my rule of thumb: if you're intimately involved with the person or you share significant numbers of genes with them (hopefully not both!), then you should not ask them for a LOR. Basically, you want to ask someone who knows you well, but as a colleague, not in the biblical sense. 😉 Like guju already said, pick someone who has a professional relationship with you, not a personal one. I probably wouldn't ask a best friend either; ask someone you work with or know from school.
to you. 🙂I can't speak for everyone, but here's my rule of thumb: if you're intimately involved with the person or you share significant numbers of genes with them (hopefully not both!), then you should not ask them for a LOR. Basically, you want to ask someone who knows you well, but as a colleague, not in the biblical sense. 😉 Like guju already said, pick someone who has a professional relationship with you, not a personal one. I probably wouldn't ask a best friend either; ask someone you work with or know from school.
Yeah and if it is a best friend they should also be someone who worked with you or was a classmate of yours or group member of student organization etc.
I have written LORs for friends but they were people who were classmates or people whom I've seen in action on a professional level.
I would like to add something to this. If it is anything like REL described in the past the majority of each matriculated class will be made up of 50% of the people being waitlisted people.
Those who are initially accepted who are the more competitive types will be people who often get multiple acceptances. I don't know if this held true this year but in years past as much as 60 of 120 students were former watilistees. Waitlistees at USF were placed into 3 tiers and those in the top tier often did make it into USF as well as a few from the mid tier but the low tier meant you had a very slim chance of getting in.
USF usually tells you their decision within 10 days of your interview. As per Miami they take about 4 weeks to tell you if it is as it was in 2004 when a former classmate interviewed there. November is not even the halfway point of the cycle so the likelihood of the class being full or scheduling for November affecting you is pretty slim.
At USF and Miami I'm pretty sure if you are interviewed earlier it means you are considered a more competitive candidate either due to numerical or other reasons. I know Miami used to do this thing where they ranked applications based on the following:
20 pts for direct clinical contact
15 pts for other ECs
15 pts for LORs
50 pts for MCAT and GPA
10 pts to take into acct any adversities you might have faced.
Based on this scoring system people would be ranked in terms of paper profile and then based on their ranking that would determine who'd get interview offers. This is what Dr. Hinkley explained to us at a premed forum.
The ranking system was just used to determine who they wanted to interview.
At USF they don't have any such ranking system but general trends that I've seen are that those with higher numbers and stellar ECs get interviewed first while those who struggled in one aspect or the other (MCAT or GPA) usually get later interviews if their latest score from MCAT is lower or if their GPA is lower.
On the 17th. They make decisions on Tuesday and call on Wednesday. That's how they did it in the past. I believe that's how they did it on EDP interview days this year to so it seems they are sticking to the old protocol.
😛
Hope you do well and good luck!!!
As per Pandaluce, I hope you get good news next week.
I got the invite about a week ago, but scheduled mine for Nov 9th. Lemme know how yours goes and congrats!
Yeah, all this while I thought FL schools will call on the 15th. Found out it's a few days later; at least that's FSU's policy as well. It's trivial, but two days in terms of hearing your "verdict" can seem so long. Hope everyone is doing well so far with interviews. I'm still salivating for a possible invite from USF. For those who've gotten interviews there already, did the invites occur on a Monday? I'm thinking that's usually what they do, although I know there have been exceptions. Thanks.
As far as this USF ten day notification thing...that time line is subject to the AAMC policy that prohibits applicants from being notified prior to October 15th, right? In other words, if we've interviewed on or before October 1 (Monday interviews), we won't hear anything until October 15th?
Further (if the answer to the above question is yes) - we probably won't hear anything on the 15th either because that's a Monday and the admissions office is going to have their hands full with other interviewees?
Further (if the answer to the above question is yes) - we probably won't hear anything on the 15th either because that's a Monday and the admissions office is going to have their hands full with other interviewees?
The only thing that makes the 15th come into play is if their scheduled day for decision/notification is prior to the 15th. If it comes afterwards, well the 15th doesn't matter.
Thank you!! I loved USF... I hope they loved me!
Yeah the issue of the 15th would be more of an issue for schools like Vanderbilt where they have interviews as early as the beginning of August.
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