Florida Schools Application Thread (Part 3)

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Weekends are crappy (never thought I'd see the day). Anyone hear anything about UF's waitlist or any possible movement?
 
improv said:
Weekends are crappy (never thought I'd see the day). Anyone hear anything about UF's waitlist or any possible movement?
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I called last week and Denise said their class was way over booked right now. When the class becomes under booked, which "historically" happens to a large degree after May 15, they decide to meet to look at the alternate list. She also said they'll call or email you to let you know if you got off the waitlist, that way the movement can be a little faster than waiting for snail mail, etc. I hope that's helpful. Good luck to all of us waiting!
 
Got a call from REL at USF today. Got accepted off the waitlist! Good luck to everyone else waiting.
 
benb2099 said:
Got a call from REL at USF today. Got accepted off the waitlist! Good luck to everyone else waiting.
Click to expand...

Congrats!!!!!! :banana: :banana: :banana: :biglove: :biglove: :biglove: :clap: :clap:
No more waiting for you benb
 
congrats Benb, i finally visited USF on friday, looks like a great place.
 
pipedream812 said:
Anyone going to FSU afraid that it will be hard to specialize? Im worried that if I go in there and say "I want to do surgery" that they will not support me at all with finding research, writing good letters, etc.
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As I'm sure you're aware, it's very possible to go to FSU saying that you're interested in surgery (or ER, or IM, or OB/GYN...maybe not derm). However you're exactly right when you say you won't get support with research and experiences. The best you can hope for it to get lucky and draw Orlando and get a good letter from your clerkship director there. Also during the summer btw MS1 and MS2, you'll have the opportunity to do basic science research, but nothing clinical unless it's FP or OB/GYN based. The ER Interest group had to fight tooth and nail for any kind of funding, only to not get it and have to raise money themselves. Same goes for the surgery interest group. The IM interest group had one meeting.

I would be very wary, unless you're absolutely sure that you want to go into primary care, of attending FSU. Their administration pushes FP, and specifically FP, very hard. You'll spend weeks if not months in the rural panhandle, and some classmates of mine are even going to south Georgia for two years.
 
Ok I've searched this in past posts, but to get an updated list.

I'm deciding between UF vs. USF. Was anyone else in the same situation? One important factor is who my classmates are and how much fun I have with them. Although I am weighing everything else, city, professors, opportunities of all kinds, ect. ect.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
benb2099 said:
Got a call from REL at USF today. Got accepted off the waitlist! Good luck to everyone else waiting.
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Congratulations! I look forward to seeing you in August when classes begin!

😀 :clap: :banana: :clap: 😀
 
Pop said:
Ok I've searched this in past posts, but to get an updated list.

I'm deciding between UF vs. USF. Was anyone else in the same situation? One important factor is who my classmates are and how much fun I have with them. Although I am weighing everything else, city, professors, opportunities of all kinds, ect. ect.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
Click to expand...

Both are great schools. However, both have their disadvantages and advantages.

UF's pros include the following: Higher board score averages because they teach to the boards. MedGator can give a more detailed analysis if he's around. They also had a number of people match into competitive fields like Radiation Oncology which I've not seen on USF's match lists in the past. They have a major academic teaching hospital that will get to see some of the more rare kind of cases and will also have clinical sites closer to the classroom and more research opportunities. Although they do have sites in Jville for some stuff like EM. They tend to have computerized tests that teach to the style of questions on the boards. If you'd rather work with actor patients first and models before getting ready to go with the 3rd years this is also your place to be. For some people they'd rather work with the fake things first out of nervousness and don't like the idea of being thrown in with real patients from day one as they do with Miami and USF.

On the down side, Gville is a typical college town with a lot of nothing else to do besides school and if you don't like that atmosphere you might not like it. It also tends to use a more traditional curricula vs. USF's organ systems approach in which they don't start gross anat until beg. of Nov. usf also has more clinical sites spread out. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. Some people like the diversity of clinical sites and types of clinical sites while some prefer a place like Miami or UF where you don't have to travel too far to get to the main hospital for rotations. Some of their strong points are their EM program, Moffitt cancer center which has NCI designation, Shriners, and All Childrens Hospital as well as two VA hospitals. But UF also has one or two VA hospitals as that is not unique to any med school. Tampa as a city has a lot more to do and what not as well. I've spoken a lot about USF in the past so I won't do that here. I will say its down sides are that it doesn't have residency programs affiliated with some of the more competitive fields like ortho, plastics, and rad onco. Likewise, judging from what I've seen in the match lsts, I've never really seen a large amount of people matching into some of those fields esp. rad onco. That said it isn't impossible and USF is a great school too.

People wise, I think it is dependent on the year. i have friends at both USF and UF and former acquaintances of which some will go to UF and others to USF. From my experience in talking with med students it seems each year each class is different in its student body.

For instance the C/O 2009 had a lot more laid back people at USF COM but the C/O 2010 has a lot more gunner types. It is hard to figure out what kind of people will be your classmates until you start.
 
Pop said:
Ok I've searched this in past posts, but to get an updated list.

I'm deciding between UF vs. USF. Was anyone else in the same situation? One important factor is who my classmates are and how much fun I have with them. Although I am weighing everything else, city, professors, opportunities of all kinds, ect. ect.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
Click to expand...

I just responded but for a more comprehensive outlook at UF, PM medgator. He graduated in 2005 from UF med.

For USF, there are a couple of people on here too who are already in their med school but I don't remember their exact names. I believe one of them's name was Mike but forget his exact username.
 
Pop said:
Ok I've searched this in past posts, but to get an updated list.

I'm deciding between UF vs. USF. Was anyone else in the same situation? One important factor is who my classmates are and how much fun I have with them. Although I am weighing everything else, city, professors, opportunities of all kinds, ect. ect.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
Click to expand...


I've been in this exact situation for months, and I've only just made my decision. I finally decided on USF after talking with friends of mine who are first year students at each school. Both said they loved their classmates and enjoyed their schools, but my friend at UF described what she likened to "hazing" by the faculty that she felt were rather unsupportive. It just depends on what is most important to you - I know it was a really tough decision for me. PM me if you want more specifics, and good luck with making your choice!
 
guys,

i just dropped all my schools except one, and im getting a little nervous for some reason, by what date do we need to send transcripts from all our schools? may 15th? before we join?
 
NervousNed said:
guys,

i just dropped all my schools except one, and im getting a little nervous for some reason, by what date do we need to send transcripts from all our schools? may 15th? before we join?
Click to expand...

Did you keep UM Ned? Were you finally accepted?
 
NervousNed said:
i kept UM, i havent been accepted there, i just dropped all my accepted schools, im still hopin it comes through, 🙂
Click to expand...

Whoa, you are rolling the dice on UM? Welcome to the club. Final transcripts are due July 13 for UM by the way?
 
greg1184 said:
Whoa, you are rolling the dice on UM? Welcome to the club. Final transcripts are due July 13 for UM by the way?
Click to expand...

OOPS i mean i dropped all accepted schools EXCEPT one, i kept UM, as in i have one accepted and UM on the waitlist, i didnt drop all of em, sorry for that :-D
 
are transcripts due even if we're on the waitlist?
 
James90210 said:
are transcripts due even if we're on the waitlist?
Click to expand...

Yes, for two reasons: (1) It shows that you are still interested in the program. (2) If the university uses an unranked waitlist, higher grades during your last semester of college demonstrates that you are willing to work hard, even if the results won't end with a big payout.
 
Dr. Zeke, did you get into Miami main campus? I saw on your facebook you changed your education, so I was intrigued.
 
KatyGator said:
I've been in this exact situation for months, and I've only just made my decision. I finally decided on USF after talking with friends of mine who are first year students at each school. Both said they loved their classmates and enjoyed their schools, but my friend at UF described what she likened to "hazing" by the faculty that she felt were rather unsupportive. It just depends on what is most important to you - I know it was a really tough decision for me. PM me if you want more specifics, and good luck with making your choice!
Click to expand...

Congrats on your decision - it certainly is an important one in the road of many choices you will make in your medical career. USF fosters a caring and intimate relationship, although that sounds corny. After finishing 3 years (2 weeks left until I'm an MSIV) I can attest that the faculty are truly there to help you and that the students for the most part are there to help each other on a routine basis. I experienced no such hazing as you describe at UF. I think having a more relaxed atmosphere fosters better learning anyways. In any case, I think you'll get a great education at USF and hopefully have some fun during your 4 years here. Feel free to email me with any questions you might have ([email protected]).
 
gujuDoc said:
I just responded but for a more comprehensive outlook at UF, PM medgator. He graduated in 2005 from UF med.

For USF, there are a couple of people on here too who are already in their med school but I don't remember their exact names. I believe one of them's name was Mike but forget his exact username.
Click to expand...

I'm Mike. I'll be happy to answer questions about USF if anyone likes. Just email me at [email protected].
 
gujuDoc said:
Both are great schools. However, both have their disadvantages and advantages.

UF's pros include the following: Higher board score averages because they teach to the boards. MedGator can give a more detailed analysis if he's around. They also had a number of people match into competitive fields like Radiation Oncology which I've not seen on USF's match lists in the past. They have a major academic teaching hospital that will get to see some of the more rare kind of cases and will also have clinical sites closer to the classroom and more research opportunities. Although they do have sites in Jville for some stuff like EM. They tend to have computerized tests that teach to the style of questions on the boards. If you'd rather work with actor patients first and models before getting ready to go with the 3rd years this is also your place to be. For some people they'd rather work with the fake things first out of nervousness and don't like the idea of being thrown in with real patients from day one as they do with Miami and USF.

On the down side, Gville is a typical college town with a lot of nothing else to do besides school and if you don't like that atmosphere you might not like it. It also tends to use a more traditional curricula vs. USF's organ systems approach in which they don't start gross anat until beg. of Nov. usf also has more clinical sites spread out. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. Some people like the diversity of clinical sites and types of clinical sites while some prefer a place like Miami or UF where you don't have to travel too far to get to the main hospital for rotations. Some of their strong points are their EM program, Moffitt cancer center which has NCI designation, Shriners, and All Childrens Hospital as well as two VA hospitals. But UF also has one or two VA hospitals as that is not unique to any med school. Tampa as a city has a lot more to do and what not as well. I've spoken a lot about USF in the past so I won't do that here. I will say its down sides are that it doesn't have residency programs affiliated with some of the more competitive fields like ortho, plastics, and rad onco. Likewise, judging from what I've seen in the match lsts, I've never really seen a large amount of people matching into some of those fields esp. rad onco. That said it isn't impossible and USF is a great school too.

People wise, I think it is dependent on the year. i have friends at both USF and UF and former acquaintances of which some will go to UF and others to USF. From my experience in talking with med students it seems each year each class is different in its student body.

For instance the C/O 2009 had a lot more laid back people at USF COM but the C/O 2010 has a lot more gunner types. It is hard to figure out what kind of people will be your classmates until you start.
Click to expand...

I think there are several inaccuracies in your post, gujudoc. First, while UF matches to traditionally more competitive programs USF has its fair share of competitive programs that we match to, just look at last year's match list. USF does have a plastics program AND a radiation oncology program. I'm actually applying to radonc myself and the program here that is starting up this year is affiliated with Moffitt (a huge asset)... An ortho program is likely to start soon according to people in my class who are interested in applying to ortho. So while UF may send more people into neurosurgery at MGH (sense the sarcasm?), many many many people match into competitive programs from USF.

Second, I don't understand the comment that you make about seeing fake patients before real ones to make you less nervous. USF does not start out from the very beginning with having you see real patients. You spent a lot of time with standardized (fake) patients, learning the different parts of the physical exam. Throughout the 1st and 2nd years you will have a physical diagnosis class that brings in standardized patients for each organ system block you do, to highlight different pathologies. You don't really start seeing truly sick or nonstandardized patients until your 3rd year.

Third, I don't know what it means to "teach to the boards". Does that mean putting tests on computers? While USF doesn't test on computers yet, they structure the test questions and the timing (minutes per question) to resemble Step 1, which I would assume most med schools do. I felt the testing at USF is overall fair and a good Step 1 preparation. I guess we teach to the boards here too then?! I haven't been interested enough to actually compare the board scores between UF and USF, and I'm sure they're pretty close, but as I have said on Student Doctor many times before a school's average board score really reflects more on each individual person than how "good" each school is. Studying for Step 1 is pretty much a 3-4 week period after 2nd year where you try to cram a lot of info into your head that you forgot over 2 years. You can't possibly relearn everything, so most people study from First Aid and by doing a lot of questions such as on Kaplan's online QBank. This is what I did and I did well. Thus, most people are studying the EXACT same thing throughout the country. The vast majority of what you remember for the exam will be in your head from studying for that 3-4 week block of time, and will NOT be from 1st and 2nd year tests. So how well you do is really a reflection of how much and how WELL you study and also reflects your own natural test taking abilities. Success on the boards is NOT so much how good your professors were or how well the school "tests to the boards". You will see that Step 1 info is really tests mostly main concepts (although there are details you have to remember along the way) and that your med school exams will test everything way more in detail. The point I make is don't pick a school based on their average board scores. A school with a higher average score by 5 points doesn't make it a better school at all. It changes from class to class, person to person, and really doesn't mean a whole lot other than maybe how hard working the class is in general in studying for the boards.

Fourth, I will agree that it's impossible to know what your classmates will be like until you start. However, I think overall though you tend to find the same general personalities at each school.

I hope this clarifies things.


*My recent string of posts are the result of REL reminding me I haven't posted on here in a while... 🙂 *
 
mikedc813 said:
I think there are several inaccuracies in your post, gujudoc. First, while UF matches to traditionally more competitive programs USF has its fair share of competitive programs that we match to, just look at last year's match list. USF does have a plastics program AND a radiation oncology program. I'm actually applying to radonc myself and the program here that is starting up this year is affiliated with Moffitt (a huge asset)... An ortho program is likely to start soon according to people in my class who are interested in applying to ortho. So while UF may send more people into neurosurgery at MGH (sense the sarcasm?), many many many people match into competitive programs from USF.

Second, I don't understand the comment that you make about seeing fake patients before real ones to make you less nervous. USF does not start out from the very beginning with having you see real patients. You spent a lot of time with standardized (fake) patients, learning the different parts of the physical exam. Throughout the 1st and 2nd years you will have a physical diagnosis class that brings in standardized patients for each organ system block you do, to highlight different pathologies. You don't really start seeing truly sick or nonstandardized patients until your 3rd year.

Third, I don't know what it means to "teach to the boards". Does that mean putting tests on computers? While USF doesn't test on computers yet, they structure the test questions and the timing (minutes per question) to resemble Step 1, which I would assume most med schools do. I felt the testing at USF is overall fair and a good Step 1 preparation. I guess we teach to the boards here too then?! I haven't been interested enough to actually compare the board scores between UF and USF, and I'm sure they're pretty close, but as I have said on Student Doctor many times before a school's average board score really reflects more on each individual person than how "good" each school is. Studying for Step 1 is pretty much a 3-4 week period after 2nd year where you try to cram a lot of info into your head that you forgot over 2 years. You can't possibly relearn everything, so most people study from First Aid and by doing a lot of questions such as on Kaplan's online QBank. This is what I did and I did well. Thus, most people are studying the EXACT same thing throughout the country. The vast majority of what you remember for the exam will be in your head from studying for that 3-4 week block of time, and will NOT be from 1st and 2nd year tests. So how well you do is really a reflection of how much and how WELL you study and also reflects your own natural test taking abilities. Success on the boards is NOT so much how good your professors were or how well the school "tests to the boards". You will see that Step 1 info is really tests mostly main concepts (although there are details you have to remember along the way) and that your med school exams will test everything way more in detail. The point I make is don't pick a school based on their average board scores. A school with a higher average score by 5 points doesn't make it a better school at all. It changes from class to class, person to person, and really doesn't mean a whole lot other than maybe how hard working the class is in general in studying for the boards.

Fourth, I will agree that it's impossible to know what your classmates will be like until you start. However, I think overall though you tend to find the same general personalities at each school.

I hope this clarifies things.


*My recent string of posts are the result of REL reminding me I haven't posted on here in a while... 🙂 *
Click to expand...

Your explanation on things at USF have been most helpful. I look forward to attending school there in the fall. Thanks for all of the info!
 
I haven't posted here before, but I've been reading the thread for a while and I know people have been posting when spots open up at schools....

So I just wanted to let anyone on the UF waitlist know that there's one more spot open today. Goodluck to everyone (at all the florida schools).
 
ChampsX3 said:
I haven't posted here before, but I've been reading the thread for a while and I know people have been posting when spots open up at schools....

So I just wanted to let anyone on the UF waitlist know that there's one more spot open today. Goodluck to everyone (at all the florida schools).
Click to expand...

oh Thanks for the information. Best of luck for all in the wait list.
 
pipedream812 said:
Dr. Zeke, did you get into Miami main campus? I saw on your facebook you changed your education, so I was intrigued.
Click to expand...
Hey pipe...sorry I haven't been on much lately, so I just saw this. No, I still haven't been accepted - still at Boca - but I'm hopeful. *fingers crossed* for may 15th.

How about you? Still keeping your spot on the alternate list at UM?
 
DrZeke said:
Hey pipe...sorry I haven't been on much lately, so I just saw this. No, I still haven't been accepted - still at Boca - but I'm hopeful. *fingers crossed* for may 15th.

How about you? Still keeping your spot on the alternate list at UM?
Click to expand...

No problem, I was just curious. Yeah, Im keeping my spot. I hope we both get off the list soon. I only have until June 1st to find out, otherwise Im off to FSU. Have you heard anything about the movement thusfar? Has there been a lot?
 
I just withdrew from FSU COM (by email). I am sorry it took a little while but I had to make sure USF got my letter saying I was attending USF COM before withdrawing.
 
Dr. Zeke this one is for you! I just withdrew my spot from UM main campus. Good luck to you. Hopefully someone on SDN will get it if not you!
 
Hey Florida people. I just wanted to inform you guys of three more open spots. One at UM main campus, USF and UF. Good luck to those still waiting.
 
I just sent in my withdrawl to UF, good luck to those waiting!:luck:
 
Hey guys!!! I just got back from visiting USF 😀 Maybe an hour before getting to the USF COM I got a call from George Washington offering me a spot in the class of 2011!!! I have 24hrs to let them know my decision...yikes! I really enjoyed USF. For the record REL is the best. Well I will making my decision soon. Either way one of my florida schools will become available...hopefully someone here will get it 🙂
 
bball25 said:
Hey guys!!! I just got back from visiting USF 😀 Maybe an hour before getting to the USF COM I got a call from George Washington offering me a spot in the class of 2011!!! I have 24hrs to let them know my decision...yikes! I really enjoyed USF. For the record REL is the best. Well I will making my decision soon. Either way one of my florida schools will become available...hopefully someone here will get it 🙂
Click to expand...
Congrats, bball. 🙂 But I have to say that if that acceptance to GW doesn't come with some hefty grants or scholarship $$, I think you'd be crazy to go there over one of the FL schools.
 
facewait said:
Dr. Zeke this one is for you! I just withdrew my spot from UM main campus. Good luck to you. Hopefully someone on SDN will get it if not you!
Click to expand...
thanks. i love you for thinking about me 🙂 good luck to everyone!!
 
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