Gotta love UPENN

[GS]

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UPENN has been the easiest secondary by far! No essays no anything. I wonder why they ask for 65 dollars?

GS

 

[arrowsmith]

Hi,
Can you share the link to upenn's secondary?
Thanks

 

[MiamiMarmot]

It's all about Penn and Harvard. Not only are they among the best medical schools in the country, they are the most humane to medical school applicants!

 

[Hopkins2010]

Just a slight correction. If you are applying to Penn's MD/PhD program there is one 2-3 page essay to complete on your research experience.

The URL is:

Penn's Online Secondary

 

[Jonny-5]

Just a question for the MD/PhD applicants out there:

Many schools want separate letters of rec. from research mentors mailed directly to the MD/PhD office. How are you all handling that (I would hate my current mentor to mail 10 copies of the letter for me, not to mention mentors I worked for two years ago)?

Also, as with the UPenn secondary, how do you explain when you have not requested a letter of rec. from a particular research sponsor (One I worked with in Hawaii- i.e.-out of contact, another, while he was my supervisor, I worked on my project independently and never had the chance to build a good rapport)?

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Hopkins2010]

Originally posted by Jonny-5:
•Just a question for the MD/PhD applicants out there:

Many schools want separate letters of rec. from research mentors mailed directly to the MD/PhD office. How are you all handling that (I would hate my current mentor to mail 10 copies of the letter for me, not to mention mentors I worked for two years ago)?

Also, as with the UPenn secondary, how do you explain when you have not requested a letter of rec. from a particular research sponsor (One I worked with in Hawaii- i.e.-out of contact, another, while he was my supervisor, I worked on my project independently and never had the chance to build a good rapport)?

Any suggestions?

Thanks.•

Of the MD/PhD programs that I'm applying to, ALL of them want separate letters of recommendation that address research issues.

I think thats pretty much the norm for all programs. Penn's program is a little more integrated because you send your MD and MD/PhD letters to the same office.

There is a space below each research recommender you list to explain why you are not getting a letter from them. I would use that space to describe your situation.

Luckily, I have letters from all of my research advisors. Penn and Washington Univ. seem to be particularly concerned if you arent getting a letter from someone who supervised your research experiences. I'm not sure why they are so paranoid about this, I guess they may think you are consciously trying to avoid getting a letter from them because you think it wont be good.

I wouldnt worry about it too much, just be honest and they will probably understand that there are conditions sometimes that preclude us from doing everything.

By the way, has anybody gotten any MD/PhD interviews yet?

 

[Nefertari]

The link given above for the 2ndary doesn't work. Could someone please post the correct one? Thanks!

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Many schools want separate letters of rec. from research mentors mailed directly to the MD/PhD office. How are you all handling that (I would hate my current mentor to mail 10 copies of the letter for me, not to mention mentors I worked for two years ago)?

I had my research mentor mail letters to each program I applied too. This is the nature of the game, and your mentor will understand. He or she had to do this before too!

 

[Thewonderer]

Penn students are sooo babied on clinical rotations by their hospitals that it is unbelievable. Go ask Jefferson or Temple students who share a rotation or two with Penn students in philly.

 

[Street Philosopher]

Originally posted by Thewonderer
Penn students are sooo babied on clinical rotations by their hospitals that it is unbelievable. Go ask Jefferson or Temple students who share a rotation or two with Penn students in philly.

please elaborate! 🙂

 

[Thewonderer]

Originally posted by Street Philosopher
please elaborate! 🙂

Their call on surgery is q7 days, meaning they are only on call every 7th day. They usually get one day off a week on surgery to sleep in and if they do their surgery rotation @ an affiliated hospital outside of the Hospital of Univ. of Pennsylvania (i.e. York, Pennsylvania, Englewood in NJ, and perhaps the Veterans Medical Center), they get the whole weekend off. That's ridiculous.
😉

 

[Random Access]

Originally posted by Thewonderer
Penn students are sooo babied on clinical rotations by their hospitals that it is unbelievable. Go ask Jefferson or Temple students who share a rotation or two with Penn students in philly.

Yeah, I've heard Penn rotations are a piece of cake compared to other schools. Harvard and Yale are similar from what I've heard too, and maybe Stanford?

-RA

 

[Street Philosopher]

sounds GREEEEEEAT! now i just have to get accepted. 😛

 

[CaNEM]

Originally posted by Jonny-5
Just a question for the MD/PhD applicants out there:

Many schools want separate letters of rec. from research mentors mailed directly to the MD/PhD office. How are you all handling that (I would hate my current mentor to mail 10 copies of the letter for me, not to mention mentors I worked for two years ago)?
Thanks.

Jonny,

Unfortunately, MD/PhD applicants DO have to have their recommenders send multiple copies of the letter - one to each school individually. In fact, mine wrote two versions - an MD version which went into my evaluation packett and an MD/PhD version which was sent to each school individually. It's tedious, but you gotta do if. Your recommenders should understand, though, as they've had to do the exact same thing for every graduate student or combined-degree student they wrote letters for.

 

[Nefertari]

Originally posted by Hopkins2010
The URL is:

Penn's Online Secondary

BUMP! This link doesn't work--is it a direct, personal link from your email? If the link is generic, could someone please post it? I searched their website, but they don't have it there. Muchas gracias!

 

[Curci]

Check the dates.

The link probably doesn't work because this thread was resurrected from last year.

 

[Nefertari]

Originally posted by Curci
Check the dates.

The link probably doesn't work because this thread was resurrected from last year.

😳 I just kicked myself!! A bit out of it this week 'cause of minimal sleep. Guess, I'll just wait for the email.

 

[Lt. Ub]

Originally posted by Thewonderer
Their call on surgery is q7 days, meaning they are only on call every 7th day. They usually get one day off a week on surgery to sleep in and if they do their surgery rotation @ an affiliated hospital outside of the Hospital of Univ. of Pennsylvania (i.e. York, Pennsylvania, Englewood in NJ, and perhaps the Veterans Medical Center), they get the whole weekend off. That's ridiculous.
😉

The rotation you're speaking of is just the 3rd year clerkship. Many of the rotations are q7, but some are not - kind of luck of the draw. The idea is that the 3rd year clerkship exists for the student to learn surgery, not to retract all day. There is an extensive amount of small group work and out-of-class study/projects. PENN students come out of the basic rotation with a solid understanding of surgery. And if you're heading into surgery, the electives and sub-I's are all standard q3 hell. You call it "babied," I call it a better intro to the specialty.

Be careful, you're close to sounding pretty bitter...

Cheers

 

[Curci]

Personally, I think a "better intro to the specialty" would be to see the good AND the bad sides. Since I'm just a pre-med, I have no idea what a surgery residency would be like, but I think it's more demanding than q7 and a day off to sleep. I would want to know exactly what I'm getting into before I pick a residency, so I don't think he sounded bitter.

 

[Thewonderer]

Originally posted by Lt. Ub
The rotation you're speaking of is just the 3rd year clerkship. Many of the rotations are q7, but some are not - kind of luck of the draw. The idea is that the 3rd year clerkship exists for the student to learn surgery, not to retract all day. There is an extensive amount of small group work and out-of-class study/projects. PENN students come out of the basic rotation with a solid understanding of surgery. And if you're heading into surgery, the electives and sub-I's are all standard q3 hell. You call it "babied," I call it a better intro to the specialty.

Be careful, you're close to sounding pretty bitter...

Cheers

That's problem. The Penn med students whom I talked to know that they have it cushy. So after they describe their schedules, they always have to add, "But reeeaaally, we don't have it as easy as you think. Now let me take a minute or two to justify my position." Yeah.... sure.

Cheers.

 

[Street Philosopher]

man if i was at upenn, i wouldn't feel a need to justify my cushy schedule. i'd be like, yeah i have it easy, now what? word.