So from searching last year's threads, it seems that northwestern updates the status page around this time to say "final decision is forthcoming" if you're accepted. If anyone sees their status change, congrats! Let us know! I'll be praying for myself...
Official Northwestern Acceptance Thread
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vn2004 said:
is this true? because mine says "A final decision is pending on your application." and that would be wonderful.
Since at least some of the NW adcom reads this I wonder what they think of all the Hullabaloo we make. I bet its pretty hilarious. Or sad. One of the two.
But seriously if anyones status changes you should post that business. Otherwise my head might pop, while I'm waiting. Which is either really sad, or hilarious.
Good luck everyone.
But seriously if anyones status changes you should post that business. Otherwise my head might pop, while I'm waiting. Which is either really sad, or hilarious.
Good luck everyone.
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If we don't get a decision at this point in time, and instead will find out in February, are we notified? Or just pending forever and ever 
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Spoke too soon! Just got a call! Awesome!
(My status on the web site never changed...)
Good luck, everyone!
(My status on the web site never changed...)
Good luck, everyone!
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Congrats! That was a cool couple posting to look at. Just 10 minutes before: won't find out til Feb. Yeah!DeadorAlive said:Spoke too soon! Just got a call! Awesome!
(My status on the web site never changed...)
Good luck, everyone!
Wait, what am i doing on this thread? I didn't even apply to NU!
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Oh, man, you've really got my heart pumping now.DeadorAlive said:Spoke too soon! Just got a call! Awesome!
(My status on the web site never changed...)
Good luck, everyone!
My status hasn't changed, but I would be ecstatic to get in!!! I was told that they let in the top interviewees in the November decisions (and a few rejections). Care to share your MDApps profile? I wouldn't consider myself a top interviewee, but I can dream!
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FrankGK
Got the acceptance phone call on Friday, Nov 18; interviewed on Tuesday, October 25. My status page changed from "a final decision is pending on your application" to "a final decision is forthcoming." Best of luck to everyone!
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FrankGK
Sorry, forgot to add...I am kind of new to SDN, but feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
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OK, mine now says forthcoming also. I guess it switched today and I got the call in the meantime.
(Prowler, check your PM).
(Prowler, check your PM).
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I have the forthcoming message too. exciting isn't it?
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so i saw this thread in the AM at which point I checked my status, which said a final decision is pending. I just checked now and it says a final decision is forthcoming. No phone call or anything though? Should I expect good news?
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:bitingnails: mine still says "pending"
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What impression did everyone get of NW from their interview? It seemed to me that the students weren't very academic oriented at all...they said they went out drinking every night and harass people who study instead of partying with them. Although I do want time in med school to have fun, I still want to be surrounded by people who are also very serious about their studies. Did anyone get the same impression, or did I just meet the wrong group of students?
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I can't imagine that you met a group of typical students - that school has really high numbers that wouldn't last if they were all party animals. I'm pretty sure every school has a party streak somewhere in it.JennyL867 said:
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I got pretty much the exact same impression of them. Though, there were other groups that were studying in the library, but they got picked on and labeled as gunners by the others. If it isn't the school in general, then at least that says that the class isn't very cohesive...JennyL867 said:
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geez, dajimmers, obviously we know your numbers are good, but your essays and such must have rocked as well to be getting as many interviews as you are. Congrats, for sure. And what is UCSF thinking??
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dajimmers said:
Since i may possibly be one of the m4 adcom at NU, and perhaps i was one of the people during your interview or panel that projected a sense of "partying" at NU, let me clarify a few things.
In general, for all medical schools, there is no grand unifying cohesiveness in medical school any more than there was for your high school class. medical schools are full of cliques, different personality types, and people from extremely varied backgrounds. There will be a meth-addict, alcoholic that'll end up at harvard and drop-out, and a genius gunner-virgin chick that will attend some crap med school and end up at UCSF plastics. every class will vary for every school, and if you are seeking some abstracted sense of a grand unifying cohesiveness at a school then you are in for a surprise come next year, regardless of what institution you decide to attend.
if you think it's a bad thing that people come off relaxed, happy, and can party it up during medical school, then perhaps you DO belong at a different institution, because i'm quite happy how much i've gotten out of NU without having to kill myself.
as i spent my last 4 years at NU, i can candidly tell you it's strengths and weaknesses.
i'll start with it's weaknesses:
-NU is extremely strict with the way you can structure your clinical clerkship courses. you can not take electives or do research during your 3rd year. it is extremely difficult (although some classmates somehow figured a way) to get elective credit doing research your 4th year.
-NU has many mandatory clerkships your 4th year. there is a 6 week medicine sub-internship, 4 week emergency medicine, 2 week rehab, 4 week intensive care unit, and 4 electives. while i do recognize that some of these clerkships will be useful for my education, what was extremely frustrating was that even considering the amount of mandatory clerkships during our 4th year, the 4 elective months you are given have strings attached. you can not do more than 2 electives of the same specialty. so lets say you wanted to go do ortho. (a specialty where doing away rotations is very important). you could do one home rotation and only one away rotation. you would not get credit for any other ortho related rotations and would have to pick something in a different field.
-In my year, NU had only Honors/Pass for our clerkships. several studies have suggested that schools with honors/high pass/pass may help the overall application strength for it's students. luckily, this has been changed and is being instituted henceforth from the class of 2007.
-technical experience. (i.e. scut work) due to the quality of ancillary staff, you will never need to do a ton of procedural tasks such as a ton of blood draws, enemas, disimpactions, etc.
NU strengths:
-pass/fail first two years. i highly recommend for all prospective students to consider the advantages of this system, regardless of what schools you are considering. pass/fail, essentially means you can devote your time to studying for boards. boards are extremely key for obtaining the more competitive specialties. the average for the last few years at NU has been over 230. (national mean is 217, standard deviation around 17). to give you perspective, competitive fields such as ENT, neurosurgery, etc, have a mean match usmle step1 score around 235.
-location. if you have visited this school, then you will know.
-reputation. although it's still in the shadows of the schools that rank in the us news top 10, northwestern has a very strong reputation that does make a difference when it comes to applying for residencies.
-funding. this school is LOADED and EXPANDING. the new lecture halls are fantastic (of course they built this after i finished preclinicals), brand new clinical teaching rooms. brand new lurie research center just finished. a huge brand new women's hospital which will be finished in 2007. they will be adding a whole new tower where the VA westside used to be. a new children's hospital (location undecided) is scheduled to be built soon.
-quality of faculty/teaching. as goes with any strong institution, you learn alot from the residents and faculty you work with. there are some very strong departments at NU.
the outstanding departments
Plastics
Urology
Physical Medicine and Rehab
Very strong:
Medicine
Radiology
Ob Gyn
Peds
Surgery
Ortho
Neurosurg
the department of neurology needs some work, but they have made some serious strides with the recruitment of Kessler, a serious big-wig.
okay, i'm done with this rant. i'm very happy with NU. i just wanted to tell you something useful rather than give you a blanket statement that'll you'll see on SDN of how great their respective institution is. choose wisely, and congratulations to those who received acceptances to NU.
you can email me questions, and if you are deciding between two schools i will tell you honestly what i think.
dajimmers said:
This may be a function of when you interviewed. For example I interviewed a week or so before the first test the first years had. All they were doing was studying.
If you interviewed before then, or after a big test then you might have gotten a different picture. And if someone was studying and not being social after a big test...they might have actually been a gunner or whatever
They have a PBL curriculum and a lot of the work is self directed. Some people probably handle that sort of freedom in different ways. I'm sure you wouldn't have any problems finding your place.
For my part, I thought most of the students I met were very focused and bordered on being too focused..., save for one or two. So there you go for a difference in opinion
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hi kiddies -
i'm an M2 at northwestern, and i will add my $0.02. there is a good mix of people here in terms of "gunners" "partiers" and everything in between. i think you might be surprized by how much free time there is during the first two years of med school anywhere you go. lots of people do go out drinking at night, but i think they maybe exagerate how often they do. i would say the people who "go out all the time" probably go out three nights a week on average. less during second year. damn second year is hard!! if you interviewed very early or right after the first M1 exam, then people probably were going out and getting plastered every night. that's just a function of those time periods.
my class at least gets along really well. no one harrasses people for studying. the few with a real reputation for staying up all night every night studying get poked fun at a little bit, but it's all very good natured. i really wouldn't worry about it.
i think the pre-clinical faculty here are GREAT on average. the courses are well designed for the most part and the lecturers are very clear and good on average. PBL is a love/hate kind of thing. i really enjoy it and get a lot out of it, but a lot of people hate it and think it is a waste of time. anatomy lab is really well run, and histology lab has been redesigned this year, and sounds like it is also very useful now (which it wasn't my first year - more like torture than school). you have to be self-motivated to do well here. there is a lot of non-class time, and you have to be able to be disciplined and not waste all of it.
research opportunities are available and lots of people do research between M1 and M2, but you have to really seek out PI's yourself and make it happen. the opportunities do not just fall in your lap. i don't know if that is the same at other schools.
i am very happy here. good luck with your decisions. oh, and if it hasn't been cleared up for you yet, they don't reject anyone in the fall. they only accept you or leave you hanging until february.
i'm an M2 at northwestern, and i will add my $0.02. there is a good mix of people here in terms of "gunners" "partiers" and everything in between. i think you might be surprized by how much free time there is during the first two years of med school anywhere you go. lots of people do go out drinking at night, but i think they maybe exagerate how often they do. i would say the people who "go out all the time" probably go out three nights a week on average. less during second year. damn second year is hard!! if you interviewed very early or right after the first M1 exam, then people probably were going out and getting plastered every night. that's just a function of those time periods.
my class at least gets along really well. no one harrasses people for studying. the few with a real reputation for staying up all night every night studying get poked fun at a little bit, but it's all very good natured. i really wouldn't worry about it.
i think the pre-clinical faculty here are GREAT on average. the courses are well designed for the most part and the lecturers are very clear and good on average. PBL is a love/hate kind of thing. i really enjoy it and get a lot out of it, but a lot of people hate it and think it is a waste of time. anatomy lab is really well run, and histology lab has been redesigned this year, and sounds like it is also very useful now (which it wasn't my first year - more like torture than school). you have to be self-motivated to do well here. there is a lot of non-class time, and you have to be able to be disciplined and not waste all of it.
research opportunities are available and lots of people do research between M1 and M2, but you have to really seek out PI's yourself and make it happen. the opportunities do not just fall in your lap. i don't know if that is the same at other schools.
i am very happy here. good luck with your decisions. oh, and if it hasn't been cleared up for you yet, they don't reject anyone in the fall. they only accept you or leave you hanging until february.
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i am very happy here. good luck with your decisions. oh, and if it hasn't been cleared up for you yet, they don't reject anyone in the fall. they only accept you or leave you hanging until february.[/QUOTE]
are you sure? I know people on here have been rejected there. Do they only reject a few this early? I haven't heard in a while and was kinda hoping not hearing was a Good sign
are you sure? I know people on here have been rejected there. Do they only reject a few this early? I haven't heard in a while and was kinda hoping not hearing was a Good sign
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Thanks for the info, current NU students. I do realize that I saw maybe 15 students total, and of them many were anxious to get back to studying at some point that night. I am sorry if my statements sound too "blanketed," that's not what I meant (though looking at what i said, it does seem that way). For anyone that is accepted, and I know I would if I do get accepted, returning to get a 2nd look without the stresses of interview, and with MS1's more knowledgeable about their schedule, would probably be the best thing to do.
Prowler- thanks for the praise. I am pleasantly surprised as well.
Good luck everyone, keep posting those acceptances!
Prowler- thanks for the praise. I am pleasantly surprised as well.
Good luck everyone, keep posting those acceptances!
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I think the MS2 meant that nobody who has already been interviewed will get a rejection - but there have been pre-secondary/post-secondary rejections.owenmichael said:are you sure? I know people on here have been rejected there. Do they only reject a few this early? I haven't heard in a while and was kinda hoping not hearing was a Good sign
bobito said:
EXACTLY. I'm an M2 at Feinberg. I think most of the people you met if you interviewed by now were 1st years, since they are usually the ones to give the tours since we are a little busier.
FIRST OF ALL.... M1's have JUST taken their 2nd test of the year just a week or two ago. They are clueless as to how much work lies ahead of them, and the first test, and the first few months of school here are EASY. I mean, we're talking, you only have to study once and a while. The school eases you in and you will have to study more and more as each week passes by, and pretty soon before you know it you are in the library almost every day (which you have a lot of time to do since classes are out at 10 or 12 depending on where you are in the curriculum).
SECOND... there is only one test per month. If you went 2 weeks before an exam, I absolutely gaurantee that almost everyone would be studying. If the M1's just finished their exam, most people take a week off from studying THAT WEEK and you can't blame them. So if you see your friend in the library studying for the next test that is 4 weeks away already... well, he is probably a gunner, period.
One thing that you will not regret about NU/Feinberg is the incredibly amount of time you will have. You have all the time in the world to study with only 2 hours of class per day. If you think this, and a little partying, is a bad thing, this isn't the school for you, because people here are admittedly VERY relaxed and VERY happy with their life, and they certainly get a top notch training in top notch facilities, and the average board score is one of the highest in the entire country... To be real, I don't party at all. Or I should be more specific, I don't drink. But it is sure nice to know a class that likes to go out once and a while, and like anything, you will have your mix of people... saying the "class parties" is definetly a misnomer because the class is definetly diverse... There are many people in the class that never leave the library I'm convinced.
I think a lot of us came here because we wanted a great life in med school and a great, more self-directed education. I am a better master of my own time managment than a school will ever be.... This, combined with the location and the activity in the city, the fact all your friends live in high-rises, and the fact that you have a lot of free time to live "life" or "study"---you choose--and all under an outstanding reputation with a school that is clearly REALLY on the up-and-up with facilities and plans for future expansion (and unlike many school they actually can afford it!)--you can't beat it IMO.
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ctwickman said:
i agree. our school rocks.
and yes, when i said no one gets rejected this round, i meant no one out of the pool of people who have interviewed. they do reject people pre-interview on a rolling basis.
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No status change. I think I'll be waiting until February. At least I probably won't have any bad news coming my way.
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so if my status says "A Final Decision is Forthcoming" and I haven't gotten a call yet, does that mean something bad or is it just that the dean is busy and will call when she gets the chance?
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nuclearrabbit77 said:
This is exactly the kind of information I wish all current students would provide prospective medical students (for instance in student tours.) I have been on several student tours and they are becoming increasingly un-informative and it is becoming increasingly difficult to truly evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of that medical school.
I'm going to bookmark this thread/post so I can review it later. I'm interviewing at NU in a few weeks so this will come in handy.
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it sounds like you have good news coming. congrats, if that's the case!ultimateend said:
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just got the call! thanks!
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Boo. Just got an e-mail from them. At first I thought it was a rejection!
"Please expect to hear a final decision from us in February, 2006."
I could seriously hear my heart pounding. They need to send sedatives along with their e-mails.
Just got an e-mail from them. At first I thought it was a rejection!"Please expect to hear a final decision from us in February, 2006."
I could seriously hear my heart pounding. They need to send sedatives along with their e-mails.
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TheProwler said:Boo.
"Please expect to hear a final decision from us in February, 2006."
I got that email too...
I really hope that they mean it when they say "The Committee on Admissions did not get the chance to review your application for a final decision in the first group of decisions made this month." That way, I won't lose too much hope...
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hanjoko said:I got that email too...
I really hope that they mean it when they say "The Committee on Admissions did not get the chance to review your application for a final decision in the first group of decisions made this month." That way, I won't lose too much hope...
Got the same email.
hanjoko said:I got that email too...
I really hope that they mean it when they say "The Committee on Admissions did not get the chance to review your application for a final decision in the first group of decisions made this month." That way, I won't lose too much hope...
I got the same email too, that they didn't get a chance to review my app. I thought that was nice of them. And it definitely gave me a renewed sense of hope.
But now, I wonder if thats just a nice way of saying....sorry honey you're just not a beauty queen.
Still nice of them. But I'd rather be a beauty queen.
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bobito said:
Hm...I really don't care if I am the beauty queen or not.
I know that NW is the quarterback in my mind...I will just be thrilled if my quarterback asks me out.
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BTW, I kept having dreams of getting letters from Northwestern over the past two weeks...In the dreams, sometimes I got waitlisted and sometimes I got accepted.
I just need another dream of getting rejected then I have collected all the possibilities.
I just need another dream of getting rejected then I have collected all the possibilities.
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Haha, Northwestern can be MY quarterback! Yeah, I noticed on MDApps that several of the people who got in to NU also go into schools like Yale and such, so they'll certainly have plenty of choices.
Yeah, I noticed on MDApps that several of the people who got in to NU also go into schools like Yale and such, so they'll certainly have plenty of choices.
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TheProwler said:Haha, Northwestern can be MY quarterback!
It is most likely where I will end up if I do not get into Mayo. Anyone know what the match list is like at NW? % of primary care people? or how much time is devoted to PBL?
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dajimmers said:
hey, i was probably one of those kids out partying it up when you were here. i'm an M1 MSTP, and i have time to party. do i study? hell yes...knee deep as we speak. but if you are going to survive 4 years of medical school (or 8 in my case with the phd), you need to let off some steam from time to time. some more than others.
if you're looking for class integrity, good luck. when was the last time 175 fairly random people ALL got along? i'm friendly with 9/10 of the class probably (the other 1/10 doesn't come to lecture or out), and personally know about a third quite well. people have different study habits and party habits, it all figures itself out.
i'm very, very happy with my choice to come to northwestern. it's a fantastic school in a fantastic town (previously lived in portland, philly, and NYC for reference).
we're all pretty damn honest, so ask us questions when you are here. we'll let you know what's great and what sucks - you should do this at every school because EVERY school has things that suck.
the question is, which things are the most important to you?
pm me if you have any questions.....happy to answer
edit: congrats to you with acceptances! good luck to the rest of you!
