*~*~*~*Official TMDSAS Questions Thread 2013-2014*~*~*~*

[TXStar]

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^^ I think they wait for your second MCAT score, but I'm not 100% sure.

I have a quick question as well. I'm a reapplicant and I'm thinking about withdrawing my TMDSAS application in order to take another year or two to work on my application. I haven't even submitted any of my secondaries yet. So I was wondering whether withdrawing my primary app/not sending in secondaries will look bad to schools next cycle when I apply? Someone told me withdrawing is only used when one's already been admitted to another medical school...

 

[17dave17]

I am a long time lurker to this forum, but I decided to post a question. I tried to use the search this thread function but I didn't come up with much. My question is as follows:

For the optional essays is it better to fill one out versus not filling any of them out? Following that up I have a unique experience of being chosen to go to Washington DC for a conference that I was the only student from Texas to get to attend on the award. However, I have been reading and it seems like that essay is only for hardships and things of that nature. Is that true, or is my idea fine for that essay?

Thank you all in advance for any help you all can be.

 

[BlueLabel]

I am a long time lurker to this forum, but I decided to post a question. I tried to use the search this thread function but I didn't come up with much. My question is as follows:

For the optional essays is it better to fill one out versus not filling any of them out? Following that up I have a unique experience of being chosen to go to Washington DC for a conference that I was the only student from Texas to get to attend on the award. However, I have been reading and it seems like that essay is only for hardships and things of that nature. Is that true, or is my idea fine for that essay?

Thank you all in advance for any help you all can be.

Just my two cents: I would definitely write the essay as you're thinking. It's always a good idea to write the essays in the first place, especially considering that several TX schools have no secondaries. Take every chance you're given to sell yourself. As for your specific idea, this is my opinion: don't read any subtext into the prompt. It asks for "unique circumstances or life experiences" that would provide the schools with a "broader picture of who you are". Your idea sounds like it fits the bill.

Disclaimer, I'm just another applicant and in no way an authority, but this is how I approached the essays.

 

[AmethystFlowers]

This may sound silly, but I can't seem to understand how Texas does their acceptance/match setup. I've read the TMDSAS page about how it works, but It's just not clicking. Can someone recap how it works? Such as: do people get offers before the end of interviews? If they accept are the out of the running?

 

[AmethystFlowers]

This may sound silly, but I can't seem to understand how Texas does their acceptance/match setup. I've read the TMDSAS page about how it works, but It's just not clicking. Can someone recap how it works? Such as: do people get offers before the end of interviews? If they accept are the out of the running?

 

[BlueLabel]

This may sound silly, but I can't seem to understand how Texas does their acceptance/match setup. I've read the TMDSAS page about how it works, but It's just not clicking. Can someone recap how it works? Such as: do people get offers before the end of interviews? If they accept are the out of the running?

We've had a little confusion about it in the thread (or one of the other Texas threads) but I can try to walk through it. Anyone else feel free to jump in and correct me if I miss something. I'm just going to break it down with the assumption that you're a resident.

TMDSAS opens in early May. Texas schools begin offering interviews in late June to early August (it varies). Interviews are handed out until around November or maybe December. No in-state acceptances are offered until November 15th, which is the beginning of the "pre-match period" that continues until December 31st. At this time, admissions are rolling. Applicants are permitted to hold as many prematch offers as they receive and continue interviewing elsewhere if you have more interviews lined up, but are encouraged to withdraw from any school they are sure they don't want to attend. You are permitted to keep all of these offers until the match. By a day in January (the 21st I think?) you are required to rank all schools you've interviewed at (they appear in a window on TMDSAS) in order of preference. On February 1st, a computer automatically matches candidates to their highest ranked school that gave them an acceptance, and auto-withdraws them from lower ranked schools, according to an algorithm. If you were holding multiple offers, you are thus withdrawn from schools you ranked lower. If you didn't have an offer, you have a chance to match to a school that didn't offer you yet. Interviewees who didn't match are put on waitlists if deemed "acceptable", and may or may not be told their position on the waitlist. After this point, based on any further movement of the classes (particularly from students withdrawing after picking up an OOS acceptance) acceptances are once again given out on a rolling basis. You can technically still pick up an acceptance until classes begin in late August (early September?), but it's considered rare for this to happen after May 15th.

Feel free to add to this or correct it if there's an error.

 

[AmethystFlowers]

We've had a little confusion about it in the thread (or one of the other Texas threads) but I can try to walk through it. Anyone else feel free to jump in and correct me if I miss something. I'm just going to break it down with the assumption that you're a resident.
.

Thanks for your summary - this is making more sense then anything I've read anywhere else.

 

[lovemango]

Interviews at Texas schools usually run until the first week of January. Don't stress if you receive an interview at a later date - I interviewed at TTU Lubbock on 11/30 and received an acceptance two weeks later. Also wanted to add that if you do receive a match on Match Day, you cannot be pulled off the waitlist at any TMDSAS school past June 1. Only students who did not match anywhere can still be accepted after that date.

AmethystFlowers, here's a quick rundown of how it worked for me last year. I prematched at 5 Texas schools last year. The top 3 schools on my rank list were in order, 1. UTMB, 2. UTH, and 3. UTHSCSA. I did not match to UTMB or UTH on match day, so I just kept my prematch at UTHSCSA. I then got off the waitlist at both UTMB and UTH at the beginning of May. I would not have been able to get off the waitlist at those schools after June 1 since I already have a match offer at UTHSCSA. Hope that helps you understand how it works a little better!

 

[BlueLabel]

I was talking to Gandalf about this the other day and we thought it would be a good question to pose to the forum. So after you interview at a given TMDSAS school, it eventually will appear under the School Rank Preference page on the TMDSAS website. I'm wondering if we can read anything in to the speed with which the school shows up on this list. A related question is what exactly it means when the school appears. I think there are three possibilities:

1. The school has made a decision about you: decided if you are acceptable or not, and if so, given you a rank on the acceptable list, which is subject to change as more people interview.
2. The school showing up is unrelated to their decision: it's just them flagging you as an interviewee for the sole purpose of you being able to rank them, and thus can occur at any time, before or after they've made a decision.
3. The school showing up on the list is related to them making a decision, but they may make the decision and wait some time before updating the system (i.e. a long downtime between interview and appearance means nothing).

Now I'm sure that this is the kind of thing that varies from school to school and maybe even from applicant to applicant, so there probably isn't one right answer. But I wonder if those who have gone through the process could share their experience of how quickly schools they interviewed at appeared on the pref list, and what decisions they got from these schools and when - i.e., "UTMB updated within a week - prematched in November", etc.

I don't expect to draw any kind of strong conclusions from this, but (for me at least) having a few additional data points to crunch makes the waiting game just a little more bearable.

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

I was talking to Gandalf about this the other day and we thought it would be a good question to pose to the forum. So after you interview at a given TMDSAS school, it eventually will appear under the School Rank Preference page on the TMDSAS website. I'm wondering if we can read anything in to the speed with which the school shows up on this list. A related question is what exactly it means when the school appears. I think there are three possibilities:

1. The school has made a decision about you: decided if you are acceptable or not, and if so, given you a rank on the acceptable list, which is subject to change as more people interview.
2. The school showing up is unrelated to their decision: it's just them flagging you as an interviewee for the sole purpose of you being able to rank them, and thus can occur at any time, before or after they've made a decision.
3. The school showing up on the list is related to them making a decision, but they may make the decision and wait some time before updating the system (i.e. a long downtime between interview and appearance means nothing).

Now I'm sure that this is the kind of thing that varies from school to school and maybe even from applicant to applicant, so there probably isn't one right answer. But I wonder if those who have gone through the process could share their experience of how quickly schools they interviewed at appeared on the pref list, and what decisions they got from these schools and when - i.e., "UTMB updated within a week - prematched in November", etc.

I don't expect to draw any kind of strong conclusions from this, but (for me at least) having a few additional data points to crunch makes the waiting game just a little more bearable.

My guess would be for number 2. But even if it does provide a clue, I hadn't even checked TMDSAS since June until a few minutes ago, so I have no idea how long it took for them to be updated, haha.

 

[BlueLabel]

My guess would be for number 2. But even if it does provide a clue, I hadn't even checked TMDSAS since June until a few minutes ago, so I have no idea how long it took for them to be updated, haha.

Good point. I'm sure a lot of people don't check. Didn't think about that.

 

[lovemango]

I was talking to Gandalf about this the other day and we thought it would be a good question to pose to the forum. So after you interview at a given TMDSAS school, it eventually will appear under the School Rank Preference page on the TMDSAS website. I'm wondering if we can read anything in to the speed with which the school shows up on this list. A related question is what exactly it means when the school appears. I think there are three possibilities:

1. The school has made a decision about you: decided if you are acceptable or not, and if so, given you a rank on the acceptable list, which is subject to change as more people interview.
2. The school showing up is unrelated to their decision: it's just them flagging you as an interviewee for the sole purpose of you being able to rank them, and thus can occur at any time, before or after they've made a decision.
3. The school showing up on the list is related to them making a decision, but they may make the decision and wait some time before updating the system (i.e. a long downtime between interview and appearance means nothing).

Pretty sure it's #2 and that you're overthinking it too much. Some schools are just slower than others at updating their information. I know the waiting game is hard, but November 15 will be here before you know it 🙂

 

[AmethystFlowers]

Do the Texas schools send out rejections during interview season or do they wait until the end/not at all?

 

[bubba2nark]

Do the Texas schools send out rejections during interview season or do they wait until the end/not at all?

Basically if you haven't had an interview invite from the school by January 1st, consider it a rejection. Most of the schools just give silent rejections, so you won't hear anything definite.

 

[SicEmBears]

Good Luck to all OOS applicants!! Hoping for the best for all of us tomorrow.

One question: I had to do individual letters for my application. One of my writers (the extra letter that was not required) still hasn't sent his letter in. Does this mean schools won't accept me since he hasn't submitted it? I already have both of my required letters in. What do you guys think?

 

[Wacks]

Is there a time that match day results are posted? Like midnight


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[lovemango]

Is there a time that match day results are posted? Like midnight


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"Individual match results will be posted on the TMDSAS application at 8:00 AM (CST) February 3."
http://utsystem.edu/tmdsas/medical/acceptance_Match_info.html

 

[TXHopeful2014]

"Individual match results will be posted on the TMDSAS application at 8:00 AM (CST) February 3."
http://utsystem.edu/tmdsas/medical/acceptance_Match_info.html

Does this mean that if we don't see anything posted in our match page, we didn't match? Or do some schools stagger their match results?

 

[Wacks]

Does this mean that if we don't see anything posted in our match page, we didn't match? Or do some schools stagger their match results?

I believe all schools put their info into one computer/system and that system automatically sorts everyone so I don't think schools control the match timing I think all matches are posted at once.


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[TXHopeful2014]

I believe all schools put their info into one computer/system and that system automatically sorts everyone so I don't think schools control the match timing I think all matches are posted at once.


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Cool, thanks!