Southern Illinois Applicants

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greytmedic said:
I just got my acceptance letter to SIU yesterday. I recieved the AWPA 3/03.
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Congrats! You are an impressive applicant. Now you have choices to make. Good luck with the decision.
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Why is this thread dead?

Is there no hope left for an SIU acceptance?

Anyone have any more info? :oops:
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Their adcom met yesterday and a batch of acceptances will go out very soon. If you haven't heard at the end of the week or halfway through next week, you will need to call their admissions office to check up on the status of your file. Hope this helps!:thumbup:
 
greytmedic said:
I just got my acceptance letter to SIU yesterday. I recieved the AWPA 3/03.
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Catalystik said:
An AWPA letter was received by one of our premeds today, dated 2/28/07. Interview was the last week of January.
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Acceptance letter received by the above, dated 3/19.

happy snake said:
I heard there were few (very few) outright acceptances..as in some students were not placed at all on the AWPA after their interviews but just got accepted. Is that true?
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I'd never heard this before, but the two pre-adcomm 3/27 meeting acceptances above make a case for this.
 
Catalystik said:
Acceptance letter received by the above, dated 3/19.



I'd never heard this before, but the two pre-adcomm 3/27 meeting acceptances above make a case for this.
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Here is my understanding of how it works. Once you interview your file is sent to the next adcomm meeting. During the adcomm meeting your file is separated into categories: AWPA, hold for later review, rejection. During the same meeting the AWPA's are ranked. Sometime during the month the school offers "batch-acceptances." They take the top 30 or so files from the AWPA and offer them acceptances. This means that you are ranked during the adcomm meeting following your interview but you do not have to wait until the meeting after that for the school to decide to offer the actual acceptance. After the class is filled, as a person drops an acceptance they offer the spot to the remaining top person on the AWPA. After the AWPA is used up they go to the hold for later review. This is how it was told to me by my student interviewer who is on the adcomm. So, since I interviewed towards the end of February my file made it to the Feb. 27th adcomm meeting. I got my AWPA a few days later and was then offered an acceptance in one of the "batch-acceptances" in the middle of the month.
 
Just wanted to let you all know, if any of you are anxiously awaiting spots in the class etc, that I withdrew from SIU early this week. Thus there is an open seat! Good luck to you all!
 
greytmedic said:
Here is my understanding of how it works. ... you are ranked during the adcomm meeting following your interview but you do not have to wait until the meeting after that for the school to decide to offer the actual acceptance.
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Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate your making sense of this.
 
No word yet, I've been AWPA awhile now. I'll let you know if I hear, I do think we can expect something this week.
 
SGMD1 said:
Damn. Just got my rejection letter...definitely stings :(

Good luck to everyone else!
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Sorry SGMD1, good luck with your other schools! :luck:
 
Any more acceptances, as opposed to AWPAs?
 
Soon said:
Any more acceptances, as opposed to AWPAs?
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I've been on the AWPA list since November. Still haven't gotten an official acceptance. Not sure what the deal is. I was probably towards the bottom of the list, though.
 
BKadow said:
I've been on the AWPA list since November. Still haven't gotten an official acceptance. Not sure what the deal is. I was probably towards the bottom of the list, though.
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Ha, me too, although I seriously doubt it for you, you have great stats and several acceptances to choose from.
 
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Soon said:
Ha, me too, although I seriously doubt it for you, you have great stats and several acceptances to choose from.
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Thanks. Honestly - I'm not too upset about it. You're right - I've got some other great choices at this point. I'm really pretty dead set on Loyola, but at the same time, I'm holding onto these other schools acceptances until I see how the financial aid situation pans out. SIU is a great school, and if the price is right, I would still definitely consider matriculating there.

If I don't hear soon though, I'm probably going to withdraw so I can make my final decision. I should get the last of my financial aid estimates within the next 2 weeks.

I forgot to mention, I'm from the Chicagoland area. I'm still pretty dumbfounded that I got an interview and AWPA status, as I've heard SIU traditionally doesn't accept many individuals from north of I-80. That's one of the reasons I figured I'd be towards the bottom of the AWPA list.

Good luck to you, Soon. Do you have any other acceptances currently?
 
No, I just found out I'm waitlisted a few places now, so I'm looking at all my options but have my fingers crossed! Not sure how many people would have to withdraw from SIU before they get to me!
Good luck to everybody else, it's been a long process, for sure.
 
Just got my acceptance dated the 6th... and the 10th. I got two letters for some reason.
 
kyley3k said:
Just got my acceptance dated the 6th... and the 10th. I got two letters for some reason.
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Was it a post-office pickup? An envelope? Can't wait to get home and check the mailbox! :scared:
 
happy snake said:
Was it a post-office pickup? An envelope? Can't wait to get home and check the mailbox! :scared:
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No, it was definitely at home - not a p.o. box. For some reason it went to my parent's house, so my mom called me and told me. I don't really know what the packaging looked like.
 
kyley3k said:
No, it was definitely at home - not a p.o. box. For some reason it went to my parent's house, so my mom called me and told me. I don't really know what the packaging looked like.
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Whatever it was. Congrats kyley3k. Pray for us. :thumbup:
 
Just to let all you fine SIU-bound-SDNer's know....

The PhD who teaches the embryology and part of gross anatomy section of first year here at SIU will be joining you as an MS-1 in carbondale this year. :smuggrin:
 
Nothing yet for me, I'll keep you posted happy snake. Good luck. :)
 
SigPi said:
Just to let all you fine SIU-bound-SDNer's know....

The PhD who teaches the embryology and part of gross anatomy section of first year here at SIU will be joining you as an MS-1 in carbondale this year. :smuggrin:
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I wouldn't worry about this too much.
 
Soon said:
Nothing yet for me, I'll keep you posted happy snake. Good luck. :)
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Thanks Soon. These trips to the mailbox are wearing me down! Good luck to you too!:luck:
 
kyley3k said:
Why does it really matter any way?
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It won't matter much. Embryology is a pretty small part of the 1st year curriculum. She's going to know the anatomy portion of the curriculum pretty well, but people tend to do well in that anyway. She'll probably help your class more than hurt you since team work is stressed so much at SIU. She's on your team, not working against you...that's the beauty of SIU.

On a side note: SIU just went under recertification by the medical school licensing committee (LCME) as is required every 7 or 8 years. I'm not sure what's supposed to be public knowledge just yet (so I won't go into any details), but let me just say that SIU did VERY well...as in accomplishing something only one other med school in the nation has in the last 10 years (and every school has been reviewed at least twice in the last 10 years).
 
That's awesome about the LCME recertification. My advisor warned me that last year there were actually some 30 students on the AWPA list that didn't make it. Apparently, more and more accepted students are taking up the offer at SIU and turning down other schools.

All the more reason to want to get off the AWPA list!!!!!! :scared:
 
NEATOMD said:
It won't matter much. Embryology is a pretty small part of the 1st year curriculum. She's going to know the anatomy portion of the curriculum pretty well, but people tend to do well in that anyway. She'll probably help your class more than hurt you since team work is stressed so much at SIU. She's on your team, not working against you...that's the beauty of SIU.

On a side note: SIU just went under recertification by the medical school licensing committee (LCME) as is required every 7 or 8 years. I'm not sure what's supposed to be public knowledge just yet (so I won't go into any details), but let me just say that SIU did VERY well...as in accomplishing something only one other med school in the nation has in the last 10 years (and every school has been reviewed at least twice in the last 10 years).
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Yea, I think that's the beauty of their system, collaboration. Interesting... I'm anxious to know what that was. Can I ask you a question? I'm really struggling between SIU and SLU though. I'm from the I-70 Corridor, so STL is a tad closer, but the big difference is the styles of teaching. I'm not convinced that I'll learn everything I need to with PBL. I'm thinking that with out the structured curriculum, I won't push myself as hard. Any thoughts?
 
kyley3k said:
Yea, I think that's the beauty of their system, collaboration. Interesting... I'm anxious to know what that was. Can I ask you a question? I'm really struggling between SIU and SLU though. I'm from the I-70 Corridor, so STL is a tad closer, but the big difference is the styles of teaching. I'm not convinced that I'll learn everything I need to with PBL. I'm thinking that with out the structured curriculum, I won't push myself as hard. Any thoughts?
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I heard that if you have some sort of work ethic, you'll do just fine at SIU. One of my interviewers had graduated from SIU and said that he had the exact same doubts about PBL and "learning through experience". He said that working in groups actually helped him become a better team player when it came to his residency and beyond. He said that you also learn to assimilate information from several sources around you versus a more traditional 100% uni-dimensional book-oriented approach.

I guess anyone who has come this far and has been accepted has the kind of work ethic to do fine at SIU.

Cheers and best of luck with your choices! :luck:
 
kyley3k said:
Yea, I think that's the beauty of their system, collaboration. Interesting... I'm anxious to know what that was. Can I ask you a question? I'm really struggling between SIU and SLU though. I'm from the I-70 Corridor, so STL is a tad closer, but the big difference is the styles of teaching. I'm not convinced that I'll learn everything I need to with PBL. I'm thinking that with out the structured curriculum, I won't push myself as hard. Any thoughts?
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I am also deciding between several schools and PBL is my main concern with SIU. I got in contact with two third years at SIU, though, who were more than willing to talk to me over the phone or via email--I can ask them if they'd be willing to talk with you too if you would like--PM me.
 
kyley3k said:
Yea, I think that's the beauty of their system, collaboration. Interesting... I'm anxious to know what that was. Can I ask you a question? I'm really struggling between SIU and SLU though. I'm from the I-70 Corridor, so STL is a tad closer, but the big difference is the styles of teaching. I'm not convinced that I'll learn everything I need to with PBL. I'm thinking that with out the structured curriculum, I won't push myself as hard. Any thoughts?
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While it's true that not everyone is wild about PBL, most people really enjoy it and are glad they chose it over lecture based. There is no question about the fact that you can learn just as much with PBL as you can with lecture based. As a matter of fact, the LCME has been strongly advocating for all schools to go to PBL curriculum's because it's been found to be so effective. Plus, if you like them, don't forget that SIU does still have lectures, though most aren't required (so if you don't learn from lectures you don't have to go, but you can if you want).

The bottom line is that no matter where you go, you're going to have to be motivated to learn the material and you'll be evaluated by tests to ensure that you are. Further, no matter where you go, you'll end up using the same review materials as every other medical student for board prep. One of the things that really blew me away about SIU is the fact that it has lower than avg entrance scores and higher than avg board scores (esp step 2), which tells me they must be doing something right...apparently, the LCME crew agrees.

Honestly, I'd imagine that you can go to either school and do just fine.

If you really can't make up your mind in the end, just pick the least expensive...seriously, you're going to do fine with either school and you'll end up with the same degree. So, why not save some money?
 
happy snake said:
I heard that if you have some sort of work ethic, you'll do just fine at SIU. One of my interviewers had graduated from SIU and said that he had the exact same doubts about PBL and "learning through experience". He said that working in groups actually helped him become a better team player when it came to his residency and beyond. He said that you also learn to assimilate information from several sources around you versus a more traditional 100% uni-dimensional book-oriented approach.

I guess anyone who has come this far and has been accepted has the kind of work ethic to do fine at SIU.

Cheers and best of luck with your choices! :luck:
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Ditto, to what he said.
 
Dear qwert,

I want to be the first to congratulate you on your acceptance to the SIU School of Medicine. A copy of your admission letter and the necessary enrollment forms has been mailed to your preferred address listed in AMCAS.

You have two weeks to consider your enrollment decision. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have more questions about SIU School of Medicine. If you choose to attend medical school elsewhere, please let us know as soon as possible so that we may offer acceptance to the next person on our list.

Congratulations!

Sincerely,
Evan Wilson

:biglove:
 
happy snake said:
Dear qwert,

I want to be the first to congratulate you on your acceptance to the SIU School of Medicine. A copy of your admission letter and the necessary enrollment forms has been mailed to your preferred address listed in AMCAS.

You have two weeks to consider your enrollment decision. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have more questions about SIU School of Medicine. If you choose to attend medical school elsewhere, please let us know as soon as possible so that we may offer acceptance to the next person on our list.

Congratulations!

Sincerely,
Evan Wilson

:biglove:
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Who is qwert and why were his parents so cruel in naming him?
 
tdd340 said:
Who is qwert and why were his parents so cruel in naming him?
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Hahaha! XYZ or XXXX seemed boring, so I chose to X-out my name with the first 5 letters on the Qwerty keyboard!
 
happy snake said:
Dear qwert,

I want to be the first to congratulate you on your acceptance to the SIU School of Medicine.
Congratulations!

Sincerely,
Evan Wilson

:biglove:
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If this is a letter you received Happy Snake, then I'd like to be the second to offer my congratulations. You've waited a long time to hear from them.
 
Catalystik said:
If this is a letter you received Happy Snake, then I'd like to be the second to offer my congratulations. You've waited a long time to hear from them.
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Thanks so much catalystik!! Was on the AWPA since December. Sent them three EC updates on everything from volunteering to what I had for lunch and dinner!!!!! I guess those updates really helped. :D

I had a super time interviewing at SIU, and I'm looking forward to starting there this Fall.

Cheers and I'm praying for everyone's who's waiting to hear back! It would be great to have all of you as fellow M1s! :luck: :luck: :luck:
 
happy snake said:
Thanks so much catalystik!! Was on the AWPA since December. Sent them three EC updates on everything from volunteering to what I had for lunch and dinner!!!!! I guess those updates really helped. :D

I had a super time interviewing at SIU, and I'm looking forward to starting there this Fall.

Cheers and I'm praying for everyone's who's waiting to hear back! It would be great to have all of you as fellow M1s! :luck: :luck: :luck:
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Congrats happysnake!! You've been waiting a long time for this and you deserve it! :) :clap:
 
happy snake said:
Thanks so much catalystik!! Was on the AWPA since December. Sent them three EC updates on everything from volunteering to what I had for lunch and dinner!!!!! I guess those updates really helped. :D

I had a super time interviewing at SIU, and I'm looking forward to starting there this Fall.

Cheers and I'm praying for everyone's who's waiting to hear back! It would be great to have all of you as fellow M1s! :luck: :luck: :luck:
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Good for you! Hope to see you there...
 
WTG happy snake!

OK, I'm getting set for this year's application cycle - AMCAS opens tomorrow and SIU is a top choice.

Any advice from you veterans??????
 
megboo said:
WTG happy snake!

OK, I'm getting set for this year's application cycle - AMCAS opens tomorrow and SIU is a top choice.

Any advice from you veterans??????
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You'll see there's a fair share of 'right-place-at-the-right-time' kind of luck involved in this process.

SIU really likes to see some humanism (whatever that means to you, depends on your experiences). They also like to see demonstrated ability to perform in clinical settings (medical/paramedical work experience), and good variety of experiences (research, volunteering, other ECs).

Also, it will be critical for you to know current issues. I was made to take a stand on Universal HC/Single payer HC, during my interview. Don't be afraid to emote (tearing up may be taking this too far) and express your feelings about issues. It's better to feel strongly about something than to seem disinterested.

Work your butt off for the MCATs. They say that they look beyond the scores, yet their average MCAT score for matriculating classes (I believe in 2006) was a super solid 33!! That just tells me that they have enough high scoring applicants who at the same time, have managed to fill their undergraduate plates with a surplus of experiences.

Reading up on these also might help:

http://www.positiveprofiles.com/content/pandp/tier_3/pandp_students_manual.asp

http://www.pbli.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/patient-series.html

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/health/policy/index.html

Good luck and cheers! :luck:
 
I'm hoping being a SLP for 7 years and now in private practice will take care of clinical experience ;)

I'm really stoked about the school. SIU is my alma mater for my B.S. and M.S. Plus, my mom went to med school there (long enough ago that no one will remember her but recent enough for me to remember how much she loved it).
 
megboo said:
I'm hoping being a SLP for 7 years and now in private practice will take care of clinical experience ;)

I'm really stoked about the school. SIU is my alma mater for my B.S. and M.S. Plus, my mom went to med school there (long enough ago that no one will remember her but recent enough for me to remember how much she loved it).
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Wow. Those are some super strong ties to the school. You'll do fine. :thumbup:
 
Per request from Catalystik, I'm trying to find SIU's USMLE scores that I wrote down last fall, but I have so many papers and so little organization, it may not happen...especially considering my schedule right now. Anyway, I'll keep looking and see if I can find them.

I can tell you that while I don't remember the specifics, SIU tends to score just above US allopathic average on Step 1 and dramatically higher than the average on Step 2 (which is actually more impressive to residencies, provided you take it in time for your interviews.)
 
Just want to let everyone still on the AWPA list know, I am withdrawing from SIU as of today. I hope this opens up a spot and gets one of my fellow SDNers in. Good luck to all of you and hopefully there will be more spots as May 15th approaches.:luck: :luck: :luck:
 
NEATOMD said:
Per request from Catalystik, I'm trying to find SIU's USMLE scores that I wrote down last fall, but I have so many papers and so little organization, it may not happen...especially considering my schedule right now.
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Thanks Neato, for making the effort, especially when you have exams coming up. Good Luck on the test.
 
Guys, I just cancelled my acceptance at SIU. Was the toughest decision I have made yet.

The best to everyone waiting to hear from SIU. :luck: :luck:

Cheers
 
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