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Also, about the board scores-- there's been some bashing on the UA CoM because of the 15% fail rate that year for the boards, but I think you can look at it a few ways. I mean, sure the board score pass rate is important, but at some point, the success of the student depends on their individual effort. It's not necessarily a reflection of the quality of the education of that school, or that school's curriculum. It definitely can be, but not necessarily. From what Dr. Malan reportedly said, it seems that the students who weren't as "risky" did just fine, and those who struggled with their MCAT or whatever maybe didn't do as well.

At the same time, the board score pass rate is really one of the only measures we, as prospective students, have, besides locations of residency matches, to judge the "quality" of a school, so yeah it's important. But I just think that its importance should be put in perspective. What I've been hearing from students at the different med schools I've visited over the application cycle is that med school is what you put into it, and I can assume that to a reasonable degree, that holds true for one's performance on the boards as well.
 
hemingway said:
This was also a great touch pulling into the parking lot of the medical campus, snapped it with my phone-- a small gesture that was in keeping with the larger feeling that the students aren't treated as "just a number". The funny thing is, it seems like one of its major assets, the smaller class sizes, will soon be something to be touted by the Tucson campus since the Phoenix campus expects to enroll 150 students eventually.
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Hey thanks for the info hemingway. Haha, and good point on the class size. I wonder how long the 150 class size will take to be actualized, especially with the budget cuts ASU has suffered. This combined with the fact that the nursing campus in downtown needs to expand along with the nutrition department coming downtown and needing a building - it seems like that final goal may take quite a while happen.
 
MadEvans said:
Hey thanks for the info hemingway. Haha, and good point on the class size. I wonder how long the 150 class size will take to be actualized, especially with the budget cuts ASU has suffered. This combined with the fact that the nursing campus in downtown needs to expand along with the nutrition department coming downtown and needing a building - it seems like that final goal may take quite a while happen.
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They're actually breaking ground on a new education building to house the medical students, nursing and public health students. They said we probably won't be affected by it, but should see it finished in the next 4 years as the money has already been allocated 👍
 
Hi guys, I just wanted to comment on how amazing 2nd Look was at Phx this weekend. I actually am not going to jump right into Tucson if I hear back, I am going to seriously consider both options if I have them eventually.

Besides the huge support of the faculty, staff, and students, I really am amazed at their curriculum. You start seeing patients the very first month with the Longitudinal Clinical Experiences, where you are paired with a primary care doctor and work with them over time and do more as you learn more in doctoring,etc. You also get to rank the doctor and areas you would like to spend time in-so it isn't random.
THEN you have capstone where you take what you have been studying in neuro, renal, etc. and then go to the office of the specialists or what not and see it all happen. So much clinical early-on and application. The currents student had so much to say about these experiences already and said it was the coolest feeling having studied something inside and out then to go see it all in action within an office or hospital.

The small class size allows for this great degree of effective clinical experience and great spots to learn within the Phx area. Since it is the first med campus in Phx, they said all the physicians and clinics in the area are ecstatic and eager to have students come learn with them.

Also, the students say every professor knows you by name and has an open-door policy if you ever need help. You never have trouble finding a professor to help one-on-one or finding a mentor in something you are interested in. The MS1s and MS2s also raved about their anatomy teacher who (besides being a sweetheart) has designed a new way of teaching anatomy that has won awards at Harvard or Yale (i forgot which one the prof. attended and which gave the award), and currently (since it is so new) UA Phx is the only campus with this award-winning block.

Anyways, I could go on but my point is that I have alot of confidence in both campuses and would be super happy if I went to Phx. I have some thinking to do, but if anyone gets in at Phx off the WL soon--you are in for a GREAT, unique medical education and experience. So early congrats!
 
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Cuddy, I'm glad you enjoyed Second Look as much as I did! I must have seen you and not even known it! Did you go to the Thursday night thing? I thought it was a great way to start - it made the following days more relaxed since we had already met so many people. I can't wait for school to start!

And Hemingway, I agree the parking lot signs were an awesome and welcoming touch - my dad actually took one home, hehehe 🙂
 
Cuddy420 said:
Hi guys, I just wanted to comment on how amazing 2nd Look was at Phx this weekend. I actually am not going to jump right into Tucson if I hear back, I am going to seriously consider both options if I have them eventually.

Besides the huge support of the faculty, staff, and students, I really am amazed at their curriculum. You start seeing patients the very first month with the Longitudinal Clinical Experiences, where you are paired with a primary care doctor and work with them over time and do more as you learn more in doctoring,etc. You also get to rank the doctor and areas you would like to spend time in-so it isn't random.
THEN you have capstone where you take what you have been studying in neuro, renal, etc. and then go to the office of the specialists or what not and see it all happen. So much clinical early-on and application. The currents student had so much to say about these experiences already and said it was the coolest feeling having studied something inside and out then to go see it all in action within an office or hospital.

The small class size allows for this great degree of effective clinical experience and great spots to learn within the Phx area. Since it is the first med campus in Phx, they said all the physicians and clinics in the area are ecstatic and eager to have students come learn with them.

Also, the students say every professor knows you by name and has an open-door policy if you ever need help. You never have trouble finding a professor to help one-on-one or finding a mentor in something you are interested in. The MS1s and MS2s also raved about their anatomy teacher who (besides being a sweetheart) has designed a new way of teaching anatomy that has won awards at Harvard or Yale (i forgot which one the prof. attended and which gave the award), and currently (since it is so new) UA Phx is the only campus with this award-winning block.

Anyways, I could go on but my point is that I have alot of confidence in both campuses and would be super happy if I went to Phx. I have some thinking to do, but if anyone gets in at Phx off the WL soon--you are in for a GREAT, unique medical education and experience. So early congrats!
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From what I gathered, a lot of us had the choice between the two campuses and I think we all left with the impression that we'd made the right choice.
 
I'm glad you all enjoyed your 2nd look experience. Tucson's 2nd look was amazing, as well!
I have a question for those who attended phoenix's 2nd look: how often do students get to see patients in phx? Is it every week or just at the end of each block(capstone)? And how did you guys like the facilities and the labs? Every little info helps!
Thanks. If you have any question about tucson's 2nd look and the campus in general, I'd be more than happy to answer! Happy Easter!
 
baselimam said:
I'm glad you all enjoyed your 2nd look experience. Tucson's 2nd look was amazing, as well!
I have a question for those who attended phoenix's 2nd look: how often do students get to see patients in phx? Is it every week or just at the end of each block(capstone)? And how did you guys like the facilities and the labs? Every little info helps!
Thanks. If you have any question about tucson's 2nd look and the campus in general, I'd be more than happy to answer! Happy Easter!
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The LCE's with your primary care preceptor is every other week. However, your doctoring course is every other week as well-it trades off with the LCE's. They said they send your PCP preceptor email updates with what you learn in Doctoring so they know how much to let you do each time and to help you with.

Your capstone is after every block. The students enjoyed this alot they said, it really reinforces what you just studied forever and took a test on.

Could anyone talk about what they did at Tucson's and what you enjoyed most? Are clinical experiences at Tucson all rolled into societies? I would be interested in what people liked most when going to 2nd Look at Tucson...Thanks!
 
Everyone in Tucson is enrolled in a society group. You meet with your group and doc mentor once a week and see patients, practice presenting, doing the exam etc. It seems both schools are very big on early clinical experience (which I love). Tucson also employs standardized patients to practice with.

You can also do the training and then volunteer with a lot of different CUP programs. It seems pretty hands-on, and there is always an attending to watch over you.

They said you also see real cases that are applicable to what you have been studying, but I think it is less formal then the capstone at Phx. (Just my take.)

Everyone seems happy and likes the school and professors. My tour guides said there is a lot of student co-operation.

The board scores are a concern, but they were talked about as has been discussed. I'll be curious to see how this years go. Tucson seems VERY pleased with their match list this year. So that's encouraging.

I really don't think you can go wrong with either school. And in the end, it's also about you and your effort.
 
Hey guys, I figured I'd put my 2 cents in about Phx second look as well. I was very impressed. Although I was way burned out by the end of Friday from asking sooooo many questions, it was amazing how much time they gave you to interact with MS1, MS2, and faculty. I actually was approached by a professor who recognized my name from my application because he was apparently involved in creating my major at ASU (which is fairly new) and made a point to talk to me about it, which just reinforced how active the professors are in their students lives. I also really liked all the clinical experience opportunities (like LCE, doctoring, and capstone) and the case based instructions also sounds really interesting. Since it sounds like our boards are basically a derivative of the CBIs, that seems like a really good way to prepare.

For those of you that went to Phoenix, what did they say the daily schedule is? In Phx I guess the days are shorter than most med schools (3 days are 9-3, 2 days are 9-12 plus doctoring 1 day a week till 5:30).

It's weird to think I probably met most of you on here that went to Phx second look! lol
 
Bleh I cant wait till I get an acceptance so I can be part of the "in" crowd. 🙁
 
hemingway said:
They're actually breaking ground on a new education building to house the medical students, nursing and public health students. They said we probably won't be affected by it, but should see it finished in the next 4 years as the money has already been allocated 👍
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Cool! Hopefully they have allocated or are able to allocate more funds for more structures, staffing, and programs to get the ball rolling even quicker.
 
If I make it in, I want MadEvans to be in my class. And yes hopefully there is some good movement this week because Im getting a bit concerned too.
 
By April 18th last year's WL was on 18. Hopefully we can move up atleast 3 spots by then and stay on schedule.

MadEvans: I know you are on the Phx WL, and fyi there were about 30 of us at 2nd Look which means 18 people did not show up at all...so a good number of those 18 are probably not as interested or in other places-so be hopeful for some good news around May 15th!
 
WannabeDoctora said:
Although it's hard, don't lose hope just yet! Hang in there!
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HereIComeSEALS said:
If I make it in, I want MadEvans to be in my class. And yes hopefully there is some good movement this week because Im getting a bit concerned too.
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Cuddy420 said:
MadEvans: I know you are on the Phx WL, and fyi there were about 30 of us at 2nd Look which means 18 people did not show up at all...so a good number of those 18 are probably not as interested or in other places-so be hopeful for some good news around May 15th!
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Yeah, it's getting harder and harder to stay positive here. That is good news (for me) about 2nd look, cuddy... it definitely makes me hopeful. 🙂

I've been trying to get a hold of the phx office for a while now with no luck, but I'm guessing it's probably just busy due to all of the commotion in getting 2nd look ready this past weekend.

Alright, I need to keep myself distracted until mid-May for the real wait list excitement. Good thing I have plenty of school work to occupy my time. Hahaha, it's pretty amazing when you regard school work as a good thing... it proves just how consuming this application process really is.
 
I think it is way to early to be gloomy.

Remember we going to 115 for a tucson class size, so we are bound to be better than 08 - the question is how much better (should know by may 13th).

From merryjoulton's conversation with dr. malan, "He said that due to the drop in board scores last year, they no longer make a point to accept students who are such high academic risks though."

This might signal a lower overall direct yield rate then prior years as they reach for more highly qualified students - which means more waitlist openings.

nonlocality
 
Hey guys, Ive been following this forum pretty closely for some time, just wanted to let you know that im #16 and I got the call today. Hope to see many of you next year!
 
Just curious for those still completing their undergrad, has anyone else lost all motivation to study?? Since I know I'm going to med school in the fall I just wanna sit back, relax, and skip all my classes/hw!!!!! 😱
 
nonlocality said:
From merryjoulton's conversation with dr. malan, "He said that due to the drop in board scores last year, they no longer make a point to accept students who are such high academic risks though."
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:idea: I didn't think about that! I hope that makes up for the semi-rolling admissions difference.
 
I have to say it's difficult to determine an acceptance pattern. I know people who had decent grades and solid MCAT score who were rejected, while some people with pretty low MCAT scores got accepted. So, take everything with a grain of salt. It's a holistic analysis of the application.
 
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wannabeMedStud said:
Just curious for those still completing their undergrad, has anyone else lost all motivation to study?? Since I know I'm going to med school in the fall I just wanna sit back, relax, and skip all my classes/hw!!!!! 😱
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Tell me about it
 
As I said before, everyone on the phx/tucson waitlist are md material - without exception.

Whether or not they need a little more help with their board tests that is a different matter - but still very good GonnaBeMD material.


Looking over the past several years of posting, where tucson has dominated the number of seats, I believe that the tucson adcoms have been following an optimization approach to selecting candidates.

They are trying to optimize/maximize the number of arizona folks accepted at med school - either here or elsewhere.

To accomplish this they allow the upper tier/very qualified candidates to escape to other private/public med schools without even considering them for acceptance.

Instead their focus is on those who are fence sitters, those that might not get in elsewhere - those with few/no other choices. This is their target candidate set.

Their expectation is that even the upper tier/very qualified candidates who leave arizona might have strong enough ties that they will one day come back. And the hope is those that stay in arizona for med school will stay here as well.

Following this optimization/maximization approach yields the greatest number of drs that might eventually practice in arizona.



If I had the power to choose, I would follow the same approach.



nonlocality
 
That's an interesting hypothesis, nonlocality. In support of it, there is a situation I heard from a friend of a friend of a friend 😛... where a student had outstanding credentials in scores and experience. The interviewer apparently said something to the effect of "I don't even know why you're here, i mean, why should we waist an acceptance on you when it's plainly obvious you are not going to take it?" Now, this could have been an interview tactic used to test the person's desire to go to UA, or this may have never happened at all and it remains just a story. In contrast however, I do know of two UA acceptees who have also gotten into numerous "big name" schools, including Ivys. Their numbers such as scores and GPA are quite intimidating 😱. As far as I know, the only thing they haven't done is cure HIV/AIDS...lol 😉. The point is, they did get into both campuses even thought they were Ivy material. Who knows.
 
Yeah, like all good theories pulled out of ones you know where, there is always exceptions. But I think this theory covers about 85% of the accepted students.

nonlocality
 
The whole ivy league school type stuff is such BS. Just another example of our socities classism. Just another way to make others feel that somehow thier education is inferior and those people whom were accepted by the Ivys gain an enourmous ego boost. Ok so they made you read a few more books for that grade or they made you write those 4 extra pages. As if it wasnt possible to read the same literature.Like Harvard med will teach you secrets of medicine that you can't learn at UA COM or by picking up the exact same book they use. Just another example of separation in this country intead of unity.
 
And one of the other problems with those Ivy's, hereicome, is that they require good spelling/grammar.

nonlocality
 
Perhaps, but it is quite unfair for those who are Ivy league material but would still like to stay in-state. This power can certainly be abused.

nonlocality said:
As I said before, everyone on the phx/tucson waitlist are md material - without exception.

Whether or not they need a little more help with their board tests that is a different matter - but still very good GonnaBeMD material.


Looking over the past several years of posting, where tucson has dominated the number of seats, I believe that the tucson adcoms have been following an optimization approach to selecting candidates.

They are trying to optimize/maximize the number of arizona folks accepted at med school - either here or elsewhere.

To accomplish this they allow the upper tier/very qualified candidates to escape to other private/public med schools without even considering them for acceptance.

Instead their focus is on those who are fence sitters, those that might not get in elsewhere - those with few/no other choices. This is their target candidate set.

Their expectation is that even the upper tier/very qualified candidates who leave arizona might have strong enough ties that they will one day come back. And the hope is those that stay in arizona for med school will stay here as well.

Following this optimization/maximization approach yields the greatest number of drs that might eventually practice in arizona.



If I had the power to choose, I would follow the same approach.



nonlocality
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Hereicome, you are just killing me....

And that is why my only other choice, besides tucson, is to study Phlebotomy at Transylvania University.

nonlocality
 
haha. you guys are all funny. we will have a funny class, thats good! So who is going to call tomorrow?
 
Yea the prominent phlebotomist Dr. Acula teaches great things there from what I've heard. Lol I made a scrubs funny.

nonlocality said:
Hereicome, you are just killing me....

And that is why my only other choice, besides tucson, is to study Phlebotomy at Transylvania University.

nonlocality
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This uncertainty is making it very difficult for me to plan for the upcoming year (and I'm a planner)!

I'm far down the waitlist but within nonlocality's range of "might get in." I need to study and retake the MCAT, though I find myself dreading it. I know I need to cut down to part-time work hours to truly dedicate myself to the task.

Options for the rest of the year include changing jobs (but then what if I get in and essentially quit after a month), quitting altogether and taking prerequisite classes for a backup plan, etc.

How are you all deciding what to do? Should I wait until June to make any changes in employment? If I have another year off, there are certainly other things I'd like to be doing either job- or school-wise until I can get my (hopeful) acceptance.
 
So awful story of the morning... my mother texts me while I'm in class saying that she called Tucson this morning (I didn't give her the number or ask her to I swear!) and they said they had accepted up to #18. I gave a squeal of glee during class, to get several strange glances... so I called after class just to make sure. Def still on #16... so I called my mom and yelled at her for getting me overly excited for no reason 🙁
 
lovemed04 said:
So awful story of the morning... my mother texts me while I'm in class saying that she called Tucson this morning (I didn't give her the number or ask her to I swear!) and they said they had accepted up to #18. I gave a squeal of glee during class, to get several strange glances... so I called after class just to make sure. Def still on #16... so I called my mom and yelled at her for getting me overly excited for no reason 🙁
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Lol..where did she get 18 then? Well when someone calls tomorrow maybe it will be at 17 hopefully.
 
I have NO idea where she got that number... they sound nothing alike! I was very frustrated to say the least.
 
My advice (sunny1) is to sign-up now for a mid july mcat exam date, also get your LORs lined up.

Wait till mid-may (about may 13th) and see where our second trendline is pointing. I am hoping that our second trendline will be accurate to within +/- 3.

By may 13th, if the second trendline is not pointing at 63 or greater then you might want to prepare:
1. Have your application reviewed by tara/tanisha
2. Quit your job and start working very hard on mcat prep
3. Beef up your personal statement, discussion of extracurricular activities, and add a few more volunteer gigs (all this based on tara/tanisha inputs)

By mid-june (june 15th) you will have close to the final verdict on the waitlist number

If it does not look promising reapply by late june and keep banging on your mcat prep.

Remember if you are within two of the june 15th waitlist number to recontact the adcoms and let them know you are very willing to accept a very late date/last moment acceptance. If you don't live in tucson, and an offer turns up one day before orientation you can always hold up with one of us waitlisters until you get moved into a place to stay.

Also, since you are already waitlisted then you are probably just missing a little bit of something to put you over the top - work hard to find out what it is.


nonlocality
 
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Hey, so I got this letter today from Tulane, since I was rejected there, about a one year master's in pharmacology program specifically designed for re-applicants trying to enhance credentials for the med school applicant...or something like that. The program looks squared away. Apparently, you take the pharmacology classes with the med students and then a few others specifically tailored to said master's program. They claim 80% of their program's graduates get into med school the following year. I'm sure you can find the program on their website. I just thought I'd throw that out there for some of you still trying to figure out how and what to do on your applications for another round of applying.
 
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regnaR175 said:
Hey, so I got this letter today from Tulane, since I was rejected there, about a one year master's in pharmacology program specifically designed for re-applicants trying to enhance credentials for the med school applicant...or something like that. The program looks squared away. Apparently, you take the pharmacology classes with the med students and then a few others specifically tailored to said master's program. They claim 80% of their program's graduates get into med school the following year. I'm sure you can find the program on their website. I just thought I'd throw that out there for some of you still trying to figure out how and what to do on your applications for another round of applying.
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And, best of all, you get to party like its 1999 in The Big Easy!
 
sunny1 said:
How are you all deciding what to do? Should I wait until June to make any changes in employment? If I have another year off, there are certainly other things I'd like to be doing either job- or school-wise until I can get my (hopeful) acceptance.
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I'm in your same pickle, Sunny. Wait list 64 at Tucson, and also wait listed in Phoenix.

Nonlocality gave good advice, in my opinion. The best move you have is to assume rejection, but continue crossing your fingers. Quit your job and do something this summer that you've always wanted to do - after you study like hell for the MCAT and ace it. Best to do it now while you still can before med school starts (be it this coming fall or next).

I could probably improve my MCAT a bit, but not significantly enough to make a big difference. So I'm taking a trip down to Ecuador to volunteer, work on my spanish, and see the Galapagos islands instead. 🙂 I'm also going to do some extra shadowing and work on improving my 2010 AMCAS app (I'm disgusted by my AMCAS app this year... I could have done so much better) as well. Then for this coming year I've already been accepted to a one year MS in nutrition program to occupy my time, since I just can't get enough of this learning stuff... haha.

And and by the way, if anyone is interested... I went to that seminar about pancreatic islet cell transplantation today (Probably HereICome will be the only one semi-interested) and it was amazing. The surgeon resects the pancreas, or part of it, then puts it into this fancy system to separate the insulin secreting islet cells from the rest. He can then inject - by cutting the patient open or just percutaneously - only the insulin secreting cells into what's left of the pancreas or even in the liver. He's had tons of success with pancreatitis patients, and even pretty remarkable success with type 1 diabetics too.

It makes me think of how great it would be to have access to MDs/researchers/clinicians like these down at the Tucson campus. However, Phoenix's willingness to videoconference these lectures and still offer plenty of staff and resources of its own is almost more attractive to me. I'm not one to necessarily critique the two since I'm not accepted to either, but yeah. Just verbalizing my thought process here... both are awesome schools and I'd be thrilled to go to either. 😎
 
I wanted to let all of you know that I decided to give up my seat in Tucson, so the waitlist should be up to at least #17 today.
 
spicyangel said:
I wanted to let all of you know that I decided to give up my seat in Tucson, so the waitlist should be up to at least #17 today.
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yessssss, thanks for the heads up 🙂
 
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