University of Minnesota-Minneapolis How Good is it?

[Carleton College kid]

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Is anyone applying to the U of M medical school? How good is it? Is it very competitive?

 

[Barton]

U of M is (or has been) a great med school; one of the better state schools. As of late, massive budget constraints have caused quality of equipment/instruction to slide. Word is that it's going downhill. That having been said, I'm applying there. If you're a MN resident, you have a 65% chance of getting an interview (that is huge!) and a 30% chance of getting accepted. Those are some of the best odds out there. If you're not a MN resident, don't even try unless you're stats are pretty impressive (93% of the class is from MN). Of course, if your stats are that good, I advise you not to apply either way cuz you'll probably take my spot! Good luck!

 

[Carleton College kid]

Where did you find these numbers?? 65% chance of getting an interview? That is extremely high? What other school did you apply to?

 

[Barton]

Check the U of M webpage. It has all the stats for in-state/out-state interview/acceptance rates. Also see the US-News Rankings list,click on U of M, then click on admissions.
I am applying to the following:
U of M
UMD
Iowa
Vermont
Wake Forest
Med College of WI
SLU
Finch
Pritzker
Loyola

How about you?

 

[cchoukal]

I'll be starting my first year in medicine at the U of M this fall. I had a heck of a time deciding between the U and University of Pittsburgh, which, on paper, is a "better" school, whatever that means. Not even the deans of admission at either school could really tell me how going to the "better" school would actually translate into better opportunities, jobs, residencies, or whatever.

I don't know about the stats that were reported. My understanding is that if you get a secondary, YOU call THEM to schedule an interview (that's what my app said to do...), meaning every secondary is interviewed. I don't think their in-out-state ratio is any more skewed than anyone else's. They told me that they automatically give out-state residents in-state tuition anyway.

As for quality, I talk to a lot of physicians as a part of my job (pharma market research), and most agree that where you go to medical school, with some exceptions, is pretty irrelevant. The classes are all pretty much the same, you're going to have good an bad teachers wherever you go, and the vast majority of med students in the US go on to more-or-less primary care specialties in semi-private practice. If that's your aim, where you go to med school seems to make zero difference. If, on the other hand, you're looking to be a "star," the U sent like a dozen graduates to Mayo residencies in 2001, like 5 to Hopkins, 2 to Harvard. It's hard to know how that compares nationally, but if you can go to Hopkins from the U, it's probably just fine.

Anyway, the conventional wisdom seems to be that unless you're talking about the top 5 or ten schools, differences in US News rankings aren't very significant in terms of what opportunities you'll have coming out of medical school. Consider, also, that for every $10,000 you borrow, you'll pay $125 per month of the course of a normal 10 year loan repayment.

So, final advice: go to the school that can get you into the residency you think you want, the school that you feel comfortable hanging around in, and the one you can afford.

for the record, I applied to MN, IA, Pitt, NW, and, of course, Yale and Hopkins (yeah, didn't get an interview...).

 

[Carleton College kid]

I am applying to:

Yale
Harvard
UChicago
Northwestern
Tufts
UofM-Minneapolis
UCSF
Stanford
Dartmouth
Finch
Cornell
Sinai

 

[Barton]

I don't know how many interviews were offered last year, but 65% of in-state applicants actually interviewed. If everybody who gets a secondary gets on opportunity to interview, this stat could reflect screening prior to secondaries or people declining interviews.

 

[Fermi]

Originally posted by Barton:
•U of M is (or has been) a great med school; one of the better state schools. As of late, massive budget constraints have caused quality of equipment/instruction to slide. Word is that it's going downhill.•

Do you have any details on this? I will be heading there for school this fall and I've been following the budget "fiasco" quite closely. I know it doesn't bode well for the future, but how have past budget cuts affected the quality of med student facilities and instruction in particular? I hadn't heard of that.

I do understand that they have been losing both clinical faculty and research funding in the past several years, in part due to their probationary status with the NIH due to grant mismanagement. I see how this would affect the clinical education and research, but how does it affect the med school overall, especially the first 2 years? I'd be interested to know if you have any more insight into this.

 

[cchoukal]

I asked Marilyn Becker, one of the deans or directors of admission, that exact question and she didn't have any very convincing answers. She basically said, "We're committed to making sure we provide the best education possible." Duh. Honestly, I have to admit that I'm a bit concerned, but as I posted above, it seems like it doesn't matter much in terms of your eventual residency and jobs. My impression is that MN's reputation may have been affected more within the state that outside MN.

 

[Carleton College kid]

How do you know the dean of admissions?

 

[Carleton College kid]

Does anyone know what the questions are on the secondaries for U of Minnesota- Minneapolis? Do they screen?

 

[cchoukal]

Her name is plastered over all the letters you get, and she's the person who called me to tell me I got in. As for your other question about the secondaries for MN, if they're the same as last year, expect to fill in a bunch of crap that you've already filled in for your AMCAS, expect that this time, you'll either be hand-writing or typing the info into tiny little boxes. There are 5 additional essay type questions, and they're mostly what you'd expect (e.g., why MN, why Medicine, why you, etc.). You'll be surprised, I'd bet, how much each secondary is the same and how little they ask, other than to reiterate your AMCAS onto their pain-in-the-ass forms.

 

[ntxawmx]

Originally posted by Carleton College kid:
•Does anyone know what the questions are on the secondaries for U of Minnesota- Minneapolis? Do they screen?•

According to my recollection, they do screen and not everyone who receives a secondary will be guaranteed an interview. They send out two versions of the secondary. One that asks applicants to call to schedule an interview. I'm assuming the other letter just asks for all the secondary materials before the ad com makes a decision on interview status.

There is a string of posts from last year pertaining to this topic. I'll try to find it and link it here.

Ok... here you go:
http://www.studentdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000892


--Yer

P.S. dfermin, so you chose the U of MN, huh? I guess we'll be classmates after all. 🙂

 

[cchoukal]

As will I, drfermin and ntxawmx. See you in a few weeks!

 

[Carleton College kid]

Just for my reference where did you guys all go for undergrad and how old are all of you. Thanks!

 

[sandflea]

carleton kid, i don't know what kind of numbers you have, but your list of schools is extremely top-heavy. even if you have a 4.0 and a 40+ on the MCAT, it would probably be in your best interest to have some less competitive schools on your list because there are no guarantees in this process. since you are the same person who started a thread about the prestige of schools and how this affects admissions, i'm wondering if you're banking on the fact that the 'carleton' name is what will get you in. it may have less impact than you think. remember that the top universities are *filled* with highly competitive and qualified premed students and that your app will just be one of many.

just some advice.

 

[Carleton College kid]

Just for your reference I applied to several different types of schools, thanks for your concern.

 

[Carleton College kid]

sandflea, what are some not so competitive schools in the midwest?

 

[Fermi]

Originally posted by Carleton College kid:
•Just for my reference where did you guys all go for undergrad and how old are all of you. Thanks!•

-Northwestern
-25(!) years old

 

[cchoukal]

Gustavus Adolphus College
26 years old, going on about 19.

 

[ntxawmx]

The College of St. Catherine.
I just turned 28 (Gee, y'all are makin' me feel old!) 🙂