UT Southwestern Class of 2013!

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Sine Timore said:
I'm still holding out for BCM, but even if I do get accepted, I'm pretty sure UTSW is the better fit...
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Amen! I had similar thoughts in regards to BCM too. If MS0 change anything, it'd be banishing any doubts I had about choosing UTSW.
 
Many thanks to Potato51 for having sent me the following link:

http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/stuaff/stuinfo/default.htm

The match lists for the last 5 years are posted under Recent Residency Matches. Note that 2009 is not yet posted.

Not sure how interested you guys were, but there it is.

I'd still like to hear some thoughts on how much support students get from UTSW if they have to scramble.
 
Thanks for sharing.
Since you brought up match, I'd like to throw in another related question. How much help/support did students get in the match, especially for out of state programs?
 
In early September (After your first test, when many are completely freaking out because they didn't get an A on the first test) you will have your first "M&M" talk with the Deans. They will talk to you all about UTSW's match history (The bottom line is that < 5% of students do not match through NRMP. NOTE: This is not the same as saying that ~5% of students are UNMATCHED through NRMP, as some specialties (i.e. Ophthamology) have their own match, some students CHOOSE to do research for another year, etc.) Thus, the number of students that are unmatched (and have to scramble) is VERY, VERY LOW (I don't recall them giving us a number.) As a result, I'm not sure why there is a hangup about scrambling in the first place.

With that in mind, I'm not sure what you mean by "support?" If you have to scramble, you basically call up programs asking, "Do you have a spot?" I'm sure if there were unfilled spots at UTSW we would be the first to know about them; otherwise, what kind of "support" are you looking for.

IIRC, something like 60% of students get their FIRST choice in the match, and 80-90% get one of their FIRST 3 choices. Dr. Wagner and Mihalic will go over this stuff with you in the fall. I think you guys are getting WAY ahead of yourselves here. Chill out and enjoy your freedom while it lasts 😛
 
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Well I've been reading on other threads about how deans will step in and make calls to vouch for those that didn't match. So I guess by support I mean does UTSW leave you to find the still-open spots, or do they help in providing contacts?
 
AmiJack1983 said:
Well I've been reading on other threads about how deans will step in and make calls to vouch for those that didn't match. So I guess by support I mean does UTSW leave you to find the still-open spots, or do they help in providing contacts?
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This would be a good thing to ask Drs. Wagner and Mihalic in the fall (or, I suppose you could email them now) since, honestly, they (and maybe the ~1-2 people that have to scramble per year) are the only ones that know the answer.
 
Thanks. I guess I should find some comfort in that so few didn't match. Can't go into this thinking I'm going fail, right?

I think I'll take your advise and relax!!
 
AmiJack1983 said:
Thanks. I guess I should find some comfort in that so few didn't match. Can't go into this thinking I'm going fail, right?

I think I'll take your advise and relax!!
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Right, in my opinion, it's like thinking, "I hope that LAX airport has the best emergency response crews in case my plane crashes on landing." No good can come of worrying about that. Even if UTSW threw a parade in your honor, having to scramble sucks big time (but isn't the end of the world, making my plane crash example a bit extreme.)
 
Extreme, but effective.

When do students typically start making a decision on a specialty? Is Third year too late if you want to go into ophthalmology or derm?

If one wishes to go into a more competitive specialty, does he/she need to decide earlier than most? I would assume the answer is "yes", but I'm wondering if there's still a chance for someone that doesn't decide until third year.
 
based on personal experiences of ppl that I know, 3rd year is indeed the year during which most people find their "true calling." I have had friends who have been saying for years that they wanna do surgery/ortho/plastics/optho/etc. and then they start 3rd year and find out they wanna do ob/gyn/peds/radiation/etc. Bottom line is most ppl don't find out what they really want until they experience it themselves. it is common for ppl to change their minds about their interests and I think programs are aware/understanding of that.
 
AmiJack1983 said:
Extreme, but effective.

When do students typically start making a decision on a specialty? Is Third year too late if you want to go into ophthalmology or derm?

If one wishes to go into a more competitive specialty, does he/she need to decide earlier than most? I would assume the answer is "yes", but I'm wondering if there's still a chance for someone that doesn't decide until third year.
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There is no "typical" when it comes to making a decision on specialty choice. Some enter medical school "knowing" what specialty they want to pursue, and some don't. Some come into medical school "knowing" what specialties they DON'T want to pursue and some don't. My own personal opinion on the matter is that it's really not possible to make a good decision before 3rd year. Some people are different however and think they know from the get-go. <shrug>

That said, the strict answer to your second question is actually "no," but there are things that you can do earlier to improve your chances (like research.) Again, personally, there are 1 or 2 really competitive specialties that I THINK I might be interested in, so I am doing research in one of those over the summer to follow-up on my interest and hedge my bets. It is OK to change your mind after you start doing rotations, etc. No one expects you to decide this stuff before having any exposure to it. A frequent disagreement here on SDN is whether research needs to be in your specialty of choice to be of value for your residency application, with most people of the opinion that it does not. The flip side to all this is that if you KNOW that you want to do Family Practice, Neurology, or any other less-competitive specialty, CONGRATULATIONS, you're done! Just don't fail any classes and you will match SOMEWHERE!
 
Much of the time students end up not matching because they didn't apply broadly enough or they didn't list enough programs on their final rank list. This used to be a huge problem apparently back in the late 90s when many UTSW students would get overconfident about matching based on their interviews at top-ranked programs, so they'd submit a pretty short list when it came to ranking their preferred programs. So a small chunk of the class used to not match because of this (supposedly).

And of course you have students who don't match because the specialty is too competitive (derm, ortho, ophtho) or because the applicant doesn't interview well at all (know at least one instance of this).

This isn't stuff you should worry about now. Save the stress for 3rd year like I did 🙂
 
This is kinda off topic, but have y'all ever gone back and looked at your old posts? I was doing a little research for a presentation of mine and came across a lot of old posts from the current UTSW students. I thought it was interesting how people's opinions change over time. 🙂
 
I second that. I think some elaboration would be very interesting.
 
Ehh I can't seem to find the link using search. It was a thread comparing UTSW to UT Houston from 2006 and basically I think Sol Rosenberg, Sprinkibrio, and potato51 were in our shoes at the time. I always find these flashbacks to the past pretty interesting.
 
I "got" my financial aid award notices, but when I log in, I do not see anything except for the PDF and the Address Change. Am I the only one with this problem?
 
Nope. I didn't get into mine either. I called the office; there's an problem with the website. According to my counselor (Elizabeth Rubi) their IT guys are on it. She said they'd email us with it was up and running again.
 
I have the same problem. I almost thought that I hadn't gotten ANY financial aid. Thanks for calling the office!
 
looks like the FA site is open now. I got a $1000 scholarship, not bad! How'd everyone do? The total aid package they offer for the whole year seems ridiculously high. How much do students typically take from the $37,800 they offer?
 
Cool! Was that a merit-based scholarship? I got a $5000 grant plus some type of special loan for $1000.
 
I'm having problems logging onto the EFAM website. I don't know my student affairs login and password, but when I submit to have them emailed to me I get a server error. Does anyone know where else I might be able to find this info? Like, in some previous email or correspondence with UTSW.
 
Nothing special to report here. 🙁 But congrats to all you guys that got grants and such!!!

UTnut,

I used the same login information I used for the MS0 rsvp page. This is the same info you used to check the status of your UTSW application status.
 
It looks like we all got the same award package. How does the special loan work though? Is it like the subsidized FAFSA one?
 
There is a chart on the financial aid page that outlines the terms of all the loans that they give out.

By the way--did anyone get merit scholarships, or are the grants everyone is talking about need-based?
 
AmiJack1983 said:
Nothing special to report here. 🙁 But congrats to all you guys that got grants and such!!!

UTnut,

I used the same login information I used for the MS0 rsvp page. This is the same info you used to check the status of your UTSW application status.
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Thanks for the help.
 
MD13 said:
There is a chart on the financial aid page that outlines the terms of all the loans that they give out.

By the way--did anyone get merit scholarships, or are the grants everyone is talking about need-based?
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I got $1000 merit scholarship.
 
I calculated my tuition and fees to be around $14.5k. Does this amount sound reasonable to everyone? I'd rather not take out any unsubsidized loans if I can avoid it... or is it better to take out some extra loans just in case?

Also, the info sheet said we had a deadline of two weeks to accept or decline aid amounts, so does this mean that we can't re-accept them later on as needed?

And lastly on an unrelated topic: does UTSW have a MS2 buddy system? 🙂
 
..alternatively, can we reduce the amount of loans we accept later?
 
TheElement said:
I calculated my tuition and fees to be around $14.5k. Does this amount sound reasonable to everyone? I'd rather not take out any unsubsidized loans if I can avoid it... or is it better to take out some extra loans just in case?

Also, the info sheet said we had a deadline of two weeks to accept or decline aid amounts, so does this mean that we can't re-accept them later on as needed?

And lastly on an unrelated topic: does UTSW have a MS2 buddy system? 🙂
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Go back a page or 3. The question about tuition and fees came up, and I posted the exact amount from my bill (and someone else posted an excel spreadsheet.) Tuition will be going up this year (it always does,) but probably not by that much (< 1000, I'd guess.)

...and to answer your second question, every MS1 gets an MS2 "Big Sib."

To answer an earlier post, $37,500 is a reasonable cost of attendance. You need to reduce that amount by approx. $13k (for tuition and fees) = ~$24,000 per year = $2000 per month to live off of (rent, utilities, food, gas, car insurance, health insurance, books, entertainment, etc.)
 
MD13 said:
Cool! Was that a merit-based scholarship?
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I'm guessing that's the scholarship they give to all out-of-state students so they can quality for in-state tuition.
 
Would you guys recommend getting a computer through the school or on our own? From the information I received, it looks like I can't lose if I get it through the school. Are there any downsides to this? Will I be limited in my choices?
 
AmiJack1983 said:
Would you guys recommend getting a computer through the school or on our own? From the information I received, it looks like I can't lose if I get it through the school. Are there any downsides to this? Will I be limited in my choices?
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The deal this year was that you had to buy either a Dell or a Mac if you got it through the school. If you were planning on getting a Dell or a Mac anyway, there is no downside (and you might even get a little bit of a discount through the school,) but I confess that I don't know (or rather don't remember) all of the details.
 
I just wanted to give you guys out there who have not been accepted some hope. I remember about this time last year that I was a little dissapointed that I had not gotten into UTSW. Well, I just wanted to let you know that at least in the 2012 class there was HUGE movement around mid may/early june. Of course, who know if it will happen this year but I can not imagine why it would be that much different. Good luck guys and stick with it!
 
And if you don't get in this time around, don't lose that drive. I didn't get in when I applied the first time. I took a few years off and did quite a bit of clinical research, and truly thought about where I wanted to take my life.

In the end it's about staying hungry for what you want. (I'm sorta banking on this getting me through the tough times ahead!)
 
isitoveryet said:
I just wanted to give you guys out there who have not been accepted some hope. I remember about this time last year that I was a little dissapointed that I had not gotten into UTSW. Well, I just wanted to let you know that at least in the 2012 class there was HUGE movement around mid may/early june. Of course, who know if it will happen this year but I can not imagine why it would be that much different. Good luck guys and stick with it!
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I agree with Isitoveryet. Many students will make their final decisions around May 15th and pending financial aid decisions. Don't lose hope!
 
Hey all,

I'm a first year student at Southwestern that is subletting an apartment with the option of moving in afterward. I live at 5225 Maple Ave apartments which if you don't know is like the closest apartment to the campus. If your interested please respond and I can give you the details.

PS: also for anyone that has specific questions about utsw feel free to contact me also.
 
nellenellenelle said:
well....let's face it, with a class of 200+ you are bound to see cliques (esp. at a state school where you have large groups of ppl coming from the same group of schools). in some sense, med school is kinda like high school all over again, except student gov & faculty do put in more effort to encourage collegial harmony. correct me if I'm wrong tho.
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Yeah, that's basically correct. It does get better as time goes on. To move beyond is easy if you go out of your way to be nice to everyone, but it's harder than it sounds when time is limited. The college system actually does a great job of combining cliques.

We did well in the match, I guess comparible to most years. I've seen the list, I don't have it, but I will say it's really hard to tell what a good match list is. Good residencies are very specialty and interest specific. Before I came to school I assumed the good residencies were in places with big names, but since not everyone wants to do research and work 80 hour weeks until they peak not everyone here even tries for those places. Even the percentage of people who had to scramble doesn't say a whole lot... all it says is how many people were gusty enough to risk not getting in anywhere because they didn't apply to or rank enough places. If you apply to enough places, get good advice on how many and which types of places you need to apply to, and don't have anything wrong with you (illegal activity, awful personality, or records of cheating) you shouldn't worry about scrambling. For those who do scramble, I don't think it's any different here than anywhere else. Calls are made. The one thing that bothers me about our match list, though, is sooo many people stay in TX. I definitely don't want to, so hopefully our name is out there.
 
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AmiJack1983 said:
Well I've been reading on other threads about how deans will step in and make calls to vouch for those that didn't match. So I guess by support I mean does UTSW leave you to find the still-open spots, or do they help in providing contacts?
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As far as I can tell, and what the deans have told the MS2s is that residency directors of open residencies call deans in waves on the Monday before the official match day. The dean notifies you and you decide whether or not you want to phone interview with the residency director or wait for the dean to get the next notification of another open spot. I could have some details wrong but this is the general idea.

Btw, TheElement, I'm so afraid to look at my posts from long ago. I'm sure I've changed a bunch. Embarassing, lol! I'm super happy I chose UTSW over UTH though... that's still the same.
 
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sprinkibrio said:
The one thing that bothers me about our match list, though, is sooo many people stay in TX. I definitely don't want to, so hopefully our name is out there.
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Yeah...that was one of my biggest concerns about choosing UTSW over others. I was from TX and I do like TX, but I also had the best times of my life in the East Coast. So I don't want to be confined within TX when applying for residency. But after talking to different people, I've concluded that if you want to go to other states bad enough, it will somehow happen (that is, of course, as long as you don't screw up your grades & step 1).
 
Hi there,

Anyone knows where I can find the exam/holiday schedule for MS1 for 2009-2010? I have a wedding to attend in mid-Jan all the way on the other side of the globe...need to see if I can make it without skipping massive amount of school...
 
nellenellenelle said:
Hi there,

Anyone knows where I can find the exam/holiday schedule for MS1 for 2009-2010? I have a wedding to attend in mid-Jan all the way on the other side of the globe...need to see if I can make it without skipping massive amount of school...
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emucansado posted the link to the projected calendar, but that doesn't have exams. The curriculum calendar doesn't usually get posted until June/July time frame.

Though I wouldn't advise making any plans based upon my advice, if you need to go somewhere in mid-Jan, that should be OK. After Winter Break, our first test was in Cell Bio at the END of January. However, they may mess around with the schedule, so I wouldn't make any plans until the curriculum calendar is released.
 
Would anyone care to post the match list for the 2009 class?
 
emucansado said:
Would anyone care to post the match list for the 2009 class?
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I've actually only seen a hardcopy of it, and I just did a search on the web site and nothing popped up. Sit tight....I'm sure it will be out in electronic form soon.

It's not significantly different than previous years (I know that's not very satisfying, but I don't remember many specific details. For my specialty of interest du joir, the statistics were virtually identical from last year to this year.)
 
Hello,

I am currently looking for a roommate to live in a 3 BR. 3.5 B condo three floor town house - you can walk to school (north campus) it is so close. Male only

The condo is:

* Brand new
* 2000 square feet, granite counters, hardwood floors, maple cabinets, 2 car garage
* Individual will get bedroom on first floor, which has connected bathroom with large closet
* Electricity, cable, and internet costs split three ways
* Will live with MSTP in first year of graduate school and MS2
* Condo is fully furnished and has washer and dryer

Looking for $625-650 per month. Let me know if interested.
 
Found out last night. I'm now deciding bw UTSW and Columbia. Does anyone have any compelling thoughts? My parents live in Dallas, boyfriend is in New York.
 
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