UWSOM 2007 pool

[leesh]

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risingsun and chulito, thanks for your words of encouragement. i am planning on reapplying next year. i figure uw is worth another attempt--it's a great school and a place that's a good fit for me. this forum's been great, i hope to run into you all in other sdn blogs throughout the year.

 

[lizolix]

Hey all . . . I'm a reapplicant who was rejected last year and am now on the ranked waiting list (whew). I turned down an acceptance last year to reapply; it might not be the right decision for some people but I never doubted the decision I made. Some schools let you defer and reapply, although most do not.
About the Spokane/Dr Samson issues: Dr Samson is retiring this year, and will probably not even be doing the post-interview meetings as the new dean takes over in July. Also, next year with the addition of 20 seats in Spokane, there might be even more incentive to bring in kids who have a connection to Drs in Spokane. Just a thought.
Keep on truckin, guys. As someone who's been through this twice, I know how rough it is. Just remember that while it might take a little while, things WILL work out and we WILL all be doctors!

 

[.dream.big.]

To those of you having issues with being a "Dr's kid", I wouldn't jump to conclusions too fast. It really is a crazy process, and unless I saw some hard data that said children of physicians get rejected more often than say children of teachers or children of janitors, I'd be more apt to just say that its a coincidence. Thats just my two cents, I don't mean to sound rude or anything.

 

[Chulito]

I do know a good many students at UWSOM who have a physician parent, and I also know a couple of students from Spokane (where I'm from, incidentally). I don't personally know any students who are both, but that is surely due to the fact that I know such a small percentage of the ~750 students who are there. I can't imagine that there would be any prejudice against applicants from Spokane based on conservative/liberal politics any more than there would be a prejudice against applicants from the almost entirely rural and conservative states that are part of the larger WWAMI region. UW is trying hard to get students who will go back and practice in the largely conservative parts of the Northwest, so it just doesn't make sense. The process is mysterious, and many perfectly qualified candidates are turned down every year. For those who applied for the first time this year, do note that several people here on this thread have had success the second time around, and also that UW is actually rather famous for accepting an unusually high number of reapplicants. With all the savvy that you've accumulated during the interview process this year, think of how much more polished and strategically planned your applications and interviews will be next year.

 

[AZT]

I can understand the frustration with the highly subjective nature of the selection process. Some if not most of us on this forum have had a love not-love relationship with UW. On the one hand they have a highly reputed program (both in research and primary care), while on the other they are very specific in their communications about choosing people interested in "underserved" areas and primary care. I feel that they do injustice in not telling people to focus on what they are good at, be it research, health policy, or others and make their selection criterias broader. It is sometimes very sad to hear that a lot of people are pressured into getting experiences in rural/underserved areas even when their true expertise might better serve elsewhere. This is probably one of the reasons why even after such a rigorous process, they only have 41% people ultimately going into primary care. And probably a far fewer ultimately going into the rural areas.

To a person who has been pushed around into specific areas and then finally being told that it is not enough, this process would indeed look very unfair.

If they really want to encourage people to go into rural areas, it should happen once students have been selected by providing appropriate role models, direction and incentives.

I feel that UW should stop practicing and advertising a narrower vision and change it to become a truly great university whose goal is to help students realize thier true potential rather than pushing them into becoming things they are not.

 

[.dream.big.]

Now, I see it differently. I think it is perfectly fine that UW stresses the importance of primary care and rural/underserved healthcare. They have an amazing program for doing rotations all over the pacific NW and getting great rural/underserved experience if anyone wants to do so. They are not FORCING anyone to go that route in order to get in, and honestly if that isn't your thing, maybe another school might be a better fit. There are plenty of schools out there that are big time research schools and they wouldn't even give my application a second glance because I am not thrilled by the prospect of spending my life doing lots of research. So it goes both ways. No one should be doing something they don't enjoy JUST to get into medical school. If you are interested in certain specialties or research, then you'll probably have a better chance at a school oriented in that direction. And vice versa.

Plus, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with a school wanting to seek out and take in students interested in being primary care physicians (especially in rural areas), because some of our rural areas in this country are in serious need of physicians!

I'm being wordy, but basically what I'm saying is that you shouldn't change who you are or what your interests are in order to "fit" what a school wants. If you feel you have to, maybe your dream school isn't actually the right school for you.

 

[AZT]

Dream.Big, you are right that people should not change what they are just to get into a school. However, this being the only state school for such a large group of applicants puts a lot of pressure on people who cannot move out for various reasons.

Indeed there are "research" schools but leaving your home state, where you ultimately want to settle, could cause one a lot of hardships. I also do not think that broadening their charter to find the people from all interests group would necessarily lower ones chances of acceptance.

For a school which serves such a large population, IMHO it must have a broader charter...

 

[.dream.big.]

I don't disagree with you there, AZT. Then again, I think a state with as many people as Washington should have more than one medical school, also. Nevermind the fact that it is one medical school for FIVE states. I can definitely see where you're coming from. Are you accepted already, or on the waitlist?

 

[AZT]

True about having more schools with different emphasis -- but instead what is happening is extension of UW to other locations while keeping the selection criteria same. The frustration is perhaps already in my posts -- I am on an unranked list. I do have admissions elsewhere but my biggest worry is in uprooting my family to go to another location. I wouldn't leave Seattle for Harvard (or any other school), if I have a choice.

 

[Chulito]

This seems like a funny place and time to debate this stuff, but I don't think that UW emphasizes only rural/urban underserved primary care in its education or in its admissions process. Their entire clinical program is fantastic, and they are a research giant as well. They are consistently #2 or #3 in NIH grants in the country, and they are #6 on the US-News research ranking this year, #7 the last two years. None of the students I know at UWSOM are interested in primary care, and none of them pretended that they were during the application process. A couple are research oriented, but most are interested in various specialties of clinical care. Not to say that primary care for the underserved isn't an important element for UW, but it is only one of several. Again, it's really impossible to know exactly what they're looking for in applicants, and it's also impossible to know what your fellow applicants offer as competition. You never know who will read your application, who will review your application, who will interview you, who will discuss you at the excom meetings, what their personal ideas about who would make a great physician are, what mood they are in that day, what sort of applicant will have come just before you with whom you will be compared, etc. Apparently ~500 WA candidates applied this year who had the qualifications to be med students at UW (taking into account the competitive pool and the number of students accepted directly after their interview), and they had to choose 100 of them. That's the way it is at all med schools. I don't know about you guys, but I applied to 18 schools and went to 8 interviews knowing that my chances at any one school were not that great. I spent an ungodly amount of money that I didn't really have. That's the odious, arduous, inefficient (in my mind) and at least somewhat capricious process.

 

[VaulterGirl]

This seems like a funny place and time to debate this stuff, but I don't think that UW emphasizes only rural/urban underserved primary care in its education or in its admissions process. Their entire clinical program is fantastic, and they are a research giant as well. They are consistently #2 or #3 in NIH grants in the country, and they are #6 on the US-News research ranking this year, #7 the last two years. None of the students I know at UWSOM are interested in primary care, and none of them pretended that they were during the application process. A couple are research oriented, but most are interested in various specialties of clinical care. Not to say that primary care for the underserved isn't an important element for UW, but it is only one of several. Again, it's really impossible to know exactly what they're looking for in applicants, and it's also impossible to know what your fellow applicants offer as competition. You never know who will read your application, who will review your application, who will interview you, who will discuss you at the excom meetings, what their personal ideas about who would make a great physician are, what mood they are in that day, what sort of applicant will have come just before you with whom you will be compared, etc. Apparently ~500 WA candidates applied this year who had the qualifications to be med students at UW (taking into account the competitive pool and the number of students accepted directly after their interview), and they had to choose 100 of them. That's the way it is at all med schools. I don't know about you guys, but I applied to 18 schools and went to 8 interviews knowing that my chances at any one school were not that great. I spent an ungodly amount of money that I didn't really have. That's the odious, arduous, inefficient (in my mind) and at least somewhat capricious process.

Well said Chulito.

 

[.dream.big.]

Yup, Chulito has it right. When I say the process is crazy, thats exactly what I mean. There are so many factors that come into play, its hard to tell from what angle things went wrong or right.

 

[FizbanZymogen]

I must also state that its good the UW, despite its great reputation is not a numbers *****. I am a first time applicant from a no name state school with a sub 30 MCAT who can write freakin awesome essays and interviews really well (or so I am told by my 2 MD acceptances and 6 DO). I am now sitting #2 on the ranked waitlist and am pretty sure I'm getting in this year. Be honest with the UW about what you want to go into. They don't force PC on anyone there its just that so many WAMMI people are from rural/underserved areas and want to go back and work in those settings that you see this emphasis. If you know you want to be a radiologist UW won't turn you down for that simple fact. They are looking for very specific individuals which has more to do with demonstrated characteristics, maturity and world experience. They know what they want. I wish everyone could get into the UW becuase the fact is that there are way more qualified applicants than seats but don't assume a waitlist (ranked or unranked) or a rejection is becuase you don't want to go into PC or becuase your conservative. Good luck all!

peace

 

[RisingSun]

I agree that this process seems random and that serendipity plays a larger role than it should. And for those people who are searching for answers as to why they were not accepted or waitlisted, I know that there is little of anything substantial to attribute your fate. I don't think that UW rejects students because they do not feel that they will be good physicians, but rather because they are trying to create a specific culture at the school and for some reason or another the adcom didn't feel that the student would be a good fit for the personality of the school. My tour guide was heavy into research, interviewed at all the big names, and ended up at UW, but was clear throughout the whole process that he wanted to do research and go into radiology. In every way he is antithetic to UW's primary care focus, but still got in, so I don't think that we can attribute success or failure at getting into UW with a stated interest in PC or a lack thereof.

To everyone who was rejected: keep your chin up. 👍 You guys/gals can become great physicians, and not getting into UW is not a reflection in any way of some inability to become a compassionate, competent physician.

 

[Booner]

To those of you having issues with being a "Dr's kid", I wouldn't jump to conclusions too fast. It really is a crazy process, and unless I saw some hard data that said children of physicians get rejected more often than say children of teachers or children of janitors, I'd be more apt to just say that its a coincidence. Thats just my two cents, I don't mean to sound rude or anything.

Actually I didn't jump to the conclusion, my premed advisor who is a very good acquaintance of sampson told me flat out that he doesn't like to accept doctor's kids.

 

[seattlelady]

There are actually a lot of "doctor's kids" in our first year class.

 

[AZT]

This seems like a funny place and time to debate this stuff, but I don't think that UW emphasizes only rural/urban underserved primary care in its education or in its admissions process. Their entire clinical program is fantastic, and they are a research giant as well. They are consistently #2 or #3 in NIH grants in the country, and they are #6 on the US-News research ranking this year, #7 the last two years. None of the students I know at UWSOM are interested in primary care, and none of them pretended that they were during the application process. A couple are research oriented, but most are interested in various specialties of clinical care. Not to say that primary care for the underserved isn't an important element for UW, but it is only one of several. Again, it's really impossible to know exactly what they're looking for in applicants, and it's also impossible to know what your fellow applicants offer as competition. You never know who will read your application, who will review your application, who will interview you, who will discuss you at the excom meetings, what their personal ideas about who would make a great physician are, what mood they are in that day, what sort of applicant will have come just before you with whom you will be compared, etc. Apparently ~500 WA candidates applied this year who had the qualifications to be med students at UW (taking into account the competitive pool and the number of students accepted directly after their interview), and they had to choose 100 of them. That's the way it is at all med schools. I don't know about you guys, but I applied to 18 schools and went to 8 interviews knowing that my chances at any one school were not that great. I spent an ungodly amount of money that I didn't really have. That's the odious, arduous, inefficient (in my mind) and at least somewhat capricious process.

I hope you are all right and this other stuff is all a myth that too many UW pre-meds end up following.

 

[Booner]

I'm just relaying what I was told by my advisor and that GoLance and I have both experienced two years in a row. Like I said earlier, I would love to get some statistics on the whole deal, but I'm guessing they wouldn't like to release the necessary application info. This year has only furthered my belief that something is going on because all of the other schools I interviewed at at least gave me a waitlist spot. And during my interviews at 4 of the other 6 my interviewers said something to the effect of "how in the world did UW not accept you last year?? Their loss, our gain I suppose." I'm certainly not going to interview with sampson, but I'll probably ask him to write me a letter stating specific reasons why I was not accepted to my state school. I just don't buy the "oh, there's so many good applicants they have to reject some people" bit unless they can actually cite what they felt merited a rejection for the poor saps who now have the pleasure of paying 40k a year instead of 15k.

 

[Chulito]

I'm just relaying what I was told by my advisor and that GoLance and I have both experienced two years in a row. Like I said earlier, I would love to get some statistics on the whole deal, but I'm guessing they wouldn't like to release the necessary application info. This year has only furthered my belief that something is going on because all of the other schools I interviewed at at least gave me a waitlist spot. And during my interviews at 4 of the other 6 my interviewers said something to the effect of "how in the world did UW not accept you last year?? Their loss, our gain I suppose." I'm certainly not going to interview with sampson, but I'll probably ask him to write me a letter stating specific reasons why I was not accepted to my state school. I just don't buy the "oh, there's so many good applicants they have to reject some people" bit unless they can actually cite what they felt merited a rejection for the poor saps who now have the pleasure of paying 40k a year instead of 15k.

I definitely feel for you there, Booner, and I really am sorry for those who now have to turn to alternate plans. The financial element was a very big concern on my mind when I thought that I would be going OOS. Where will you be? I ask because, in spite of the fact that it isn't advertised by them, the OOS school where I would have gone is in a state that actually lets you establish state residency after a year of being a student. I know that most states don't allow this, but some do. They don't necessarily want it to be readily known, however, so you may want to look closely into the possibility in the state where you will be.

 

[Booner]

Chulito, as of now I'll be heading to Saint Louis, but I'm desperately hoping to get into Ohio State off the waitlist. I enjoyed my visit to SLU and think I'll get a great education there, but it is 40k+ per year. Ohio State was actually the school I was most impressed with from all of my interviews, other than location and price, I liked it better than UW. Unfortunately tuition won't change at SLU during the four years, but OSU will give residency after the first year. That was one thing that impressed me about OSU is they advertise this fact at interviews and by the second year over 90% of the class is in-state. And they told me that if my wife were to get a job upon our arrival to Columbus they would help me get residency for the first year even. So, I'll be happy to attend SLU, would be ecstatic to get into OSU, and am still very unhappy with UW (at least now it's not bothering me so much, but I still believe there's some bad practices going on at the admissions dept.)

 

[AZT]

Booner, I liked OSU as well. It is a great school with a growing campus, flexible administration and wonderful facilities. Since they have rolling admissions, a lot of people do not finally go there and you have a very good chance of getting off the waitlist.

 

[Chulito]

Chulito, as of now I'll be heading to Saint Louis, but I'm desperately hoping to get into Ohio State off the waitlist. I enjoyed my visit to SLU and think I'll get a great education there, but it is 40k+ per year. Ohio State was actually the school I was most impressed with from all of my interviews, other than location and price, I liked it better than UW. Unfortunately tuition won't change at SLU during the four years, but OSU will give residency after the first year. That was one thing that impressed me about OSU is they advertise this fact at interviews and by the second year over 90% of the class is in-state. And they told me that if my wife were to get a job upon our arrival to Columbus they would help me get residency for the first year even. So, I'll be happy to attend SLU, would be ecstatic to get into OSU, and am still very unhappy with UW (at least now it's not bothering me so much, but I still believe there's some bad practices going on at the admissions dept.)

Booner, I liked OSU as well. It is a great school with a growing campus, flexible administration and wonderful facilities. Since they have rolling admissions, a lot of people do not finally go there and you have a very good chance of getting off the waitlist.

I too have heard that OSU's waitlist moves quite a bit, and they sure do get good word of mouth as a great program now, and as an up-and-coming program to boot. That's an exciting back-up plan, especially considering the in-state tuition, whether right away or after the first year. I hope that it works out for you. Do they rank their waitlist, or do you simply have to wait with no real idea of when you may come up?

 

[Doc206]

Well I recieved the official letter of rejection in the mail today...Somehow I was holding out for the fact that Brooke may have made a mistake or messed up on my id number when she told me on the phone. It's official now. 🙁 I've begin to come to grips with it a bit, although I still feel angered and confused about the process (as do others I'm sure). Thanks to you all for listening. It's easier to vent my frustrations here with people who understand the process and have been through it before. Time to really start thinking about the backups.

 

[Chulito]

I'm really sorry, Doc206. Do you think that you'll go to Jefferson? What did you think of it when you were there? I've only spoken with a couple of students there, but they've been really cool, and have had great things to say about their school. I know that they record and stream their lectures, and have great note-taking services. They seem to take good care of their students in general, and at least the few that I've met really love it. And you sure can't beat that part of Philadelphia.

 

[Doc206]

Yeah I'll probably end up there. It's my only "for sure" right now (still on waitlists at Tufts and Sinai). The area was nice and all the students seemed real cool. The only big drawback I see is that they have a larger class (around 250) and more lecture styles-not too much small group stuff. But I'm definitely holding out to see what happens on the waitlists through May and June. Anyone have any advice for getting off waitlists?

 

[Chulito]

Yeah I'll probably end up there. It's my only "for sure" right now (still on waitlists at Tufts and Sinai). The area was nice and all the students seemed real cool. The only big drawback I see is that they have a larger class (around 250) and more lecture styles-not too much small group stuff. But I'm definitely holding out to see what happens on the waitlists through May and June. Anyone have any advice for getting off waitlists?

You should try to find some old class threads for Sinai and Tufts--especially the former, in my opinion--and PM those folks for advice on pestering the admissions office. At MCW, for example, months of daily phone calls to check on their status has helped a number of people get in off of the list in past years. I've heard this from a couple of current students there who got in that way, and also from Mike Istwan himself, who told us one particular anecdote during the initial group presentation on interview day. He came to recognize a particular girl by her voice, and anticipated her call every day. He explicitly said that this level of interest was why she was taken off the list above other similarly qualified candidates, and encouraged us to take the same tack if we were put on the list and were really interested. I suspect that most schools would not look so favorably on this approach, but if they do, then you want to know that. Find some folks who got in off of the list, and ask them what they think about it.