Specifically, the chicago schools? I'm trying to decide where to apply and the demographics of the patient base has a lot do with this, as well as the degree of patient interaction the first couple years. thanks
Thanks for replying Dra Foxy, and by the way I read that you got accepted to Finch so congrats! Well I am a resident of Canada, from Ontario. The schools I applied to schools in Ontario since out of province schools are tougher to get into...and although my gpa I think was fine, I just really needed a 9+ on my verbal to get an interview. Especially at the school I am at now Last year they wanted a combined verbal and ws score of 21 and B&PS score of 18 to get an interview and a gpa in your current and best year of 3.6....had it, but a month before they sent out the rejections, they changed the criteria to a 9V, 9P, 9B to get an interview!! Oh well, can't be bitter anymore! I applied only to three schools in the states. At the time of applying through amcas, I really didn't know which ones were good to apply to as a Canadian. I applied to Wayne State, Northwestern (which I waited a million years for to get a rejection from) and I just recently got a rejection from Albany. I think one of my problems was that i didn't know which schools in the states to apply to....didn't know about this site as well, I sent my amcas application sooooooooo late so I think that was a huge factor as well!!!!! So anyways, why would you decide not to do a masters? Do you think it's kinda a waste....or what would you do? I thought about doing masters maybe...and then doing my mcats next summer in April. The only reason I'm kinda not leaning towards doing them in August this year is because of my two summer jobs, one at my lab, and another at a store, as well, August is when I leave for the conference and have to prepare for it? I'm not sure if that's a good idea! Also, if I reapply when the new amcas application comes up again soon for 2003, based on my old mcat marks and reapplying to more schools, do you think it's possible? Last time, I did not write all my research experience out because I had just begun most of it in late September....but i should have mentioned it!!!! Oh well, I mean I have improved my application somewhat.
ohhh man, tonight is not my night, sorry mhr, I clicked reply under my own thread and have no idea how my reply ended up here!!! I think I'm somewhat computer illiterate
in regards to the original topic: you can basically look to where the schools are located to see what types of patient populations their hospitals serve. rush, UIC, and pritzker all see very diverse patient populations, due to the urban areas in which these schools and their associated hospitals are located. i know that rush and UIC have patient interaction built in to the curriculum starting from day one of your first year and there are plenty of volunteer opportunities in clinics in other underserved areas of the city, but i'm not sure about pritzker (i think they don't but i'm not totally sure). northwestern sees a more affluent population overall (mag mile/streeterville location), but they do have public health volunteer opportunities. finch/CMS is in the suburbs but rotates at hospitals in the city starting third year, but they do not have any 'home' hospital and i couldn't tell you about patient interaction there. loyola is also in the suburbs but sees a very wide variety of patients nonetheless. hope that helps.
