WWAMI?

[nokia stuff]

Hey everyone,
Just wondering what WWAMI is and what it means when applying to the University of Washington Medical School.

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[ciestar]

WWAMI= Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.

They're given preference for admissions.

 

[talinnlove]

UW reserves most of the spots in their class for students from the WWAMI region, and these spots are non-negotiable (IE, UWSOM legally must have 25 students from Idaho in an incoming class). People are sometimes mistaken because they look at admissions statistics and see that about 50% of UWSOM's matriculants are OOS, but that is almost entirely because of students from Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, and Idaho. In other words, if you don't happen to be from one of the WWAMI states, your odds of acceptance are vanishingly small.

 

[LaceyMD]

It's not really a "preference for admission" so much as it is a cooperative program between the 5 states that allows students in the 4 without public medical schools (Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) to pay in state tuition to attend the University of Washington, in an effort to train physicians who will return to practice in the underserved areas of those states. In addition to the IS tuition, the 4 other states also run the basic sciences curriculum for their own students, so students spend MS1 at a school in their home state (changing to be 18 months in their home state, I believe) then go to WA to complete the rest of medical school at the University of Washington.

 

[thesauce]

It's not really a "preference for admission" so much as it is a cooperative program between the 5 states that allows students in the 4 without public medical schools (Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) to pay in state tuition to attend the University of Washington, in an effort to train physicians who will return to practice in the underserved areas of those states. In addition to the IS tuition, the 4 other states also run the basic sciences curriculum for their own students, so students spend MS1 at a school in their home state (changing to be 18 months in their home state, I believe) then go to WA to complete the rest of medical school at the University of
Washington.

Are you trying to say THEY DON'T get preference for admission?

 

[turayza]

Are you trying to say THEY DON'T get preference for admission?

I think @LaceyMD is saying that it's more than just a preference for admission, but a certain number of seats can only be filled by students from these states.

80 students in each class of 220 are admitted from the WAMI states. This also threw in that 126 WA residents matriculated (2009) which leaves 14 seats for non-WWAMI students.
http://www.uwmedicine.org/education/documents/md-program/UWSOM-AdmissionsProcess.pdf

 

[ciestar]

Hence, they still receive preference over non WWAMI students.

Yeah, a certain amount of seats are allotted to them, but I'm pretty sure most public med schools in the country operate the same way.

 

[LaceyMD]

Thanks, @turayza that is indeed what I was trying to say. It's not just a preference for admission to UW, it's a distinct education tract within UW designed for those students who live in rural western states without their own medical school. A student from Alaska, for example, cannot matriculate at UW as an MS1 - they have to go the WWAMI route and do MS1 in Anchorage. I'm not sure what state OP is a resident of, but if s/he is applying from a WWAMI state, that's an important distinction to know.

 

[EvenStevens]

So you attend a university in WWAMI and the process is a bit easier since there are reserved spots to fight for onyl between other WWAMI students eh?

 

[turayza]

So you attend a university in WWAMI and the process is a bit easier since there are reserved spots to fight for onyl between other WWAMI students eh?

It actually doesn't matter what UG you attended, just your residency (which is more complicated. for example, if I went to high school in WA but attended college in...say, Chicago, but never changed my license or established residency there, I would still be a WA resident). Unfortunately UW is the only medical school in these 5 states, and there are not enough seats for all the qualified applicants. They are actually talking about WSU (Washington State University, the other state school) establishing a medical school--as you can imagine, UWSOM is not happy hahah.

 

[sazerac]

So you attend a university in WWAMI and the process is a bit easier since there are reserved spots to fight for onyl between other WWAMI students eh?

It may be a bit easier, but just a tiny tiny bit. Think about it: these states have NO MEDICAL SCHOOLS. So instead of building a medical school, they just buy 15 or 20 seats at a nearby medical school in Washington and guaranteed a dozen or two dozen lucky students in the entire state get to pay in-state tuition at UW.

Instead of the usual scenario where a resident of a state has multiple public (and private) medical schools to choose from, image your state only has ONE medical school. Now imagine that this one medical school, instead of having the usual class size of 150-200, only has a class size one tenth as large and could fit in a small conference room. That's what it is like to be from Idaho or Wyoming, instead of Colorado or Arizona. Our brothers up northwest could use every bit of help here.

 

[MithranDR]

I applied to UWSOM this last cycle. I thought I may have had a slightly better chance in the application process since I was a WA state resident for 18 years. Since my entire family moved to CA where I attended undergrad, I switched my state residency. Alas, even after explaining that I had lived there and was ready to practice in the state for the rest of my career, this quote from the rejection email summed up my attempts, no secondary invitation, no interview:

"As an out-of-region candidate, you did not meet the criteria for further consideration to the regular MD only program."

 

[thesauce]

Instead of the usual scenario where a resident of a state has multiple public (and private) medical schools to choose from, image your state only has ONE medical school. Now imagine that this one medical school, instead of having the usual class size of 150-200, only has a class size one tenth as large and could fit in a small conference room. That's what it is like to be from Idaho or Wyoming...

Now imagine your state only has one tenth the population of those states with med school classes the size of 150-200

 

[WillburCobb]

So you attend a university in WWAMI and the process is a bit easier since there are reserved spots to fight for onyl between other WWAMI students eh?

Some of these residents also qualify for WICHE in addition to WWAMI (giving them access to a few more schools), however despite this they are still competing for a fairly limited number of seats.

 

[sazerac]

Now imagine your state only has one tenth the population of those states with med school classes the size of 150-200

We can quibble back and forth, but Idaho has a population about 1/3 of Colorado. Wyoming has fewer people, but also buys way fewer seats at UW. I don't think you want to go down this line of reasoning.

As for WICHE, that's like playing tuition roulette. You apply to WICHE. You apply to medical schools. You commit to medical school on May 15th. Later you find out if WICHE decided to fund you or not.

That Colorado education you thought was gonna be at in-state prices? Lol we decided to fund somebody else this year, enjoy your eighty thousand dollar COA. You would have saved a lot money going to that private school you were accepted to but turned down.

 

[sandstorm223]

I love this WAMI program! As an idahoan with a 3.5/31 do I have a chance with this? I'm trying to gauge whether it's worth a shot.

 

[vellez]

If you are/aren't from the NW, and had to ask what WWAMI is, you probably better just save the $35 and not apply to UW. Sorry if that sounded rude, but its the truth.

Edit: Sorry, didn't see that this was an old thread. And sandstorm223, I was rejected from WWAMI, but your stats won't keep you out of WWAMI, if you have good ECs etc.

 

[charlie517]

@nokia stuff if you visit the UWSOM website you will literally see the answers for anything related to WWAMI. In particular where they state that most of the applicant (like 90%) will actually be from those five states rather than OOR (out of region). So yes, being a resident from WWAMI region is an advantage over OOR applicants.

From my understanding of peers that applied, OOR stats need to be higher and a CLEAR emphasis on rural/primary care medicine must be seen in your app and activities.