2016-2017 University of Illinois Application Thread

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How do we know if our application is complete? I submitted my secondary already and haven't gotten any emails saying they received it or anything? Did anyone receive any news?
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blacksweater said:
How do we know if our application is complete? I submitted my secondary already and haven't gotten any emails saying they received it or anything? Did anyone receive any news?
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I didn't receive an e-mail after submitting either...My guess is that they will notify me once they receive my Casper scores, as they are what technically make the application "complete". If anyone else has further insight into this, please let me know! :cat:
 
For the "Employment History" tab, did anyone include volunteer work like at a hospital or lab? Also, can anyone give me their interpretation on the "Educational Environment" tab? What do they mean by "describe any advantages?" I'm assuming they meant "disadvantage."
 
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I only have two of the three behavioral science courses and I have graduated already. If I apply, will that be an immediate cause for rejection or look bad? Or will they still take my app into consideration without much of a difference and *if* I was accepted then be required to complete the third class? I don't want to waste the money applying if it's an even more slim chance that I would get an acceptance (contingent on the completion of the class) just because it isn't completed yet. Thoughts?
 
GBCrzzyy said:
I only have two of the three behavioral science courses and I have graduated already. If I apply, will that be an immediate cause for rejection or look bad? Or will they still take my app into consideration without much of a difference and *if* I was accepted then be required to complete the third class? I don't want to waste the money applying if it's an even more slim chance that I would get an acceptance (contingent on the completion of the class) just because it isn't completed yet. Thoughts?
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When I applied for 2016 entrance, I only had one of the three for the same reasons as you. (Why spend extra money if it's not needed for many other schools, right?) I ended up getting accepted, but before finalizing the acceptance, I spoke with the admissions office (multiple times to be sure) to confirm that as long as I took the behavioral prereqs before med school started, then I'd be okay. They agreed each time. I ended up taking two online classes at a community college, which they also said was okay, and I finished up just a couple weeks ago. If accepted you will have to send all your final transcripts directly to UIC anyway (regardless of what was sent to AMCAS) so the school can verify your prereqs, grades, etc. They also said that as long as you get a C or above in those final classes, you'll be fine.

So to summarize:
  • I don't think it matters too much if you have all the behavioral science prereqs done when applying.
  • You might want to take the classes earlier in the summer preceding med school in case there's a delay in sending your transcripts (e.g. profs enter in grades late, some schools might send transcripts by postal mail only, etc.)
  • Online and community college classes are okay as long as the school is accredited.
  • A grade of C is fine if you're already accepted and need to take the classes during the summer before med school. (But in all honesty, who wants a C? :))
  • You might want to double-check everything I said with UIC admissions. They aren't very responsive with e-mail, so calling is your best bet.
 
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Somnolence said:
When I applied for 2016 entrance, I only had one of the three for the same reasons as you. (Why spend extra money if it's not needed for many other schools, right?) I ended up getting accepted, but before finalizing the acceptance, I spoke with the admissions office (multiple times to be sure) to confirm that as long as I took the behavioral prereqs before med school started, then I'd be okay. They agreed each time. I ended up taking two online classes at a community college, which they also said was okay, and I finished up just a couple weeks ago. If accepted you will have to send all your final transcripts directly to UIC anyway (regardless of what was sent to AMCAS) so the school can verify your prereqs, grades, etc. They also said that as long as you get a C or above in those final classes, you'll be fine.

So to summarize:
  • I don't think it matters too much if you have all the behavioral science prereqs done when applying.
  • You might want to take the classes earlier in the summer preceding med school in case there's a delay in sending your transcripts (e.g. profs enter in grades late, some schools might send transcripts by postal mail only, etc.)
  • Online and community college classes are okay as long as the school is accredited.
  • A grade of C is fine if you're already accepted and need to take the classes during the summer before med school. (But in all honesty, who wants a C? :))
  • You might want to double-check everything I said with UIC admissions. They aren't very responsive with e-mail, so calling is your best bet.
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Thanks so much! I will definitely apply then, I just didn't want to apply if I would be immediately rejected because I'm missing a class. I will double check but after looking at their website too, I believe that you are correct.
 
Hey everyone! I'm thinking of adding this school to my list but I had a question!

On their website, it states that "personal letters" are not accepted as LOR. Does that mean I can't use my letters from my volunteer coordinator or my employer/physician? They make it seem like they only want school-associated letters...
 
Ayy_MadScientist said:
Hey everyone! I'm thinking of adding this school to my list but I had a question!

On their website, it states that "personal letters" are not accepted as LOR. Does that mean I can't use my letters from my volunteer coordinator or my employer/physician? They make it seem like they only want school-associated letters...
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For other people's reference, here is the full text from http://www.medicine.uic.edu/education/m_d_admissions/requirements_and_timeline:
Letters of Recommendation: Premedical committee evaluation OR three letters from instructors (any field of study) from whom the candidate has taken courses. One of the letters can be from a research mentor. These letters should critically evaluate the candidate’s academic ability, strengths and weaknesses, motivation for medicine, maturity, difficulty of course work, and special attributes/assets. Personal letters of recommendation are not acceptable. If you are currently enrolled in a graduate program or professional school, one letter must be from a faculty member at the graduate or professional school.​

It does sound like they only want faculty/research LORs (if individual letters are sent), but it's probably worth a call to the admissions office to find out for sure. When I applied I went through a committee so I actually had my volunteer and employment LORs rolled into the committee letter. In my opinion, I'd only send what they explicitly asked for.
 
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Somnolence said:
For other people's reference, here is the full text from http://www.medicine.uic.edu/education/m_d_admissions/requirements_and_timeline:
Letters of Recommendation: Premedical committee evaluation OR three letters from instructors (any field of study) from whom the candidate has taken courses. One of the letters can be from a research mentor. These letters should critically evaluate the candidate’s academic ability, strengths and weaknesses, motivation for medicine, maturity, difficulty of course work, and special attributes/assets. Personal letters of recommendation are not acceptable. If you are currently enrolled in a graduate program or professional school, one letter must be from a faculty member at the graduate or professional school.​

It does sound like they only want faculty/research LORs (if individual letters are sent), but it's probably worth a call to the admissions office to find out for sure. When I applied I went through a committee so I actually had my volunteer and employment LORs rolled into the committee letter. In my opinion, I'd only send what they explicitly asked for.
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Yeah, I saw that.... :(
I guess I'll call. I find it kind of strange that they wouldn't accept physician letters. Once I find out, i'll post the response here.
 
Ayy_MadScientist said:
Yeah, I saw that.... :(
I guess I'll call. I find it kind of strange that they wouldn't accept physician letters. Once I find out, i'll post the response here.
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I take personal to mean.. don't ask your family/friends to write you a letter. If you have worked with someone like a volunteer supervisor, employer, etc. in a professional setting I don't consider that a personal letter... just my opinion!
 
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GBCrzzyy said:
I only have two of the three behavioral science courses and I have graduated already. If I apply, will that be an immediate cause for rejection or look bad? Or will they still take my app into consideration without much of a difference and *if* I was accepted then be required to complete the third class? I don't want to waste the money applying if it's an even more slim chance that I would get an acceptance (contingent on the completion of the class) just because it isn't completed yet. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Just to add to what @Somnolence said, I applied without several of the pre-requisites, though not the behavioural sciences ones. If you put it down on AMCAS as something you'll be taking in the future, that's more than fine, and as long as you have the courses done before matriculation, you're set.
 
narvik2016 said:
I take personal to mean.. don't ask your family/friends to write you a letter. If you have worked with someone like a volunteer supervisor, employer, etc. in a professional setting I don't consider that a personal letter... just my opinion!
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That's what I was thinking! I will call to confirm :)
 
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Hey all,

Does anyone know if the med school classes are held in the same area as the undergrad program for Chicago students? How large are typical UIC lectures in Chicago?
 
sabsaf123 said:
Hey all,

Does anyone know if the med school classes are held in the same area as the undergrad program for Chicago students? How large are typical UIC lectures in Chicago?
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For the Chicago campus, it's about 1.5 miles between the two campuses (west is the College of Medicine, east is the main campus). Here's a map: http://maps.uic.edu

I don't know about typical UIC lectures, but I think the auditorium lectures for M1s in Chicago will have a little more than 200 students. I don't know if all the M1 lectures or classes are this big though.

The 2016-2017 MSAR says UIC (combined campuses) is expecting 315 "new entrants" (https://services.aamc.org/msar/schoolDetails/4925/about). The Peoria website said it's expecting around 55 M1s in 2017 (http://peoria.medicine.uic.edu/news/M1). Rockford should also have around 55 so that leaves around 205 M1s in Chicago. This is a very rough estimate though since campus assignments and class sizes have some variability year-to-year. Generally speaking, 205 is fairly large considering the other Chicago med schools' M1s range from 88 (U of C) to 190 (Rosalind Franklin) with Loyola, Northwestern, and Rush somewhere in between (referenced from MSAR).

So given that and based on the below quotation, it seems like the auditorium lectures are probably the whole M1 class. Maybe some of them are split in half, but I don't really know. Of course, the small groups are much smaller. :)

"One 250-seat auditorium was completely updated and another was split into two 110-seat lecture rooms. There are now 18 small group classrooms with modern upgrades, including tables that can accommodate teams of 6 or 7 students." (http://chicago.medicine.uic.edu/cms/One.aspx?portalId=506244&pageId=18418766)​

When I toured the school earlier this year, they said that the lectures are recorded so a lot of students don't show up; they just watch the lectures online when they're posted, which is typical of many med schools.
 
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I was verified 7/20 and I received a secondary 7/22.
 
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Does this school send a complete e-mail before or after CASPer is received?
 
Just took the CASPer today. Almost didn't since as an OOS my chances are slim to none anyways. Glad I did though, questions were interesting, even though it cut me off mid-answer often hehe
 
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Verified 24th, haven't received secondary. Anyone else? Don't think I was screened out as my stats are good...

Edit: JULY 24th. Should've mentioned that.
 
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doctah2be said:
@soundslikefire How slim are chances as an OOS?
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Just FYI if you wanted specific OOS numbers, you could check out MSAR. I'd look it up for you but my subscription ran out. The percentage is probably not great, but application strength is a big factor too -- a really strong OOS applicant might get in, whereas a middle-of-the-road IS applicant might not. Who knows? I do know, though, that UIC does try to keep their M1 class a certain percentage of in-state and a certain percentage of out-of-state, but I don't know what that ratio is. (They mentioned this in previous years' application threads.)

If you're OOS you might want to consider applying to OOS private schools over OOS state schools. They generally have a higher percentage of OOS acceptances. Also, their tuition might be cheaper.

For example, Loyola charges $54,663 for both in-state and out-of-state, but UIC charges $38,576 in-state but $75,576 for out-of-state. Yikes!
 
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For the secondary application,

How much should I write under the section, "Please state your current activities and/or employment status?" I just started a new job in a new city and I have summarized that in about 500 words.
 
wildbach said:
For the secondary application,

How much should I write under the section, "Please state your current activities and/or employment status?" I just started a new job in a new city and I have summarized that in about 500 words.
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I applied last year and mine was 345 words. Yours sounds like a good length -- it really just depends on what your experiences were or how much you want to say. In those types of essays I was a big fan of relating those new activities/jobs back to medicine, if applicable, or explaining how those experiences made (or will make) me a better person.
 
soundslikefire said:
Just took the CASPer today. Almost didn't since as an OOS my chances are slim to none anyways. Glad I did though, questions were interesting, even though it cut me off mid-answer often hehe
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My chances are approximately zero but I applied/took CASPer because I'm hoping that the negative view towards CASPer from many of the really high-stat applicants who aren't super set on UIC will deter them from applying. I also took it today and it wasn't so bad, so here's to hoping!!
 
doctah2be said:
@soundslikefire How slim are chances as an OOS?
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upload_2016-7-26_23-54-48.png

From MSAR 2017 (don't know if i'm allowed to screenshot this or not)
 
For the current activities question, does it look bad if I'm doing nothing but volunteering/hanging out with my family/catching up on hobbies this summer?
 
optimisticallypassingorgo said:
For the current activities question, does it look bad if I'm doing nothing but volunteering/hanging out with my family/catching up on hobbies this summer?
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If you have an enormous amount of service, they may not blink. But you never want to leave the impression that you competed the service you did just to check boxes. If you think you might be leaving that impression, I'd take on a small volunteer shift somewhere once a week that makes sense in terms of your application.
 
bunchesonothing said:
If you have an enormous amount of service, they may not blink. But you never want to leave the impression that you competed the service you did just to check boxes. If you think you might be leaving that impression, I'd take on a small volunteer shift somewhere once a week that makes sense in terms of your application.
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I'm currently volunteering in surgery at a local hospital. Does that fit the bill?
 
Took the Casper yesterday. Does anyone know if we ever find out our scores?

Sent from my SM-N920V using SDN mobile
 
BoroPreMed92 said:
Took the Casper yesterday. Does anyone know if we ever find out our scores?

Sent from my SM-N920V using SDN mobile
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You never find out your score. I think an IT guy from UIC posted something about it in this thread.

I took it yesterday as well. Tried to answer as reasonably as possible. What did you think about it?
 
Does anybody know when they sent out the first IIs last year?
 
FindersFee5 said:
Does anybody know when they sent out the first IIs last year?
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For questions like these, browsing/searching through last year's thread gives some good info.

These are the earliest posts that I could find. Might not be the very first ones (on SDN at least) but it should give a good rough idea. Might be different this year with CASPer though like @DrMantisTobogganMD suggests.
 
tuco's revenge said:
Hey! Did you find out what they said about sending extra LORs from physicians and employers?
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I was hoping no one was going to ask! lol
I decided not to apply since they had a stricter behavioral science requirement, so I didn't call. Good luck tho!
 
@WedgeDawg
If you select that you are not currently enrolled in a college/university it asks: "Please state your current activities and/or employment status." 3500 character limit.

1. Describe a situation in which you were really stressed. Tell us how you dealt with it. Please detail your reaction(s), and how it affected you. If this situation, or a similar one, were to happen again, how would you handle it? (250 words limit)

2. Describe a hobby or activity other than something in medicine, in which you have a keen interest. Why? (250 words limit)
 
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Hey, did you guys put your shadowing in the extracurricular experiences?
 
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