2016-2017 University of Massachussetts Application Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

WedgeDawg

not actually a dog
Moderator Emeritus
10+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
7,691
Reaction score
13,035
Space reserved for prompt.
Please post the essays or lack thereof (in addition to word or character counts) in this thread and tag me and/or @Ismet and we'll update the OP.

Good luck to everyone applying!

Members don't see this ad.
 
I'm just going to hop on this thread to see where it goes... Good luck to everyone applying!
 
Does anyone know if the PURCH program is a binding contract where you HAVE to pick primary care?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Any sense in applying here OOS? I'm from New England and went to school in New England if that helps.
 
Any sense in applying here OOS? I'm from New England and went to school in New England if that helps.

No, they only accept in state unless you're applying to their MD/ PHD program


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
They started it last year. I believe there's about less than 15 spots available specifically for out of state.
 
Secondary received! OOS applicant here! Good luck everyone!
 
Any sense in applying here OOS? I'm from New England and went to school in New England if that helps.

Last year I read an article in the paper about them accepting 12 out of state this year and 13 next year to total 25. So I believe if you are OOS, you are competing for only 12 spots this year. This may not be as bad as it sounds because not many people are aware of their change, however they also changed the rules about who qualifies as instate (ie 7+ years of uninterrupted taxes for years immediately prior to enrollment) so that may mean more people are considered out of state applicants that would have previously qualified for instate.

Article for those interested:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...te-students/ZaQSSWPTnAyIWfTJpMGlDM/story.html
 
Hello, all you UMass applicants: I'm trying to submit my secondary, but I'm having a problem with the Recommendation section. I can't seem to fill in the required information regarding name, institution, etc., for the LOR writers. I called the adcom office, but they haven't been able to help me or fix the problem. Any of y'all have the same problem?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Could somebody please post the prompts for this? Thanks so much
 
Could somebody please post the prompts for this? Thanks so much


1) If you are reapplying to UMMS, please describe how you have strengthened your credentials since your last application. Limit your answer to 200 words.

2) Have you ever worked/volunteered or otherwise participated in any UMASS Medical School or UMASS Memorial Health Care sponsored activities/programs (Example: Area Health Education Center (AHEC), Pipeline Program, Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), Research) If Yes, please describe. A letter of recommendation from your program supervisor is strongly encouraged. Limit your answer to 200 words.

3) What are your future medical career plans? Please describe your hopes for your chosen medical specialty, type of practice, and size/type of practice community. Limit your answer to 200 words.

4) Please explain any grades:
o C+ or below in any prerequisite or science course
o Any semester where you feel your academic performance was not representative of your true abilities
Limit your answer to 200 words.

5) Were any of your science, biology, math, chemistry, physics or statistics courses taken on-line? If yes, please list and explain what portion of the course (all, part, lab) was taken on-line.

(Then, there’s the big one: a 500-word essay. The instructions are actually longer than the essay.)

6) Please provide a description of a personal dilemma relating to ONE of the nine following personal compentencies that are important to success in medical education and physician practice. Limit your answer to 500 words. Any additional information beyond one page will not be evaluated.

Please check the competency of your choice:

Integrity & Ethics Competency:
Behaves in an honest and ethical manner; adheres to ethical principles and follows rules and procedures; resists peer pressure to engage in unethical behavior and encourages others to behave in honest and ethical ways.

Reliability & Dependability:
Consistently fulfills obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner; takes responsibility for personal actions and performance.

Service Orientation:
Demonstrates a desire to help others and sensitivity to others' needs and feelings; demonstrates a desire to alleviate others' distress.

Social & Interpersonal Skills:
Demonstrates an awareness of others' needs, goals, feelings, and the ways that social and behavioral cues affect peoples' interactions and behaviors; adjusts behaviors appropriately in response to these cues; and treats others with respect.

Capacity for Improvement:
Sets goals for continuous improvement and for learning new concepts and skills; engages in reflective practice for improvement; solicits and responds appropriately to feedback

Resilience and Adaptability
Demonstrates tolerance of stressful or changing environments or situations and adapts effectively to them; is persistent, even under difficult situations; recovers from setbacks.

Cultural Competence:
Demonstrates knowledge of social and cultural factors that affect interactions and behaviors; shows an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity; recognizes and appropriately addresses bias in themselves and others; interacts effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.

Oral Communication:
Effectively conveys information to others using spoken words and sentences listens effectively; recognizes potential communication barriers and adjust approach or clarifies information as needed.

Teamwork:
Works collaboratively with others to achieve shared goals; shares information and knowledge with others and provides feedback; puts team goals ahead of individual goals.

The information below provides instructions on how you should write your description.

Step1: Review each competency
Carefully read each competency definition to be sure you understand what is important.
Carefully reflect on each competency and think about a dilemma you encountered in your activities, experiences, or accomplishments and relate that to it.

Step 2: Choose what you will write about for ONE competency
Choose one dilemma that best describes your demonstration of your chosen competency.
The dilemma may be specific, such as a challenging person, situation or assignment.
Alternately, it may be an example of a dilemma you witnessed, in which case your relay what your response would have been.

Step 3: Provide a narrative description of the dilemma
 
1) If you are reapplying to UMMS, please describe how you have strengthened your credentials since your last application. Limit your answer to 200 words.

2) Have you ever worked/volunteered or otherwise participated in any UMASS Medical School or UMASS Memorial Health Care sponsored activities/programs (Example: Area Health Education Center (AHEC), Pipeline Program, Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), Research) If Yes, please describe. A letter of recommendation from your program supervisor is strongly encouraged. Limit your answer to 200 words.

3) What are your future medical career plans? Please describe your hopes for your chosen medical specialty, type of practice, and size/type of practice community. Limit your answer to 200 words.

4) Please explain any grades:
o C+ or below in any prerequisite or science course
o Any semester where you feel your academic performance was not representative of your true abilities
Limit your answer to 200 words.

5) Were any of your science, biology, math, chemistry, physics or statistics courses taken on-line? If yes, please list and explain what portion of the course (all, part, lab) was taken on-line.

(Then, there’s the big one: a 500-word essay. The instructions are actually longer than the essay.)

6) Please provide a description of a personal dilemma relating to ONE of the nine following personal compentencies that are important to success in medical education and physician practice. Limit your answer to 500 words. Any additional information beyond one page will not be evaluated.

Please check the competency of your choice:

Integrity & Ethics Competency:
Behaves in an honest and ethical manner; adheres to ethical principles and follows rules and procedures; resists peer pressure to engage in unethical behavior and encourages others to behave in honest and ethical ways.

Reliability & Dependability:
Consistently fulfills obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner; takes responsibility for personal actions and performance.

Service Orientation:
Demonstrates a desire to help others and sensitivity to others' needs and feelings; demonstrates a desire to alleviate others' distress.

Social & Interpersonal Skills:
Demonstrates an awareness of others' needs, goals, feelings, and the ways that social and behavioral cues affect peoples' interactions and behaviors; adjusts behaviors appropriately in response to these cues; and treats others with respect.

Capacity for Improvement:
Sets goals for continuous improvement and for learning new concepts and skills; engages in reflective practice for improvement; solicits and responds appropriately to feedback

Resilience and Adaptability
Demonstrates tolerance of stressful or changing environments or situations and adapts effectively to them; is persistent, even under difficult situations; recovers from setbacks.

Cultural Competence:
Demonstrates knowledge of social and cultural factors that affect interactions and behaviors; shows an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity; recognizes and appropriately addresses bias in themselves and others; interacts effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.

Oral Communication:
Effectively conveys information to others using spoken words and sentences listens effectively; recognizes potential communication barriers and adjust approach or clarifies information as needed.

Teamwork:
Works collaboratively with others to achieve shared goals; shares information and knowledge with others and provides feedback; puts team goals ahead of individual goals.

The information below provides instructions on how you should write your description.

Step1: Review each competency
Carefully read each competency definition to be sure you understand what is important.
Carefully reflect on each competency and think about a dilemma you encountered in your activities, experiences, or accomplishments and relate that to it.

Step 2: Choose what you will write about for ONE competency
Choose one dilemma that best describes your demonstration of your chosen competency.
The dilemma may be specific, such as a challenging person, situation or assignment.
Alternately, it may be an example of a dilemma you witnessed, in which case your relay what your response would have been.

Step 3: Provide a narrative description of the dilemma


Thanks!
 

Yo, aelms1525 and other applicants:
Sorry, but I forgot two other questions on the secondary. Here you go:

How did you study for the MCAT exam? Limit your answer to 200 words.

What is your interest or connection to attending medical school in Massachusetts (required for non-MA resident)? (Limit 254 characters!!!!!!!!!)
 
Yo, aelms1525 and other applicants:
Sorry, but I forgot two other questions on the secondary. Here you go:

How did you study for the MCAT exam? Limit your answer to 200 words.

What is your interest or connection to attending medical school in Massachusetts (required for non-MA resident)? (Limit 254 characters!!!!!!!!!)
Luckily I'm a MA resident! Thanks for the update :)
 
Just confirming:
For the 500 word essay, we are writing about one of the competencies only?

1) If you are reapplying to UMMS, please describe how you have strengthened your credentials since your last application. Limit your answer to 200 words.

2) Have you ever worked/volunteered or otherwise participated in any UMASS Medical School or UMASS Memorial Health Care sponsored activities/programs (Example: Area Health Education Center (AHEC), Pipeline Program, Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), Research) If Yes, please describe. A letter of recommendation from your program supervisor is strongly encouraged. Limit your answer to 200 words.

3) What are your future medical career plans? Please describe your hopes for your chosen medical specialty, type of practice, and size/type of practice community. Limit your answer to 200 words.

4) Please explain any grades:
o C+ or below in any prerequisite or science course
o Any semester where you feel your academic performance was not representative of your true abilities
Limit your answer to 200 words.

5) Were any of your science, biology, math, chemistry, physics or statistics courses taken on-line? If yes, please list and explain what portion of the course (all, part, lab) was taken on-line.

(Then, there’s the big one: a 500-word essay. The instructions are actually longer than the essay.)

6) Please provide a description of a personal dilemma relating to ONE of the nine following personal compentencies that are important to success in medical education and physician practice. Limit your answer to 500 words. Any additional information beyond one page will not be evaluated.

Please check the competency of your choice:

Integrity & Ethics Competency:
Behaves in an honest and ethical manner; adheres to ethical principles and follows rules and procedures; resists peer pressure to engage in unethical behavior and encourages others to behave in honest and ethical ways.

Reliability & Dependability:
Consistently fulfills obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner; takes responsibility for personal actions and performance.

Service Orientation:
Demonstrates a desire to help others and sensitivity to others' needs and feelings; demonstrates a desire to alleviate others' distress.

Social & Interpersonal Skills:
Demonstrates an awareness of others' needs, goals, feelings, and the ways that social and behavioral cues affect peoples' interactions and behaviors; adjusts behaviors appropriately in response to these cues; and treats others with respect.

Capacity for Improvement:
Sets goals for continuous improvement and for learning new concepts and skills; engages in reflective practice for improvement; solicits and responds appropriately to feedback

Resilience and Adaptability
Demonstrates tolerance of stressful or changing environments or situations and adapts effectively to them; is persistent, even under difficult situations; recovers from setbacks.

Cultural Competence:
Demonstrates knowledge of social and cultural factors that affect interactions and behaviors; shows an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity; recognizes and appropriately addresses bias in themselves and others; interacts effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.

Oral Communication:
Effectively conveys information to others using spoken words and sentences listens effectively; recognizes potential communication barriers and adjust approach or clarifies information as needed.

Teamwork:
Works collaboratively with others to achieve shared goals; shares information and knowledge with others and provides feedback; puts team goals ahead of individual goals.

The information below provides instructions on how you should write your description.

Step1: Review each competency
Carefully read each competency definition to be sure you understand what is important.
Carefully reflect on each competency and think about a dilemma you encountered in your activities, experiences, or accomplishments and relate that to it.

Step 2: Choose what you will write about for ONE competency
Choose one dilemma that best describes your demonstration of your chosen competency.
The dilemma may be specific, such as a challenging person, situation or assignment.
Alternately, it may be an example of a dilemma you witnessed, in which case your relay what your response would have been.

Step 3: Provide a narrative description of the dilemma
 
This is my first choice school. Good luck to everyone else applying!
 
Just confirming:
For the 500 word essay, we are writing about one of the competencies only?
Yes, from what I gathered after reading through the unending instructions, you pick just one of the competencies and go from there. Pick a good one!
 
Has anyone received a complete email from them? On my status, it says LORs are not received yet. It's been a few days, just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat.
 
Does anyone know if UMass still prefers a primary care answer on the question about future medical career plans? I heard in the past they mostly accept people who put this as their answer. I was thinking of primary care anyways, but had a few more specialized ideas about my medical career plans and was curious!
 
Does anyone else's application say LOR not received yet? The status is "initiated" but not sure if that means they're just working on processing.
 
Does anyone else's application say LOR not received yet? The status is "initiated" but not sure if that means they're just working on processing.
I think they are one of the schools that doesn't download your letters from AMCAS until after youve submitted and paid.
 
Speaking of LORs, anyone know what their policy on adding an extra LOR is? I have a committee letter sent in but I have a stellar LOR from a PI that I would like to add as well
 
Speaking of LORs, anyone know what their policy on adding an extra LOR is? I have a committee letter sent in but I have a stellar LOR from a PI that I would like to add as well
I called them about this. I added one from a volunteer supervisor, they were totally good with it! Just add it through AMCAS.
 
I think they are one of the schools that doesn't download your letters from AMCAS until after youve submitted and paid.

Ok, so when they say 3-5 days for processing the LOR, they mean from the time that you submitted and paid?
 
Do you have to be verified by AMCAS in order to receive UMass's secondary? Thank you!
 
For the secondary question about competencies, is it ok if my example isn't directly medically related? I can swing it so that I can talk about how it helped me grow/will help me become a better physician etc, but the example itself was not in the medical field.
 
For the secondary question about competencies, is it ok if my example isn't directly medically related? I can swing it so that I can talk about how it helped me grow/will help me become a better physician etc, but the example itself was not in the medical field.
I think thats okay, mine wasn't medical. I think it was just saying that those competencies will be important in your medical education.
 
Anyone have any information on what it's like being on the WL for UMass? Obviously it's too early for anyone to be on the list now but I was just curious if they usually end up taking a lot of students from the WL or not.

EDIT: I got my answer. For anyone interested, they generally have about 75 spots on the WL and accept about 50 normally.
 
Last edited:
I received an email for the secondary app today and it had URGENT in the subject line. Anyone else have this.
 
1. Does anyone know what the size of the allowed photo is? They only give you the opportunity to upload once. Also, will it be looked down upon if it happens to be a professional photo?
2. Can a current student or administrator comment on whether our indicated interest in the PURCH program is a binding commitment?
Thanks!
 
I'm a MA resident, but does anyone know if it's expected / a good idea to fill out the question about why you would want to attend school in MA? I didn't go to college or live in the state for 5 years (been back for 3) so not sure if I should take the opportunity to explain.
 
I'm a MA resident, but does anyone know if it's expected / a good idea to fill out the question about why you would want to attend school in MA? I didn't go to college or live in the state for 5 years (been back for 3) so not sure if I should take the opportunity to explain.
That question is required if you are an out of state applicant and if you have a gap of five years not living in MA and only three years of living in MA again so far, you won't qualify as in state. I know that they require at least the last five years of living in state (not including college) but I actually think it might be seven years now.

EDIT: unless one of your parents has held in-state status for at least seven years. You can fall under their residency. I called to verify this information back in May because I had some confusion with my taxes. So if you're actually IN you don't have to fill it out (and I probably wouldn't unless you have a compelling answer) but if you're actually OOS then you have to fill it out.
 
That question is required if you are an out of state applicant and if you have a gap of five years not living in MA and only three years of living in MA again so far, you won't qualify as in state. I know that they require at least the last five years of living in state (not including college) but I actually think it might be seven years now.

EDIT: unless one of your parents has held in-state status for at least seven years. You can fall under their residency. I called to verify this information back in May because I had some confusion with my taxes. So if you're actually IN you don't have to fill it out (and I probably wouldn't unless you have a compelling answer) but if you're actually OOS then you have to fill it out.


Thanks for the answer. My parents have lived there for the last 20+ years so I think I would qualify (and when I wasn't living there I was out of the country so I'm pretty sure I maintained my residency). Do you think all of this warrants an explanation? I can always contact them but thought I'd check here first to see if anyone else was in a similar situation.
 
Thanks for the answer. My parents have lived there for the last 20+ years so I think I would qualify (and when I wasn't living there I was out of the country so I'm pretty sure I maintained my residency). Do you think all of this warrants an explanation? I can always contact them but thought I'd check here first to see if anyone else was in a similar situation.

Where did you file your taxes over those years? UMass judges your residency by your tax returns, so if your parents have been filing your taxes in MA for the past 7 years you should be all set, even though you were out of state and I'm pretty sure you won't need to explain it.
 
Where did you file your taxes over those years? UMass judges your residency by your tax returns, so if your parents have been filing your taxes in MA for the past 7 years you should be all set, even though you were out of state and I'm pretty sure you won't need to explain it.
Agreed but if you still have any questions, they are great at answering in regards to residency status.
 
Agreed but if you still have any questions, they are great at answering in regards to residency status.

You're right, I ended up contacting them and they were very helpful!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Hey, guys...this thread seems to be dead in the water. What's going on? Any news from Admissions of late? Any IIs to report?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I was having trouble paying the secondary fee but I fixed it and my secondary has been submitted :) REALLY hoping for some love from UMass!
 
Has anyone had an issue with LOR? Mine have been processed at all other schools but not here...
 
II this morning! I'm applying MD-PhD so I don't know if that makes a difference. And I also noticed that UMASS was slower to process my LOR than other schools.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Has anyone had an issue with LOR? Mine have been processed at all other schools but not here...
I also had a problem with LORs. Although I had assigned them to the UMass secondary, they didn't show up for several days, which kept me from completing and submitting the application. I finally called the school. I was told that AMCAS ships out the LORs about once a week, and they have to wait for the next "shipment." Sure enough, the LORs found their way into my application by the next day. Kinda frustrating. Other schools don't seem to have that problem.
 
I also had a problem with LORs. Although I had assigned them to the UMass secondary, they didn't show up for several days, which kept me from completing and submitting the application. I finally called the school. I was told that AMCAS ships out the LORs about once a week, and they have to wait for the next "shipment." Sure enough, the LORs found their way into my application by the next day. Kinda frustrating. Other schools don't seem to have that problem.
I've found that a few DO schools also tend to get letters in only once a week and it definitely makes the completion process much longer. You'd think they would have a more efficient system by now. But then again, UMass doesn't get nearly as many applications as most schools.
 
Did anyone receive a "complete" email? Also, how long did it take after submitting everything for the "checklist completed" to be checked off and the yellow triangle to change to a green circle? All of my to-do list was submitted/received beginning of July.
 
Top