2016-2017 University of Miami (Miller) Application Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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How many rec letters can we send?
1 - nonscience
2- science

is it two or three character letters?
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WatchHowISoar said:
So I have four out of five letters, and the holdout has had over two months to write his. He has been unexpectedly out of the office for the last two weeks, and hasn't gotten back to me. I am starting to get worried, especially as once he submits his letter, my Pre-Health committee will take at least 3 weeks to write and submit a cover letter for my letter packet.
Now that I am receiving secondary requests from all my schools, do you think I should email/call each admissions office and let them know why my letters are taking so long?
My essays, photo, and fees are complete at several other schools, and I am almost done with the rest, so there's nothing left I need to do but they won't look at me until all of my letters are in right?
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Guys my cover letter has been completed way ahead of schedule and should be at my schools within the next few days!!!

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Why is this secondary so long? Is it bad if I take over 2 weeks on it?
 
I am FINALLY DONE writing this beast. But now I am confused on formatting within the essay entry boxes.

Did you all do double spaces or indents? When I do the double line break I have been doing, it looks massive..but I don't want to do a single and have it look like a big block of text.
 
I submitted about a week ago and my status still states it is in review. Don't worry.
 
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Prilozack said:
But yes, I've heard Miami looks at everything overall and cares more about experiences. Am i right on this?
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Well undergrad quality, MCAT, and gpa together make up a little over a third of your point total (120/300). So while metrics are important UM places a substantial amount of weight on "intangibles" like research, community service, and life adversity. IMO that's why the secondary is so long - they're really trying to get to know the applicant beyond just their LizzyM score.

MDhopeful324 said:
Hi guys! For those of you who decided not to copy and paste your activities from AMCAS, how did you change up their descriptions? Not exactly sure how to change descriptions. I'm also having the same problem with discussing my most significant clinical experience as I wrote about it in my PS and elaborated further on it on my primary. Any help is appreciated!
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I strongly recommend against copying anything from amcas into your secondary. When I did it, I tried to elaborate on specifics/concrete experiences rather than the more general descriptions I had in the primary. I also tried to tie essays back to UM specifically where possible.

The secondary really is your chance to try and sell yourself and demonstrate your familiarity with what makes Miami unique. Stuff like DOCs, the various institutes/specialty hospitals (Ryder, Sylvester, the transplant institute, etc), and the diverse patient population are all good to talk about in relation to your own activities.
 
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Looks like the Secondary App is asking for the same material in the AMCAS application. Knowing that I would list all activities, they are obviously not looking for anything additional that I left out on my primary application. So do I repeat what I wrote before, changing a word here and there? Is the Admissions office reading AMCAS and then their secondary or are they focusing on the secondary? I hate to sound repetitive which I'm doing right now.
 
Puerto Rican chick said:
Looks like the Secondary App is asking for the same material in the AMCAS application. Knowing that I would list all activities, they are obviously not looking for anything additional that I left out on my primary application. So do I repeat what I wrote before, changing a word here and there? Is the Admissions office reading AMCAS and then their secondary or are they focusing on the secondary? I hate to sound repetitive which I'm doing right now.
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Quick question, did any of the app questions change?
 
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Charcharizard said:
I also got an update early last week but mine was worded differently:

Your Application has been reviewed by the Admissions Committee at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Applicants will be invited to interview based upon their evaluation score from the Admissions Committee review. You will be contacted by email if you are selected for an interview. Interview invitations are extended between August and March.

Kind of odd, right?
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Interesting, Very odd... My status last week thru yesterday was worded (After a very quick turn around after submission):

Your Application has been reviewed by the Admissions Committee at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Applicants will be invited to interview based upon their point total from the Committee review. Applications that have been reviewed and scored by the Committee will be considered for interviews during the entire interview cycle (September - April).

Logging in today I now see it as:

Your Application has been reviewed by the Admissions Committee at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Applicants will be invited to interview based upon their evaluation score from the Admissions Committee review. You will be contacted by email if you are selected for an interview. Interview invitations are extended between August and March.

Lets be real- I'm probably just being neurotic, crazy, and looking in to things too much, but seems kind of odd for the two statuses haha
 
premed66 said:
Interesting, Very odd... My status last week thru yesterday was worded (After a very quick turn around after submission):

Your Application has been reviewed by the Admissions Committee at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Applicants will be invited to interview based upon their point total from the Committee review. Applications that have been reviewed and scored by the Committee will be considered for interviews during the entire interview cycle (September - April).

Logging in today I now see it as:

Your Application has been reviewed by the Admissions Committee at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Applicants will be invited to interview based upon their evaluation score from the Admissions Committee review. You will be contacted by email if you are selected for an interview. Interview invitations are extended between August and March.

Lets be real- I'm probably just being neurotic, crazy, and looking in to things too much, but seems kind of odd for the two statuses haha
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Honestly, I'm just astounded that you can remember your old status lol. I would've read the new one and been like "welp, nothing's changed."

EDIT: Also, mine still sya's under review :( been 2 weeks
 
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Mine has been probably close to a month and it is still under review. Don't worry. They will get to it when they get to it.
 
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i just had a 1st author publication accepted-should i list this achievement under "6. Please briefly discuss your research experience." or send in a separate update letter to the admissions office? i just really want it to get noticed somewhere since i didnt give it its own "publications" activity tab on the primary app because it wasnt officially accepted then
 
medbunny56 said:
i just had a 1st author publication accepted-should i list this achievement under "6. Please briefly discuss your research experience." or send in a separate update letter to the admissions office? i just really want it to get noticed somewhere since i didnt give it its own "publications" activity tab on the primary app because it wasnt officially accepted then
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Put it in your secondary and explain it occurred since you submitted your primary. They read the secondaries.
 
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I just submitted my primary today. Hopefully they give me a chance. Going to start writing this beast of a secondary right away


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Anyone else still waiting on a secondary? My primary was complete 7/5 and my committee LoR was transmitted 7/14.
 
How does UM treat former Florida residents? I spent my first nine years of life in Cocoa. My long term goal is to move back, for obvious reasons. I've moved around a bit. I'm now a couple of states away.
 
Judson said:
Anyone else still waiting on a secondary? My primary was complete 7/5 and my committee LoR was transmitted 7/14.
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Yep, still waiting. Although, my primary was verified later than that.
 
HopefulSlav said:
How does UM treat former Florida residents? I spent my first nine years of life in Cocoa. My long term goal is to move back, for obvious reasons. I've moved around a bit. I'm now a couple of states away.
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They still have a slight preference for residents but have definitely increased OOS presence. UM is a private school so they don't necessarily receive the funding that a states school does. I assume they're attempting to remedy that by accepting more OOS'ers.
 
For the prompt: [OPTIONAL] Please provide a description of any activities involving the FINE ARTS (dance, drama, music, art, photography, etc.), do you think my experience as a PR Chair counts? I design flyers/other ads and social media campaigns for one of my student organizations. Also, in two other organizations, I am usually the one to design shirts, dorm decorations, etc.
 
WatchHowISoar said:
For the prompt: [OPTIONAL] Please provide a description of any activities involving the FINE ARTS (dance, drama, music, art, photography, etc.), do you think my experience as a PR Chair counts? I design flyers/other ads and social media campaigns for one of my student organizations. Also, in two other organizations, I am usually the one to design shirts, dorm decorations, etc.
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Not an expert on this but yes! If you don't think it fits anywhere else
 
WatchHowISoar said:
For the prompt: [OPTIONAL] Please provide a description of any activities involving the FINE ARTS (dance, drama, music, art, photography, etc.), do you think my experience as a PR Chair counts? I design flyers/other ads and social media campaigns for one of my student organizations. Also, in two other organizations, I am usually the one to design shirts, dorm decorations, etc.
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Frame it in terms of your artistic contributions. Talk about the art and design aspect and what that meant to you. You'll be fine :)

I hear a lot of people asking similar questions, so PSA:

Remember everybody, these aren't test questions - they're asking to find out more about YOU. There isn't really a wrong answer here, and they won't throw out your application for slightly stretching the boundaries of the answers. As long as you don't completely disregard the question and you make a good faith attempt to answer it the way they expect, the fact that your answer might be "unique" will probably be construed as a positive, rather than a negative.
 
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I am needing some advice about the employment essay. I worked as a summer league swim coach the summers after my junior and senior years of high school, but not after college (although I have continued teaching others to swim in college, just not for pay or as a coach). I have no other college employment. Should I list this in the essay since it is from high school or just leave it blank? Thanks!
 
leilanikapua said:
I am needing some advice about the employment essay. I worked as a summer league swim coach the summers after my junior and senior years of high school, but not after college (although I have continued teaching others to swim in college, just not for pay or as a coach). I have no other college employment. Should I list this in the essay since it is from high school or just leave it blank? Thanks!
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Maybe mention it. It's not that big a deal to not have been employed. Most people at UM have a good financial support system and don't need to be employed while in school.

You can mention the activity of teaching others to swim in another part of the secondary, as that's certainly an awesome activity.


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Would you guys say that the behavioral science prereq category includes courses like music and language? I would personally categorize those as humanities, but I'd like a second opinion.

Also, did any of you have problems with the prerequisite section? We need 2 semesters/3 quarters of certain subjects + lab, but the secondary says not to list them. Confused. Help
 
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Does UM give preference to alumni? I'm a UM alumni and this would be my DREAM medical school, but my stats are below their averages. I did a post-bacc elsewhere when I decided to pursue medicine and got a 4.0, but I got my B.A. there and my ugrad gpa is subpar (3.5). It says they accepted 41 alumni last year, so I'm wondering if it's worth a shot. Any other alumni applying?
 
nat0326 said:
Does UM give preference to alumni? I'm a UM alumni and this would be my DREAM medical school, but my stats are below their averages. I did a post-bacc elsewhere when I decided to pursue medicine and got a 4.0, but I got my B.A. there and my ugrad gpa is subpar (3.5). It says they accepted 41 alumni last year, so I'm wondering if it's worth a shot. Any other alumni applying?
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In scoring you, they give you points for Quality of Academic Institution. I would surely hope the med school highly values it's UG haha. I'd say go for it anyway though; you never know what each medschool keys in on.
 
Is there an appropriate section to talk about TAing? I have led an upper level lab course with graduate students and held office hours for other upper level molecular biology courses.
 
softballNRG said:
Yup! I got that! I emailed them a picture for the application. Put your AMCAS ID and "Application Photograph" in the subject title.
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For those of you who emailed them your photo, did they respond/did your application status indicating the missing photo change? Thanks in advance!
 
My primary was verified 7/5
Received the "Your verified AMCAS application has arrived" email on 7/6
Silence since then & now all my other secondaries are submitted.

Should I call?
 
Judson said:
My primary was verified 7/5
Received the "Your verified AMCAS application has arrived" email on 7/6
Silence since then & now all my other secondaries are submitted.

Should I call?
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Sure, a month seems like appropriate time to inquire. There's a chance you somehow didn't pass whatever small screen they have.
 
Judson said:
My primary was verified 7/5
Received the "Your verified AMCAS application has arrived" email on 7/6
Silence since then & now all my other secondaries are submitted.

Should I call?
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I would call. I got the "verified" email on 7/7 and had the secondary 7/12. Your 3.5/3.5/509 wouldn't have gotten you screened out.


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Judson said:
My primary was verified 7/5
Received the "Your verified AMCAS application has arrived" email on 7/6
Silence since then & now all my other secondaries are submitted.

Should I call?
Click to expand...

I would call. I got the "verified" email on 7/7 and had the secondary 7/12. Your 3.5/3.5/509 wouldn't have gotten you screened out.


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II!!! MD and MD/MPH Can't believe it ! :happy:
 
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