2017-2018 University of South Florida

BU Medical Sciences
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gyngyn

gyngyn

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Secondary Essays for this Cycle
4. What do you see as the most likely practice scenario for your future medical career?
a. Please choose the single answer that best describes your career goals:
Private Practice
Academic Medicine
Public Health
Health Care Administration
Health Policy
Other

b. Describe the knowledge, skills, and attributes you have developed in preparation for the career path you have chosen in question 4a.
2000 character count

OPTIONAL: The USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations program aims to support the educational development of medical students by providing opportunities for academic endeavors in areas of special interest. This program facilitates self-directed learning, enhances interactions between students and fosters relationships between students and faculty. Scholarly concentrations provide a forum where diversity of ideas and perspectives are valued. Each concentration includes elements of course work, practical application and scholarly presentation.

Please review our Scholarly Concentrations website to determine which concentration would be of interest to you and answer the following question. (Scholarly Concentrations Program | USF Health)

a. How would the USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations Program help your personal career goals? 2000 character count

2000 character count for these as well
1. The University of South Florida, College of Medicine strives to educate a very diverse set of students who bring a variety of strengths and interests to the field of medicine. The definition of diversity is broad and includes (but is not limited to) lifestyle, race/ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status and distance traveled through life. The definition of strength is also broad and includes (but not limited to) humanism, scholarship, intellectual curiosity, research and leadership. How do you feel your particular experiences, interests, and passions will add to the strength and diversity of the USF class and ultimately to the field of medicine?

2. Describe your ideas about how the medical profession can best respond to disparities in healthcare.

3. If you have experienced academic difficulties, please explain the situation and how it was resolved. (Please explain all grades less than a "B" (including B-) or any "withdrawal" on your transcripts).


Good luck to everyone applying!
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Here are the prompts from the previous 2016 application cycle for anyone wanting to get a head start. They did not change from 2015 to 2016, but it was different in 2014 (see here) so be careful. This was probably the longest secondary I completed, don't stress about turning this one in immediately - take your time and write thoughtful answers to all of the prompts. Even that awful diversity one. All the best!
_______________________________________________________________________

4. What do you see as the most likely practice scenario for your future medical career?

a. Please choose the single answer that best describes your career goals:
Private Practice
Academic Medicine
Public Health
Health Care Administration
Health Policy
Other

b. Describe the knowledge, skills, and attributes you have developed in preparation for the career path you have chosen in question 4a.
2000 character count

The USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations program aims to support the educational development of medical students by providing opportunities for academic endeavors in areas of special interest. This program facilitates self-directed learning, enhances interactions between students and fosters relationships between students and faculty. Scholarly concentrations provide a forum where diversity of ideas and perspectives are valued. Each concentration includes elements of course work, practical application and scholarly presentation.

Please review our Scholarly Concentrations website to determine which concentration would be of interest to you and answer the following question. (Scholarly Concentrations Program | USF Health)

a. How would the USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations Program help your personal career goals? 2000 character count

2000 character count for these as well
1. The University of South Florida, College of Medicine strives to educate a very diverse set of students who bring a variety of strengths and interests to the field of medicine. The definition of diversity is broad and includes (but is not limited to) lifestyle, race/ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status and distance traveled through life. The definition of strength is also broad and includes (but not limited to) humanism, scholarship, intellectual curiosity, research and leadership. How do you feel your particular experiences, interests, and passions will add to the strength and diversity of the USF class and ultimately to the field of medicine?

2. Describe your ideas about how the medical profession can best respond to disparities in healthcare.

3. Please describe your disadvantaged circumstances and/or life obstacles and how they affected your academic performance (positively and/or negatively). Please be specific.
(Optional)

4. If you have experienced academic difficulties, please explain the situation and how it was resolved. (Please explain all grades less than a "B" (including B-) or any "withdrawal" on your transcripts).

IF you are applying to both CORE and SELECT: You have chosen the program SELECT or BOTH at the onset of this application. Please explain how your experiences and career goals match with the mission of the SELECT program. (SELECT Home Page -- SELECT Program) (max 2000 characters)
 
If anybody has questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I'll be an incoming MS1 at USF.
 
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This is probably a dumb question, but if I wanted to work in a hospital or a clinic, is that still considered private practice or would you put that as other?
 
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Secondary received. Loooong one. Any current students have tips/advice? Any info about the Core vs. Select tracks? @jane51
 
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Secondary Essays for this Cycle @gyngyn
4. What do you see as the most likely practice scenario for your future medical career?
a. Please choose the single answer that best describes your career goals:
Private Practice
Academic Medicine
Public Health
Health Care Administration
Health Policy
Other

b. Describe the knowledge, skills, and attributes you have developed in preparation for the career path you have chosen in question 4a.
2000 character count

OPTIONAL: The USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations program aims to support the educational development of medical students by providing opportunities for academic endeavors in areas of special interest. This program facilitates self-directed learning, enhances interactions between students and fosters relationships between students and faculty. Scholarly concentrations provide a forum where diversity of ideas and perspectives are valued. Each concentration includes elements of course work, practical application and scholarly presentation.

Please review our Scholarly Concentrations website to determine which concentration would be of interest to you and answer the following question. (Scholarly Concentrations Program | USF Health)

a. How would the USF Morsani College of Medicine’s Scholarly Concentrations Program help your personal career goals? 2000 character count

2000 character count for these as well
1. The University of South Florida, College of Medicine strives to educate a very diverse set of students who bring a variety of strengths and interests to the field of medicine. The definition of diversity is broad and includes (but is not limited to) lifestyle, race/ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status and distance traveled through life. The definition of strength is also broad and includes (but not limited to) humanism, scholarship, intellectual curiosity, research and leadership. How do you feel your particular experiences, interests, and passions will add to the strength and diversity of the USF class and ultimately to the field of medicine?

2. Describe your ideas about how the medical profession can best respond to disparities in healthcare.

3. If you have experienced academic difficulties, please explain the situation and how it was resolved. (Please explain all grades less than a "B" (including B-) or any "withdrawal" on your transcripts).
 
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Current MS3 here, feel free to ask any questions or pm me if you don't feel comfortable posting it publicly. USF is a great school and improving every year. Good luck to all.
 
FindMeOnTheLinks said:
Current MS3 here, feel free to ask any questions or pm me if you don't feel comfortable posting it publicly. USF is a great school and improving every year. Good luck to all.
Click to expand...

Could you elaborate a bit on the two different MD programs: Core and SELECT? Also, you mentioned how USF was improving every year- could you explain a bit more on what things they've improved in their MD program to make it better for future students? Thanks!
 
FindMeOnTheLinks said:
Current MS3 here, feel free to ask any questions or pm me if you don't feel comfortable posting it publicly. USF is a great school and improving every year. Good luck to all.
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Have you or anyone you know participated in the Scholarly Concentrations program? What was the motivation and how has it benefited the individual?
 
pianoperson12 said:
Could you elaborate a bit on the two different MD programs: Core and SELECT? Also, you mentioned how USF was improving every year- could you explain a bit more on what things they've improved in their MD program to make it better for future students? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Core is just your regular old MD program.

Select places special emphasis on leadership and service. More friendly to OOS and values extracurricular activities over Mcat/gpa for admissions purposes (doesn't mean you can get in with a 2.9 and a 502, just means you've got a little more leeway in comparison to the average admitted stats). I don't know the extent of their extra requirements in the curriculum, but they do a couple projects related to leadership in healthcare. Students in the Select program do their 3rd and 4th year at Lehigh Valley health systems in Pennsylvania.

USF MCOM got a new dean (who was previously at NYU) a couple years ago. Since then, the usnews ranking has shot up pretty quickly. More research dollars. Building a new medical school and heart institute downtown, completion in 2019 or 2020. It's going to be big time. New dean is also extremely interested in moving the curriculum to be more focused on step 1 content, and he is actively in discussion with student liaisons to make this possible. He is big on rankings/prestige and part of that is where your students match, so he wants us to have good step 1 scores. Faculty overall is extremely attentive to student needs and continue to improve student life & curriculum. USF is going to be a big name institution in the coming years.

lordolah said:
Have you or anyone you know participated in the Scholarly Concentrations program? What was the motivation and how has it benefited the individual?
Click to expand...
Almost everybody does SCP because you have to do either SCP or a colloquium. Most people do the research concentration, where they give you tips and tricks for doing research (this is the one I'm doing). You meet as a group like once or twice a month, and usually somebody will present their research or you'll read a paper as a group or something. Honestly these are mostly just a waste of time and I wish we didn't have to do them. For the purposes of answering the secondary essay question, just read about the various concentrations on the website and pick the one that sounds most interesting to you and how you think it will help your career. For example, if you want to be an academic physician, say you want to do research SCP because part of being an academic is doing research. If you want to go into healthcare administration, then the health systems SCP would be good for that. It doesn't really matter what you say as long as you demonstrate you've read and thought about the program.

Any other questions, feel free to ask
 
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Crocognar said:
@FindMeOnTheLinks You got any insight on this? I'm trying to figure this out too.
Click to expand...
If you are employed by a university, that is generally considered to be academic. Usually academic physicians have extra duties outside of patient care - this includes doing research, teaching residents and med students.

If you are self employed or work for a physician group, that is considered private practice. Generally private practice physicians do not do all that much research and most don't work with residents or med students.

Both private practice and academic physicians can work in hospitals and clinics. Usually academic physicians make less money than their private practice counterparts.
 
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Secondary submitted! Hopefully USF will be nice to us
 
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3. If you have experienced academic difficulties, please explain the situation and how it was resolved. (Please explain all grades less than a "B" (including B-) or any "withdrawal" on your transcripts).

Anyone have any insight as to whether this question includes graduate studies? Like, does the adcom really want me to try to explain why I got a C in Secured Transactions my second year of law school?!
 
Anyone else's LORs not received yet?
 
Potentia Virtus said:
Secondary received. Loooong one. Any current students have tips/advice? Any info about the Core vs. Select tracks? @jane51
Click to expand...

For the secondaries, I backed up my answers with my involvement in extracurricular activities. Be honest in your answers. For example, I wrote about my interest in academic medicine from working as a tutor and in a research lab for several years. That's the only tip I have. lol. I can take a look at your answers, if you want to pm me.

Sorry, I do not have much info on the select track. They are on a different interview day. I do know that select program is very OOS friendly. Even for CORE, there were multiple OOS students at my interview day.
 
Commenting to get on this thread. Good luck everybody!
 
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How soon did you all get secondary???
 
Have any reapplicants on here received their secondary yet?
 
There's no TX OOS matriculants - I like this school but would it still be worth it to apply?

Also, whats the grading system?
 
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Smelt said:
There's no TX OOS matriculants - I like this school but would it still be worth it to apply?

Also, whats the grading system?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the grading system but I think it would be worthwhile to apply, particularly if you are interested in the SELECT program, which seems to be more OOS-friendly.
 
I really really like this school. I have a low gpa / high mcat so hopefully they'll like me too. I'm OOS so was gonna do select but after reading about one of their scholarly concentrations (nutrition research) really wanna do core. The description for the nutrition research thing sounds like I copied it for my PS lol. Good luck to everyone
 
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Secondary submitted! Here's hoping!
 
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I know for a fact that they value high MCAT very very much
 
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acetylcholinesterasee said:
So if I say had a 3.38 and a 518

Would I at least have better chances at this school than others lol
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I'm applying now in the same boat essentially but with 515 haha so I have no idea. I didn't go here but I worked at the school, I just know from working there that they favor it very much, but based on MSAR you can see GPA is a little lower so I think so. Also since they are moving downtown they want to increase their rankings

Are you OOS?
 
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boogiecousins94 said:
I'm applying now in the same boat essentially but with 515 haha so I have no idea. I didn't go here but I worked at the school, I just know from working there that they favor it very much, but based on MSAR you can see GPA is a little lower so I think so. Also since they are moving downtown they want to increase their rankings

Are you OOS?
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Lit! Yeah I'm OOS so I hear the select program is best but I fell head over heels for one of the core concentrations but basically either one works lol bc I live an hour away from their PA location so would be a very good way to get out for 2 years / shorter commitment and then come back home. Their nutrition concentration - literally sounds like I copied their description into my personal statement so hopefully they see my interest and love me
 
Anyone else submit more than a week ago but their app says not ready even though everything else has a green check mark? With the exception of the Residency part that is, but I'm not a resident and had to leave that blank so...
 
eyedeegaffe said:
Anyone else submit more than a week ago but their app says not ready even though everything else has a green check mark? With the exception of the Residency part that is, but I'm not a resident and had to leave that blank so...
Click to expand...

You have to fill out a part of that residency form and mark that you are a non-resident, I made the same mistake. There is an email that you can send it to, they got back to me within an hour of sending it
 
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I have a question about the residency form: I am an OOS applicant and the form asks for my USF ID (see here). Where do I get this ID? Or do I not need it since I am an OOS resident and the secondary states: "Sign the NON-FLORIDA section only and submit 1st page of the form." Does this imply that I do not fill out that portion and only sign that I am not a Florida Resident?

Many thanks beforehand for the help :)
 
I'm IS and I left that blank


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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ModelMedMan said:
I have a question about the residency form: I am an OOS applicant and the form asks for my USF ID (see here). Where do I get this ID? Or do I not need it since I am an OOS resident and the secondary states: "Sign the NON-FLORIDA section only and submit 1st page of the form." Does this imply that I do not fill out that portion and only sign that I am not a Florida Resident?

Many thanks beforehand for the help :)
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If I remember correctly, even if you are OOS once you matriculate here you can eventually apply for IS tuition, so I think this form is also used by the medical students who would fit that scenario since they would have an ID already. Also if you were a student or worked here you have an ID. I have an ID from working there but I left it blank I don't think it means anything unless you're actually going there right now
 
On_The_Way_Up said:
Really though? Do you think Med schools also value high GPA, high number of volunteering, and lots of research too? Mind blown.
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Thanks for the sarcasm, I appreciate it. They are more lenient in lower GPA if you have a higher MCAT. Maybe if you actually looked into other posts you would realize why. They are moving to downtown relatively soon and want to increase their rankings. Also if you look at MSAR its obvious. Higher MCAT shows higher competency, higher MCAT is harder and more rare than high GPA. They have a new dean of the school and he wants to make USF a well known institution. Further, USF recently lost out on funding from the state thats split between UF and FSU (something like $10 million or so). Although this is more of the states fault for changing the rules at the last moment, USF has to remain a high regarded institute for the years to come in order to jump into this category with the other flagship schools and receive more funding.
 
boogiecousins94 said:
Thanks for the sarcasm, I appreciate it. They are more lenient in lower GPA if you have a higher MCAT. Maybe if you actually looked into other posts you would realize why. They are moving to downtown relatively soon and want to increase their rankings. Also if you look at MSAR its obvious. Higher MCAT shows higher competency, higher MCAT is harder and more rare than high GPA. They have a new dean of the school and he wants to make USF a well known institution. Further, USF recently lost out on funding from the state thats split between UF and FSU (something like $10 million or so). Although this is more of the states fault for changing the rules at the last moment, USF has to remain a high regarded institute for the years to come in order to jump into this category with the other flagship schools and receive more funding.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. The rest of your post wasn't necessary. Friendly reminder everyone, lets try to be productive on the forums.
 
On_The_Way_Up said:
Really though? Do you think Med schools also value high GPA, high number of volunteering, and lots of research too? Mind blown.
Click to expand...
boogiecousins94 said:
Thanks for the sarcasm, I appreciate it. They are more lenient in lower GPA if you have a higher MCAT. Maybe if you actually looked into other posts you would realize why. They are moving to downtown relatively soon and want to increase their rankings. Also if you look at MSAR its obvious. Higher MCAT shows higher competency, higher MCAT is harder and more rare than high GPA. They have a new dean of the school and he wants to make USF a well known institution. Further, USF recently lost out on funding from the state thats split between UF and FSU (something like $10 million or so). Although this is more of the states fault for changing the rules at the last moment, USF has to remain a high regarded institute for the years to come in order to jump into this category with the other flagship schools and receive more funding.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. I'm a recent USF Alum and while I maybe would have made it in to USF (had a decent MCAT although a pretty crappy GPA), many of my classmates would not have. Their average MCAT has gone up significantly in the last couple years and Dean Lockwood has emphasized that he wants to recruit for high stat students.
 
acetylcholinesterasee said:
you mean interviewed? nah dont think so. i think they start handing them out August according to website.
Click to expand...

USF has a special status that says something to the effect of "Application last viewed on xx/xx/xxxx" that replaces the complete status.
 
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lpp06 said:
USF has a special status that says something to the effect of "Application last viewed on xx/xx/xxxx" that replaces the complete status.
Click to expand...
Where can we see this? under app status mine just says your application is ready! if thats what ur talking aboiut
 
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acetylcholinesterasee said:
Where can we see this? under app status mine just says your application is ready! if thats what ur talking aboiut
Click to expand...

That's what will change when you're "viewed". There's speculation whether or not it means anything because people have gotten II's without it changing, so take it with a grain of salt.
 
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