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Getting into Med School is Hard? Not with BeMo.
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MD95 said:
So essentially the only essay question they have is the scenario based question?
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Yep! I believe that's all I wrote.
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Also rejected this morning :( Didn't think it would come in so quickly. 511 (unbalanced but all ≥125) and 3.73, out of state.
 
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I hope this doesn't sound desperate, haha, but is anyone else very confused about this? I was complete on Friday and Rejected Monday morning. They don't work on weekends, so I don't understand how they could have possible reviewed applications in that time.
 
pprbckwrtr said:
I hope this doesn't sound desperate, haha, but is anyone else very confused about this? I was complete on Friday and Rejected Monday morning. They don't work on weekends, so I don't understand how they could have possible reviewed applications in that time.
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What are your EC's like?
Do you have sufficient clinical and shadowing experience? They have an entire section on required activities
 
Akela98 said:
What are your EC's like?
Do you have sufficient clinical and shadowing experience? They have an entire section on required activities
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Yupp! At least that much done. Not sure how I fair in relation to the average applicant, but no glaring gaps in the application.
 
pprbckwrtr said:
I hope this doesn't sound desperate, haha, but is anyone else very confused about this? I was complete on Friday and Rejected Monday morning. They don't work on weekends, so I don't understand how they could have possible reviewed applications in that time.
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Could be two things I think.

1. VCU is a state school and 50% of their applicants will be instate. The out of state pool is around 8000 applicants according to MSAR. They probably have a higher cutoff for MCAT/GPA since they have to pick 500 interviews out of 8000 and you got screened out after the secondary.

2. There was a very red flag within your AMCAS such as lack of significant ECs. VCU has a big emphasis on ECs.

Just my two cents. I would lead towards the first one more. Don't be discouraged!! You are very qualified at many schools with those stats.
 
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pprbckwrtr said:
Yupp! At least that much done. Not sure how I fair in relation to the average applicant, but no glaring gaps in the application.
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They said the average applicant has 200 hours over 4 years
 
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Civelle said:
Could be two things I think.

1. VCU is a state school and 50% of their applicants will be instate. The out of state pool is around 8000 applicants according to MSAR. They probably have a higher cutoff for MCAT/GPA since they have to pick 500 interviews out of 8000 and you got screened out after the secondary.

2. There was a very red flag within your AMCAS such as lack of significant ECs. VCU has a big emphasis on ECs.

Just my two cents. I would lead towards the first one more. Don't be discouraged!! You are very qualified at many schools with those stats.
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Thanks for the thorough response! Yeah the 500/8000 thing really put it into perspective for me. Appreciate the help :)
 
pprbckwrtr said:
Thanks for the thorough response! Yeah the 500/8000 thing really put it into perspective for me. Appreciate the help :)
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Yep! Good luck with the rest of the cycle!!!
 
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Rejected pre-secondary. c3.46/s3.22/508, good ECs. Best of luck to all of you!


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Now I'm very nervous, reading the above posts...
c3.47/s3.35/509, pretty decent ECs, >1000 hours of clinical exposure (doing a post-bac however), IS.... I submitted yesterday so fingers crossed.
 
Anyone else getting a server error when they try to log in to the secondary portal for the first time? Could be because I'm viewing on mobile.
 
irishwristwatch said:
Anyone else getting a server error when they try to log in to the secondary portal for the first time? Could be because I'm viewing on mobile.
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Likely that it might be mobile. The portal isn't even that great on my Mac with Chrome haha.
 
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"Please briefly explain any lapses in your undergraduate education; include any in enrollment during your undergraduate education and/or any gaps between undergraduate education and applying to medical school. (example: poor grades, multiple withdraws, health reasons, etc.)"

For this question, should I talk about one semester where I got a 3.2?
 
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EarthOneFlash said:
Are there any sections/essays on the secondary for re-applicants?
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If you previously applied to VCU:

Have you previously applied to our School of Medicine?

Yes/No If checked, enter year:
If yes, what additional qualifications do you have? Limit 150 Characters.
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The next isn't necessarily a re-applicant essay, but you could probably use it if you are a reapp and didn't apply to VCU before:

Please briefly explain any lapses in your undergraduate education; include any in enrollment during your undergraduate education and/or any gaps between undergraduate education and applying to medical school. (example: poor grades, multiple withdraws, health reasons, etc.)
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Please briefly explain any lapses in your undergraduate education; include any in enrollment during your undergraduate education and/or any gaps between undergraduate education and applying to medical school. (example: poor grades, multiple withdraws, health reasons, etc.)

For this question, should we discuss what we've been doing in gap years? It's kind of unclear. Seems like it wants "lapses" which are seen as negatives...
 
mysankofa said:
Please briefly explain any lapses in your undergraduate education; include any in enrollment during your undergraduate education and/or any gaps between undergraduate education and applying to medical school. (example: poor grades, multiple withdraws, health reasons, etc.)

For this question, should we discuss what we've been doing in gap years? It's kind of unclear. Seems like it wants "lapses" which are seen as negatives...
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Also not sure about this. I would think they do want us to describe gap year activities, since it is a break between undergrad and applying to med school (especially if you graduated 3+ months ago and have been doing stuff since then).
 
Stumpyman said:
Also not sure about this. I would think they do want us to describe gap year activities, since it is a break between undergrad and applying to med school (especially if you graduated 3+ months ago and have been doing stuff since then).
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i think i'll briefly describe gap year activities; they only allow 1000 characters so it'll be short
 
What has the turnaround period been like in terms of when you applied to VCU vs when you received a secondary (or rejected pre-secondary)? Same day? A few days? A week? I just submitted to VCU today and was curious.
 
MD95 said:
What has the turnaround period been like in terms of when you applied to VCU vs when you received a secondary (or rejected pre-secondary)? Same day? A few days? A week? I just submitted to VCU today and was curious.
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Turn around for getting screened out seems fairly quick. Few days max.
 
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Civelle said:
Turn around for getting screened out seems fairly quick. Few days max.
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That may have just been for those first individuals. There may have been a boat load of submissions at once, which would take a little longer to review. I think the max wait time is 21 days though, if I read that correctly.
 
Just wanted to make sure - when they ask for "pre req courses," should we enter all of our relevant biology courses when they say "Please select your courses which you believe meet our Biology prerequisite requirements."? Or do we just include two general biology courses?

Also, I retook a pre-req - should I include both the retake and the original course? Or just pick two?

Thanks!
 
Stumpyman said:
Just wanted to make sure - when they ask for "pre req courses," should we enter all of our relevant biology courses when they say "Please select your courses which you believe meet our Biology prerequisite requirements."? Or do we just include two general biology courses?

Also, I retook a pre-req - should I include both the retake and the original course? Or just pick two?

Thanks!
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I just included 2 general bio courses. If you're a bio major, it's pretty obvious you filled the pre-reqs.
 
Albanian24 said:
I just included 2 general bio courses. If you're a bio major, it's pretty obvious you filled the pre-reqs.
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What if you do better in a second/third/fourth year bio course (say cell bio, or genetics, or a bio lab) than a first year general biology course; can we enter those instead?
 
MD95 said:
What if you do better in a second/third/fourth year bio course (say cell bio, or genetics, or a bio lab) than a first year general biology course; can we enter those instead?
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That would be readily apparent from your transcript and AMCAS primary. VCU is not looking at your grades here - they are simply looking to see if you have fulfilled the needed requirements. It would be better to discuss upward trends in Step 5. Just my 2 cents.
 
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I might have messed up by forgetting to pay the fee and submitting. I'm also not seeing anything but the "You have been granted a supplemental application." paragraph.
 
Submitted

Anyone else applying to the fmSTAT program? Sounds really cool, I don't know anyone who has done it though


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Stumpyman said:
Submitted

Anyone else applying to the fmSTAT program? Sounds really cool, I don't know anyone who has done it though


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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As someone who wants to go into the primary care specialties, I actually opted out of this one. Being restricted to just one specialty is scary to me even though Fam Med is probably the number 1 specialty I want to go into
 
bengirlxD said:
As someone who wants to go into the primary care specialties, I actually opted out of this one. Being restricted to just one specialty is scary to me even though Fam Med is probably the number 1 specialty I want to go into
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Same here!
 
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delphinusrosea said:
I might have messed up by forgetting to pay the fee and submitting. I'm also not seeing anything but the "You have been granted a supplemental application." paragraph.
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I submitted Tuesday night and it had that same message until I got an email this morning saying my status changed to complete & under review
 
DrDwayneJohnson said:
For those wondering where (s)he found this, go to Required Activities at the bottom of this link: Admissions Requirements - MD Program Admissions - VCU School of Medicine

I would consider looking at this before you add VCU so you don't waste your money if you don't have the ECs and metrics mentioned on that page.
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What if my ugrad GPA were under 3.3 just barely but I have a grad school GPA well above their average? I did get the secondary so made it that far...
 
Rejected today. 514 MCAT, 3.85 GPA, URM
 
I'm really surprised to be honest even if you're OOS. Solid ECs?

I'm starting to feel like maybe they want to you to answer the 2ndary prompt in a very precise way and that's how they are weeding so fast. :[

Good luck elsewhere!!!
 
Loncria said:
Got a nice call today. II! OOS 4.0, 509(unbalanced). Good E.C's. FM stat applicant. You guys can do it!
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CONGRATS!!! Exact stats as me too except the fmStat. gives me hope
 
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