USF MMS 2017-2018

[BullGator1004]

I agree, I'm wondering if it's worth a shot to give the admissions office a call just to see what exactly this means in terms of the timeline for acceptance letters for those of us to made it in before the deadline?

I just sent an email. I'll update once I receive a response.

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[BullGator1004]

Just received this from an admissions officer:

"The committee has the authority to make decisions all the way until August. With the rolling admission process there is no direct timeline of when an applicant will hear back. Decisions are made based on competitiveness of the applicant rather than the time in which the application was received."

So classes start in late August and someone may not find out if they got in or not until the beginning of August? Leaves a really small window for those of us that need to relocate, quit jobs, etc... Pretty frustrating if you ask me.

 

[Future_FlightSurgeon]

I sent an email to Mrs. Boyko this morning to relinquish my seat. Hopefully it is offered to one of you.

Best of luck everyone!

 

[norgapnic]

Does anyone know how it works to have you app considered for another application?

 

[HbondsR_FON]

I withdrew my spot. Good luck guys!

 

[norgapnic]

Anybody applying to or know anything about the molecular medicine concentration?

 

[thatnutritiongirl]

Does anyone know if applying to more than one concentration lengthens the admission committee's decision process on your application?
Also, has anyone found out if they were accepted? I was complete June 5.

 

[norgapnic]

Does anyone know if applying to more than one concentration lengthens the admission committee's decision process on your application?
Also, has anyone found out if they were accepted? I was complete June 5.

I sent an email asking about that and they told me that your application for your first choice is first considered and processed at a normal pace. If you don't get accepted into that one, they will then process your application for your second choice. So it doesn't affect the length of the decision process in regards to your first choice.

 

[BullGator1004]

I sent an email asking about that and they told me that your application for your first choice is first considered and processed at a normal pace. If you don't get accepted into that one, they will then process your application for your second choice. So it doesn't affect the length of the decision process in regards to your first choice.

So has anyone heard anything since the original June 1st deadline? I would just like an answer either way from them.

 

[norgapnic]

So has anyone heard anything since the original June 1st deadline? I would just like an answer either way from them.

Nope. It'll be 3 weeks tomorrow since my application was marked complete and I'm freaking out I just want to know!

 

[Domid]

So has anyone heard anything since the original June 1st deadline? I would just like an answer either way from them.

My application was marked complete end of day on 5/26 and I received an acceptance e-mail on morning of 6/5. Decision speeds seems to be variable from what I'm reading. I hope you hear back soon!

 

[BullGator1004]

Nope. It'll be 3 weeks tomorrow since my application was marked complete and I'm freaking out I just want to know!

5 weeks as of today for me...

 

[norgapnic]

My application was marked complete end of day on 5/26 and I received an acceptance e-mail on morning of 6/5. Decision speeds seems to be variable from what I'm reading. I hope you hear back soon!

Well I was told that my application had been recommended for admission by the department and just waiting to hear back from Graduate Admissions for a final official decision. I don't want to get to excited hearing that I've been recommended by the department because I'm not sure what that means. Anybody have any idea or heard that before?

 

[BullGator1004]

Well I was told that my application had been recommended for admission by the department and just waiting to hear back from Graduate Admissions for a final official decision. I don't want to get to excited hearing that I've been recommended by the department because I'm not sure what that means. Anybody have any idea or heard that before?

Did you hear that in response to something you asked them or did they volunteer that information to you? I haven't heard a single thing and at this point I'm just waiting to hear a 'no' so that I can move on and figure out the next step.

 

[honeybakedsam]

Well I was told that my application had been recommended for admission by the department and just waiting to hear back from Graduate Admissions for a final official decision. I don't want to get to excited hearing that I've been recommended by the department because I'm not sure what that means. Anybody have any idea or heard that before?

That's a good sign. "Your admission offer should be finalized within the next 3 weeks or so by the Office of Graduate Admissions. The Office of Graduate Admissions will typically agree with our admissions committee’s recommendation unless the student does not meet the university minimum admission criteria and/or has a conduct issue that our office may be unaware of." This was from my email so you should be fine!

 

[MetabolismASE]

..

 

[gator515]

Has anyone here been accepted or rejected since the deadline passed on June 1st?

I recently heard back on Friday, June 16. I emailed Emily Boyko prior and she said the committee has until August to make a decision.

 

[gator515]

So has anyone heard anything since the original June 1st deadline? I would just like an answer either way from them.

I recently heard back on Friday, June 16. I emailed Emily Boyko prior to receiving the email and she said the committee has until August to make a decision. Hopefully you'll hear soon!

 

[BullGator1004]

I recently heard back on Friday, June 16. I emailed Emily Boyko prior to receiving the email and she said the committee has until August to make a decision. Hopefully you'll hear soon!

I'm guessing you were accepted? When was your application considered complete? Anyone know if they are waiting until a certain date to start sending rejection emails?

 

[norgapnic]

I'm guessing you were accepted? When was your application considered complete? Anyone know if they are waiting until a certain date to start sending rejection emails?

I'd suggest maybe giving the admissions office a call? Although it seems like you'll get the same vague answers, but maybe it's worth a shot.

 

[Domid]

Well I was told that my application had been recommended for admission by the department and just waiting to hear back from Graduate Admissions for a final official decision. I don't want to get to excited hearing that I've been recommended by the department because I'm not sure what that means. Anybody have any idea or heard that before?

I was in the same boat as you. I believe everyone receives the same message. My final official e-mail from the USF Graduate Office of Admissions came 2 weeks after the e-mail from USF MSMS. You can also check your Registration Status on OASIS (my.usf.edu) as that updated to student status much sooner than the official e-mail for me. Unless there's something in your app they didn't know about, I wouldn't worry at this point!

 

[norgapnic]

I was in the same boat as you. I believe everyone receives the same message. My final official e-mail from the USF Graduate Office of Admissions came 2 weeks after the e-mail from USF MSMS. You can also check your Registration Status on OASIS (my.usf.edu) as that updated to student status much sooner than the official e-mail for me. Unless there's something in your app they didn't know about, I wouldn't worry at this point!

Okay so my registration status says this:
Your College is Medicine.
Your Degree objective is MS in Medical Sciences.
Your Major is Medical Sciences.
Your Student Level is Graduate.
Your Class for registration purposes is Masters.

..... I don't want to get to excited because I haven't gotten the official email... but does this mean I'm accepted??

 

[Domid]

Okay so my registration status says this:
Your College is Medicine.
Your Degree objective is MS in Medical Sciences.
Your Major is Medical Sciences.
Your Student Level is Graduate.
Your Class for registration purposes is Masters.

..... I don't want to get to excited because I haven't gotten the official email... but does this mean I'm accepted??

Your official e-mail should arrive within a few days, if not today then. Congrats!

 

[BullGator1004]

Okay so my registration status says this:
Your College is Medicine.
Your Degree objective is MS in Medical Sciences.
Your Major is Medical Sciences.
Your Student Level is Graduate.
Your Class for registration purposes is Masters.

..... I don't want to get to excited because I haven't gotten the official email... but does this mean I'm accepted??

norgapnic, if you don't mind my asking, what are your academic stats and extracurriculars like?

 

[norgapnic]

norgapnic, if you don't mind my asking, what are your academic stats and extracurriculars like?

cGPA: 3.55
sGPA: 3.71
GRE: 312
About 2 years in a research internship position in a lab, tutored in chemistry, and some additional ECs

 

[norgapnic]

Does anyone have any idea how large the class is? Like how many people the generally accept?

 

[honeybakedsam]

Does anyone have any idea how large the class is? Like how many people the generally accept?

At the open house they said roughly 200 students, but my friend who's currently in the program said there's about 270 in her class (not sure if that includes all concentrations or just MSP3).

 

[gator515]

I'd suggest maybe giving the admissions office a call? Although it seems like you'll get the same vague answers, but maybe it's worth a shot.

I'm guessing you were accepted? When was your application considered complete? Anyone know if they are waiting until a certain date to start sending rejection emails?

I was accepted on 6/16 and my application was completely on 5/9.

 

[BullGator1004]

I was accepted on 6/16 and my application was completely on 5/9.

So you had to wait right around 5 weeks, as well? Did you have any concerns with your application?

 

[thatnutritiongirl]

At the open house they said roughly 200 students, but my friend who's currently in the program said there's about 270 in her class (not sure if that includes all concentrations or just MSP3).

The person in charge of the Neuroscience concentration told me that the pre-professional program has around 250-270, and there are about 300+ total between all concentrations.

 

[gator515]

So you had to wait right around 5 weeks, as well? Did you have any concerns with your application?

Yes, I was pretty nervous I hadn't heard back. I called and had my application considered for two other concentrations. I heard back about an acceptance 3 days later.

 

[MetabolismASE]

......

 

[BullGator1004]

Yes, I was pretty nervous I hadn't heard back. I called and had my application considered for two other concentrations. I heard back about an acceptance 3 days later.

What concentration did you get accepted into and what other two were you being considered for?

 

[gator515]

What concentration did you get accepted into and what other two were you being considered for?

I got accepted into the MSP3 but also had my application considered for the anatomy concentration and the aging and neuroscience concentration.

 

[norgapnic]

I got accepted into MSP3 and the molecular medicine concentration! My app was complete 6/1 and heard back yesterday, 6/22

 

[awesomejackjack]

Application submitted and complete on 5/16. Received an acceptance 6/15 into the pre-professional track!

cGPA: 3.47
MCAT: 497

wahoo!

 

[deleted765468]

Hi guys, I'm a current student of this program, finishing up my summer semester. Feel free to let me know if you have any question. The TAs might create a facebook page for the group later, but for now, someone should create one so you guys have place to discuss housing situation and so. The program is known as MSP3 here btw.

Also, my room will be available starting in August when I finish the program. It's a room in a 4br house located at the corner of 50th st and Fowler. It's 10min drive to school. The other 3 tenants are also USF students/alumni, all male. One guy got his old bathroom in his room. The other 2 and I share the main bathroom. The landlord doesn't live there and he's a very flexible/cool guy. It's $300/month + utilities ($50-70/month each tenant). My 3 roommates want to renew the contract for next year (1st day of Aug to last day of July, which is perfect for this program), so I'm helping them find a new tenant for my room. If anyone interested, PM me. If you are looking for an affordable place, I think this place is the best. Note: it's a very quiet place, same as the neighbors, no parties or loud music whatsoever, and absolutely dead quiet after night falls.

For the school, one thing you will soon find out is that parking sucks,... multiplied by infinity, for MSP3 schedule. If you are planning to drive to school, expect to spend an average of 15-30min (sometimes an hour) everyday to find parking. So if you don't want to deal with this, look into IQ apartment complex, which sits right across the street and you can jay-walk to class everyday. For me, I saved a lot of money at my place and couldn't be happier with my living situation for this past year.

 

[sharpy]

I got accepted in the health sciences track. Anyone else going for the online option?


Sent from my iPad using SDN mobile

 

[deleted765468]

Many people PM me about the program, so I just thought I would write up a post about it for everyone here to address all of the questions I got.

***Class structures: except for Embryo and Ethics in the Summer, every class is divided into 3 blocks, each block is one month long and covers one major organ system. The medical classes at USF cover 1 organ system in 1 semester (4 months). We do it in 1 block (1 month) and they didn't spare us of anything. Their goal is to expose us to everything taught in the first 2 years of medical schools within this 1 year. So yes, it's overwhelming.
- You have exams at the end of each block, so exams are every 4 weeks consistently for all 4 classes in the Fall and Spring. First exam on Thu, then Mon-Wed-Fri the following week. They try to pace out the exams so we have more time to review.
- You do have lectures as normal during exam week, but the materials are mostly (not always) for the next block exams. They have automatic lecture video recording (Panopto) which you can watch on the same day after the lecture finishes. So many students don't go to lectures and only show up on exam dates. During exam week, most of the class doesn't show up for lectures.
- Anatomy and Histology have 2 main professors for most of the lectures, Genetics has only 1 professor. Other classes have different professors for different blocks/lectures. Most of our professors also give the same lectures to the medical school classes. I found the 2nd Neuro block to be the worst in terms of structuring: we had 8 different professors for 9 lectures :O

***Exams: except for Ethics, all exams are in-class and MCQs only. All exams are taken on your laptop, but they do have paper exams ready should your laptop fails. Each exam weighs equally 33.33% of the class, final is just another exam, not cumulative (except Embryo). Each exam has 50 MCQs for 100 points, 80-90min long, usually covers 8-9 lectures, so roughly 5-6 questions per lecture. Whichever professor gives the lecture will write the questions for that lecture. Each lecture could be anywhere from 40 to 100+ slides and anything (literally anything) on the slides is a fair game on exam. Ethics is entirely online, one quiz every week (MCQs + fill in the blank) and discussion grades. Embryo has one midterm, cumulative final, and discussion grades.
- They keep saying that classes are not curved during orientation, but many classes are. The average has almost always been 86-88. When it is not, they will curve it to be. Once in a while you have a 90 un-curved average, but very rare. Grades are 100-92=A (no A+), 91-89=A-, 88-87=B+, 86-82=B, 81-79=B- and so forth. Very small margin for error because each exam question is worth 2% of the exam or 0.67% of your entire class grade.

***Exam difficulty: exams progressively get harder and lecture materials get more overload and more in depth as the program goes. You will have to adjust very quickly to graduate level studying. Most A-students I know adjusted within 2 weeks when they realized how much materials have built up. One thing that most A-students agrees upon: we study a lot. Of course there are always the genius few who don't seem to study much and still get straight As. But even they say they study a lot... on their own scale of "a lot" lol. So no mater how smart you are, be prepare to push your limit in this program if you want to do well.
- Speaking as an average (not gifted, just hard work) student who performed fairly well in this program (3.8 GPA): I think it's not hard to get a B, but it is hard to get an A, and it's very hard to get straight As. The reason is because each lecture usually carries 1 killer question (my group calls it the A-game question). These questions usually focus on a very small detail in the slides that you can easily skip out due to the overwhelming amount of materials you need to memorize. My group and I study our butts off 8hrs a day, 7days a week to stay in the A-game. Don't listen to those who say: "I only study a little and got a B. I'm sure if I spend a little more time, I can get an A next time". I call it a delusional thought of the B-students. I talk to a lot of my classmates. Those who got good GPA never said that. Those who said it, none of them got above 3.5 GPA.

***Books: don't buy any. Except for Embryo, all of the exam questions come straight out from the lecture and the slides. You only need to read the book if you want to reenforce or clarify what you learn in the slides. And all the books are available in pdf. Just wait until the class starts and someone will always have the pdf files. Embryo is the exception. Some questions on the midterm came straight from the book and not mentioned anywhere in the lecture or slides. The professor did warn us at the beginning of the class, so it is still a fair game.

***Professors & TAs: most professors are very concern with our success, very friendly, and would do their best to help you, whether it is with the lecture materials or LOR. Of course there are always some indifferent ones, but very very few. It's the same at any school, some will be the best lecturers you have ever had, some (luckily few) will just read off their slides and put you to sleep, and some will make you feel like you are listening to Einstein's theory of relativity or something (you will find out which ones ever soon, and just study/master his lecture slides BEFORE going to lecture, he will become one of the best professors ever).
- TAs are just previous year students who did well but have a year gap applying to med school. So it's a hit or miss. One of our TAs this year is no doubt the best ever. Others were ok. All of our TAs got accepted into med school already, so you won't see any of them. Your TAs will be students from my class. I don't know which ones.

***Research & Extra: most professors are active researchers and many will be willing to take you under their wings. Finding a research position is not a problem. Handling the extra workload might be. Only around 15 students took the gross anatomy lab elective. Many of them were already accepted into med school. Only a handful engaged in research. One student spent too much time on research, he failed the same class twice and got dismissed from the program during my first semester. So I would recommend spending all your time studying for the first set of exams, then see if you can afford to cut back on studying for extracurricular activities. Don't start in the opposite direction.

***Counseling: they have a lot services that will help you with your application such as mock interview, personal statement workshop... Similar to undergrad, but better in my opinion. They have one dedicated counselor for this program, Dr. William, who served on the school's admission committee for 15+ years. Dr. William is available for one-on-one appointment to help you with anything you need, from personal statement to mock interview feedback, how to study for the program, what you need to improve in your application.... Make sure you utilize his expertise. He is one of the best pro's of this program.

***GPA: according to Dr. William, if you are shooting for MD, you want at least a 3.75 from this program. A 3.5-3.7 can land you into DO. Anything below 3.5 is considered bad performance for this type of programs. Of course this is just generalized information. There are always exceptions.

***My take on the program: it's not perfect, but it will definitely help boost your application. I got accepted into dental school by a school that previously rejected me. So this program did make a big difference in my application.
- Which program is the best? - IDK, I'm very happy with this program.
- Should I do a master program? - Every single one of my classmate will tell you: definitely.
- This is the biggest selling point: doing well in a program like this not only helps you get into med school but also helps you perform well in med school, which will translate into better step score, better residency placement, more competitive specialty...

Well, what do I know. I will just go drill teeth lol (don't ask me why dentistry over medicine, I just love drilling teeth). Feel free to PM me if you have more questions or I missed yours.

 

[avhopeful]

Many people PM me about the program, so I just thought I would write up a post about it for everyone here to address all of the questions I got.

***Class structures: except for Embryo and Ethics in the Summer, every class is divided into 3 blocks, each block is one month long and covers one major organ system. The medical classes at USF cover 1 organ system in 1 semester (4 months). We do it in 1 block (1 month) and they didn't spare us of anything. Their goal is to expose us to everything taught in the first 2 years of medical schools within this 1 year. So yes, it's overwhelming.
- You have exams at the end of each block, so exams are every 4 weeks consistently for all 4 classes in the Fall and Spring. First exam on Thu, then Mon-Wed-Fri the following week. They try to pace out the exams so we have more time to review.
- You do have lectures as normal during exam week, but the materials are mostly (not always) for the next block exams. They have automatic lecture video recording (Panopto) which you can watch on the same day after the lecture finishes. So many students don't go to lectures and only show up on exam dates. During exam week, most of the class doesn't show up for lectures.
- Anatomy and Histology have 2 main professors for most of the lectures, Genetics has only 1 professor. Other classes have different professors for different blocks/lectures. Most of our professors also give the same lectures to the medical school classes. I found the 2nd Neuro block to be the worst in terms of structuring: we had 8 different professors for 9 lectures :O

***Exams: except for Ethics, all exams are in-class and MCQs only. All exams are taken on your laptop, but they do have paper exams ready should your laptop fails. Each exam weighs equally 33.33% of the class, final is just another exam, not cumulative (except Embryo). Each exam has 50 MCQs for 100 points, 80-90min long, usually covers 8-9 lectures, so roughly 5-6 questions per lecture. Whichever professor gives the lecture will write the questions for that lecture. Each lecture could be anywhere from 40 to 100+ slides and anything (literally anything) on the slides is a fair game on exam. Ethics is entirely online, one quiz every week (MCQs + fill in the blank) and discussion grades. Embryo has one midterm, cumulative final, and discussion grades.
- They keep saying that classes are not curved during orientation, but many classes are. The average has almost always been 86-88. When it is not, they will curve it to be. Once in a while you have a 90 un-curved average, but very rare. Grades are 100-92=A (no A+), 91-89=A-, 88-87=B+, 86-82=B, 81-79=B- and so forth. Very small margin for error because each exam question is worth 2% of the exam or 0.67% of your entire class grade.

***Exam difficulty: exams progressively get harder and lecture materials get more overload and more in depth as the program goes. You will have to adjust very quickly to graduate level studying. Most A-students I know adjusted within 2 weeks when they realized how much materials have built up. One thing that most A-students agrees upon: we study a lot. Of course there are always the genius few who don't seem to study much and still get straight As. But even they say they study a lot... on their own scale of "a lot" lol. So no mater how smart you are, be prepare to push your limit in this program if you want to do well.
- Speaking as an average (not gifted, just hard work) student who performed fairly well in this program (3.8 GPA): I think it's not hard to get a B, but it is hard to get an A, and it's very hard to get straight As. The reason is because each lecture usually carries 1 killer question (my group calls it the A-game question). These questions usually focus on a very small detail in the slides that you can easily skip out due to the overwhelming amount of materials you need to memorize. My group and I study our butts off 8hrs a day, 7days a week to stay in the A-game. Don't listen to those who say: "I only study a little and got a B. I'm sure if I spend a little more time, I can get an A next time". I call it a delusional thought of the B-students. I talk to a lot of my classmates. Those who got good GPA never said that. Those who said it, none of them got above 3.5 GPA.

***Books: don't buy any. Except for Embryo, all of the exam questions come straight out from the lecture and the slides. You only need to read the book if you want to reenforce or clarify what you learn in the slides. And all the books are available in pdf. Just wait until the class starts and someone will always have the pdf files. Embryo is the exception. Some questions on the midterm came straight from the book and not mentioned anywhere in the lecture or slides. The professor did warn us at the beginning of the class, so it is still a fair game.

***Professors & TAs: most professors are very concern with our success, very friendly, and would do their best to help you, whether it is with the lecture materials or LOR. Of course there are always some indifferent ones, but very very few. It's the same at any school, some will be the best lecturers you have ever had, some (luckily few) will just read off their slides and put you to sleep, and some will make you feel like you are listening to Einstein's theory of relativity or something (you will find out which ones ever soon, and just study/master his lecture slides BEFORE going to lecture, he will become one of the best professors ever).
- TAs are just previous year students who did well but have a year gap applying to med school. So it's a hit or miss. One of our TAs this year is no doubt the best ever. Others were ok. All of our TAs got accepted into med school already, so you won't see any of them. Your TAs will be students from my class. I don't know which ones. Most of the good ones I can think of have already been accepted to start med schools this Aug.

***Research & Extra: most professors are active researchers and many will be willing to take you under their wings. Finding a research position is not a problem. Handling the extra workload might be. Only around 15 students took the gross anatomy lab elective. Many of them were already accepted into med school. Only a handful engaged in research. One student spent too much time on research, he failed the same class twice and got dismissed from the program during my first semester. So I would recommend spending all your time studying for the first set of exams, then see if you can afford to cut back on studying for extracurricular activities. Don't start in the opposite direction.

***Counseling: they have a lot services that will help you with your application such as mock interview, personal statement workshop... Similar to undergrad, but better in my opinion. They have one dedicated counselor for this program, Dr. William, who served on the school's admission committee for 15+ years. Dr. William is available for one-on-one appointment to help you with anything you need, from personal statement to mock interview feedback, how to study for the program, what you need to improve in your application.... Make sure you utilize his expertise. He is one of the best pro's of this program.

***GPA: according to Dr. William, if you are shooting for MD, you want at least a 3.75 from this program. A 3.5-3.7 can land you into DO. Anything below 3.5 is considered bad performance for this type of programs. Of course this is just generalized information. There are always exceptions.

***My take on the program: it's not perfect, but it will definitely help boost your application. I got accepted into dental school by a school that previously rejected me. So this program did make a big difference in my application.
- Which program is the best? - IDK, I'm very happy with this program.
- Should I do a master program? - Every single one of my classmate will tell you: definitely.
- This is the biggest selling point: doing well in a program like this not only helps you get into med school but also helps you perform well in med school, which will translate into better step score, better residency placement, more competitive specialty...

Well, what do I know. I will just go drill teeth lol (don't ask me why dentistry over medicine, I just love drilling teeth). Feel free to PM me if you have more questions or I missed yours.

Wow, thanks for the info!

 

[Domid]

Many people PM me about the program, so I just thought I would write up a post about it for everyone here to address all of the questions I got.

***Class structures: except for Embryo and Ethics in the Summer, every class is divided into 3 blocks, each block is one month long and covers one major organ system. The medical classes at USF cover 1 organ system in 1 semester (4 months). We do it in 1 block (1 month) and they didn't spare us of anything. Their goal is to expose us to everything taught in the first 2 years of medical schools within this 1 year. So yes, it's overwhelming.
- You have exams at the end of each block, so exams are every 4 weeks consistently for all 4 classes in the Fall and Spring. First exam on Thu, then Mon-Wed-Fri the following week. They try to pace out the exams so we have more time to review.
- You do have lectures as normal during exam week, but the materials are mostly (not always) for the next block exams. They have automatic lecture video recording (Panopto) which you can watch on the same day after the lecture finishes. So many students don't go to lectures and only show up on exam dates. During exam week, most of the class doesn't show up for lectures.
- Anatomy and Histology have 2 main professors for most of the lectures, Genetics has only 1 professor. Other classes have different professors for different blocks/lectures. Most of our professors also give the same lectures to the medical school classes. I found the 2nd Neuro block to be the worst in terms of structuring: we had 8 different professors for 9 lectures :O

***Exams: except for Ethics, all exams are in-class and MCQs only. All exams are taken on your laptop, but they do have paper exams ready should your laptop fails. Each exam weighs equally 33.33% of the class, final is just another exam, not cumulative (except Embryo). Each exam has 50 MCQs for 100 points, 80-90min long, usually covers 8-9 lectures, so roughly 5-6 questions per lecture. Whichever professor gives the lecture will write the questions for that lecture. Each lecture could be anywhere from 40 to 100+ slides and anything (literally anything) on the slides is a fair game on exam. Ethics is entirely online, one quiz every week (MCQs + fill in the blank) and discussion grades. Embryo has one midterm, cumulative final, and discussion grades.
- They keep saying that classes are not curved during orientation, but many classes are. The average has almost always been 86-88. When it is not, they will curve it to be. Once in a while you have a 90 un-curved average, but very rare. Grades are 100-92=A (no A+), 91-89=A-, 88-87=B+, 86-82=B, 81-79=B- and so forth. Very small margin for error because each exam question is worth 2% of the exam or 0.67% of your entire class grade.

***Exam difficulty: exams progressively get harder and lecture materials get more overload and more in depth as the program goes. You will have to adjust very quickly to graduate level studying. Most A-students I know adjusted within 2 weeks when they realized how much materials have built up. One thing that most A-students agrees upon: we study a lot. Of course there are always the genius few who don't seem to study much and still get straight As. But even they say they study a lot... on their own scale of "a lot" lol. So no mater how smart you are, be prepare to push your limit in this program if you want to do well.
- Speaking as an average (not gifted, just hard work) student who performed fairly well in this program (3.8 GPA): I think it's not hard to get a B, but it is hard to get an A, and it's very hard to get straight As. The reason is because each lecture usually carries 1 killer question (my group calls it the A-game question). These questions usually focus on a very small detail in the slides that you can easily skip out due to the overwhelming amount of materials you need to memorize. My group and I study our butts off 8hrs a day, 7days a week to stay in the A-game. Don't listen to those who say: "I only study a little and got a B. I'm sure if I spend a little more time, I can get an A next time". I call it a delusional thought of the B-students. I talk to a lot of my classmates. Those who got good GPA never said that. Those who said it, none of them got above 3.5 GPA.

***Books: don't buy any. Except for Embryo, all of the exam questions come straight out from the lecture and the slides. You only need to read the book if you want to reenforce or clarify what you learn in the slides. And all the books are available in pdf. Just wait until the class starts and someone will always have the pdf files. Embryo is the exception. Some questions on the midterm came straight from the book and not mentioned anywhere in the lecture or slides. The professor did warn us at the beginning of the class, so it is still a fair game.

***Professors & TAs: most professors are very concern with our success, very friendly, and would do their best to help you, whether it is with the lecture materials or LOR. Of course there are always some indifferent ones, but very very few. It's the same at any school, some will be the best lecturers you have ever had, some (luckily few) will just read off their slides and put you to sleep, and some will make you feel like you are listening to Einstein's theory of relativity or something (you will find out which ones ever soon, and just study/master his lecture slides BEFORE going to lecture, he will become one of the best professors ever).
- TAs are just previous year students who did well but have a year gap applying to med school. So it's a hit or miss. One of our TAs this year is no doubt the best ever. Others were ok. All of our TAs got accepted into med school already, so you won't see any of them. Your TAs will be students from my class. I don't know which ones. Most of the good ones I can think of have already been accepted to start med schools this Aug.

***Research & Extra: most professors are active researchers and many will be willing to take you under their wings. Finding a research position is not a problem. Handling the extra workload might be. Only around 15 students took the gross anatomy lab elective. Many of them were already accepted into med school. Only a handful engaged in research. One student spent too much time on research, he failed the same class twice and got dismissed from the program during my first semester. So I would recommend spending all your time studying for the first set of exams, then see if you can afford to cut back on studying for extracurricular activities. Don't start in the opposite direction.

***Counseling: they have a lot services that will help you with your application such as mock interview, personal statement workshop... Similar to undergrad, but better in my opinion. They have one dedicated counselor for this program, Dr. William, who served on the school's admission committee for 15+ years. Dr. William is available for one-on-one appointment to help you with anything you need, from personal statement to mock interview feedback, how to study for the program, what you need to improve in your application.... Make sure you utilize his expertise. He is one of the best pro's of this program.

***GPA: according to Dr. William, if you are shooting for MD, you want at least a 3.75 from this program. A 3.5-3.7 can land you into DO. Anything below 3.5 is considered bad performance for this type of programs. Of course this is just generalized information. There are always exceptions.

***My take on the program: it's not perfect, but it will definitely help boost your application. I got accepted into dental school by a school that previously rejected me. So this program did make a big difference in my application.
- Which program is the best? - IDK, I'm very happy with this program.
- Should I do a master program? - Every single one of my classmate will tell you: definitely.
- This is the biggest selling point: doing well in a program like this not only helps you get into med school but also helps you perform well in med school, which will translate into better step score, better residency placement, more competitive specialty...

Well, what do I know. I will just go drill teeth lol (don't ask me why dentistry over medicine, I just love drilling teeth). Feel free to PM me if you have more questions or I missed yours.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this insightful information! It really sheds light on what we can expect from the program.

 

[Wonwander]

Many people PM me about the program, so I just thought I would write up a post about it for everyone here to address all of the questions I got.

***Class structures: except for Embryo and Ethics in the Summer, every class is divided into 3 blocks, each block is one month long and covers one major organ system. The medical classes at USF cover 1 organ system in 1 semester (4 months). We do it in 1 block (1 month) and they didn't spare us of anything. Their goal is to expose us to everything taught in the first 2 years of medical schools within this 1 year. So yes, it's overwhelming.
- You have exams at the end of each block, so exams are every 4 weeks consistently for all 4 classes in the Fall and Spring. First exam on Thu, then Mon-Wed-Fri the following week. They try to pace out the exams so we have more time to review.
- You do have lectures as normal during exam week, but the materials are mostly (not always) for the next block exams. They have automatic lecture video recording (Panopto) which you can watch on the same day after the lecture finishes. So many students don't go to lectures and only show up on exam dates. During exam week, most of the class doesn't show up for lectures.
- Anatomy and Histology have 2 main professors for most of the lectures, Genetics has only 1 professor. Other classes have different professors for different blocks/lectures. Most of our professors also give the same lectures to the medical school classes. I found the 2nd Neuro block to be the worst in terms of structuring: we had 8 different professors for 9 lectures :O

***Exams: except for Ethics, all exams are in-class and MCQs only. All exams are taken on your laptop, but they do have paper exams ready should your laptop fails. Each exam weighs equally 33.33% of the class, final is just another exam, not cumulative (except Embryo). Each exam has 50 MCQs for 100 points, 80-90min long, usually covers 8-9 lectures, so roughly 5-6 questions per lecture. Whichever professor gives the lecture will write the questions for that lecture. Each lecture could be anywhere from 40 to 100+ slides and anything (literally anything) on the slides is a fair game on exam. Ethics is entirely online, one quiz every week (MCQs + fill in the blank) and discussion grades. Embryo has one midterm, cumulative final, and discussion grades.
- They keep saying that classes are not curved during orientation, but many classes are. The average has almost always been 86-88. When it is not, they will curve it to be. Once in a while you have a 90 un-curved average, but very rare. Grades are 100-92=A (no A+), 91-89=A-, 88-87=B+, 86-82=B, 81-79=B- and so forth. Very small margin for error because each exam question is worth 2% of the exam or 0.67% of your entire class grade.

***Exam difficulty: exams progressively get harder and lecture materials get more overload and more in depth as the program goes. You will have to adjust very quickly to graduate level studying. Most A-students I know adjusted within 2 weeks when they realized how much materials have built up. One thing that most A-students agrees upon: we study a lot. Of course there are always the genius few who don't seem to study much and still get straight As. But even they say they study a lot... on their own scale of "a lot" lol. So no mater how smart you are, be prepare to push your limit in this program if you want to do well.
- Speaking as an average (not gifted, just hard work) student who performed fairly well in this program (3.8 GPA): I think it's not hard to get a B, but it is hard to get an A, and it's very hard to get straight As. The reason is because each lecture usually carries 1 killer question (my group calls it the A-game question). These questions usually focus on a very small detail in the slides that you can easily skip out due to the overwhelming amount of materials you need to memorize. My group and I study our butts off 8hrs a day, 7days a week to stay in the A-game. Don't listen to those who say: "I only study a little and got a B. I'm sure if I spend a little more time, I can get an A next time". I call it a delusional thought of the B-students. I talk to a lot of my classmates. Those who got good GPA never said that. Those who said it, none of them got above 3.5 GPA.

***Books: don't buy any. Except for Embryo, all of the exam questions come straight out from the lecture and the slides. You only need to read the book if you want to reenforce or clarify what you learn in the slides. And all the books are available in pdf. Just wait until the class starts and someone will always have the pdf files. Embryo is the exception. Some questions on the midterm came straight from the book and not mentioned anywhere in the lecture or slides. The professor did warn us at the beginning of the class, so it is still a fair game.

***Professors & TAs: most professors are very concern with our success, very friendly, and would do their best to help you, whether it is with the lecture materials or LOR. Of course there are always some indifferent ones, but very very few. It's the same at any school, some will be the best lecturers you have ever had, some (luckily few) will just read off their slides and put you to sleep, and some will make you feel like you are listening to Einstein's theory of relativity or something (you will find out which ones ever soon, and just study/master his lecture slides BEFORE going to lecture, he will become one of the best professors ever).
- TAs are just previous year students who did well but have a year gap applying to med school. So it's a hit or miss. One of our TAs this year is no doubt the best ever. Others were ok. All of our TAs got accepted into med school already, so you won't see any of them. Your TAs will be students from my class. I don't know which ones. Most of the good ones I can think of have already been accepted to start med schools this Aug.

***Research & Extra: most professors are active researchers and many will be willing to take you under their wings. Finding a research position is not a problem. Handling the extra workload might be. Only around 15 students took the gross anatomy lab elective. Many of them were already accepted into med school. Only a handful engaged in research. One student spent too much time on research, he failed the same class twice and got dismissed from the program during my first semester. So I would recommend spending all your time studying for the first set of exams, then see if you can afford to cut back on studying for extracurricular activities. Don't start in the opposite direction.

***Counseling: they have a lot services that will help you with your application such as mock interview, personal statement workshop... Similar to undergrad, but better in my opinion. They have one dedicated counselor for this program, Dr. William, who served on the school's admission committee for 15+ years. Dr. William is available for one-on-one appointment to help you with anything you need, from personal statement to mock interview feedback, how to study for the program, what you need to improve in your application.... Make sure you utilize his expertise. He is one of the best pro's of this program.

***GPA: according to Dr. William, if you are shooting for MD, you want at least a 3.75 from this program. A 3.5-3.7 can land you into DO. Anything below 3.5 is considered bad performance for this type of programs. Of course this is just generalized information. There are always exceptions.

***My take on the program: it's not perfect, but it will definitely help boost your application. I got accepted into dental school by a school that previously rejected me. So this program did make a big difference in my application.
- Which program is the best? - IDK, I'm very happy with this program.
- Should I do a master program? - Every single one of my classmate will tell you: definitely.
- This is the biggest selling point: doing well in a program like this not only helps you get into med school but also helps you perform well in med school, which will translate into better step score, better residency placement, more competitive specialty...

Well, what do I know. I will just go drill teeth lol (don't ask me why dentistry over medicine, I just love drilling teeth). Feel free to PM me if you have more questions or I missed yours.

I noticed the anatomy track has some online course and some on-site courses, do you know how often/what days and time the on-site classes usually are?
Also, do you think the chance of acceptance is any different between the 100% online master's or the regular on-site ones?

Thank you for your detailed help!

 

[deleted765468]

I noticed the anatomy track has some online course and some on-site courses, do you know how often/what days and time the on-site classes usually are?
Also, do you think the chance of acceptance is any different between the 100% online master's or the regular on-site ones?

Thank you for your detailed help!

Online master degrees are not taken seriously by professional schools, at least that is what we have been told by med school rep coming here for recruitments. I'm don't know about the Anatomy track, but my friends who took the Anatomy lab elective met twice a week for lab.

 

[thatnutritiongirl]

Anyone else still waiting on a decision?

 

[BullGator1004]

Anyone else still waiting on a decision?

I am still waiting. Yesterday made seven weeks since my application was marked complete.

 

[johnny21]

I'm still waiting, been about seven weeks as well.

 

[Dr. Janitor]

MSP3 Alumni here, feel free to ask me any questions.

 

[drdeeppockets]

I've been blessed to be accepted into the pre-professional program! However, I will not be accepting my admission, and I hope this open seat will give one of you this great opportunity. Best of luck!

 

[BullGator1004]

I've been blessed to be accepted into the pre-professional program! However, I will not be accepting my admission, and I hope the seat open seat will give one of you this great opportunity. Best of luck!

When were you accepted and when was your application considered complete? If you don't mind my asking, why did you choose not to accept?

 

[thatnutritiongirl]

Kind of worried now that I haven't heard anything back yet. I just wish I could hear some kind of news so I can make plans moving forward. I called on Thursday and the person I spoke to told me if I haven't heard anything back, it's because they haven't made a decision on my application yet. If I am accepted or rejected, I'll receive an email.