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II today!
Is there a thread for finding housing that anyone knows of?
Hi so sorry for the late response ! I interviewed September 24 and was accepted November 15Does anyone know when OOS acceptances start to go out? I know they said they don’t do many pre-matches but I didn’t know if it was different for OOS students who aren’t in the match
Try Rentler.com or Realtor.com - they seem to be more helpful in seeking out rentals than the other sites you have tried, which focus more on selling. Most Texas landlords want a 60-day notice for ending a lease, so I think you could start searching seriously 60-90 days before you need to go. You will be pleasantly surprised at rents here compared to Seattle too!Ty for the heads up! I’ve been wondering how early I should start looking since I’m unsure of how quickly the housing market moves down there. Up here in Seattle its not even worth starting a housing search more than ~3 weeks out.
Been crawling through zillow, HAR, and craigslist and have not been super thrilled with the rental options within walking distance of campus. Anyone here have any experience commuting daily through San Antonio?
The specific interview links will be in the amp portal that you log into! Under the video interview tabFor those who are interviewing soon/have interviewed already, do yall know if there is going to be a separate zoom link that's going to be sent out for you to do your interview in? I haven't received one yet.
I ask because I had an interview and they sent out zoom links for each individual interviewer for you to join when your interview time came along. Is that how Long does it or is the process different?
I don't see that tab ://. Should it be up already? My interview is on the 28th of this month.The specific interview links will be in the amp portal that you log into! Under the video interview tab
I remember seeing it the day before my interview, so maybe check back tomorrowI don't see that tab ://. Should it be up already? My interview is on the 28th of this month.
I see! Okay will do. Thank you.I remember seeing it the day before my interview, so maybe check back tomorrow
Current ms1 here! I would like to just add on to what was already shared. Good luck to everyone applying this cycle. Remember: getting in is the hard part, it gets better from there!UTHSCSA- Long SOM. Looking for input from current students.
Got accepted this cycle and am hoping to get some insight into how y’all are fairing, and some up to date pros/cons since most of the posts are pretty old.
So far, all of my correspondences with current students have been informative but I want to open up space here for people to air out grievances that otherwise wouldn’t come up in an email from someone that volunteered to sell me on the school.
I am also specifically curious what y’all think of the f/p/hp/h scale at long. Is it annoying, why? Does it breed unnecessary competition?
Anyways I’d love to hear what has made or frustrated your time there as I make my decision in the coming months.
LOL they really do douse you in mentorship here.Current ms1 here! I would like to just add on to what was already shared. Good luck to everyone applying this cycle. Remember: getting in is the hard part, it gets better from there!
TL;DR - no competition, tons of mentorship, attendance policy stinks, non-NBME pre-clinical exams
Our grading scale does not generate competition here. In fact, I would say this school is as non-malignant as they come in that respect. I would say a big reason for that is that there is no bell curve or distribution limit to how many people can score each grade, so if everyone scores "H" everyone gets "H" on their transcripts. The whole class shares a google drive with outlines, Anki decks, and other resources we all find. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help each other. Also, you get a whole week off to study for every exam.
Pros:
Mentorship - Mentorship is built into our school. You would have to actively try to avoid mentorship and even then you wouldn't get far. 10/10
Clinical Skills - a longitudinal course that puts things in context throughout ms1-ms2. We have a whole ultrasound curriculum included that is super awesome. Patient contact in the first semester.
Cons:
Attendance - the policy is a little hard to understand from the outside looking in. Each module has a different specific requirement but it works out to an average of 4 days per week of recorded attendance. Basically, you have to attend a set number of lectures to pass the course & 3 days a week we have to be present for quizzes. This gets old very quickly.
Exams - non-NBME pre-clinical exams. Random lecture material is included in exams and quizzes
Today, or yesterday?another pre-match here! complete early november, interviewed early december
today, right around 2 pm centralToday, or yesterday?
I think NBME vs non-NBME exam was a much bigger deal when Step 1 wasn't P/F. Med school professors are the ones who write for the NBME anyway. 95% of the content on the tests was pretty relevant.Mandatory attendance and nonNBME preclinical exams seem like big negatives. I don't understand why they are forcing attendance when 99% of med. schools in the USA let students study from home b/c it suits their learning needs better. In comparison, UTMB Galveston has 100% NBME exams, and no mandatory attendance other than 6 hrs a week of PBL.
Nbme exams make it easier to prep for part 1I think NBME vs non-NBME exam was a much bigger deal when Step 1 wasn't P/F. Med school professors are the ones who write for the NBME anyway. 95% of the content on the tests was pretty relevant.
They have to justify having you there in person- some things, like anatomy lab or PBL are not really negotiable. Usually the in person lectures are either the more interactive ones, or they'll have a patient panel or something. Wasn't overwhelming.
Our mentors are all doctors that actively practice in our system and know what they are talking about - you will literally be paired with residency directors, specialists for preceptorships, and have easy access to approach anyone you find interesting. Unlike high school and college, these individuals have actually been through the medical education pathway and have real experience to share with you. That being said, there is absolutely no "punishment" associated with not engaging with these opportunities. Your mentors might reach out to check in with you once a semester just to make sure you're not falling behind but it is not like therapy or academic advisor meetings. Hope this helps!Mandatory attendance and nonNBME preclinical exams seem like big negatives. I don't understand why they are forcing attendance when 99% of med. schools in the USA let students study from home b/c it suits their learning needs better. In comparison, UTMB Galveston has 100% NBME exams, and no mandatory attendance other than 6 hrs a week of PBL.
What do you mean by, "You would have to actively try to avoid mentorship and even then you wouldn't get far"? If you don't want much mentorship, do they go out of their way to "punish" you? In my experience, I've been given bad advice by guidance counselors in high school through college so someone telling me what to do and why can be vexing when they don't give good advice. What is the mentoring like? Are they like therapy sessions where you talk about your career ambitions, and goals every week?
San Antonio is a huge city, wondering what they could find in New Braunfels that isn't in San Antonio?Wondering if any current students can chime in on this question. Is it feasible to live half way between San Antonio and Austin and attend UTHSCSA? My SO would have better work opportunities in Austin and we're looking at places in New Braunfels, San Marcos.
Sorry, I meant that they would have better work options in Austin's tech sector. But I agree, I think UTHSCSA is one of the schools with more mandatory attendance than others. I'll let them know so we can discuss it more, thank you!San Antonio is a huge city, wondering what they could find in New Braunfels that isn't in San Antonio?
I think that would be too far/a pain to commute
I'm the same way which is why I'm not ranking it as high as UTMB.Hi! Could any current students elaborate on the attendance policy? UTHSCSA is my top choice out of the acceptances I have right now. I do not learn well in all in person lectures and do much better on pre-recorded/recorded and uploaded lectures. This attendance policy is a large negative for me and could impact my decision on where to go. Thank you in advance !
What I heard at the Q and A session today is that the required in-person sections are for things like TBL, clinical skills, patient Q and A sessions, and Synthesis. Instructors can't require students to show up to regular lectures. IMO seems pretty fair.Hi! Could any current students elaborate on the attendance policy? UTHSCSA is my top choice out of the acceptances I have right now. I do not learn well in all in person lectures and do much better on pre-recorded/recorded and uploaded lectures. This attendance policy is a large negative for me and could impact my decision on where to go. Thank you in advance !
Lectures are also included in mandatory attendance. There is a certain number of lectures you have to attend per block. For example, in each block you have to attend 9/30 lectures to check that box.What I heard at the Q and A session today is that the required in-person sections are for things like TBL, clinical skills, patient Q and A sessions, and Synthesis. Instructors can't require students to show up to regular lectures. IMO seems pretty fair.
Hi! Could any current students elaborate on the attendance policy? UTHSCSA is my top choice out of the acceptances I have right now. I do not learn well in all in person lectures and do much better on pre-recorded/recorded and uploaded lectures. This attendance policy is a large negative for me and could impact my decision on where to go. Thank you in advance !
Hi! Current MS2 here. I'm the same as you; I generally prefer learning on my own. Overall, I would say that the attendance policy is annoying but not a dealbreaker (for me at least), especially since it's usually easy to just work on your own stuff or do flashcards while sitting in mandatory lectures. It's definitely harder some weeks than others. One week you might only have to go to two or three required activities, other weeks you'll be there pretty much all morning, every morning (and some afternoons, too, especially first semester with anatomy). Probably the roughest thing about it is mandatory activities are spread out across the week, s you have to come to campus most days. Even if it's just for an hour, which seems like a waste of commuting time. Not all the in-person activities are bad, though! I actually really enjoy Synthesis (the weekly TBL sessions) and patient presentations. Case conferences tend to be mandatory, and they are a bit hit or miss.
The reason I say it's not too burdensome though is that despite everything, there's still enough flexibility for me to spend most of my time at home with my wife and puppies. I rarely watch lectures and never go to class unless I have to, and I've still managed to honor everything using third-party resources, Anki, and a few quick passes of lecture PowerPoints and/or the class-written learning objectives document.
Happy to answer any other questions! I've really enjoyed my time at Long so far and think it's a great option for most people.
This is reinforcing my decision to not go lol. Mandatory attendance for lectures and commute 4-5x a week is a big turn off esp. if you're only going for some 1-hour mandatory attendance lecture. I have never gotten much from in-person lectures (clinical skills are different though) because I always studied better at home. Lectures & powerpoints from professors are 9/10x never as efficient or as good as national board exam resources - majority of med students' major complaint is that lecture is typically a waste of time and don't train you effectively for the boards or even in general - similar to how high school doesn't prep you for SAT or college for MCAT. Mandatory attendance is antiquated boomer logic and babysitting where the admins say they know better than the student on how to learn. Also, Anki & UFAP, etc are generally agreed upon to be far superior educational resources, and the common wisdom now in the first 2 years is that the traditional lecture is outdated and you're just paying to teach yourself especially during the first 2 years. The schools have to justify that the traditional lecture model is still relevant to get paid by the government but they cannot beat UFAP & Anking Anki flashcards (software-based spaced repetition) which is practically agreed upon by most MS1/2 students. Things changed after like 2018-2019 with the Anking Anki flashcard deck combined with UFAP which effectively made MS1 & MS2 lectures obsolete and outdated.My SO is an MS1 at long and her 2 biggest complaints are the number of required attendance (not a crazy amount but still significant enough to impact quality of life. Especially when you could use that time for studying or other things) and the non P/F curriculum.
Pre-Interview R this morning, good luck to everyone still in the running!
SamePre-Interview R this morning, good luck to everyone still in the running!
You’re more than free to feel like this and it’s completely valid, but man let me tell you…writing out that you’ll do anking and ufap and keep up with it every day, is a lot different than actually doing it day and day out and keeping that motivation for 2 years….more power to the people that do. And with a pass fail step, the motivation to do that is going to be incredibly hard to keep up.This is reinforcing my decision to not go lol. Mandatory attendance for lectures and commute 4-5x a week is a big turn off esp. if you're only going for some 1-hour mandatory attendance lecture. I have never gotten much from in-person lectures (clinical skills are different though) because I always studied better at home. Lectures & powerpoints from professors are 9/10x never as efficient or as good as national board exam resources - majority of med students' major complaint is that lecture is typically a waste of time and don't train you effectively for the boards or even in general - similar to how high school doesn't prep you for SAT or college for MCAT. Mandatory attendance is antiquated boomer logic and babysitting where the admins say they know better than the student on how to learn. Also, Anki & UFAP, etc are generally agreed upon to be far superior educational resources, and the common wisdom now in the first 2 years is that the traditional lecture is outdated and you're just paying to teach yourself especially during the first 2 years. The schools have to justify that the traditional lecture model is still relevant to get paid by the government but they cannot beat UFAP & Anking Anki flashcards (software-based spaced repetition) which is practically agreed upon by most MS1/2 students. Things changed after like 2018-2019 with the Anking Anki flashcard deck combined with UFAP which effectively made MS1 & MS2 lectures obsolete and outdated.
"If there is one thing you can do, it is watch every single video on the Anking Youtube channel, check out their website, and read everything in the wiki/sidebar on /r/medicalschoolanki. You don't need to learn any content on Anki over the summer, just learn HOW to use Anki. So many people in my class don't use Anki until M2 or M3 because they have the dumb excuse of "oh it is too hard to figure out. I need to spend my time studying. When in reality, taking the 5-10 hours to become an Anki expert will save you dozens if not hundreds of hours preclinically.
If upperclassmen say "Anki doesn't work for me" or "don't worry about Anki first year", do not take any advice from them in regards to the preclinical curriculum. Anki works for everyone, some people just hate it more. The crowd sourced decks are incredible and integrate every major (and minor) 3rd party resource. By starting a deck the first week of M1, you will be able to get through a high yield version of everything on Step 1 by doing 30 new cards a day and a max of 300-400 reviews. 300-400 reviews is NOTHING and you will end up easily passing Step 1 with the strong foundation. More importantly, by reviewing old topic throughout M1 and M2, you will have a much better foundation of basic physiology, pathology, and pharmacology for the wards than your classmates who cram for Step 1 for 4-8 weeks after completely forgetting M1 organ blocks for over a year."
Without an NBME focused curriculum, you also end up cramming a lot of info that isn't relevant (i.e. research interests of professors) or random topics that aren't relevant to the core education. Upside with Long SOM is that they apparently give a ton of time to study for Part 1 at the end of Year 2, but I think med. schools that have you directly study for Part 1 through Y1 and Y2 with less time at end of year 2 to relearn are easier esp. with a pass/fail Step 1 now. A person I know at another med. school, where attendance is required everyday (Touro), says that it cuts into their study and sleep time significantly. Those 4-6 hours in the morning of mandatory attendance I could be sleeping, or studying at 2x speed and being more engaged/alert/focused when I want to study. From interview day, I remembered that UTHSC rationalizes that a graded first 2 years or mandatory attendance are somehow positives when its apparent significant number or a majority of students don't like it - the admins are a little out of touch and have their heads in the sand in justifying it for not so compelling reasons. On interview day, the Dean's justification for a graded curriculum for 1st 2 years was because "You'll feel good knowing that if you worked and studied hard, that you earned the grade you earned/deserve" (not verbatim) and it's not "fair" if you studied harder and got the same grade as everyone else. IMO that's boomer logic that is out of touch with modern standards considering residency programs literally don't care for year 1/2 performance, that NBME intentionally made Step 1 pass/fail to reduce stress levels, and a graded Y1/Y2 adds more unnecessary stress because you feel the need to get honors to not look average. Also, the way the school portrays itself it tries a little too hard to sell itself (but means well) so it feels a little cultish, and a little forced with how "everyone is best friends with each other." I *think* the real-world experience is different but I got this vibe more here than anywhere else. At most of the med. schools I've interviewed at the staff & med students were very friendly - the only place I really got cutthroat vibes was at UTSW honestly, so for me, it's not so important b/c I'm mainly here to learn, do well, live comfortably, make some close friends, and not so much sing kumbaya and hold hands on Thursday night in the student lounge with random people & everyone – different strokes for different folks I suppose.
I do like that Long is a positive supportive environment and a good match list, but not enough to justify the mandatory attendance, nonStep 1 based curriculum, graded classes in Y1/Y2, etc. which are major issues IMO. Also, San Antonio is an OK city but it's not on the same level as Dallas, Austin, & Houston IMO (and rent prices show that too). The upside is it's cheaper in rent but not by much compared to Dallas or Houston anyways. The match list is comparable to McGovern, UTMB, Dell, etc. so that's good, but they don't publish their match list which is odd, although I've seen previous lists on SDN and it's comparable to mid-tier Texas schools but not Baylor/UTSW tier. I think if you go to any of the mid-tier Texas schools it'll get you where you want to go in matching although Baylor/UTSW are on a whole different level for matching. Overall, it's a good school that will get you where you want to go in life and if mandatory attendance, nonP/F curriculum, and non-NBME based curriculum don't bother you that much then it's a totally respectable option to pick.
You’re more than free to feel like this and it’s completely valid, but man let me tell you…writing out that you’ll do anking and ufap and keep up with it every day, is a lot different than actually doing it day and day out and keeping that motivation for 2 years….more power to the people that do. And with a pass fail step, the motivation to do that is going to be incredibly hard to keep up.
To be honest after doing an entire year of med school over zoom, i honestly probably would’ve preferred 8-12 mandatory in person every day.
To be honest after doing an entire year of med school over zoom, i honestly probably would’ve preferred 8-12 mandatory in person every day.
I would like this info tooAnyone interested/already know of a groupme for people accepted to Long this cycle? PM me !
Yep!Did anyone else get an email from their interviewers recently asking if they had any follow up questions before Match?
yikes I have notDid anyone else get an email from their interviewers recently asking if they had any follow up questions before Match?
I wouldn't read into it at all! My bet is that it was just a friendly gesture made by a select few interviewers.yikes I have not
Yeah that's true!I wouldn't read into it at all! My bet is that it was just a friendly gesture made by a select few interviewers.