UTMB 2018-2019 Admissions Cycle

[averagegal]

On 9/4/2018 at 3:23 PM, texas27 said:

Congrats!! Did you just receive the email or did you get it a few hours ago? Im just trying to figure out if they sent them in a big batch or in increments lol 

I received it at 12:51 PM on tuesday!

[reticentt]

On 9/6/2018 at 1:48 PM, charmalarm said:

Also wondering

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about not receiving an interview invite yet. It's only the first of many interview days that UTMB will have. Take it easy y'all!

[reticentt]

On 9/4/2018 at 8:32 AM, egrace said:

 

I also want to thank you for offering to answer questions and as @ekatiel mentioned, it does seem like the courses are spread out more than some other schools courses which are basically 8-5 M-F! But aside from that, I'm curious as to why you chose this program over others?  Or what you like about this program vs. others you applied to or have heard about? 

I may be in the dissenting minority among my classmates, but I chose this program primarily due to cost and proximity. It wasn't my favorite program that I interviewed at, but when you weigh out pros and cons, leaving school with muuuuuuch less debt is a huge benefit. Like I said before, PANCE rates matter too and both programs had great first-time pass rates.

That said, I've been pleasantly surprised with the number of opportunities that exist at UTMB. Perhaps the most important is St. Vincent's (http://www.stvsc.org/). It's a student-run free clinic that happens every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and you can start volunteering on Day 1 of PA school. You're typically paired up with someone who is more experienced, but eventually you're able to see patients on your own. Since we focus on history and physical exams over the summer, you're normally on par with most first/second year medical students on that front.

UTMB is one of few programs that do dissection instead of prosection. It may seem really cool on paper, but honestly, it consumes quite a bit of our time. We're in anatomy lab 4 hours a week and we spend most of it dissecting. We have to spend time outside of lab just to learn what is it we dissected.

At the end of the day, PA school is what you make of it. If you do get accepted and are choosing between multiple programs, I would highly recommend reaching out to current students and asking them about what they like vs. dislike about the program. TAPA is a great resource and there are TAPA representatives for each school. Their contact information is on the TAPA website under TAPA Leadership.

[aspiring__PA]

44 minutes ago, reticentt said:

I may be in the dissenting minority among my classmates, but I chose this program primarily due to cost and proximity. It wasn't my favorite program that I interviewed at, but when you weigh out pros and cons, leaving school with muuuuuuch less debt is a huge benefit. Like I said before, PANCE rates matter too and both programs had great first-time pass rates.

That said, I've been pleasantly surprised with the number of opportunities that exist at UTMB. Perhaps the most important is St. Vincent's (http://www.stvsc.org/). It's a student-run free clinic that happens every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and you can start volunteering on Day 1 of PA school. You're typically paired up with someone who is more experienced, but eventually you're able to see patients on your own. Since we focus on history and physical exams over the summer, you're normally on par with most first/second year medical students on that front.

UTMB is one of few programs that do dissection instead of prosection. It may seem really cool on paper, but honestly, it consumes quite a bit of our time. We're in anatomy lab 4 hours a week and we spend most of it dissecting. We have to spend time outside of lab just to learn what is it we dissected.

At the end of the day, PA school is what you make of it. If you do get accepted and are choosing between multiple programs, I would highly recommend reaching out to current students and asking them about what they like vs. dislike about the program. TAPA is a great resource and there are TAPA representatives for each school. Their contact information is on the TAPA website under TAPA Leadership.

When they asked you why you wanted to go there, were you up front by telling them it was because of cost, proximity, and the free clinic?

Edited September 8, 2018 by aspiring__PA

[reticentt]

56 minutes ago, aspiring__PA said:

When they asked you why you wanted to go there, were you up front by telling them it was because of cost, proximity, and the free clinic?

Those were my reasons for choosing the school, ultimately; not necessarily what I said during the interviews. Those reasons certainly help, but you need to state what sets the school apart from everyone else from your perspective. I usually look up mission/vision/values of the school and a few other unique factors.

[EnterobacterJim]

To follow up from above, I’ve heard a lot of my classmates being kind of over the whole dissection thing and would prefer prosection. One nice thing about utmb is it’s not 100% just your group doing the whole body. One lab day your group dissects, the other day is another group, and then everyone comes together on Friday to compare and teach. So in a way, you kind of get both dissection and prosection. But it’s certainly not for everyone’s learning style and can be time consuming!

 

And I’m also going to heavy second my classmate above and say that at the end of the day you’re gonna want a program that didn’t cost a fortune to attend. From what I’ve heard from students from other schools, it all end up being semi-self-directed learning anyway and all programs have a more or less standardized curriculum. Focus on programs that have expansive networking opportunities in clinicals (if you want a certain city it sure does help to be in a local program, otherwise they like to have sites that aren’t in other people’s “turf” as it were), good volunteer experiences like St. Vincent’s, and a short/inexpensive program. 

[PAdreamer16]

On 9/4/2018 at 8:32 AM, egrace said:

 

I also want to thank you for offering to answer questions and as @ekatiel mentioned, it does seem like the courses are spread out more than some other schools courses which are basically 8-5 M-F! But aside from that, I'm curious as to why you chose this program over others?  Or what you like about this program vs. others you applied to or have heard about? 

For me it was my top choice which is also what I've heard from most of my other classmates, even with their accreditation status. Cost was one of many reasons along with location, previous students, their history, and my interview experience. Regarding the whole dissection vs. prosection topic, I thought I would want prosection when I was interviewing but actually getting in there and doing the dissection not only cool but I also think is really helpful when learning to get your hands in there. You have to study the area of dissection beforehand to maximize that benefit. 

There are also lots of clubs, volunteer and leadership opportunities that you can get involved in. Also being about to interact with the other students from other schools, like we take anatomy with PT right now, is really allowing us to foster those interprofessional relationships. 

[charmalarm]

17 hours ago, reticentt said:

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about not receiving an interview invite yet. It's only the first of many interview days that UTMB will have. Take it easy y'all!

Thanks, that makes me feel better. It’s so hard (I’m sure im not the only one feeling this way) , pouring all your energy, time, MONEY, hopes, and just ..........waiting 

[egrace]

Thank you @reticentt @PAdreamer16 @EnterobacterJim for your insight. For me this is a career change and so cost is a huge factor due to previous student loans from undergard and a masters degree. I am origianlly from the dallas area so would love to end up there so having  a network there through school and clinicals would be great, but the price and program length of UTMB is definitely worth considering for someone in my shoes. I'm not sure if you were all first years, but do you know where people tend to do rotations? And do you think that due to this program being 26 months, vs. the avg of 30 months, you will get or are getting the same education out of it?

Thank yall again for the input!!

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

A couple of observations from one who was there 35 years ago:

1)  It may be fun to dissect but we constantly heard the medical students talk about how they mangled something that they wish that they hadn't.  Ours were prosected (two cadavers for a class of 24 at that time).  It is probably no longer an option due to a larger number of class students, thus the only way to learn anatomy is to have the students prosect themselves (like the medical students).

2)  One may not realize it as of yet but trust me (and those who have gone before, including our class president and former TAPA president), you WANT the medical school affiliation for rotations.  You won't see the same things off-site that you will see on campus in most instances (burns, plastics, IM, peds, EM at what is now a level 1 center).  We had three off-site locations and I only took advantage of one because I knew even then that the campus was the place to see and learn.  When you see med students and residents screw up you learn from that as well.  You don't necessarily see that off-site.

3) I also was and am from the Dallas area.  It wasn't a problem for me to travel home a couple of times a year at the time since I was single.  We did have a couple of "older" (mid/late 30's) folks who commuted from Friendswood on a daily basis due to their families.  They were worn down by it.  One older/one 20's students would go back to the SA area on about an every other weekend basis.  They seemed to do ok with it.

While Dallas may have been more convenient and cost-saving, additional "growing up" took place away from home and it allowed for better bonding with my classmates, who I still miss to this day.  Sorry UTHSCD/UTSW, you guys were way too stuffy for my tastes at the time and UTMB was more relaxed.

Edited September 11, 2018 by GetMeOuttaThisMess

[EnterobacterJim]

@egrace I know they send people all over the state. There's an abundance of rotation options. Even if there's another school in the area, there will probably be some options. I know a lot of people want to choose Houston or Austin which is pretty easy for us. If you want the DFW area it's also possible, but you many not get the specialties you request.

As for length, all programs have to follow the ARC-PA standards in terms of objectives and standard curriculum. What this ends up looking like is that places like UNT (36 mo) get super bored and tired of school by year three since they have time to take things slowly which drags out the program... but I do hear they're reducing their length. It's hard to say how we should feel since we're only a couple semesters in, but we do cover most but not all of our objectives per lecture, leaving a few to be done individually. I would speculate that the longer programs get to cover more in class. But again, any differences will be very small since all the material has to be covered regardless and generally the higher-yield stuff is discussed.

[Nadia1023]

I got my interview invitation today! I'll be there October 1st, bright and early. If anyone has any tips, I would greatly appreciate them!! 

[pahopeful46]

38 minutes ago, Nadia1023 said:

I got my interview invitation today! I'll be there October 1st, bright and early. If anyone has any tips, I would greatly appreciate them!! 

Congrats thats awesome!! If you dont mind me asking what are your stats and when did you receive your under review email?

[medelaro]

Accepted an interview October 1st! Pleasantly surprised!

[Guest physasst3]

3 minutes ago, medelaro said:

Accepted an interview October 1st! Pleasantly surprised!

When did you submit and get your under review email?

[Nadia1023]

14 hours ago, texas27 said:

Congrats thats awesome!! If you dont mind me asking what are your stats and when did you receive your under review email?

I received my review email on 8/8. 

My gpa was a 3.17 and I had over 5000 hours of scribing.

[Guest physasst3]

4 hours ago, Nadia1023 said:

I received my review email on 8/8. 

My gpa was a 3.17 and I had over 5000 hours of scribing.

Congrats!!!! When did you submit your application?

[Nadia1023]

13 minutes ago, physasst3 said:

Congrats!!!! When did you submit your application?

Thank you! I submitted on 6/29.

[medelaro]

On 9/14/2018 at 9:00 AM, physasst3 said:

When did you submit and get your under review email?

Submitted 7/29,  under review 8/8.

[AnngiePA]

On 9/15/2018 at 8:45 PM, medelaro said:

Submitted 7/29,  under review 8/8.

Do you mind sharing your stats?

[ccorkill]

Hi everyone! Congrats to everyone who's received interview invites! How did interviews go today?

[Guest physasst3]

To the people that interviewed this week, do you have any tips? Also, is it a traditional format or MMI?

[charmalarm]

Just got an invite! 

[ekatiel]

7 minutes ago, charmalarm said:

Just got an invite! 

Congrats! What date did you receive your application under review email?

[charmalarm]

14 minutes ago, ekatiel said:

Congrats! What date did you receive your application under review email?

8/21 :)