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On 10/7/2020 at 1:52 PM, cputney said:

I received an invitation reminder (?) on 1 October; I'm scheduled to interview 5 November. I'm not sure why I received a reminder - I never received an initial interview invitation email.

Nonetheless, I'm beyond excited! The school is my top choice, even after being accepted elsewhere. Good luck to those still pending and interviewing; congratulations to those accepted. Hopefully, we'll share the same classroom next June!

Any advice for the interview are welcome and appreciated!

Be yourself. Be confident. Smile. Be interested and excited to be a candidate. They are looking for humans not scripted robot answers. Take a breath before you answer. You got this. 💪 

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18 hours ago, pagbv said:

Hi Everyone!

I’m a current student at Upstate and remember what it was like being in your shoes not too long ago. If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them!

Thank you. This is a great program and I am very happy for the interview. I’m not sure if you are a first or second year; however, I do have a few questions:

- Do the PA students have their own cadavers and do they dissect? If so, did they do this during the COVID summer/fall as well? 

- Are any rotations available in Syracuse? I understand and truly like the mission/focus of the program; however, I also understand that doing some rotations at a busy/academic teaching hospital such as Upstate can be beneficial. 
 

- Do most people move away to Saranac Lake, Cazenovia, etc for their respective clinical rotations in year 2?

 

- What’s a typical didactic schedule (ie 9-5 x5 days a week) and are lectures recorded? I’ve heard the gamut at places I interviewed (no technology in lecture and no recordings to everything uploaded immediately. 
 

- Do you have much interaction with the COM students? I am very interested in programs that are affiliated with academic medical centers/medical schools as opposed to “standalone” PA programs. 
 

Thank you!

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Alrighty awesome questions! I’ll start at the beginning.

As far as hearing back from interviews, I actually interviewed with this program twice. The first time I was put on “hold” about 2 weeks after my interview. Then a month from that I was put on an “alternate list” and a few months late I knew the program had already started so I re-applied. This cycle, I got my acceptance call 3 business days after my interview, but I know there are people in my class who didn’t receive calls and received emails or updates on their portal.

Due to COVID, I’m not entirely sure when the admissions committee meets. If it’s anything like previous years, they have 2 interview spots a month which 10 applicants attend. Since everything is online now, I’m not sure if that number has changed or not.

As for cadaver lab, this year was a little different due to COVID, but it was still an amazing and rewarding experience. There were about 5-6 students per cadaver, for a total of 6 cadavers, which is PLENTY. The dissection alone can take a lot of time, so it was nice to split up the work so that we all could take turns identifying structures. You’re also able to go and look at other students cadavers if there’s something you can’t find or if another group has a cool anomaly of some sort.

There are A LOT of students doing rotations in Syracuse currently! Syracuse is technically considered underserved due to the population and the amount of providers actually available. Obviously you get the benefits of a big hospital, but you may get stuck behind the medical students because they do get priority most of the time. You’re encouraged to do you rotations in more rural locations because it enhances your experience and sometimes you may be the only student there, so you get to do more hands-on work than you would in a bigger hospital.

There are students who have moved in the past, but as far as I know a lot of current 2nd year students have centralized themselves in Syracuse and travel where they need to go. That being said, a lot of them have their rotations in Syracuse so it made the most sense for them. Myself for example, I’m looking to complete my rotations outside of Syracuse, so I’ll likely move to a town closer to my rotation sites. Upstate tried to keep you in the same spot for your rotations to minimize you having to find somewhere new to live every rotations. 
 

Right now we are doing a hybrid model. You have the option of attending in-person lecture if you choose, but the lectures are also hosted live online. You can do either if you wish! Class is still mandatory and they keep track of who is there. Most professors record the lectures as they’re happening live, so if we have questions after class or while we’re studying for the exam, we can refer back to the original lecture for clarification if needed. There’s only 1 course that is mandatory to be in person, and since it requires us to work on each other, we all wear appropriate PPE. Our schedule right now is typically class 8-2ish everyday and our lab is twice a week. We have exams and quizzes every week, so we’re definitely kept busy. The summertime schedule was a little more lax, but that was because we spent most of our time focused on Anatomy. 
 

We don’t typically interact with Med students, honestly we don’t interact much with other students at all. The reason being because each program is different with COVID, med students have a lot of online learning and lectures and may not be on campus. Upstate isn’t hosting ant professional joint events for programs to get together, however they do host a lot of other events that you can attend (in person or virtually) to get to meet other students in different programs.
 

COVID has really impacted our experience as students, but has NOT impacted my learning. I don’t feel any less prepared due to online learning. If anything, the hybrid approach we have allows me to feel more prepared because we have so many resources!

 

Hope this helps!

Edited by pagbv
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59 minutes ago, pagbv said:

Alrighty awesome questions! I’ll start at the beginning.

As far as hearing back from interviews, I actually interviewed with this program twice. The first time I was put on “hold” about 2 weeks after my interview. Then a month from that I was put on an “alternate list” and a few months late I knew the program had already started so I re-applied. This cycle, I got my acceptance call 3 business days after my interview, but I know there are people in my class who didn’t receive calls and received emails or updates on their portal.

Due to COVID, I’m not entirely sure when the admissions committee meets. If it’s anything like previous years, they have 2 interview spots a month which 10 applicants attend. Since everything is online now, I’m not sure if that number has changed or not.

As for cadaver lab, this year was a little different due to COVID, but it was still an amazing and rewarding experience. There were about 5-6 students per cadaver, for a total of 6 cadavers, which is PLENTY. The dissection alone can take a lot of time, so it was nice to split up the work so that we all could take turns identifying structures. You’re also able to go and look at other students cadavers if there’s something you can’t find or if another group has a cool anomaly of some sort.

There are A LOT of students doing rotations in Syracuse currently! Syracuse is technically considered underserved due to the population and the amount of providers actually available. Obviously you get the benefits of a big hospital, but you may get stuck behind the medical students because they do get priority most of the time. You’re encouraged to do you rotations in more rural locations because it enhances your experience and sometimes you may be the only student there, so you get to do more hands-on work than you would in a bigger hospital.

There are students who have moved in the past, but as far as I know a lot of current 2nd year students have centralized themselves in Syracuse and travel where they need to go. That being said, a lot of them have their rotations in Syracuse so it made the most sense for them. Myself for example, I’m looking to complete my rotations outside of Syracuse, so I’ll likely move to a town closer to my rotation sites. Upstate tried to keep you in the same spot for your rotations to minimize you having to find somewhere new to live every rotations. 
 

Right now we are doing a hybrid model. You have the option of attending in-person lecture if you choose, but the lectures are also hosted live online. You can do either if you wish! Class is still mandatory and they keep track of who is there. Most professors record the lectures as they’re happening live, so if we have questions after class or while we’re studying for the exam, we can refer back to the original lecture for clarification if needed. There’s only 1 course that is mandatory to be in person, and since it requires us to work on each other, we all wear appropriate PPE. Our schedule right now is typically class 8-2ish everyday and our lab is twice a week. We have exams and quizzes every week, so we’re definitely kept busy. The summertime schedule was a little more lax, but that was because we spent most of our time focused on Anatomy. 
 

We don’t typically interact with Med students, honestly we don’t interact much with other students at all. The reason being because each program is different with COVID, med students have a lot of online learning and lectures and may not be on campus. Upstate isn’t hosting ant professional joint events for programs to get together, however they do host a lot of other events that you can attend (in person or virtually) to get to meet other students in different programs.
 

COVID has really impacted our experience as students, but has NOT impacted my learning. I don’t feel any less prepared due to online learning. If anything, the hybrid approach we have allows me to feel more prepared because we have so many resources!

 

Hope this helps!

Thank you very much; this info is great! Amazing to hear that you heard back so quickly the second time. I like your perseverance.

- I was curious if you had an idea of how the committee views the GRE? This was definitely not my strongest point; however, being invited for interview makes me think they do look at us holistically.

- For the rural/outside of Syracuse clinical sites, what are the typical locations? The website has some listed but it may not be up-to-date: Saranac Lake, Elmira, Utica, etc. Great to hear that folks can stay in Syracuse for at least some time during clinicals.

- Do have an idea of how many (of the 12 month) rotations are inpatient vs outpatient? I know some programs put a lot of their students in outpatient settings. However, I imagine Upstate EM is inpatient along with some others (IM, perhaps peds, etc).

Thank you very much. Good luck with the remainder of the semester.

 

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7 hours ago, TeddyRucpin said:

Thank you very much; this info is great! Amazing to hear that you heard back so quickly the second time. I like your perseverance.

- I was curious if you had an idea of how the committee views the GRE? This was definitely not my strongest point; however, being invited for interview makes me think they do look at us holistically.

- For the rural/outside of Syracuse clinical sites, what are the typical locations? The website has some listed but it may not be up-to-date: Saranac Lake, Elmira, Utica, etc. Great to hear that folks can stay in Syracuse for at least some time during clinicals.

- Do have an idea of how many (of the 12 month) rotations are inpatient vs outpatient? I know some programs put a lot of their students in outpatient settings. However, I imagine Upstate EM is inpatient along with some others (IM, perhaps peds, etc).

Thank you very much. Good luck with the remainder of the semester.

 

I absolutely bombed the GRE- embarrassingly bombed it 

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12 hours ago, TeddyRucpin said:

Thank you very much; this info is great! Amazing to hear that you heard back so quickly the second time. I like your perseverance.

- I was curious if you had an idea of how the committee views the GRE? This was definitely not my strongest point; however, being invited for interview makes me think they do look at us holistically.

- For the rural/outside of Syracuse clinical sites, what are the typical locations? The website has some listed but it may not be up-to-date: Saranac Lake, Elmira, Utica, etc. Great to hear that folks can stay in Syracuse for at least some time during clinicals.

- Do have an idea of how many (of the 12 month) rotations are inpatient vs outpatient? I know some programs put a lot of their students in outpatient settings. However, I imagine Upstate EM is inpatient along with some others (IM, perhaps peds, etc).

Thank you very much. Good luck with the remainder of the semester.

 

 

4 hours ago, Ababa said:

I absolutely bombed the GRE- embarrassingly bombed it 

I didn't do well on the GRE either - 298 and a 4 in writing

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12 hours ago, HopefullPA said:

 

I didn't do well on the GRE either - 298 and a 4 in writing

My perception is that as long as you are above or in the ball park of 50th percentile you are good. I took it when I was a sophomore and scored 50th. I was just accepted with that. I think they care more about classes/GPA and PCHs, but that is just a guess. 

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