UW 2022-2023 Application cycle

[NepaliPrePa]

On 4/13/2023 at 10:31 AM, Paschool206 said:

Does anyone know the official start date? I know it’s June, but curious about if it’s early or late June. Probably depends on each campus

The orientation week in Seattle starts from June 20-23. Summer quarter starts after that week from June 26 on their respective campuses.

[Jordan4797]

Anyone else hear back about waitlist movement?

[Clinicalyearstudent]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:45 AM, SRB4PA said:

I'm going to try and look at this through an empathetic lens and ASSUME this person wants to be helpful for prospective and future students instead of being passive aggressive or spiteful. As an office fan I don't appreciate the misuse of Jim's prank from season 3 episode 7-Dwight would never talk poorly about Dunder Mufflin in this way. 

Rather than making a vague post about things "not being what they seem", I would appreciate an objective post describing what they are referencing and sharing their experience. This post is frankly viewed by my eyes like a bad yelp review-an angry customer that didn't get what they wanted and they are looking for a space to complain. 

Every program is going to have its negative and positive aspects, and not every school will fit everyone's needs. Medex continues to be a top ranking school year after year, so I take this post with a very large grain of salt. 

I appreciate the positive outlook you guys have but I also want to be upfront and say that the person who posted that is 100% correct. I'm a current student and I can't count the number of times I've wished I'd gone somewhere else. Medex doesn't seem to care much about meeting anyone's needs, truly. We've lost so many professors and other faculty, most of us have lost our academic advisors during didactic year and then our clinical coordinators during rotations. And the education provided through it all is so, so subpar. You're really on your own in this program and frankly, it's amazing to me that they continue to accept new students given that their accreditation has been in question (mainly due to the loss of faculty at all campuses). Medex will not be transparent about any of this. Communication is terrible and we're largely left in the dark. 

For those of you who have already accepted, I think the best thing you can do is to prepare yourself to supplement your own education outside of the program. If Medex keeps its accreditation you'll graduate in two years and be a PA anyway, which is what really matters. I get it y'all, this was my dream school too. It sucks. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I do want to warn prospective applicants about this as much as possible.

Last thing- if the current didactic class did sign NDAs at orientation that's alarming. I don't personally have verification of this but if it's true that's concerning as hell. 

[Ferret]

18 minutes ago, Clinicalyearstudent said:

I appreciate the positive outlook you guys have but I also want to be upfront and say that the person who posted that is 100% correct. I'm a current student and I can't count the number of times I've wished I'd gone somewhere else. Medex doesn't seem to care much about meeting anyone's needs, truly. We've lost so many professors and other faculty, most of us have lost our academic advisors during didactic year and then our clinical coordinators during rotations. And the education provided through it all is so, so subpar. You're really on your own in this program and frankly, it's amazing to me that they continue to accept new students given that their accreditation has been in question (mainly due to the loss of faculty at all campuses). Medex will not be transparent about any of this. Communication is terrible and we're largely left in the dark. 

For those of you who have already accepted, I think the best thing you can do is to prepare yourself to supplement your own education outside of the program. If Medex keeps its accreditation you'll graduate in two years and be a PA anyway, which is what really matters. I get it y'all, this was my dream school too. It sucks. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I do want to warn prospective applicants about this as much as possible.

Last thing- if the current didactic class did sign NDAs at orientation that's alarming. I don't personally have verification of this but if it's true that's concerning as hell. 

Thanks for elaborating on the areas that are concerning, and thanks for the heads up about preparing to study outside of class material. Unfortunately the whistleblower chimed in really late in the cycle when most of us were already well past the point of no return. I also tried to reach out to the original poster to get more info and got radio silence. Personally, I thought that the NDA comment sounded more like they had signed something related to HIPAA rather than an NDA, but we'll see. Can update with what happens at orientation this year. 

Can you speak more on concerns about accreditation status? MEDEX has continuing accreditation and isn't up for review again until 2029. I read the full accreditation report history and it didn't look like there have been documented problems in the last few years other than some stuff with getting the Kona campus established. Has a formal complaint been sent in to ARC-PA? I've seen elsewhere on the internet that faculty retention is the biggest complaint with MEDEX right now, and in the same forum others were saying that that's happening to lots of well-established programs right now as a side effect of everything that happened with COVID. I can see that Seattle campus in particular has a lot of job listings up... Do you know if this is affecting the other campuses? The students I've met from Tacoma so far haven't had anything bad to say about the program at least.

I'm sure there's plenty of cognitive dissonance on my part, but I just have a hard time believing that a program that's never once been put on probation and has had a good rep with preceptors up until recently is somehow a worse choice than the smaller, newer, private schools I turned down acceptances at.

Appreciate the info whether you respond or not!

[spicypa]

1 hour ago, Ferret said:

Thanks for elaborating on the areas that are concerning, and thanks for the heads up about preparing to study outside of class material. Unfortunately the whistleblower chimed in really late in the cycle when most of us were already well past the point of no return. I also tried to reach out to the original poster to get more info and got radio silence. Personally, I thought that the NDA comment sounded more like they had signed something related to HIPAA rather than an NDA, but we'll see. Can update with what happens at orientation this year. 

Can you speak more on concerns about accreditation status? MEDEX has continuing accreditation and isn't up for review again until 2029. I read the full accreditation report history and it didn't look like there have been documented problems in the last few years other than some stuff with getting the Kona campus established. Has a formal complaint been sent in to ARC-PA? I've seen elsewhere on the internet that faculty retention is the biggest complaint with MEDEX right now, and in the same forum others were saying that that's happening to lots of well-established programs right now as a side effect of everything that happened with COVID. I can see that Seattle campus in particular has a lot of job listings up... Do you know if this is affecting the other campuses? The students I've met from Tacoma so far haven't had anything bad to say about the program at least.

I'm sure there's plenty of cognitive dissonance on my part, but I just have a hard time believing that a program that's never once been put on probation and has had a good rep with preceptors up until recently is somehow a worse choice than the smaller, newer, private schools I turned down acceptances at.

Appreciate the info whether you respond or not!

I can speak to some of this a little bit:

First off, "clinicalyearstudent" is spot on. Plain and simple.  

Re: NDA. The current clinical year class did not sign an NDA in their orientation/acceptance packet. I did a DEEP dive into NDA law in WA state (looked at the RCWs and everything) and most higher education NDAs are with regards to protecting research ideas. The legality of something else is VERY questionable and whether Medex could enforce it is a whole other question. If other classes had to sign an NDA they should tell ARC-PA.

 

Re: Accreditation. Yes they are technically good through 2029 or whatever. HOWEVER, ARC-PA made a "surprise visit" this past year because they were not meeting standards and one of these is the staffing issues and Medex's ability to adequately provide enough clinical rotations. There's more but those are the biggest ones. Medex does not have a great reputation with a lot of preceptors. This past year several long time sites completely fell through including the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Samaritan Health Center in OR. Both these were places that LOTS of students would get placed. These are not the only ones. There have been a shortage of ER rotations are people are getting placed in Urgent Cares instead which is no good. I think Medex has been riding it's laurels for too long and it's catching up to them. Yes Medex is the OG PA program, but that doesn't mean they (as a program) are invincible.

Ok to be less pessimistic: these are all things that can be remedied and fixed potentially. You WILL need to advocate for yourself and be proactive in looking around for potential placements AND/OR you will need to be flexible if you want a quality placement. You might get sent to Kansas (yes that has happened) but at least you'll get a quality clinical experience. 

Campuses: Tacoma and Spokane are the most stable right now. That is a personal opinion but things could change. 

At the end of the day, a PA education is a PA education. Advocate for yourselves and really be proactive in your learning during didactic year and clinical year. It's not great but it is what it is. Lean on external resources for learning; there's some amazing platforms out there to help with learning PA school stuff! If you're going to Seattle campus, the new health science building is cool at least lol. 

[KatieElizabeth]

Just wanted to offer a nugget of encouragement— sometimes it takes six months or longer but you FINALLY get accepted off the waitlist… with a week’s notice before classes start! Beyond thankful and excited for this. So keep the faith, everybody— it all works out how it’s supposed to!

[LionOfJuda]

Is the waitlist officially dead now? Has class started ?  Can someone please answer this question for me, it seems like they have officially decided their class but hasn’t sent any updates with the waitlist. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by LionOfJuda

[NDJR7]

8 hours ago, LionOfJuda said:

Is the waitlist officially dead now? Has class started ?  Can someone please answer this question for me, it seems like they have officially decided their class but hasn’t sent any updates with the waitlist. 

Yes, classes begun 6/20/23. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.  I hope the best for you!