Good recap of your NW visit!
Did you have a chance to find out if the quoted acceptance rate was with or without any filtering or tweaking of numbers as pointed out earlier by someone in the context of Emory not doing it i.e. regarding issuing of “committee letters” only to students above certain gpa and/or MCAT ranges (so the school will look better in portraying themselves both to med schools and to future undergrads and parents about their med school acceptance rates)
@rk2017 to my knowledge NU doesn’t issue committee letters, rather they do have letter of recommendation. tbh, I am not sure what you are referring to about recommendation criteria, can you feed me more about it and I can followup about specifics and how it affects med school admission.
Even I don’t know the specifics, you may want to search recent posts for “Emory”. I think @tennisninja mentioned something about the process and mentioned Emory doesn’t do any filtration.
You may want to find out if any other criteria even for issuing the recommendation letters …
I just have to say that my kids’ pediatrician takes the time to chit chat with them and even asks them about their favorite books, subjects, what they did recently etc.
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Yes some good doctors really take time out to get to know their patients, irrespective of age, to treat them holistically.
For them it is just not lip service when they consider healing ailments is psycho somatic in nature. And thank you @upstream you seem to belong to that category.
And yes, we do have a lot of business men also in medicine who want to maximize their money making by seeing as many patients in as little time as possible.
In defense of doctors. 
I don’t practice outpatient care, but have friends and colleagues who do. The truth is that vast majority of doctors are not in solo practice or in private practice owned by themselves, but instead are employed by various health systems and hospitals. In most such practices, the doctors are Required to see a certain number of patients an hour. It is not their choice. So many doctors who are so popular also get double booked for some appointment slots. As a consequence, they’ll need to rush through appointments to finish seeing everyone scheduled for the day. Then majority of them have to stay back to finish paperwork in the evenings or do it on Saturdays. With EHRs they also have to do a significant amount of documentation while in the room with patient which takes away from the doctor-patient interaction. So the problem is far more complex than doctors not spending not enough time with patients through choice. Most of the time they have no choice. Doctors who are employees are unlikely to make more money by seeing more patients. Though some may get bonuses. Again, the scenario is complex, because it could be their employer who benefits financially by seeing more patients and these days the insurance may not even pay for some visits anyway.
Thanks @TTV2018 for explaining some of the ground realities.
From my experience as practicing clinician in a outpatient practice affiliated with University hospital, I have to agree with @TTV2018. We are allotted set time for each patients. So, when a patient with lot of health problem comes in, it is hard to make time to discuss everything. With Pediatric well visits, we do get time to discuss social issues, studies etc, since most of the kids don’t have lot of health problems. Plus, it is very important aspect of well visit/preventive care.
@PPofEngrDr
Good post on NW WildCat day.
Question- Did they discuss any aspects related to HPME?
Just wanted to also add couple of points regarding your concerns, I think your DS with a high school valedictorian status and all the accomplishments you listed should do just fine at NW. Even if the med school acceptance percentages are somewhat tweaked (which I don’t know for sure), and the competition from the distinguished student body there, I think he has decent chances of finishing at least in the top half of the incoming class or even better and fair chance of making to med school if he still chooses to. And who knows even his plans may change once he joins NW and he may wish to pursue something else …
I can relate to your position myself around this time last year when we made up mind to send D to BU which is a known grade deflated school. In fact that was the only question I asked one of the BU folks at the admitted students reception event, and as with your experience, I could see his facial discomfort but then he commented a student who is smart enough to get to SMED shouldn’t have issues with grades. Well, it was an over statement, since grading is tough at BU and relative. One of the classes she had/s is only for the SMED folks, about 25 of them and I was worried how she will fare (but never expressed in front of her), since high school gpa wise D was perhaps on the low end of the group having come from a tough school district. But guess what, her high school rigors made her stand out in both the science courses and we gained confidence in a couple of months of her starting the Fall semester. She continues to excel academically despite of a relatively not so remarkable high school track record compared to her peers of the SMED group, some of them valedictorians, graduates of famed schools like TJ at the top of their batches and even been named on research publications.
Don’t believe that 3.7 from NU will viewed more favorably than less known schools. Those are the old days. With thousands of application schools have no time to do those comparisons. JHU 3.6 BME GPA and 99 percentile MCAT wasn’t sufficient to get interviews from big programs despite having great ECs during this cycle. same story with 3.7 GPA and 99+MCAT from Vanderbilt.
@NoviceDad not really, it was more generic and focus on individuals journey for Northwestern starting from hosting senior students (one of them was a daughter of NU high ranked employee). After initial 30-45 minutes of common NU message, groups were broke among admission schools. My son admitted being in Weinberg science college, speakers were accordingly. Charles Whitaker who is an alumni and an associate dean of journalism school, Bill Haarlow the college admission director, to President Schapiro, Advisor office vice president and alumni network office that engages UG to alumni network and that is a vary valuable resource especially for kids who doesn’t have that network from parents. Finally student panel of 5-6 students from wide spectrum, race/gender/ethnicity/nationality/pre-med.
So morning session was a presentation and inspiring stories (understandably no Q&A opportunity being in large auditorium). During lunch hour break around noon, we happen to meet another admitted student in HPME out of TX, other students, faculties. That is when we met the NUPSP student, he was also in panel, and learnt about his NUPSP journey that I posted in earlier thread.
In afternoon you pick your battle of your interest for tour, different schools, visit to academia departments. We ended up with pre-med advisor class for better understanding and housing tour, as NU is going through major renovation/rebuild effort. Residential college hall is a concept where multiple faculties are involved in that hall (none are residing) vs Residential community hall where you have only one faculty residing in hall. Weather was not cooperative unfortunately on Monday, kind a cold and morning snow (not accumulation but annoying enough to disrupt outdoor activities), prompted us to start late for day as morning was tour and really that was not possible, and rest of day on/off, being local we are used to that weather.
Based on amount of time we were able to spent on that day, believe we can do more in upcoming days to target certain activities those can be done any given day, especially visiting research office and some of academia departments that my son is interested in.
At this point, we are in phase of getting/learning every detail we can to solidify his choice/decision.
@TTV2018 @path2md Very nice narrative of today’s doctors daily life. They work so hard and NOT paid enough for the work they do. Those who want to enter into the field need dedication and desire to work hard over their lifetime. It may NOT be that lucrative life one fancies.
@grtd2010, Doctors work hard, that is true. I am sure all professionals work hard. But I can speak for myself, and many other doctors who I know. I would never ever trade my profession for anything. Even now, doctors do get paid enough for all the hard work we do. But at the end of the days, it is not the money which brings satisfaction. I enjoy talking to my patients, taking care of their problems. There is a special bond between patient and a doctor no one will understand, if you are not in healthcare field. The gratitude patients show us for going extra length to help solve their health problem/psychological issues and the satisfaction we get by knowing we can make difference in their life is what makes this profession special and worth every penny. Yes, we do have luxury vehicles and all the comfort in life. If someone is going to Medical profession thinking it is lucrative, they are dead wrong, and they will not make a good doctor!! I never think how much money a patient will bring in, I care for them, they become part of me. that is what medical profession is about!
@path2md I have first-hand experience of a doctor’s life every day. They have to do so much additional admin work aside from taking care of patients.
@BSMD001
I am not an expert on this topic, but I will tell you my personal opinion/what I have heard. I do think the MBA will give an advantage for residency. Senior year at Union, the seniors begin a “Senior Capstone Project”, in which they begin to do research on a healthcare management project using what they learned with their MBA or MS. They continue to work on this project during their time at Albany Med. This project, along with the added MS or MBA degree, is something unique that the students from LIM will have that other students do not have. This gives them something interesting to talk about at their residency interviews. Also, many physicians are increasingly going back to school to get this business experience to learn how to run private practices, so the degree is very relevant. However, step scores and gpa take priority over the MBA in terms of residency placement.
Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about the Penn/Jeff program, I’m just here to offer help about Union LIM.
Just to give example, @grtd2010, a patient who is disabled, living on food stamps, brings me a hand made blanket as appreciation of the care I provide, another patient brings a beautiful chinaware tea set from her collection because she thinks I am a great doctor. This is not to brag. I am trying to stress the fact that these little things are what makes Medical profession worth.
@srk2017 NU advisor didn’t quote that 3.7 number, however the message was clearly on the path that med schools understands rigorous GPA of so called grade deflated schools.
Just humor note @srk2017 and @rk2017, I have seen both of you in pair responses on different threads and being your IDs so similar that sometimes my tired brain conceives conspiracy.
@rk2017 sometimes I felt you are using telepathy, read my mind and may be email communication to schools. ^:)^
@grtd2010, I don’t do much admin work, may be that is why I have easy life:)
@PPofEngrDr
:))
When I registered on CC last year, hadn’t realized some one else having so close a name.
@PPofEngrDr - I am using 3.7 as an example only. Based on what I seen so far 3.7 NU = 3.7 IIT or 3.7 Berkley=3.7M Merced (lowest ranked UC).