University of South Dakota Medical School

About the University of South Dakota Medical School (Sanford)

University of South Dakota Medical School has served as the only medical school in the state since 1907. In the beginning, the school started by providing a two-year medical program and the students enrolling in the program each year grew. By 1925 the class size increased to 20 students and it doubled by 1955.

In the late 1960’s the school decided to make the two-year program a four year one and become a degree-granting institution. This decision was led by the Dean of the school; Dr. Karl Wegner and state senator Harvey Wollman. After their rigorous efforts, the state legislature and Governor Richard Kneip endorsed the four-year program in 1974.

Fast forward to 2006, the school was renamed as the University of South Dakota, Sanford School of Medicine. The school is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)

Vision

The University of South Dakota, Sanford School of Medicine will be a leader in educating students with knowledge, skill and compassion dedicate their lives to the well-being of their patients, their community and their profession.

Mission

The mission of the University of South Dakota, Sanford School of Medicine is to provide the opportunity for South Dakota residents to receive a quality, broad-based medical education with an emphasis on family medicine. The curriculum is to be established to encourage graduates to serve people living in the medically underserved areas of South Dakota and is to require excellence in the basic sciences and all clinical disciplines. The University of South Dakota, Sanford School of Medicine is to provide to their students and the people of South Dakota excellence in education, research, and service. To these ends, the school is to provide educational pathways leading to both the Doctor of Medicine and the Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Quality health care for the people of South Dakota is addressed by undergraduate, graduate and continuing education programs as well as by basic and applied medical research. The Sanford School of Medicine should serve as a technical resource in the development of health care policy in the state and provide extension and research initiatives to improve the health care of the citizens of the state.

University of South Dakota Medical School Admission

M.D. Degree

Eligibility Criteria

An applicant needs to fulfill the following eligibility conditions in order to become eligible to apply. The applicant needs to be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. The applicant should be from South Dakota or someone with strong ties to the state, such as:

• Someone who has graduated from a high school in South Dakota.
• Someone who has a parent who is living in South Dakota.
• The applicant should be a child of a Sanford School of Medicine alumni.
• They should be a member of a U.S. federally recognized tribe from a bordering state.
• The applicant should at least have 90 credits at a college or university in South Dakota

Other than this the applicant should fulfil the following eligibility criteria:

• The applicant should have a minimum of 64 semester credits of college course work for admissions committee consideration, with a minimum of 90 semester credits of college course work before matriculation.
• The applicant should appear in the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) within three years of the AMCAS application deadline of November 1.
• The applicant should have a CGPA of 3.1 along with an MCAT score of 496. Applicants who have a CPGA of less than 3.1 should score at least 496 in their MCAT along with good performance in coursework.
• The applicant should fulfil all the technical requirements.

University of South Dakota Medical School Required Coursework

The applicant needs to fulfil the following semester course work in the following areas:


Biology	2 semesters
Organic Chemistry	1 semester
General (inorganic) Chemistry	2 semesters
Biochemistry	1 semesters
Physics	2 semesters
Mathematics	1 semester
Statistics	2 semester

Apart from these courses the applicant can take the following courses to enhance their preparation for medical school:

• Second semester of organic chemistry
• Genetics
• Microbiology
• Physiology
• Psychology
• Sociology

Application Procedure

After ensuring that you fulfil all the eligibility requirements the applicant will have to fill out AMCAS application which is available on their website. The application has to be submitted between June 1^st and November 1^st. the application will include the applicants MCAT scores, academic record, biographic information, and a personal statement.

The primary application also consists of letters of recommendation. The applicant has to submit three individual letters or an evaluation packet from a pre-medical committee which has at least three committee members.

After completing and submitting the application will verify it and send it to the school. The school will further verify it by screening the application and determining whether the applicant fulfils all the eligibility criteria’s.

When the school approves the primary applicant, the applicant is then sent a supplemental application. This application is sent via email and it includes:

• Online supplemental application
• Requests for letters of recommendation
• Non-refundable $40 application fee

After submitting this application the admission committee will review it as well as the primary application and then determine whether the applicant should be invited for the interview.

When the applicant is invited for an interview the interview is conducted open file by two members of the admission committee.

After the interview, the admission committee evaluates all the applicants and makes a decision about them at the next scheduled committee meeting. All decisions of acceptance are made after the meeting and the applicants that are not accepted are given the status of ‘pending’ which means that at the end of the year when the class is filled and if there are any vacancies the pending list will be reviewed.

Applicants who are accepted, an acceptance letter is mailed to them between November and March.

What to do after acceptance?

When the applicant receives their letter of acceptance he/she needs to sign a notarized form which is sent to them and deposit $100 towards their tuition within 2 weeks to secure a position in the class. The student can withdraw from the school of medicine within three weeks till the start of orientation and if they decide to withdraw within this timespan then the $100 that they deposited will be refunded.

Along with this prior to matriculation the applicant needs to submit all of their transcripts along with all college credits earned, indicating at least 90 semester credit hours or a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution.

After submitting everything the applicant will be notified about the progress regarding the application and the admission.

University of South Dakota Medical School Departments

• Basic Biomedical Sciences
• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Neurosciences
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Pathology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Surgery

Places to eat in University of South Dakota Medical School

The campus is filled with a variety of choices where one can choose to eat. The options available are:

• Retail Marketplace
• Chick-fil-A
• Qdoba
• Einstein Bros Bagels
• Erbert and Gerbert’s
• University Brew
• Papa John’s

Residential dining is also available where breakfast, lunch or dinner, with international entrées, grill, deli, salad bar and many more options are available and all of it is all you can eat.

Food is also available at convenience stores which are located on the campus. They are:

• Coyote Village POD
• MUC C-Store
• North Complex Beede Bump

Meal plans are also available which are as follows:

Yote Pack 70 (Default Meal Plan)

70 meals/semester

$1,087.00 flex/semester

Available to ALL students

$1,875.50/semester

Yote Pack 120

120 meals/semester

$701.00 flex/semester

Available to ALL students

$1,789.45/semester

Yote Pack 55

55 meals/semester

$1,008.00 flex/semester

Available to 2nd, 3rd, 4th year students

$1,662.40/semester

Coyote 17

17 meals/week

$380.00 flex/semester

Available to ALL students

$2,064.70/semester

Coyote 10

10 meals/week

$376.00 flex/semester

Available to ALL students

$1,662.45/semester

Paw Pleaser

$1,563.65 flex/semester

Available to 2nd year Brookman, Coyote Village and McFadden residents as well as 3rd/4th year students

$1,662.45/semester

Paw Pride

$865.55 flex/semester

Available to 2nd year McFadden, Coyote Village & all 3rd/4th year students

$920.20/semester

Paw Print

$432.10 flex/semester

Available to off-campus, housing exempt and graduate students

$459.70/semester

There are some rules that need to be followed regarding the meal plans, which are:

• All students living in residence halls are required to have a meal plan.
• Students who DO NOT select a meal plan by three weeks before the start of each semester are defaulted to Yote Pack 70.
• Meals do not transfer from semester to semester.
• Unused FLEX dollars will transfer from fall to spring, but will not carry over to the next academic year. Unused flex will not be refunded.
• Meal plan changes can be requested up to the add/drop deadline date at the start of each semester.

University of South Dakota Medical School Housing Facilites

On-campus housing is available and there are different housing halls. They are:

North Complex

There are four residence halls inside the North Complex which are Beede, Mickelson, Richardson and Olson Halls. These halls offer first year and upper class students an opportunity to get involved in all the social and academic activities.

Each floor of the complex has a kitchen and a laundry room. The halls altogether house 1,444 students and are located near the Fine Arts Center, the Wellness Center, School of Education, Muenster University Student Center and DakotaDome.

Coyote Village

This is a four story complex consisting of 175 units and is located south of DakotaDome. The village houses around 546 students and has a convenience store, central laundry facility and 15 seat HD theater and smart classroom.

All the suites of the village consist of a communal kitchen, a refrigerator as well as a microwave. The apartments in the village consist of a stove.

Burgess & Norton Halls

These halls are located near Dakota, Noteboom and East Halls, as well as the Delzell Education Center and the Arts & Sciences Building and they house about 293 students. These halls house first year and upper class students and have double rooms along with single gender communities.

Brookman Hall

The hall is located near Lee Medical building and provides a peaceful living environment. It has single as well as double rooms where upper class students are housed.

McFadden Hall

This hall has four person apartments and houses a 100 students. Upper class students live here and the apartments have a communal kitchen along with a living room. Parking garages are also available but with an additional cost.

HOUSING COST

Residence Hall	Single Occupancy	Double Room Single Occupancy	Double Occupancy	Triple Occupancy/ Temporary Lounge	Triple Room Double Occupancy
Beede Hall	$2,605.25	$2,781.95	$2,139.85	$1,835.85	$2,386.65
Mickelson Hall	$2,605.25	$2,781.95	$2,139.85	$1,835.85	$2,386.65
Olson Hall	$2,605.25	$2,781.95	$2,139.85	$1,835.85	$2,386.65
Richardson Hall	$2,605.25	$2,781.95	$2,139.85	$1,835.85	$2,386.65
Brookman Hall		$2,642.70	$2,032.80
Burgess Hall		$2,781.95	$2,139.85
Norton Hall		$2,781.95	$2,139.85

 

Residence Halls	Apartments	Suites
Coyote Village	2 Bedroom – $3,964.95 4 Bedroom – $3,283.95	2 Bedroom – $3,723.75 4 Bedroom – $3,103.35
Mcfadden Hall	2 Bedroom – $3,821.55 4 Bedroom – $3,165.15

After getting admitted into Sanford School of Medicine

Getting into a good medical college is everyone’s dream and let’s be honest, it is one of the toughest things to do and getting into an institute like Sanford School of Medicine is a big achievement. Sanford School of Medicine is among one of the top medical colleges of Bangalore, and it is known for providing the best medical knowledge to its students which helps them develop and become future doctors of the world. If you get into Sanford School of Medicine, you’re definitely one of those few intelligent and hardworking people who deserved to be here and be the best doctors in the world with the help of great faculty members at the medical school.

Anyway, Congratulations! You have cleared the first and the toughest step of this journey. Now, what next? Now, comes the next step and a bit tough one comprising of a lot of challenges for you but don’t worry, if you are able to qualify for the first step, it’ll be easy for you to clear the next step too. It will require a bit of hard work and your focus to overcome these challenges. Here are the few tips mentioned below in order to help you:

MANAGING TIME:

First things first, MANAGING TIME! Time is the key to your success and of course, failure. If you have a hold on your time, you’re going to be successful no matter what. I’m not specifically talking about a medical college but if you talk about any university, managing time is really important in order to survive there. If you’re going to get into all this stuff of managing your time from the very start, medical college will be comparatively easy for you because you’re already a champ but the results are going to be completely opposite if you’re not going to manage your times.

Now, the question is how to manage time? Firstly, take notes of everything from day one. Yes, it helps a lot. Take notes in the classes, how is everything going to work, the processes and procedures, etc. Once you know how things work at your campus and make a schedule for them assigning most of the time to the most important tasks and try to complete each task within the timeframe provided. This will help you be on track and make things easier for you.

As you have taken notes and assigned time to each task, it was more of a generalized schedule. Time to be a little more specific. All the homework, assignments, test or quizzes, everything should be noted by you separately in a daily to-do-list. Every task should be noted in that with the due date and several reminders should be set in order to avoid delays. Procrastination should be strictly avoided in medical college because completing your tasks as soon as possible will help you be on track. Otherwise, you’ll be in a big mess because you won’t be able to cope up with all the daily stuff. Regularly following that to-do-list will help you complete all the tasks on time and meet your deadlines.

SELF-STUDY:

Is it necessary that your teacher’s teaching method will match your learning method? Well, it’s not. This is the main reason, a lot of the students who were pretty good in their studies before getting into a medical college becomes frustrated and unable to continue. They had this image in their mind that they have always been pretty good, then why aren’t they good enough over here too? Well, don’t worry and don’t stress about this. It happens with everyone but do remember that you can’t control everything. One can only try to do those things which are in his control rather than stressing over those things which were never in his control.

Whenever you don’t understand anything in the class, ask a friend or any other classmate to help you out with it. Try to make that thing clear to you as soon as possible and not leaving it for later because you’ll end up missing something and you won’t understand another thing because you missed that thing in the first place and BOOM, you don’t know anything know. Try to get things clear when they’re fresh in your mind, it’ll help you understand really faster! Try to indulge yourself in self-study but if it doesn’t work for you, go for the group study. You can benefit a lot from group study, do try to seek help and help others too if needed. Again, allocating time to self-study and group study is the key thing.

NAJEEB LECTURES:

For instance, you end up in a situation where nothing is working for you or you aren’t benefiting from any of the things mentioned above or you don’t feel like putting effort into all that stuff, then you can always go to Dr. Najeeb’s Lectures for getting help. As I mentioned before, what if your teacher’s learning method doesn’t match your learning method? Well, I can guarantee you that Dr. Najeeb’s lectures will definitely match your learning method! If you don’t feel like getting help from other people and you want to rely on self-study, then these video lectures are going to help you a lot. Dr. Najeeb’s Lectures are the world’s most popular medical Lectures, covering all the topics of Gross Anatomy, Neuro-anatomy, Embryology, Histology, Physiology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology.

These lectures almost cover all the topics included in the current medical curriculum of most of the medical colleges and are a great source to understand every topic you’re being taught in your class. These lectures don’t contain that bookish knowledge due to which you don’t understand things in the class, whereas it is the visual representation of that knowledge which will help you understand things better. The hand-drawn illustrations included in these lectures will make you grasp every concept really quickly. Furthermore, one can get lifetime access to these lectures and even download the app to avail them anytime, anywhere.

SELF-CARE:

The only thing you have to do for the rest of your time in a medical college is to study? NO! Don’t overburden yourself. Despite all the rigorous studying, a very tight schedule, frequent exams, and tests, it is very important for you to take some time out for SELF-CARE. Try to indulge yourself in several extra-curricular activities happening in the college, they’ll help you to have a break from your studies. Just try to complete everything on time, so that you can enjoy everything else too to keep yourself relax!

Reward yourself frequently whenever you achieve something, for instance, you got the highest marks in a class test. You need to reward yourself for your continuous hardships. Find a hobby which will help you freshen your mind so that you can work and learn better.

PICK YOUR FRIENDS WISELY:

This step is very important and should be kept in mind from day one. Be very careful and very picky about people. No, it doesn’t mean that don’t talk to anyone but chose your friends wisely. Help every person who asks for help from you and avoid getting into any conflict with anyone. If you end up getting into one, try to resolve that as soon as possible, so that you don’t get distracted from your studies because of that.

Carefully observe the people around you and make friends very carefully because friends can help you spend the rest of your time in the college nicely or they’ll ruin it. Making more allies than enemies is a good option, help people a lot because they’ll help you out too when you’ll need it. Try to be a little sharp-minded and keep yourself from getting exploited. Help out others, this way you can make more allies than enemies and they could end up helping you in your time of need.

In the end, we would like to assure you that there are always ups and downs in life. Don’t lose hope, keep our tips in mind and Good luck!