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UM Launches Smartphone App For Med School Applicants

ANN ARBOR -- The University of Michigan Medical School has launched M.D.Stat+, a free application designed for prospective medical school students to check their admission status.

The app is now available for iPhones and Androids, but the mobile-friendly site it's based on is accessible via any smartphone's Web browser.

A top 10 medical school with more than 5,000 applications last year, the UM Medical School is believed to be the first to have an app of this kind developed just for medical school applicants.

"We understand today's applicants communicate differently than 10 years ago," said Robert F. Ruiz, admissions director at the medical school. "Traditional communications such as phone and mail are not the norms anymore.  Even web and email isn't always the preferred route for some students. M.D.Stat+ provides a quick and convenient way for our applicants to stay current on not only their status with us -- which we know they may be very anxious about -- but also on our overall admissions process. It's simply a mobile-friendly way for them to view a subset of information that's been available for many years through our secondary application Web site."

After applicants download the app and log in once, the app allows them to quickly and easily see important status updates such as if their application has been received, an interview has been offered or they've been admitted. If their status changes at any time, a badge is added to the iPhone icon and a status bar notification is added to the Android. M.D.Stat+ also includes frequently updated admissions stats, as well as links to UM's social media channels.

"When we think about recruiting, we think about providing information," Ruiz said. "We want to tell the UM story to the broadest possible audience so that people can make informed decisions about our outstanding community."

By collaborating with the Medical School's offices of Enabling Technologies, Applications Development, and Marketing, the admissions office created an application that would best meet the needs of prospective students.

"This is the first application we've created using a new development environment that allows us to simultaneously develop for both iPhone and Android," said Laurence Kirchmeier, technologist at the Office of Enabling Technologies at the UM Medical School.

M.D.Stat+ is available on the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. The mobile-friendly Web site is also available at https://www.umms.med.umich.edu/mdstat/.

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