<p>NYU? Really? Maybe its just a relativity thing, but I was always under the impression that NYU was a pretty decent part of Manhattan.</p>
<p>Pharmgal, such internships/volunteering does exist. You can begin day one if you want, and many schools have early clinical experience as part of the curriculum. It is very easy to get involved with any department that you wish, and many canvass for medical student interest (especially those who are looking for research monkeys).</p>
<p>NYU is in one of the nicest and safest parts of Manhattan!</p>
<p>NYU’s location – West Village?, if the hospital is the same place as the rest of the campus – is one of the most expensive and low-crime areas of Manhattan. You wouldn’t know if by looking at it, though, since it looks pretty pathetic and run down in most areas. A lot of that is intentional – e.g. a reflection of the local culture – rather than imposed by the socioeconomics.</p>
<p>^NYU medical school is on the east river, in like the 20s. Still a safe part of manhattan, but not as fun as the west village. (it’s a little in the middle of nowhere)</p>
<p>NYU SOM is not located at the main NYU campus, which is indeed located in one of the nicer parts of Manhattan. The medical school itself is located at the low thirties and 1st Avenue - right next to the East River and the NYC medical examiner. It’s in a good safe area, but far away from the subway. I suppose that will change if/when the 2nd Avenue subway line is finished. I can’t understand why Pharmagal thinks the area is terrible - have you heard the stories about the areas around Temple, Yale, and JHU? NYU SOM’s student housing may suck, but at least there aren’t gunshots on a regular basis!</p>
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<p>Some medical schools, including Sinai, have a student-staffed, physician-supervised clinic which caters to low-income/uninsured people. The clinic at Sinai provides primary care and requires its clients to live or have lived in East Harlem.</p>
<p>Many professors at my school are quite willing to have students shadow them. I spent time in the genetics clinic and in the radiology department as a first-year student. These kinds of opportunities require the students to take the initiative in setting things up. In my experience, it’s as simple as writing an email to Dr. Abc and saying something like, “Your lecture today on repetitive strain injuries in the setting of underwater basket weaving was scintillating. I’m interested in orthopedics as a career. Would it be possible for me to shadow you?”</p>
<p>Shades, I fully agree that JHU, Yale, Temple are much much worse. Having lived in suburbs across the Hudson changes the index I use I suppose. Just me. (I like Boston more) Sorry NY’ers. ;-)</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on clinic hours. That certainly helps me to set expectations for my DS.</p>
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<p>The moral of my story is not really about clinic hours - it’s about the need to be a self-starter, someone who seeks out information and opportunities for themselves and their classmates. You need this characteristic to be a successful medical student, imo. This is why I get so frustrated with some of the high school and college students who post here on CC. They would rather post their question here and have people spoonfeed them information than do some Googling for themselves and then post if they need clarification. If you can figure out how to post on CC, you can figure out how to do some research on the Internet. I don’t think that kind of helpless attitude will prime them for success during the admissions process and beyond.</p>
<p>So parents, please expect your DS or DD to be self-starters. It’s a life-long skill!</p>
<p>Shades, I agree with you only, partially. Agree that if kids are self starters, that would be absolutely ideal. But in life, there exist as many varying degrees of accomplishments as varied degrees of backgrounds of parents, circumstances, home, school, geographic environments, or access to resources. All these factors are conducive to strategies for success.</p>
<p>You don’t have to go very far to realize this spectrum. Many NY city school systems represent this very discrepancy. One evening a week, I volunteer as an ESL tutor. Some ESL students (who are parents actually) are fairly capable of expressing themselves in English while some others hesitate to speak up at all. Some who hail from impoverished countries in S. America or impoverished regions of Asia barely speak English. </p>
<p>Lending a helping hand that guides any student (of any age), especially from a mentor/guide who has had some first hand experience is invaluable. </p>
<p>Surely kids can google just about any information. But they need experienced volunteers, mentors, guides, tutors to act as catalysts in their lives. I think there’s nothing wrong about asking for help, asking questions (even if the answers are available on wikipedia or google). To me, a student who never asks questions is far more troubling.</p>
<p>Here on CC, I think some of us experienced folk, traverse threads to give that right amount of push to channel kids in the right direction (at least I hope so)… or we sometimes give them a dose of reality to make them more focused I hope. To me, this is e-advising/e-volunteering. I find advising on CC to be a great way to give back to the community.</p>
<p>Additionally, if life’s circumstances are really bad, not every young mind will have the power of initiative. Some do, not all. It’s great to think that hopefully we give them the nudge they need to tip them over the threshold…</p>
<p>Another interview invite- #6- I highly recommend early apps 
Interviews this weekend were amazing, DD loves the two schools she visited</p>
<p>And another interview- last night was in state school, not quite as tough as CA schools, but not a ‘gimme’ by any stretch of the imagination.</p>
<p>Now, another invite to a private (I think) back east.</p>
<p>That is 7! You know you are getting jaded when the interview email is forwarded with the subject line “ugh” which relates to the time and expense of travel and not to the honor of an interview.</p>
<p>Fantastic, Somemom! I sure hope my daughter applies early next year and it seems to be the way to go. Best of luck to your daughter and please continue to keep us posted! We’re all rooting for her.</p>
<p>I running out of exclamatory phrases. Maybe I’ll start combining them. Yee!!Hoo!! Hmmmm. That don’t sound quite right. Anyway, big congrats. The kid has a story to tell and she’s telling it.</p>
<p>Twin mom, tell her the application being early is mandatory!! </p>
<p>I was learning all this last year as I was concerned about the combo of living in a state with tough admissions and with a lower than ideal MCAT. Maybe I was a little overly concerned about her chances and we will probably learn we applied to more schools than necessary, but you never know and I have read too many SDN stories about kids who don’t get in anywhere! And according to SDN it is still not safe to assume she will get in and blow off far away interviews!</p>
<p>Apply early, be authentic, do great secondaries. The tediousness and arduousness of the application procedure is a weeder class in itself. Even if kids finish all their secondaries, they also may start to just turn in any old answer quickly just to get it over with; it is tough to stay diligently on task when they just keep coming week after week.</p>
<p>Good advice, as usual. Applying early is a great advantage at some schools, a lesser advantage at others, but never a negative. </p>
<p>D is fighting a sinus infection but flying again today, missing a once a week several hour lab necessary for her degree. The day starts with a 2hr15m drive to a cheap(er) airport, followed by a flight that gets her (by way of a connection, a 2 and 1/2 hr bus ride then taxi) to her hotel at midnight. Again. Full day of interviews, another bus ride, hotel again at midnight, flight home starts at 8 a.m. . She arrives back at campus 6:00p.m. Friday. What a disaster in the making. </p>
<p>But she’s honored to have the invite and wouldn’t think of turning it down. At least the leaves will be pretty in New England. (It was a UG school she really wanted to apply to and didn’t because of her absolute rule against SAT Subject Tests.)</p>
<p>somemom, yours had a great idea with the gap year. Now her location for her gap year… not so much. For those playing the home version of our game and are thinking “gap year” think “hub airport”.</p>
<p>For those playing the home version of our game and are thinking “gap year” think “hub airport”. </p>
<p>Or perhaps getting a job with a major airline (if flying free is a benefit).</p>
<p>Yep, we had no clue, but the no classes thing is a true blessing. DD could have even felt ‘late’ and out of the loop by being on different timing than she “should” be, but in fact it has been great. It is interesting to hear the kids on SDN talk about how tired they are after the interviews, I think they put a lot of energy into psyching up for it.</p>
<p>DD is glad she has an interesting and semi-cush job that allows her a great deal of flexibility. She does have to make up hours, but there is no homework and that makes all the difference. She is still complaining about too much travel and being weary and she is many interviews behind the mudgette.</p>
<p>This week’s late evening flight turned around on the runway because the plane wa dumping fuel as it taxied down the runway (she did not tell me this until the next day so I would not worry!), again DD ended up not home until 3AM and this was a simple easy direct 3 hour flight, not even connections to worry about, but did have to get up for work the next day. The travel is expensive and exhausting and takes away from what needs to be done at home.</p>
<p>I would highly recommend a smart gap year strategy…near a Southwest hub!</p>
<p>Had my Pitt interview Monday, amazing school and awesome city. Had my second (and final) IS interview today - really liked it a lot, glad that I’d be happy attending there. They offer one student a full tuition + $1.8k/month scholarship, would be pretty sweet to get that.</p>
<p>They offer tons of scholarships. I believe something like 40% of their class has some form of scholarship.</p>
<p>My D had her first interview today at our state university. She was told she will be getting an acceptance letter in two weeks.</p>