<p>Also, keep in mind, most big academic centers will be affiliated with community hospitals and VA hospitals. I’ve rotated through the VA, the county hospital, etc. even though I spend most of my time in the ivory tower.</p>
<p>On a totally different note, here’s an observation I’d like to share with all you future med students:</p>
<p>This weekend I attended a conference that brought together M1s from all the medical schools (4 MD and 2 DO) in my state. It was a cool opportunity to talk with and get to know students from other schools, and also to watch groups of people from other schools interact with each other and between schools.</p>
<p>What I noticed is that there seems to be a set of personalities that fit certain schools better than others. These personalities may or may not be similar to the stereotypes associated with each school. This really reaffirmed my decision to attend my school: in my opinion, my group of friends was definitely the group I fit in best with (which is to also say, I didn’t yearn to be a part of another school). </p>
<p>Could I survive at any of them? I’d be shocked if I couldn’t. But in the end, I realized that I really did pick the best school for me in terms of fit, which hopefully will allow me to achieve a high level of personal and professional success as a result. </p>
<p>What’s the point of telling you this? I think you should really pay attention to the personality of the school, the university, the older students, and your future classmates as you’re deciding which medical school to attend (assuming that you a) care about your environment and b) have multiple acceptances to choose from). I personally weighed the personality of the school pretty heavily in choosing a medical school, but after having met a collection of students from a variety of other schools, I would have weighed personality much more heavily.</p>
<p>So in the end, if you’re debating between schools, I’d pick the one where I felt more at home every single time. I think 4 years of enjoying your environment is important, and I think there’s a bigger difference in med school environments than I previously realized.</p>
<p>Good luck all! And congratulations :)</p>
<p>Thanks, Kristen. Great advice. I’m going to pass this on to my son.</p>
<p>“Before you get upset, I think most people would regard Cleveland as a less desirable location than Northwestern’s prime Chicago location”</p>
<p>-I agree…for vast amjority. We have visited both and have looked for many apartments, so got very familiar with both locations. However, believe it or not, for some in Midwest, who do not care to live in big city “downtown” environment without a car, Cleveland is a choice, although location is not #1 criteria at the point of final decision making. Frankly, I myself, did not care too much about Chicago either, but again, I do not appreciate being in downtown w/o a car and that wind literally “blew me away” in a wrong direction. Vast majority will disagree, I understand that, Chicago is gorgeous, apartments are much better, more expansive though, but Feinberg is a bit cheaper than Case, so cost is the same.</p>
<p>Kristin,
"What I noticed is that there seems to be a set of personalities that fit certain schools better than others. "
-This was my D’s criteria #1 for choosing AFTER interview visits and acceptances. This was her reason for withdraw from couple places. Yes, she noticed that Med. Students are somewhat different from school to school. As you are, D. would survive in any. But, yes, she choose “the one where she felt more at home every single time.” with med. students, Med. School priority in regard to Med. Students and…surroundings that fit D. personally.</p>
<p>It apeears DS’s criteria for choosing the school are:
- No grade in pre-clinical years.
- “better” living environment (e.g., not very expensive dorm provided by the school.)
- Not very high cost of attendance. (Do not want to accumulate too much debt.)
- the school is perceived as “protective” for their students during the clinical years.
- I suspect that, shallow it may be, the prestige factor might have some influence as well.</p>
<p>His reason for 1) appears to be: He has been tired of having to compete against somebody who may sit next to him (and who could be his close friend) in the same classroom during the premed years (and even during high school.) I do not think he slacks off because of “no grade” though. Now he appears to be more willing to put in efforts for his school work (unlike in some premed years) because, as he said, he does not want to be a “bad” doctor.</p>
<p>Also, he now seems to have a closer relation with his classmates in his daily life, as compared to the relation between him and other premeds during college years. (It was somewhat strange he had very few premed friends. The majority of his friends back then were not premeds.)</p>
<p>D. is interviewing Med. School applicants today. Hard to believe that she is on the other side. She was excited about it yesterday.</p>
<p>I agree, mcat2, no slacking in Med. School. I have asked D. several times to compare her work load in UG and in Med. School. She maintains that it is not comparable, much more work. She did well on her first couple exams. Although it is P/F, they still grade them (as a feedback, I suppose).
In terms of social life, D. is attending parties and has friends. However, she is visiting her UG frequently and also has very close HS friends (some since she was 3 years old), so accumulation continues…and spreads to other states…</p>
<p>Firstly, I’m a 4th year medical student at a top 25 medical school.</p>
<p>Concerns about pre-clinical grading system are valid, although it depends on what kind of medical school one is eventually going to go to. If it is a great, well-known, prestigious med school, P/F can be fine. However, I strongly believe from talking to some residency program directors that if you go to an “average” school, you really want grades to set yourself apart from the pack. Some competition is good. At my school, there are pre-clinical grades and I found it motivating for myself. Even if there aren’t grades, for the most part, you will still be “ranked” behind the scenes for the national medical honor society (AOA) and possibly on the dean’s letter which goes out to residency programs before the match. I can only think of 1 school (UCLA) which does not rank at all.</p>
<p>Having said that, I would say even the “sub-par and average” students do not slack off in medical school. You can’t slack off in medical school.</p>
<p>^^^I believe that it is a little more complicated than that. I have always read here that preclinical grades don’t matter and that Step 1 is the key. However, at Penn we had P/F the first semester of M1 and now we are graded Honors/Pass/Fail all the way until december. There are couple of “technology courses” that are P/F and then we begin H/HP/P/F spring year of our M2 year which is when our clinical rotations start.</p>
<p>We have officially asked why we switch to Honors/Pass/Fail as M1s during spring semester and we have been told : “because it helps our students to obtain the most competitive residencies and specialties”. It seems that even some prestigious schools feel like preclinical grades help set you apart.</p>
<p>Giving a shout out to all the “2011-2012 Med School Applicants and their parents”, and of course the wonderful other folks here:</p>
<p>Is it just me, or is January a tough time? The waiting for decisions, the hope for more interviews in Hail Mary fashion, the grumpiness of applicants (ahem, I mean my son) when you even try to talk about anything, because understandably they are very busy back at school…
Ah, just a vent here, please be kind ;). Anyone else still out there waiting and wondering. Very much looking forward to May, when “all is said and done”. </p>
<p>My son did get a very nice, “Sorry” letter yesterday from a classy school. Funny, they were the first to approach him after he took his MCATs with a nice “Hope you’ll consider our school” letter. While the rejection letter was quite cordial, it certainly was bittersweet. A lot better that hearing nothing, however. </p>
<p>How’s everyone doing?</p>
<p>CCL, I can fully empathize with you. Unlike DD1’s college aps, she’s four years older, and has shouldered a lot more of the responsibility in this endeavor, and went through her share of anxiety. The one area where we as parents probably did a lot more was logistical - didn’t want DD getting worked up in cities she’s never been in over accommodation, rental cars, cabs, whatever, especially if there was a chance of inclement weather. It’s a fine line between overstepping and letting them rough it out themselves. My biggest accomplishment is I don’t have a single post on SDN ;)</p>
<p>Bottom line for us - for the longest time she was only accepted in a safety she really didn’t care for, wondering why post-interview decisions took several months. A few high reaches and miscalculated OOS schools quickly rejected her, but the majority just kept her either in a pre or post-interview wait status. Fortunately she’s in somewhere that she’s comfortable with - both the program and the geography, and is just awaiting opportunities at programs where it won’t break her heart if they say no. Just give your son a broad comfy shoulder any time he needs it, and cross your fingers that there’s a lot of wait list movement and quick interviews and decisions.</p>
<p>What have be learnt from this whole experience? For someone like DD1 who’s not Harvard material, but pretty certain of her career plans, going for a 7-year program would probably have been the best strategy; she wouldn’t have gone to the “dream” school she wanted after HS, but would have had a lot fewer nightmares and less acne and pimples three years later, and gotten into a comparable or perhaps even a slightly better med school. Overall we’re thankful she isn’t following the track of some of her seniors or contemporaries who passed up guaranteed 7 year programs and are stuck in the non-guaranteed 9/10/11 year tracks doing research or masters only because they are trying to bolster their credentials. </p>
<p>Hoping for the best for you and the other parents and students in this cycle.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your great post, Dad<em>of</em>3,</p>
<p>My son is currently out of state so he has done it all on his own pretty much, well, except with me being his travel agent! He’s had some great experiences on his interviews, staying both with student hosts or in hotels, getting to go to classes with students, engaging with Med School MD teachers (one who even wrote him a personal letter afterward, which was pretty cool). He has had some good news, which is great. It’s now the waiting game. I’m sure it will be a little easier once the interview season is done. Going to SDN and seeing that some applicants are still getting invites is pretty exciting, and deflating at the same time! 
</p>
<p>Thanks so much again. I hope it’s okay to do a happy dance post here when all it’s all over! Just thinking about it is a nice thought of relief! </p>
<p>Congrats to everyone who knows where they’re headed and hang in there to everyone still waiting~</p>
<p>Yep, the waiting sucks. No doubt about it.</p>
<p>But it’ll be over soon enough, and your kiddos will end up somewhere awesome. They’ll find a program that’s a million times better than they thought it would be (how much can you learn from a website and an interview anyway?) in a location that they’ll learn to love (even if it’s grudgingly learning to love it–which was the case for me!). Chances are this summer will be blissful, since they already have solid plans for the future and a good excuse to just relax and take it easy (“Hey, I’ll be in med school in July, why not have fun now?”). They’ll be all excited about the cool new friends they’re making and that they’re “finally” getting to learn “the fun stuff” that was probably not covered in a satisfying amount of depth in undergrad.</p>
<p>You’ll probably think they’re insane.</p>
<p>But then you’ll use the family pic from their white coat ceremony for your Christmas card, and you’ll start wondering when it’s OK to ask their medical opinion, and you’ll just smile and nod when they talk about how cool it is to recognize a supratentorial ring-enhancing lesion with a heterogeneously enhancing central region on an axial section of a T1+gadolinium-enhanced MRI from a 70yr old patient with persistent headaches and recent trouble finding words. </p>
<p>Bottom line is, they’ll be just fine–and so will you! Be proud of all their fantastic accomplishments. Getting this far is a lot of hard work–on their part, and on yours! Way to go.</p>
<p>(The last part’s talking about a brain tumor…I think 
)</p>
<p>Ha! Love it, Kristen! Thank you. Good luck with everything, too! :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>:) Love it.</p>
<p>I might get a better response on the College Class of 2012 thread in the Parents Forum, but maybe someone on this thread can help. What sort of graduation gift would be good to get for an upcoming college graduate who will be starting medical school in the fall?</p>
<p>I’d say anything you’d get any other upcoming graduate would work. If you’re looking for something med school related, you could go with accessories for white coat (gift certificate to have it embroidered, cool pens, penlight, badge holder, pocket guides, etc), a set of scrubs (as long as you don’t mind that they might be getting dirty since they’ll probably be wearing them in anatomy), something for school (any variety of cool school/desk supplies, a subscription to JAMA or membership in your state’s medical society, a tshirt or hoodie from their new school), or books about the “art of medicine” (Gawande, Fadiman, and Remen are good authors in my opinion) come to mind. </p>
<p>Cash and funny cards went a long way with me too.</p>
<p>I’d steer clear of instruments though–the newly minted med student will likely want high quality pieces which can be quite pricey ($200+).</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a big ticket item-- a new laptop or iPad. (At D1’s school iPads are ‘strongly recommended’ for all students. Other schools require them for all students. An iPad is a whole lot lighter than carrying around a tower of thick textbooks.)</p>
<p>iPad accessories (smart cover, screen protector,etc)</p>
<p>I’s also recommend you steer clear of instruments. A stethoscope is very personal preference–and hard for someone else to pick out for a student.</p>
<p>D’s Med. school required new laptop (they provided the list of acceptable). The cheapest was about $1700. She had almost new laptop, but we had to buy the one required by her Med. School. I would not buy any electorinic device before checking requirement of future Med. School.</p>
<p>For friends’ kids, we just give cash. For our kids, for things they needed, generally we got it when the need arose and didn’t base it on any specific date.</p>