<p>Perhaps my kid is the first in this group to leave for medical school. He’s doing an MD/Ph.D. program and has a summer rotation of research, etc. He left this morning.</p>
<p>Congrats mimk6!</p>
<p>While I’m sure it’s hard to see him leave, it’s got to be great feeling to know he’s firmly on his desired path.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son Mimk!</p>
<p>Is the first year in MD/PhD always research or does it differ based on school?</p>
<p>Some regular SOM programs start at the beginning of July.</p>
<p>Texaspg, I believe most/many MD/PhD programs have either an optional or required research rotation in the summer before M1. Then the students do the regular M1 and M2 years. My D is currently in the last weeks of her M1 year. She did a research rotation last summer.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son, mimk6!</p>
<p>Thanks. So how are the 8 years split? Is there a standard?</p>
<p>I believe the standard is M1 & 2 is in med school, then 4 years Ph.D., then back for the last 2 years into the MD program. The Ph.D. segment is difficult to control since many experiments for the thesis don’t cooperate within the allotted time. A million years ago, in my husband’s Ph.D. program, the first to finish up the program was as much as 3 years ahead of the last due to the uncooperative nature of research.</p>
<p>Congrats and best wishes to your son mimk6!</p>
<p>A long, but I’m sure fulfilling road ahead.</p>
<p>My kid doesn’t start school until the end of Aug, but there’s an optional backpacking trip for M1s the week before, so she’ll relocate in mid-Aug if not sooner. Right now she’s spending a couple of weeks in China with her BFs family, one last fling before buckling down after a 2 year break from school. Fingers crossed that her housing arrangements will come through without a cross-country trip in July to go apartment hunting.</p>
<p>White coat ceremony at the end of Aug, whoopee!</p>
<p>^ Enjoy her summer break between MS0 and MS1. In DS’s experience, this may be the last “whole” summer break for med school students.</p>
<p>Recently, a doctor who has been in practice for about 10-15 years told us that, after MS2, everything goes downhill. I do not know if he exaggerated it a little bit or not</p>
<p>He has a research rotation this summer and the option to take one or two classes for the Ph.D. program. He can take those later if he chooses. Then M1 followed by another summer in a lab and then M2 and STEP 1. Then he beings the Ph.D. portion which he is assuming will be four years, but can be less or more. Then the M3 which is a very intense year and M4. The White Coat ceremony for us is the first week of August and we’ll fly out for that on Southwest with lots of stuff packed into those suitcases. He left with only two suitcases and a carry-on and shipped his desktop yesterday. He’s subletting first and then will find a place once he’s there.</p>
<p>“summer break between MS0 and MS1. In DS’s experience, this may be the last “whole” summer break for med school students.”
-D’s school started the first week of July. She barely was back from her trip abroad, did not have a chance to rent apartment, we went without her. She did not have much of summer break between MS0 and MS1. She had more break between MS1 and MS2. She just went abroad for 4 weeks to work at clinics and could not get into research after, since her break was too short for that. So, she came home and relaxed instead. There are no other summers off, she will have rotations all thru summers.
I believer that Med. School schedules are different from school to school. D. was also done with pre-clinicals by the March of second year.</p>
<p>D is still waiting to hear back from schools where she is wait-listed. It is surprising that there has been no WL movement even though we are approaching mid June.</p>
<p>^^^Did she look on S D N for the specific med school she is on the waitlist for? Sometimes they have started a specific thread for each school’s waitlist movement…also look on last year’s thread (probably archived) to see when and what type of movement was done last year.</p>
<p>Did she send another letter of interest to her waitlist school’s? Or the one that might be her first choice and told them they’re her first choice?</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>"Dear Med School, If you pull me off the wait list I will come. " Dress it up a bit but make it a commitment to attend. Leave no doubt.</p>
<p>Agree that SDN is a good resource for time sensitive information like WL movement. D1 remained on one WL; they were rumored to be overenrolled and recently stated that they wouldn’t be taking any WL candidates this year.</p>
<p>Thanks katw,curm and entomom. D has already sent LOIs to the schools where she is waitlisted. Now she is faced with the prospect of a gap year. May be it will not be that bad. But we are not giving up hope yet.</p>
<p>^Hang in there and best of luck to your D!</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding insensitive, your D might want to consider contacting a few adcomms to ask if they will go over her application with her and suggest some areas where she could strengthen her application for next cycle.</p>
<p>The time to do this is now or very soon since the next application cycle will start to heat up in about 3 weeks with ED applicant reviews/interviews–and adcomms may not have the time then.</p>
<p>The state med school here offers optional “exit counseling” to all interviewed but waitlisted/rejected students and several students I know have commented that while it’s painful to hear your shortcomings, it’s really useful to know where they need improvement before they apply again.</p>
<p>Some offer such exit interviews , some don’t. And we know of at least one case where such a “review” after waitlist yielded an acceptance … My kid’s sorority little 'sis. ;)</p>
<p>If things like that happen do the people in the admissions office responsible for the error get reprimanded? It seems very unfair to the applicant. At least in this case the error was noticed in time. What if it was not found at all?</p>
<p>I think the “admissions” people for med schools are the same people who uncovered the mistake and they’re the same people who are “in charge”. No one really to do the reprimand.</p>
<p>We learned about a SOM scholarship offer AFTER May 15th. In the end, it wouldn’t have changed our son’s opinion, but it was annoying. </p>
<p>The letter was mailed on May 10th to our home but we went out of town on May 12th, so mail was held at the post office. When we got home on May 19th, the PO delivered all the mail and the scholarship offer was in there.</p>
<p>I think that an offer made that late should include a PHONE CALL or email. I do think that our son should contact the SOM and tell them that he got the offer late, and that in the future, perhaps they should call or email as well.</p>