<p>I am on the waiting mode-hope to hear back from few schools in March. Few of my friends are still on interview circuit
I had a couple of merit scholarship offers . I will be not eligible for Fafsa 7 did not do that.
In the mean time my parents gave me an early graduation gift ( trip to Paris ) which I hope will take some pressure off my mind !!</p>
<p>Wowm, sorry to hear about D2 and the funding issue with her job. I am sure the siblings will tolerate each other. D2 can make D1’s favorite dishes at times, and then disappear if she senses any signs of implosion. lol</p>
<p>Did not realize that the Biomedical research biz was encountering so much funding issues. </p>
<p>Piggle… Nice graduation gift, go enjoy, very well deserved!</p>
<p>Last interview for D yesterday. Now just the waiting for (perhaps) more acceptances and the financial aid packages. It’s an exhausting process for the applicant and for those who are anxiously following the process.</p>
<p>OK, I know almost everyone here is relieved the cycle is close to being over and many of the students are celebrating their successes, but this is something that both students and parents need to be aware of moving forward:</p>
<p>[Note–this is excerpted from a blog post to which I can’t link as it’s against the TOS. I will be happy to provide a link to anyone who wants to read the entire article.]</p>
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<p>This article pretty much sums up the lecture the Dean of Students gave to D1’s class during orientation. Med school is tough and students often experience great self-doubt and misgivings both about the amount of material they need to master and the grave responsibility of dealing with another individual’s health, well-being and their very life. D1’s Dean asked every student to reach out to the people who knew them best (long time friends, spouses, parents, siblings. significant others) and ask them to please watch the student for changes in behavior that may indicate depression, overwhelming anxiety or suicidal ideation, because the students themselves are often unaware of just how bad/desperate/isolated their behavior has become.</p>
<p>Students—every med school offers confidential counseling service. If you are having difficulty coping or are feeling isolated, anxious, stressed or suicidal–please seek help. Your use of the counseling service will be held in the strictest confidence and your visit(s) are not reported to the PD. The decision to see out counseling is the mature one and will not dog your academic career, nor jeopardize your future residency opportunities.</p>
<p>Parents & those close to med students–you know your child/friend/partner. If their behavior changes significantly, if they seem unstable, erratic or excessively moody, or if they seem to be isolated, stressed and depressed, please talk with the student about your concerns. </p>
<p>Good advice. I just finished reading “White Coat” by Ellen Rothman and another called something like White Coat by a journalist tracking three Case Western students. Both discussed this. Students at Harvard burning out and taking medical leaves of absence. One senior resident committed suicide (due to divorce, but the divorce may be linked to the workload). The other issue was the abuse heaped on the students once they were doing the rotations. Pimping by the residents and by the attendings. Embarrassing them if they didn’t know some bit of information. How can the applicant know which schools have attendings who heap abuse on the students and which teach with kinder, gentler methods? </p>
<p>“Pimping by the residents and by the attendings” ???</p>
<p>“Pimping by the residents and by the attendings” = making the med student do the residents’/attendings’ scut work in addition to whatever else the med student is supposed to be doing. </p>
<p>(Note that there’s a difference between being a team player and doing extra work to pick up the slack and being abused by a resident or attending. Students will often be expected to go above and beyond… but there are limits. Pre-rounding at 5 am to get nurse updates and check wounds on ward patients during the surgical rotation so the resident doesn’t have to do it during actual rounds and can spend more time teaching = being a team player. Being ordered to pick up the attending’s dry cleaning = abuse.)</p>
<p>I think it’s tough to tell in advance if the residents/attendings are going to be abusive because personnel change from year to year (esp residents). However, if a school has a long-standing reputation for med student abuse (and there are some that do), I think it would be best to avoid that school if possible.</p>
<p>If possible, an accepted student should talk with current MS2s and MS3s to get an insider’s view of the school.</p>
<p>An accepted student should look at what support services each school offers (counseling, peer support groups, study skill support, formal reporting systems for med student abuse, etc).</p>
<p>Since having a local support system is important for avoiding isolation/depression/suicidal ideation, a student should look at their potential peers at Second Look and decide if these are the kinds of people one could happily live & work with for the next 4 years or if they are all total d-bags one should avoid at all costs. </p>
<p>I think also looking at the location is important. Being close enough to home to get away for occasional weekend can be helpful. Or being near things a student enjoys doing (mountains/open space for outdoors enthusiasts or a decent sized city for those who like big city amenities) so the student an outlet. </p>
<p>First I worry she wouldn’t get in. Now I worry about what she may be getting into. </p>
<p>Yeah, I was chatting with the mom of a girl who’s applied to BA/MD programs and the mom was all impressed I had 2 Ds going to med school. She was very surprised when I said I had mixed feelings about it. While I am very proud of their achievements and humbled by their commitment to serve others, I am less sanguine about the effect its will have on their lives. The profession can be exhausting and isolating and it certainly exposes those in it to seamier sides of humanity.</p>
<p>You mothers worry about way too much! They will be just fine!</p>
<p>Ughh. How does one find out the schools that have a reputation for treating kids like crap? I would assume that even on second look days that all are on their best behavior. Do upperclassmen at these events ever tell the real story or do the administrators running it only pick the best kids to do the marketing?</p>
<p>DD currently buried in all the financial aid stuff each school requires along with the FAFSA. The easiest would be to have something like the Common Application for aid but I guess the schools are not about making anything easy.</p>
<p>The students hosting Second Look events are all volunteers. (And let’s be honest, you don’t volunteer to boost the school if you’re unhappy with it.) But if the event isn’t tightly scheduled and the acceptee has a few minutes, she should wander over to the med library** or the student lounge–there’s always a ton of med students in there–strike up a chat of three and get opinions from a more diverse selection of students. Of course, most of the students in library will be MS1s & MS2s because the MS3s & MS4s are either at the hospital or trying to catch up on having an actual life. Still the M1 & 2s will have heard stuff and will have opinions.</p>
<p>As for the availability of support groups and formal abuse reporting protocols—that info should be publicly available (if rather deeply buried) in the school’s Student Handbook.</p>
<p>**I make near daily runs to the med school library and it’s always full of med students who are like a flock of noisy starlings. They are not that busy and are eminently interruptable.</p>
<p>I don’t see the point of second look until the financial aid numbers are in. </p>
<p>"First I worry she wouldn’t get in. Now I worry about what she may be getting into. "
-My D. was interviewing sometime ago. Her comments: “Poor things, they do not know what they are getting into” This was BEFORE her 3rd year, the times that she remember now almost as “vacation, relaxing” times. Her comments now in 3rd year arevery consistant: “I am very tired, but I like it a lot”. End of each telephone conversation, no matter what time of the evening: “I got to work now” “Work” is studying AFTER her rotation hours, which sometime are 12+ hours with few overnights. That is when she picks up. If she is busy, she does not pick up and we try not to bother her. She has left one core rotation and then electives. </p>
<p>"I don’t see the point of second look until the financial aid numbers are in. "
-Was crucial in D’s decision. Her choice flipped, she choose her Med. school based on Second Look event. She was strong about her original decision to the point that she has asked us to check apartments. We took 2 days of vacations and got the information, but she has changed her mind. She actually has chosen the most expensive school out of the accepted one and the lower ranked out of 2 finalists. But it was her dream school way back in HS and it has been working out for her so far very well.</p>
<p>One more comment. “the kids” will be treated “like crap” at some point during Medical School at ANY place and Medical school has no control over it, it is primarily during rotations. It is inevitabale. I actually was sorry for my D. for the fact that I did not develop her “thick” skin by always treating her with respect and she was blessed by surrounding herself with very positive people. IT HAS BACKFIRED in a big way. But it is better to have these negatvie experiences while still in school. Nope, not everythig will depend on their hard work, dedication. But they still have to perform at the highest level and hope to have luck as the other side might not appreciate them for simply having a bad day. Just remember, the medical student is at the bottom of the food chain, nurses can scream at them and they have to have a strength to take it as unfair as it might be. Just another test to pass…</p>
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I disagree. I had many friends who had 2nd looks before final fin aid numbers were in and while they had to wait until the numbers came in to make the final decision, you can get a pretty good idea of how you feel about the schools before money is taken into account and then you get the numbers and you can do something like “while i like X more than Y, I don’t like it $Z more than Y.”</p>
<p>Schools do have mistreatment committees and such to handle issues where students are being mistreated, but that requires more than being yelled at or called an idiot (e.g. sexual assault, racist/sexist/homophobic language). But yeah, miami is right, i don’t think there’s a single medical student at a single school that doesn’t get ripped a new one at some point during 3rd/4th years.</p>
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That’s not how I’ve heard the term used. I’ve always heard it used to describe when superiors question you on the spot on something obscure and then ridicule you for not knowing it. That’s why some say it’s an acronym for Put In My Place because basically the point is to highlight that the residents/attendings know more than you do. An example would be asking you to rattle off the symptoms of some random genetic condition, or the percentage of patients who will fail some treatment, or the surgical procedure for some operation.</p>
<p>Oh my, has this thread turned dark.</p>
<p>Oh well, on a brighter note, we have new rankings:
<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings</a>
All three of the Acceptances that I decided to hold went up, ;
=D> :-bd </p>
<p>Thanks for the early notification. Right now we are looking more at $$$ than ### though. All Ds choices are good ones. </p>