<p>So...I've been going to a bunch of interviews, eating box lunches, and getting drilled on why I've chosen this profession, and I thought I'd create this thread as a release. This is just to remind ourselves of the reasons why we write dozens of essays and travel hundreds of miles to apply to these programs. Because a career medicine is worth it. It's rewarding in every way, it's constantly changing, the people are amazing, and it's fun! I can't wait to graduate and meet the challenges of college, med school, residency, the whole works, to grow into a doctor who will love what I do every day. I think it's easy to lose touch of this through such a strenuous admissions process. Best of luck to all of you, I hope I meet some of you one day! What are you most looking forward to? What are some funny experiences you've had through the admission/interview process? Hey, we're seniors, and we've all accomplished a lot. Let's look back and enjoy it :)</p>
<p>calm down buddy.</p>
<p>Are you a senior in high school?</p>
<p>I don’t want to kill your high, but the majority of people I knew who wanted to be doctors in high school (including myself) did not end up going to medical school. Matter of fact, only two of my high school friends are currently in medical school.</p>
<p>Get through college at first and then reevaluate whether you really love medicine.</p>
<p>zzzboy- Your response was very cynical.</p>
<p>juillet- WHAT are you talking about? This is a combined medical program (BS/MD program) thread, no? If the OP is accepted now they are accepted to med school now. </p>
<p>And why are you posting here if you are suggesting applying after college?</p>
<p>haha it’s OK, I know I must sound inexhaustibly optimistic, but whatever, I’m going to enjoy it 
I am applying to multiple degree programs, and I’m fortunate that I’ve had enough access to the field that I can make this decision. But really I just made this as a place where seniors can blow off some steam after all the stress of applying to these programs. (sorry, didn’t mean to cause controversy or anything!)</p>
<p>ok taking what snm35 said about blowing off steam</p>
<p>i’m soo glad apps for the bs/md programs are over!! i’m still soo nervous about finding out where i got in but i have 2 more weeks until my first acceptance/rejection comes!
and yea go medicine! but i have to ask honestly- out of anyone looking at/responding to the thread, how many of u are east indian/asian? because the thing about boxed lunches ( i know wierd) got me thinking about one of my interviews. i had an interview at drexel for the villanova/drexel program, and literally 80% of the people at the interview were indian (and i’m indian too) so yea…
just rambling for a bit, getting some stuff off my chest</p>
<p>how would you feel if you didnt get into any program?</p>
<p>paying thousands of dollars for box lunches?</p>
<p>omg shut up. we’re not the adcoms, u dont need to lie to us. save that junk for somebody who cares.</p>
<p>i >doctor than you.</p>
<p>oreo45,
D’s combined bs/md survival rate / Med. school entrance rate is on average 50%, it is close to overall pre-med’s rate. Good number of Honors students have changed their major after very first semester of college Bio (I am talking about people who absolutely ace’d everything including AP Bio in HS). Concerns are very valid.</p>
<p>Miami, none of the bs/md programs that I am familiar with have a 50% drop out rate. The highest drop out rate at a bs/md program that I’ve heard is 20% (UMKC).</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>Although many kids change their minds about medicine during their College years, there definitely are some few (myself included) who have loved medicine/medical science; and all the challenges and joys it brings in our lives from Teen years.</p>
<p>For those of you who love medicine early on, it’s like being a ‘kid in a candy store’. In my 2 decades of R&D in Pharma, I have had the opportunity to work in Cardiology, Endocrinology, Women’s Health, and Neurology - to me it’s all been incredibly enjoyable… each area appeals in its own way. It’s wonderful when you love what you do! You wake up every morning with a promise of how much you can accomplish. I am not saying that there are no downer days, just that when you do, you pick yourself up and carry on much more easily fuelled by your love and passion for medicine.</p>
<p>So, Good luck to you on your pursuits. We definitely need more younger docs and scientists in this area to keep the field energized</p>
<p>Thanks Pharmagal I hope that I’ll enjoy it as much as you do when I get there!</p>
<p>snm35, I know exactly how you feel about being excited to become a doctor.
It has been my dream ever since I knew what a doctor was (probably one or two years old). I know many people say theres a big dropout rate, but hopefully I’m not going to, because I would be crushed.
I’m so determined, and I hate it when pesimistic people are always telling me that many people change their mind, or don’t make it, or say I’m overconfident.
The truth is that I AM confident, (because that wouldn’t be so great… being a doctor without confidence?) but I’m not cocky. It’s hard to explain.
But trust me I know how you feel about these people telling you to calm down or that there’s a fifty percent dropout rate. What happened to supporting each other?
So yeah, I’m just venting about people that bring you down.
But anyways, good luck in the future ! ( to all of you )</p>
<p>If you are sure of your plans then when someone says these things to you just smile and agree with them because there is no changing their mind. They do not want to hear anything else & its easier & quicker to finish up with them. Oh & stay away from negative people- this is why. Be with those who are positive for you and support your dreams- even if things change.</p>
<p>I think the reason people tend to emphasize the negative aspects of medicine is that a) medicine is a declining profession in just about every respect and b) most high schoolers have an overglamorized view of medicine and what it means to be a med student or a physician. I can probably get half of you to drop out of premed right now if you spent a week with me and you have to see how much I’m expected to learn in a typical week in med school.</p>
<p>i disagree- almost all of the people who apply for these programs have usually been exposed to the “real side” of medicine in one way or another: whether its through family members or shadowing/research/volunteering otherwise they would not have even considered the accelerated bs/md route</p>
<p>I don’t agree with you norcalguy.</p>
<p>Heck, research shows that med students don’t even have an accurate view of medicine when they first enter med school. Surveys of first year students cite a desire to help people as a primary motivator for entering medicine. Surveys of third and fourth year students cite lifestyle and income as primary motivators for choosing medicine and their specialties. So, how can you expect a 18 year old to know what medicine is like?</p>
<p>Medicine is in every respect a declining profession:
- Salaries have declined approx. 7% in the last decade when you account for inflation.
- Debt upon graduation from med school has increased enormously.
- Physicians have much less autonomy to practice today than they did in the past.
- Malpractice premiums have risen each year for the last 15 or so years.
- The healthcare system that you will be working in is horribly broken.</p>
<p>The closest thing to med school that you’ll experience as a college student is not your shadowing or your hospital volunteering experiences. It’s actually in the difficulty of your coursework: staying in on Friday nights to study, filling your head with so many facts that your brain feels like it’s about to explode, not having the same kind of social life as your non-premed friends, sacrificing your summers to study for the MCAT. That’s the very thing that BS/MD programs deprive their students o. If I were to rate difficulty on a scale of 1-10, I’d put the difficulty of HS at a 1, college at a 3, and med school at a 8. That’s roughly proportional to the amount of studying you’ll have to do. I did the traditional college thing, earned a 3.9+ in undergrad, and I am still shocked at what is expected of us on a daily basis in med school. I can’t imagine jumping from a 1 to a 8. Transitioning from traditional premed to med school is tough enough. Transitioning from laid-back premed is that much tougher.</p>
<p>in these programs though, in the interview, they specifically ask why the student wants to go to medicine. Because it is so competitive, the schools are so careful that they pick people going into medicine for the right reasons. About course load, i’m not going to say that med school isnt difficult. However, i dont think the jump is necessarily from a 1 to an 8. Those in the BS/MD programs are people who have worked as hard as they could in high school, taking the toughest classes and getting the best scores while doing numerous different activities. Chances are, they’re going to do the same in med school. So while i will concede the jump exists, i would say it is more from a 4 or 5 to an 8 than a 1 to an 8. While it is a good thing that the programs are reducing their numbers, in the end, after they’ve been reduced, those accepted are the top students who honestly i think will make the transition more easily than others.</p>
<p>If your going to be pessimistic then don’t post… WE as a whole already know its going to be hard whether or not you get into a program. Sure we all know its going to be tough, we know we will have to work extremely hard, but in the end we know it will be worth it.
Congrats to all who got into one</p>