<p>
lol. I was thinking earlier today that God was certainly a merciful God, as I , too, am beginning to forget all this stuff.</p>
<p>That’s why our blow by blow last year was a great way to post, we are already getting muzzy headed about the whole thing</p>
<p>^ I think the parents (like you two) last year are “better” (meaning: more knowlegeable and helpful for their own children or fellow CCer’s) than parents in this year. However, the students this year appear to be more active than the counterpart last year :)</p>
<p>I also notice that there appears to be more D’s last year, and more S’s this year. Maybe there will be more D’s next year.</p>
<p>Among the long-time “super helpers” (i.e., those medical school students and the one in residency, i.e., BRM) on the CC premed forum, male ones appear to be over-represented :)</p>
<p>Really dumb question…</p>
<p>Q. When is the doctor an “intern” and when is he a “resident”? Are these things now blurred? I used to think that after one got a MD degree that first the person is an intern, and then later a resident. But, now I’m not sure.</p>
<p>My expertise, based on watching Grey’s, ER, etc, would say intern = the first year of the residency.</p>
<p>Somemom is right…first year of residency equals intern. Seems like interns will do the most general stuff/have a chance to see many facets of the program before deciding which to choose for a type of specialty. Many fourth year med students are required to do a sub internship in whatever field they’ll be applying for residency…with the difference between a rotation and a sub I being that the latter allows the student to basically practice as a first year resident…an intern.</p>
<p>Thanks ladies! :)</p>
<p>I do have to add, I always had the impression that the first two years are classroom, then years 3-4 are clinical (of med school, not residency), but DD has had many patient interaction opportunities.</p>
<p>They have a link with a local homeless shelter and med students volunteer each weekend, assisting the Docs and taking histories etc. They have preceptorships where they are technically shadowing doctors either in the hospital or the office and once again they take histories and do intake exams. There is considerable latitude in terms of allowing them to choose various specialties with which to connect, it has been DDs best day of the week all year as it is real rather than theoretical.</p>
<p>Re: year 1 & 2 being classroom-based. It depends on the school and what kind of curriculum they use. Our state med school uses “Problem Based Learning” and puts students into clinical settings even before they start formal academic classes as a M1. Lots of hands on patient contact from Day 1 onward.</p>
<p>Q. Did any of you use MCAT flashcards to study with? If so, which ones did you like?</p>
<p>WOWMom, ah, yes, I do recall reading mad discussions about PBL or not on SDN, apparently DD is doing PBL.</p>
<p>I was just curious if someone could perhaps tell me what is so important about the grade one gets in organic chemistry? It’s been said that this one grade becomes very telling and I was just curious what it actually says about either one’s potential in medicine or that it has nothing to do with med school admissions and only the overall GPA truly matters. It’s just that I imagine there are a lot harder classes to be taken in college so is it that this is just a weeder class of sorts and that’s why the grade becomes relevant? Just curious why people feel it’s so important.</p>
<p>I found organic chemistry to be the closest utilization of skill-sets to medical school, although the knowledge base was almost totally irrelevant. The raw memorization involved in both was comparable, although of course medical school had a lot more of it.</p>
<p>What BDM said. I have read that it is an indicator of the sheer ability to memorize and test on that knowledge.</p>
<p>*From what I understand, ED application will restrict me from applying RD until ED decision comes out. That means I will have very little time to apply to other schools of ED doesnt come through. *</p>
<p>Q. When would the decision for an ED app come out.</p>
<p>(dumb questions) I understand the ED process for undergrad, but I’m not sure I understand it for med school.</p>
<p>Q. When are submitting apps in the summer, are those ALL ED apps? Or are some summer applications considered to be RD apps? </p>
<p>Q. When do people submit ED apps?</p>
<p>Q. When do people submit RD apps?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It might be school-specific, but our state med school releases ED decision on Oct 1. (Which is late, but not so late it precludes applying to other medical schools since the earliest close date for applications I’ve seen is Oct 15.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think it works similarly. For ED, an applicant may apply to ONLY one school and agrees to not send out any other applications until ED decisions have been released. Upon receiving an ED acceptance, the applicant sends in his deposit and is done with the whole process. I’m pretty sure (99% sure) ED acceptees may not send in any other applications to other medical schools once they’ve been accepted under ED.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most summer applications are RD. If I understand correctly, very few people apply ED since it may actually reduce an applicant’s chance of getting accepted to a medical school. All those summer applications—those are RD applicants sending in their applications as soon as each school starts accepting applications. Oddly the date that ED opens is also usually the date RD opens.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>June 1-August 1 is the usual ED application period.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>At any time during the RD application period. Which is usually between June 1 and whatever closing date the school sets. (Typical closing dates that I remember were all between Oct 15 & Nov 15, though I think there might have been one on Dec 1.)</p>
<p>While the common wisdom is apply early in the RD period, D1’s Kaplan instructor feels there are certain cases where it’s not advantageous to submit early, esp if your app has a weakness. (I think his reasoning was along the lines that early on the process if your app has a obvious weakness and what the adcom is mostly reviewing are very strong candidates your app will actually look worse than it is, but later in the application season when they’ve had a chance to see more applicant files that your weakness might not appear quite so bad in comparison.)</p>
<p>There are two major differences to the undergrad process. First, medical school ED prohibits you from applying at all to other schools. Undergrad ED or EA only prohibits you from other “Early” applications – you can send in your RD applications simultaneously.</p>
<p>Second, medical school admissions is much more time sensitive. In undergrad, it’s not wise to wait until you’ve heard back from your ED school, but it won’t kill you and anyway you don’t have to wait. In medical school admissions, it will really cause major problems if you wait until October – and with ED, you have to wait.</p>
<p>Didn’t want to make a new thread for a couple of my q’s so I bumped this one up.</p>
<ol>
<li>How many hours do premed students typically take freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years?</li>
<li>I’ve already done quite a bit of shadowing, but I’m still a senior. . Also, the shadowing was done at Canadian hospitals/health care locations. Am I allowed to use these hours and on an application how specific do I have to be when it comes to listing shadowing experiences? </li>
<li>How many hours of shadowing would be more than enough? I’m trying to compare what I currently have to how much I’d need. I know it’s not to be treated as a checklist but having a general idea helps. </li>
<li>Who do students typically get LORs from? (The prof who you’ve taken multiple classes from and done well or the prof who you’ve done research with or the prof you’ve done research with and taken classes from and done well?)</li>
<li>Do Honors programs help one get great LORs? Are Honors programs worth it?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>1.) As many as they reasonably think they can handle; typically this is in the upper range of normal for their school – but that varies from school to school. Ask around after you start.</p>
<p>2.) No, the application asks for post-secondary experience.</p>
<p>4.) All of the above, some combination, whatever. No set formula. Also depends on your undergrad school, so you’ll have to find out when you get there.</p>
<p>1) Enough to graduate on time and have pre-med pre-reqs complete before taking the MCAT. For non-engineering majors, that’s usually about 16 credits per semester. For engineering majors, that can be 17+ credits per semester. BE SURE to mix harder classes with less-demanding classes each semester. You don’t want to have 4 demanding classes each with its own 3 hour lab in one semester. </p>
<p>5) Honors programs can sometimes be a source for great LORs because the classes are smaller and therefore your prof is more likely to know you. I think that it’s best to be “thinking ahead” about who you’ll get LORs from and making sure that those profs know you.</p>