<p>but while you may end up differentiating yourself by choosing a different major, you’re likely to screw yourself in med school because you weren’t a science major…although I guess if your goal was to get in to med school, then you achieved it.
but you are right. pre-med classes get tough because everyone’s squeezing it within their first two years. why I kinda wish I could go into college already declared…</p>
<p>I majored in Astronomy and Astrophysics as an undergraduate so while I was a science major I was not a life sciences major. The only pre-med courses that were also part of my major requirements were Physics, Inorganic Chemistry and English composition . Although I took Math through Differential Equations as an undergraduate, when I was in medical school in the 1990s, few if any medical schools required any kind of college level Math course as a prerequisite for admission.</p>
<p>While being a physical science major was not that helpful as preparation for medical school I do not think the fact that I did not take any upper division Biology related courses disadvantaged me. In the first two years of medical school the things you learn are not that difficult to understand, it is just that there is so much of it that one can really feel overwhelmed at times, particularly when studying for step 1 of the USMLE. The second two years of medical school, when you do your clinical rotations, require less science knowledge than they do physical endurance and the ability to deal with abusive residents and attendings. You do have to accumulate a large amount of medical knowledge though or you will not pass steps 2 and 3 of the USMLE.</p>
<p>^what do you mean by “abusive”?</p>
<p>I frequently hear this type of thing from physicians that I encounter and words like that carry some ugly overtones. I’m not too excited about getting into a career where I will possibly be abused. :D</p>
<p>^ You’re at Berkeley. Don’t you already know what getting f****d on a daily basis feels like? Suck it up XD.</p>
<p>how 'bout no sport</p>
<p>Eh, if you’re smart enough you can probably get by with a great GPA/MCAT score in Berkeley. I must warn you though, a lot of my premed friends are continually stressed out and studying loads. With that being said, you can still do well at Cal. However, if you have any doubts about your academic performance and want to have an easier “grading scheme” so to speak, you might want to check out CSUs/lower-tier UCs. </p>
<p>Also it depends on what your major is. If you happen to choose Molecular Cell Biology, then you’ll be on a very competitive path because for some reason most pre-meds choose that route and if I recall correctly, the average GPA in that department is 2.97ish. However, other departments have higher averages so choose wisely.</p>
<p>^what do you mean by “abusive”?</p>
<p>I frequently hear this type of thing from physicians that I encounter and words like that carry some ugly overtones. I’m not too excited about getting into a career where I will possibly be abused. </p>
<p>In your third year you will start doing your mandatory clinical rotations in surgery. internal medicine, Ob-Gyn, pediatrics and psychiatry. Nearly all of this training will take place in a teaching hospital where there is a strict hierarchy for doctors and doctors in various stages or training. At the apex are the attending physicians followed by fellows, upper year residents, interns, 4th year medical students and then 3rd year medical students at the bottom. Attendings and senior residents will often hold medical students, Particularly 3rd years, in very low regard. It is a stressful environment and some attendings and residents are not only exasperated by the inexperience of medical students who they want to get as much work out of as possible but they also have little self-control. You will often be called “stupid”, “useless” or worse and be forced to bear the brunt of temper tantrums these people often have when they are frustrated. I even knew of cases where in a fit or rage a male attending surgeon punched a female 3rd year medical student in the face and a senior resident choked an intern. Physical abuse is rare since there could be consequences for the abuser such as being put on probation by the hospital but the verbal abuse is daily and tolerated since it is simply considered part of what you are expected to endure to become a doctor.</p>
<p>what are the consequences if you stand up for yourself and make it known you’re not going to take any of that?</p>
<p>
thank you for that, it’s great to hear about an honest account of what medical training is from someone who has been through it. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Seriously…I want to hear the answer to that too.</p>
<p>but from what I understand, your PD can try to get you to quit by saying that if you don’t, you’ll be fired. Meaning that the chances of matching into another residency in the next cycle will be far less (talk about job security).</p>
<p>Lemaitre-are you currently a med student then? and did you personally experience this-i just dont see how reporting that kind of abuse can just be ignored.</p>
<p>sheesh. that seriously blows. why am i premed again???</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.just-think-it.com/heartfailure.pdf[/url]”>http://www.just-think-it.com/heartfailure.pdf</a></p>
<p>Fun stuff in there. It’s about a decade old. I read it in high schooooooool. :)</p>
<p>^^interesting read</p>
<p>btw waiting, I think s/he’s a doc (s/he mentioned it on the first pg)</p>
<p>My cousin often tells stories of his med school years. He often said that in the beginning, he got treated just as bad as nurses, who, consequentially, made life difficult for the interns (nurses acted annoyingly stuck up and did not like to follow their orders); his sleep was constantly effected; he almost fell back into depression because a few of his patients passed awah while he was rotating in the ICU. He often said he wanted to quit, but had already gotten too far. I still think he hates his job. </p>
<p>Needless to say he likes to laugh at pre meds who act as if being a doctor is the best thing.</p>
<p>oh whoa this is great stuff. this is going to take me a while to digest-thx B17 :)</p>
<p>^^yeah, i know what you mean about nurses. i did a health rotation internship while in HS and nurses would in addition to openly biching to MDs faces would say the nastiest cattiest stuff behind their backs. i can only imagine how they would treat interns who they assume will be ordering them around within 5 years when they have been working as nurses for their whole lives :/</p>
<p>“what are the consequences if you stand up for yourself and make it known you’re not going to take any of that?” </p>
<p>You become tough, hostile and combative so they will prey on an easier target. I had been a very peaceful easy-going person. At the end of my surgery rotation I was eating out at McDonalds with my wife and two young sons when a couple of guys started smoking at the next table. I told them to put out the cigarettes, they refused, I went into a rage and nearly got into a fight with them. They put out their cigarettes and left the building. It was then I realized that after 12 weeks of surgery they had turned me into a surgeon.</p>
<p>“Meaning that the chances of matching into another residency in the next cycle will be far less (talk about job security).”</p>
<p>There is no job security until you finish your residency and can get your own unrestricted license to practice medicine and start your own practice. That is what I did and being the boss of your own medical practice is not a bad life but you have to endure a lot to get there and it takes a couple of years before your practice is profitable.</p>
<p>“what are the consequences if you stand up for yourself and make it known you’re not going to take any of that?”</p>
<p>Sometimes the weirdest things can save you. When I started my OB-Gyn rotation at a major teaching hospital in Philadelphia I was dreading it because it was my weakest area and I knew I was really going to be pummeled by the attendings and residents. However, the head of the department who had been there forever was a kind of eccentric old guy and would go on rounds with us and for some reason only asked questions like “how does a laser work?”, “what is a pulsar?”, “what is Schrodinger’s Equation in Quantum Mechanics?” Since I majored in Astronomy and took many upper division Physics courses as an undergraduate and all the other 3’rd year medical students were Biology majors, I was the only one that could answer all his questions which made him very pleased with me. The OB-Gyn attendings and residents knew that I was essentially clueless about OB-Gyn but left me alone because they did not want to anger the head of the Department. I met one of the OB-Gyn residents about a year later who said "Dr._____ still talks about you complaining that you were ’ the only medical student who ever knew anything’ ". It was surreal, I knew next to nothing about Ob-Gyn but got a great evaluation from that rotation as well as respectful treatment from the attendings and residents for knowing things that had absolutely nothing to do with Ob-Gyn.</p>
<p>I enjoy being a Physician, it was just some aspects of the training required to become one that I did not like.</p>
<p>it seems as though dentistry, optometry, and pharmacy have less extreme trade offs for around the same amount of money and respect.</p>
<p>^ @OoooOooooOoO… (How long does it take you to log in to CC? lol)</p>
<p>“dentistry, optometry, and pharmacy” are better than being a regular practicing physician, in terms of the trade-offs , but if you compare a surgeon to those three professions the salaries are not even close and the respect for a surgeon goes way above what any of those professions could offer.</p>