<p>Nice to read all the good news here. Congratulations! :)</p>
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<p>D did a rotation at an IHS facility in Shiprock and spent some time in Durango. L O V E D both the area and the rotation. Great docs…she learned a lot.</p>
<p>Not asking for my own child, but wanting clarification for my own understanding…</p>
<p>How does a graduate decide whether to do a post-bac or SMP? </p>
<p>If you have taken all the premed prereqs as an undergrad, but weren’t “premed,” so the GPA wasn’t a huge concern, and you graduated with a lowish 3.X GPA, what would be the best route? </p>
<p>If you’ve taken all the prereqs, is a post-bac even possible? If so, what would you take? I thought post-bacs were for grads who didn’t have the prereqs.</p>
<p>Or, would an option be to do a self-designed “post bac” and take higher classes in the areas where your previous scores were weak? Such as taking more bio and chem, if thoes grades were modest?</p>
<p>If you take undergrad courses (post bac or self-designed) after you graduate, then do those grades get figured into BCMP?<br>
If</p>
<p>"My question has nothing to do with my son’s future. My child never attended a CC. "</p>
<p>I understand that. I am trying to explain that it does seem to matter what one does in undergrad based on some of the feedback being provided by some people on CC who are involved in resident selection process. If they are looking at the fact that one did 6 or 7 year program before applying to residency which seems to impact their decision making, I think they do consider undergrad in someway in making their judgements.</p>
<p>Different residency programs look for different things. Some thoughts that may come in handy from someone who does this:</p>
<p>Our program screens applicants by board scores (only the top are even looked at). Then letters of recommendation (extremely important, especially from doctors in the specialty, med school committee letters matter not much at all unless there was a big problem), and med school grades. Several hundreds apply.</p>
<p>Then about 40 are asked to interview. We pick one handful of the 40 for residents. </p>
<p>1) Interviewers ask residents why they are interested in the specialty (they all say great specialty…we agree so that boring part is over). Having taken a year to do research in the specialty is frequent, and a strong plus. </p>
<p>2) Because the resident is basically becoming part of our family (our field has small, intense residencies), we try very hard to pick people who work well as a team member. Team athletes in college have a real advantage there, and olympians are highly regarded. Play up experiences with teamwork in school or job if none in athletics. We ask all kinds of questions about how they handled conflict as a student, getting criticized, dealing with challenging interpersonal situations. Frankly, personality is the major cause of failure in residency. SMILE, MAKE EYE CONTACT, be enthusiastic but respectful. Like to work hard. Say so. Do not complain about anything. Do research on the individuals who will be interviewing you, and express interest in their subspecialty, research, publications or areas of excellence.</p>
<p>3) We ask all about family, early childhood, high school, siblings. Individuals who overcame challenges have a real advantage here. Many of our best residents had to learn English and came from immigrant families, for example. Compelling stories about why they chose medicine are remembered (relatives sick, family pediatrician, etc.). These should be crafted into the essay. Show, do not tell, very compelling personal reasons for choosing to be a physician, and the challenges overcome to get here. </p>
<p>4) Making clear one’s interest in the program, for example having grown up in the state, having family or significant others in the area. We want residents who will very likely pick our program if we pick them. Yield is important to most residencies. Make it clear why you will absolutely come if offered a spot. This is why students with local connections do well with many residencies.</p>
<p>5) Have demonstrated leadership or passion. Start a community service program in med school, get a book published, become a leader in the state student medical association, start a special interest group among students in the specialty and invite speakers, volunteer summers in Africa, something that sets you apart.</p>
<p>Obviously not all candidates will have extensive research, great personalities, stunning letters, perfect board scores, overcame great hurdles to become olympic athletes, started a free medical clinic and are absolutely committed to coming to our program if accepted. But they try to get us to think of them that way ;-)</p>
<p>To all the CC geniuses out there:</p>
<p>Do any of you know a way to get iPhone (4S) to stop autocorrecting medical words? I know this is like, a hilarious example of a first-world problems (“Woe is me, my iPhone makes it annoying to type words for medical school”) but it’s something that really has gotten on my nerves!</p>
<p>I know you can download medical dictionaries (eg Stedman’s) to work with Microsoft Word et al as a spellchecker (so Word adds all those medical words to its dictionary and stops redlining all the things you type)–is there something similar for iPhone? If there is, I haven’t been able to find it yet!</p>
<p>(I know you can add words to your dictionary manually, but it just seems wayyyy too cumbersome to add all of them!)</p>
<p>Hmmm. My kid has a 4S and my kid’s school issues iPads. I wonder…I’ll ask. </p>
<p>In other news, she just found a whole bucketload of evaluations she didn’t know she had. Apparently she didn’t know to look. Let’s see, hmmm. Third year is almost over and…</p>
<p>Some really good ones but I have already used my quarterly parental brag token. Crap. I hate it when that happens.</p>
<p>You can just turn off autocorrect all together. I discovered that when I see the letters showing as I type & I see the right letters, I almost never went back to review. After autocorrect changes formica to fornicate when I was texting a Mormon contractor, I just turned it off!</p>
<p>As in, “My husband really wants a new Formica counter.”</p>
<p>Sorry. But I’m still laughing. ;)</p>
<p>As in formica on the table in the kitchen…yeah, I laughed!
;)</p>
<p>lollll i’m still laughing too!</p>
<p>I don’t know if any of you folks heard about this and what is your feeling in regards to having a daughter going into medicine:</p>
<p>[Former</a> anesthesiology chair wins $7 million from Beth Israel Deaconess to settle gender bias suit - Lifestyle - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/2013/02/07/former-anesthesiology-chair-wins-million-from-beth-israel-deaconess-settle-gender-bias-suit/zXyke5jXn2Oztrgp04KzeN/story.html]Former”>http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/2013/02/07/former-anesthesiology-chair-wins-million-from-beth-israel-deaconess-settle-gender-bias-suit/zXyke5jXn2Oztrgp04KzeN/story.html)</p>
<p>I’m not at all surprised that gender bias exists in medicine.</p>
<p>I’m only surprised that she won since discrimination and/or retaliation lawsuits against institutional employers are notoriously hard to win. (I know this because someone I know personally has been involved in a discrimination/retaliation lawsuit and the whole process was really, really ugly from beginning to end…)</p>
<p>D1 is very aware of its [gender bias] existence and we’ve discussed the topic a number of times–especially since she’s interested in fields where there is still a strong male majority among practioners. (I think it may have helped that she majored in a largely male-dominated field in undergrad. She’s already run into ‘old boy’ networks and been ignored at meetings for being female and has had to learn how to deal with some these issues). D2’s ability to deal with this I am less sanguine about.</p>
<p>Yes my daughter has seen a lot of the same thing</p>
<p>somemom - That was my laugh for the day. Thanks!</p>
<p>DocT - I believe that this exists - and our daughters need to be able to navigate in this world. I’m not saying it is right, just that it is there in some places she has been. Our D is pretty strong and learned to stand up for herself through her youth experiences in sports, classes she took when she was the only female, etc. She has always had many guy friends and even lived with guys (and girls) during med school. So far, in her residency, she has felt very respected by her G2s, G3s, and attendings. I am happy about this. She does tell lots of little stories about patients, however, that think she is a nurse. And the older patients always call her ‘dear’ and ‘honey’. Smile. Smile. </p>
<p>And on a happy note - I got to spend Friday with D on her first day off in many, many days. It was fabulous. And she is getting off a little early today and we will see her again for dinner. :)</p>
<p>D1 came for Spring Solstice dinner (and to claim her Easter candy). She starts clincals tomorrow.</p>
<p>Anyway, I expected D1 to not have her nose glued to her iPad when she visited since she’s done with her STEP, but apparently she’s presenting a case (her first!) on IM rounds tomorrow and was busy reading all about hepatic failure and cirrhosis of the liver.</p>
<p>You know you’ve raised a doctor when…</p>
<p>your kid comes over to the house wearing a pager.</p>
<p>A friend is attending a 7yr BA/MD non binding program and is completing the BA portion this June (after 3 years). Question: If he applies to a higher ranked MD program this summer and gets accepted next year, can he still enroll in the MD program of his current BA/MD this fall and leave next year to the higher ranked med school? This wont be a transfer, he will start as a freshman at the higher ranked med school. Are there contractual obligations at MD programs where if you start at one program you cannot opt out and attend another MD program after a year?</p>
<p>I do not think it is possible. But I am not familiar with situations like this. Keep in mind that Med. school programs are very different from school to school.</p>