<p>Oh, yeah. This is gonna end well. ;)</p>
<p>Curm is willing to draft the contracts for the young’uns here…</p>
<p>“You are on the right path if you start looking at your future from a business and situational perspective. Let me be clear, I am not saying anyone should chase the money”
-Very good and very much in line of D’s thinking (even way back in HS). She was always into balance in her life. Busy balance, but nonetheless…growing up being extremely busy in completely unreleated activities and showing huge success in each (her team records are still standing…15 years later, stuff like this). Maintaining balanced life is a key to her success and she sticks to people who are like that, a bit more relaxed, looking for life outside of academics whenever they have a chance.
I am glad to see reassurances in your posts. I love to read them. Thank you.</p>
<p>"A future where hospitals, nurses, staff, your partners and patients won’t all worry about money "
…because money will grow on the trees in the backyard of the hospital, right? Very helpful to know. Actually i have a great personal experience with the medical system that operates under this pricipals. Nope, they do not worry about money, they just let old/sick to die and they do not care if infant does not survive, only fittest are suppose to survivie anyway (according to the theory by another great).<br>
Nice insights. Hopefully ther will be more and more boutique MDs and again, for those of us with $$, there is India with plenty of American trained docs.
I and people around me know exactly what in pipes, we lived it and many many lost thier family / friends prematurely to this “free for all” system. You either pay $$$ or you pay by years of your life. There is NO FREE LUNCH, the very basic law of Econ 101. however, the choice was made in 2008, way to late to think about choice, have to be prepared to consequences. Best wishes with the last one.</p>
<p>We were told by DS that he will not have the weekend off in the next 4 weeks (at least).</p>
<p>He had seen dying children (less than 18 yo = children here) during his previous rotation. I think he has started to see the “dark” side of medicine, in cases where the doctors are incapable of saving some lives and had to let some patients die while helping them not suffer too much in their dying process. For child patients, it is almost always the case that it was not their fault. It is hard to see them suffer and eventually die.</p>
<p>He also said he needs to study something because the attendings, etc., will check whether the students come to the hospital without any preparation. But I do not know what materials he needs to study.</p>
<p>I worry the life may be too tough for him in this year. So far it appears he still handles it well enough and does not have complaints. He seems to have learned some coping skills with superiors, patients (and their parents.) He observed that a patient’s parent is a first-time father and is a physician himself. The doctors need to spend more efforts to “handle” this kind of parent because he knew too much (and asked too many probing questions which are hard to answer.) Maybe physicians are the worst patients (or the parents of the patient.)</p>
<p>^ They are rated and tested during each rotation. So they probably prep each day about cases in that area or theory related to specialization?</p>
<p>During rounds on the rotation, students have to present cases–which requires researching the medical literature for the treatments/drugs/outcomes/tests for the patient’s illness/symptoms.</p>
<p>Also at the end of each clinical rotation, students take oral and written competency exams.</p>
<p>I’m expected to know about the conditions, treatment strategies, pathophysiology, etc etc for each of my 2-3 pts at a time. I’m also expected to know the details of their admission, their families, their concerns about their health care, etc etc. I learn it by talking with residents, reading various text and review books, using online sources, attending lectures, working with pts, etc. </p>
<p>Surgery was an entirely different beast. We were required to know much more technical information about the procedure, relevant anatomy to the procedure and the “region” where it was being performed, and all the details about the condition, treatment strategies, epidemiology, prognosis, etc etc.</p>
<p>And of course, you should know plenty about the eponyms behind things (Who was Dr Cushing? Who was Dr Halsted? What did they contribute? Why do we call it McBurney’s point? Are Paget’s diseases similar? Why’s that called a DeBakey? Where’d he go to school? Etc) and other obscure medical trivia/history.</p>
<p>Bonus points for knowing classic rock in the OR, or anything about your attendings’ hobbies. (Which, so far, have ranged from cars to cooking to traveling to art to hunting to astronomy…)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Bonus points for knowing classic rock in the OR, or anything about your attendings’ hobbies.[/qoute]</p>
<p>lol +1 to this (and re:knowing obscure medical trivia). I think one of the more common questions I was asked in the OR was “Hey Icarus, do you know what band/song (and/or what year it is from) this is?”</p>
<p>In your opinions, what is the absolute minimum threshold for GPA for an average student to get admitted?</p>
<p>Assuming by “average” you mean “meets expectations in all other fields including MCAT, extracurriculars, LORs, communication skills, and timely application,” I’d say 3.5+ should do the trick. But that’s a heckuva qualification (meaning you need to hit EVERY other mark with some gusto). I’d be a lot more comfortable applying with >3.7. </p>
<p>In my personal experience and that of my friends who are currently med students, it seems like you can “get by” with a “deficiency” in precisely one category. So if you are great in all other realms, you can probably “get by” with a GPA 3.5 OR MCAT 29/30 OR only a little shadowing OR weak volunteering OR not much research OR no leadership OR etc etc. The only method to this thought is that it seems to apply to me and my friends who are at a variety of schools.</p>
<p>Does it matter which undergraduate program you are in? Since not all undergrad programs are equal?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not really - my undergrad degree was in Philosophy, and it only came up in a positive context in med school interviews.</p>
<p>I’m sorry - I meant which school you go to. For instance, I would think that a 3.5 at Harvard would be different from a 3.5 at a community college.</p>
<p>The answer is the same - “not really” - yes, there is some difference in how you are viewed based on your undergrad school, but it’s no a huge difference for the most part. There are so many undergrad schools, it would be impossible for adcom members to say “oh look, Jimmy is from school x, we should adjust their GPA by a factor of 1.2 because they tend to grade deflate…” </p>
<p>Also, it looks from your “location” that you already made your undergrad choice, so you shouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>The great equalizer is the MCAT. Colleges will differ, GPAs will relatively be different. But a 40 MCAT with a 3.5 from predominantly community college prerequisites vs. a 34 and a 3.5 from an Ivy shifts the playing field. Icarus and kristin are correct with their statements.</p>
<p>Just have a goal of GPA=4.0 and MCAT=40. Why not? 4.0 is pretty reasonable expectation, 40 will need a huge luck…or photographic memory, but if you aim high, then it is a valid assumption that your MCAT will be decent. like 35+ will do great.</p>
<p>I could not forsee there is a day that I have to buy shoes for DS without him trying it first.</p>
<p>DS almost always wears running (or walking) shoes like the ones from New Balance, but recently has the need to wear more formal looking dress shoes for a long time. Most of you know how long a day is during MS3!</p>
<p>Could any parent here give me some pointers to what brand/model is a comfortable one? It has to be of the color dark brown (DS’s tired of wearing black “orchestra shoes” - the only kind we know how to buy.) If it is as comfortable as running (or walk) shoes, it would be the best. The price is not a big concern but we need to buy it all by ourselves in a hurry without him being here to try it out as he won’t come home for quite a while.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>DS is in IM rotation now. So he does not need to wear the kind of shoes people recommended for surgery rotation. But he could not wear his New Balance running shoes as it is not proper according to him.</p>
<p>He’s very tired already when he called us. If IM rotation is like this, the surgery rotation may be even more “scary”!</p>
<p>The standby for tired med student feet are Dansko clogs. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dansko.com/Mens/Footwear/View%20All/[/url]”>http://www.dansko.com/Mens/Footwear/View%20All/</a></p>
<p>The Professional or Professional XP are the most commonly worn styles, but there are lace-up versions too if he hates clogs.</p>
<p>The XP and Walden lines have slip-resistant soles–which may be useful on rounds.</p>