<p>It seems as though everyone I ask wants to major in premed and become a cardiologist or neurologist. I'm really worried that there will be too many people in the medical field and the competition will be completely cutthroat. How do you guys deal with that?</p>
<p>Most of their dreams will be left in tatters, on the cutting room floor so to speak. Or as my insanely avuncular grandpa used to say "If if's and but's were candy and nuts , we'd all have a Merry Christmas." </p>
<p>Translation from Curmudgeonese to English: Wishes and want to's are a long way from being a neurologist or cardiologist. Concentrate on yourself. Natural attrition will do its work.</p>
<p>exactly what ive seen, except everyone i know wants to be a neurosurgeon. anyway, most of them probably aren't smart enough to even make it to med school, let alone match into a residency like that.</p>
<p>Or if they are smart enough, most aren't crazy enough to keep thinking they want to be neurosurgeons...</p>
<p>About 585% of all people I've met are premeds. Not all of them will be in another 2 years, and even more won't make it after the application cycle.</p>
<p>You know what I find really sad? I went to the last meeting of my school's "Pre-Med Society" because my school's premed advisor came to speak about the whole process (a lot of it specifically related to the procedure at my school, such as a composite letter of rec, etc) and to answer questions about the medical school application process. An officer of the pre-med club, a junior, asked "Is there anything like the Common Application for medical schools?"</p>
<p>Seriously, it irritates me when an officer in the pre-med club doesn't know the slightest bit about what he's planning to get into, yet somehow became an officer in the pre-med club.</p>
<p>Truth be told, I think I know more about the application process and medicine in general than any of the officers of that club.</p>
<p>That junior should have spent Thanksgiving filling out a practice AMCAS. Seriously.</p>
<p>Pfff, maybe I'm overreacting but... an officer... in the premed club?!</p>
<p>I think about half my husband's med school class had totally changed their minds on their chosen specialties by the time they got to 4th year. And he went to a very good school, the kind that attracts the "I'm going to be a neurosurgeon" type. Wanting to be something when looking at it from the outside and wanting to be something after actually experiencing it are two different things.</p>
<p>In reality, one of the fastest growing specialties is emergency medicine, which is what my husband does. So he had the experience of the numbers stacked against him. Still made it, though. So stop worrying.</p>
<p>One of my interview days had the dean of admissions tell us:
"About half of you have a specialty picked out pretty firmly. About one-ninth of that group will turn out to be correct about that."</p>
<p>i think people just hear the word "neurosurgeon" and can't help but think of fame and prestige. maybe thats why so many people say thats what they want to be even though they have no idea what it takes to get there or the kind of life that those jobs require.</p>
<p>Gross Anatomy disabused me of any notion of going into plastic surgery or head and neck surgery. I do not want to spend the rest of my life picking through someone's facial fat looking for all the important branches of the facial nerve so that person's face isn't paralyzed after I do a procedure. I don't have the patience for that.</p>
<p>Well, what do I know. I'm a first-year. Hurray for picking through fat. <em>ugh</em></p>
<p>What, you don't like peeling somebody's face off of their head and then putting it back on?</p>
<p>I suppose all these specialties are still better than a friend of mine fascinated with Mortuary Science. He made a project complete with very, <em>VERY</em> graphic pictures (as in the face of the skin peeled of and hanging, everything exposed), mentioning how they remove the guts and all. He got over that phase when he smelled embalming fluid.</p>
<p>BDM:</p>
<p>Oh, the skinning I don't mind. You can just rip the skin off, for the most part. :D It's the tedious picking that I can't stand. Also, I suck at it.</p>
<p>Though, the WORST thing this semester was skinning the leg. Our leg was so fatty that it was just... juicy. We had liquid fat running down our table/stretcher/whatever. At least removing the calvaria and partially disarticulating the skull was cool. Skinning the leg was gross.</p>
<p>So I guess thigh surgery is out for me, too. :)</p>
<p>tostito:</p>
<p>You get used to the smell of your own cadaver. By the end, your cadaver smells... not great, but okay. Everyone else's cadavers smell like the mouth of Hell.</p>
<p>
[quote]
By the end, your cadaver smells... not great, but okay. Everyone else's cadavers smell like the mouth of Hell.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At least our cadaver was successfully preserved. The table next to us got a cadaver on which they hadn't used enough formaldehyde. By a lot.</p>
<p>The good news was that at least the colors looked "right."</p>
<p>
[quote]
You know what I find really sad? I went to the last meeting of my school's "Pre-Med Society" because my school's premed advisor came to speak about the whole process (a lot of it specifically related to the procedure at my school, such as a composite letter of rec, etc) and to answer questions about the medical school application process. An officer of the pre-med club, a junior, asked "Is there anything like the Common Application for medical schools?"</p>
<p>Seriously, it irritates me when an officer in the pre-med club doesn't know the slightest bit about what he's planning to get into, yet somehow became an officer in the pre-med club.</p>
<p>Truth be told, I think I know more about the application process and medicine in general than any of the officers of that club.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>GoldShadow, then why don't you be an officer or even a president of the club? ;)
Wouldn't being an officer or president of a club be a good EC?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Wouldn't being an officer or president of a club be a good EC?
[/quote]
No. But it would be a nice thing for him to do for the younger students.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses everyone ! :) </p>
<p>How do I know that I will be in that small percentage that can actually make it through the entire process? I just don't want to waste time if Med school isn't for me</p>
<p>My school has gotten away from using formaldehyde. My biggest thing was that one of the newer preservatives - formalin I think - is an appetite stimulant, and I'd leave the anatomy lab every day practically famished. Or when we had Monday Night Football gatherings at BW-3's and you'd be sitting there eating wings and smell your hands - which despite you washing your hands all the time, and applying hand cream - still smelled like cadaver, that was gross...also happened a lot at lunch during the week.</p>
<p>Surgery clerkship, you get used to the smell of cauterized flesh pretty quickly...that's not as bad, but it lingers on your hands too, even if you are just a third year and holding suction.</p>
<p>As for your question SNM - you won't know until you try. If you are worried about wasting time, then maybe you should just go ahead and change your goals now, look for something where "success" is a little bit more guaranteed. I have a cousin who is applying to dental school for the 4th time, so that's three whole years he's essentially put his life on hold waiting to see if he's going to get in. For him, he believes it'll all be worth it if he gets accepted. You don't sound like the same type of person.</p>
<p>Oh, I think we used formalin too.</p>
<p>And we started double gloving pretty quickly. Triple in the abdomen.</p>
<p>4 times is a little silly. Is he doing anything differently?</p>