medical school

i can see this thread is going to be a huge hit

nice knowing you

gbx, there is no doubt in my mind that you will get in!

I'm sorry that I gave up being a pre-med a long time ago, but I do remember how intense even the anticipation of making an application is... Where are you in the process? (Didn't you say that you have an interview in January?)

when u tryna start? where?

next fall

first interview on january 10th (minnesota)
haven't heard from anywhere else yet (yeeks!)

would really like to go back to my alma mater (<---- first time i have used that word) or vermont or colorado

i seem to think that i'll have time to do fun stuff outside

who is your interview @ mn with? i had m1les, who values research experience very very highly. woe unto you if you're without.

good luck!

i am without :-/

wait i believe i recall you posting an mcat of 36 or something (i've read here for many years now) and you seem like a smart and interesting dude on here too, just have a good answer to "why minnesota in particular?"

34

answering that is easy! i am from here!

also genuinely interested in fl3x md and their school of public health/int'l health opportunities

That's maybe not actually a good answer. The first one.

:/

I'm also trying to do this right now.

The thing that is terrifying me is that I had every Secondary application done by like, mid-September, and I still haven't heard anything from ten of the twenty schools I applied to. I heard from four schools pretty quickly after sending my secondaries in, and so I thought it was all going to keep on moving as fast as the secondary process. And then my inbox just stopped dead after the first week of October. I still check it like three times a day though.

Or rather it's a good answer but not one the interview is looking for, i think?

Whenever I have gotten the "Why do you want to come here out of everywhere else in the country?" question, it's sounded more like they were trying to make sure they didn't offer a seat to someone who was just going to turn and run as soon as a better offer came along.

I live in California, but my first round of interviews were all on the East Coast, and I guess past experience with Californians suggests that we act interested in the East Coast until the UCs come along and offer $20000 less in tuition. The only time the interviewer didn't actually say something like, "Why in the name of God would you want to leave California" is when I had an interview during the October brushfires.

If you show them that you are a dude who really wants to go to medical school in Minnesota more than anywhere else, hopefully they'll bite. And if they like you, but are afraid you might ditch them for somewhere else, they'll waitlist you and give you the chance to write an impassioned letter about how everyone else is playing for second place in your heart. Or something.

:D :D :D

i go to minnesota

congrats!

thanks, pal!

i am going to fix healthcare

is the plan

Yowza! Rah!

Though I guess this means you're not moving to Portland.

now have a beer or two to celebrate--that is an order

HAHAHAHAHA! A doctor fixing healthcare!

Yeah :-/

Though I'm still thinking I might try and do a mid-school MPH out there. We'll see.

xp - i bought a bottle of "bubbly" and split it with my roommates already. Now I am taking beers to the bike workshop and will celebrate by fixing a bottom bracket that sounds like the Xhosa

kate78: quiet, you.

hey, way to go

yaaaaaaay congratulations!

you can be the white atul gawande

I guess this means "no" to vet skoo?

quiet, you, too, Laurel. i was just into animals that day.

"into" "animals"

i'd be cool with being jonathan kaplan

SO MANY RESPONSES, I CANNOT CHOOSE.

Go sleep with some cute Israeli nurses.

how come nobody ever tells me to do that

actually i'm just gonna be a dermatologist with a time-share in florida

I hear the skiing is choice.

cio and sky me

nobody got my joke about the Xhosa :-(

Sorry, I don't know about any bike parts made after 1974.

i should have said !Kung instead, huh

IT WAS A JOKE ABOUT PEOPLE THAT SPEAK A LANGUAGE WITH CLICKS, LIKE MY BOTTOM BRACKET

Ahahahah I just assumed it was a manufacturer I didn't know. Clearly this is why a Laurel does not go to medical skoo.

!Kung would have worked. I figured you were talking about some noise album or psych band or some shit

congrats

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

way to go duderoo

http://imgur.com/a/xyX2O

lol

sooooo otm.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-usc-dean-ethics-20170723-story.html

btw this stuff is WILD

What the hell

yeah that story is bananas

def gained an immense respect for plastic surgeons, was really ignorant as to the variety of cases they do

― k3vin k., Friday, April 27, 2018 6:45 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so we can stop shitting up ILH with medical nonsense

anyway yeah I also never realized how difficult flaps are. like, the planning and spatial manipulation is crazy

so are you just finishing up third year? extremely senior resident voice: ~~what're you gonna be when you grow up ~~

yeah, I’ve got peds to finish the year and then step 2 and 4th year

I’m going into internal medicine. it’s what I came into med school thinking I’d do, and though I’ve found things to really enjoy about all the clerkships I’ve done, I just can’t imagine not doing it. I originally was pretty sure I wanted to be a heme/onc doc, but this past year I’ve found myself more drawn to cardiology...so I’m not sure what the future holds there.

looking forward to next year, both to learn more and to hopefully recharge a bit before this internship thing I keep hearing about

oh boy cardiology

i worked for ACC, pls talk with me before u commit!

haha ok bookmarked, curious to hear your thoughts

oh boy cardiology

seconded

just graduated from fellowship (but still have a couple weeks of work left), incrementally closer to being a Real Boy

congratulations! it's a long haul

congrats!

anyone else making this mistake

― gbx, Wednesday, December 26, 2007 2:49 PM (ten years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks yall, and yes, it is a haul

hey that's awesome, well done!

Sounds hard. Good job!

huge if true

still a chance i could fuck it up, we've got time

I have no doubt you will be patient-oriented and outstandingly compassionate in your chosen specialization, gbx. And keep on fuckin with climb cuz climb pays!

thanks man!

planning on some climbing up in the pecos p soon, it's a pretty good place

gbx it has been so awesome to follow your IAAD journey! Huge congrats. What's your next gig?

congrats gbx!

thanks pals!

today's gig is tele-conferencing a seminar on mental health evals for asylum seekers, next gig is working at everyone's favorite federal agency for veterinarians

I am doing psych evals for asylum seekers too!

such a humbling and frankly frustrating process. let them all in imo

very same

my friend is an immigration lawyer and tells me that asylum seekers that have psych evals have a much higher success rate (at least in this jurisdiction)

that's great that you're doing them -- is that a formalized thing through school?

lol thinking gbx is going to the USDA

a couple of lawyers came to give a talk about it last year at school, and I got in touch with their group who does this stuff. when they get a case they have one of the psychiatrists do an evaluation while we take notes. then we draft an affidavit and the psychiatrist reviews it and signs it. what your friend said about the usefulness of the psych eval is what I've heard too

so great that you're doing that, the lawyers need as many docs as possible -- there's basically three (!!!) doing it in new mexico

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/sessions-domestic-violence-asylum.html

fuck

k3vin are you a cardiologist now

nooo I am a simple semi-academic hospitalist, and I love my job so much! general medicine is endlessly fascinating and I love our pts and learning new stuff every day. I did seriously consider cards and ID but came to the conclusion that I am v v old and in a lot of debt and it’s hard to beat what I’ve got going now. as it turns out for partner-related reasons I’m moving across the country this summer and just accepted a new job at UCLA.

what’s new with you?

that's really great! semi-academic sounds like a dream rn

i'm the medical director of the BH service at our local hospital and while i very much enjoy clinical work i do not enjoy all the other stuff, i just wanna see patients

I am very glad you did not pursue cardio, those guys (and by guys I mean TOO MANY MALES) are like the dorky orthobros.

I am 90 miles north of LA and my amazing PCP and cancer docs are with the Santa Barbara outpost, also spent time on main campus and am jealous of all the delicious Persian food you will have at your disposal. Keep in touch and we can do LAFAP!

Gbx I bet you are super awesome at your job, even the dreaded admin parts. Thank you for going where quality care is most needed.

*Santa Barbara outpost of UCLA. That org sure knows how to follow the money

Currently studying for the med school entry test (GAMSAT). Absorbing my whole life, but enjoying the process.

hey quincie! i think i am just generally OK at my job (the admin parts) but i appreciate the encouragement. i'm learning that in some important and also very stupid ways that the admin part is pretty essential in our very broken healthcare system (esp here in NM)

HP -- how does med school 'work' in australia? like do you apply after undergrad or are you applying right out of high/secondary school?

There's two routes! Not as familiar with the out of high school one, but from what I know it's for the top 99.99% achievers who do a small but not quite so hard test, followed by a 6 year degree, 2 year fast tracked bio-science undergrad, 4 year med school proper.
I'm taking the other route, where you do any undergraduate (literally any, I did a bachelor of philosophy/bachelor of theology) and then take this ridiculous gamsat test. To get an interview, universities weight your undergrad marks and your GAMSAT marks 50/50. The combined score needed for an interview is about 170%, I.e. 100% top marks in university and a 70% on the test, or vice versa/any combination of the two. I'm going into the test having received straight high distinctions for my degree filling 100% of the 170 quota, but still to get a 70 on the gamsat feels like a nearly impossible task. It's a 3 part test, humanities, two essays and sciences run over a whole day. It is ridiculously difficult, but I'm committed to the journey and think I can notch a 70 after a few trys. I'll be happy with myself as long as I can get 50+ on this first attempt next month. That's something I can build from

Loving your job, no regrets gbx? Any advice you'd give? I'm very much excited for this ride, have tentative plans of pursuing anaesthetic and less tentative plans of giving myself to some humanitarian work down the line. That's my drive for this whole thing really, which I'm glad to have as it is a very powerful motor to making sure this happens

I can confidently say I'd hit a 70 (or at least very close to it) on the test first time If there was no time limit, but the amount of info they ask you to absorb to answer a question 90 seconds seconds is absurd. It really feels like primarily a stress test from all the practice exams I've done.

If you're a rural applicant the combo score drops to 1.55 and my wife and I live 20 minutes away from a "rural" area which we have dreams of moving to in a decades time.... its not feasible to move now tho and you need to live rural foe 5 years for it to count. So close but so far!

I'm taking the other route, where you do any undergraduate (literally any, I did a bachelor of philosophy/bachelor of theology) and then take this ridiculous gamsat test.

that's roughly the process here in the US as well. I was an English major and did ultimately have to go back for some post-baccalaureate classes in order to qualify for admission

i love...parts of my job. the US healthcare system is pretty busted and that can lead to a lot of indirect moral injury if you're not careful (eg my clinic is so short-staffed, and my patient panel so large, that there have been times that the soonest follow-up appointment I can get someone is months out. this is Not Great for when someone is in crisis). but ultimately very rewarding, yes. do i sometimes think that i should have been an electrician? also yes

Combine careers. Go into surgeries in a jumpsuit and explain loudly why the previous electrician really fucked up the cables and didn't know what they were doing as you blare loud music of some sort from your iPhone, all while the surgical team are anxiously waiting for you to fix the issue with the essential piece of equipment for the ten-hour procedure that stopped working halfway through.

hmmmm yknow maybe not

Lol Ned. Sorry to hear about that. The US healthcare system does give me the heebie jeebies but glad to know there's doctors that care working in it

Test finished, now the painful 2 month wait for results......

good luck! these exams, and the wait for the results, are always excruciating. and if it’s anything like the US, there will be another 2-3 tests with similar stakes. it does get better eventually!

Thank you! I have no patience so these two months will be painful. Just this one and then an interview and we get into med school! Obviously that's where it REALLY begins. You're Dr.'ing? Or just in the know?

I am doctoring!