medical school

reading the sdn forums is almost enough to make you not want to be a doctor seriously

reading the internet in general is almost enough to make you want to just end it all, so I think that's just par for the course

WORD to Lamp. If you are applying now, avoid that site like the plague.

Are there any other medical students out there hating Histo like I am?

The law school and grad school threads got revived, so why not...

This is HARD, but awesome. So far medical school >>>> grad school. (I do not know how law school is. I would still guess >>>, though.) I have had nearly two months of being repeatedly reminded that I know basically nothing about medicine or medical science or how to be a doctor. But nobody else does yet, either!

― C-L, Saturday, September 27, 2008 12:43 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark

And so much WORD to this. I am really enjoying medical school, even though I have no idea how the hell I am going to learn enough material to actually become a doctor. But hey, we are all in the same boat!

histo was the worst

I kind of want to post to this every time the law school thread gets updated.

Our module system wedges two or three or four histo/microanatomy lectures into each unit of the body (along with some embryology and gross anatomy and a bunch of physiology), so it is always extremely tempting to dismiss the histo and spend 95% of the study time on the physiology because a) it is boring and b) the return on puzzling through the various slides for the eight or ten questions per test is usually not worth it. I would have really liked embryology to remain a cohesive unit instead of being broken up across modules, but I am pretty cool with microanatomy's dispersal.

Actually the weirdest thing right now, though, is that the most bothersome part of the schedule is all the non-hard-science classes they are throwing at us (like Ethics and such). It is all material founded on really good intentions, but between the blocks of time it eats and the didactic approaches they use, it all comes across like "OK, we should promote ethics, and service, and etc., so let's just schedule some of that and then they will learn about ethics and service and etc." without a lot of effort into justifying its existence beyond explaining how vital ethics and service and etc. are, and really, all it is doing is making ethics and service and etc. an annoying obstruction. I am from a non-science background and even I am kind of longing for the point in March where the rest of the syllabus is all lecture and anatomy through the end of the year.

Also yeah, seriously, SDN is the gaping maw of hell. There is probably an incredible anthropology/sociology article that could be written comparing posts from SDN with posts from JD Underground, though.

Actually the weirdest thing right now, though, is that the most bothersome part of the schedule is all the non-hard-science classes they are throwing at us (like Ethics and such). It is all material founded on really good intentions, but between the blocks of time it eats and the didactic approaches they use, it all comes across like "OK, we should promote ethics, and service, and etc., so let's just schedule some of that and then they will learn about ethics and service and etc." without a lot of effort into justifying its existence beyond explaining how vital ethics and service and etc. are, and really, all it is doing is making ethics and service and etc. an annoying obstruction.

^^^ this. we've got a similar set-up

Same. Don't they know that we have physiology to study? ;).

haha reading these posts is putting a serious dent in my "i just have to get in and then its all smooth sailing" mindset

ha. but no, seriously medical school applications are ridiculous. However, you will make your future a hell of a lot easier if you decide to go to a school that is "pass/fail" in the first year.

And I mean a true "pass/fail", not the foolishness that is honors = A, high pass = B, pass = C, etc.

Haha we have that. We also have a "Low Pass" that is a D, but at least it shows up on transcripts as a regular pass.

Really what bothers me about obligatory service is that the couple of times I have done actual volunteer service, it's been amazing. I am way more handy with a needle than I ever imagined myself being in first year.

btw guys what do you think about immunology? it's fascinating!

that's one of the main areas i'm interested in studying/practicing - i agree it's totally fascinating.

I kind of regret not double majoring in Microbiology/Immunology/Molecular Genetics back when I was an undergrad. But we haven't done very much of the immune system yet; I think it is all part of a big 2nd year curriculum blowout. I am pretty amped. Although I don't think I would do infectious disease, though.

I spent this morning in the anatomy lab studying gastrointestinal structures alone and listening online to the radio show I used to listen to in LA when I was driving to do my Sunday morning ER volunteering back in the day.. It was really about as relaxing as being the only living person in a room full of half-destroyed bodies can be. A+++.

Immuno rocks! Studying it right now, it definitely matches my expectations of what I expected to learn in medical school much more than does histo (ugh).

Also, I loved going to study in the anatomy lab in the mornings when it was quieter and not every single person in my class was freaking out about an upcoming test. Very relaxing, yes.

Yeah, histo was my bete noir, mostly because it had a similar informational volume compared to anatomy, but little of the innate "this is RAD"-ness. I've since learned that we do histo way more comprehensively than other schools??

But yeah, immunology is way more intrinsically interesting and, well, "medical." There's something fascinating to me about how the human immune system, as distributed across the whole species, acts as a massively parallel computational array---like, the problem of producing antibodies/TCRs that actually *work* is being solved by brute force by a bazillion cells across billions of individuals, over hundreds of millions of years. I hadn't really considered ID or immunology as possible specialties, but I'm definitely considering it now.

plus i got props in class on friday from my immuno prof for saying someting 'very clever.' this is a first for me and a much needed morale boost, since i was struggggglin last semester (90% due to old, bad study habits)

http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDokumente/multimedial/bilderWissenschaft/2004/02/Zychlinski1/Web_Zoom.jpeg

keep it up guys. on the new york city heirarchy, doctors always trump lawyers. especially when they're 8 inches taller than you.

keep it up guys. on the new york city heirarchy, doctors always trump lawyers. especially when they're 8 inches taller than you.

― burt_stanton, Sunday, January 25, 2009 10:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

ugh

Hey, you know what sucks, is having an anatomy practical exam that is given via Powerpoint slides instead of bringing everyone to stations at the Anatomy Lab. I can identify the hell out of some abdominal structures on a body, but not when I am not sure whether I am looking at the cecum or an oddly angled stomach or a folded-over colon. It is basically like finding Waldo, and then answering an unrelated question about Waldo's primary arterial supply.

Thankfully the class walked out of that exam in unison basically like \o_O/ so I guess it was not just that I am stupid.

wait what the hell? man, that sucks, C-L. we had our exam reviews on powerpoint and i was always disoriented and lost when they'd point to some bit of pelvic floor---but then at least we had artfully done-up prosections for the exam itself

like str8 alinea style:

http://www.maricazottino.com/public/alinea_bacon.jpg

Anatomy Practical Exams by Grant Achatz would be pretty awesome, come to think of it. "Which section of the lower intestine is shown here, labeled with a daring plum chutney glaze?"

btw i just finished midterms and it feels great

also, C-L do u know a dude named P3t3 (i think) that's working a clinic in M3xic0 this summer

(don't want m3xic0 googlin)

hey congratulations!

neuro is fukkin hard, btw

thanks!

hey horseyshoes, what is yr take on UC art history students..... JUST WONDERING FOR NO REASON

did you meet a girl? i don't know anyone in that department. my experience w/ art history girls is that they are v. v. pretty and kind of boring but i might just be jealous wrt the last part.

my take on UC grad students in general is that they're insane btw.

nah former UC art history student current doctor student

I do not think I know a dude named P3t3 who is in doctor school.

Do you guys mean UC as in University of California, btw? Because apptly Horseshoe thinks I was insane (which honestly was probably correct at the time).

P.S. RENAL 4-EVER.

no, university of chicago! i'm sure uc students are lovely.

Oh OK. We have a handful of Chicago undergrads. They are pretty hardcore, yeah.

haha teaching those undergrads when i was 100% sure they all knew more than me about everything was a traet

oh we start renal stuff in a few weeks, i think? i'll have to check. i'm pretending school does not exist for the next day or two

We just finished renal (sadness). God bless Linda Costanzo - do you guys use her for physio?

Nah, we mostly use Guyton and Hall (which I kind of love). There have been smaller specific physiology books for the lung and the kidney, also, but I am cheap and just stuck with my G&H.

Rhoades and Bell, here, but I've got a copy of Costanzo BRS book

fun facts to know and tell:

yesterday, in neuro, we learned about the vestibulocochlear motor control of eye movement. we also learned why alcohol gives you the spins---the alcohol actually gets into the endolymph of your inner ear, lowering the relative density of the cupola. it floats, which triggers compensatory eye saccades. yr eyes basically move around to follow the movements of your head *that aren't even happening*.

also neat: the reason you go from tipsy (physically), on to stable but increasing "drunk" and then back to "staggering" and "room spinning" is because the alcohol enters, equilibrates, and then leaves. so the terrible room spins you get at the end of the night are because you're sobering up!

FACTS

post-midterm neuro is ridiculously dope, btw

wow gtk

also benign paroxysmal positional vertigo sounds blawful

art history girls are always hotties, and always either a little crazy or a little boring

also gtk