medical school

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

oh man i said duderoo i need to stop smoking

congrats, plz don't get co-opted by the system

this is awesome!! congratulations, e!

Congrats, plz drink everything in MN for me.

Congrats, Elk hunting is back on then, plus dissection for tasty meats.

Congrats, I'm attempting to do the same at the age of 32, got to redo my school exams first though.

:D

thanks, dudes!

leigh, are you in the states? like, you're retaking the MCAT?

Nope, I'm in Scotland, I'm going to have to retake my high school exams as they're well out of date and I'm not a graduate then do the UKCAT.

nobody got my joke about the Xhosa :-(

I got it! I roffled!

Congratulations, you'll never regret it.

sweet. does this mean its time to start the JOHN JUSTEN AND FLUFFY BEAR DESTROY A PROMISING MEDICAL CAREER WITH BOOZE thread?

also, tombot, go sleep with some cute israeli nurses

fuckin awes brah!!!!

good job bro

Fantastic news!!!

WOO HOOOOOO!!! :-D

I'm gonna sue you so bad one day...

:D

don't forget about me when you can legally prescribe drugs.

I sat the UKCAT yesterday and did reasonably well so I'm over the first hurdle - just need to get top grades in 5 Highers while working full time, write a stellar personal statement on the ucas form, demonstrate top notch work experience and interview well then I'll be in with a ghost of a chance of making Med School.

i just looked through my copy of netter's. *_*

t-minus one day, ppl.

itt gbx liveblogs med school

omg i am in a lecture

waht are you learning today?

ingratiate yourself to the professor by making an icebreaking dick joke.

Can't wait to hear about how it's going.

if evan can break ice with his dick he's wasting his time in med school.

it's a lecture about stress management

first day of school, here

good luck dude!

lol, we had assigned "stress management" readings in nursing school, too.

What would have helped more: letting us sleep at some point over clinical weekends.

what are they suggesting that you perscribe to yourself to ease the stress level?

decent lol: caloric restriction retards the aging process = share food with others = feeding your academic rivals in order to eliminate them

another h4st1ngs dude is here, too!

o_O
xpost

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!

Got my marks back. I should be starting med school next year :)

They just let anyone in these days!

way to go!!

Thanks Kevin!

okay I know everyone that would read this thread is probably a yank, and so some advice will be lost in translation, but surely some advice will carry over.

I have provisional acceptance to Usyd's med school (another state, don't want to move), and should have an interview for a school 15 minutes from my house in the next few weeks. i.e. med-school is on next year!

What should I know for a career in medicine! Why shouldn't I be thinking about specialising in anaesthetics right now? Why in the hell would I want to go a medical, rather than the far sexier clinical route? Why should I do some pre-study on anatomy/physiology as a non-science-background applicant? Why should I say bugger to pre-study and just go to the beach/watch baseball before it all kicks off next year? Why should I give up my hopeless optimism and affirm that this will be far tougher than I can comprehend? Why should we not try for children during med school? Why should I move overseas as a doctor? Why should I stay in sunny, well paying, public health-Australia? etc. etc. etc.

Advice to a med-hopeful appreciated! thanks ilxor. <3

Well I lectured in medical degrees for 20 years across the eastern Aus states so I can probably help. Congrats on your offer!
Quite the range of questions there. You sure can think about specialising now but you will come to understand the specialties in a whole new light over the coming years, you'll encounter the culture of each and the kinds of people who do them. Not joking, some are distinguished by whether you're a League or a Union enthusiast (or they were in the darker ages). Second question might have a typo? do you maybe mean undergrad vs postgrad med courses? Third, if you have an offer from USyd it means you did pretty fckn well in the UCAT and will be able to handle the basic anat/physiol they assume. They offer a combined Arts / Med course so it's clear that there's no assumed biomed background for year 4. As for choice of school - it boils down to the professional networks you will build, because all the courses conform to the AMC syllabus (but differ in their teaching approaches). One consideration is whether the anatomy is taught by cadaver dissection or some half-assed approach like prosected, plastinated specimens or VR garbage. It's good to know the actual body if you're going to heal it.
It will be very tough, and really the number one question to be honest with yourself about is whether you can handle being needed all the time, in your working life. Anyone going in expecting a kind of House MD scenario with intriguing puzzles to solve will be slaughtered by rotations and interning. It's a hard profession but many love it.
And by all means live life, try for kids, think about where you want to practice and where your quals would be recognised. #1 tip is to talk to doctors about their work, if they have time. GOOD LUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Wow thanks for the post Matt! Neither league or union but lean league.... does that bode well for anaesthia-training? I was thinking medical (theory/diagnostics, not necessarily hands on with patients) vs. Clinical (hands on, surgery room, scrub up) as a dichotomy for specialities, but maybe that dichotomy doesn't exist. I'm going the post-grad route, so gamsat test, undergrad already completed (philosophy). Yeah I think the school next to me might not do real cadavers... they're one of the smallest in Australia (Griffith sunny coast)..... not sure about uprooting my whole life on that one point though even if it is very important. Tough one.

Live life. Got it. I'll keep doing that and hope for the best. Fingers crossed!! 🤞

Ah gotcha - well I guess the divide might be between diagnostic type things (pathology, radiology), dealing with unconscious people (surgery, anaesthesiology), physician, GP, etc. I wouldn’t know myself! But you’ll experience everything so you’ll have a pretty clear idea. I’m not a medical doc myself btw.

If you want to chat direct does ilx have a pm facility?

Congrats on getting in. I did a non-science major many many years ago and then went to med school. I was behind on some of the basic stuff but caught up pretty quickly. So take it from a stranger on the interwebs, don't bother with the extra studying but know it will be rough in the first couple of months. It will be rough for everyone anyway.

It may be odd to think about this now but it's worth considering if the nearby school will offer you the same professional opportunities after you get your degree as you could get from USyd. I don't know the Australian system but medicine can be pretty snobby about credentials.

Cosign what mattk said about talking to docs about their work situation. The work life of an anesthesiologist is very different than as GP. There are different practice locations as well. University hospital, suburban clinic, small town GP, etc. If you want to be an anesthesiologist, you'll have to work somewhere where there is a reasonably active surgery center.

Good luck

congrats HP!

I think a some of your questions are going to be australia-specific, but if this helps:
- regarding pre-studying, I would not bother unless your school requires it or you think you are relatively weak in that area. I hadn’t taken an anatomy or physiology course for several years when I started medical school (in 2015), and I did just fine. but this is the kind of thing where, if you are the sort of person who convinces themselves they need to pre-study, you will pre-study. my advice would be to enjoy this bit of freedom while you have it, because to answer your other question, the next few years are probably going to be very challenging
- re: thinking about specialty, only really important in the sense that, if you’re sure about a particular specialty, you can get get connected with a mentor early on. at least in the US. otherwise the whole point of med school is to get exposure to all the different stuff
- re: kids during med school, another thing I wouldn’t recommend unless your school gives you leave or something. can always play it by ear obv

welcome to the cult. after you take your secret blood oath we’ll teach you the spells

One consideration is whether the anatomy is taught by cadaver dissection or some half-assed approach like prosected, plastinated specimens or VR garbage. It's good to know the actual body if you're going to heal it.

completely agree with this, but I am old school. I also read the textbooks in school which sadly almost no one does