12/3/11
In case you, too, have any interest in psychiatry
With my free time today I decided to watch the latest 20/20 episode about medicating kids in foster care. It ended up being a lot less about demonizing medication and more about the hope of healing for victims of abuse and neglect. Check it out here.
What I Learned in First Year
There are people who genuinely enjoy the first 2 years of medical school, and for them I am very happy. I am not one of those people. Going from being a college student to being a med student was a whirlwind transition for me. In college I did the cram-study approach, always made good grades when I put in the effort, and took as many essay-based classes as I could. I love to write, so when the test is based on an essay that trait tends to come through. I can articulate my understanding of a topic very well when given free reign, but straight up "tell me this random fact" kind of tests were always harder for me. I can get on board with classes about critical thinking, but memorization has never been my strongest suit. Even so, this was not a significant impediment in college, where I had plenty of time and a reasonable amount of material to learn for each exam.
Then I became acquainted with the first year of medical school. Med school has a very fast pace, so while there is a certain element of "cram study" which can be employed, you still need to do some amount of studying just about every day. All of the tests were memorization-heavy, none of them were essay-based, and nothing required very much in the way of critical thinking. Medicine is fairly straightforward in its most basic form, and first year in particular was more about the language of medicine than medicine itself. My degree, which included classes in genetics and biochemistry, seemed to lose all value after our cell biology course. I hit anatomy and suddenly I did something that I think I had done maybe twice in my life: I failed an exam. I hadn't sat around staring at the cover of my book for two weeks, either; I honestly studied for the exam, I tried to memorize what they had written down, and somehow it failed to get it crammed into my brain.
There's nothing like medical school to make a smart person feel like an idiot. I had a crisis of belief in myself - I thought surely if I couldn't pass my first anatomy test that my career as a physician was over. I think most people in medical school have at least one of these episodes, whether it's because they did poorly on an exam, failed an exam or failed a whole class. You can't prepare for it, because there's no way to prepare for it. People can talk about the firehose metaphor and eating 5 pancakes a day and whatever, but it is totally different when you look at a pile of powerpoint slides, notes and book chapters realizing that this is literally insane. My husband (a veteran, by the way) relates it to being in the army or going to Iraq, as crazy as that may sound.
After I failed the anatomy test, I took a long look at how I was studying and what I was doing wrong. There's a difference between studying a lot and studying efficiently; when I saw this, I started modifying my habits. I ended up passing anatomy with plenty of margin through this method, and little by little improved my habits over the first semester. By second semester I had gotten into a sort of groove - I was doing well and even spectacularly in some classes, and I was starting to feel like maybe this medicine thing was doable.
Now I'm at the end of my first semester of second year where things look much different. I have a group of friends/study partners that I didn't have in first year, I know exactly what I need to do in each class, and even though I get anxious before every monster exam, I perform up to my own personal standards on a fairly consistent basis. I've learned to be a good medical student. It's important to keep in mind that being a good medical student doesn't automatically make you a good doctor - it makes it possible for you to become a good doctor.
I'm halfway through the last systems course of the semester, which feels quite nice. I plan to use my Saturday to enjoy the lovely winter weather, go out on a date and do all the laundry that I haven't done in a week. Here's to the weekend. :)
Then I became acquainted with the first year of medical school. Med school has a very fast pace, so while there is a certain element of "cram study" which can be employed, you still need to do some amount of studying just about every day. All of the tests were memorization-heavy, none of them were essay-based, and nothing required very much in the way of critical thinking. Medicine is fairly straightforward in its most basic form, and first year in particular was more about the language of medicine than medicine itself. My degree, which included classes in genetics and biochemistry, seemed to lose all value after our cell biology course. I hit anatomy and suddenly I did something that I think I had done maybe twice in my life: I failed an exam. I hadn't sat around staring at the cover of my book for two weeks, either; I honestly studied for the exam, I tried to memorize what they had written down, and somehow it failed to get it crammed into my brain.
There's nothing like medical school to make a smart person feel like an idiot. I had a crisis of belief in myself - I thought surely if I couldn't pass my first anatomy test that my career as a physician was over. I think most people in medical school have at least one of these episodes, whether it's because they did poorly on an exam, failed an exam or failed a whole class. You can't prepare for it, because there's no way to prepare for it. People can talk about the firehose metaphor and eating 5 pancakes a day and whatever, but it is totally different when you look at a pile of powerpoint slides, notes and book chapters realizing that this is literally insane. My husband (a veteran, by the way) relates it to being in the army or going to Iraq, as crazy as that may sound.
After I failed the anatomy test, I took a long look at how I was studying and what I was doing wrong. There's a difference between studying a lot and studying efficiently; when I saw this, I started modifying my habits. I ended up passing anatomy with plenty of margin through this method, and little by little improved my habits over the first semester. By second semester I had gotten into a sort of groove - I was doing well and even spectacularly in some classes, and I was starting to feel like maybe this medicine thing was doable.
Now I'm at the end of my first semester of second year where things look much different. I have a group of friends/study partners that I didn't have in first year, I know exactly what I need to do in each class, and even though I get anxious before every monster exam, I perform up to my own personal standards on a fairly consistent basis. I've learned to be a good medical student. It's important to keep in mind that being a good medical student doesn't automatically make you a good doctor - it makes it possible for you to become a good doctor.
I'm halfway through the last systems course of the semester, which feels quite nice. I plan to use my Saturday to enjoy the lovely winter weather, go out on a date and do all the laundry that I haven't done in a week. Here's to the weekend. :)
11/29/11
They call it the OSCE
Breaking from the trend of the last few posts, I bring you into my present. Fresh off Thanksgiving break my class is already deep into school; this week I had my OSCE (graded encounter with a mock-patient), a quiz, and still a quiz and a 108-question exam yet to go. It never slows down.
On my way to the OSCE I was enjoying a nice day. It's cooling down to winter temperatures here in the south, pleasant breezes and sunny afternoons. I stopped at subway to buy a sandwich with the money the government loaned me, dressed in my nice "clinical clothes" and played Barenaked Ladies on my stereo as I drove down the highway. The album I was listening to still takes me back to the cross-country trip I made when I was 17, and for a few minutes, I got to enjoy the fact that I'm halfway through my last year in the classroom. Ever.
It's kind of surreal, really. You start medical school feeling like college took an eternity, then you blink twice and about a million clinical vignettes later you're on your way to practice an abdominal exam in your final year of classroom work. Unlike the play exams we did in first year, when I listen to the heart and lungs now I actually know what the hell is going on. It still feels like I have barely scratched the surface of medical knowledge (which is true), but I can look back and see how far I've come.
The OSCE itself went fine, of course. Most people do very well on these exams. My mock patients were men I had seen before in our interviewing class, both of them very kind gentlemen who seem to genuinely like working with students. This time next year it won't be a fake patient that I'm examining, though. Next year it's going to be the real deal. How much will I change between then and now? Probably even more than I changed in the last year.
I'm always one more quiz, one more test, one more practical from being one step closer to real medicine. Some of the steps are more painful than others. It's kind of funny; I never imagined that I would look at a kidney and think to myself "Oh god, not the renal system" and look at a uterus thinking "YES, repro!" Everyone has the classes they love and the classes they can barely manage to get themselves to look at, and for me, most of my worst classes were this semester. Our school does a "systems" curriculum in which we cover one system with all the pathology/anatomy/pharmacology every month or so, so you might go for weeks studying something you loathe. It has its pros and cons, but overall I think I like it. At least it gets everything out of the way at once.
Even though I do have my favorite organ classes, I'm most looking forward to psychiatry. Aspiring psychiatrists don't get a whole lot of time to indulge their interests until 4th year since, understandably, most of the focus is on the broader fields of medicine (internal med, peds, surgery, etc.). I just hope that I love psychiatry as much as I think I do, and I hope that once all this is over medical school will seem worth it.
Well, enough indulging in my stream of consciousness post. I need to look at some alarming pictures of the gastrointestinal system (did I mention GI was on the list of classes I could do without?).
On my way to the OSCE I was enjoying a nice day. It's cooling down to winter temperatures here in the south, pleasant breezes and sunny afternoons. I stopped at subway to buy a sandwich with the money the government loaned me, dressed in my nice "clinical clothes" and played Barenaked Ladies on my stereo as I drove down the highway. The album I was listening to still takes me back to the cross-country trip I made when I was 17, and for a few minutes, I got to enjoy the fact that I'm halfway through my last year in the classroom. Ever.
It's kind of surreal, really. You start medical school feeling like college took an eternity, then you blink twice and about a million clinical vignettes later you're on your way to practice an abdominal exam in your final year of classroom work. Unlike the play exams we did in first year, when I listen to the heart and lungs now I actually know what the hell is going on. It still feels like I have barely scratched the surface of medical knowledge (which is true), but I can look back and see how far I've come.
The OSCE itself went fine, of course. Most people do very well on these exams. My mock patients were men I had seen before in our interviewing class, both of them very kind gentlemen who seem to genuinely like working with students. This time next year it won't be a fake patient that I'm examining, though. Next year it's going to be the real deal. How much will I change between then and now? Probably even more than I changed in the last year.
I'm always one more quiz, one more test, one more practical from being one step closer to real medicine. Some of the steps are more painful than others. It's kind of funny; I never imagined that I would look at a kidney and think to myself "Oh god, not the renal system" and look at a uterus thinking "YES, repro!" Everyone has the classes they love and the classes they can barely manage to get themselves to look at, and for me, most of my worst classes were this semester. Our school does a "systems" curriculum in which we cover one system with all the pathology/anatomy/pharmacology every month or so, so you might go for weeks studying something you loathe. It has its pros and cons, but overall I think I like it. At least it gets everything out of the way at once.
Even though I do have my favorite organ classes, I'm most looking forward to psychiatry. Aspiring psychiatrists don't get a whole lot of time to indulge their interests until 4th year since, understandably, most of the focus is on the broader fields of medicine (internal med, peds, surgery, etc.). I just hope that I love psychiatry as much as I think I do, and I hope that once all this is over medical school will seem worth it.
Well, enough indulging in my stream of consciousness post. I need to look at some alarming pictures of the gastrointestinal system (did I mention GI was on the list of classes I could do without?).
11/28/11
Pre-Med Debate Classic: D.O. vs. M.D.
In case you haven’t already figured it out, I happen to be a student at an osteopathic school, which means I am working towards my DO degree rather than my MD. There are a lot of misconceptions about the degree among pre-meds, so I thought I would dedicate a post to discussing the issue before moving forward. I’ll address the major arguments point-by-point.
Being a DO student means you failed at being a pre-med. This shows up all the time on SDN and in casual conversations with pre-meds. The facts are that the average MCAT/GPA combination for allopathic (MD) schools is around 30-32/3.6, and the averages for most osteopathic schools are around 25-29/3.3-3.6. It’s hard to find overall statistics for these things, but I think most people would agree that these numbers are roughly correct. MCAT averages have risen in recent years, such that many DO schools are now on par with the averages of allopathic medical students from a few years ago (and I don’t see anyone calling them failures). Osteopathic medical students beat out hundreds of other applicants to get their seat at school just like allopathic students did, with EC’s, research, good grades and good interviewing skills. Osteopathic schools allow good students to become good doctors, which is not something to be ashamed of. All of us become physicians and all of us will see patients – with a possible 150,000 physicianshortage in the near future, none of us will be hard up for work.
DO’s only do primary care. It’s true that many DO’s choose to fill the growing primary care shortage in the US after graduation. To start with, there is nothing wrong with primary care! Primary care is a challenging specialty which many physicians enjoy practicing, with reimbursement rates rising through the new healthcare laws. Though many DO’s go into primary care, plenty of them choose to specialize (if you need proof, just check out the match lists from 2011) DO’s can do the same residencies as MD’s with the additional option of taking a DO-only "AOA" residency, which offers training in specialties like dermatology, neurosurgery, radiology and anesthesiology, along with the other typical specialties. DO’s go into literally every specialty available – it’s all about your abilities and what you want to do. It is incrementally more difficult to get into the highly competitive specialties comparatively speaking, but it was already hard to begin with.
My patients won’t respect me if I have the wrong letters after my name. This misconception is less valid now than it has ever been! With PA’s, NP’s, CNA’s and a myriad of other degree titles for medical professionals, patients are getting used to seeing degrees other than MD at their bedside. Many people have been treated by a DO and they never even knew it – imagine my surprise when I found out during my first year of med school that the doctors running the hospital in my hometown were all graduates of osteopathic institutions. More than anything, patients will be looking for you because you’re a physician. Maybe they googled 'pediatrician,' maybe a friend told them that they saw this great doctor down on XYZ street, or maybe they passed by your office and remembered that it was on their way home from work. They’re going to be looking for a doctor who treats their patients well, and anyone – MD or DO – has the potential to do exactly that.
You don’t get a good education at DO schools. I will not try to claim that all DO schools have great curricula and board scores, because not all of them do. There are excellent DO schools and there are some who are still struggling to do well, so it is important to thoroughly research your school of interest before you apply and certainly before you commit to matriculating (this goes for allopathic schools too!). With only 27 osteopathic schools, even a few poorly-run schools can make it look like the whole operation is flawed. That being said, there are also DO schools with good reputations and match rates. Some examples are Nova-Southeastern, Western, LECOMs, TCOM, the PCOMs, ATSU, AZCOM and several that I’m sure are not on my list. These are not the only good DO schools, but my main point is that there are many good options when applying to osteopathic institutions. We learn almost exactly the same material with the addition of osteopathic manipulation. It’s not like they censor pertinent medical information from our curriculum just because we get a different degree.
I’ll have a better chance if I go to a Caribbean school. This argument has been beaten to death in various places. If having an MD is of the utmost importance to you, then I welcome you to attend a Caribbean school. There are good clinicians who come out of foreign medical schools, and I would never try to demean their efforts. However, when speaking statistically, you are much more likely to match into a solid US residency as a DO. If your goal is to attend an ACGME (MD) residency, you have a 71% chance of doing so with a DO degree and a 50% chance of doing so with a Caribbean degree. The biggest difference here is that as a DO you also have the option of also applying AOA, where you are very likely to match even if you did not match (or chose not to match) into an ACGME residency. You can view the statistics and numbers on this SDN post, where a kind soul has taken the time to detail all the numbers.
If your goal is to be a physician you have many choices in schools, and 27 of those schools are osteopathic institutions. DO or MD, we will all be judged by our patients and our peers on our competency, compassion and willingness to do hard work. To end this post, I would like to leave you with a few DO’s who might surprise you…
Dr. Robert Hendron, Professor and Vice Chair of Psychiatry, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UC San Francisco
Dr. Ronald Blanck, 39th Surgeon General of the Army
Dr. Tyler Cymet, Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Kimberly Parks, Cardiologist at Massachusettes General Hospital featured on ABC’s “Boston Med”
Dr. Robert McCarron, Director of the Internal Medicine/Psychiatry Residency at UC Davis
Dr. Andrea Amalfitano, Geneticist and Gene Therapy Researcher at Michigan State University
Dr. James Leiber, Assistant Professor in Family Medicine at LECOM-Bradenton, formerly an Air Force physician who treated both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney
Dr. Janice Knebl, Geriatrician, Professor at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, Vice Chairman of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners
Dr. Janice Knebl, Geriatrician, Professor at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, Vice Chairman of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners
Dr. Suzanne Frasca, Dr. Mariya Rosenfeld and Dr. Lana Selitsky, OB-GYNs at Beth Israel Medical Center
Dr. Robert Dickerman, Neurosurgeon cited as one of the best neurosurgeons in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
The Interview
Just some brief notes on interviewing, as promised. When interviewing it is important to wear business clothes – look for a suit with conservative color and cuts (gray, blue or black). I personally went with a light gray suit that cost me $50 from Old Navy on sale, and even though it makes me sound cheap, it actually looked very nice. You’ll find that almost everyone wears black, so it doesn’t hurt to stand out yet still present yourself in a professional way. Don't forget to budget for the clothes if you don't already have them, because it is still a significant expense.
Interview day generally consists of a mini-orientation to the school, possibly a tour and an interview or series of interviews. Some places may let the interviewers see your application beforehand, while others will be “closed file," where it will be up to you to completely introduce yourself. Be prepared for both kinds of interviews when you go in. Most interviews are pretty laid back, with pretty standard questions – “tell me about yourself,” strengths/weaknesses, name a time when you overcame adversity, etc. They may also ask various ethical questions. The interview is your chance to craft the story you want them to hear – go over some answers and keep in mind what you want your interviewer to take away from meeting with you. This is also your opportunity to ask questions about the school and get a better idea of the institution that you’re considering.
After interviewing it may take weeks or months to get an acceptance. Most schools are on “rolling admissions,” so they accept people at almost any time after the interview. Waiting is probably the most nerve-wracking part of the process.While you wait, remember to send out carefully worded thank you cards. They actually help!
Remember, if you have an interview that means that they are very interested in you. Go with confidence that you already made the first cut, and try to enjoy the day as much as possible. I know this post is pretty short and mostly common sense, but I welcome any questions you might have about the interview process. This website also has some great tips if you want more of an in-depth look.
11/27/11
Obligatory Pre-Med Guide
Since this blog may appeal to aspiring doctors, I would feel remiss continuing without a basic guide to getting into medical school. Much of this advice is hindsight; I didn't necessarily do everything right, but I'd like to give you the information that I gathered on the way.
First off, you need to select a college. I'm a big fan of community college for the first 2 years because it's cheap and the class sizes are small, but I had a very non-conventional college career anyway. No, it's not going to hurt your application if you attend a community college unless (possibly) you're dead-set on the ivy league. It's okay--even smart--to get the best, cheapest education you can. As long as you attend a college that fosters a good learning environment for you, you can do just about anything you want. I personally attended more than 4 different colleges because of my family situation, and it never came up as a question during my interviews at all. I wouldn't recommend more than a couple transfers if you can help it, though. Paperwork gets messy.
Next, you'll need to know what the pre-requisites for medical school are. You will need to take a few basic courses - 1 year physics, 1 year gen chem, 1 year organic chem, 1 year biology, 1 year english and 1 year of math (2 semester of calculus or 1 semester calc/1 semester statistics). Note: these are the requirements as of 2011 and may change with the new MCAT in 2015. As long as you have these courses it doesn't matter if you're an English major or a biochemistry major. Take the courses, do well, and shoot for a GPA at or above 3.5. It's best to try and get as many A's in the prerequisites as possible, but as you may find out, college doesn't always go according to plan. You might get a bad (maybe really bad) grade here and there. I mean it when I say it's not the end of the world, and as with most things in life, all you can do is pick up and move on. Given that life tends to take unexpected turns, I highly recommend getting a degree in a subject that you could see yourself working in even if you don't go to medical school. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get into med school, and some people don't get in at all. You don't want to find yourself graduating with a degree in biology, lamenting the fact that you would really rather work in the field of psychology.
Extracurricular activities ("EC's") are also very important. Med schools like to see that you're a decent, hardworking person with varied interests, as cliched as that may sound. Choose EC's that you enjoy, not EC's that you think will impress the admissions committee. My personal passion is the prevention of child abuse, so I spent a lot of volunteer hours working with a child advocacy center. It is important to have some clinical time on your application, so volunteering at a hospital at least for one summer would be prudent. Take a look at the volunteer tab for hospitals in your area to get some of that coveted clinical experience. Research, while not essential to your resume, is great if you like to do it. I spent a few years as a lab technician working with invertebrates--it wasn't medical research, but it was definitely fun research. Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it! You will have plenty of opportunities to do things you don't want to do in medical school. Trust me.
It is also recommended that you spend some time "shadowing" a physician. Shadowing means that you follow a doctor through their daily routine, getting a feel for what the field is like. You may know a doctor that you want to ask, but then again, you might be a first-generation college student with no insurance (like me!). In that case, you can cold-call some doctor's offices, or you can try what I did. I highly recommend the iLearn Mentor Program. This website has a list of osteopathic physicians (D.O.'s) who are willing to work with students. Not all doctors are interested in accommodating pre-meds, so it's nice to have a list of docs who have already agreed to do it. I found an amazing doctor to shadow who was kind enough to write me a letter of recommendation. And on that note...
Letters of recommendation ("LOR's") - get them. If you happen to meet a professor you really like, do research with someone that knows your abilities, or get to know a physician, don't be shy about asking them for a strong letter of recommendation. It's not an unusual request, and it's good to collect these things as you go along. It's somewhat awkward to call your ecology professor from 4 semesters ago and say, "Remember me? Well yes, I'm applying to med school this year and I need a favor..." You'll want a minimum of 4 LOR's to be safe - 2 from science-related people, 1 from a physician and 1 from a non-science professor. To keep them all together, I used a service called Interfolio. It costs some money to get an account, but they will keep copies of all your letters and send them to schools that need them. It saved both me and my letter writers a lot of time during application season.
If you're following the "traditional" timeline, you'll be applying 1 year before you graduate college. I took the MCAT in May 2009, had all my applications complete by July, interviewed between August and December and graduated college in May 2010. The MCAT is easy for some and a beast for others, and they plan to revise the entire thing in 2015. This is where I'm going to recommend that you do what I did not do - save up for materials well in advance of studying. I didn't have any family support and was working my way through college, so my budget had a margin of error like a margin on notebook paper. I studied from an outdated, used book for 2 weeks and then took the exam, which I barely managed to afford. If you can get your parent's tax information, you might be eligible to take the MCAT for free through the FAP. However, if you don't have your parent's financial information, they are very unwilling to work with you. I've heard from friends that there are some good prep courses through places like Kaplan and Princeton, so I will go ahead and recommend those, expensive as they are. The MCAT is a big (if not the biggest) part of your application, and you want to aim for around a 30 or above in the pre-2015 MCAT scale.
The application process is long and tiresome, so I recommend going into it with a plan. There are 3 application services you need to be aware of: AMCAS (allopathic applications), AACOMAS (osteopathic applications) and TMDSAS (med schools in Texas). For disadvantaged students, it should be noted that AMCAS offers up to 10 free school applications, AACOMAS offers up to 3 and TMDSAS has no financial assistance. If you need assistance, be sure to apply for it as early as possible since funds are limited. I was unable to receive the waiver from AMCAS due to my family situation, but was able to work with AACOMAS to get the 3 free school applications. Applications are expensive no matter how you cut it, and you want to apply to enough schools that you have a decent statistical shot at getting in. Interviews are even more expensive.
More on the interview experience - and maybe even a post about the first year of med school - when I am less tired and have less of a quiz going on in the morning.
First off, you need to select a college. I'm a big fan of community college for the first 2 years because it's cheap and the class sizes are small, but I had a very non-conventional college career anyway. No, it's not going to hurt your application if you attend a community college unless (possibly) you're dead-set on the ivy league. It's okay--even smart--to get the best, cheapest education you can. As long as you attend a college that fosters a good learning environment for you, you can do just about anything you want. I personally attended more than 4 different colleges because of my family situation, and it never came up as a question during my interviews at all. I wouldn't recommend more than a couple transfers if you can help it, though. Paperwork gets messy.
Next, you'll need to know what the pre-requisites for medical school are. You will need to take a few basic courses - 1 year physics, 1 year gen chem, 1 year organic chem, 1 year biology, 1 year english and 1 year of math (2 semester of calculus or 1 semester calc/1 semester statistics). Note: these are the requirements as of 2011 and may change with the new MCAT in 2015. As long as you have these courses it doesn't matter if you're an English major or a biochemistry major. Take the courses, do well, and shoot for a GPA at or above 3.5. It's best to try and get as many A's in the prerequisites as possible, but as you may find out, college doesn't always go according to plan. You might get a bad (maybe really bad) grade here and there. I mean it when I say it's not the end of the world, and as with most things in life, all you can do is pick up and move on. Given that life tends to take unexpected turns, I highly recommend getting a degree in a subject that you could see yourself working in even if you don't go to medical school. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get into med school, and some people don't get in at all. You don't want to find yourself graduating with a degree in biology, lamenting the fact that you would really rather work in the field of psychology.
Extracurricular activities ("EC's") are also very important. Med schools like to see that you're a decent, hardworking person with varied interests, as cliched as that may sound. Choose EC's that you enjoy, not EC's that you think will impress the admissions committee. My personal passion is the prevention of child abuse, so I spent a lot of volunteer hours working with a child advocacy center. It is important to have some clinical time on your application, so volunteering at a hospital at least for one summer would be prudent. Take a look at the volunteer tab for hospitals in your area to get some of that coveted clinical experience. Research, while not essential to your resume, is great if you like to do it. I spent a few years as a lab technician working with invertebrates--it wasn't medical research, but it was definitely fun research. Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it! You will have plenty of opportunities to do things you don't want to do in medical school. Trust me.
It is also recommended that you spend some time "shadowing" a physician. Shadowing means that you follow a doctor through their daily routine, getting a feel for what the field is like. You may know a doctor that you want to ask, but then again, you might be a first-generation college student with no insurance (like me!). In that case, you can cold-call some doctor's offices, or you can try what I did. I highly recommend the iLearn Mentor Program. This website has a list of osteopathic physicians (D.O.'s) who are willing to work with students. Not all doctors are interested in accommodating pre-meds, so it's nice to have a list of docs who have already agreed to do it. I found an amazing doctor to shadow who was kind enough to write me a letter of recommendation. And on that note...
Letters of recommendation ("LOR's") - get them. If you happen to meet a professor you really like, do research with someone that knows your abilities, or get to know a physician, don't be shy about asking them for a strong letter of recommendation. It's not an unusual request, and it's good to collect these things as you go along. It's somewhat awkward to call your ecology professor from 4 semesters ago and say, "Remember me? Well yes, I'm applying to med school this year and I need a favor..." You'll want a minimum of 4 LOR's to be safe - 2 from science-related people, 1 from a physician and 1 from a non-science professor. To keep them all together, I used a service called Interfolio. It costs some money to get an account, but they will keep copies of all your letters and send them to schools that need them. It saved both me and my letter writers a lot of time during application season.
If you're following the "traditional" timeline, you'll be applying 1 year before you graduate college. I took the MCAT in May 2009, had all my applications complete by July, interviewed between August and December and graduated college in May 2010. The MCAT is easy for some and a beast for others, and they plan to revise the entire thing in 2015. This is where I'm going to recommend that you do what I did not do - save up for materials well in advance of studying. I didn't have any family support and was working my way through college, so my budget had a margin of error like a margin on notebook paper. I studied from an outdated, used book for 2 weeks and then took the exam, which I barely managed to afford. If you can get your parent's tax information, you might be eligible to take the MCAT for free through the FAP. However, if you don't have your parent's financial information, they are very unwilling to work with you. I've heard from friends that there are some good prep courses through places like Kaplan and Princeton, so I will go ahead and recommend those, expensive as they are. The MCAT is a big (if not the biggest) part of your application, and you want to aim for around a 30 or above in the pre-2015 MCAT scale.
The application process is long and tiresome, so I recommend going into it with a plan. There are 3 application services you need to be aware of: AMCAS (allopathic applications), AACOMAS (osteopathic applications) and TMDSAS (med schools in Texas). For disadvantaged students, it should be noted that AMCAS offers up to 10 free school applications, AACOMAS offers up to 3 and TMDSAS has no financial assistance. If you need assistance, be sure to apply for it as early as possible since funds are limited. I was unable to receive the waiver from AMCAS due to my family situation, but was able to work with AACOMAS to get the 3 free school applications. Applications are expensive no matter how you cut it, and you want to apply to enough schools that you have a decent statistical shot at getting in. Interviews are even more expensive.
More on the interview experience - and maybe even a post about the first year of med school - when I am less tired and have less of a quiz going on in the morning.
A little for me, a little for you
I'm starting this blog for two primary reasons:
1. I really, really need some kind of outlet aside from my halting attempts at creative writing
2. If I'm going to use personal writing as an outlet, someone else may as well benefit
Back when I was thinking about med school I read a lot of things - I read stuff on the Student Doctor Network Forums, Lone Coyote's Blog, all kinds of books and anything else I could get my hands on. I'm big on reading and researching, I guess. In all the time I spent searching, I didn't find anything that would prepare me for what would happen when I walked through the doors of my new lecture hall. It's not just a lot of information, it's insanity.
Maybe I've lost my mind, but I don't think I would trade it for anything else.
Some of my classmates, or surely some of my med school brothers and sisters across the world, might not say the same thing at this point. My days are long and I seem to have an endless pile of ridiculous facts to memorize. I never get enough exercise, my house is usually a mess, and Friday night is henceforth known as "Date Night," one night of the week that I absolutely reserve to be with my husband. Nights like tonight I don't want to let go of the weekend as I sit up too late typing on my computer, wishing the clock would stop so I could squeeze in another hour or two of relaxation time.
I've thought about quitting plenty of times, along with most of my friends. It's hard not to at least think of it in a casual kind of way (also very hard not to spend a couple hours looking up all the grad schools you could have attended in another life). However, a year and a half into the experience with 2.5 years to go, I'm starting to see a future for myself which might not be so bad.
Thus I do what I can to stay sane, sometimes neglecting other chores just so I can have a bit of happiness in my life. I write, play Skyrim (my second home), take long walks with my husband, have silly barbeques with my friends from med school now bonded to me through shared traumatic experience. I'm writing this blog not just to educate others, but also to remind myself of why I do all of this in the first place. Maybe somewhere out there you're reading this, just as curious about me as I am about you. Perhaps that's just vanity; I don't know. I'll keep writing to you anyway, dear reader.
1. I really, really need some kind of outlet aside from my halting attempts at creative writing
2. If I'm going to use personal writing as an outlet, someone else may as well benefit
Back when I was thinking about med school I read a lot of things - I read stuff on the Student Doctor Network Forums, Lone Coyote's Blog, all kinds of books and anything else I could get my hands on. I'm big on reading and researching, I guess. In all the time I spent searching, I didn't find anything that would prepare me for what would happen when I walked through the doors of my new lecture hall. It's not just a lot of information, it's insanity.
Maybe I've lost my mind, but I don't think I would trade it for anything else.
Some of my classmates, or surely some of my med school brothers and sisters across the world, might not say the same thing at this point. My days are long and I seem to have an endless pile of ridiculous facts to memorize. I never get enough exercise, my house is usually a mess, and Friday night is henceforth known as "Date Night," one night of the week that I absolutely reserve to be with my husband. Nights like tonight I don't want to let go of the weekend as I sit up too late typing on my computer, wishing the clock would stop so I could squeeze in another hour or two of relaxation time.
I've thought about quitting plenty of times, along with most of my friends. It's hard not to at least think of it in a casual kind of way (also very hard not to spend a couple hours looking up all the grad schools you could have attended in another life). However, a year and a half into the experience with 2.5 years to go, I'm starting to see a future for myself which might not be so bad.
Thus I do what I can to stay sane, sometimes neglecting other chores just so I can have a bit of happiness in my life. I write, play Skyrim (my second home), take long walks with my husband, have silly barbeques with my friends from med school now bonded to me through shared traumatic experience. I'm writing this blog not just to educate others, but also to remind myself of why I do all of this in the first place. Maybe somewhere out there you're reading this, just as curious about me as I am about you. Perhaps that's just vanity; I don't know. I'll keep writing to you anyway, dear reader.
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