Ask Doctor Strange anything

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Doctor Strange said:
I'm Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. Welcome to my Sanctum Sanctorum.

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This is a combination of me being bored and liking to give whatever I advice I can to people. As always, take anyone's advice on SDN with a grain of salt, but I like to offer whatever insight I can, because, quite frankly, I like talking about myself.

Gay Asian-American male in the Class of 2017 at an allopathic school in Philadelphia. For more background, check out my MDApps.

Ask anything and everything. I might not be willing to answer some things, but, hey, give it a shot anyway... I'm also available by PM.

May the Vishanti smile on you all.
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Heya Strange, if you could restart med school all over again, what would you do differently?
 
ElCapone said:
Heya Strange, if you could restart med school all over again, what would you do differently?
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I would say spend more time hanging out with my close medical school friends. Since clerkships have started, I have only been able to hang out with those people a couple times in the past few months. We keep in touch via text and other means, but it's just not the same as sitting down and having a drink with someone in person.
 
Serious question: Any advice for students that have a red flag(s) on their application along with an average 3.0 gpa?
Curious question: Ever watched One Punch Man?
 
I'mJustCurious said:
Serious question: Any advice for students that have a red flag(s) on their application along with an average 3.0 gpa?
Curious question: Ever watched One Punch Man?
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Fix the GPA and be able to gracefully explain the red flag. Do not make excuses. Take responsibility and state how you've grown from it.

I have not read/watched it but am familiar as my brother is a fan. My guilty pleasure is Sailor Moon Crystal. Lol.
 
In terms of LGBT friendliness, how friendly is Jefferson? Is there any curriculum or electives on LGBT medicine? How is the nightlife in Philly? I currently live in Los Angeles and we have an area in West Hollywood that has a gay community and a bunch of gay bars/clubs/nightlife! Is there anything of the sort around Jefferson or Philly?
Also, how is balancing a boyfriend and medical school? I have a feeling I'll be too busy at times to spend a lot of time with my boyfriend, though I know he will be understanding.

P.S. Coming 2 days early to Philly just to gauge the city before my interview, do you have any places you suggest I should definitely visit before the interview? :)
Thanks!
 
kilez12 said:
In terms of LGBT friendliness, how friendly is Jefferson? Is there any curriculum or electives on LGBT medicine? How is the nightlife in Philly? I currently live in Los Angeles and we have an area in West Hollywood that has a gay community and a bunch of gay bars/clubs/nightlife! Is there anything of the sort around Jefferson or Philly?
Also, how is balancing a boyfriend and medical school? I have a feeling I'll be too busy at times to spend a lot of time with my boyfriend, though I know he will be understanding.

P.S. Coming 2 days early to Philly just to gauge the city before my interview, do you have any places you suggest I should definitely visit before the interview? :)
Thanks!
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LGBT life at Jeff is pretty good. The coordinator of your doctoring course is an openly gay physician. There are built in modules and lectures about LGBT medicine in addition to sexual medicine in general. There's an LGBT student organization on campus that has recently become pretty active thanks to students that feel strongly about it. I actually came out as gay during MS2, and doing it at Jeff was completely painless. My classmates were supportive, and I have never felt any prejudice or discrimination. The Gayborhood is adjacent to the Jefferson campus (between 11th and Broad-ish). You can tell because the street signs have rainbows on them. Although I generally prefer dive bars, there are lots of nice gay bars in that area as well as clubs. Woody's on 12th and Walnut is super fun at night if you're looking for a dancy place with loud music.

My boyfriend and I have been together for a year, and he lives about an hour and a half away from Philadelphia. We alternate who visits who on the weekends. Recently, I've had rotations closer to where he lives, so I've been crashing with him lately, which has worked out fantastically. One of the things we talked about early on in the relationship was about medical school, work, and the time commitments involved. We made setting time aside for each other an extremely important aspect of our lives, and we're both determined to be flexible when it comes to residency and such. I think the key to having a significant other in medical school is being able to prioritize your relationship over those ten points you might gain if you study for another couple hours.

As far as places to go, Moriarty's between 11th and 12th on Walnut is my favorite bar. It's an Irish pub with absolutely amazing chicken wings. Dirty Frank's is another favorite on 13th and Pine. It's a dive bar. Honestly, just get Yelp on your phone and type in whatever you're looking for. Yelp has never led me astray.

Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
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What was your biggest obstacle in undergrad? What about in medical school?
How fast were you able to adapt to the environment in medical school in order to succeed?
If you had to rate in terms difficulty and time demanding of undergrad and medical school from 1-10, what would you rate each of them?
 
I'mJustCurious said:
What was your biggest obstacle in undergrad? What about in medical school?
How fast were you able to adapt to the environment in medical school in order to succeed?
If you had to rate in terms difficulty and time demanding of undergrad and medical school from 1-10, what would you rate each of them?
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1. My biggest obstacle in undergrad was probably more non-academic than anything. It had more to do with being more comfortable in social circles and opening up to new people. I was always pretty shy as a kid, but coming to college and interacting with different people really changed my perspectives on the world.
2. The biggest obstacle in medical school is somewhat of an extension of what happened in undergrad; I came out as gay. Most people kind of already guessed, but I officially came out to some very close friends and then eventually to my parents and family. I've received so much support and love, but this was infinitely harder than studying for medical school exams.
3. I would say that I took about a week or so to adapt to medical school. I tried the whole pre-reading/textbook stuff and did not like it at all. I very quickly switched to an Anki system, which I proceeded to refine over the next two years. In a nutshell, I would go to lecture, annotate the syllabus, make Anki cards, and study the cards. Repeat for all lectures, and that was my study strategy. I would say I did fairly well, scoring >80 on most, if not all, exams.
4. Difficulty in undergrad and med school would be maybe a 5 and 6, respectively. The material honestly is not all that mind-blowing or difficult. The volume is what gets you. Time demands in undergrad and medical school would be somewhere around 3 and 7, respectively. Time management is key.
 
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You ever kill someone? You know, like on purpose.
 
See any new movies you liked lately? I got around to seeing the Matt Damon movie when he was on Mars and sh**. That was OK. I saw that AI movie too. I liked that. Yet to see Deadpool, I have.
 
Cpt Ahab said:
See any new movies you liked lately? I got around to seeing the Matt Damon movie when he was on Mars and sh**. That was OK. I saw that AI movie too. I liked that. Yet to see Deadpool, I have.
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Deadpool was amazing. Not a huge fan of the character, but my boyfriend is, so we saw it in theaters. So worth it. So very worth it.

We also managed to finish the entire fourth season of House of Cards in one weekend...

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Doctor Strange said:
Deadpool was amazing. Not a huge fan of the character, but my boyfriend is, so we saw it in theaters. So worth it. So very worth it.

We also managed to finish the entire fourth season of House of Cards in one weekend...

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HOC 4th season disappointed me. Frank needs to go back to pushing people into moving trains.
 
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Doctor Strange said:
Deadpool was amazing. Not a huge fan of the character, but my boyfriend is, so we saw it in theaters. So worth it. So very worth it.

We also managed to finish the entire fourth season of House of Cards in one weekend...

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You been watching any Gotham? Dr. Strange has been quite the interesting character on the show.
 
How much free time do you have in med school? How many hours would you say you studied each day for your preclinicals? Did you only take days off from studying right after an exam?
 
sharkbyte said:
How much free time do you have in med school? How many hours would you say you studied each day for your preclinicals? Did you only take days off from studying right after an exam?
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The way I went about it, I ended up having maybe two to three hours to myself at the end of the day. I studied for about 3-4 hours after classes ended for the day. You pretty much have to study every day during preclinicals, or you'll fall behind. That being said, you don't have to be studying from dawn til dusk. I made a conscious decision to make time for myself and accepted that I wasn't going to learn everything.

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So, are you a fan of any comic book based shows (Daredevil, Arrow, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, etc)?
 
GotIronKnee said:
So, are you a fan of any comic book based shows (Daredevil, Arrow, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, etc)?
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I've seen all the Netflix Marvel shows. Loved them all! Daredevil season 2 was my favorite so far.
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
This thread is awesome. Are you still interested in ID? You were pretty into cards at the beginning of this thread, and then it switched to ID. Have you done any research in either (or any other) specialty?
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Yeah, still interested in ID. I'm really looking into doing primary care for HIV patients and also doing inpatient consults. That would be the life.

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How does one keep sane in medical school.
 
HFlash said:
How does one keep sane in medical school.
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Make time for the things and people that you care about. Realizing that studying for an extra two hours for maybe an extra two or three points on an exam really isn't that much worth it.

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What's your top choice locale for residency ATM? To how many programs are you applying versus planning to interview and rank? :)


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Guero said:
What's your top choice locale for residency ATM? To how many programs are you applying versus planning to interview and rank? :)


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Philly, preferably. I applied to ten and interviewed at seven. I'm done.

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Doctor Strange said:
I mean, unless you're packing some history with murder, rape, or crimes of the like, I really don't care that you got busted selling pot.

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Explanation title: "Lessons learned during my first venture into business and law."


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