You sure about that? This is an odd thing to say coming from someone who needed to boost his medical school application by doing several years of post-undergraduate research in addition to graduate school just to finally get into medical school. I won't need to do any of these things because I keep things as simple as possible instead of taking needlessly toilsome and circuitous routes to get to the exact same point as you. If I were a parent, I'd be prouder of me than you. Just my $0.02.
I'm positive 'about that'. From the perspective of an undergraduate student, I can see why you are quick to assume that I went and worked in a research setting for purposes of building up my medical school application. Let me clarify things for you - I wasn't always a pre-med student. Keep telling yourself that you'll get to the exact same point as the rest of us. If you say it enough times, maybe you'll start to believe it for yourself! You're certainly not fooling me, kid.
It's wasting time imo because your "end" is the exact same as mine despite all you do. You put in thousands of hours in community service, research, jobs, etc while I don't need to do any of those things and will still achieve the same result as you. Working hard is not the same as working smart. And you can network all you want, but ingratiating yourself with some random small-time professors so they can write you an LOR is nowhere near as handy as being blood related to the big shots at the very top who pull all the strings. Look, dude, it's great that you're proud of clawing your way to the top without having it all handed to you on a silver platter, but the second way is better. That's just how it works in this country.
I never claimed to have put in 1000's of hours into community service, etc.
You probably don't realize it, but you are only further revealing how narrow your perspective is, when you suggest that I am 'ingratiating myself with random small-time professors'. That's what college kids think its all about. It's also not about LORs, either. It's about creating for myself a positive reputation in the academic medical community, which is small and gets even smaller once you start getting into specific fields. As far as the caliber of people I have on my side? Well, I've worked for a Nobel Laureate, and I am being listed as an author on the manuscript for a
major clinical trial. Far from 'small-time', if you ask me - or if you ask anyone, for that matter.
You will probably be disappointed over the following story. I am close personal friends with the Director of Admissions for a well reputed medical school in my area. Their daughter, was given a courtesy interview for that schools MD program, but in they end they weren't accepted. I would like to point out, that she was in fact rejected. She did not choose to matriculate elsewhere, but in fact her application was not given serious consideration. As it turns out, her bloodline was more connected than you, since Mommy and Daddy have connections to the medical schools, but themselves are not part of the schools administration.
I'm assuming your reasons are related to having a deeply rooted passion for helping others or something along those lines, and that's cool. Your reasons are your reasons, but they don't have to be everyone's reasons. There are many reasons to pursue this great field of medicine, and mine happen to be different from yours.
Once again, I'm not contesting your reasons. The part of my post which you have quoted, was written to point out that you are misguided. It was not questioning your motivations, nor did it invite you to speculate what mine are. From the looks of it, you're probably not going to do so well on the verbal reasoning section of your MCAT, if your reading comprehension thus far is any indication of your abilities.
And I do pity you because I could never imagine jumping through all the hoops you've had to all for the simple goal of becoming a doctor. It's just so unnecessary and laborious, and it makes me chuckle that you and others with similar mentalities take great pride in putting sooooo much unneeded effort to reach this "end."
Save the pity. Don't need it. "Simple goal of becoming a doctor." <---Yet another shining example of how naive and clueless you are to this process.
I sit back and hit up PS4/Xbox One/my comp for 10 hours every day and sleep in until noon to get the same result.
Noone cares. Stop bragging about the 'wonderful' lifestyle you think we all so deeply envy. We don't. We, unlike you, are purpose driven people. Noone cares how aimless you are, so stop telling yourself that it's something worth bragging about. It isn't.
And I don't know what my MCAT score is because I haven't taken it yet, but I wasted both the ACT and SAT and have a near perfect GPA, so I'd say I'm sitting pretty right now.
Another example of your blindness. The MCAT is absolutely nothing like the ACT or the SAT. Also, having a solid GPA does not necessarily equate to strong MCAT performance. For example, I think I had B's in my general biology courses when I took them in college. I scored in the 96th-or-so percentile for the biology section of the MCAT. So, you would be cautioned to realize there is not a linear relationship between grades in college and performance on the MCAT. For all we know, you could have a 4.0 GPA in Art History at Yale, or a 3.9 GPA in Science Teacher Education at Central State University. Your GPA is not necessarily a reliable index of what kind of MCAT score you will earn, so get that notion out of your head - it's for your own good, I promise you.
Again, we come from different backgrounds. Unlike you, I don't need to find employment because my family is rich.
I didn't seek out employment because my family isn't as financially well off as yours. I sought out employment because I'm not a useless person.
Adcom members do not hold an applicant's family's wealth against him.
That is correct. However, someone of your background will be held to a higher standard with regards to EC's and use of time, since time is not taken away from your studies by things like self-supporting employment. As someone who has all of the necessities in life provided for them, an ADCOM is more likely to expect that you had the flexibility in your schedule to go and volunteer or work on a research project.
I already know enough heavy hitters at top residency programs that I doubt I'll even have to participate in any research during medical school. Keep pounding your chest about those full-time research gigs though.
You have 2 minutes to list the names of 3 PD's from the top 20 IM residency programs, and 3 PD's from the top 15 surgical residency programs. Otherwise, I'm calling BS. In all likelihood, you don't know anyone. Your parents' friends at the medical schools probably know a guy who knows a guy.
Sorry pal, you and darkjedi are just medical students. Being that you likely have no connections to real adcoms, your opinions on the admissions process are of little value to me, especially when half of what you say has already been flat out contradicted by many adcoms I know.
"Just" medical students. If you have such a low opinion of medical students, why do you come on SDN as ask if 'patient exposure is necessary' or 'does it look bad if I've never had a job in my life?", when the majority of people who are going to respond to you are in fact medical students or, like yourself, pre-med?
Again, I applaud you for the effort though.
Save your condescending attitude, because you are
far beneath me. You should be grateful I (or anyone on this site for that matter) is willing to give you the time of day to point out your misconceptions and attempt to get you on the right track to building your medical school application.
While I have your attention, I'm going to take this opportunity to point out a few other instances where you have unknowingly revealed your naiveté.
I never said I would. What you and others don't seem to understand is that I'm fully aware of the insane workload in medical school + residency. In my first 2 years of medical school, I expect to study anywhere from 8-10 hours/day (double digit hours on exam weeks) for the most part. During 3rd year, I'll be in some 100 hour/week rotations (surgery) and many in the 70-80+ hour range. Residency is pretty much 80 hours/week all 3-4 years.
I seem to recall earlier in this thread that you mentioned you would still get to play your little games for 10 hours a day during 1st and 2nd year. Did one of your ADCOM buddies tell you something different since then? I think you were lied to. In either case, you seem to have a difficult time distinguishing fact from fallacy - probably all of that final fantasy, huh?
And if I want to bum around for 4-5 days/week and play games because that's what I like to do, there will be more than enough hospitals/clinics lining up to offer me a part time 2-3 day/week gig. People work part time for many reasons. Some have other career interests, some want to raise families, etc. I have my own reasons. I'm going to have such an easy/laid back lifestyle and it's going to be awesome.
Also wrong. A hospital will be more likely to hire a full time DNP for less money than they would need to pay you for a part time gig. The hospital pays less money to get more service. Also, no hospital is going to hire someone so newly-minted out of residency on a part time basis. As a newly board-certified whatever, you will still have much of your learning ahead of you, and practicing only 2 or 3 days a week means you will not be employing your knowledge base frequently enough in order to maintain it, and aware of this fact, a hospital division is more likely to hire someone that will be a full time member of their staff. Remember, you're a premed who has never worked a day in their life - you don't know all of these nuances yet.
Sure buddy, whatever you say. But where I come from (the real world), loads of people in their 30s are still logging 50+ hours/week on Warcraft, Mass Effect, Skyrim, CoD, GTA, etc. Have fun with a lifetime of getting up at 5 am every day, working 12 hour shifts/24 hour calls, and getting paged past midnight while I'm sleeping in until 10 am and living like I want to for 4-5 days every single week. Gonna be sweet and I'll have zero regrets.
You claim to have never held a job, because you never needed to. You're a college student who only studies and plays video games when they aren't sleeping of studying. Tell me more about this real world you come from. MTV reality shows don't count.
Yeah I've heard of it, but radiology from what I hear is tough to match into. I have no intention of putting in 14 hour study days during my summer break after 2nd year like some of these other kids just to match into my "dream specialty". Why waste all that time studying when I can get a mediocre step 1 score with half the effort and still get a job that gives me 100K+, unmatched security, and 4-5 vacation days/week? Work smarter, not harder.
Problem: OP thinks that tele-radiology is a viable career option within the United States.
Fact: Tele-radiology and tele-pathology were introduced as a solution to the rising cost of health care, which includes consultations from radiologists and pathologists. As these are fields which do not require the physician to even see the patient, these kinds of things were implemented so that diagnostics could be outsourced to physicians living abroad that are willing to provide their services for substantively less than would a radiologist or pathologist in the U.S.
Also, regarding the
bolded: There is no summer break after 2nd year. You get maybe 5 or 6 weeks between your last finals and the start of 3rd year clerkships. People will study 14 hours a day during this time, even if they aren't vying for the most competitive specialties. It's all part of a thing called
not failing out of medical school. In order to be promoted from M2 to M3, you must complete and Pass Step 1. It's not as easy as you think, and thats why people who are aiming even for the less competitive specialties like Psych or FM, are still putting in the considerable time which you are so vehemently opposed to investing in your studies.
Let's re-establish something.
You are not well-connected. Your parents are. If your parents want to go to medical school, they might have an edge. However, the whole 'friend' and 'family' connections is not something that really goes on these days as much as it did in the 80's and the early 90's.
You are, a pre-med student. It is, abundantly clear from your post history, that you have been poorly guided by those who you claim to be 'connected' with.
When you post on SDN, you are addressing people who have a wealth of different backgrounds, many of whom have overcome much greater odds than you ever could conceive of. This is not an attack at your wealth, before you even try to go there. I am pointing this out, because what it translates to, is people having succeeded in the face of adversity - people who have sound advice which you are quick to refute and reject, claiming you know better 'because someone who your parents know said so.' It could very well be possible that your 'connections' are saving face and not giving you sound advice, because they don't view you as a worthy investment of their time. People here have a lot of experience and advice to lend, but it seems wasted on you. Chances are, despite everything you claim to have at your disposal, you will not get into medical school. Not until you change something - namely, your attitude and your view on the world around you.
You can learn a whole lot from a nurse or a PA, even if you aren't planning on pursuing those careers.
How does that make any sense? Because they have completed more clinical training than you have, and have more work experience in a medical setting than you do. Digoxin has the same cardiac effects on a patient whether it was administered by a physician or by a nursing assistant, so it shouldn't matter who you are learning this information from.
One more time, you are a pre-med student. Anyone posting on SDN that is currently accepted to or enrolled in medical school, knows more about what admissions committees are looking for and how they pick apart an application than you do. If they didn't, then they probably wouldn't currently be accepted to or enrolled in medical school. So you should consider this before you are so quick to reject what people say to you.
You also attack @
KnuxNole multiple times in the threads you have created on SDN. They are a resident. They know more about medicine, medical school, and being a decent human being than you do. You could learn a thing or two if you'd stop pandering on about how dope your life is, how good you've got it, how connected you are, and how easy this career path is going to be for you.
I'll keep en eye out for you in a few years when you're in my emergency room. How will I know it's you? You'll be that guy with the permanently crestfallen look on his face in the EMT uniform carting in patients for me to take care of, as you try to support yourself for the first time in your life because Mommy and Daddy finally realized what a disaster they've allowed their son to become and realized it was time to cut him off. That patient will probably be in piss-poor condition too, because instead of administering something for their overdose or giving them oxygen to help alleviate their acute respiratory distress, you were too busy playing spiderman on your PSP.
Best of luck to you,
kid.
