Loma Linda University School of Medicine - Class of 2016

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LLUSM2016

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Hi all,

I have been looking for this thread for a while. The dental and pharm sections have 2016 class threads but I could not find one for medicine so here it is.

Ideally this will be for those officially accepted for the class of 2016. Congratulations to you all.

We will be together for the next 4 years so let's bring all the knowledge together that we can to help each other out. So if you have some good info that we all might find useful please post it so we all can benefit. Any info from past classes would also be highly welcome :)

For example, I am trying to find a place to live in Loma Linda and anybody with advice please post. Anybody got textbook advice? I want to get my books as cheaply and early as possible.

So here is some info that you might find useful.

I just found the facebook class of 2016 group and I sent them a request to join :) I hope they will let me :)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/250982308321861/

This is a blog by a Loma Linda grad of the Class of 2011, Docta Jay. I have started reading it and am finding it immensely helpful. He also is quite prolific on SDN. So you might want to search SDN for his posts. He has got alot of great info.
http://doctajay.com/


Look forward to hearing from you and seeing you all on August 2!!!

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Congrats to your class! :) Man my class never had an SDN thread... I feel like we slacked haha. I hope you don't mind if I post here too? Just want to be helpful :) Though with Step 1 coming in 2ish months, it will be limited haha.

Also, glad you found Docta Jay's blog... it's awesome. If you want to see another really good blog, check this out (inserts shameless plug for official LLUSM student blog):

http://llusm.wordpress.com/

EDIT: haha oops, someone posted that link right before I did! haha. Well, twice is just as good ;)
 
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Congrats to your class! :) Man my class never had an SDN thread... I feel like we slacked haha. I hope you don't mind if I post here too? Just want to be helpful :) Though with Step 1 coming in 2ish months, it will be limited haha.

Also, glad you found Docta Jay's blog... it's awesome. If you want to see another really good blog, check this out (inserts shameless plug for official LLUSM student blog):

http://llusm.wordpress.com/

EDIT: haha oops, someone posted that link right before I did! haha. Well, twice is just as good ;)
You're probably THE most helpful person I've seen on SDN. Pleeeeease post!

All the best for Step 1!
 
Anybody got textbook advice? I want to get my books ascheaply and early as possible.

Hmmmm... textbooks, textbooks, textbooks...

If you are a big textbook reader than you will probably want more than others. But honestly there are a good number of books you can skip out on buying, mostly because you will mainly be studying from lecture notes & the class syllabi. So in no particular order...

PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS (aka PDK): The PDX notes are more than enough of what you will need, so you don't need to buy any of those textbooks. If you know those notes COLD than you will have more than enough knowledge to pass. The notes are pretty much a textbook themselves! Buy a lot of big 2" or more, 3-ringed binders! And try not to ever miss that class, really informative.

ANATOMY: don't go without a Netter's Atlas; that's the most important thing. For those of you who like detailed descriptions, you could check out Gray's Anatomy for Students; it's really good and has a lot of helpful tables. Be sure to check out the University of Michigan anatomy website for clinically based practice questions. As a matter of fact, a lot of those questions are sometimes the basis for the ideas of actual test questions here! MAKE SURE TO DO THOSE! http://www.med.umich.edu/lrc/coursepages/m1/anatomy2010/html/courseinfo/mich_quiz_index.html

EBM: Didn't buy text book; really good notes and lecture material.

FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR: Also didn't buy this text book; really good notes and lecture material.

HISTO: The recommended histo book is really good just for the pictures, and the material for tests I learned was mostly straight from the lecture notes.

PHYSIOLOGY: You won't need the super fat main textbook, but definitely go for the Purple Costanzo book. That was probably my most used textbook of the year. Super nice in conjunction with your notes.

BIOCHEM: Definitely don't buy the main textbook, but do buy the recommended Lipncott's Illustrated reviews book... that one was SUPER helpful for clearing up pathways and whatnot. Really good illustrations.

NERUO: You will want the neuro books, ESPECIALLY the neuro atlas. It's really old school looking, but very good. Also I would say NEVER, I repeat NEVER, miss Dr. Cole's class. He is probably my favorite lecturer, and he highlights brain structures and whatnot in class that you won't find in his power points, and that are super hard to learn on your own.

EMBRYO: I didn't buy it and did well. Dr. Kirby's notes are good and he gives really good lectures.

GENETICS: This one is still a bit muddy. The genetics program here is still VERY young (our class was actually the first to experience it) and it has changed dramatically for the class below us, so I'm sure I couldn't say anything helpful about it. I studied from the HY Genetics summary book, and I bought the main textbook too, as Dr. Gold told us specific pages to study. Then again, the textbook is different this year, so I have no idea how that is going to work. Sorry!

That's all I can think of that should be on your list (or at least what was on my list, it might have changed). Now, what's not on the list that you might find helpful are the Board review books. There are a lot of different brands, BRS, HY, RR, etc, and you may want to do some research when you pick one, but they are super helpful when it comes to giving practice questions for high yield material. I have BRS anatomy, BRS physio, BRS embyro, HY genetics, RR Biochem, HY neuroscience, HY behavioral science (though I didn't use that one much).... aaannnd that's about it I think. You might not need any of those or you might want different brands. Do some SDN or google searches, check out Amazon reviews, etc to find out what would work best for you. Don't worry about First Aid this year... You can start worrying about boards during second year! Focus on getting a good foundation and then First Aid will come easier and more naturally next year.

Oh yea and one more thing! For those of you who would rather not print every last set of lecture notes, they are all available online. You have to pay the school to have stuff printed off for you, not to mention all the reviews or study sheets you may make for yourself. If you have a tablet like an iPad or a Xoom or whatever, you can download all your stuff to it (or I sync with DropBox from my Macbook) and you can use that instead of having massive amounts of paper. I find it more convenient and my iPad basically payed for itself after I stopped paying for syllabi and printer ink! The one downside I guess, is that for those of you who enjoy the comforts and familiarity of studying from paper, you would obviously lose that with a tablet. If you do go this route, just remember: a tablet should replace your stacks of binders and notes, NOT a laptop. You wouldn't want to type the papers you do in med school on a tablet screen now would you? Or I guess you could always go to the library...

Anyways, now for my usual disclaimer: please take this info with a grain of salt. This is just what I did based on my learning style and what I was told by students before me. Your textbook list may have changed or the curriculum may have evolved a bit, so take all that into account also. Compared to undergrad, med school is way more flexible with how you do textbooks, and honestly the federal loans they give you are more than enough to cover costs (if you are dong those anyways). So yea... This post was a really long read haha, hope it helped even a little! :)
 
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98% match this last year - and I've got the straight gossip (connections back to the homestead ;))

You'll all like the medical school experience at LLU

Unfortunately, I'm too far out now to give much more than general medical school advice. The new building is gorgeous from what I've seen - need someone to give me the "insider" tour one of these days.

I'm thinking about going back to work.
 
Does anyone know how far in advance apartments are available in the area? Are the listings in The Trading Post typically "available now" or more like a month or two out? I'm trying to decide when to make a trip down there to check places out.
 
Does anyone know how far in advance apartments are available in the area? Are the listings in The Trading Post typically "available now" or more like a month or two out? I'm trying to decide when to make a trip down there to check places out.

The Trading Post does typically mean "available now" and if you try to place a hold this early in the game, chances are you will drop a TON of money just to hold a place. The trading post often has new & nice places up for grabs all the time, especially at the beginning of the school year. I didn't start getting an apartment set up until mid-July. My dad & I made the 3 day road trip out to LLU about a week in advance to take care of that business, and it was plenty of time :)

Some of you may want more time then that, but just so you know, the Trading Post is often full of currently available places, so it's not too competitive. :thumb up:

Also, two really good places not listed in the Trading Post that are worth checking out: Good Manor Apartments on Stewart street, and Oasis Town Houses on Prospect Street. The former is about $850 a month for really nice 2 bed/2 bath apartments, while the later is more expensive, but has even nicer layouts along with a quiet community having a pool, racquetball, tennis, hot tub, etc.
 
thedoctor8706, is everyone required to buy the same laptop? I heard that somewhere. And what about notpads/tablets? Ipad the best? Or are they even needed.

Also, any advise on the medical supplies they require you to buy? I read some old posts saying that most of the supplies were not even needed or used as they were already provided in the labs. I think doctajay said you can get away without buying most of the supplies, but others said you can't pass some class if you dont prove that you have them. Looking for any opportunity to lower that $66000/year debt :xf:
 
Oh and thanks a lot for your advise. And best of luck with Step 1. :thumbup:
 
Speaking of $66000/year debt, how are people planning to make up the difference between that and the $42000 in Stafford loans? Are private loans the only option?
 
thedoctor8706, is everyone required to buy the same laptop? I heard that somewhere. And what about notpads/tablets? Ipad the best? Or are they even needed.

Also, any advise on the medical supplies they require you to buy? I read some old posts saying that most of the supplies were not even needed or used as they were already provided in the labs. I think doctajay said you can get away without buying most of the supplies, but others said you can't pass some class if you dont prove that you have them. Looking for any opportunity to lower that $66000/year debt :xf:

Nope, you can buy whatever laptop you want! :) Though not surprisingly, over half the students in our class have a MacBook. You don't NEED a tablet, I just use one because I have spent WAY too much money on printing. All class handouts are available online, and there are stacks and stacks of them, so using an iPad has eliminate all the paperwork. It's nice to have everything all in one place. I throw all my notes into Dropbox, then use a Notability/PDF Expert app combo to annotate and study. Idk what the best tablet is, but I've always been a huge apple fan and honestly their touch screens are by far the best. Just remember like I said before, a tablet shouldn't replace a laptop; you won't want to type papers on that. It's to replace the tons of paper/binders. Mine has payed for itself!

As far as medical supplies go, don't worry about buying those until you get into orientation. They'll tell you what you need to have for class, and it you buy them all together, you get a big discount.
 
Speaking of $66000/year debt, how are people planning to make up the difference between that and the $42000 in Stafford loans? Are private loans the only option?

This was a question I had too. There is actually another federal loan that solves this problem, the Grad PLUS Loan. With this, the limit you can take out is up to the "cost of attendance," the amount Loma Linda determines you need for tuition, living, etc. You'll get a financial advisor who takes care of your loans, and he'll be able to help you out with this. You don't need to apply for it seperately from your FAFSA, but you will need sign a bit more forms that your advisor will help you with.
 
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I have a practical, kind of boring, question for all of you who already live in the area. I've heard that utilities prices are super high, but what does that actually mean? If anyone is comfortable sharing what they pay for different utilities, it would be very helpful in my budget-building!
 
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