Alabama Schools Thread

[BlazerMed]

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1st semester financial aid comes on the 26th. 👍 👍

For me atleast.

 

[BlazerMed]

Friday's Orientation schedule has been added to the website. We'll be finished by lunch that day. 👍 👍

Info on Saturday about attending the Birmingham Barons game that night.

Monday and Thursday are still blank.

 

[BlazerMed]

We've been divided up between 4th and 5th floors now, Stephen Smith posted the two lists on the Message board under the heading of 'My Anatomy Dissection Group'

 

[BooMed]

Thanks for keeping us updated! 🙂

 

[BlazerMed]

Thanks for keeping us updated! 🙂

If you can't tell, I have no life.

I'm so bored right now... last day of work is coming up, Tuesday the 18th!

 

[BooMed]

If you can't tell, I have no life.

I'm so bored right now... last day of work is coming up, Tuesday the 18th!

Congratulations! Not working is soooo wonderful. I've been off since we got back from our honeymoon, and I have 12 more glorious days of freedom left. Yay. 🙂

Does anyone know more about actual class schedules? How often we have anatomy lab and stuff? I'm so curious about that.

 

[jammin06]

Congratulations! Not working is soooo wonderful. I've been off since we got back from our honeymoon, and I have 12 more glorious days of freedom left. Yay. 🙂

Does anyone know more about actual class schedules? How often we have anatomy lab and stuff? I'm so curious about that.

From what I have been able to gather, I think we have the same schedule everyday, with:
Ethics 9-10
Gross Lecture 10-12, and then
Gross Lab 1-3.

I think we also have ICM small groups that start during the second week of class as well, and those are once a week groups where you meet from 3-5. These are all speculation, anyone find out anything different?

 

[MattD]

From what I have been able to gather, I think we have the same schedule everyday, with:
Ethics 9-10
Gross Lecture 10-12, and then
Gross Lab 1-3.

I think we also have ICM small groups that start during the second week of class as well, and those are once a week groups where you meet from 3-5. These are all speculation, anyone find out anything different?

I got the impression from the schedule that anatomy lab was split into two sections, which met on alternating days. Are you seeing that it's every day? That's a lot of formaldehyde to inhale.....

 

[odrade1]

The schedule seems to me to indicate that the groups will alternate.

 

[Doctor&Geek]

If the schedule hasn't changed since I was in anatomy, groups alternate M-Th with all groups on F.

 

[jammin06]

If the schedule hasn't changed since I was in anatomy, groups alternate M-Th with all groups on F.

that's good to hear.

 

[Shades McCool]

Last year it was everyone, everyday.

 

[BooMed]

Last year it was everyone, everyday.

Eeeeh 🙁

 

[BlazerMed]

Who all's coming to dinner/bowling tonight?

I'll be there, good luck figuring me out.

On a very happy note, today is my last day of work.

 

[MattD]

Who all's coming to dinner/bowling tonight?

I'll be there, good luck figuring me out.

On a very happy note, today is my last day of work.

I plan on being there, and I'll do my best to guess 🙂

 

[odrade1]

Who all's coming to dinner/bowling tonight?

I'll be there, good luck figuring me out.

On a very happy note, today is my last day of work.

I'm not gonna make it this time. Though I am thinking about dropping by that party on Thursday. I don't enjoy bowling or eating at restaurants in large groups (I was a waiter for 7 years and I feel a lot of anxiety when I eat out in large groups of people, since as group size increases, the likelyhood of people behaving badly or not knowing how to act or tip increases geometrically.) I feel more comfortable having 30 people at my house than I do having dinner with 8 at a restaurant. Go figure.

I hope you guys have a blast, though.

 

[BooMed]

I'm not gonna make it this time. Though I am thinking about dropping by that party on Thursday. I don't enjoy bowling or eating at restaurants in large groups (I was a waiter for 7 years and I feel a lot of anxiety when I eat out in large groups of people, since as group size increases, the likelyhood of people behaving badly or not knowing how to act or tip increases geometrically.) I feel more comfortable having 30 people at my house than I do having dinner with 8 at a restaurant. Go figure.

I hope you guys have a blast, though.

You are really funny.

 

[odrade1]

You are really funny.

Thanks! I have to say that I'm looking forward to meeting you. Too bad we were assigned to different floors. I bet we won't even be allowed to speak to one another.

 

[eerapido]

Thanks! I have to say that I'm looking forward to meeting you. Too bad we were assigned to different floors. I bet we won't even be allowed to speak to one another.

Assigned to different floors??

 

[jammin06]

Assigned to different floors??

Yes, before your first year, you are assigned to either 4th or 5th floor of volker hall as your "learnng community." According to the website, "In Gross Anatomy, you will be assigned to a dissection group. In ICM you will be assigned to a preceptor group. Everyone in your group will be from the same learning community you are in."

I don't really know how they are assigned. I heard a rumor that 4th floor is generally where people who are doing their clinicals in Tusc. or Huntsville. But talking to some students at the bowling thing earlier in the week, it appears that may not be entirely the case.

Can anyone else shine some light on this matter?

 

[odrade1]

Yes, before your first year, you are assigned to either 4th or 5th floor of volker hall as your "learnng community." According to the website, "In Gross Anatomy, you will be assigned to a dissection group. In ICM you will be assigned to a preceptor group. Everyone in your group will be from the same learning community you are in."

I don't really know how they are assigned. I heard a rumor that 4th floor is generally where people who are doing their clinicals in Tusc. or Huntsville. But talking to some students at the bowling thing earlier in the week, it appears that may not be entirely the case.

Can anyone else shine some light on this matter?

I'm on 5th floor. I had assumed that thats where they put all the best looking people. But then that doesn't explain how Boomed ended up on the 4th floor....

 

[BooMed]

I'm on 5th floor. I had assumed that thats where they put all the best looking people. But then that doesn't explain how Boomed ended up on the 4th floor....

It's because they don't want one floor to feel bad.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I really hope my class is going to be as cool as you guys. Everyone going bowling together and having a fun time.

 

[odrade1]

I really hope my class is going to be as cool as you guys. Everyone going bowling together and having a fun time.

It remains to be seen whether or not the class will be cool or not. After all, pre-meds are a pretty geeky crowd. But, geeky-ness and coolness aren't logically incompatible properties, so there's still hope. Luckily, people seem interested in being friendly and social, so that is a good thing.

When your time comes around, you'll have to take the initiative and get your class socializing. Just remember to tip your waitress & don't get bent out of shape if it takes 30-45 minutes to split, print, distribute, and make change for 27 separate checks.

 

[BlazerMed]

4th floor > 5th floor

That is all.

 

[odrade1]

4th floor > 5th floor

That is all.

LOL
If that's true, why are we on top?

 

[BooMed]

It remains to be seen whether or not the class will be cool or not. After all, pre-meds are a pretty geeky crowd. But, geeky-ness and coolness aren't logically incompatible properties, so there's still hope. Luckily, people seem interested in being friendly and social, so that is a good thing.

When your time comes around, you'll have to take the initiative and get your class socializing. Just remember to tip your waitress & don't get bent out of shape if it takes 30-45 minutes to split, print, distribute, and make change for 27 separate checks.

You are really against group dining. How do you feel about potlucks? Big family thanksgiving dinners? Picnics? 😀

 

[BooMed]

I'm on 5th floor. I had assumed that thats where they put all the best looking people. But then that doesn't explain how Boomed ended up on the 4th floor....

Actually, looking back at my polaroid pic, your theory is right. 😛

 

[odrade1]

Actually, looking back at my polaroid pic, your theory is right. 😛

My picture is truly awful as well. Thank god I look good in real life, and that my ego is both massive enough and strong enough to withstand a terrible picture in the greenbook.

On the subject of public dining:
Part of the anxiety comes from people not knowing how to act. I have to actively put forth effort to relenquish control enough to dine out in groups. Many people have very poor decision making skills when it comes to food, and I can often predict which of my friends will be happy or not with their menu choices, even before we've seen the food. So sometimes I feel frustrated even before we're through ordering! Call this paternalism in dining. I know what they should be eating, but I can't say anything or tell them what to eat because of the importance of diner autonomy. So I usually start out by having a glass of wine before we order our first course, since that helps me care less about the foolish gastronomic decisions that people make. But really, this isn't a significant problem; more like an idiosyncricity. (I hope.)

Still the worst thing for me is dining out in big groups. Our closest friends know not to invite us if the restaurant party size will be N>8. Even then, I prefer 4-6ppl at a table. If I was at a formal dinner party with dozens of people, I would be ok, as long as everyone had decent manners. It is also less stressful for me if one person is paying, or if everyone is gracious enough to divide the bill evenly, without worrying about who is paying for what.

For casual events, such as having people at our house, I don't mind larger numbers. Pot luck dinners are great, since the agreement is to keep it relaxed and casual. When cooking a little more formally with/for friends, though, I prefer to have full control over the menu until I can trust someone enough to bring the right kind of wine and or food with them. Eating at a diner or cafeteria or order & pick-up style restaurant in a very large group is not a problem, since the setting is prima facie casual & disorganized.

 

[BlazerMed]

LOL
If that's true, why are we on top?

I keep trying to think up a witty comeback, but I'm at a loss.

You win.

 

[odrade1]

I keep trying to think up a witty comeback, but I'm at a loss.

You win.

There are plenty of witty comebacks to that comment, but none of them are clean or professional!

 

[frederico2]

I keep trying to think up a witty comeback, but I'm at a loss.

You win.

The answer is: Because we want them to have to climb more stairs if the elevators break down.
~James

 

[BlazerMed]

There are plenty of witty comebacks to that comment, but none of them are clean or professional!

The goal was to come up with something that would A) not get censored and B) not get me banned. I'm not going to med school because of my creativity!

The answer is: Because we want them to have to climb more stairs if the elevators break down.

I thought of something like that, but I didn't want to open myself up to the comeback that the 4th floor would need the extra study time to keep up.

 

[BooMed]

My picture is truly awful as well. Thank god I look good in real life, and that my ego is both massive enough and strong enough to withstand a terrible picture in the greenbook.

On the subject of public dining:
Part of the anxiety comes from people not knowing how to act. I have to actively put forth effort to relenquish control enough to dine out in groups. Many people have very poor decision making skills when it comes to food, and I can often predict which of my friends will be happy or not with their menu choices, even before we've seen the food. So sometimes I feel frustrated even before we're through ordering! Call this paternalism in dining. I know what they should be eating, but I can't say anything or tell them what to eat because of the importance of diner autonomy. So I usually start out by having a glass of wine before we order our first course, since that helps me care less about the foolish gastronomic decisions that people make. But really, this isn't a significant problem; more like an idiosyncricity. (I hope.)

Still the worst thing for me is dining out in big groups. Our closest friends know not to invite us if the restaurant party size will be N>8. Even then, I prefer 4-6ppl at a table. If I was at a formal dinner party with dozens of people, I would be ok, as long as everyone had decent manners. It is also less stressful for me if one person is paying, or if everyone is gracious enough to divide the bill evenly, without worrying about who is paying for what.

For casual events, such as having people at our house, I don't mind larger numbers. Pot luck dinners are great, since the agreement is to keep it relaxed and casual. When cooking a little more formally with/for friends, though, I prefer to have full control over the menu until I can trust someone enough to bring the right kind of wine and or food with them. Eating at a diner or cafeteria or order & pick-up style restaurant in a very large group is not a problem, since the setting is prima facie casual & disorganized.

I understand where you're coming from. Personally I can't stand eating food that I didn't make unless it's really good and expensive and the kitchen is visible to the diners. I've worked at too many shady places where the food was barely sanitary and not at all fresh. With my own food I know that nobody has dropped it on the floor or stuck their dirty fingers in it and that the ingredients were purchased within the last few days. I once worked at this Italian restaurant where the ($20) lasagna was made once every two weeks and they just keep reheating it. Yuck.

I also almost always hate free food. I'd so much rather bring my own lunch, and I probably will. It's kind of embarrassing to be so picky, but I can't seem to help it. I spend a lot of time and money on cooking, it justs tastes better. 🙄

 

[BlazerMed]

😱 😱

 

[odrade1]

I understand where you're coming from. Personally I can't stand eating food that I didn't make unless it's really good and expensive and the kitchen is visible to the diners. I've worked at too many shady places where the food was barely sanitary and not at all fresh. With my own food I know that nobody has dropped it on the floor or stuck their dirty fingers in it and that the ingredients were purchased within the last few days. I once worked at this Italian restaurant where the ($20) lasagna was made once every two weeks and they just keep reheating it. Yuck.

I also almost always hate free food. I'd so much rather bring my own lunch, and I probably will. It's kind of embarrassing to be so picky, but I can't seem to help it. I spend a lot of time and money on cooking, it justs tastes better. 🙄

That lazagna story is both horrifying and not entirely surprising. I have come to expect that except in certain situations, the food I order will likely come out of a freezer warehouse at SYSCO. However, I just accept that that's the status quo at certain places, and continue to eat there, accepting the food for what it is.

The better restaurants here (i.e., chef-owned, chef-operated, or chef-personality driven restaurants) tend to employ cooks who take a lot of pride in their work, so there aren't too many fears I have when dining out at nice restaurants. For the rest of the lot (chain restaurants, etc.), I tend to know not to expect too much, and read the menu carefully to try to figure out which choices are most likely to be fresh and/or properly prepared.

And there is a certain amount of suspension of belief (as opposed to disbelief) that has to go on when you dine out. I know that as many times as I (or most people) have dined out in my life, I have eaten food that has been dropped or food that has been touched by someone who hasn't washed their hands in 48 hours. I once found a wad of chewing gum in the bottom of my Wendy's frosty. Of course I didn't find it till I was near the bottom of the cup. Yum!

Warnings to people who haven't worked in restaurants:
Any type of protein (salmon, scallops, veal, etc.) that is on the daily special and is also found on the regular menu should usually be avoided. The reason something on the regular menu gets tweaked to also appear on the specials list is because the kitchen manager wants to get rid of the spoiled or soon-to-be spoiled products that they over-ordered. Better restaurants have specials lists that showcase seasonal items or items that are not on the regular menu. These items should be safe.

Certain foods are somewhat more likely to have been dropped (by accident) then placed back on the plate (out of desperation or out of malicious intent); chicken fingers (esp. tempura fried chicken fingers) and well done or medium well done steaks. Well done steaks take too long to cook, so if it falls on its way to the plate or on the way to the table, the odds are excruciatingly high that the piece of meat gets dusted off, checked for hair/grit, then re-plated. Chicken fingers fly off of porcelin? plates faster than...other stuff that tries to quickly escape. I saw dozens of steaks and hundreds of chicken fingers hit the floor then go back on a plate during my days at Chili's and the Mill. Yuck! If you were lucky, the line cook wiped off your steak (or rinsed it off) then threw it back on the grill for the flame-broiled restaurant version of an autoclave.

 

[odrade1]

.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I've pretty much accepted the fact that my food is probably horribly handled and moved past that lol. Hopefully it was dropped before it was cooked and hopefull no one stuck their used gum in between my hamburger bun. I eat at subway a lot because I think it is nice to see people make my food while wearing gloves, of course they could have dropped all the lettuce on the floor and put it back in the bucket before I was even there lol.

If I am disgusted by food I will not eat it, but if I don't know that it was messed with, that is dropped or something else, but it tastes good then who cares. I have yet to become deathly ill from any food I've eaten so I'll continue to eat what I get as long as I enjoy the taste.

 

[BooMed]

It's funny, I don't care so much about whether or not food is clean (since I've never gotten food poisoning or anything close to it) but rather how high the quality is. I guess those things partially go hand in hand. I can't stand chain places because I feel like everything has been frozen or obtained at the absolute cheapest rate to make the most profit possible. Plus half of going out is the atmosphere and what chain restaurant has decent atmosphere?

I'd so much rather save my money and only go out once in a while to places like Ocean or Cafe Dupont. By the way, has anyone been to 26 yet? I'm digging the unisex bathrooms. Very un-Alabama.

Of course, this attitude towards eating out is helped by the fact that my husband and I love to cook. If I didn't enjoy our food so much I'd probably eat out all of the time! 🙂

 

[BooMed]

On another note, happy last day of vacation everyone! I hope you are all doing something nice. Personally I plan to spend half of the day in my pajamas. 😀

 

[odrade1]

It's funny, I don't care so much about whether or not food is clean (since I've never gotten food poisoning or anything close to it) but rather how high the quality is. I guess those things partially go hand in hand. I can't stand chain places because I feel like everything has been frozen or obtained at the absolute cheapest rate to make the most profit possible. Plus half of going out is the atmosphere and what chain restaurant has decent atmosphere?

I'd so much rather save my money and only go out once in a while to places like Ocean or Cafe Dupont. By the way, has anyone been to 26 yet? I'm digging the unisex bathrooms. Very un-Alabama.

Of course, this attitude towards eating out is helped by the fact that my husband and I love to cook. If I didn't enjoy our food so much I'd probably eat out all of the time! 🙂

I haven't heard of 26 yet. Do you know who the chef is? How was the food & what style of food was it? We tried the Local (in vestavia) recently, and had a great experience. We were also a fan of that chef's last restaurant, AMBA.

 

[BlazerMed]

On another note, happy last day of vacation everyone! I hope you are all doing something nice. Personally I plan to spend half of the day in my pajamas. 😀

Video Games 👍 👍

 

[jammin06]

On another note, happy last day of vacation everyone! I hope you are all doing something nice. Personally I plan to spend half of the day in my pajamas. 😀

here here! I'm trying to take advantage of the three things that I will miss the most once classes start: sleeping, cooking and hanging out with non-medical school people.

See everyone tomorrow!

 

[BooMed]

I haven't heard of 26 yet. Do you know who the chef is? How was the food & what style of food was it? We tried the Local (in vestavia) recently, and had a great experience. We were also a fan of that chef's last restaurant, AMBA.

Same owner as Ocean, and right next door. I don't know who the actual chef is though. Great ambiance - the colors and lighting are gorgeous. More of a place that I would go for drinks and appetizers, although they have entrees too. The menu is small and pretty random - everything from Indian-style samosas to tuna a tuna sushi roll with melon. It's supposed be cheaper than Ocean but I don't think it is. 🙄 😛

 

[eerapido]

Would I be correct in believing that UASOM and USASOM seem to be slow in their sending out secondaries?

 

[DoctorPardi]

Would I be correct in believing that UASOM and USASOM seem to be slow in their sending out secondaries?

Did anyone go to South Alabama on these boards?

 

[Doctor&Geek]

sleeping <snip> with non-medical school people

😳

Good luck everyone!

 

[MattD]

Would I be correct in believing that UASOM and USASOM seem to be slow in their sending out secondaries?

I don't know about South, but UAB tends to be a little behind schedule I think.

 

[jammin06]

I don't know about South, but UAB tends to be a little behind schedule I think.

Last year, UAB sent their secondary (electronic) last year on Aug. 1, and then I received South's (paper) around Aug. 12 or so. For some reason, these dates were stuck in my head. Hopefully they will replaced by the immense amount of anatomy that we'll have to learn starting next week.

 

[eerapido]

Last year, UAB sent their secondary (electronic) last year on Aug. 1, and then I received South's (paper) around Aug. 12 or so. For some reason, these dates were stuck in my head. Hopefully they will replaced by the immense amount of anatomy that we'll have to learn starting next week.

Thanks.... I keep checking my email for these secondaries... You are seconding what I learned from a current second year at UASOM.