Anyone else have unrelealistic expectations on where they want to go to school?

Getting into Med School is Hard? Not with BeMo.
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I don't need backups. I'm going to Harvard.
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Shinobiz11 said:
I want to go to UMICH SO BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!

Best school in my state and in the top 10. It is located an hour away from me and I can always get an apt in the cool town of Ann Arbor. Love the city, love the school, love the football. GO BLUE!!!
umich.jpg
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As a Michigan resident, I can say that I was enormously bummed by U of M when I interviewed there. Great school, students, and academics. TERRIBLE attitude among some of the admissions folk, especially towards in staters. After my interview, U of M wasn't even in my top 10. I really wanted to love it, but you only get one day to make an impression.
 
mmmcdowe said:
As a Michigan resident, I can say that I was enormously bummed by U of M when I interviewed there. Great school, students, and academics. TERRIBLE attitude among some of the admissions folk, especially towards in staters. After my interview, U of M wasn't even in my top 10. I really wanted to love it, but you only get one day to make an impression.
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yeah, and maybe that poster should finisher his/her first semester of undergrad before deciding where to go to med school ;)

EDIT: or is it high school that that poster needs to finish? either way.
 
New York or Miami would be really cool in theory. Not really sure how I would adjust though.
 
Being from the DC area I had envisioned Georgetown as my top choice. Then I went to NYU on an interview and just loved everything about it. Mt Sinai was also spectacular. Any of those three would make me very happy.:p
 
dw2158 said:
yeah, and maybe that poster should finisher his/her first semester of undergrad before deciding where to go to med school ;)

EDIT: or is it high school that that poster needs to finish? either way.
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Hmm...maybe if you read the title of the post it clearly says "unreal expectations". I really want to to UMich, but I don't think I can get in lol. So how about instead of judging someone based on what school they want to go to, why don't you worry about yourself.
 
Shinobiz11 said:
Hmm...maybe if you read the title of the post it clearly says "unreal expectations". I really want to to UMich, but I don't think I can get in lol. So how about instead of judging someone based on what school they want to go to, why don't you worry about yourself.
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whoa there, tiger. i was poking fun at you because you proclaimed your love for UMich 5 years before you're going to start med school! reeeeeelax, in more ways than one :cool:
 
dw2158 said:
whoa there, tiger. i was poking fun at you because you proclaimed your love for UMich 5 years before you're going to start med school! reeeeeelax, in more ways than one :cool:
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Sarcasm does not work with text lol:D

Yeah, I didn't mean to "yell", just thought you were being a tool.:)
 
Shinobiz11 said:
Sarcasm does not work with text lol:D

Yeah, I didn't mean to "yell", just thought you were being a tool.:)
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ya know, people always use the "i didn't know you were being sarcastic" excuse, but come on. there is a freaking winking smiley face next to what i posted there.
 
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dw2158 said:
ya know, people always use the "i didn't know you were being sarcastic" excuse, but come on. there is a freaking winking smiley face next to what i posted there.
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it looks evil on first glance!:smuggrin:
 
Philly and Penn! I'd also be all right with UCSF or NU, which are both great and in sick cities... damn this waiting...
 
hahahaha... dw and shinobiz is so cute


but

:caution: to both of u :D
 
I thought I had pretty realistic expectations. San Francisco, Southern California, Ann Arbor, maybe NYC. I was wrong.
 
To all of those who really want to end up in Boston/NYC/Chicago:

med school is very, very hard and you will spend a whole lot of time on your campus in your library. I occasionally forget where I live because I basically go from home to the library and back home with the very occasional break (at which point I just go out with my classmates to a bar with a good live band- and that can be found *almost* anywhere).
As it happens, those 3 cities also have TONS of hospitals (e.g. there's only one Harvard med, but there are tons of Harvard hospitals, and you might prefer the crowd anyway). So instead of stressing about where you'll spend your days in the library, just know that if you go to a school and do well, you'll be able to 1) do away rotations at cities that interest you (which can give you a hint as to whether you'd actually like to live there- I lived in NYC for a few years, and I know I wouldn't want to live there permanently, but I wouldn't have known that had I not lived there for a while), and eventually 2) get a residency in said city. Those hospitals take people from all over the place, as any med school's match list can show.

Don't get too stressed out about location, trust me.
 
Hopkins - Mayo - Duke - Vandy

Probably end up (though gratefully if it does happen) at the good 'ole state school :rolleyes:
 
ButImLETired said:
To all of those who really want to end up in Boston/NYC/Chicago:

med school is very, very hard and you will spend a whole lot of time on your campus in your library. I occasionally forget where I live because I basically go from home to the library and back home with the very occasional break (at which point I just go out with my classmates to a bar with a good live band- and that can be found *almost* anywhere).
As it happens, those 3 cities also have TONS of hospitals (e.g. there's only one Harvard med, but there are tons of Harvard hospitals, and you might prefer the crowd anyway). So instead of stressing about where you'll spend your days in the library, just know that if you go to a school and do well, you'll be able to 1) do away rotations at cities that interest you (which can give you a hint as to whether you'd actually like to live there- I lived in NYC for a few years, and I know I wouldn't want to live there permanently, but I wouldn't have known that had I not lived there for a while), and eventually 2) get a residency in said city. Those hospitals take people from all over the place, as any med school's match list can show.

Don't get too stressed out about location, trust me.
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I believe this depends in large part on the school. At both Penn and Northwestern, the students were way less stressed out due to having 3 unscheduled afternoons per week. Penn also has group anatomy exams, which totally calms everyone down. Oh and Michigan has flex quizzes, so you can basically have the weekend to yourself for the entirety of your first 2 years.
Other schools I've been to seemed to be a bit more stressful... Duke (condensed year 1), WashU (gunner culture lol) and I guess Vandy (per your post) come to mind.
 
ApoK said:
I believe this depends in large part on the school. At both Penn and Northwestern, the students were way less stressed out due to having 3 unscheduled afternoons per week. Penn also has group anatomy exams, which totally calms everyone down. Oh and Michigan has flex quizzes, so you can basically have the weekend to yourself for the entirety of your first 2 years.
Other schools I've been to seemed to be a bit more stressful... Duke (condensed year 1), WashU (gunner culture lol) and I guess Vandy (per your post) come to mind.
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You'd really be surprised at how little it has to do with the school. I understand that you'll jump at any chance to imply Vanderbilt sucks, and it's your prerogative, but I do want you to understand one point (and this applies to all the premeds out there who are looking for the most "chill" school). The work is the same for everyone. We have 4 afternoons a week free and therefore we should be even more "way less stressed out". We also have the occasional flex quiz. I worked with a UMich grad who told me that while she liked some aspects of the school, she was really stressed out and exhausted all the time.

I'm not implying anything negative about the schools, far from it, but I wouldn't really expect ANY med school to be easy/stress-free/whatever. I have no doubt that there are people in my class who'd swear up and down that they are having an extremely stress-free med school experience, and I'm guessing about 80% of them would be lying. Every med school has big exams with lots of info that count for a lot of your grades. Put those exams online, color them pink and put rainbows on them, and it'll make zero difference to you, the student- you'll still have to sit and study the material. Period. This may or may not stress you out, but that depends on whether you're one of those people who just always stays calm or not, more than "how many afternoons a week you have free" (you'll spend them studying), or whether the quizzes are online (you'll still have to study for them, and the average will be affected by the people who don't believe in the honor system). Dress a curriculum as you want. The information is the same for everyone. Some schools (Penn and Duke come to mind) stuff the same information into less time, making it even rougher on you (the stuff they don't teach you WILL come back to bite you by the way, in the form of more to study for Step 1, or more to review come the wards- I have heard this from multiple people from both schools).

If you want the best and least stressful situation possible, go to a school with a pass/fail curriculum where pass isn't an 85 or something absurd like that. Go somewhere where they don't rank you. Go somewhere they don't require you to be in class all the time (ultimately, how many hours you're supposed to be in lecture are irrelevant, what matters is whether they care if you're there or not). Go somewhere with a lot of support- do professors hold weekly reviews? Do they answer your emails soon after you send them? Are the course directors actively involved in making sure all the individual lecturers are teaching you relevant stuff that fits together? Are they going over all of your exam questions (or writing the whole exam themselves, which is what our directors do) to make sure the questions are cohesive and there aren't any super easy or super hard professors who threw some random crap in there? Is there some kind of wellness initiative at the school to bring you stress-relieving tips and programs? Are tutors available, and TA's that can go to gross lab with you and teach you something you didn't get?

No one ever asks this stuff, and yet it's incredibly important.
 
ButImLETired said:
If you want the best and least stressful situation possible, go to a school with a pass/fail curriculum where pass isn't an 85 or something absurd like that. Go somewhere where they don't rank you. Go somewhere they don't require you to be in class all the time (ultimately, how many hours you're supposed to be in lecture are irrelevant, what matters is whether they care if you're there or not). Go somewhere with a lot of support- do professors hold weekly reviews? Do they answer your emails soon after you send them? Are the course directors actively involved in making sure all the individual lecturers are teaching you relevant stuff that fits together? Are they going over all of your exam questions (or writing the whole exam themselves, which is what our directors do) to make sure the questions are cohesive and there aren't any super easy or super hard professors who threw some random crap in there? Is there some kind of wellness initiative at the school to bring you stress-relieving tips and programs? Are tutors available, and TA's that can go to gross lab with you and teach you something you didn't get?

No one ever asks this stuff, and yet it's incredibly important.
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as usual, LET for the win :)

but i will say that location, i.e. city, matters to me a lot even though LET and others may disagree. it's not that i think i'll have all the time in the world to go out and enjoy the party scene in NYC, it's just that i really like living here. the little day to day things make me happy-- the subway, the gazillions of farmers markets, grocery shopping in a different place every week, the museums, the way i can walk anywhere... i could go on and on. for me it's NYC, for others it could be another place that makes them happy. this stuff IS important. i really believe that you should not be spending 100% of your "free" time in the library, so it's vital to be in a place that you can enjoy.
 
I have to agree that location will matter particularly if you dont have a great deal of free time. Where else except NY, for example, could you get done with school at midnight or 2 in the morning and still be able to unwind at a decent bar or resturant?
 
dw2158 said:
as usual, LET for the win :)

but i will say that location, i.e. city, matters to me a lot even though LET and others may disagree. it's not that i think i'll have all the time in the world to go out and enjoy the party scene in NYC, it's just that i really like living here. the little day to day things make me happy-- the subway, the gazillions of farmers markets, grocery shopping in a different place every week, the museums, the way i can walk anywhere... i could go on and on. for me it's NYC, for others it could be another place that makes them happy. this stuff IS important. i really believe that you should not be spending 100% of your "free" time in the library, so it's vital to be in a place that you can enjoy.
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Hehe I do have to say, NYC isn't my cup of tea, but it's definitely unique, and it's probably one of the few cities you KNOW you're in regardless of how busy you are. For me, in order to know that I live in Nashville, I have to go downtown. That means getting in a car and going 10 minutes off campus. Since everything I want/need/care about is near me and in the residential area near campus (including bars, cute restaurants, all that good stuff), I'm just never really tempted to go downtown. This place is super collegey, so I meet students from all over the place. The only times I realize I'm in the South are when men open doors for me (I occasionally forget they're gonna do it, and then they get offended when I open the door for them, which is just adorable), when I go have some of the best ribs and hush puppies I've ever had, or when I see patients with mullets around campus. Besides that, I'm rarely ever aware of my surroundings. I hardly study 10 hours a day, I just never really see a reason to be downtown. With NYC...you really don't have that choice :p
 
I live in NY. Not NYC, but the suburbs.

I definitely wanna go to California! Too bad most of the schools there mostly accept in-state students?
 
ButImLETired said:
If you want the best and least stressful situation possible, go to a school with a pass/fail curriculum where pass isn't an 85 or something absurd like that. Go somewhere where they don't rank you. Go somewhere they don't require you to be in class all the time (ultimately, how many hours you're supposed to be in lecture are irrelevant, what matters is whether they care if you're there or not). Go somewhere with a lot of support- do professors hold weekly reviews? Do they answer your emails soon after you send them? Are the course directors actively involved in making sure all the individual lecturers are teaching you relevant stuff that fits together? Are they going over all of your exam questions (or writing the whole exam themselves, which is what our directors do) to make sure the questions are cohesive and there aren't any super easy or super hard professors who threw some random crap in there? Is there some kind of wellness initiative at the school to bring you stress-relieving tips and programs? Are tutors available, and TA's that can go to gross lab with you and teach you something you didn't get?

No one ever asks this stuff, and yet it's incredibly important.
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At any rate, I agree completely with what you've written above. Some schools are more stress-free than others because there are different cultures/resources at different schools. I'm not sure of any place else except Penn that takes group P/F anatomy practicals. Obviously they study, but the students *seem* pretty happy and have a little balance outside of constantly studying. Now, I say "seem," because again I may be wrong and they are just hiding how incredibly freaked out they are and that they secretly do not sleep at all in order to ensure their preparedness for exams.

Actually, you're also right about Duke and Penn doing more things in less time. Except they also cut material from BS and then you self-study for step 1, which you take in third year whenever you want. The programs are more efficient. How can memorizing the TCA cycle in your first few weeks of medical school possibly help you for step 1. It makes more sense to self-study stuff like that prior to step 1. The success of this approach is readily apparent in Duke and Penn's match results and also by the recent switch by Hopkins and Columbia to this structure.

I myself am not looking for the least stressful place but I at least admit some places are more stressful than others. The notion that all schools involve the same level of stress because they all ultimately cover the same material is patently false (as your own post above proves). Also, the city is important because conceivably people will have some free time during their 4 years of medical school, unless my naivety as a pre-med is distorting the reality that all free time must go towards studying something. The bottom line is that the city definitely counts unless you really don't have a life outside of studying, which is going to haunt you constantly during medical school and your entire life, if that is the case.
 
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I've lived in RI and Conn and would love to stay in that tristate area (RI, Conn, Mass). Too bad there are three Ivies right off the bat.
 
randombetch said:
Wow, so many others trying to get into UCLA!

Let's all get together and be friends! *grabs a gun*
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Oh watch it, pre-betch. I've got daggers down my boots. :smuggrin:

But I'm surprised there aren't more of us, actually. UCLA gets the great stats, the coast, the babes, and the drama!
 
Algophiliac said:
Oh watch it, pre-betch. I've got daggers down my boots. :smuggrin:

But I'm surprised there aren't more of us, actually. UCLA gets the great stats, the coast, the babes, and the drama!
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Cuz there's no monies! But there are riots, lmao.

I personally feel there's a little bit of an added risk to attending a UC with all these budget shortfalls, especially when tuition isn't locked in at a single rate for 4 years. I think that's probably a huge reason why I'd take Penn over UCSF. Although, I really did love both schools.
 
NYC or bust...barring any insane levels of financial aid/merit scholarships anywhere else. id like to think that stipulation applies to most of the people here:rolleyes:.
 
bleargh said:
it is UCLA after all..
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ApoK said:
Cuz there's no monies! But there are riots, lmao.

I personally feel there's a little bit of an added risk to attending a UC with all these budget shortfalls, especially when tuition isn't locked in at a single rate for 4 years. I think that's probably a huge reason why I'd take Penn over UCSF. Although, I really did love both schools.
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You guys realize that UCLA is located in between Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, right?
 
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