Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?
I don't understand the question, and I won't respond to it.
You just lost your #1 fan, doc.
I BELIEVED IN YOU!!!
@knux,
lololololol
Yeah, I never really got into Star Wars or Star Trek or any of the space-related franchises...
With the first gym being a rock type and second being a water type? Lol. Squirtle all day errday.
Where's your sense of challenge and adventure?
This may be too early to tell, but how well do you believe your major has helped you so far in med school?
Well, I think. Insofar as the fact that I've at least seen a lot of the material we're covering now in anatomy is helpful. One of the lectures we had very briefly dealt with some very basic principles of toxicology and pharmacology, and I got very excited because it was stuff that I actually knew very well.
Talking to upper years, it would appear to me that the pharmacology and some of the pathophysiology I covered in undergrad is up to par with what they teach in medical school. It's just a matter of me seeing the material again, freshening up on it, and expanding on it further. Needless to say, I cannot wait to get to physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Those are the things I've been studying for the past four years in undergrad anyway.
One final note to make is that I think I have a better perspective on what we're learning because of my major. I've already gotten to the point where I understand some disease etiology and drugs treatments, and that helps me see the bigger picture in "why" we're learning what we're learning. It also comes in handy when doctors start throwing out drug names or diseases during lecture or shadowing; I'm not completely clueless.
What's the most significant piece of advice do you have for current medschool applicants?
It's hard, but try not to stress out too much about the process; you'll end up burning out very quickly. It's best to enter this process (and especially interviews) with a calm and focused mind. During the periods of waiting, don't check your inbox every five minutes. Live your life, focus on school, and have some fun. Applying to med school doesn't mean you have to be a hermit for a year.
Can you give me a brief summary of what you study in your major? It sounds interesting.
Pharmacology and Toxicology is a program that very schools in the US have. I would say that the end-game of the major is to produce competent bench/clinical researchers for pharmaceutical companies and other labs. The program runs parallel to the PharmD program at my school, so I took all my major classes with pharmacy students (e.g., prereqs, anatomy, physiology, immunology, pharmacology, etc.). In some classes, half of the class was also composed of grad students.
The difference in the programs starts at around third year where the PharmDs begin focusing more on clinical things (e.g., dosing, in-depth drug interactions) while my major switched into more of a research-oriented program. We had labs where we were exposed to all kinds of standard lab techniques like working with mice/rats, cell culture, blots, ELISA, you-name-it and we probably did it. We also had upper level science courses that dealt with a more in-depth look at target organ pathophysiology and toxicology.
Here's a list of some of the upper-level courses I took:
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology and Genetics
- Principles and Applications of Immunology
- Physiology I, II
- Techniques in Pharmacology/Toxicology
- Biochemical Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Toxicology I and II
- Principles of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
- Biomethods in Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Pharmacology
tl;dr, I learned about drugs and how they can kill you.
