So I had ONE negative comment from a family med doctor on my deans letter. My other comments were all great. Anybody care to speculate how much this will affect me?
Bad comment on deans letter
- Thread starter DocDO2B
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What did they say?
Well I dont want to trash myself but said something to the effect of my medical knowledge was not at where he wanted to be for my level and I locked myself into focising too much on a specialty , ophtho, too early. This coming from a family doc we undoubtedly did not make the board scores I did on the medical knowledge tests. As you can see I am very bitter.
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Do you think he was right?
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Do Deans letters go out oct 1?
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Regardless of the truth of the comment, I think if the rest of your application is competitive it should not affect you in terms of getting an interview. That said, you may have some questions to answer (similar to the ones being posted here) about the details of that comment. You should be prepared for that. I would avoid the disparaging comment about the family practice doc!
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Lol since most family docs never look at or see the fundus im not surprised you pissed him off
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man... i hate to be a jerk, but if "This coming from a family doc we undoubtedly did not make the board scores I did on the medical knowledge tests." was your attitude on that rotation while you were shoving yourself in patients' faces and peering at their fundi, i'm not surprised you got a bad eval :\
try lightening up in the future and don't take yourself too seriously. first off, you don't know for sure you're academically stronger than that attending. there are people who get stellar board scores and go into fam med because they love it. they're rare, maybe, but they're out there. second off, board score =/= good doctor. that attending has years of experience on you, and he/she probably had something to teach you that would've made you a better ophthalmologist in the future.
also -- i get the desire to want to get good at exams as a med student, but let's be honest... we'll get all the practice we want soon enough. chill out, remember your place, and do what you're supposed to be doing on any given rotation. when you're an attending in ophthalmology, wouldn't it piss you off if some med student going into plastics or something pried at people's eyelids and looked down on you for "only" matching ophtho?
try lightening up in the future and don't take yourself too seriously. first off, you don't know for sure you're academically stronger than that attending. there are people who get stellar board scores and go into fam med because they love it. they're rare, maybe, but they're out there. second off, board score =/= good doctor. that attending has years of experience on you, and he/she probably had something to teach you that would've made you a better ophthalmologist in the future.
also -- i get the desire to want to get good at exams as a med student, but let's be honest... we'll get all the practice we want soon enough. chill out, remember your place, and do what you're supposed to be doing on any given rotation. when you're an attending in ophthalmology, wouldn't it piss you off if some med student going into plastics or something pried at people's eyelids and looked down on you for "only" matching ophtho?
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You bring up a good point. The valedictorian of our med school class (scored >260 on boards) was a well rounded guy, totally normal and cool dude. Played the guitar for a band etc. Guy went into family practice because that's what he wanted to do since he was a kid. Don't underestimate your collegues.
The point of this post was not to argue if this negative comment was justified not. If you look back at my original post, all I asked was how one negative comment with 15 positive would affect me. You do come across critical when I didnt ask for criticism
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I think you answered your own question. 15 against 1, you're probably going to be fine. People may ask you about it, because it will stand out. Be prepared to have a humble and respectful answer implying you learned from your mistakes.
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I will go ahead and speculate that it means you yourself will match into family medicine...just like the rest of you DO doctors who undoubtedly failed the MCATS.
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indubitably
Troll!! Looks like this post is officially closed
You got offended by his comments? I don't see it any different from your perception towards the family docs. I can totally see that family doc getting frustrated with you looking down on him and challenging him with stupid comments. That one negative comment might be the only one that truly reflects your clinical performance.
Many of family docs I know are the greatest teachers and the smartest people I ever met. Remember... most of us grew up healthy because of them. Pay Some Re2pect!