Class of 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ksmi117]

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Are Macs really that easier to use? All my friends say it is. But I used it in the past and I still liked PC better. But I'm thinking of buying a Macbook before medical school. What do you guys think?

I'm also kind of wary about Apple products. IMO, they seem to sacrifice quality for aesthetics.
Ipod- :cough, cough:

Aww, I like my iPod. Like I said, Macs are a lot easier to use, I think. But PC's are better for documentation and such. I'd rather have my PC and know that all my docs are going to work on other computers than have the Mac.

*sigh* I'm trying to pick my school list tonight. bleh. Wish me luck, this is gonna be hard.

 

[Appless]

Are Macs really that easier to use? All my friends say it is. But I used it in the past and I still liked PC better. But I'm thinking of buying a Macbook before medical school. What do you guys think?

I'm also kind of wary about Apple products. IMO, they seem to sacrifice quality for aesthetics.
Ipod- :cough, cough:

i was the same as you about 3 years ago. I just got so sick of PC i finally just bought a mac book and its so much easier I cant even begin to explain it. NO more blue screen with random stop code 12312 12312 123123 1231, no more viruses, no more crashing. Everything runs so smooth and fast. Personally I would get a macbook for a laptop then a PC desktop. Thats the setup i prefer, as I will admit sometimes its a pain for certain things when everyone is on pc. Just for working, email, surfing, and other general things you would use it for in a class/on the go...mac cant be beat. Just so easy to use and no problems ever. Ive had this thing almost 3 years now and Ive yet to encounter anything at all and it still runs great. I dont think ive ever been able to say that about anything microsoft ive had -_-

 

[dw2158]

Aww, I like my iPod. Like I said, Macs are a lot easier to use, I think. But PC's are better for documentation and such. I'd rather have my PC and know that all my docs are going to work on other computers than have the Mac.

*sigh* I'm trying to pick my school list tonight. bleh. Wish me luck, this is gonna be hard.

i SO feel you on the frustration of making this list! although i must say, i quite envy the position you're in-- you're a stud! 😛

i've been out of this thread for a while... i love macs! and ipods! and all apple stuff! not gonna lie, i'm a sucker for the pretty factor. but my macbook has been going strong for almost 3 years now with no real problems. and my ipod touch is basically the most fun and functional toy i've ever had.

 

[ksmi117]

Ok so I picked my final-ish list of schools, I hope. I don't plan on changing it anymore, but y'all tell me what you think. 🙂

Baylor
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Louisiana State University - New Orleans
Louisiana State University - Shreveport
University of Alabama - Birmingham
University of North Carolina
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
Yale

 

[BlueElmo]

Looks good, ksmi. But how about WashU, your stats make you competitive there.
I'm guessing Wake Forest is safety for you.

 

[ksmi117]

Looks good, ksmi. But how about WashU, your stats make you competitive there.
I'm guessing Wake Forest is safety for you.

Haha... back in the day WashU was high on my list. However, due to some personal issues with a person that currently attends WashU *cough* my ex-bf is an a** *cough*, I really don't want to go there.

 

[dw2158]

lookin' good, ksmi!

oooh oooh, do me do me do me! (bonus points if you know who i'm quoting)

einstein
mt. sinai
NYU
columbia
cornell
SUNY downstate
harvard
tufts
BU
UMass
UVM
penn
yale
NYMC
jefferson
... and one more for good measure. trying to choose: georgetown, GW, temple, UMD... other ideas?

 

[ksmi117]

looks good to me, dw. I'm not a New Englander, and I'm trying to stay away from the big cities, so I don't know much about those other schools. Wish I could be more help.

 

[Appless]

Ok so I picked my final-ish list of schools, I hope. I don't plan on changing it anymore, but y'all tell me what you think. 🙂

Baylor
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Louisiana State University - New Orleans
Louisiana State University - Shreveport
University of Alabama - Birmingham
University of North Carolina
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
Yale

Looks good! your stats are so off the charts I cant imagine one of those wouldnt take you. Just curious though why no tulane since you are in-state?

 

[ksmi117]

Looks good! your stats are so off the charts I cant imagine one of those wouldnt take you. Just curious though why no tulane since you are in-state?

Well, the hospitals in New Orleans still haven't really recovered fully from Katrina. The whole hurricane thing and school in NOLA is really risky. I love Louisiana but if another Katrina happens, school is disrupted for weeks. I just don't want to deal with that. I'm only applying to LSU-NO because it only accepts in-state students, but I'd pick LSU-S over it. And Tulane is really expensive and from what I've heard not worth it.

 

[BlueElmo]

Do you guys know how competitive Yale, Duke, and Vanderbilt are? I don't know if I should apply to these three.
I am going to apply to Emory though.

 

[Appless]

Do you guys know how competitive Yale, Duke, and Vanderbilt are? I don't know if I should apply to these three.
I am going to apply to Emory though.

I dont know your stats but they are all very very competitive. The 3 you listed are all very tough top schools to get into. Unless you have some amazing stats and overall application I would personally skip those 3 (unless you wanted to put a few as reach schools.) Emory is fine.

After looking at your list it looks like you already have a decent number of upper end schools on the list.

 

[Myuu]

Do you guys know how competitive Yale, Duke, and Vanderbilt are? I don't know if I should apply to these three.
I am going to apply to Emory though.

With a 3J, I'd say it's pretty tough!

3.5+ and 35+ should net you a Vandy invite, I think.

 

[gator13doc]

Ugh personal statement and picking schools is HARD! Just thought I'd vent!

 

[ksmi117]

I just finished reading the AMCAS instructions thingy... it was long. But I skipped the irrelevant parts, so it's wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 

[Bryson17]

University of Virginia

Go Hoos!

I'm trying to stay away from the big cities

Amen! Why do so many of the good schools have to be in cities with populations of 200,000+?

 

[Bryson17]

i tried the user agent switching trick in safari and firefox, but it only works like 1 in 50 tries which doesn't make sense- anyone know why that might be?

User agent switching worked for me last year. I filled it out with FF 2.something with OSX. I don't remember what version I switched it to. However, I just logged on to my application from last year, and it works fine: OSX 10.5.6, Firefox 3.0.8.

 

[Bryson17]

lookin' good, ksmi!

oooh oooh, do me do me do me! (bonus points if you know who i'm quoting)

einstein
mt. sinai
NYU
columbia
cornell
SUNY downstate
harvard
tufts
BU
UMass
UVM
penn
yale
NYMC
jefferson
... and one more for good measure. trying to choose: georgetown, GW, temple, UMD... other ideas?

I don't suggest GW. I had them on my list, but I started hearing bad things about them. They were on probation for some violation a couple years ago. What about Chicago schools? NW, U Chicago...? And I know that movie quote, I just can't remember it right now.

 

[dw2158]

Amen! Why do so many of the good schools have to be in cities with populations of 200,000+?

haha, i feel the opposite way-- why can't everything be in a big city? 😛

I don't suggest GW. I had them on my list, but I started hearing bad things about them. They were on probation for some violation a couple years ago. What about Chicago schools? NW, U Chicago...? And I know that movie quote, I just can't remember it right now.

ha, it's elliot reid from scrubs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtEVy_zjr9Y

GW's probation stuff will be solved soon, from what i understand. but yeah, that's a valid point. and i'm not gonna stray west of philly or south of baltimore. i love the northeast and never ever ever want to leave 🙂 (i was born in miami... i like it A LOT better up here)

I just finished reading the AMCAS instructions thingy... it was long. But I skipped the irrelevant parts, so it's wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

me too! i'm so antsy waiting for it to actually open... i want to start already!

 

[Bryson17]

haha, i feel the opposite way-- why can't everything be in a big city? 😛



ha, it's elliot reid from scrubs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtEVy_zjr9Y

My dream school is in Hanover, NH. Population: 10,000.

I was way off on the quote. I thought it was wedding crashers, 30 rock, or Friends. I could picture Liz Lemmon, Gloria Cleary, or Phoebe saying that line.

 

[ksmi117]

me too! i'm so antsy waiting for it to actually open... i want to start already!

It opens in the middle of my finals so I'll have a nice thing to procrastinate studying with. 😀 But I must remind myself that if I don't study, I may have to report a B on my app, so it'd probably be better if I waited a few days before working on it.

My dream school is in Hanover, NH. Population: 10,000.

So small. I'm a fan of mid-sized cities. It's not really the population that gets me, it's the closeness of big cities - all the building up stuff. I also don't like the grid style of streets in huge cities. It's too uniform. I'm a fan of curvy roads. 🙂

 

[Myuu]

Go Hoos!

Amen! Why do so many of the good schools have to be in cities with populations of 200,000+?

Go Hokies!

Since when is 200k big?!

 

[Bryson17]

Go Hokies!

Since when is 200k big?!

I've never lived in a city bigger than Boise, Idaho for any longer than 3 months (for summer internships). Wikipedia says Boise is >200k now, but it was only ~120k when I was there.

 

[BlueElmo]

I just finished reading the AMCAS instructions thingy... it was long. But I skipped the irrelevant parts, so it's wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I glanced over it very briefly. But I hate reading instruction manuals of any sort, and I plan on learning by doing with AMCAS come May.

 

[BlueElmo]

I don't suggest GW. I had them on my list, but I started hearing bad things about them. They were on probation for some violation a couple years ago. What about Chicago schools? NW, U Chicago...? And I know that movie quote, I just can't remember it right now.

I need GW as my safety school.

So 3.6 and a 34 should be competitve enough for Vandy?

 

[Myuu]

I need GW as my safety school.

So 3.6 and a 34 should be competitve enough for Vandy?

GW is everyone's safety school, and they know it, too. That probation thing happened just last cycle, btw.

And yes, a 3.6 and 34 should be good for Vandy. Just don't do what I did and show up sick with super-gravely voice and make jokes about how you could sing death metal with a voice like that. Also, don't actually choke in front of your interviewer.

 

[tiedyeddog]

When can we start filling out the personal statement and our AAMC's? I haven't looked, yet... I am sort of afraid to.

 

[twoinone]

When can we start filling out the personal statement and our AAMC's? I haven't looked, yet... I am sort of afraid to.

on or about May 2nd

 

[BlueElmo]

GW is everyone's safety school, and they know it, too. That probation thing happened just last cycle, btw.

And yes, a 3.6 and 34 should be good for Vandy. Just don't do what I did and show up sick with super-gravely voice and make jokes about how you could sing death metal with a voice like that. Also, don't actually choke in front of your interviewer.

Are you serious? You actually choked in your interview?😱

 

[ksmi117]

When can we start filling out the personal statement and our AAMC's? I haven't looked, yet... I am sort of afraid to.

It's May 5 this year. Yay applying! I just made a super cool application spreadsheet to help keep track of everything.

 

[bullshark0]

Hey guys,
It's my first time posting here, and I was curious if anyone knew what kind of credit med schools give to students that come from schools with little to no grade inflation? Specifically I'm coming from Cooper Union, a really small engineering school in NYC, and the average student has something like a 2.7 GPA. I have a 3.6 with a C in calc II and a C in organic chem I, but all the classes are legitimately curved to C's, which means I just did average in those classes.
Any thoughts?

 

[ksmi117]

Hey guys,
It's my first time posting here, and I was curious if anyone knew what kind of credit med schools give to students that come from schools with little to no grade inflation? Specifically I'm coming from Cooper Union, a really small engineering school in NYC, and the average student has something like a 2.7 GPA. I have a 3.6 with a C in calc II and a C in organic chem I, but all the classes are legitimately curved to C's, which means I just did average in those classes.
Any thoughts?

Welcome to SDN and to our thread! I'm not sure (obviously, as I'm not on an adcom), but I don't think med schools go to the effort of figuring out what schools have grade inflation and which don't. The actual GPA seems to be more important than where the GPA is from.

Question: Why is your status MD/PhD student if you haven't applied yet?

 

[metallica81788]

Hello guys, another fellow 2014er (hopefully) here. I was just browsing through and saw this

Well, the hospitals in New Orleans still haven't really recovered fully from Katrina. The whole hurricane thing and school in NOLA is really risky. I love Louisiana but if another Katrina happens, school is disrupted for weeks. I just don't want to deal with that. I'm only applying to LSU-NO because it only accepts in-state students, but I'd pick LSU-S over it. And Tulane is really expensive and from what I've heard not worth it.

and ksmi I totally agree with your point and that is why I want to go OOS, so that I don't have to deal with this hurricane crap anymore as far as school is concerned - also they haven't even decided on a final site to build the new teaching hospital in New Orleans, so there's no way it'll be ready for our clinicals. So as a New Orleanian, I'm ready to jump ship and head out, but I just don't think I could live in Shreveport for 4 years and I know people that go to LSU-NO and say it's waaay better than Tulane overall and esp if you're instate and get the cheap LSU tuition

 

[chuckanderson]

kmsi: mail me that excel sheet! thx

metallica: i'm in the same boat as you.. i have a 3.7 but all my classes are so ridiculously tough it's not fair. policy in my department is mean=c, mean+1std=b, mean+2std=a

it's atrocious, but i feel like i can't bring it up anywhere cause they'll just think i'm whining

 

[bullshark0]

A lot of posting going on here!

 

[ksmi117]

Hello guys, another fellow 2014er (hopefully) here. I was just browsing through and saw this


and ksmi I totally agree with your point and that is why I want to go OOS, so that I don't have to deal with this hurricane crap anymore as far as school is concerned - also they haven't even decided on a final site to build the new teaching hospital in New Orleans, so there's no way it'll be ready for our clinicals. So as a New Orleanian, I'm ready to jump ship and head out, but I just don't think I could live in Shreveport for 4 years and I know people that go to LSU-NO and say it's waaay better than Tulane overall and esp if you're instate and get the cheap LSU tuition

Oh yay! Another Louisianan! I'm not gonna lie, I'll miss LA if I move elsewhere. I had my first crawfish of the season yesterday, and it was amazing.

kmsi: mail me that excel sheet! thx

It is attached for all you peoples who want to see it. I'll admit that it's not my own creation. I modeled it after chad5871's spreadsheet from this past cycle. There was a thread where all the 2013ers shared what theirs looked like. His was my fave.

 

[bullshark0]

Welcome to SDN and to our thread! I'm not sure (obviously, as I'm not on an adcom), but I don't think med schools go to the effort of figuring out what schools have grade inflation and which don't. The actual GPA seems to be more important than where the GPA is from.

Question: Why is your status MD/PhD student if you haven't applied yet?

Whoops, I thought that status was what we were interested in. Good attention to detail. Changed!
I'm not so worried about my GPA as the fact that an admissions officer might see the C's on my app and throw it away without realizing that in my class of 120 students there are maybe 5 who have never gotten a C.

 

[dw2158]

Oh yay! Another Louisianan! I'm not gonna lie, I'll miss LA if I move elsewhere. I had my first crawfish of the season yesterday, and it was amazing.



It is attached for all you peoples who want to see it. I'll admit that it's not my own creation. I modeled it after chad5871's spreadsheet from this past cycle. There was a thread where all the 2013ers shared what theirs looked like. His was my fave.

booooo xlsx. i can't see 🙁

i made my spreadsheet one day last week when i was bored. it only has two colors. i'm feeling a little self-conscious about it after seeing 2013's sheets! perhaps i'll share mine after i've updated/prettified it 🙂

 

[Ariadne]

You guys are ahead of me on the spreadsheets. I don't plan to have a finalized list of schools until into May. Right now I just have a giant checklist I'm working on for things like LORs, PS, etc... And a giant color-coded calendar with every deadline imaginable on it.

The organizational freak inside of my has been planning the spreadsheet in my head for months now though. 😀 It's gonna be pretty, and of course color-coded!

 

[ksmi117]

booooo xlsx. i can't see 🙁

i made my spreadsheet one day last week when i was bored. it only has two colors. i'm feeling a little self-conscious about it after seeing 2013's sheets! perhaps i'll share mine after i've updated/prettified it 🙂

All fixed 😀

 

[bullshark0]

And has anyone else here taken their MCAT's yet? Or are most people taking them after this semester?

 

[ksmi117]

And has anyone else here taken their MCAT's yet? Or are most people taking them after this semester?

Took it in January. And don't worry about those C's. As long as it's not a habit, I think med schools will over look it.

 

[BlueElmo]

Why do you guys use a spreadsheet? I was just going to use the mdapplicant profile.

 

[ksmi117]

Why do you guys use a spreadsheet? I was just going to use the mdapplicant profile.

Two places means it's less likely to be lost. What if mdapps crashes mid-cycle??? And I like the pretty colors. 😀

 

[Ariadne]

And has anyone else here taken their MCAT's yet?

Last September...

Why do you guys use a spreadsheet?

I'm neurotic? You should have seen the spreadsheet I used to track my MCAT progress/practice test scores...

 

[BlueElmo]

Last September...



I'm neurotic? You should have seen the spreadsheet I used to track my MCAT progress/practice test scores...

Geez, that never even entered my mind when I was studying for my MCAT. I'm pretty organized but not that organized.

 

[Bryson17]

Why do you guys use a spreadsheet? I was just going to use the mdapplicant profile.

Ditto. Last year, I just had a folder for every school. When I lost my chances there, I labeled it gray. Although, now I'm going to have a lot more to keep track of. I applied to 7 last year, ~25 this year. I'll think about the spreadsheet. Calendars work well too. Maybe I'll make a separate calendar in gcal for each school.

 

[Ariadne]

Geez, that never even entered my mind when I was studying for my MCAT. I'm pretty organized but not that organized.

I kept a spreadsheet with entries for every practice question I got wrong based on why (i.e. I didn't know the concept, read the question wrong etc.) along with all my sections scores for practice full lengths etc. The week before the test I ran all these statistics to see where my projected score was (just for fun, I'm not really that crazy). I ended up beating my projection by 5 points. Yeah, I'm a little bit nuts.

Ditto. Last year, I just had a folder for every school. When I lost my chances there, I labeled it gray. Although, now I'm going to have a lot more to keep track of. I applied to 7 last year, ~25 this year. I'll think about the spreadsheet. Calendars work well too. Maybe I'll make a separate calendar in gcal for each school.

I have a folder that I carry around with me everywhere that has the latest version of my PS, LOR stuff, etc., on the front is a three month calendar with all my deadlines and dates written in (I update it every so often and print out a new one). It's great to be able to pull it out and look at everything when I want to see where I am.

I also have a brand new Gmail address for AMCAS stuff and am in the process of setting up the calender with schools dates and stuff. It's been working great!

 

[Bryson17]

I have a folder that I carry around with me everywhere that has the latest version of my PS, LOR stuff, etc., on the front is a three month calendar with all my deadlines and dates written in (I update it every so often and print out a new one). It's great to be able to pull it out and look at everything when I want to see where I am.

Oops, I meant folders in my computer.

"The files are in the computer!" -Zoolander.

A new gmail address for everything medschool is a potential win. I'll have to think about that one.

 

[ksmi117]

A new gmail address for everything medschool is a potential win. I'll have to think about that one.

I'd forget to check it. I'm just gonna use my school address.