Class of 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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rHinO1 said:
I shadowed 3 days over winter break and when I scheduled the time I did 2 days at 10 am and 1 day at 11 am. It worked out nicely. If you can schedule it for later than 7 am you should, they won't think anything of it. Personally I don't think there is anything you will see in a full day that you won't see in a half day (unless there is an awesome rarely performed sugery/procedure scheduled early in the morning). I've shadowed two separate doctors (ortho & pain management) and it was awesome, but they primarily saw similar patients all day.
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Yeah, I only go at 7 or 8 because my parents are doctors in the hospital, and when I shadow I tend to go with them and they pretty much just dump me on a random doctor who's willing that day. So far (since freshman year), I've done cardiology, GI, surgery, internal medicine, etc. I'm hoping to get in some oncology or emergency medicine at some point too.

I've already shadowed quite a bit (one almost 13 hour day), so I figure I'll go in for another day of surgeries or cardiology procedures and call it quits.
 
whimsical said:
Yeah, I only go at 7 or 8 because my parents are doctors in the hospital, and when I shadow I tend to go with them and they pretty much just dump me on a random doctor who's willing that day. So far (since freshman year), I've done cardiology, GI, surgery, internal medicine, etc. I'm hoping to get in some oncology or emergency medicine at some point too.

I've already shadowed quite a bit (one almost 13 hour day), so I figure I'll go in for another day of surgeries or cardiology procedures and call it quits.
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Sounds like you've already done a lot, I wouldn't drag myself out of bed on my vacation either then 👍
 
I hope, beg, and pray that I am part of the class of 2015! Posting on "Class of" threads are proven to boost chances of acceptance, right!? 😀 :xf:


Oh, and I'm so glad 2015 students are finally taking back this thread!
 
RokKidA said:
I hope, beg, and pray that I am part of the class of 2015! Posting on "Class of" threads are proven to boost chances of acceptance, right!?
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Man, I wish it worked that way. At least we can all be optimistic, right? I wonder what percent of SDNers get in the first time around...
 
rockaction said:
you a Defer Dude? I thought about that...and am still thinking about that.
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lol I wish. Just a 2015 applicant this summer. I'm just getting started.


In other news, I just looked at my schedule today... I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to get that little magical hourglass from harry potter..

Mondays:
Pchem 8-9
Dance 11-12
EngineeringTA 1230-230
BioEngineering 530-700

Tuesdays (this one is epic):
Transport Phenomena 930-11
Thermodynamics 11-1230
PChem Lab **100-700**

Wednesdays:
Pretty much the same as Mondays

Thursdays:
Tuesdays without PChem Lab

Fridays:
Mondays without Bioengineering

Additional time constrains:
TAing = 5ish hours of grading per week.
Volunteering = 5ish hours
Shadowing = 5ish hours (whenever I can find a shadow)

I know that Thermodynamics will be at least 10 hours of out of class homework a week.
Bioengineering and Transport Phenomena could be the same.
PChem and PChem Lab should amount to ~15 hours a week combined.
That's 60 hours of stuff on top of class per week. I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to put this.
 
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FlowRate said:
lol I wish. Just a 2015 applicant this summer. I'm just getting started.
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lol wtf, flowrate, you convinced everyone (including myself) that you were applying this year

good job

can't tell who is who anymore
 
Hmm, looks like 2015 land is more active than 2014 land right now.

Choosing between being younger (theoretically) or lamer, I think we know the reason why.

😛
 
Anyone have any good starting points for Personal Statements????
 
sully677 said:
Anyone have any good starting points for Personal Statements????
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Gaaah, I haven't written an essay in FOREVER. I consider myself a pretty decent writer, but starting an essay is always ridiculously difficult. Seems like everything sounds wrong, lol.
 
FlowRate said:
First, think about why you were born. If it wasn't "to be a doctor." Quit now.


/joke/


I'm thinking about mine, as well.
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:laugh:

Definitely a way to weed out tons of applicants. No need for Ochem.
 
sully677 said:
Anyone have any good starting points for Personal Statements????
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I remember reading an SDN article about writing the personal statement but i couldnt find it. But anyway, start by brainstorming. Think about any impt experiences or events that have taken place that made you realize you wanted to go into medicine. have you always wanted to be a doctor?
what qualities do you have that would make you a great doctor one day. For my PS, i actually chose to write about a personality trait that i hated about myself and the moment i decided to change that and how it would contribute to my success as a physician. my interviewers were entertained by my PS because they liked asking me questions about it...maybe it was different from everyone else's..who knows. But write down some themes you think might come out as a good PS. The common themes are:
1. why you wanted to be a doctor- when did u first realize it, is this something you always wanted, how do you know that medicine is right for you
2. why you are qualified to be a doctor (w/o sounding cocky)

sorry for rambling on and on. but GOOD LUCK!!!!😀
 
DntStopBelievin said:
I remember reading an SDN article about writing the personal statement but i couldnt find it. But anyway, start by brainstorming. Think about any impt experiences or events that have taken place that made you realize you wanted to go into medicine. have you always wanted to be a doctor?
what qualities do you have that would make you a great doctor one day. For my PS, i actually chose to write about a personality trait that i hated about myself and the moment i decided to change that and how it would contribute to my success as a physician. my interviewers were entertained by my PS because they liked asking me questions about it...maybe it was different from everyone else's..who knows. But write down some themes you think might come out as a good PS. The common themes are:
1. why you wanted to be a doctor- when did u first realize it, is this something you always wanted, how do you know that medicine is right for you
2. why you are qualified to be a doctor (w/o sounding cocky)

sorry for rambling on and on. but GOOD LUCK!!!!😀
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What if I want my career to be mainly research oriented? Do I mention that in my PS?
 
sully677 said:
What if I want my career to be mainly research oriented? Do I mention that in my PS?
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I wouldnt. In general, you dont want to say stuff like that...I.E talking about how you know you want to be a pediatric cardiothoraic surgeon. Or your love of some other intensive specialty (or want to be an academic physician) and know its the only thing for you. If you love research and its part of your reason you want to enter medicine then by all means go for it and talk about how those experiences are important to you, but dont make it seem like its academic or bust so to speak.
 
I've already started brainstorming and typed out a lot of ideas, but I don't want it to sound like I'm listing every little thing I've done. About how much should you actually get into mentioning research, volunteering, etc?
 
Artimacia said:
I've already started brainstorming and typed out a lot of ideas, but I don't want it to sound like I'm listing every little thing I've done. About how much should you actually get into mentioning research, volunteering, etc?
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I'm annotating my "Medical School Essays that made a difference" book right now. I'll share my findings in a couple of hours =)
 
Artimacia said:
I've already started brainstorming and typed out a lot of ideas, but I don't want it to sound like I'm listing every little thing I've done. About how much should you actually get into mentioning research, volunteering, etc?
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When writing the PS you dont want to make a list of accomplishments that is useless. You should be trying to focus on say a meaningful experience from those events. For example, talking about how you did 2 years of serving food to the homeless is nice but if thats all you say and then you add some stuff about how helping people is important, that isnt nearly as important as talking about say a specific example of an interaction you had with a person. For example, in my PS, i talked about my research at a hospital. But i went into a personal example of a meaningful patient interaction i had and about how i was able to follow a family through in their decision with their loved ones care. If you are talking about say a certain event, always try to make a meaningful connection. Remember real examples are more interesting and generally better then saying "I want to help people and i proved this by volunteering or doing X research."

remember also in general you want to keep some sort of theme or some sort of train of thought. It just makes for a more enjoyable essay to read and one that is easier to follow.
 
FlowRate said:
I'm annotating my "Medical School Essays that made a difference" book right now. I'll share my findings in a couple of hours =)
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is that the princeton book? If so thats a decent one. I used it last year when writing my PS. Had some decent ideas and general examples. I had like 3-4 of those books and most were useless but i found that the princeton review book had at least more real examples of essays and ones that were feasible. other books were kinda useless as they were all students who were accepted at harvard and such and werent really normal examples per say.
 
Elijah05 said:
When writing the PS you dont want to make a list of accomplishments that is useless. You should be trying to focus on say a meaningful experience from those events. For example, talking about how you did 2 years of serving food to the homeless is nice but if thats all you say and then you add some stuff about how helping people is important, that isnt nearly as important as talking about say a specific example of an interaction you had with a person. For example, in my PS, i talked about my research at a hospital. But i went into a personal example of a meaningful patient interaction i had and about how i was able to follow a family through in their decision with their loved ones care. If you are talking about say a certain event, always try to make a meaningful connection. Remember real examples are more interesting and generally better then saying "I want to help people and i proved this by volunteering or doing X research."
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Ok, I see what you mean. So, like with my research, it's not patient oriented, but I could just mention that I did research, not dive into details? There was one moment when I was volunteering in a hospital, I was a patient transporter, it was one of my first days. I helped take an elderly woman to her xray and while I was waiting for the person I was with to do chart work, the woman asked if she could hold my hand because they were warm and she was cold. I did, and when she let go, she thanked me, and that was it. I know it was something really small, and most people wouldn't care, but it just had me feeling differently about being there. Would that be something to mention?
 
Artimacia said:
Ok, I see what you mean. So, like with my research, it's not patient oriented, but I could just mention that I did research, not dive into details? There was one moment when I was volunteering in a hospital, I was a patient transporter, it was one of my first days. I helped take an elderly woman to her xray and while I was waiting for the person I was with to do chart work, the woman asked if she could hold my hand because they were warm and she was cold. I did, and when she let go, she thanked me, and that was it. I know it was something really small, and most people wouldn't care, but it just had me feeling differently about being there. Would that be something to mention?
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Just realized i thought you were sully and wrote something directed towards him not you lol.

Anyways, If you mention your research tahts fine, but whats the point of mentioning it? Does it answer why medicine? Does it add substance to what you wrote? Or at you just saying it to say you did it. Think about these things with each sentance you write. The above patient example you listed is fine if its meaningful and something you want to write about. Remember theres no set formula for writing this. Some people focus on the typical i want to be a doc to help people, while others may be more research based like sully. And both get accepted just as well. If your research isnt a reason why you want to go into medicine and it didnt give you really any real insight into that question, then id not mention it in the PS. Also remember you want to have a theme. Does research tie into that theme? Or is it just randomly thrown in there? Its hard to say if you should mention it until you answer these questions for yourself. Remember that space is severely limited and just mentioning research to mention it doesnt serve much of a purpose.

if you do mention research id say that remember dont bog them down with details of what you are doing really. And try to focus it more on how the prokect spurred your interest in medicine/becoming a doc. For me I did mention my research but i didnt really talk about the project or its results much. I had one sentence stating what I did in my research and then I got into a personal story about the patient and his family I spent a lot of time that I mentioned earlier. Basically my intro sentence explained i did research at X hospital on X project and thats it.
 
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Elijah05 said:
Just realized i thought you were sully and wrote something directed towards him not you lol.

Anyways, If you mention your research tahts fine, but whats the point of mentioning it? Does it answer why medicine? Does it add substance to what you wrote? Or at you just saying it to say you did it. Think about these things with each sentance you write. The above patient example you listed is fine if its meaningful and something you want to write about. Remember theres no set formula for writing this. Some people focus on the typical i want to be a doc to help people, while others may be more research based like sully. And both get accepted just as well. If your research isnt a reason why you want to go into medicine and it didnt give you really any real insight into that question, then id not mention it in the PS. Also remember you want to have a theme. Does research tie into that theme? Or is it just randomly thrown in there? Its hard to say if you should mention it until you answer these questions for yourself. Remember that space is severely limited and just mentioning research to mention it doesnt serve much of a purpose.

if you do mention research id say that remember dont bog them down with details of what you are doing really. And try to focus it more on how the prokect spurred your interest in medicine/becoming a doc. For me I did mention my research but i didnt really talk about the project or its results much. I had one sentence stating what I did in my research and then I got into a personal story about the patient and his family I spent a lot of time that I mentioned earlier. Basically my intro sentence explained i did research at X hospital on X project and thats it.
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Ok, I've just heard from people to mention stuff you've done, but you make a good point that it's suppose to be about you, and I assume they will know that you did research, volunteering, etc... anyway from reading your application. I do have theme for mine, and it makes me a little happier that it's fine to stick with my theme and not list stuff I did since it really sounds weird and I can't really transition it very well, except to mention a line and it. With my theme, though, it's not that it encouraged me to go into medicine, but that it just encouraged me to work hard no matter what to do what I really want to do, and how I did volunteering and shadowing, etc, to find my interest in it (elaborated though). I actually have a personal story for this.
 
In a short overview, what I got from this book was:

Have a theme. It can be a strict theme, like the story of a singular experience, or a loose theme, something to help the reader remember each point you make.

Write about specific events from your experiences. Stuff that represents what you learned from things you've done.

Demonstrate why you want to be a physician through these things. Make sure it's obvious.
 
Elijah05 said:
is that the princeton book? If so thats a decent one. I used it last year when writing my PS. Had some decent ideas and general examples. I had like 3-4 of those books and most were useless but i found that the princeton review book had at least more real examples of essays and ones that were feasible. other books were kinda useless as they were all students who were accepted at harvard and such and werent really normal examples per say.
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Yeah I like the realistic examples and the general ideas on where to start. I think nobody in the book actually got accepted to harv, which is kinda interesting.
 
FlowRate said:
In a short overview, what I got from this book was:

Have a theme. It can be a strict theme, like the story of a singular experience, or a loose theme, something to help the reader remember each point you make.

Write about specific events from your experiences. Stuff that represents what you learned from things you've done.

Demonstrate why you want to be a physician through these things. Make sure it's obvious.
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Yea, that makes a lot of sense. I guess I just got to link my idea, and how it encouraged me to not give up at first fall, etc etc, and how it pushed me do try things, to really go after something and how through that I found my interest, I think I could do that.
 
Artimacia said:
Ok, I've just heard from people to mention stuff you've done, but you make a good point that it's suppose to be about you, and I assume they will know that you did research, volunteering, etc... anyway from reading your application. I do have theme for mine, and it makes me a little happier that it's fine to stick with my theme and not list stuff I did since it really sounds weird and I can't really transition it very well, except to mention a line and it. With my theme, though, it's not that it encouraged me to go into medicine, but that it just encouraged me to work hard no matter what to do what I really want to do, and how I did volunteering and shadowing, etc, to find my interest in it (elaborated though). I actually have a personal story for this.
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that sounds like a good starting place good luck 🙂. Its weird thinking last year I was in your shoes now ill be starting med school in a few months. I dont envy you guys. The app process was horrible it made me crazy for a few months:laugh:
 
How do your schools go about sending in the pre-med advisor's recommendation? Are you required to send something in to him/her first, and then they write the recommendation?

edit: on a side note, wtf do we have a 3 star rating?
 
IndianVercetti said:
How do your schools go about sending in the pre-med advisor's recommendation? Are you required to send something in to him/her first, and then they write the recommendation?

edit: on a side note, wtf do we have a 3 star rating?
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For our school, all the recommendations were controlled through the Career Center. They had us start an account/file in the Career Center, print out an evaluation form for each evaluator to fill out and attach with each letter, and then each evaluator would send the letters back to the Career Center. Then, the student picks and chooses where the letters/committee letters are sent (AMCAS or non-amcas med schools).

As for the 3 stars, cause we're too cool for 5. 😎
 
Working on memorizing geological time periods..fun
 
What is everyone working on right now? I have been working on my PS but its not very good apparently so I have to re-work that. I'm also supposed to take a prac. MCAT before the 27th but I haven't done any MCAT prep all break so I might push that back. I'm meeting with some ppl to talk about LORs this week. Volunteering and a little shadowing too. What are you guys/gals up to?
 
Nothing...I really need to feel the pressure of a deadline b4 i get started on things. I know its a bad habbit but its how I function 🙁

actually i have been looking for schools to apply to, that counts!
 
jgauger said:
What is everyone working on right now? I have been working on my PS but its not very good apparently so I have to re-work that. I'm also supposed to take a prac. MCAT before the 27th but I haven't done any MCAT prep all break so I might push that back. I'm meeting with some ppl to talk about LORs this week. Volunteering and a little shadowing too. What are you guys/gals up to?
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I was going to take the mcat on the 30th but I'm pushing my date back to april 10th. My BS is decent, my VR is good but I need to keep in time, but my PS is bad, so gotta take a lot of time working on it and I just wasn't ready yet. I took a long break from hospital volunteering, got about 30 clinical hours in public health though (H1N1 clinics), but I'll probably go back to the hospital this weekend, I just wish I wasn't doing patient transporting anymore. I want to try something else, so I'll probably go in this week and talk to them. I need to start shadowing some more, I've only shadowed a medical examiner.
 
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