Did your parents attend your white coat ceremony?

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jonnythan said:
Totally gonna pull this move off come August.

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Unfortunately, that kid got a professionalism concern form turned in for that Gangnum style impression. I'll admit even after my cynicism, seeing an MS-1 like that with such great excitement does make me happy. I wonder if he's graduated now and what he went into?
 
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chickensoupdr said:
Thanks OP for starting this thread. I was kind of bummed cause I thought everyone's parents except mine would be there - it would cost too much (time and money wise) for them to attend. I thought the ceremony was little silly at first but then got a little confused because so many people in my class made it seem like a very important event. To each his own, I guess.
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I don't think it's a huge deal, esp. if cost to fly over is a factor. I think for most though it's a last bit of pure happiness before putting one's nose to the grindstone. You'll always have moments like these where you'll ask whether it's worth all the trouble to bring your parents, etc. I don't think any answer is specifically wrong. Just make sure you get pictures - and they'll be plenty of people taking pictures.
 
Anastomoses said:
Except it makes you feel like a superdork; nothing is more humiliating than putting on the white coat without knowing anything about medicine. I found it taunting.
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Not that it makes much of a difference, but at least at our school we waited until November when we were finished with our first major block to have our ceremony. We still knew nothing about medicine, but at least we had learned something and felt slightly less like poseurs.
 
ChEMD said:
If your family wants to go, you shouldn't discourage them. Hopefully by now you've grown out of feeling awkward when your family is around your friends because you've realized every other family is the same way (maybe to different extents, but the same none the less). Your parents are just proud and want to celebrate your accomplishments. Even though it may not seem like a big deal to you, it may be to them. If you ever become a parent one day, you'll understand.
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You're on SDN where the level of introvertedness rises exponentially.
 
I looked it up and my school has a 'white coat ceremony + parents weekend' 2 months after orientation. They put on the ceremony & then have some things set up so that parents can see the school, hospital, facilities, education centers, and meet some of the faculty/instructors. My parents will be a 3hr drive away but I think they would like to attend.

I don't see what the big deal is. Hope my dad doesn't get an unprofessionalism card though. He is Russian and can say some pretty stupid things in broken english at times.
 
jonnythan said:
When I told the guys at work I had gotten accepted to medical school, one of them produced a stethoscope from his desk drawer and hung it up in my cubicle. I have no idea wtf he had a stethoscope to begin with, but I looked at it and felt way more useless than cool lol
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I feel you, there's this guy at work who will, without fail, yell "Paging Dr. Whipple, Dr. Whipple you're needed in surgery" down the hallway at least once a week.
 
masaraksh said:
I looked it up and my school has a 'white coat ceremony + parents weekend' 2 months after orientation. They put on the ceremony & then have some things set up so that parents can see the school, hospital, facilities, education centers, and meet some of the faculty/instructors. My parents will be a 3hr drive away but I think they would like to attend.

I don't see what the big deal is. Hope my dad doesn't get an unprofessionalism card though. He is Russian and can say some pretty stupid things in broken english at times.
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Does he tell any "In Soviet Russia...." stories? Those are my favorite.
 
Anastomoses said:
Except it makes you feel like a superdork; nothing is more humiliating than putting on the white coat without knowing anything about medicine. I found it taunting.
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What percentage of your class put pics up from that day as their new FB profile shot? I kind of want to start a pool with the MS2s on who in my class is going to do that.
 
WhippleWhileWeWork said:
Does he tell any "In Soviet Russia...." stories? Those are my favorite.
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Unfortunately, he doesn't tell stories like that in the general public. It is worse, he is more of a socially conservative, fox-news watching, type-A who always seems to have an opinion on how people should live their lives and what is wrong with them. Oh, and as he comes from the technology/engineering field he doesn't have a particularly high regard for doctors thinking they are more 'pill pushers' or, for lack of a better word really careful 'butchers'.

yeah, I'll have to tell him to be on his best.


I have a younger sister (11)... would it be unprofessional if I chase her with a scary looking syringe?
 
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WhippleWhileWeWork said:
What percentage of your class put pics up from that day as their new FB profile shot? I kind of want to start a pool with the MS2s on who in my class is going to do that.
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Haha, well, in fairness, it's an exciting moment. Sure, it's dorky (and I did it too), but I don't fault people for it. It's a tangible way of finally having what was, for many people, a dream and the culmination of lots of work. We're cynical now that we're on the other side of it, but let the youngins have their fun. 😛
 
NickNaylor said:
Haha, well, in fairness, it's an exciting moment. Sure, it's dorky (and I did it too), but I don't fault people for it. It's a tangible way of finally having what was, for many people, a dream and the culmination of lots of work. We're cynical now that we're on the other side of it, but let the youngins have their fun. 😛
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Ha, I'm not trying to hate but I have in mind the people who were accepted into my class who changed their education box on FB to "Medical School in the South 2014-2018" before they even finished undergrad. 🙄 I'm just another non-trad inadvertently trying to be cool by being too cool for all this pomp and circumstance. 😎
 
I see the event as for the family and not for the student. Like Nick mentioned, people often view getting into medical school as the culmination of hard effort and work. Some people's grandparents may not be around for another 4 years and in a "never before raised a physician" family it is nice for them to be involved in.
 
HopefulReapp said:
I see the event as for the family and not for the student. Like Nick mentioned, people often view getting into medical school as the culmination of hard effort and work. Some people's grandparents may not be around for another 4 years and in a "never before raised a physician" family it is nice for them to be involved in.
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This.

My parents were both high school drop-outs who immigrated from Vietnam; naturally, I'm a first generation college student. My white coat ceremony was a huge deal for them, and they would not have missed it for the world. I consider myself pretty well-composed when it comes to emotional matters, but there's a picture taken from that day of my parents helping me put on the white coat, and the smile on my dad's face nearly brings tears to my eyes to this day.
 
Interesting array of experiences & familial relationships in this thread.

I'm in the camp that finds the white coat ceremony to be annoying and overly self-congratulatory. It's particularly annoying that all of the ancient docs in administration pretend that the short white coat still has meaning in 2014. Hell, our white coat ceremony took place during the same weekend as three other white coat ceremonies (pharmacy, DPT, and PA students), but hey, maybe I'm crazy for thinking there's no distinction left in the short white coat. The whole thing is kinda sad and tone deaf IMO.

That being said, I agree that it's a great time for family to gather and celebrate your successes, props to those who found a way to enjoy the ceremony with their loved ones.

I personally didn't invite my parents, and my grandparents just weren't interested. My family has always been pretty dysfunctional for reasons I can't figure out. I figured there's no reason in pretending I come from the all-american happy family, because the truth is quite the opposite. We're all adults now, and if your family has only really hindered your successes, I don't see a reason for including them in the pomp and circumstance. Add to this my own negative opinion on the ceremony, and not inviting them is a no-brainer.
 
Imogen said:
I'm an incoming med student and I don't want my parents to attend my white coat ceremony. We don't get along that well, so I feel like it'll be awkward to have them there and the trip is also an expense that they really can't afford.

I was curious if any of you didn't have your parents at your ceremony either. I'd much rather just take my fiance.
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I...slept through mine 🙁
 
WhippleWhileWeWork said:
What percentage of your class put pics up from that day as their new FB profile shot? I kind of want to start a pool with the MS2s on who in my class is going to do that.
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Yup, the one downside to Facebook.
 
I have always had a bit of a rocky relationship with my parents, but I thought the white coat ceremony was important too. I know that many people in medical school have doctors for parents, but I am the first person in my bloodline to go to medical school, and that's sort of a big deal.
 
NickNaylor said:
Haha, well, in fairness, it's an exciting moment. Sure, it's dorky (and I did it too), but I don't fault people for it. It's a tangible way of finally having what was, for many people, a dream and the culmination of lots of work. We're cynical now that we're on the other side of it, but let the youngins have their fun. 😛
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Up to now, I used to think it was a toolish thing to do, but I should look at it from the POV of an MS-1. Thank you.
 
jonnythan said:
I need to go to a fur shop and get a picture of myself wearing a big white mink coat. I'll post it after the ceremony. Caption: "GOT MY WHITE COAT"
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now i am just getting sad for not being able to do all this stuff
 
I don't even want to go to my white coat ceremony for myself.
 
This might partially destroy whatever anonymity I have on this site, but... at my white coat ceremony there was one guy (new MS1) who wore a suit with a stethoscope over his shoulders. I'm assuming he forgot what he was wearing when he walked up on stage. He took the stethoscope off on stage, but left the jacket on, so in the photo with him shaking the dean's hand, he's wearing a suit jacket underneath his white coat, with a stethoscope in his other hand. Before it happened, I remember sitting there thinking "wouldn't it be hilarious if he went up there like that?" I was not disappointed.
 
circulus vitios said:
I don't like pomp and circumstance.
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It's hardly pomp and circumstance. Whether you realize it or not, medical school is actually difficult to get into, as well as to go through both physically (mainly MS-3) and mentally. Trust me - at the end of 4 years when you match you will want the pomp and cirumstance, or more the celebratory aspects.
 
DermViser said:
It's hardly pomp and circumstance. Whether you realize it or not, medical school is actually difficult to get into, as well as to go through both physically (mainly MS-3) and mentally. Trust me - at the end of 4 years when you match you will want the pomp and cirumstance, or more the celebratory aspects.
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Sorry but I see it as nothing more than administratively sanctioned circle jerking.
 
chickensoupdr said:
Thanks OP for starting this thread. I was kind of bummed cause I thought everyone's parents except mine would be there - it would cost too much (time and money wise) for them to attend. I thought the ceremony was little silly at first but then got a little confused because so many people in my class made it seem like a very important event. To each his own, I guess.
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I didn't even go to my own, its a waste of time. Had a ton of fun at the afterpartys though!
🙂
 
DermViser said:
It's hardly pomp and circumstance. Whether you realize it or not, medical school is actually difficult to get into, as well as to go through both physically (mainly MS-3) and mentally. Trust me - at the end of 4 years when you match you will want the pomp and cirumstance, or more the celebratory aspects.
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It's total pomp and circumstance. Sure, medical school is hard to get into, but that doesn't automatically make the whitecoat ceremony worthwhile. Dental, pharm, AA, PA, and DPT students all have them as well, so participating in the ceremony is no longer a celebration medicine's prestige. The ceremony itself is just an antiquated and melodramatic photo-op. It can be meaningful to your family as others have said, but that seems to be about all its worth.

Look, the nurses are doing it now too:
http://www.remingtoncollege.edu/remington-college-of-nursing-white-coat-ceremony/

I wonder if they'll start having whitecoat ceremonies for the clinical research assistants? Social workers? Speech therapists? The lab techs at the hospital that wear short white coats?
 
KinasePro said:
It's total pomp and circumstance. Sure, medical school is hard to get into, but that doesn't automatically make the whitecoat ceremony worthwhile. Dental, pharm, AA, PA, and DPT students all have them as well, so participating in the ceremony is no longer a celebration medicine's prestige. The ceremony itself is just an antiquated and melodramatic photo-op. It can be meaningful to your family as others have said, but that seems to be about all its worth.

Look, the nurses are doing it now too:
http://www.remingtoncollege.edu/remington-college-of-nursing-white-coat-ceremony/

I wonder if they'll start having whitecoat ceremonies for the clinical research assistants? Social workers? Speech therapists? The lab techs at the hospital that wear short white coats?
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I didn't say the others doing it was right. It's the usual "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. Doesn't mean medical school is any less harder to get in or to go through. See your URL: The ceremony is a traditional rite of passage for most medical schools,
 
sazerac said:
I figure the ceremony is more for the parents than the students. I also think we lost something when the ceremony got moved from the start of MS-3 to orientation.

In my case, I was quite cynical about the ceremony. While everybody else was happy to finally start the journey in their short white coat, I felt like this was really just one more step in a very long process. So I had a "pre-med" white coat made at a costume shop. It was an extremely short white coat that was cut at the level of my shoulder blades, and it only had one button in front! I wore it to the white coat ceremony. When they called my name and handed me my regular short white coat on stage, I had to remove my ultra-short pre-med coat first.

Perhaps it was a little ballsy, messing with a ceremony in such a tradition-bound field like medicine, but the deans all got the joke without explanation and thought it was funny as hell. Apparently they secretly take the whole white coat ceremony about as seriously as I do.
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Wow, this is such an ironic post.
 
KinasePro said:
It's total pomp and circumstance. Sure, medical school is hard to get into, but that doesn't automatically make the whitecoat ceremony worthwhile. Dental, pharm, AA, PA, and DPT students all have them as well, so participating in the ceremony is no longer a celebration medicine's prestige. The ceremony itself is just an antiquated and melodramatic photo-op. It can be meaningful to your family as others have said, but that seems to be about all its worth.

Look, the nurses are doing it now too:
http://www.remingtoncollege.edu/remington-college-of-nursing-white-coat-ceremony/

I wonder if they'll start having whitecoat ceremonies for the clinical research assistants? Social workers? Speech therapists? The lab techs at the hospital that wear short white coats?
Click to expand...

You know that the white coat ceremony is younger than you are right? It's garbage though, everyone and their mothers get it at school these days. Nurses running around calling themselves doctors and their students "residents". People say there aren't enough doctors but there sure isn't any shortage of wannabes.
 
DermViser said:
I didn't say the others doing it was right. It's the usual "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. Doesn't mean medical school is any less harder to get in or to go through. See your URL: The ceremony is a traditional rite of passage for most medical schools,
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Well if they would like to honor the students entrance into medicine, a matriculation ceremony would make more sense to me.

I understand it's a tradition, but the problem is that the white coat doesn't mean anything anymore. It just seems like a cheesy tradition that no one outside of healthcare indulges in. Wouldn't it be weird if graduate schools had lab coat ceremonies? Just never made sense to me.

Psai said:
You know that the white coat ceremony is younger than you are right? It's garbage though, everyone and their mothers get it at school these days. Nurses running around calling themselves doctors and their students "residents". People say there aren't enough doctors but there sure isn't any shortage of wannabes.
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Had no clue. Here I thought it was a relic from the old days of medical education. Turns out its just a cheesy tradition started at U Chicago in 1989.

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/18/local/me-23619 [via wiki]
 
KinasePro said:
Well if they would like to honor the students entrance into medicine, a matriculation ceremony would make more sense to me.

I understand it's a tradition, but the problem is that the white coat doesn't mean anything anymore. It just seems like a cheesy tradition that no one outside of healthcare indulges in. Wouldn't it be weird if graduate schools had lab coat ceremonies? Just never made sense to me.

Had no clue. Here I thought it was a relic from the old days of medical education. Turns out its just a cheesy tradition started at U Chicago in 1989.

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/18/local/me-23619 [via wiki]
Click to expand...
If you talk to older doctors they never had a "white coat ceremony" and there were no match day celebrations. You just got your envelope, opened it and were done. Back then, medicine was no where near competitive or as popular as it is now, when medical schools can demand so much more of their students. That being said, just bc other professions copy it doesn't make medical schools doing it (who first started it) any more invalid.

I agree, part of it is to cater to to the millenial "I am special" mantra, but this just doesn't happen just at the white coat ceremony. Look at how admissions have changed and how medical school admissions tours try to cater to prospective applicants.
 
DermViser said:
If you talk to older doctors they never had a "white coat ceremony" and there were no match day celebrations. You just got your envelope, opened it and were done. Back then, medicine was no where near competitive or as popular as it is now, when medical schools can demand so much more of their students. That being said, just bc other professions copy it doesn't make medical schools doing it (who first started it) any more invalid.
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But I think the other professions copying it just exposes the problem of heaping symbolism on the white coat. You're right that it doesn't make it less special, but I'd argue it highlights how meaningless the ceremony is to begin with.

Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but I'm not a fan of match day ceremonies either. At one ceremony a few years back, I saw a then-M4 being interviewed by a local news station who was covering all the match day festivities. He had a microphone and camera on him when he opened his envelope to find he matched low on his list, in his BACKUP specialty. Brutal. He was a sport about it, but that's a kick in the pants that's immortalized somewhere on the interwebs.

There's a good number of other people put in tough situations like that for the sake of the match ceremony. You always see a handful of families/spouses crying during these things, obviously not for joy. Seems odd to me that we're lectured so much on professionalism, and then we have a school-sanctioned event to spike our footballs and victory dance in front of our peers who may not have been so lucky.
 
I would say when it started it had a lot of symbolism. I agree that others copying this make it mean less, but that speaks more on them, than on medicine that can't control those fields. I'm sure if Medicine could stop it, they would.

Wow, would love to see that video - most media only go up to the ones that know their match and are happy, and then interview them. On match day, before knowing, I wouldn't want to talk to any news media. I would hate the medical schools that make you come up to the microphone and make you announce your match to everyone. Of course, there is a lot of behind the scenes self-selection and "advising" for those applying that are more for the benefit of the school, than the student.

Yes, if it's one thing you figure out, the talk of "professionalism" by medical school administrators is a complete and utter joke. It's always used as a threat for punishment to make you hush up and toe the line. Speaking of professionalism: http://whatshouldwecallmedschool.tumblr.com/post/78644252670/professionalism
 
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DermViser said:
I would say when it started it had a lot of symbolism. I agree that others copying this make it mean less, but that speaks more on them, than on medicine that can't control those fields. I'm sure if Medicine could stop it, they would.

Wow, would love to see that video - most media only go up to the ones that know their match and are happy, and then interview them. On match day, before knowing, I wouldn't want to talk to any news media. I would hate the medical schools that make you come up to the microphone and make you announce your match to everyone. Of course, there is a lot of behind the scenes self-selection and "advising" for those applying that are more for the benefit of the school, than the student.

Yes, if it's one thing you figure out, the talk of "professionalism" by medical school administrators is a complete and utter joke. It's always used as a threat for punishment to make you hush up and toe the line. Speaking of professionalism: http://whatshouldwecallmedschool.tumblr.com/post/78644252670/professionalism
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i clicked your link above and found some seriously funny stuff
 
KinasePro said:
Well if they would like to honor the students entrance into medicine, a matriculation ceremony would make more sense to me.

I understand it's a tradition, but the problem is that the white coat doesn't mean anything anymore. It just seems like a cheesy tradition that no one outside of healthcare indulges in. Wouldn't it be weird if graduate schools had lab coat ceremonies? Just never made sense to me.



Had no clue. Here I thought it was a relic from the old days of medical education. Turns out its just a cheesy tradition started at U Chicago in 1989.

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/18/local/me-23619 [via wiki]
Click to expand...

This is the solution: Bring the black coat back.
grossclinic.jpg
 
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