"Funny quotes from 'less informed' pre-meds," On-Topic Edition

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Haven't had the pleasure.

It's cool to see once.

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[Sharknad0]

This reminds me of a great story!

A certain genetics professor at my uni was famous for using the same exams every year. So naturally students who had a friend who took the class last year had a huge advantage (to the point of knowing every answer). Now, a lot of people I know went this route and just memorized the old exams, and they did very well (90 +)

The prof caught on, and pulled the most savage move I've ever seen at undergrad. For his final exam, he kept the first page the same, but changed the last 4 pages of the exam.

More than half the class failed, but hey, they got the entire first page right

This sounds a story from my school, your class Bio 2200?


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[bioboy23]

Haven't had the pleasure.

It's pretty dope man I highly recommend it

 

[RogueBanana]

This sounds a story from my school, your class Bio 2200?


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Nah my school's class listings went by the hundred.

Bio 101, 102, 300, 405 etc

 

[RogueBanana]

I blame Grey's Anatomy for the general premed obsession with neurosurgery. Goddamn McDreamy.

I know someone who told me they either wanted to do Neurosurgery or Derm. Like what??? Those are totally different specialities!

I told the HPAC at my school I was thinking about anesthesiology or endocrinology (due to their relevance to chemistry/hormones)

I got looks of shock.

"Wow. Nobody has ever mentioned either of those. It's always neurosurgery or pediatric cards or neurology"

They were actually surprised i didn't have delusions of grandeur, saying want to be a spaceship brain surgeon or something.

 

[tessellations]

One of my great guilty pleasures in this life is medical themed television shows. Basically if it's a primetime show about doctors I will probably enjoy it (except for Chicago Med, could never get into that one). While I enjoy them, I am completely aware of how ridiculous most of them are (although I hear that Scrubs generally does the best job of capturing what it means to be a doctor). I am often amazed at how stupid some of the characters sound sometimes. I've been binging The Night Shift on Netflix recently and while I appreciate the somewhat unique narrative, I was dying at one of the lines today and had to share, because it's classic less informed premed.

One of the surgical attendings on the show is telling an intern on the show's dad (lol) that the intern is going to do a combined pediatrics and surgical ER residency. What does that even mean???? Surgical ER isn't even a thing?? Anyone with google could figure that out. Plus no one does those combined. The premise was that this kid wants to eventually do a pediatric surgery fellowship, but still??? I guess the showrunners were like, "this show is set in southern Texas, anything goes," but they just come off as stupid, lol.

I never take these shows very seriously, but I blame them (especially Grey's) for perpetuating a lot of ignorance behind the profession.

 

[bioboy23]

I blame them (especially Grey's) for perpetuating a lot of ignorance behind the profession.

Wait... you're telling me Grey's isn't accurate??

So much for gunning for surgery... I wanted to be just like McSteamy!

 

[B_52]

One of my great guilty pleasures in this life is medical themed television shows. Basically if it's a primetime show about doctors I will probably enjoy it (except for Chicago Med, could never get into that one). While I enjoy them, I am completely aware of how ridiculous most of them are (although I hear that Scrubs generally does the best job of capturing what it means to be a doctor). I am often amazed at how stupid some of the characters sound sometimes. I've been binging The Night Shift on Netflix recently and while I appreciate the somewhat unique narrative, I was dying at one of the lines today and had to share, because it's classic less informed premed.

One of the surgical attendings on the show is telling an intern on the show's dad (lol) that the intern is going to do a combined pediatrics and surgical ER residency. What does that even mean???? Surgical ER isn't even a thing?? Anyone with google could figure that out. Plus no one does those combined. The premise was that this kid wants to eventually do a pediatric surgery fellowship, but still??? I guess the showrunners were like, "this show is set in southern Texas, anything goes," but they just come off as stupid, lol.

I never take these shows very seriously, but I blame them (especially Grey's) for perpetuating a lot of ignorance behind the profession.

A big hobby of mine actually is ruining medical shows for my girlfriend (she's a non stem major) with periodical reality checks. She's probably pretty close to leaving me because of it at this point lol


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[B_52]

Only remotely accurate shows I've seen in medical profession theme are Scrubs and M*A*S*H*. Ironically they're both comedies haha.


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[Gurby]

One of my great guilty pleasures in this life is medical themed television shows. Basically if it's a primetime show about doctors I will probably enjoy it (except for Chicago Med, could never get into that one). While I enjoy them, I am completely aware of how ridiculous most of them are (although I hear that Scrubs generally does the best job of capturing what it means to be a doctor). I am often amazed at how stupid some of the characters sound sometimes. I've been binging The Night Shift on Netflix recently and while I appreciate the somewhat unique narrative, I was dying at one of the lines today and had to share, because it's classic less informed premed.

One of the surgical attendings on the show is telling an intern on the show's dad (lol) that the intern is going to do a combined pediatrics and surgical ER residency. What does that even mean???? Surgical ER isn't even a thing?? Anyone with google could figure that out. Plus no one does those combined. The premise was that this kid wants to eventually do a pediatric surgery fellowship, but still??? I guess the showrunners were like, "this show is set in southern Texas, anything goes," but they just come off as stupid, lol.

I never take these shows very seriously, but I blame them (especially Grey's) for perpetuating a lot of ignorance behind the profession.

You probably already watched every episode, but on the chance that these shows are new to you... I really enjoyed Boston Med and NY Med. Some people somehow got permission to run around BWH, MGH, etc with cameras. Really sad that there are so few episodes:

 

[DoctorSwagger]

One of my great guilty pleasures in this life is medical themed television shows. Basically if it's a primetime show about doctors I will probably enjoy it (except for Chicago Med, could never get into that one). While I enjoy them, I am completely aware of how ridiculous most of them are (although I hear that Scrubs generally does the best job of capturing what it means to be a doctor). I am often amazed at how stupid some of the characters sound sometimes. I've been binging The Night Shift on Netflix recently and while I appreciate the somewhat unique narrative, I was dying at one of the lines today and had to share, because it's classic less informed premed.

One of the surgical attendings on the show is telling an intern on the show's dad (lol) that the intern is going to do a combined pediatrics and surgical ER residency. What does that even mean???? Surgical ER isn't even a thing?? Anyone with google could figure that out. Plus no one does those combined. The premise was that this kid wants to eventually do a pediatric surgery fellowship, but still??? I guess the showrunners were like, "this show is set in southern Texas, anything goes," but they just come off as stupid, lol.

I never take these shows very seriously, but I blame them (especially Grey's) for perpetuating a lot of ignorance behind the profession.

That attending is probably gunning for pediatric neurosurgery, that's what people do these days


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[tessellations]

You probably already watched every episode, but on the chance that these shows are new to you... I really enjoyed Boston Med and NY Med. Some people somehow got permission to run around BWH, MGH, etc with cameras. Really sad that there are so few episodes:

I have seen these before and they were awesome! Although I had a hard time taking Dr. Oz seriously in the NY Med episodes, lol. ABC did another set of episodes two years ago called Save My Life: Boston Trauma that was just like Boston Med if you haven't seen it yet!

 

[Gurby]

I have seen these before and they were awesome! Although I had a hard time taking Dr. Oz seriously in the NY Med episodes, lol. ABC did another set of episodes two years ago called Save My Life: Boston Trauma that was just like Boston Med if you haven't seen it yet!

I will definitely check in to that, thanks!

 

[Dr.Cut.em.up]

I was at a summer shadowing experience at this hospital. There was this girl that was assigned to a resident in the ER. The doctor explained to the girl that he was a resident there and she could ask him any questions. The first question she asked was "Where are the real doctors at"

 

[Blessthefall]

I was at a summer shadowing experience at this hospital. There was this girl that was assigned to a resident in the ER. The doctor explained to the girl that he was a resident there and she could ask him any questions. The first question she asked was "Where are the real doctors at"

Oh. my. God.

Tell me she wasn't graced with sticking around after that...


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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I was at a summer shadowing experience at this hospital. There was this girl that was assigned to a resident in the ER. The doctor explained to the girl that he was a resident there and she could ask him any questions. The first question she asked was "Where are the real doctors at"

Omg please tell me what he said.

 

[Dr.Cut.em.up]

Apparently they over looked it. I guess asking that question wasn't grounds to be kicked from the program. She asked a lot of other similar questions. Pretty amusing to say the least.

 

[B_52]

I was at a summer shadowing experience at this hospital. There was this girl that was assigned to a resident in the ER. The doctor explained to the girl that he was a resident there and she could ask him any questions. The first question she asked was "Where are the real doctors at"

Oh I'm sorry film intern, could you tell me where the real show producers are and we can link them up with some "real doctors" for you.


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[pewpew95]

I had to drive this pre-med girl over to a children's hospital for an event hosted by my club. Literally her introduction to me was:

“I’m _____ and i’m a sophomore, but technically I have enough credits to be a junior.”

I didn’t even try to hide my eye roll. Lol who says that and why??? It's not that superior to have come in with extra credits from high school???

After listening to her humble-brag about all of the mediocre stuff that she thought made her sound like she was better than me (double-majoring, being on dean’s list, doing research, etc.), I just stopped responding.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I had to drive this pre-med girl over to a children's hospital for an event hosted by my club. Literally her introduction to me was:

“I’m _____ and i’m a sophomore, but technically I have enough credits to be a junior.”

I didn’t even try to hide my eye roll. Lol who says that and why??? It's not that superior to have come in with extra credits from high school???

After listening to her humble-brag about all of the mediocre stuff that she thought made her sound like she was better than me (double-majoring, being on dean’s list, doing research, etc.), I just stopped responding.

I feel bad for kids like this. She probably has confidence issues and makes up for it by talking about how great she is so that she can hear people agree with her.

 

[pewpew95]

I love roasting myself so here's one about me, myself, and stupid I.

Freshman year, I was extremely misinformed by one of my high school friends about how one goes submitting transcripts during med school applications. She convinced me to take a summer class with her and this was my reasoning:

"I'll just take o chem 1 over the summer at my CC for practice before I do the real thing at my school! If I don't do well I don't have to submit the transcript anywhere anyways since it's just one summer class and I'm not getting a degree there "

*proceeds to fail o chem*

*realizes one year later that I DO have to show that transcript to med schools*

"F**k..."

*proceeds to made a thread on SDN asking if there is any hope for me*

 

[Dr.Cut.em.up]

I knew of a girl who actually stole an exam and proceeded to make a C on the thing. Silly freshman.

 

[B_52]

I love roasting myself so here's one about me, myself, and stupid I.

Freshman year, I was extremely misinformed by one of my high school friends about how one goes submitting transcripts during med school applications. She convinced me to take a summer class with her and this was my reasoning:

"I'll just take o chem 1 over the summer at my CC for practice before I do the real thing at my school! If I don't do well I don't have to submit the transcript anywhere anyways since it's just one summer class and I'm not getting a degree there "

*proceeds to fail o chem*

*realizes one year later that I DO have to show that transcript to med schools*

"F**k..."

*proceeds to made a thread on SDN asking if there is any hope for me*

I had a similar "I don't need to show it" thing about my institutional action until like 2 years later when I opened the AMCAS app for the first time. I had always been under the impression that schools use IA's to internalize discipline and protect students from long term consequences of their mistakes.

Would have tread much more carefully my sophomore year if I'd known the reality haha.


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[Lawpy]

This is actually a pretty creative use of general chemistry.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

This is actually a pretty creative use of general chemistry.

Stuff like this is hilarious, but I am always highly skeptical of their authenticity.

 

[username456789]

Stuff like this is hilarious, but I am always highly skeptical of their authenticity.

"Skeptical"?

It 100% never happened.

It's an amusing read, but it definitely never happened. The story might as well be titled "Fwd: Fwd: FWD: Fwd: Fwd: A funny story lol" sent to you from your Grandmother's AOL account.

 

[freak7]

This is actually a pretty creative use of general chemistry.

Stuff like this is hilarious, but I am always highly skeptical of their authenticity.

Yeah that would get you an instant IA if you did that for UW's gen chem class.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

"Skeptical"?

It 100% never happened.

It's an amusing read, but it definitely never happened. The story might as well be titled "Fwd: Fwd: FWD: Fwd: Fwd: A funny story lol" sent to you from your Grandmother's AOL account.

I don't disagree with you. As I said, I am highly skeptical of these stories in general, which vary in degrees of believability.

 

[LiveCynic]

At a party I attended on Friday, there was a graduating highschooler from Missouri who was attending his older brothers graduation from college. He told me he was pre-med, and would be going to a Jesuit college for undergrad, and then afterward, he wants to go to USC or UCLA for med school. I casually mentioned that Ca schools were some of the hardest to get into. He then said, that if that is the case, he would JUST go to WashU Stl instead.

 

[You're My Boy Blue]

This was because he taught general chemistry II, a course that is required for many undergrads even in non-hard science majors. (exercise science, bio, etc...)

Since when is bio not a hard science?

 

[JJRousseau]

Since when is bio not a hard science?

Biology is definitely a soft science (though we probably need to decide on a precise definition of hard and soft science). But also, IMHO hard and soft science terms culturally have taken on silly positive and negative connotations, respectively, so that often conflates things for people when it comes to this discussion. For the vast majority of biology, the methods squarely place it in a soft science realm I think. Sometimes Economics can be more quantitative than certain fields of biology. I've said it before on here, I think Feynman, probably the most famous American physicist, only considered there to be two real sciences, physics and physical chemistry. He'd even probably call organic chemistry a soft science (indeed modern synthesis organic chemistry has some pretty observational methods, though in principal it strongly draws on physical chemical theory). Just my two cents on that.


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[B_52]

Biology is definitely a soft science (though we probably need to decide on a precise definition of hard and soft science). But also, IMHO hard and soft science terms culturally have taken on silly positive and negative connotations, respectively, so that often conflates things for people when it comes to this discussion. For the vast majority of biology, the methods squarely place it in a soft science realm I think. Sometimes Economics can be more quantitative than certain fields of biology. I've said it before on here, I think Feynman, probably the most famous American physicist, only considered there to be two real sciences, physics and physical chemistry. He'd even probably call organic chemistry a soft science (indeed modern synthesis organic chemistry has some pretty observational methods, though in principal it strongly draws on physical chemical theory). Just my two cents on that.


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I have a hard time deducing why any of that matters considering that one could be literally any major and get into medical school.


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[JJRousseau]

I have a hard time deducing why any of that matters considering that one could be literally any major and get into medical school.


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You are correct, it certainly does not have any relevance to medical school admissions.


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[Lawpy]

I admit I'm guilty of this.

 

[RogueBanana]

Since when is bio not a hard science?

To clarify,

I consider the classical "hard" sciences to be:

Physics
Mathematics
Chemistry
Certain Biology sub-studies (physiology, genetics, biochemistry, protein chemistry)

At my Uni, Bio (the basic form) was extremely soft, designed to prep them for environmental studies or marine studies.

They didn't need calculus or physics or stats, which are pretty much par for the course in the hard science majors. This is why it was unusual to see bio majors in a Gen Chem II class at my uni, as most of us would go on to take calc/physics right after and suddenly class size dropped dramatically.

For the record I was a soft science major (ex physiology) with a minor in ochem. Not hating on the soft sciences.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

To clarify,

I consider the classical "hard" sciences to be:

Physics
Mathematics
Chemistry
Certain Biology sub-studies (physiology, genetics, biochemistry, protein chemistry)

At my Uni, Bio (the basic form) was extremely soft, designed to prep them for environmental studies or marine studies.

They didn't need calculus or physics or stats, which are pretty much par for the course in the hard science majors. This is why it was unusual to see bio majors in a Gen Chem II class at my uni, as most of us would go on to take calc/physics right after and suddenly class size dropped dramatically.

For the record I was a soft science major (ex physiology) with a minor in ochem. Not hating on the soft sciences.

Just fyi, most mathematicians (myself included, though I'm only barely practicing) don't consider math to be a science. Or at least not a natural or hard science.

 

[Neuro25_]

Please tell me someone wrote a case study on this...



Depends on the case. If he was conscious when he came in and made statements that he was refusing blood, then you can't give it to him. If he was unconscious and no one else has POA you give him the blood. If you don't it's legally considered malpractice.



I'm actually watching this as I'm reading this thread. Kinda creepy....




We had this question in bioethics and the following was the response we got from our dean at the time who is a DO/JD (both our bioethics professors and the guest speaker agreed with him):

This is highly situation dependent.

Assuming the patient is not a minor: If the patient was conscious when he was found by EMTs or is conscious at the hospital and states that he's refusing a transfusion based on religious grounds, you can't give him the transfusion. Doing so would violate the patient's right to autonomy and would legally be considered assault and you'd get nailed for malpractice. If the patient was unconscious on arrival and getting a transfusion is an indicated life-saving measure, you give him the blood. Even if friends or parents say that he is a Jehovah's witness and it goes against his religion, you still give him the blood. You might get sued, but you would also be covered under the medical equivalent of good samaritan laws as proving negligence or that the negligence directly led to injury would be difficult. There are two exceptions to this we talked about. The first is if the person has given up their medical rights and their legal guardian/power of attorney tells you not to give them blood. The second is if the person has an advanced directive written up that expressly states they are not to receive blood transfusions. In either case, there needs to be a legal written document in place which either states the patient can't receive blood or giving the right to make that decision to another individual.

The bottom line in medicine is: when in doubt, provide the best medical care you can. Unless you're aware of legal documentation that clearly states not to provide a specific treatment, you should treat the patient to the best of your ability even if friends and family are saying otherwise.

Hey! This was on an episode of ChicagoMed I just wa

Interest in neurosurgery is stigmatized because of people who declare boldly that they're going to be a neurosurgeon and then end up becoming nothing of the sort. It's also assumed that when you say it as a definite like that, you really don't understand the competitiveness of the field, the demanding hours, nor the emotional and mental difficulty of dealing with patients who, it might be argued, are more unlikely to improve than in other specialties.

Neurosurgery is at the top of my list of specialty interests right now as well, but I phrase it as "I'm potentially interested in going into neurosurgery, but we'll see what happens" rather than "I'm GOING to be a brain surgeon [you suckers]!"

My ultimate pet peeve regarding "stupid things pre meds say" is when they try to convince you exactly what kind of doctor they ARE going to become...and it's usually some super specialized surgical field lol

 

[JJRousseau]

Just fyi, most mathematicians (myself included, though I'm only barely practicing) don't consider math to be a science. Or at least not a natural or hard science.

As a math major I agree with this.


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[NeuResurgens]

Hey! This was on an episode of ChicagoMed I just wa


My ultimate pet peeve regarding "stupid things pre meds say" is when they try to convince you exactly what kind of doctor they ARE going to become...and it's usually some super specialized surgical field lol

Exactly. When you say it as a definite it just sounds like you have no clue. Should wait till you at least take step 1 before you start making solid declarations haha

 

[B_52]

I think this hard/soft science thing has gone on long enough. Any subject can become a "hard science" when you go down the rabbit hole far enough. And to be fair in a lot of your definitions, medicine itself is a "soft" science and our Ph.D counterparts are doing the "hard" science.

Now to get back on track of the annoying pre-med thing: one of the annoying things my peers used to talk about in ugrad was exactly this. One would be like "ugh I'm in pchem and it's so hard but it will be worth it on my application" that guy took the MCAT that summer (did poorly) and has since moved on to a job in industry.

And often it would start from one of the more on topic students networking with each other for our shadowing experiences or something like that, one of the ones who shouldn't be premed and doesn't know it yet would derail to this topic and at that point I mentally check out. I always found the whole conversation pointless from the viewpoint of getting into medicine tbh.

I mean the most successful (got into like 12 schools) applicant from my year was an English major for Christ sake lol.


Edit: not to be a buzzkill or anything btw lol. It's a legitimate conversation to have, just not on topic for this thread or pre-med in general.

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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I think this hard/soft science thing has gone on long enough. Any subject can become a "hard science" when you go down the rabbit hole far enough. And to be fair in a lot of your definitions, medicine itself is a "soft" science and our Ph.D counterparts are doing the "hard" science.

Now to get back on track of the annoying pre-med thing: one of the annoying things my peers used to talk about in ugrad was exactly this. One would be like "ugh I'm in pchem and it's so hard but it will be worth it on my application" that guy took the MCAT that summer (did poorly) and has since moved on to a job in industry.

And often it would start from one of the more on topic students networking with each other for our shadowing experiences or something like that, one of the ones who shouldn't be premed and doesn't know it yet would derail to this topic and at that point I mentally check out. I always found the whole conversation pointless from the viewpoint of getting into medicine tbh.

I mean the most successful (got into like 12 schools) applicant from my year was an English major for Christ sake lol.


Edit: not to be a buzzkill or anything btw lol. It's a legitimate conversation to have, just not on topic for this thread or pre-med in general.

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Cool story? Not sure why so serious.

 

[B_52]

Cool story? Not sure why so serious.

Honestly wasn't trying to come off as really serious, I think it's just my writing style comes off that way. Just pointing out the irony that the whole hard/soft science discussion was actually one of my "less informed premed" pet peeves and nudging the thread back on topic.


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[asw95]

Exactly. When you say it as a definite it just sounds like you have no clue. Should wait till you at least take step 1 before you start making solid declarations haha

My favorite is seeing girls on tinder from our local CC with their bio saying "Future Pediatric Thoracic Surgeon" with a syringe or some other emoji next to it.

 

[username456789]

For f*ck's sale, take the discussion about what is/isn't a "hard science" somewhere else.

 

[NeuResurgens]

My favorite is seeing girls on tinder from our local CC with their bio saying "Future Pediatric Thoracic Surgeon" with a syringe or some other emoji next to it.

Chicks probably don't even know the difference between TGA and ToF

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Honestly wasn't trying to come off as really serious, I think it's just my writing style comes off that way. Just pointing out the irony that the whole hard/soft science discussion was actually one of my "less informed premed" pet peeves and nudging the thread back on topic.


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I don't disagree.

 

[Naruhodo]

Redacting my post, which was kind of flamy. Let's just remember all kinds of folks can and will succeed in medicine.

 

[WhittyPsyche]

Haha sorry posted in pre-vet forum by mistake.

[Since this has fallen silent...]

So moved to new city, met this girl the other day, she asked me why I moved here, said for medical school.

Her response: "omg, that's so cool, I was thinking of applying to medical school this year!"
Me: "oh really? Did you decide to take a year off instead or something?"
Her: " well yeah I have a lot to do still"
Me: "oh like more prereqs? MCAT? ECs?"
Her: "Everything. I haven't done any of it yet. I only took one bio class in college. But I want to be a dermatologist. Maybe next year."
Me: "oh wow. Give yourself time..."


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[B_52]

Haha sorry posted in pre-vet forum by mistake.

[Since this has fallen silent...]

So moved to new city, met this girl the other day, she asked me why I moved here, said for medical school.

Her response: "omg, that's so cool, I was thinking of applying to medical school this year!"
Me: "oh really? Did you decide to take a year off instead or something?"
Her: " well yeah I have a lot to do still"
Me: "oh like more prereqs? MCAT? ECs?"
Her: "Everything. I haven't done any of it yet. I only took one bio class in college. But I want to be a dermatologist. Maybe next year."
Me: "oh wow. Give yourself time..."


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I've always wondered what kind of backwards thinking people must have where they genuinely think they can dive headfirst into a career without so much as a google search's worth of homework on it.


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[bioboy23]

"What do you want to do with a biology degree?"

"Hopefully medical school, but we will see."

"Ah, what do you want to specialize in, MD?"