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Luc

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Hi everyone, I'm new here :D

I would be grateful for any information you can give me,

Luc

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Almost always you have to have a 4 year degree. Some schools have combined programs but must require the fours years. There are certain prerequisites that you are required to have for med school that depend on the school. Most require a year of biology, 2 years of chemistry, a year a physics and some sort of liberal arts or literature class. Also most schools have math requirement but it varies from a semester of any math too a full year of calculus.

While in your 4 year school you take the MCAT which is an aptitude test to judge you compared to other students applying to med school. You then fill out a single preliminary application through amcas and pay a crapload of money to have them send that out to the schools you select. Then if you make the first cut school send you a secondary application which basically allows you the opportunity to pay them more money in the form of an application fee. If you make the next cut you are invited to an interview where you will answer all sorts of ridiculous questions that prove how good of a person you are.

Finally you can either be rejected, waitlisted or accepted. If you are waitlisted you are waiting for people to decide not to go to that particular school and give up their spots so that some other lucky person can have it.

Assesment in schools varies from one school to the next. The typical is multiple choice written exams (except for lab practicals which you must do from memory). The grading system is totally dependent on the school. Many schools also elect to give national subject exams that are cumulative for all the information in the subject. Then typically at the end of the 2nd year comes the step 1 board exam which is a huge exam that you have to pass and is a huge deal. After that comes the clinical years which I'm not really qualified to explain as I haven't gotten there yet.
 
after step 1...

you enter the clinical years, or rather clinical year (3rd year). That's where rotate through a bunch of specialties and pretend like you're learning all day when you're just spending time in the hospital doing secretarial work like making phone calls and writing notes. You also spend tons of time in conferences, lectures, etc. Occasionally you'll meet a patient and spend 10 minutes talking to them. The exception is surgery, when you spend all day scrubbed in the OR, having senior attendings yell at you, scrub nurses yell at you, and your chief resident has pity on you...and also yells at you. Remember to cut those sutures right. Too short...no no too long....Whatever specialty you're in, you rush home, stuff yourself with dinner, and fall asleep at your desk trying to cram in some information as you study for the upcoming shelf exam. Which counts for you're entire grade and you never have time to study for.......

After a year of this, you hopefully know what specialty to apply for, begin 4th year, take some electives in your specialty of interest, suck up like crazy to attendings, ask for letters of reference, spend 2 months following up on those letters hoping they've been submitted to ERAS, and wait another month or 2 until interviews begin. Then you shell out thousands of bucks flying all over the country interviewing at 5-20 programs (depending on how competitive your specialty is), and trying to figure out how you'll rank them when you're done; only to realize that every program out there is pretty much the same as the next; and that every single PD you meet asks you the same stupid questions....

You finally take few more stupid electives as a 4th year, submit your rank list, wait until March (or January if you go early match and get things over with sooner), and match. Then you realize that being an intern is going to totally suck, that you'll probably be grossly overwhelmed with crashing patients and a crazy chief resident, and you have no way out of it. You call a realtor, find a new place in a new city, shell out an excessive fee for what ends up being a lousy apartment, and move your stuff. Then you graduate, mom and dad say "we're so proud"; you go on vacation and get totally wasted throughout europe as you realize you'll have your first real job pretty damn soon.
Then you start internship in July........
 
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LOL
-- Oh God Im tired
LOL
that was realy funny
 
doc05 said:
after step 1...Then you start internship in July........

"Well, looks like it's suicide again for me."
-Moe Syzlak

also NS, M1
 
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