Joining medical associations/fraternities?

[tmn]

So I recently started MS1 and have been bombarded with joining groups such as AMA, SNMA, PhiDE, etc. It makes sense to me to get involved in interest and volunteer groups, but it seems the national associations/fraternities have limited value. What is anyone's experience/opinion about such organizations? Is it worth it at all to join somehting such as AMA, SNMA, or PhiDE? Thanks.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DermViser]

AMA for your purposes, probably SNMA, no idea what PhiDE is.

 

[SBR249]

Nope didn't join the AMA but that's probably because I'm cheap and it costs $$

 

[tmn]

AMA for your purposes, probably SNMA, no idea what PhiDE is.

Thanks for the reply. Phi Delta Epsilon, a medical fraternity.

 

[Kahreek]

great way to get hook-ups

 

[DrEnderW]

Join AMA for the year of free JAMAs to casually leave out on your coffee table.

 

[maxxor]

AMA actually gives a hefty Kaplan discount if you like their qbanks

 

[DermViser]

AMA actually gives a hefty Kaplan discount if you like their qbanks

Who uses Kaplan Qbank anymore?

 

[maxxor]

Who uses Kaplan Qbank anymore?

I found it useful to do along with class. Uworld was more for consolidation in the final 3 months. But then again the more questions, the better for me. YMMV and all

 

[Kahreek]

dont join it just for kaplan, though

 

[tmn]

dont join it just for kaplan, though

What would be a good reason to join then?

 

[PL198]

What would be a good reason to join then?

none. F*ck the AMA, because when you're a doctor, they're surely going to be f*cking you.

 

[DermViser]

none. F*ck the AMA, because when you're a doctor, they're surely going to be f*cking you.

Esp. when they're known as being an incompetent lobby group. Must have been nice to practice medicine when they were competent and not just govt. CPT code revenue collectors:

 

[FutureOncologist]

I joined AMSA in undergrad for the 50% off kaplan MCAT study guides/resources. I guess it carried over into med school? The president and I graduated at the same time and are in the same class for med school so she kicked it up for our class when we got there. No practical use.

OP join student-ran organizations. I'm part of a club that helps connect med students that are interested in IM to physicians that do rotations. We can get a better learning experience by spending time during the summer shadowing them, having lunch, spend some time with the families, etc. so if we have them as our attending during IM rotations, it will be a better experience. THAT is something you should join. Yes, I know rising MS-3s don't really know what they want to go into, but our school has many more clubs like this (e.g. GS, FM, Peds, OB, and Neuro).

 

[PL198]

I literally shy away from any medical school organization, because I feel nearly all of them have no actual benefits(yes I'm sure they all have benefits on paper) , and I don't feel that somehow whoring myself into 15 different organizations is going to make me a more attractive candidate, unlike someone of my classmates.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Just join student-ran organizations. I joined AMSA in undergrad for the 50% off kaplan MCAT study guides/resources. I guess it carried over into med school? The president and I graduated at the same time and are in the same class for med school so she kicked it up for our class when we got there. No practical use.

Jeez I was just about to come on this thread specifically to say DONT join AMSA.

AMSA is basically all the naive, crackpot, socialist, mind-warping BS from pre-allo thrown into a blender. They are the ones who truly believe doctors should be unpaid volunteers counting their lucky blessings to be having the privilege of serving the sick.

They trick students into joining just to get a free Netter's or whatever, then bash you over the head with socialist dogma for four years.

 

[Kangal]

.

 

[PL198]

Jeez I was just about to come on this thread specifically to say DONT join AMSA.

AMSA is basically all the naive, crackpot, socialist, mind-warping BS from pre-allo thrown into a blender. They are the ones who truly believe doctors should be unpaid volunteers counting their lucky blessings to be having the privilege of serving the sick.

They trick students into joining just to get a free Netter's or whatever, then bash you over the head with socialist dogma for four years.

All the people from my class that are in AMSA are douches.

 

[DermViser]

Jeez I was just about to come on this thread specifically to say DONT join AMSA.

AMSA is basically all the naive, crackpot, socialist, mind-warping BS from pre-allo thrown into a blender. They are the ones who truly believe doctors should be unpaid volunteers counting their lucky blessings to be having the privilege of serving the sick.

They trick students into joining just to get a free Netter's or whatever, then bash you over the head with socialist dogma for four years.

Pretty much: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/03/medical-student-groups-leader-cheerleads-for-obamacare/

“Physicians-in-training have an unsoiled perspective on the health care system,” Liz Wiley, a fourth-year medical student at George Washington University, said. ”[W]hile we may not have a wealth of experience, we have a commitment to patients that is unencumbered by competing financial interests or relationships with industry.”

Wiley also distributed a form letter that she asked medical students to send to their local newspapers. Its text complained that states choosing to opt out of Medicaid expansion, as the Supreme Court ruled they may, would “sabotage” expansion elsewhere. It also declared that “the best solution to our health care crisis is a publicly financed, federally administered” system.

 

[DermViser]

All the people from my class that are in AMSA are douches.

Are any of them hypocrites? Or are they the usual deluded, rich (bc of their parents) liberal who can't even balance a checkbook?

 

[PL198]

Are any of them hypocrites? Or are they the usual deluded, rich (bc of their parents) liberal who can't even balance a checkbook?

Literally all of them want to do competitive specialties, like neurosurgery. They're also all infatuated with academia, and get completely wasted whenever the opportunity presents itself.

"So yeah, you're gonna give back a lot to the community and I'm glad you're stressing primary care, when you want to go into neurosurg." - whatever I think when I speak to them. Funny how that works.

 

[DermViser]

Literally all of them want to do competitive specialties, like neurosurgery. They're also all infatuated with academia, and get completely wasted whenever the opportunity presents itself.

"So yeah, you're gonna give back a lot to the community and I'm glad you're stressing primary care, when you want to go into neurosurg." - whatever I think when I speak to them. Funny how that works.

It's bc joining AMSA is a notch in their gun belt. And they go to all types of paid **** - conventions, posh hotels, etc. to shoot the **** and not do anything about it.

 

[Kangal]

.

 

[DermViser]

You could NOT be MORE correct...and that's why I was the president of AMSA at my undergraduate institution and big in AMSA at my current institution (don't want to say my current title lol). Yes I advocate towards primary care. No I'll never consider choosing that as my specialty. And I am an anal obnoxious gunnish student who's parents actually are rich liberals and I don't know a damn thing about a checkbook...but at least I'm honest and know I'm in it for the wrong reasons right?

EDIT: Parents are immigrant rich liberals (does that change anything lol?)

As long as you're not advocating for EVERYONE ELSE to go into primary care and demonize specialists (while being a hypocrite), then you're fine. It's the hypocrites we don't like.

 

[AMEHigh]

I've had good experiences with SNMA.
Good networking and positive support system at my school through the organization.

 

[WaylonS]

Granted AMSA's endorsement for a single payer system may not be everyone's cup of tea, but AMSA does a lot of advocacy work for sexual health, LGBT issues, and other people/issues that have been marginalized in the past. It's funny, AMSA hates the AMA, and all of you hate both

Phi Chi at my school has a pretty sweet frat house

 

[Kangal]

.

 

[PL198]

I don't see how sexual health or LGBT issues are things AMSA should be concerned with. They could oh idk focus on like actually caring about educational issues directly, or making their views actually important(news flash: no medical school gives a flying f*ck what AMSA thinks or says). But instead, they're gonna focus on sexual health and LGBT, because they know no one is going to oppose their thoughts on these.

Every single student I know involved with AMSA is the typical textbook-memorizing twerp that knows 0 about anything outside of medicine and knows nothing that isn't directly stated in a book.

 

[DermViser]

Granted AMSA's endorsement for a single payer system may not be everyone's cup of tea, but AMSA does a lot of advocacy work for sexual health, LGBT issues, and other people/issues that have been marginalized in the past. It's funny, AMSA hates the AMA, and all of you hate both

Phi Chi at my school has a pretty sweet frat house

Now I'm definitely glad I didn't waste my money. AMSA is wasting time making sure birth control is free. Wonderful.

 

[DermViser]

Fair enough. I definitely do not advocate against specializing, and sub-specializing. Also on the board of the surgical interest group lol. Side note off topic: Today I watched a presentation on a PIs work with TSC - different PIs were discussing different locations of the manifestations - his presentation was on angiofibromas around the nose and shagreen patches on the back. Thought of you Derm 😉

Was it a tuberous sclerosis patient?

 

[Kangal]

.

 

[michaelrack]

, but it seems the national associations/fraternities have limited value. What is anyone's experience/opinion about such organizations?

There used to be several national med school fraternities. I think the national charters for most were dissolved in the late 60's/70's. I lived at the Alpha Kappa Kappa house at the University of Iowa College of Medicine from '93-'97. It was a male med school frat (according to wikipedia it is coed now); there were also 2 coed frats there also during my time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Kappa_Kappa

edit: I guess Phi Chi still has a national organization: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Chi_Medical_Fraternity

and so does Phi Delta Epsilon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Delta_Epsilon


http://www.alphakappakappa.org/#!history/c1zmb

 

[pathologylover]

I joined AMSA months ago and I think it's pretty cool... of course, I consider myself to be masochistic altruist.

 

[rumlodlk]

I'm starting a Super Smash Bros. club if I get accepted. I'll let everyone know how it works out.🙂

 

[PL198]

Now I'm definitely glad I didn't waste my money. AMSA is wasting time making sure birth control is free. Wonderful.

I've never understood how someone making something free or not determines if it's able to be accessed. I forgot it was assumed that all goods don't have prices, and if they do, they are considered "prevented from accessing." But hey, I'm not a bloodsucking leach that depends on other people to buy my ****, or I cry that they're oppressing me.

 

[KinasePro]

AMA can be decent as a med student. The membership price pays for itself with free goljan RR, kaplan discounts, and paper copies of JAMA for your throne room. If you're really into political advocacy, liberal/conservative/whatever, you can find ways to have AMA pay for a trip to DC for face time with representatives.

That said, AMA is a spineless, pathetic organization for practicing physicians.

AOA is the only thing that matters anyway. It's amazing how much people actually care about AOA -- Big shot attendings still put it on their CVs, and it even gets its own designated drop-down menu on ERAS.

 

[DermViser]

AMA can be decent as a med student. The membership price pays for itself with free goljan RR, kaplan discounts, and paper copies of JAMA for your throne room. If you're really into political advocacy, liberal/conservative/whatever, you can find ways to have AMA pay for a trip to DC for face time with representatives.

That said, AMA is a spineless, pathetic organization for practicing physicians.

AOA is the only thing that matters anyway. It's amazing how much people actually care about AOA -- Big shot attendings still put it on their CVs, and it even gets its own designated drop-down menu on ERAS.

Likely it's bc AOA is a metric of academic performance - that being said it's now been perverted to allow other factors: classmates can nominate you to AOA at some schools, etc. number of extracurrics/research is also factored into getting AOA, etc. PDs know this of course. Back in the olden days, AOA was known as being solely based on academics.

 

[cbrons]

So I recently started MS1 and have been bombarded with joining groups such as AMA, SNMA, PhiDE, etc. It makes sense to me to get involved in interest and volunteer groups, but it seems the national associations/fraternities have limited value. What is anyone's experience/opinion about such organizations? Is it worth it at all to join somehting such as AMA, SNMA, or PhiDE? Thanks.

theyre all worthless


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile

 

[SBR249]

theyre all worthless


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile

The TMA fed me a fancy dinner once. I still didn't join but it wasn't totally worthless

 

[DermViser]

The TMA fed me a fancy dinner once. I still didn't join but it wasn't totally worthless

State medical societies do a better job than national when it comes to their physician constituents.

 

[SBR249]

State medical societies do a better job than national when it comes to their physician constituents.

I've always wondered about that. I don't think I intend to practice medicine in TX so I didn't join the TMA but I can see why it would recruit at a school that's 90% in-state.