Just Finished First Week of M1 - Ask Me Anything

Started by HinduHammer
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HinduHammer

HinduHammer

Righteous in Wrath
10+ Year Member
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Because I'm still very familiar with the pre-med process, have ample application experience, and its still early enough in the block where I can get away with not studying. And b/c I'm still groggy from our all day M1/M2 float trip down the river yesterday haha.

So yeah, Ask Me Anything!!
 
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Congrats on matriculating Hindu!!! I have a couple weeks before classes start, but I hope you are enjoying it so far! Nice to see your hard work and excellent essays paid off!
 
nverqrui said:
Did you guys get homework yet?
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Since OP isn't answering right now, I'll answer this one. Yes, my class finished two days of orientation, and we received homework in our Orientation to medicine and religion class. We have two short essays due next week. We also have to complete HIPPA training for our clinical experience and take a test on HIPAA.
 
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thesunofyork said:
What tips do you have for the interview process?
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Know your application very well. Smile and make eye contact. Research the school ahead of time. ............. Not saying anything that has not already been said:beat:

Anyway, check out @Goro Guide to Interviews. He talks about practically every piece of advice I would give you for interviews.
 
On Eagle's Wings said:
Since OP isn't answering right now, I'll answer this one. Yes, my class finished two days of orientation, and we received homework in our Orientation to medicine and religion class. We have two short essays due next week. We also have to complete HIPPA training for our clinical experience and take a test on HIPPA.
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You're a med student?
 
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gannicus89 said:
...Well how did you like it? Was it what you expected?
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I absolutely loved every second of it. So my school is known for its PBL curriculum so I was surprised by how much time we still had didactic lecture, which still was only a total of 6 hours (2 hours Biochem, pharmacology, pharmokinetics, histology, and pathology.)

I was also surprised by how much I was simultaneously familiar with but also needed to study much more in depth. Like, I've heard of everything (glycolysis) but have no idea about the depth (g6 phosphate in blood sugar disorders).

I worked it 4 days a week (from 530am to 7am before lecture), went to hot yoga twice, wore my white coat once for a simulated patient interaction, played ultimate frisbee once, and had opportunities to be social pretty much every night ( though I chose to go to bed early for my workouts).

I really do love every second of it so far. I have font started studying yet beyond doing my small group objective work but others in my class have.
 
HinduHammer said:
I worked it 4 days a week (from 530am to 7am before lecture), went to hot yoga twice, wore my white coat once for a simulated patient interaction, played ultimate frisbee once, and had opportunities to be social pretty much every night ( though I chose to go to bed early for my workouts).
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Goals. :joyful:
 
On Eagle's Wings said:
Does your school begin with basic science classes or clinical wards?
How long was orientation?
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Pretty much every medical school begins with two years of bookwork before clinical wards. These classes are not "basic science" in my opinion. Our exams are mostly patient based and clinical reasoning, as well as anatomy, patient care, and knowledge based.

Orientation was one week long with social events every night M-F, and S/Su nights the weekend before and after.
 
nverqrui said:
Does it seem like your classes are much harder than your undergrad classes?
Did you guys get homework yet?
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So, yes the classes are harder for sure. More because of the pace than the content. Much of our learning is self-directed, so we have to go out and learn the stuff on our own. We are given tremendous resources to do this, as well as some direction, but it is very self-directed.

And without going into too much detail for the sake of brevity, yes we have homework - not that is due to the faculty, but that is required for our small groups. If we don't do these objectives, our groups (aka our classmates) will suffer and hate me.
 
thesunofyork said:
What's your favorite color?

What tips do you have for the interview process?
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Red.

Be extremely humble, positive, and thankful to everyone you interact with in the interview. I would suggest sending thank-you emails after the interview too. Also, keep focused on the question they ask, not necessarily what you want them to know. They don't care about the abstract you wrote about specifically, for example, they want to know how that research will help you be a better physician.
 
Mr. Beefy Lion said:
Why aren't you answering questions?
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Sorrrry... I waited for like 20 minutes for a reply then went out to hot yoga, went to a fellow student's house to do laundry for free, bought school supplies with him on tax-free weekend while laundry was drying, then came home and showered and went to a "family dinner" with 7 other M1s where we cooked and ate dinner and wine while watching the bachelor in paradise and youtube videos.

So, I guess I was so illustrative here to indicate how much time/awesome med school is. That being said, I would say about 20-40% of our class did at least SOME work today. Maybe 10% actually did 4+ hours, the rest did like a few hours or just looked at pathology slides or reviewed lecture notes from the past week.
 
HinduHammer said:
I absolutely loved every second of it. So my school is known for its PBL curriculum so I was surprised by how much time we still had didactic lecture, which still was only a total of 6 hours (2 hours Biochem, pharmacology, pharmokinetics, histology, and pathology.)

I was also surprised by how much I was simultaneously familiar with but also needed to study much more in depth. Like, I've heard of everything (glycolysis) but have no idea about the depth (g6 phosphate in blood sugar disorders).
Click to expand...

Glad to hear that you're enjoying it. How much studying do you anticipate having to do on a daily basis? Do you think at some point you're going to have to give up working out and other activities just to stay on top on everything?
 
jjbodean said:
how much of First Aid have you covered so far?
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Lol you serious? Not sure about your school or curriculum, but we are somewhat discouraged from learning First Aid at this point because our learning is meant to be integrative and not to care about Step 1 until next year at this time, at the absolute earliest. We have very high average Step 1 scores and a 100% pass rate, apparently.
 
Temporary Superman said:
Are you really early enough in the block where you can get away without studying?
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Yes. Though, I probably should be studying haha. My goal though is to pass all my classes (We are P/F first two years), and do well enough on boards to not be excluded from any fields I would like to pursue, including competitive ones.
 
thesunofyork said:
I just wanted to see if there was anything in particular OP did during the interview, that's all. I already checked out that thread.
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Well, I got complimented for really showing a genuine passion for medicine and helping people. But surgeries helped my sister walk for the first time, so the emotion and stuff I showed when talking about why I want a life of *Service* to others, it really came off genuine. You also have to be confident about why you want to be a physician at that particular school. They can pick up on anxiety - which can be interpreted as just another "meh" 22 y/o pre-med student who needs to mature. So, be confident, humble, know your application, thankful, send thank you notes, and tell them point blank you want to go to their school for X,Y,Z reasons. I was accepted to 2 MD schools with a 2.7 GPA and wait listed at another.
 
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On Eagle's Wings said:
Since OP isn't answering right now, I'll answer this one. Yes, my class finished two days of orientation, and we received homework in our Orientation to medicine and religion class. We have two short essays due next week. We also have to complete HIPPA training for our clinical experience and take a test on HIPAA.
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What kind of ****ing ******ed school do you go to. If I had to essays in m1/m2 I would've resigned on the spot
 
What tips do you have for the interview process?
8ce21.jpg
 
HinduHammer said:
Yes. Though, I probably should be studying haha. My goal though is to pass all my classes (We are P/F first two years), and do well enough on boards to not be excluded from any fields I would like to pursue, including competitive ones.
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Which competitive fields are you interested in right now?
 
SpicyFalafel said:
How is that? are you URM?
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thesunofyork said:
What the hell? They accepted you with a 2.7 gpa?? What was your MCAT score??
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Now that I'm on the other side of the process, I can see how obnoxious and offensive this attitude is. No, I am not URM. There are maybe 3-4 URM in our whole class and they seem extremely competent. I had a 5 year gap between undergrad and taking another stab at pre-med, where I got a 4.00 for 2 years, tough my ugrad GPA was so low that my overall w as still a 2.7. My MCAT was greater than 90%. Medical school admissions is random, but not as random as you think. Hating on URM displays your insecurities because you think you deserve to get in greater than someone else because of GPA/ test scores, and that's not what this is about.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
What kind of ****ing ******ed school do you go to. If I had to essays in m1/m2 I would've resigned on the spot
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WedgeDawg said:
We have essays during m1/2 as well.
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We had to do a few essays about why medicine during orientation week. The attitude from the poster with the expletive is really funny. I wonder if this person will ever make it to medical school and end up a practicing physician haha.
 
Meeehai said:
How many cute medical hunnies have you slain?
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Hospitalized said:
Any women you got your eye on?

jk

but actually srs

How is the market for a single guy in medical school?
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I've messed around with one girl in my class and a few girls from the community (college town, big state school).

Market for a single med school guy is good where I am, not great for me particularly I suppose. 90%++ people here are white, most of the guys in my class are really ripped/lean and white and 6 foot plus. I'm like a 5'7"-5'8" brown dude who is at least a few years older than most people in my class and in the bar scene, so its not as easy for me to meet girls. Or should I say, girls don't do the work for me. I have to go out and approach them and try and move interactions towards a romantic outcome.

So, the market is good. But you are the product. Sometimes the market is in your favor (if you're genetically more attractive taller, same ethnicity etc.), sometimes its not.
 
gannicus89 said:
Glad to hear that you're enjoying it. How much studying do you anticipate having to do on a daily basis? Do you think at some point you're going to have to give up working out and other activities just to stay on top on everything?
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In a few weeks, at the halfway point through our blocks, I anticipate having to do at least 4 hours of non-class studying everyday with more time on the weekends.

I will not give up working out at least 3-4 days a week. If you go to bed early, you can make the gym a priority and do it everyday. That's one thing I'm just not willing to compromise right now.
 
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@HinduHammer, When you're an MS3, do you plan on belittling what MS1s are doing during their first week? 😛

Thanks for the AMA, even though it probably didn't go as smoothly as intended.
 
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