Looking for people to read my book, "... Getting Into Medical School"

[deuist]

First off, I want to apologize for the duplication of this message. I've posted it in several forums in an attempt to solicit as many readers as possible.

Over the past month I've been working on a mini book entitled The Not So Short Introduction to Getting Into Medical School. The results of my work are available online at http://plaza.ufl.edu/aycock/medshort/medshort.pdf. I am asking for as many readers as possible. I want to edit the manuscript to make it a readable and easy to follow as possible. Any mistakes, suggestions, points of clarification, etc... are helpful. Just be as specific as possible. Don't say, "Expand the section on re-applying." Instead, give me a page number and what exactly you want to see. I will give an acknowledgement to anyone who causes a change. Further, please send suggestions via email to aycock <at> phys <dot> ufl <dot> edu rather than via PM or replies on the message board. That way, I'll be sure to get them---and not risk over loading my PM box or missing something on the message boards.

Also, if you would like to write a section or full chapter as a guest author, let me know. I will give you credit, too. I would love to get input on MSTP programs, military medicine, Caribbean schools---basically anything that is not in the book.

The final form of this book will remain free and accessible through the Creative Commons License. For now, however, I ask that you do not distribute it until I am finished editing it.

Finally, the book was written in LaTeX---the source code being available at http://plaza.ufl.edu/aycock/medshort/. If you know the language, please use it in making suggestions. If not, I'll take care of the details.

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[liverotcod]

deuist, I've only glanced a bit at the first chapter so far, but it's really impressive stuff. I would be happy to help with editing.

 

[mustangsally65]

Yes, I downloaded the pdf last night, and thought it looked promising as well. Do you mind if I copy it into a Word Document and turn on Track Changes so it will be easier to see the changes?

 

[Freakedout]

i ll help... let me know what you need help with

 

[deuist]

mustangsally65 (And anyone else for that matter),

Feel free to do whatever you feel comfortable with. MS Word's Track Changes feature has come in handy many times in the past---especially in group writing projects.

 

[MDhopeful023]

I'm impressed. However, I have a slight question.... what ever happened to the second, fifth, and sixth important things in a application... or did I just by pass it??

I saw first... third, fourth and seventh... Maybe I'm just blind.

 

[deuist]

First off I want to say that looks very good and I think there should be more books giving experiences from the premed-med student perspective rather then admissions directors only and premed advisors.

Secondly, I looked at your MD applicants profile and was curious where you are going next year??? If you get off USF waitlist are you going to go there??? Or are you going to go to FSU or Miami??

Just curious cuz I'm in Florida too and wondered which school you were most impressed by.

I'm going to Miami. I've withdrawn from the other acceptances and waitlists except for Baylor and Vanderbilt. I'll go to either of those schools should I get an acceptance.

As far as my impressions of the Florida schools go, I really liked FSU. However, I chose not to go there because (1) it is too new of a school. i worried about applying to residency that earned its accreditation just a few months ago. Further, the school does not have an academic reputation yet. (2) FSU focuses on geriatric and rural medicine. Since I want to do military emergency medicine, I figured that I should go to a school with an active emergency department. Jackson hospital in Miami is always active. (In fact, Uniformed Services University sends its students to Jackson to learn about gun shot wounds.)

 

[deuist]

I'm impressed. However, I have a slight question.... what ever happened to the second, fifth, and sixth important things in a application... or did I just by pass it??

I saw first... third, fourth and seventh... Maybe I'm just blind.

The 1st, 3rd, and 4th spots were two- and three-way ties.

 

[Biodude]

Cool. Thanks for posting the .pdf file.

Minor quibble: It's spelled atheist, not athetist.

That's all I saw in the area of spelling/grammar mistakes. Of course, I mostly skimmed through the preface, though I read most of the other sections. Your document sounds very accurate, exactly like what my pre-med advisor has told me (he used to be on admissions committees at several medical schools, taught Immunology at a medical school in Texas, and is now part of the admin committee at UCI medical school). I remember how much he emphasized getting a good GPA, and how much more vital that is than "clinical experience" or "volunteering" back when I went to go see him as a freshman in college.

It sounds realistic to me. Some people might say cynical, but I've found that a lot of the most realistic people are cynical anyway.

 

[deuist]

Minor quibble: It's spelled atheist, not athetist.

Good catch. It's been corrected.

 

[mustangsally65]

Check your email, deuist. I've sent you an edited copy. Hope it helps!

 

[deuist]

Thank you everyone for all of the suggestions so far. If you were to check the Introduction and compare it to the version that I originally posted, you will see that I included some of your changes. I'll work on the longer edits and additions this weekend and hopefully, I can finish version 0.6 by Sunday night. I've noticed from the forums that the re-applicants are probably the nicest group of people on the Student Doctor Network. Just look at some of the responses I received on the military forum. I guess that getting a string of rejections goes a long way in knocking that ego down a few pegs. I'm a re-applicant myself.

In May of 2003 I found myself with a bachelor's degree, but not much else. I got rejected from every medical school to which I applied; and because of my majors, I was jobless, too. My life during that summer felt very empty. I sat down with an admissions officer at the University of Florida to see what happened. She gave me a long list of things that I needed to change, such as: I needed volunteering, research experience, and to boost my GPA. I left her office and immediately applied to become a post-bacc, signed up for training as a counselor with my county's crisis center, and started applying to laboratories to work as a technician. For the next two years I worked at the Particle Engineering Research Center on campus. While I learned the ins and outs of a lab, the greatest lesson was that I hated research, and that I especially hated academia and its rules of promotion (i.e., a professor who plagiarizes his students' work is given a raise while the students are told to work harder.)

After raising my GPA by a bit, I entered graduate school and got an M.S. for my work at the PERC. Yet through the whole process, I feel that the most worthwhile activity I did was with the Crisis Center. I learned a lot about counseling and had some amazing experiences with the clients. I'm happy to report that when I re-applied this past year, I was offered tons of interview invites---I actually had to start turning schools down. I got accepted to a university that I really liked. And I'm excited to say that I'll be starting medical school in the fall.

The point of the story is to tell all of the rest of the re-applicants on this forum that acceptances can occur. Good luck to everyone, whether they are currently filling out the AMCAS, or are waiting until next year.

 

[bravotwozero]

In May of 2003 I found myself with a bachelor's degree, but not much else. I got rejected from every medical school to which I applied; and because of my majors, I was jobless, too. My life during that summer felt very empty.

I'm in the very same predicament right now, and man, it's not a good feeling when you've done your bachelor's and have nothing to show for it. But anyways, congrats on getting in. You're an inspiration to pre-meds.

 

[deuist]

I finished all of the editing and posted version 1.0. I've also created a doubled sided version for people who want to print to both sides of the page---like you would see in a book. (For some reason, the appendix is poorly formed in the double sided version. If any LaTeX guurs can figure out why, please tell me.)