MCW 2011 part 2

Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine
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TheProwler said:
the wifey was at the mall today, as far as I know, but I dunno about Wal-greens. I know she needed a few items that indeed, I would not want to be seen purchasing.
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she was also buying like 3 cartons of Marlboro lights. dang!
 
indo said:
1176420977_1173.gif
wtf
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i only wish there was about 60 more minutes of that little flick. totally awesome!
 
Hi everyone! So I'm choosing between this school and NYMC, and I need some advice. What are some pros and cons about this school? I'm from Cali, so will it be hard for me to find housing and roommates? Do apartments come furnished? I think finding/buying furniture and basically settling in Wisconsin may be more difficult for me than attending school in NY. I'm seriously considering MCW though because the education seems to be a lot better. Please give me some insight. Thanks.
 
Smiles91084 said:
Hi everyone! So I'm choosing between this school and NYMC, and I need some advice. What are some pros and cons about this school? I'm from Cali, so will it be hard for me to find housing and roommates? Do apartments come furnished? I think finding/buying furniture and basically settling in Wisconsin may be more difficult for me than attending school in NY. I'm seriously considering MCW though because the education seems to be a lot better. Please give me some insight. Thanks.
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housing and roommates don't seem to be a problem for anyone. as for apartment furnishing, i really don't know.

pros: awesome people, very friendly, not a very competitive atmosphere. good biochem, anatomy, and physiology and pharmacology courses. our school generally does average or better than average on Step 1. We match well. We have 2 awesome hospitals right next door.

cons: horrible neuro and pathology courses. not really sure how else to phrase that.
 
Agent Splat said:
We have 2 awesome hospitals right next door.
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Pros:
This is a BIG plus for third and fourth years.
Third year, all of your rotations are in Milwaukee or the surrounding communities (at most a 1/2 hour drive).
Fourth year, you can stay here for everything, or do up to four months of Away electives.

Edit: Pro: People here are really great.

Cons: Third year schedule doesn't allow for much choice; you only get one month of elective/vacation.
Fourth year, we have a lottery system for scheduling. Which means popular courses will fill up fast, especially early in the year (July, Aug.)
 
Apartments seldom come furnished, but there are quite a few thrift stores, Craigslist and Freecycle both operate here, or you can do what my roommate did and get a roommate who has everything so you only need to furnish your own bedroom.

We pay $775 for a very very large two-bedroom apartment with study and shared full basement with washer/dryer hookups (it's in a duplex). Several of my friends are paying less and/or have their heat included in their rent.
 
Smiles91084 said:
Hi everyone! So I'm choosing between this school and NYMC, and I need some advice. What are some pros and cons about this school? I'm from Cali, so will it be hard for me to find housing and roommates? Do apartments come furnished? I think finding/buying furniture and basically settling in Wisconsin may be more difficult for me than attending school in NY. I'm seriously considering MCW though because the education seems to be a lot better. Please give me some insight. Thanks.
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You could try to find someone in our class as a roommate (aka, they're already settled in), or you could just try to find a roommate who already has a lot of furniture. At my last place, before I got married, my other roommate had tons of furniture. All I did was furnish my bedroom (which included using his cousin's couch) and I was done. But other than that, you won't have much luck finding a pre-furnished place.

And as much as people complain about the weather, it won't be any different than New York anyways, so that shouldn't make much difference in your decision, but it'll be a lot cheaper here.


EDIT: ah, I see Denise posted the same thing I was thinking. IKEA is only an hour away, and you can get TONS of stuff for VERY cheap down there. You can fill up your car with furnishings for like $400 and have some fairly decent stuff.

This is what we got for $400 - including all our kitchen dishes, lamps, hamper, kitchen cart (like $100 at Wal-mart), clothing storage, wall decorations, garbage cans, etc.
40arv3d.jpg
 
TheProwler said:
You could try to find someone in our class as a roommate (aka, they're already settled in), or you could just try to find a roommate who already has a lot of furniture. At my last place, before I got married, my other roommate had tons of furniture. All I did was furnish my bedroom (which included using his cousin's couch) and I was done. But other than that, you won't have much luck finding a pre-furnished place.

And as much as people complain about the weather, it won't be any different than New York anyways, so that shouldn't make much difference in your decision, but it'll be a lot cheaper here.


EDIT: ah, I see Denise posted the same thing I was thinking. IKEA is only an hour away, and you can get TONS of stuff for VERY cheap down there. You can fill up your car with furnishings for like $400 and have some fairly decent stuff.

This is what we got for $400 - including all our kitchen dishes, lamps, hamper, kitchen cart (like $100 at Wal-mart), clothing storage, wall decorations, garbage cans, etc.
40arv3d.jpg
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That is quite the comfortable couch 🙂
 
Just a quick question for everyone:

I called the financial aid office and Scott confirmed that all incoming students will receive their financial aid award letter in June...which is obviously after the May 15th multi-acceptance date. 😱

Finances play a big role in my decision of where to attend--I can't commit to MCW without even knowing what kind of aid I'll be getting--does anyone have advice on what to do?
 
WCGee said:
Just a quick question for everyone:

I called the financial aid office and Scott confirmed that all incoming students will receive their financial aid award letter in June...which is obviously after the May 15th multi-acceptance date. 😱

Finances play a big role in my decision of where to attend--I can't commit to MCW without even knowing what kind of aid I'll be getting--does anyone have advice on what to do?
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There's not really much difference in the financial aid awards from student to student. We're all generally eligible for the same types and amounts of federal loans and you get to choose the lender for any private loans you need to take out. One of the only differences I'm aware of comes in "institutional loan money" offered to select students by the school that you can take out up to a certain amount instead of the aforementioned private loans. This is essentially money donated by alumni that the school turns into loans with good interest rates and deferred repayment all the way through your residency training without interest accruing. Good stuff, and the institutional loans are decided based on financial need/family income.

As far as I know there really aren't any scholarships/grants. I'm sure if you asked the financial aid office about them they could tell you if you are competitive for them.

In general, though, med school is far different financially from undergrad with far less "free" money floating around, probably because we are expected to have substantial enough incomes in the end to cover our debt.
 
Furthermore, unless they've changed it, you can't get an instutitional loan until 2nd semester of M1 year, and I didn't find out I got one until after school had started (don't remember exactly when).

Really, unless you're quite poor or quite smart, there isn't going to be much difference b/t schools as far as financial aid goes. If you fall into one of those categories, like Funk said, I'd call the financial aid department and discuss it with them directly and explain that you're trying to decide b/t schools.

But my advice is to go with the school at which you'll hate life the least over the next 4 years, even if it is more expensive.
 
Unless you have good reason to think you'll qualify for scholarships, I would just assume that you're paying the $35,000 per year (out of state) and that you'll get enough federal loans to cover it.
 
I thought you guys said you'd post in any MCW thread on the first page, but it doesn't seem to be happening.
 
Thank you everyone for your responses. I'll call the office Monday morning and try to figure things out...I'm not expecting any merit-based stuff, just stuff based on my financial status...
 
indo said:
tried the corner and missed
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzh4EgZN8I[/YOUTUBE]
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awww...old County Stadium.

Trivia for those of you that don't know: All of the actual scenes in the "Indians" stadium are actually in the old Brewer's stadium. Apparently it looked more like the stadium in Cleveland than the actual stadium in Cleveland.
 
i'm not sure if this has been covered in this thread or not. If it has, i'm sorry

At MCW, where do most people live that is near campus and reasonably priced? There is a decent chance I won't have a car to start next year and will need to live near campus. Any suggestions?
 
twick121 said:
i'm not sure if this has been covered in this thread or not. If it has, i'm sorry

At MCW, where do most people live that is near campus and reasonably priced? There is a decent chance I won't have a car to start next year and will need to live near campus. Any suggestions?
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There are a lot of people who live in walking distance from school in houses/apartments/duplexes/quadruplexes/etc. It's not necessary to have a car your first 2 years, though it's nice. I'm sure it's practically mandatory for your rotations.

I live 2 miles from school.
 
twick121 said:
i'm not sure if this has been covered in this thread or not. If it has, i'm sorry

At MCW, where do most people live that is near campus and reasonably priced? There is a decent chance I won't have a car to start next year and will need to live near campus. Any suggestions?
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Hi Twick,

We've covered it before on these threads, but I suppose we can't reasonably expect everyone to go back through all of our inane posts to find the few useful hints we've posted.

The short answer to your question is that there are plenty of places near MCW that are within walking distance and affordable. There are a number of duplexes and 4-plexes right on Watertown Plank Rd. next to the school that are pretty cheap, otherwise there are plenty of individual houses/flats available for rent in the area as well. For these places, your best bet in finding one is to just drive around the area and look for "for rent" signs posted in peoples' lawns. Also, check the bulletin boards at school (near the cafeteria and in the stairwells) for flyers posted by landlords for places that aren't advertiesed elsewhere. There are a couple of apartment buildings within walking distance, too - the Wilshire Manor is the only one I know the name of.

Edit: oop, Ashleigh beat me to it.
 
Now, back to the [off]topic at hand: Ashers, Funk, where did you make those custom avatars?
 
I did! I was just too lazy to change my avatar... I'll go do it now... *sigh*.
 
Just wanted to make it three posts in a row with our cutesy little avatars. Rawk.
 
twick121 said:
i'm not sure if this has been covered in this thread or not. If it has, i'm sorry

At MCW, where do most people live that is near campus and reasonably priced? There is a decent chance I won't have a car to start next year and will need to live near campus. Any suggestions?
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I live a 10-12 min walk from school. There are a lot of places where you can walk from. If you are from the area, it is prob best to drive around school around june and write down numbers from all the for rent signs. If not, let me (or the others) know and we can snag a few numbers for ya.

It is prob cheaper to live near campus because everything in walking distance is owned by people in the area. The moster complexes are gonna be more expensive and further away but do have amenities like a gym or pool. A 2br walking distance from school should be around 750-850.
 
My avatar will never change. It's just too good.
 
akpete said:
My avatar will never change. It's just too good.
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Love your avatar. Every time I contemplate changing mine, someone will invariably comment that they crack up every time they see my avatar, and then I feel obligated to keep it.
 
Gimlet said:
Love your avatar. Every time I contemplate changing mine, someone will invariably comment that they crack up every time they see my avatar, and then I feel obligated to keep it.
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I've been told I can't change the saying under my name unless I come up with one equally as good.
 
I've been told no one at all anywhere cares what avatar I have, motto underneath the avatar, what I post, or even whether I post at all.

Boy, contemplating the beginning of the finals push sure does wonders for my self-esteem. 😉
 
DoctorFunk said:
I've been told no one at all anywhere cares what avatar I have, motto underneath the avatar, what I post, or even whether I post at all.

Boy, contemplating the beginning of the finals push sure does wonders for my self-esteem. 😉
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Yes, let's all feel bad for the poor ninja... I made you your own facebook group!
 
Ashers said:
Yes, let's all feel bad for the poor ninja... I made you your own facebook group!
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Oh yeah, there was that, wasn't there? 😉
 
Yeah, go ahead and disregard what I said. We 2009ers are all internet supastars.
 
Gimlet said:
Love your avatar. Every time I contemplate changing mine, someone will invariably comment that they crack up every time they see my avatar, and then I feel obligated to keep it.
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Your avatar does make me laugh.
 
where are all the Eleveners????????!!! 11'rs? whichever.

so, what kind of cadavers do we get for anatomy? i'm scared and excited about that part but totally stoked. what are you guys favorite memories from anatomy lab? I bet it's weird and fun and sad at teh same time.
 
BamBoozed said:
where are all the Eleveners????????!!! 11'rs? whichever.

so, what kind of cadavers do we get for anatomy? i'm scared and excited about that part but totally stoked. what are you guys favorite memories from anatomy lab? I bet it's weird and fun and sad at teh same time.
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You get humans, mostly. There may have been some aliens in human skin.

I liked lab. It was fun. There was a lot of goofing off late at night before exams while studying. Good times. The only thing I didn't like was the smell. I didn't really think it was sad, the only disturbing thing for me was the head block -- removing the face. The one thing that's been worse than that was the pathology autopsy. ugh.
 
The luster of the anatomy lab wore off for me sometime around second block, after which it was mostly just a chore to go in there and get nothing accomplished in 3 hours. I think everybody's experience varies, and a lot of it is dependent on how well your lab group gets along. I liked everyone in my lab group, but I felt like we didn't have much to talk about a lot of the time which made lab a drag.

As for the cadavers, you basically get one of two types. (Both of them will remind you of your grandparents.) The females are all little skinny old ladies with tiny muscles and arteries that are impossible to find, and the males are all overweight old men that have easy-to-find structures once you spend two hours digging through the 2 inch layer of fat you have to go through to get at them. It's cool when your cadaver has tattoos or an implantable device (penis pump, pacemaker, etc). We called ours "the Admiral" because he had Navy tattoos on his forearm.
 
Ours was Bertha "Skinny Minnie" Smith. She had no fat, so she dried out quickly.

After I got back from Christmas M1 year, I had a message from a Bertha on my landline answering machine (no one has that number, I just get lots of wrong numbers). It was kinda creepy.
 
We had "Ethel," but we did find out her real name after a while. She was of the "nice, plump grandmother who probably baked a lot of cookies" type. She also had the following organs removed: gall bladder, appendix, and one kidney. Her heart was pretty cool cause she had bypass surgury. And she had a knee replacement as well, and you could see in the other knee how badly arthritic she was.

You can probably tell that I liked lab. I had an interesting group, which made it fun too.

I didn't have all the emotions that can go with it though. I had worked on cadavers in anatomy at the U of MN in undergrad.
 
We never really named our guy. He was a tall, burly ex-Army looking sort who had a pacemaker and bypass grafts. He had a huge amount of blood in his cranium when we popped it open, what appeared to be metastatic lung cancer, a heart the size of a cow's, and about 3 other things that instructors told us could easily have been the cause of death. We were really excited to see what the actual cause of death had been at the end of the semester, but we ended up having one of the cadavers who died of "unknown causes." Made me wonder if they even bothered looking at the poor guy before bringing him over to us.

Anyways, I found the experience quite underwhelming. For the most part there was very little learning involved and my lab group, while polite to each other, did not lead to any long-lasting or life-altering friendships like we were promised by instructors in the beginning. By 2nd block (or at least soon after finishing the superficial face dissection) it was really more of a chore that we did just so others in our group didn't have to be shafted with the whole workload.
 
Our guy was named Larry. Because he looked like a Larry. Seriously.

I had probably the opposite experience of Funk, and I think the kind of experience you have in anatomy depends strongly on the mileu of your particular group. Two of the people I worked with are my closest friends in medical school. We were the group that stayed late in lab, went out after exams, studied together, etc. We managed to divide the workload up according to peoples taste. Two of us did most of the dissection (myself included), two read from netter, and one never really showed up after block two (which was a good thing).
 
Don, who was in your group? I can't think of the N's right now.

And my group did have the bonding... Steve, Brian, Jackie, Sonja and I are pretty close. We didn't have any real weird people either. And my cadaver's name was Henry. He looked like a Henry.
 
Xandie said:
Don, who was in your group? I can't think of the N's right now.

And my group did have the bonding... Steve, Brian, Jackie, Sonja and I are pretty close. We didn't have any real weird people either. And my cadaver's name was Henry. He looked like a Henry.
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Sort of the M-N Junction, really.

Brian, myself, Anh, Eileen, and Sina.
 
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