Ms1 q&a

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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MedPR said:
Not many places have a greater COL than Chicago though.. right?
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Chicago is high, but it's only really bad compared to other cities in the Midwest. There are definitely far more expensive places to live on the coasts.
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Enough opportunities to eat regularly during MS1? What about meal plans?
 
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monkeyvokes said:
Enough opportunities to eat regularly during MS1? What about meal plans?
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Uh yeah, you can eat, what do you think happens in med school, it's not like you're locked in a room and can't leave.
 
1. How are your exams formatted? Are they all multiple choice, short answer, combination, or something else?

2. Are your professors consistent, or do you have a string of guest lecturers?

3. If you could start your M1 year over, what things would you have avoided during, and what new things would you pursue?

Thanks!
 
How much writing do you do outside of a clinical setting? Are you given writing assignments as part of your lecture courses? What about busy work? Are tests the primary means of evaluating performance in most courses, or do you often have quizzes, hw assignments etc..?
 
LauraJo08 said:
3. If you could start your M1 year over, what things would you have avoided during, and what new things would you pursue?
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Wasn't sure if your first two questions were directed specifically to NN about UChicago, but I'll chime in with my opinion for the third.

I would have avoided worrying about grades as much as I did. Also, and I can't stress this enough, eat well and exercise. It's tempting to just get McDonald's and skip the gym to study, but for your own well being just don't.
 
For the MS1's: what is your favorite fact you learned during your first year? (science-related and/or clinical)
 
Good thread. Definitely start preparing for Boards with your classes -- it makes the summer after MS2 much easier!
 
wolfie77 said:
For the MS1's: what is your favorite fact you learned during your first year?
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1. Physicians have the highest suicide rate among all professions.

2. The time mu receptor addicts are most likely to overdose is after a long abstinence(years) from drugs.

3. Nearly 1/4-1/5 of the illicit drug market, by financial volume, is derived from legally prescribed drugs.
 
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LauraJo08 said:
1. How are your exams formatted? Are they all multiple choice, short answer, combination, or something else?

2. Are your professors consistent, or do you have a string of guest lecturers?

3. If you could start your M1 year over, what things would you have avoided during, and what new things would you pursue?

Thanks!
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Nearly all of our exams were free response. We had maybe one or two multiple choice exams.

Depends. For the "rigorous" courses, lecturers are more or less consistent. There are usually multiple lecturers over a course, but each one teaches on a specific topic or portion of the course. For microbiology, for example, we had one guy that did bacteriology, one that did virology, etc.. For courses like clinical skills and others, we often have a different lecturer every class.

I really don't think I would change anything. I'm pretty happy with how first year went all and all.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)
 
JABWS said:
How much writing do you do outside of a clinical setting? Are you given writing assignments as part of your lecture courses? What about busy work? Are tests the primary means of evaluating performance in most courses, or do you often have quizzes, hw assignments etc..?
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Busy work was pretty much non-existent for us. We had to do a couple of fluff writing assignments over the course of the year, but I really have no idea how you would fail those unless you simply don't do them. Most of them are also very brief since professors understand we have a lot of work to do in out other "real" courses.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)
 
Thanks so much everyone!

I have one last question. I know you haven't gotten too much clinical experience yet, but any insight into whether it's worth it to spend the extra money on a Littmann Cardio III vs. a Classic II or another less expensive Littmann model?
 
JABWS said:
Thanks so much everyone!

I have one last question. I know you haven't gotten too much clinical experience yet, but any insight into whether it's worth it to spend the extra money on a Littmann Cardio III vs. a Classic II or another less expensive Littmann model?
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your school might buy you one so hold off until you enroll
 
I didn't search at all as it just came up in the thread so I asked.
 
drizzt3117 said:
Uh yeah, you can eat, what do you think happens in med school, it's not like you're locked in a room and can't leave.
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I read the "this wont hurt a bit and other white lies" book and recall her mentioning that time for meals was scarce and often interrupted, but I believe it was more in reference to years 3 and 4..
 
monkeyvokes said:
I read the "this wont hurt a bit and other white lies" book and recall her mentioning that time for meals was scarce and often interrupted, but I believe it was more in reference to years 3 and 4..
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I can't comment on years 3 and 4, but there will be plenty of time to eat, drink, and be merry during 1st year and 2nd year.

In fact, many of your classmates and maybe even yourself will overeat and put on some serious weight.
 
JABWS said:
Thanks so much everyone!

I have one last question. I know you haven't gotten too much clinical experience yet, but any insight into whether it's worth it to spend the extra money on a Littmann Cardio III vs. a Classic II or another less expensive Littmann model?
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I'd prolly get a cards 3 if you can afford it, it's a substantially better steth, won't matter till m3/4 till you use it a lot, though.
 
drizzt3117 said:
I'd prolly get a cards 3 if you can afford it, it's a substantially better steth, won't matter till m3/4 till you use it a lot, though.
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What about the cardiology iii vs the harvey elite? I've looked at some previous threads and they both had their proponents.
 
kpcrew said:
What about the cardiology iii vs the harvey elite? I've looked at some previous threads and they both had their proponents.
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I've never used a steth besides Littman, the elite is nice tho, ~150 on steelies.
 
Last edited:
I forget if this was asked but...have you ever failed an exam? How many? How did you feel after it? Was it like "wtf?!" or "meh"?

Do you guys often socialize with upper class students (party, bars etc etc)? Or does each class stick to themselves?
 
typicalindian said:
I forget if this was asked but...have you ever failed an exam? How many? How did you feel after it? Was it like "wtf?!" or "meh"?

Do you guys often socialize with upper class students (party, bars etc etc)? Or does each class stick to themselves?
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I failed our second anatomy exam. It pretty much sucked. It wasn't a surprise really, but that didn't make it any better.

The pre-clinical classes are relatively tight. I met maybe two third years over the year. The fourth years were pretty visible since they often worked with the student orgs and served as our TAs.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)
 
NickNaylor said:
I failed our second anatomy exam. It pretty much sucked. It wasn't a surprise really, but that didn't make it any better.

The pre-clinical classes are relatively tight. I met maybe two third years over the year. The fourth years were pretty visible since they often worked with the student orgs and served as our TAs.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)
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Is it really difficult to pass the class if you fail? Also do all MS1's take all of the same classes at the same time?.. I would think that that would be helpful because everyone would be going through the same thing unlike in undergrad where diff pre meds take classes at diff semesters.
 
pmarank said:
Is it really difficult to pass the class if you fail? Also do all MS1's take all of the same classes at the same time?.. I would think that that would be helpful because everyone would be going through the same thing unlike in undergrad where diff pre meds take classes at diff semesters.
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We have to pass every exam individually, so in this case no, it's not difficult. It's a simple retake.

Yes, all med students take classes together.
 
NickNaylor said:
We have to pass every exam individually, so in this case no, it's not difficult. It's a simple retake.

Yes, all med students take classes together.
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Oh so your school requires you to pass every exam in order to pass the class? and you can retake any exam that you failed? How many retakes do you get before they fail you for the class? I realize that this policy may vary by school but I'm just interested to hear how your school handles it.
 
Hey Nick,

Do you have an idea of a specialty you want to do?

And if so,

You mentioned that you don't really care about grades right now, how do you think this would effect landing a competitive residency?
 
BioMed55 said:
Hey Nick,

Do you have an idea of a specialty you want to do?

And if so,

You mentioned that you don't really care about grades right now, how do you think this would effect landing a competitive residency?
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As of now I have no interest in a competitive specialty. The only thing in that category that I'm halfway interested in is derm. I'm most interested in some kind of peds specialty (specifically heme/onc) or emergency medicine.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)
 
typicalindian said:
Oh so your school requires you to pass every exam in order to pass the class? and you can retake any exam that you failed? How many retakes do you get before they fail you for the class? I realize that this policy may vary by school but I'm just interested to hear how your school handles it.
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Yes, we have to pass all of our exams. I dont think there have been any exceptions to tjat thus far.

We get one retake before "bad things" happen. I'm not sure if you fail the course, but you have to go before our academic promotion committee if you fail the retake.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)
 
ahha3289 said:
Sorry if someone's already asked this; didn't read every response:

Isn't there SOME kind of internal ranking at every medical school? I was under the impression that your LORs for residency will include your class percentile, which they can't calculate without some kind of rank. When I mentioned to my PI that my school was true P/F, she told me that they will still provide some kind of percentile info to residencies. True?
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This is school-dependent. Not all schools include this information, though my understanding is that most do.
 
ahha3289 said:
Sorry if someone's already asked this; didn't read every response:

Isn't there SOME kind of internal ranking at every medical school? I was under the impression that your LORs for residency will include your class percentile, which they can't calculate without some kind of rank. When I mentioned to my PI that my school was true P/F, she told me that they will still provide some kind of percentile info to residencies. True?
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I realize this was fielded to med students, but even some current residents on here have made this erroneous claim. Not every school actually reports any sort of rank info to residencies. As Nick said, the great majority do, and within those the sort of info varies (quartiles, adjectival categorization, etc...), but there are definitely schools where your MSPE (the Dean's Letter that gets sent with you residency application) does not provide class rank info.
 
Is that including the subtle "good, great, exceptional student" ranking system?
 
loveoforganic said:
Is that including the subtle "good, great, exceptional student" ranking system?
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That's what I meant by adjectival, and while I know some schools do that and only that (Northwestern? It's in the school info spreadsheet in my sig), Hopkins specifically says they don't provide class rank info to residencies and only use it internally. I would assume this includes descriptors of the info.

Nonetheless, that's just one example.

Edit: Just checked the spreadsheet; if you want an example, UCLA doesn't include rank info at all in their MSPE.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
 
The problem with that is that they can still see your clinical grades. I think CCF is the only school that is P/F for even m3. Stanford and Yale stopped doing that.

PDs are just going to compare you to other applicants from your school or assume you're not highly ranked if you don't have most clinical honors. Honestly I'd rather they just delineate it in the mspe so it's nice and clear, especially this upcoming cycle with it moved up to 10/1. Schools are doing their students a disservice by not providing guidance to PDs.
 
drizzt3117 said:
The problem with that is that they can still see your clinical grades. I think CCF is the only school that is P/F for even m3. Stanford and Yale stopped doing that.

PDs are just going to compare you to other applicants from your school or assume you're not highly ranked if you don't have most clinical honors. Honestly I'd rather they just delineate it in the mspe so it's nice and clear, especially this upcoming cycle with it moved up to 10/1. Schools are doing their students a disservice by not providing guidance to PDs.
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Can you give me a source on Stanford's clinical grading for the spreadsheet? Or did you interview there for medical school and they told you outright it's not straight P/F for third and fourth year? I ask because according to their website, unless I grossly misinterpreted it, it's still all P/F, as is UCLA. Same disclaimer applies to UCLA.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
 
Stanford changed this year, so the class of 2014 is the first one with p/f/h there. I did an away there last year and heard all about it.

gettheleadout said:
Can you give me a source on Stanford's clinical grading for the spreadsheet? Or did you interview there for medical school and they told you outright it's not straight P/F for third and fourth year? I ask because according to their website, unless I grossly misinterpreted it, it's still all P/F, as is UCLA. Same disclaimer applies to UCLA.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
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