Name dropping and false modesty

[orthoman5000]

Name dropping and false modesty are something I see a lot of medical students doing and it just kills me. Why is this? Are their egos really in that much need of a lift?

Recent examples that crack me up?

1. The M1's are hosting a lunch with a panel of M4's who will discuss what they did to be competetive for residencies. Maybe the point was to find the most competetive, but I think a more representative panel of "normal medical students" would have been more helpful. Anyway this one guy says that he is planning on going into orthopedic surgery. Then he goes on to say that "medicine is not my first career, I originally earned a PhD and worked for NASA." He later referred to himself as a rocket scientist. Then for no reason at all (no one asked) he just starts rattling of the list of places he interviewed at including the Mayo Clinic, MGH/Harvard program, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Washington University. I was real tempted to raise my hand and ask what his GPA and Step 1 scores were because "I'm sure you are just dying to tell us."

2. This female on the panel says that she is applying to radiology programs. She then goes on to say that she decided on this a bit later and doesn't know if she will be a competetive applicant. She then talks about her interviews and how they asked her about some of her grades being low. This prompts us in the audience to think, "O.K., someone with normal grades trying to do something competetive." One person actually asks how low we are talking about here and she kind of sheepishly admits that she is actually in AOA.

3. We have this guy in our class (class president actually) who "accidently" sent a carbon copy to the entire class of an e-mail to a course director in which he is letting the course director know he will be gone from a possible pop quiz day because he is interviewing for a Rhode's Scholarship.

I guess this type of thing is actually pretty common, but it really cracks me up.

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[What the pho]

I like to name drop the names of all the girlz i bone in my wet dreams.

 

[Gleevec]

mind saying what school/what state this school is?

Originally posted by orthoman5000
Name dropping and false modesty are something I see a lot of medical students doing and it just kills me. Why is this? Are their egos really in that much need of a lift?

Recent examples that crack me up?

1. The M1's are hosting a lunch with a panel of M4's who will discuss what they did to be competetive for residencies. Maybe the point was to find the most competetive, but I think a more representative panel of "normal medical students" would have been more helpful. Anyway this one guy says that he is planning on going into orthopedic surgery. Then he goes on to say that "medicine is not my first career, I originally earned a PhD and worked for NASA." He later referred to himself as a rocket scientist. Then for no reason at all (no one asked) he just starts rattling of the list of places he interviewed at including the Mayo Clinic, MGH/Harvard program, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Washington University. I was real tempted to raise my hand and ask what his GPA and Step 1 scores were because "I'm sure you are just dying to tell us."

2. This female on the panel says that she is applying to radiology programs. She then goes on to say that she decided on this a bit later and doesn't know if she will be a competetive applicant. She then talks about her interviews and how they asked her about some of her grades being low. This prompts us in the audience to think, "O.K., someone with normal grades trying to do something competetive." One person actually asks how low we are talking about here and she kind of sheepishly admits that she is actually in AOA.

3. We have this guy in our class (class president actually) who "accidently" sent a carbon copy to the entire class of an e-mail to a course director in which he is letting the course director know he will be gone from a possible pop quiz day because he is interviewing for a Rhode's Scholarship.

I guess this type of thing is actually pretty common, but it really cracks me up.

 

[juddson]

What I can't stand are people, who when asked, say they go to school "in Boston", as if trying to save my delicate sensibilities from having to hear the word "Harvard".

I always have this inclination to shove my foot up thier ass. You know people like this?

Judd

 

[Vincristine]

Originally posted by juddson
What I can't stand are people, who when asked, say they go to school "in Boston", as if trying to save my delicate sensibilities from having to hear the word "Harvard".

I always have this inclination to shove my foot up thier ass. You know people like this?

Judd

I've run into them, and I try not to be one of them. I went to MIT but when I'm talking with people who don't know where I went and the actual school isn't the topic, I usually say something like "My husband and I went to school in Boston and we'd really like to return there for residency."

Given that I wear a big honkin' Brass Rat, by no means do I hide where I went to shool. And if asked I have NEVER not said I went to MIT. Does this make me one of them, though?

 

[RedBlanket]

Do you tell everyone you meet that you are a med student or a resident? Asked where I work often I will answer "I work in a hospital". And trust me the looks you get saying you are a doctor/med student are not as "alienating" (for lack of a better word) as the Harvard looks. Some people love telling everyone they to that they are a doctor, some don't... Same thing here.

 

[carrigallen]

i agree that there is an element of false modesty/insincerity in med school, but it is minor.

The only thing I am cautious of is "false niceness". This takes the form of patronizing from attendings, when students do terrible. I would rather have someone be harsh and teach me, like me and give a good grade. But from what I hear, 3/4 yr is quite the opposite altogether.

Speaking of modesty....I overheard a guy in the library on his cell phone *literally* talking about how all the girls would love him if he just stood in the center of a dance floor and yelled, "Hey I'm going to be an Orthopedic surgeon, I'll make 300k a year. Yo. All the girls will go for me etc". Is this guy for reals? ...maybe some other Jeff students here know who i'm talking about. -.^

Honestly all the talk about gunners etc is immature...you cannot critize for diligent study habits. Once everyone starts preparing for the first step exam, the shoe will be on the other foot.

 

[Entei]

Originally posted by carrigallen
Honestly all the talk about gunners etc is immature...you cannot critize for diligent study habits. Once everyone starts preparing for the first step exam, the shoe will be on the other foot.

It's not that we criticize gunners for their diligent study habits. It's more that we criticize them because they carry their diligence to the extreme, at the expense of common sense. I'll give you an example. Last semester during epidemiology, we had a lecturer who tried to illustrate the concept of relative risk with a "study" relating consumption of green M&Ms with sexual potency. At the end of the hour, the lecture stopped to see if anyone had any questions. One of our more prominent gunners of course had a question and was one of the first to raise her hand. Her question: "Did they really conduct this study???" This was immediately after the lecturer informed us that the study had been conducted by Drs. Mars and Emenem.

With classmates like this, I think it's more along the lines of: once everyone leaves the sheltered environment of the classroom and hits the real world, the shoe will be on the other foot.

(Sorry for highjacking the thread. My favorite type of false modesty is the one that happens after an impossibly "hard" and "unfair" exam where the mean winds up being a 90. )

 

[5oProlene]

This kind of garbage is all over the place in medicine. It primarily results from a lot of med students not having much going for them in life except med school and needing to validate themselves through it---like the example you guys gave of the persone thinking females would want him because he was going to be an orthopedic surgeon or whatever. It just goes to show this guy needs to be a surgeon so that the opposite sex will be attracted to him (i.e. he couldn't hack it on his own). Or the people who whine about getting low grades and then you find out they are AOA, etc. It all stems from insecurity and the need to be noticed by other people. If anything it should make you feel sorry for them instead of annoying you because in the end they cannot possibly be happy with themselves if this is how they live out their days.

 

[Galaxian]

There is a certain amount of alienation you get when you tell someone you're in med school. Although if someone asks, I'll let them know. But I don't like to make a big deal of the doctor thing. It just gives people license to judge you by some higher standard, and not for the person that you really are. How many times have you heard people say "...and you're going to be a doctor?" That **** gets annoying real fast.

 

[nrosigh]

...Well, Boston does have three medical schools! : )

 

[gschl1234]

Originally posted by orthoman5000
2. This female on the panel says that she is applying to radiology programs. She then goes on to say that she decided on this a bit later and doesn't know if she will be a competetive applicant. She then talks about her interviews and how they asked her about some of her grades being low. This prompts us in the audience to think, "O.K., someone with normal grades trying to do something competetive." One person actually asks how low we are talking about here and she kind of sheepishly admits that she is actually in AOA.

Can someone please explain how grades work in med school? I thoguht for the first 2 years it was P/F or H/P/F and then for 3/4 years it was long narratives with no letter grades or numbers. How does anyone actually have low or even high grades? It seems a lot less quantitative and a lot more qualitative? And how does AOA work?

 

[periodic]

Originally posted by juddson
What I can't stand are people, who when asked, say they go to school "in Boston", as if trying to save my delicate sensibilities from having to hear the word "Harvard".

I always have this inclination to shove my foot up thier ass. You know people like this?

Judd

Most of them aren't trying to save you your delicate sensibilities but rather save themselves some of the crap you get when you say you went to ____ prestigious program/school. They want to be taken for who they are.

Most people who don't know some people at these schools or programs think they're all a bunch of arrogant, rich dinguses (some of them are, but not all).

 

[orthoman5000]

Originally posted by gschl1234
Can someone please explain how grades work in med school? I thoguht for the first 2 years it was P/F or H/P/F and then for 3/4 years it was long narratives with no letter grades or numbers. How does anyone actually have low or even high grades? It seems a lot less quantitative and a lot more qualitative? And how does AOA work?

It varies from school to school. My school still goes by A, B, C, D, F letter grades for the most part. There are a few exceptions during the first 2 years (ethics being one of them) and I think there may be a few 3rd year rotations that are pass/fail, but other than the 4th year it's mainly letter grades.

The student in question said that on the interview trail she was often asked about this grade in neuroscience and why it was so low compared to everything else. She later admits she is in AOA (so I'm assuming the "low grade" was a B) and that she didn't really do poorly in the class when questioned about it. There is no need to hide the fact that you are a good student. I'm not talking about bragging on yourself, but don't try to hide it either. She was really saying that a B is a sub-par grade and that is just not right.

 

[Jalby]

Originally posted by nrosigh
...Well, Boston does have three medical schools! : )

I know if I went to Tufts or BU, I would hijack the Harvard name by saying "Oh, I go to school in Boston." (but only if I was asked where I go to school)

 

[juddson]

Originally posted by periodic
Most of them aren't trying to save you your delicate sensibilities but rather save themselves some of the crap you get when you say you went to ____ prestigious program/school. They want to be taken for who they are.

No no, you missunderstand me. Plenty of people who went to harvard (or Princeton or Yale) are great people. I knew many and liked them. But when asked where they went to school, they said Harvard or Yale or Princeton. It takes a particular asssssshole to say they "went to school in Cambridge, MA" and "New Haven".

In any event, there are several med schools in Boston. My guess is that close to 100% of the people who go to BU say they go to BU.

Judd

 

[dakotaman]

Ahem...well, I go to med school in "Johnson City, TN."

(By the way, QCOM is awesome, so I'm not insulting my school! It's just that "Johnson City, TN," just doesn't sound as good as "Boston, MA.")

 

[gschl1234]

Originally posted by orthoman5000
It varies from school to school. My school still goes by A, B, C, D, F letter grades for the most part. There are a few exceptions during the first 2 years (ethics being one of them) and I think there may be a few 3rd year rotations that are pass/fail, but other than the 4th year it's mainly letter grades.

I see. I had no idea that there were schools that actually had the ABCDF system. Do they actually give F's then or do they just curve the average at a B- so that the top 10% get A's and the bottom 10% get C-?

My question now is for people who go to school with H/P/F (the school I'll probably attend UIC, has H/P/F). Do H/P/F actually correspond to numbers so you do have a GPA or do you just have a transcript with your grades on them without any numerical correlation? My impression was that GPA didn't exist for med school.

 

[orthoman5000]

Originally posted by gschl1234
I see. I had no idea that there were schools that actually had the ABCDF system. Do they actually give F's then or do they just curve the average at a B- so that the top 10% get A's and the bottom 10% get C-?

Our grades are not curved, it's all based off a % correct, so conceivably everyone could get A's or everyone could get F's. The scale varies from class to class, but for gross anatomy it was 90, 83, 74, 70 for ABCD, for physiology I think it is something like 85.5, 75.5, 65.5, 60.

 

[Mirror Form]

Originally posted by carrigallen
Speaking of modesty....I overheard a guy in the library on his cell phone *literally* talking about how all the girls would love him if he just stood in the center of a dance floor and yelled, "Hey I'm going to be an Orthopedic surgeon, I'll make 300k a year. Yo. All the girls will go for me etc". Is this guy for reals? ...maybe some other Jeff students here know who i'm talking about. -.^

Okay, who are we kidding here? It's not like having a high paying job doesn't help attract women! Seriously though, this guy's comment obviously wasn't supposed to be taken literally. He was just shooting the sh** w/ his buddy; a great example of "guy talk." Maybe the manner in which he said it was annoying, but i doubt he intended to be overheard.

 

[Galaxian]

who the hell says "I went to school in New Haven?" I'd be more prepared to hide the fact that I lived in that hellhole for four years than to admit that I went to Yale...

 

[BPKurtz]

Originally posted by juddson
No no, you missunderstand me. Plenty of people who went to harvard (or Princeton or Yale) are great people. I knew many and liked them. But when asked where they went to school, they said Harvard or Yale or Princeton. It takes a particular asssssshole to say they "went to school in Cambridge, MA" and "New Haven".

In any event, there are several med schools in Boston. My guess is that close to 100% of the people who go to BU say they go to BU.

Judd

I respectfully disagree -- I went to Princeton, and I (and everyone I knew) have had the frequent experience of answering the question of where I went/go to school with "in New Jersey" and trying to change the topic. Since I live in Ohio now, where people don't know too much about Jersey, that usually stops the line of questioning right there. Now, in an interview, if I'm trying to sell myself to a residency, I'm not ashamed to talk about my undergrad. But in medical school we are all on equal footing, and I found out long ago that the P-word 1) is an awkward conversation-stopper, 2) conjures up ridiculous and wrong-headed ideas about "daddy's porsche" in many people's minds, and 3) causes some people to become defensive and start talking smack about my school (which they usually know nothing about) or bragging about their own accomplishments. I'm not interested in doing any of that, for the specific reason that I'm NOT trying to name drop.

I went to Princeton for the education, not the prestige. If it happens to open a door or two down the road in my career, great, because getting a good job can be hard. But it is damn hard to casually talk about your undergrad with people who didn't go to ivies without someone thinking you are obnoxiously bragging -- better to avoid the topic altogether.

bpkurtz

 

[velouria]

i didn't go to an ivy undergrad, i just went to my state school. but at my med school interview at this state school there was a girl who went to harvard. as her interviewer was walking her back, i overheard him falling all over himself kissing her *ss and gushing about how his brother tried to get in to harvard but didn't and on and on and on. if i were her, i can imagine that i'd be upset that he wasn't trying to learn more about me as a person, just focusing on where i went to school as if that defines the type of person you are. not that i felt sorry for her

 

[Galaxian]

i overheard him falling all over himself kissing her *ss and gushing about how his brother tried to get in to harvard but didn't and on and on and on. if i were her, i can imagine that i'd be upset that he wasn't trying to learn more about me as a person, just focusing on where i went to school as if that defines the type of person you are.

She wasn't upset! She was secretly screaming "CHA-CHING!" During my med school interview, I had the extreme good fortune of finding out that my interviewer had gone to my undergrad. That made the experience a lot easier to handle...

 

[chicamedica]

Originally posted by periodic
Most of them aren't trying to save you your delicate sensibilities but rather save themselves some of the crap you get when you say you went to ____ prestigious program/school. They want to be taken for who they are.

Most people who don't know some people at these schools or programs think they're all a bunch of arrogant, rich dinguses (some of them are, but not all).

I second that, periodic. When asked about where I went for undergrad or whenever it would come up in conversation, I used to just straight out say I went to MIT, but whenever I would do that, many ppl (mostly who don't know me well) would take that either as me bragging or as me thinking I'm superior, or as me being an ultra-nerd (or gunner), each of which couldn't be further from the truth--well except maybe the nerd part, me being somewhat of a nerd I'd say.

So after a while, i realized this, and started avoiding the mention of my alma mater, instead saying "went to school in Boston" or "in undergrad" etc. And sadly, to tell you al the truth, this HAS made a difference in people feeling more at ease around me.

It's sad, but true. . .I learned it the hard way.

 

[Goofyone]

Originally posted by Galaxian
There is a certain amount of alienation you get when you tell someone you're in med school. Although if someone asks, I'll let them know. But I don't like to make a big deal of the doctor thing. It just gives people license to judge you by some higher standard, and not for the person that you really are. How many times have you heard people say "...and you're going to be a doctor?" That **** gets annoying real fast.

Yeah. Like you're under a frigging magnifying glass, and everyone is just waiting for you to make stupid, minor, everyday mistakes just so they can cut you down for it.

Wyrd

 

[monkeyarms]

i couldn't agree more. people always treat me differently when i tell them i was born on the sun.

 

[Crimson&Clover]

Originally posted by juddson
No no, you missunderstand me. Plenty of people who went to harvard (or Princeton or Yale) are great people. I knew many and liked them. But when asked where they went to school, they said Harvard or Yale or Princeton. It takes a particular asssssshole to say they "went to school in Cambridge, MA" and "New Haven".

In any event, there are several med schools in Boston. My guess is that close to 100% of the people who go to BU say they go to BU.

Judd

why are you considered an dingus if you say you went to school in massachusetts, instead of harvard? it's an undeniable fact that people often feel threatened by others they view as 'superior', so why on earth would you wear your ivy league label on your sleeve if it just alienates people?

 

[menemotxi]

Why does anyone even care about how someone mentions where they went to school? When meeting people, I don't give a crap where they went to school, much less if they say Harvard or "In Boston."

I respect people who go to Ivy league schools for enduring all the work and stress and debt to receive their education.

But I do know that I've had a hell of a lot more fun than they have going to a large state school where people go out every night of the week, regardless of their academic commitments or lack there of. Plus it's free and Tennessee girls know how to have a great time.

Enjoy yo' self b!tches

 

[medic8m]

Originally posted by menemotxi


I respect people who go to Ivy league schools for enduring all the work and stress and debt to receive their education.

Yeah, unless they are just average folks from Texas who meet none of the above criteria - Like ol' "W".

 

[Rod Farva]

I go to school in Boston. It sucks here.... snowed on Friday. It is not a place to brag about.

 

[orthoman5000]

I heard today that the guy who was bragging about the ortho interviews at Mayo, MGH, HSS, and WashU didn't even match into ortho. Don't quite know how that happened but it is kind of ironic.

 

[jws1911]

First of all I love this thread.
Second of all I think people from prestigious schools need to realize that the earning-power, marketability and connections gained by attending such schools are the clear plus and an insignificant amount of alienation is the minus. So people think that you are a pretentious a-hole for a little while? Deal with it. Afterall, the "name" is part of why you went to that school in the first place.

I went to Stanford so I can sympathize to a certain extent (though Stanford is generally believed to be much "cooler" than the Ivy Leagues). I regard the funny looks and smart jokes as my pennance for the priviledge and good fortune that I have enjoyed. Many people could have and would have very easily taken my place there. It is, therefore, my responsibility to own my academic pedigree, for better or for worse, as it is now part of who I am.

In the end, I don't feel sorry for those of you who are too afraid to represent. No one is ever fooled into thinking that when you say you went to school in "Boston" you are talking about something other than Harvard. So I try my best to make sure I still alienate those who attempt this trickery .