Official MCW Class of 2009 Thread

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TheProwler said:
Are you on "vacation" this month, or do you just have a really flexible rotation?
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Vacation November and December, although it is turning out that I'm interviewing almost every other day until Dec. 15th, which isn't leaving much time for actual "vacation" so to speak.

I'm thinking there will be a few cancellations before all is said and done, but with Urology, you have to get your numbers up to make sure you match, given the 80% match rate for US seniors (it's 66% overall).

At least there is a break over the Thanksgiving holiday.
 
donnyfire said:
Vacation November and December, although it is turning out that I'm interviewing almost every other day until Dec. 15th, which isn't leaving much time for actual "vacation" so to speak.

I'm thinking there will be a few cancellations before all is said and done, but with Urology, you have to get your numbers up to make sure you match, given the 80% match rate for US seniors (it's 66% overall).

At least there is a break over the Thanksgiving holiday.
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Good luck. I'm sure your application has a bit of an extra punch that the others can't quite match. 😉

What kinds of things do they ask you? Anything tricky?
 
Holy crap....


i thought laproscopic surgeries were generally fast. cholecystectomy....longest surgery I've been on so far. i feel like I've been playing video games for 20 hours straight.
 
Agent Splat said:
Holy crap....


i thought laproscopic surgeries were generally fast. cholecystectomy....longest surgery I've been on so far. i feel like I've been playing video games for 20 hours straight.
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Nuttleman?
 
I should be able to get out of CT surg. 😀 At this women in surgery thing, I talked to Amy Leisten, said I heard that you have to put your hands in cold stuff, and told her I have Raynaud's and it'd make my hands want to fall off. No mentioning horrible fellow I've also heard about.

I figured whenever I get my ranking thing, I'd rank trauma, then one of the vascular services. Which is the better combo? VA vasc and the Dert or the Dert vasc and VA gen?
 
Not having any experience with either service, my guess would be VA gen and Dert vasc. The vascular faculty are all the same, and generally awesome. The VA is just nifty all around.

I think you're missing out by discounting CT, but that's just me.
 
Xandie said:
Not having any experience with either service, my guess would be VA gen and Dert vasc. The vascular faculty are all the same, and generally awesome. The VA is just nifty all around.

I think you're missing out by discounting CT, but that's just me.
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I've heard nothing good about it this year. First thing I heard is you have to have your hands in cold stuff. My hands won't like that -- they don't like holding a soda can out of the fridge without layers of napkins around it. Then I heard about the fellow who's mean just to be mean.
 
Ashers said:
I've heard nothing good about it this year. First thing I heard is you have to have your hands in cold stuff. My hands won't like that -- they don't like holding a soda can out of the fridge without layers of napkins around it. Then I heard about the fellow who's mean just to be mean.
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mean fellows, attendings, and residents are good for you. they build character and put hair on your chest.

i just had to address an envelope for a rebate form for the printer i got with my computer....the address had to be made out to "Perfect Companion 9".....looks like I'm sending away for a mail-order bride or a blow up doll.
 
Agent Splat said:
mean fellows, attendings, and residents are good for you. they build character and put hair on your chest.
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Another good reason to avoid it.

Agent Splat said:
i just had to address an envelope for a rebate form for the printer i got with my computer....the address had to be made out to "Perfect Companion 9".....looks like I'm sending away for a mail-order bride or a blow up doll.
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Or Otto the Pilot.
 
Agent Splat said:
mean fellows, attendings, and residents are good for you. they build character and put hair on your chest.
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Sorry to say, but these people are in the medical specialties. There are more of them in Surgery, but not everyone you meet in peds is warm and fuzzy either.

And if you are thinking about a surgical career, you need to get used to the idea that you will have to learn to deal with these types of people. You will very probably be on a rotation with someone like this at some point. The trick is to not take it personally, and leave work at work. Being an ass is their problem, and not yours.

As for CT, at the VA it's a fantastic experience, and I learned a ton, especially about critical care. So once again, I completely agree with Xandie.
 
donnyfire said:
As for CT, at the VA it's a fantastic experience, and I learned a ton, especially about critical care. So once again, I completely agree with Xandie.
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I discounted CT surg when I found out about hands in coldness, way before I found out about the mean fellow.

I think I'm going to really not like gen surg no matter what service I'm on.
 
Ashers said:
I discounted CT surg when I found out about hands in coldness, way before I found out about the mean fellow.

I think I'm going to really not like gen surg no matter what service I'm on.
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Wait till you get to play with a GIA. that's awesome stuff.
 
Agent Splat said:
Wait till you get to play with a GIA. that's awesome stuff.
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The stapler? I just had to google it cuz I didn't know what a GIA is, but "GIA surgery" comes up with stapler.

If it's the laproscopic stapler, I saw one used in a gyn-onc case when the attending nicked the IVC while taking off the lymph nodes. It was a very quiet 20 min while trying to close that.

I still don't think it'll beat nailing a femur.
 
I've gotta advocate for VA vascular and GSI since I had it. I had an awesome 2 months. Couldn't have asked for much more. I guess deciding between the 2 choices with vascular would depend on which month you want busier cuz Froedtert is busier regardless. So if you want more vascular surgery, I'd rank the Froedtert vascular option higher. Also, if you want more bread and butter on general surgery, that option would be better too (VA general surgery). GSI was a very busy month, but everyone you're operating on has got problems, so though we did 2-3 whipples per week, we only did 3-4 hernias in the entire month and I think one lap chole. VA vascular is pretty chill. I only got 3 cases the entire month there, so it's more of a glorified medicine service, but very laidback.

Not sure about other rotations, but in our tracks (E12 and E13) 20 of the 30ish people ranked trauma surgery #1, so don't be surprised if that's more competitive to get.

Every person I've talked to has hated CT surgery. Like going home and crying every night type of hating. And thought they wanted to go into surgery and now reconsidering type of hating. I hope that's not all due to one fellow. In Sept and Oct at the VA for CT there was no resident, just the famed fellow.

I didn't think I'd like plain ole general surgery, but GSI has been my favorite month of the year so far.
 
There was no resident my month; I think that made it better.

I wonder what the difference was. I know my fellow student and I loved it, the people the month before us had a decent time, and then Don...
 
Xandie said:
There was no resident my month; I think that made it better.

I wonder what the difference was. I know my fellow student and I loved it, the people the month before us had a decent time, and then Don...
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i'm thinking if students in our class are having a horrible time in CT, and not much has changed faculty-wise, the only people we can possibly blame are the students that came before us that most likely ruined it. 😛
 
I'm awesome. Forget you, monkeybutt.
 
That's a more common problem than you'd think, young man.
 
Ashers said:
I still don't think it'll beat nailing a femur.
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Nope. Any day when you get to hold a 1000 dollar hammer is a good day.
 
Ugh. Tomorrow we start rounding at 5. I just got a new team of residents where everyone I've asked has "deferred judgment" on the 5th year. For the past 2 weeks, the earliest we started rounding was 5:30. I'm hoping that this doesn't last beyond tomorrow, and that I get Thanksgiving off.
 
Ashers said:
Ugh. Tomorrow we start rounding at 5. I just got a new team of residents where everyone I've asked has "deferred judgment" on the 5th year. For the past 2 weeks, the earliest we started rounding was 5:30. I'm hoping that this doesn't last beyond tomorrow, and that I get Thanksgiving off.
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BUT YOU'RE ON ORTHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ZOMG!!!!!!70TWELVE!!!11111
 
Ashers or Don, would it be okay for me to presume that the attending at Racine Family Practice would be alright with me taking a Friday afternoon off to interview med school applicants? I'd like to sign up, but I would hate to have my first interaction with an attending be me asking for time off before I've even started the rotation.
 
I'm going to go ask Karren, hold please. *humming elevator music*

Dr. Bower has pre-approved it, all you need to do is tell your attending that you're interviewing and all is well.
 
Gimlet said:
Ashers or Don, would it be okay for me to presume that the attending at Racine Family Practice would be alright with me taking a Friday afternoon off to interview med school applicants? I'd like to sign up, but I would hate to have my first interaction with an attending me asking for time off before I've even started the rotation.
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way to be a jerk. when your patient dies we'll all know why.
 
I took a few afternoons off for doctor/dentist appointments. They're pretty good. I would've taken more time off for interviewing, advisor appts, but I think that would've been overkill.
 
I think there's something wrong with me...





I just joined Facebook. :scared:


I need to go to bed.
 
I didn't realize this one was here until they closed the other one.

How many interviews are you at now, Don? I got 24 offers, turned 4 down, am canceling 2 for sure and probably 2 more. So 16 total, in all likelihood. Ugh.
 
Xandie said:
I didn't realize this one was here until they closed the other one.

How many interviews are you at now, Don? I got 24 offers, turned 4 down, am canceling 2 for sure and probably 2 more. So 16 total, in all likelihood. Ugh.
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38 offers, scheduled 22, but am only actually going to 17-18 (have some cancellations to make).

Ugh, indeed. Thanks for thanksgiving holidays. This is the longest block of time I've been at home in weeks.
 
As much as it's annoying to be gone (I was gone for eleven days, getting ready to head out for another fourteen), it's somewhat nice to look at other programs. Every program shows me another way to do things, and helps me to figure out what my ideal program would actually look like.
 
Xandie said:
As much as it's annoying to be gone (I was gone for eleven days, getting ready to head out for another fourteen), it's somewhat nice to look at other programs. Every program shows me another way to do things, and helps me to figure out what my ideal program would actually look like.
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Any significant differences that you would not have anticipated before visiting? I'd definitely like to stay here for my residency, because I plan to be starting a family at that point, and my parents and in-laws are both within 10 miles, but on the other hand, I'd hate to short change my future career.
 
It really depends on your specialty, I'd imagine. For me, it's looking at the surgical exposure early (and late, for that matter) in the program, how the clinic is run, whether they have a night float (a rather OB specific issue), how many hospitals they rotate at, what the rotations are, etc. You get so heavily exposed to the MCW programs that you don't even think about certain things being other options.

For example, at some programs, interns do very little (or none, although not at anywhere I've interviewed) operating, and are still doing ab hysts as a chief. At others, the second years are doing their ab hysts and the chiefs are working on TVHs. At other places, the chiefs are doing other things, having finished their VHs as thirds. So that's a big thing for me, but kind of specific to OB/GYN.
 
I got to play with a bone nibbler yesterday. Take that, jagged metatarsal ends!!!!
 
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