Official UNECOM class of 2008

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Welcome Heidi and Andy! Yes, you two should definitely meet up since you are both from Colorado. Maybe you could fly to Maine together and look for places to live.

I am trying to get a bunch of people together the last weekend of April and/or the first weekend of May to meet up in Maine. If anyone is interested, please post a message here on SDN. If you have aol IM, then Instant Message me: kmwmorris19 or Janelle: smiler669

-Kelley 😀
 
As of this far in to my MSI year, the only course that has a deserved reputation for being hard is our bacteriology because both of the tests are only fill-in / short answer. The Head and Neck section of our gross anatomy course can be a bit challenging too.

Personally I don?t think most of the courses are extremely difficult once you find a study method that fits you best.
 
Hi Kelley!

I'm interested! (but you already know that) By the way, the Bruins game last week was awesome! It was my first hockey game (other than at school) and they won in overtime! Yay! We missed you though! 🙁

Can we make our rendez-vous the first week in May? My brother just told us he's moving the last weekend in April and he needed our help to pack things and move. Pa pa pa pleeeease?

Hope everyone can make it then! I can't wait to meet more of you guys! We're going to be an fantabulous class!

Cheers,
Mel

PS - Welcome to our class Heidi and Andy!
 
I had an awesome time too Melissa! We will be doing it again with the Paw sox hopefully too( hopefully before Matt has to run off to Navy training the end of May) I am definitly game to do something on May 1st though I may have to do something at work on the 2nd( it might not be until the evening I'm not sure).Welcome to our new Colorado crew! Hope to meet you soon!
See you all in the upcoming weekends!

Janelle
 
Sure Janelle...send our pictures to Phil...not me! 😛
[email protected]
(hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

by the way Janelle and Kelley....Good Friday was truly a good friday because guess what Melly FINALLY got?!?!?!?!?!? :clap:

you get three guesses and the first two don't count!
 
Hi Datcha, I agree with Deno about BacT being the hardest course so far but I think Histology lab was right up there too! Anatomy was difficult because of the amount of material in such a short amount of time - especially the Head and Neck section. However, rumors are that that section will be extended for incomings so you might get a break. As for tedious, my vote would go to Population Health for the disorganization of the professor, the huge amount busy work, and the lack of clinical relevance for us. There again though you might not have this difficulty since there is supposed to be a new professor next year. There are some minor problems with other classes but nothing to really worry about. All in all I really enjoy classes especially Dr Reese in Pharm and Parasitolody! Hope this helps.
 
Hi everyone,
Would love to meet you guys. If possible it would be great to meet in May since some of us have finals/term papers. My last final is on May 5th.
Were you guys planning on meeting in Portland/Biddeford again?

anyone from central or northern maine and interested in riding down together?
 
What was the hardest part of histo? I met a handful of 1rst years that all complained about the exams basically being hard to study for because the lectures were vague in helping students prepare for the exam and that the lab prof. was extremely 'picky' in his tests as well.

Any truth to that?
 
Hello everybody!

I've made plans to come up to Maine April 23-25th. I'll be looking
for an apt for Joanie (Sweet J) and me. We're thinking of getting a
3 bdrm, so we're looking for a 3rd roommate. Send us a pm if you're
interested.

Also, I'll be in Lake City, CO from June 30th to July 6th if any of the
CO folks would like to meet up. I love to hike the 14ers in the San
Juans and it would be terrific to have some company!!!

See you all soon!

Allison
 
Thanks again for some awesome advice Mom DO2B! You are really like a mom to us 🙂 It's definitly much appreciated. I can't wait to finally get to meet you all in July! I am definitly begining to understand thanks to your input that it is hard work but doable( even though we may all doubt it at times!)
Thanks again and hope to see some of you 24th of April.

Janelle
 
hey guys ... just a couple of quick things that were on my mind :

1. has anyone driven cross-country before? and if so, about how long can i expect it to take? (we're talking california coast to maine coast here)

2. anyone know what kind of smog requirements and car registration costs are in effect in maine? i'm gonna need a car over there and don't know whether to buy it here before i leave or once i get there.

3. is it just me, or do far too many main characters (not patients) on ER die in comparison to real life? (dr. green, that med student from life goes on, romano, carrie's wife) i was just thinking about that, not quite sure why

4. Heidi: i PMed you sometime last week, just curious if you got it

5. UNECOM2008 West Chapter : anyone else totally freaked out about moving just about as far away as we can possibly go for med school? we may just have to form our own little support group ... give it up for the westside!!

joanie
 
Hi Joanie,
One of my friends did Masachusetts to COlorodo straight and it took him about 30 hours roughly so I would add another 10 hrs or so. Its also going to depend what part of California you are leaving from. If you do a mapquest driving directions it should give you a decent estimate. You can just plug in cities and states or adresses if you have them.

As for the great mystery of why er main characters die so frequently in comparison to real er docs the world will never know. It's like on of the mysteries of life or how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop 🙂

Hope I helped a little bit! Good luck with your western chapter of UNECOM 2008 🙂

See you soon!

Janelle
 
As for cross country driving (CA to ME) can be done in a week but it'll be 8-10 hour a day driving if not more. This is bassed on a NJ to CA (L.A.) roundtrip I made with my girlfriend in two weeks (we had some day long stops). From NJ to ME is going to be another 8-9 hours traffic depending.

If you need travel advise from PA or NJ to ME let me know and I'll let you know what I think the best route may be.

As for the west cost support I'm a new england boy myself but one of my fellow MSIs is from Alaska
 
Hey Sweet J!

They are right. It really depends on what kind of driver you are and how much rest you need also.

We did it in 4 days with our son and had time to see sights and family along the way...

There are emissions checks in Maine.

You can register your car but you have to pay an excise tax: approximately 2.5% of your vehicle's value. You have to call the county to find out details. Now, (should I say?) you can hang out for a while (year or 2) and maintain your state's tag. You avoid the tax and the headache of car relocation for rotations (since most folks don't get S. Maine).

I totally know how you feel, even though I'm not on the west coast right now. I called my friends in LA and told them I'm going to Maine for medical school and not California.

I've moved alot. Let me know if I can help you out with anything.
 
For what it's worth,

Car prices are lower in Maine than CA.

New Hampshire has no sales tax.

Think wear and tear: if you don't have much to move, you would save a ton of money in gas and car damage by buying on the east coast...

Flights are cheap.
 
If you're going to buy a car I'd suggest going over to NH (no sales tax) and then bringing it back to maine. As far as emissions, I think that the Maine emissions standards use the same as california. I remember something about Maine not letting people buy the TDI VW Golfs (diesel engine) in Maine because they failed the California state emissions test. Not completely sure about that... hope everyone had a good easter. 🙂

Jon
 
The problems that I had with histo were in the lab - I had no problem in the lecture portion whatsoever! I rarely went to the lecture and spent most of my time in the lab but I have to say that it didn't pay off. The lecture exams were very straight forward especially if you studied directly from the handouts that the prof gives out and from old exams. Many of the questions were directly from previous years' exams. Lab however was a totally different story! The biggest advice I have is to not let other classes (like Anatomy) take you over so that you leave Histo to the end! The prof who sets up the practicals is rather sadistic and seems to get off on making us as frustrated as possible 😡 (although his favorite thing to say is RELAX and have fun with it.) I found it very difficult because you had to immediately recognize whatever the pointer was on or you were sunk. There was no time to think and no ability to go back to what you didn't know. You couldn't move the slide at all so you couldn't get a frame of reference and often what was there was very different from anything you saw on your own set of slides. (He has his own set of slides he tests from and they are far better quality than what we get.) There are a couple of websites that are a big help though so I got much better after the first fiasco (nearly high passed!) I am sure that they will be available with the info we are going to give you guys when you get here. 🙂
 
Thanks MomDO2B,

You have confirmed the rumor! 😳

I suppose I can thank my current sadistic, medicated, loopy biochem prof. for something: preparing me for histo.. 😱
 
About the "where to buy a car issue," if your going to buy a new one, get it in NH or ME. If your going to buy a used car, get it out west somewhere. Used cars from the New England area get rusted out very quick due to the high salt content. Not just the body panels, but the whole underside of the car, exhaust etc. If you buy a car out west... CA, AZ, NV... they usually dont have this problem.
 
Hey Shoddy,

I totally agree with you.

Let me ask you this:

Do you think I should under-coat my vehicles? I read that spraying an undercoat protects the vehicle from New England weather but some car owners think it's not best for the vehicle.

What do you think?

I have a 2003 Subaru Forester and a 2004 Jeep Wrangler.
 
I have had mixed results with the undercoating helping/not helping so with my new car I didn't bother with the expense. I just make sure that I regularly wash the road salt off the underside (like every couple of weeks). So I'll see in a few years how effective that is.
 
I'm looking for a new/newer car as well. This may be hard to do without any $$$, so I'm planning on taking out a loan from my bank and making payments with my loan money from UNE when they disburse that to me. If I bought a car in New Hampshire to avoid taxes, would I still have to pay the 2.5% of my car's value to transfer the registration over to Maine? Or should I leave it as a New Hampshire tag? (What if I get caught and have to go to jail and I can't take my finals? 🙄 )

Anyone know of any reputable dealerships, or have any suggestions of where to look for a cheap ($10,000) used car besides Autotrader.com?

Much appreciated,
Kelley
 
Hi Kelley, If you buy your car in NH and transfer it to ME, you will have to pay. You also have to have your vehicle registered to wherever your legal address is. So, if you plan on changing your address to ME along with your driver's license, you will need to register your car in ME. You can leave your car and license to your home state though but just to warn you, out-of-state vehicles are like neon signs to the cops around here. Be prepared to be stopped for the slightest infraction and be prepared to get a ticket AND to be told that you need to change your registration and licensing. Transferring is NOT necessary if ME is not your legal address. Also, make sure you follow the speed limit around here. Almost every day, one of my classmates gets a ticket on the way to or from school and usually pretty close to the university! Cops lie in wait for us and think we are easy prey! Just be careful.
 
thanks for all the car advice, guys. and kelley, i guess i'll be in the same boat as you, using loans to pay off other loans. the way i see it, if i'm going into seemingly endless debt, i might as well have a reliable car to do it in. and since the car issue is up for discussion, what's the word on 4WD? i'm planning on getting a car with 4WD, but it is totally necessary? (keep in mind, as a california girl, i've never lived in snow and have driven in minimal snow but usually with chains on).

happy tuesday everyone.

joanie
 
To add to what MomDO2B mentioned: You are legally allowed to live in any state for up to one year before registering your vehicle or at least until you consider yourself a perm. resident of that area.

The excise tax depends on the car you drive as well, you have to call and find out what the rates are.

Good Luck 🙂
 
Hi Joanie! I've lived in NE all my life and I've never had to get 4WD. It's nice to have, but definitely not necessary. I would, however, suggest getting a front-wheel drive car or SUV with an ABS (anti-lock break system). Cars that are rear-wheel drive are a real pain in the snow and ice. Basically what happens is the tail end of your car starts fishtailing left and right as you try to drive forward and you end up "driving" in a diagonal line...not too safe when there are other cars around you.
Good luck on your search and happy Tuesday to you too!
Melissa 😀
 
another ideal is to get another set of rims for your car and put studded tires on in the winter (I think legally they have to be off from like may 1st till september or october)... I have an 89 cougar that Judy and I drive right now... I've got studded tires on and have never gotten stuck in the snow and it handles well (helps that I learned to drive in the adirondacks of new york I'd imagine though)... beware, it makes the road noise on dry roads aweful, and drops your gas mileage by at least 1 mile per gallon (at least in my car). Hope this helps.

Jon
 
Me, but find myself shopping at Safeway to save $$.
🙁

Who's able to get together Saturday night, the 24th,
somewhere around Biddeford?

Allison
 
allison,
looks like the 24th is going to work for both janelle and i. with all this car talk, we're doing our part to reduce emissions by carpooling. we're probably going to have to make it an early night though...drive back to RI. looking forward to meeting you then.

matt.
 
Joanie
I would definitly reccomend all wheel or four wheel drive especially if you haven't driven in the snow before. And Make sure you have a good set of tires!

I am definitly an organic food girl! I have a Whole Foods down the street from my house here in RI and I ususally buy organic in the regular grocery stores too. I know there is a small organic store near my apt in Biddeford on Main st and one over the line in Saco. Also it looks like the main chain in Maine Hannefords has a decent selection of organics to choose from.

Can't wait to see you Alli on the 24th! Should be fun! Hope to meet more of you also!

Janelle
 
Hi Joy,

I am also a huge fan of organic/natural foods! Maybe we can have a natural foods party and we can all bring an organic dish! (Okay, I'll admit I'm a dork) 👍

Kelley
 
That's terrific Matt and Janelle! 😀

Any current students have suggestions for fun things to do in
Biddeford on Saturday the 24th?

Allison
 
Hey KWMORRIS and BLUESUNLILY!

Yeah! I know what you mean about $$. the awesome thing about Maine is that whole foods abound at reasonable prices. There is even a farm nearby that bottles their own, organo-milk. I just joined a farm coop in Alfred that allows you to buy a share of the season crops: you pick up your veggies once a week for the season- all organic...

Does anyone shop TRADER JOE'S? There is one outside of Boston- I think I will make periodic bulk shopping trips there.....


MomDO2B:
Thanks for the undercoating info.. I think I will pass too. It seems a bit risky to trust someone to be absolutely sure that there is no moisture or rust under your car before they spray.....
 
Hey Gioia!
I was just at Trader Joe's last night! (in Baltimore) I'm with you on bulk shopping there. Glad to hear there's one in Boston! I love their frozen
meals for lunches. Do you have more info on the organic produce coop?
I might be interested in that too!

Allison
 
Awesome!

I love Trader Joe's. It is the embodiment of the perfect grocery store. 😉 That store was actually one the selling points of Western COMP for me and then I happened to do a national search :idea: ... Call me odd 🙄, but the marriage of aesthetics and value is what makes life fun. I guess the saying is, 'It's the little things' 🙂 . Oh, IKEA is another one: aesthetic and value- plus kids eat for 1.99.

I will be taking a trip to IKEA too.... 😀

The coop price works out to be about $20 p/week. That is fine for me, because I have a family. However, 2 organo students could go in on the price, which is something like $400 for the season (aprox. 20 weeks). The coop is called Wolf Pine Farms.
 
The closest Trader Joe's is actually in Cambridge (one town north of Boston), and there are two more in Boston... So for those of you who are thinking of traveling south for the excellent shopping experience the trip just got a little easier/shorter.

I live in Cambridge and shop TJ's quite a bit. The food is good, the prices are great, and the store in Cambridge has a fabulous wine section. I've never seen so many good bottles of wine for so little money, ever! Has anyone else tried the Trader Joe's wines ($3), or Uncle Chuck ($2)!?? I will surely miss having this store only a mile away. 🙁

I will be in D.C. for April 24th. Look forward to meeting fellow SDN'ers soon.
 
That's funny, FISHY.

I was going to write Cambridge but I didn't want to be hyper-exact so I settled for generalizations in case someone wondered how far Cambridge was from Boston...

Anyway, can you tell that my brain wants to do anything but study??

Yes, I love their wines! There are two reasons TJ's prices are so low:
1) everyone knows this, but they have so many stores with such high sales turn over that they can purchase everything in bulk and direct.
2) All of their domestic wines are relabeled from large vineyards in CA. Vineyards actually have over-production years and instead of lowering their prices to unload the wine (it would look cheap), they change the label and sell it bulk to TJ's: that's why it tastes so yummy for $3.00 😀 .

Yeah... TJ kindreds.
 
We could do a group commute every 8 weeks....
 
Good afternoon everyone!
I just wrote a post and tried to organize my questions by using the bullet option above and ended up completely messing everything up! I'm still figuring this system out! 😕

So here they are (without the bullets):
1. Do you use a single binder for each course subject? or one huge binder with multiple dividers with all the subjects in it?

2. Do you have to bring your books to class with you?

3. Do you take a lot of your own notes, or mostly use the lecture notes the prof. gives you? and does he/she give them to you the day before class so you can review them ahead of time? or after he/she gives the lecture...i.e. post in online or something? one more...do all profs give lecture notes? or just some?

Thanks!
Melissa 😀
 
Good post,

I was thinking about #1.
 
1. This is personal preference; I?ve seen people with binders for each course, one binder, or just piles of paper. I will tell you that if you save everything you will have lots and lots of paper. I can say that after the first semester I had two or three 4-inch binders full of notes, noteservice, and handouts. I usually just have big binders at home where I fit a class or two worth of material. If I need something for the day I will bring in just the papers I need to cut down on space and weight.

2. I don?t think it is required to bring books with you for most courses. I usually don?t but again it?s a matter of preference (and back strength).

3. Here I?ll elaborate more. In most all classes we get some form of handouts or have online access to them. At a minimum it is a stack of handouts, an outline, or printouts of power point slides but it can range up to 100 page handouts designed to cover the entire scope of the course and include additional references. In short you?ll have more then enough paper and you?ll usually get it a day to a few days before hand (although in some cases you will get them in class).

Depending on the lecture and how it?s presented I will switch from taking notes on the handouts (if they?re outlines), typing notes on my computer (if I have access to the powerpoint slides), or just listen and rely on the scribed notes + handouts + books to make an study materials after the fact

Signing up for Noteservice (word for word scribed lectures) is optional and does require some cash and money. This year it was $75 per semester for paper copies and $37.50 for internet access to the scribed lectures. In addition the scribing is done by the students (on a rotating basis) and the notes are usually available two class days after the lecture. You?ll get more info about this during orientation.
 
Great info Deno- thank you!

Do you think the student scribed notes are helpful? When I've missed classes before and copied my friends' notes, some were so much better than mine (I am a chicken-scratcher, doodler) and some were definitely worse.

Don't you have to agree to scribe so many lectures in order to participate, or am I confusing that with another med school in which I interviewed?
 
Thanks Deno! That was helpful!

General message:
Is anyone trying to send me a message via my e-mail? I keep getting a message from "admin" saying a message was sent to me that was returned to the sender(bounced) because it would have caused my mailbox quota to be exceeded.

The following is the reason that the message was over quota:
Quota Type: total bytes stored
Quota Available: 0
Total Quota: 10485760

Does anyone know what that means? or has anyone received a message like that? Let me know?

Thanks,
Mel
 
Mel I think it might mean your mailbox is full? or the message is too big
 
It should tell you how many messages you have stored and what your allotment is. Yes, your box is either full (do you PM alot?), the message was huge (a picture or something??), or there exists a boo-boo glitch somewhere...
 
Answering the questions about noteserive in order:

Do you think the student scribed notes are helpful?
Click to expand...
The usefulness of the scribed lectures varies greatly from class to class. Remember this is a word for word transcription (with some bolded points) but a lot of filtration may be required. I frequently use them when making outlines or answering objectives, it also frees me from having to catch all the important words said during class. I wouldn?t think of them as replacements for notes but as a resource (like a textbook) from which you must extract or highlight key points. Then again this is highly indicative of my study style and the fact that I don?t take many notes during class. As the sign up is per semester I think a lot of people (about 2/3 of the class) tried it for the first semester and then decided on how useful or not useful it was for their study style.

Don't you have to agree to scribe so many lectures in order to participate?
Click to expand...
For our class in the second semester note service members will have to scribe 3-4 one hour lecture blocks throughout the course of the semester. This is of course dependant of how many people sign up (the more people the less often you scribe). Of course you?ll have the opportunity to volunteer / be elected (deepening on interest) for one of the note service positions which would mean free paper copies and no scribing of lectures.
 
move to the osteopathic forum? this is random... why the change? are all the class of 2008 forums moving over here or something? Who knows... anyway, who's doing their taxes tonight? Just helped judy do hers last night... ha ha... well anyway... stay dry to anyone up here in New England... 🙂
 
sorry, have to add another post just so I can be #400 also! :laugh: ha ha
 
Does anyone know anybody who has joined the Air Force so that they will pay for his/her medical school at UNECOM (MS1, MS2, or incoming student)? I know that Matt joined the Navy, but I was hoping to find out more about the Air Force such as the name and number of a nearby, honest recruiter, how competitive is the Health Professions Scholarship, if the monthly stipend is enough to live off of, and how much time is given to them during the year.

I know that money is given to people who are already in the military and who recommend another person to join; so if possible, I'd like to say to the recruiter "so and so talked to me about joining this branch of the military and should get a reward."

Thanks everyone,

Kelley 🙂
 
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