OSU-COM Discussion thread 2007-2008

Started by mshheaddoc
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No problem. I like to come chat with interviewees. 🙂 (plus you guys gave me something different to do with part of my morning 😉)

If you come up with other questions (any of you guys), feel free to ask me. I try to keep an eye on this thread.
 
for those who have interviewed this year, will you be adding your experience to the interview section? Hopefully so, and good luck on acceptance now. At least some relief in you know when to expect information.
 
I saw where someone has posted the information of their interview under the interview section.
 
could someone tell me how long it took you to receive a secondary from OSU after you were complete? I've been complete there for about 2 weeks now and haven't heard a peep! 🙂 and does the secondary come via email? thanks!
 
ellaB, the secondary is on their website, and everyone is invited to fill it out. So unfortunately, you're about two weeks behind what you could've been :\

I just interviewed today, and will be updating the feedback (which OSU-COM specifically asks you to do on SDN)...
 
I posted my feedback on the interview section lastnight... They ask you to do that so they can see where they rank with other schools... and its' not so much a secondary as a supplemental application. It's on the website...
 
THANKS YOU GUYS for putting your interview stuff on there. I can't wait to be in yalls shoes (interview being over)....it's consuming my life!! LOL! But, then again, so did the MCAT. Although, that didn't turn out so great so hopefully this will be different!! HAHA! Only two weeks and 6 days for me....God, that's a long time!!!!
I'm just glad to know yall said the same things that everyone has said for the past 5 years. Super laid back, they want to get to know you, etc. Tussis, that is some really good advice on your feedback because rural medicine is the primary reason I want to be a doctor. I'm from a VERY small town in Oklahoma (population 1500) and have experienced first hand the importance of having doctors in those areas. If it wasn't for the little group of D.O.s that graduated from OSU COM practicing in Durant, the people of Bryan County would have to drive at least 30-40 minutes into Texas to get any treatment at all. If I can get the subject of the conversation on that, I should be good.
 
Congrats to everyone who had an interview thus far! keep your eyes open for a fed ex the next two weeks or so!

Oh and gl on your interview myo!

As to myself, I was excited to learn that the turn-around time for the MCAT and scores in 2008 is 14 days as opposed to 30. Or atleast thats the estimate. I've been teaching myself physics the past couple of days and im now into neuton mechanics and still going strong. My plan is to clear all physics by christmas break, inwhich ill then do a comprehensive review of everything and then in january, ill do 2 tests weekly and study my weaknesses. The same methodology (minus physics portion) got me a 94 on my PCAT.
 
Phlame217 said:
Congrats to everyone who had an interview thus far! keep your eyes open for a fed ex the next two weeks or so!

Oh and gl on your interview myo!

As to myself, I was excited to learn that the turn-around time for the MCAT and scores in 2008 is 14 days as opposed to 30. Or atleast thats the estimate. I've been teaching myself physics the past couple of days and im now into neuton mechanics and still going strong. My plan is to clear all physics by christmas break, inwhich ill then do a comprehensive review of everything and then in january, ill do 2 tests weekly and study my weaknesses. The same methodology (minus physics portion) got me a 94 on my PCAT.
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I'm just being a dick now, but it's actually Newtonian Mechanics not neuton... 😛😉
 
HAHA!!! Screw Newton and his mechanics.....
THANKS PHLAME! You sound like you are doing well. Physics sucks no matter how much you look at it. I have been a good two years with the stuff and am probably just above beginner level. I guess everyone is good at different things. I found my niche in organic chemistry. Absolutely LOVED it AND studying for it. I actually miss it pretty bad!! 🙁 Inorganic is almost as good though. I am just trying to enjoy the last semester of chemistry I will ever have....*tear* I only have my biology courses left and then I graduate....molecular cell physiology and genetics!
LOL I was that nerd in high school that still have EVERY CHEMISTRY note laminated separately and in a tabbed binder for safe keeping!! haha!I love the stuff. I am interested in biology but I have to work really hard at it. The only "B"s on my transcript are biology classes. Gonna have to step it up a notch for med school......but screw physics. My advice is to just GET THROUGH IT. I have never met a med student or doctor that has ever used physics since the MCAT!
 
lol im trying to learn a year of physics in 2 and a half months, although some is just review from highschool. It looks like ill be investing into examkrackers 1001 physics because i understand the concepts but applything them to use forumlas requires me to do problems and learn it that way. Oh well, here i come January MCAT!

Also, how do you think i could do being weak on physics? I am a chemistry buff in both general, inorganic and organic chemistry plus i am rather talented at biology so i know i will do exceedingly well there. My verbal and writing skills are moderate to just above mid-level so i'd be couting on my bs score to keep me up.
 
Be good at line diagrams with mirrors and lenses as they appear ALOT. Some people will not have them, but it seems way more people have them on their MCAT than not. You should be fine if your only weak spot is physics. I'm guaranteeing I missed every organic problem on my MCAT and still got a 26. So being weak in one area is alright as long as you make it up in others. There will be some newtonian stuff, but mainly the stuff that uses the linear motion equations. I believe there's 4 of them???
 
I tried to find a breakdown of each section on the mcat, but cant seem to find one. I know the pcat, for example, broke down chemistry into 20% general 20% organic etc... into the concepts being tested. Is there a break down of the MCAT into something like for PS 50%/50% physics/organic or anything like that?
 
most definitely...it was drilled into us in the kaplan course.
Physical science is 50% physics and 50% gen chem
biology is 75% biology and 25% organic
 
so i just had a re-affirmation that a doctor is what I am going to be; yesterday morning about 6 am'ish my friend was hit head on at 75 mph when a car was attempting pass another car on a two lane highway and didnt see him. He was trapped in his car for an hour and called me and a few people and also paramedics and we were able to get there in 20 minutes and he was mangled and trapped in the car. We did are best to stop bleeding and attempt to free him, but after an hour of being trapped, the paramedics finally arrived right as he passed. The area was a remote piece of highway and so I can see how the ambulance had a hard time finding it, with it not helping that the closest hospital was 60 miles. What an experience losing not only a friend, but a fraternity brother...

link to story: http://newsok.com/article/3157493/1193431031
 
That sucks man, I'm sorry for your loss. My in-laws live on a county road that has a 60 mph speedlimit and people drive ignorant on it all the time. I truly hope that 18 year old is never allowed to have his license back. As a matter of fact I got woken up last night around 130 am, while visiting, to a car wrecking in their front yard. He flipped his vehicle and landed on his roof. Fortunately once I got out to him he had crawled out and was just banged up. I just don't understand the thought process at times like that...😕
 
Oh my goodness, PHLAME! That breaks my heart....I'm so sorry for your loss. It was about a year ago a good friend of mine from high school was coming back to stillwater from Durant and an old ass drunk man went across I-35 and hit her head on killing her.....I don't understand. It's things like that that make me think everyone has their time. That's just me, though. I have to think that because I have literally been through losing all my grandparents and my dad and a bunch of friends. It is hearing things like this that make me even more passionate about rural medicine. It's a HUGE problem and half of it is people simply not wanting to live and practice and in a small town. If you aren't from one, it is hard to adjust. Again, I'm so sorry babe!! You may not feel like it now, but it really does get easier...
 
Thank you all for your consolation, this weekend was hard and tomorrow will be even harder with the funeral.

Well good luck to all of you in your endevours!
 
Hey guys!!!
Well, I figured that I would attempt to get a discussion going. I am trying like crazy to educate myself on this health care system that we have in this country and trying to identify some of the problems with it. I am learning alot and I was wondering what you guys thought the top three problems in medicine/health care are today both in the country and more specifically, in Oklahoma. Don't worry, I will definitely not steal anyone's ideas, I just can't find other students going through this to discuss this that would actually know anything about it. Most of my friends are pre-dental or pre-optometry.If I had to pick a top three off the top of my head......I would probably say 1. The insurance dilemma (obviously) 2. The extremely prevalent cases of preventable disease 3. Major shortage of physicians in the rural areas
What do you guys think????
 
Speaking of health care/health insurance, I am actually doing a persuasive speech over keeping health care private instead of going universal.

towards your points:

1) Insurance is and will always be a huge dilemma. The costs associated with obtaining and maintaining it is high, but with more and more small-business oriented agencies spawning to fill the gaps, the holes are closing. But, when comparing the costs of health care here, to those of per say Sweden who has had a universal health care programs for decades, are beyond reasonable for the treatment received. We all know the common short falls of universal health care such as long waits for non-essential surgeries and even longer waits for major, but few realize the monetary costs. Sweden garnishes %50 of your wage regardless of your income bracket and then taxes the remaining %50 for costs other than health care. Keeping health care privatized in America has already paved the road to give us the number 1 health care in the world and going universal insurance would be a blunder.

2) Curable diseases/illnesses are another common blunder that could save american's over 5 billion a year in insurance costs. Just a few items such as finishing all your anti-biotics to prevent drug resistance and washing your hands after using the restroom and before eating to prevent the illness itself are the two large steps that have proven to solve this is many case studies.

3) Lack of physicians.... what can I say, well this isn't just a problem in the US but a world issue. Many underdeveloped regions ranging from the rural areas of oklahoma per say all the way to the African tribe lands need physicians and there will never be an immediate solution to this other than training more physicians who have a personal motivation to work in a rural medicine environment. Theres not much else I can think of to do to aid this though.

But in my mind the top three issues of American health care are:

3) Lack of motivations to stay healthy: As mentioned before, if Americans just washed their hands and lived in much more sanitary environments, deaths and costs would drop. I doubt much will happen about this until the common bacterial diseases reach a point where antibiotics are too expensive due to resistance. (-MRSA for example)

2) Lack of education in disease common knowledge: Many people try to self diagnose and treat and therefor take leftover drugs, or refrain from the doctor all in hopes of the "cold" passing on its own. If people in general were more educated on different types of diseases and colds such as bacterial, viral etc and modes of infection, this would be very effective in reducing costs. One parallel case study that can be used to prove this is the reduction of unwanted births and stds through the wide-spread sex education and the further reduction with sex ed not only being about abstaining, but also safe-sex techniques.

and ...

1) Political balderdash:
Everything from the misuse of Social Security funds to the issue of health insurance can be traced to the atrocity of politics. With the lack of action, and the excess of jaw flabbing, nothing is being solved. Political agendas and lack of public accountability has allowed politics to grow to the equivalence of a festering boil and until some one grabs a scalpel and lances it, we as Americans will do nothing more than sit and watch the fireworks as presidential candidates use such issues to manipulate voters into choosing them rather than for the better of the public. I could go on for hours about this rubbish, but i end my current discussion here.
 
Thank you so much!!!! PHLAME, your disscussion was awesome!!!!
Thanks ICE NINE for the links. Those are really helpful. I was just wondering though....you're saying if I bring up the fact that too many people are sick when they shouldn't be due to their ailments being preventable, I might be looked down upon??? There is something wrong with that....I thought it's all about the well-being of the patient.
 
Thats again an issue of motivation of work. You have to take into conisderation not all doctors are in the biz for the better of the patients... some are there purely for the money. Thats all he is saying.
 
I know and I understand that.....why I don't understand is how in the hell people can make it through the rigors of med school with the 4 years + residency with money as their only motivation. That's amazing in itself.
 
myofibroblast said:
I know and I understand that.....why I don't understand is how in the hell people can make it through the rigors of med school with the 4 years + residency with money as their only motivation. That's amazing in itself.
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when you're staring down 200K plus in student loans, are 30 and have diddly to show for your hard work, your perspective tends to shift a bit.
 
Thanks guys. It is really cool to hear feedback from yalls side of the fence. I can totally understand how docs can get money hungry with all that debt. It's just hard to find the medium.......not the utopian answer but not the "there's no way to fix it" answer either. I've been looking at a lot of different perspectives on this issue and nothing seems to grab me as a good solution. I'm a firm believer that you can only help a patient so much. There are adults, in most cases, and can make decisions for themselves. If they decide to have bad habits, there is not much that can be done to persuade them until they want to change. When I say something like that out loud, it comes off as kinda cold but I feel like its the truth. I have a very limited experience with the business side of medicine like yall are talking about and I think that is why I'm specifically nervous about that question. I wish I had spent some of my shadowing time talking about the state of healthcare.
 
this is where you use your friend "google" and do research and just learn some solid information in a broad manner. Just get your feet wet, you don't need to dive in.
 
yeah I spent about four hours yesterday with google and learned a lot of cool stuff. Most of it being highly political and the golden rule of interviews is to STAY AWAY from politics and religion. I guess when asked that question, I am going to try hard to stear clear from the insurance thing because I don't see how you can answer that without getting politic.
 
Hernandez said:
when you're staring down 200K plus in student loans, are 30 and have diddly to show for your hard work, your perspective tends to shift a bit.
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exactly. the $ is a real factor. you give up a lot of *normal* life to train. you take on true risk every time you see a patient. you take on huge debt. sure, you need to like what you're doing and want to "help people," but the monetary compensation is also essential. I wouldn't go through all of this for $50k/year after residency.
 
another reason we dont want socialized medicine... wages and competition will drop making talented and smart people lose interest in that area due to the lack of wages.

Not to sound full of myself, but I know I am on the higher end of IQ's and Id rather apply myself somewhere I both enjoy the work and also earn a larger salary.
 
myofibroblast said:
Thanks guys. It is really cool to hear feedback from yalls side of the fence. I can totally understand how docs can get money hungry with all that debt. It's just hard to find the medium.......not the utopian answer but not the "there's no way to fix it" answer either.
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Don't even get me started on the clash of utopia with the real life of nursing shortages and the typical, "it's not my fault and not my problem" issues you will run into in the real world. Labs not being done, stat meaning 2 ****ing hours. It's never their issue, they can't fix it and you're an ass if you speak up.

I'm currently progressing through the, my patients come first phase, and damn you ancillary staff for throwing all these curve balls at me making my life harder and sometimes potentially endangering my patients. We give nurses a bunch of crap for calling too much, but damnit, there are times to actually call. Don't assume something. It may not be my fault that something got screwed up between the secretary, the computer and you, call me and I will clarify anything you want, and I'll be much less cranky than when you hear me asking, "who was notified that this was canceled?"
 
I'm just sitting here waiting on some sort of response. They said within 2 weeks and thats this coming tuesday, but I'm expecting it to be more like 3 weeks.
 
haha, not to cause worry though, rejections arrive by snail mail. But yea, being this early in the game I wouldnt be surprised if it took a exactly two weeks or even a little more time.
 
Of course rejections come by snail mail but I have confidence that he is going to get in.....his credentials are AMAZING and I'm sure he interviews great as well. I've been wondering what someone would have to do having great credentials and everything they are supposed to have including an early application and early interview to get out right rejected. I mean, I know it obviously happens because way more are interviewed than are accepted. I just would love to know the kinds of things that they look for when deciding yes or no. Especially if all the credentials are there AND it was a really good interview.
 
Well I can say that I don't see how my interview could've gone any better. The only thing I'm worried about is they declared me Out of State. They said that even though I've been a resident for the past 1.5 years and was born there and most of my fam lives there I've spent most of my time in Kansas. They said I would've had to live in OK for a year in some capacity other than a fulltime student in order to qualify as in-state. So that limits my chances quite a bit. Like I said earlier though, I can't really control it right now so I'm just hanging out and seeing what the fedex or mail man brings...
 
Man, I am so sorry to hear that!!!!! That is such crap! I REALLY hope they take you anyway. They should with all your connections to Oklahoma!!!!
 
Hey guys!

I just got in a fight with my advisor this morning. He’s killing me! I’ve decided to take Physiology and Microbiology next semester, and he says that I don’t need either one. He says I need to take more plant biology classes and I need to “diversify my education.” WTF?! I told him that I wanted to take those so I might do better on my MCAT. He then told me that nothing I can take in college will help me with the MCAT. The MCAT tests your critical thinking skills, that’s it! And again..WTF?!

Anyway, I made him sign my damn enrollment form. I’m taking Physiology and Microbiology. So, what’s your opinion? Am I making the right choice?
 
physiology will definitly help, and the immunological portions of the micro area will help for the mcat; Both classes are considered upper level and will help you with your transcript especially with OSU.

When I talked with the advisor for the college of osteopathic medice about my schedule, she said the more upper level the better so im following that. When I told her about my spring semester (physics 1, orgo 2, hum anat, and pathopys) she said that if i pull off a hard semester like that on my first application(not having completed or almost completed my BS yet), It'll really help my chances by giving me many upper level courses (after that semester ill have 5 upper level courses), and by showing i can handle a science intensive schedule.

Overall, I think you made the better choice.
 
almo88 said:
Hey guys!

I just got in a fight with my advisor this morning. He’s killing me! I’ve decided to take Physiology and Microbiology next semester, and he says that I don’t need either one. He says I need to take more plant biology classes and I need to “diversify my education.” WTF?! I told him that I wanted to take those so I might do better on my MCAT. He then told me that nothing I can take in college will help me with the MCAT. The MCAT tests your critical thinking skills, that’s it! And again..WTF?!

Anyway, I made him sign my damn enrollment form. I’m taking Physiology and Microbiology. So, what’s your opinion? Am I making the right choice?
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Phys & micro will definitely be helpful for you. You'll never use plant biology in med school or on the MCAT. Keep in mind that with a few exceptions pre-med advisors have not actually gone to med school or taken the MCAT, so there are limitations to their knowledge.
 
Thanks guys! I'm officially enrolled! After hearing that from y'all, I think I made the right choice..even if I just screwed my chances for a good LOR from him.

Thanks again!

Schedule for Spring 2008:

World Music
Physiology w/lab
Microbiology w/lab
Creative Writing
Medical Physics

= 17 hours
 
Ya you definitely did make the right enrollment choice. The MCAT does test your reasoning, but you need to have background in those areas to reason to the right answer...

I just contacted OSU and they told me letters have not been sent out yet and will be in the next "few" days.....
 
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