Its come to my attention that the orientation committee has been receiving a lot of e-mails about the PDAs and whether or not they are mandatory, etc, etc. Yes I hear everything that goes on because med school is a very small world 🙄. First of all they haven't even sent the orientation packet to you guys/gals yet, so in their eyes you know nothing about PDAs and the like. At the very least wait until you get some sort of information from the OC before you send them questions about it. It is very important for everyone to realize that as far as the school is concerned, as well as everyone who is an agent of the school (yes, this includes the orientation committee), the PDAs are a MANDATORY PURCHASE for incoming medical students! With that said, if you e-mail them and ask them whether or not a PDA is required they are going to say "yes it is required." Furthermore when you mention that "...the people on the website (referring to SDN) say you don't need one...", the orientation committee doesn't know what the hell you're talking about. Don't e-mail anyone who works for the school and ask them if the PDAs are mandatory anymore, because I can tell you right now that their answer will be yes.
As a couple of us stated earlier in the thread, the only time we were really required to use our PDA was for a few questions on a test in the Clinical Practice of Medicine class. Dr Symons would be pissed if I sent out an e-mail discouraging the purchase of PDAs via the 2012 class list-serve which is why I expressed my opinion on an anonymous forum on the internet as a student who has been in your shoes before. For all I know the test might be totally different for your year and you could be required to solely answer 100 questions about Rx dosing, side-effects, contraindications, and drug-drug interactions in which case you'd fail the test without a PDA. In this case you'd be screwed if you didn't buy the PDA up front like the school was saying. On the other hand they will tell you ahead of time what you're going to be expected to do with your PDA on any test, so even if you really do need to buy one you can still follow the advice I gave earlier and at the very least wait a bit to see if you're really going to need to go out and blow $300 right away when you get to school or if you can borrow a PDA from one of your friends in the 2nd year class. Again, it will do you no good to e-mail the OC about the "requirement for a PDA" and it only wastes their time. As far as they are concerned it is mandatory from the get-go.
Hi guys,
I just wanted to respond to this... First off, I am a second year, and a member of the Orientation Committee (the Dr. Dre wannabe, for those of you privy to the OC email...). I would hardly consider myself, or anyone on the OC, an "agent of the school."
I will be the first to tell you my HONEST opinion regarding all of the School's recommendations, including their suggestions for housing, meal plans (don't do it, as I've mentioned to some of you already), books, medical equipment, and the technology requirements. Again, I'm not merely a conduit for the School to push things on you, nor is anyone else on the OC. We're here to help you learn the ropes, get acquainted with Buffalo, and hopefully enable you to make a smooth transition into the sweeeeet SMBS community. Trust.
I will also be the first to tell you that I did NOT buy the Kaplan board review package the School will try to sell you in the first week, nor did I buy even close to three-quarters of the books that were required throughout the course of the year (uh, I bought one). I often times ignored the School's advice regarding class attendance, and yes - I even accidentally slept through some of the Orientation events (but don't do that, because this year's Orientation is going to be super amazing, and you shouldn't miss any of it). I have my own thoughts on the diagnostic equipment you'll be required to buy, and am happy to share those with you in a different forum. Again, no one on the OC is here to lead you astray. We're here to help you make as smooth a transition into med school as possible.
That being said, it is my personal opinion that it is a TERRIBLE idea to plan on ignoring the PDA requirement. You will be required to use PDAs to answer exam questions, and I promise you that the professor of the class, as well as the proctors, will notice if you are answering those questions without the use of a PDA (usually, the first ten minutes of the exam are reserved for the PDA test questions, and it will be clear if someone is trying to take the test without one). Can you do well on the test even having received zero credit for those questions? Most likely. However, it raises a multitude of questions regarding the class's adherence to, and respect of the rules when it comes to PDAs, and I can virtually guarantee that the professor, and administration, will not be pleased with you guys. Think of it as the equivalent of walking into a two-hour exam 90 minutes late, thinking you can afford to just throw away questions because you're confident you'll do well enough without them.
The School will spend several hours, during the first few weeks of class, teaching you how to install the required programs on your Palm, as well as how to use them (in fact, during your first week here, you will each be given a mandatory appointment with IT for them to teach you how to use your PDA - not the best idea to show up without one); obviously, if the School is devoting their time and resources to PDA training, they see the PDAs as being of benefit to you.
Do I agree with integrating the use of a Palm so early into med school? Not really. It's a good skill to have, but often times seems like an unnecessary expense to have to shell out our hard-earned (or hard-borrowed) cash money on. However, if the administration is asking for you to use them on exams, then they most likely see the Palm as an incredibly important tool for you to have.
Also, a word of warning on borrowing PDAs from second-years for exams: many of us bought the Treo as our Palm requirement, meaning our PDA is integrated into our phone. You might be hard-pressed to get someone to allow you to use their phone for an afternoon exam (or longer, depending on how much time you think you need with the Palm to get comfortable with the med programs).
The OC is in communication with Dr. Symons (whose class requires you use the PDA) to find out how he will be using the Palm in the coming year, and to make sure that it is actually worth your while to buy one (again, we are not out to bilk you out of your loan money). As soon as we hear from him, we will, of course, let you know via official listserv. In the meantime, please be careful who you get your information from. Everyone has helpful advice, I'm sure, but the curriculum and requirements do change from year to year, and it is NOT a safe assumption that advice given to you by upperclassmen will translate well for your year. In fact, the class before us didn't have any exams that required PDAs, so again, it's a new deal, year after year.
Also, the only reason that word traveled so quickly to kdburton is because he's my roommate, and I was able to tell him what was going on from across the hall
😀
As always, please feel free to email anyone on the OC at
[email protected]. Play on.
...can't wait to meet you guys! 😍
