TCOm (post open-house)

[hilikus]

Wow, what an informative day. I was very impressed with how in-depth students and faculty went into their answers to our questions. Got to meet a couple of SDNers too.

After not knowing much about the DO philosophy, this really opened my eyes. I won't go so far as to say TCOM will be my first choice but I have feeling that the more research I do on Osteopathy, and TCOM specifically, the more interested I will become. I can totally see myself there.

The thing I enjoyed the most was the question and answer session with the 3 med students and the time spent with the doctors from the adcom.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Who else was there besides captain monkey?

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[premeddo]

I was there aswell! I went to the minority open house they had on friday and then I also went to this one. I thought it was great. Lots of information. The people are great! Very very friendly. Mike Kennedy was great. and he answred sevral questions I had and told me to email him if I had any other questions! Before going to this event I really wanted to go to TCOM and now...I definitly want to go to TCOM. Plus...its 20 mins away from where I live!

I had to leave after lunch...so I didn't get to hear Mike talk about adminssions. Was that basically it? Also how was the tour?

On minority night open house I got to meet a couple of MSI,MSII and MSIII student and talk to them over dinner! A couple of faculty was there unfortunately I only had the chance to talk to Mike K.

btw...hilikus, where were you sitting? I can try to remember so that i can put a face to your name!

Overall I really enjoyed myself during this time. Very informative.

 

[CaptainMonkey]

Hey guys,
Yeah, I was there...I ended up coming in on Friday night just to look around Forth Worth and Dallas. I wanted to get a feel for the place before hearing what the admissions had to say. All in all, it was a well put-together event. I really appreciated the interviewers discussing applications. I'm going to see if I can arrange to shadow a DO student sometime soon, it looks really interesting. The students seemed relaxed, and Mr. Kennedy was right, I think I'll do better in an interview situation at TCOM just because I visited...checking out the school took away my jitters. TCOM is my first choice.

Best,
Captain Monkey
P.S. I felt awkward being so dressed up...too bad I read the email about it being "casual" after the event...

 

[hilikus]

Originally posted by premeddo

btw...hilikus, where were you sitting? I can try to remember so that i can put a face to your name!

I was sitting on the edge of the 3rd row on the left side. I had a cast on so I was limping. Plaid shirt, sitting with my wife. Where were you sitting?

 

[jtorres]

premeddo and hilikus, if you were there help me put a face to a name. i on the other hand will really consider making tcom my first choice.

 

[premeddo]

Originally posted by hilikus
I was sitting on the edge of the 3rd row on the left side. I had a cast on so I was limping. Plaid shirt, sitting with my wife. Where were you sitting?

Darn, I wish I would had paid more attention to the people who were there! I don't remember anyone with a plaid shirt. I was sitting by the doors (my left side,facing the speakers) About 6 rows up. Second seat inward. I was wearing black pants and a dark brown shirt.

Jtorres, where abouts were you sitting? So are thinking of making TCOM your first choice! Beofre this I wanted to attend TCOM but after going to this event I really am going to make it my first choice. I also went to the minority open house they had on friday and that was great! It was smaller. You got to talk to Mike K. several med sctudents and a prof. from there ...Dr. Hahns was there. You can see he is a neat dean! Afterwards we went to dinner...that was great...thats when we just made all sorts of question. Like I said Im very glad I went to these events. At first I was debating wheather to go or not cause Im not going to apply til 2005 or even 2006 due to my major. Im not a science major. And I have to go back and tack all of the science prereq. On top of that Im working fulltime and the type of job I do is very demanding. Im a comp. programmer. At times I cannot leave at 530p to go to class...so I have to take later classes so that it will not interefere with my job!

Yall know iI was really suprise to talk to these med students and find out that several of them didnt not know a thing about osteopathy. Dr. Guevarra, alumni of TCOM talked to us on friday and he to didn't know anything about osteopathic medicine before entering. I don't know but that suprises me...considering they all are osteopathic medical studnets. I would think they would have some knowledge before entering. I myself chose osteopathic medicine over allopathic b/c of the philosophy, the way you view your patient ect. ect. I will be very dissappointed if I don't get into a COM. Unfort. Texas only has one COM thus limiting my selections. I prefer to stay inside texas. Mainly due to tuition cost.



Well hilikus...I will think over the classroom and try to remember you.

 

[hilikus]

Originally posted by jtorres
premeddo and hilikus, if you were there help me put a face to a name. i on the other hand will really consider making tcom my first choice.

Where were you sitting and what do you look like?

I'm a short, stocky white guy with light hair and glasses. I was sitting on the third row on the left side of the room. I had my wife w/ me. I also had a limp because I have a walking cast on.

 

[STAC]

Originally posted by hilikus
Where were you sitting and what do you look like?

I'm a short, stocky white guy with light hair and glasses. I was sitting on the third row on the left side of the room. I had my wife w/ me. I also had a limp because I have a walking cast on.

I was the guy sitting on the floor with my wife in the very back talking to some MS 1's. I asked two questions to the student panel and I met carcrazy guy, doc4sure, crazylegs, pbooth (sort of). We had a great time! Everyone was super cool and my wife and I are really looking forward to the move!

Everything was great except for the tour of FW. I had to pee sooooo bad!!! I didn't think it would take us over an hour to see the apartments. Too much iced tea!!! Luckily, I didn't wet my pants as we made it back just in time!

 

[hilikus]

So I guess my next question is are any of you guys applying for the 2009 class? I won't be applying until NEXT cycle for class of 2010.

 

[DaveinDallas]

Great weekend. Got to meet a few SDNers also. I was the dweeb in the khakis,blue polo shirt and hiking boots. I asked the question about community college credits, working and maintaining a family and how that was looked upon.

It really was a great weekend. Took a lot of the mystery out of the process and definitely made up my mind about being a D.O.
TCOM is my first choice, but I'll be applying to all med schools in Texas and then some closer DO schools (oklahoma and kirksville).

How was the campus tour? I had to split to get to work on time.

Was Alexa great or what? The fact that you could do a PDF in OMM was way cool.....

 

[hilikus]

Hey Daveindallas

I met you. But I thought when I met you you said your name was Dave Dallas so introduced myself. I'm the guy who talked to you in the hall about orgo, also a non-trad.

 

[jtorres]

i was sitting on the second row towards the right side if you are facing the front. i was wearing a light blue dress shirt and light blue tie with some gray slacks. TCOM kicks tail. any idiot that has an inferiority complex with being a DO would not have it anymore if had they attented this past weekend. i missed the fake cadavers though, if any of you saw them were they realistic. 20th in the country for primary care is great, especially since i will go primary care. then again i cant get carried away since it is the only 3rd med school i have visited.

 

[hilikus]

Were you the bald guy?

 

[premeddo]

Originally posted by jtorres
i missed the fake cadavers though, if any of you saw them were they realistic.

I think I remeber you. I remember seeing someone with what you said you were wearing. About the fake cadavers....did they take yall to that room!!!??? I ask one of the admission ladies that I had met friday if they were going to go there and she said problably not since they didn't have anyone that can open the doors to that room!!!! Thats why I didn't stay!!! Now im going to be if yall did end up going!

 

[STAC]

Originally posted by jtorres
i missed the fake cadavers though, if any of you saw them were they realistic.

Uh, we went into the gross lab and they pulled a body up outta the tank. There wasn't anything "fake" about it. Especially not the smell.

 

[premeddo]

Originally posted by STAC
Uh, we went into the gross lab and they pulled a body up outta the tank. There wasn't anything "fake" about it. Especially not the smell.

Darn!!!! I wish I would have stayed now!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hilikus]

i wish i had stayed now too

 

[sophiejane]

One of the **joys** of a systems-based curriculum is that you get 9 glorious months of gross lab. Which means there ain't much left by the time we get down to the kidneys, which is where we are now.

Not to trivialize the tremendously generous spirits of those who donated their bodies to science, however. I for one will always be grateful for the experience.

But not for the smell...

 

[premeddo]

Originally posted by sophiejane
One of the **joys** of a systems-based curriculum is that you get 9 glorious months of gross lab. Which means there ain't much left by the time we get down to the kidneys, which is where we are now.

Not to trivialize the tremendously generous spirits of those who donated their bodies to science, however. I for one will always be grateful for the experience.

But not for the smell...

Sophiejane, what year of MS are you in? Also you get one body for the 9 months? At TCOM....do they group people up? If so how many are usually in a group?

I know that smell....I remember from them dead animals we had to disect in high school and the smell of it...now I have imagine a 150-200lb person in this liquid! only if they can do something about the smell. I think its great though that people donate their bodies. Otherwise how are we supose to learn? So thanks to them we have bodies.

 

[sophiejane]

I'm an MS-1 @ TCOM. There are 4-5 people to a tank. While we work on the same cadavers all 9 months, the groups rotate tanks with each system (every 3-6 weeks or so) so we all get to work on several different cadavers by the end of the year.

In general it is a good system though many of the bodies are in fairly bad shape by now and a few have had to be retired early.

I suggest a surgical mask. You may not look as cool as everyone else but it does help.

 

[hilikus]

were there people that were freaked out by the cadavers at first? Mike Kennedy kind of alluded to this on Saturday. I was just curious. That's really the only thing I think about negatively when it comes to medical school, my initial reaction to the cadaver. I think I'll be fine but we'll see. At least the sight of blood and guts doesn't affect me.

 

[premeddo]

that is really neat!!! I would have loved to stay there to go to the lab!!!!

I myself think that the initial reaction to the cadaver will be suprising to me...since I've never seen one! But then after seeing it I think I would be fine!Or I should hope so! Also guts and blood don't bother me. I love to watch them surgery type show on tv. Hip replacements, knee repairs, relieving internal hemoraging. ! They are interesting to watch. I think! I know its different though when youre actually in front if all this!

I also think you slowly build up a tolerence to all these thing...to the point where nothing pretty much bothers you.

 

[STAC]

My wife was so funny to watch when we went into the gross lab!!! She was so intrigued in seeing the body, I just watched as she shoved people outta the way to get a closer look (not really!)
She just thought it was the coolest experience! As soon as we left to go to the party, she was on the phone calling her friends to tell them about it. What a freak!!!

She loves the movie Silence of Lambs and those types of movies. Next thing I'll know is that she'll want to go up to the lab in the middle of the night to go "study" with me.

 

[sophiejane]

Most people are too busy in the lab to be freaked out. There is a lot to do and while the first day is a little unnerving, you get over it fast because you have to. There is too much to learn to be squeamish. Plus it is so cool--all you will think about it is how amazing the body is and how lucky you are to get to see it in this way and learn from it.

I had some funny cadaver dreams (one where ours sat up and asked for a snack)--we all deal in our own way with the fact that it was once a live human. But by the end of the year it really doesnt resemble anything you've ever seen before--living or dead--it just looks like a science experiment--so it is easy to forget it was a person who was once breathing and who had a family and friends.

 

[hilikus]

Originally posted by STAC
My wife was so funny to watch when we went into the gross lab!!! She was so intrigued in seeing the body, I just watched as she shoved people outta the way to get a closer look (not really!)
She just thought it was the coolest experience! As soon as we left to go to the party, she was on the phone calling her friends to tell them about it. What a freak!!!

She loves the movie Silence of Lambs and those types of movies. Next thing I'll know is that she'll want to go up to the lab in the middle of the night to go "study" with me.

there was a party?

 

[premeddo]

Hilikus look at how much we missed for leaving early!!!!! I guess that teaches us!

Sophie, thats what I imagined. Yeah you are a little freak at the first glance but then you tend to forget about all these things! You just perform what needs to be done on it and cont. with your normal routine!

I can't wait til the day I get into med school. I would like to do this type of things! Learn what there is about medicine.

 

[hilikus]

DAMMIT! I wish I hadn't left but my foot was really bothering me. I tore my achilles a few weeks ago, hurts like hell sometimes. I really couldn't walk that well so we had to go.

But for the portion that I was there, I was very impressed with the school and the people.

 

[STAC]

Originally posted by hilikus
there was a party?

Yes??? It was announced in the classroom. "Adult beverages" were served at the ???7th Street Apartments-party room, then everyone went downtown and hung out at the Fox & The Hound. We had a great time!!! Sorry you guys missed the fun!

 

[pboothe]

Originally posted by STAC
I was the guy sitting on the floor with my wife in the very back talking to some MS 1's. I asked two questions to the student panel and I met carcrazy guy, doc4sure, crazylegs, pbooth (sort of).

Which two questions did you ask?

 

[STAC]

Originally posted by pboothe
Which two questions did you ask?

I asked about the spirit of cooperation and competivness in their class and also if the PA's were taught in the osteopathic philosophy.

Are you the tall guy with brown hair who was there with their wife or girlfriend? I didn't get a chance to introduce myself, but we will meet soon! What did you think of the weekend?

 

[pboothe]

Yep, that's probably me. I was there with my wife.

We had a great time---she loved seeing the bodies.

I look forward to meeting you. Though I do remember who you are now. Did you have a goatee?


~PB

 

[STAC]

Yes I have hair on my chin! My wife and I went to Italy for our honeymoon last year and so I let it grow out during that trip to do as the Romans do. She liked it and doesn't want me to shave it...its been over a year now...whatever right?! She's the boss!!!

Time sure is flying now. We'll be in school before we know it! I look forward to getting to know you, take care. *RC*

 

[carcrazyguy]

Well I just got back from Fort Worth.

AND WE NOW HAVE A HOME/(shack)!!!

We closed on it today and let the remodeling begin!! Tomorrow is going to be hard though. I have to give my 2 week notice at work. We have a bunch of work to do on the house so I need to get back down there and get started. That way when my wife graduates next month, the house is ready to go! Anyway one major step down! Now just get the shack fixed up and get moved in!

 

[STAC]

Congrats!!!

I am glad that things worked out for y'all and best of luck in the remodeling!!! I am sure that it will all work out for you and that you are making a smart investment while y'all are in FW. I am going to wait another month before going to find a place to live. We were able to narrow the areas of where we want to be, but nothing concrete yet.

Congrats again and we look forward to seeing you again soon!!!