The Under M1 Club: Come on in! part 01

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Hey all 🙂

As far as the new thread I'm just waiting to hear from Biodude about when he starts cuz I think he starts before any of us....if he doesn't I'll take the responsibility of starting it if noone objects😉 .

jenni - You need a TI-83 for chem?? Since I couldn't use my graphing calculators for calc here I just used a scientific calculator for everything lol. The only thing we used graphs for was in lab and those we all did on excel anyway, but i suppose you could have done those on the graphing calculator too and just copied the pic onto a bigger sheet of paper...

Our school is very technology dependent too. We use MS office for everything lol. Lecture notes, powerpoint presentations, graphs, homework, etc are almost all downloadable or submitted thru the internet. Last year I had to print out almost all that stuff at school cuz I didn't have Office, but I picked up a '95 version over the summer on ebay and downloaded a couple converters from microsoft so that I could actually open all my documents and presentations at home. Now I just have to get ink cartridges again for my printer lol. I probably went thru like 6 black cartridges from transcribing notes each semester last year 😱 . I'll have to deal with my dial up and 50 mb RAM for at least another year tho cuz I'm still paying for this piece of crap lol.

2badr - I am sooo ready lol...this has ended up being one of my most boring summers ever and it didn't help that I still managed to mess things up with biopsych so I'm not only bored, but way motivated to have my best semester ever and get those straight A's! (Cuz I'll need them to get my overload in the spring lol). And I feel like I'm finally starting to be a part of my school vs just a student there with starting this work study. Hopefully I'll be able to make ACS meetings and the premed club meetings this year too 🙂. I just hope this "readiness" keeps up throughout the semester lol.

I'll be right there with ya with 3 labs in the spring (4 if I get my overload which I basically HAVE to get cuz I have no idea how i'd fit in the 4th lab anywhere else otherwise lol)

Good luck getting everything settled for the fall...I hope it all works out for you 🙂


Later all
--Jessica
 
Ummm, ya'll let's not wait on school. I'm ready for something fresh and new. I say the first person that has something new to add should start.

By the way, my school is also VERY techonology dependent. Teachers put homework, grades, syllabus, reviews, and the list goes on all online! I do end up printing out a TON of soon to be worthless sheets of paper. poor trees.

About changing career path due to money woes.... can't bear taking out loans? I'm in debt up to my, well i have a good bit of debt.
 
Skaterbabe-No, I need the TI-83 for precalc and calc...Sorry about that-didn't mean to confuse you! But the neat little package insert says it has programs loaded onto it for chemistry...I have to fool around with it some more once I know what I'm doing-they might wind up being useful😀

My school is also very technology dependent, everything you said applies to me....and to my husband as well. If it was only me in school we'd probably suffer for the next year too with our current computer setup b/c I have time during the day to work on the school computers and stuff but he works six days a week and goes to school four nights so all his stuff needs to be downloaded and worked on at home. It'll just be easier on both of us if we've got a little more flexibility in our schedules for study time and can get the stuff downloaded faster. My kids' school also launched an Internet program where they can download their assignments, some now require research on the Internet, so they'll be using it too...sigh, what is this society coming to? Makes me wonder what would happen if the Internet went down for an extended period of time? OK, I digress so...

For chem, my prof adds a section into the grade points called "co-curricular activities". This means if you want an A you must go to enough ACS, science club, or other posted meetings and seminars during the semester to earn these 30 points. So here's to hoping they don't conflict with anything else so I can actually go.

I am so ready for school to start! Why can't my house magically get organized and all my books magically appear for me so I can just GO? (Can ya tell my kids are starting to get on my nerves? It's been a LONG summer, esp now that they're temporarily sharing a room until we finish redoing my daughter's-we built her a brand new room in our walkout basement-they do nothing but fight lately!)

wash and 2badr-I just don't think about our debt right now...I'm concentrating more on current cash flow for survival!
 
Hello,

I'm an undergrad student although I have 51 credit. I'm starting West Chester University on the 25th and will be taking my pre-med courses there. I had Gen Biology and got a C in the class last semester at CC. I will be taking it over this semester.

I have no children and my Age is 31. I'll be 32 next month.

Some of you have probably read in other forums....I'm a special pre-med student in essence that I have a major challenge ahead of me. When I was younger, I got myself into trouble. Serious trouble with the Law. Now I have a blemish on my record which prevents me from intering most of the US med schools. I have been working hard for the past 6yrs to turn my life around and basicly start over.

It has been a long and disapointing road for me. You see, wants you get into trouble with the law, no one wants to give you a second chance. I've been turned down for good jobs and restricted from intering the nursing profession. So, I started work as a Medical Assistant. I could not find a good paying job. My last hourly wage as a Medical Assistant was $8.50/hr. I worked as a surgical assistant/medical assistant in an abortion clinic. I left there because I could not take the pressure anymore.

I then decided that I love medicine so much that I wanted to become a doctor. That was two years ago and I haven't looked back since. Now, I'm in school full-time and become discourage every now and then. However, I keep pressing on.

I've called a number of med school to see if I even stood a chance and most of the US med school have told me "No chance in Hell I'll get into there school." So, became discourage and stopped going to school and went to work again. I've worked in sales and medical billing. However, my heart is set upon becoming a physician. So, I called some International Medical School. Two told me that if I could prove that the Blemish is behind me, I stood a chance of getting in. I've been afraid to call any more schools in fear of rejection before I've even had a chance to apply or finish pre-med studies.

I'm writing this because I hope that if there are others like me, never to give up faith. What doors are closed now, may not be closed later. Do not become discouraged. Keep learning. I have something to prove to society and myself that just because we do bad things, doesn't mean we are bad people forever and can never be productive citizens. Not all of us need to be put off on an Island in the middle of the sea. And if we did, there would still need to be physicians put on that Island to handle the sick.....LoL.

Sometimes good people do bad things! And, sometimes, the good people who do bad things learn from their wrong doings!

Thanks,

JasmineGab
 
Hey all 🙂

jenni - Oh I get it now...I just reread your sentence about only having chem all year hehe. For some reason I was thinking that was the only class you were taking in the fall instead of your only year-long class lol. Your "co-curricular activities" requirement sux. We had extra credit points available thru going to lectures or science fairs, but ACS/science club meetings were never part of that. And if we had conflicts with the times for extra credit we could find a science-related article online and write a 1-pg summary of it for the points.

btw - if the internet goes down you usually just call the teacher and let them know there's a problem and they give you more time, an alternative assignment, or you turn it in (if it's just a homework set or something) in person. I've occasionally had access problems with some of the online classes I took at the CC and there was never a problem...the teacher usually just extended the due date a bit.

Welcome Jasmine! Sounds like you're majorly turning your life around so kudos to you!😀 I'm only sorry that US med schools are being such a pain about your past. Some other countries do have wonderful programs tho so keep chugging...following your dreams is always important even if they can't be fulfilled by doing things the easiest or even most desirable way possible!

LOL Wash - anxious for the new year to start? and with it a new thread? hehe...The reason I was thinking waiting until classes started for a new thread was that I don't know that any of us will really have anything new and exciting to post about until we can talk about our new classes. Plus it kind of seemed symbolic...new school year, new thread...I think agent started this one last year with the start of the new semester...maybe we'll make a new one each school year to last us the year...by the time we're moving onto med school others will hopefully have joined to take our place 🙂.

Later all!
--Jessica
 
So, how many posts has it been on this thread?

My last week of summer school comes in on Monday, which also happens to be my first week of volunteering at HOAG and seeing the patients there. I'll have one week of break time before school starts...

Well, it seems that Math will be occupying most of my time in terms of lectures attended 😀 My first day's worth of classes will consist of Calculus, Intro to Logic, and Greek Philosophy in that order. The only thing close to pre-med there would be the math class.

If you all have noticed, my DSL connection is finally up and running! Unfortunately, I still have some files to be sorting through, so I won't be able to IM with anyone out there as of yet.

I'll be back later. I have a huge exam tomorrow for HOAG's CCE program (yup, they test their volunteers before allowing them to help out...I may be helping to do chest compressions if a patient starts flatlining...)
 
Just popping in to say "hey", so HEY! Haven't posted here in awhile so I'm letting you guys know I'm still around.

Just finished summer school this past Friday (took Human Sexuality and an Ethics class). Things went pretty well, pretty sure I managed to snag a 4.0 this summer! I have to bust my butt and work hard to get my GPA where it needs to be when I apply next June. My Cumulative/Science GPA is a 3.3/3.36 respectively. If I rock the Fall and Spring I'll be in good shape, but it's gonna be tough to do that while studying for the April MCAT.

My Fall schedule doesn't seem to be too bad. I decided to put off retaking ochem II until the Spring, so I can have it fresh in my head for the MCAT. I'm also holding out for a different professor, as I didn't partiuclarly like the one I had. For the sake of not having anything else to post, I'll post my Fall schedule!

Physics 201
Physics 201 Lab
Psychology 227 (Stats for the Psychological Researcher)
Psychology 400 (Suvery of Learning & Memory)
Statistics 201
Psychology 420 (Survey of Developmental Psychology)

16 hours total: 9 hours of math/science and 6 of liberal arts. Seems like it will be a pretty decent semester (Plus we get to use Sniffy the Virtual Rat for PSYC 400!)

My Spring schedule, before I apply, looks about like this:

Physics 202
Physics 202 Lab
Chemistry 334 (Organic II)
Chemistry 331 (Organic I Lab)
Biology 303 (Genetics)
Psychology 228 (Research in the Lab)

That's 13 credits; not bad for the MCAT month! So what are you guys looking at for the next couple semesters, especially for those applying in 2004?

Peace.
 
Hey all 🙂

Welcome back to the world wide web from home Biodude lol. I imagine you're much happier now being able to access stuff from home😎

We're up over 1200 posts in this thread now lol. Mine will make 1207 🙂.

Good luck with your HOAG test today and finals this week! Looks like you start back up for fall at the same time I do and a few others as well. I think I'd go nuts with that much math/logic in one day tho lol. I'll have bio stats, organic lecture, and cell bio on Mon and Wed. Organic lab lecture and physics lecture Tues. Organic lab, Organic lecture, Physics lecture, and Phyiscs lab on Thurs, and Physics lecture Fri afternoon. Other than having my labs both in the same day (which is how I wanted it actually) I think I mixed up the math intensive stuff pretty well lol.

WTG JKD! Looks like you'll have a good balance for fall and spring 🙂. In the spring it looks like I'll have Physics for Life Sciences II +lab, Organic Chem II + lab, Genetics + lab, and Bacteriology + lab (assuming I can get an overload for credits). Otherwise I'm gonna have to hold off on one of the labs but right now I have no idea which one I'd hold off on or when I'd fit it back in lol so my fingers will be majorly crossed to get the overload😛 . I'm only going over by 1 credit and since it's really still only 4 classes I'm hoping to not have too much trouble getting it...especially if I manage straight A's this fall which is my goal😀 .

Tomorrow I need to go into school and finish my last paperwork for my work study (getting my SS and ID photocopied etc) and then meet with Dr Schoffstall so he can tell me what I'll be doing. Then I'll be officially a research worker in the chemistry dept 😀 Other than that I'm just hanging out with my bf during the nite and cleaning my apt by day. It was soo unbelievably trashed😱 . I actually have an almost entire floor again lol. (I don't own any furniture so I don't have bookshelves and desks or tables to put anything on). Now I just have to organize it all somehow lol.

Anyway back to cleaning for me,
--Jessica
 
Hey everyone, I just came back from my last training session at HOAG Memorial Hospital, and well, I failed the test. But first, allow me to explain why I failed...

The test was all "fill-in-the-blank" and "short answer essay" questions, worth 100 points, and you have to get 80% to pass it. That's right, 80%. 79.5 and below is a fail. On top of all this, I was dumb and didn't read some of the questions, so that cost me quite a bit of points...I would have ended up with an 81 instead of a 75 if I did read them more carefully.

Also, I really didn't have much time to study for it, because of all the different tests I had this week, plus I have finals to take for my summer school courses on Thursday. Whatever, I am re-taking it tomorrow morning.

I have been assigned to Oncology. My number two choice. Apparently, there were lots of people wanting to jump into Medical Pulmonary. But that's alright, at least it's not Gynecology/Urology. Besides, I've got hospice training, it isn't difficult for me to deal with the dying...I'm pretty de-sensitized to it now...

I can't sign up for shifts though, at least not until I pass my test. That's why I am doing a quick re-take of it.

As for summer school, it's felt like forever, and I can't wait for it to be over with, which it will be by Thursday. So, I guess there's no rest for me, is there? 😀

Later, everyone.
 
Hey all 🙂

I just got back from finishing my work study paperwork and talking a bit more with Dr Schoffstall. Looks like I'll be pulling double duty between the stockroom because they were still understaffed and doing some distillations and stuff for Dr Schoffstall. I was hoping to get to do more research than gofer type work, but it's a paying job. Once I get more organic experience I'm sure I'll have no trouble getting on someone's research team full time (well at least the full 17 hours I want to work lol). For now I'm doing mostly stockroom stuff until the stockroom coordinator gets everybody's school schedules worked out. I'm going in tomorrow at 10 to help get the organic lab drawers filled, and after that we'll just see what happens.

Also found out my school doesn't give the book loans to people with financial aid anymore, but I was at least able to talk the FA officer into giving me a $200 exception loan by telling her that I needed my organic lab manual for my work study. Between that and some of the money I had on my own I was able to at least pick up my organic lecture book and my cell bio book so it's a start. The FA person said that I should actually get my financial aid by next Tues or Wed at the latest vs the Thurs that the website is telling me so it may not be soo bad.

Biodude - Sorry to hear you didn't pass the HOAG test on the first try. I hope it went better for you today tho🙂 Congrats on getting Oncology and good luck on your finals!

Later all!
--Jessica
 
Well, I was tired today and I made the long trip for nothing because my coordinator wasn't there. On top of that, he scheduled for me to do the re-take on Friday, which is the end of the week. That's nice, except that would put a damper on the rotation because now Oncology will be short a volunteer for the first week 🙁

As for the summer school, finals coming right up soon. I'm working on an assignment for my Psychology class right now 😀

Skaterbabe74 - Hey, you got a neat job. Stockroom 😛 As for loans on books, well that just stinks.

To everyone else: has your summer been enjoyable so far? It looks like this thread will be dying out soon. I'll see if I can start up a new one detailing my experiences as a Clinical Care Extender at HOAG Memorial Hospital, I suppose...my classes should be starting around the 25th.
 
This thread die out? No way! Though we need part 2 soon....

Biodude-Sorry to hear about your issues with HOAG-hopefully you can reschedule before Friday or work something out otherwise. Oncology is fascinating...you're lucky! Good luck on finals...

Skaterbabe-Well, at least you were able to talk them into giving you a little money, it's better than nothing, right?

Well, I got a bomb dropped on me today....I am officially the second person on this thread to be called for jury duty. On the first day of classes, no less!+pissed+ I got the form a few months ago and filled out the info, and in big letters across the bottom said "I cannot serve after September 1 due to college enrollment." So what do they do? The thing is, I would have LOVED to serve on a jury...just during the summer!

That day I have Anatomy lab from 8-10, Pre-calc from 1-2, and Chem lab from 2-5. NO WAY am I missing the first labs in both my classes considering I haven't set foot in a lab in over 10 years and really need to familiarize myself with the procedures. Not to mention having to get a babysitter that I can't afford for before and after school. Oh well, gonna do what I can to get out of it. I'm going to email my professors explaining the problem and ask them to write letters for me to be excused.
 
Hi Everybody!

What a nice thread this is! Well, i'm new on board so let me tell you a little about me.

I'm starting my junior year, with MCATS next spring. I'm a biology major, and will be starting new research this fall. My previous research experience had little to do with research an a lot to do with cleaning out the grad student's shelves and getting their articles for them...but hopefully at this new lab i can get something of my own to work on.

I've already finished gen chem and orgo, going to start physics in the fall. I'm really excited about my human anatomy & physiology class, by itself it's 6 credits 😱 So i'll be taking 10 credits of science and 6 or humanities.

I'm starting to worry about my spring schedule and MCAT prep. I have no idea where i stand and am starting to feel a little anxious.

I'll keep ya posted and hopefully we can encourage each other until we make it across, to the big land of MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!!!!
 
Jenni - Don't bother your profs yet. Just call the people listed on the jury duty form and tell them you have school. I was able to email mine thru their website. If they say that class in and of itself isn't enough then email your profs but you shouldn't need to do anything more than say you have class that day...

As far as the thread "dying out" as Biodude put it I think he just meant that it was time to start a new one lol. Since he's been here the longest I'll let him start the new one.

Biodude - That sux that you drove all the way to HOAG only to find out that you couldn't retake it after all🙁 . At least you'll be done with your finals by Thurs and be able to review some that nite for it 🙂. As far as oncology being short this week somehow I think they'll survive lol.

As much as I was hoping to do only research type stuff I like the stockroom. There's time to do reading sometimes cuz you're only keeping an eye on the room to make sure classes have what they need or checking out goggles when students forget them, but you also get to set everything up for the various classes and learn about chemicals and stuff. During school I'll work Tues from 8:15-12, Fri 8:15-1 and then M, W, and F afternoon from 3-5:30 either in the stockroom or doing stuff for Dr Schoffstall like distillations. I'm extremely happy with how it worked out....even tho I would have loved to be a part of Dr Weiss' team (he was my gen chem prof and is working on pretty cool projects). He has the largest team out of all the science depts this year lol....like 7 or 8 people and turning away others right and left now hehe. I told him it was his own fault for getting us all excited about research last year lol.

Later all,
--Jessica
 
Welcome Dr Sal! We're going to be switching over to an "Under M1 club part 2" soon so keep an eye out for it 🙂. Where do u go to school? That sux that your last "research" position was all cleaning and getting articles. My school doesn't have much of a grad program yet (they just started an MS in Basic Sci a couple years ago) so luckily if we get a research position we get to do the "real" work 🙂. Hopefully this one works out better for ya! Your A&P class is majorly time consuming being worth 6 credits then huh? Mine was only 4 credits and despite our professors habit of purposely tricking us on exams I loved the class. I'm sure you will too!

--Jessica
 
Hey all 🙂

Just got back from my first day of work in the stockroom. It went fine....kinda boring, pretty easy work, but it's $$ lol. I started out helping finish up some hazardous waste reports for some really old chemicals the dept is cleaning out next week. Then I started going thru the drawers for the organic lab sections to make sure they all had the supplies they need. I'm about 3/4 of the way thru finishing the drawers for the non-chem major classes so I think I got quite a bit done today. I'll probably end up working 10-4 every day this week getting labs ready for classes, but we're kind of on a day to day basis at the moment lol. My bosses are cool...and helpful...so it's cool so far. I'll be curious to see how everything ends up working out as far as what I'll be doing when once school starts. Hopefully I'll still get to do most of my work study time doing research but if not I'll at least learn stuff about all the various chemicals in our stock lol.

Cozmosis - I take it you guys don't have waitlists? Can you email the prof and see if he/she will override you into the class regardless of whether there's technically room or not? Or is that something that has to wait until a class actually starts at your school? I'll keep my fingers crossed that it works out for ya!

--Jessica
 
We do. Sort of. We have a waitlist system online, but no one uses them...I could email the teacher but her email is nowhere to be found. Usually its done first week of classes, but I'd really like to settle it before then.
 
Hmmm...this thread is unusually quiet...

Is everyone wishing like me that all the administrative type bs/bookstore bs would just all get taken care of so we can just go ahead and start school? It seems like every day there's something new!

(BTW-this rant was provoked by the discovery today that someone in the central processing office (not the very nice lady here at our campus) screwed up the financial aid for BOTH my husband and I+pissed+ )

On the good side (hey, I'm not always a b***h), sweet puppy o'mine appears to have an actual "shrinking" tumor. It's almost gone and he's feeling really frisky! I have an appt at the vet on Fri to have it rechecked-it went from about the size of a golf ball down to about dime-size. And the bruising around it is almost all gone. Here's to hoping the biopsy will show something miraculous (not sure about the metastases, though...)😀

Regarding jury duty-I sent off a copy of my class schedule with a very nice letter explaining that both my husband and I are returning to college this fall, and we have two children who I can't afford the extra daycare for, I just have too much responsibility at this time, etc, etc, etc.....here's to hoping that will work out too!

Dang, my life has gotten really complicated in the last few months-I swear I'm not this much of a drama queen normally...must be all the changes going on right now...Thanks for listening to me rant and rave-gotta love this thread😍

Cozmosis-Can you call the school and see if there's a way to get in touch with her?

Skaterbabe-The job sounds really interesting to me, altho I can understand your frustration with not being able to do more advanced stuff...I really wish I could do work study to get that "part of campus" feeling too...sigh.

OK, this got really long again. Must go to bed now...
 
awaiting new thread..

I ordered my RN entrance exam study guide today.. time to start studying BIO, Chem, Physics, Math, and Verbal..
 
Hey all 🙂

Jenni - I definitely know how you feel. My school still hasn't even taken out my tuition payment yet so I'm not holding my breath that I'll be getting it in my acct before Thurs.

Wow....That's awesome that your puppy seems to be doing better. Hopefully it stays that way 🙂.

Cozmosis - Hope the A&P prof responds quickly!

Yesterday most of my work time was spent taking care of cleaning out old vials and biohazard bags from the microlab. That is part of our "normal" duties in the stockroom, but neither needs to be done everyday. You have to cook them for an hour in these pressure cooker machines, then the biohazard bags can get thrown out in the trash but the test tubes all need to be opened, dumped (the auger is liquid again after the cooking), and cleaned. Luckily there is a dishwasher to rinse and dry the tubes, but the caps need to all be done by hand. We got thru with filling the nonmajor drawers except for stuff that needed to be ordered which we'll fill in once they come in. Today we'll be doing another set of micro tubes and then work on the major drawers.

Anyway, I need to go get dressed and out the door so have a good one everyone!

Good luck on your finals Biodude!
--Jessica
 
Hi all!

Nothing new to report, really. It's good to hear how well everyone is doing. It seems I will have yto work double time to catch up with you guys😀 .

The good news is that I learned a lot from working with the financial aid department this year. Lesson learned, I'm moving on. At least I'm a citizen now.🙄 So I will keep you guys up to date on saga of the financial aid.

It looks as if I will be taking whatever humanities courses are left this late in the game. But I have to take them anyway, so oh well. I just wanted to get some of this science out of the way.

Oh and by the way, I read this article and this professor of Microbiology was saying that Micro "is a challenging, consuming major. Students need to understand that before going in..."
You think?? 🙄
 
Originally posted by agent
awaiting new thread..

I ordered my RN entrance exam study guide today.. time to start studying BIO, Chem, Physics, Math, and Verbal..
Click to expand...

agent,
i think that's fantastic you decided to go into nursing. if i had a family i'd do the same. you can make a huge difference in peoples' lives as a nurse and won't have to invest as much time as you would to become a physician. best of luck to you!
 
Originally posted by lola
agent,
i think that's fantastic you decided to go into nursing. if i had a family i'd do the same. you can make a huge difference in peoples' lives as a nurse and won't have to invest as much time as you would to become a physician. best of luck to you!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think it's great too. :clap:😉
 
Originally posted by agent
awaiting new thread..

I ordered my RN entrance exam study guide today.. time to start studying BIO, Chem, Physics, Math, and Verbal..
Click to expand...

Has the new thread started yet?

When are you taking the entrance exam? I don't know if the school here even has one... I have GOT to check with my advisor LOL
 
I'll probably study for a few months then take it. I dont really need to take it till Jan
 
Hey all 🙂

I got my FA deposited today! Woohoo! lol...so I finished buying my books today other than physics if we end up having one. My fingers are crossed that we do have a book for that class tho...i'm having a really hard time figuring out how I could possibly get enough problem practice without one lol.

Other than that, I worked 17 hrs last week in the stockroom. Friday all I did was a couple hours worth of cleaning glassware...blech. Tomorrow I have to get there early...like between 8 and 9am cuz we have to clean the organic lab (we had a bunch of stuff being disposed of that was sitting on the counters and stuff), and we have to check the equipment in the micro lab. But I had a chat with Dr Schoffstall about what he saw my ideal schedule being once school started and he said he's had a few people who expect to receive no need work study awards (those get released on Sept 5) express interest in the stockroom so hopefully once they get to start I'll be able to do stuff solely for him...distillations, recrystallizations, etc to start and then more organic techniques as i learn them in class. My fingers are crossed that it works out that way cuz I really don't want to spend a semester just cleaning stuff lol.

Sat nite my bf and I went to our favorite bar. It's part of the Broadmoor Hotel (our 5 star resort here), and it's a sing a long piano english tavern. Tiny place and you always have to wait to get in on the weekends. They have yards of beer and special people have their own steel mugs with their names engraved on them lol. We always meet interesting people that are in for business or a weekend of golf and spa there so we had fun 🙂.

Hope everyone has a good week!
--Jessica
 
Jessica, I love how you keep everyone updated about what's going on in your life. I haven't had time to go thru the entire thread, but are you one of the founding "mothers?" 😛

Well, i'm still awaiting a scholarship check that i should be receiving soon (hopefully) so that i can pay for my books. I bought my physics stuff, then, emailed the prof asking whetehr we need it at all. He said we don't need the lab notebook (a whopping $45 for <100 pgs of spiral bound BS.) So i gladly returned that. I'll just wait till school starts to buy the rest of my books.

Last semester i was in a very easy class. It's one of those just come to class and you'll ace it type classes. So i neglected to buy the book. But of course, life doesn't always go the way i want and for a myriad of reasons i couldn't come to class on many occasions, and lacking a book (altho i hada a wonderful friend, but htere's something about being in class that aids in understanding) i had set myself up for a B- in the one stat class that the whole university aces. So, i've learned my lesson. From now on, i'm buying all my books, and intending to be in all my classes!! (hopefully nothing will interfere with my good intentions 😉 )

My research with the new prof seems like it will be interesting. he only has 2 other grad students in his lab, so that's more attention for me, and less doing busy work for the grad students.

By the way, are most of you guys taking the april '04 mcat? Any plans yet on how you're going to approach it?

Take care!
 
Me a "founding" mother? Nah...the founders would be Agent, Manna, and Biodude of the people that still post. I came in around March or so....I took my cues from Biodude's posts tho. 😀

$45 for a lab notebook?!? Glad to hear you don't need that one lol. For physics all of our writeups need to be word processed so I'll be writing like a 3 page paper every week lol. For organic lab we have a carbon copy notebook that was like $10 for basically 50 pages...

I definitely have to force myself to attend my classes at times lol. I took too many of my general ed classes in online formats so now I'm relearning how to study from lecture notes vs book notes and trying not to take book notes on everything lol. Luckily for me the two classes I've had (besides labs) that had attendance policies didn't enforce them lol. I've learned that a key for me is to have a very regular schedule. If I have class at 9:30 one day and noon the next that's when I get screwed cuz I'll stay up too late after sleeping in on the later day and don't want to wake up for the 9:30 class lol. That's why this term I either work at 8 or have class at 9:25 every morning, and get done about the same time everyday. Getting up at 5:30 or 6:30 everyday won't make a difference to me in terms of when I'll have to go to sleep each nite 🙂.

Glad to hear you think you'll have better opportunities in your new lab! I'm looking forward to getting to some of that stuff too lol.

--Jessica
 
It's almost that time of the year you guys! I can almost taste the chalk. Congratulations on getting those lab jobs skaterbabe and dr sal. Hopefully it won't be all cleaning. I'm just about to finish a "lab" (it was ALL cleaning) job before school starts. I couldn't take it anymore and my hours had really started to decline. Back to the job posting board. Do you get paid for working in the labs with the proffesors, or do you just get school credits? At my school you work for credits unless you apply for a research opportunity the semester before.

Enjoy the last week(s) of summer everyone. 😉
 
hey Midwest_Turtle....don't those cleaning jobs suck lol. At our school they offer both credit and paid jobs. But the paid jobs you pretty much have to get a work study award for unless it's the summer, the lab has a great grant, or you've been in that lab for awhile already lol. I happen to have work study and am pulling double duty at the moment until some of the non need work study awards are granted, and they can hire a few more people. I'm working in the stockroom (all cleaning) and an organic lab. I actually haven't done anything for the organic lab yet cuz they really needed the stockroom help first. Once I actually get away from the stockroom and into the organic lab I'll still have to do some organizing type stuff, but I'll get to do distillations and recrystallizations as well until I learn some more of the organic techniques from my class.

--Jessica

p.s. our classes rarely use chalk anymore lol...we have dry erase boards and powerpoint presentations lol
 
Hey people...

Sorry I haven't posted in a long while, but well, that's what happens when laziness sets in, I suppose. By the way, the real founder of this club was agent. I'm glad that he started it up.

I thought that I would come in once again to document everyone on what has been going on with me:

I took my final exams last Thursday for my summer school classes. Psychology was somewhat easier than I expected, and History was somewhat harder than I expected. On the plus side, I don't have to take anymore history classes now (sorry, history lovers, I'm just not one).

On Friday, I took and passed the exam for volunteers at HOAG. Soon afterwards, I signed up for Sunday morning shifts in the Oncology department (not my first choice, but I'm not complaining).

On Sunday, I woke up early, got ready, and sped off to my first day as a Clinical Care Extender. When I explained to the head nurse that it was my first day, she made sure to let everyone know that so that their expectations of me were somewhat less. I followed around a PCA (Patient Care Assistant) as he checked patients' vital signs. I had to go grab water, food, etc. for patients and make beds.

Unfortunately, none of the patients that my PCA was assigned to look after were ones that I could converse with...one suffered from dementia and could not speak, another was very confused and seemed schizophrenic to me, a third one was in an isolation room, the fourth one had a bad mood and didn't wish to be disturbed, and the fifth one was very tired and needed to get some sleep during my shift. Maybe next time...

I also went around helping anyone who needed it. I asked everyone and I helped them. In fact, there was this one particularly nasty case of diaherrea that I had to go help clean up. The smell was so bad that it went right into the hallway, and I had to run through, blasting away with an air freshener after cleaning up the patient 😳

By the way, if you are going to take an active role in patient care, everyone, you will end up having to wash your hands a lot. It would be a good idea to invest money into buying lotions for when your hands get really dried up. I think I washed my hands dozens of times...wash before putting on gloves and helping patients, wash after taking off gloves, wash when going to the restroom, wash between seeing patients, etc.

Most of my tasks for that day were pretty much what people would see a CNA do, I suppose...and at the end of my shift, I was loving it...caring for patients, helping out people on the healthcare team...of course, I am not sure if I would want to work a 12 hour shift in this manner 😛

Well, that is that. The new thread should be coming up on the 25th...
 
Now that it appears Manna and I are in nursing school, its up to Biodude and Skaterbabe to uphold the club 🙂

I wish you all the best !!:clap:
 
<b>HI !</b>
how is everyone it has been some time since i have not posted anything .THis is partly due me being lazy for once and trying to desconect from everything in order to relax and take time for me .Soon i will be starting school again, 4 days till my 24th B-day

Agent and Manna I'm happy your going to nursing school.:clap:

Biodude I think it wonderful your job at the hospital and good luck for the CHOC program entrance test.
 
Hey, agent and manna,

We'll always be remembering you both here. If it wasn't for you, it'd be very difficult for people like me to find a good and supportive forum/thread for pre-meds. We all wish you both the best.
 
Hello all,

Im new to this forum, actullay just registered a couple of days ago. ive got a crazzy semester coming up...phys. 2, phys. 2 lab, molecular bio., 2 telecomm. classes (im a telecomm. major, with pre med emphasis) and a university writing req. class. aside from all that my kaplan class starts in oct. thru april. LUCKY ME!
Agent, i read your applying to roosevelt? i am currently there..were are you planning on taking your classes...schaumburg or downtown? any one else form the chicago area?
 
Hi all and welcome Bernz and DrSal!

Ever since they've changed the board software I haven't been receiving emails anymore when there's a new post....anyone else had this problem?

Anyway, my life's been hectic...managed to get excused from jury duty (yay!), tho the financial aid prob won't get fixed.

Our school has a policy if you're a first-year student and first-time borrower that you don't get your financial aid for 30 days after the start of classes. Somehow both my husband and I were classified as first-year (even though we're both former U of WI students and have current outstanding Stafford loans from our last time?!?) so our aid is delayed until October. The lovely FA officer at our campus tried all she could to get this fixed but someone in the central office keeps insisting we're not in their system. They changed systems in central processing a few years back and apparently we never got switched over to the new one somehow and they refuse to do anything about it. So the wonderful woman approved a $1200 emergency loan for books for us, but we're going to be living on ramen until October. Oh well....trials and tribulations.....

minx-Happy Birthday:clap: I hope your small "vacation" does good things for you and gets you ready for school!

Biodude-I'm glad your first day went well. Yeah, CNA work is scut work, but it's a great way just to be with people. I didn't like the nursing home (well the one I was at was quite subpar-I don't know what a nice one would be like) but being able to do it in the hospital would be great....

Skaterbabe-That will be so cool if you actually get to do the "chemistry" stuff. Makes me wish I'd been able to accept my work-study award (tho all I could've done this year is work in student services thanx to all my past office experience). Unfortunately, my husband's work just informed him that they'll be making cutbacks in staff and he'll be expected to work longer hours, which means I have to be at home most of the time for the kids. On the bright side, that will force me to learn to study more efficiently...

agent and manna-Good luck to you and don't leave us! You're a great example of the integrity in the nursing profession and also a great example to dispel the "inferiority" with which a lot of doctors traditionally view nurses. I, for one, would like to get a perspective on nursing school and your points of view as you progress...

Good luck to all of you who start school next week!
 
Jenni4479:- I had exactly the same problem suddendly I stopped receiving update from so I went to user CP and fixed it.Thank you yourthe first one to tell me happy b day.
Yes agent and Mann we wont forget youand really glad you created this thread .It has help me quite a bit.
 
Originally posted by minx
Jenni4479:- I had exactly the same problem suddendly I stopped receiving update from so I went to user CP and fixed it.Thank you yourthe first one to tell me happy b day.
Yes agent and Mann we wont forget youand really glad you created this thread .It has help me quite a bit.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry if I missed it. 🙁 Happy Birthday!!
:clap: :clap: :hardy:
 
Thanks everyone, Ill pass your kind words onto Manna in case she doesn't stop by. We chat pretty much every day now.

I'll stay in touch. Manna wants me to take a look at making a nurseschooldiary.com site so I may do that sometime when I have the opportunity 😉

Then you guys can always check up on us LOL
 
Hey all!

Welcome Bernz! Sounds like you'll have just as fun a semester as the rest of us lol. I grew up in the burbs of Chicago but have lived in Colorado for the last 5.5 years. I sooo miss downtown lol.


Happy Bday Minx!:clap: :clap:

Agent - Biodude and I will do our best to keep your club up and running well. Don't think we'll ever be able to completely fill your shoes, but we'll try 🙂. I think this thread (well the new version of it anyway) will be one of the few luxuries I'll be allowing myself this semester lol.

jenni - Your FA problems are definitely worse then mine lol. I can't believe they weren't able to correct that...the central office or whatever should have made a backup copy of all the people in the system before switching. At least they were able to give you that emergency loan...the max our school lets us take out is $500 I think. And it sux that your hubby is gonna have to work more....will he still have time for class and studying? As for wishing you'd been able to accept the work study sometimes I think it would have been better if I hadn't lol. As cool as working in the lab will be (fingers crossed that it'll happen) the stockroom at our school really sux. We have full time people with bachelors and masters who make up any stock solutions and stuff the classes need so the ugrads are stuck just cleaning. I hate cleaning my own house as it is, let alone spending my entire work time doing only that lol. But hopefully I'll be able to handle it for this semester if need be and get out next semester lol.

My physics prof finally ordered our books, but by the time I got to the bookstore this afternoon they were already out of what they had had in stock. They won't get the new shipment until mid-late next week! They wouldn't even give me the ISBN to order the darn thing myself and have it overnighted, but they at least told me the name, author, copyright, publisher so I think I found the one I need. I'm getting that and the study guide that goes with it and expedited shipping for the same price that it would have cost to just buy the book at school thru half.com lol. And I'll almost definitely get it faster then they will too hehe.

Most of my syllabi and schedules are online already so I finished reading the first chapter of organic and am working on the first readings for cell bio. If the schedule stays the same for cell bio and bio stats I'm gonna have to do some juggling come Oct. My stupid profs scheduled a computer lab (bio stats) and an exam (cell bio) on Yom Kippur! 😡 That's always listed on calenders so I don't get how they couldn't know, but hopefully my cell bio prof will let me reschedule and hopefully i won't miss too much in the computer lab....I'll be going thru conversion classes so it's not like I'll be able to miss such an important service as Yom Kippur. Guess we'll just see what happens lol.

Hope everyone has had a good week so far!
--Jessica
 
welcom
Hello
by way Iam still not 24 my B-day is on the 24th so you have <b>not miss it</b> thank for the nice happy birthday messages anyway.
Jenni I hope your FA problem is solved soon🙂
Skateboard sure you'll finally get your physics book and with luck you will get to work in the lab
 
Skaterbabe-Good for you for finding your book! I've wanted to do the same but most of our course syllabi listing the books aren't posted yet. Out of eight classes between the two of us, I've been able to find out which books we need for only two. I checked online and even if I only get those two, I can save almost $100 over the bookstore price.

Our loans are supposed to be limited to $300 apiece, but the officer knows how messed up our aid is and how expensive books REALLY are, so she got the dean to sign off on a larger amount. If I can do this right and manage to get some off the Internet, we may actually have some left over to carry us till October. She's still working on that...I should know something by the start of school.

As far as my husband's work goes, it'll be tougher for him but I've switched some other stuff around so I can pick up the slack. Usually he's very good about doing housework and stuff, but I'll be taking it ALL over so he has more time. Also, our cars need some work so he'll be busy on weekends with that (he's a former mechanic). I taught my kids how to do some of the cleaning this summer so they can help me. It's all in the scheduling!

I agree with you that this thread will be one of the few luxuries!
 
Hey, everyone, it's August 25th, and I have just finished up my first class on the first day of school...which means that it's time for another Under M1 Thread to start up...

I'll have it up...just gimme about 30 minutes 😀

When you do find it (I'll try to bump it up during the day), be sure to continue your conversations over there. This thread has stretched out quite a while...:clap:
 
done with my chem lab final. Thank god its done. 2 years to a cheers
 
masterMood said:
done with my chem lab final. Thank god its done. 2 years to a cheers
Click to expand...

tomorrow i have o-chem lab checkout..........if i never see another buchner funnel again i will be the happiest person alive
 
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