Congratulations on everyone's acceptances and decision to come to UHS for your medical education! I'm currently a MS1 and just completed my first semester a couple of days ago. It was a great semester, although pretty difficult, but hey, that's med school. We just completed the Skin, Blood, and Lymph section, which is the second hardest section of the genesis curriculum (second only to Neuroanatomy, which the MS2s are currently in). It was pretty rough, but I think I did fine- we'll see when grades are posted after break! For all of you who are wondering about the new curriculum, I think it's great! That was one of the major selling points for me to go there and luckily, it has really worked out for me. The way it works: they start the section out with the basic histology, anatomy, physiology, OMT, etc. lectures and then the more "specific" lectures are presented- i.e., pharm, immuno, and guest lectures. Scheme presentations are given throughout the section, along with pathology. Oh yeah, I'm sure you've all heard about pathology, right? We have one of the best pathologists in the world (and I am not overestimating just to sell the school mind you). He went to med school at Northwestern (his name is Edward Friedlander, MD, ERF for short) and taught pathology at UMKC and then came to UHS. If you are interested, I recommend going to his website <a href="http://www.pathguy.com" target="_blank">www.pathguy.com</a> and checking it out. Beware, though, you might get scared. Pathology is a very, very difficult course and the website has all of our lectures, along with thousands of path pictures, other websites, literature, and his skydiving experiences, so please do not get too overwhelmed when looking at it. I would venture a guess that we are trained in pathology about as good as it gets (look at our board scores). Anyways, the first semester is pretty overwhelming because I can't stress enough- med school is NOT college. I used to post on SDN all of the time last year but I don't have any time to do it this year (the only reason I'm posting now is because I'm on break). Please develop and/or think of ways to refine your study habits before you start class next year. Remember- you CAN NOT get thru med school on your own (unless you're an absolute genius and even then I don't think you could do it). You will have to form and take part in study groups in order to survive. This isn't college where you can do everything on your own and pass with flying colors. There is SO much information, but don't fret, you can do it. By the way, if anyone tells you that you have to learn ALL of the material, they're telling you a fib- it's impossible! The most important advice that I could give to you, the class of 2006 is, enjoy the rest of this year because late next summer your life will definetly change (for the better, I hope). Take care and I'm sure I'll meet some of you next summer!
Nathan Box
UHS 2005
