UT-Houston School Thread

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armybound said:
well, I just learned that I need a special long-distance code to send faxes from work, which means that the scholarship application I sent in a couple months ago was never actually sent...
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ouch
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armybound said:
yeah, my wife is super pissed that I didn't confirm that it went through the first time I tried to send it in.
and, of course, I feel like a *****.
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its cool because now you're famous :)


p.s. i'm 3 weeks away from being an ms3. holy cow.
 
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armybound said:
no more classes!

I imagine they rotate everyone's picture up there though.. I doubt it's anything special.
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i think this is only the 3rd group they've put up. So that makes you like #12 or so. and so far you're the only one I know (even thought I don't really know you.... yet :)) so that makes you FAMOUS!!!!



(p.s. don't take that ....yet in a creeper fashion. I just mean I'll know you because you'll go to my school. Yay!!!
 
aggiesarah2007 said:
i think this is only the 3rd group they've put up. So that makes you like #12 or so. and so far you're the only one I know (even thought I don't really know you.... yet :)) so that makes you FAMOUS!!!!



(p.s. don't take that ....yet in a creeper fashion. I just mean I'll know you because you'll go to my school. Yay!!!
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didn't you also stalk me when I was interviewing?

stalker!
 
Hey Guys,
How long is UTH's summer break btwn 1st and 2nd yr? Heard it was only 2-3wks long.. Any confirmation on this?
 
professoris said:
Hey Guys,
How long is UTH's summer break btwn 1st and 2nd yr? Heard it was only 2-3wks long.. Any confirmation on this?
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Oh god no. It's from mid-May to mid-August, so probably 3 months +/- a couple weeks. Plenty of time to research, precept, or just hang out (or multiple of the above).
 
DocPsychosis said:
Oh god no. It's from mid-May to mid-August, so probably 3 months +/- a couple weeks. Plenty of time to research, precept, or just hang out (or multiple of the above).
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yeah its a really nice break. whatever you end up doing make a little time for fun though.
 
Thanks Y'all.. I was quite worried.. guess it was just a rumor.
@ DocPsychosis: How do you get preceptorship opportunities? And how important are they to your residency chances.

I heard something about a free Netters book + Flashcards if you join AMSA. Is this the case at every school including UTH? How do I join?

Can anyone shed light on acceptance into AOA at UTH?

Thanks guys..!
 
professoris said:
Thanks Y'all.. I was quite worried.. guess it was just a rumor.
@ DocPsychosis: How do you get preceptorship opportunities? And how important are they to your residency chances.

I heard something about a free Netters book + Flashcards if you join AMSA. Is this the case at every school including UTH? How do I join?

Can anyone shed light on acceptance into AOA at UTH?

Thanks guys..!
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AMSA gives you a free netters for signing up and applying for their credit card. Its the same at every school. I feel like someone else did the flashcards - maybe AMA/TMA. And I think it was like ipod nettercards. But someone can correct me on that.

You can join all the groups at orientation. They'll have a bunch of tables out with different groups you an sign up with. But don't worry, you can't really over commit like in undergrad :) (unless you want to be an officer in everything you join)

AOA - hmmmm the light I would shed is don't worry about it. It is not worth stressing over. But here are some of the details I got at their informational meeting:

Max number of people is 1/6 of the class, and you must be in the top quarter. They do it all at the beginning of 4th year. I think right at the beginning they'll send out an email with the application and you fill it out and give them your CV. There is a complicated way of looking at your grades that is confusing. You do have to have at least 6 honors in the first 2 years, and the 3rd year stuff is weighted on how long the rotation is. And then they don't take your step 1 scores into consideration.

That is pretty much the high points of info they gave us.

I don't know what Doc did with his summer, but I did a pediatric preceptorship through the state program if anyone wants to know anything about that.
 
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professoris said:
Thanks Y'all.. I was quite worried.. guess it was just a rumor.
@ DocPsychosis: How do you get preceptorship opportunities? And how important are they to your residency chances.

I heard something about a free Netters book + Flashcards if you join AMSA. Is this the case at every school including UTH? How do I join?

Can anyone shed light on acceptance into AOA at UTH?

Thanks guys..!
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Here's some good information about preceptorships that you can do during the summer: http://med.uth.tmc.edu/administration/stud_affairs/opportunities/preceptorship.htm

Also, keep in mind that you're going to have to do a preceptorship during your 2nd year for a class. :)

I participated in the school's research program during the summer after 1st year so if anyone has any questions about it, feel free to ask!

Back to studying... :( These next 3 weeks need to hurry up!
 
Zweisamkeit said:
I participated in the school's research program during the summer after 1st year so if anyone has any questions about it, feel free to ask!

Back to studying... :( These next 3 weeks need to hurry up!
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Ditto for me on all these points. Can't say much about the summer preceptor program, but it's been covered already I guess.

Anyone who wants to do research can, as long as you find a professor willing to sponsor you; the only hard part is finding funding. There are maybe 15 NIH grants (~$5k each) available through the school, which means your faculty is off the hook for payment. I did not receive one of these, but the stroke program I worked with is ridiculously well-funded so they gave me a stipend out of departmental funds. It's pretty much just whatever you can scrounge up.
 
professoris said:
Thanks Y'all.. I was quite worried.. guess it was just a rumor.
@ DocPsychosis: How do you get preceptorship opportunities? And how important are they to your residency chances.

I heard something about a free Netters book + Flashcards if you join AMSA. Is this the case at every school including UTH? How do I join?

Can anyone shed light on acceptance into AOA at UTH?

Thanks guys..!
Click to expand...

You can do anything you want during the summer, but popular choices are preceptorships or research. If you know you want to apply to a certain field that is incredibly competitive research can be your friend. Doing a preceptorship will make no difference to residency programs, I would only do one if you just can't wait one more minute to see patients. As someone else mentioned, you do a preceptorship during second year anyway.
 
ncpheartsyou said:
What class do you do a preceptorship for, and for how long? Oh, and is it in any department or do you just have a choice of peds/FM/IM?



I'm pretty interested in doing that...just wondering if it's hard to get a research position or if the program denies a lot of MS1 applicants?


thanks for all this info, current UTH students...I'm getting SO excited. good luck with the rest of your studying too...you're almost there!!! :)
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Doc is right on about the research. Anyone can do it if they want, but you have to write a grant proposal if you want one of the grants/stipends and hope that you get selected. It's also worth mentioning that the program is only 10 weeks long so you either have to be really, really lucky if you want to accomplish significant work during that time span or plan on doing research after the program ends. I know some people continued working in their lab when school started.

The class that you take during your 2nd year that requires you to do a preceptorship is called Physical Diagnosis. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people are assigned to a preceptor in IM, but some were assigned to cardiology, med-peds (me), pedi neuro, EM, and perhaps others that I'm not aware of. You need to complete a certain number of patient write-ups, so the duration of the preceptorship lasts as long as it takes for you to complete all of them. I only had to meet with my preceptor a few times because mine always had a ton of patients for me. Lesson learned: peds is insane during the winter months. :scared:
 
Thanks aggiesarah2007, Doc, Zweisamkeit, Thanatos!
Great replies...
 
This is probably a dumb question, but did you guys fill out the scholarship form? I was just wondering because I had no idea that it existed until after the deadline. All I did was fill out my fafsa really early, and was wondering if it is still possible I could get something.
 
kakalak said:
This is probably a dumb question, but did you guys fill out the scholarship form? I was just wondering because I had no idea that it existed until after the deadline. All I did was fill out my fafsa really early, and was wondering if it is still possible I could get something.
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i just sent mine off about 2 weeks ago, so maybe. However, i was just accepted about a month ago so i think they made an exception for that reason. All in all, it's probably still worth the stamp, couldn't hurt.
 
So I went to try on the white jackets (Dilly brand) at the bookstore today and they sleeves are incredibly short. I am pretty fit, so I can't fill out anything bigger than a 44, but at 6'3" I'm looking for something where my elbows aren't hanging out of the sleeve.

Anybody got any suggestions on where to buy jackets for taller guys?
 
You must have freakish wingspan proportions. I'm between 6'-6'1" and the size 40 is only a little short in the arms. I don't know about white coat suppliers that specialize for tall skinny people; you may need to buy a great big one and have it tailored through the torso.
 
disarticulate said:
So I went to try on the white jackets (Dilly brand) at the bookstore today and they sleeves are incredibly short. I am pretty fit, so I can't fill out anything bigger than a 44, but at 6'3" I'm looking for something where my elbows aren't hanging out of the sleeve.

Anybody got any suggestions on where to buy jackets for taller guys?
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http://www.uniformcorner.com/acatalog/Mens_Tall_Consultation_Coat.html

That might help. You could always try looking online but of course the obvious disadvantage will be that you can't try it on before you buy. Don't worry too much though, everyone looks weird to some degree in a short white coat.

Sorry I couldn't help more. I got my drink on ASAP after my LAST block exam ever!!! I'll be more sober and helpful tomorrow. :)
 
Nobody looks good in the short white coat. Nobody. But its definitely worse for taller/muscular guys.....I'm 6'3 and the first time I put mine on I thought the exact same thing about the sleeves. The thing is they all do that....somebody told me once they're specifically designed to keep you from getting your sleeves dirty.

Try on several different sizes to see what is most comfortable, but accept that unless you are very short/thin it will feel awkward. The good news is everyone you know will feel that way and you'll get used to it ;) You won't hardly put it on until third year anyway, and then you'll live in it.
 
Thanatos said:
Nobody looks good in the short white coat. Nobody. But its definitely worse for taller/muscular guys.....I'm 6'3 and the first time I put mine on I thought the exact same thing about the sleeves. The thing is they all do that....somebody told me once they're specifically designed to keep you from getting your sleeves dirty.

Try on several different sizes to see what is most comfortable, but accept that unless you are very short/thin it will feel awkward. The good news is everyone you know will feel that way and you'll get used to it ;) You won't hardly put it on until third year anyway, and then you'll live in it.
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For a "coat" my sleeves fit great, but I roll them up because they are always in the way. Short white coats are uncomfortable (from the fabric to the length), sometimes I think they do it to make us like our long white coats even more one day.

p.s. i have an extra 36 (I think) if someone wants it. My friend bought a smaller one because she ordered too big in the first place.
 
I have an extra short white coat size 30 (female) if someone wants it....for free! :thumbup:
 
heartland said:
I was thinking of getting something lower powered and smaller, like a netbook.
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Found this deal yesterday for only $550. For almost the price of a netbook you can get a pretty well outfitted laptop. The 9-cell battery and windows xp pro downgrade make it a pretty good deal in my opinion.
 
disarticulate said:
Found this deal yesterday for only $550. For almost the price of a netbook you can get a pretty well outfitted laptop. The 9-cell battery and windows xp pro downgrade make it a pretty good deal in my opinion.
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15" widescreen is huge to lug around, though :(

I'm also considering a netbook, unless I see another deal on a 12-13" laptop. You can find some HP tablets sometimes for ~$650
 
If you're willing to spend a little extra cash, definitely get the Vaio Z. It has a 13" screen and it weighs just a shade over 3lbs. The screen is wide with a very thin bezel, so the footprint is damn near the same as my friend's MSI Wind. I absolutely love mine. I snagged it back in December when it was in Amazon's Gold Box. Then I used the Sony Tradeups program to get $450 for my 6 year old dell 6000.
 
armybound said:
I say I'm considering a ~$400 laptop and you tell me to look at a ~$1900 laptop? :eek:
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Not that you need a fancy laptop at all, but in case anyone doesn't know, you can apparently bring your receipt to financial aid and they will add the extra cost of the computer into your budget (so you can take out more loan money) so you're not pinching it out of your normal semester financial aid check.

Also, in the future, since this was a surprise to me, you will have to let the money people know that you want to pay your tuition bill in 2 payments if you want it to be split up the way loan checks come out (one in august, one in january). Otherwise they will get your disbursement, take out a year of tuition, and then give you what is left over to live on for 6 months. I don't think you have to worry about this now, but you'll probably have to take care of it before august
 
aggiesarah2007 said:
Also, in the future, since this was a surprise to me, you will have to let the money people know that you want to pay your tuition bill in 2 payments if you want it to be split up the way loan checks come out (one in august, one in january). Otherwise they will get your disbursement, take out a year of tuition, and then give you what is left over to live on for 6 months. I don't think you have to worry about this now, but you'll probably have to take care of it before august
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The most annoying part of this is that, from what I recall, they charge you something like a $25 "service fee" just to split the billing in half, even though it takes them about three mouse clicks and none of us reasonably has a choice not to do it. It's hard to spread $4,000 over six months and not starve to death. :(
 
I'm not understanding the difference between splitting the bill and not? How does it affect how much money you get to live off of?
 
I swear I'm just plain stupid. There hasn't been a single requirement that I haven't had a problem with so far.

Now pre-check is telling me they haven't gotten my signed release form and I can't find anywhere to get it from.
 
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armybound said:
I swear I'm just plain stupid. There hasn't been a single requirement that I haven't had a problem with so far.

Now pre-check is telling me they haven't gotten my signed release form and I can't find anywhere to get it from.
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Did pre-check send you an email stating that they needed a signed release form? I don't remember sending one, and I haven't heard anything from them since I did the background check a while back. Now I'm a little concerned that I haven't completed it yet...
 
MiSfiT2013 said:
Did pre-check send you an email stating that they needed a signed release form? I don't remember sending one, and I haven't heard anything from them since I did the background check a while back. Now I'm a little concerned that I haven't completed it yet...
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yes, they just sent me an email saying they haven't gotten my signed release form yet and can't start my background check until they get it.

I logged back onto the pre-check website to try to get it so I could fax it and what not but it tells me I've already applied to that position and won't let me do anything else.
 
armybound said:
I swear I'm just plain stupid. There hasn't been a single requirement that I haven't had a problem with so far.

Now pre-check is telling me they haven't gotten my signed release form and I can't find anywhere to get it from.
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Haha I'm feeling the same way.

Mistakes made so far:
1.Didn't even know there was a scholarship application
2.Made a mistake of FAFSA that said I had more income than I actually do.
3.Not even sure if my pre-check stuff has started.

Anyone else a little put off by our website? When I was trying to get to the background check info I ended up just having to go back into my email, there was no way to get to it on the website, and I swear there was 2 months ago.
 
armybound said:
I'm not understanding the difference between splitting the bill and not? How does it affect how much money you get to live off of?
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If you're like me, you'll have no scholarships or outside support and will be living solely off bank loans. The main one (the only one I'm using) is Stafford, which is disbursed in two segments, roughly July and January, up to about $32k total or $16k apiece, give or take a few grand. If you don't have the school likewise split the billing into two segments, you will by default pay the full year's tuition and fees (~$11k) out of just the first half of your loan disbursement, leaving you with about $5k to get through the entire first semester's living expenses. The school deducts automatically from your funds before you even see them; you receive a check or auto-deposit notification with the remainder for that time period.

Hope that clears it up a little. :)
 
I see what you're saying. It sounds like it's definitely best to have them split the tuition fees as well.

Is that $16k all subsidized?
 
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