Vent/Complain/Whine/MISC thread!

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Hi all,

I'm going to contribute to this forum although I believe there was another one that went quiet. I have been pretty burnt out this semester after working full time (40+hrs per week), taking the MCAT (three times because I felt I could do better on verbal and writing), helping my parents move to a condo right across the street, and chasing a lovely girl (who is now my girlfriend) during the summer. I struggled to keep up with most of my courses, and I have a final next week for which I am 460 pages behind.


Now that I got some interview responses, I feel motivated again. However, I really just want this semester to end because then I'll be done fulfilling my neuroscience requirements, and I can look forward to taking some easy psych courses and focusing on my research labs next semester. I got an acceptance already, so I just want to pass my courses this semester.

Lastly, I leave my stuff in the study lounge because I'm here some 12+hrs studying for finals and some R-**** left me a note saying I should stop hogging the tables while I was taking a 2hr nap. *physician-scientist* *breathe* *physician-scientist* *breathe* *physician-scientist* :)
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hang in there redoc! you can do it - obviously you can as seen by an acceptance already! remember, winter break is almost here and will be a much needed/appreciated break for many of us (unless you go to harvard or some other school with finals in january)
 
Sounds like you're handling things well Redoc (well,l as well as can be expected:D) Congrats on the acceptance...and the girl!

God knows I have been dancing around a guy all semester and it is not going anywhere... Grumble grumble grumble
 
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Finals suck. Especially finals on Sunday. That is all.
 
Hi all,

Thanks for the kind words. Geez Solitude, we have finals on Saturday here at BU, but not on Sundays... You have my sympathy. :S
 
Likewise, we have finals on Saturdays, not Sundays. However, if it makes you feel any better, Solitude, I'm spending all weekend (incl. tomorrow) on a take-home final exam that is essentially a timed 10-page paper.

j-weezy said:
hang in there redoc! you can do it - obviously you can as seen by an acceptance already! remember, winter break is almost here and will be a much needed/appreciated break for many of us (unless you go to harvard or some other school with finals in january)
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Eep! I hate finals in January, because studying over winter break when everyone else is having fun sucks. I hate Reading Periods that are really full of paper-writing. And I hate classes that give take-home final exams in December at schools with finals in January - that's like having two sets of finals, one before break and one after break.

:(
 
Well redoc best of luck to you!

And Dodo and jweezy, in a sick sadistic way, it's nice to know I'm not the only one suffering...
 
I'm didn't realize so many schools have Saturday finals. I was telling people at my interview yesterday that I had a final today and they all said ~ "wtf?" Well actually, one guy said "But today is Friday?" Since my bus was late...of course... I didn't get a chance to study, and as I was ree-he-healy far behind I'm pretty sure I failed. :eek:There will soon be a spot up for grabs at my schools:(

At least it's over though. Sunday finals sound harsh, Solitude.
 
My cousin at Penn State has finals both today and tomorrow...I feel bad for her. I'm frankly surprised colleges schedule exams on Sundays (or, for that matter in a lot of cases, Saturdays) considering a lot of people could potentially have religious conflicts.
 
Weekend tests are pure evil! That being said, my finals week is next week, which is just way too close to Christmas for my liking.
 
Okay, major pet peeve of mine (and my roommate's as well): silly partiers who play really catchy music at top volume on my floor or the floor above me in my dorm, with the bass so loud it literally causes my chair to vibrate, so I can't focus on this take-home final. We already had a Holiday dance yesterday (Friday night), which was quite fun - isn't that enough partying for one weekend? Aaaaaargh!

My undergrad years have been the best of my life, but I've decided I'm going to try to avoid living near undergrads at least during the first 2 years of med school. :(
 
Dodo23 said:
Okay, major pet peeve of mine (and my roommate's as well): silly partiers who play really catchy music at top volume on my floor or the floor above me in my dorm, with the bass so loud it literally causes my chair to vibrate, so I can't focus on this take-home final. We already had a Holiday dance yesterday (Friday night), which was quite fun - isn't that enough partying for one weekend? Aaaaaargh!

My undergrad years have been the best of my life, but I've decided I'm going to try to avoid living near undergrads at least during the first 2 years of med school. :(
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I hate people who play bass in the dorms. Basses should be banned from dormitories. In my sophmore year, I had one neighbor who had two tv's and would play his bass until 3-4am, and my other neighbor blasted his bass as well and his tv went into the wall where my head was on the opposite side. I've become sensitized and developed a strong aversion towards bass and loud noise.

Oh, people who talk in quiet study lounges piss me off, too.
 
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j-weezy said:
I have a renowned death stare - i use it often when in libraries
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Once at an outdoor concert a small child (~3) kept blowing on this really screeching loud whistle. I turned around, shot him a look of death & his jaw dropped, causing the whistle to fall out. Then his mother wouldn't let him put it back in his mouth because it had fallen on the ground. Score. (Did I mention I want to go into peds?)
 
chylo said:
Once at an outdoor concert a small child (~3) kept blowing on this really screeching loud whistle. I turned around, shot him a look of death & his jaw dropped, causing the whistle to fall out. Then his mother wouldn't let him put it back in his mouth because it had fallen on the ground. Score. (Did I mention I want to go into peds?)
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Hahahaha! That's hilarious. You just made my day! Good luck with finals for all that have them.
 
Here's a finals horror story I just experienced yesterday...

After pulling an all-nighter studying for my neuroendocrinology course, I walk into the exam feeling really nervous. I read the instructions, and it says, "Part 1: Choose one of the following topics of A, B, C, and D and write an essay." I finish part 1 and end up finishing the rest of the exam about 10mins early. I look over my answers and submit the exam. I'm tired as hell at this point so I go home and nap.

For some reason, I feel uneasy about the exam even though I had no trouble answering most of the questions. I call a fellow classmate, and he says, "No, it said answer A or B then answer C and D." Completely shocked, I called and asked two other classmates, and I get the same response. Those two questions I accidentally skipped were worth 35 of the 100 points. After sleeping 7 hrs in the past 48hrs, I am studying for another final at 12:30pm....

I might get my first B in college.... Maybe two if I misread the directions for this last upcoming one.
 
redoc said:
Here's a finals horror story I just experienced yesterday...

After pulling an all-nighter studying for my neuroendocrinology course, I walk into the exam feeling really nervous. I read the instructions, and it says, "Part 1: Choose one of the following topics of A, B, C, and D and write an essay." I finish part 1 and end up finishing the rest of the exam about 10mins early. I look over my answers and submit the exam. I'm tired as hell at this point so I go home and nap.

For some reason, I feel uneasy about the exam even though I had no trouble answering most of the questions. I call a fellow classmate, and he says, "No, it said answer A or B then answer C and D." Completely shocked, I called and asked two other classmates, and I get the same response. Those two questions I accidentally skipped were worth 35 of the 100 points. After sleeping 7 hrs in the past 48hrs, I am studying for another final at 12:30pm....

I might get my first B in college.... Maybe two if I misread the directions for this last upcoming one.
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:scared:

That is like everybody's worst fear, to study so hard and to make a simple mistake...

:( Sorry man, good luck on your last one....
 
First, redoc, that really sucks! Gosh, I feel terrible for you. That is my worst fear, right in front of not waking up for a test (which I did do once...)

Second, is everyone planning on sending letters of update with semester grades and anything else exciting that happened this semester?
 
OncDoc19 said:
First, redoc, that really sucks! Gosh, I feel terrible for you. That is my worst fear, right in front of not waking up for a test (which I did do once...)

Second, is everyone planning on sending letters of update with semester grades and anything else exciting that happened this semester?
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Hi OD,
I sent an update to a certain school on the west coast regarding my recent success in the lab and received an interview invite a week later! It may have been a coincidence, but it didn't hurt at all.

-E
 
skillmatic said:
Hi OD,
I sent an update to a certain school on the west coast regarding my recent success in the lab and received an interview invite a week later! It may have been a coincidence, but it didn't hurt at all.

-E
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Nice, that happened to me with my Rhodes interview and Harvard, which was sweet! The thing is, I'm not waiting to hear from any more schools. I was just checking to see if it was standard procedure to update grades and semester activities. I could also mention to them that I am a finalist for the Gates scholarship. However, I already sent an update after the Rhodes so I don't want to send too much.
 
I think that you're fine sending updates if you have good things to report. I'm not sure that I would send just grades, but an update of grades along with the Gates and such might help you out. I've sent two updates to schools since my applications were complete (when my papers were accepted) if nothing else, it forces them to dig your file out of the pile and have another look-see.
 
yeah - I definitely will NOT be sending any updates. I didn't actually end up failing as I had feared...but it certainly wasn't anything to write home about.

Do you think schools will mind that I took a bunch of credits pass/fail, and got A-'s in all the rest??
 
Picklesali said:
yeah - I definitely will NOT be sending any updates. I didn't actually end up failing as I had feared...but it certainly wasn't anything to write home about.

Do you think schools will mind that I took a bunch of credits pass/fail, and got A-'s in all the rest??
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Pickles, my finals aren't done yet and your situation is about what I'm shooting for. :(

And on the last day of classes, my stats prof assigned a last-minute, long paper (what math class assigns papers???) that we knew nothing about before; it's due around the same time as another term paper and on the same day as a take-home final, in early - yes, early - January, before the official finals period begins. Add 2000+ pages of reading for the take-home plus research for the two papers, and you have a ruined winter break. Dodo not happy. :( :( :(
 
Dodo23 said:
Pickles, my finals aren't done yet and your situation is about what I'm shooting for. :(

And on the last day of classes, my stats prof assigned a last-minute, long paper (what math class assigns papers???) that we knew nothing about before; it's due around the same time as another term paper and on the same day as a take-home final, in early - yes, early - January, before the official finals period begins. Add 2000+ pages of reading for the take-home plus research for the two papers, and you have a ruined winter break. Dodo not happy. :( :( :(
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Yikes! That doesn't sound like fun.
 
Ok, here's my vent/whine/complain for today...

I have a term paper for a class that constitutes roughly 50% of my grade. I have had all semester to work on it but I kept putting it off to do more immediate stuff and now its the end of the semester and it's not even started. Yes, I have done the necessary research, but the paper is not written. My teacher is amazing and gave me an extension. So, I have one more week to work on it and if I'm still not done he will give me an incomplete so I can have more time to finish it. As thrilled as I am, I have absolutely no desire to write this paper. I just can't bring myself to do it. I have had all day today, it's now 6pm and I have done nothing besides deal with some school app stuff and watch family guy. AHHHHHHH writers block when you are under a time crunch is very bad!
 
redoc said:
I might get my first B in college.... Maybe two if I misread the directions for this last upcoming one.
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Am I the only person around here who /doesn't/ have a 4.00?
 
I suppose it was a bit hyperbolic...but the way people talk about how getting a B is "failing" or never not having gotten an A or some such, it would seem that there would be a lot more 4.00s around than there actually are...
 
pennquaker08 said:
I suppose it was a bit hyperbolic...but the way people talk about how getting a B is "failing" or some such, it would seem that there would be a lot more 4.00s around than there actually are...
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People with a +/- grading system can technically have all As their entire college life and still not have a 4.0 (those pesky A minuses)

Thank god I graduate before my school implements +/-
 
pennquaker08 said:
Am I the only person around here who /doesn't/ have a 4.00?
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nope. My GPA has taken a hit simply from my passion for spanish literature. I am not very good at spanish (pretty terrible actually), yet I am finishing up a minor in it because I love it so much. Needless to say, my BCPM is 0.25 points above my overall simply because of spanish courses. Schools have been rather understanding so far, realizing that my ability to write research papers in spanish does not translate to medicine.
 
j-weezy said:
People with a +/- grading system can technically have all As their entire college life and still not have a 4.0 (those pesky A minuses)

Thank god I graduate before my school implements +/-
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Wouldn't the +/- system then also account for a 4.33 for A+s? That way it all evens out. That's how I have an 4.0 according to my university :D
 
lots of schools have a +/- system but without A+'s, so not necessarily.
 
My school has +/- (why can't we be more like Brown???), and A and A+ both count for 4.00 just as on AMCAS...sooooo not fair. I don't think of A- as the same as A because it counts for different...
 
pennquaker08 said:
My school has +/- (why can't we be more like Brown???), and A and A+ both count for 4.00 just as on AMCAS...sooooo not fair. I don't think of A- as the same as A because it counts for different...
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ditto
 
You all are making me feel old (I'm 24) but very, very glad to be old for once!
:p

Honestly, it's been SUCH a relief to get into programs & finally feel absolved from the guilt of my far less than stellar undergraduate record. I mean, once you're into an MD/PhD program, no one's really gonna care that you got a B, even, god forbid, a B-! Pennquaker (et al?) rest assured, you're not alone in not having a 4.0. I didn't post my GPA on my mdapps-- I didn't want anyone to assume I was out of my mind to apply to MD/PhD programs w/a GPA like that... neurotic much?

Oddly enough, my BCPM & my overall GPA were exactly the same. Granted, the vast majority of my courses were BCPM but it went to a liberal arts college so I had to take languages, social sciences & humanities too.

It's also nice to not have to worry about another semester's worth of work! Of course, I should become a bit more motivated about the lab stuff. I'm really, really going to miss this job when I leave & six months (assuming I do a summer rotation) doesn't give me much time at all here.
 
chylo said:
You all are making me feel old (I'm 24) but very, very glad to be old for once!
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27 years old--hey, at least my skin's still good, but on this forum I swear I'm like a demented grandma who wandered out of bed into the middle of a quinciñera.

I'm hazarding a guess that MDApps suffers from selection bias in that the people who feel really confident about their profiles are the most likely to post them. My numbers are reasonable based on the information made available by the schools to which I'm applying, but if I start comparing myself to you lot I'll just get scared. So I've stopped clicking on profiles. My mom's cooking thirteen courses of fish on Christmas, and my family doesn't need any extra crazy over the holidays. :rolleyes:
 
meowkat444 said:
lots of schools have a +/- system but without A+'s, so not necessarily.
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That's what my school's grading scheme is like. As a result, it's very rare for anyone to get a perfect 4.0 around here.

My GPA is not as high as it used to be before I started working in a lab for several hours a week during termtime. Since then, classes have been less of a priority. Also, taking the most interesting and challenging classes possible has helped me get a good scientific and liberal arts education in college, but hasn't always helped my GPA. Some of the classes in which I got my lowest grades were also the ones in which I worked my hardest and learned the most, so on the whole I don't regret taking them. Fortunately, it's paid off so far; it seems that adcoms and interviewers (in my experience) are paying attention to course-selection as well as strict numbers. Like chylo, I'm currently far more relieved about the courses I didn't ace than I was at the start of this process.
 
Darn, two long term papers and a take-home final next week. :(
 
Dodo23 said:
Oh, and I tried to take a statistics midterm on Monday without a calculator (left it at home by mistake). First time I've ever done something that stupid. :( I'm not looking forward to getting that one back.
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My brother graduated from a non-US high school where the finals were cumulative...as in everything you learned in 10-12th grade cumulative. And they weren't allowed to use a calculator on the trig, calculus, algebra, chemistry and physics exams...man do we have it easy! :D
 
So I took 20 credits in the fall semester and ended up with 5 A's and 2 B's...one of the B's I can say that it was well deserved, but the other was due to sheer carelessness. Oh well...I'm still proud of myself for surviving 20 credits that included Orgo chem II with lab, physics I with lab, Microbio with lab, Cell bio, and feature writing.
 
Thought I'd resurrect this thread.

January finals suck.

End of story.
 
What sucks is having to go through one more semester before starting med school.
 
Yeah, well, I'm not even done with the penultimate semester before med school let alone the last.

This is going to be one long spring.
 
Hang in there, Dodo, this is supposed the be the easy part! :)
 
Thanks, Pickles. I know you're right, but I haven't had a real break since right after MCATs in Aug. '06 and I'm starting to get really tired. I get hardly any time off before the next (and final) semester begins. Plus my thesis is due right after spring break, so there goes that break. :rolleyes:
 
I'll add my two cents worth of venting here.

I'm extremely frustrated with how much publishing seems to count. Everywhere I go I'm asked why I haven't published and several people have commented that I would have much better chances if I had published.

To me, it seems whether an undergraduate publishes is often up to chance. Certainly, publishing doesn't necessarily correlate with training or future success, except perhaps in that "success breeds success." It seems ridiculous that those who are unlucky or simply less calculating than their peers would be disfavored so. Argh.

Oh, and interviewing sucks.
 
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