What is Wrong With Aiming High?

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CertifiedGunner said:
You on the other hand seem to keep coming back for more, even though you are convinced that I am a troll. If you are not going to contribute anything to the conversation, you posting is a waste of time for both you and me.
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I'm not posting here for you. I'm posting here so that when your trollishness is revealed to all, I will get credit for having declared it first.

It's a race, really.
 
getdown said:
You may be in for a rude awakening during clinicals. Not everyone is going to be nice and supportive especially during your surgery rotations. Residents are tired, overworked, stressed and may lash out at you. And there will always be dinguses who want to lord it over you as a medical student. Getting chewed out for screwing up is a much better way of reinforcing what not to do then being told nicely. You'll see soon enough.
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You make a decent point but, the key difference here is that you can actually call someone out on their behavior if they're being a dick on the Internet - without risking the future of your career (in most circumstances)

I always find these comments about how someone is going to struggle in medical school/as a doctor because of a couple posts on SDN as ridiculous

For instance, your response could definitely come off as condescending and patronizing.

You might struggle as a practicing physician because of you have such a high intellect and are unable to emphasize with what your patients are going through /s

Like cmon dude lol
 
JPmoleymole said:
You make a decent point but, the key difference here is that you can actually call someone out on their behavior if they're being a dick on the Internet - without risking the future of your career (in most circumstances)

I always find these comments about how someone is going to struggle in medical school/as a doctor because of a couple posts on SDN as ridiculous

For instance, your response could definitely come off as condescending and patronizing.

You might struggle as a practicing physician because of you have such a high intellect and are unable to emphasize with what your patients are going through /s
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Being reasonably harsh on the internet is fun. Simple as that.

And if you let some people whom you don’t even know bring you down just because they hurt your feelings, you’ve got problems.
 
LoveBeingHuman:) said:
Being reasonably harsh on the internet is fun. Simple as that.

And if you let some people whom you don’t even know bring you down just because they hurt your feelings, you’ve got problems.
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So in other words, the anonymity of the internet lets you be the dingus you wish you could be in real life.

ETA: Not you specifically.
 
It's annoying when people shoot down others who have high aspirations. Yes, neurosurgery is a very competitive field to get into. But let the person have that goal, and let them decide if it's not for them in med school. If you shoot high you'll probably end up in a great spot.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
This thread is atrociou
Ribonucleic Acid said:
It's annoying when people shoot down others who have high aspirations. Yes, neurosurgery is a very competitive field to get into. But let the person have that goal, and let them decide if it's not for them in med school. If you shoot high you'll probably end up in a great spot.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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Thank you, good sir. Finally, someone who understands the old adage; live and let live!

At the end of the day, whether you want to pursue neurosurgery or not has little impact or not on whether you are granted admission to a school. So all of this talk is extremely contrived and just silly at this point.
 
JPmoleymole said:
You make a decent point but, the key difference here is that you can actually call someone out on their behavior if they're being a dick on the Internet - without risking the future of your career (in most circumstances)

I always find these comments about how someone is going to struggle in medical school/as a doctor because of a couple posts on SDN as ridiculous

For instance, your response could definitely come off as condescending and patronizing.

You might struggle as a practicing physician because of you have such a high intellect and are unable to emphasize with what your patients are going through /s

Like cmon dude lol
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It doesn't really matter to me if you think my comment is patronizing or condescending, I'm just stating a fact. The medical students who have the hardest times in clinicals are the ones that are not used to dealing with difficult personalities or are too sensitive about everything. It's time to step foot in the working world where people can and will be a dick to you just because they can. There are no longer participation trophies and you either meet expectations or don't. How you respond will go a long way in making your experience a good one or a bad one. And for the record, I said "you may be in for a rude awakening" since I really don't know this person's actual personality.
 
Ribonucleic Acid said:
It's annoying when people shoot down others who have high aspirations. Yes, neurosurgery is a very competitive field to get into. But let the person have that goal, and let them decide if it's not for them in med school. If you shoot high you'll probably end up in a great spot.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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It’s funny because your profile pic is McDouchey and Grey’s Anatomy produces some of the most clueless premeds I’ve ever met.
 
premstudent said:
This thread is atrociou

Thank you, good sir. Finally, someone who understands the old adage; live and let live!

At the end of the day, whether you want to pursue neurosurgery or not has little impact or not on whether you are granted admission to a school. So all of this talk is extremely contrived and just silly at this point.
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Mmm yeah, like you never had any stake in this
 
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getdown said:
When you're applying to residency, assuming you're a US grad, your STEP1 score is THE ONLY THING that matters. You don't have the minimum, sorry no luck.
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I meant numbers in the statistical sense... numbers about percentage rates of residents in a certain specialty, acceptance rates, percent of students who change their minds before and after medical school et cetera
 
CertifiedGunner said:
Hey all, I'm brand new here. Well that's not entirely true... I've been lurking on this website without an account for quite some while now. Normally I have never felt the need to post anything, but recently I've been seeing something that has kind of been rubbing me the wrong way.
I've noticed that whenever a pre-med mentions that they want to become a neurosurgeon or something along the same lines, they are almost immediately shot down by some of the "hot shots" over here. I'd like to know what is the reasoning behind this. If asked, I assume they would defend themselves by saying that they are only trying to save others from future disappointment. When you think about it, it is kind of similar to a gunner pre-med telling their classmate that getting into med school is way too hard, and that they should rather look into podiatry instead. Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. Thoughts?
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I've never personally known anyone to actually go from the premed dream of neurosurgery to actually being a neurosurgeon. And the number of people I've known with that dream is in the three digits, so... Take that for what it's worth. We say go to med school and stop picking a particular specialty because it's quite rare for specialty interests to remain static, hence using one as a primary means for justifying attending medical school is ignoring well-established evidence. You also miss that we give the same advice to those considering primary care tracks- don't count on sticking to primary care, as interests can change substantially and you might make yourself miserable. It's not about how competitive a given specialty is so much as the reality that interests change, though competitive specialities have issues in regard to the difficulty of obtaining a position that can lead to massive disappointment as well.
 
getdown said:
When you're applying to residency, assuming you're a US grad, your STEP1 score is THE ONLY THING that matters. You don't have the minimum, sorry no luck.
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This is completely incorrect. You could have a high Step score and not match a competitive specialty for any number of reasons. Beyond a certain level, research, letters, AOA status, etc matter more than the Step score itself. Hit that minimum to be competitive, sure, but beyond that you need to do a lot of additional work to land your specialty of choice.
 
Mad Jack said:
I've never personally known anyone to actually go from the premed dream of neurosurgery to actually being a neurosurgeon. And the number of people I've known with that dream is in the three digits, so... Take that for what it's worth. We say go to med school and stop picking a particular specialty because it's quite rare for specialty interests to remain static, hence using one as a primary means for justifying attending medical school is ignoring well-established evidence. You also miss that we give the same advice to those considering primary care tracks- don't count on sticking to primary care, as interests can change substantially and you might make yourself miserable. It's not about how competitive a given specialty is so much as the reality that interests change, though competitive specialities have issues in regard to the difficulty of obtaining a position that can lead to massive disappointment as well.
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:claps::claps::claps:

Spot on
 
I found the thread that the OP is mentioning. "Neurosurgery" being cardiac surgery and "shot down" being the SDN community informing the OP to make sure they are in control of their own mental condition due to their past history of mental illness. What was a supposedly mistaken case of mental health assessment turned into hot gossip commentary on disgruntled doctors v. starry-eyed students.
 
Select All That Apply said:
I found the thread that the OP is mentioning. "Neurosurgery" being cardiac surgery and "shot down" being the SDN community informing the OP to make sure they are in control of their own mental condition due to their past history of mental illness. What was a supposedly mistaken case of mental health assessment turned into hot gossip commentary on disgruntled doctors v. starry-eyed students.
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Wow that thread is a rorschach test . A majority of posts on that thread are discussing tattos self harm and positive examples of people who have done it or whether to conceal the self harm or not.
 
Mad Jack said:
This is completely incorrect. You could have a high Step score and not match a competitive specialty for any number of reasons. Beyond a certain level, research, letters, AOA status, etc matter more than the Step score itself. Hit that minimum to be competitive, sure, but beyond that you need to do a lot of additional work to land your specialty of choice.
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I might be splitting hairs here but applying and matching are not necessarily the same thing. A student wouldn't even apply to certain specialties depending on what they got on their STEP1, let alone matching into it. But should they have a competitive score or the minimum of their chosen specialty field, then yes everything you mentioned becomes very important in matching into said specialty. At that point your away rotation performance will likely play a large role in whether or not you match at that program.
 
I think many people on here are just as tired of threads that aren't really asking for advice, but rather they want us to tell them what they want to hear. There was one thread a few weeks earlier about a junior with a sub 2.0 GPA failing retakes on introductory classes asking for realistic (can't stress this enough) advice. Didn't really listen and basically said that he can get all As from now on. Point is, framing words nicely does not have the same effect of a sarcastic reply.

And again, no one cares what your goals are in this sub forum. They are the equivalent of a 5 year old girl saying she wants to be a princess. The difference is that one is a kid and another is an adult that should know that stupid statements get sarcastic/rude/condescending responses.
 
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doctorcocter said:
It’s funny because your profile pic is McDouchey and Grey’s Anatomy produces some of the most clueless premeds I’ve ever met.
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I'm sorry sir, but I don't think you've watched Grey's Anatomy or been exposed to any clinical setting. Last time I shadowed I was forced to stick my hand in an open body cavity with active ordinance in it or else everyone in the hospital would die. After saving the day we took a flight through Washington and crashed into a forest. We were then forced to survive for multiple weeks with nothing but our medical knowledge and our will to survive. When we were finally rescued, I sued the hospital and later bought that same hospital as the stunning McDouche that I am. I've been balling as a neurosurgeon ever since then, and I even married a surgical intern named Gerideth May. She's not the best at commitment but we're working on that.
So yeah, check your self before you diss Grey's...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
d77102a20a9d4c4f35453fe20557d99f3407a45088af5e06031aa59f8886537f.jpg
People who come on here and say their gonna be a pediatric neurosurgeon astronaut remind me of these people in college.
 
Check out Captain Scott Kelly's book Endurance to read about an astronaut that bombed his first semester of college!
 
500miles said:
People who come on here and say their gonna be a pediatric neurosurgeon astronaut remind me of these people in college.
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One semester for me: intro bio: F, developmental psych: D-, abnormal psych: D-, general physics 1: W
GPA for that semester: 0.42

Sitting on some DO As and a MD WL... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just saying, **** happens. That meme's still funny, though.
 
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