#tnqd

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

First Week of Med School Nearly Complete!

I feel like I’m just poking my head out of the fox hole to glance around at the outside world for a moment. I wanted to give you guys an update on how things are going, but I’m pretty overwhelmed at the moment. Once I get into a solid studying pattern and schedule I’ll hopefully have more time to blog about life as a M1. They certainly waste no time. At orientation, one of our anatomy professors told us not to worry, we were only already 2 weeks behind on studying at the outset of the semester. We thought he was kidding. For the past 4 days I’ve done nothing but go to class, study, eat, shower, and sleep. Studying in groups has helped since you definitely need to be around other people who understand this lifestyle in order to commiserate and get through. The M2s say it gets easier, and I’m hoping they’re right, because anatomy lab is rough. The smell is the worst, and it clings to you all day, sometimes even after showering. We have a 200+ lbs. cadaver that we’re rolling back and forth every day…that hurts your shoulders and back at the end of lab, which are suffering enough abuse from hauling your life (text books, Netters atlas, iPad, 20 snacks for the formaldehyde munchies, various chargers, notebooks, markers, water bottle, wallet, etc.) around with you in a bag all day. Also yesterday I had to be the lead dissector on our lady’s face/neck when looking for the brachial plexus and a bunch of other nerves above the clavicle, so that was a little shiver-inducing. Eventually you learn to distance yourself I guess.

The first day was by far the worst in lab since our cadaver seemed so, well, human. She has pastel pink toe nails and underwent a unilateral mastectomy sometime in the past. Our group calls her Lucy to remind us that she once had a name, and loved ones, and should be treated with respect and care. Sometimes when I’m near hurling and feel disgusted about what we’re doing, I try to remember what our professor said: “This is what they wanted and chose to do with their earthly remains. They want you to learn from them so you can save others. Make their selfless sacrifice worth it.” And I thank her. Not verbally but I just think, “Thank you, Lucy.” And I try to make sure she’s covered properly. The other day I brushed a bunch of flecks of fascia from her hair before re-covering her head. I felt like it was the least that I could do for her, after all she is doing for us.

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

Hi! I have almost no volunteer hours in a medical setting and I'm afraid I won't be able to get enough valuable experience before I need to submit my application. That basically ruins my chances of getting into my in-state med school, and I know it will only be harder if I try to go out-of-state. I've begun to consider sitting this cycle out and just trying again next year... Do you have any advice on what I should do?

Hmm…this is a tough decision, but given how expensive and exhausting—mentally and emotionally—the application process is for medical school, I’m of the philosophy that you want to do it once and do it right. Granted some will have to apply a second or even third time before being admitted, but if at all possible, you definitely want to avoid putting yourself into that situation. 

It’s completely okay if your volunteer work is non-medical (in fact, there’s a category for this on the AMCAS application). Most schools don’t expect you to have volunteered in a medical context, but they do expect you to have done a considerable amount of volunteer work and to have shadowed in various medical settings. Basically they want to ensure 2 things: 1) You are driven to help other people/have an altruistic attitude and 2) You know what you’re getting yourself into. 

If you have done volunteer work and have shadowed but simply have not volunteered in a medical setting, then I’d say go ahead and apply (assuming your MCAT, GPA, etc. are all in order). 

However if you haven’t done volunteer work (remember they like to see long-term commitment and consistency with this) and haven’t shadowed, I personally would suggest spending the next year doing those things and then applying next cycle. Volunteering in a medical setting is a good way to combine those two but just beware that some schools won’t consider volunteering in a medical setting equivalent to shadowing experience. I ran into this during one of my interviews and thought it was absolutely absurd. Specifically in my case, I was not only observing doctors, but I was also part of the process of doing blood draws, taking histories, delivering diagnoses, listening to them talk over differentials, etc. as a medical interpreter at a local clinic (they knew I was premed and were short-staffed, so the nurses taught me how to do labs). Simply to cover all your bases, make sure you do some dedicated shadowing as well (i.e. follow someone around all day for several days or one day a week for a few months). 

Also something to consider is that you are statistically most likely to be accepted by your in-state schools. Most have strings attached to their funding where they have to take x percent of students from within their home state. If you don’t believe you stand a good chance at your in-state school, you could be at a significant disadvantage when it comes to acceptances in general, unless you apply to a large number of private schools (most of which are middle and high tier and will expect research, volunteer work, and shadowing from every applicant). In short, I think it’s likely a better use of your money and time to wait a year and to spend some time volunteering and getting to know what the life of a doc is like. This may delay your plans a bit, but you’ll be much better prepared to apply and will hopefully be able to knock those interview questions about volunteering and shadowing experiences right out of the ballpark!

Good luck and best wishes!

-TNQD

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

So I was originally a BS Bio concentration in human biology and premed major. My school does not have a stand alone premed major. you have to do premed and another major. my poetry teacher (I took poetry as a gen ed) said I should major in English. I did some research and found that med schools definitely like to see English majors. The way it works at my school is I can major in English and premed, Bio and premed, or English, bio, and premed. What looks best when applying to med school?

Hi there!

I would say to simply choose the major you’ll enjoy most while in undergrad and to not worry so much about which classes will impress the AdComs. Your premed track will make sure that you have all the classes you need in order to enter medical school. This is really the only chance you’ll have to explore English literature, humanities, a foreign language, physics, world history—whatever floats your boat—for the next 8 years of your life. Take advantage of it. Interviewers will often ask what your favorite class was of undergrad and why. They want to see you light up! They want to see your genuine thirst for knowledge and love of learning, which is absolutely essential for surviving medical school. If you spend all your time taking courses you think will be useful or impressive, but that you don’t necessarily care much about, it’ll show when they ask that question.I will say that medical schools are beginning to appreciate undergrad curricula that includes sociology and psychology now since it gives doctors a better understanding of their patients’ experiences and their cultural/world views (plus they’re incorporating it into the MCAT). I suggest nurturing both the “human” side and the scientific side of yourself during undergrad by taking classes like anthropology, women and gender studies, literature courses, etc. I was a biology major but had 3 unrelated minors—all in the “soft sciences” and humanities. Those classes taught me a lot about people (led me to getting my Spanish medical interpreter certification too) and I personally believe they will help me to be a more open-minded and empathetic doctor. Just my two cents though. Ultimately you’ve got to do what feels right for you.

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

On My Agenda

Once my trusty computer (not actually so trusty, I guess?) computer is back in action and I'm not chicken-pecking typing on my phone, here's what I hope to catch you all up on:

-Med School Admissions Update (aka TNQD makes her final choice and moves to a new city in ~2 months! Eeek!)

-My Origin Story (if this is something you guys are interested in hearing. I know the former TNQD wrote one for his followers, so I thought maybe you all would like to know a little about me too).

-I haven't forgotten about the ask we received regarding the non-traditional route/post-bac/masters programs etc. to med school. I'm hoping that my guest bloggers and I will be able to put together a comprehensive "go to" post about this soon.

[kaz-un]

It's 3am-

I should really get some rest. For the last 2 hours or so I've been looking through some chem notes, reading some inspirational articles, and planning my studying schedule tomorrow. I'm not going to lie, I'm scared. 6 days left till my compsci final, 8 days left till my chem final, and 9 days left till my biology final. I keep counting down the days till my finals, and keeping track of the hours I've wasted....whether it be on tumblr or facebook or an interesting article somewhere. Right now, there is just too much time spent procrastinating, hence why I need to re-evaluate my priorities and flip the switch to finals mode.

I can't afford to fail my courses again, because I have a summer to look forward to and plans for the future. I'm scared, but compared to last year... I'm not lost. I know I want to major in Computer Science with a minor in Psychology, and eventually med school. It may be the scenic route, but right now this is the path I want to take. I'm still struggling and coming to terms with not ending up in med, but I know I shouldn't judge my self-worth based on the fact of where I'll end up in the future cause it really is unpredictable. So, the next week will be stressful, socializing will be put to a minimum, and my fight against social media will be an uphill battle...but until I hear the words "checkmate" I won't give up. Let the battles begin. 

No one can dictate what you can and can’t do.  It may take several tries, it may take bumping your head against the wall, but if you truly want something you have to fight for it.  If you aren’t willing to fight tooth and nail for your dreams, then you don’t deserve them.

-tnqd

ash over and out

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

Whirlwind Week

Hi followers!

I know the former TNQD would occasionally update you all on what was going on with his personal life etc., so I'm going to attempt to do that occasionally as well. I think it's important since it gives people a chance to see the more "normal" (who are we kidding...premeds are far from normal haha) and human side of the premed and med student life. 

So this has been my life in a nutshell for the past week:

I successfully defended my senior honors thesis! YAY! I turned in the official final draft and all the paperwork this morning, so now I'm set to graduate summa cum laude. My mentor for my project wasn't able to help me much during the last few weeks of writing (consequently I thought was going to cause me to have a mini-meltdown since I was flying solo) but everything turned out just fine. In fact, he said after seeing the full extent of my thesis work, he wants to nearly double the page-length of the journal article that we plan to submit soon!

To celebrate the thesis victory, I took all day last Saturday off and went to a winery with my roomies and a bunch of my friends from high school. We felt so ridiculously adult and "cultured" after they gave us our tasting glasses and cheese platters lol. The winery had an attached farm too, so we toured around and then bought some local honey (my allergies have been awful this year so I'm hoping that'll help) and these delicious homemade blueberry yogurt-covered pretzels that they make on the farm. Then on the way home we all realized that our city's basketball team was playing in the NCAA tournament that afternoon, so we found this little sports bar/pizza place to eat lunch and watch the game. 

Ordered my cap and gown on Monday (ahhhhh!) and have only a month and some odd days left until graduation! 

I was asked to write a recommendation letter for my boss (woah, just woah. I'm not ready for this level of adult responsibility haha. Just months ago I was asking her for a letter for my medical school applications). 

I get to skip class today because I'm leaving for Chicago to compete at ICT! So excited! After nearly 12 years (started in 4th grade), this is my final semester of playing academic quiz bowl (grad students are eligible to compete but med students seldom have the time to), and I'm really going to miss it, especially my teammates. We have a lot of fun traveling to competitions, having roadtrip singalongs to 80s rock ballads and some hardcore rap (which we're really too "white and nerdy" to be singing haha) and our team parties. Also I get a bit of satisfaction from challenging quiz bowl stereotypes since girls are rare on collegiate teams, and I'm the only one on our division I team and am surrounded by male engineering majors. They've dubbed me "team mom" because I've always got bandaids and make cookies for our roadtrips -_- Still I'm gonna miss those guys next year. 

I probably won't be posting much until I get back from Chicago on Sunday, so I hope you guys have a great weekend!

-TNQD

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

Know of any books about/written by DOs?

Since I’ve only read a handful of books about/by MDs, I’ll leave this one up to D.O. Diaries and my other DO followers. Do you guys have any suggestions?

[thenotquitedoctor-blog]

You know what they say about judging books.

Hi! I'm a senior in high school. I will be majoring in Neuroscience in the fall and I really want to take the pre-med courses along with it. I'm an outgoing and sometimes goofy girl. This random information is relevant because I haven't told anyone that I want to be a doctor in fear that I will not be taken seriously. My high school GPA was a 4.1 and I'm even taking some classes at a nearby college to get ahead but people still do not believe me to be intelligent or a hard worker. What can I do?

I think I wanted to answer this question because a lot of women face these sorts of problems in medicine. I know for a fact that I’ve had to prove that I was smarter than other people in the room because people’s first opinions were that I couldn’t be as “smart as the boys” because I was “too pretty”. And I think you especially get brushed off as not serious as a woman if you’re fun loving.

  This is an attitude it’s very likely you are going to run up against multiple times in your life. You can’t let it stop you!! I used to let comments like that bother me—now I just use them as fuel for the fire. People don’t get to define you—you do!

  So maybe you have to work a little harder or know your stuff a little bit better than the other people in the room that are automatically taken seriously because of their gender or their personalities or the way they look. 

I've also found that because of running up against this opinion I've become a little more forceful in how I present myself. It's helped me be more willing to put forward my ideas and answer questions and jump on things I might have otherwise been hesitant to do. (But mabe I'm just one of those people that loves to prove you wrong.) I will say that I try to dress or act a little bit older when I’m in a professional setting so that people won’t just dismiss me for being young. I also often push a little bit harder and work a little bit harder than some of the other people around me because I feel like I have to disprove your first impression of me. I decided that having people occasionally decide I was “too-this” or “too-that” to be in medicine wasn’t going to stop me—it was just going to make me work harder.

  So don't be afraid to tell your friends and family about your aspirations. They should encourage you! And if they don't--shut them down!! Tell them about your awesome GPA and how determined you are--then go prove them wrong. You’re smart and determined. You’re pretty incredible. And other people don’t get to take those things away from you by their opinions. 

Best! :) 

~Katharine (@ladykaymd)