May 2013
28 posts
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How are you currently paying for medical school & other expenses (such as housing & living expenses) that come along with it? I got accepted to pharmacy school & have never lived on my own before, let alone pay bills. I know people say to just take out loans & pay it back later on in life. Would it even be wise to live in a nice apartment & just let your debt add up? Any...
nprfreshair:
How to Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims.
Here are a number of ways to help those affected by the recent Oklahoma tornado. Remember, every bit helps.
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Hey followers!
Here is a brief update.
I am done with my M1 year!
It is surreal. I will write a lot about that soon. However I have some things I need to catch up on… such as sleep, exercise and personal relationships. I also have some personal issues I need to take care of right now. I may not be posting regularly in the next couple weeks because I will be doing some traveling,...
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Hi, Do medical schools only look at the GPA from science courses/pre-reqs? Or do they look at the overall GPA too?
On your application it will have you report overall GPA and science only GPA (which, if I remember right, is technically math and science). For science majors like me, these GPAs are often the same. However for non-traditional majors (e.g. art, history, etc.) these GPAs may be...
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If I fail my first general chemistry class (I’m a freshman) and I get a C in another class for math, do you think I should give up on pre-med? This semester was terrible compared to my first semester in which I got a 3.79. I feel as if repeating any class will look horrible. I feel horrible about myself.
There is no reason to feel horrible. Things happen. Life happens.
Maybe this post...
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Hi! Do you have any advice for a high school freshman who desires one day to be a doctor? I know I’m still VERY young and I probably don’t know what I am talking about, but I’ve always had this dream of one day going to med school and getting an MD. My grades right now, are not the greatest :( I’m struggling with A minuses/B pluses. What would you recommend I do in terms...
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Go for it!
I’m 34 and I’ve always wanted to be a doctor. It didn’t go as planned since my father got sick and I had to work immediately after my undergrad. I plan to quit my current job and go back to being a pre-med. I feel that that move is essential since, well, in all honesty I need to polish my Sciences up (especially Organic Chemistry). Should I still go for it? Being a doctor has...
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First semester classes
Hello First I’d like to thank you for this blog. It’s wonderful :) I’m going to be a college freshman this upcoming fall (Bio major premed track, the usual) I had to pick my fall semester classes yesterday, which was stressful. I mainly chose biology, chemistry, and the english/writing class the university forces all freshmen to take. I wanted to also take calculus, but I was...
clapsforgoalie asked: WhatShouldWeCallDentistSchool is a thing :)
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Hey! Are there any tumblr blogs by current Dentists or predent student you can suggest? Thanks!
I don’t follow any. However, I do have some amazing followers and if anyone has the answer it will be them.
Followers assemble!
Are there any great dental blogs out there?
P.S. If I had a dental blog I think I would name it “Cavity Search.”
P.S.S. I really love that I got...
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Med School Ebooks
hiya! i’m starting med this june and i was wondering where i can get medical ebooks? i’m hoping you know some free ones out there but if not, i hope ones that are affordable. i’ll definitely buy actual textbooks but it would help to have them in my ipad as well.
So here is the skinny on books.
Right now, most medical ebooks are not great. Some have no search features. Some...
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Crazy? A little...
Hi! I’m a non-biology major currently in my junior year; I haven’t been able to complete all of my prereqs (1 year Chem w/ lab and OChem) and I was wondering—when would I take the MCAT if I were to take a gap year? Also, would it be realistic to fit Chem and OChem into that gap year—Chem 1 over the summer, Chem 2 Fall, OChem 1 Spring, OChem 2 Summer. Or is that just...
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the AMCAS opened and I’ve started filling it up and let me just say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! stuff’s getting real!
I remember that day! Actually here is a reenactment of the first time I looked at the AMCAS.
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I wanted to say: thank you for the work you put into this blog. It gives other students, pre-meds like me, or those on the path towards medicine who are sure of their passion, but unsure of the future, insight to what is part of the next step. I can feel your passion for medicine as well from each and every post that you put up, and am glad that I am joining a force who never forgets to put...
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The least of my people
Tonight I got guilted into working clinic. My buddy was involved in a car accident last week and has been behind in studying ever since. Doing the good-guy thing, I agreed to cover his shift despite my own looming test and scarcity of time to study.
The clinic we work at serves the uninsured. In other words, we often get difficult cases that have a multitude of comorbidities that may be the...
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An End to Medical-Billing Secrecy? | TIME.com →
In wake of TIME’s “Bitter Pill” Special Report, Sebelius reveals hospitals’ price lists and Medicare Repayment Rates for 100 inpatient procedures
This is a huge step forward in controlling health care costs.
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Rivka Galchen: All the World’s Diseases Come to... →
Elmhurst Hospital Center, in Queens, serves 1.7 million patients a year, and offers translation services in a hundred and fifty-three languages. The Colombians, Bangladeshis, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Croatians, and other immigrants who live nearby use Elmhurst for their care. Diseases rare enough to merit special-case-study attention in The New England Journal of Medicine are, at Elmhurst,...
Two birds with one stone
I got both of these questions in the last week:
What year are you in med school? :)
How many more yrs of med school do you have left?
To kill two birds with one stone, I am a first year. In two weeks I will be a second year. I have 3 years of medical school left and then residency.
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Do you mainly write notes on your laptop or paper? I start medical school this year and have been wondering!
I mostly take notes on my laptop, then print them out for further annotating. The stack of papers you see in my previous pic is all of my notes from the block. I am rereading them and highlighting things I need to keep going over and adding notes of things I have read since.
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A Sincere Thank You
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent kinds words of encouragement over the last week. I am working my way through my messages/asks and trying to reply to as many as possible. As far as comments, I read each and every one though I probably won’t have time to reply to all of them.
You guys truly are the best followers I could have ever asked for. As I come upon two years...
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first of all, thank you for your wonderful blog. second, I have a question. what was the process like when you went to school to get your degree in cellular and molecular biology? is the process of applying to a college as an adult the same as it is when you’re 17 or 18?
I am not sure what the question is. For most schools the process of applying and getting in doesn’t change....
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The Changing Face of Medical School Admissions →
Some medical schools are looking beyond MCAT scores and grade point averages in search of a more diverse student class.
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When the Doctor Is Overweight →
Patients see overweight doctors as less credible than “normal weight” doctors, a new study by Yale University researchers found.
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Help! It's the dreaded MCAT
HELP! Okay so I’m a sophomore- Junior to be doing pre-med and am wondering when to plan out my MCAT studying and so on. 1. Do you think kaplan courses really do help? are they worth the $$. 2. How do you suggest studying for MCATS? Thanks!
Here are two posts that might help. The first is a Pre-Med Timeline. Most people take the MCAT at the end of their Junior year.
As far as...
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how old are you?
26
April 2013
32 posts
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Slow dancing in a burning room
T and I are over.
It feels weird to admit that. It has been happening for a while; the distance plus med school was a lot to handle. She recently chose to go to school much further away, over 20 hours away actually. That is something we would never survive.
I keep replaying in my head what could have been different. As soon as I knew she was contemplating moving away I began to be distant,...
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“In a self reported survey on campus, our chlamydia rates were 1%! That is a phenomenal example of reporter bias.”
-Our epidemiology teacher explaining the inherit errors in self-reported data.
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“If it were not for the great variability among individuals, medicine might be a...”
– Sir William Osler
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What will you do with this tumblr after you’ve become The So Quite Doctor?
That is a great question, and one that I contemplate a lot. I know for sure that I will not continue writing under the alias of TheNotQuiteDoctor after I finish school (which is in three years, so don’t worry just yet). What I have contemplated is looking for an up-and-coming pre-med or first year med...
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Freaky Friday: Autonomous Tissue Grabbers Are On... →
Scientists have deployed hundreds of tiny, experimental robots to help with biopsies. They’re as small as a speck of dust. They look like tiny ninja throwing stars. And researchers use magnets to retrieve them.
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Medscape’s 2013 Physician Compensation Report
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What about all those dead bodies?
Heya. Just curious. What happens to the bodies/bits of bodies in between classes? Are they refrigerated or just left on the tables?
I assume you mean during anatomy labs?
It depends. If it is a specimen they want to preserve for an extended period of time it may be plastinated. But this is not a common practice at most universities. Most often specimens that are meant to be kept around (and...
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TheNotQuiteDoctor Presents: What to expect when...
Hi! First of all, I really enjoy reading your blog! Second, I’m a senior in undergrad who has been accepted to med school (YAY!!!), but is looking at the next year of my life with a healthy combination of fear and excitement. Not sure if you have done a post like this already, but could you offer some wisdom on surviving and thriving as an M1?
First off, congrats on getting into medical...
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Is It Time for Off-the-Shelf Birth-Control Pills? →
Oral contraceptives are arguably safer than many over-the-counter medicines.
Lately there has been a very solid argument for alloying birth control to be over the counter. What do you think?
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Thank you for making this blog! I just discovered your blog now, and I’m a little addicted to it. It’s so helpful for me even though I’m still in Grade 11. Anyway, when did you learn that you want to become a doctor?
Thanks for the kind words!
The answers that you seek can be found here, in my origin story.
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Are you chances less to get into med school if you go to a state university opposed to a UC?
Isn’t UC a state school? Or are you debating UC versus CS?
Either way where you go for undergrad really doesn’t matter that much. You can check out a post I wrote about that here.
I say you should base your choice of college on opportunities, affordability and comfort (close to home...
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Hello, I’m a computer science major student & I’m taking my basic science classes like chem, bio, ochem & physics at a community college. What type of GPA should I be aiming for and would med schools accept me cause I’m from a diff major? Also, what additional classes do I need? Thank you!(:
I actually recently addressed the GPA question. You can find that post...
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The Impossible Workload for Doctors in Training →
Two years after the 16-hour mandate was established for doctors in training, studies on the outcomes are being published, and the results reveal one thing: Maybe we should have thought a little harder about the arithmetic.
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Medicine's 'Hard Drive' Is Crashing →
When 75 percent of our medical costs are for chronic diseases that are largely due to poor lifestyle habits, where are the studies on prevention? On behavior? On effective patient-doctor or public health strategies?
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Why we desperately need to increase GME funding
This year 5.5% of U.S. medical school seniors were unmatched for residency. This is a very concerning number.
For those who aren’t aware, many medical schools have been rapidly increasing class sizes. Some have done this for financial reasons. But many state subsidized schools have done this to match the growing demand for physicians. Unfortunately residency spots are funded by the U.S....
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Thanks for the input gang! (feel free to send more)
Due to the overwhelming response you can now find me on twitter as thenotquitedoc (some Dr. Who fan had my full name, grrr).
Also, because there seems to be some confusion, I am not planning to give up blogging. I am merely searching for ways to be more connected when lengthy blogs are less of an option.
See you on the twittersphere!
TNQD
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I have been reluctant to expand into the realm of twitter, in both my personal life and via my blog alias. However I realize that as tests come around I am less able to post lengthy, quality posts. Would you, as my subscribers, be interested in a twitter feed that would allow me to share short thoughts or occurrences throughout the day?
I would love to hear your thoughts. And if you have other...
Anonymous asked: What is going on with lyla-md's situation? Not sure why everyone is sending thoughts her way?
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Pre-Med Tips for Volunteering
Hi! I love your blog and am so glad I found it! I found loads of helpful information! I’m a freshman studying pre-med and bio sciences. I read in one of your posts where you were advising us not to burn ourselves out before med school, but I think I can handle all that :P So I wanted to ask you what are some good volunteering jobs, etc… to do before med school? I know I can volunteer in a...
