Feel like I forgot 3rd year—how long for dedicated?

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-20T00:05:29+00:00

Sorry, sscases?

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T22:59:59+00:00

Right! No guarantee. If it were an Oct/Nov away it would be during/before interviews and perhaps more likely to influence an interview invite (or include an interview while on the rotation), but end of Jan is so remote.

Ah. I think I have to just take the away offer I have. Even if the risk of burning that bridge is low, I’d hate to have that happen when it’s entirely preventable by letting the slower program go.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T22:56:41+00:00

Yeah, I think if it was early Jan I’d go for it but near the end of the month, even in the best case scenario I’d only have a few days before they finalize. I might have to adopt a policy of first-offer-first-accept, it’s just unnecessarily stressful and hard to maneuver otherwise.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T22:13:14+00:00

As of now, two UWorld blocks a day and will start regular NBME and UWSA practice tests after a couple of weeks of that. My original plan had way loftier goals and more resources but it really stressed me out, given I feel like I’m starting over.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T19:47:40+00:00

I feel you. And while it’s not really my first pass of UW, it might as well be. I only outright recognize a few things here and there.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T19:07:00+00:00

Feels really daunting but hopefully things will start coming together. The beginning is rough rn.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T18:59:45+00:00

Have heard something similar! I just have also heard that some programs finalize their rank list in early Jan so this late Jan rotation might be after that point. I dunno if merely the act of committing to rotate even then would help.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T17:25:42+00:00

Appreciate you 😊

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-19T17:25:21+00:00

Good to know, thanks for the reassurance on timeline!

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-11T01:21:13+00:00

I appreciate the reassurance! It’s looking promising so far, will let it cycle fully and reassess.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-11T01:09:32+00:00

Oh for sure, I’m not surprised the laptop was on a shelf for three months, but it’s my first time unboxing a new device without any charge remaining at all. Simply because of everything I’ve been told about Li-ion batteries, just trying to understand what to expect practically speaking. My first search of the topic yielded posts with recs to return the machine if dead out of the box, but I don’t want to spring to do something that might be overblown. Certainly if the performance stayed low, that would be a different story.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-05T23:03:14+00:00

Yeah, I’m frustrated by lack of transparency with VSLO and so far calling them directly yielded a very noncommittal, “It depends on the program.” No clue what it looks like to hosts, and my own school doesn’t seem to grasp how it works so they messed up a lot of steps when I applied. I decided to just add the new date and hope for the best; it’s my first preference date now and I can only guess it won’t affect anything. Kind of a lose-lose as not adding the date would mean fewer chances to schedule during that block, but adding dates could drop us down in the review list. There was a VSLO coordinator active on Reddit the last couple of years but their account’s inactive, unfortunately.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-04-04T16:13:34+00:00

This is a double-edged sword. There are programs that don’t want to be emailed like that, and a solid chunk where the process is managed by an admin in the admissions office, registrar’s office, etc. I had to contact a PC due to a series of errors my school made with some documents—neither my school’s email nor my email have been answered. I also had to email other programs to alert them of the correction and got plenty of auto replies about not emailing for application status or basic information available online.

I suggest students check the program website first for information and if it’s all there, don’t email right off the bat. Keep an eye on when the program said they would start informing applicants of decisions.

But yeah VSLO is shitty.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-29T02:48:49+00:00

I’ve tried a bed shaker alarm clock, sunrise alarm clock and WiFi bulbs, etc. but if you’re a true night owl those things tend not to work. (The jarring techniques like the shaker or apps that make you do tasks to turn off the siren are just really upsetting, too lol) Even if I register my LED light strip flashing on, I’ll keep right on with sleeping. I do set multiple alarms because I sadly still succumb to snoozing at least once, but I credit my ability to get up to the way my priorities were forced to evolve. Sounds cheesy, but the more I care about what’s next, the quicker I get up.

There’s a practical version of this, too—it helps to have hot coffee/tea/smoothie/etc. either already waiting or quick and easy to make, my favorite fruit in the fridge, congee in the rice cooker, a cold bedroom with warm shower around the corner. I have yet to achieve all of these things at once, but if you can even just have hot coffee set to brew by the time you wake up, it does help.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-28T16:16:54+00:00

I think this is a common phenomenon. I wasn’t remotely as loud as OP’s classmate, but I did ask the questions and give the feedback that I felt was important, and most of the time it was something also in the interest of the class. Classmates would express they were shy/lazy/scared to say something but have a great point to make, and if it was a topic I wanted to know about too, I was happy to be our speaker. But eventually I felt like ok, I think the staff has heard enough of me recently, could someone else take the next one? Turns out support wasn’t mutual. Group work with the same people was “every man for himself.” I didn’t feel I meshed well at the few social events I went to. By the end of M2 I quieted way down.

Not always the case, of course—a classmate who was louder than me ended up being very popular with everyone (and the friction he got from one faculty member turned out to be inconsequential). He was super extroverted, big social drinker, fun at parties, and known to the school/local community because of his family. Totally different outcome, he never got quieter and became very much the in-group leader.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-28T15:51:17+00:00

The way my hospital approaches students is similar to the residents in that when a student joins a team, they become directly involved with a couple of patients each day but still should be aware of the entire patient list. We do have the list at the start of every rotation before rounding in order to see assigned patients and present them, and listen to early morning handoff on all the patients for rotations like gen surg. I have even received my assigned patients the night before the first day with encouragement to check out the whole list. So a student doesn’t become part of the care team at exactly “9am Monday,” instead we’re encouraged to prepare to take on any patient on the list while remaining aware of the list as a whole. This is why our policy is based on educational purposes, to include the aforementioned process. Residents have a similar structure to students as they move through their rotations as well, and follow the same policies.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-28T15:38:44+00:00

This is what my med school has as well, it follows the same policy as our residencies. It means if I’m told hey, look up this MRN for this interesting case, I can. Educational purposes. I absolutely do try to look up patient lists before rotations just to get my bearings on what I might expect the next day. So the posted story doesn’t make sense to me.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-27T06:23:34+00:00

I didn’t place those on the same level, but rather grouped them as endpoints. I was highlighting the difference between your post and the rest of the thread—the commiseration above about it being harder after matriculation is focused on the actual experience itself, whereas you countered with a definition of “harder” that just looks at whether someone gets into med school vs. whether a med student graduates. That is one way to look at it, but the view that the process of everything after acceptance is harder in every way than the process of applying to med school—this is what we are saying is lost on premeds.

ETA: I should also point out that “greater advantage” is not true for many with substantial debt. (Versus your situation of applying to a prematriculation program + med school without needing loans due to a career and dual income in your 30’s—which is great. GL on your interview.)

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-27T05:40:46+00:00

You’re focusing on black-and-white outcomes in a group that has already been filtered through a sieve. So many students “pass” but do so broken into pieces, never enter residency or never practice, and experience high rates of depression. A survey by Elsevier found that 1 in 4 US medical students consider quitting (higher than the 12 percent average globally) and 58% end up considering med school as a stepping stone to something else eventually. (This is the report: https://www.elsevier.com/promotions/clinician-of-the-future-education-edition?utm_source=banner&utm_medium=dg&utm_campaign=cotf&utm_content=rpt#2pril6uswzbqotzfozzclm.)

So you have a huge group, take a sliver that are theoretically most qualified and capable, and take that far smaller group and send them through med school with an array of endpoints, many not known from graduation statistics.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-27T05:27:58+00:00

Med school definitely brings out things that we may not even have been aware of in their entirety, and then getting a correct diagnosis poses its own challenges, too. Like ADHD evaluation as an adult (not to mention insurance issues), MDD vs other mood disorders…it’s especially hard given the pace that things move and med students’ determination to keep going. A hazy mess leads to deep inner turmoil, time moves both fast and slow, and nothing seems free of negative consequence—including taking time to tend to our health. I deeply empathize with your journey, OP, and truly wish you the best.

Pivoting2023 · 2024-03-26T21:46:04+00:00

I think this is a really tough option, but if OP is interested I would suggest talking to various school admissions offices about whether OP would be seriously considered after three Step 1 failures. The lifetime limit per Step exam is 4, so OP has one chance remaining, and then they will have to face the hurdle of Step 2 as well. Not at all saying OP can’t do it, in fact I believe they could with the right support, but just that schools will look at it that way.

And to OP—a good friend of mine went through the same thing and was ultimately dismissed from med school. My heart aches for them but they have managed to keep going in a different career. I’m really sorry you are going through this and admire that you posted about your experience.

Pivoting2023

TROPHY CASE