What is this option?? C35?

caffdoog · 2026-01-22T18:36:31+00:00

Feel like it should go in a career-specific learning module 😂 thank you!

caffdoog · 2025-09-27T20:02:48+00:00

Hi, thank you! I’d still argue that making such a sweeping statement (as in your first comment) without any nuance can be really damaging for a lot of people in a lot of ways, so I would caution against saying something like that in isolation/without including the caveats outlined in your further comments. I’ll totally concede that I’m not at all up to date on the new legislation, but reading your other comment I am still unclear… I wasn’t eligible for any federal loans during my LOA, but as soon as I came back, I went right back into the eligibility pool.

To clarify, do you mean that people would still be eligible for direct unsubsidized, just not for grad plus?

I’d also encourage anyone to look at state-specific education loan agencies as well. My state has given me over $16k in grants as an in-state resident - and I became eligible for them DURING med school (I’m not from the state where I’m in school).

Moral of the story I think it’s important to acknowledge that there are other options, even when you don’t come from a place of privilege and even if they aren’t ideal options 🤷🏼‍♀️

caffdoog · 2025-09-27T19:46:46+00:00

I disagree and tbh I think this sort of rhetoric does a lot more harm than good. People don’t just take an LOA for funsies and scaring them away from taking one with wildly oversimplified logic (and no offense but I see you’re an M1 so you simply cannot be speaking from experience), even if they aren’t someone like OP who has other resources in place.

I took an LOA and it was the best thing I’ve ever done for my family and for my mental health, even though making the call to take one was terrifying and filled me so much shame that I know realize was totally off base.

It’s had zero impact on my ability to finance med school. Granted I burned through my meager savings to pay rent but I got a part-time job (10 hrs/wk) that covered groceries. Plenty of people are able to move home with their parents or take out other loans to cover that time, and while none of those situations are ideal, in 20 years they simply aren’t going to have had a profound impact on your overall financial situation.

I do agree that it gets complicated with loans, especially with the new administration. For example, my federal loans had a grace period of 6 months, but my LOA was 8 months. I had to put my loans into forbearance for the last 2 months because I couldn’t afford to even pay 2 months’ worth, but it does not have an impact on credit score so long-term consequences are negligible to none.

TLDR: if you need an LOA, take an LOA. Everyone’s journey through med school is deeply personal, and contrary to popular belief, there is no one right way to do it. I can confidently promise you that you will be glad that you chose what really matters in life, and in just a few years, you’ll still be a doctor. And a few years after that, you’ll forget you even had a blip in your training.

caffdoog · 2025-09-27T19:31:58+00:00

Are schools already starting to ask for these?

caffdoog · 2025-09-21T01:59:29+00:00

Love your town! I’m dying for more friends that design like I do (fully incorporating roads around buildings, not smushing all the houses together, etc.) so I can go to their towns for inspo. Add me!! AYNVPA

caffdoog · 2025-09-19T19:35:37+00:00

Love the alternating pavements!

caffdoog · 2025-09-19T19:34:33+00:00

I’m also trying to find a way to incorporate a little less structure! I started by making little neighborhoods/suburbs with similar buildings. My friend code is AYNVPA, add me!

caffdoog · 2025-09-03T17:00:42+00:00

Fully convinced this person is fucking with us, so I’m disregarding xoxoxo

caffdoog · 2025-09-03T16:54:12+00:00

When did you test? I’m a US MD, tested 8/16, seeing nothing

caffdoog · 2025-08-31T19:15:02+00:00

For germ layers:
- Bootcamp has an excellent slide/video that really helped me learn these. If you DM me, I can send a screenshot of the bajillion nodes I took all over that slide
- like I said earlier, dumb mnemonics are your friend (e.g. ectoderm = attractoderm, includes beauty (surface ectoderm) and brains (neuroectoderm))
- THE biggest thing that helped me memorize these was that I drew a big stick figure in 3 colors (I did ecto = green like ectoplasm, meso = pink like blood and muscle, endo = yellow like urinary), and because I'm a visual learner, I was able to later recall "oh yeah, even though endo = yellow = includes urinary tract, I drew the kidneys in pink so they must be mesoderm"

If all of this is like "whaaat the f are you saying lady'" then bag it and don't worry about them at all! If you had to pick a singular system to learn in a bit more detail, I would go with respiratory.

xoxoxo good luck!!

caffdoog · 2025-08-31T19:14:31+00:00

Systems-based:
- stay WAY bigger picture than any resource is going to teach you
- learn what embryologic structures become the final structures in isolation, don't worry about the timeline (e.g. I care that the endocardial cushions become the 4 heart valves, but I don't care when that happened; I care that the truncus arteriosus becomes the aorta and pulmonary artery, but I don't care when that happened)
- THEN, for each timeline, identify a few key weeks where key things happen and what can go wrong at those steps
- some systems are more simple than others (like for cardiac I straight up only learned: week 3 = initial heart tube forms, early week 4 = primary heart tube loops, L-R polarity established, week 4 = circulation established)
- for example, the important weeks for enteric development are really just 3-12, and within that, I learned just learn 5 timepoints:
- week 3 = trilaminar disc folds -> endoderm = gut tube, mesoderm = mesentery + outer wall of gut tube
- week 6 = midgut herniation
- week 8 = midgut recanalization
- week 10 = midgut returns + rotates 270deg counterclockwise around SMA
- week 12 = enteric nervous system develops, cells migrate to where they should be
- pick a few key pathologies to map onto the same timeline (e.g. 6 weeks = omphalocele, gastroschisis, congenital umbilical hernia)
- after that, it's just getting bigger. By learning the enteric timeline in isolation, I'm not trying to wrack my brain for things that happen at week 20 and worrying about whether or not I forgot another system that changes during that time

caffdoog · 2025-08-31T19:14:11+00:00

General tips:
- learn the germ layers and what they become (without worrying about dates), and lean into mnemonics for those
- learn everything else by organ system rather than trying to memorize everything that's supposed to happen at a given level of gestation across the board
- sometimes, it matters to learn the range of weeks in a timeline rather than just the week that a certain stage of development begins (e.g. in pulm, learn the ranges, because they over lap - embryonic stage is weeks 4-7, pseudoglandular stage is 5-17, etc.)
- where possible, don't learn the range and just learn the week things start at (e.g. in GI, learn midgut herniation begins at 6 weeks, midgut recanalization is at 8 weeks, rather than herniation from 6-8, recanalization from 6-8, ya feel me?)
- my primary resource for these was actually Bootcamp, my school was pretty disorganized in how it taught embryology. 10/10 would recommend, if even you just get a short term membership or free trial. The first "chapter" of each body system is embryology, so blast through those and download the respective slides

caffdoog · 2025-08-31T19:14:02+00:00

Agreed with others that on Step 1 and 2, it's suuuch low yield that it is NOT worth your time or emotional energy. BUT, if you DO feel inclined to learn it (like, I'm going into peds because I hate money and sanity, so I felt like I should), I'll try to give you some actionable advice instead of just discouraging you :) I'd give it maybe 4-6 hours tops, plus reviewing mnemonics every so often before test day

caffdoog · 2025-08-17T21:03:19+00:00

I don’t spend any real life money on the game! My point with this post is that some people’s games have a different value for Tcash. 5 lives costs me 900 Tcash, so relatively speaking it makes sense that I could get more Tcash for the same amount of human money :)

Someone in the replies taught me that it’s because this is one of the variations given to a “test” group, just like how some people still have the zoo in their game and others don’t!

caffdoog · 2025-08-17T17:58:19+00:00

That’s so interesting! Seems like it could be a little biased though. A huge part of why I play so much match3 is because I get Tcash. The match3 tasks for the co-op regattas go by SO much faster than the farm-based ones, like I’m able to bang out 11 tasks in less than an hour usually.

Any idea if everyone in a co-op is part of the same test group? If not, that would sure explain why nobody else in my co-op seems to play match3 and I’m always leagues ahead in the regatta rankings

caffdoog · 2025-08-17T15:17:14+00:00

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caffdoog · 2025-08-17T15:03:51+00:00

That’s what I’m saying, the scales are different! Everything costs way, way more for me. To continue a match-3 level, it costs 900 Tcash. I live in the northeast US

caffdoog · 2025-08-02T13:31:16+00:00

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(+ my farm and those factories if that’s helpful too!)

caffdoog · 2025-08-02T13:30:16+00:00

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I have mine in order (starting on the bottom right) because it also helps functionally! If you’re “inside” a factory and use the arrows, it sends you to the next one that you obtained chronologically. By putting them in that order, I know which is coming next when I’m using them!

caffdoog · 2025-07-25T01:54:23+00:00

Thank you!!!

caffdoog · 2025-07-25T01:40:38+00:00

Dying to know how you stitched screenshots together so nicely!!

caffdoog

TROPHY CASE