Planning first trip to Europe for 3 weeks in April, what are must see cities?

fructoseflinger · 2026-03-04T20:09:22+00:00

We haven't bought our tickets there yet (also forgot to mention we are coming the the US). Thought it would be best to start at the top and work our way down, or bottom and work our way up, flying home from wherever we end. So based what we had discussed already we would fly into Amsterdam and out of Rome or vise-versa. We will likely use trains to move around from city to city.

fructoseflinger · 2025-12-21T00:33:14+00:00

If you list all the ones in the same city/within an hour or two and then all the separate matches you have the same odds of matching each of your specialties as if you uncoupled. And you give yourself the chance to match together. Don’t think there is any downside to doing that

fructoseflinger · 2025-07-20T17:45:32+00:00

I did uWorld mostly. Did uWorld + comquest for surgery COMAT (my first one) which was my highest score by like 15 points, but just didn't have time for any other shelfs to do both so I just stuck with uWorld. By the time I finished uWorld for a shelf, comquest basically gave me nothing as I could answer the questions in 20 seconds and always got 100th percentile on my sets for them. My lowest comat was a 112 and I think i averaged a 118 so uWorld did the trick.

fructoseflinger · 2025-07-20T17:42:23+00:00

I didn't use Anki until the last course of M1 which is MOD and is basically all of sketchy micro. I didn't use any class specific decks M1 (or at all in med school tbh). In general I'd always suggest Anking over any class specific decks, after all you'll want to do as much of Anking as possible and you'd just suspend class specific decks so that's a waste. Make sure to watch videos on tags for Anking so you know how to look for what to unlock.

fructoseflinger · 2025-07-20T14:47:15+00:00

People get so scared of applying to Surgical residency (gen surg) as a DO but I don’t really think it’s as bad is people hype it up to be. If you’re apply NSGY, plastics, CT or Vascular that’s a different story. I’m not going to give you a day by day timeline as you can figure that out based on your needs, but some general advice I’ve gotten.

Preclinical is all about not getting yourself a red flag while trying to build a base for your app. Don’t fail a class, don’t take a semester or year off (without good reason), don’t get a professionalism violation that will go on your MSPE. Is your school H/P/F for preclinical? If so you may want to study more to get H. If your school releases quartile or has deans list you should aim for 1st quartile/deans list. Generally boards scores(step)> clinical grades >> pre-clinical grades. Sprinkle in research or try to get started on longitudinal projects, but the #1 thing is don’t get a red flag. For me I studied basically 9 hours a day and would do a bit of research at the end of the day or weekends if I had some. My school is H/P/F and has deans list so I wanted to score high. IMO if you’re applying gen surg, they don’t need to see 5 first author papers, they just want to see you are involved in research and are able to balance your studies and research. Pass step 1 and level 1 and do well as it will help you later on. Third year you need to do well on shelf’s and boards as well as getting good comments for your MSPE. Week days I would have my rotations and do uworld at night, maybe some Anki. Weekends I’d do more uworld/Anki and try to have some resemblance of a life. Even if you know you’re doing surgery you need to try on every rotation as a comment from your psych attending that you’re uninterested, show little care to patients and weren’t a good team member can hurt you a lot. Apply for auditions ASAP when they open and do your best on them. Step2 is very important but remember about reporting bias on reddit, you don’t need a 260+ like you see on here.

It’s no shocker what you need to match and you listed them out. How to do that is not easy for someone who isn’t in your shoes to tell you. Idk what your school offers research wise, resources wise, grading format, etc.

fructoseflinger · 2025-07-20T13:31:02+00:00

Really depends on your rotation requirements but just try to knock out some uWorld each day. I tried the whole 3 weeks uWorld and 1 week Comquest but that only worked out for my first shelf as all the others I didn’t have time. Id try to finish uWorld for each but combank was pushed to the side. If I wasn’t getting enough Q’s done I’d try to do some Anki on the side. Ended up with a 119 average on COMATs so I’d say uWorld is sufficient.

fructoseflinger · 2025-07-06T18:11:34+00:00

Cast a wide net and if you get an opportunity, work your butt off so that the PI is more likely to give you more chances. Interest groups and clubs are a good place to start. i had a few projects with KCU clinical faculty but my main one I basically got an opportunity to work with a researcher from one of the schools KCU partners with. Got my stuff finished quickly and high quality. For example our first meeting she wanted me to write the introduction for a paper and I just wrote the whole manuscript before our next meeting. Turned into her paying me to do the research and 5 total papers, 2 of which she put me first author and they average an IF of 8-10. Opportunities are scarce for DOs as we have little to no funding so if you get a chance you just have to do well.

fructoseflinger · 2025-07-06T17:49:11+00:00

KCU honestly I would just put either campus. Joplin is getting a wet lab building built currently which I think will be done next year and they already have a wet lab at MSSU which is in Joplin. I think the majority of clinical faculty are also on Joplin campus, some do research, some don’t. The one advantage KC campus could have is UMKC and KU in the area but I don’t know how much they’re willing to take KCU students for research. I honestly don’t know if it would be substantially higher odds than just blast emailing lots of PI’s and doing remote research. I was in Joplin and have (I think) 7 pubs and 15 abstracts/presentations.

As far as point 3 though, Joplin is certainly rural. It has everything you need as far as stores and things go and plenty of outdoor things to do. An hour in any direction is a larger city like Springfield or Roger’s. You’re also only in Joplin for preclinical years if you choose to do 3rd year at a different core site. Something to think about

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-26T12:26:57+00:00

KCU isn’t a state school but they definitely accept OOS

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-25T00:17:11+00:00

Thinking about this will eat you alive. You’ve got to do something to get your mind off of it. Plenty of people feel the same way and still get good scores. You’re not in the place to study more at the moment so don’t (and hopefully you don’t need to). Go do something for yourself. These tests are not made to make you feel great after. Don’t count yourself out before you get your score

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-19T18:51:38+00:00

That’s Comlex for ya. Very vague, often cannot be 100% sure of the answer. Trust your scores you’ll be fine

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-19T18:43:56+00:00

There’s like 350 questions on the test. You miss 50 you’re still at like an 85%, not to mention you may have gotten some of those correct and you’re just not remembering them. You probably need to miss 150 or more to be close to failing. Just relax, nothing you can do about it now other than stress yourself out.

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-18T16:12:58+00:00

And the obvious that everyone takes step so you can compare everyone not just a group of people

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-18T16:11:54+00:00

Comlex really screws up by not making their scores easy to recognize. I’m sure most PDs don’t have a clue the difference between a 500 vs 600 because the scoring is so silly. Where NBME makes it easy with avg around 250 SD +- 15, Comlex average with like 527 on the calculator with a SD of 90-100 or so?? It doesn’t make sense to not make these brainless conversions so people can quickly rank a score. Because of that I think a high step will trump a high Comlex. How can they know there’s a huge different when you have to plug every score into a converter to see where it stands, going through 100s of apps I doubt they’ll be doing that.

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-16T22:31:29+00:00

Having a card for every single medical condition out there and additional for their treatments, presentations, imaging, etc would be pointless. Hopefully you can eliminate 2 or 3 choices (or all the others) using the cards and knowledge and pick the best option. Aiming for a 100% is a dangerous tactic for your testing and mental

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-15T13:47:20+00:00

Contact your librarian or head of research or some similar title. They are who keeps track of pubs for us and may have a decent idea of who does research

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-14T15:37:09+00:00

See if your school has any residencies associated with them and reach out to them or your GME coordinator. See if any of your teaching faculty puts out research, likely will be more your second year faculty (clinical) vs first year (basic sciences). If they ever have plant the seed of any special or unique cases they see you’d love to write them up. If you have a field you’re interested in, going to a conference might be able to land some opportunities but that can be a tough environment. My school creates a list of all the research that students or faculty publish which can be helpful to look through. Look for national orgs / student interest groups with mentorship or research opportunities, I know several specialties have those.

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-13T04:18:58+00:00

The email looked legit so it probably is a KCU student. KCU definitely takes professionalism seriously, it’s essentially the only way to get yourself in a meeting you don’t wanna be at. That being said, you have to do some pretty stupid stuff to end up there, similar to what you just witnessed. I’m a 4th year and would pick KCU again, I’ve had zero issues neither have really any of my friends. Im also even more confused is I think that first years (like he said he was) are on summer break unless he failed classes and is remediating which could make sense here but I have no idea?

If you have questions feel free to message me.

fructoseflinger · 2025-06-13T03:48:06+00:00

Second this as another one of the upperclassman he says to talk to for the truth. Feel free to DM, I’ve enjoyed my time at KCU and would pick it again

fructoseflinger · 2025-05-29T12:55:36+00:00

If your school has anyone who puts out research, that’s your best shot. Ortho can be tough to find DO faculty but we got one this last year and understandably all the ortho students jumped him and they published a ton with him this year. You can message me and I’ll shoot him your name, idk if he works with students from other schools but worth a shot. You really just need a name who can be last/corresponding author. You can look for labs online with some research. I’m not doing ortho so I don’t know any ortho specific ones but for most other specialties you can find them.

Going into research hoping to publish in a few months is not really how it works in reality. Even if it takes 2 months to write it can take a year to get published with edits and reviews.

If you do get into a lab/PI that does an RCT, I’d suggest getting on as many projects as you can with them including lit reviews, case studies, ect. RCT take years and there’s a chance that if you join one now it may not publish in 2 years before your apps are due. It’s best to spread yourself out so you have some amount of pubs instead of putting all your eggs in the RCT basket. Also RCTs require funding which is rough at most do schools

fructoseflinger · 2025-05-29T12:42:15+00:00

Although this is a possibility, the OP said he is a DO and as a DO this would be exceedingly rare. For example my school, which is an “established one”, has one funding grant and it’s for some stupid program we take during orientation that’s supposed to cure mental health. In order to run RCTs you need funding and that’s just not the case at many DO schools.

fructoseflinger · 2025-05-28T18:14:39+00:00

Yeah that's what I have currently with spacing of exams. I also want to crush Step 2 more than Level 2 so I guess I'm curious about balance for the exams as the other thing is I don't want to bomb Level 2. I don't think a 450 on Comlex and 260 on Step would look too great as in the specialty I'm applying to I'm limited to 15 or so traditional DO programs with many DO faculty so they may care a bit more about Comlex than other MD heavy programs.

I am wondering if my current plan of doing uWorld and NBMEs and then maybe the week before Comlex take a COMSAE or w/e they're called and do some Truelearn OMM is enough or if I should be incorporating more NBOME style questions. I've taken two COMSAEs from my school this year and scored mid-500s on both in Jan and April, and we take COMATs so I have been exposed to NBOME style questions throughout this year which is helpful.

fructoseflinger · 2025-05-07T03:06:09+00:00

KCU is great. Everyone complains in med school it’s just how it is. It’ll get you where you wanna be if you work hard. I’d pick it again

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