A typical week in med school

When I was applying to med schools, I was always curious about what a typical school day would be like. Now that I'm in my fourth week (time flies!), I thought it'd be fun to show what a week at USC is like.

Here is my schedule for last week:

Seems pretty confusing right? We don't even really have a "typical week." Almost every week is different (like this week we had a practice exam). I miss the days of having a predictable school schedule...sigh.

So everyday we have anywhere from 1 to 4 hours of classroom lecture (usually 4), and then a 2-4 hr session - either PPM, ICM, or Anatomy lab.

[acronym explanation time]
PPM = Professionalism and the Practice of Medicine
    - Ethics, humanities, touchy-feely stuff, ya know
ICM = Introduction to Clinical Medicine
    - Tuesday mornings are spent in the hospital (almost every week)
    - Thursday afternoons are "workshops" where we learn the skills we apply on Tuesdays (only some weeks)

the blog comes back to life

"brains?"

photo source

To our scant and apathetic readers,

After a lengthy hibernation, this blog is coming back to life! Now that I am finally starting med school, I want to share my experiences. Updates may be short or inconsistent, but I'll try my best! I started school exactly 2 weeks ago and basically dove right in. Between classes, studying, and socials, I've already become dependent on daily coffee to keep me awake. The challenging part about medical school is not difficult concepts, but just the sheer amount of material we must learn. So the best advice I heard was to "hit the ground running." Of course we must also balance this advice with "don't forgot to have fun!" Will I succeed, or be a floundering failure? Stay tuned to find out! 

the highly anticipated white coat

<3 kathleen

Making the most of your AMCAS: a friendly guide

So you’re done with your MCAT, finishing up your personal statement, and securing your letters of recommendation. After all that, the AMCAS application probably seems like a piece of cake! But be careful not to rest on your laurels! Because besides your personal statement, the “Work/Activities” section of the AMCAS is the only other place to make yourself shine! Before we get there, let’s go through a brief overview of the application.

AMCAS: your best friend for the next few months.

1. Identifying Information.

Pretty straightforward. The easiest part!

2. Schools Attended.

High school and colleges. This includes community college, even if you only took 1 or 2 classes there during high school.

3. Biographic Information

Tip: It’s okay (and probably better) to use your preferred address for the “permanent address” as well. Some schools have a policy of mailing things only to the “permanent address” entered in your AMCAS. The address doesn’t affect your background check or anything important like that, so just put where you want stuff mailed.

Pre-med and bioengineering: my perspective

Being a bioengineering major and pre-med at Berkeley has been quite the interesting ride. Although I loved my major, it definitely wasn’t the easiest path to med school, and I have many mixed feelings about it. I was recently asked to answer some questions for an event for BioE pre-meds. If you’re pre-med and considering an engineering major, I hope you’ll find these questions helpful!

1. How/when did you decide to pursue both bioengineering and medicine?

I entered college as Undeclared in the College of Engineering, and was only considering medicine a little bit. I was interested in medical devices, so I narrowed my major down to mechanical engineering or bioengineering. I finally chose bioengineering when I realized how dry everything seemed to me when it didn’t have a biological or medical application. Then, by the end of my sophomore year, I realized that my heart really pulled me toward medicine. I sought experiences to expose me to the field of medicine, and that how I became a BioE pre-med!

2. What did you enjoy most about your major (and being pre-med)?

Bioengineering is such a broad discipline. There is a lot of room for designing your own curriculum to get you where you want to go. Since I knew I wanted to pursue medicine, I chose more classes that were geared towards biology/medicine and less tech-heavy classes. I enjoyed my engineering classes because they were either very conceptual with little memorization, or they were focused on new technologies with direct clinical applications.