Happy Holidays

We get two weeks off for winter break. I went skiing with the fam.


Classes start up again in a week. I've been alerted by gchat away messages that some of my compatriots have already returned to studying.

Block 2 dun dun duuuun

We didn't understand how easy we had it block 1.
Well, duh, of course we did, we only had class two days a week and had gobs of time to study a class the med students mostly ignored in favor of anatomy. I guess we just couldn't appreciate how much worse it was going to get.

Biochem and physio are hard. They're cool, and so far the lectures have been much better than histo's, but there is a lot more information and a LOT more thinking. Our first midterms were last Thursday/Friday, and until that week I had seriously never locked myself in a room and crammed for 12 hours.

The tests went well, and my preparations would have been easier if I hadn't spent three class days at Emory, so these classes aren't impossible. I just don't think I'm going to be slipping off to NYC much in the next 3 months.

Also: because I had to memorize Krebs cycle intermediates I had to dump some early 90s cartoon theme songs from my memory. Sorry, Darkwing Duck.

Hotlanta: not as hot as advertised

NYMC has totally stepped up its game.

But first: Emory! Their interview process is super laid-back, the admissions people are hilarious, and the panel interview was not as intimidating as I anticipated.
I stayed with a friend from undergrad so I got an especially good look at student life, and even got roped into performing at a Kwanzaa celebration the night after my interviews (not me, I don't danz).

The students are SUPER HAPPY. Like, weirdly happy. Like, we're all actually dead, aren't we? happy. I'd still rather be in/near NYC but I'd be psyched to go to Emory.

Unfortunately, spending 3 days in Atlanta put in an awkward stance with regards to Block 2...

P.S. Atlanta in December can be just as cold as Valhalla.

Emory Interview

I leave for Emory tomorrow morning. When I get back I can tell you all about my first panel interview (eek!) and what our new biochem/physio classes are like.

Dharma Initiative Spotted at NYMC!

Just because this drain in the ladies' room has an oddly familiar shape:



We'll have to wait until 01/2009 to learn its significance.

Time Off for Good Behavior

There are three weeks between our histo final and the beginning of physio/biochem. Three delicious weeks where our only responsibility is a two-hour biostat class once a week.

The first weekend I visited my college and saw a show put on by my old juggling club.
Silly silly folk.

I also went to my first Knicks game! I've always been a Spurs fan, but it doesn't hurt to show some regional pride.


Of course there's still lots to do-med school apps to finish (still! how?!), a research paper to write, and our master's thesis to begin. The thesis is basically a literature review, and the popular choice seems to be to write it on some subject you've researched in the past. Which suggests that I should read up on diabetic retinopathy.

The End of Histo

Nov. 4th was our third midterm for histo. Luckily it finished in plenty of time for me to drive around and find my sketchy sketchy polling station.

What's worse is my station was at an address completely different from the one on my voter registration card. Conspiracy theorists ENGAGE!

As I said, the next morning I received my acceptance email from UTSA (now in my 326th hour of celebration). The only downside of that email was that it made it almost impossible to study for the histo final, which we took just three days after the midterm.

The final for histo is the histology mini-board. These are small (2.5 hours, ~120 questions) standardized tests on one subject. It's very difficult to study for, because you have a ton of material and you (and your instructors) have no idea what the test will focus on. Last year's solitary AMP student said that those who studied and those that didn't performed basically the same. I wound up just perusing my notes from throughout the trimester and going through my PreTest. We haven't received our grades yet, and the AMPs are getting nervous.

More Project Sunshine

The weekend before Halloween Project Sunshine organized a party for some children outpatients of Westchester Children's Hospital.

It was incredibly fun. There were ~15 kids in their sweet costumes, Indiana Joneses were dueling with their whips, and the littler kids were just running around yelling and playing with the decorations. We had set up arts and crafts, musical chairs with spooky music, and a toilet paper mummy race. SO MUCH FUN. There were lots of yummy treats, and since the party was for kids with PKU they were all protein-free. Cookies sans protein are surprisingly good.

Next month Project Sunshine will be visiting children while they're receiving chemo, which can take all day. There'll be books to read to them but I'm hoping I can sneak my laptop in. Maybe someone will want to watch a movie or catch up on 30 Rock.

First-years' Team Name: Cremasters

10/23 was probably the year's most action-packed day at NYMC. Every year there is a powderpuff flag-football game between first- and second-year women. It is taken very seriously.













The game was well attended by students, faculty, and male cheerleaders. The second years won, which is good, because if I'm a first year here next year I want to be playing a team that has already tasted defeat.

This took place on the same day as the AMP student's first biostatistics midterm. It was a little more tricky than we wanted it to be but we all did well. I think we're all pretty much acing biostat, as advertised.

Immediately after the midterm was the wild 'n crazy Halloween party in the cafeteria. I had a 5-minute costume on, but there were some real doozies. One guy came as "a dude taking a shower," some of my AMP friends were Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter, but my favorite costume was these guys:

Aaaaaand we're back

It's been a rough few weeks but I've kept track of all of the New York Med goodness. I'll retroactively update on everything, but the most exciting news was my acceptance at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio! I got the email ~20 minutes after I read the election results, so it was a pretty exciting morning.

I also have an interview at Emory in a few weeks. They're both great schools, but I'm really hoping to get in NYMC. Too bad they don't interview the AMP students until March.

Project Sunshine

There aren't too many volunteer opportunities on NYMC's campus. There's a student-run clinic, but AMP students (and first-year med students) aren't allowed to do anything but administrative tasks (i.e. copy wench). I joined Project Sunshine a few weeks ago because visiting hospitalized children sounded like a fun way to develop patient contact skills.

The NYMC Project Sunshine chapter has ~50 people in it so we get divided up into groups of 5 and one group visits the Blythedale Children's Hospital at a time. My group went last Friday and we had an awesome afternoon playing with some of the children in the physical therapy program. Some played Madden, some painted pumpkins, I chased a 3-year-old with a Spongebob Squarepants ball for an hour.

I kinda wish we knew more about the kids' needs before meeting them, but we caught on quick and everyone had a fantastic time. I can't wait to go back.

Roommates

I am totally submitting these to whatsthatbug.com

We have the technology

Yesterday I made friends with Excel. I somehow got through undergrad without ever taking a class that used it, so I was sweating like a hoss when I realized we needed it to do our biostat homework.
It was not the worst thing ever, especially since there are easy-to-find online tutorials for everything I needed to do. The only problem was that the Office I have on my macBook Pro is somehow deficient, so I had to stalk the wild public-access PC in the Basic Science Building. Half of their computers have floppy drives instead of USB. It's like a time capsule!

Slow week

We had Exam II on 9/30, and only one day of classes since then. Most of us AMP students have been using this time to catch up on med school apps, and almost half have left town to visit friends and family.

I've spent the last two Thursday's at a friend's apartment watching The Office. We even dressed up in character for the season premiere (that's Dwight and Phyllis on the couch playing Guitar Hero). A few of us also went bowling at the White Plains AMF on Friday ($20 for two games, ouch).

We only have 3+ weeks until Histology is over, we begin Physiology AND Biochem, and my carefree lifestyle comes to an end. I forsee fewer visits to NYC, more QT in the library, and less (more?) drinking amongst the AMPs.

San Antonio

I had my interviews at UTHSCSA today. It was very laid-back, and apparently designed to tone down the pre-med panic. Lots of nice new buildings and happy students.
I hate traveling alone. I constantly feel like I'm seconds away from being mugged, losing my luggage, or just forgetting how to read and getting on the wrong plane. But these rocking chairs in Charlotte's airports made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I'll be missing all of tomorrow's classes while I travel. The weird part is I don't need to let anyone know. I don't need to ask permission or give an excuse to an instructor. Creeping adulthood isn't all bad.

And another AMP student was accepted to some med school! So that's 2 down, 18 to go. I wonder if she'll follow through with the program since she already has an acceptance, or if she'll bail and save herself a semester and $14,000.

Second Exam

I spent the weekend in NYC again. I think I've only spent two weekends total in Valhalla. This time, however, I had a good reason for going out of town: tickets to a Ratatat concert! I bought them a month ago, completely forgetting that I don't like concerts. It took two awful opening acts, a 2.5 hour wait, and second-hand smoke to unleash the memories of my few hateful concert experiences. Plus side: I got a sweet t-shirt.

I will pay for my unfocused weekend by studying nonstop for our midterm on Thursday. This one will include a practical test, where we will be asked to identify and describe light and electron micrographs, not all of which we've seen before.

We only have a month more of histology lectures! After the mini-board we'll have a few weeks off (except for biostatistics) before we start the second trimester and (dun dun duuuuuun) biochem/physiology!

UTSA

I received my first invite to interview at a med school the other day. This is my second med school application cycle so it won't be my first interview ever, but it's still way exciting. I didn't get an interview last year until almost Christmas.

The AMP directors were psyched about my interview. They told me to set up a time with each of them for a practice interview, so by the time I head to Texas I'll be all pumped up.

But who knew it was so hard to get around this part of the country? I grew up 10 minutes from an international airport and now I have to take a cab, train, and shuttle bus to get to JFK or La Guardia. It will literally be a 12 hour journey to San Antonio.

Fortunately I have tons of friends there to stay with. Hopefully one of those friends will escort me to the pre-interview social happening at an establishment known as The Flying Saucer. A school that encourages partying the night before the interview...gotta be a good sign, right?

Biostatistics

I'm writing this during our 10-minute break in the middle of our 3-hour biostatistics class. I've never taken any kind of stat before and was too caught up in histo this week to read for this, so this class was way over my head within minutes. I gave up and started reading histo notes. Also, taking pictures of my classmates.

The girls in the program went to the local Cheesecake Factory last night for dessert and gossip. We had a lot of fun except for the massive, unlit construction on 287.

Study Break

The lab test on Friday took all of 15 minutes. I messed up a question because I was too nervous, and all of my partner's telepathic advice was not helpful. Later that night a lot of the AMPs and first years went out to a bar/dance club called "The Thirsty Turtle." That night the club had a carnival theme, so there were balloons, carnival games out back, and this creepy guy walking around the dance floor on stilts.

Standing in front of the stiltwalker is a first year I don't know, but refer to as Sawyer for ponytail reasons.

All classes are canceled on Thursday because it's a "study day." One of the cool things about being part of such a small institution is that they can make a day off whenever they want to. In undergrad the only day off we got was MLK day. At NYMC there are days off for all of the major Jewish Holidays plus a few study days.

Lab Quiz Prep

My parents were at the same showing of "Spring Awakening" I saw. Apparently my dad and I got some of the same impressions:
Anyawkward (thank you, michael k), today we started gearing up for our first lab quiz. On Friday students go into one of the lab classrooms with the histo instructors two at a time and answer questions about slides projected on the wall. "What is this structure? What would the EM of it look like?" That kinda stuff. It only counts for 3% of the class' grade, but since there are only going to be six questions we want to be on top of our game.

Of course, the really big news is that the AMP students of the female persuasion have decided it's time for a ladies' night. The boys in the group are somehow already super chummy, with their flag football games and pickup basketball.

Fun fact: there are 12 dudes and 8 ladies in the program. I found that surprising because most med school and post-bach programs I've looked at make a huge deal of trying to keep it even. Then again, this is a pretty small program...

I wonder what will make up Ladies' Night...I don't know what the other women are into, but I've learned that Taboo pretty much equals instant friendship.

Saying Hot Hot Hot

It's crazy hot in Valhalla today. I maintain that it's not worth paying $100-$400 for an AC unit but I'll definitely be studying in the library until things cool down.

In the wake of our first exam I feel like the AMP students are getting a handle on everything. We're gradually being treated less like SMP (Special Master's Program) students and more like first years. There haven't been any AMP-specific gatherings in a few weeks.

I literally ran into a cadre of jugglers while leaving the gym yesterday. Recently I've been missing my undergrad circus arts compatriots like whoa, so it was nice to hang out and teach patterns and stuff. The guy I mostly talked to said he was trying to form a club, and maybe even find a legit way to do such things
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First Exam

Today was our first exam in Histology. It was a 65 questions, multiple-choice, and pretty tricky. They had the answer key on the school's database (the DCDB) in an hour or two. Unfortunately I can't figure out my grade until I see the stats on the rest of the AMP and first-year med students. AMP students are graded according to what percentage of the med school students they scored in. I think you have to score in the top 20% to get an A.

The fun part of your fist histo test is that upon its completion the second years get together and buy beer for the first years' immediate consumption. The second years are really into it, and even sent out a cute little powerpoint detailing the history of this lovely gesture:

Last week my mother came to visit, which meant I could use her rental car to drive around and actually buy some furniture. It all came from a combination of craigslist and Target. We wound up having to rent a truck from the Home Depot to carry a dresser I bought to campus. They charge ~$20/75 minutes.

I live on the second floor so getting the dresser into my bedroom was difficult. It was way too heavy for me, but I couldn't reach any of my friends on campus. At one point a med student with burly arms walked by. I ran after him to ask for help, yelling, "YOU WITH THE ARMS!" but he drove off before he heard me/ignored me until he could get to his car. Eventually the super was able to help me out.

I spent most of last weekend cramming for the histo test, but I spent one day visiting in New York. I got cheap tickets for Spring Awakening from TKTS. I had a lot of problems with the story, but the music is still in my head and it was great to see people from undergrad.

Transportation

This morning I walked about a mile to get to Mass (Holy Rosary). It was nice, lots of families, tons of firefighters for some reason. It wasn't too hard to get there, but it still made me anxious to get a car. I wouldn't say that a car is absolutely necessary, since I have a nice roommate who drives me to the grocery store/train station, but life would be MUCH harder this year if my parents weren't driving my grandmother's old car across the country for me to use. I can only ask my roomie to shuttle me around for so long before it'll strain the relationship.

Public transportation is available. One AMP student lives off campus and takes the bus every day, but nothing beats being able to go directly to the store to get some Nutella when you're feeling blue.

My mother's going to visit this week. She's done getting my sister set up for her first year at MIT, and I'm looking forward to using her rental to get some furniture. I've been here close to a month and all I have are a bed, lamp, and a floordrobe. My roommate's a fan of IKEA, but I'm sticking to craigslist. Slightly more sketchy, a lot more cheap. But no meatballs :(

You know what else I haven't procured in a month at NYMC? Nerd friends! Where my nerds at? I'm getting desperate. If I don't find someone to watch anime/sing Broadway/make LOST theories with soon I'm going to start "accidentally" planting specific links in the group emails.

Study group

We had a nice group study session today. I had hoped Dr. Lerea would show up to walk us through histology slides. I'd even written in my email to the AMP group email list that people better come study with me or I'd be alone with Dr. L and it'd be awkward. Unfortunately, I learned afterward that Dr. Lerea is a part of that email list. Terrible.

Everyone was glad we got together to talk stuff through, but nobody was anxious to lead discussion or just speak in front of everyone. I guess it makes sense, since this program is more about absorbing information than "developing leadership qualities."

The other students were surprised that I use wikipedia extensively while I'm studying. That site is what got me through bad lectures and inadequate textbooks all through undergrad, so I don't understand why the other AMPs don't share this dependency.

I've come to the conclusion that the previous occupant of my bedroom was a werewolf. Not only is there a weird amount of hair all over the carpet, but the hair itself is crazy thick and coarse. I'm serious, you could use it to repair holes in your jeans.

Socializing

There was a whopper of a sunset while I was walking back from the gym. Since I had spent all day studying in my room I appreciated that the one moment I spent outdoors was the most beautiful.The picture doesn't really do it justice.

I'm going to try to make a movie night or something happen in the near future. The point of the program is to prove that you can make good grades, so I spend most waking hours studying alone. I know I might only be here a year, but I need to make some friends. As nice as they are, I'm upset that the program directors are the people I've talked to the most in Valhalla.

Those guys really are great. They're out best cheerleaders, and genuinely care about our success. During orientation they took us out to a welcome dinner, gave us directions to nearby gyms and movie theaters, and told us their doors were open ~20 times.

I wonder if any of the other AMPs would be into V for Vendetta.

Histology

The second week of classes starts tomorrow. Since the AMP (Accelerated Master's Program) students take half of the first-year med classes I only have class twice a week. This leaves a lot of time for enjoying beautiful Valhalla and bunny spotting. It's there. Keep looking.

Our only class now is histology (micro anatomy/cell bio). We'll have 3-4 hours of lectures on Tuesday, and 2 hours of lecture with another 2-3 of lab on Thursday. Lab is mostly learning about a structure and then immediately looking for it in a section.

There's a lot more memorization to this class than anything I had in undergrad. I've already begun luring classmates, troll-like, into study sessions with promises of pizza. Luckily all the other master's students are into communal focus.

We'll start a biostatistics course in a few weeks, but I've heard it's not the kind of class you lose sleep over. Until then I'll keep reading the histo class transcriptions ($110/semester) and strengthening my relationship with wikipedia.

Welcome

This is about my year as a Basic Medical Sciences master's student at New York Medical College in Valhalla. It's a brand new program, and a second chance for 20 pre-meds to earn some street cred.

Topics will include academics, life in Valhalla, and adjusting to post-undergrad existence in a place I didn't know existed until 8 months ago. Classes begin 8/12.