Auf Wiedersehen

My year at NYMC is over, so I don't have any more to add to this bliggity blog. If you know anyone interested in NYMC or their Accelerated Master's Program feel free to link 'em here.

I'll check comments once in a while, but if you have any questions I can be reached at runamok86 at yahoo dot com. My student doctor network name is runamok.

For all mah pre-meds in the house, never despair! There are a million ways to fulfill your dreams, be it going overseas, going DO, taking an extra year to buff up, or even becoming a PA. If you truly want it, there's a way for you to become a doctor.

Much love, and good luck!

The Breakdown

Of the original 20 people in the program:
1 person was accepted off of a waitlist for August 2008
3 withdrew applications to NYMC after being accepted by other schools for August 2009
1 didn't apply anywhere this year
1 was rejected by NYMC without being invited to interview and is reapplying this summer
14 interviewed at NYMC
8 were accepted within a few weeks
6 were initially waitlisted
1 at least has been accepted off of the waitlist
3 people on the waitlist haven't been accepted anywhere yet

So 20% of the class (4 people) applied but weren't successful this year. Compared to other SMPs, an 80% success rate in getting people into med schools in one year is good.

Here's hoping that AMP c/o 2010 does even better!

Graduate'd!

NYMC's first Accelerated Master's Program is done! I'm writing this from my parents' house where I'm spending the summer.

It's actually been done for a while. Our third neuro midterm was 6/12 and our final (another mini-board) was 6/19. I didn't perform all that well but I wound up getting a B. I don't know if this is true for everyone or just AMP students, but NYMC seems very hesitant to give people anything less than a B, even if your number grade doesn't seem to warrant it. The downside is that people with hugely varying scores (73-85, in biochem's case) end up with the same grade.

Immediately after our neuro final our program directors took all of us out to lunch at a teppanyaki restaurant. It wasn't a formal end-of-year event but it was fun, and we all got to say our goodbyes. Dr. Lerea kept talking about the bonds we'd formed, and how we'd always be able to count on these relationships in the future. What a guy.


Moving out was a nightmare, but only because I was disorganized about it. The superintendent was really chill. I wasn't fined or anything, despite leaving several sticky hooks up on my bedroom's walls.
And the cheapest storage units near Westchester? Why they're at Nanuet's Extra Space Storage. Look 'em up.

My only responsibility this summer is to get ready for med school! I was actually accepted to Stony Brook back in May, so I'll be making the move to Long Island this August. Drs. Lerea and Levine continue to be really supportive, and have repeatedly wished me all the best :)

The only black mark on this summer is my thesis. NYMC requires AMP students to write a BIG literature review on a topic of our choosing in order to get our degree. I don't really have to do it since Stony Brook doesn't care if I get my degree or not, but it would be lame not to finish it up after all of this time and money spent.

This week:

In "Medical Terms That Look Like You Banged Your Forehead On Your Keyboard":

Ventroamygdalofugal pathway.

The forest for the trees

Our second neuro midterm was yesterday. It was pretty much a massacre.

Our program ends a month from today. A bunch of AMP people hung out last night and everyone is emotionally run-down. We found out that NYMC has been accepting people who interviewed after AMP students did, so it appears NYMC is waiting until the very end to let us know if we're getting in or not.

I understand that they don't want us to lose motivation, but we have, like, lives and stuff. Waiting until mid-June makes it really difficult for us to make plans about where to live this summer, reapplying, whether we should get jobs, etc. If they're going to accept us, then the program's a success and who cares what grades I get in neuro. And if we're going to be rejected, I wish they would tell us early on so those who have to reapply can hit the ground running.

I feel like it's in NYMC's best interest for us to be happy and content and tell everyone how great the AMP is, and instead they have a class full of resentful pre-meds.

On a lighter note, my mother sent this for my birthday:
A classmate has suggested we take it around Valhalla and practice escaping from things.

Master's Thesis

We're spending all of our time studying our tails off for neuro. I don't know anyone who has made much progress with their thesis.

NYMC interview

I had my interview on Monday with the largest group of interviewees I've ever seen-over 20. It's so late that I'd assumed they were only interviewing AMP students. But no, the last day of interviews for MD applicants wasn't until today.

It all went pretty smoothly-there was just one 30-40 minute interview. It was closed-file so my interviewee didn't know anything about me when we sat down.

Here are the interview questions I remember:

What makes you want to be a doctor?
Why do you want to go to NYMC?
Why did you pick your college? Mine had the sweetest juggling club.

Why did you pick Biochemistry as your major? I was trying to impress a guy. It didn't work, but it wound up being a pretty tight major.

What was your favorite elective course in undergrad? Language Abilities in Animals, because its abbreviation was LAbiA.

What would you like me to tell the admissions committee?


It was all very pleasant. My roommate's interviewer asked her to basically recite her AMCAS, so I was happy that mine was more of a conversation.

What was NOT pleasant was being told it will be at least four weeks before we hear back from the admissions committee. That means that the people reapplying next year will start filling out their next AMCAS before finding out about NYMC.
Annoying.

Springtime in Valhalla

I've completely forgotten how beautiful Valhalla is when it's warm out. Studying for neuro is more difficult when you could be outside playing frisbee.

Our first neuro midterm was a heartbreaker. During the test I could practically feel the other students becoming discouraged. The AMP students have a good chance of doing well as long as the med student average is low, and some second years told me that close to half the class fails this first test.

It's a pretty stressful time of year. I have no idea where I'll be in four months, I'm still waiting to hear from my top choices, and I'm probably going to have to reboot my entire personal life. But the flowers and new leaves and misty evenings help keep things calm.

Bonus: I had terrible allergies in CT in April, but no sniffles at NYMC.

Neuroscience

Our first neuroscience exam is next Monday (4/27). We only have this one class now, and overall I'm digging it. The lectures are better, the material is really macro and interesting, and everything is just easier to learn. The biggest complaint I had about last block was that it was impossible to feel like you had studied adequately.

This is a pretty intense class, though, so while we have half the workload of last block, it's still twice the workload of first block (oh histology...).

During neuroscience the med students study the brains from the bodies they dissected during anatomy. There's a neuroanatomy lab once a week where a teacher basically points out the structures you need to know. Unfortunately the AMP students didn't get any kind of anatomy lab orientation so the first day was awkward--we just wandered up to the 4th floor without gloves, without a locker to put our stuff in, and without any clue how to get into the lab (SOMEone walked into the guy's locker room accidental-like).

As an aside: I feel NYMC had all these great intentions about making the AMP students blend seamlessly in with the med students but they ran out of time to set everything up before we got here. During histo they had microscopes and lockers for us, lots of guidance, and we never felt forgotten. Now the seams are starting to show. This will all be solved by next year but it's a little annoying to call up student housing to ask what should I do with my dorm/stuff over the summer and have them tell me, "We haven't figured it out yet."

But back to neuro lab--it's great! I totally stuck my fingers into somebody's ventricles on the first day.

It's snowing

Winter doesn't end in Valhalla, it just gets more frustrating.

Overheard at NYMC

"If I pass biochem I swear I'll never smoke pot again."
Cafeteria, 3/16 3:45 PM

Hell Week

Mon-Physio Midterm #3
Tue-Physio Final
Thur-Biochem Midterm #3
Fri-Biochem Final

My grades in physio have been steadily falling all block and came to a glorious fiery conclusion in today's final. I study very poorly for physio. A warning for future NYMC physio students: it is not enough to passively read transcriptions all block and then try memorize it right before the test.

I hit the gym today for the first time this week. There is a very sufficient gym on campus, <100m from my front door. There's a cardio room with treadmills and ellipticals, a locker room with showers, and a surprisingly nice weight room.

Touro has more bread than a prison meatball

There might be some large changes at NYMC in the near future.
Apparently NYMC has had money problems for a while, and it's all come to a head this year. The students just found out that the school is in talks with Touro college to possibly buy NYMC. Touro is "a Jewish-sponsored independent institution of higher and professional education" (from wikipedia) with allopathic, osteopathic, nursing, and law schools all over New York state. It's probably best known (perhaps undeservedly) for a 2007 scandal-one of its schools got in trouble because some employees were selling diplomas.
No one seems to know exactly how to react to this, but there is a vigorous discussion here. Don't click that if you want to avoid SDN craziness. Here there be archetypal pre-meds.

I haven't given the issue a lot of thought since I'm not really in a discriminating position-I've only been accepted at UTSA (Emory had their last acceptance mailout a week ago and I got nothing). I'll only be able to look down my nose at Touro when I'm sitting on a fat stack of acceptances.

Some awesome news: all of the AMP students got their invitations to interview at NYMC! We're not sure if they'll be able to take all of us but just getting the interview relieves a lot of tension.

EDIT: apparently NOT all of the AMP students got interviews, but the majority did. Sadz.


I gave an AMP applicant a tour of campus the other day. Even though I had no impact on her application, it felt BAD ASS to be on the other side of an interview day.

When you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way

It's 2:45 AM and there is a vicious goose fight occurring outside my window. I'm expecting to look out and see two rival goose gangs dueling with tiny switchblades.

Think Like a Pre-Med

The situation is becoming slightly desperate for the AMP students. Of the original 20, one was accepted off a waitlist in August, one left the program in December because he was accepted at a school that was unaware of this program, and ~6 of those left have been accepted at some med school. Over half of us have not gotten an acceptance, and a good number haven't even been invited to interview anywhere.

Only two of us have been invited to interview at NYMC, they'll be interviewed in late April. There is some concern that NYMC might not interview all of the AMP students, or that the class will be full before we get the chance.

The program directors have told us not to worry, that NYMC can extend its interview season as long as it wants. Despite their assurances, everyone's a little on edge.



There's one more week of classes, a week to study, and then a week of finals before spring break. It's best not to ask my classmates what they plan to do during vacation. They become confused, forgetting what life was like before biochem.

Med school why you gotta be so coy

2nd Midterms Over

Holy mackerel I'm alive!

EKG lab: After Dark

We don't have as many labs for physio as we did for histo, but they're much more entertaining.

Here Dr. Messina is testing the diving reflex of a classmate while he's hooked up to an EKG machine

We have less than a week until our next biochem/physio midterms and we're freaking out big time. Our first block midterms covered 12-15 lectures, but there will cover 60. I'm pretty sure these are not going to be my best grades at NYMC.

Last week we had both a blood drive and Student-Faculty bowling, a wonderful tradition where I learned Dr. Lerea is a secret bowling sleeper. I will treasure these happy memories as I try to memorize my face off.

Follies great and small

It was my birthday this week. After much ardent persuasion I got almost all of the AMP students to come out for ice cream at this awesome homemade sweet shop in Tarrytown.
Norm is giving us serious Face.

I was surprised so many people came because life has become Difficult. Everyone is spending so much time studying that they can't even afford to go to class, and half of the people in class are actually studying or reading scribes.

I guess there are some people with their act together. These must be the people responsible for Follies.

Follies is an annual sketch comedy concert put on by a mix of MS1s and 2s. All of the money from tickets ($3) went to the Children's Cancer Fund. I'd seen some of the videos from last year's performance so I had high expectations.
There were teacher impersonations, music videos, public service announcements, a cappella (NYMC's own Arrhythmias) and tons of "That's what she said"-style humor. When I walked out my face hurt from laughing so much.

The Baddest Mother on Campus

As I was checking my mail today a HUGE red-tailed hawk swooped down and took a swipe at a blue jay less than 10 feet away. I used to associate red-tailed hawks with literature from my childhood but now their name will strike fear in my heart.

Everyone has to make a 10-15 min presentation for their section of biochem at some point this trimester, and mine was today. I had to talk about weight-loss drugs like Olestra. I couldn't resist making one slide about incontinence:

Gray slush, even

There was some snow happening when I got back to Valhalla.
It is now slush, but there was almost enough the first day for a snowball fight.

For all the flack you hear about NYMC being near a prison I've always felt safe here. Security is ever vigilant and there are lots of guards around during nighttime. Some people got their laptops stolen from their rooms over Thanksgiving but they had left their back door open.
And now, emergency phones!


They're not workin' yet, but you're never out of sight of one. As someone who believes she is never more than 20 seconds away from being mugged/a zombie attack this comes as a great relief.