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.