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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?