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.