Start of the school year

Once I was all settled into my new digs and had taken care of deferring my undergrad loans (pain in the you-know-what), it was time for school.  I remember walking into the lecture auditorium on the first day of class.  I looked around at a room that was packed solid with about 350 students that had either proven themselves academically in the past (M1s) or were hungry to prove their doubters wrong (SMPs).  I never considered myself to be a competitive person when it came to school and grades, but the game was different this year.  I knew had to beat the medical students if I was going to be successful.  Looking at the group of M1s, I had no clue how I was going to do it. 
Halfway through the lecture that first day I remember being overcome with as much anxiety that I could ever remember feeling in my life.  I knew I had to calm myself down, and I did it by thinking about the only thing I've ever been somewhat good at - golf.  I remembered my days as a junior golfer, walking onto the driving range before tournaments and looking at groups of players I was going to compete against.  I remember looking at some of the kids very superficially, thinking that for example, because one guy had a white belt that he had to be better than me and that there was no way I could beat him.  There would be the kids with the nice clubs or nice clothes and nice bags.  No way I could beat them either!  In the end though, the only thing I could control was myself.  And I knew that if I went out and played my own game and played well that nobody could beat me. 
My mentality throughout the year was similar to this.  I told myself that if I gave 100% effort and didn't cheat myself, that I would do well.  All I could do was take it day by day and work hard.  I knew I would have no distractions as I stated in my previous post.  All I had to worry about was studying.

And studying is what I did.  Our first class was Molecular and Cellular Biology, or MCP for short.  This class was a flashback to us SMPs of the biochem we all hated studying for in undergrad.  A lot of the class was biochem review, but unfortunately for me I actually had to learn it this time. 
It was during the second half of this class that I experienced my first episode of something that would plague myself and many classmates throughout the year - insomnia.  Before moving to DC, I had never had a problem sleeping in my life.  Now all of a sudden, I didn't sleep for days on end.  I dreaded having to go to sleep at night because I knew I was not going to be able to fall asleep.  I watched my clock tirelessly as the hours clicked by.  Each passing hour brought more stress as I knew I needed sleep in order to study my best the next day.  I don't know how I did it, but I somehow survived the second and final test and was rewarded with labor day weekend. 

Or so I thought.  I caught a cold right before my final, and it lasted throughout the weekend.  This was perfect timing as my parents flew into town.  They both saw the sites of DC while I emptied out my kleenex boxes in my basement apartment. 

My next class, Metabolism Nutrition and Endocrinology (MNE), went by without a hitch.  The amount of information I needed to memorize for the class was painful, but it was interesting.  I memorized the Krebs cycle for the 18th time.  I know it won't be my last, aka Step 1.  Dohhhhh.  During this class I made a surprise trip home for an interview at Rosalind Franklin University/Chicago Medical School/I don't know what this school is really called.  It was great to come home, but they ended up rejecting me after putting me on  a post-interview hold for what seemed like forever.

After finishing MNE, I took a road-trip to Richmond, Virginia for another interview, this time at Virginia Commonwealth University.  It was my first real big-boy road trip, albeit only a couple hour drive.  Richmond was the former capitol of the Confederacy.  Cool stuff.  I took a picture from my luxurious hotel (thanks for the free breakfast!) and one of the capitol building.  The school was cool, but Richmond was BOAT chaos.  I was crossing my fingers for something else.

The end of MNE meant the end of our medical classes for the time being.  Our next two months would be filled with graduate level classes, which were supposedly going to be a break.  We took Medical Immunology and Microbiology (MIM), Principles of Gross Anatomy (PGA), a genetics course (???), and some physiology forum class where we had to read a bit of literature and write a response to a question (a true blow-off class).  MIM was not easy.  PGA was my worst grade of the year.  I barely squeaked by genetics.  The classes were not as much of a break as I had hoped, but it was a minor break nonetheless.  I did get to watch "The Exorcist" for the first time during this break.  It was filmed on Georgetown's campus back before I was born, but it was still creepy.  Especially too because I watched it around Halloween, the exact time it took place during the movie.  A couple guys fell down these stairs and died in the movie.  Ouch.  Apparently due to lack of special effects in the 70s, real people had to tumble down these bad boys.  Don't worry, they were padded.

Our next class brought as back to the M1s, and they were all very glad to see us (not). Our first day of Cardio-Pulmonary (CP) was the last day before Thanksgiving break.  After a nice day with seven hours of lecture, I grabbed my suitcase, took a trip on the Metro to DCA airport, wiped the sweat off my forehead (it was about 65 degrees, very nice!), and headed home.  CP was the class we were all warned about, so the trip home would not be as sweet as if I were coming home for summer.  Oh well.

In between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I worked as hard as ever knowing that the CP was going to be hard.  The truth was that the class itself was not overly difficult.  The lectures were all clear and interesting.  My test before flying home for Christmas however, was NOT easy.  I also flew back home for break knowing that I was going to have to study for my first anatomy practical.  Could I just get a break G-town???  Apparently not.  I did get to make a cool indian out of marshmallows though.  Pretty cool.

 

I suppose this would be another good time to call it a day.  Peace out (Kip).

 

My First Post - SMP Year in Review

Where should I even begin?  I suppose this is not your typical blog post since I am attempting to squeeze a year's worth of events (or lack there-of) into a couple paragraphs.  I told myself, however, that I would start a blog to document the next four years of my life in our nation's capitol, where the temperature has no sympathy for pale white boys like myself.  And these next four years would mean nothing without reflecting on my last.  From there, I figure that writing about my experience in DC could lessen the burden on my parents.  I hope they enjoyed talking to me every day for the past 10 months, but even I would get tired of 25+ phone calls per day with Croom, Lawrence on the caller ID.

For those of you who don't know anything about me, don't worry, you're not missing out.  It took me three tries to get into medical school, but I finally did it.  Barely.  I owe almost all of the credit for this to a one-year master's program at Georgetown University where I proved to myself and a few medical schools that I could handle the tough curriculum presented to medical students throughout the country.

Does everyone have to do this?
No.

Why did I have to do this?
Because I used to think banging 6-irons and Drivers off the mats at Diversey Driving Range in Chicago was more important than reviewing Professor Vandelay's review questions for tomorrow's test.

To be honest, my phrase "used to think" should more honestly be worded as simply "think."  But I did realize one day that my "good" GPA for some was considered to be "below average" for those matriculating to medical school.  And to make a long story short I decided to attend Georgetown's program as a last-ditch attempt to get in.

Looking back on it now, packing up and moving to Washington was a great decision.  I didn't know anybody living there.  My closest relatives lived a 5-hour drive north in New York.  I didn't know anything to do for fun, my cell phone had no service in my basement apartment,  and my oven didn't exactly work.  Basically, the only thing I could do to kill time was STUDY.  And study is what I did.

Georgetown's Special Master's Program in Physiology and Biophysics was built for rejects like myself who had trouble getting accepted into medical school.  There were various exceptions to this just as in all aspects of life.  My classmates and I were to take six out of the ten first-year medical classes with Georgetown's medical students along with eight graduate-level classes with my fellow classmates (3 of which were nice, automatic A's).  If we wanted to get an A in a medical class, we had to beat 85-90% of these M1 studs on our tests.  To get an A-, our grade had to match the next subset percentage of medical students, and so on and so forth down the grading scale.  It was virtually impossible to get below a B- because medical schools hate to report that their students are failing.  But if you stunk it up bad enough, you could realistically fail  a class.  Most of both classes (my SMPs and M1s) received a B (or "Pass" for the medical students).  We were encouraged during our orientation that "Getting a B is a good thing.  It means you are keeping up with medical students."  I honestly had no idea what kind of potential I had at that point.  I had struggled through three MCATs and just did not know if I could really keep up with this suicide mission.  I did know one thing.  I was going to give it my best effort and see what happened.

Driving out to Washington with my parents in late July, 2010 was a blast.  The highlights of the drive were a Big Boy in Maumee, Ohio and a speed limit sign somewhere in Maryland.

Alas, we finally made it to Georgetown and got myself moved in.  Here is a picture of Healy Hall, an old building on campus that looks like it is straight out of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  This is taking much longer than I originally anticipated, and since I am now on "The Summer of Kevin" I am going to call it a post and resume later with something that will hopefully be more interesting to read.