12 Comments so far

1. Xavier on November 21, 2008 5:44 pm

   Good luck!! Enjoy your studying :P

2. jammie dodger on November 21, 2008 5:51 pm

   Betsy has nice ears.

3. Jenn on November 21, 2008 9:29 pm

   good luck!!

4. arun on November 23, 2008 3:42 pm

   Um this is a first. I ‘ve never been to this site but i see that is run by a 4th year med student so thats the reason i’m posting this. I am currently a frehsman at UF and I’m getting descent grades but i haven’t really started any extra curricular activities or anything. I want to get in to a US med school above anything. Is it really as hard as they say it is? I Personally don’t mind spending alot of time studying as long as i have 2 hours a day of free time to do something phsycial, fun,etc. However being that it is my first semester i am already getting c’s in introduction to chemistry as well as precalculus. I chose not to drop them because i figure they are weed out classes and that i would have to repeat them anyway. Also i heard that it gets easier as you move onto higher level weed out classes. So i’m gonna stick with it and hopefully get into a US med school. I was just wondering about your advice concerning the MCAT, what kind of course load, and what kind of grades i need to be getting. Also how important are extracurricular and volunteering. Although i really do not want to leave the US for medical school if worst comes to worst i will settle for a caribbean school. I am just wondering on what you did, and your path to becoming a 4th year med student.

5. arun on November 23, 2008 3:45 pm

   and that is my real email so feel free to respond via email.

6. sarah on November 23, 2008 9:04 pm

   I’m making a powerpoint presentation on giardia…how many slides does it take to explain that it gives kids explosive diarrhea?
   Anyway, seeing as I need a break from that, let me be the unasked, unwanted, unqualified and unappreciated spokesperson for Jennifer and answer that previous post on behalf of her:

   Arun,

   Jennifer is a 4th semester med student, not 4th year. I don’t even think there is a 4th year..is there? She does 5 semesters and then a whole whack of other stuff, and i’m not sure if that other stuff is counted in years…but anyway…

   Jennifer is Canadian, so I’m sure she doesn’t know a whole lot about the American med school process. Or maybe she does. Who am I to say?

   Jennifer is in a Caribbean med school, not a US med school, so again, I don’t think she can answer your questions..especially after saying “if worst comes to worst I will settle for a caribbean med school” (by the way it’s worse comes to worse)

   Also, there’s no such thing as a “weed out” class. There’s such a thing as a “hard class”. Schools don’t intentionally try to fail their students. They like collecting money from them too much.

   I’m sure this hasn’t been a very helpful post, but i’m the best you’ve got until you get a proper response!

7. RAEB on November 23, 2008 9:24 pm

   Don’t forget the fatty, smelly stools! Yeah! Like overdosing on Olestra chips!

8. sarah on November 24, 2008 12:58 am

   ewwww no worries. I wouldn’t dare forget those.

9. btezra on November 24, 2008 2:43 pm

   hope yinz two had a great weekend and your studies are all good!

10. BCWB on November 24, 2008 7:30 pm

    Pretty good weekend and our friend has moved onto more green fields up the mountain. It was a very quick weekend and a tough day today. However, I am sure Jen kicked my butt and will be able to tell you all about it soon. However, she is helping me here shortly get my website up and running Sarah : P So hope you all had a much better weekend then we did!!

11. kev on November 24, 2008 8:32 pm

    whoa… bcwb is going to start to post somewhere other than xcomments? cool!

    hopefully the weekend went well, and you guys are suitably unblocked. enjoy a carib or two for me.

12. arun on December 1, 2008 11:50 am

    Well i didn’t mean “settle for a Caribbean school” in the connotation that you put it. I meant it that I love my comfortable little state of Florida, as well as my not so economically stable country of America. I was just wondering what kind of things I need to be doing as a freshman to get into a med school in general. I’m sure Caribbean med school don’t take any random person applying either. For example volunteering, extracurricular activities, research? Since jennifer is a 4th SEMESTER lol, i’m sure she has the most experience on what to do to become a successful candidate. I’m not talking about the cliche get good grades, work hard in classes stuff. There has to be other things which make a candidate stand out and i was wondering what things she did to get where she is.