by Joe Sisk
SDN Staff Author

Ahh, simple childhood games. Music playing. Walking around a circle of chairs. I’m eyeing the one closest to me.

*the music stops*
I scramble for a chair.

“I’m sorry, Joe. You can’t sit in a red chair. Those are for people with Outies. Your belly button is an Innie. You need to find a blue chair.”
“But the kindergarteners took most of the blue chairs for their game…”
“I’m sorry. Just see if you can find a left over one.”
I cry.

While this never actually happened, it is a recurring nightmare I have (and may explain my deep seated phobia of blue chairs). This game represents how health professional school admissions, particularly medical school admissions, work.

For medical schools, there are a good number of chairs that are spoken for before you’ve even submitted your AMCAS. How many depends on the types of alternate acceptance programs the school offers, but these programs contribute to the ultimate class size and subsequently are fewer seats available during the AMCAS application cycle.

As an informed applicant, what you can do is realize that you’re only going to be competing for the blue chair. Read the full story

Elizabeth Losada, MD
SDN Staff Writer

Prospective professional school applicants are often advised to avoid taking prerequisite classes at community college. Conventional belief among many pre-health students is that prerequisite classes taken at community colleges will be disparaged by admissions committees and could lead to the rejection of the applicant.

Such fears are expressed routinely in threads on the forums at Student Doctor Network; e.g., “Will taking a year of community college hurt my chances?” in the High School Forum and “Retaking at a CC after graduation/Chances?” in the What Are My Chances Forum. But are these fears and assumptions founded on actual admissions practices? Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus on this issue.

One school of thought suggests that students avoid doing prerequisites at community college because admissions committees consider a strong academic background essential to success. Such admissions criteria are supported by the findings of a 2007 study of medical students by Kleshinki, et al.[1] Read the full story

by Kara Hessel

Just over a year ago, I stood, heart racing and hands trembling, in front of my mailbox.  Any other Thursday I would have nonchalantly checked my mail as I came home from work, but today was an entirely different story.

A friend had texted me earlier in the day to let me know that decision letters had been delivered by our state school.  I had only been offered two interviews, and the letter which innocently lay in my mailbox represented my highest hope for attending medical school that year.  I paced for a full two minutes in front of my mailbox before I built up the courage to open it.  I probably would have paced longer, but someone came down my hallway, and I felt a bit foolish dancing around in front of the mailboxes.

Four attempts at inserting my key in the lock later, I was holding a too-thin, white, letter-sized envelope in my severely shaking hands.  Suddenly, I desperately needed to know the contents of that letter, and I ripped open the envelope with fervor akin to a starving man diving into a steak dinner.  I never made it past the first line.  The phrase

We regret to inform you…

jumped out of the page.

Panic gripped me, and it seemed that I could barely breathe, but no tears clouded my vision as I stared mindlessly at those dream-shattering words.  I stumbled down the hall to my apartment, where I collapsed in my desk chair.

In an attempt to think of something, anything, else, I opened the browser on my laptop and checked my e-mail.  I immediately noticed that I had received an e-mail from the one other school I had interviewed at, my last chance for the year.  I quickly opened the e-mail, only to discover that I had been waitlisted.

Utterly shocked, I crossed the room and lay down on my bed with one thought on my mind.  What in the world am I going to do now?

Read the full story

by Braluk
SDN Moderator

For St. Patrick’s Day 2009, I’m shaving my head.  And so are many of my friends and classmates.

And no, vast quantities of Guinness have nothing to do with it.

We are participating in a St. Baldrick’s Foundation event to raise funds for childhood cancer research.  Participants will either shave their heads or donate their hair to make wigs for a child in need.

Since its inception in 2000, St. Baldrick’s has raised more than $50 million and grown into the world’s largest fundraising event for childhood cancer. Worldwide 160,000 kids are diagnosed with cancer each year and despite tremendous progress, cancer remains the top disease killer of children in the U.S. and Canada.

My medical school class at Tulane University School of Medicine has the goal of beating last year’s event, which raised over $63,000. We’re well on our way, but we need your support.

The Student Doctor Network is currently sponsoring SDN membership for those who donate to the St. Baldrick’s foundation.  To get an SDN subscription, you will need to donate that subscription amount or higher to St. Baldrick’s.  For example, Gold status is $45 for one year or $75 for two years, so if you make a $75 donation to St. Baldrick’s, you will get a two year Gold status membership to SDN.

The link to donate is here (click on photo on the page): http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.php?ParticipantKey=2009-64188

In order to obtain your SDN membership, please email the receipt you receive from St. Baldrick’s to Anna@studentdoctor.net.  You must request an email receipt at the time of donation.

While battling cancer, children may lose not only their hair, but years of their childhood, and sometimes their lives. In comparison to their struggle, cutting my hair is a small sacrifice, and the money raised will make a difference for children with cancer now and in the future.

Beyond the money raised, my medical school class is banding together for this cause to show solidarity and support for the children and families affected by childhood cancer here in New Orleans and across the country.

So, I am asking you to help me raise as much money and awareness as I can for the foundation to fund as much research as possible!   Please donate now.

Alternative Spring Break Participants

by Bacchus
SDN Moderator

Sunscreen, check.

Flip-flops and toothbrush, check.

Camera, check.

Steel-toed boots, check.

The last item may seem peculiar, but for those of you who are familiar with an Alternative Spring Break (ASB), those boots are a must.

What is an Alternative Spring Break?

Alternative Spring Break trips can take many forms and be completed for numerous causes, but they all stem from one goal: Dedicating as much time as possible helping others.

ASB originated in the 1980’s  as an unconventional vacation from the college semester. By the early 1990’s, the popularity of the “Alternatives” was growing, and was booming by the end of the decade.

Growing curiosity and participation in the new millennium is attributed to the collegiate emphasis on volunteerism and national disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In fact, 36,000 individuals participated in ASB during the spring 2006 semester. Read the full story

by Laura Turner
SDN Staff Writer

Based on a series of polls conducted by the Student Doctor Network, students generally understand the current salaries they can expect to receive as a health professional.

The polls asked SDN users to select the salary range for an occupation “without Googling” to find the correct answer.  The results of the polls are available in the SDN poll archive.

Students were most likely to select the salary range into which the actual mean annual wage falls for all occupations except Dentists and Optometrists.  Actual wages used for comparison were determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are accurate as of May 2007. Read the full story

By Laura Turner
SDN Staff Writer

There is a growing shortage of physicians entering primary care, especially in the critical field of community and preventive medicine. Over the past 100 years, the greatest advances in human lifespan are due to the efforts of physicians and pharmacists working in the field of preventive medicine.

Recognizing the direct and far-reaching value of community and preventive medicine, the Student Doctor Network (SDN) has committed a portion of its 2009 and future revenues to creation of an annual scholarship program for medical and pharmacy students that plan to enter the field of community and preventive medicine. Read the full story

Updated for 2008-2009 Application Year

Visit Kaptest.com for more information and
SDN Member discounts on Kaplan Courses and Materials.

By Janani Krishnaswami, M.D.
Kaplan Admissions Consultant

The school interview inspires anxiety and anticipation in many applicants. A test of poise and communication skills, the interview is a key component of the school application package.

The process inherently benefits those who are:

• Relaxed
• Sincere
• Articulate
• Aware – of both their own motivations for seeking medicine (i.e., self-awareness) and “externally” aware (i.e., current events, salient healthcare issues)
• Able to comfortably carry on a conversation covering a wide range of topics (which stems from all of the above).

Read the full story

by Danielle Herder
and Sameer Apte

So you’ve scheduled an interview at your dream school and bought your plane ticket, but where will you stay the night before the interview?

Interviewees have several options available to them when choosing lodging.  Oftentimes, the obvious choice is a hotel room located close to the school, but this option can be expensive.  Staying with a student host can be a great alternative.

If you have browsed the Student Doctor Network Forums, you are probably aware that student hosting exists, but you might not understand exactly how it works or why it’s a good option. Read the full story

Republished from the AMA-MSS

Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/5349.html

The MSS Task Force on Medical Education Debt reviewed data that were compiled over the last 20 years from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the federal government, and other sources concerning the cost of medical education and the debt burden of medical students.

Key findings include: the average graduating medical student debt has been rising faster than the consumer price index (CPI) for the past 20 years, and tuition at public and private schools has been growing faster than the CPI over these same 20 years.

If left uncontrolled, these exorbitant amounts of debt may cause shifts in specialty choice, increase burnout and decrease the numbers of minorities in medicine. Read the full story