To my readers, this blog
is moving to:
http://myyearonthecouch.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-metamorphosis.html
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
DO NOT go to Ross University!
That was the under tone of my previous post. I have been thinking about this as I bought supplies and packed/planned for my upcoming trip to recon the island firsthand. Some of the more popular reasons to not do it are:
1. You'll never go to Harvard.
The idea behind this assertion is that by going to a school with such lowly prestige you will never go to Harvard or Johns Hopkins for a residency. It does bear mentioning that one Ross alumn went on to a Psych residency at Yale to be followed by a faculty position at Yale, but lets face it that is such an incredible long shot. I think this presumption is laughable. If I was actually in a position where Harvard or Johns Hopkins was even remotely possible, I wouldn't be looking at D.O. schools mush less Caribbean ones. Maybe I can kick so much ass in med school that I rise from the ashes of my undergrad days, but I can live the rest of my life perfectly happily without gracing the hallowed halls of the ivy league.
2. You'll never do neurosurgery.
I never liked neuro, and from a man who used to hold livers and hearts during surgery: SURGERY IS BORING! Every surgeon I scrubbed with did the same thing day in and day out. Far too repetitive for me. This point is similar to number one. Many people I've spoken with either in person or on the internet boo-hoo the school because supposedly all Ross University alumni need to be Tier 1 even for what are considered "less competitive residencies". This point underscores exactly what is wrong with medicine. Look at what are regarded as the most competitive residencies: Dermatology, Opthamology, Radiology. I have nothing against these, but they are specialties where you make 300k a year working on your own schedule and very little if any on-call time. Internist put in a full day, then GO BACK to the hospital for night rounds and make 1/3 of what these specialists do. The physician work force needs grunts. It is not glamorous. Dr. McDreamy is a neurosurgeon, Dr. House is, well let's be honest every specialty on the planet. You won't see a T.V. show about a primary care physician. It is just not sexy enough, but it is essential in real life. Lance Armstong may have had a surgeon save his life by removing his testicle and metastisized tumor, but it was Lance's PCP that said "This is a problem, we need a biopsy."
3. You won't be able to practice in XYZ state.
This is just blatantly not true. As it stands now all four states that accredit medical school have accredited Ross University, allowing their graduates to practice all over America and the world.
4. It has a bad reputation.
This seems to be true, but it depends on who you ask. In the 1970s the AMA forbid the development of new medical schools and capped the number of students each school was allowed to enroll. The fear at the time was that there would be too many doctors. As a result, many medical schools opened off-shore witht he purpose of providing a back-door for students who wanted to practice in the states. Fast forward 40 years: The population has lived longer than previously hypothesized and many physicians retired much earlier than expected. This all results in America neededing something like 90,000 Doctors by 2020 (depending on which "think-tank" you read). So yes Carribbean schools as a whole have a bad reputationd due to the fact that many do not operate without oversight or standards of any kind. There are some papers in pubmed which show that some schools like Ross, SGU and AUC have excelled at attracting otherwise qualified students and giving them a chance to become capable doctors that practice in the states. Many other Carib. medical schools are shady bridges-to-nowhere. Sadly Ross has been lumped in with these. Leading to another point:
5. It is owned by DeVry.
Yes, this bugs me. I'm not sure that it should. Given the need for physicians and the complete imbalance of the number of people who want to put in the time and earn the right to practice medicine and the number of seats in medical school, I am not surprised a for-profit system has opened. In a free market if you can do something better or fill a niche, you go for it. Still, DeVry makes it sound cheesy. Like all the latenight commercials for people who want a fly-by-night degree to put on their resume's so they can be court reporters, gunsmiths or whatever. This adds to the afore mentioned stigma. If you look into it though, Dr. Ross sold the school to DeVry, so it is not like it was a corporate conglomerate endeavor to begin with. It is a for-profit school, which the AMA says it will not sanction. This is surprising because schools like Rocky Vista are American based medical schools which operate on a for-profit basis and they seem to have no problems with accreditation.
I am in Puerto Rico now and will return from the recon mission tomorrow. You'll get the low-down of my analysis as soon as I have a cogent post.
1. You'll never go to Harvard.
The idea behind this assertion is that by going to a school with such lowly prestige you will never go to Harvard or Johns Hopkins for a residency. It does bear mentioning that one Ross alumn went on to a Psych residency at Yale to be followed by a faculty position at Yale, but lets face it that is such an incredible long shot. I think this presumption is laughable. If I was actually in a position where Harvard or Johns Hopkins was even remotely possible, I wouldn't be looking at D.O. schools mush less Caribbean ones. Maybe I can kick so much ass in med school that I rise from the ashes of my undergrad days, but I can live the rest of my life perfectly happily without gracing the hallowed halls of the ivy league.
2. You'll never do neurosurgery.
I never liked neuro, and from a man who used to hold livers and hearts during surgery: SURGERY IS BORING! Every surgeon I scrubbed with did the same thing day in and day out. Far too repetitive for me. This point is similar to number one. Many people I've spoken with either in person or on the internet boo-hoo the school because supposedly all Ross University alumni need to be Tier 1 even for what are considered "less competitive residencies". This point underscores exactly what is wrong with medicine. Look at what are regarded as the most competitive residencies: Dermatology, Opthamology, Radiology. I have nothing against these, but they are specialties where you make 300k a year working on your own schedule and very little if any on-call time. Internist put in a full day, then GO BACK to the hospital for night rounds and make 1/3 of what these specialists do. The physician work force needs grunts. It is not glamorous. Dr. McDreamy is a neurosurgeon, Dr. House is, well let's be honest every specialty on the planet. You won't see a T.V. show about a primary care physician. It is just not sexy enough, but it is essential in real life. Lance Armstong may have had a surgeon save his life by removing his testicle and metastisized tumor, but it was Lance's PCP that said "This is a problem, we need a biopsy."
3. You won't be able to practice in XYZ state.
This is just blatantly not true. As it stands now all four states that accredit medical school have accredited Ross University, allowing their graduates to practice all over America and the world.
4. It has a bad reputation.
This seems to be true, but it depends on who you ask. In the 1970s the AMA forbid the development of new medical schools and capped the number of students each school was allowed to enroll. The fear at the time was that there would be too many doctors. As a result, many medical schools opened off-shore witht he purpose of providing a back-door for students who wanted to practice in the states. Fast forward 40 years: The population has lived longer than previously hypothesized and many physicians retired much earlier than expected. This all results in America neededing something like 90,000 Doctors by 2020 (depending on which "think-tank" you read). So yes Carribbean schools as a whole have a bad reputationd due to the fact that many do not operate without oversight or standards of any kind. There are some papers in pubmed which show that some schools like Ross, SGU and AUC have excelled at attracting otherwise qualified students and giving them a chance to become capable doctors that practice in the states. Many other Carib. medical schools are shady bridges-to-nowhere. Sadly Ross has been lumped in with these. Leading to another point:
5. It is owned by DeVry.
Yes, this bugs me. I'm not sure that it should. Given the need for physicians and the complete imbalance of the number of people who want to put in the time and earn the right to practice medicine and the number of seats in medical school, I am not surprised a for-profit system has opened. In a free market if you can do something better or fill a niche, you go for it. Still, DeVry makes it sound cheesy. Like all the latenight commercials for people who want a fly-by-night degree to put on their resume's so they can be court reporters, gunsmiths or whatever. This adds to the afore mentioned stigma. If you look into it though, Dr. Ross sold the school to DeVry, so it is not like it was a corporate conglomerate endeavor to begin with. It is a for-profit school, which the AMA says it will not sanction. This is surprising because schools like Rocky Vista are American based medical schools which operate on a for-profit basis and they seem to have no problems with accreditation.
I am in Puerto Rico now and will return from the recon mission tomorrow. You'll get the low-down of my analysis as soon as I have a cogent post.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Soul Searching.
This blog is an attempt to organize my thoughts in a way that may help others in my situation and to help me come to terms with a fork in my life's path.
I want to be a physician. For the last 4 years the goal of practicing medicine has been my raison d'etre, my sine quo non, the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. I have applied to every medical school in Texas and several out of state M.D. and D.O. schools. To date, I had an interview at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine while I was in one of their special programs. Despite being told by my interviewing D.O. "you'll be in medical school and I hope it will be here" and "I look forward to calling you my colleague!" I was not selected. The research professor who interviewed me was impressed by my research background and told me it was "more substantial than I have seen even among D.O./Ph.D applicants." My 30 MCAT meant nothing, nor did my two M.S. degrees.
I postponed my graduation from undergrad to retake some classes and to take more hard science courses in which I did well. I also chose to finish my published undergraduate research as a master's degree. I thought that by taking advanced classes and doing well in them I would be distinguishing myself for med school. The net result of these YEARS of work was that medical schools do not care about graduate school. One dean of admissions told me they are "skeptical about grad school grades because everyone gets A's and B's." Not only do I find this insulting I think it is a testament to how "full of crap" the admissions process is. Most medical schools are interested in students who have conducted research and use this as a plus factor or a requirement even de facto if not de jure. Yet they don't respect courses in which students are treated like actual scientists: trained to analyze data and evaluate the consequences of the material instead of regurgitate.
Recently I was accepted to Ross University School of Medicine. Getting accepted to medical school should be a giant burden off a person's shoulders, but this feel more like a curse. I worked very hard in classes, the MCAT and years of working with physicians and in hospitals to get to a medical school. I did not put forth all that effort to go to an out-of-country school where I will have to cover a year's worth of material in 12 weeks less than a typical medical school, and even if I do well, will get looked down on during residency match.
So why am I even considering it? This is the only place that gave me an interview much less an acceptance. What are my options? My biggest hang-up for medical admissions seems to be my undergrad GPA. The way the TMDSAS computes my GPA I have a 2.75 because repeats are treated as another course instead of a replacement. My GPA computed by my undergrad university is 3.2, low, but my grad school GPA is 3.87. When I first started college I took Physics 2 at a junior college while I was a high school junior. I went to a full day of school, baseball practice then a college course. No one else in my peer group ever tried anything like this and I did it to learn more about a subject I once found fascinating. I also had no idea how college "worked". When I got to a 4-year university I didn't know the difference between a course catalog and a schedule of classes. In short I had no idea what I was doing. My grades improved as I took upper-level biology courses earning both A's and my professors' respect in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry etc. I could go back to undergrad and retake classes from my first few years, but do I, as a 29 year-old man who has not only taken these science classes before, but actually published research and contributed to the scientific community want to go back to the 18 year-olds in general chemistry and Bio 101? The state of Texas has in its education laws an "Academic Fresh Start" option. Anyone with grades over 9 years old can invoke this statute and all grades 9 years old from the time you declare this option cannot be counted against you for admission purposes or even looked at. The down side is that applicants still have to retake any prerequisite courses that may have been "expunged" by doing so. I would have to retake the SAT and get recommendation letters to go back and either do college all over again or at least 2 years of medical prereqs. The other option: take the shot at Ross, kick ass and get an M.D. then take my chances in the residency pool. Redoing undergrad does not guarantee anything and an admissions personality I spoke to said that "between a 23 year-old and 29 year-old with equal stats, age has been used as a deciding factor". So it seems I take a chance either way. All in all it seems the boy I was is overshadowing the man I became.
In addition, I have perused websites like Student Doctor Network and ValueMD but found those to be unproductive conversations, really more just flame-wars. I also found them to be unhelpful due to the people who post the most on those sites. Most of the nay-sayers are PA, podiatry etc students who gave up their dream of being a physician and want to belittle those who refuse to do so. I have nothing against PA or podiatry or whatever students. I respect those professions and the people who work hard to practice them. I do have something against people with chips on their shoulders. Some on those forums claim to be med students at prestigious universities, but if you got into the places they claim to attend I doubt you would have the time to belittle people on the internet, or you are a big enough douche that your douchyness would be obvious to an admissions committee.
The thing that scares me the most is the future. Right now Medicare pays for medical school residencies. The last school I was at raised their class size from 160 to 212 students last year alone. With new medical schools opening and existing class sizes increasing what will be the odds of an international medical graduate getting a US residency in 4 years? I understand this has not been an issue so much in the past but I expect things to get incredibly competitive in the next few years.
I have spent over 2 months agonizing over these kinds of thoughts. I have made arrangements to visit Ross this coming Tuesday. I'll look at the island and see the students and the facilities. The best endorsement of Ross has been calling Medical Schools and asking them if I would be able to do a residency at their school if I attended a Caribbean medical school. Many asked which school and said that I would be fine from Ross. One world-class institution commented that Ross was the only Caribbean school they do not view as a Caribbean school. In a few days I'll see for myself.
I want to be a physician. For the last 4 years the goal of practicing medicine has been my raison d'etre, my sine quo non, the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. I have applied to every medical school in Texas and several out of state M.D. and D.O. schools. To date, I had an interview at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine while I was in one of their special programs. Despite being told by my interviewing D.O. "you'll be in medical school and I hope it will be here" and "I look forward to calling you my colleague!" I was not selected. The research professor who interviewed me was impressed by my research background and told me it was "more substantial than I have seen even among D.O./Ph.D applicants." My 30 MCAT meant nothing, nor did my two M.S. degrees.
I postponed my graduation from undergrad to retake some classes and to take more hard science courses in which I did well. I also chose to finish my published undergraduate research as a master's degree. I thought that by taking advanced classes and doing well in them I would be distinguishing myself for med school. The net result of these YEARS of work was that medical schools do not care about graduate school. One dean of admissions told me they are "skeptical about grad school grades because everyone gets A's and B's." Not only do I find this insulting I think it is a testament to how "full of crap" the admissions process is. Most medical schools are interested in students who have conducted research and use this as a plus factor or a requirement even de facto if not de jure. Yet they don't respect courses in which students are treated like actual scientists: trained to analyze data and evaluate the consequences of the material instead of regurgitate.
Recently I was accepted to Ross University School of Medicine. Getting accepted to medical school should be a giant burden off a person's shoulders, but this feel more like a curse. I worked very hard in classes, the MCAT and years of working with physicians and in hospitals to get to a medical school. I did not put forth all that effort to go to an out-of-country school where I will have to cover a year's worth of material in 12 weeks less than a typical medical school, and even if I do well, will get looked down on during residency match.
So why am I even considering it? This is the only place that gave me an interview much less an acceptance. What are my options? My biggest hang-up for medical admissions seems to be my undergrad GPA. The way the TMDSAS computes my GPA I have a 2.75 because repeats are treated as another course instead of a replacement. My GPA computed by my undergrad university is 3.2, low, but my grad school GPA is 3.87. When I first started college I took Physics 2 at a junior college while I was a high school junior. I went to a full day of school, baseball practice then a college course. No one else in my peer group ever tried anything like this and I did it to learn more about a subject I once found fascinating. I also had no idea how college "worked". When I got to a 4-year university I didn't know the difference between a course catalog and a schedule of classes. In short I had no idea what I was doing. My grades improved as I took upper-level biology courses earning both A's and my professors' respect in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry etc. I could go back to undergrad and retake classes from my first few years, but do I, as a 29 year-old man who has not only taken these science classes before, but actually published research and contributed to the scientific community want to go back to the 18 year-olds in general chemistry and Bio 101? The state of Texas has in its education laws an "Academic Fresh Start" option. Anyone with grades over 9 years old can invoke this statute and all grades 9 years old from the time you declare this option cannot be counted against you for admission purposes or even looked at. The down side is that applicants still have to retake any prerequisite courses that may have been "expunged" by doing so. I would have to retake the SAT and get recommendation letters to go back and either do college all over again or at least 2 years of medical prereqs. The other option: take the shot at Ross, kick ass and get an M.D. then take my chances in the residency pool. Redoing undergrad does not guarantee anything and an admissions personality I spoke to said that "between a 23 year-old and 29 year-old with equal stats, age has been used as a deciding factor". So it seems I take a chance either way. All in all it seems the boy I was is overshadowing the man I became.
In addition, I have perused websites like Student Doctor Network and ValueMD but found those to be unproductive conversations, really more just flame-wars. I also found them to be unhelpful due to the people who post the most on those sites. Most of the nay-sayers are PA, podiatry etc students who gave up their dream of being a physician and want to belittle those who refuse to do so. I have nothing against PA or podiatry or whatever students. I respect those professions and the people who work hard to practice them. I do have something against people with chips on their shoulders. Some on those forums claim to be med students at prestigious universities, but if you got into the places they claim to attend I doubt you would have the time to belittle people on the internet, or you are a big enough douche that your douchyness would be obvious to an admissions committee.
The thing that scares me the most is the future. Right now Medicare pays for medical school residencies. The last school I was at raised their class size from 160 to 212 students last year alone. With new medical schools opening and existing class sizes increasing what will be the odds of an international medical graduate getting a US residency in 4 years? I understand this has not been an issue so much in the past but I expect things to get incredibly competitive in the next few years.
I have spent over 2 months agonizing over these kinds of thoughts. I have made arrangements to visit Ross this coming Tuesday. I'll look at the island and see the students and the facilities. The best endorsement of Ross has been calling Medical Schools and asking them if I would be able to do a residency at their school if I attended a Caribbean medical school. Many asked which school and said that I would be fine from Ross. One world-class institution commented that Ross was the only Caribbean school they do not view as a Caribbean school. In a few days I'll see for myself.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Testing
These will be the ramblings of a mad man in search of a way to make peace with himself. Two roads diverge in a wood, and I struggle to figure out which one to take. This will be both a valiant struggle and world-wide adventure.
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