First of all, I’d like to say, CONGRATULATIONS to Richard Tran for his acceptance into his # 1 choice. I’m not sure if he believes in God, but the Lord has truly blessed him. Once again, congrats man. As for me, this week has been an absolute whirlwind of things to do. I start my Thanksgiving break after this week, so of course all the teachers decided to give me going-away presents this week…TESTS. I had a test in Art Appreciation, Mammalian Anatomy, Mammalian Anatomy Lab, and I have a Plant Biology test tomorrow (which I should be studying for). The art test went pretty well, I’m actually worried that I won’t get an A in the class because I didn’t do so well on some quizzes, but I’m not as mad about that as I thought I would be. The Mammalian Anatomy test was an absolute beast. Of course the teacher for this class doesn’t believe in multiple choice so everything is write in. My girlfriend and I studied pretty hard for it, and the Lord blessed. Everything we studied for was on there and everything we decided to ignore he left off the test. The only thing I messed up on was the nerves and arteries of the abdominal wall, but I made up for it, with extra credit for writing the origin, insertion, and action of the external oblique, internal oblique, and transverse abdominal muscles. As for the Mammalian lab test, I didn’t get a chance to study at all for it, so I failed it. Both the lab test and the class test were on the same day, and I chose to study for the class test since it counted for alot, and not the lab test since it counted for only a portion of the 30% that the lab contributes to my grade. Anyway, sometimes you just got to know when to take a hit.
I think I have a hernia. There’s a bulge in my hypogastric abdominal region (lol, I had to give you something from class). Now I could be hallucinating because we just learned all about hernias in Mammalian class, but I was doing really have lifting on Sunday and now I have this bulge. It’s a little early to start self diagnosing myself, but it will be cool if I’m right. I won’t have time to go to the doctor until another week or too, so hopefully (if its not a hernia) it will go down, if not then its surgery time!
For Thanksgiving, I’m going with NAPS to Wilimington, North Carolina to do fundraising and to visit juvenile detention centers and schools. So I probably won’t be able to write an entry until I get back.
I got an MSAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I’m really pressed about it. After reading it over and over again, I have finally made my decision about the 10 medical schools I want to attend. I’ll also list the specific reasons I want to go there. Overall I picked my schools because of location (close to home), the average debt of graduates (I want it around $100K or lower), and whether they require a thesis for graduation. I’m not sure whether the thesis should scare me off but I truly believe that medical school is hard enough, and I really don’t want to add stress to it by writing a thesis. I really wanted to put Duke on my list, but they require a thesis, so I had to let it go. The only school I have that requires a thesis is Mayo. Anyway, here they are:
Howard University: I choose this school because its close to home and it slightly serves as a safety school. My mother doesn’t want me to go there (she had bad experiences) but I feel that the school would give me excellent clinical exposure while not killing me with debt.
John’s Hopkins University: This is not really a dream school to me, but it is defiantly a reach. I plan to do research there this upcoming summer to increase my chances of being accepted, but I want to apply here because its in my home state, it provides an excellent education, and (I’m ashamed to say) because its has a prestigious name. It will also give me a variety of cases to be exposed to because of its location and the average debt is pretty low.
University of Maryland:It is my #1 choice because of the extremely low debt of instate residents, their shock trauma hospital, there great teachers, the kindness of administrators and the fact that its in my home state. I also love the fact that they give you laptops, every lecture is online, and they only have lectures for like 2 hours a day.
Morehouse University SOM: In terms of facts from the MSAR it looks like a pretty good school. I replaced Meharry with this school because it seems like it is more together than Meharry (as a black school) and I haven’t heard as many horror stories about their Step 1 passing scores as I have heard of Meharry. They also have a really small class size, like 59, and its in Atlanta, a city I wouldn’t mind living in. This school slighty serves as a safety.
University of Cincinnati: How could I not apply here? I have more contacts at Cincinnati than I have at Oakwood, LOL. On top of that, its truly a great school, with greater teachers, loving administration, and they give nice scholarships. There are also 11 hospitals within a 20 mile radius of the school so it gives you lots of exposure to different things, and their early clinical exposure it pretty good.
Loma Linda University: Well this school is part of my church and they are also very good a preparing people clinically. The debt is pretty high but my main draw to this school is their mission work program, where (if you’re Adventist) and you go overseas to do mission work for 10 years, then they will pay off all your med school debt. That program is so appealing. I really hate that its in California, so far from home, but the mission work program is enough to pull me out there.
Mayo Clinic: This is definitely a reach school for me, but it seems (from when they came) that they like me. Also my dedication to mission work fits right in with their mission statement. Also I love that fact that their student’s average debt is crazy low (like $70K), so it will give me the opportunity to go pay off my debt quickly and go overseas. I also like their team orientated teaching style. Two things I don’t like is that fact that its in Rochester and the fact that they require a thesis for graduation. If I got in though, the low debt would be worth a thesis.
Emory University: Its in Atlanta and close to family. They also have pretty low average debt. That’s pretty much it.
Case Western: I have no desire to go here but Brittany really wants to apply there so I’m being a good boyfriend and putting it on my list. It’s a great school but I’d rather go to Cincinnati.
University of Virginia: I honestly don’t know too much about the school. Just the fact that its close to Maryland (which as you can see is a huge factor to me), has pretty low average debt, and has a pretty good name.
So yeah, please don’t write me telling me my reasons aren’t logical, because it really won’t make a difference. And in the end, where both Brittany and I get in will mitigate where I will choose. If I got into Mayo Clinic and Howard University, and Brittany only got into University of Maryland, I would pick Howard, hands down, because its close to UMD, and therefore close to her. I wouldn’t be able to stand to be away from her for so long. So yeah, I’ll stick with these schools and see which one the Lord has planned for me to attend. Peace.
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