Archived Messages

Friday, February 16, 2007 -- 22:25:53 (EST)
Name: iBee
i also met a now 2nd year (male) who scrambled into a prelim spot at UW, and was very happy there, although it was a tough progrma.

Friday, February 16, 2007 -- 13:00:26 (EST)
Name: hammer
Starting about two years ago, prelim programs, esp. prelim-med, starting filling their rank lists with FMGs. Since then, scrambling for prelim-med has become pretty difficult and it's now a bad strategy to plan to scramble for a spot. Prelim-surg spots are pretty open for the most part, so if it doesn't work out in the match, anyone can find one of these in a given area. For the person who was happy with the UW prelim-Ha! That's a pretty tough prelim year...10 inpatient months.

Friday, February 16, 2007 -- 11:05:03 (EST)
Name: Hil
Does anyone know when all the programs find out who matched with them? I know we get our envelopes at noon-ish, but do they find out then too or earlier/later that day?

Friday, February 16, 2007 -- 10:31:10 (EST)
Name: empirical
I don't know much about prelim applications, but I met an intern on the interview trail who supposedly applied to 0 prelim programs and PLANNED to scramble. She ended up at UW, and was really happy.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 -- 22:18:49 (EST)
Name: Simon
Unscramble this - with all due respect (and much love), what were you thinking?

Anyhow, at this point, I would make an urgent appt. with Dr. Grum and see what his advice would be.

Most likely, you would much rather match in the so-so program than try to scramble. Given that, I would express VERY strong interest to that program, and would consider having your mentor (or one of your letter writers) contact the PD and delicately explain your situation, although the latter option may backfire.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 -- 20:29:29 (EST)
Name: e
Apparently, two people had to scramble for prelims last year. One of them got one in his/her home town, and the other one's specialty program created an extra prelim spot for him/her. Doubt you'll have to, but it can be done.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 -- 19:31:17 (EST)
Name: unscramble this!
how unpleasant would it be to scramble prelim medicine?
(this is not a rhetorical). i only interviewed at 1 prelim program and thought it was so-so. unfortunately i applied to 2-4 programs that i liked.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 -- 17:25:40 (EST)
Name: Rima -- Email: rmakhiaw@umich.edu
Hi everyone. One month till Match Day (eek!)...and something to keep your mind off of it --- send your "favorite" med school memories to Lori Burke (burkel@umich.edu). Nothing long or complicated, short and sweet will do, thanks, it's for the yearbook.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 -- 16:25:02 (EST)
Name: nbehnke
what is up with the email from the mhealthy people telling me maybe i mistakenly have been adding a zero or something to my activity minutes from active U? uh, nope. i honestly did play 3hrs of ultimate frisbee on friday and 4 hours on saturday, thanks.

anyone else getting these messages from the active U people? weird.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007 -- 06:17:30 (EST)
Name: Czaja
I'd like to match at my top 3, but only bc I actually like my top 3 best... not bc I actually give a hoot if I "go down to #4" on my list... or 5 or 6, whatever. The only sad part about going that far down my list is that I'll either A) not be in the city I want; or B) be taking more call at that program than I want. Pride is usually a worthless emotion. Swallow it.

Monday, February 12, 2007 -- 16:55:27 (EST)
Name: e
I agree with that, but there's probably some element of pride involved also: everyone wants to match at their top three, so it's counterintuitive to rank the ones where you really don't have a great feel. Of course, that awful 'please, someone, pick me for your kickball team' feeling doesn't help either...

Monday, February 12, 2007 -- 07:49:07 (EST)
Name: Agree with above
Mattz - Unfortunately, there are way too many people that still believe that there is a way to "game" the system. Ironically, most of them in my experience are program directors or very senior faculty who really should know better. Perhaps this was possible in the past, but certainly no more.

The other issue may be that some programs are concerned about how low they go on their rank list to fill.

Monday, February 12, 2007 -- 07:45:03 (EST)
Name: MattZ
Caring for the Underserved is a great idea with a few bumps it's first month (which is my group) including SteveW, Kags, EricaJ, Anika, RachelleW, and me. You work in clinics in Detroit (2/3), Ann Arbor and Ypsi (the other 1/3). So there's a lot of driving to Detroit and working in free clinics there as well as Corner, Packard, Delonis, Hope clinics here. We'll have more info at the end of the month as it is still evolving. Email the people above for other opinions.

Monday, February 12, 2007 -- 07:41:33 (EST)
Name: MattZ
Reminder: Anyone who says that you have to put their program #1 in order to match there is full of sh$t. Look at the algorithm. Even if you put Harvard as #2 and Backwoods Ozarks (which is lovely) as #1 and everyone else put Harvard as #1. All that matters is that your #1 choice fills up with people that are ranked higher by the program, then you bump to your #2 where all that matters is what they ranked you. I know this is obvious, but I've heard too many people who don't get this.

Sunday, February 11, 2007 -- 11:54:55 (EST)
Name: sparky
My wife keeps threatening to grab my match list before I send it in and scratch everything out and write in Seattle or Portland. Where'd that Kentucky girl get them new-fangled fancy idears?

Sunday, February 11, 2007 -- 02:45:20 (EST)
Name: Sunny
Re: arbabi

He was one of the few trauma surgery attendings. Him, Dr. Wall?, and one other guy who was working on his MBA and had no intention of seeing patients after finishing it. Is there anyone I'm leaving out? Promotion + seattle = I'd leave ann arbor too.

Friday, February 09, 2007 -- 22:46:18 (EST)
Name: MattZ
"My question - does this REALLY take the computer ~3 weeks to crunch through?"
No, I heard it actually takes the computer a few minutes. I guess the extra time is crossing T's and dotting I's. Apparently every so often in the past a program would screw up and enter the wrong number of slots, etc.

Friday, February 09, 2007 -- 11:05:40 (EST)
Name: tanya -- Email: twansom@umich.edu
hey dudes, im also in garrett's boat and creating my M4 schedule as well.

did anyone take the 'Care of the Underserved' elective this year? email me, id love to hear your thoughts on it.

hope you're all enjoying the rest of M4 year :)

Thursday, February 08, 2007 -- 20:36:17 (EST)
Name: e
oh, how i wish i were matched right now! as of march 15, FUBIGMI will be my first, last and middle name:
"FUBIGME?!"
"That's Student Doctor FUBIGMI to you, my friend."
Until then, I'll be over here, trying to decide what to do with programs in Ohio...Once we certify, how hard is it to change the list?

Thursday, February 08, 2007 -- 19:10:09 (EST)
Name: jid
Resident on call: you want me to wake you up if there's some interesting cross-cover?
Me as M3: um, not particularly
Me as (matched) M4: fuck no, leave me the hell alone

Thursday, February 08, 2007 -- 18:43:34 (EST)
Name: M4 life's good
Man, this new-found M4 "I don't care" freedom is addicting.

Attending: "You need to read more."
Me as M3: >>sob<<, and then going home that night and furiously reading
Me as M4: "Yea you're probably right." And then doing nothing.

Attending: It's past 5, so you can go if you want to.
Me as M3: >>feign interest<< and stick around until the attending literally kicks me out
Me as M4: "Sounds good, I'll see you later!"

Attending: >>asks a pimp question<<
Me as M3: Since I don't know the answer, talk around the subject about everything else I know remotely connected to the question.
Me as M4: "Uh, I dunno."

Attending: "Page me when you get here in the morning around 8am"
Me as M3: Paging attending at 7:50am just so he knows I'm not late.
Me as M4: Actually ready to page attending at 8:20, but dilly-dally, check email until 8:45.

Good stuff.

Thursday, February 08, 2007 -- 18:21:38 (EST)
Name: swarnick
What's with all the anonymous posting lately?

I agree with "Disgruntle M4". I personally did not want to bug people for 3 more letters of recommendation for an award to basically boost my ego (not that I would have gotten one if I applied). There probably is not a better way to get the distinction though, unless they did class nomination, but then that would basically be a popularity contest, unless they do like the Michigan Leadership awards, and made people nominate classmates by writing an essay. So - congrats to those who found the time, energy, and letter writers to earn the distinctions ;)

Thursday, February 08, 2007 -- 16:58:23 (EST)
Name: Another disgruntled M4
I think it's pretty lame that you have to apply for the research and community service recognition awards. I understand, however, that the application process is probably the only way for the administration to gather the information. Instead of simply recognizing people who have done cool things, I will feel that this process seems to reward those who take the time to spruce up their CVs so they can boast about themselves...which is not the point since people certainly do deserve recognition.

Thursday, February 08, 2007 -- 11:37:12 (EST)
Name: e
I got my second personalized letter from a program today...You'd think that if they were going to take the time to have the chair write on it and put a stamp on it etc, that they'd also realize that I canceled my interview there...got to love that the program that's acting most interested in me is the one that didn't meet me.

Thursday, February 08, 2007 -- 10:41:43 (EST)
Name: Czaja
Yea, it all depends on 1) when you submit your transcript/when your grades show up on your transcript, and 2) what you tell your Dean you want on your Dean's Letter. For me, my last month ended up being Period 2, I think. Haha.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007 -- 23:29:40 (EST)
Name: sparky
What's the last period that residencies get grades from? I'm making my 2nd M4 schedule, and I gotta figure out when to do that dang ICU month...

/why am i so scared of the ICU?
//oh yeah, psychiatry...

Tuesday, February 06, 2007 -- 23:01:56 (EST)
Name: swarnick (I'll identify myself)
I have had a couple of residency dreams, where I am stupid and running around tired and scared. Get out of my head - this is M4 year and I'm allowed to be dumb.

In related news, a plug for the Book club on Monday 2/19 location TBA. The book is Three Junes by Julia Glass. Come get your humanities fix before those rank lists are done.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007 -- 22:17:29 (EST)
Name: M4
I actually had a nightmare about a week ago that I *forgot* to create a rank list on the NRMP and that the deadline had passed... I woke up in a cold sweat, blindly reaching for my cellphone to check the date.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007 -- 20:55:39 (EST)
Name: future scrambler
does anyone else keep having recurrent nightmares that they're going to open an empty envelope on match day?

that said, i can't stop fidgeting with the list. particularly since http://www.myinterviewtrail.com lets me see how other people are ranking the programs!

Sunday, February 04, 2007 -- 21:28:41 (EST)
Name: MatchMaker
Some nice bed-time reading:

http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/about_res/algorithms.html

My question - does this REALLY take the computer ~3 weeks to crunch through?

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 -- 23:46:39 (EST)
Name: Sunny
I made 3 requests for the host program, and got one...in Pittsburgh. It was awesome, and not only because both the host and my name is Sundeep......apparently back in the day, there were 8 sundeep's at UMMS....how things have changed for the worse over the past decade....

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 -- 02:04:06 (EST)
Name: Hammer
Did anyone use the HOST program to stay with people while interviewing? I just remember that I made some requests but never heard anything. Oh well, I like spending money anyways...

Sunday, January 28, 2007 -- 15:48:06 (EST)
Name: Re: 3xterrorists
If you look carefully at who's in charge of that event, it's Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), which sounds pretty tame, but is the same group that did "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" earlier on central campus. Not exactly unbiased...it may be interesting, but it will also probably be a waste of time and space. just my opinion.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007 -- 22:29:20 (EST)
Name: sparky
I don't usually plug for my website, but there's a comment from a woman with borderline personality disorder (like for real, her own site is all about her personality disorder) that I think many of you would find amazingly funny.

http://garrettsparks.blogspot.com/2007/01/psychology-some-say-its-ok-for-girls.html

That is all.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007 -- 13:46:05 (EST)
Name: 3 terrorists?
The message below was spammed to the AOA e-mail list from "Dr. Victor Von D" <walidatuofm@hotmail.com>. I am not quite sure what to make of this, but it may be interesting:

3 Former Terrorists to Speak at UofM Ann Arbor!

Huge important campus event:
www.3xTerrorists.com

Tuesday * Jan 30th, 2007 * 7:00 PM
Rackham Auditorium

Saturday, January 20, 2007 -- 22:44:53 (EST)
Name: Fergits
How long is Groupwise down again? I love how they send you an email with the info - that way, in case you forget, you can't check and see how long it's down for.

Monday, January 15, 2007 -- 13:52:07 (EST)
Name: jid
I really didn't want to prolong this particular strand of venting (as much as others), but stop complaining that the national or international leader you had wasn't quite good enough. UCLA had one of the LA County supervisors. I would have taken any ambassador, UN official, or national security adviser over "Zev."

Sunday, January 14, 2007 -- 22:22:39 (EST)
Name: nbehnke
michigan december 99 graduation had someone from the united nations that could hardly speak comprehensible english. i can't even remember who it was and can't find it on google. that's how much of an impression it left.

Saturday, January 13, 2007 -- 01:24:38 (EST)
Name: Sunny
While we had a senator at Georgia Tech (Elizabeth Dole) in 2003, the class of 2002 got the screw. They asked a famous alum of our school to speak at commencement (Jimmy Carter; pre-Naval Academy) and he said, No I'd rather speak at the school down the street (i.e. emory). That's some love for your school.

How do these people get chosen anyways? Why would one school ask another school's president to speak? Doesn't that just put down your own school? I think they should either go for someone inspiring/motivational (Clinton is good) or entertaining (Dreyfus). Successful people aren't always either of those qualities (Rice/Coleman).

Thursday, January 11, 2007 -- 19:46:55 (EST)
Name: skip
Worst grad speaker ever? Condaleezza (sp?) Rice-- MSU Class of 2004. The first half of her speech was spent justifying the war in Iraq. The second half was filled with inspiring metaphors/ life lessons to be learned from the Iraq war (Ex: being agressive in the business world can be likened to attacking terrorists before they strike here... or never giving up when you experience failures at work can be likened to fighting the war in Iraq forever if necessary.)

Thursday, January 11, 2007 -- 14:43:09 (EST)
Name: hmf
ooh, can i play?

the 2003 commencement speaker at northwestern?
wendy chamberlin, the former ambassador to pakistan.
(i had to google it b/c i knew neither then nor now)
this year they have julia louis dreyfus. i can't decide if it's better to have someone accomplished that i've never heard of, or someone famous b/c they spazzed a lot on tv...

Thursday, January 11, 2007 -- 13:05:35 (EST)
Name: Garrett
You felt slighted by Jennifer Granholm? I can beat that.

University of Kentucky 2003 graduation commencement speaker was none other than... drum roll... Mary Sue Coleman!

I shit you not.

Thursday, January 11, 2007 -- 05:34:22 (EST)
Name: jid
I'm assuming that when it says "graduate (master's and doctoral) degree recipients are eligible to receive up to four tickets," that includes us. There is also some stuff at the top of the page about Rackham's grad ceremony that may not apply to us, but I think that's a separate deal.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007 -- 18:01:02 (EST)
Name: Meredith
I also was very curious about graduation since I feel like I got the short end with Jennifer Granholm when I graduated from here. Anyways, here's all the info about getting tickets....http://www.umich.edu/~gradinfo/other/tickets.html
Hope that helps!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007 -- 09:44:14 (EST)
Name: jid
Reid- I don't know if you ever found an answer about graduation, but it appears we can get 4 tickets for the main graduation (and graduating studs don't need tickets). You can pick them up at the end of April.

Sunday, January 07, 2007 -- 11:35:21 (EST)
Name: Who's Who Among Left Handed Medical Students in Southeast Michigan
The last time I checked, there wasn't a box for National Scholars Honor Society on ERAS.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007 -- 21:02:14 (EST)
Name: Reid
Speaking of graduation, can we get tickets to the main graduation ceremony at the stadium? It's mostly for undergrads, but Bill Clinton is speaking so I want to go.

Monday, January 01, 2007 -- 21:49:10 (EST)
Name: Post-interview correspondence
When programs email/write us after our thank you notes have gone out, how should we respond (if at all)? ie are they expecting replies??

Wednesday, December 27, 2006 -- 20:13:14 (EST)
Name: nbehnke
it's worth a shot to try it for hotels, too. you can get much better deals than the "interviewee" deal they set up with hotels. if you're like me and programs don't pay for your hotel, give priceline a try. i got a $150/night place for about $50 in richmond, va.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006 -- 15:19:35 (EST)
Name: Czaja
Priceline for rental cars totally works! I got scared and bid for $15/day and got that. Sure as heck I'm gonna give $10/day a try next time! Thanks to whoever posted this!!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006 -- 01:12:28 (EST)
Name: not a spammer
I didn't know about this until today, but apparently you can bid for car rentals on priceline. I saved a crapload of money on a rental. ($50/day vs $12/day for 2 days) Definitely worth a shot to save on interview costs.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 -- 11:23:01 (EST)
Name: sparky
Fark CAM, start brushing up on your Lost episodes!

Congrats JID! Looks like all the military folk wound up in their preferred environs.

Sunday, December 17, 2006 -- 20:33:54 (EST)
Name: jid
I would just like to be the first one to say that I am totally loving all these CMA e-mails. Brings me back to the good ol' days of the lady's bible study group.
By the way, the military match was this week and results are as follows:
Kristin- Family Practice, Travis Air Force Base, CA
Philip- Family Practice, Eglin Air Force Base, FL
Jason- Psychiatry, Tripler Army Medical Center, HI
Sorry to all those urologists who are still waiting to match, but I guess you can't be first in everything.

Sunday, December 17, 2006 -- 20:11:15 (EST)
Name: Done with interviews!!!!!!
Hmmm, I will be done with interviews as of 12/19 and OFF to enjoy the rest of 4th year from then on!! Good luck with interviews to everyone :)

Sunday, December 17, 2006 -- 10:59:14 (EST)
Name: Steve Gray -- Email: a2condos@hotmail.com
Two condos available in Ann Arbor.

Riverhouse 2-bed/1-bath for $1200/month.

Downtown loft 2-bed/2-bath for $2750/month.

E-mail Steve at a2condos@hotmail.com for more info.

Friday, December 15, 2006 -- 09:54:48 (EST)
Name: FCE Police
We've got a warrant here issued for someone posting under the name "JAMA". I'm afraid sentiments like yours are punishable by up to 3 home visits and a project consisting of paper mache and interpretive dance.

Friday, December 15, 2006 -- 08:54:27 (EST)
Name: JAMA
I just read the short "touchy-feely" piece in the latest JAMA (pg. 2657-2658). Is that pt WAAAY cluster B, or is it just me?

Thursday, December 07, 2006 -- 13:27:58 (EST)
Name: mary sue coleman
yesss... I have successfully screwed the med school some more by running off another Dean, Dr. Taheri... soon I will control the med school and it'll be ranked #27.

Good luck, Dr. Taheri. I feel like both of us are getting out before the ceiling comes down.

Friday, December 01, 2006 -- 19:04:48 (EST)
Name: Lazy Bum -- Email: snore
So what are the "easy" clinical electives? Something where I could work half-days routineley (and be done at lunch)!

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 -- 09:50:35 (EST)
Name: Simon -- Email: szarkhin@umich.edu
I have two tickets to this Saturday's Red Wings hockey game against the San Jose Sharks (section 213A, row 12, seats 1-2). Face value is $54 - the pair can be yours for $100.

Monday, November 27, 2006 -- 00:38:30 (EST)
Name: candice
if you haven't registered for the match yet, the fee goes up after this Fri. 12/1 per:
http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/yearly.html

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 -- 17:18:45 (EST)
Name: E2
Anyone feel like hazarding a guess as to why some of my incoming emails are in Chinese? I've figured out that if I hit "reply" the text in the outgoing mail shows up in English, but otherwise the email is all in Chinese characters.

Anyone else have this with their crappy Groupwise or am I, as usual, just lucky?

&%$# Groupwise

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 -- 11:15:01 (EST)
Name: Hil -- Email: alperth
Anyone used the host program yet? How far in advance do they notify you who you're staying with... kind of cutting it close here.

Thursday, November 16, 2006 -- 19:11:45 (EST)
Name: kmart
dear lone dissenter,

i already got my education. i'm ready for the portion of my learning where i get paid to learn. and i have senioritizzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 -- 23:20:41 (EST)
Name: swarnick
You can sign up for Grad Care any time during the school year, and you can stop it any time too. I had it for four months between losing my dad's insurance and gaining Kelly's insurance (hee hee hee - I'm a mooch!). It is two hundred and some dollars a month though.

See Paula Meyers or Zeenat in OSP (just ask Pam Winfrey at the front desk and she will point you in the right direction).

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 -- 23:15:09 (EST)
Name: joeljz
Yes Ben, Gradcare is actually more than 200... I think 208 this year? You should count yourself lucky that you could stay on your dad's for that long (does he work for the government???). However, if you only need insurance for 6 months (Jan 1 to June 30, or whenever your residency kicks in) you should consider a COBRA or similar program. It will only cover major medical expenses (hospitalization, etc) and not office visits, but if you're healthy, who cares. I had it for 6 months before med school and paid about 500 for those 6 months, I believe.... look it up. Or if not actually COBRA, there are definitely similar plans.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 -- 22:08:52 (EST)
Name: Ben
Can anyone tell me how I get health insurance? My insurance (via Dad) runs out at the end of December.

For some bizarre reason, I got the impression that you can only sign up for GradCare during a one month window each year ("You must enroll in Gradcare within 30 days of the beginning of the term...").

Is there some person working in the medical school that answers questions about this? And is it really $200 / month?!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 -- 19:04:48 (EST)
Name: Butt Lazy -- Email: lazy
I'm paying for the MD degree from a top 11 med school. Hell if they said I could graduate in 3 years but have to fork over the same amout of cash as a 4 year program...I would.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 -- 18:07:28 (EST)
Name: Lone dissenter
Before you all pounce on me, like the old wise sea otter on the last South Park episode, consider this: You're paying lots of money for tuition. Even for the in-staters, it's more than $20,000 per year. Given 2 periods of vacation, that's at least $2,000 per rotation (and like twice as much for the out-of-staters).

If you want to take your $2,000+ and spend it on watching Tyra Banks and South Park (see above) rather than on a world-class medical education at a top-11 medical school...

...sorry, gotta run. Tyra's on!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 -- 17:41:19 (EST)
Name: Lazy Bum -- Email: snore
Can we get a little discussion going about easy electives? With all the crackin down on Opthy, Radiology, Anesthesiology at the U, I'm wondering what are the easy electives left?
If you've done an easy elective...and I mean my-butt-is-so-sore-from-sleeping-in-and-sitting-on-my-couch-easy elective, please post.

Saturday, November 11, 2006 -- 17:38:43 (EST)
Name: Dirty South Deep -- Email: general_lee@hazzard.gov
I learned from drug companies that good food can exist within the confines of a hospital. I concede that my tongue, stomach, and wallet were manipulated, however, I believed they both enjoyed the experience. I don't know what drug company or drug supported it, not that I care (maybe it was Steve's or Kag's mom?).

Saturday, November 11, 2006 -- 04:24:27 (EST)
Name: sparky
f*$@! the free market. haven't drug companies taught you that anything that's "free" is just somebody trying to manipulate you into thinking you're acting of your own accord? :0)

Thursday, November 09, 2006 -- 00:15:58 (EST)
Name: Dirty South Deep -- Email: general_lee@hazzard.gov
Steve,
I don't know why you think it'll become whiter, I expect it to become BROWNer.

Have faith in the free market, my friend. We got rid of those policies years ago in Georgia, but we still graduate more minority engineers than anywhere else in the country (yes, even affirmative action happy Michigan). Plus, it means a larger portion of the student body will be women based on other states' experiences, and can I REALLY complain about that?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006 -- 00:30:08 (EST)
Name: Partially sad swarnick
Although I'm happy for most of the election results, it looks like U of M (and much of Michigan) may become whiter and more male now that Proposal 2 has almost surely been adopted.
I'm so happy ('sarcasm') that the people of Michigan are so sure that racism and sexism don't exist any longer. sorry to vent.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 -- 07:27:58 (EST)
Name: uh no!
it only cost approx $17 for a month at the VA. that's quite a difference. the administration is so stupid - why do they try to make our lives miserable?

Monday, November 06, 2006 -- 16:54:10 (EST)
Name: apathetic M4
I say "Whatever" to the VA news. As long as people there become eligible for blue parking that month, fine. $57 isn't all much more than whatever we had to pay to get the VA parking last year. And yes, the blue lot is across the street where you could get hit by a car as you end call, but such is life.

I actually didn't like the whole "procedure" of getting a VA parking pass to begin with, with their own "police dep't" and everything...

Monday, November 06, 2006 -- 14:28:01 (EST)
Name: helene
news from the va:

according to the va police, the u and the va have decided that after 11/20, students can't buy parking permits for the ann arbor va anymore. if you need to drive/park (ie subi), you need to buy a lovely $57 monthlong pass for the umich blue lots across the street.

just one more reason that i'm glad i'm no longer an m3...

Monday, November 06, 2006 -- 09:38:38 (EST)
Name: Mattz -- Email: mzuckerm
From the latest UMHS bulletin: "Join the Metastasis Interest Group". Now that would be fun to advertise and make T-shirts for. "Come join us, We're spreading"

Monday, November 06, 2006 -- 08:34:40 (EST)
Name: Mattz -- Email: mzuckerm
Ann Arbor voters who won't be able to make it to the polls tomorrow can still vote. You can go into the city clerk's office (100 N. Fifth Ave), request an absentee ballot and vote it all in one trip. The office is open until 5pm today. I'd recommend checking out your ballot on Publius (http://publius.org/) first so you know who you are voting for before you go.

Friday, November 03, 2006 -- 19:39:25 (EST)
Name: ePoc dependent
thanks for the PDA advice. Don't see any autopudate anything on my PDA. I wish Rog could come visit me at my SubI. I'll have to weather no drug info for a bit longer... but I think I'm getting twitchy.... I had to calculate creatinine clearance without MedMath today! AAAH!

Friday, November 03, 2006 -- 12:59:34 (EST)
Name: Chris
So if Roger ever goes away or if we leave U of M for residency the PDA's are essentially worthless? They don't seem to work without him.

Friday, November 03, 2006 -- 06:13:11 (EST)
Name: technology's not my thing, but...
there's an autoupdate icon in the programs tab (i think), located right next to the epocrates icon in the menu, and that should do the trick. that being said, roger (the pda guy) has his office hours on M, W, and F afternoons in the lrc.

Thursday, November 02, 2006 -- 23:41:12 (EST)
Name: HELP!
"your epocrates rx subscription has expired. if you would like to reactivate please autoupdate when connected to the internet."

there's no auto update button or system or program or whatever. and the "sync" crap doesn't seem to work either.

Help! What do I do? I don't have to go to the LRC do I? I can't seem to sync with my computer at home anything but my calendar.

Thursday, November 02, 2006 -- 09:38:17 (EST)
Name: shorty
Cindy Murphy is also awesome about rotations if you ask for advice ("so, were you looking for something where you don't have to show up a lot or just for something really easy?").

Has anyone here used a tailor here? I need to get my suit pants hemmed.

Thursday, November 02, 2006 -- 09:28:05 (EST)
Name: getting dumber by the minute
so I hear Middleton has a list of 'cushy' rotations. Might be useful to facilitate some late year rearrangement.

Other rotations I hear to watch out for are derm (8 to 5 but boring, plus you feel inadequate about your own attractiveness) and the radiology months can be hit or miss, though bone radiology appears to be consistently good.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006 -- 08:12:47 (EST)
Name: save yourselves
hey guys... if you are not interested in ophthy, i would strongly advise you to switch out of it. the clerkship has changed, and you're now arbitrarily required to be here all day, every day, starting at 7 am, going until 5 pm (at the earliest). the residents are really nice, but if you're not interested in ophthy, it's mind-numbingly boring. apparently, it just changed this month, so ask any of the students on the rotation this month how disappointing it is.

Monday, October 30, 2006 -- 20:56:27 (EST)
Name: Mattz -- Email: mzuckerm
Some of us already use our PDA's for storing music, but now, with the free program Skookum you can automatically update Podcasts on your PDA (like an iPod) and store them on your storage card for later listening while NOT online. Just check out http://www.skookummobile.com/ I highly recommend the NPR This American Life Podcast

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 -- 11:13:25 (EDT)
Name: Paras -- Email: parasm@umich.edu
Ahh, brushing up to take the MCAT again for fun, eh Gina? I understand completely. I'm studying for the SATs - damn these analogies.

The SAT verbal section: every brown student's nightmare.

Sunday, October 22, 2006 -- 17:27:27 (EDT)
Name: Matt -- Email: mzuckerm
In response to my own question below, people looking for information on candidates can start with the League of Women Voters guide, available at http://www.lwvmi.org/ which covers info on all state level candidates.

Thursday, October 19, 2006 -- 22:54:41 (EDT)
Name: nbehnke
SICU rotation: ok to wear scrubs or do you have to dress "professionally?" i'm on like my 5th month running of wearing as-good-as-pajamas to work and i don't want to stop.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 -- 16:55:09 (EDT)
Name: Chris Scipione -- Email: scipione@umich.edu
Is anyone starting up a broomball or football team next IM season that needs more players? If so I am announcing my free agency to the highest bidder. What I lack in raw athletic talent I more than make up for in heart and free time (pathology rotation).

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 -- 10:15:21 (EDT)
Name: Jackie C
As a loving and respectable Upstate New Yorker, I don't recall the last time I thought of "Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York" as a "large metropolitan area". The fact that they even combined those three cities is a bit of a stretch. Alas, who am I to judge... the town I grew up in didn't even have a stop light, making Albany pretty much comparable to NYC.

Monday, October 09, 2006 -- 11:45:09 (EDT)
Name: Citizens Research Council of Michigan
This is a link to the CRC's evaluation of current ballot proposals. Does anyone know of a good site for information on candidates? Like objective side by side comparisons or summaries?
Mattz

Friday, October 06, 2006 -- 15:10:15 (EDT)
Name: Chris -- Email: scipione@umich.edu
You guys... the posters below are right... it is inappropriate to talk negatively about our classmates while anonymous. You really need to post it with your name, that way we know who to give the credit to for all the funny jokes.

Friday, October 06, 2006 -- 13:20:46 (EDT)
Name: Hammer
If anyone wants to "discuss a classmate in a negative manner," please make sure to include me. I don't want to miss anything. Thanks.

Thursday, October 05, 2006 -- 17:47:53 (EDT)
Name: Doh
Despite what spammer Jurau says, the vending machines do not take 5.00 off each time. They simply authorize you for 5.00 worth of purchases and then subtract the amount that you buy. Do not believe this silliness of a scam.

Sunday, October 01, 2006 -- 20:37:34 (EDT)
Name: hookmeup
yeah, well, being in med school doesn't actually count as living in ann arbor. seriously, the time we spend away from the same 170 people is pretty slim so unless you're going to date a classmate you're pickings are slim.

Maybe you should tie some vegan granola mix to your tragically hip messenger bag from Urban Outfitters - you'll surely attract some ann arborites then.

Thursday, September 28, 2006 -- 22:37:27 (EDT)
Name: Whatever
In response to the post below... Ann Arbor as one of the 10 ten dating cities in the country? Yeah, right. There goes the reliability of the study. But... uh... what if it's right? Ann Arbor as one of the best dating cities in the country??!!! If that's true, I'm screwed! (And not in the good way.)

Thursday, September 28, 2006 -- 15:34:39 (EDT)
Name: hook_it_up
Wondering which interview locale deserves an extra day? Maybe looking for a place to spend that transitional year with some whip cream and chocolate syrup (and I don't mean sundaes)?

Check it out.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006 -- 19:48:19 (EDT)
Name: candice -- Email: cboley
does anyone still have those 2 files/handouts of step 1 studying schedules they can email me? Or at least the 1-pg one. I wanted to pass them along to an IMG friend. thx.

Sunday, September 24, 2006 -- 11:14:13 (EDT)
Name: step2
USMLE World is similar to the Kaplan for the Step 2 CK, except the questions may be a bit more difficult. It's also quite a bit cheaper.

Otherwise, whatever. To be safe, why not do both? ;-)

Wednesday, September 20, 2006 -- 14:52:53 (EDT)
Name: sparky
Haven't they properly brainwashed you yet? It's never a person's fault, it's always the systems fault. It's harder to file suits against systems...

Wednesday, September 20, 2006 -- 11:42:40 (EDT)
Name: Oops
Though the story isn't clear WHOSE fault it was - a post-call peds intern writing for the wrong dose, the pharmacy sending the wrong dose, a nursing error, etc.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006 -- 23:58:19 (EDT)
Name: Too funny
Well, at least now the folks at the fine University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey won't have to worry that nobody has ever heard of their school.

Thursday, September 14, 2006 -- 08:34:25 (EDT)
Name: Mattz - Protecting Privacy -- Email: matthewz
I would prefer people not to add others to the specialty poll because if they don't want their name/specialty online then it shouldn't be there. I'd encourage gentle persuasion of people you know haven't posted. If you ignore this and add people anyway, please note it in the Alternate Residency/Fellowship column as "added by so-and-so".

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -- 18:28:36 (EDT)
Name: real men of genius
the solution is to cause so much destruction that the possibility of collateral damage is minimized, e.g. scorched earth, nukes. i guess not pissing people off in the first place would be ideal but that's just for sissies. in the context of the email storm, it means sending as much spam about everything to everyone until we all eventually stop using email. can't have spam if you don't use email. problem solved.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -- 17:58:08 (EDT)
Name: really?
"It's like fighting terrorism: every time one intervenes (even if the intervention has the best of intentions) you invariably end up causing some 'collateral damage' and ultimately worsen the problem."

Well, it's like cancer surgery. Yes, the scalpel might slice through some healthy tissue in the process, and there's even the risk that the procedure will spread malignant cells around the operative field, but it sure beats the alternative, don't it?

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -- 17:48:01 (EDT)
Name: Kags
I was tempted to implement the solution I suggested for the Jurau Menace: adding responders to random junk email lists. I've restrained myself thus far though.

The really twisted part of this whole deal though is that I think every time someone replies to all, their address gets added on to the list along with all the other recipients, and thus they start getting twice as many messages as before, they get one for being on the original list they were on and one because their individual email address is on the list. Maybe Sarah can confirm this for us.

It's like fighting terrorism: every time one intervenes (even if the intervention has the best of intentions) you invariably end up causing some 'collateral damage' and ultimately worsen the problem.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -- 17:02:47 (EDT)
Name: Curious M4
Only 71 people have responded to the specialty poll. I suggest if you know someone's specialty that hasn't posted, why don't you post it for them. :) If we all did this, we'd get most people up there.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -- 16:57:53 (EDT)
Name: joeljz
Kags, my solution has been to individually respond to each person sending out an additional email of "remove me from the list or whatever" thanking them personally for adding one more message to my box. Although I wasn't always the nicest in my messages.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -- 15:23:23 (EDT)
Name: Kags
Let me say that if another med student jumps into the fray and further perpetuates the email storm I will be both disappointed and upset. I thought we were smarter than this, especially considering that we've gone through this before.

I think this one has just about died out.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -- 13:39:32 (EDT)
Name: Gina -- Email: gbane@umich.edu
Anyone need VA meal tickets? I have ~$25 worth of tickets just sitting around and I don't need them. Let me know.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006 -- 21:12:49 (EDT)
Name: not a lady
what i'd really like to know is why someone would email basically everyone with a umich.edu address about a bible study. is this bible study held at michigan stadium? you'd think it'd be a small gathering.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006 -- 18:32:50 (EDT)
Name: m4
If any of you are getting the multitude of "ladies bible study / please remove me" e-mails, I just cannot understand what motivates so many idiots to hit the "reply-all" button and turn a mildly annoying piece of spam into a propagating, evolving, spam torrent.

Also, what about the wayne stater's fancy signature. High-falutin much?

Tuesday, September 12, 2006 -- 10:41:23 (EDT)
Name: when medicine doesn't sound so bad
also overheard at the VA:

PACU nurse (to patient): For the last time, you don't know shit and you can't drive.

Monday, September 11, 2006 -- 20:20:27 (EDT)
Name: when peds doesn't sound so bad

overheard at the VA:

HO #1: "blah blah blah..."
HO #2: "oh, yeah? that's because you've never had anyone ejaculate from one of your rectal exams."

sub-i: holy shit!

Sunday, September 10, 2006 -- 21:07:35 (EDT)
Name: jid
I will agree that there are many bad people at jokewood, but moses just happened to be the only one sent straight from hell to torture those around him.
On a happier note- at least the NIH still thinks we're a top 10 school (moses aside).

Sunday, September 10, 2006 -- 12:33:01 (EDT)
Name: Kags
Hey Dailey, you seem particularly traumatized by Moses (this is the 3rd time or so that you've singled him out in our criticisms of Jokewood.) He actually made some effort to pay attention to students. I was more traumatized by people like Parks and Habecovic who's only way of dealing with students was to yell at or insult them. A couple times Moses even addressed me in a semi-civil tone.

Friday, September 08, 2006 -- 12:17:47 (EDT)
Name: Silly matt -- Email: mzuckerm
Very sorry. I updated the form to add MedPeds and apparently it deleted that field. In the future I'm performing regular backups of the info so that WONT happen. If your info is missing, please just e-mail me (mzuckerm) and I'll fix it.

Friday, September 08, 2006 -- 12:05:54 (EDT)
Name: nbehnke
matt - all the data is disappearing from the collective residency applicant website you linked/set up! only the most recent three or four show up (and czaja is apparently applying to TWO residencies!) ... is it my computer or is everyone else seeing this?

Friday, September 08, 2006 -- 08:49:04 (EDT)
Name: m4
I got a warm fuzzy feeling inside with that wooing from the '06 grad at Indiana University/Methodist Hospital. I just hope she's not biased, or anything.

Thursday, September 07, 2006 -- 16:22:37 (EDT)
Name: matthewz -- Email: mzuckerm
To post your selected specialty please go to http://zohocreator.com/page/81840/ or click on my name (above). To view a list of who's doing what, just go to http://zohocreator.com/page/81969/. Beware, this is a public website.

Thursday, September 07, 2006 -- 13:52:41 (EDT)
Name: lazyM4
Hey homies. What SubI's are the most chill? I heard hospitalist had no call - but do you still work 80h/wk? I'm lazy and don't want to work anymore this year. :P

Thanks for the scoops!

Thursday, September 07, 2006 -- 13:26:02 (EDT)
Name: methree
I third the question about USMLE stuff being available for schools to download - when does that happen? It's been several work days since I submitted.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006 -- 22:54:09 (EDT)
Name: Sunny
If I wasn't done with my SubI's, I would have tried to sneak the m1 donkey to bedside BID....wouldn't that help the UM curriculum......clinical experiences from DAY 1 M1 year. Who needs SPI's when you have the real deal. Could that be included in the m1/m2 shadowing m4 experience eric talked about?

Tuesday, September 05, 2006 -- 07:48:58 (EDT)
Name: ERAS
i think someone asked this already, but i didn't see a response: will it take a while for the USMLE transcript to be delivered to the ERAS mailbox? i submitted on friday but it still isn't in there...

Monday, September 04, 2006 -- 16:56:51 (EDT)
Name: Gina -- Email: gbane@umich.edu
anyone else being denied web e-mail access? whenever i try to login it says "Your post office is unavailable. Please contact your system administrator." quite annoying.

Saturday, September 02, 2006 -- 18:22:40 (EDT)
Name: e
kmart, you are still my hero. maybe we should all start sending them daily notifications of interesting educational opportunities. like a daily JACKASS quiz. or maybe just "m1 donkey to bedside BID"

Saturday, September 02, 2006 -- 14:34:00 (EDT)
Name: jid
just in case any of you were actually thinking you're as a good as a lifeguard, take a look at your CPR cards- unless you've recently paid to get re-certed, your's is probably expired.

Saturday, September 02, 2006 -- 11:07:45 (EDT)
Name: SubI
You know, sometimes it's scary being a SubI. I mean, it's not like anyone actually reads my orders before signing them. I could order "donkey to bedside, BID" and it would get signed.

Friday, September 01, 2006 -- 21:01:13 (EDT)
Name: whatever
I wouldn't worry about not being ACLS certified, or that this somehow cheapens the U of M curriculum. In my humble opinion, CPR, ACLS, PALS, etc. are just a bunch of mindless protocols that you memorize for 100% rapid recall. And with changes every several years, I don't mind not having to cram that in my head for now.

Friday, September 01, 2006 -- 18:55:26 (EDT)
Name: Ben
No, we're not ACLS certified, we're only CPR certified, which elevates us to the medical qualification of a swimming pool lifeguard. Interestingly, ACLS certification is a part of the Wayne State curriculum.

Friday, September 01, 2006 -- 17:33:46 (EDT)
Name: kmart
geez, i had no idea that people would get so angry about one little email. clearly, i shouldn't be licensed by any board for showing such poor judgement and disrespecting my peers so much. especially because of the overwhelmingly serious tone of that email.

Friday, September 01, 2006 -- 14:58:50 (EDT)
Name: dont think so
I think ACLS, PALS, etc. training typically happens in the days prior to starting internship. Just like most of us don't hold any state medical licenses, I imagine the same would hold for ACLS and PALS.

Friday, September 01, 2006 -- 13:29:34 (EDT)
Name: M4
wow. after that jack bauer email, I know for sure that the M1s are responsible for our med school slipping out of the top ten. time to bring back freshman "initiation" rituals - that should keep their cry-holes shut.

Friday, September 01, 2006 -- 13:21:37 (EDT)
Name: Hil
as hard as i laughed when reading K-Mart's email for the second time in 2 years, didn't Dooney send something out last year telling the M1s to settle themselves down? And who is Jack Bauer and why can't he take a joke?

Friday, September 01, 2006 -- 00:00:12 (EDT)
Name: Best sale name ever?
For those of you who wanted a reason to celebrate last year's Smoker by traveling on Spirit Airlines with Dr. Warbler, here is your chance...

Thursday, August 31, 2006 -- 19:16:00 (EDT)
Name: Meredith
Does anyone else find it annoying that every year some disgruntled M1 sends an e-mail out about football ticket e-mails? I mean come on, M1s have more than enough time to read through football ticket e-mails or just delete them. I also now find it amusing though, because as an M4 I actually have more than enough time to delete e-mails....ah, the joys of finally being at the top of the med school food chain!!!!

Thursday, August 31, 2006 -- 16:42:17 (EDT)
Name: Ben
Re: specialties, looks like someone put up a poll already while I've been on my surgical sub-I adventures. Hopefully this meets the needs of the inquiring minds.

If you actually want a correspondence between names and specialties, a UM website cannot provide any method of data collection superior to e-mail. On that topic, I seem to recall this task was spearheaded by the class advcoates last year. =)

Thursday, August 31, 2006 -- 16:13:54 (EDT)
Name: chris -- Email: scipione@umich.edu
Seymon, its not like that. The programs have to go and download your letters out of your personal post office space. its not like some computer sends them out to them and can screw it up. They have to go on and get the stuff themselves. If they fail to do it you will be able to see that through the document tracking system and fix the problem right away before the programs even have time to read through all of your stuff.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 -- 19:39:27 (EDT)
Name: Simon -- Email: szarkhin@
What I don't understand is how the letters that the Dean's Office uploads into ERAS get matched with the "letters" you claim you will have as you fill out ERAS yourself. What if the lack or presence of a recommender's middle initial (or worse yet, the periods in M.D.) is enough to ruin the match?

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 -- 15:27:02 (EDT)
Name: Chris -- Email: scipione@umich.edu
After you officially submit the application you can track your letter using the ADTS system. Go to this website:

http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/

Then on the right column instead of logging into ERAS, log into the second option the ADTS tracking system as an applicant by using the same ERAS code. Unfortunately you can not track documents until you apply Sept. 1, but I heard mony programs wont download all of your crap until like october anyway

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 -- 11:48:59 (EDT)
Name: tagalong
how do you know if they turned their letters in? aside from nagging Barb Sharp of course. And I heard you can just submit the apps anyway and the programs will download the letters when as they get them.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 -- 10:11:48 (EDT)
Name: nbehnke
any suggestions on how to, uh, gently prod the LOR writers into turning in the stuff? letters were requested >1month ago and i sent my thank you cards 2 weeks ago.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006 -- 18:08:01 (EDT)
Name: Reid -- Email: rwainess@umich.edu
anyone know anything about speaker repair? My center channel is making floppy/crackling noises and if I take off the grill and hold down the actual speaker it goes away. Does that mean it needs to be refoamed? If you can help me, please email me.

Sunday, August 27, 2006 -- 15:48:19 (EDT)
Name: gbarnes
Has anyone done a consult month at the U yet? If so, do we have to work weekends or is this a Mon-Fri month only? Just wondering if I can get away for the Labor Day weekend!! :)

Sunday, August 27, 2006 -- 12:13:57 (EDT)
Name: e
The neuro and derm people get ranked into three-year or four-year programs at UM. Neuro people have the option of doing a prelim year elsewhere (thus 3 year @UM) or at the U (4yr). Derm people have option of TY or prelim elsewhere, then 3 @ U or prelim+derm @ U (4yr). Ophthy only 3 year (TY/prelim wherever), don't know about the others, if that helps clarify why some prelims are so bitter.

Could someone please explain the ERAS experiences to me? ie if I did research jobs before med school, are those "work" or "research?" If I got my job through a program (like fulbright/mirt/nsf/howard hughes type things), is the organization the funder, the place where the PI was or the place where I was?

Please help!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 -- 23:09:57 (EDT)
Name: spitfire piggy
Hey - those Localendar pics are getting pretty fancy. I wonder if I could submit the roasting pig as my ERAS picture. While those studio/MedSci pics show a good likeness of the outise, I think the grilled pig would definitely bette represent how I feel at medical school on the *inside*. And we all know it's what's inside the counts...

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 -- 22:08:05 (EDT)
Name: Hates the new kid
I'm guessing it wasn't a mistake...and the who the heck is the guy? I've never heard of him.

I'm going to reply to all when I win reverse valedictorian (last in the class) just to rub it in his face.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 -- 19:12:55 (EDT)
Name: football tickets
You could go hang out on the northwest corner of State St. and South University, and casually call out "football tickets!" every several minutes at the passersby... Ahh, the memories!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 -- 16:08:43 (EDT)
Name: Good place to sell football tickets?
Does anyone know a good place to sell football tickets? I hate sending SPAM email...and I've already posted on the undergrad site with no luck....Any suggestions?

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 -- 15:23:09 (EDT)
Name: nbehnke
yeah i think it'd be neat to see what everyone was going into. :)

and re: scrubs in the ICU - my habit has always been to wear dress clothes on the 1st day of a new rotation and then, if necessary, change when i see what everyone else is wearing. it's easier to change from dress clothes into scrubs (from home or machine) than the other way around (bring dress clothes to work.) my $0.02.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 -- 14:41:56 (EDT)
Name: curious
BEN: Even though the rumours are rampant. I still want a survey of what people are going into. It would be interesting to know who's doing what. What do you say? And hey, was there talk of a new look-a-like with the new pics taken or have I just been smoking too much of Steve's crack?

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 -- 23:48:59 (EDT)
Name: Simon -- Email: szarkhin@med.umich.edu
Has anyone done an away at Stanford? Or, alternatively, is anyone intimately familiar with it (i.e. went to undergrad there, etc). Lemme know - I'll have tons of questions for you. :) Thanks!

Monday, August 21, 2006 -- 16:31:49 (EDT)
Name: me4
me3 - That really sounds pretty odd if that resident wasn't an intern. I know that for fields that require a prelim year (they start 9at PGY-2 level), U of M offers both categorical (with medicine prelim included) and advanced (starting at PGY-2 year) positions. However, I haven't heard of a "TY" here, and you can't apply directly into the U of M medicine prelim (i.e. you can't do med prelim here and then go elsewhere to do rads, etc.)

Monday, August 21, 2006 -- 16:07:08 (EDT)
Name: me3
me4 -
i heard a resident on cards who was on call with me
saying "I wished I had done my transitional year at the Joes instead of coming to the U for my first year -- I had a choice" ...so i assumed there was a TY year here?

Monday, August 21, 2006 -- 10:09:10 (EDT)
Name: re:Confession
How could you not enjoy a bank full of money? Isn't that the reason we all went in to medicine in the first place? I am sure I am going to hate working no matter what my job is, but as long as I have money to buy me indoor swimming pools, home theaters, friends, true happiness, and power beyond measure it will somehow make it all worthwhile.

Monday, August 21, 2006 -- 00:01:12 (EDT)
Name: Ben
EBM: interesting study, but it sounds entirely misleading to me. If participants that take a month off score equally to those that don't, the initial conclusion may be that the month makes no difference.

But you could just as easily draw the conclusion that the former is a weaker testing group that accurately gauged their relative standing and compensated for it by taking an extra month. With no randomization, you can't exclude self-selection bias.

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 18:55:59 (EDT)
Name: One thought
Confession - perhaps you could just do a prelim internship just to get your full medical license. Then, you could do moonlight part-time (doing insurance physicals, being an urgent care doc, etc.) while retooling for a different career. Life is too short to be unhappy for a huge chunk of it, and if you're an EBM kind of person, this is it...

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 18:03:25 (EDT)
Name: Confession
I hate medicine and everything about it. I realize this now but my greed won't let me quit. Remember when things were simple and life was about being happy? Now all I have to look forward to is early retirement, brief vacations in the tropics, and a bank full of money that I will probably never truly enjoy.

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 16:20:45 (EDT)
Name: me4
Me three, what exactly did you hear about the University of Michigan's transitional year program? As far as I can see on ERAS, or FREIDA, or googling, U of M *does not* have a transitional year program. (For what it's worth, neither does U of M have a prelim med program).

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 14:31:40 (EDT)
Name: Reid -- Email: rwainess@umich.edu
Anyone want to buy a tivo? I have an extra one I need to get rid of. It's brand new, never been opened. 80 hour recording capacity and includes one year of tivo service so you don't have to pay extra monthly fees. It's $90 including the box and the service (cheaper than Comcast DVR). Let me know if you want it.

Reid

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 12:26:30 (EDT)
Name: EBM
Hey just read this journal article from Wayne State -
Study Month or Vacation? Preparing for USMLE Step 2
Compton, Scott PhD; Schwartz, Lawrence MD; Henderson, Wilma MD; Wyte, Collette MD
Conclusion -
After controlling for USMLE Step 1 scores (r2 = 0.53; p <.01), the election of a study month prior to the August USMLE Step 2 was not associated with an increase on the USMLE Step 2 test score (r2 < 0.01; p =.73).
wish i had known that earlier...

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 12:16:29 (EDT)
Name: me three
anyone heard about TY programs near ann arbor -- oakwood vs st. joes vs UM...i hear UM's TY is quite intense, but do the pros outweigh the cons?

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 09:15:59 (EDT)
Name: e
this is probably obvious, but do i need to designate the chair as my letter writer on eras? if so, then was i supposed to print out one of those cover letters for them?

Sunday, August 20, 2006 -- 08:47:22 (EDT)
Name: still undecided!

Don't take my word for this, but I thought one of the 06 grads was doing a TY (jimmoore@umich if he's getting the free forwarding they offer). Somebody could ask him and report back.

Saturday, August 19, 2006 -- 17:23:12 (EDT)
Name: me too
Any folks applying to EM transitional year programs? I e-mailed Cook County, but all they said was "it's completely up to you" hmm... want less freedom, more answers

Friday, August 18, 2006 -- 17:20:07 (EDT)
Name: Mattz -- Email: mzuckerm
Yeah, and some of the Frieda entries are less complete than others, but the "Date Updated" and "Date Survey Received" at the top of the page will tell you how current the data is.

Friday, August 18, 2006 -- 14:48:05 (EDT)
Name: jid
Zuck is right that some school will only accept a certain number of letters, but 4 is the max that ERAS will allow for any given program. Also be aware that FRIEDA info is often old- many of those programs haven't existed for years.

Friday, August 18, 2006 -- 08:40:44 (EDT)
Name: mattz -- Email: mzuckerm
Actually, I think the number of letters that you send can vary by program and school. I've seen 2-3 on most of the EM sites. It's listed on the FRIEDA site (along with lots of other info including # of weeks of call, number of interviews, number of slots, and salary).

Thursday, August 17, 2006 -- 21:16:38 (EDT)
Name: swarnick
Jason - you're just mad because my mom had a hard time writing you a "strong" letter of rec. She said that was the only hard thing she ever had in your relationship. hee hee.

Hope everybody else is doing well with ERAS, NRMP, CS, CK, CCA, MPH, MBA, BFE, UFO, DRE, P*I*M*P. Yippee.

Thursday, August 17, 2006 -- 07:57:07 (EDT)
Name: gbarnes
No. You're supposed to pick one of the photos that were taken of you and uploaded on the portal for her to use - you just had to e-mail her and tell her which pic to use. However, it might be too late to still select one (not sure about that). She'll upload that one picture into ERAS and then you can select to send it to each school. Hope that makes sense!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 -- 04:18:36 (EDT)
Name: exploding dell battery
go to the link above to see if your dell laptop's battery might explode on you. if so you can sign up to have a new battery sent to you.

background information below:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14350403/

Friday, August 11, 2006 -- 23:31:54 (EDT)
Name: Avni -- Email: avora2@uic.edu
Hey everyone,

I am a University of Illinois student and will be doing an away rotation at Michigan for 4 weeks starting 8/28. Is anyone going to be away at that time and be willing to sublet their place for a month? Do you know of places that sublet furnished rooms in the areas close to the hospital. Thanks!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006 -- 20:15:07 (EDT)
Name: Elevator Gossip
So how can nurses always talk through any and all presentations during rounds but immediately have group silence and attention when you're complaining about your attending to another med student in the privacy of an elevator?

Friday, August 04, 2006 -- 10:59:49 (EDT)
Name: jid
Has anyone seen what our diplomas look like (such as the ones hanging in faculty offices- you know those giant ugly things that you can't read)? How 'bout a poll: should the words "University of Michigan" be in English on our diplomas so that people don't think we went to some school in the Caribbean?
Anyone else interested in trying to get these things changed to something that doesn't look like someone took a big jurau on it before it's too late, or do the Sparky's of the world like the Latin?

Friday, August 04, 2006 -- 10:21:47 (EDT)
Name: e
hey ben,
any chance you'd add links to frieda and myeras to the class page? (i think you could probably steal them from kmart's page if that's still running...) thanks!

Friday, August 04, 2006 -- 10:00:34 (EDT)
Name: MattZ -- Email: mzuckerm
Being able to view actual radiology images from Careweb is great. My ophthalmology resident was a bit baffled as to why we are getting access before the residents.

Thursday, August 03, 2006 -- 09:45:36 (EDT)
Name: Ryan -- Email: finkr@med.umich.edu
Thanks for the emails. It wasn't hard afterall. I guess I just didn't make my way far enough into ERAS.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006 -- 11:47:22 (EDT)
Name: Ryan -- Email: finkr@med.umich.edu
Does anyone know a good resourse for how to apply to transitional/prelim programs? I'm just not sure how to do this on the ERAS application...nor the best way to find out about these programs. I guess I could just as a resident, but that would be too easy....