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monkeyman

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  1. Nick, thanks for the your feedback and thoughts. It may be a bit challenging to find verifiers for some of the more remote things in my job history especially since many of the businesses I was employed by do not even exist any more! I am unsure how to approach this issue... I will definitely check out EK. The annotated reader is a great idea for me too as I did not take any humanities courses this year.... I took the higher level science courses as its stuff I am really interested in and as a result enjoy studying. I doubt that I would be able to do well in humanities courses. Oh and by the way Street Fighter > mortal combat! One of the issues I was also thinking about is how to talk about my clinical experience in areas like transplant medicine and critical care... As a tx coordinator, your job is essentially being a cross between a R1-R2 medical resident and a medical secretary. I see patients in clinic and also review patient files and look at blood work, imaging reports, procedure reports, clinic letters, discharge summaries, etc... put a summarised clinical picture together for our attending doc and get them to make decisions. In most cases however, if I know what to do I simply execute this and document my rationale and actions taken. I frequently am consulted by tx patients family MDs or ER MDs regarding their Hx, management suggestions, etc. I obviously refer them to our attending MD if I am unsure about what to suggest. Usually though, I am more than happy to suggest treatment guidelines, and give information about drug interactions, immunosuppression therapy changes, etc. as long as I feel confident in my knowledge base. Similarly in areas like ICU where you have a hemodynamically unstable patient in multi-organ failure, if an MD is not around, the non-MD components (mostly RNs and RRTs) of our team have a reasonable idea of what to do to keep a patient alive until the MD can come by. This includes things like starting vaso-active infusions, initiating respiratory therapeutic modalities like a BiPAP mask as a bridge to intubation, etc. Our RRTs will intubate if required to. One time during a code on a medicine ward at 3 am in the morning I gave 3 amps of epinephrine (he had asystole or a very fine v. fib) down a guys endotracheal tube (no BP and no vascular access) as the MD residents were being quite indecisive about what to do... it actually brought him back. I love working in these areas as you have significantly more autonomy than an RN in the most traditional sense. Over the years, the attending docs also come to trust your judgements and in the end it just makes their jobs easier and hopefully results in better patient care. I am a bit apprehensive about discussing my roles in these clinical areas, as I am not sure if it would be construed as over-stepping boundaries of what an RN is supposed to do, etc... I am really unsure how the U of C admissions committee would see this... Would it be prudent to minimize the emphasis on the autonomy when discussing these areas on the application? Bearpuppy and Nick you guys both know how to make a man feel inadequate with those crazy MCAT scores!! Thanks again for the input and suggestions. I really appreciate it!
  2. Thanks for the prompt and extremely helpful responses! Good to know that there are at least some former RNs at the U of C! Hurthouse, I definitely hear you about relating my experience to the effect it had on me as it relates to the subjective assessment areas. I am assuming the best place to do this is during the top 10 or perhaps the work experience section? Regarding the CARS on the MCAT I really appreciate the suggestions and hints. I was actually scoring 5 or 6 when I took the initial diagnostic by myself, so I guess I should be thankful for even scoring a 9! I think the core issue I have has to do with reading comprehension. This has always been a problem for me. Resources like Khan academy were not around when I took the MCAT the last time, so its nice to have more time and resources to devote to prepping. MCAT courses seem quite expensive from the research I have done so I am glad that there is some consensus that they are a rip off. MSW, thanks for your suggestions about using PR and AAMC materials in conjunction with Khan academy stuff. Another question: I will be in my mid 30s by the time I apply. I have been working since I was 15, so I have A LOT of varied work experience!! Everything from bottle depot work to amusement park ride operation to gym membership and supplement sales, to personal training to medical research, etc. etc.... I am just wondering if I need to put all this experience in my application given that some of it is quite remote, and perhaps not directly related to medicine? Again, I really appreciate the responses and help!
  3. First of all, thanks to Nick and Borborymi (and others!) for taking the time to answer questions regarding the U of C MD program. I have a few questions regarding U of C (regarding file scoring and MCAT prep). I am a prospective student and about as non-traditional as they come! I am just posting on the U of C forum as this will likely be the only school I will be applying to. I am planning on applying to U of C MD program in the 2017-18 academic cycle. A bit of background about myself: I did my undergrad in molecular bio (from the U of C) and got a pretty poor GPA: around 3.2-ish. Then I did an after degree RN degree from the U of A and did deplorably bad! I had no idea the nursing program would be that fluffy and airy-fairy and my GPA was horrible: around a 2.5-2.7. It didn't seem to matter how much I studied, I always got the same poor grades. It was an extremely academically frustrating time for me. I have been working as a transplant coordinator, ICU RN and clinical instructor for the past seven years. I absolutely love what I do. My jobs are a lot of fun and I definitely feel like I am overpaid for the work I do, and therein lies the problem...I no longer feel challenged and I find that my jobs just are not intellectually fulfilling for me any more. I guess I am a science nerd at heart! I have recently gone back to school (to the U of A) to augment my GPA to apply for grad school. I am taking 10 higher level (mostly 3rd year and up) science courses right now and expect to have around a 3.8 GPA this year. I will be doing another year and then applying for a masters in either science or to the nurse practitioner program. I have also thought about doing both programs as the NP curriculum can be done via correspondence on a part time basis from the University of Athabasca. Thank god for the 10 year exclusion rule, as this is the only reason I can apply to the U of C! My questions: 1) Regarding subjective assessment of academics: I am curious how my poor academic performance in the remote past will be interpreted. In addition, I do realise that I probably would have been able to get a better GPA had I taken less challenging courses this time around. Does the subjective academic assessment criteria of file scoring look at trends over time, or is it just based on how hard the courses are, and MCAT scores, etc? I have listened to Dr. Walker's podcast but I am still a bit unclear about this part of the file scoring! 2) Are there any former RNs in U of C med? Does the U of C care about previous healthcare experience? My career has really shaped who I am as a person. I have tens of thousands of hours of experience working with some pretty complicated sick patients, dealing with families, etc. I think at least 4 of the 6 subjective assessment areas listed on the applicant manual are associated with my clinical experience. I think I will have to put them in my top 10. 3) MCAT prep: I wrote the MCAT almost 15 years go and got a 34S (VR=9, PS=12, BS=13). I was working full time and also taking a summer course, so only had 7-8 weeks to prep for it. I did not take a prep course or anything. My weakness in the past was the VR and on the new MCAT I know I will struggle on the CARS more than any other section. I really focussed on the VR section in my past MCAT and despite doing around a thousand practice questions only scored a 9. Given the importance of the CARS section on file weighting to the U of C, do most people recommend taking an MCAT prep course? I think I should do okay on the science and social science sections, but the CARS will be difficult. Again, thanks in advance for any and all input.
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