The first week of medical school has been quite an experience like no other. I am at a lost for words to describe it, so instead I will use numbers and statistics to best capture my feelings.
Number of applicants: 1388
Applicants Interviewed: 451
Total Positions Available: 150
Final class size: 150
Mean GPA of entering class: 3.8
Mean MCAT score for each section: 11
Mean Writing Sample: Q
Number of students with a BSc or BA: 117
Number of students with a Masters: 7
Number of students with a PhD: 3
Number of students with an B.Eng: 2
Number of students with a Theology Degree:1
Number of students with incomplete degrees: 11
Number of students with an M.D: 150 hopeful
Number of young adults: 127
Number of teenagers: 4
Number of married students: 8
Number of students with kids: 3
Number of students who are old enough to be my dad: 1
Number of Females with blonde highlights: 15
Number of Males with blonde highlights: 5
Students who perpetually wear a hat: 4
Students with no hair (clean shaven): 3
Students with grey-white hair: The same old guy
Total hours spent in class in first week: 18
Expected class time hours a week for the next two years: 35-40
Number of hours a week expected in clerkship: 60+
Numbers of hours a week expected in residency: 80+
Hours of sleep a week for the next five years: 50, 45, 40, 35, 30…
Hours in a week: 168
Number of classes in the first week: 12
Classes that were mandatory: 0
Number of classes that were interesting: 5
Classes that people fell asleep in: 12
Number of times the class applauded at the end of class: All of them
Number of professors that taught in the first week: 8
Number of professors that were medical doctors: 8
Number of times the phrase “Welcome to Medical School” was said: 101
Number of times the phrase “Congratulations for making it into medical school” was said: 84
People who said the hardest part was over: 5
People who said the hardest part was just beginning: 63
Number of classes on how to do research and gather information given: 2
Number of times PubMed was mentioned: 5
Number of times Wikipedia was mentioned: 50
Number of times “I’ll kill you if you use Wikipedia” was mentioned: 50
Number of PBL (Problem Based Learning) Sessions: 3
Number of people in each group: 8
Number of cases studied: 1
Books needed for the case: 2
Articles read for PBL: 5
Times a group member said something intelligent: 8
Times a group member said something incredibly stupid: 27
People who couldn’t stop speaking: 2
People who didn’t speak at all: 1
People who knew what they were doing: 1 (The facilitator)
Number of power point slides shown in class: 541
Number of slides with medical knowledge: 151
Number of slides with names of professors: 23
Slides with just one sentence on it: 30
Times powerpoint slides went backwards went clicked: 54
Times computer crashed: 2
Number of lecture-related questions asked: 41
Number of joke questions asked: 3
Number of times someone asked “Will this be tested?”:32
Number of times someone asked about matching into residency: 2
Number of gunners / keeners in our class: 2 discovered so far
Number of questions asked during a patient-history taking session: 342
Number of those questions related to the actual patient illness:82
Number of proposed obscure diseases:14
Number of them being right: 0
Number of people who repeatedly asked questions: 10
Number of people who asked questions at every lecture: 1
Number of obnoxious questions askers in our class: 1
Hours of class spent in undergrad: at least 1500
Hours spent doing labs: 120
Hours spent studying for exams in undergrad: 242
Hours spent studying for the MCAT: 198
Year of schooling before medical school: 2-8
Number of years left in medical school: 4
Number of years after medical school: A lifetime
“Number of times the class applauded at the end of class: All of them”
People do that? No one has ever applauded after a class at my school. I think I’d have jumped out of my seat if someone did that.
I don’t know, after every lecture people applaud for some reason
It would be interesting to do a psychological study on this.. I think it depends on the dynamics and makeup of the class at the first lecture - people aren’t sure whether to clap or not, but if someone starts, then someone else will start the next time and then it just becomes weird NOT to clap
We still clap at all of our lectures (even the guy that went over 25 minutes, going over the break and into the next guy’s lecture, though we clapped less).
During undergrad, only two of my classes ever clapped after a lecture. Both times, it was the last day of class, and both times it was the same professor (Calc2 and Calc2).
Needless to say, he was an amazing prof.
* Calc1 and Calc2
I don’t know, after every lecture people applaud for some reason