Anyone interested in another thread along the lines of efex’s Mayo Clinic and Danielle’s thread? If so, I’ll be happy to start posting the details of the aggravating process of getting all your paperwork complete after being accepted and so on.
Or, if you feel we have enough of these perspectives already, I will let this thread die a natural death.
Amy
I am interested. The more the merrier!
Absolutely not!! Do not post!! I am a diehard University of Michigan fan and OSU is one of my most hated teams! 
Seriously though, please do post your experiences. I enjoy reading the others and I’m sure yours would be enjoyable as well. I’ll be sure to pin it so it will be listed at the top with the others.
Geoff -
Oddly enough, I have been a Michigan fan my entire life (with the exception of hockey where we BGSU Falcons loathed and despised the maize and blue). My husband is a lifelong Buckeye fan and OSU grad who is convinced I claim to like Michigan to spite him. 
One thing I have learned so far that I would like to pass on to all you future med students - find out how the school you choose to attend will be doing most of its communication with you and if you don’t get something with deadlines in the mail, call and ASK. Ohio State does all of its communication by e-mail and via their website. The only thing they actually send by snail mail is an acceptance letter with invoice for the $25 fee and your financial aid reward package (required to be mailed by law, I think).
Having done most of my post-bacc work at OSU, I knew about the online only thing, and quickly found all the necessary material. However, I am gathering from my postings on SDN that many people do not realize this. One person posted something to the effect of “So - we don’t really have anything due until orientation, right?” There are actually several deadlines for HIPPA training, health forms and etc. due by July 1. Personally, I think they should include a letter with the acceptance letter telling students that they need to get online and do this stuff.
I registered for classes a couple of weeks ago (as soon as the system would let me). Last night, I noticed that only 35-40 people total had registered for M1 classes. Knowing how anal pre-med/med students are, I have to believe that a great many students have not yet realized that they have to register themselves for classes.
Moving on from the rant . . . I had my physical today for medical school. THAT was quite a pain. Having moved ~ 2 years ago, I don’t have a local family doctor (and actually, my family doc retired in the meantime). I had my husband ask if they could schedule me for my physical. They could - in AUGUST!!! 
So - I called the student health center at OSU. They won’t do it unless you were enrolled at OSU spring quarter. Starting to get desperate, I wondered if an occupational health place (similar to where I had to get my drug screen for work) would be able to do. I called Monday, got the appointment for two days later.
The physical forms for OSU were a bit more demanding than the physical forms for MCO (the school I was going to attend before getting into OSU). We have to have tetanus within ten years, proof of the MMR series or a titre, chicken pox titre, 2 step mantoux, and Hep B series followed by a titre. Fortunately, I had already had the Hep B series and had proof of my MMR. The MMR titre cost was $263. As it was, the cost for the physcial, tetanus, hep B and chicken pox titres, and TB testing totaled $292!! 
I’m going to try and submit it to insurance as they claim to cover routine physicals, but most people say that insurance will NOT cover these costs.
As if I wasn’t feeling poor enough, I read a previously missed link in the orientation materials about the laptop we are required to have. I knew we were required to have a laptop, but I thought I could use the one I already have. Unfortunately, if you don’t show them your laptop meets or exceeds their minimum requirements, you are billed for the one they have chosen and receive it the first week of classes. Although it is in the student budget, that was $1500 out of my first quarter loan money that I wasn’t planning to spend in that way.
Finally, adding to my financial misery this week, the ordering period for new OSU students has opened up for football tickets. As you can imagine, these are hot items at OSU, and, Buckeye fan that he is, my husband wanted me to get my allotted 2 season tickets.
I think I’ve probably gone overboard for my first post. I will detail the curriculum options (which I am debating) and use of technology at OSU in a future post.
Amy
MS-1 to be
Amy,
Great start to the thread!
For the serious stuff now~~ I can understand your husbands desire for the season tix. I’m bad enough that I have my ex wife get the tix and I buy them off of her. Good thing I get along with her good enough so that she doesn’t scalp me too bad! 
Wow! I am in shock! I got a voice mail Thursday from OSU saying they wanted to talk to me about a scholarship. I didn’t get the message until after 5, and the message said the person would be out of the office on Friday. No big deal . . . I figured they were just going to tell me about a scholarship I was eligible to apply for.
I had already been planning to go to campus on Friday and officially change my name (after getting married last September) and drop off my health forms. I had a moment of panic in the records office when they couldn’t find my file. She couldn’t find my file because it was sitting on her desk! When she realized this, she asks me “So, are you going to accept the scholarhip?”
After a little clarification that I hadn’t had a chance to talk to the person who called me, she told me that I had been awarded a $12,500 scholarship renewable for ALL FOUR YEARS!!! The details are still a little vague - I have no idea what the criteria is for the scholarship and can’t believe that I was selected for it, but I’m thrilled to pieces!
On a different note, we also spent most of the week looking for housing. We quickly realized that renting was going to be difficult (and expensive) with my dog and have decided to look for a house to buy. We can definitely buy for cheaper than we can rent, and since we will be there for four years, probably a good plan. We are looking for a place that will split the difference between where my husband teaches and Columbus so that we both have a reasonable commute. Hopefully, we will be able to resell the house in four years if I end up going somewhere else for residency.
Amy,
Congratulations (!) on your scholarship!
That’s terrific 
Amy,
Good luck on house hunting, and oh, by the way, CONGRATULATIONS on your scholarship!
Well - the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Last Monday, we looked at houses; Tuesday, we made an offer and got a counteroffer; Wednesday, we accepted the offer; Thursday, we went and filled out the paperwork at the bank. On top of that, I worked 13 hour days Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Friday. The house is a little more than we wanted to spend and a little farther away from Columbus than I would have liked, but it was the best house for the money and location that we could find.
As of today, there are 42 days until Orientation! August 17th will be here before I know it. (Especially since that is probably when we will be moving!) Our White Coat ceremony is the first day of Orientation followed by a reception for family and friends.
My big dilemma now is trying to decide what pathway I want to follow. OSU offers two pathways for M1/M2: The integrated pathway (IP) and the independent study pathway (ISP). My understanding is that all students do the anatomy block together and from there we split into our different paths.
IP sounds pretty similar to what most med schools do. Year one is divided into four blocks: Human Anatomy, The Cell, Host Defense, and Neural Science. Lectures run 8:30 - 11:30, with small groups in the afternoon, being done most days by 3:00. There are about 3 exams for each block.
ISP is exactly what it sounds like. No lectures to attend, students are provided with “modules” which you can proceed through at your own pace. Each module has a faculty member that is assigned to be available for help/questions. When you are done with a module, you schedule the exam and then move on to the next module. Some students have managed to get all of the first two years done in 1 1/2 years. You can also choose the five year plan with ISP and spread the basic sciences out over three years. The big advantage that I see to ISP is that it allows you a lot more flexibility to work part-time, do research, spend time with family, etc.
I’m really torn between the two. On one hand, I would love the flexibility of ISP, especially since my husband and I are considering trying to have children in the near future. On the other hand, I am a procrastinator. If I do ISP, I would have to force myself to get up and get to work every day. With lectures, even if I don’t get anything out of them, the forcing myself to go and least gets me to school and working. I’m afraid with ISP I would be tempted to stay at home and I am notoriously bad and not getting much accomplished at home.
I was also concerned with classmate interaction in ISP, but I guess ISP students tend to form study groups and mingle with each other. ISP students do have a dedicated floor in one of the building, with everyone having their own study area. Access is allowed 24 hours a day.
Med I and Med II students also have Patient Centered Medicine and a Physician Development course which I will address in a later post (as it’s getting past my bedtime and this is boring enough for one sitting )
Amy,
I lived in Columbus for 4 years. Where did you end up buying your house?
Kathy
Kathy -
Just south of Mt. Gilead, about 9 miles north of the SR61/I71 interchange. I didn’t know that you lived in Columbus for four years!!
Well, here I am at the end of day 2 of Med 1. I finally feel like things are starting to settle down a little bit. Last Tuesday, we moved - finished unloading the truck at 10 pm. Then, orientation started at 8:30 am Wednesday morning. I still don’t have much unpacked, but at least I know where most of my clothes are and have my washing maching hooked up!
Orientation wasn’t too bad. I guess its nice only having half days or so, but it seems like they could have condensed three days of orientation down into two. We got our laptops on the second day of orientation. This year, OSU is requiring that all M1’s have a laptop. If you didn’t submit your personal laptop to them for approval, you automatically received a laptop (and are billed for it each quarter). All of the M1 classrooms are set up for wireless as well as a lot of the M1 building, Medical Library and Med Center. We are also supposed to be able to access OSU’s wireless network from anywhere on campus.
Pretty much all coursework and communication is via e-mail and WebCT. Most professors put their handouts and powerpoint presentations on WebCT as well.
I applied for a technology assistant job. Great gig - you have to show up 20-30 minutes early for class each day and turn on the computers, projectors, etc for the profs and help them with their presentation. Although I didn’t get it, I did get asked to record lectures and podcast them (they provided me with the Ipod). So - I am still working on figuring that out.
Our first day, we had anatomy lecture and lab, as well as Physician Development. I didn’t study as much as I would have liked Sunday night (still unpacking) and felt a little lost during anatomy lab when people when my group would say “Oh - that’s ____ muscle.” On the plus side, I was the one who found the Greater Occipital nerve on our cadaver. Our anatomy group seemed to work really well together and we received several compliments from TA’s and profs about how nice our dissection looked.
Today, we had Patient Centered Medicine, Embryology, and Biostatistics. I felt much better prepared today. (Either that, or the material wasn’t nearly as tough).
I will write about Physician Development and Patient Centered medicine later when we get a little bit more into the courses.
The rest of the week doesn’t look too bad - lots of anatomy to learn and memorize and one more embryology lecture, but we are done w/classes by noon the rest of the week.
Well - off to home. Need to unpack a couple of more boxes and hopefully settle in for some anatomy study.
Amy
We had our first anatomy/embryology test yesterday after three weeks of classes. I admit to being a little discouraged at this point. I felt I worked hard and did quite a bit of studying, but did poorly on the test. Although I passed (barely) the written portion, the practical is 50% of the test grade, so I am in limbo until at least Monday to find out whether or not I passed the whole thing.
I don’t know quite what I’m doing wrong. I probably spent more time studying for this test than I have ever spent on any test in my life. The information itself is not difficult, its just that there is a LOT of it. I didn’t feel that the test was that difficult (although there were a few practical questions that were a bit tougher than expected), I just didn’t know the material. Somehow I have to move from being a “big picture” kind of person to being able to memorize all the minutae. For some reason, memorizing has always been difficult for me (even back to the days of piano lessons and recitals).
I enjoy my classes for the most part. Anatomy lab is interesting and challenging at the same time. We have six people in our anatomy group. Unlike other schools where two people at a time dissect and then present to the rest of the group who comes in later, all six of us are there all the time. In a way, it seems like a waste of time because a lot of the time four people are just standing around. But - it does give us time during lab itself to wander around and look at other people’s cadavers. My group has also decided that we need to use that time more wisely to quiz ourselves and practice learning our innervations, vascularizations, etc. The profs and TA’s are great, although there could stand to be a few more of them. They do a wonderful job of teaching.
Well - off to forget anatomy for awhile. The much hyped OSU vs. Texas game is tonight and I have tickets. My husband and I plan to head down and catch “Skull Session”, the pre-game warmup for the bands in St. John’s Arena, then maybe tailgate briefly with some of his college buddies. I overcame my anti-OSU tendencies (grew up as a Michigan fan) and actually bought an OSU College of Medicine sweatshirt to wear tonight.
Can’t believe I’m saying this, but . . . Go Bucks!
Amy
Amy,
As several people have said to me… it’s only one test…
Regardless of how you did on the practical you’ll regroup and figure out a plan… talk to others who might’ve done better and see what their approach was (it might or might not work for you)… talk to upper classmen if you can… talk to your professors…
After my last test I feel like I might be able to anticipate some of the test questions better… I tend to go for minutia and things that I “want” to learn about… that’s where I tend to focus… but I’ve learned that I probably ought to take a surgeon’s approach to anatomy… what am I going to cut if I go in here and don’t know what I’m doing… or the ever popular if someone shoots an arrow at someone’s back/leg/whatever what is it going to hit or what might it damage? what dermatome might it be felt in? (referred pain). etc…
I’m not sure what area you guys focused on first, but we did limbs/musculature of the back first… and it was just too much for me… now we’re working on the “innards” (guts and stuff) and I’m much more interested in that… but I know that they’re going to focus WAY more on blood flow than I would and so that’s where I need to go as well.
blood, lymphatics, relations, innervation.
take the night off… take a deep breath… regroup and give 'em hell girl!
Andrea
Well, the end of the 4th week (of 43) is finally here. Good news and bad news this week. Good - I passed my anatomy exam with a 66.4%. The bad - although I passed the exam, you have to have a 70% average overall to pass the course. So - since I didn’t meet this threshold, I am required to meet with a member of the Student Review Subcommittee. After reading Andrea’s experience, I have a little trepidation about this. I know they claim that its supposed to be a positive experience, so I hope that is indeed the case - that the meeting is more of “what help do you need in improving?” than “you’re obviously not studying/trying hard enough” type of thing.
More good news - I received another $6000 in scholarship money. This money is need based (fortunately for me, my dad didn’t have much of an income last year) and when they had extra money after awarding to students who were below the EFC threshold, they went to students who were just above it.
These past couple of weeks have helped convince me that I want to do the Independent Study Pathway. It just seems like more days than not I am in class until 2:30 or so in the afternoon. Then, I have to try and find time in the evening to read the material for the next day and review the material from that day. There just isn’t enough time to do it all. Although the anatomy lectures are pretty good, I’m starting to feel that I don’t get enough out of the lectures to make up for the time that I lose studying the material on my own.
The ISP program is designed assuming you will spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week studying and learning the material. For some students, it is less, some more. There is a lot more flexibility. I think I would be much happier studying on my own for 8 hours a day than spending 5 - 6 hours a day in lecture and then needing to spend 5 or more hours learning the material. So much of this material is just simple memorization that lecture is severely cutting into this time.
Even though I have about a 45 minute commute, I will probably come to campus most days and study if I do ISP. I just don’t get anything done at home, and they have a really nice area for the ISP students. I originally didn’t think that I would be motivated enough to do ISP, but now that I see how much time I waste in lectures, I think I will be able to make myself devote time to studying. Most ISP students say that if you really stick to a schedule and study 7 - 8 hours a day, M-F, you are pretty free evenings and weekends. Of course, you can arrange your study time anyway you wish.
For those of you interested in a little more in depth summary of Ohio State’s ISP prgram, click here.
Well, I guess I should put in a good hour or so of studying. This week was relatively easy (thorax), but it gets more complicated next week (abdomen), so I would like to feel pretty comfortable with this week’s material so that I can concentrate on the new material next week.
Amy
Thanks for posting! Great info. I looked into the ISP and am going to search around and see what other schools have it. I’m definitely interested. I always believe I could get more accomplished if I was given an accurate syllabus and time to study so this type of thing is perfect for me…now all I have to do is finish all the prereqs…send out the apps with awesome personal statements…ace the MCAT…get a secondary…get offered an interview…ace the interview…get accepted…
I think that about covers it.
Well, we had our second anatomy/embryology exam this week over the thorax and abdomen. I did MUCH better this time around. I got 48/50 correct on the practical and 70/75 on the written. That takes some of the pressure off that I was feeling after doing poorly on the first exam.
This week we have moved onto the pelvis/perineum and then the lower limb (leg) will also be on the next exam. I have a feeling that this exam will be considerably more difficult than the last one. Lots of structures crammed into a very small space.
One of my labmate’s decided to take a leave of absence after 5 weeks of class. He said he needed to decide if medicine was really for him or not. Hopefully, everything works out for the best for him. I can’t imagine how tough of decision that must be to make after having gone through all the work to actually get admitted to medical school.
I’m still trying to find that “balance” of what to be involved in and what not to be involved in. This coming week, it seems like I have 2 - 3 meetings/informational sessions/workshops every day. I know there will soon be a point where I have to be a lot more choosy about what I am involved in.
Other than that - not too much new and exciting around here. If anybody has any questions about Ohio State or other Ohio schools, feel free to post or PM me.
Amy
Congratulations on your test results!! Doing that well in anatomy is extremely difficult. You should feel really good!
Sorry to hear about your classmate. BUT, it is good that he is taking time off to make his decision now. If he decides it is not for him, then it would be a shame to try and continue, getting himself further into debt every semester. I hope he has a good support group and a lot of friends.
As for you . . . keep up the good work!!
Congratulations on your exam!
Linda,
That’s why I enjoy this forum. So many different views and there is no fear to express them. I’ll add my uninitiated 2 cents…
I believe you can’t make a decision about something if you completely remove yourself from it. I think it’s a horrible decision to take a leave of absence. The pressure on the return trip will be even greater. There are things I’ve done which I hated, abhorred, and just couldn’t get up in the morning for but if I had gone with my feelings and not stuck it thru with my original decision I wouldn’t have those experiences to gain support from. I don’t know if this student’s decision was the right one or not. To me, I don’t think you can make a decision about whether or not you want to do something, such as medicine, by taking yourself out of the environment.
However I don’t have the experience of medical school to say what I would do if I were him. I do have all those physicians who have told me how much they hated medical school but love medicine and are practising physicians now. This is what I hold onto even now, just taking prereqs.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend.
I haven’t posted for a few weeks, so I’ll try to do some catching up without making this post too long and boring.
Anatomy ended last Friday. This block was “Head and Neck”. The test didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. We had a new lecturer for most of this section and his questions on the exam were not what I expected. They weren’t unfair or unduly difficult or anything like that, just different. I must admit to being pretty burnt out with anatomy and pretty unmotivated to study the first part of this block.
I finished out the anatomy module with an average just below that of the class average. Not as well as I would have liked to have done, but comfortably above passing.
I started the Independent Study Program this week. Contrary to what I said in an earlier post, I think I may try and avoid going to campus when I don’t have to. I just can’t see spending close to 2 hours (total) commuting to campus to study on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this week I ended up going to campus 4 out of 5 days. I took the advice of a classmate on how to study at home and the one day I was actually home, it worked quite well. Her advice was to use a timer. I did this, alternating 60 minutes of study time with 10 minutes of break time and a 30 minute lunch break. This keeps my 10 minute breaks from becoming 60 minute breaks and seems to keep me more focused.
Our first Independent Study module is Biochemistry. Our recommended timeline is 11 study days. I hope to complete the module by the recommended date. It is flexible, however. Some of my classmates have already taken the test and some are taking it early next week. There is a max time for taking the test which is usually two weeks after the recommended date. We decide when we are ready to take the test and go online to schedule our test time 48 hours in advance. Even after scheduling it, we can change our mind and bump it back.
The ISP’s facilities are fairly nice. We have our own “library” that has copies of recommended texts that can be checked out for one week or one day. The library is in a common area with refrigerators, pop machines, food, microwaves, etc. There is also a computer lab with printers (although you have to provide your own paper). Then there is the quiet study area. There are 90 carrels in this area. They each have an area where you can lock up your belongings. Students can request a carrel and then it is theirs to use through the end of Med 2. We have access to the ISP area 24/7. Students are paid to be library monitors for certain hours, checking out books, etc.
Fortunately, I have had Biochem before. So far this week, I have only gotten in one quality day of studying. Monday was taken up with our Patient Centered Medicine lecture, a meeting about arranging a memorial service for the anatomy cadaver donors, a session on ballistics given by one of the ED attendings, and then ISP orientation. Wednesday, I had a luncheon to attend (more on that later) with consultants helping OSU prepare for our accredidation site visit this year by the LCME. Yesterday, I had to meet with a couple of different people, and today was our opportunity to go back in the anatomy lab and prepare our cadavers for the next step in their journey (cremation for most). THE Dean held one of his “open office hours” today. I didn’t have any particular issue, but since I was on campus and free, I decided to wander up. I was surprised by the poor attendance. (Myself and one other student).
Skipping briefly back to last week . . . I shadowed in the Ed with one of the attendings Thursday night after our test. It was definitely an interesting experience. I am pretty familiar with how life in a smaller ED generally works, but it was a new experience seeing how life in an academic ED works. I plan to do some more shadowing to get a better feel for the grand scheme of things.
Well, since I only managed to be productive one day this week, I now going to spend a couple of hours on my Friday night STUDYING!!! Please feel free to ask questions or comment about my posts so I can get a better feel for how to make them more interesting.
Amy