April Post: Final Thoughts and Comments

Now that everything that needs to be done in the program has passed, I'm incredibly relieved. Honesty, the academic year went by very fast. This month felt the most lax in terms of workload, mostly thanks to me putting forth a concerted effort to make this month as easy as possible. As for my thoughts on this program, I'm finding it difficult to find anything else left to say that I haven't already airred in the survey Dr. C forwarded to everyone. 

In all honesty, for the hefty price tag on this degree, I do feel as if it is lacking. I don't mean to whine and complain, so I will try to add in some constructive comments with this reflection. While Med Pharm, Principles, CCM, and MCP were all necessary and high value, the supplementary courses left a lot to be desired. NP and EP were great, but "practicing professionalism", seminar summary, and advances could use some renovating. While it's very unfortunate that that environmental signaling course got canceled due to unavoidable circumstances, doubling the volunteer hours felt like a big chore. I absolutely understand that getting into med school requires active community service, but I don't think anyone in the program needs to pay tuition to go out there and get those hours in. It's essentially paying for a credit. Nothing much could be done about this, so it is just bad luck that this happened this school year.

Seminar summary felt very much like filler, especially when half the time we wouldn't completely understand the presentation. I know that med school applicants with publications are more likely to matriculate into med school, so perhaps implementing a sort of research course to facilitate that prospect would be more beneficial. I have no idea on the feasibility of this idea, but having a repeat of seminar and advances in the second semester feels like busy work instead of preparing the students for med/dental/PhD/etc. They were both extremely enlightening in the first semester, but the juice isn't worth the squeeze in the spring semester. This rings especially true when we still have important presentations to prepare in NP and EP.

On a personal level, I'm glad I didn't drop this program like I was considering back in October of last semester. I'm set on going into the biotech research industry instead of med school, and this degree was not the ideal route to achieve that goal. However, I think I made the most of my decision. Working at one of the research labs at Tulane during the school year gave my sparse resume the needed boost to get my foot in the door at companies. I've already had a few interviews, but as my work availability date of mid May draws near, I'm getting a growing number of interview requests. There's no time to rest.

I hope everyone that is going to graduation enjoys their time there. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feburary Blog

This month I volunteered for 10 hours at UMC's Neuro ICU department. For Dr. Mostany's course, we have to participate and ask questions and add into the discussion. This expectation is pretty difficult for me since not every presentation or topic is of particular interest to me, and I personally have a hard time finding a good moment to comment on the current topic. He did mention this concern with me and I appreciate that effort. For Dr. Lindsey's class, I completed my presentation and I should be wrapping up the reading assignments by the end of this week. So I'll have the bulk of that class taken care of. While these two classes aren't necessarily dificult, the expectations do seem to be higher. Otherwise, the study and workload is fine, or maybe I'm now just used to the amount we're given. However, this upcoming month will have a heavy workload with all the presentations due for advances and neurology. And immediately after that, we'll have the shelf
Read more

1st Semester Reflection

 November Community Service Hours: 4 Total Fall Semester Community Service Hours: 13      The past few weeks have been fairly routine now that the fall semester is coming to a close. I will admit that the renal and pulmonary module is very lackluster and wasn't compeling compared to the previous blocks. Although the flexibility afforded to us when we're assigned a pre-recorded lecture is appreciated, it wasn't at all engaging. Because of this, I was dismissive of the pulmonary module in terms of interest in the field. I noticed that for Dr. Mageed's lectures, I had a hard time mastering the content. With all due respect, I just don't learn well with his lecture style unlike the other professors here. Luckily, I was able to find some outside resources to bolster my understanding of the topics he covered.       For Medical Pharmacology, I have a really good grasp on how to prepare for the test, but MCP and PR can still be a bit of a toss up. If this semester is just a
Read more

Januaray Blog Post

Volunteered 4 hours this month at UMC's Neuro ICU department Coming back from winter break, I'm feeling more ready than ever to wrap up this program. All the classes are routine at this point and studying for them poses no issue. As for the new classes, I've been enjoying the flexibility that the endocrine clas offers and the freedom to choose from any topic of interest for the respective presentation is appreciated. The neuro pharm class is also structured similarly, but I do feel as if there are one too many presentations that are expected of us this semester. Additionally, the lack of that environmental pharm class is also unfortunate because it sounded like I would have enjoyed it. Now, the only hurdle that is left standing in the way is that I may not be ready for the end of the semester shelf exam. I'm wondering if there is some resource that can be given to make the preparation process for that test easier.
Read more