So, you wanna be a Caribbean med student?

If you want to read about my adventures in New England, scroll down. With limited access to high speed (my precioussss), I'm doing chain blog posts.

I'm supplying tidbits of what I think would be useful information to incoming medical students because being shipped off to the middle of nowhere is scary when you have no idea what to expect.

Your first stop should be ValueMD, which is one of the most useful places for SGU information that you can find. Remember to do a search and remember that "What are my chances and here are my stats posts" don't tend to be appreciated by the membership, even if they are so VERY tempting. I probably did one myself.

Here is my info for those who don't feel like scrolling back through med school finals panicking, pleading for episodes of House before iTunes FINALLY decided to pick it up, and my drive across the USA in winter to try to find out relevant SGU info...

I began at St George's University School of Medicine (SGUSOM) in January of 2007. I've finished all courses except biochemistry, the final for which I have to take in August because I'm an idiot (you can scroll back for that story). I graduated with a B.S. from UC Davis in March of 2004 with high honors and a 3.54 GPA. I took the MCAT twice, which in retrospect was incredibly stupid, and scored a 29O the first time and a 27T the second time (D'oh!).

Common convention, *especially* if you are applying to American medical schools, dictates that you should NOT retake the MCAT unless there is some stellar reason things went wrong on the first one and you think you can do much better. Retaking and getting a lower score is a big old red flag to admissions committees.

I was a resident of California, which along with New York and Canada, are exquisitely difficult places to get into med school, even if you are sporting far better stats than mine (for US schools, my GPA/MCAT would be considered on the low end of competitive, and moreso because of the lower second MCAT score).

SGU's averages, which I'm too lazy to look up, are posted on the web sites. It also gives the international breakdown of its membership.

I initially applied for the August 2006 class, finalizing all my application materials, I believe if I recall correctly, in April. SGU is becoming increasingly competitive and its stats are raising, so apply as early as possible since, like most American schools (can't speak for Canada), the school is on rolling admissions.

I heard that I was approved for an interview relatively quickly after everything was finalized, but after the interview, it took me 8-9 weeks to hear back. UNLIKE US schools, if you are put on the waitlist for SGU and do not make it, you will (if things are the same), be offered a spot in the next class.

On the interview... formats differ. Some people are told not to dress up (do so anyway) and meet their interviewers for a 20 minute interview at Starbuck's, 10 minutes of which is taken up by the mandatory writing sample you do while there.

My interview took place at a conference room at the Kaiser hospital where my interviewer worked. They tend to use SGU grads and will try to find the ones closest to your area, which in my cases, was about a 3 hour drive away. My interview was fairly formal, but concluded with my interviewer essentially telling me all the things that were horrible about Grenada. Hmm...

I also attended two open houses, which are not necessary, but are fun if you're in the area, tend to allow you to meet a member of the faculty, talk to current 3rd/4th years or residents, and see nice pictures. Hey, and free notepads.

I heard back on my interview largely by harassing my admissions counselor via the phone. After your interview, I'd recommend giving it about four weeks, and then call once a week to check up. I heard via mail long after I heard via phone, and in some cases, your "acceptance" will be in the form of receiving a financial aid packet out of nowhere, but in my case, the financial aid packet took forever to come, and when it did, was via email. Shrug.

On financial aid, I can only tell you what applies to US residents, since I am one and all... You can take out two types of Stafford loans, subsidized and unsubsidized, for a grand total of 18500 a year, which is nowhere near the amount you need, but is not credit-based unless you've defaulted on student loans. SGU is divided into 5 "years", which is still 4 years, so stop asking; it's a loan thing.

You have several options for the rest of your loans. Ever since the GradPlus loans became available, it would seem that most US students go through those. There are credit requirements with the GradPlus loans, but tend to require no open derogatory accounts, and nothing bad in the last two years, and I don't *believe* go on the 650 credit score required by other lenders, but I could be wrong. For credit problems, start EARLY and go to CreditBoards. Read the newbie forums first. Depending on your credit issue, do-it-yourself credit repair seems to take an average of about a year and requires quite a bit of work, but it's worth it in the end. I dragged my score up by 100 points, personally.

That isn't an advertisement by the way. It's a free website that helped me a LOT and doesn't offer credit suicide suggestions like consolidation. The FCRA is your friend. Most collection services really like violating it with impunity, which is good news for you if you know what to do with it, and death for you if you think they're entitled to break federal laws because you're a bad horrible person who incurred debt and deserve whatever fate spins for you.

They give a credit seminar at SGU once you're a student, btw, which I found to be full of false information and a few somewhat insulting assumptions. I wouldn't *advise* anyone to skip what is supposed to be a mandatory event... never. I'd just strongly imply it.

Once you get your acceptance, you'll also be sent medical and housing forms. I don't know what the housing options are now, since I don't think Grand Anse is being offered to first termers anymore, and I'm not sure if they're going to re-close it for good, since they were offering singles to upper termers at truly unreasonable high cost for next term. Chances are, you'll wind up sharing a double in one of the superdorms at True Blue. I'll link the pictures inn the next blog.

On the medical forms, it's a good idea to fill them out as much as possible and get whatever you can done, but in *my* experience, and don't hold me to this, things like completion of the Hep B series etc are not *necessary* for first term registration, but are a good idea to get out of the way. Also, be prepared for the school to lose your medical paperwork (and transcripts, and in my case, MCAT scores) so have backup copies of everything.

To be continued with travel to Grenada (which I'm looking forward to being MUCH more difficult in August), life in Grenada/at SGU, and first term classes. Ciao!

Can't Sleep; Clowns will Eat Me...

I'm having this weird little bit where I can't sleep, even when I'm tired, and then when I try to nap later, I sleep even less. I think I passed the point of "I'm so tired I can't study" and resolved into a sort of functional "Ah well, I'll do it anyway" that's been odd, because it feels almost like well-restedness.

Meanwhile, I'm ignoring those studies they did on rats where they deprived the creatures of sleep and they eventually dropped dead.

So thanks to a new friend of mine, friend to slightly older MPH friend of mine who we adopted to the Stuart's party, I am possession of little blue droplets of wonderment and magic known to some as "Unisom".

But remember kids; drugs are bad, mmkay?

So I've taken my first one for the night and am hoping it kicks in soon, at least before I get too deeply into the embryonic heart.

The school hilariously sent us an *invitation* to a mandatory financial aid seminar at 4 this afternoon. I like invitations to mandatory things. It makes them seem so non-mandatory.

I was debating on whether or not to go to this 'mandatory' session, since as they said in Animal Farm, some animals are more mandatory than others, or something like that, but decided to go lest they pull some drug seminar monkey crap where you have to fill out at three question survey.

The lecture hall had a good number of students in it, as well as vet students who had somehow managed to secure seating for a change, and were quite vocal when referenced, though apparently they have an exam tomorrow as someone tossed off while leaving with an 'unlike these MEDICAL students..." Bwa ha. Enjoy learning the anatomy of anything that started development with a notochord, suckers. We're enjoying our exhaustive coverage of one species. I kid... I kid.

But as soon as the awaiting masses realized that this financial aid seminar was going to be the same crap we suffered through in college about the importance of having a budget, living like the Amish, and the wild confusing world that is "understanding the concept that INTEREST makes short term items more expensive" (yawn), combined with a broken power point presentation, a mass exodus was spawned. Seriously, like half the class, and then more and more of it in the first 15 minutes until the previously full hall had become sparser than a Chadwell late-term biochem lecture. Ooooooh.

I stuck around because in brilliant forethought, I had brought along my notebook and a handout on the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, allowing me to feign politeness while actually getting something productive done. Basically, by that point, I didn't leave because I felt bad for the speaker. It sucks when you're trying to present something no one wants to hear and everyone just flat up walks out on you...

Unless you're giving a sermon about how I should vote regarding drug laws. Then, you can go straight to Hell.

Anyway, she said that due to our vigilance ("Huh?" we asked in unison, looking up from our anatomy slides, biochem notes, and histo outlines?), we should put our names on a list to turn in and for all the people that stuck around, she would grant us "a favor". We'd also be treated to free pizza, though I think anyone could get in on that, but since she's a red tape chick, we can actually invoke her name, ala the Sandman comics, to call upon her for a boon. Awesome. Next time my loan status pends until the next continental shift, I'm totally hitting her up on that. Though my current financial aid counselor kicked much ass at that. Ah well.

Naturally, after signing, a bunch more people walked out. Heh. I stuck around as she went through some cliche and in some cases, flagrantly untrue information.

First of all... Credit reporting is most *certainly* regulated by federal law. The thing is that no one KNOWS that or any of the codes surrounding it, but there is a fortune in undiscovered lawsuits for any lawyer that would bother with it. Even banking officials don't know this crap, but it's there. She was essentially positing that if you aren't careful, anyone can stick anything on there (true), but that you were essentially powerless, so you'd best keep your nose clean.

Ha! So I said "Uhhh... the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the FDCPA are federally regulated stipulations on credit reporting." I know this, because thanks to creditboards, I bumped my credit scores up A HUNDRED FRIGGING POINTS on all three scores.

She said something about how that didn't mean you could do anything, which wasn't even the original point, and I said, if they fail to comply, you can sue them for a lot of money, at which point she was all "well, no one has TIME to do that in medical school, do they?" and made the class laugh at me.

Woman, punk me when I'm only sitting in this hell to be polite??????

For the record, if you remained to the end, she's still wrong. I got nearly everything off my credit reports with nothing more than certified mail and a few complaints to the Better Business Bureau and the state Attorney General concerning a couple stubbornites that didn't like obeying the laws. I neither filed a lawsuit nor talked to a lawyer, and while *educating* myself on the process took a buttload of time, the actually process invested in writing was not ALL that substantial. Hmph.

So don't believe everything you hear. Best plan is keep control of your credit, NATURALLY, but come on.

The other thing she put into the powerpoint (when she finally got it working), was I suppose a point on delayed gratification versus instant gratification (yeah, we're all becoming DOCTORS at a quarter million dollar expense because we likey the instant), but she attempted to make it by asking whether we'd rather have a jeep now or a Lexus later.

Uhh... given those options??? Jeep now. Why must she assume I'd be more into rampant consumerism as a doctor than I am now?

Sigh. But still not a waste of time like the drug seminar was a waste of time, and while certainly annoying in places, not half as infuriating or hypocritical.

So back to studying... Midterm in two weeks!!!!! AIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!

A Hello to Income...

And a Happy Belated Celebrate the Rape and Slaughter of an Indigenous Peoples by Eating a Retarded Peacock Day to all of you!

Yeah yeah, but at least now I don't have to be bitter about seeing Token Winter Holiday decorations since they're not pushing out the Fourth of July merchandise anymore. I do love this time of year.

My fraud alert is off one credit report and pending on the others. For FAs, threatening phone calls to EQ and TU work nicely; Experian requires the more formal approach of a threatening letter... Remember, cutting the individual letters out of magazines and newspapers gives it that personal touch.

I actually went against the Roseville auction thing at the suggestion of a friend, Jim, that also has a great yard. The problem with apartment living (besides the upstairs neighbor that apparently has a racetrack upstairs is you have no 'yard' for an "I'm selling all my shit" yard sale.

So I set up on Black Friday when everyone was at the shopping malls... Friday, we got off to a pretty late start, and didn't get most of the signs up, but still took in a decent amount. Saturday rocked though, so I managed to start raking in more dough for the grand purpose of being dumped into my credit union savings account for the cross country/trans country move. So then I printed up a bunch of pictures of my remaining (in some case, in use) furniture to put around, and sure enough, I've sold about half of it now with more crap in my apartment to clean out! Hooray!!!

Sunday, I got rained out, so packed up all the yard sale stuff into Jim's carport, piled into his truck and exploited him for physical labor at my apartment.

Funny thing with yard sales though... I've been living in apartments since I was 13, so have very little experience with yard sales (hence the overwhelming amount of crap), but the people at yard sales... some are really cool, but others are complete assholes about everything and while I don't mind haggling, will insult your stuff in an attempt to get something that costs a quarter for a dime, OR they'll talk about your stuff in front of you, which is highly rude... had one woman and her daughter look at a table full of jewelry that ran from my grandmother's pearls/real gold, nice stuff all the way to my little kid days with plastic jewelry and my goth phase, and I was standing IN FRONT OF HER to answer any questions, and she looks at her daughter, and says "Whoa.. yeah, I'd buy THIS, riiight... I suppose people just have different tastes" and then sort of laughed... and it's like... just how badly are people raised that they make it to adulthood saying whatever they're thinking without getting decked?

This was the mother saying it, and I was thinking... if I had said that in FRONT of my mother at any time, in the same circumstance (right in front of the seller), I'd have gotten my ears boxed and had to apologize. Bastids.

Then of course we had "What's your lowest price, no your lowest price, now I'm going to try to undercut THAT instead of the asking price woman", who managed to get me to $30 on a 180$ sewing machine only to stalk off in a huff because it didn't come with the 60$ file cabinet it was sitting on, and she'd been REALLY trying to get me lower than that. Sold the stuff to someone else, bitch; next time bring a better attitude, but I'm sure you're busy down at the car dealership trying to trade in your 1979 Gremlin in on a Dodge Viper.

So what did I learn in my experience? Garage sales/yard sales = good way to make money/reminder that I should stay in school because I could never EVER work retail without eventually winding up in jail.