Any actual doctors in the house (especially med school docs)?

That is a gracious offer. I really appreciate it.

My oldest son lives in the LA area now. He went out there to work at SpaceX. We decided to have Easter out there this year. Hopefully it will stop raining by then.

 

Yeah, it looks like NYMC is at the bottom. He has visited both Buffalo and Rush and is getting a tour of Stony Brook this week. I was surprised that he liked Buffalo more than Rush. Based on data I dug up, Rush is supposedly better for getting good residencies than Buffalo or Stony Brook. Does that line up with how you guys see it?

 

@Jorligan @QtrItalian @italiafan @plastique999 @BMW.SauberF1Team @Xrayv8 @FLGT

Update. He visited Rush and was not feeling good vibes from the students. That surprised me a little. He is visiting Stony Brook and has already seen Buffalo. We are gathering as much information about each school as possible. During this process it seems as though he has started leaning more and more toward Neurology. Given that, do you guys have any input?

 

@Jorligan @QtrItalian @italiafan @plastique999 @BMW.SauberF1Team @Xrayv8 @FLGT

He chose Stony Brook. Thanks again guys!

 

@Jorligan @QtrItalian @italiafan @plastique999 @BMW.SauberF1Team @Xrayv8 @FLGT

An update. He got through the first block of classes (mainly Biochem and Anatomy) and is now in his second block. He did really well in the first block and is near the top of his class (definitely at least the top quintile). He loved Anatomy and working with the cadavers. As a result of this experience and a seminar by an ortho surgeon, he is now leaning heavily toward ortho.

 

@Jorligan @QtrItalian @italiafan @plastique999 @BMW.SauberF1Team @Xrayv8 @FLGT

Question for you guys. How does one do an away rotation and is it as important as I have read it is?

He has started getting involved in research and is doing well in classes. Is there anything else a first year student should be doing?

 

He is doing well. Of course, he worries and stresses at times but, overall, it seems to be going smoothly. I try not to pry too much but it sounds like he is near the top of his class.

He has started to lean away from Neurology (not surgery) to Ortho Surgery. The challenge is that he needed to get moving on research and we had been told that research is much more impactful if it is done in the field you want to do your residency in. As such, he sought out Ortho research opportunities. The crazy thing is that he felt a lot of pressure to get started on research because so much of his class started pretty much from day 1 and many of them already had pubs from undergrad. But, on the other hand, I am glad he waited a bit because he would have jumped into Neuro research based on his thoughts on day 1. You had mentioned the importance of getting a mentor and that would have been a Neuro person if he did that from day 1 too. It has been a balancing act. He wanted to move quickly but he also wanted to be more certain. Hopefully he can get enough research in to be a competitive applicant.

So how does one apply for away rotations and when does that happen? Does he apply during his third year? Summer of his third year? Summer before his third year? He really wants to move out to CA to be closer to his brother. We are likely to do the same so that is even more reason for him to want to be out there. But, of course, the CA residencies are more competitive than average. I am thinking he will absolutely need an away rotation to have a shot at them.

He is almost certainly going to visit his brother in early June when his last block of classes is done. Could/should he do something like reach out to current program directors to visit and discuss the program?