Getting into med.. wat do i do?! (1 Viewer)

[spice girl]

Originally posted by Not A Carrot
And when you make mistakes on live people in later years.

errr...it'll be many years from now that we'll be in a position to make mistakes on live people. as far as i know, we still won't be allowed to cut anything after our med degree in 6 yrs time...

 

[Giant Lobster]

ok im gonna be painfully honest...
some of you repliers are apparently med students, how was the interview? what i actually mean by that is did they actually do any checking to see whether the stuff u said were true? i think if i ever get to the interview ill need to lie my ass off to get in (sorry) and was hoping they dont check for real any stuff i say.
like e.g. i can say i do charity work / work at some place / burger king / knock on ppls doors preaching the bible / what have you.

im not a bad person (tho i feel real dirty having to depend on lieing) but srsly, i honestly think nerds like me make good doctors, and my competence in this field wont be affected by "extra curricular activities".

so any info? or prolly ur too disgusted to help my cause? if so, i dont blame ya.

 

[Weisy]

Just think of the logistics involved with following up 350 sets of extra curricular activities. Personally, I don't think they check. The most they could possibly do is ring up your referrees and/or principal and ask them to give an impressional description of you. What they are looking for is something at least pseudo-genuine, so even if you have to lie your ass off, don't lie about the stuff that matters, ie. you SHOULD want to be a good doctor, and you SHOULD want to help people, even if not directly. I mean, even if you want to go into medical research, I'd assume you have some sort of inclination towards making discoveries beneficial and relevant to health and mankind.

If not, then why not just go into research per se? Quantum physics...or nuclear arsenal, perhaps...

 

[Giant Lobster]

hmmm i see
can u gimme some specific examples of stuff they're lookin for? I seriously doubt saying "I work at Hungry Jacks" will help. If anything that wud make me look like an idiot cos it suggests i have nothing else to say but neways... charity work? whats that?

and stuff like the 40 hr famine i am vehemently opposed to. ffs if u wanna help ppl u dont go starvin urself, wtf. just give money. but no, attention addicts have to starve blah blah
i can probably take up work at a JW congegration cos my mum is one and they are good ppl... but thats not nice, and closed minded ppl prolly hate JW so thats another plus/minus.

bah im lost. any suggestions on what they r lookin for?

 

[Weisy]

Hmmm...no. They don't necessarily want people with WORK experience. They don't care if you can fry fish or serve people. They want examples of things you've done which have involved helping people. Not 40-hour famine...actually physically INTERACTING with them and helping them. Who has time for heaps of volunteer and charity work during year 12? Too much would look suspiciously wrong. Again, I can't say anything except be genuine. They want caring people who can communicate. Last year their questions drew more from personal experiences than anything else. You don't need a professional title, or the name of a volunteer agency to want to help a friend or relative through a crisis. You just do it.

 

[Newbie]

Red shield salvo door knocking thing is another easy charity

sign up as st johns ambulance volunteer. thats gotta get some bonus marks

 

[Giant Lobster]

i see... ugh, so difficult.

im a good person, i just dont show it. like, i help my mum wif the shopping n stuff, doesnt that count? farh...

o well, seriously tho, so ur saying they ask u stuff about ur past and try to dig out ur personality and 'judge' u from what they dug out? that aint nice... i think im gonna die in the interview like i always do, answering everything with 'no' out of fear // not knowing what to say. *sigh*

actually in hindsight i havent done anything much. im not social or anything. i get thru life with marks and the odd friend. i think im the classic interview reject. damn. *ever-deepening depression*

 

[Newbie]

dont worry
i know this guy who is kinda mediocre at social skills but scored a high uai and umat
and he still got in

 

[Giant Lobster]

how high?

actually compared to respectable schools my academics is also mediocre so i wudnt really be countin on that.

 

[Newbie]

well high enough

what im saying is that social skills isnt everything
so dont freak out

 

[Weisy]

Originally posted by Newbie
dont worry
i know this guy who is kinda mediocre at social skills but scored a high uai and umat
and he still got in

heh. yeah. the final thing balances umat, HSC marks and interview equally. so chances are...

 

[adrenaline88]

hey everyone,
i'm a year 10 student and desperately want to study medicine
um jus wandering, i've done work experience with doctors twice this year...should i do more of that next year so i can chuck it in my cv for application to UNSW-Med?
also it's really difficult for me to find somewhere to do charity work. i applied at Prince of Wales hospital but they said all their volunteers have to be over 18...any suggestions on good places to volunteer at?

 

[Weisy]

Red Cross will take people under 18 I think. There are various small organisatins where you could probably make more of a difference as an individual. If you are around randwick, there's a place called the Glenn Mervyn House just down from High street which take volunteers of all ages. I wroked for them in the holidays. Also ask around at school...you can help organise fundraising, etc.

Also, any medical experience will not count against you, but it's not what they are looking for generally in a candidate. They will teach you the medicine and how to work with doctors, but they want the type of person who is conducive to this type of learning. So yeah, get as much experience as you can, but if you can't, don't fret.

 

[Bepps]

Giant Lobster, I WISH I HAD YOUR PROBLEM!! I'm the opposite, i'm afraid - love people, love to be around people, have done volunteer work, tonns of extra curricular stuff and i started my job this year. I'm sooooooooo scared about not getting the marks, even though i am a nerd (more like semi-nerd with commitments!!).

How can u be so confident??!!

 

[adrenaline88]

Originally posted by Weisy
Red Cross will take people under 18 I think. There are various small organisatins where you could probably make more of a difference as an individual. If you are around randwick, there's a place called the Glenn Mervyn House just down from High street which take volunteers of all ages. I wroked for them in the holidays. Also ask around at school...you can help organise fundraising, etc.

Also, any medical experience will not count against you, but it's not what they are looking for generally in a candidate. They will teach you the medicine and how to work with doctors, but they want the type of person who is conducive to this type of learning. So yeah, get as much experience as you can, but if you can't, don't fret.

---------------

ah cool..yeh i live near randwick (bout 5 mins away)..so what kind of volunteer work did you actually do at Glenn Mervyn House actually do? coz if it involves feeding elderly people, i'm not really interested....i get enough of that on the weekend when we go over to my great aunt's house where i have to feed her and play chess with her (let her win too ! ARHH! heheh)

 

[adrenaline88]

****minus the 'actually do?' hehe sorries..long day :S

 

[spice girl]

it's not how much extra-curricular you do, but how much you can talk about it. i think for me i built up some sort of recurring-type theme where i liked teaching because i liked helping people. (in actual fact i prolly like teaching because of the superiority-inferiority thing, but hey, noone's psychoanalysed me yet).

well there u go, just make sure your personality shows thru the extra-curricular activities you do (and make sure it's the personality that you want them to see).

i think i only had 2-3 extra-curricular activities, and none of them were medicine-related.