People that know me, know me to be a little on the stingy side and I've realized that occasionally, I pay the price literally for being that way, ie Sony Viao versus the MacBook (yes, I'm STILL trying to get over it).
So I was pretty excited to realize 2 minutes after taking it out of the box, that this would NOT be the case with my new iPad, or should I say "our" iPad since I have as many images of the group Mindless Behavior on it as path images, thanks to my teenaged daughter. And while it won't replace my love for my Laptop (even though it IS a Viao), I really do LOVE it too and find the images to be VERY high quality (the image above is taken from my iPad). That's kinda cool, right? And the images are as sharp as those I'd see looking under a microscope, so my "dream" of reading slides from the beaches of South Beach Florida could one day come true, LOL!!!
Otherwise, I don't have anything new in my life to talk about as it relates to me, but I'm pretty happy that my 10th daughter is starting to get letters of interest from Universities across the US, I'm assuming based on her PSAT scores/high school grades. And while I think there's room from improvement and obvious remnant from having finally beat the MCAT down, it's a blessing to realize that if she keeps up the good work, student loans won't need to be a part of her financial aid package.
Speaking of that, I’ve pretty much decided to apply to med school in the summer of 2013 or next summer since that will mean I’d start AFTER my kid finishes high school. Sure I know there are mothers that manage to balance the two, but I’ve made the very conscious decision NOT to for HER. IMHO, when you’re in med school you simply can NOT be there for your kid the way you could if you weren’t, and I’m choosing to be there, 100%, for my kid. Plus when you’re 45, one year just doesn’t make that much difference but for a kid in high school, it could make all the difference in the world!
So what will I do in the meantime? Ideally, I’d like to make some progress toward my PhD and what would really be cool is if I could start med school needing only to finish a dissertation project (or be a MD1/PhD3 student). That’s means that my coursework and cumulative exams would ALL be completed AND passed, leaving me to research, write, and defend my dissertation. That of course, is going to take some special finesse because that’s not traditionally how it’s done to which I respond that not much in my academic life has followed a “traditional” path anyway. So it’s just a matter of me lining up support for something like this, beyond my old advisor for my MS Pharmacology program.
And that’s what I’ll focus on over the next 3-4 months, lining up that support!!
Lots of luck to you on your medical school aspirations! I wish I can do the same thing, but my undergraduate college screwed me over with the prerequisites. I still can't get over to this day. Graduating from a P.A. program and it didn't contain the necessary prerequisites for medical school? It almost sounds blasphemous.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the well wishes! BTW, if you saw my undergrad transcript, I'm sure you'd believe in miracles, LOL!! Maybe you should look through my blog to see how I overcame my undergrad performance!
DeleteHmmm, how did you overcome it? Better yet, what was wrong with it? Did you have poor undergraduate grades, or were your courses not medical school worthy initially?
DeleteI was premed as an undergrad so I took the same classes as other premeds. I just didn't do well initially and was expelled in my sophomore year. After a years’ work at another institution, I was readmitted and finished my last 2 years with a "B" average, with a BA degree and a minor in the sciences. I later enrolled as a second degree Chemistry major, but my grades weren't pre-anything worthy, though much better than before. So after graduation I worked for a little while, and then took the GRE and grad classes at a top school for Chemistry as a post-bacc. After earning a 4.0 while working full-time with a family, I was given a scholarship and fellowship to finish my Master's in Chemistry. I finished with an "A minus" average, took the MCAT, did well and was admitted MD/PhD, but declined my seat for personal family reasons.
DeleteAs you can see, the road back academically was VERY long, but I never gave up on what I ultimately wanted to do. And even though I tried to do other things to satisfy my insatiable academic appetite, nothing quite cut it for me like Medicine. So here I am, hopefully no more than 2 years away from matriculating as a MD/PhD student!!!
I really want an iPad! But I can't justify the cost currently :(
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your timeline, getting some of the PhD coursework out of the way while applying/waiting for medical school is a great idea!
Thank you!
DeleteAs for the iPad, it's just the best thing I've EVER OVER paid for, LOL!!! Not trying to bring you over to the "dark side" or anything, but I think as a student you could get a LOT of use out of it!