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The chronicles of a veterinary student, foodie and self-proclaimed geek
DVM_Wannabee.blog
The chronicles of a veterinary student, foodie and self-proclaimed geek
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About me
A veterinary student hoping to someday travel the world and study bats. I like to cook, eat, play my guitar and write songs, camp out with friends, discuss politics over a pint of Guiness, ride my bike and live vicariously through dog owners I know. I like indy films and public radio and going to the Farmer's market.
My Blogger Profile
Bloggy Buddies
Grunt Doc
Vet Student Diary
The Flannel Diaries
Reclaiming Imogen
Scottie Flushes
Ah Yes, Med School
AMZ, DVM
The Bird is the Word
Sato(mizer)
Who links to me?
Archives
February 2003
March 2003
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September 2003
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November 2006
Rants and Babbles
A Question to Live By
Don't Let Them Get You
Educated Ignorance
Slobbering Saps
Big Time
Good Flicks
Mad Hot Ballroom
Crash
Harold and Kumar
Go To White Castle
Suspect Zero
Sexy Beast
Friday, February 28, 2003
Today is DOUBLE HELIX DAY
About that last post-- Here is the article I was trying to link. Check it out. Bummer, huh? If Rosalind Franklin had not contracted cancer from all her hours spent with x-rays, she could have been a contender for the Nobel Prize given to Crick, Watson and Wilkins after her death (it's not awarded posthumously). She would have had to fight Wilkins for it, though, since no more than three people can share the prize.
And this Wilkins guy, who everyone is talking about and praising today for being oh-so intelligent and driven, had this to say about Ms. Watson in his book about the discovery:
"Though her features were strong, she was not unattractive and might have been quite stunning had she taken even a mild interest in clothes. This she did not. There was never lipstick to contrast with her straight black hair, while at the age of thirty-one her dresses showed all the imagination of English blue-stocking adolescents."
What do her "features" or clothing have to do with anything? Would he waste ink making the same observations about Einstein? Did Watson ever look in the mirror? He wasn't exactly fashion-savvy himself. Oops. . .am I ranting? Sorry. . .
Today is Double Helix Day: the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA structure. Check out this
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
What does "Ultra-Concentrated" mean?
It means a little goes a long way. You know how many laundry detergents and fabric softeners are called "ultra"? This is because they are concentrated, so a small amount has the same cleaning or softening power as a larger amount of "regular" detergent or softener. Standing at 5'0" with a "petite" build, I am often mistaken for being frail or dainty or less of a person. On the contrary, I am just as much person as someone who is 6'3" and 210 pounds, just packed into a smaller amount of space. Therefore, I am an "ulra-concentrated" person--and the numbers don't lie. For being so small, I weigh more than I look, 110 pounds to be exact, which is more than a person of my proporions usually weighs. Thus, there is more Kim per square inch.
Monday, February 24, 2003
Topic of the day: Since the early 1990s, more women than men have been entering veterinary schools and thus the veterinary profession. Why do articles that discuss this trend always talk about a woman's willingness to take a lower salary, or compare the increase in women with the increase in "small animal" pratice (since women supposedly can't handle large animal medicine as well as men) or the appeal of flexible hours for women who want to be moms? The same articles forget to mention that the trend parallels the steadily rising standards for veterinary school admission.
Maybe I'm being sexist bringing this up, but since the early 1990s the GPA, GRE, extracurricular involvement and animal experince requirements have become tougher to meet. Perhaps women are more versatile or ambitious than their male counterparts. How many more men would be entering the proffession if admission standards were closer to what they were back in the 1970s and 1980s?
Sunday, February 23, 2003
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Question of the day: Who's cooler, cats or dogs?
Isn't this cute?????
The University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine Interview:
On February 3rd, 2003, I was fortunate enough to find myself amongst several youngish veterinarian wannabes like myself at the College's final step in the evaluative process (for admission): The Interview.
I was not nervous until the moment I arrived and saw all the other interviewees, individuals who were invited to interview that day because they were as smart, ambitious, and capable as me, or more so. I felt overwelmed being surrounded by people just as willing as I to invest four years and tens of thousands of dollars to enter a profession that yields the common and annoying question: "If you're so smart, why didn't you become a real doctor?" (This question was also asked in the interview and will be answered in an upcoming post).
Were we all crazy? We all knew from experince that getting accepted to veterinary school requires a higher GPA, higher GRE scores, more upper level science course work and more practical experince than getting accepted to most medical schools, and I thought that was simply because there were so few veterinary schools (only 24 in North America) and so many applicants. . .but now I was hearing that veterinary school is actually harder than medical school. What was I doing there?
THE INTERVIEWERS
There were three interviewers: one faculty member, a handsome-ish gentle mannered man who looked no older than 35, one fourth-year student who never had a trace of expression on her face, and one alum/practicing veterinarian--a gray-haired, smiling guy who made eye contact with me and smiled at every answer I gave. I looked at the latter a lot as I spoke. They were very friendly, but they seemed a bit tired after interviewing dozens of applicants. I'm not sure how much time I had to answer their questions, so I was a bit nervous. They explained that they had not seen the rest of my application, and therefore knew nothing about me or my current ranking in the applicant pool.
THE QUESTIONS
The interview questions fell into two categories: scenarios and open-ended questions. There was no way to prepare for these questions, seeing that I had no idea what they would be. Here they are, to the best of my recollection, not necessarily in order, with my comments in italics:
Scenarios
1. You are a veterinarian in a private practice. A client comes to you with a dog (they gave specific age, sex and breed, but this information was not too relevant--in other workds, I don't remeber these details of the question) that was diagnosed by another veterinarian as having kidney disease.You know the name of this other veterinarian. The client has brought the dog to you for a second opinion. You run some diagnosic tests, and the results do not indicate kidney disease. What do you tell the client?
Note how the gender of both the other veterinarian and the client are not mentioned. I think this question is seeking out your attitude towards others in the profession, your communication strategies when dealing with "second opinions", as well as your communication skills with clients. Personally, I think second opinions are a normal part of the medical and repair professions, so I said that I would tell the client I would be in touch with the other vet to discuss our differing diagnoses and come to some conclusion about the dog's condition. I also said my response would depend on the type of tests the other vet performed.
2. You are taking a long trip on a bus, and are seated next to a young college student. After starting a conversation, it is revealed that you are a veterinary student. Your new aquaintance then asks you, "Why don't you just go into real medicine?" What do you say?
This topic will be addressed in a future post
3. You are working on a group project with two other people, and it is due tomorrow. You have had several weeks to work on the project, and your portion of the project is done, but the other two people in your group have not completed their assigned parts of the project. How do you handle the situation?
4. You have a friend who is a music major who has to take a science course to complete a degree requirement, but really hates/is afraid of scince classes. Of the courses you have taken, which one would you suggest, and what would you say to this friend about it?
Open-ended:
1. Albert Einstein once said "Imagination is more important than information." How do you interpret this statement pertaining to science? Give a specific example of what he may have meant.
Well, I blew this question, but then ten minutes after leaving the interview, thought of a million "specific examples. Research examples, mostly, like how the double-helix structure of DNA was discovered through not only knowing base parings, but also imagination and trial and error of several models, and my own personal research experince, which would have been the best kind of example to use.
2. Describe an academic weakness of yours, and how you plan to deal with it as a veterinary student.
3. Give an example of a time you took leadership in a group or situation.
4. Explain a time when you helped resolve a conflict between two friends or family members (or co-workers--"co-workers" were not mentioned in the question but they let me use a work example).
5. What do you stand on the issue of animal rights and animal welfare?
I made sure I defined the difference I see between the two, stating that "animals rights" has more to do with politics, while "animal welfare" has more to do with ideology. I then went on to explain how I feel about both.
6. Discuss a current event that is meaningful to you.
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