A single family house For Sale $149,000 or BO

Address: 173 Allenhurst Road, Amherst, NY 14226

Features:

· Convenient University Park area and safe neighborhood (0.4 miles to UB South Campus, 1 min by car or 10 mins walking).

· Exceptional ALL BRICK 3 / 4 BDRM, 2.5 Bath Home features remodeled kitchen with ceramic tile floors, custom cabinets & breakfast bar, gleaming hardwood floors. 2 Updated Baths plus ½ bath in fin basement (Needs to have toilet & sink re-installed-but easy to do). Fireplace in both living room and basement Rec Room. Master suite with full bath & off/den or 4 bdrm/nursery. Some new windows, hi-efficiency furnace & hot water tank, concrete driveway. Florida Room.

· Bedrooms: 3 (MSTR STE)

· Bathrooms: 2 Full 1 Half

· Garage: 2/Detach

· Square Feet: 1914

· # Stories: 2

· Exterior: Brick

· Floor: Hardwood /CERAM

· Lot Size: 70X163

· School district: Amherst

Contact: Serene or Sean

Phone: 716-835-0174 (home)

Email: moc.liamg|bu9002eneres#moc.liamg|bu9002eneres, moc.liamtoh|oahzoatgnaix#moc.liamtoh|oahzoatgnaix

1. You look through the forum and find a category you would like to ask a question about, or provide some insights to.
2. To make a new post, open up that category and click "Create a New Thread", then make up a title and summary and write at will.
3. To respond to an existing post/thread, click on the thread and press "New Post" and then write your reply.

This is not intended to freak you out about matching, as the vast majority of you will get a
nice "You matched" email on 3/16. But a few of you have asked how it works if you don't. Here's the way it goes.

Noon on Monday: email notification that you didn't match. Or that you matched to a prelim year (if you listed some on your primary list but not to any of the advanced programs you applied to), or that you matched to an advanced program but not to a prelim program. In the latter two cases, I will be told where you matched for the one program, so you have some geographic guidance in scrambling for what you need (either the prelim or the advanced position you're lacking). Note that I will know that day how many openings there are in each field and the broad geographic location - no specifics till 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. For example, 3 openings in psych in the Northeast.

Monday afternoon: I meet with each unmatched student, separately. We go over the possible scenarios for the scramble, and the student then gathers any new documents needed. For example, suppose you didn't match in Surgery and you decide to scramble for a position in Family Med, you'll need to madly get someone in Fam Med to write you at least one LOR, right? You'll also need to write a personal statement directed toward a career in Fam Med rather than Surgery. So there's work you will need to do after we meet. And the preparation of the documents is critical.

Tuesday morning: you come with a team of people (two more is good, three is also OK, more than that is just confusing) to help you. EVERYONE should bring a cell phone! We go through the drill as a group (no shame, no worries about privacy, this is Team UB!), as there are very important directions and advice you will each need to negotiate this successfully. We will give you copies of your documents, as faxes will be at a premium and your "team" will be helping you on the phone.

Tuesday: 11:30 a.m. I find out the exact openings. We duplicate it and give the right section to each team (so if you're looking for a Fam Med position, I give your team that section of the openings, for example). Your team disperses to search FREIDA for the descriptions of the programs that have openings.

Tuesday: Noon: you begin calling programs and sending your documents electronically or by fax. Then we all help you make decisions as programs do phone interviews and hopefully) offer you a contract. We have a location chart in OME, so that when the offer comes in, we can find you! That includes bathroom breaks - you let us know. We will feed you lunch.

Wed: If everyone isn't matched Tuesday afternoon, the same thing goes on Wed. It will all work out.

Thurs: Noon: Match ceremony!

Important: If you find out that you matched on Monday, please be prepared to help out a classmate who didn't. That's what friends do. It really is important. You will be surprised at the comeraderie that develops.

NN

* One of the exam proctors will give you a brief orientation and provide you with a clipboard, scrap paper, and a pen.
* On each door, you will be provided with patient's name, age, gender, chief complaint, and vital signs.
* You will spend 15 minutes on History/Physical and then 15 minutes typing out your H&P, Differential Diagnosis (5), and Plan (5) on the computer outside of your room.
* The H&P is very focused and it is best if you just go through the motions for times sake. Remember to…
o Wash hands
o Do a problem focused-history i.e., OLD CARTS, HEEADSSS, SIGECAPS, etc.
o Auscultate under clothes
o Always drape
o Sum up impression/plan with patient (communcation/compassion points)
o Note: You will never have to do a rectal, breast, genital or corneal reflex exam. If appropriate, you can ask the patient if you may do this, and they may give you an index card with the "findings", or you can tell them that your plan is to do a pap smear or whatever.
* For the write-up, no "template" is provided other tan the aforementioned categories, so you'll have to remember & type out PMH, Surg, soc hx, etc. (see First Aid Bk for exact layout). DDx and Plan are simple lists (do not need to explain)

After each case and at the end of the test day, you will realize how many little things you may have forgotten. Be reassured that there is plenty of room for error and I think average/passing for the school was something in the 60s, and almost everybody passes. The "big" & "easy" points are in communication and compassion.

Regarding preparation: If you feel pretty comfortable in outpatient clinic, then you don't really need to prepare much. If you are feeling rusty, it is a good idea to review First Aid Step 2CS and practice with someone.

1. Average to Strong Step 1, decent to awesome shelf scores: USMLE World +/-Step 2 Secrets
2. Little rusty, not feeling that confident: Above + First Aid
3. Looking for a big improvement from Step 1 to 2: Above could be sufficient, maybe add Case Files

Q: Why so few resources?
A: Because much of your learning takes place throughout clerkships and most of your review should be practice questions.

1. USMLE World - MOST important, the primary learning tool, format virtually identical to real thing, and definitely had deja vu on many questions (either the UW question writers were psychic or somebody memorized actual test questions for UW)
2. Step 2 Secrets or Crush Step 2 (similar books, the difference is that Secrets is in question format) - quick overview, high yield, hone in on major points - note that it is NOT comprehensive
3. First Aid Step2 CK - I did not personally use this, but I have heard that in contrast to Step 1, this is not as comprehensive and not as helpful, but it is still the most "comprehensive" book. You will still do most of your learning from UW questions.

Q: How much time to allocate for studying?
A: Depends on your foundation:

* Average to Strong Step 1, decent to awesome shelf scores: 1-2 wks (some people claim to have only spent 3 days), definitely can be done during a light rotation (don't need to take a whole month off for this)
* Little rusty, not feeling that confident: 2-3 wks
* Looking for a big improvement: take a month off, do UW twice.

Q: When to take CK?
A: The most optimal time is July (early 4th year while you are still in test-taking mode) through October (before interview season). Personally, I felt too burned out after 3rd year, wanted to enjoy summer, and learned a bunch after a sub-I and took it in October (though I wish I got it out of the way earlier). Studying for anything during traveling and irregular schedule of interview season is a set up for failure i.e., postpone test. Most programs don't interview during holidays so that's a possibility. January is an undesirable time because you'll be out of test-taking mode and have senioritis.

Hope that helps and good luck!

The book is Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry by Andreasen and Black. Thanks.

It sounds like you want to do a lot of aways. I've heard that sometimes schools will ask you what programs you've done aways at, and may not like it if you say you're rotating through a whole bunch because it sounds like you're not committed to theirs. I wouldn't lie to them in case they find out somehow. So if you can find students/residents from that school, maybe you can talk to them first and make sure you definitely want to rotate there so it's not a wasted month. And remember that if you're always away from Buffalo it might cause some difficulties if you need to ask for LORs and the person wants to meet with you in person to discuss your CV or something, or if you want to meet with Dr. Nielsen for questions or guidance (not usually necessary).

And if you really like the program, make sure that you try to do an away there! I sincerely feel that it helps your chances if you're not horribly inept…2 of my friends have already early-matched in amazing places where they did away rotations!

This is a useful updated report from residency program directors of all specialties detailing the importance (percentage-wise) of many aspects of your ERAS application. Helpful to look at, but don't put all your eggs on this survey as it's the average of all programs and I can already list some friends who "beat the odds" of the current results.

If you already know what specialty you're interested in (or if you want to learn more about it in order to rule it in or out) I'd definitely suggest taking an elective in it as soon as is possible. The advantage is knowing sooner how you feel about the specialty, not to mention establishing earlier contact with the "right people." Right people = potential mentors and LOR writers, possible networkings so that you can do a 4th year sub-internship later on with the field leaders/bigshots, etc. If you're 75% sure about the field, do the elective early, and if you had a good time then take another 4th year sub-I next year. If you do the sub-I with the same attending your LOR from her/him will be even stronger.

The disadvantage is if you take this elective too early that you haven't yet developed the necessary skill basics (ie. you try out a neurosurgery elective before having taken your 3rd year surgery clerkship). So I'd at least recommend taking the basic 3rd year clerkship, or at least being IN that clerkship at the time you're taking the elective. Still, showing an interest early is usually more beneficial than it is harmful. And many of your attendings will be understanding of your inexperience if you're taking it really early in 3rd year, but will also be pleased with your proactiveness. Obviously everyone loves it when you say that you are considering their field! (But wouldn't recommend going around telling EVERY specialty that you are interested in their field…word gets around.) Just put on your eager-beaver face every morning, be on time and interested, read up on things afterward, and work well with your team — you'll do great! Good Luck!

Medicine is nice because if you can do inpatient medicine, you can do pretty much any other rotation for the rest of the year. You also need to know medicine for most shelf exams, so it's helpful in that sense too. The only problem is that the learning curve is pretty steep, if you're not the kind of person who is able to adapt quickly then you could be in for a difficult experience.

Actually I just thought of a suggestion for picking an order. If you're interested in pediatrics, do medicine before you do pediatrics, and vice versa. If you're interested in OB/Gyn, do surgery before OB and vice versa. Your first floor rotation will be mostly about learning how to function as part of a floor team, and in your second rotation you'll be able to really contribute and get more out of the experience. Your first OR rotation will mostly be able learning how to function in an OR, and in your second rotation you'll actually feel like you know why you're doing what you're doing, and will hopefully be pretty good at suturing and knot tying.

Family med and psych can be taken at pretty much any time. Psych is nice to take before a floor rotation just because you learn how to be independent in a low-pressure environment. A rural family med rotation is nice because you get to do a lot. In the "suburban" and "urban" rotations your inpatient time can be mostly scutwork and your outpatient time might involve a lot of shadowing, depending on your preceptor.

Other than that (or even in spite of what I just said), for most people things work out fine. The order isn't quite as important as it seems when you're a second year. There are advantages and disadvantages for any schedule. I scheduled my 3rd year thinking I'd do a specialty I scheduled in the 3rd block (when I'd "know my stuff"), but ended up choosing between the specialties I rotated through in the 1st and last blocks (which contradicts my own advice). I was able to change my fourth year schedule at the last minute to help me make my decision.

So don't worry, however the lottery goes. You can make things work.

This Duke site has some useful info.

Hi everyone!

Any advice on what the "ideal" order for clerkships is? A lot of upperclassmen have advised to start with Medicine, if able, but I wanted to hear some other advice. Thanks!

Anon
-MSII

The clinical skills exam is graded on a checklist because the Step 2 CS exam is graded on one. The primary purpose of the standardized exams is pretty much to get you used to the format for the CS exam, which our students generally do fine on (probably in large part because we do get practice for 3 years before takig the real one).

But the purpose of CPM is to prepare you for 3rd year and beyond. These courses much more accurately reflect the real world of medicine than do any of your basic science classes, which are meant to prepare you for Step 1, no matter what they tell you.

Treat CPM as your reminder about what you actually came to medical school to do. Treat your basic science modules as a way to introduce you to the stuff that'll be on Step 1. Studying for Step 1 will get you to integrate a ton of material into some kind of coherent way for the beginning of 3rd year, which of course does help you on the wards. But you'll end uphaving to reorganize everything during 3rd year in such a way that you can actually use it to treat patients, which is TOTALLY different from the way you need to have the information organized for board and shelf exams.

So.

Basic science classes -> Step 1
CPM -> intro to practical application of knowledge

Learning to take a good history (NOT a checklist history) and do an exam is what you need to take out of CPM I and II. If that means you don't memorize the demographics of Buffalo or angle of flexion (which you will need to relearn for ortho whether you learn it in CPM or not), then that means you sacrifice getting honors or HS in favor of actually learning a skill you need to learn.

On the flip side, I thought the final written exam in the second semester of CPM II was THE best exam I took in the first two years. I hope Dr Milling hasn't changed that one too much.

Realize that your Step 1 score is infinitely more important than the grade you get in any first or second year class. So if you need to make a choice between getting honors or HS vs "just" a satisfactory in this course via rote memorization of sundry details you know will be on the exams (courtesy of old exams with the same questions that are on the real exams) or the alternative, spending time to actually understand the pathophisiological concept, the choice should be obvious.

Dr Cohan provides these different methods for you. The slides. Use them - whether that means going to the labs during normal lab time or on your own, go to the labs. This is the one exception the home school people should make in their school avoidance.

The main idea is that you want to integrate the cross sectional slides with the 3D brains in the brain museum. If you can picture in your mind the way each slide fits into the brain, you've got it made. If not, practice lesion localization with some friends. Lesion localization is a very practical kind of skill, and practical skills get better with practice, not so much with repeated reading and rote memorization.

Read the recommended readings in Robbin's as you have your path lectures. Although its dense as hell you may be surprised how it can add to your understanding of pathology. At the very least you should at least skim thru the pertinent sections and make sure you spend time looking at the pics because this is where all the path pics you see on your tests will come from.

Buy Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously simple and read about the pertinent bugs as your classes go along (theres also some micro pharm in here which is good too). This is an extremely weak subject at UB and unfortunately for us its important!!

Thats all I can think of right now, but I'll update later probably

While I would agree with drbjh's post recommending to stick to the more conservative attire, my friends and I are now finding that the girls are going slightly more "daring" with their suits this year. I'm seeing more brown textured/patterned/whatever-it's called suits with belts, bright blouses with ruffles, blouses with patterns, and lots of pantsuits.

Guys are still sticking with the conservative black suit, simple tie. Seems it's more acceptable for girls to go mavericky while guys need to stick with the conservative. Personally, I'd stick with conservative just to be safe. But perhaps if you're interviewing in a specialty that may look favorably on creativity (ie psychiatry, neurology, family med, peds) it might work out to wear your favorite accessory if even as a conversational piece.

Pros:

• Lots of face-time with friendly and well-trained attendings: Drs. Pieroni, Roland, Orie, Gingell, Leonard, Menon. They are open to questions and understanding if you need to take a day off to take your boards. This is an attending-run elective (in contrast to many other electives where you don't really spend much time with attendings and report to your resident/fellow).
• Really friendly echo and EKG techs and staff in general.
• See a lot of healthy, adorable children with a variety of congenital heart diseases (very interesting echos and EKG findings!). Auscultate many types of murmurs. Lots of syncope and "chest pain" (reassurance that it's a musculoskeltal pain) cases too.
• If you are interested, Dr. Leonard does interventional caths on Wednesdays at Gates Hospital and on Thursdays at Strong Memorial in Rochester.
• Dr. Orie does fetal echos a couple days per week.
• Dr. Pieroni does stress tests a couple days per week.
• Clinic hours for students/residents are different than hours for the attendings. Students/residents typically report 9-3:30pm, with 1-2 hour lunch break, except Friday you are excused at noon.

Cons:

• The role of students and residents are to shadow the attendings, but I saw it as a plus because I learned different history-taking styles. Except on a few occasions, students usually are not the primary person to take the history and formulate a differential. (which could be a pro for some people, I suppose).

I agree with BuffFan08, that studying for Step 2 CK is very different from Step 1. Your shelf exams and clerkship experience build your foundation for CK and, in contrast to Step 1, step 2 requires few, if any, general review books.

My book of choice was Step2 secrets, which I also used for some clerkships, but I didn't have time to finish reviewing it for CK . So, my main learning tool, as well as for most others, was the USMLE World question bank. I was able to complete 80% of the questions in one week with review of the answers. I learned a TON from USMLE World and I felt adequately prepared, except for the few random Step1 questions for which you cannot and should not prepare, and did very well on CK (went up 11points from Step1!). So one to two weeks is definitely plenty of time to prepare, even during a light rotation.

It is also encouraging to know that virtually everybody's score improves on CK!

Also, there is no need to purchase NBMEs - save your $ for interview traveling!

As for when to take Step 2CK? the best time is before interview season. If you want to get it out of the way (i.e., July/August) and are confident that you can break even or increase your score from Step 1, take it before you submit your application so that programs can see your score and it will boost your application, particularly for more competitive programs. I think that September/October are also good months to take it so that you have some time to relax after 3rd year/enjoy summer, or focus on your sub-I, but also getting it out of the way before you travel and your schedule becomes erratic. I took it in October and felt that I learned a lot during the few months of fourth year, but it wasn't too far away from my 3rd year rotations.
Dr. Nielsen will recommend that you take it as soon as possible, before you forget are out of test-taking mode, forget everything you learned in 3rd yr, and senioritis becomes totally debilitating!

• Sometimes a program director's letter is acceptable in place of the chair's letter; the point is to have a letter from someone who frequently writes & reads LoRs
• Students, including myself, have been hesitant to approach the Chair for a LoR if you have never worked with him/her. However, the protocol is to make an appointment with the Chair sometime in June, July, or August to discuss your CV and you interest in the specialty. Note that LoRs will be written on a first-come-first-serve basis. Thus, chairpersons are used writing for us!
• Even if a chair's LoR is not required for a particular program, I have been advised to still include this letter in additional to more personal letters, for the reason noted above: to have a letter from someone who frequently writes & reads LoRs
• If you did research and you are applying to an academic residency program, you should include a LoR from your research mentor. This is especially important if research is a significant part of your past/future and the program you have applied to is very research-oriented.
• Preferably, the LoR writer should be academic faculty rather than private physician.
• Currently, ERAS allows a maximum of 4 LoRs to be uploaded per program. If you have more than four LoRs, you can assign different LoRs to different programs.

p.s. - Any residency program whose resident representative takes you aside to tell you "all of these programs are pretty much the same anyway" is NOT a good source of information in my opinion. At this residency fair I found DISTINCT differences between the residency programs I was interested in. One stressed complementary medicine and appeared more osteopathic, one stressed sports medicine and seemed like a "jock program", one had a great rural medicine program but with ties to urban clinics, one boasted a new model of physician training and seemed more academic and public health oriented, one seemed proud of its program but also seemed to have a subtle inferiority complex when it referenced other programs, one had residents who seemed like former gunners who were very capable but very stressed out and the nervous type. And one cheerfully gave out ice scrapers to promote their climate difference (Guess which program that was! HAha).

Here are some urls she found:
http://www.ebags.com/ricardo_beverly_hills/huntington_lite_21_expandable_carry_on_rolling_upright_suiter/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=117434

http://www.shopwiki.com/search/Pathfinder+Avenger+Lite+22&quot%3B+Expandable+Trolley+with+Suiter

• Skirt: Below or at knee with skin-colored hoisery.
• Pants: Hem should fall above the ground level with your shoes on

Blouse: solid color, full length sleeves.

Shoes: Less than 2" heel. Navy, black, taupe. Leather upper is the best material.

Belts: Black or navy leather.

Purse: Black, taupe, grey leather business tote
(&/or portfolio).

Hair:

• Longer than shoulder length - wear a low ponytail/pulled back.
• At or shorter than shoulder - down or pulled back.

Nails - No nailpolish.

Jewelry: Engagement/wedding bands. Necklaces, watches, earrings (studs) are appropriate. Keep it simple (less than 3).

Make-up: Natural

Nametag: right shoulder b/c this is where the opposite person's gaze naturally falls when they shake your right hand.

And if you haven't already seen it, there's a pretty detailed account of a past student's experience with thePASS program. I have a few friends who did that and loved it. THey say it's a total money sink but in the end appreciated it. Good luck!

Fundamentals II is SUPPOSE to be a primer class for all the modules. All modules will cover Histology/Structure, Physiology, Pathophysiology, Pathology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Clinical aspects of an entire organ. However, you can't start the module work until you've had an introduction to all these disciplines. Thus, Fundo II will attempt to cover the introductory concepts in all these disciplines.

-Most people in our class thought Fundo II was all memorization and didn't take much from it. Covering so many disciplines while simultaneously taking anatomy sorta burns you out.

ADVICE:
-Don't mess{edited} around with pathology and pharmacology. Path and Pharm are important topics for your boards. You need to know the concepts because you will see them every module you take. If you like textbooks, Robbin's Pathology is the undisputed king of pathology textbooks for most US medical students.

-Microbiology and Immunology are poorly taught here. Many different classes have felt this way. Consider outside texts to supplement/organize the bugs. Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple comes to mind. Levinson Micro/Immuno for Review and Board Examination has an excellent summary of Immuno.

-As for doing well in class just look at all the old exams and you'll know over half of the test before you even walk into the exam room

-Fill out the bloody review at the end of each course. If you've complained about a teacher/module to classmates then fill out the course evaluation and then maybe something will actually get done. Yes, unlike undergrad teachers will really read your comments and make improvements.

p.s. after the fact I read through Costanzo's Physiology textbook and Dr Hogan was spot-on withe everything. I assume (as I haven't yet taken Step 1) that we will be well-prepared for cardio questions on the boards.

AMA
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/6701.html

UCLA
http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/offices/sao/academic-career/interview_seminar.cfm

Rush
http://www.rushu.rush.edu/studentlife/career/medint.html

UCSF
http://medschool.ucsf.edu/professional_development/careers/loeser_interviewing.aspx

It's actually a Word document so if you want the neater, noncached version search for "University of Rochester + couples matching."

In addition…the Westfield Hospital is closing down slowly because of the Berger Commission hospital merger (the same one that is slowly closing down Gates, ECMC, etc). So there is virtually no more inpatient for you to follow. I don't know if Dr. Holmes is going to just have you do 4 weeks of outpatient in Westfield/Mayville and then do 2 weeks of inpatient back in Buffalo instead…you might want to ask him. For me, I ended up doing all 6 weeks as outpatient in Westfield because UB hadn't anticipated that the hospital in Westfield was closing down. You might want to go back to Buffalo for your inpatient, just to get that exposure becuase inpatient and outpatient are extremely different.

No internet in the house. There is the library (http://www.pattersonlibrary.info/Links.html) that has wireless. IF you're really desparate (I was one evening) you can bring your wireless laptop and sit outside on the library steps (it's lit at night, but beware the bats) and steal their internet. I heard another student would park outside the cafes and use her laptop while sitting in her car. But basically if you just want to check email you can go to the clinic early and use their computers. Or you can use the computers in Westfield hospital (the hospital is open 24 hours daily, even if there are no patients!). I didn't really miss the internet though.

The Quality Mart supermaket is pretty ghetto. There is a Family Dollar store, a CVS, a MacDonalds, a Wilson Farms, and a ton of cute restaurants…The house you live in is in a pretty central location. (And yes, this means that it is near the town's ONE STOPLIGHT!) I even met Larry the Locksmith on my first day there when I was a med stud genius who locked my keys into my car after my first day of work.

Also, if you get a chance, be sure to keep driving down Route-394 (Portage Rd) one day and check out the GORGEOUS Lake Chautauqua at the bottom of the hill. If you keep following the road toward Jamestown you'll pass by the Chautaqua Institution, which apparently is a MAJOR tourist attraction for people from all over the country (http://www.ciweb.org/). And it apparently boasts the 8th finest tennis court in all of the USA. Perhaps someday I'll return to hit some tennis balls there…