To Study or Not to Study Before Med School?

To study or not to study. That is the question.

This came to mind when the last few weeks of freedom before med school started weighing in on my mind. And I was kind of worried. why?

Well, during enrollment, I was standing in line at the registrar's office and a bunch of teens were lined up as well as talking really loud.

One remarked, "OMG! You're 20 already??? You're sooooo old!"

And my reaction was...

And thats when I kind of panicked.

These  "kids" were in tip top shape. They just graduated from college, so their brains were in excellent condition to get beat up by a lot of medical topics and whatnot. PLUS, they graduated from courses that could actually help them with Medicine.

(Old versus young brain:)

Me? I graduated from a course that focused more of Psychology, Socio, and Anthropology. Its an excellent course, and I loved every minute of it, and it was a great help when I worked for 2 years. But for Med? Its an entirely different story.

Last November, I went to different med schools and had my transcript assessed for additional units I may need to accomplish. Med schools like Ateneo, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and San Beda required a certain number of units in Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Inorganic Chemistry, and natural sciences. So that was around 16-20 units that I needed to take up if I wanted to get into the different schools.

And, as I wrote in my previous post, I didnt take up the extra units because of the Php 70,000.00 price tag on them.

So what chance do I have to compete in the killer world of Med where my classmates are young, fresh, and ready to kick some academic ass? I had a slim chance. But I could take some steps to prepare myself a bit...like study.

So, should I study the hard subjects in advance? Or just leave it to chance, and hope that in my first year of med, we would all start off  at a leveled playing field?

I asked several doctors about this, and they said that, even though the new graduates have an evident advantage, oldies, or late bloomers like me, have the advantage of being rested, and motivated.

Fresh grads are sometimes at risk of burn outs since they had just 1 or 2 months to rest, plus, like all normal human beings, within the span of 1 or 2 months, they can forget about 80% of what they studied that year.

Good point doc. I mean, every year I went in college, I usually forgot what I studied last sem and had to review them again.

Right now, I guess I'll just enjoy the time I have left, and just study my ass off when the time comes.

UPDATED DLSHSI Tuition Fee/ Enrollment Sched for SY 2012-2013

Hey guys, i havent been able to post a new one for next academic school year.Registrar's office informed me that they havent finalized the amount yet and there have been talks about an increase in tuition fee. Yikes.

ONE MORE MONTH!!!

I havent blogged as much as before because...well...nothing much is happening yet. HAHAHAHAHA

Just waiting for enrollment time at DLSHSI, and looking back on it now, I'm pretty happy with my decision. I took my mom and dad to go see the school and submit a few requirements for their scholarship program. It was really funny, and melted my heart when I saw my dad just walking around the campus in awe. He had no idea that the school was this pretty. Here's a link from a forum, just a few pictures of the school:

DLSHSI CAMPUS PHOTOS

My dad just came home from Dubai where he had been working for several years, and twice a year for two weeks each, he gets to come home and just be with family. Seeing him after 6 months just made me happy and sad at the same time since he would be extending his stay there just to pay for Med School. So by the time I graduate, he would be retiring. And the sad thing is, my parents might be retiring with no savings at all because of my studies. Its not like I wont be studying my ass off to make it all worthwhile, but it really pains me to see them both growing old so fast. They're approaching their 60s, and I always thought that by this time, they would just be relaxing, playing with their grandchildren or something, and not having to worry about anything; and that my sisters/brother and I will be the ones to take care of them.

Anyways, going back to the short tour around the school, my dad was pretty happy with everything, he was so excited about it all that he already checked the dorm located within the campus called DormBuilt. The prices were pretty steep so I told him that we would just check Villa Nicasia ( a village of dorms located right beside the school).

My dad went door to door, talking to the other students about the best dorm in the area, it was really sweet and funny because all the students had this look like *idk, you're creepy man*, and when they saw that I was right behind my dad, with little sister in tow, they eased up and pointed me towards several other dorms.

Well, after two hours in the scorching heat, we finally did find the perfect dorm. The price was a bit steep, but justifiable enough because it was biiiig. My parents told me to just rent a single room because things will be a lot harder if I had someone else in the room with me. You know, annoying people, people who'd mess with your stuff, etc. In mom's words, "mahirap pakisamahan". At least, this room was all mine, own toilet, fully furnished, just needed a new coat of paint and a little cleaning up, but it was all good. I think the room was about 30sqm or bigger, so, not bad at all. You just had to pay additional for water (php100), and electricity. If you wanted internet access, you just had to add Php300, and cable was at Php50.

Well, I just hope that I get the full scholarship so that my dad wouldnt have to worry about all the expenses, because, after some computations of the expenses, for my first year in med, they would actually be spending about Php300,000+. Seriously??

Please Lord, please let me get this scholarship. T_T