MMI Undergraduate Club Meeting Minutes, Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Next meeting Wednesday, November 2, 2005 @ 7 p.m.

We had a volunteer panel of six people of varied backgrounds. The panel consisted of graduate, MD/PhD, and MD students:

1. Rebecca Moritz (rlmoritz@wisc.edu) is in the Masters program in Med Micro.
2. Rose Szabady (rlszabady@wisc.edu) in the Ph.D. program in Med Micro, she previously did an internship through the NIH which she highly recommends. Eventually she would like to become an academic scientist.
3. Laura Walters (llwalters@wisc.edu) is a 6th year M.D., Ph.D. student (she has completed 2 years of medical school and is in her fourth year of graduate school in the Med Micro department. She has a B.S. in biology from University of Missouri. She is pursuing an M.D., Ph.D. because of her interest in infectious diseases.
4. Bahman Panbehi (bahmant1st@hotmail.com) is a 5th year M.D., Ph.D. student (he has completed 2 years of medical school and is in his third year of graduate school in the Biochemistry department. He completed his undergraduate degree at Loyola.
5. Chris Webb (cawebb@wisc.edu) is a first year med student at UW and an MMI graduate.
6. Amy Meier (amymeier@wisc.edu) is a first year med student at UW and an MMI graduate and med-scholar.

The panel invites any further questions you may have.

This is the general idea of the questions and the responses to the questions that were asked during the meeting.

Questions for the panel:

Did you like Loyola (I’m interested in applying there for graduate school)?

It was a big difference from the University of Toronto, where I started my undergraduate education, but overall it was a good experience. I was able to get a lot of research experience there, whereas I may not have in Toronto.

What undergraduate research experience did you have and do you think it is important?

Graduate schools expect research experience; it will also help with letters of recommendation and showing devotion and persistence to a project.

Definitely need for working in a corporation, sets you apart from those who did not get that experience as an undergrad.

Any type of lab is helpful, even if you may not end up I that field, it shows you are an active member of the science community.

There are lots of summer programs that provide a research in a variety of fields.

Website for the NIH post-undergrad programs: http://preirta.nih.gov/home.asp

Can you discuss the application processes you went through?

Interviews can vary significantly between schools, some are very informal whereas some interviewers ask questions from an interview questions book.

For grad school, most schools will pay for travel, but some don’t.

For med school, it varies between schools.

For everyone, did you like your classes better in undergrad, grad school or med school?

Grad school:

B – I liked classes better in med school, because in grad school I was in a lot of classes that were not in the area I was interested in.

R – I liked the grad school classes, they were a little easier, and more interesting, but the overall thinking process is emphasized more. Med school – The volume of information is what makes the classes harder, but the content is comparable to MMI class difficulty.

B – Also a lot of new information in areas that you wouldn’t have had the chance to learn about in undergrad.

5. Are MMI classes similar in difficulty to Med school classes?

B – I remember the MMI grads having a distinct advantage over the other majors in the 2nd year when you get into infectious diseases and immunology classes.

C – I would say the difficulty is about the same, but the volume is quite larger is med school.

6. Why did you choose UW?

All commented that the people are friendly (from the interviewers to the people they interview with), easier to talk to and culturally aware.

The MMI Ph.D. program is #3 in the country.

It is a really good city and if you’re going to do an M.D., PhD.

You’re going to be in that place for awhile.

For med school, you get clinical experience within the first year, whereas at other schools, they don’t see patients until their second or third year.

7. How did you manage to keep up with school and still try to have a life outside of academics?

L – you need to prioritize what is important to you.

B – basically you try one way to manage you time and if it isn’t working you, you adjust.

A, C – you really have to find something outside of school that you can do. Without something else, you will burnout.

8. What advice would you give to undergrads?

Get yourself into a research lab.

Don’t tie yourself down, you don’t necessarily need to know what you want to do as a freshman.

It is ok to take time off and work or travel.

9. There is a graduate school Fair on Monday from 10-6pm at Memorial Union. Would you recommend going?

Yes, even if they don’t know about your specific area of interest they will have information.

Ask about the city and healthcare, questions you might not have until you get there.

Use it as practice for being able to hold a conversation with someone you don’t know well.

10. Would you recommend against going to grad school or med school in the same location you did your undergrad?

Yes, it is ok to go to the same place, it may be harder to get it though, because the program wants to be diverse.

Ok for graduate school, but don’t do your post-doc in the same place you went to grad school.