MSU-COM Class of 2014

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bradsh said:
The iClickers are used for short quizzes. You will need to have it for Anatomy lab and some other labs later on, and even some class quizzes. Most of these quizzes don't count for many points, but it is worth carrying extra batteries around. Besides that, the quizzes are also used in class for profs to assess whether the students understand the information. This happens almost every lecture. Short quizzes which are not recorded but simply used to make sure everyone gets it.

As for grades, you will get a percentage grade in every class. They are not public knowledge, and every class only counts officially as pass/fail. The limit is usually between 70 and 75% for pass/fail. If you fail, you can remediate.

Those of you trying to schedule out your loans: it's going to be hard. I'm very frugal and I've just been taking out full amounts. I have about $13K extra that I don't need at this point, but I figure it is good to have emergency money. Now that I have a pad I'm going to try to manage my loans more carefully. They give you enough loan money to buy a new car on top of your other expenses... which is good, because some of the people in my class actually went and bought a new car before coming :rolleyes:

You'll want to look at this link: http://www.finaid.msu.edu/read/budcom.pdf
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Okay, so most of the short quizzes that is in almost every lecture are not recorded or graded. (No points given)

But there are some classes where the quizzes are for points. So I am assuming that those classes are required attendance?

By the way, for the recorded lectures, we can see the professors face and not just the slides right?

Thanks again!
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Everglide said:
I'm not sure how long we have exactly however here's a piece of unsolicited advice on what I'm doing: I will be taking out the full amount for the Fall and then adjusting my Spring loans accordingly, if that means I can take out near nothing because of extra from Fall then I will do so. Unless you're extremely detailed at budgeting, I would be careful on taking out too little for the Fall.
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I thought about doing that too, but then the interest starts right away on some of the loans. I have a little bit saved since I have been working. I just didn't want to really touch any of that. I am pretty good with budgeting though. I paid for my entire undergrad without loans from money I saved during high school and working around 30 hours/week.
 
So is there is time frame in which we need to accept the loan offer? I accepted my loans for this summer, but can I hold off accepting anything for fall semester? :confused:

Oh, and what is the difference between a FED Direct Unsub Loan and FED Direct Unsub Ln Med?
 
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Hello, I have two questions

1. Orientation order form: After you sent your orientation form, did MSUCOM send you a confirmation email that they received the form?

2. Financial Aid: I filled out my FAFSA to get loans for this summer 2010. How did you guys hear your aid awards? Did MSU financial aid office email it to your MSU account? Or did they send it by snail mail?

Thanks
 
For summer financial aid, I found out through snail mail and then went on Stuinfo. Future financial aid info will be over e-mail, but you can always check stuinfo and then click on econsent for financial aid to get everything electronically.
 
DOxidant said:
Hello, I have two questions

1. Orientation order form: After you sent your orientation form, did MSUCOM send you a confirmation email that they received the form?

2. Financial Aid: I filled out my FAFSA to get loans for this summer 2010. How did you guys hear your aid awards? Did MSU financial aid office email it to your MSU account? Or did they send it by snail mail?

Thanks
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Did you go to the msu stuinfo page to apply for summer aid after sending your FAFSA? I got an email a while ago saying that my summer financial aid package was available. I also got an email last week for fall/spring as well.

Haven't sent in my orientation form yet..
 
DOxidant said:
Hello, I have two questions

1. Orientation order form: After you sent your orientation form, did MSUCOM send you a confirmation email that they received the form?

Thanks
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I sent it in a little over a week ago and haven't heard anything back. Maybe they are just waiting until the end of April when they are due to process everyone's?

I think you'll know they got it when they either cash the check or charge your credit card :D
 
Did anyone go for any of the optional stuff in the order form? I'm mailing mine in and most of it just looks unnecessary. Anatomy guide has been suggested to be not useful, the scrubs seem like they might be overpriced, and shoes are shoes. I mean, it's all optional, but does anybody think those things are worth getting? Or just ways for MSU to make a little extra coin off us?
 
hbnutz said:
Did anyone go for any of the optional stuff in the order form? I'm mailing mine in and most of it just looks unnecessary. Anatomy guide has been suggested to be not useful, the scrubs seem like they might be overpriced, and shoes are shoes. I mean, it's all optional, but does anybody think those things are worth getting? Or just ways for MSU to make a little extra coin off us?
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I don't plan on getting the optional stuff.
 
hbnutz said:
Did anyone go for any of the optional stuff in the order form? I'm mailing mine in and most of it just looks unnecessary. Anatomy guide has been suggested to be not useful, the scrubs seem like they might be overpriced, and shoes are shoes. I mean, it's all optional, but does anybody think those things are worth getting? Or just ways for MSU to make a little extra coin off us?
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I actually got the anatomy guide and green scrubs. Anatomy guide because might be useful for me, and green scrubs because it is going to be my first piece of clothing to show my new MSU spirit/solidarity/whatever it's called. :p
 
hbnutz said:
Did anyone go for any of the optional stuff in the order form? I'm mailing mine in and most of it just looks unnecessary. Anatomy guide has been suggested to be not useful, the scrubs seem like they might be overpriced, and shoes are shoes. I mean, it's all optional, but does anybody think those things are worth getting? Or just ways for MSU to make a little extra coin off us?
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I also went for the anatomy guide and scrubs. No shoes though, just cause that seemed the most unnecessary out of everything.
 
PoorTimmyTucker said:
I also went for the anatomy guide and scrubs. No shoes though, just cause that seemed the most unnecessary out of everything.
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Does anyone know if you can purchase the anatomy guide separately after the start of the semester?
 
Does anyone have any idea what time the White Coat Ceremony is held on June 25? My parents are planning on attending but need to know whether they should book their flight for that day or the day before depending on what time the ceremony is held.
 
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wishintobedoc said:
The link did not work for me. I thought it would start at 3pm because it seems like that was the time last year. I could be wrong. I wish they would have it during the evening. It is so hard for family to get time off work.
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hmm, not sure what's going on with the link. I changed it on my previous post, see if this one works. Or if you just go to com.msu.edu and look at the right side of the page near the bottom under "upcoming events" you can see it there as well
 
#1 I talked to some 1st years, and they said the anatomy guide is very helpful

#2 I received a confirmation for my orientation packet about 2-3 weeks after I sent it in.

#3 White coat ceremony is at 1PM on June 25th.

Anything else?
 
g5chand said:
#1 I talked to some 1st years, and they said the anatomy guide is very helpful

#2 I received a confirmation for my orientation packet about 2-3 weeks after I sent it in.

#3 White coat ceremony is at 1PM on June 25th.

Anything else?
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#4. Don't forget to confirm your attendance and pay your tuition. :cool:
 
bradsh said:
Our class organized a pre-orientation-BBQ through facebook last year. I recommend it, although you guys' facebook group is not nearly as active as ours was, so maybe it would be harder. It's great to meet your classmates!
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Sounds good, but I can't really help organize because I won't get there till really close to orientation. I wonder why our FB group is so quiet. We don't have that many students signed up on it too...
 
dr.z said:
Sounds good, but I can't really help organize because I won't get there till really close to orientation. I wonder why our FB group is so quiet. We don't have that many students signed up on it too...
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I know what you mean, it is silent. I say if it stays like this the macomb and DMC students should totally gang up together, we're not too far from each other!
 
As far as I understand, we just have orientation stuff Thursday and Friday, right? One of my best friends is getting married on Saturday (June 26th) and I'm a bridesmaid, so I have to fly back to Maryland right after the white coat ceremony and then fly back to MI on Sunday...I'm gonna have a crazy weekend! So glad classes start Tuesday, not Monday. Just wanted to confirm that we don't have any mandatory weekend activities?
 
dancingDO14 said:
As far as I understand, we just have orientation stuff Thursday and Friday, right? One of my best friends is getting married on Saturday (June 26th) and I'm a bridesmaid, so I have to fly back to Maryland right after the white coat ceremony and then fly back to MI on Sunday...I'm gonna have a crazy weekend! So glad classes start Tuesday, not Monday. Just wanted to confirm that we don't have any mandatory weekend activities?
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Not that I know, but for some reason I am thinking that we have our location orientations on Monday, at least the DMC and MUC campuses... I feel like I remember reading that somewhere!
 
Katwaa, I think you are right. I'm at E.L., but I think I remember reading that we have some sort of class orientation on Monday and then "real" class starts Tuesday. I'm flying back Sunday so I should be okay. I am bummed to be missing out on the first weekend though :(
 
I think so...at my tour day in March I believe they said everyone is together at E.L. for the first two days of orientation so we can all meet and do the activities together.
 
I got my financial aid award for this summer and my bill is due 5/4. I just accepted my loans. I dunno what happens after. Should I pay my bill first out of my pocket and then get reimbursed? Or does Office of Financial Aid uses my loan to pay my bill and then reimburses me whatever leftover?

Speaking of confirming attendance... do i just need to click on "attendance confirmation" on stuinfo? Is there anything else I need to do?
 
DOxidant said:
I got my financial aid award for this summer and my bill is due 5/4. I just accepted my loans. I dunno what happens after. Should I pay my bill first out of my pocket and then get reimbursed? Or does Office of Financial Aid uses my loan to pay my bill and then reimburses me whatever leftover?

Speaking of confirming attendance... do i just need to click on "attendance confirmation" on stuinfo? Is there anything else I need to do?
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Nah, if you can confirm attendance, I think everything is already accounted to be paid for. If you look closely at the bill, there should be a negative sign, which mean that you would be getting this amount in the beginning of July for personal expenses.
 
wannabeaDO said:
Nah, if you can confirm attendance, I think everything is already accounted to be paid for. If you look closely at the bill, there should be a negative sign, which mean that you would be getting this amount in the beginning of July for personal expenses.
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I think that's exactly right...I have a negative account balance, so as far as I understand, everything wannabeaDO explained is correct. If you're concerned though, the financial aid office has been really helpful to me, both via phone and email.
 
This is mostly redundant however....

If your Minimum Amount Due (MAD) is zero, you don't owe anything out of pocket. I believe this is the case for everyone taking out loan(s) that are known by MSU (unless your loan does not cover the bill). The negative balance is what you can expect as a refund - sign up for direct deposit to make the refund process painless.
 
Everglide said:
This is mostly redundant however....

If your Minimum Amount Due (MAD) is zero, you don't owe anything out of pocket. I believe this is the case for everyone taking out loan(s) that are known by MSU (unless your loan does not cover the bill). The negative balance is what you can expect as a refund - sign up for direct deposit to make the refund process painless.
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Does anyone know when exactly they will deposit the refund into our accounts?
 
ahh so I have just decided to do MSUCOM over an MD school and I have got to say without a doubt I am very, very excited. I've been reading over these posts for a while now and really think we have a great class...look forward to seein all of you at orientation.

In regards to all the orientation stuff for those of you who've been askin..they really have not even made a schedule..when I called the office recently and asked them they said they are still planning for graduation so I'm going to calling again sometime in mid may just to make sure about the times.

Also, in regards to the lecture attendance stuff, I contacted both a first and second year and they told me attendance is required in 3-4 lectures for the entire course. I dunno if they tell you what lectures you have to attend but I'll be sure to let you guys know when I find out.

With the loan issue, I ironed this out with the finaid office and basically you have federal loan borrowing privileges up to $200,000 assuming you didn't take anything out in your undergrad years. MSUCOM will take out money from your loans and then deposit the difference in your account AFTER classes begin. Technically they can't give you any loan money 10 days before classes began per federal guidelines, at least that's what the finaid office told me.

anyways
have fun this summer you guys...it'll be the last time for a loong time
 
While I think the refund is supposed to come to us TECHNICALLY at ten days before class starts, the financial aid office told me to expect my refund to come sometime during the orientation, but I wouldn't necessarily plan on receiving the refund on a specific date.
 
stockraider said:
ahh so I have just decided to do MSUCOM over an MD school and I have got to say without a doubt I am very, very excited. I've been reading over these posts for a while now and really think we have a great class...look forward to seein all of you at orientation.


With the loan issue, I ironed this out with the finaid office and basically you have federal loan borrowing privileges up to $200,000 assuming you didn't take anything out in your undergrad years. MSUCOM will take out money from your loans and then deposit the difference in your account AFTER classes begin. Technically they can't give you any loan money 10 days before classes began per federal guidelines, at least that's what the finaid office told me.
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Hey, welcome! Which campus are you thinking about?

About the loan money: the office told me ten days before class starts, and it states the same in stuinfo. Very strange...
 
dancingDO14 said:
While I think the refund is supposed to come to us TECHNICALLY at ten days before class starts, the financial aid office told me to expect my refund to come sometime during the orientation, but I wouldn't necessarily plan on receiving the refund on a specific date.
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Yea, that seems the most reasonable answer so far.
 
I just realized that the second part of the deposit is due by April 30th ($300) I believe. My parents have all the hard copies of my paperwork at home and I can't find the scanned version in my email regarding the due dates of the deposits. Can anyone confirm? And if anyone has the link to where you can do a credit card payment for the deposit, I'd really appreciate it! I've been all over the COM website and haven't had any luck so far...

On a different note- any HPSPs out there? Just curious...I'm waiting to hear back from the Army...I'm reeeallly hoping I get it since I'm OOS, but I applied for a PT waiver so I'm not sure how that will affect my app.
 
hey bro, I thought that 300 was due on the 28th, but I'm sure they really won't mind if you pay it now. The link to pay it online is below:

https://acceptadmitfee.com.msu.edu/onlinefee.jsp

That is the link I used to pay for it and they should give you a confirmation number when you are done (you have to print it out or print to pdf to save it on your computer)...also the office is really good about replying to you right away to confirm they got your deposit.

and if you're like me, you're gonna cringe when you hit that "submit" button haha....med school and money man...

dancingDO14 said:
I just realized that the second part of the deposit is due by April 30th ($300) I believe. My parents have all the hard copies of my paperwork at home and I can't find the scanned version in my email regarding the due dates of the deposits. Can anyone confirm? And if anyone has the link to where you can do a credit card payment for the deposit, I'd really appreciate it! I've been all over the COM website and haven't had any luck so far...

On a different note- any HPSPs out there? Just curious...I'm waiting to hear back from the Army...I'm reeeallly hoping I get it since I'm OOS, but I applied for a PT waiver so I'm not sure how that will affect my app.
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yeaa you're right, sorry about that I think I just misspoke. I'm expecting it to come in anywhere from 10 days before or a few days after our semester begins.

Also I will be attending the DMC campus, what about you? Anybody else here doin the DMC thing?

Cybii said:
Hey, welcome! Which campus are you thinking about?

About the loan money: the office told me ten days before class starts, and it states the same in stuinfo. Very strange...
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I know some of you may think it is REALLY early to think about this but any one of you interested in pursuing a surgical specialty? I have basically done my research all summer and found out there are very limited spots for DO specific surgical residency positions so I wanted to map out a 3-4 year plan on how I'm going to go about getting enough experience and enough credentials to apply to both osteopathic AND allopathic surgery programs in the state of Michigan. I have contacted some allopathic surgical residency programs that I am interested in inside this state and all of them told me there are no "formal restrictions" on admitting DO students. I have contacted several alumni of DO schools who are doing surgery now however and they told me it is a really really competitive process and nearly all of them told me if they could go back in time they would start planning for it earlier.

So just wanted to know if any of you are crazy enough like me to begin planning this out, and if so maybe we could exchange tips or info we've heard from other people. If any of your are specifically interested in DO neurosurgery programs give me a let me know as well, I have already done some research in that area and could give you some advice.
 
also anybody know the required textbooks we are supposed to get before class starts?

I was on the website and they showed me a table of what books to get but that says for the entering class of 2013..do those required books apply to us as well?

And as for the iclicker, anybody know where I can get one?

thanks and sorry for the incessant posting.
 
stockraider said:
I know some of you may think it is REALLY early to think about this but any one of you interested in pursuing a surgical specialty? I have basically done my research all summer and found out there are very limited spots for DO specific surgical residency positions so I wanted to map out a 3-4 year plan on how I'm going to go about getting enough experience and enough credentials to apply to both osteopathic AND allopathic surgery programs in the state of Michigan. I have contacted some allopathic surgical residency programs that I am interested in inside this state and all of them told me there are no "formal restrictions" on admitting DO students. I have contacted several alumni of DO schools who are doing surgery now however and they told me it is a really really competitive process and nearly all of them told me if they could go back in time they would start planning for it earlier.

So just wanted to know if any of you are crazy enough like me to begin planning this out, and if so maybe we could exchange tips or info we've heard from other people. If any of your are specifically interested in DO neurosurgery programs give me a let me know as well, I have already done some research in that area and could give you some advice.
Click to expand...

stockraider said:
also anybody know the required textbooks we are supposed to get before class starts?

I was on the website and they showed me a table of what books to get but that says for the entering class of 2013..do those required books apply to us as well?

And as for the iclicker, anybody know where I can get one?

thanks and sorry for the incessant posting.
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Well I am glad I'm not the only one that's thinking ahead. I'm sure you have heard (or will hear) many people telling you that you will probably change your mind at some point in your training, but I think it's important to think ahead. I think the most important thing (and only thing you can at this point) is to do great in classes and know that you'll probably have to take the USMLE and COMLEX. Usually med students do research during the summer months.

I would definitely hold off on buying books right now and wait for the official book list for our year (and all the other stuff). And no need to apologize for the incessant posting, it makes me feel a little bit more normal knowing that I'm not the only one anxiously waiting to start.

OH, and to answer your previous question: I'm going to be at the Macomb campus.
 
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Will the textbooks be readily available at the Macomb campus as in East Lansing? Like there's no book store?
 
spence said:
You can order from the bookstore online and have them shipped to you (www.spartanbook.com), I would imagine that would probably be the easiest method
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Oh man, I like to preview things to decide what I want to buy. However, as I am typing this I just realized that the Macomb site does have the library and so we could take a look at the book... and then decide to buy online! YAY!
 
wannabeaDO said:
Oh man, I like to preview things to decide what I want to buy. However, as I am typing this I just realized that the Macomb site does have the library and so we could take a look at the book... and then decide to buy online! YAY!
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Each site apparently has it's own bookstore. Check out:

http://www.com.msu.edu/ss/forms/Pack Purchase email COM students 2010.pdf

"All required course materials for COM students will be available at the Fee Medical Bookstore (part of the Spartan Bookstore), in the basement of Fee Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing site and at the Wayne State Bookstore and Matthews Medical Book Center for our Southeast Michigan sites."
 
Cybii said:
Each site apparently has it's own bookstore. Check out:

http://www.com.msu.edu/ss/forms/Pack Purchase email COM students 2010.pdf

"All required course materials for COM students will be available at the Fee Medical Bookstore (part of the Spartan Bookstore), in the basement of Fee Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing site and at the Wayne State Bookstore and Matthews Medical Book Center for our Southeast Michigan sites."
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Thats great! Now I really can't think of any reason not to go to the branch site over the main site. :rolleyes:
 
Cybii said:
Each site apparently has it's own bookstore. Check out:

http://www.com.msu.edu/ss/forms/Pack Purchase email COM students 2010.pdf

"All required course materials for COM students will be available at the Fee Medical Bookstore (part of the Spartan Bookstore), in the basement of Fee Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing site and at the Wayne State Bookstore and Matthews Medical Book Center for our Southeast Michigan sites."
Click to expand...


The only problem is that I believe both of those bookstores are in Detroit. I don't understand why they don't have one closer to the Macomb site.
 
stockraider said:
I know some of you may think it is REALLY early to think about this but any one of you interested in pursuing a surgical specialty? I have basically done my research all summer and found out there are very limited spots for DO specific surgical residency positions so I wanted to map out a 3-4 year plan on how I'm going to go about getting enough experience and enough credentials to apply to both osteopathic AND allopathic surgery programs in the state of Michigan. I have contacted some allopathic surgical residency programs that I am interested in inside this state and all of them told me there are no "formal restrictions" on admitting DO students. I have contacted several alumni of DO schools who are doing surgery now however and they told me it is a really really competitive process and nearly all of them told me if they could go back in time they would start planning for it earlier.

So just wanted to know if any of you are crazy enough like me to begin planning this out, and if so maybe we could exchange tips or info we've heard from other people. If any of your are specifically interested in DO neurosurgery programs give me a let me know as well, I have already done some research in that area and could give you some advice.
Click to expand...


Hey thanks for the link! I got the deposit paid today w/ a confirm, phew!

Yeahh I'd definitely be down for getting a good plan together for being competitive for both osteo and allo surgery residencies. In the end, I think I'm looking to do ortho or trauma surgery...trauma would probably be either a gen surg or IM residency with an acute critical care fellowship, whereas ortho is a bit more straightforward, but probably more competitive. In any case, I'm pretty open to changing my mind but I'm almost positive it'll be some kind of surgery. I like to plan ahead too and I'd rather be OVER prepared than under prepared for something like this...hopefully we can work on this together and with some others!
 
Does MSUCOM have some kind of free office visit for the immediate family of the medical student?

I know there is a free OMM clinic.
 
Cybii said:
Well I am glad I'm not the only one that's thinking ahead. I'm sure you have heard (or will hear) many people telling you that you will probably change your mind at some point in your training, but I think it's important to think ahead. I think the most important thing (and only thing you can at this point) is to do great in classes and know that you'll probably have to take the USMLE and COMLEX. Usually med students do research during the summer months.

I would definitely hold off on buying books right now and wait for the official book list for our year (and all the other stuff). And no need to apologize for the incessant posting, it makes me feel a little bit more normal knowing that I'm not the only one anxiously waiting to start.

OH, and to answer your previous question: I'm going to be at the Macomb campus.
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ya no problem, I really don't know how anyone could not be anxious to start here haha, although i know i'm gonna regret saying this a few days before my first anatomy final. I teach for the MCAT right now and I was reading a USMLE book and I gotta tell you if any of you have the credentials and ability to teach for the MCAT bio section it is great prep for USMLE aand you get paid too. Just my two cents.
 
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