A Few UVM Questions

HitTheJim

HitTheJim

Member
I'm going to be entering my junior year of high school next year and, as many of you probably know, this is when the college hunting process begins. As of right now I am seriously digging UVM. As far as my major goes I'm leaning towards pre-med and probably entering P.A. school upon the completion of that. Do any of you know about UVM's med school and how good it is? Secondly, my dad fears that if I go to UVM I will become a raging hippy, but this is mainly on the basis that we know one kid that went there and came back crunchy as fuck. Is the entire student body a bunch of granolas? Any help is appreciated, cheers.
 
While I have a bunch of friends who attend there and have had a great time, I think you should look no further than Timmy Thomas, as he went to UVM, and has gone on to have a successful career.
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Pre-med isn't a major at UVM, its a concentration that you can do along with any of the other almost 100 majors. You won't be going to UVM's med school if you want to be a P.A. You will go to a P.A. School somewhere.

UVM's med school is really good though if you want to become and MD.

I go to UVM and I'm not a hippy after 2 years. Sure there is a contingent of the student body that are "crunchy as fuck" but there are plenty of other different subculture you can subscribe to if that is your concern.
 
to answer your question on becoming a hippie. HAHAHA not everyone in vermont is a hippie. Sure there will be some like any other school you could go to. Also the real "hippies" probs won't even go to school. UVM is nice. It's in a nice town with a shit load of things to do.
 
If I am recalling coorectly, a P.A. typically enters either a pre-med or majors in some auxilary medical field prior to their entry to P.A. school. Given this, I understand that I would not attend Med School. However, I feel it is safe to assume that the strength of a university's MD school is a strong indication of the quality of pre-med education. Also, when you say,"Pre-med isn't a major at UVM, its a concentration that you can do along with any of the other almost 100 majors." are you implying that I would need to select a major in addition to pre-med (which to the best of my knowledge is a riggerous course)?
 
looking at UVM as well but have spent some overnights with my friend and cousin that go there. really chill place not all hippies its just very laid back and nice, i love it
 
With regards to the "Hippy" comment, I don't really give a shit. It's more of my dad's concern. I think he has this tremendous fear of me coming home for christmas and being a massive granola. I was just seeking some assurance to back my claim that UVM is not 10,000 hippies so my dad could be satisfied.

 
If you have any sort of serious major or goals in mind 90% of the students at UVM will make you want to go postal. You will sacrifice time, relationships and hobbies (skiing) if you seriously want to be a doctor. The hippies are good for the curve in your classes if you study during your intro courses because most people fail out of the hard majors by the end of sophomore year.

There is no premed program here. If you want to be premed (Like every other freshman who wants to make money and doesnt know what theyre getting into) you're going to be a biology major. This is considered the third hardest major in the college of arts and sciences (behind chemistry and physics) This takes care of all of your requirements. You can be either a BA or a BS, BS takes more science courses, BA you can take a foreign language. Freshman and sophomore year your class sizes are huge and you HAVE to go to your profs office hours or you will be invisible.

The large class sizes make this a huge weed out time for everybody. If you Truly want to become a doctor or get into a profession that requires you to go to med school be prepared to live a different kind of college life than what you see in the movies and what 90% of the people you meet are doing. You're not going to be able to party much, hell by sophomore year to get my GPA up (held a 3.67 all last year) I had 0 party time, no spring break etc etc. People who party every weekend, do bad on the tests and talk about it in class (most of uvm) will seem like losers to you, and you will probably split your social groups into two completely separate circles, "partiers and studiers"

It's almost mandatory that you take a summer session of both required physics courses or else you will be taking 3 lab classes at a time for a whole year, and yeah that will make you kill yourself or your GPA if you try it. Summer sessions for physics go from May23-August 8th for both semesters.

you're going to have to sacrifice another summer and/or winter break to dedicate studying for the MCATS. If you choose winter break you're going to be covering 4-6 chapters out of each of the tested subjects per week for a month before you take the test assuming you don't study for them during your semester beforehand. Thats 1 chapter out of each book 4 to 6 days per week ( 5 chapters total per day)-- fulltime job basically.

You will have to get a committee letter as well as 3 recommendation letters from professors, research experience/shadowing and medical experience (community service).

Assuming you do well on the MCATS and they like your credentials and recommendation letters, you will go into the interview. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF APPLYING TO MED SCHOOL. I'm not there yet but I have talked to students and the most important thing is to have NO ego. People with 4.0's and great MCAT scores have been denied from every school they applied to because their hearts werent in it or they had an ego. The committee knows that egos get patients killed in hospitals, so your most important tool is being humble during the interview, speaking from the heart and writing thank you letters after the interview.

Why should you listen to me?

I'm going into my junior year at UVM, am taking physics (both semesters) right now and the mcats in the winter. I have to get a committee letter from UVM and meet with the premed advisor again before the semester starts. I am an officer in the Tribeta Biological honor society Epsilon Tau chapter (good to get into for community service) and have already shadowed in a biochemical research lab studying the dental pathogen actinomycetemcomitans. I also work in a pharmacy on the weekends and deal with many patients fresh out of the hospital and some doctors writing prescriptions.

I know that I want to be a Doctor. I have seen family members and friends helpless in the hospital after major surgeries and I have been around incompetent doctors. A great class to take if you're thinking about getting into the medical field is Microbiology and Pathogenesis (MMG065 or MMG10??) the 100 level is similar but more difficult, both involve a good deal of memorization.

 
UVM does not do nearly as much for their student body as they should. There is not Premed concentration, the premed club shut down years ago, the premedical advisor is condescending and minimally helpful.

The graduate programs are light years ahead of the undergraduate programs in terms of quality. The med school is considered one of the best in the country, but the undergraduate support in getting there is virtually nonexistant. You're going to have to find a peer as determined as you are and stick with them, figure things out together and help eachother if you want any real support in getting to med school
 
PHEW! That's a lot to take in, but I totally appreciate it man. Although you came off as slightly ignorant in the beginning you gained my respect back as I read further. I understand that Doctors, P.A.'s, etc. make the wages they do due to the remarkable amount of work they have to put in during their college years in addition to the vital role they play in others lives (literally vital, and I would be lying to you if I said that the money and job security that are associated with high level medical positions aren't influencing my decision in a career path. Yet I am also attracted to the concept of going to work everyday knowing that you will be helping, rather than hurting, someone. Also,you mentioned multiple times that UVM doesn't offer a premed program but it states clearly on their website that they offer a pre med program. Regardless, I have so much respect for you and the amount of work that you are putting in to achieve your goals. You sound like a really driven and modest person. Would it be cool with you if I shot you a pm every once in a while to discuss this topic. You have made it quite clear that you lead a busy life, but provided your situation and my goal it seems rediculous for me not to take advantage of this circumstance. Thanks again Man.
 
They have a pre med advisory program for 20 students per class if that is what you are talking about. There is not a permed major though, and you need to select major. being premed just means that you are taking genchem, bio, physics, orgo, and 2 semesters of math basically. Probably an english of semester. These are just universal course requirements when you apply to any med school.

Definitly get in touch with the UVM pre med advisor though, Anne Sullivan. I think she is great.
 
My boyfriend's older sister goes to UVM. She did her undergrad there, got a good degree but played lacrosse so that took priority. She's now going there for grad school as well for physical therapy. She studies hardcore and takes a lot of hard classes, but of course its grad school so it's going to be tougher. She still has time to go out on the weekends though, lots of bars in town haha. Although like you said UVM is known for being a bit 'hippy-ish' or w/e, she didn't get into any of that, smoking and such, and did fine with school.
The town there is great, we have gone up to visit her a few times. Lots of cool shops on Church Street and places to eat. If you ever visit there definitely check out The Skinny Pancake, awesome crepes and breakfast food, it's right off the lake in Burlington. If UVM had my major I most likely would have applied there, it's a pretty sweet town and school. Deff check it out !
 
I don't know if its the same in the US, but in Canada Pre-Med doesn't exist! And the same with Pre-Law, anyone who says that they are taking pre law are just too proud to say they're taking arts or sciences. For med school it doesn't matter what degree you have as long as you meet the pre reqs, and for most cases are in general sciences.
 
Ok I see what your saying, but like I said before im only 16 so ive still got time. My sister is graduating high school right now though so its just getting me all psyched up for my senior year of high school and going to to college. Cant wait to get out of the hell hole i call high school

 
this little novel should be given to any student going to any college who things premed a) is a major and b) is easy.

im currently a history major and minor in euro studies but im probably going to go back after graduation and do post-bacc stuff

regardless. i love uvm.
 
This guy knows what's up. I study electrical engineering at UVM. It's a

decently hard major. (BTW I know a few premeds who study EE.. they have a

few more requirements than I do, mainly more chem and maybe some bio

too.)

After freshman year I definitely hit the point where I realized the gap

between studiers/ partiers. There are a lot of people who don't do shit,

and quite frankly I have no idea where they'll be in 2 years at

graduation. That said, you can find a legitimate group of hard working

individuals willing to motivate each other to succeed. Hands down, for

me at least, that's the way to do well. You will sacrifice thirsty

thursday, fucked up fridays, shitty saturdays....... but hell it should

be worth it to do well. And don't worry, there are still the occasional

times to party and it's the shit because you worked so hard for it. College can be the best time of your life, but I also intend to ensure that my years out of college will be just as fun because of the position I've set myself up for.

Oh, and I'm not hippy/granola in any sense after 2 years in Vermont.

Politically I'm actually quite the opposite, but that's a whole other

topic.
 
Not quite sure where this notion developed that I am anticipating an easy work load in college. In fact, the two people that recommended I enter the medical field, P.A. In particular, are both thriving in the medical field, one as an md the other as an np. They made itnquite clear that the schooling will and should kick my ass.
 
You sound like a pretentious asshole. Go to UConn or something instead. Not just this post, the whole thread. People have been trying to help you and inform you and you continuously discredit them in someway and/or undervalue their input by citing ways you already knew shit. Don't go to Vermont, you won't be happy.
 
Not quite sure at which point in this thread I came off as a, "pretentious asshole". I openly accepted all opinions that were given to me. I apologize if my inadequete knowledge of a certain concentration in college has offended you, my bad. In regards to my last post,that was a legitimate question. Both her and VT-FLO had implied that I was expecting a simple course load and I was simply asserting that this was not the case. If I misinterpreted their words, again, I apologize. I would also be thrilled if you could highlight some instances in which I, "discredit them in someway and/or undervalue their input by citing ways you already knew shit." Thanks Honey ;)

P.S. That was me being an asshole.
 
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