The Orient

Orientation was absolutely exhausting and slightly stressful, from eight to dinner pretty much all week. But it was fun meeting everyone, getting to know the campus and city, and having the white coat ceremony. At the very beginning, we had a welcome from the Vice Dean of Education and Associate Deans and stuff. One of them (Dr. Wofsy, Admissions) was very entertaining. He told a story about a kid whose dad was a rheumatologist. In kindergarten, the kid was asked what a rheumatologist was from the teacher (who didn't know). The kid answered that his dad went to the hospital every day and told people what rooms they had to go to. I was quite amused. Dr. Wofsy also had phrases like, "You may wonder how you got here, and indeed, at some point, we as faculty may wonder the same thing..." As a whole, the speeches were good; the usual inspiring, congratulatory stuff.

We had a registrar information session and an entrance financial aid thing (very boring). We got a lot of Orientation materials, including a free book on safety in the health profession. It was a little hectic, but fun. That afternoon (Tuesday), we had HIPAA training, which is incredibly dull (but, I suppose, necessary) and an introduction to the very odd curriculum here.

We don't actually have separate classes. Everyone takes this monstrous interdisciplinary essential core class, which covers all the subjects of medicine. So I won't be taking like "Biochemistry" and "Anatomy" and "Radiology" separately, but these core blocks called "Prologue" and "Organs." We were introduced to the computer system ("iRocket" = Stanford's "Coursework"). Then that evening, we went to the med student organizations fair where I signed up for way too many groups. Unlike college, medical school groups are very focused, and they all sound interesting ("Surgery Interest Group," "Internal Medicine Interest Group," etc.).

On Wednesday, we heard a little about clinical training and diversity, picked up our ID, and had advisory college lunches. Our entire class of 141 is broken up into 4 "advisory colleges" randomly. My advisers are an ENT (Head and Neck Surgeon) and an Anesthesiologist, and they seem very nice. Then, I slept through a talk on student health services and got scared by introduction to gross anatomy. Anatomy starts on virtually the first day of school! That night, we had a BBQ hosted by the alumni association, which was very yummy. Most of Thursday morning was spent figuring out technology issues like setting up internet and learning about small groups.

A lot of logistics, but at the end, I felt like I was pummeled by all the things involved in being in a new place.