Recent developments

Yesterday started out really horribly. I woke up at 7:30 am, 30 minutes pass the start of my economic botany class. I hurriedly prepared, hoping to just make it to the lecture and attendance call, and upon arriving I see them all answering test papers. Shit. I quickly get my own answer sheet and there and then realized that I was going to flunk that quiz so fricking bad. *sigh* Well, I hope I can make up on it in future quizzes, I got a good score on my first quiz considering I barely studied for it, though this quiz is definitely going to fuck up my chances for the highest possible marks.

Aside from that, my day wasn't too bad. It was long, granted, a lot of things happened yesterday than expected. Frustratingly I did miss out on a lot of things since a lot of it was held at the exact same time (4-6). HS+PM meeting, UPOE GA, BIGKIS-UPM GA, BSS Med Orientation Seminar. Eventually I opted to go to the latter, cause admittedly, that is the most important event involving my life and my future. Everything else is just strictly for socio civic interest, which in all honesty isn't as big of a part of my life as it used to be. The seminar went well, but since it started late and was slightly disorganized it ended up finishing around 8-8:30. Despite that, I learned so much regarding the different med school applications, particular the UP College of Medicine and Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health.

Upon my contemplation last Thursday night, I opted to just apply for three medical schools, namely, UPCM, ASMPH and UERMMMCI. The first I chose for obvious reasons, it's the best, it's the cheapest, and it has the environment that I have grown to love since I came to Manila in 2009. This is still ideally my first med school of choice, and I'd do ANYTHING to get in. As a safety net, I applied for the other two. ASMPH I applied for for three reasons. The first is its similarity to the University of the Philippines. They have the same lecturers, they also share the same curriculum (OSI-Organ System Integration), and most of the students in "the ateneo" come from UP, so it shouldn't be much of a shock. The second reason I picked it is due to their financial aid program, which is based on need as well as academics. I'm hoping to god my financial status, which used to allow me to obtain 70% subsidy in UP, would be enough to allow me to get 100% of in ASMPH. Med school is hella expensive, and a mere 70% would be insufficient to help us get through med school. x_x I'm hoping my decent NMAT score (99 without studying! boo yah!) would help me scrap through though, as I've heard rumours that there are 3,800 applicants this year vying for a slot among the 160 to be offered in ASMPH. Last choice is UERM. Originally I was rather skeptical about this school, preferring to opt for St Lukes College of Medicine. However, visiting there made me feel extremely at home. The people were nice, and the biology alumni were extremely numerous. PLUS THE CHICKS HAHAHA. I heard there are partial scholarships, plus scholarships for those who are in financial difficulty, but I'll found out more about those once I've done my interview.

 I'll talk about the last two med schools in Manila that I considered but eventually opted not to proceed to due to a talk with Masaki regarding these things. The first would be St Lukes College of Medicine. A lot of people were really encouraged to apply to this school when they attended the open house last October. After all, the facilities are extremely top notch, the passing rate has been consistently high and most importantly, the scholarships are extremely generous. After going there, even I was starting to see myself as a Lukan (though I really despise that term). However, not to bash St Lukes, as I'll always consider it a great medical school, but I started to hear a lot of rumours about it. First, I heard that there's extreme selectivity regarding those who take the board exam, i.e., that not all are allowed to take the board. Troublesome. Second. I heard that the scholarships are extremely difficult to maintain, with no mercy with regards to financial status and other factors that may prevent you from continuing med and/or maintaining a scholarship. Third. The curriculum, though novel, doesn't seem to shine through for me, as it just seems to be a traditional curriculum with a few "integration concepts". I'm not to keen on trad myself to be honest, preferring the OSI curriculum as well as a PBL based approach. Which brings me to the next med school, PLM-CM. According to Von, it feels right at home being there. However, I'm actually bothered about that. Right at home was homey, but it was also shit. Facilities were bad and lacking, and I heard even more so at PLM-CM. Plus, the tuition fee is way out of my league. 66, 000? Ain't nobody in my family got cash for that! Granted, it was my own stupid fault for not getting all the paper work sorted out when I could have done it ages ago, such as getting my cedula and voters ID sorted out. Oh well. I guess PLM would have been a good choice for me to be honest, but I passed up on that, with regret, admittedly, but it's alright. I can always apply the year after if I don't proceed to medicine, which is one of my options. Mom wants me to try out for AUF-SOM, but I don't want to go back to Pampanga. I can get a FULL scholarship there with my awesome NMAT (lol) but it just doesn't sit well with me. It's either Manila for Med or not at all.

I'll continue my tirades another time.