 Helping others is a calling. It's not a job. Elijah, hello. Hey Boris. It has been a long time. Been a couple months. Been hiding away in didactic gear. Yeah, in your cave? In my uh, in my didactic health, yeah. Your didactic health? Your study, study cave? Yep, just a nine to five classroom and then come home and study some more that risen repeat seven days a week. If you had to guess on average, like how many more hours after the nine to five do you have to study? Um, if I don't have any exams within that week, I'll study like an hour or two a day and then the rest of the day I'll just spend time with my son or just like watch shows. I've been watching a lot of shows. Yeah, what are you into right now? Oh, well, I watched a lot of like like Japanese cartoons like anime. That's the stuff I'm into so. Nice and your songs into that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I watch it with my son. He loves it. Like uh, like Dragon Ball Z? Yeah, Dragon Ball Z Demon Slayer, like some of the newer ones. Yeah, I think I saw a story about Dragon Ball Z, like the guy who created it just died or something. Yeah, yeah, he died recently. I forgot his name, but yeah, he passed away like I think a couple weeks ago. He was like a legend, right? Cause he created Dragon Ball Z, which is huge. And then like a bunch of other super popular ones. Oh yeah. Yeah. He's, he's well known. That's awesome. But yeah, didactic's been, uh, it's hard to explain this semester. So I'm in my first year, uh, second semester of my first year and it's been going well. I pretty much got straight A's the first semester. A couple like A minuses, but I'm going to count that. I'm going to count that because I was like less than a percent away from that flat A, but I found it. But um, yeah, so this second semester has definitely been challenging in a different way. So my first semester was a lot of like just head into books kind of stuff and it's kind of the same thing now, but a little bit more clinically related. We've had like some pretty cool classes like EKG. I like that one a lot. I'm doing real well in that one. Sonography, that one just ended. That one was really fun. We have a class called clinical lab where we're learning about like like lab values and stuff like that and like different managements and like what labs to order. So like more hands-on classes with regards to the didactic year. So it's been, I'd say more fun, but I definitely feel like I'm still not getting a lot of sleep. You're not going to get sleep until school's over. Yeah, I kind of, I kind of got that from experiencing this, this easier semester because a lot of our second year's kind of prefaced it with, oh yeah, the second year's a second semester is a lot easier. It's like, you know, funner classes and I'm like, they're fun, but I'm still like, I'm still studying a lot for it. Well, it's easier because you're used to the pace and it's just like not new to you anymore. And it's easier because it's, yeah, like you said, it's more fun stuff. It's not like biochemistry and this and that. It's like, it's actual stuff that's clinical, you know, and if you like medicine, it's kind of cool. I think my, one of my favorite classes is, it's called SPA or Skills of Patient Assessment. So we're kind of doing like physical exams and like just really applying like what we learned last semester into like different, you know, how you perform a physical exam. Yep, there you go. But is that Bates? It's Bates. It's, yep, I read every single page and it's pretty killer. Yep, Bates guide to physical exam and all the quizlets that come with it. This is, this definitely got me through physical diagnosis. You know, that's a great book and yeah, there's a lot of videos online too, where they perform the actual exam. So that's been pretty helpful. It's actually, it's amazing how well that one's written because I feel like a lot of times you read the book and it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, like one, I don't understand a lot of this stuff or I don't like the way it's presented or it's just not clear. Bates, like literally every topic I feel like is presented very, very well and it gives you exactly what you need without anything more. So I actually really appreciate Bates. There's a, there's a couple like parts where I'm just kind of confused because they'll like try to over explain the maneuver. Like for example, just like, just like flexing the arm, like they'll explain it and like the most like, like specific way whether they're like, can you get a hold like, like five inches from here and two centimeters from here and palms have to be like supine. And then you got to ask the patient like, and like things like that. And I'm just like, oh, it's so specific. And they just want me to do that. It's true. I mean, I don't know, you don't want it to mess it up because people will mess everything up. Yeah. I mean, it's awesome because there's anatomy review and then they tell you what you're looking for and how to do the exam. And those are like the main, the main things. And you know, actually, it's all tying into what I learned in anatomy last year. And like, so some of the things like we're learning in pathophysiology, like the pathology of things, like why we palpate or why we auscultate, like things like that. Actually, you brought up a really good point that I think, I can't remember who made it. I think this was a medical student I interviewed, whose interview I haven't edited or posted yet because it's going to be a lot of editing. But I will. It's coming soon. But I think she said she became an EMT. And for the first time ever, an EMT school is when she actually enjoyed school because she felt like it was something that's actually applicable to what she's going to do, not just like learning for the sake of learning, right? So second year of PA school or for you like second semester, I guess, is a lot like that. You actually learn stuff you're actually going to do. So it's actually, it's cool. It's kind of like the silver lining on all the work and all the sleepless nights, right? Oh, yeah, especially like tying in things to my old job, like EKG and clinical lab, like I'm, I understand like why we ordered like certain labs. And like now I know how to read EKG. So I'm like, oh, no, like that's what that doctor was talking about. Like, okay, yeah, yeah, like things like that. And I'm just like, oh, this is so interesting. Like, granted, I'm tired. I'm still not getting enough sleep, but it's more fun than, you know, redoing anatomy and in micro and all that again. Yeah, it's cool stuff to know. It's really cool. Like you don't appreciate the process of it going into your brain. But it's cool to like know this stuff that you heard like a doctor say, and you heard like, hey, what the heck even is that? I don't know. I'm too tired to look it up. Now you're learning it. And you're like, oh, sweet. Now I know this stuff. Like I remember perfect example. So you know, like AFib, right? Yeah, irregularly irregular. Atria is just doing whatever it wants to do. And it's just like not getting through the ventricle consistently and blah, blah, blah. I remember when I was a scribe back in the day, one of the doctors said atrial flutter. And it was the first time I heard that. And I was like, I think he means AFib, but I'll write it down. Maybe there's like different ways of saying it. And then sure enough, in EKG class, we like learn like, no, a flutter is a totally different rhythm. Yeah, when I learned that. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. The sawtooth pattern. And I remember learning that and like, it was just so gratifying because it's like, wait a minute, no, that was a different thing. And this thing that I thought was so wrong, and now I know better, it's just, it's so gratifying to learn medicine. It's just, it's really cool. It's cool to know it. It's cool to learn it. Or like when I, when I was at an ED tech, I had to say almost like a similar experience. I would like look at EKGs and when they don't look like, you know, like your normal, like nice P wave, QRS and T wave, where like it would like, like someone would be like throwing PVCs, right? But sometimes that's like normal, depending on, you know, the patient. So when I would see that as a tech, I'm like, I would show it to the doctor and he'd be like, Oh yeah, it's fine. What is that big thing? You, you just wait, you just wait until you have to be the one making that call and like freaking out and then finding out it's fine. And then the next time it happens, you're like, no, it's fine. And people are like, are you sure? And like, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's cool. Like the more you learn and sometimes just from experience, it's just, it's cool to know more. You know, we also had a very, very interesting class related to our EKG class. It was called EKG SIM or short for simulation. So we kind of got to be in this like SIM lab where there's like a mechanical doll. We've had one of our professors behind like a one-sided mirror or window. And she was kind of speaking to us through the doll. And we were asking you questions, history, like why they came in, you know, alleviating things that alleviate the symptoms, things that make it worse. Wait a minute. The doll was talking? Yeah. The doll, well, it was, the doll was talking through a professor was speaking into a mic in like the control room. And it was speaking through the doll. They were speaking through the, through the doll. I don't like that. It was, it was freaky. I thought it was all like automated responses by the robot until I realized like, wow, like these responses are quite complicated. I don't think this is like AI or anything. Like, it was like someone in the room over speaking into a microphone that it was being conveyed through the doll. I, that creeps me the crap out. It was, it was super fun. I really enjoyed it. We even got to simulate like a code and that was really fun. Like the person was in like, was going, was going into torsades and then all of a sudden VTAC. Wait, did the, did the doll look like this? No, I mean, it looks like a mannequin, like almost like a, like the normal mannequins, but it was so cool. Like it, like it had pulse. It had crowded pulses. It had pedal pulses. It had, I bet you this doll has no pulses whatsoever. That doll doesn't have a pulse when it's haunted. No, this doll definitely doesn't have pulses and it's freaking me the F out. Like you, you tell me talking doll, I'm out. Okay. I'll choose a different program. How about mannequins? Talking mannequin. Thank you. Don't, yeah, don't, don't use the word talking doll. Cause then like I think this. Yeah. That's what I think. When I think talking doll, that's so creepy. Did I say doll? I said doll. Okay. I've been mannequin. How dare you? Wait, why am I back in, in this enchanted forest thing? Oh, that's right. Because now I'm trying to go back to, to this. Okay. Anyway, speaking of which, and also mine's, it's a bit of a lag. So sorry. That's okay. Okay. So thank you for crawling out of your study cave, Elijah, and for joining the land of the living away from the land of Annabelle and joining me in this enchanted forest that you see on the screen and telling me about your first year PA school experience. So basically what you said is you're still very tired or not sleeping much, but it's more fun. Yeah. No, no sleep, but it's bearable because it's fun. Good. I like to tell my classmates just like getting used to the abuse. Kind of. Kind of. It's necessary abuse. Yeah. Necessary abuse. Fun abuse. Doesn't make it any less abusive, but it's, it's necessary abuse. Just plug my laptop in. Okay. So, I mean, you're still surviving. You're still there, right? You haven't failed out. Have you failed a single exam? No, I mean, the first I got was probably a T, but I still got in that class. But no, my lowest grade in an exam was a C. I don't, I don't know. I haven't filled yet. I feel like it's because every time I study, I think, like this is the only time I'm going to have to study for this one test. I want to do the best I can for this test and then move on with my life. Yeah. And I get what I get. I mean, I can't, I can't always get A's. I mean, I'm getting like some tests, I'll get like A pluses, some I'll get like B minuses, you know, just kind of depends on how much I actually like the subject. Yeah. It's like, yeah. As long as you're not constantly hanging around like on the edge, like constantly getting B minuses, then you're pretty stress free or just like, all right, I know I'll probably do well enough on the next one. You know, you're like, you're not freaking out the whole time. You're just like, okay, I can do this, right? But just like some words of reassurance for like those going into pay school or like even those in pay school. Like once you get to like the clinically applicable stuff, like, like I said earlier, like EKG in the lab, like I noticed like the class average like shot way up. It was probably like a mirror. Yeah. Mid B for all the classes last semester during like the really like didactic heavy courses. And now that we're doing more hands-on things, like everyone's grades is like, like, I think we all average like a low to mid A most of our classes. And it's not easy. Oh, wow. Yeah. These aren't easy classes. Like they're still hard. That's awesome. So nobody's like on the verge of a failing or nothing. Like everyone's pretty strong. Not that I know of. I have seen a couple of grades because you can see the whole like grade scale and see who's who's got the highest average and the lowest. But no one, no one consistently like failing, you know, exams. Like we've all been pretty much been having high averages. That's so I remember that like as soon as the test is done and everyone submitted, you're like constantly hitting refresh. Like, all right, let me see the high, the average and the low and then see what I got. And then like as long as it's not the low, then you're like happy. As long as it's like above average, even by one point, you're stoked. And then like the one time a year that you get to be the high grade. You're like, yes. That was, that was me during finals. I absolutely crushed last semester's finals. And I, I think one test and it was the hardest class we had. I got the highest. I think I got like a 96% or 97. It was a hard exam. I think that was the highest. I was like at the top of the bar and I was like, oh, I did it. I'm that guy. Right. You never thought you'd be that guy, right? I always hate the people up there. I'm like, oh God, look at nerds. And it like, it doesn't happen all the time. I'm assuming, but like you get like, you set the curve one time and that's memorable. Oh yeah. Yeah. I remember that. That was the coolest feeling ever. I only did it once. I only did it once. Same so far. Same. Yeah. I tell the story a billion times. So I'm not going to tell it, but like basically there was like very TLDR version. Our anatomy class was taught by just the sweetest human being ever. I forgot her name, Dr. Sterns, I think was like literally like a living encyclopedia. Like she can zoom in in her mind to like the nano, whatever, like scale of something like a cell and she can go all the way back out to the whole body. She's like brilliant. But so she's awesome, but not super communicative. So basically it took me a half a semester to figure out that most of the study material was in this like Microsoft Word document that she just didn't even tell us about. But that happens to be like in the folder on the Blackboard or something. So once I discovered this document, I was like, wait a minute, this is where all the stuff is? Like I'm supposed to be studying? Like what? And so I started studying the absolute crap out of it. And the first time, like I studied every word. I could basically recite it. And I got like a 98 on that one. And everyone was like freaking out because there was so much information. And I was like, huh, peasants. And then sure enough, like I let off after that because like you can't, that's not sustainable. You can't study that much for every test. It's just not possible. Oh, yeah. The one time, the one time I actually had all the information and took all the time possible to study it and like had it was like, dude. Yeah, never again. Like you don't have that much time to study for every test. It's a high that you only experience like the first like hour after you get that those exam results. And then and then one by the time the next exam comes up, you're like, oh God, now I got to study hard again. Yeah, exactly. It's like, all right, this, this was nice. But yeah, it's not, not repeatable. I even remember someone saying like, who the hell got a 98? And I just like turned my laptop around. So like, I guess, just moving forward a little bit with the first, my second semester of didactic, I think just some things that I've said with me since the first semester is I kind of have kept the same almost kind of even though it's like more hands on kind of similar study habits. And that's just going directly by like what slides of professors are giving me because that's exactly the material material you're getting tested on. So I like last semester, I just kept reading, reading, reading the slides. And that's worked for me. That's worked for like a couple of the people that, you know, I talked to about when we study for exams. And so far it's been going, well, I mean, obviously besides the fact of like physical exam where you have to be hands on. For the most part, everything for me has just been, okay, I'll read it and just try to memorize it there on the spot. And that's been working for me. And now my like memory palace is like, so it's so big now, like compared to what it was before. Did you say memory palace? Yeah, I think that's like a, it's like a concept where it's like, almost like a mind map. Like it's hard to explain it, but in my mind, like if I read a certain slide or if I remember something from anatomy before, like it's like certain like visual things. Like have you watched The Good Doctor? Where it kind of like, it's almost like that, but not as vivid, obviously, I don't have imagination like that. But it's kind of like that where I'm just like, sometimes you'll see like my hands like, because I'm trying to connect the dots in my mind. Oh, it's weird, super weird. I didn't know I had this. Do you know Dr. Jubbal? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Med school, med school insiders. Med school insiders. Yeah. Yeah, he's nuts. He's like, he got into like plastic surgery residency, which is like the craziest residency to get into. And then he decided he didn't want to be a doctor anymore because he like founded some company. He's nuts, super brilliant. But I think he talks about that. He like, I don't know if he calls it the memory palace, but he says he like goes into like a certain room and then like imagines details in that room and then like puts whatever he's learning in there somehow. I don't know how it works for him, but something like that. Something like that. Yeah, I think you're a very visual person if that's how you memorize. Yeah. Yeah, like I can memorize like, like we had an exam today, like there's a certain slide with a question and an answer on it. And I couldn't tell you like where on that slide that answer was like things like that. Yeah, I don't. But then like it's gone. Like I would like, I won't know years from now, unless it's like an important concept, like I'm not going to retain it. But this is just for like little details, like for like what's called level one questions. So basically just route memorization, just like, okay, it's on the slide. Just know it. That's what I mainly use that for. That's I feel like a majority of the tasks sometimes. Oh, okay. Anyway, yeah, that's cool. I'm just trying to think, should we stay on the study skills topic or do we want to get to everything else we want to talk about? I think we could probably. We could move on. Yeah, we could probably move on. If you guys want, we can make a separate like study skills, dedicated video. I've got plenty of them on the channel, but if you guys want me in Elijah to make one, you know, put that in the comments, we'll be happy to try to make some actual like step by step type study stuff. But if we talk about it now, this will be hours. So yeah, but no, I'm very glad your study skills are working. You're still there. The school kind of took a chance on you, right? Because you're not a non-traditional applicant, just like me and you're thriving. So obviously Rutgers knows what they're doing with their admissions process. So I actually wanted to chat about that really quickly because I feel like both colleges we went to, Rutgers and Lemoine, they have a very holistic application review process. They don't just go straight by like GPA or GRE or whatever. They really look at every applicant. So I kind of wanted to ask you about that because ours, it seems to be immediately noticeable the minute you apply through CASFA because there's a separate supplemental question that asks if you don't meet the 3.2 minimum GPA, like can you tell us more about that, elaborate on that? So immediately I was like, oh, this is a lot different than the other programs I've been applying to because they're actually like, there's a supplemental where I can explain myself and my situation. And I don't know if you had that, but for me, that's where I immediately knew like Rutgers was like really a holistic review. Like they really practice what they preached. I didn't have the best grades, but I had the clinical experience and the years of remaking my grades. So they kind of looked at me as a whole applicant versus like a statistic or like just another student who gets 4.0s and they took a chance on me, got on the waitlist, got in. But yeah, what was your experience with Demoy? I'm actually really interested in that because so a video I just kind of rehashed from years ago when I interviewed the dean of admissions at my college that I went to for PA school, she said that they're very holistic and they look at every single application like one by one. And if they see low grades, they go digging into the application for why. Whereas another dean I had interviewed said, no, we basically take 3.3 and we cut off everyone below unless for whatever reason we know that they should be considered. So I'm not sure if they actually mean that, if they actually do that, but it's really cool that Rutgers asked like an actual question for that. So that's very impressive. My situation wasn't like that. So I guess you kind of have to decide am I going to explain my low grades in my essay or are they even going to read my essay? All of that stuff. So I don't know. In my own case, there was no supplemental for Lemoine. They don't have one or at least they didn't at the time. But my case, I was talking to the dean of admissions for years at that point. So she knew me and she knew my situation and she knew I was in post-bac because she told me to go do one. So like they already knew to put my application aside. That's why I strongly advise everyone to like talk to admissions, personally get a personal relationship. It might take a year or two, but then they'll kind of know your name. Whereas it looks like Rutgers is just straight up just holistic, which is awesome. Which I think that essay, that having that prompt on CASFA really is what got me in because first of all, yeah, they'll look at it holistically, but them like focusing on the why, like why this happened, then they were able to like dig in and delve. Like you said, delve into my applications and see like, oh, this is why. And like he's doing fine now. So yeah, why not? I guess take a chance on them. That makes sense. That makes sense. And I really appreciate schools that do that because it's really a lot harder for them you know, let's say a school gets 2,000 applicants, which is probably on the low side. You have to read all their personal statements, go very detailed into all their applications instead of being like, all right, 3.5 and above, let's take these 200 people and only choose from them. So they're making it really hard for themselves to just like find that diamond in the rough. Did you, so for your school, you said they were the school that had a cut off or did not have like a hard cut off? Yes and no. So I interviewed the director of admissions twice, two different directors. One told me like it's not on their website, but they have like a soft cutoff like they just, it's just what they practice themselves. And the other one said, no, we don't cut anyone off. We look at every single application. So I don't know what the official policy is. I don't know if they vary here by year. I don't know what they actually do, but I've heard both that they do cut off at a certain GPA or that they don't. Okay, that's interesting because now I'm curious as to how like the different PA programs, the admissions committees like really take a look at these applications because just for transparency's sake, I mean I've talked about this with you before, Boris. My GPA was like a 2.3. I probably have the lowest GPA coming into PA school and like I still like don't know how I got it. Obviously I'm doing well, but and you know I've way proven that GPA, over proven that GPA, but I'm wondering like does like is it just by chance like the person who happens to be screening my application just like loved my story and then really just vouched for me like is that what happened or like like you said like where they're like soft cutoffs and you know if I applied to a school with like soft cutoffs which probably happened to me in my application cycle like they just completely like threw away my application. I would love it if you'd ask if you go to admissions and be like guys I'm curious. You know at first I asked this my first semester and one of them told me that oh it's because you know you know there's a reason and then I never really dealt right deeper than that. But now that I know a couple of the faculty more and who's on the platforms I think I do want to try to delve into that because I actually want to be more involved in that interview process for applicants by the time I'm a second or third year and try to get involved with those interviews and actually be one of the people interviewing the incoming students. Definitely talk to the people in charge and make them very aware that you're doing this because they may not want you involved in the interview process right because then you might be biased oh okay you know or like not even that it would happen but there is a chance or even the appearance of a chance that someone pays you to edit their essay and do a mock interview and then you're the one interviewing them that you can't have that right right so I've actually I had to excuse myself from the Moynes process because of what I do about you know this and I wasn't going to stop doing this so like you know you probably and since you also do this you probably can't be actually formally involved or you could just say hey I edited essays and did mock interviews for a time I'm done doing that now I want to be involved and you could do that too. I'll be sure to talk to my advisor about it because he always knows like what to do with regards to situations like these. Yeah, yeah I mean I think it would be really cool to be involved with the process for me personally like I got to keep this brand going for you if you take a six month hiatus or whatever cool you know what I mean so you're totally poised to be able to do that and they just come back with like mind blowing knowledge. Yeah more experience yeah I mean interviewers have different styles and techniques he was very like rigid you know there was another one on that same panel who was very receptive to my story you know everyone just kind of has a different style of interviewing. Yeah that's why I always tell people when they're interviewing like you can't do the same thing for every single person right yeah like I tell people to definitely be personal don't be super stiff and professional however if your interviewer is super stiff and professional keep that if your I don't know for lack of a better term like a mom who's like super warm and open and just I can't wait to actually have a conversation have that conversation and they'll be happy about it but the guy who's like stiff and what like wants to be formal and business like stay stiff and business like because if you're not they're not going to like it you know mm-hmm so it's like you have to kind of calibrate. But yeah just kind of tying this back to like the holistic of admissions yeah topic we're talking about I mean it it is a thing I mean me and Boris are examples here and there's a second year in my from my school so he's currently in rotations now and he yeah he had a pretty amazing story too I'm hoping Boris can get him on and you know talk to you guys about his story because you know just like a little brief intro I won't say his name he'll introduce himself but basically he got into pay school a couple years ago I don't know how long ago you know due to unforeseen circumstances had to drop out and then you know decided to go back to pay school and you know it was wreckers that really gave him that second chance you know to say like I heard here prove yourself like you know try to make it through our program and he's here he's in in clinical rotations now and he killed it during his didactic so there's really admissions processes out there that really look at your application holistically and we'll see you more than just what your GPA was you know they'll see like extracurriculars they'll see like your PCE your shadowing they'll see you as a whole you know versus just like you talked about earlier GPA that's just that's such a testament to Rutgers ability to pick out that diamond in the rough because if they had just seen Elijah's GPA they would have been like next but they picked him out and sure enough here he is doing very very well having like not failed a single exam just killing it and I think you have some sort of a leadership position in your class too is that right no I'm just seen as the funny guy I just make a lot of jokes um my classmates know I make these videos with you that's like kind of like my I guess reputation and that like I you know I say jokes just to like alleviate the mood but no I don't have a leadership position wait is it a good reputation or how do people feel about that oh I mean I feel like I make people laugh no not your jokes the fact that you do this oh oh um they thought it was cool they're like oh it's a celebrity and I'm like no I'm bored it's Boris's channel I'm just here for a good time I mean some of our stuff probably has a few hundred to a few thousand views they don't know about it that that's actually pretty thinking about the niche in the community of like the people of PAs like that I think that's pretty big way more people know about this and see it then really let on like you can see the view count on one video there's 350 videos you know so and like so many people email me not to even ask for help but they're like hey by the way I chose Lemoine because of you and I was like who even are you like I didn't help you I didn't do your essay I we've never talked and it's one of the thousands and thousands of people that have seen our videos that like made decisions based on them so like even this tiny little channel it's got a big reach in this small community oh yeah I mean it's pretty amazing you know like I feel like it's such a blessing even to just talk to you about these things because for me when I was a PPA I loved listening to stuff like this I would just have it running in the background likewise washing dishes doing laundry like I love stuff like this literally I don't have time anymore but I did love it I mean when you like when you do have a minute to like to yourself that's kind of when you just like put it on and you know you just feel better just kind of having like a community of people that kind of understand even if you don't talk to them it's just like conversations like these it's like conversations with your peers you know what I'm trying to do right now I know you can't see it on the screen as I'm trying to see how many times this channel has been viewed YouTube keeps messing with it okay yeah there it is 300 and 3000 views that is a lot of people yeah so I don't know if that counts like if people watch the same video more than once but it's so it's not like that many people because it's 2000 subs and then however many people whatever viewed it but total number of views on this channel 303,000 so so as many yeah but what's that that's a big number that is a big number so a lot of people you know especially in this tiny little community have seen what we talk about so that's kind of cool that you're known for that in your program but anyway so I think what we were talking about was how some schools are just more numbers based GPA only and like if you have a low GPA just forget about it but a lot of programs like the ones that both you and I went to were very holistic they look at every single individual or at least a lot of individuals so if you happen to have a low GPA or something there is hope for you it is possible in this lifetime you're kind of starting behind the starting line you have a little bit more probably work to do than someone who's like always had perfect grades but like it is possible I've been through it you know I'm in my third year of practice now Elijah's currently doing great in this program it's possible okay so just just know it's possible yeah did we want to move on to the personal statement now I'd like to stream your keeps freezing so I'm wondering if we even can realistically or if I'll have to just restart my computer and we can try to do it another day if you want because I'm actually a little bit more free I mean I don't know how free you are I remember you talking to me about your situation but yeah but yeah I mean I feel like we hit a couple of good things just so like yeah free to edit later to make this like an hour long for you to edit and you know you're busy with your work and the good thing about like not so not everybody's like good at this talking on camera and all of that and some people like to make gaffes and like things that they wish they wouldn't have said or I wish they wouldn't have said and I have to go back and edit things the easy thing with you and I think me now that I've finally gotten better at talking on camera which took like a year is there's no editing really especially with stream yard there's really no adjusting no editing you just put it into you know the YouTube editor and that's it I'm done so this is actually very nice to do I mean I love the layout too like after downloading it I was like oh this is way nicer than zoom yeah stream yard is sweet it's I mean having not just the basic versions a little expensive but it's totally worth it yeah I just wanted to sponsor you Oh I wish streamer got way bigger fish to sponsor than me but also Elijah said kind of like quietly under his breath your situation don't worry guys I'm fine I'm just in the middle of handling three big things one a move to a different state to a switching to a different job in that different state and three buying a house in that different state which is depending on my job which is depending on me getting a license in that state which is so stressful I can't even think because all of them have paperwork and you depend on other people to do that paperwork but that's being an adult and a professional and a licensed professional and a homeowner so you know God it's life life is fun but it's gonna be nice in like six months when I'm sitting in my sick new house doing this new job that I hope I'll enjoy in this nice new city that I can't wait to live in it's it's gonna be nice but like everything else that's nice you do have to kind of fight for it so I'm in the fighting stage of this particular nice thing yeah it's rough in the beginning man but it'll be worth it yeah I'm excited I can't wait thanks man I really can't wait I'm moving to Raleigh North Carolina just first time I told anyone out on the YouTube space here but yeah I'm moving to Raleigh I can't wait moving away from me even further away aren't you from California yeah I mean I'm in Jersey right now I mean yeah I know when I was when I was in New York I was like oh shoot I should visit Elijah in Jersey and now I'm moving like way far away from Jersey there's nothing to do in Jersey I would have probably just told you sorry man I'm sorry good luck you would not you would totally take time for me I would you still gotta meet up sometime man we will sooner or later maybe you can do a rotation or something with urgent care with me down there in Raleigh I always have a great old time I mean that would be kind of sweet you could do a rotation at my new company if they'll let me and then you could obviously stay at my house it's a frickin four bedroom with plenty of space so it's fine and then we would just go to work together that sounds everything for me kind of honestly I don't know it's this is a very big hypothetical but it would be cool to like have Elijah as my rotation student well I still have a year until then so like less than a year now less than a year yeah and I don't even know what they would count that because it wouldn't be emergency medicine it might be closer to primary care but not really so I don't know and I wouldn't want you to waste your elective on urgent care because you don't want to do urgent care yeah I don't really know what they would do I'm using it on like trauma and critical care I think we got two electives yeah I don't know see like whenever you do start picking your rotations because they do encourage you to make your own because that's one less that they have to place you in so if your school does that I know ours did but I don't know about urgent care as primary care because we kind of see a lot of the same stuff just on a more accelerated basis I don't know that would be cool which I'm already like used to like fast-paced like work environments like that so I feel like that would be good hopefully I'll talk to them because I don't have my clinical advisor yet but as soon as I do I will do that and then of course I'm going to get established at my new job and be like hey by the way can I take a rotation student it would be up to them because it's a big company they might just be like yeah no yeah no we don't do that here I mean it's up to whatever the company wants and they obviously want productivity so I don't know if they would want me to spend time on that because a student would obviously slow like the flow of traffic yes and no it depends on how well you use the student because the student could be kind of like a medical assistant type person and they could like help with a lot of things you know what I mean like so it could it could be good I feel like I have so much hands-on experience in the ED I feel like I'd be a great M.A. for you I think so you know if we happen to be short-handed that day or whatever it's like hey my rotation student can do some of this while I'm also teaching and other stuff like I don't know it depends but very uh very what do you call it tentative or very like possibly in the future kind of a thing but it would be really sweet to have Elijah for like two months stay at my house and like be my rotation student that would be so awesome well I know it would be free for you obviously you wouldn't have to like pay for lodging I know that would be so nice I mean it's a four bedroom house move your wife and your kid there too I don't care like they can all come there's plenty of space so that depends on if my wife's in med school so she's applying this cycle oh man good luck yeah I think she's going to do it she's smarter than I am yeah she was the smart one so that's the secret to his good marriage there that's the secret that's going to be a power couple right there man that's uh that's hard to pull off you're going to have to let us know maybe bring her on and let us know how that works oh yeah she um she's like she's the one that holds down everything like the success here that you see here it's the wife the wife and the kiddo oh yeah okay topic for a different day I think that would be more appropriate once she's already in med school or like already practicing maybe I'll have her talk to you when she gets in we could do that and I'm just thinking more along like the relationship lines would be just because people are always interested in that um I found okay tell me this is probably the last thing we should talk about yeah uh unless of course you have time but this is totally not what we planned on doing we planned on editing this one essay we have uh kind of live but my computer's being so frozen and glitchy which I don't understand because it's a MacBook Pro from like 2019 I don't know why it's already like old but I think I need a new one apparently that's Apple saying like you need to buy more product Apple is making me angry lately they're getting sued by something and now their stock is down I just lost a bunch of money from them but anyway okay that doesn't matter what does matter is buy low sell high but also what matters is relationships uh and that is like tell me if you've noticed the same thing so most of your class is probably female right uh I'd say 80 and 85 percent yeah yeah the vast majority of PAs and especially P students whatever are female uh if they're almost all like Caucasian 25 ish or below females like oh yeah yeah across the board yeah that ages right around there we're pretty diverse we've got a good mix of a lot of things oh for real yeah uh yeah this at the city wise okay because a lot of PAs schools have that like on their website like yeah we value diversity we want like everyone you know like from different socioeconomic and veterans and this and that and then you look in their pictures and it's like is this a sorority like they're all blonde 24 year old females there's a lot but I'd say we're pretty diverse that's awesome that's that's literally awesome for your program like that it's literally in the introduction to my book read the book get the book read the book it's literally in the introduction to my book why this book was written and it's like I just cite a bunch of stats on how there's like basically all of PA students are Caucasian females and like I'm trying to like give other people a chance you know what I mean like veterans people from other races from other socioeconomic statuses like just I want more diversity in medicine because it's good you know like not that you have to be the exact same race gender and age as somebody you empathize with them but I'm also not saying it doesn't help like if someone happens to speak Spanish and there's like a first-generation immigrant from South America that speaks Spanish only and is already scared because they're in this new country wouldn't they feel more comfortable with someone that speaks their language at the very least or maybe he's even from their neighborhood like there's a time and a place and like not everyone can like be the exact you know demographics of their patients but more diversity in medicine specifically is helpful it's like it's an empathy profession it's helpful it's not banking you know what I mean so it's just like yeah I wish schools would take that more seriously yeah that's a really good job so I'm actually proud of that and where statistics lie literally Rutgers seems like a really awesome program I'd love to talk to your people and see if we can like interview your dean or something like how do you guys do this how are you guys so good at everything our director would probably be super willing to talk to you she's super nice love her so now I need to talk to the guy that's taking a second chance and you already gave me his email I'll follow up you can I mean if you want to talk to your director especially if you want to be on that on that interview I'm sure people out in the YouTube space would love that yeah Dr. Pofferman is super nice you would love Dr. is it a female or a male yeah she's female Dr. Pofferman I was like oh he but wait a minute man is in the last name so I don't know okay no talk to right I absolutely love to have her on obviously she can screen the questions I'm not gonna throw her any zingers like I would just love to talk to her yeah let's see if we can get her on that would be cool but my whole point in bringing up the whole female thing is like so the majority of PAs and certainly PA students nowadays are young females some of them you know might be married or in serious relationships some of them are probably single tell me if you've also noticed this phenomenon the people that the ones are in serious relationships with and then like a year or two after graduation you see them all getting married which is like like clockwork it's like this person was in a relationship the whole time through PA school they did not break up and then alright T minus 16 months until I see wedding photos boom it just happens like that over and over again and like I see that you know what we have so few guys I think a couple of us are in relationships at least three or four of us and there's only like ten of us um they're like there's so few of us that I personally have not seen any relationships come to the surface yet I don't know if there is but I do know that phenomenon you're talking about where like you date your classmate and then you guys no no that's not what I'm talking about oh no no so the phenomenon I'm talking about is I notice like the ones that do stay in serious relationships and then end up getting married or just for whatever just stay in their relationships I've noticed that the female that's the PA the guy that she's with very frequently is like a blue collar type dude like a plumber or a carpenter electrician owns his own like driveway paving business that is so true have you noticed that? yes so one of my classmates her boyfriend's a cop like super blue collar type and they're like super nice guys too and I'm just like whoa but it's just funny because I was talking about you and your you guys are married? yes we're married I forgot for a second I was just talking about you and your wife she's gonna be a doctor and it's like this super power couple and then I thought about how you don't see that you usually see like someone who's in this like very buttoned up like white collar profession like PA or doctor and then they have like kind of more of a blue collar partner yeah like I feel like do you notice that? I do notice that I think it's because me and my wife we kind of had similar aspirations when we met I think that's why we both initially wanted to be doctors and you know we always knew that we wanted to strike for higher education and like a higher scope of practice in medicine and you know more autonomy so that's kind of why I understand what you're saying a lot of my classmates even call us the power couple too yeah I do notice a lot of my female classmates and significant others or partners are like blue collar working people and I did get a little bit of insight and you know a couple of my classmates say like oh yes because I wouldn't want a partner that's also in the medical field that's like one reason that I heard true I kind of would because it's nice to like have them understand I don't know if I'd necessarily want to be with a provider that might be a bit of a butting heads type thing I'm not really certain but I can see why they would think that also it could just be them logically justifying the fact that they just like this person and they don't know why but it's just it's funny I think it's because they get to go home and like right you you've just been like you've had a long day to work you know blood guns I don't know what the patients coworkers and then you go home and you just don't want to think about it so that I guess that's like the release that they need is like when they come home it's like they don't talk about medicine at all but I'm the complete opposite when something cool happens at my job the first one I tell my wife when I get home and whenever something cool happens at her job she's always telling me what's going on you know we kind of know like the little secrets of like what's going on in each other's job like oh hey like this doctor did this or like oh this doctor does yell at that person like things like that or like we would talk about like pathology things like that like why did this doctor do this like or like why did they push like a TPA for this patient like I don't understand and like we would like work things through together and I contribute that so much and you guys both enjoy that yeah yeah like we're so neurotic neurotic and we talk about like medicine because we're such I didn't realize it until now but like we're such nerds and like we love talking about medicine like I love hearing her passions about OB and like she's talking to me about HCG and like all the different like fertility like you know treatments because that's like kind of the realm she wants to go into and I'm telling her I'm telling her like all the trauma stuff and all the ER stuff because that's kind of my interest dude you like have a heart of gold you have fun with that the less I hear about OB the better I thought it was interesting because she sounds passionate about it which is awesome I love that she's passionate about it I just don't want to hear about OB especially for my wife like holy crap I mean I don't have a wife I'm single but like if I happen to be married to anyone in the medical profession I really wouldn't want her working in OB I can't hear about all that at all it just like takes the mystery away from me I'm not going to even get into this but like just anything related to OB whatsoever even when I have to do it it just wrecks anything in that department in my life I just I hate it so oh man I don't know I can't do it I just feel like it's the way she talks about it and yeah at first like I didn't know anything about OB but like when she like explained to me these things I'm like oh shoot you guys do that like that's intense like what like specifically like give me an example like um like even like um palpating the cervix or like like for or in like or like even doing pelvic examine like even putting the speculum in at first like when she used to tell me about that I was like what like what is that wait have you not had oh you haven't done your rotations yet well I yeah not yet actually does have that physical um like practice we just did it on like like mannequins mannequins yeah there's definitely there okay let me know before your OB rotation and there's definitely a method to it where you're not traumatizing the poor person oh you mean with the speculum the speculum yeah not to get like graphic out like the necessity to like avoid discomfort with the pelvic exam as much as possible and like what I've learned uh so okay I'll just I'll go through it really quickly again now that you're in not that you're in your women's health rotation yet but you will be and I'll probably tell you this again when you are uh but just having done tons and tons of pelvic exams in primary care and especially now in urgent care you're constantly doing them SCD checks and all kinds of stuff uh usually we have this like plastic speculum so it's kind of more narrow on one side and more thick on the other side and it's got the light and of course it has to open you know so that you can actually do the exam uh and the uh the vagina is like a muscular organ so you don't want to just stretch it really quickly or it'll spasm and that would be very very uncomfortable for the poor person who's already uncomfortable you know uh so what you want to do is like let's say this is the thick part because it opens like that what you want to do is you want to turn it totally 90 degrees and slowly advance it the narrow part because it like lines up with the opening right so you advance it that way and once you're in that's when you slowly again keyword slowly turn it this way and again slowly that's when you open it you know it clicks so instead of like like you want to like slowly advance turn and then click click click slow uh and then you can do you know what you need to do the exam and the swabs and on you know the if you're doing a pap then do the pap and all that stuff but go in 90 degrees like that then slowly turn and very slowly open it so just very gentle smooth motions very gentle very smooth and always make sure you start with the narrow part and then like the wide part you know once you're already in and open slow and this is not a speculum this is a guitar capo just it looks like it looks like it looks enough to where I can make the point but this is a guitar capo I don't just like have a random speculum sitting around that would be very weird quick question how do you hold it with your dominant or non-dominant hand so I like to hold it with my non-dominant because I feel like I'm ambidextrous enough to be gentle and smooth because like when you're grabbing like the swab yeah like I want it to be with my dominant hand I think I don't know I can't even like place myself in the room I want to say you're right like to place it I'll kind of use both hands you know because I have more control of my dominant hand but then just holding it in place and getting the swab my medical assistance usually on this side so yeah that's when I'll use my right hand for the swab and all of that if you're doing a bi-manual obviously you're using your dominant hand all that stuff and bi-manual I'm not going to demonstrate here because it's totally inappropriate but yeah so I don't know how this conversation so oh this conversation went from did you notice that one most of your class your physician assistant school class is female two how the ones that are in serious relationships seem to be in relationships with blue collar type guys like carpenters cops that kind of thing and somehow we ended up talking about women's health rotations but anyway they're all good topic thing of we just we're just catching up on life man yeah absolutely and like you said like when you're a pre-PA or even in PA school like this is like camaraderie stuff for people to listen to but yeah it's gonna be like you guys and like every other classmate but you guys it will just go like that's just kind of how it is and how you connect with your classmates literally it's just it's how it is Mario actually said the same thing he's like yeah like I feel like if we were in the same class we would have been like hanging out all the time which probably and he's he's got a lot going on you know when you are looking as a PA it's overwhelming there's so much going on especially at first you know because you're learning the first yeah a few months especially you're just like how how how do I do this this is impossible and then you just kind of like do it it's fine yeah like I remember I don't remember when maybe like a couple months into my first job because I used to like I would get so overwhelmed when the patient actually came to see me because I didn't know what to do about all their like nine diagnoses because it was internal medicine and it was like wait how am I supposed to manage this level of diabetes what is this medication what is it side effects how am I supposed to do this so what I would do was the night before I'd go through all my patients for the next day and like pre-write their charts and then when I had a busy schedule I had like 16 on I was like it would took me like four hours a night and I was like this is not sustainable I gotta quit I can't do this and then you know you just struggle through it and then after a while you're just like all right now I just know enough to like just go in and know what I'm doing and if I have to put something up I do but it's less yeah you know so it's less stressful but it's when you're new everything is stressful yeah it's like that for everything you know starting school you know starting rotations starting your first job going to a new job every it's always going to be like that just adapting yeah but what's gratifying is like the more you know the more you can just like do it and that's when you're not a new grad and that's when companies and like offices are just like no please work for us we don't have to train you like a new grad like you already can just work and just know what you're doing yeah exactly it's like we already know that you can just handle this instead of like us having to hold your hand through everything it's just like you're so much more marketable after a couple years of experience it's crazy it's good stuff you'll get I'm excited man I enjoy it I know I'm like taking it fast but I keep telling my classmates like I just want to start working you do and I don't know be careful which you wish for yeah let's get through the first year well yeah take advantage of where you're at right now where it's just like it's really hard and you're not making money and whatever but like at least not every single decision you make could potentially end your career because of a lawsuit great it's like wait a minute did I check the interactions on this okay this is a level two why did I prescribe it uh shoot now I need to go tell them to stop taking this it's like you just there's a lot you know it's tremendous responsibility and it's all you especially if you're in like a in a field like I am where you're a solo provider there's no one there it's like you're making the decisions so it's like be careful what you wish for you know what I mean like enjoy having zero liability as a student I hear that a lot too and that's something we should talk about in another video but I've definitely heard that a lot where it's like people who aren't in PA school miss PA school if people in PA school want to already be back out there I don't miss PA school at all I've heard a couple I've heard a couple people seriously well because the liability thing that you talked about yeah for sure for sure but I mean if you're smart about it and you actually take due diligence with people and you're not like trying to rush through things which I mean you have to if you're you're working with a lot of people but like I don't know if you're as careful and as like detail oriented as I am I feel like you're not as afraid of that but it's it is always a risk just and like especially after like the second semester of PA school and like learning like what labs to order and like diagnostics tools I'm just like man some of these some of these like pathologies like all the symptoms are like the same it's the devil's in the details yeah the devil is in the details and sometimes unfortunately depending on what field of medicine you're in but almost all of them especially something like urgent care it's like what is optimal and what might it be and also practically what can you do and a lot of times practically you can't really do much you can refer you can send them to the ER but there's really not much else you can do you can treat for what you think it is even if you don't necessarily think it's that you still want to cover for that so it's like it's balancing all of that which is tough but I'm excited for but I'm gonna focus on this last semester yeah don't don't worry about my problems as a person in their third year of practice as a solo provider at an urgent care worry about your first year of PA school stuff right now and you'll get to wherever you want to get to trauma or whatever it might be then worry about that you know I'm just like communicating that medicine is just interesting and terrifying it is but here we are signed up for it hey I couldn't do anything else I think it's tremendously interesting it's such a privilege but I gotta cut it here boys because my wife is coming home since I have to start dinner soon ooh I forgot I have another interview at six yeah we do have to cut it okay uh yeah this one's it's good it's been something I've needed to do for a while but yeah talk to your your person your dean of admissions or whoever they are I'd love to get them on the channel I'll talk to the second chance guy and we'll talk soon actually it's a bigger person than the dean it would be like the director of uh yeah yeah I don't know the difference oh I think it's the same thing then heck if I know I don't know this stuff I'm not academic I don't I don't know these things I'm moving to North Carolina yes I am but no literally anybody in your school that wants to talk to me about this and they have something to say like I'm happy to have them on sounds good thank you so much it was good singing it man missed you as always we'll talk soon all right see boys bye