Life as a pre-med

If you are applying to Cornell, you better be prepared to work...real hard...is one advice I would give to you. The first and the second semester is especially tough, not in the sense of the material but the work load. Finishing the pre-medical requirements in two years is undoubtedly challenging. However, our amaaazing faculty makes it easy to handle....and their technique is simple. Every individual student gets personal attention from faculty...your professor will always call you by your name and know exactly what you are lacking or are good at. Where else would one get to see so much interaction between faculty and students. Since people get individual attention, they are bound to be better at what they are working on and hence get their work dont easily...and thats how we handle our work load. ofcourse....with time...u will realize that Cornell students share an interesting way of socializing which is an addition to the normal socializing acts that you see among college students. everyone works together...group discussion is encouraged and creates a productive atmosphere...so every time an assignment is due...you are bound to find a big group of cornellians in some apartment working...(tho one would doubt if more work or fooling around is done!!)

and when we are not working on assignments or not reading for the following day's lecture and if we dont have a prelim coming up soon....WE RELAX!! and that is the most amaaaazing feeling ever! and relaxing mostly includes sleeeeping....looooong hours...people sleep for 15 hours in one go at least....i have once slept for 36!! on weekends tho...most people try n get over their tiredness and enjoy....some go to the movies...some go just to chill at Souq Waqef and smoke sheesha at night..the only time of the day I can survive outdoors!!

that is how a normal week goes by as a Cornellian!! work work work...sleep and start all over again!! but i am shocked to be admitting that I have started to enjoy this life and i am not a geek...i swear!!!

will be writing about some other interesting things later....

Interested Applicants

hi all...thanks for visiting this blog...now that the student affairs has a link to this blog, I see that more and more people are dropping by this post...it should be able to better serve the purpose...sorry for the irregular posts..it was just coz no one was actually reading it..now i promise to be more regular in the posts..for that i will be needing all of your...i will try to figure out a way to make this blog more interactive but until then i would like you all to shoot your questions in the comments so that everyone can look at them and we can all discuss....i hope u guys understand that it is difficult to just write about this place.....coz i would only write about wht interests me and may not be exactly what you guys want to know....i remember the time when i was applying..i was sooo lost...esp coz the whole region was new to me...so..ill try my best to prevent it
looking forward to hearing more about u guys...
ciao

A Sophomore!!!

amazing experience to be a sophomore and even see the new freshman's comin in!! new faces comin in as well as old ones moving out!! oh...n did i tell u that we have had our first batch of doctors already out??? amaaaazing isnt it!! well...the freshman class is in full swing..havent met too many people so far but every one looks super enthusiastic to be here (i could tell that from their faces!!)...have my MCAT's comin up..and that is one reason why i am writing on this blog...looking for as many distractions as possible!! i dont suggest u do the same tho!!
oh yeah...the new CMU building is almost complete and the students have already started using the facilities....and the new restaurants!! subway is already there and a lot more are supposed to follow...and the best thing is that the building is next to Cornell...n if u jogged all the way to CMU after a busy morning..those sandwiches would taste even better!!! oh just to mention since i started talking about food already...we have a lot of events which seem to be organized just for the sake of distributing free food.....u r gonna love it!!
well..let me get back to study...after all...i got to get into med school!!

End of First Year

wooooah...it feels just like yesterday when we first arrived here...eager to start fresh and go on to become doctors (which at this point is a doubt every one of us has!) but yeah...the year sure did pass by without us even realizing.....i wish the rest of the 5 years pass by as quickly! there was a schedule we had for everyday of every week...at least one thing or the other was due the next day and we used to work late at night to finish it. u guys must be aware of the facebook group "If u start at the last minute, it only takes a minute", so it usually took us only a minute to finish most of the work...only starting it in the first place seemed to be a BIG problem!! we had been living every single day like it meant something (and it truly did...every assignment, lab report etc has the potential to change ur grade!), and before we realized we had passed a year!!
i wont talk about how the exams went...tho i hope for the best!
and yeah...the ever improving doha has shown us a nice time here. every weekend was something to look forward to... i usually dedicated my thursdays to watching movies back to back and sometimes going to the cinemas!
reaaaaly look forward to a pleasant summer break once the MCAT preparation classes are over

Nepal Service-Learning Trip

hi all,
i had one of the best times of my life last week on our trip to Nepal. 17 students from Education City (7 from Cornell) and 2 Qatar Foundation Chaperons visited MY COUNTRY and trust me, it was an amazing trip. It was the first time that such an event had been organized by Qatar Foundation aimed at improving international understanding among students and also to develop a sense of social service, but the whole trip was more than just that! And whats more, the cost of the trip was also born by Qatar Foundation, students had to pay only a small amount just to show that they were truly interested. We had raised US$ 1500 for the service project that we had planned to do, which was building a wall around a primary school, located on a hill, so that students wouldn't fall off cliffs.
As the group included students from all branch campuses, there were not many people I knew who were in the group. But it didn't remain the same for long, for as soon as we landed we had started interacting with the "strangers" and by the end of the trip, we were all sooo closely bonded that I am missing them so bad as I write this!!
Our scheduled activities were in itself more than sufficient to make a wonderful spring break or for some, a life changing experience, because most importantly it included the aforementioned service project, where we were literally digging out dirt and dumping it in a ditch to fill it up while some others were actually putting the cement and building the wall (u can guess, we let the engineering students build the wall while we decided to sit back and prepare an emergency medical team in case any one got hurt!!!). We interacted with the local students and some have become good e-friends with us! A big realization for most people was the fact that people in the developed countries take for granted so many things which for people in the developing countries means life or death, like something as simple as a wall. Apart from the service project, we also went white-water rafting (an amazing experience) and stayed in a jungle for two days: with tigers roaming around our cottages at night....one of them even came into our bathroom...(supposed to be a joke..again!). But yeah, even though the tigers couldn't walk into our rooms, it was a scary experience all the same! And we also enjoyed the elephant safari and the verry scary jungle trail on foot (where the guide said he couldn't guarantee our survival and was giving us tips on what to do if a tiger or a bear appeared!)
haha...i can go on and on about this trip, but i guess u wouldn't be interested in the extra details so I will stop for now! in any case, a similar trip will be organized next spring break as well to some other country and to get in, all you have to do is to be the first one to apply...and I, for one, am going to apply the minute the notice comes out!

COFFEE HOUSE

dear all,
the event that us cornellians are proud to host every year was put up last thursday, march 13, 2008. it is called "Coffee House," a talent and cultural show, which i assume is the biggest event of its kind in Education City. and it was fun. all talents in education city had gathered together to put up this splendid performance, and whats more, even our faculty members were participating. So, next year when u start your biology labs, u shud request Dr. Chris Ogden, our faculty rockstar, to bring in his guitar and perform!!!
being out of my home country for the first time, it was very interesting, at least for me, to see this multi-cultural flavor take over EC, with dances ranging from Bharat Natyam, Punjabi to the local arabic!! and yeah, i even discovered a new flavor of music tht i liked, ARABIC MUSIC...it really rocks!! this event was also interesting because of the fact tht people could put up any talent they had, it didnt necessarily have to be dancing or singing, there were even photo exhibitions, magnificent piano performers and so on....next year, i say to myself, i am going to come up with some talent of my own!! u guys shud look out!!!!

WELCOME

hi all,
let me start by introducing myself...
I am Abhyudaya Joshi from Nepal and am studying in first year pre-medical. guess thts enuf introducing myself...hope u guys do the same...comment on this blog and get to know each other as well...ask questions if u want...(dont ask any academic questions for now!!...ull have enuf of tht later!)
since i dont want to scare u guys right away...i am not going to tell u my last weeks survival story but this week has been going quite smoothly...desperately waiting for the weekend to start...
i seem to have the writer's block right now...nyway...keep lookin at this page as often as u can...will add more shortly