GLOSSARY
Gunner: An intense, overachieving student. Doing too much all the time.
ERAS: The “Electronic Residency Application System” used for submitting applications to residency programs. It strikes fear into the hearts of fourth-year students everywhere.
Match Day: The day you open your letter (or your email) and find out where you’ll be heading to residency. A computer decides, so it’s pretty terrifying.
Rank List: The order of your preferred residency programs you hope to match at. A computer algorithm matches you to your residency based on how high or low you’ve ranked a program and how they’ve ranked you. The whole process is STRESSFUL.
Couple’s Match: A way to go through the residency match with another person in order to end up at the same institution or city. You make one combined rank list that takes into account both of your preferences. It is HELLA STRESSFUL.
OMED: The Office of Medical Education. Whether they’re sending out surveys or their 20th email of the day, this group sure knows how to make your phone buzz with unnecessary notifications. There’s also an Office of Student Affairs, but in this production, OMED stands in for the entire Pitt Med administration. Please don’t get mad, we promise we know the difference.
Dr. Jason Rosenstock: Associate Dean for Medical Education, probably one of the most thankless jobs in the biz. Did you know it’s really hard to figure how out to teach people to be doctors? Sends a lot of lengthy email updates, which, yes, we did ask for more updates, but we’ll still make jokes about them.
Dr. Don DeFranco, Dr. Peter Veldkamp: The duo in charge of medical student research. DeFranco also known for his sense of style(?), Veldkamp also known for his passion for infectious diseases (ask him to look at your rash).
Longitudinal Research Project, Quarterly Reports: A four-year-long research project mandated for all students to complete. May spend a lot of time in the lab wondering why you’re there. Quarterly reports are updates to advisors on your progress, which you usually fill out at the last minute because you forgot to do it... even though you get 5 reminders ahead of time.
Dean’s Summer Research Project (DSRP): A summer program between first and second year that allows you to get a jump start on your Longitudinal Research Project. It’s “highly encouraged,” so you basically lose out on your last summer vacation ever, but at least you get some money.
Dean Art Levine: Former Dean of the School of Medicine, recently retired. Big on research and zebrafish. Welcome to the new dean Dr. Shekhar! Best of luck on your efforts to earn a mention in Scope and Scalpel in the coming years!
Solar Eclipse: Remember when that happened during first-year orientation? Well, in the words of Dr. Harvey, we’re the “Class of the Solar Eclipse”! We’re kind of a big deal...
Step Club: A chance to commiserate and prep with fellow students for the impending STEP (aka board) exam.
Laura Lee Jeannerette (aka LLJ): Helps us learn how to study and more importantly, how to not lose our minds during the endless series of board exams with her therapeutic ways.
