u/Hiraaa_

I live in Canada but I am in Bahawalpur for a few weeks for summer holidays. What are your absolute FAVOURITE restaurants in bwp?

Criteria: hygienic/clean, and food is freshly cooked

What I have tried so far
- Papa’s kitchen (our go to for pizza)
- KFC obviously (tired of it)
- pizzologist (pretty good)
- 14th street pizza (best pizza)
- OvenX (kinda mid)
- Four seasons (family favourite, host all our family dawats and weddings here)
- Asia Cafe
- BRIO (HATED, took sooooo long to make the drink and it was not good at all, I know because in Canada we have a huge coffee/cafe culture)

Are Kababjees/OPTP good? I loved Optp in karachi so wondering if it is as good.

Hi everyone,

I’m really confused on what UofT academy to select. Does it really matter besides commute? I’m from the east end of the GTA and North York general is like a 15 minute drive from my house. But I also have an interest in Oncology/rad onc so would sunnybrook give me extra exposure on that? Are the kinds of cases you’re exposed to dependant on the hospital type?

And can any 2T9s comment on how they felt about the Scarborough foundations experience because I think it started last year. I’m interested but is the quality of education good? And are the hospitals scarb general or centenary?

Looking for a reputable business that will make a custom cake for an event!

Hi everyone,

As a follow up to a post I made about getting in, I wanted to share an insight I had this week after reflecting on my journey to get here.

Getting in is not something that you can do alone, at least for most people like myself, you need ALL THE HELP YOU CAN GET. Mentors and friends are 100% the reason I got in this cycle. I owe everything to them.

So who helped me?

- COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT!! COS mentors are literally amaaaazing people. My mentors each cycle were always supportive and helped me especially with the pre-interview stage of my application. Also a bonus it’s free!
- other school-based groups lile bridgeto, MMAC, etc all held their own mentorship/mock programs and those mentors genuinely offer amazing advice.
- mentors I met through reddit - literally reddit makes it so that you can connect with so many talented med students willing to offer support. Sometimes they charge money which isnt accessible for everyone, I get it, m but the right mentors spend time and effort helping you craft a good application so I get that they wanna be compensated at least minimally (dont agree with the ppl charging $80 an hour on accepted together tho)
- NETWORK!!! Talk to everyone you know, odds are you will find someone who has a friend of a friend in med school and you can shoot your shot. I found mentors in such unlikely ways lol, like my best friend’s coworker’s son. It doesnt hurt to ask!!
- FRIENDS!! My non-med friends have been my biggest supporters from day 1. Things as small as getting a vibe check on your essay topics to helping you prep with mock interviews. I remember my friend helped me pull a TMU mock and she pretended to be a diff person at each station (the Dean, a community member, a med student) 😂

I only realized how many people helped me when I messaged like 20 people after I got my acceptances. All the advice, insights, and support are what I think made my application this cycle. And it was essential for someone like me because I have zero doctors in my family or my close network of friends. For those of us with no connections, we have to step up and make them for ourselves. It’s never too early to reach out to people so go start now!!

(Also in case it needs to be said, none of these people DID my applications for me. Everything I submitted was 100% my original ideas and my experiences, as well as my own writing. But mentors helped me for example if I was debating between different topics for essays, or vibe check my stories for apps/interviews)

Hi everyone,

Long-time lurker, first-time poster (LMAO jk). I'm sure many of you have seen me on this subreddit over the years. I joined r/premedcanada in 2020, back when I was first trying to apply to medical school.

The past few years have been gruelling, to say the least. This journey was not an easy one, so I totally understand the variety of emotions everyone is experiencing this week.

I, like many of you, do not come from a family of doctors. I grew up low-income, in Scarborough, as a first-generation immigrant. I did not even know anyone in medical school when I applied for the first time. I didn't know how to "play the game" so to speak. That's when I joined this community, to learn from others and try to figure out how to strengthen my application. I asked hundreds of questions, connected with other applicants, found awesome mentors/med students, and overall found a sense of community with others who understood how hard this process truly was. Thank you for that.

This cycle, I received acceptances to all 4 schools that I interviewed at, including a school that rejected me last year (alhamdulillah). I am still in disbelief because I always had a voice in the back of my head telling me it would never happen for me. I truly hope that my story can be one that encourages some of you to keep trying.

If you got some sad news yesterday, I was in the same shoes as you last cycle. It feels horrible. It's impossibly hard to pick yourself up and try again. Please remember it's okay to be sad, you don't have to be strong all the time. Take a week, take a month, it's okay to need time to feel normal again, especially when you felt SO close to the finish line. But when you're ready, get into fight mode. Make a game plan. Fix your application as best as you possibly can and give it your all.

This journey has been a long & torturous one for many of us. If I have one piece of advice, it's: Don't let it turn you bitter. Remember who you are, do your hobbies, hang out with friends & family, remember to keep LIVING because you cannot put happiness and life on pause until you get in. Find joy in the process, whether that's through working on applications with a friend at your fave coffee shop or starting new activities you are actually passionate about.

I feel like I learned a LOT about applying through the past several years, and I would love to share my insights, but I'll probably make that another post in the future.

Thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart 💞

Edit: For clarification, by 2 degrees I meant an MSc, not a second undergrad (in case people want to ask about those routes!)

In our lab, the senior PhD student taught me to thaw the cells in regular media, perform 2 passages with 5-10ug/ml of puromycin, then they are ready to use for experiments.

What my question is though, is the knockdown diluted overtime, and over passages? Say 2-4 passages down, is the knockdown efficiency reduced? Do you guys just maintain the cells consistently in puro or is that gonna stress the cells? Do the cells need recovery time after selection before I use them for an expt?