Rating: 
Summary: Very slow and not that interesting...yawn....
Review: After reading numerous true-life medical stories this one has to be the most uninteresting of them all! Read something by another author of real-life medicine, this one is worth leaving on the shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Flat writing spoils the story
Review: As a graduate of the same program as Ellen Rothman I was eager to read her book. Unfortunately, I found that her writing was so lacking in creativity that even the most dramatic experiences were hard to get through. The narrator's voice is strong and obscures the stories. I found it difficult to see or experience what she or other characters experienced. There is so much raw emotion available to writers in medical school that it is a shame that Ellen was unable to transmit this to the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Stilted and sophomoric
Review: As an aspiring doctor, I was hoping to get the same insight out of "White Coat" that a future lawyer would gleam from Scott Turow's "One L." However, the difference between the two is that Turow has a genuine gift for writing, while Rothman's account of her medical school is a very dry "just-the-facts-ma'am" style. It was a chore to finish the book, and I still have no idea what makes Rothman's experience at Harvard any different than John Doe's medical training at the University of Maine. There were several problems with this book. Like the other reviewers noted, Rothman's characterization of people by their appearance was distracting, bordering on offensive. It's as if she mistakes physical description for insight. Descriptions of patients' ailments and suffering that should have drawn the reader in are presented in as cold and impersonal a manner as a medical chart. Who knows, maybe that's where Rothman drew her memories of the encounters. Finally, there is the author herself. In an attempt to personalize the book, Rothman details her romance with one of her fellow classmates. Again, the details are presented in a vague and sketchy. After three or four luxury vacations, boom, they're engaged. The reader never gets a sense of what Carlos is like, or the challenges of nurturing and maintaining a relationship under demanding circumstances. As a result, Rothman's account of her relationship and subsequent engagement rings false, even though this is supposedly a nonfiction book. I have friends in medical school, and their terse emails and brief, infrequent phone conversations give me more insight into the life of a medical student than this book did. Rothman doesn't give the reader a true sense of what a medical student's life is like. There are only biased descriptions of the patients she encountered in the different specialty rotations broken up by occasional updates of her uninteresting romance with one of her classmates.
Rating:
Summary: A not-so-revealing account of a med student's life
Review: As an aspiring doctor, I was hoping to get the same insight out of "White Coat" that a future lawyer would gleam from Scott Turow's "One L." However, the difference between the two is that Turow has a genuine gift for writing, while Rothman's account of her medical school is a very dry "just-the-facts-ma'am" style. It was a chore to finish the book, and I still have no idea what makes Rothman's experience at Harvard any different than John Doe's medical training at the University of Maine. There were several problems with this book. Like the other reviewers noted, Rothman's characterization of people by their appearance was distracting, bordering on offensive. It's as if she mistakes physical description for insight. Descriptions of patients' ailments and suffering that should have drawn the reader in are presented in as cold and impersonal a manner as a medical chart. Who knows, maybe that's where Rothman drew her memories of the encounters. Finally, there is the author herself. In an attempt to personalize the book, Rothman details her romance with one of her fellow classmates. Again, the details are presented in a vague and sketchy. After three or four luxury vacations, boom, they're engaged. The reader never gets a sense of what Carlos is like, or the challenges of nurturing and maintaining a relationship under demanding circumstances. As a result, Rothman's account of her relationship and subsequent engagement rings false, even though this is supposedly a nonfiction book. I have friends in medical school, and their terse emails and brief, infrequent phone conversations give me more insight into the life of a medical student than this book did. Rothman doesn't give the reader a true sense of what a medical student's life is like. There are only biased descriptions of the patients she encountered in the different specialty rotations broken up by occasional updates of her uninteresting romance with one of her classmates.
Rating: 
Summary: informative but uninspired
Review: As an aspiring medical student, I began reading this work with great interest. I found it to be a great source of information on the learning processes and procedures in medical school. However, I agree with another reviewer in feeling that it was difficult to get through this book. She reserved her opinions of fellow students, doctors, and procedures so well that she removed most of the humanity from her writing. I think this was a result of trying to be too "PC," as another reviewer put it; I could understand how she wanted to write objectively about her experiences in the abortion clinic, but I left that chapter feeling cold and appalled. In addition, the journalistic detail she uses in describing her third and fourth year patient experiences seemed to be just belabored at times, because it didn't appear serve its purpose in bringing out the humanity of the situation. In summary, although the writing seems "aseptic" and cumbersome, I appreciate her insight into the workings of the medical school experience.
Rating:
Summary: Very bad. A pointless read.
Review: Before embarking on my medical degree, I decided to do a little bit of research. Sadly, I made the mistake of buying this book. As a university graduate, excited at the prospect of furthering my studying in the US, I can honestly say that this book assumes no intelligence.I may not have the best English in the world, coming from Belgium, but I thought the book would stretch my mind at least a bit! Who, then is meant to read this? Surely it is intended for aspiring doctors. Ms Rothman obviously doesn't believe that we have any intelligence! Silly examples in this "book" include pointless referrence to ER - wow - how inventive! Even more annoying were the tedious and over-laboured parts that included the author's love life - they all sound as weird as Ms Rothman, thankfully!I really would not like to meet this bunch of strange people - it sounds like a horro story to me, not romantic at all! So what kind of book is it? Fiction? A diary? I think its just self glorification, and arrogance. This title is only worthy of being published by a vanity press. My search for intelligent accounts of a doctors life continues!
Rating:
Summary: Very slow and not that interesting...yawn....
Review: Doctor Ellen Lerner Rothman has written a good book. She takes you through her life while she's in medical school. Through her ups and downs, you learn what it would be like. I rate this a proud 5 stars. I gladly recommend this book to any person that is interested in medical school or medicine in general.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful Journey
Review: Doctor Ellen Lerner Rothman has written a good book. She takes you through her life while she's in medical school. Through her ups and downs, you learn what it would be like. I rate this a proud 5 stars. I gladly recommend this book to any person that is interested in medical school or medicine in general.
Rating: 
Summary: An Honest Reflection...
Review: Ellen Rothman displays honesty and grace in this fascinating look inside the medical school world. Not only does she carefully examine patients during her training, she also evaluates common beliefs about what it means to be a doctor, sometimes pessimistically so. The only drawback to the book was the lack of insight into the financing of tuition and living expenses during medical school. I got the impression from her three international trips during medical school that she did not have to worry about money, which is rare for medical students.
Rating:
Summary: Stilted and sophomoric
Review: I cannot fathom why this book was published. Apparently, the author thought she had something to say that was worth reading just because she attended a prestigious medical school and because she's a woman. Before you think that I have an axe to grind, I don't. I am both a woman AND a graduate of an Ivy League medical school, but I don't think that students of more esteemed schools necessarily have a monopoly on interesting experiences during med school. Dr. Melvin Konner's "Becoming a Doctor" is far more insightful, and Dr. Kevin Pezzi's "Believe It or Not! True Emergency Room Stories" provides some interesting glimpses into what medical education is really like and how it impacts students. Throughout "White Coat" Dr. Rothman expresses a cold, almost robotic detachment that left me, as a reader, feeling cheated. Rothman had no provocative insights to share, nor was she willing to express any emotion unless it was something very superficial. I don't know what compelled her to write in such a stilted manner. My guess is that she thinks such icy detachment is a mark of professionalism, but she comes off as having a haughty aloofness. Another aspect of the book that left me reeling in disgust was when she sophomorically raved about the television show "ER." If such a fictitious show is so important to her, that suggests in an ipso facto way that she does not have the maturity and perspective to write a worthwhile book on medical school.
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