Best moment: Being told I was promoted to second year. Not that I was worried I wouldn't be, but you know, until you get the official word....Calling all nontrads who just finished MS1: please report on the year! Best moment? Worst moment? Has it been what you expected, or have there been surprises (good or bad)? Still glad you took the plunge? How do you plan to recharge this summer?
Congrats to all of you! One down, three more to go...
Maybe just the stress of the end of the year stuff? Best moment: Being told I was promoted to second year. Not that I was worried I wouldn't be, but you know, until you get the official word....
Worst moment: hmm, not so much one worst moment. It's hard for me to answer a question like this, because I'm the kind of person who manages to find nearly every bad situation kind of funny the more I think about it.
I'd say it has been more or less what I expected, except that it's been both harder and better than I expected. I've spent the past year feeling more tired than I have ever been in my entire life. I don't know if it's the hours or the studying or what, but geez, I sure am not up to pulling all-nighters or going partying with my younger classmates.
Surprises: Hmm, I loved anatomy and hated histology. I'm now able to take people's blood pressure, and I can even muddle through a history and physical. Toward the end of the year I was starting to feel like maybe they were going to make a doctor out of me yet....
Yes, I'm still glad I went. I feel like overall I would have enjoyed going to pharmacy school more than medical school, but the MD degree will be more flexible and useful to me in the long run. I'm keeping my eyes on the prize.
Recharging: I spent the first week of my break doing absolutely nothing. I didn't get dressed, didn't go anywhere. Now I'm more or less back to normal and doing a little summer research.
Best of luck to all of the rising M1s.
Two reasons: 1) it's boring, and 2) all of the f***ing cells look the same to me.
Ok, not the adipose cells; I can always identify those. And interestingly, the heme part wasn't so bad either, because even all the zillion types of white blood cells stain differently with all their different granules. But seriously, my response half the time on histo questions was something to the effect of, "assuming that this thingie the arrow might kind of be pointing to is not just a smudge or artifact, it appears to be a cell of some sort...."Sorry, but I don't ever post where I go to school. I don't think the info would really be all that helpful to you anyway, in the sense that individual experiences vary so much based on all kinds of personal things. For example, factors like your background training, what other things you have going on in your life while you're in school (ex. family), your personal tastes in studying and subject matter, etc. can affect your experience tremendously. I mean, if Shy and I were classmates, my experience as a single person with no family and a chemistry background would be very different than hers is going through the same thing with two kids and a background as a paramedic. Actually, that brings up a good point: if you're going to study with someone else, pick someone who has different strengths and weaknesses than you do.glamqueen said:
I agree with all of this. Even as a single non-trad, my priorities and lifestyle are just different than those of many of my trad classmates. It's not at all that the trads aren't friendly to non-trads and vice-versa, but we're just not at the same points in our lives. There is this one super sweet trad girl in my class who called me to invite me to go out with her and some of her friends. This was at 9:30 PM, and they were just getting ready to leave for their night out. Although I really appreciated that they were thoughtful enough to invite me, I was already in my pajamas by this point, because I get up at 5:30 AM to study. Try explaining THAT to the typical person in their early twenties and see what kind of reaction you get.
Well, my situation is a bit different, for a number of reasons. My children were 8 and 11 when I started last year, but were 4 and 7 when I started back to undergrad full time (which is NOTHING like med school). I'm more of an auditory learner, so I go to class. My husband works nights with rotating days off (what a pain that one is).
. We chat for 15 minutes while I get my stuff ready, go over schedules, etc. ), all the coursework has been more than manageable in those 3 hours a day of studying. Have I honored many classes? Not really. Am I barely squeaking by? Not really. I'm pretty comfortably in the middle -- generally around 80-85 or so. And I'm happy with that. If I sacrificed my family time, I'm fairly confident I would be honoring most classes. Bottom line is I'm just not willing to do that.
I'm really glad that someone decided to start this thread
) I take courses in the first year med school curriculum with med students. And I'd like to comment that at least with me, the first course I took was shocking from a volume point of view (22 lecture/chapters per exam ) But with each course, I find myself better able to assimilate a large volume of info in a short amount of time and still do well ( B and better) in these courses.
we're doing it ourselves, GSG. So far we've got rough framing for the first floor level (the garage), wall sheathing, interior walls/stairwell (but no stairs yet), garage header raised (yes, by hand - it was a total b!tch), and the lumber guys graciously put up the center beam (all 20 feet and 600 pounds of her) that will support the floor joists for the second floor. But it started raining a bit ago, so we put away the compressor, the miter saw, the framing nailer, the tools, and covered the lumber sitting on our new garage floor.
Going on rounds or sitting in on a case presentation, and actually understanding some of what was being said.
Getting home the night after an exam, to realize that you have to get up and go to class and small group the very next day. No break, no sick day, no day off, nothing.
Here is where I will comment on the younger generation. I came to medical school, still in the mindset that I am in my "early-to-mid-twenties." Sadly, no matter how hard I try, there is a mountain of difference between myself and my 22-year old classmates who just graduated from UG. Their hangovers last a couple of hours. Mine last 2 days. They have the stamina to pull all-nighter after all-nighter, and still go out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I need my 7 hours of sleep a night, and I'm lucky if I make it out both weekend nights. Still, I try to party like a rock star once in a blue moon, while I'm still young, because I know I will miss it terribly once these days are over.
Hell yeah. Bring on round 2.
I'm working at a local hospital on a couple of clinical research projects, working in the clinic/going on rounds every chance I get, and taking a lot of time off to go to Italy and work on my house. And that's it.
Calling all nontrads who just finished MS1: please report on the year! Best moment? Worst moment? Has it been what you expected, or have there been surprises (good or bad)? Still glad you took the plunge? How do you plan to recharge this summer?
Congrats to all of you! One down, three more to go...
Ain't that the truth. ). On the other hand, second year was a lot more interesting than first year was. Pathology is way better than histo. (I had forgotten how much I hated histo until I re-read that post I wrote last year. ) Studying for boards can be an overwhelming experience sometimes, but it's also kind of cool because a lot of things you sort of learned but never totally understood the first time start to come together a little and actually make sense. All that being said, I'm glad I don't have to ever go through first or second year again--I figure that's about enough class now to last even a professional student like me a lifetime. 
I really don't think that's a very good use of your time. Honestly, nothing you study this summer probably will help you all that much. Most of Step 1 is based on second year material, particularly path, pharm, etc. You can't review subjects that you haven't learned yet in the first place. Focus on doing as well as you can next year in your classes, and that will give you a good foundation to study for Step 1. You can review the anatomy and physio as you go through the path and pharm, and that actually would be helpful, especially if your school uses a systems approach. If you really feel like you want to do something useful this summer, then find a retrospective research project in whatever specialty you think you might go into, and see if you can get yourself a pub or at least an abstract. (Basically, this is going to entail looking at a data set of some kind and analyzing it, which can be a doable summer-length project.)
Same with us.
* Fortunately, there are also sensible, well-balanced people. Do what you'd do in any workplace: spend your time with the people you respect. Don't worry about what the others are doing.). It's a really remarkable opportunity to appreciate the... oh, dear, how can I say this without sounding cheesy? it gives you a new sense of the... hell's bells, you'll know what I mean when you get there.
No matter what age you are, dating in your med school class is just asking for drama. I don't think it's even such a good idea to date anyone affiliated with the med school or hospital (including residents, nurses, etc.) while you're a student there, to be honest. Socially, med school isn't a step up from UG; if anything, it's more like a step down back into high school.
People *will* know your business, even if you think you're being all discreet, and the info *will* spread all over the school. I tend to be more out of the gossip loop than most people in my class because I rarely attend social functions, but I have still managed to hear plenty of the gory personal life war stories. When even I have heard about it, then that story really *has* gotten around the whole school.
