How does it feel now that you ARE in med school?

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Do you feel like a chapter's closed and now a new one began, just like that? Or do you think back to the times of stressing to even get in and feel relieved to be done with all that? Does the transition unphase some of you since there is still stress, especially regarding matching/step 1s/etc?

Can't wait to be on the same side of the fence as you guys. For now I can only imagine the grass being greener where you are

I'm more stressed but it's more fun.

A lot more stuff to worry about. This is your life. But I'm having a good time. Much, much better than anticipated.

It did feel nice to get in, definitely a stress-relief.

But that stress-relief was temporary when the reality of Step 1 and residency applications kick in. You start the whole game all over again. I thought applying to residency was much more stressful than applying to medical school. But, that comes from somebody that chose a competitive specialty.

On the bright side, if you don't end up matching there is usually something you can scramble into or you can reapply the next year. The options if you don't make it into medical school don't seem quite as nice as if you don't match initially into residency (although they both suck).

You will feel relieved to have gotten in. Working hard and learning now have a greater sense of urgency and seem to matter more, wherein lies both the increased fun and stress. Regardless, I feel privileged to be here and look forward to learning everyday.

Originally Posted by Hanguk

Do you feel like a chapter's closed and now a new one began, just like that? Or do you think back to the times of stressing to even get in and feel relieved to be done with all that? Does the transition unphase some of you since there is still stress, especially regarding matching/step 1s/etc?

Can't wait to be on the same side of the fence as you guys. For now I can only imagine the grass being greener where you are

HAted medical school. College = awesome. Residency = work, but awesome. med school blew.

Just went through third year orientation. Took step 1 a couple of weeks ago. I would say that med school has been unimaginably stressful (you know it will be stressful, but you can't really fathom it until you live it). However, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else with my life right now so I would say it is worth it, despite all of the obnoxious hoops you have to go through and all the stress.
First year, I often found myself smiling just because I had actually gotten in and was doing fine in med school. Second year was so crazy that I rarely experienced that and was just stressed beyond belief most of the time, especially closer to step 1. Hopefully, even though third year will be a new kind of difficult, it will be more fun than the first two years?

I've only finished my first year and at least for first year it doesn't feel massively different than college. Some weeks around tests your going to spend almost every waking hour doing schoolwork, then other weeks you will have tons of free time to do whatever. You also get to do/see some pretty cool stuff, despite the fact anatomy was by far my worst subject, I still thought it was really awesome to get to dissect and see all that stuff in anatomy lab. I think thats one thing too many medstudents take for granted, even if you hate learning anatomy like I did, there is something amazing about actually getting to see stuff most people never will.

At first, there was relief--my life is laid out for me for the next four years. Then it started dawning on me that I'd have to think about specialty choice and the match and such well before the end of those four years. So much for the vacation from sorting out my life.

College was more fun.

Med school is more work and more stress. Although I do appreciate the knowledge that I have gained.

It's excellent. I wear my whitecoat everywhere I go and random women ask me if they can give me a blowjob

True Story

The new normal.

Great, the first path I freely chose rather than fell into in my life thus far.

Originally Posted by OveractiveBrain

HAted medical school. College = awesome. Residency = work, but awesome. med school blew.

lol

Residency does seem infinitely more interesting than M1/M2...

I just finished first year and I didn't think it was that bad. I ended up doing well and I didn't go crazy.

I actually made a video about it online. Check it out if you're interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3tbRTriupM

Like waaaarrrrrm apple pie

Originally Posted by Hanguk

Do you feel like a chapter's closed and now a new one began, just like that? Or do you think back to the times of stressing to even get in and feel relieved to be done with all that? Does the transition unphase some of you since there is still stress, especially regarding matching/step 1s/etc?

Can't wait to be on the same side of the fence as you guys. For now I can only imagine the grass being greener where you are

I just finished my second year (in Germany, it takes 6 years) and it gets better with every passing semester!

Med school is definitely an uphill battle and getting in is just the tip of the iceberg. Whoever said that "getting in is half the battle" may not have actually attended medical school, lol. While what I'm studying has gotten more interesting, it's also more stressful because it's much harder to digest and has real, serious consequences in the future if you learn it wrong.

I do sometimes think back to the days before I got accepted and appreciate that my future is less uncertain now. As I study for Step 1, I believe the MCAT was easier to conquer but with more on the line. Regardless of my specific score on the Step I I will most likely still become a physician, whereas your MCAT score determines if you can even get your foot in the door.

It's awesome. I felt like there was a lot of hoop-jumping in undergrad trying to get in. I was very overextended in leadership, research, extracurricular stuff, not to mention getting good grades. Now in medical school, I have more responsibility but I don't have to spend time on things I don't care about anymore. And now that I've found what I want to do (C/L psych), I'm finding myself doing all those extra things now out of genuine interest. Med school is harder than undergrad by a long shot, but it's much more focused on the things I'm interested in.
Also, in undergrad I had friends in lots of majors, but there's a kind of fellowship when you and your friends are all doing the same thing at the same time. When you yank out your headphones and declare "I don't give a **** about the glycogen storage diseases!" and you have a friend right there who says "Me neither. I'm ordering pizza. Maybe if we store some glycogen first it will be easier to learn them..." it makes it all a little easier.

Good luck!

So here's a tangent question for you all-- the hardest part of undergrad was forcing myself to care about my liberal arts required classes. I seriously had more trouble making grades in drawing 100 than in any other class. Is it at least easier to care in med school because it is interesting material?

Originally Posted by CallMeDoctorLov

So here's a tangent question for you all-- the hardest part of undergrad was forcing myself to care about my liberal arts required classes. I seriously had more trouble making grades in drawing 100 than in any other class. Is it at least easier to care in med school because it is interesting material?

I'd say yes. You can at least convince yourself that basically everything you're learning COULD have some relevance. Is every stupid protein or step of the TCA cycle directly relevant to most clinical encounters? No but you could at least see yourself needing to know that information sometime for something. Much more so than the stupid creative writing essay you had to do for English 101 in college. There's definitely some useless info but not as much as in college where you had to do a bunch of random classes you didn't give two sh*ts about.

Originally Posted by Hanguk

Do you feel like a chapter's closed and now a new one began, just like that? Or do you think back to the times of stressing to even get in and feel relieved to be done with all that? Does the transition unphase some of you since there is still stress, especially regarding matching/step 1s/etc?

Can't wait to be on the same side of the fence as you guys. For now I can only imagine the grass being greener where you are

less stressed than undergrad, but partly because I'm in an amazing city.

brb guaranteed six figure job even if you're a huge f*** up and fail step I multiple times
brb being in school is better than a real job
brb high status profession=high caliber of women if you play your cards right
brb actually having a job that is meaningful to society unlike ibankers (brb making reckless decisions and then fleecing taxpayers via bailout)
brb sleeping with the deans wife in the hospital supply closet (srs)

Originally Posted by Hanguk

Do you feel like a chapter's closed and now a new one began, just like that? Or do you think back to the times of stressing to even get in and feel relieved to be done with all that? Does the transition unphase some of you since there is still stress, especially regarding matching/step 1s/etc?

Can't wait to be on the same side of the fence as you guys. For now I can only imagine the grass being greener where you are

Tired. That's how it feels.

Originally Posted by munchymanRX

Tired. That's how it feels.

Do they still start you off with Pharm and Path? Because if they haven't changed the format you're in for a long four weeks.

Originally Posted by patel2

less stressed than undergrad, but partly because I'm in an amazing city.

brb guaranteed six figure job even if you're a huge f*** up and fail step I multiple times
brb being in school is better than a real job
brb high status profession=high caliber of women if you play your cards right
brb actually having a job that is meaningful to society unlike ibankers (brb making reckless decisions and then fleecing taxpayers via bailout)
brb sleeping with the deans wife in the hospital supply closet (srs)

Consider me hooked.

Originally Posted by ILikeFood

Do they still start you off with Pharm and Path? Because if they haven't changed the format you're in for a long four weeks.

Yup. In the 3rd week of that business. They just got a new pharm professor in that does the kinetics/dynamics portion. Everyone got destroyed on the first exam.

Ho hum.

Originally Posted by patel2

less stressed than undergrad, but partly because I'm in an amazing city.

brb guaranteed six figure job even if you're a huge f*** up and fail step I multiple times
brb being in school is better than a real job
brb high status profession=high caliber of women if you play your cards right
brb actually having a job that is meaningful to society unlike ibankers (brb making reckless decisions and then fleecing taxpayers via bailout)
brb sleeping with the deans wife in the hospital supply closet (srs)

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but what does the "brb" represent that you keep saying? I always took it to mean "be right back" but that doesn't seem to make sense in this context...

Originally Posted by Anne2009

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but what does the "brb" represent that you keep saying? I always took it to mean "be right back" but that doesn't seem to make sense in this context...

i think it is "be right back", as in "i'm too busy doing the soon-to-be-mentioned awesome stuff to continue the conversation"

Originally Posted by Anne2009

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but what does the "brb" represent that you keep saying? I always took it to mean "be right back" but that doesn't seem to make sense in this context...

bathroom break. The insane amounts of coffee consumed by ms1 leads to polyuria.

Felt great to get in med school but my stress level has definitely been climbing as orientation gets closer. I would take this over the stress of getting a med school spot any day but ask me again in one month! I might be singing a different tune...

Originally Posted by patel2

brb sleeping with the deans wife in the hospital supply closet (srs)

absolutely amazing. how in the world did you pull this off? you are living every man's dream. or at least, every college and beyond man. but be careful, dude.

I'm sick of just standing/sitting around 12 hours a day as a med student.

Originally Posted by MedicinaeDoctor

absolutely amazing. how in the world did you pull this off? you are living every man's dream. or at least, every college and beyond man. but be careful, dude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3lKbMBab18

Originally Posted by MedicinaeDoctor

absolutely amazing. how in the world did you pull this off? you are living every man's dream. or at least, every college and beyond man. but be careful, dude.

well basically we got into the closet, and I was all, hey shawty. lemme holla at you right quick ya know what im sayin. checkin you out over there you lookin kinda good, ya know what im sayin. so i was wondering ya know how about you and me go back to the place, get comfortable, probably sip on some of this henney, you know what im sayin, and after that, you know what im... sayin, we can do the grownup and you can let me clap on dem cheeks, ya hear me?

Originally Posted by patel2

well basically we got into the closet, and I was all, hey shawty. lemme holla at you right quick ya know what im sayin. checkin you out over there you lookin kinda good, ya know what im sayin. so i was wondering ya know how about you and me go back to the place, get comfortable, probably sip on some of this henney, you know what im sayin, and after that, you know what im... sayin, we can do the grownup and you can let me clap on dem cheeks, ya hear me?

o i see you killin it wit dem lines and wha not. you keep doin you. matta fact, let her do you. alla ova tha dean's table. then upload the intanet. on one a dem college sites. ju know what i mean.

-medicinaedocta, jackson heights crew. wattup