I'm more interested in 2019's and 2020's match results. They seem like a sharp bunch of people.
Yeah those 4th years in the c/o 2018...what a bunch of jokers....
Current 4th year here. I think our class will do quite well in the match. I would go so far as to say that anyone who has trouble matching probably has more blame to lay on themselves than the school. I have had a lot of interviewers ask how I liked going to LUCOM, and how I felt being in the inaugural class, but I never felt like they were asking in such a way as to imply that they were concerned about me being a LUCOM student.
Most of my colleagues and friends have had very positive experiences on the interview trail. Some of my classmates had to be realistic about where they were applying and for what specialty, but again, that has more to do with their individual performance, not the school.
This is probably as good a time as any to put this out there: I’d say upwards of 90% of your medical school success is up to you as an individual, not where you go to school. This extends to boards too. There is so much to learn in the first 2 years that when it comes time to prepare for boards, everyone, regardless of what school they go to is essentially doing the same plan of:
Bunker down for 4-8 weeks, review everything in first aid and (insert name of board prep course here), do a few thousand u world and combank questions, go take the exam and feel like to failed it, find out 6 weeks later you passed (most likely), and then move on with your life. I will say LUCOM took our feedback seriously regarding board prep, and that is a large part of why the c/o 2019 board performance improved so much. When I say that, you have to understand, even though the c/o 2018 board scores were about 3% below the national average for school performance, inaugural classes always underperform, it goes with the territory. In fact, despite the fact that we were 3% under the national pass rate ( around 88% of our class passed on the first time) we largely outperformed the inaugural classes pass rates overall. Finally, because the school responded to our feedback, the c/o 2019 did an OUTSTANDING job on their first time board pass rate. I’m not sure the exact number, but it was equal to or higher than the average across all Osteopathic schools.
Anyway, all of this is to say, your future success as a physician is really based on hard work as an individual, not anything special your school did for you.
As for things you can do to prepare for medical school, I have a few suggestions, take them or leave them.
1.) finish undergrad strong. Don’t look at graduation from undergrad as a finish line, look at it as the starting line. Do you want to limp across the starting line, or sprint across?
2.) take time to focus on yourself and try and learn who you are. I know that sounds cheesy, but it is so valuable to reflect on why you chose to become a physician, especially after you’ve been accepted. Ground yourself in whatever has called you individually to become a physician, and reflect on it when you have times of difficulty and doubt - they will come.
3.) read, a lot. Medical school forced me to learn how to read all over again. I don’t mean that I became illiterate, I mean that I forgot how to read something critically and actually take away what the author is saying. Stay away from textbooks if you can, and take this time to read some literature that will develop you as an individual. My recommendations are: anything by Atul Gawande, The Laws of Medicine by Siddartha Mukherji, The Art of War (Cleary translation), Extreme Ownership by Willink and Babin, just to name a few. Read whatever you like, but these are a few of the books that helped me tease out humanism in medicine and what it means to be a leader, even when I am not in charge.
4.) medical school is a roller coaster. 1st year starts off exciting, then the hammer drops and you may be close to miserable by Christmas, then you get a break, and by the time you turn around you’ve finished neuro and 1st year is done. Second year starts off nice, as it is all clinical and it reminds you why you wanted to go to medical school. Then it starts sucking because medical questions aren’t always black and white, and then by the end of second year you find yourself stressed beyond belief about boards. Second year was probably the worst year in my opinion. Third year is exciting, you get to actually see patients and do stuff, but then you’re reminded that you still have shelf exams, and you still have to take Level 2 boards and prepare for PE...The first half of fourth year is a whirlwind of audition rotations, interviews, traveling, living out of a suitcase, fancy dinners at resident interviews, and crappy food at hospital cafeterias. The second half of fourth year (where I’m
At now) is really liberating. I’ve done all my interviews, I’ve basically established my rank order list, and I’m just waiting for the match. I have a couple clinical rotations this semester, but I am on easy street. Believe it or not, I have found time to get my pilot’s license...sometimes I wish fourth year wouldn’t end.
Anyway, that was a much longer post than I intended to write, but hopefully there is some helpful stuff there for folks nonetheless.
Feel free to ask here or PM me if you want my perspective as a 4th year. LUCOM has been a fine place for me to get my medical education, but trust me, I don’t think my experience would have been terribly different and my match results will likely be exactly the same as if I had gone anywhere else.
