Anyone else planning on enjoying life in medschool?

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surftheiop

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So to all the MS0's, is everyone already sure that the next 4 years are going to suck or are there some excited people? I figure my life is too short to just "give up" 4 years in my 20's so I chose a less well ranked school that was more convenient for my wife, closer to family, next to the beach, etc. I enjoyed all of my biology and biomedical engineering classes in college, so part of me is excited for the basic sciences despite the fact it will be way harder than undergrad. I don't really have any ROAD aspirations, so really one of my biggest goals of medschool is to wait to "sell my soul" until internship.

I'm curious to see if in 4 years I look at this like "you were a naive idiot surf" or if medschool ends up being "not as bad as advertised". Anyone else have similar thoughts?
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I'm actually excited (though atm I'm a little tired and want to quit my job already :p). I did do an SMP so I feel like I have an idea of the difficulty of the classes. I think one of the things that surprised me wasn't the difficulty of the classes but the fakeness? of some of the people. One guy said he was an auditory learner and didn't need to take notes, and how much his profs loved him and wanted to hook him up with research projects/great rec letters/etc. He made it seem so easy but then I saw him retaking histo... I don't really understand why people need to psych other people out; that's probably going to be my least favorite part of school/rotations/etc.

I'm doing everything I can to be prepared for the classes (going through the links at the top of this forum - the helpful links stickied one and bookmarking the seemingly useful ones) - figuring out how to study for classes, i.e. which programs to use (EverNote is a work in progress), looking over the book list they just gave out/etc.

I know it's weird, but I feel like I'm going to enjoy my time at school because I worked so hard to get to that point. Honestly with all the other cr*p I've had to go through to get here, it's basically going to be less stressful imo. I know the classes will be hard, some profs will be great, some suck, rotations will be variable, and I still have a long way to go, but if I adopt the attitude that everything sucks til I'm a doctor, I'm going to be a very unhappy person for 4+ years. I'd rather go in with the attitude yes it will be hard, yes some things I won't like, but now everything is a lot more relevant because you can apply it to patients. The better you feel about it, positive attitude, taking care of yourself usually translates to better learning = being a better doctor.

I hope to god I won't fall in love with one of the ROAD specialties, cause I think that's going to be a whole other beast. I'd rather do the best I can, get a good residency, and enjoy what I do than stress out/complain about how bad I have it for the next few years. At the end of the day you know what even if I end up in FM/love FM I'm still gonna be a doctor.

I'm not gonna lie, I had it pretty hard before this, so this is like a dream come true for me. I'm probably gonna get flamed for some of the optimism in my post but there you have it :p.
 
The last two years my wife and I
have travelled, made amazing friends, had our first son, and watched him go from sleeping all the time to crawling every where. Oh, and I also finished the first two years of med school. This is the beginning of your career and so it is super important that you learn how to manage your time so that you can have a life.

As busy as first year will seem being a doctor is even busier so if you don't learn now you'll be miserable later!!

Work hard during the day, take the evenings off, study part of Saturday and take the rest of the weekend off. The weekend before a test study both days, but otherwise stick with your schedule. You'll study less but you'll be more productive because you are happy and well rested!

Just my 2 cents :)
 
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you can enjoy yourself in med school, depends on how much pressure you impose on yourself
 
I'm not sure if I'm as much excited as baffled. I look at my calendar, and i'm like, "Seriously? You guys are going to let me cut people up? And then put them back together? And in 4 years, you're going to let me call myself "doctor"? WTF."

I'm pretty sure I'm excited, when I get down to it, but I have mixed feelings because I've been hearing stories ranging anywhere from "it's not so bad, just keep up with work and you'll be fine" to "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN."

I guess we'll see in a few weeks how bad it REALLY is though!
 
surftheiop said:
So to all the MS0's, is everyone already sure that the next 4 years are going to suck or are there some excited people? I figure my life is too short to just "give up" 4 years in my 20's so I chose a less well ranked school that was more convenient for my wife, closer to family, next to the beach, etc. I enjoyed all of my biology and biomedical engineering classes in college, so part of me is excited for the basic sciences despite the fact it will be way harder than undergrad. I don't really have any ROAD aspirations, so really one of my biggest goals of medschool is to wait to "sell my soul" until internship.

I'm curious to see if in 4 years I look at this like "you were a naive idiot surf" or if medschool ends up being "not as bad as advertised". Anyone else have similar thoughts?
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I agree that you should always have a good time in life and that med school shouldn't be any different.

However...

Just keep in mind that you can't really know what specialty you will want to do at this point. Read Panda Bear's blog, hosted by SDN. He has a cautionary tale about how he tried too hard to not try to hard in med school and enjoy life. He ended up not getting the specialty spot that he wanted in the match, scrambling for an FM spot, then trying to re-match into his desired specialty. Once he did rematch, he had to REPEAT his intern year.

I'm seriously not trying to be a downer. I would just hate to see you miserable because down the road you fall in love with derm and you can't get it.

I plan to study hard and play hard for the next four years. That sounds the most enjoyable to me AND it will give me the best shot at landing in a practice that will keep me happy for the rest of my life.
 
OneTyme said:
I agree that you should always have a good time in life and that med school shouldn't be any different.

However...

Just keep in mind that you can't really know what specialty you will want to do at this point. Read Panda Bear's blog, hosted by SDN. He has a cautionary tale about how he tried too hard to not try to hard in med school and enjoy life. He ended up not getting the specialty spot that he wanted in the match, scrambling for an FM spot, then trying to re-match into his desired specialty. Once he did rematch, he had to REPEAT his intern year.
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Sorry, kind of off-topic, but didn't Panda Bear apply to FM originally? I read his entire blog a couple years ago and it's my recollection that he wanted FM but then chose to pursue EM later on.
 
CityLights said:
Sorry, kind of off-topic, but didn't Panda Bear apply to FM originally? I read his entire blog a couple years ago and it's my recollection that he wanted FM but then chose to pursue EM later on.
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Yes, when he didn't get what he wanted he panicked and did FM. Then he did an intern year for FM and switched to EM after that. I just finished reading his blog on that and the other specialties. Pretty funny guy.
 
VoiceofReason said:
you can enjoy yourself in med school, depends on how much pressure you impose on yourself
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So true, love the brevity. The major thing I've noticed about my classmates is those that have let the rest of their lives go to hell have seen their studies follow shortly after.

The workload you must carry is not going to be overwhelming unless you let it become that way. This is probably the hardest part about it.
 
Learning kool stuff, doing kool stuff, living in a new city, meeting new people, getting involved with new activities, and just generally moving forward with life. It's gonna be great.
 
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I'm excited for the journey. I am going to enjoy at least portions of every part of my medical education and career. Mostly, I just feel lucky. I got to where I wanted to be, and I get to do what I wanted to do.
 
VoiceofReason said:
you can enjoy yourself in med school, depends on how much pressure you impose on yourself
Click to expand...

I imposed a great deal of pressure on myself but I still enjoyed these past 3 years.

Because I knew I would go insane w/o making time for living life I was forced to become very efficient and the self-imposed pressure got me through the long days/nights of studying.

Med school sucks but I didn't let it make my life suck. Of course I could have enjoyed life more w/o being in med school but life was still good. I say this as someone who from day 1 wanted to keep the ROAD and stuff like ortho in play and convinced myself of the mentality that B = bad :laugh:. Made some great friends and had some times I'll never forget :thumbup:

Things that sucked were having to miss friend's weddings and stuff like that. Also getting deeper in debt while friends are into their careers and buying houses and the like. It does beat being unemployed though
 
MB333999 said:
Learning kool stuff, doing kool stuff, living in a new city, meeting new people, getting involved with new activities, and just generally moving forward with life. It's gonna be great.
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:thumbup: maintain this mentality as long as you can. perfect mentality
 
It's a good time. Not really too hard except for the fact that most of us (myself included) are type A freaks who can't stand being anything less than the best. There's a great deal of anxiety that goes into the idea of being at the point where failure means not getting to do what you want to (specialty wise). The closer I find myself getting to the match...the more anxious I am about it.

That being said, I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far.
 
Nope.

I plan on withdrawing further and further inside myself, cutting off all contact with friends and family, and using alcohol and drugs to blunt the relentless self-criticism I will heap on myself every waking moment. As I spiral deeper into an unrelenting depression, I will abandon any pretense at social normalcy. I will stop shaving, doing laundry, cutting my hair and nails and, eventually, bathing. I will give up all of my hobbies. I will start playing online poker with my loan disbursement money. I will smoke bath salts before every exam and, on the off chance that this adversely affects my academic performance, I will blame the faculty and administration for what I can only assume will be a terribly designed and implemented curriculum.
 
surftheiop said:
So to all the MS0's, is everyone already sure that the next 4 years are going to suck or are there some excited people? ...
Click to expand...

it doesn't suck, it's just different and time consuming. You will surround yourself with folks keeping the same schedule and it won't seem like everyone is having fun except you. There will be a level of focus and intensity you aren't accustomed to -- all of the weak students who used to pull down the curve didn't get into med school. You will adapt.
 
FutureDr8429033 said:
Nope.

I plan on withdrawing further and further inside myself, cutting off all contact with friends and family, and using alcohol and drugs to blunt the relentless self-criticism I will heap on myself every waking moment. As I spiral deeper into an unrelenting depression, I will abandon any pretense at social normalcy. I will stop shaving, doing laundry, cutting my hair and nails and, eventually, bathing. I will give up all of my hobbies. I will start playing online poker with my loan disbursement money. I will smoke bath salts before every exam and, on the off chance that this adversely affects my academic performance, I will blame the faculty and administration for what I can only assume will be a terribly designed and implemented curriculum.
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Not unless you move out of the US, buddy. I know, I'm sad about it too.

Other than that, :thumbup:.
 
It really just depends entirely on how hardcore you want to be.

I'm pretty softcore.

EDIT: First two years that is.
 
OneTyme said:
I agree that you should always have a good time in life and that med school shouldn't be any different.

However...

Just keep in mind that you can't really know what specialty you will want to do at this point. Read Panda Bear's blog, hosted by SDN. He has a cautionary tale about how he tried too hard to not try to hard in med school and enjoy life. He ended up not getting the specialty spot that he wanted in the match, scrambling for an FM spot, then trying to re-match into his desired specialty. Once he did rematch, he had to REPEAT his intern year.

I'm seriously not trying to be a downer. I would just hate to see you miserable because down the road you fall in love with derm and you can't get it.

I plan to study hard and play hard for the next four years. That sounds the most enjoyable to me AND it will give me the best shot at landing in a practice that will keep me happy for the rest of my life.
Click to expand...

^^^This.

One of the things that really sank in around the time I started studying for boards was that I'd better bust my ass now so that I wouldn't have to bust my ass at the same 24/7 pace for the rest of my life.

Blowing stuff off and doing crappy is only going to increase the chance that you get railroaded into one of the specialties where you have no control over your life. ROAD specialties are popular in large part because they allow you to make decent money while not working like a slave. Consider this carefully when you're thinking about how hard you want to work in medical school.

PS: I still feel like the first 2 years of medical school were pretty fun.
 
surftheiop said:
So to all the MS0's, is everyone already sure that the next 4 years are going to suck or are there some excited people? I figure my life is too short to just "give up" 4 years in my 20's so I chose a less well ranked school that was more convenient for my wife, closer to family, next to the beach, etc. I enjoyed all of my biology and biomedical engineering classes in college, so part of me is excited for the basic sciences despite the fact it will be way harder than undergrad. I don't really have any ROAD aspirations, so really one of my biggest goals of medschool is to wait to "sell my soul" until internship.

I'm curious to see if in 4 years I look at this like "you were a naive idiot surf" or if medschool ends up being "not as bad as advertised". Anyone else have similar thoughts?
Click to expand...

I am truly wondering whether it is possible to have ROAD aspirations while maintaining a life. Right now I'm trying to decide whether I would rather live (for the same price) 10 miles south of campus in a studio at the beach where the beer flows like wine and drunken coeds flock like the salmon of Capistrano or 10 miles east of campus where I can get a 1br in quiet suburbia. Lol who am I kidding, I'm going to choose suburbia.

I am planning on 1-2 outings per month. If I can match into to Derm or EM I will still be plenty young by the time I am board certified, have money to burn, and have time off to play.
 
FunnyCurrent said:
I am truly wondering whether it is possible to have ROAD aspirations while maintaining a life. Right now I'm trying to decide whether I would rather live (for the same price) 10 miles south of campus in a studio at the beach where the beer flows like wine and drunken coeds flock like the salmon of Capistrano or 10 miles east of campus where I can get a 1br in quiet suburbia. Lol who am I kidding, I'm going to choose suburbia.

I am planning on 1-2 outings per month. If I can match into to Derm or EM I will still be plenty young by the time I am board certified, have money to burn, and have time off to play.
Click to expand...

Of course it is possible, med school is NOT that hard, and I matched in rads. First 1-2 years, and 4th year, I went out at least twice a week. Third year was a rough one, but hey, its med school, gotta put in the hours some time. The reason people bitch and moan so much is because med school tends to attract stressed out type A crazies. If you value having a life, you will.
 
Per previous suggestions, I've been fascinated with PandaBearMD's blog. Aside from his annoyingly persistent political rhetoric, his experiences are a treasure trove of cynicism. A much needed dampering of my quixotic optimism.
 
Halcyon03 said:
Per previous suggestions, I've been fascinated with PandaBearMD's blog. Aside from his annoyingly persistent political rhetoric, his experiences are a treasure trove of cynicism. A much needed dampering of my quixotic optimism.
Click to expand...

Oh, pre-meds and their big words...
 
It's a different kind of hard. The material is fairly easy, save for a few things that can trip you up (anion gap, etc.). The problem is the amount of the easy material you have to learn. It can be fun, but I can see how the people that wanted nothing less than honors/98% on every test can get stressed out.

Aside from a few big tests I kept it pretty trill. Tried to go out at least once a week, play intramurals, etc. I would say that medical school is difficult, for sure, but a good number of people make it seem waaaay harder than it truly is.
 
You can plan on doing "whatever you want."

I know a few that planned on doing just that. Two of them checked out MSI again, one of them checked out MSII again, and one of them is checking out McDonalds.
 
JimmyChitwood said:
It's a different kind of hard. The material is fairly easy, save for a few things that can trip you up (anion gap, etc.). The problem is the amount of the easy material you have to learn. It can be fun, but I can see how the people that wanted nothing less than honors/98% on every test can get stressed out.

Aside from a few big tests I kept it pretty trill. Tried to go out at least once a week, play intramurals, etc. I would say that medical school is difficult, for sure, but a good number of people make it seem waaaay harder than it truly is.
Click to expand...

Like you alluded to here: it depends on what you want out of it.

I didn't necessarily care about honoring every course, but I want to learn as much as possible. I want to be the go-to guy when no one else knows what's wrong, what the diagnosis is, what the next step is, etc.
 
tco said:
You can plan on doing "whatever you want."

I know a few that planned on doing just that. Two of them checked out MSI again, one of them checked out MSII again, and one of them is checking out McDonalds.
Click to expand...

I know a few people who like to judge other people for not studying as much as them.

They don't enjoy life at all.
 
VenusinFurs said:
I know a few people who like to judge other people for not studying as much as them.

They don't enjoy life at all.
Click to expand...

I know a few people who like to judge other people for studying more and not doing as well.

Well cowme's post is reassuring. To be honest, I can't wait until we start. I really love the challenge of mastering difficult material, taking exams, friendly competition with peers. It's really fun to me. Maybe I'm just a type-A crazy. Deep down I'm sure most of you guys are the same way even if you'll deny it in person or on this anonymous internet forum.
 
FunnyCurrent said:
I know a few people who like to judge other people for studying more and not doing as well.

Well cowme's post is reassuring. To be honest, I can't wait until we start. I really love the challenge of mastering difficult material, taking exams, friendly competition with peers. It's really fun to me. Maybe I'm just a type-A crazy. Deep down I'm sure most of you guys are the same way even if you'll deny it in person or on this anonymous internet forum.
Click to expand...


I'm really uncomfortable with competition and I hate being pitted against other people in any way. Other than that, I agree - I'm more comfortable in school than out of school, and I'd definitely be worrying and kvetching regardless of what there was (or wasn't) to worry about.
 
I'm just pointing out that worrying about how other people do their **** isn't going to make you any better. I was judging no one for studying more.

People who work really hard fail years all the time. People who don't do much work get fine grades. A lot of the time, the difference is whether you seek help when you need it. Do what you got to do, but try not to be self-righteous about it.
 
med school does not start to suck until third year. the first two years i had more free time than i knew what to do with
 
dannyboy1 said:
med school does not start to suck until third year. the first two years i had more free time than i knew what to do with
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less than half of 3rd year really sucks. Surg, IM, L&D on OB and maybe IP peds. All of psych and fm, most of peds, and about half of OB I lived a normal, well-adjusted life
 
It all depends what you want out of med school, what specialty and what lifestyle.

Also, an inherently 'smart' student can study half as much as a 'less smart' student and achieve the exact same stats.

These people who are less smart may have to work their butts off if they want to get into the residency they desire.

However, in the end it comes down to knowing the information. You can be smart but if you don't actually know the pertinent information in and out you may perform lower than you expected on tests and boards.

I really do not even consider myself all that smart. I know I'll have to sacrifice a good amount during medical school if I want to get what I want out of it.
 
It's not really a matter of a conscious planning or decision to enjoy life in med school -- it's really who you are, upon entering med school, then the subsequent and natural adjustments, on your own part, to make med school work for you. So perhaps try not to have too many preconceptions of your ideal medical school life. Because in the end, you'll only do what's necessary. For some that may entail more studying than they'll ever know; for others, it may be learning how to relax to achieve better balance.
 
dannyboy1 said:
med school does not start to suck until third year. the first two years i had more free time than i knew what to do with
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You are trippin bro. 2nd year was the suck. 3rd year was good, with some suckage here and there but over way better than year 1 and a million times better than year 2.

4th year is the bomb.
 
badasshairday said:
You are trippin bro. 2nd year was the suck. 3rd year was good, with some suckage here and there but over way better than year 1 and a million times better than year 2.

4th year is the bomb.
Click to expand...

Gosh I hope third year is better.
 
badasshairday said:
You are trippin bro. 2nd year was the suck. 3rd year was good, with some suckage here and there but over way better than year 1 and a million times better than year 2.

4th year is the bomb.
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M4 > M1 > M3 > M2

M1 the material sucks but you just have so much free time and a lot more control of your schedule. M2 sucks the life out of you especially if you're gunning for a great Step score. M3 sucks but you get breathers.
 
1-2 times a month? I can't study on weekend evenings so I always do something on Friday or Saturday and usually went out for dinner or drinks 1-2x during the week. If you treat med school like a 9-5 PM job you can have weeknights off too. It's crazy at times, yes. The amount of material and level of detail you need to know for exams is often annoying. But just work hard and you get through it.
 
2012mdc said:
M4 > M1 > M3 > M2

M1 the material sucks but you just have so much free time and a lot more control of your schedule. M2 sucks the life out of you especially if you're gunning for a great Step score. M3 sucks but you get breathers.
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I'd actually switch that around a lot. I thought the years got better as they came. I just plain hated anatomy for lots of reasons, and the rest of the M1 material outside of physiology wasn't too much better. M2 I had figured out how to study and that I should be skipping class. M3 was an exercise in awesome except for long hours on surgery and the nightmare that is L&D. M4 so far is freakin' amazing, even though I'm getting up at 6 every day. It's nice to be doing something directly related to what I want to do, for a change.
 
MilkmanAl said:
I'd actually switch that around a lot. I thought the years got better as they came. I just plain hated anatomy for lots of reasons, and the rest of the M1 material outside of physiology wasn't too much better. M2 I had figured out how to study and that I should be skipping class. M3 was an exercise in awesome except for long hours on surgery and the nightmare that is L&D. M4 so far is freakin' amazing, even though I'm getting up at 6 every day. It's nice to be doing something directly related to what I want to do, for a change.
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so basically you'd put M1 below M2. That's not switching around a lot haha. You still agree M4 > M3 > M2
 
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