One thing that makes med school really difficult that no one has discussed so far...the personalities you may encounter. I attended a large public university prior to med school and was able to associate and dissociate from people around me at my own leisure. In med school, you are very much stuck with people you might not get along with, you are subject to being influenced from without and pick up good and bad habits from those around you without your realizing it. One thing that has troubled me most is there is a common pattern of false arrogance borne of insecurity among many classmates. Of course, all of this is closer to the real world than what you would encounter in a university setting where it is easier to pick and choose your friends and meet new people. You would think that people would be a little more comfortable with themselves having worked hard to get into medical school and having had their dreams come true with their admissions. However, I find with a lot of people med school is like high school all over again and I must admit I have been thoroughly dissapointed by the maturity (or rather lack thereof) that I expected to see in people who will one day have others' lives in their hands. The most popular activity for most people, getting trashed after the weekly exams, or playing poker. Med school is a place where there is so much opportunity for positivity, but alas, a large proportion of students at my school are the type of people who wanted to be a doctor for themselves, and whose actions don't display much in the way of care either for themselves or those around them.
The preclinical portion of the education is completely unintellectual. There is very little in the way of individual thinking and the reality is that med students who think they are very accomplished intellectually should not regard themselves as much more than students at a high end trade school.
