Ask a First-Year Resident Anything

[TheBigCat]

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Hi guys! I have a little down time tonight and I thought it would be fun to answer a few of your questions. Feel free to ask me anything about getting into/succeeding in med school or what it's like to be a newly minted IM resident.

 

[I'm No Superman]

Hi guys! I have a little down time tonight and I thought it would be fun to answer a few of your questions. Feel free to ask me anything about getting into/succeeding in med school or what it's like to be a newly minted IM resident.

What's it like to be a newly minted IM resident?

 

[TheBigCat]

What's it like to be a newly minted IM resident?

It's been going well so far! Definitely a lot more responsibility than I had as a med student but at the same time I have a much more active role in taking care of my patients. That being said, I haven't hit the hardest parts of the year yet so I may be a little overly enthusiastic about things at this point.

 

[Doudline]

How is the dating/hook-up scene in residency?

 

[I'm No Superman]

Serious time: Which part of your application for medical school besides grades and MCAT do you think is the most important and why, and which parts came up in your interviews most frequently.

 

[TheBigCat]

How is the dating/hook-up scene in residency?

Honestly not sure yet. I can't give you any concrete numbers, but at least for my class it looks like a good chunk of the class is either married/engaged/otherwise attached.

 

[I'm No Superman]

Honestly not sure yet. I can't give you any concrete numbers, but at least for my class it looks like a good chuck of the class is either married/engaged/otherwise attached.

I would like excel spread sheets and pie charts once you've put more research into this.

 

[TheBigCat]

Serious time: Which part of your application for medical school besides grades and MCAT do you think is the most important and why, and which parts came up in your interviews most frequently.

Great question! Based on my med school interviews it would have to be research. In my AMCAS application I remember really emphasizing a number of tutoring/teaching positions I had held during undergrad. None of my interviewers wanted to talk about any of that but they all asked me (often quite detailed) questions about the research project I had been involved in. Good clinical experiences are also very important.

In my experience as both an applicant and helping out with the adcom at my med school, the importance of different application components is roughly as follows.

GPA = MCAT > Clinical experiences = Research > Volunteer/work experiences unrelated to medicine

 

[I'm No Superman]

Thanks!

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

Congrats on starting residency.

So....is the "House of God" anything like the book?

 

[iforget2]

How many hours a week do you think you studied/went to class during your first year of med school?

 

[TheBigCat]

Congrats on starting residency.

So....is the "House of God" anything like the book?

Haha so many people have brought this up since orientation. So far not at all and I hope it stays that way.

 

[TheBigCat]

How many hours a week do you think you studied/went to class during your first year of med school?

An average week during my first year of med school was probably about 20-25 hours in class (some of which was interviewing/PBL/other stuff) and 20 hours studying. More once anatomy began. It's definitely a full time job.

 

[iforget2]

An average week during my first year of med school was probably about 20-25 hours in class (some of which was interviewing/PBL/other stuff) and 20 hours studying. More once anatomy began. It's definitely a full time job.

Ah ok. So not too much time for doing activities like basketball or hanging out with friends?

GPA = MCAT > Clinical experiences = Research > Volunteer/work experiences unrelated to medicine

Where would you rank shadowing in this?

 

[I'm No Superman]

Ah ok. So not too much time for doing activities like basketball or hanging out with friends?



Where would you rank shadowing in this?

That's still 123 hours of the week that he has to do stuff.

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

Haha so many people have brought this up since orientation. So far not at all and I hope it stays that way.

Yeah, I figured I wasn't asking the most original question, haha.

Do you plan to specialize? If so, what area are you looking at?

 

[Tolbert]

Thanks for doing this! My question is what initially made you want to pursue medicine, and later, IM?

 

[TheBigCat]

Ah ok. So not too much time for doing activities like basketball or hanging out with friends?



Where would you rank shadowing in this?

While it didn't always feel like it, I had plenty of time first year. It's basically the same amount of work as a full time job which should leave plenty of room for activities. The real challenge comes third year of med school and beyond. There were weeks during my surgery rotation where I worked well over 100 hours. It's hard even finding time to sleep at that point.

I would classify shadowing as a clinical experience, but just be aware that most med schools view shadowing as a weaker experience than things that involve more active patient care (e.g. helping patients get around the hospital for a year is preferable to watching a few cases in the OR).

 

[TheBigCat]

Yeah, I figured I wasn't asking the most original question, haha.

Do you plan to specialize? If so, what area are you looking at?

Haha it's actually the first time I've been asked the question. A lot of BIDMC attendings have brought it up though. I do plan to specialize in hematology/oncology. I'm hoping to stay at my current institution or maybe move across the street.

 

[TheBigCat]

Thanks for doing this! My question is what initially made you want to pursue medicine, and later, IM?

My pleasure. I went into medicine for the standard reasons. I liked the biomedical sciences and I liked working with patients. My personal statement was obviously a lot more detailed and flowery, but that's really what it boiled down to.

I decided to go into IM for a number of reasons. I've always known I wanted to do heme/onc and IM is the gateway to that. Additionally, IM was my favorite rotation third year and I continue to think that it is one of the most fascinating areas of medicine. Being an expert in differential diagnosis/patient management is a very cool thing (and I hope to get there over the next three years)!

 

[iforget2]

Do you really only get one chance to take the STEP I? so if you're sick that day and you do poorly, this score will be with you forever?

 

[Tolbert]

Do you really only get one chance to take the STEP I? so if you're sick that day and you do poorly, this score will be with you forever?

oh god that would really suck..

 

[DrYoda]

Do you really only get one chance to take the STEP I? so if you're sick that day and you do poorly, this score will be with you forever?

Yes. The only way you can retake it is if you fail it the first time (and failing ends up being a red flag on your record).

 

[Tolbert]

oh, well that should be fun.

 

[TheBigCat]

Do you really only get one chance to take the STEP I? so if you're sick that day and you do poorly, this score will be with you forever?

That's true. At some point during second year I think every medical student has the nightmare that they do just well enough to pass but not to match into a residency program. This is an understandable concern but it is relatively rare given that for a US grad you'd have to do really atrociously and maybe even fail Step 1 a couple of times for that to happen. The more common situation is you have someone who is dead-set on ortho/derm/etc who ends up with a score like 210. There are a lot of fields that a 210 would be absolutely fine for but it may limit you in regards to the more competitive ones.

 

[QuizzicalApe]

As a counterpoint to people asking about research, nobody asked me about research on the interview trail because I didn't do any.

I did get asked, with some frequency, where I saw myself in x years. They wanted to get a sense that I had some coherent career goals that maybe even extended beyond FELLOWSHIP: YES/NO

It was also common to ask why I applied at that program. Since the answer was "because you're an academic program close enough to drive to that has a decent reputation", I tried to spruce it up by drawing on their morning presentation.

If you forget to do any research before interview day, lemme tell you: they hand you a bunch of questions to ask them when they're describing their program, and give you plenty of things to talk about.

 

[AdamAustin]

What was the toughest thing that you faced during getting into the med school?