Can you have it all?

[Liz8305]

A question similar to this has probably been asked before, so I apologize in advance…

To say it outright, I am having second thoughts about medical school. I have graduated from my undergrad and am currently applying to medical school while taking a year off at the same time. For the past 6 months, I’ve had bouts of severe cold feet when I read entries online how unhappy medical school students are and how many deeply regret their decision.

I think the source of my cold feet is the fact that while becoming a physician is important to me, having a balance in life is MORE important to me. I have a serious boyfriend, a family that is important to me, and a few close friends. I’m excellent at time management and I work hard (I was able to have a great GPA in undergrad and perform well on the MCAT), but the impression I get from these threads is that it doesn’t matter—medical school is so demanding you won’t have time for yourself much less anyone else. That is, med students just study day and night. I enjoy learning, but not to the point where it takes over one's life.

I know this is a decision I need to make for myself, but to those of you in medical school does it sound like I’m headed down the wrong path?

Are my priorities are in the wrong place for this profession?

Is it possible to have a healthy social life and also perform decently in med school?

Your response is much appreciated!

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[medguy47]

I think it really depends a lot on which medical school you go to. There are some schools that have very intense pre-clinical years with 9-5 classes and grades to create an atmosphere of competition. Other schools... are more like "club med"ical schools.... where schedules are much more flexible.

A question similar to this has probably been asked before, so I apologize in advance…

To say it outright, I am having second thoughts about medical school. I have graduated from my undergrad and am currently applying to medical school while taking a year off at the same time. For the past 6 months, I’ve had bouts of severe cold feet when I read entries online how unhappy medical school students are and how many deeply regret their decision.

I think the source of my cold feet is the fact that while becoming a physician is important to me, having a balance in life is MORE important to me. I have a serious boyfriend, a family that is important to me, and a few close friends. I’m excellent at time management and I work hard (I was able to have a great GPA in undergrad and perform well on the MCAT), but the impression I get from these threads is that it doesn’t matter—medical school is so demanding you won’t have time for yourself much less anyone else. That is, med students just study day and night. I enjoy learning, but not to the point where it takes over one's life.

I know this is a decision I need to make for myself, but to those of you in medical school does it sound like I’m headed down the wrong path?

Are my priorities are in the wrong place for this profession?

Is it possible to have a healthy social life and also perform decently in med school?

Your response is much appreciated!

 

[erin682]

Your happiness and the amount of balance you have in life no matter what is going on depends on you. If you allow yourself to get overwhelmed and do nothing but study while constantly thinking about how much you hate it, yes you will be miserable.
I'm an MS-2 and I don't particularly like studying but it is a part of the path I've chosen and the choices that I have made. I don't let whether or not I need to study determine whether I'm happy or not. I've also chosen to forsake some hours of studying to do things I enjoy. I exercise just about everyday and I take time to read a chapter of a book I enjoy and call old friends. You determine what your med school experience will be like. It will always be challening but you can let than challenge break you, make you cynical or help you to grow.
If your passion is medicine then do it.

 

[synapse lapse]

A question similar to this has probably been asked before, so I apologize in advance…

To say it outright, I am having second thoughts about medical school. I have graduated from my undergrad and am currently applying to medical school while taking a year off at the same time. For the past 6 months, I’ve had bouts of severe cold feet when I read entries online how unhappy medical school students are and how many deeply regret their decision.

I think the source of my cold feet is the fact that while becoming a physician is important to me, having a balance in life is MORE important to me. I have a serious boyfriend, a family that is important to me, and a few close friends. I’m excellent at time management and I work hard (I was able to have a great GPA in undergrad and perform well on the MCAT), but the impression I get from these threads is that it doesn’t matter—medical school is so demanding you won’t have time for yourself much less anyone else. That is, med students just study day and night. I enjoy learning, but not to the point where it takes over one's life.

I know this is a decision I need to make for myself, but to those of you in medical school does it sound like I’m headed down the wrong path?

Are my priorities are in the wrong place for this profession?

Is it possible to have a healthy social life and also perform decently in med school?

Your response is much appreciated!

It's really not that bad, people really exaggerate how bad it is to stroke their own egos. Sure it is a lot of info (we cover about 3 chapters a day counting all subjects) but its very managable. I go to class 9-5 MWF, about 9-2 T, TH and study 3 hours a day, and that's sufficient. Weekends before tests are just like having a final in ugrad, but thats not too bad, and of course the night after the test everyone goes out. I am going out to eat tonight with like 10 people from my class, and we have a biochem test on Monday morning, so its really not that bad. You can have a balance, especially if you don't want to make all A's and can settle for a B+ or B (of course making A's is perfectly possible with the schedule I keep too, so you can make A's and have a life). Granted that 3rd year is probably very challenging, as is internship/residency, but you can manage those when they come, and honestly, all of life takes sacrifice, its not that unique to medicine.

 

[thackl]

I do what ever I want for 4 wks then bust ass for 2 (still eat/sleep/work-out/go-out during these 2, but a lot less). It's what you make of it. I'm not going to be #1 and I'm not at a 'top' school, but in the long run it doesn't really matter.

 

[KidDr]

A question similar to this has probably been asked before, so I apologize in advance…

To say it outright, I am having second thoughts about medical school. I have graduated from my undergrad and am currently applying to medical school while taking a year off at the same time. For the past 6 months, I’ve had bouts of severe cold feet when I read entries online how unhappy medical school students are and how many deeply regret their decision.

I think the source of my cold feet is the fact that while becoming a physician is important to me, having a balance in life is MORE important to me. I have a serious boyfriend, a family that is important to me, and a few close friends. I’m excellent at time management and I work hard (I was able to have a great GPA in undergrad and perform well on the MCAT), but the impression I get from these threads is that it doesn’t matter—medical school is so demanding you won’t have time for yourself much less anyone else. That is, med students just study day and night. I enjoy learning, but not to the point where it takes over one's life.

I know this is a decision I need to make for myself, but to those of you in medical school does it sound like I’m headed down the wrong path?

Are my priorities are in the wrong place for this profession?

Is it possible to have a healthy social life and also perform decently in med school?

Your response is much appreciated!

I honestly think the more important thing to consider is what you life will be like in residency and beyond. If you look in the residency forum there's a lot of interesting discussions going on about this. Check out the following threads--
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=195799
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=200031
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=224052

Residency is a minimum of 3 years, which may not sound like a lot, but it is 3 years during which you have little control over your time. You will miss holidays, birthdays, weddings, nights out with your s.o., weekends away with your friends and family, vacations, and many many other things. This gets very old very fast. Life after residency may either improve or get worse, depending on your specialty. I can't tell you what to do but I think it's great that you're thinking about these things.