Completely lost and need advice! Please help yall!

[calikid408mdhopeful]

Hey yall, I am currently a second year medical student on the east coast at a lower tier medical school. I started medical school off fine but midway through the first semester I had a family incident(death in the family) that sent me down spiraling and I tried to push through anatomy but ended up failing. I went into the second semester of first year thinking I would be able to push through and complete my classes and remediate anatomy the summer after. However, I was not doing so well in my second semester classes and decide to take a LOA and refocus. I came back the following year and redid the entire first year with no problem at all. Second year comes a long and i was doing okay until I had another death in the family(very close cousin) compounded with my parents losing their jobs. I had to work 40 hour weeks while attending school to help support my family and thus all this stress led to me doing poorly in 2 courses in second year. I have been given chances to retake those courses at the end of the second year. I did not know how to handle all that was happening and now i am feeling lost on whether i have a future in medicine. I am interested in primary care and in anesthesia(my dream!). Is there any hope for me to match with these red flags? Please help!

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[Crayola227]

You should do OK to Match in FM if you can pass everything, no more failures, do well on Step 1, do well in your FM clerkship and subI, and get good LORs, as long as you are realistic in applying and apply very broadly, including community programs in less desirable locations. When I say well I mean average or better, not saying you need to get a 250 to match FM after all this.

There is an NRMP report you can google to see just how competitive the different fields are.

Primary care technically includes the fields psych, peds, ob/gyn, IM, I would need to look up to know how competitive.

I can't really speak to anesthesia, except I thought it was still pretty competitive.

Get help from your school and health providers to get stabilized personally and academically.

I understand you gotta do what you gotta do for family, also hopefully they understand how important it is for your and their future that you put your career first.

You need to pass Step 1 of course and your classes and rotations, but I absolutely think you can still turn things around and have a future in clinical practice as long as you are realistic in your goals.

 

[calikid408mdhopeful]

You should do OK to Match in FM if you can pass everything, no more failures, do well on Step 1, do well in your FM clerkship and subI, and get good LORs, as long as you are realistic in applying and apply very broadly, including community programs in less desirable locations. When I say well I mean average or better, not saying you need to get a 250 to match FM after all this.

There is an NRMP report you can google to see just how competitive the different fields are.

Primary care technically includes the fields psych, peds, ob/gyn, IM, I would need to look up to know how competitive.

I can't really speak to anesthesia, except I thought it was still pretty competitive.

Get help from your school and health providers to get stabilized personally and academically.

I understand you gotta do what you gotta do for family, also hopefully they understand how important it is for your and their future that you put your career first.

You need to pass Step 1 of course and your classes and rotations, but I absolutely think you can still turn things around and have a future in clinical practice as long as you are realistic in your goals.

Thank you so much. I plan to finish the year strong and do as well as I can on my step 1. One worry I have is that because I have to remediate these courses I will not be asready as I want to be for my step exam and was considering delaying it a few months and taking it towards the end of this year. I also planned to do some research projects if I decide to push my step 1 exam back. Wanted to see what your opinion on this was? Thank you!

 

[Crayola227]

Thank you so much. I plan to finish the year strong and do as well as I can on my step 1. One worry I have is that because I have to remediate these courses I will not be asready as I want to be for my step exam and was considering delaying it a few months and taking it towards the end of this year. I also planned to do some research projects if I decide to push my step 1 exam back. Wanted to see what your opinion on this was? Thank you!

Step 1 is crucial, and it's crucial that the first time you take it is your best time, as failure is very very bad, and if you pass if you only get one shot to get the best score you can.

I would do whatever you needed to do to get the best score you can.

Would doing the above extend your graduation date? Or is that already delayed?

 

[Beezlebub]

UW is calling. Will you heed the call?

 

[calikid408mdhopeful]

Step 1 is crucial, and it's crucial that the first time you take it is your best time, as failure is very very bad, and if you pass if you only get one shot to get the best score you can.

I would do whatever you needed to do to get the best score you can.

Would doing the above extend your graduation date? Or is that already delayed?

My graduation is not currently delayed but I am considering delaying it to the following year(class of 2020) if I push my step back as i think doing the best that I can on it is more important than trying to get it done with and moving on to third year. If i do not delay graduation and take it 1 month into the start of third year everything in my third year will get pushed back anyway which will affect 4th year as well.

 

[Crayola227]

My graduation is not currently delayed but I am considering delaying it to the following year(class of 2020) if I push my step back as i think doing the best that I can on it is more important than trying to get it done with and moving on to third year. If i do not delay graduation and take it 1 month into the start of third year everything in my third year will get pushed back anyway which will affect 4th year as well.

Extending out your grad date isn't ideal, but passing things is #1. It's a very tough call to delay graduation to do more Step 1 prep, very individual decision you should definitely get help from your school on, especially since I don't know enough about you, your strengths, weaknesses, or the way it would affect your 3rd and 4th year.

Sorry, just reviewed your posts yet again. If you have a good amount of the didactics to go back over, remediate, you might do best to have that foundation first. You can't really make up for like 3 courses in 1 month of Step 1 prep. Step 1 prep is for review, NOT learning a bunch of stuff or going over things a lot of things you didn't lock down the first time.

Again, I can't tell what to do except the right thing is to put Step 1 first, which ironically means doing other stuff first and putting it off.