Current Pitt Students: Is anyone really struggling?

[funshine]

I'm thrilled to be accepted to such a wonderful school, but it sounds like Pitt is rather stressful, with very bright, ambitious students studying all the time...and I'm just wondering if anyone really struggles at the school and wishes they had gone somewhere easier? I'm worried that the condensed basic sciences curric. will be too fast-paced for me.

I've heard people say it's "easy" to pass but hard to get "honors", and my thoughts are 1.) If you want a good match, can you still get it with straight Ps/no honors? and 2.) After watching my friend a current M1 fail two of her exams (at a diff school), I'm wondering what kind of students consider passing as "easy."

I"m also curious about the quality of Pitt's 3/4 years. Apparently, these are the years that really matter in a med school: how much relevant clinical experience are you getting in your rotations vs. how much is just scut work for the interns, like running charts/samples and so forth. I'm also wondering how much we actually use WISER. They made such a big deal of it at interview day, yet I distinctly remember an SDN poster saying that students hardly use it--apparently it's mainly for the trauma elective.

Anyway, back to the whole struggling with school topic. Contrary to what a lot of posters say on here, med schools are not all equally hard/stressful, and I have the option of going to a more laid-back -but still very good- school. It's like, mid-30 in rankings, just so you know.

I'm trying not to let the name/ranking dictate my choice, and to counteract that, I really want to hear some worst case scenarios just to prepare myself. So, um, tell me about the slow people in your class, the ones who barely pass! Chances are I'll be one of them. This isn't the sort of thing I want to be talking about at 2nd look, so if current Pitt students could sorta advise me now, that'd be great. Thanks

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[blahhalb]

I'm not a current Pitt student, but I will say one thing - I don't think the lower down in rankings you go the more laid-back the school is. I imagine it's more the opposite - if you're at a spectacularly prestigious school then you just have to pass with the rest of your class, but if you're at a much less prestigious school you are killing yourself to compete with students from those other schools, no?

Just a thought.

 

[prana_md]

This has crossed my mind ... yes, I'm excited to be with other creative, compassionate, intelligent med students, but are we all going to compete to out-do each other? Who is the most creative? Who is the most compassionate? etc ... So many of my MD friends talk about how depressing 1st year was ... realizing that you're not the smartest fish in the pond. Discuss ...

 

[priu]

Sounds like they had huge egos?

 

[funshine]

I'm not a current Pitt student, but I will say one thing - I don't think the lower down in rankings you go the more laid-back the school is. I imagine it's more the opposite - if you're at a spectacularly prestigious school then you just have to pass with the rest of your class, but if you're at a much less prestigious school you are killing yourself to compete with students from those other schools, no?

Just a thought.

Well, I think a top school is definitely going to be stressful because everyone's so smart and used to keeping their noses to the grindstone, you know? I mean, you don't need to be surrounded by gunners to feel stressed out and inadequate.

As for the other school, I didn't mean to imply it was laid-back b/c it was lower in ranking. It's just the feeling I got after talking to a number of students there. They emphasized several times that this med school was easier than they thought, even easier than undergrad, and I completely believe that.

This has crossed my mind ... yes, I'm excited to be with other creative, compassionate, intelligent med students, but are we all going to compete to out-do each other? Who is the most creative? Who is the most compassionate? etc ... So many of my MD friends talk about how depressing 1st year was ... realizing that you're not the smartest fish in the pond. Discuss ...

It's healthy to realize that you're not the "smartest/most compassionate/most anything" at some point, and you're right, many pre-meds do so 1st year, med school. I realized this 1st year, undergrad, which is why I'm so hesitant to go to a top med school. It's kinda like going to the Olympics after being injured in practice, you know? Bad analogy but hey, I just watched a ton of freestyle skiing . Anyway, a couple of friends went to top-tier med schools like Baylor and UCSF and they all seem dead right now. We went to the same undergrad, so their claims of med school being "so much worse," "I've never worked harder in my life" etc. are really scary, b/c for me, undergrad was that way.

Anyway, I started this thread earlier when I was freaking out. And because I have a penchant toward worst-case-scenarios. I'm truly disappointed to see no current students are willing to spill.

 

[MrBurns10]

Great thread, Funshine...I was actually thinking of posting a similar one here. The ironic thing is that I haven't heard a single Pitt student not truly loving the school, despite the frequent exams, lack of taped lectures, and the H/P/F grading system (I'm sure there are people who don't like the school, I just haven't met them yet). Sorry this post didn't help at all, I'm just also curious to hear from current students.

 

[gcomplex7]

funshine, sorry i can't help as i am not a current Pittmed student but i think if you can get into Pitt then you are as good as the rest of the Pittmed kids. Someone in admissions felt you can handle the work, yes, i got the impress they worked really hard but not more than you or I can handle.
Everyone is concern about their performance in medical sch. , we all will just have to quickly find our own individual study habits that works.

 

[medicomel]

good post!

 

[hattie]

One of the things about Pitt (and probably any school) is that the atmosphere varies a little depending on the class (some are more laid back than others) and on who your friends are... you can probably find a group of people who don't study 24/7 (but still get their work done) and still do ok, or you can hang with the kids who literally live in scaife and do fine, too.

It is really impossible to tell how you'll do exactly, since I don't know you at all, but I think it is reasonable to say that it is generally hard to H, and pretty easy to P if you went to a strong undergrad and did well and are fairly efficient. I have heard from people that the rank/name of the school will count for something when it comes to residencies even with mostly Ps. It really depends on what you want to do after you get your MD. And remember that 3rd and 4th year grades are considered by some to be more important, and we have H/HP/P etc there, so it is a little easier to stand out.

Also, I didn't have much scut thrown off on me at all during 3rd year, and our residents work pretty hard. If you think about it, they're way more efficient at it anyway, so why would they pawn it off on you and slow themselves down? Yeah, they make you do followups on the patients you're covering, but that's how you learn, and they are your patients afterall. On occasion, we would all buckle down as a team and get a whole bunch of scut done together, but it was usually done with the understanding that it was in exchange for some dedicated teaching time later. And some of them are great teachers, too, so you have the chance to learn a lot IF you seem interested and willing (ie aren't sneaking off to study for the shelf b/c you're more concerned about your grade than about learning how to be a doctor).

As for WISER, it gets integrated into the curriculum in a pretty natural way, increasing over the time you're at Pitt. So you won't be there all the time, but you have to learn from real people, too .

And take this with a grain of salt b/c it's been a little while since I was a 1st year, but I have found that if you want, you can make time for other things in your life and still be ok most of the time balancing everything. Of course, when I decided, Pitt was the "more laid back" choice. That said, I really have never wished that I'd gone anywhere else.

For right now, really I would advise (again) going to 2nd look and really just going with your gut on where you belong. Enjoy your last few months of freedom and happy deciding!

 

[Lonnie]

I found that the thing with Honors/pass/fail is that a lot of extremely motivated college students really sh't the bed when it comes down to it. Some can't cope. You work sooooo hard to try and get that Honors, but you never, ever do...eventually one realizes one of two things:
a) "I CAN'T get honors....I'm smart, but I'm not as smart as those kids" and then your work ethic goes down the toilet. Really, if a pass is a pass, why study 10 hours a day when you can study 4 for the exact same result.
b) "I CAN'T get honors but I NEED to get honors" and their head explodes because they keep working so hard and keep failing at their goal. I remember one chick in my class having a drunken, nervous breakdown at one of our dances because of this...wailing and crying "I work soooooo hard and I'll NEVER be a [insert specialty here] because I can't get honors!!!"

I was in group A, and it's a huge blow to the ego, and my knowledge base suffered because of it, re: my post about my board scores. If I had to do it again I'd pick a school that motivates you to study to the absolute best of your ability, for me, that would have been A-F.

One of the things about Pitt (and probably any school) is that the atmosphere varies a little depending on the class (some are more laid back than others) and on who your friends are... you can probably find a group of people who don't study 24/7 (but still get their work done) and still do ok, or you can hang with the kids who literally live in scaife and do fine, too.

It is really impossible to tell how you'll do exactly, since I don't know you at all, but I think it is reasonable to say that it is generally hard to H, and pretty easy to P if you went to a strong undergrad and did well and are fairly efficient. I have heard from people that the rank/name of the school will count for something when it comes to residencies even with mostly Ps. It really depends on what you want to do after you get your MD. And remember that 3rd and 4th year grades are considered by some to be more important, and we have H/HP/P etc there, so it is a little easier to stand out.

Also, I didn't have much scut thrown off on me at all during 3rd year, and our residents work pretty hard. If you think about it, they're way more efficient at it anyway, so why would they pawn it off on you and slow themselves down? Yeah, they make you do followups on the patients you're covering, but that's how you learn, and they are your patients afterall. On occasion, we would all buckle down as a team and get a whole bunch of scut done together, but it was usually done with the understanding that it was in exchange for some dedicated teaching time later. And some of them are great teachers, too, so you have the chance to learn a lot IF you seem interested and willing (ie aren't sneaking off to study for the shelf b/c you're more concerned about your grade than about learning how to be a doctor).

As for WISER, it gets integrated into the curriculum in a pretty natural way, increasing over the time you're at Pitt. So you won't be there all the time, but you have to learn from real people, too .

And take this with a grain of salt b/c it's been a little while since I was a 1st year, but I have found that if you want, you can make time for other things in your life and still be ok most of the time balancing everything. Of course, when I decided, Pitt was the "more laid back" choice. That said, I really have never wished that I'd gone anywhere else.

For right now, really I would advise (again) going to 2nd look and really just going with your gut on where you belong. Enjoy your last few months of freedom and happy deciding!

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Pass, Honors.... blah blah blah. It's unfortunate that most medical students care too much about out doing everyone else. My school is this ranking, I got honors in this class, I got this board score... etc. All these items are ego fillers and nothing more. None of these things determine what type of doctor you will become... a person with a 190 can be just as good, if not better than a person who got 250, or a person who passed a class as opposed honor, or goes to Bubblef*ck School of Medicine instead of Prestigious School of Medicine. Furthermore, do you really think a 75 yo man who presents to the ER with shortness of breath and chest pain gives a rats ass if you only passed biochem and didn't honor it. The bottom line is that the only person you should compare yourself to is your own expectations. Even if you set a goal for yourself and just fall shy of it, at least you know you tried your best. You should never fault yourself for any result if you tried your best. Unfortunately, most med students base their success and accomplishments on others, when they should only be basing it on themselves. Also, I think drinking and streaking help marvelously to lighten the mood and inflate ones self-esteem.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Also to reinterate, those students that are "unhappy" in medical school because they are "studying too much" and "have no life" are that way of their own volition. If they disagree, I believe they are using that disagreement as an excuse because they aren't willing to do anything besides the things that make them unhappy. Yes, medical school is time consuming, yes it is much harder than undergrad, but if you have no life, that's because life outside of medicine isn't important to you. A life outside of medicine is always there waiting, you just have to want to find it and there's always a way to do so.