Cut throat and miserable?

[GregoryHousePA]

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I have a question for all the DO-students.

Is your program cut throat, and are you miserable?

I ask this because all my medschool student friends are pretty miserable, whereas my PA-student friends are not. I'm wondering if it's because medschool has a more cut throat mentality. What I mean by cut throat is people are always outwardly comparing each other, motivated by one up-ing each other, unhelpful to other students, constantly worried about getting high grades, etc.

 

[engineeredout]

Nope and nope. The people I know help each other out. If someone makes a review ppt for themselves or stumbles upon a good website, its passed along. You can just randomly walk into gross lab and find people reviewing who you can join with. Grades aren't curved here, so it doesn't matter if the guy next to you gets a 90 or a 70, so you might as well not be a tool and actually be helpful if someone has questions or needs help.

And I'm not miserable, at least not yet.

 

[ChiDO]

You need to define what miserable means. If you want to be in the top 5% and thus you have to study every day and only go out 1 day per week if that; does that count as miserable? Does studying in general every day count as miserable? Does everyone else study besides you, so you're miserable because no one wants to go out?

Basically, unless your school puts stipulation on how many people get honors or A's or curves each test based on the highest grade, I would bet most schools are not miserable and not cut throat.

Obviously, even at schools with no curve, you still have people who want to be the best and will be cut throat; and even go as far as ruining things for the entire class.

 

[bleeker10]

Nope and nope. The people I know help each other out. If someone makes a review ppt for themselves or stumbles upon a good website, its passed along. You can just randomly walk into gross lab and find people reviewing who you can join with. Grades aren't curved here, so it doesn't matter if the guy next to you gets a 90 or a 70, so you might as well not be a tool and actually be helpful if someone has questions or needs help.

And I'm not miserable, at least not yet.

Agree 100% with LECOM-E. I have received so many emails in the past week from different people with review quizzes they made, radiology websites, embryo animations, etc that I can't even look at them all. This isn't including the powerpoint review tests I made and sent out to people. In gross lab the days before the lab practical, you could find a group of 10-15 people around a cadaver helping each other out. I jump from group to group to see what they are doing and I know many others that do the same. It's a great relaxed environment here.

 

[ShyRem]

Not cutthroat, not miserable. But I have a life outside of med school that keeps me sane.

 

[coffeeeandtea]

you'll find cutthroat individuals at every school, but for the most part, i've found most everyone in my class to be pretty helpful (with the exception of a few who like to keep certain resources to themselves, like a professor's previous exams from when he taught at another school). i'm not miserable, at least not yet - i'm actually rather happy about where i am and how i'm doing.

 

[Pet of the Week]

My school was not cut throat. Are any DO schools really cut throat? However, I was miserable though (mostly due to my health, but somewhat due to classmates). I was frustrated by the 70=DO crowd. When studying in a group or tutoring, I often encountered the "how would this be asked on a test?" and "if this isn't on the test, why do i care?" mentality instead of the type of student who enjoys learning for its own sake that I expected to find in med school. I love to learn as much as I can despite what will be on the test, so I felt a bit out of place at times. Grades aren't as important to me as learning. Test-focused students are frustrating to me (as a teacher and a student).

 

[Vee]

Not cutthroat, not miserable. But I have a life outside of med school that keeps me sane.

This.

Having a life is the key to happiness and success in med school.

 

[ShyFly]

I think it's the cut throat people who are miserable. I was always laid back and almost never miserable (only on Sunday nights before my Monday exams).

 

[cliquesh]

everyone has been really cool and friendly at pcom...so far....

 

[Bacchus]

everyone has been really cool and friendly at pcom...so far....

Agreed.

 

[211519]

i think it's the cut throat people who are miserable. I was always laid back and almost never miserable (only on sunday nights before my monday exams).

+1

 

[ILikeFood]

My school was not cut throat. Are any DO schools really cut throat? However, I was miserable though (mostly due to my health, but somewhat due to classmates). I was frustrated by the 70=DO crowd. When studying in a group or tutoring, I often encountered the "how would this be asked on a test?" and "if this isn't on the test, why do i care?" mentality instead of the type of student who enjoys learning for its own sake that I expected to find in med school. I love to learn as much as I can despite what will be on the test, so I felt a bit out of place at times. Grades aren't as important to me as learning. Test-focused students are frustrating to me (as a teacher and a student).

Um, okay.

 

[Spooner13]

students at my school are very willing to help each other out. You can really see the cooperative aspect of the school the best in the anatomy lab. if a lab group has a good structure on their cadaver that's hard to find, they will write it up on the blackboard so everyone else can come look at it. in the lab, people are just constantly helping each other out.

we also have an online network where students constantly post study guides they have made. there's so much stuff on it that you couldn't use it all if you wanted to.

i'm sure there are a few gunners here, but i haven't really seen them.

 

[Pet of the Week]

Um, okay.

It's the whining...

 

[bth7]

I have a question for all the DO-students.

Is your program cut throat, and are you miserable?

I ask this because all my medschool student friends are pretty miserable, whereas my PA-student friends are not. I'm wondering if it's because medschool has a more cut throat mentality. What I mean by cut throat is people are always outwardly comparing each other, motivated by one up-ing each other, unhelpful to other students, constantly worried about getting high grades, etc.

Dude, it's DO school.

We're like, the chill people in medicine.

bth

 

[ModernChemistry]

Definitely not cut throat. I'm pretty miserable the days before exams though...

More of a concept guy myself and so it's always stressful for me to get in those specifics last minute. However, I'm only a few months in. Hopefully I get better at this with time.