Do people on SDN overplay how grueling med school is?

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ChipChi

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I've noticed that the general sentiment on SDN is that med school is extremely rigorous, and I can't count how many time I've read the "firehouse analogy".

I messaged around 8-9 of my friends who are in medical school and asked for their thoughts on how intense med school is compared to undergrad. All of them said that they study way more than they did in undergrad, but they don't necessarily have less free time on their hands since they aren't committed to all the EC's, b.s papers and projects that being a pre-med entails.

A few also mentioned that SDN really plays up how difficult medical school is (for whatever reason), and that if you treat it like a 50-60 hr/week job (which I am used to), it's pretty manageable.

Thoughts?
 
I'm interested in knowing too.

My mentor told me med school was not that bad (HMS) and my cousin told me she worked 100x harder in UG than in med school (UCSF). Both also scored ridic high on Step 1 (250+). I found both of their comments very interesting in contrast to what I hear on SDN. My med school friends tell me it's harder but they say it's also really fun.
 
Part of it is just knowing who to listen to. There are plenty on SDN who don't seem to think it's all that bad, while there are others that seems like they're happy just to eat at the end of the day. The general vibe I've gotten is that it will take up a lot of time but certainly not your full 16 waking hours a day, so you'll have plenty of free time.
 
Everyone in med school that I've talked to said that they partied more during med school than they did during undergrad. If this holds up for me, then I'll be a raging alcoholic by the time I graduate from med school...
 
The material in medical school isn't necessarily hard, but the pace/amount of information is nothing like anything you've ever encountered before.
 
Part of this depends on what your responsibilities are as well. If you are a single person who skips lecture and doesn't play the medical school extracurricular game (join a lab and play party planner in chief), medical school is plenty chill as long as you don't freak out.

Focus on studying for 60 hrs a week and don't go to anything except mandatory stuff and you can get away with going out clubbing 5 nights a week if you want. Evidence from facebook suggests many of my colleagues avail themselves of this opportunity.

For someone who has a spouse, kids, and goes to all the lectures I'm sure it's a nightmare (that isn't me). I mean I can't even imagine how bad that is.

I think the big thing is perspective as well. Asking a physician about it is usually pretty hit or miss as well because if they did 7 years of surgery residency and fellowship where they worked 80-100 hours a week during the bad old days and still work 60 hours a week... med school was/is pretty chill in comparison. I mean asking an academic physician is asking someone who has a seriously skewed perspective. In comparison to a normal job medical school is a lot worse. And compared to college it's a lot worse. Just stress wise you are responsible for an inhumane amount of info. You might have been busy in college but staring at petri dishes and reading books to kids in the hospital isn't quite the same as spending twenty hours with powerpoints attempting to memorize every detail for a nasty test coming up.
 
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Medical school, like everything else in life, is all about time management. If you stay on top of things then you can have a pretty much 9-5 lifestyle with some additional studying around exams. As I'm sure others have said, not going to class was the best thing I ever did for my life/grades. You don't realize how SLOW lectures are until you realize you can listen to them at home on 2-2.5x speed and still easily get all the information, not to mention you can skip all the BS of waiting for the professor to get setup etc. These seem like little things but really do make a difference.

The information in med school isn't difficult to comprehend it is definitely the volume stay caught up and you will have plenty of free time

Survivor DO
 
I've noticed that the general sentiment on SDN is that med school is extremely rigorous, and I can't count how many time I've read the "firehouse analogy".

I messaged around 8-9 of my friends who are in medical school and asked for their thoughts on how intense med school is compared to undergrad. All of them said that they study way more than they did in undergrad, but they don't necessarily have less free time on their hands since they aren't committed to all the EC's, b.s papers and projects that being a pre-med entails.

A few also mentioned that SDN really plays up how difficult medical school is (for whatever reason), and that if you treat it like a 50-60 hr/week job (which I am used to), it's pretty manageable.

Thoughts?

The problem is that the experience isn't really going to be the same for everyone, so the experience of one med student will vary from another -- both probably are accurate FOR THEM. The pace is faster and the volume is heavier and you need the information longer, so a group that did well in college gets fractionated to several different sub-groups, some that continue to learn everything quickly versus those who have to work a bit harder just to stay afloat. In college there was ample time so some people who were slower at the uptake were able to re-review things and do quite well and then still make that tailgate party. In med school, with more material and faster pace suddenly that person who took an extra pass through the material to ace it is facing a time crunch. Also bear in mind that med school admissions culls away all the B- students and below, so suddenly you have to work a lot harder to not be in the bottom half of the class. Most people who get into med school were B+/A- or A students in college, so it's culture shock when 50% of them find themselves in the bottom half of the class, and for a lot of people the response is to ramp up the study time. Additionally a lot of the study techniques you learned in college won't work well in med school, so a lot if people spend a lot of time using inefficient approaches because they worked in the past. Finally, there are different goals for residency which make some med students work harder than others(right or wrong). So the bottom line is there are a variety of reasons med school hours can be enormously longer than college, and no one persons advice is going to necessarily fit you. You show me the guy who says he had a ton if free time and I'll show you 30 reasons why you won't be him.
 
It depends on your priorities too. If you're going for AOA and would otherwise be in thbottom half of the class, it's going to take much more effort than if you are content with just passing.
 
It depends on your priorities too. If you're going for AOA and would otherwise be in thbottom half of the class, it's going to take much more effort than if you are content with just passing.

This is key. Everyone decides for themselves what level of performance they're comfortable with. If you're okay with sliding by, you will have a lot more free time.
 
There is no sliding by in P/F bro. You either pass or you fail. Haaah. Calm down, I am just kidding.
 
Strongly concur. If you'r good at time mgt, being able to see the big picture, and know how to prioritize, you'll do fine in medical school.

I'll give you a warning. My students do visibly age from year I to year II. A clinician friend of mine once told me that "medical school took me to my intellectual limits". Seeing what we throw at our students, I believe him.


The material in medical school isn't necessarily hard, but the pace/amount of information is nothing like anything you've ever encountered before.
 
when i first got to medical school, i was surprised at how mature the second years seemed, even compared to the people in my class that are in their 30s. then i saw some fourth years and the effect was even more pronounced. i'm seeing white hairs popping up on my classmates
 
The material in medical school isn't necessarily hard, but the pace/amount of information is nothing like anything you've ever encountered before.

👍

I used to kind of ignore people when they'd say this, but it's 100% correct. Looking at my schedule for the remainder of year one, it's amazing how much stuff I'm going to have to remember. It's both exciting and daunting.

I'm taking solace in the fact that just about everyone somehow manages to rise to the occasion. As long as I keep managing my time well, I'll (probably) survive.
 
A friend who just graduated from Tufts told me that the first two years are a bit like taking multiple summer classes at the same time. I hope that's accurate. Sounds challenging, but doable.

-Bill R.
 
👍

I used to kind of ignore people when they'd say this, but it's 100% correct. Looking at my schedule for the remainder of year one, it's amazing how much stuff I'm going to have to remember. It's both exciting and daunting.

I'm taking solace in the fact that just about everyone somehow manages to rise to the occasion. As long as I keep managing my time well, I'll (probably) survive.

And then you look back from year 4 in amazement that you actually made it through and how much more you know now compared to then. I've worked with second years doing physical exam stuff, and it's rather interesting to see how much more comfortable I am with things. I've also worked with third years freaking out about everything they have to know and realize just how far I've come in the past year and a half, even.
 
And then you look back from year 4 in amazement that you actually made it through and how much more you know now compared to then. I've worked with second years doing physical exam stuff, and it's rather interesting to see how much more comfortable I am with things. I've also worked with third years freaking out about everything they have to know and realize just how far I've come in the past year and a half, even.

Just wait until residency. You begin internship knowing jack and just trying to stay afloat. You progress through the year thinking you aren't learning anything. Then the new guys come in and you realize just how far you've come.
 
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People who also skated through college grabbing As based on the fact that they could just reason through material easily also get a culture shock coming into school. We all know the people (maybe some of you are them) who studied the night before the orgo test and managed to pull an A- just working off their innate intelligence.

That pretty much just doesn't happen in medical school. You can't reason through material you've never seen before and it typically takes days to just make one cursory pass through that material per test. Everyone ends up having to put in a least a minimal amount of effort or else you get slapped in the face pretty hard.

As time progresses people end up finding their comfort zones and how much they need to study to get to where they want to be. However, if you don't give yourself enough buffer, you might still find yourself failing a test during the second half of second year.
 
It's an adjustment process. When I first started Foundations of Biology as a freshman undergrad, it blew me away at first, got a D on my first test. But that's the moment when you decide if you want to keep going or choose something else for your future, so I made the necessary adjustments and ended up doing fine (I really miss dropped tests from undergrad haha). The same went for med school, you'll probably find it overwhelming at first, but then you adjust and it ends up not being so bad. I'm a huge believer in the power of a positive attidute (as cliche as it sounds), and you can really tell the difference in the quality of life for med students who are happy and excited to be there, verses those who have already become jaded and walking around saying "I hate my life."

It really all comes down to perception and attitude, med school is not innately hard, its just that there is a lot of it. Some of the bitter and disgruntled upperclassmen once looked at my enthusiasm as an MS1 and would say, "just wait, you'll learn!" Well now I'm finishing up my first rotation as an MS3, and I guess I still "haven't' learned" because I am still just as excited and happy to be here as I was a few years ago. And I can't wait to graduate and say "I told you so" and then once again after I complete residency. Maybe that sounds arrogant or whatever, but it's something you can't let fade away or have someone else take from you. Stay positive and enthusiastic, and med school really isn't all that bad! 🙂
 
Granted I'm only 4 weeks in but my take on the fire hydrant analogy so far has been "Medical school is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant in a 3rd world country. You don't know where the fire hydrant is, if the water will be on or if it is safe to drink from, and once you get past all that you still have to drink from it."

True, there's is an overwhelming amount of information but to me what's even more overwhelming (and annoying) is that you have to get the information from multiple sources yourself, the sources won't always agree with each other (even between different versions of the same book) and your TAs/professors/preceptors/etc may give you conflicting information depending on who/how/when you ask.
 
If anything, SDN downplays it, with some members claiming that it's "fun." I'm sorry, but the word "fun" and medical school don't go together.

I found medical school fun, especially 3rd and 4th year. Then again, I pretty much did whatever the heck I wanted. I wanted to do research, so I did it. I wanted to make our pre-clinical curriculum more clinical so I organized restructuring and editing of our syllibi. I wanted to teach 3rd year and 1st year students how to suture after I fell in love with surgery, so I ran the clerkship lab. Fell in love with my wife, so I got married. Re-discovered rock climbing, so I climbed 3-4 days a week. Discovered Minecraft and started several, now 100+ player servers that bring in more money monthly than we know what to do with expansion wise.

I mean ****, medical school was a blast...


Mark Twain said, "Never let your schooling interfere with your education." I would amend that to, "Never let your schooling interfere with your life." If you are putting your life on hold because of school or aren't enjoying yourself, you are in the wrong profession.
 
when i first got to medical school, i was surprised at how mature the second years seemed, even compared to the people in my class that are in their 30s. then i saw some fourth years and the effect was even more pronounced. i'm seeing white hairs popping up on my classmates

I'll give you a warning. My students do visibly age from year I to year II. A clinician friend of mine once told me that "medical school took me to my intellectual limits". Seeing what we throw at our students, I believe him.

Agreed. The incoming MS1's look SO young and eager. I know we were like that when we started last year, but I feel like first year took such a toll that we aged more than just a year.

I certainly don't regret coming to med school, and there is definitely time for a life outside of school and being able to do what you're interested in doing, but there are also times when it downright sucks (pretty much exam crunch time). But then I look back on all the things I learned in first year (and being amazed that I remember as much as I do) and how much I'll be learning this year, and it makes the sucky times a little less sucky 👍
 
Granted I'm only 4 weeks in but my take on the fire hydrant analogy so far has been "Medical school is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant in a 3rd world country. You don't know where the fire hydrant is, if the water will be on or if it is safe to drink from, and once you get past all that you still have to drink from it."

True, there's is an overwhelming amount of information but to me what's even more overwhelming (and annoying) is that you have to get the information from multiple sources yourself, the sources won't always agree with each other (even between different versions of the same book) and your TAs/professors/preceptors/etc may give you conflicting information depending on who/how/when you ask.

Sounds like a problem with your school's curriculum, or maybe just the course you're in now. We're given a syllabus (usually anywhere from 200-600 pages, depending on the length of the class) with all the lecture notes and materials we need to know, and I was under the impression that a lot of schools did that or something similar. Can students join the curriculum committee? I'm sure they would value your feedback!
 
I think most people on SDN are being honest. How busy or difficult medical school is, will to some extent, depend upon the individual. What's difficult for some is easy for others. Some study a lot and get the same grades as others who study less.

I've noticed that the general sentiment on SDN is that med school is extremely rigorous, and I can't count how many time I've read the "firehouse analogy".

I messaged around 8-9 of my friends who are in medical school and asked for their thoughts on how intense med school is compared to undergrad. All of them said that they study way more than they did in undergrad, but they don't necessarily have less free time on their hands since they aren't committed to all the EC's, b.s papers and projects that being a pre-med entails.

A few also mentioned that SDN really plays up how difficult medical school is (for whatever reason), and that if you treat it like a 50-60 hr/week job (which I am used to), it's pretty manageable.

Thoughts?
 
I found medical school fun, especially 3rd and 4th year. Then again, I pretty much did whatever the heck I wanted. I wanted to do research, so I did it. I wanted to make our pre-clinical curriculum more clinical so I organized restructuring and editing of our syllibi. I wanted to teach 3rd year and 1st year students how to suture after I fell in love with surgery, so I ran the clerkship lab. Fell in love with my wife, so I got married. Re-discovered rock climbing, so I climbed 3-4 days a week. Discovered Minecraft and started several, now 100+ player servers that bring in more money monthly than we know what to do with expansion wise.

I mean ****, medical school was a blast...


Mark Twain said, "Never let your schooling interfere with your education." I would amend that to, "Never let your schooling interfere with your life." If you are putting your life on hold because of school or aren't enjoying yourself, you are in the wrong profession.


Well said. 👍
 
Ehh college was a lot more fun and less stressful than med school.

You are super poor in med school and never have time to work so I was always really tight on money (which sucks).

M1/M2 years are very predictable. You have a set amount of knowledge to learn before each test and can kinda set your own schedule. Wasn't terrible after you adjusted to the work load (which is hard for the first 1-2 months).

M3 year just sucks. I swear half of your evaluation is based on your enthusiasm for the particular specialty. You can't do anything helpful and most of the time you are just slowing everyone down. If you are lucky you find an area of medicine you enjoy (which I did).

I just started M4 year last month and I am ready to be done. Everyone says M4 year is the best year. But so far M4 year is ok, but kinda pointless and a waste of $33,000. I know the same amount or more than the new interns since I just finished step 2 and M3 year, yet I am still just a student and can't really 'do' anything. Although it will be nice to have a few months of vacation and having some free time.

Honestly I wouldn't go to med school if I were to do it again. I have several classmates who feel the same way. However, if you make it this far you basically have financial handcuffs on forcing you to complete a residency and work for awhile as an attending.

Maybe residency will be better....but at the very least I will get a pay check.
 
The fire hydrant analogy is true for medical school and will be true at least through the first part of your residency. If it isn't, you're doing it wrong.

That said, no. Medical school is not the life-sucking experience SDN makes it out to be.
 
If you have more fun in med school than in college..you must have had a pretty lame undergrad. The experiences are different, but there is no way you had MORE fun. Maybe you just appreciate the free time you have a lot more since starting.
 
I imagine that medical school ends up being like Organic chemistry - if you don't do so well, it's nice to perpetuate the idea that it's very hard so that your struggles are met with sympathy; if you do well, it's still nice to perpetuate the idea that it's very hard so that your success is that much more impressive.

As far as who does well and who does poorly, I would have to agree with all the posts about knowing yourself/time management/ priorities.
 
If you have more fun in med school than in college..you must have had a pretty lame undergrad. The experiences are different, but there is no way you had MORE fun. Maybe you just appreciate the free time you have a lot more since starting.


Makes me laugh when people think they can generalize like this. :laugh:
 
I imagine that medical school ends up being like Organic chemistry - if you don't do so well, it's nice to perpetuate the idea that it's very hard so that your struggles are met with sympathy; if you do well, it's still nice to perpetuate the idea that it's very hard so that your success is that much more impressive.

As far as who does well and who does poorly, I would have to agree with all the posts about knowing yourself/time management/ priorities.

You're pre-med, why are you trying to talk as though you know what it's like to be in medical school? Pre-meds look to med students for this advice, not pre-meds.
 
Ehh college was a lot more fun and less stressful than med school.

You are super poor in med school and never have time to work so I was always really tight on money (which sucks).

M1/M2 years are very predictable. You have a set amount of knowledge to learn before each test and can kinda set your own schedule. Wasn't terrible after you adjusted to the work load (which is hard for the first 1-2 months).

M3 year just sucks. I swear half of your evaluation is based on your enthusiasm for the particular specialty. You can't do anything helpful and most of the time you are just slowing everyone down. If you are lucky you find an area of medicine you enjoy (which I did).

I just started M4 year last month and I am ready to be done. Everyone says M4 year is the best year. But so far M4 year is ok, but kinda pointless and a waste of $33,000. I know the same amount or more than the new interns since I just finished step 2 and M3 year, yet I am still just a student and can't really 'do' anything. Although it will be nice to have a few months of vacation and having some free time.

Honestly I wouldn't go to med school if I were to do it again. I have several classmates who feel the same way. However, if you make it this far you basically have financial handcuffs on forcing you to complete a residency and work for awhile as an attending.

Maybe residency will be better....but at the very least I will get a pay check.

Confused about this part. Can't you take out loans and live comfortably? Right now I'm living off of a 26k/yr job and it's a hell of a pain trying to pay for things while I'm applying to med schools.
 
Confused about this part. Can't you take out loans and live comfortably? Right now I'm living off of a 26k/yr job and it's a hell of a pain trying to pay for things while I'm applying to med schools.

The loan amount you can take out is limited by your school's "cost of attendance," which is set by the financial aid office. The estimates for living expenses are usually VERY conservative, making things a little tight.

I lived in a mid-sized college town for law school, and the most I could take out for living expenses was about $6500/semester. (That money was also used to buy books and school supplies.) For reference, $550 was average rent for a crappy but safe one bedroom. ETA: That was several years ago, and their current cost of attendance allows for an additional $1000/semester, so approx. $7500/semester.
 
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I imagine that medical school ends up being like Organic chemistry - if you don't do so well, it's nice to perpetuate the idea that it's very hard so that your struggles are met with sympathy; if you do well, it's still nice to perpetuate the idea that it's very hard so that your success is that much more impressive.

As far as who does well and who does poorly, I would have to agree with all the posts about knowing yourself/time management/ priorities.

yeah med school ends up being like organic chemistry if you learn all 2 semesters of orgo in 2-3 weeks. 🙄
 
Ehh college was a lot more fun and less stressful than med school.

You are super poor in med school and never have time to work so I was always really tight on money (which sucks).

M1/M2 years are very predictable. You have a set amount of knowledge to learn before each test and can kinda set your own schedule. Wasn't terrible after you adjusted to the work load (which is hard for the first 1-2 months).

M3 year just sucks. I swear half of your evaluation is based on your enthusiasm for the particular specialty. You can't do anything helpful and most of the time you are just slowing everyone down. If you are lucky you find an area of medicine you enjoy (which I did).

I just started M4 year last month and I am ready to be done. Everyone says M4 year is the best year. But so far M4 year is ok, but kinda pointless and a waste of $33,000. I know the same amount or more than the new interns since I just finished step 2 and M3 year, yet I am still just a student and can't really 'do' anything. Although it will be nice to have a few months of vacation and having some free time.

Honestly I wouldn't go to med school if I were to do it again. I have several classmates who feel the same way. However, if you make it this far you basically have financial handcuffs on forcing you to complete a residency and work for awhile as an attending.

Maybe residency will be better....but at the very least I will get a pay check.

Sounds like burn out (everyone experiences after third year). Hope it gets better. I'm an MS4 as well.

Anyway, I'll echo a bit of what was said here.

MS1/2: Most schools are shifting to P/F and most students don't even attend lecture. The amount of material you have to learn makes undergrad look like a complete joke. Though, it's doable and all this material will be hammered into you throughout the rest of your career that it's really just making sure you're exposed to it for the first time. In general, if you don't get yourself too involved in pointless EC's and/or elective classes, it's pretty do-able to lead a very normal life with free weekends. In many ways, it's much more flexible than having a normal 9-5 PM job because you do everything on your own schedule.

MS3: Pretty much a total **** show. Unclear expectations, constantly shifting rotations, clinical sites, mentors, etc. I like to say, with all the moving around 3rd year, MS3 is pretty much like starting a new job every week with a new boss in a new field in which you have no experience in and all your evaluators have years or even decades practicing. Once you finally feel like you've had time to adjust and can be valuable, you're thrust into a new rotation or clinical site and have to start all over. Also... Subjective grading that doesn't make any sense, especially being evaluated on how well you're taking caring of patients even though for the most part you're not given the responsibilities to do so. Working up to 80 hrs/week, sometimes on rotations you don't like very much (i.e. for us non-surgical folk like myself, getting up at 4:30 AM 6 days a week to spend 10 hours in the OR retracting, barely speaking, and developing severe back pain from standing for so long).

MS4: I actually like MS4 a lot more than MS3 so far. You actually have a learned a lot so you feel more helpful in the hospital...or at least, the work is more rewarding even if you're not the primary provider because at least you know what's going on and can contribute a lot more intellectually to patient care. The hours are also better for the most part, because it's just fulfilling electives and doing the rotations you LIKE doing and avoiding the ones you don't.

Residency: Haven't been there yet, but it's long hours. The main difference is that you're no longer being evaluated like a medical student. You do a good job primarily for your patients, not to impress your attending. Though, I am increasingly convinced a lot of residency is just doing all the annoying paperwork and logistical planning that the attendings don't want to have to be responsible for.
 
The loan amount you can take out is limited by your school's "cost of attendance," which is set by the financial aid office. The estimates for living expenses are usually VERY conservative, making things a little tight.

I lived in a mid-sized college town for law school, and the most I could take out for living expenses was about $6500/semester. (That money was also used to buy books and school supplies.) For reference, $550 was average rent for a crappy but safe one bedroom. ETA: That was several years ago, and their current cost of attendance allows for an additional $1000/semester, so approx. $7500/semester.

+1

You can survive but unless you saved money or your family is giving you money you will use all your money on rent, gas, food, board exams, review courses, etc.

Watch your college friends buy houses, cars, and go on cool trips while you work your ass off and have nothing beyond the basics.
 
+1

You can survive but unless you saved money or your family is giving you money you will use all your money on rent, gas, food, board exams, review courses, etc.

Watch your college friends buy houses, cars, and go on cool trips while you work your ass off and have nothing beyond the basics.

Hah, you have some really successful "college friends"

Where do these debt free non medical students who have the dough to travel and buy a car exist?

The 7-10 years you spend being a medical student puts you in a better position than 99% of the country. If that's not enough for you then...I don't know what else to say.
 
Hah, you have some really successful "college friends"

Where do these people debt free non medical students who have the dough to travel and buy a car exist?

I think he means friends from college, not friends who are currently college students.
 
I think he means friends from college, not friends who are currently college students.

Yep, most of friends from college are now either engineers, nurses, PAs, residents, etc...

Yes, I realize there is a light at the end of the tunnel...but the process is still painful at times. I'd say more painful than I imagined as a premed.
 
I think he means friends from college, not friends who are currently college students.

He means college friends who took normal jobs.

Medicine is definitely delayed financial gratification. And it's totally true that a lot of your friends from college who took business, consulting, etc. jobs are maybe already making 100k+, getting married, buying nice cars and homes... when you're at the end of medical school or a resident and are swimming in debt. Personally, I'm fine living off of 30k/year while in school and still have a fair amount of fun. I wouldn't want to settle down with that stuff in my 20's anyway.
 
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Confused about this part. Can't you take out loans and live comfortably? Right now I'm living off of a 26k/yr job and it's a hell of a pain trying to pay for things while I'm applying to med schools.

You might have some problems.

The loan amount you can take out is limited by your school's "cost of attendance," which is set by the financial aid office. The estimates for living expenses are usually VERY conservative, making things a little tight.

This depends entirely on where you live, and what your priorities for spending are. My share of the rent is about $550, and I'm in a two bedroom place with another med student. There are places more expensive if you want to live alone, or cheaper if you're willing to live with more people or further from school. My monthly budget is just over $1K, and I know a couple people who managed to live somewhat comfortably under $1K. Up until this year, I've taken out about 3K less than the COA, and that includes paying for a cruise after second year, paying for all my board exams (plus travel expenses associated with them), and flying to Europe 3 times during med school (visiting family and friends meant little expense once I landed), plus shelling out $500 for a friend's wedding where I was gone for all of 36 hours. I eat well, don't feel terribly conservative when it comes to my utility bill, and I have a not-so-cheap cell phone plan.

This year will be a bit different, because the COA is lower and I have to pay for residency expenses, but I also have more opportunities to make some money through the school by being a standardized patient or observer for the OSCEs.
 
Ehh college was a lot more fun and less stressful than med school.

You are super poor in med school and never have time to work so I was always really tight on money (which sucks).

M1/M2 years are very predictable. You have a set amount of knowledge to learn before each test and can kinda set your own schedule. Wasn't terrible after you adjusted to the work load (which is hard for the first 1-2 months).

M3 year just sucks. I swear half of your evaluation is based on your enthusiasm for the particular specialty. You can't do anything helpful and most of the time you are just slowing everyone down. If you are lucky you find an area of medicine you enjoy (which I did).

I just started M4 year last month and I am ready to be done. Everyone says M4 year is the best year. But so far M4 year is ok, but kinda pointless and a waste of $33,000. I know the same amount or more than the new interns since I just finished step 2 and M3 year, yet I am still just a student and can't really 'do' anything. Although it will be nice to have a few months of vacation and having some free time.

Honestly I wouldn't go to med school if I were to do it again. I have several classmates who feel the same way. However, if you make it this far you basically have financial handcuffs on forcing you to complete a residency and work for awhile as an attending.

Maybe residency will be better....but at the very least I will get a pay check.

How much in private loans did you have to take out?
 
Hah, you have some really successful "college friends"

Where do these debt free non medical students who have the dough to travel and buy a car exist?

The 7-10 years you spend being a medical student puts you in a better position than 99% of the country. If that's not enough for you then...I don't know what else to say.

I think he means friends from college, not friends who are currently college students.

I think he understands that. The thing is, people are notoriously bad with their money and this economy has been hard on everyone to boot. Chances are, the people that you believe have it made are probably worse off than you think. And the people that look like they have a lot of money (big house, fancy car, etc) generally don't.
 
Sounds like burn out (everyone experiences after third year). Hope it gets better. I'm an MS4 as well.

MS3: Pretty much a total **** show. Unclear expectations, constantly shifting rotations, clinical sites, mentors, etc. I like to say, with all the moving around 3rd year, MS3 is pretty much like starting a new job every week with a new boss in a new field in which you have no experience in and all your evaluators have years or even decades practicing. Once you finally feel like you've had time to adjust and can be valuable, you're thrust into a new rotation or clinical site and have to start all over. Also... Subjective grading that doesn't make any sense, especially being evaluated on how well you're taking caring of patients even though for the most part you're not given the responsibilities to do so. Working up to 80 hrs/week, sometimes on rotations you don't like very much (i.e. for us non-surgical folk like myself, getting up at 4:30 AM 6 days a week to spend 10 hours in the OR retracting, barely speaking, and developing severe back pain from standing for so long).

Don't forget the part where you have to come back from the hospital and study every night for the stupid shelf.
 
For what its worth, medical school is what you make of it. As a current M4, I look back on all the things I did during the first 3 years and wonder what I was so stressed about. Lots of unnecessary anxiety. But then again, it's not like I have matched yet, so what do I know? Maybe I should have been MORE stressed out!!! But probably not. Because in the end, there is always someone better off and worse off than you. What I am realizing is that there are lots of ways to make meaningful contributions that have nothing to do with the grades. Everyone is so worried about the grades that I wonder what experiences I missed out on because I was so self-centered. We all said in our medical school interviews and essays that we were going in to save the world, one sick patient at a time or some variation on that theme. Somehow, that gets warped into this self-serving quest to out-gun the gunners and it makes me wonder if patients wouldn't actually be better off being seen by PA's. In my personal experience, their shorter training makes them much less cynical and selfish than med students by the end of residency.

Call me a dreamer, but in my ideal world I would replace half the doctors with more PA's and nurses or find a way to cut a few years out of medical school. It has just been my personal observation that one of the unintended side effects of creating doctors is destroying compassionate human beings who genuinely want to help.

Wow, not sure where that rant came from. I have never even had that thought about nurses and PA's before, it just came out as I typed. I would ramble more, but guess what? I have to get back to work, cramming for step 2. The good thing about the seemingly endless stream of exams in medical school is that by the end, you really don't care. This test is going to make or break my career and deliver or shatter all of my hopes, wants, and dreams? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Throw it on the heap with the rest of 'em. I guess I am just as jaded as everyone else is by this point. I wonder if the pre-med version of me would be impressed at what I have accomplished or disappointed by what medical school has done to me.
 
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