Do you actually enjoy medical school?

[viralhiker]

Now that I have an acceptance, I find myself constantly wishing the year would speed up and I could leave my gap year job and finally start school. But then I read sooo much that makes me wonder if this is just a particularly potent case of the grass being greener on the other side. Go and browse any school-specific forum or thread from a grizzled fourth-year, you’ll often find there is so much negativity. Whether it’s about lackluster facilities, unsupportive administrations, or disappointing clinical experiences, I rarely see people raving about their med school experience.

I would love to hear from y’all on the brighter side of medical school, or at least tell me I’m not naive to get my hopes up for the next four years!

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[Neopolymath]

I have enjoyed most of the process. That said, absolutely without question do not let life pass you by or wish time away. Biggest mistake someone can make in this long process. You will regret it deeply if you do so. Plan for tomorrow but live right now.

You will be unhappy if you think you just need to do X next thing to finally be happy. Then it will be Y thing. And then Z thing... You get the point.

 

[slowthai]

Well I enjoy kicking those admin guys in the nuts (figuratively) by taking control of my education. I study from my own self-made curriculum, joyfully ignoring the school's.

Serious answer: I greatly enjoy medicine itself but hate the BS in medicine with all my heart

 

[drducky.]

At first yes, but I hate it now. Maybe i’m getting burnt out or maybe covid is finally taking its toll on me psychologically.

 

[PapaGuava]

In medical school there is always something to complain about but at the end of the day those glimmers of light is what keeps you moving forward. If it’s what you want to do you will find what makes you happy from it. You are going to live these years on Earth regardless whether you attend medical school or not, but whatever you do it better damn be worth your time.

I don’t regret my decision to attend medical school at all but it is a sacrifice in regards to the time you have to put in for the long haul.

Congratulations on your acceptance

 

[bioboy23]

I’m only an M1 but I don’t mind it. Some days I wake up dreading doing my Anki cards but for the most part it is interesting and enjoyable! I really like the kids in my class (the few I have met) and can tell some of them will be life-long friends. I’ve had the luxury of not needing to change study methods, so that has been a huge load off my back. I remember before I started I was super worried that I would have to change the way I studied a million times before I figured it out. Just use anki and pound the space bar every single day and you’ll be fine. Also having a pass/fail curriculum is awesome.

 

[odyssey2]

I actually really loved second year and studying for Step 1. I studied all the time but I truly didn’t mind, everything was so interesting. First year was ok, just stressful to get used to med school. Third year was abject misery.

 

[Steve_Zissou]

I actually really loved second year and studying for Step 1. I studied all the time but I truly didn’t mind, everything was so interesting. First year was ok, just stressful to get used to med school. Third year was abject misery.

Welcome to the diagnostic radiology/pathology track my friend!

 

[IMG69]

Clinical years are fantastic IMO, you'll get some fantastic doctors who give you the chance to feel like a practicing physician, patients will start graciously thanking you, some doctors may even call you Doctor (yes it feels good for the first time) etc but then you'll also get some horrible ones who do the opposite or just waste your time. Pre-clin years is just undergrad on steroids basically, just manage your time well and you'll find a way to enjoy it.

This will most likely be the most difficult thing in your life, so just know and accept that things might get rough.

 

[M&L]

I love it . So much . I literally can’t get enough of studying (I swear I am serious). My admins are amazing , - I love them so much I actually sometimes just email to say hi. My class is ok - no “shark” action, even though there are a few cringe worthy ppl . Most are fine . We exchange resources , etc. City is cheap to live in . And the bar on the corner has great burgers . My life is pretty great .

 

[odyssey2]

Welcome to the diagnostic radiology/pathology track my friend!

Way ahead of you. Matching radiology this year 😂

 

[sloop]

As with a lot of things in life, I look back on it with a lot more fondness than I probably had at the time. Hell, I even have some good memories from intern year and intern year sucked way harder than medical school in most regards.

 

[Allosteopath]

After spending a semester here, I have realized, that regardless of how much I hate the grind, its still fun and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

 

[deleted1079620]

I just finished a particularly grueling block with a really crappy practical built into it. If you had asked me last Tuesday after the final, I would have told you no, don’t do it, it totally sucks and you’ll be miserable and hate your life. Grades came in last night and everything turned out fine, so today I would say yes, I love school, I’m excited to learn and I look forward to each day.

Moral of the story: some days/weeks/months suck. You might be reading the post of someone in one of those bad stretches. People don’t tend to come here to talk about how much they love medical school, but you’ll have good days, great days, and bad days.

 

[Michel de Montaigne]

I just finished a particularly grueling block with a really crappy practical built into it. If you had asked me last Tuesday after the final, I would have told you no, don’t do it, it totally sucks and you’ll be miserable and hate your life. Grades came in last night and everything turned out fine, so today I would say yes, I love school, I’m excited to learn and I look forward to each day.

Moral of the story: some days/weeks/months suck. You might be reading the post of someone in one of those bad stretches. People don’t tend to come here to talk about how much they love medical school, but you’ll have good days, great days, and bad days.

That's a really interesting point, as I always wonder how much are outlook on basically anything is influenced by our day to day mood.

 

[stickgirl390]

The only part of med school that I truly dislike is how my specific program grades third and fourth year clerkships. (I won’t get in to details since that isn’t the point of your thread.) Other than that, i really do enjoy med school. I am ready to move on to residency though. Since finding my specialty, everything else just feels like filler box-checking.

 

[7331poas]

I think if it weren't for school administrators and faculty, med school would be an amazing experience. Unfortunately that is not the case.

 

[Cath Up]

I enjoy it very much. Sorry it's sappy- in year 3 and still sometimes wake up in disbelief that I am able to pursue this.

I think the biggest predictor of whether or not you enjoy med school is going to be how you deal with adversity.

In my mind this comes partially from life experience and partially from upbringing. If you have prior work experience, it can help a lot because you realize the grass is usually very much a rotting brown on the other side. If you have had a lot of personal adversity in your life previously or were parented such that you can healthily cope, when you're presented with the (myriad) small and large unfair or unjust parts of medical training, you'll be able to brush it off better, focus on the positives, and avoid constant complaining.

 

[Goro]

Now that I have an acceptance, I find myself constantly wishing the year would speed up and I could leave my gap year job and finally start school. But then I read sooo much that makes me wonder if this is just a particularly potent case of the grass being greener on the other side. Go and browse any school-specific forum or thread from a grizzled fourth-year, you’ll often find there is so much negativity. Whether it’s about lackluster facilities, unsupportive administrations, or disappointing clinical experiences, I rarely see people raving about their med school experience.

I would love to hear from y’all on the brighter side of medical school, or at least tell me I’m not naive to get my hopes up for the next four years!

My students who love learning enjoy med school and do well...very well in their coursework.

 

[scoopdaboop]

It's not that bad. People love to over dramatize it, "I wake up at 4 am and run for an hour then study til lunch then I study until 7 pm" all that garbage lmao. You can get by waking up at 10 am, half ass study until 4 pm and be fine. WIll you get A's? No. Will you be doing well enough and still have enough time for hobbies, kids whatever you have going on? Absolutely.

 

[Neopolymath]

I enjoy it very much. Sorry it's sappy- in year 3 and still sometimes wake up in disbelief that I am able to pursue this.

I think the biggest predictor of whether or not you enjoy med school is going to be how you deal with adversity.

In my mind this comes partially from life experience and partially from upbringing. If you have prior work experience, it can help a lot because you realize the grass is usually very much a rotting brown on the other side. If you have had a lot of personal adversity in your life previously or were parented such that you can healthily cope, when you're presented with the (myriad) small and large unfair or unjust parts of medical training, you'll be able to brush it off better, focus on the positives, and avoid constant complaining.

I feel the same way with a twist. I bitch and moan but mostly in a motivational way commonly illustrated to be effective by sports dynasties. "Us against the world" is a very, very motivating mindset in long term, tough challenges. Much like some patients are too mean to die, I'm too proud and stubborn to let some parts of the system beat me and get to me (aside from Gimpel lol).

When my admin irritates me and definitely tries to sabotage me I just try to channel my inner MJ:

 

[Cath Up]

I feel the same way with a twist. I bitch and moan but mostly in a motivational way commonly illustrated to be effective by sports dynasties. "Us against the world" is a very, very motivating mindset in long term, tough challenges. Much like some patients are too mean to die, I'm too proud and stubborn to let some parts of the system beat me and get to me (aside from Gimpel lol).

When my admin irritates me and definitely tries to sabotage me I just try to channel my inner MJ:
View attachment 329326

I don't enjoy watching basketball but man that was a great series. Dude is worth >2 billion dollars now too

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Overall, yes. First year was rough for me adjusting to school and also being far away from home. I also hated anatomy and we have a systems-based curriculum where anatomy went all the way through M1 up until the last course. Once that last course came around, I was a different person. M2 was awesome, since I barely had to be on campus since we no longer had anatomy lab I basically just studied on my own time at home and did really well. I've really enjoyed M3 so far outside of stupid busywork assignments my school gives sometimes. Sometimes it is annoying to wake up and know I have to do Anki cards and UWorld, but most of the time I look back on the last ~3 years and I know I couldn't have done anything better with my time. I have a sense of accomplishment and purpose and I am proud of myself for doing this. Now that I know 100% what I want to do with my career, I am ready to get to that. Also, I'll echo what a few other people mentioned: do not let med school become your life. Obviously there will be days and periods of time when it will be: the few days leading up to an exam, Step 1 dedicated (although probs not if it's P/F by the time you take it). But enjoy your life, don't forget to spend time with the people you love. Life is short and the biggest thing that kept me sane was making sure I still did the things that made me happy and spent time with my loved ones. You'll never regret prioritizing that.

Edit: Also, the days may sometimes be long but the time goes really fast. I seriously can't believe I'm about to be a fourth year and I'm planning stuff for my ERAS app. It's absolutely insane.

 

[Nugester]

First semester not so much due to the transition and a self-imposed stress about grades, but I'm enjoying it a lot more second semester (still a first year). My school is still on a traditional and honors system, but somehow I dropped the majority of the stress. As opposed to last semester, I try to attend the majority of lectures on Zoom, participate and hey, leave my camera on.

 

[Gilakend]

I think the most annoying part of medical school is that often the things that take the most time or are weighed the most are often what interrupt you from learning medicine. i.e. hoping that instead of having to see the new admit, you just get a chance to sit there and press your space bar because you don't feel prepared for a shelf. Writing and note for the 1 millionth time that will not be used (usually) because you have to instead learning or doing other clinical work that could help the team. Focusing on cramming in extremely minor details for multiple-choice exams that you will very quickly forget instead of focus on the practical aspects. It's very easy to excel in medical school academically by just playing the game while being wholly incompetent as a future physician.

But overall I enjoy it. I have time outside of school to enjoy my life, certain things definitely take a hit due to time, but your life by no means pauses.

 

[m222222]

The only part of med school that I truly dislike is how my specific program grades third and fourth year clerkships. (I won’t get in to details since that isn’t the point of your thread.) Other than that, i really do enjoy med school. I am ready to move on to residency though. Since finding my specialty, everything else just feels like filler box-checking.

Do you have any advice with regarding to choosing a school that uses a particular grading method for M3 and M4?

 

[FutureSurgical]

I love the material and our admin actually cares about us as a class. Despite the stress and mountains of "pancakes I have to eat," I love the adversity and the challenges I face. I don't regret for a second about going into medical school.

At the same time, COVID is starting to affect me; I feel so removed from my classmates, yet I'm too busy to be around family/friends outside of medicine (if there wasn't even a pandemic going on.) We aren't allowed to do anything clinically (except for give vaccinations if we're trained,) so it's hard as hell to know the impact of why I'm learning this mountain of material, beyond the cliche "one day your patient may have this disease! You need to know how to treat it!!!!!"

 

[Dantes]

Honestly, not anymore. I still enjoy seeing patients and studying the science, but that's about it. First year I hated the stress of overly-frequent testing, and the BS mandatory activities getting in the way of actually learning. Second year was worse cause it was that plus Step. Third year is awful since every day feels like a job interview except you're paying to be there, and you have to finalize a specialty. I don't know if I would do this again and the biggest thing keeping me in so far is the debt.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Overall yes, The constant anki no

 

[stickgirl390]

Do you have any advice with regarding to choosing a school that uses a particular grading method for M3 and M4?

Not really.... some schools use A/B/C, others use honors/high pass/pass, but I don’t see the difference.

my school ties your clerkship grade to what you score on the shelf exam, which means every course comes down to one single test. They “say” its not just the shelf... but it is.

 

[khnz786]

I really enjoyed my medical school experience.

 

[Styrene]

Med school was fun. Can be exhausting and stressful, especially for socially anxious introverts. The school work part was easy for me, but being continually forced into new social situations (ie clerkships) was stressful. But it is a learning process.

You will likely find at least one facet of the whole process to be stressful.

 

[odyssey2]

Med school was fun. Can be exhausting and stressful, especially for socially anxious introverts. The school work part was easy for me, but being continually forced into new social situations (ie clerkships) was stressful. But it is a learning process.

You will likely find at least one facet of the whole process to be stressful.

It’s a rare person that isn’t stressed out by some aspect of med school. Introverts may find the clinical years difficult and extroverted types can find the preclinical years extremely tedious.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

It’s a rare person that isn’t stressed out by some aspect of med school. Introverts may find the clinical years difficult and extroverted types can find the preclinical years extremely tedious.

Yeah I dislike the whole “introvert = socially anxious/awkward” trope. Introversion doesn’t mean socially awkward. It means you just get drained from prolonged social interactions or large group activities. If you can’t interact with people on an individual level, you’re socially awkward not introverted.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

So far I’ve enjoyed medical school. I started to get over preclinical during the last block, but it was just in time to start rotations.

 

[Prehealth1011]

Hated it at first. Classmates always fishing for how I did on the tests, some of them acting like they barely did **** but still did better than me even though I saw them studying at the library for hours, the school trying to force you to come to class...

Stopped going. Loved it afterwards

Rotations started off with Surgery and OB - hated my life again but it's been alright once those were done

 

[odyssey2]

Yeah I dislike the whole “introvert = socially anxious/awkward” trope. Introversion doesn’t mean socially awkward. It means you just get drained from prolonged social interactions or large group activities. If you can’t interact with people on an individual level, you’re socially awkward not introverted.

I mean, I agree but I think you can easily be drained by constant personal interactions over the clinical years even if you aren’t awkward at it.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I mean, I agree but I think you can easily be drained by constant personal interactions over the clinical years even if you aren’t awkward at it.

Yeah that’s my point. They aren’t the same.

 

[LibBum]

F no. I am out in May and never looking back. It served a purpose. Bye bye. Bob Kelso time.

 

[sunshinefl]

Preclinical years were miserable, isolating torture. Clinical years have been amazing and I am excited about The Match.

 

[Styrene]

Yeah I dislike the whole “introvert = socially anxious/awkward” trope. Introversion doesn’t mean socially awkward. It means you just get drained from prolonged social interactions or large group activities. If you can’t interact with people on an individual level, you’re socially awkward not introverted.

Are you referencing my post, as well? I didn't equate socially anxious/awkward with introversion.

 

[Lawpy]

Preclinical years were miserable, isolating torture. Clinical years have been amazing and I am excited about The Match.

Honestly for that reason among others, i want preclinical to be shortened to 1 year. 1.5 yrs tops.

 

[Styrene]

It’s a rare person that isn’t stressed out by some aspect of med school. Introverts may find the clinical years difficult and extroverted types can find the preclinical years extremely tedious.

That's a good point. I found the preclinical time easy but worried excessively in my first clerkship about presentations on rounds, sensitive physical exams, etc. I did well regardless, as my struggles were internal--always have been. I suffered in silence as a child with severe social anxiety, as many do.

But regardless of people's weak points, we all learn to compensate accordingly and do well. When it comes to personality traits, resiliency (and conscientiousness) is most closely linked with success in medical training.

 

[Styrene]

Honestly for that reason among others, i want preclinical to be shortened to 1 year. 1.5 yrs tops.

It was 1.5 at my school. Definitely more than enough. There is still a lot of excess in medical education. Learning occurs so rapidly now with the vast resources out there. I like the extra material, but from a strictly practical view considering cost, streamlined education practices, and length of training sufficient to teach competent physicians, most programs will be three years in the near future I guess? I think certain residencies could be shortened, too, and even customized based on what a person plans to do once they finish.

But then again, licensing exams still ask what renal tubules, etc, look like on the microscope.

 

[Espressso]

Preclinical years blow while you're in the midst of it but looking back as an m4 now it wasn't as bad as I think it felt at the time. Step prep also blows but for the most part it's just work that has to be done and you get it done. I've made some really close friends in med school and I've learned a lot and I'm excited for the future. A future that wouldn't really be possible without doing the work of med school. So did I enjoy it? In hindsight knowing what I know now, yes.

It's a process and when it gets really hard you just have to remind yourself of that. The worst part is the admin crap and the meaningless required stuff but overall it's not as bad as I thought

 

[Banco]

Yeah it's all been a blast. Classmates are great, amazing new friends, good curriculum, and even 3rd year was really rewarding albeit stressful. But definitely an environment where you have to push yourself, be motivated, and work hard so you don't sink. My school is really good about making sure the students are doing alright so that helps.

 

[7331poas]

Honestly for that reason among others, i want preclinical to be shortened to 1 year. 1.5 yrs tops.

Wait till you find out that clinical years are even worse.

 

[viralhiker]

Wow, thank you all for your answers! Y'all are a very reflective and realistic bunch. I've noticed some commonalities in the responses (admin usually sux, there will certainly be parts of med school that'll grind you down, shorten this/that), but surprisingly these answers are more positive in general than I was expecting. Also, I have a lot of sympathy for you first-years who started during COVID (and everyone else trying to med school during a pandemic for that matter). That must be rough. I am excited to get started next year, and I think you all have helped in assuaging my anxieties/uncertainties.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Are you referencing my post, as well? I didn't equate socially anxious/awkward with introversion.

No, I didn’t think you were equating the two.

 

[RangerBob]

I thought med school was fun. Preclinical years were the most fun because you saw your classmates regularly. Third year, while still fun, was the most stressful because change was the only constant, and I don't like lots of change. Every week or two you had either a new senior resident/intern/attending, project, rotation location, or just new rotation in general. Anytime you felt you were finally getting the hang of things something got changed.

It's actually a helpful learning experience, but like I said, I'm not a fan of change. I'd totally be happy to be one of those guys who grows a long beard and lives with his dog up in a log cabin the mountains. I just need to get more flannel, and also bulk up significantly so I can look the lumberjack part.