Does it get better?

[Rothbard]

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No, life gets progressively worse starting in third year until you've finished residency (with a little vacation in 4th year). After that, it depends on your specialty.

 

[Anigma07]

To people who are telling me to F- off:

Look, you probably know better than me. All I know is, I've heard the same laments echoing year after year in undergrad (during bio 101, during orgo, during labs, during MCATs) and I read on these forums the same sentiments continue throughout medical school, residency, and beyond. Something always seems to suck. That said, doesn't it make more sense to stop indulging in the line of thinking that somehow "it" will get better somewhere down the line and start thinking of ways for "you" to cope with "it?"

This is why there is a pre-med forum. Get into medical school first, buddy.

 

[sonofva]

No you have the correct perspective. The idiot below who hasn't started medical school yet and who says otherwise will eventually understand, be it in med school or during residency.

Go on medscape and look at the polls performed on lifestyle. Pay attention in particular to the parts about whether they would choose medicine as a career again. Medicine is about getting to do something that is really cool at first but then becomes just another job. In return you get to watch your life pass you by, lots of stress, lost time with family, loss of family, and a **** ton of rationalization. You will rationalize that you are doing something so good for so many people that it makes it worth it. Through time you'll experience disrespect, lawsuits, and general annoyance from the people you are trying to help. Worse still, those people think your services aren't worth your inflated salary and will complain and complain about how you get paid to much for so little work. Eventually you'll run out of things to hold on to to make this idiotic choice of a career worthwhile.

I live near the beach but I haven't been out of my house in any meaningful way for 5 weeks as I study these last few days for step1. What stings the most is seeing the smiling faces of the happy people having fun, hanging out with friends, and enjoying life in around the beach town where I live. Two days after I take step1 I start 3rd year where my success rests primarily on "playing the game" rather than my marks on an exam.

I would get out of medicine if I didn't have loads of debt and ailing parents. I wish I had done dentistry

i am pretty much in the same boat bro. i lived 5 miles from one of the best beaches on the east coast, and i went 3 times in 2 years. the first three years of medical school wiped me out. im still trying to get my head back on straight. i dunno if i'll ever really get refocused. perhaps after residency?

 

[qxrt]

So, to answer your question, "How is it different?" It doesn't matter what your intentions are, or how you actually act that determine your grade. It's how other people are doing that day or how they perceive that you're acting that determine your grade. I made myself available for an extremely time consuming part of the rotation that my other classmates did the opposite for, and ended up getting terrible evaluations for it. The resident I'm talking about is extremely nice, extremely intelligent, and a very good teacher. I must have just done the wrong thing on the wrong day to make her mad. I'm just glad I got a chance to explain what happened to the course coordinator to avoid that nonsense going into my Dean's Letter...That doesn't always happen. If it would have stayed, that's something that would hurt my career more than just a couple of points on my grade.

This is not unique to medicine at all and is true for anything involving social interactions in life. Even you yourself judge others by what you see of them based on your own experiences, not from their intentions or their motivations.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

No you have the correct perspective. The idiot below who hasn't started medical school yet and who says otherwise will eventually understand, be it in med school or during residency.

Go on medscape and look at the polls performed on lifestyle. Pay attention in particular to the parts about whether they would choose medicine as a career again. Medicine is about getting to do something that is really cool at first but then becomes just another job. In return you get to watch your life pass you by, lots of stress, lost time with family, loss of family, and a **** ton of rationalization. You will rationalize that you are doing something so good for so many people that it makes it worth it. Through time you'll experience disrespect, lawsuits, and general annoyance from the people you are trying to help. Worse still, those people think your services aren't worth your inflated salary and will complain and complain about how you get paid to much for so little work. Eventually you'll run out of things to hold on to to make this idiotic choice of a career worthwhile.

I live near the beach but I haven't been out of my house in any meaningful way for 5 weeks as I study these last few days for step1. What stings the most is seeing the smiling faces of the happy people having fun, hanging out with friends, and enjoying life in around the beach town where I live. Two days after I take step1 I start 3rd year where my success rests primarily on "playing the game" rather than my marks on an exam.

I would get out of medicine if I didn't have loads of debt and ailing parents. I wish I had done dentistry

It's so nice to hear from someone who's actually experienced everything you're talking about and isn't still a second year medical student....oh wait.

Seriously, people get jaded around here so fast. It is an online forum of course so I guess you can expect most of the complainers to speak up.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

No you have the correct perspective. The idiot below who hasn't started medical school yet and who says otherwise will eventually understand, be it in med school or during residency.

Go on medscape and look at the polls performed on lifestyle. Pay attention in particular to the parts about whether they would choose medicine as a career again. Medicine is about getting to do something that is really cool at first but then becomes just another job. In return you get to watch your life pass you by, lots of stress, lost time with family, loss of family, and a **** ton of rationalization. You will rationalize that you are doing something so good for so many people that it makes it worth it. Through time you'll experience disrespect, lawsuits, and general annoyance from the people you are trying to help. Worse still, those people think your services aren't worth your inflated salary and will complain and complain about how you get paid to much for so little work. Eventually you'll run out of things to hold on to to make this idiotic choice of a career worthwhile.

I live near the beach but I haven't been out of my house in any meaningful way for 5 weeks as I study these last few days for step1. What stings the most is seeing the smiling faces of the happy people having fun, hanging out with friends, and enjoying life in around the beach town where I live. Two days after I take step1 I start 3rd year where my success rests primarily on "playing the game" rather than my marks on an exam.

I would get out of medicine if I didn't have loads of debt and ailing parents. I wish I had done dentistry

When I was in undergrad I used to live in the district where all the fraternity/sorority houses were. Every day and almost every night, but especially during the beginning of the semesters or when the whether was nice, I'd see scores of hot girls in shoulder-baring sweatshirts and short shorts walk up and down the street going to the next thumping party on a lawn with tiki-torches while I was coming back from another day-long study session to turn in early so i can wake up at 4 for another day just like it. And I did this for four years. In the meantime, I passed on potential relationships with girls that I KNOW I would have loved to be with. I passed on clubs I wanted to join, day trips, etc. Not ONCE did I regret what I was doing, uncertain as I was back then of whether what I was doing was for nothing.

You want to look at "happy people" and feel miserable and sorry for yourself, that's your prerogative. The world will always provide you with people that seem happier than you. I stand by what I said. No matter how good you have it, you can always find something to complain about. And the reverse is true as well. You can choose how you see things if you try. I bet you either haven't tried or don't know how.

 

[tco]

This is not unique to medicine at all and is true for anything involving social interactions in life. Even you yourself judge others by what you see of them based on your own experiences, not from their intentions or their motivations.

Do explain the logic of marking someone down for always being available to help when every other student runs and hides in the call room. What you say might hold weight if there wasn't already a standard to compare me to. I made one mistake one morning (arguable, at that) and had two HORRIBLE evaluations from it, yet if I had hidden in the call room, I would have had no worse than "averages" down the board with zero comments.

It isn't even about what you experience from another person. I can almost guarantee that in my case, the resident had a bad morning and something went wrong - then she took it out on me with the tongue lashing and evaluation the next day. That's not assessing someone's actions or experiences, that's taking your frustrations out on whoever you can. That's something that I've honestly never done, and I hope to never do.

 

[sobored]

When I was in undergrad I used to live in the district where all the fraternity/sorority houses were. Every day and almost every night, but especially during the beginning of the semesters or when the whether was nice, I'd see scores of hot girls in shoulder-baring sweatshirts and short shorts walk up and down the street going to the next thumping party on a lawn with tiki-torches while I was coming back from another day-long study session to turn in early so i can wake up at 4 for another day just like it. And I did this for four years. In the meantime, I passed on potential relationships with girls that I KNOW I would have loved to be with. I passed on clubs I wanted to join, day trips, etc. Not ONCE did I regret what I was doing, uncertain as I was back then of whether what I was doing was for nothing.

You want to look at "happy people" and feel miserable and sorry for yourself, that's your prerogative. The world will always provide you with people that seem happier than you. I stand by what I said. No matter how good you have it, you can always find something to complain about. And the reverse is true as well. You can choose how you see things if you try. I bet you either haven't tried or don't know how.

If you admit it is his/her prerogative to feel that way, why admonish the OP for feeling that way in your first post?

Also, if your undergrad studying was as intense (and life as boring) as you describe, you're in a world of hurt in med school (unless you make some changes to how you study).

I'm not trying to pile on you, but empathy doesn't seem to be your strong suit. Just let the OP vent, k?

 

[punkedoutriffs]

If you admit it is his/her prerogative to feel that way, why admonish the OP for feeling that way in your first post?

Also, if your undergrad studying was as intense (and life as boring) as you describe, you're in a world of hurt in med school (unless you make some changes to how you study).

I'm not trying to pile on you, but empathy doesn't seem to be your strong suit. Just let the OP vent, k?

If venting solved the problem in the long run, I'd buy him a venting machine (get it?). However, there are more effective ways of combating dissatisfaction. Techniques and philosophies derived from Greek/Roman stoicism and Zen Buddhism have worked best for me, YMMV. However, what invariably does NOT work is getting on a forum online or physical and commiserating with other people in misery. It just affirms and reinforces a line of thinking that led to the problem in the first place. Many times, it just makes it worse. Do any of you who are INSISTING that your pain/misery is justified feel any better for collectively venting your griefs or does it just perpetuate it? Think about it.

 

[Wordead]

When I was in undergrad I used to live in the district where all the fraternity/sorority houses were. Every day and almost every night, but especially during the beginning of the semesters or when the whether was nice, I'd see scores of hot girls in shoulder-baring sweatshirts and short shorts walk up and down the street going to the next thumping party on a lawn with tiki-torches while I was coming back from another day-long study session to turn in early so i can wake up at 4 for another day just like it. And I did this for four years. In the meantime, I passed on potential relationships with girls that I KNOW I would have loved to be with. I passed on clubs I wanted to join, day trips, etc. Not ONCE did I regret what I was doing, uncertain as I was back then of whether what I was doing was for nothing.

You want to look at "happy people" and feel miserable and sorry for yourself, that's your prerogative. The world will always provide you with people that seem happier than you. I stand by what I said. No matter how good you have it, you can always find something to complain about. And the reverse is true as well. You can choose how you see things if you try. I bet you either haven't tried or don't know how.

Dude....that sounds absolutely miserable.

 

[D elegans]

This time sucks. Even when I'm not studying for Step 1 (I taken plenty of breaks to do stupid **** like this) I always feel like I should be studying for it. You never feel like you're studying enough and you begin to wonder what life would be without it.

I am really hoping next year is more in line with what I expected medicine to be like.

That being said, I did take a year off between undergrad and med school, and from my experience, life is not that grand out of it. I was supremely bored. Granted, I wasn't doing anything particularly interesting, but just living life was not all that fulfilling. Being in med school is very engaging and it seems like it's headed in a good direction.

But again, like you, I'm tired out from studying.

 

[qxrt]

Do explain the logic of marking someone down for always being available to help when every other student runs and hides in the call room. What you say might hold weight if there wasn't already a standard to compare me to. I made one mistake one morning (arguable, at that) and had two HORRIBLE evaluations from it, yet if I had hidden in the call room, I would have had no worse than "averages" down the board with zero comments.

It isn't even about what you experience from another person. I can almost guarantee that in my case, the resident had a bad morning and something went wrong - then she took it out on me with the tongue lashing and evaluation the next day. That's not assessing someone's actions or experiences, that's taking your frustrations out on whoever you can. That's something that I've honestly never done, and I hope to never do.

If evaluations could be broken down play by play, then they would be standardized. I cannot comment on how you really are unless I meet you and observe you in the clinical setting, nor will I attempt to. But this behavior is not unique at all to medicine. You really think the business world or any other job with hierarchy (aka virtually all jobs) wouldn't have the same issues, if not more so? At least medicine has some semblance of objectivity, namely in the forms of shelf exams and the boards and the OSCE's. In the real world it will all be about what your superior says about you. Above a minimum threshold of competence, the real world is all about whether people like you, not how hard or how well you work (the importance of these largely lies in getting people to like you). And do note that I specifically mentioned "above a minimum threshold of competence," I don't want you to think that hard work and intelligence are not important at all.

 

[John Lannister]

If evaluations could be broken down play by play, then they would be standardized. I cannot comment on how you really are unless I meet you and observe you in the clinical setting, nor will I attempt to. But this behavior is not unique at all to medicine. You really think the business world or any other job with hierarchy (aka virtually all jobs) wouldn't have the same issues, if not more so? At least medicine has some semblance of objectivity, namely in the forms of shelf exams and the boards and the OSCE's. In the real world it will all be about what your superior says about you. Above a minimum threshold of competence, the real world is all about whether people like you, not how hard or how well you work (the importance of these largely lies in getting people to like you). And do note that I specifically mentioned "above a minimum threshold of competence," I don't want you to think that hard work and intelligence are not important at all.

Exactly. Except in a few fields of course.

Anyway, this thread doesn't have to turn into a war. Some people struggle in med school, some even commit suicide. So there's no reason to disparage those who are struggling - some people have lost their whole social support system and are miserable. It is what it is.

 

[yehhhboiii]

this gets said often but it would be really nice to keep premeds out of here. the amount of sanctimonious stupid that they can muster is mind boggling

 

[BeastInfection]

Hey OP, I just finished my second year so I'm in the same boat, but wanted to show some solidarity. I've asked myself "why am I doing this?" nearly every day. To be honest, if I was told tomorrow that all of my debt is forgiven, there would be a pretty solid chance that I'd pack my **** and move on to something different. But I'm putting all my eggs in the "things will turn around during clinical years" basket.

FWIW, my third and fourth year friends--even if they like to complain from time to time--candidly tell me that they really do love third year and that it's infinitely better than the pre-clinicals.

And I get the envy thing, but I think the other posters were right when they said things likely aren't as great as they seem. In this age range, I'm not sure that there are that many people who are truly content in their work life. What you see on Facebook are people posting pics that are the highlights of their lives---brief moments in a sea of other, more mundane moments. They aren't going to post pictures of their tenth straight hour in the cubicle at work. I think most people work their asses off just like we are, the only difference is they're making money doing it...which is great, but we'll get there eventually too.

 

[Textbookversion]

When I was in undergrad I used to live in the district where all the fraternity/sorority houses were. Every day and almost every night, but especially during the beginning of the semesters or when the whether was nice, I'd see scores of hot girls in shoulder-baring sweatshirts and short shorts walk up and down the street going to the next thumping party on a lawn with tiki-torches while I was coming back from another day-long study session to turn in early so i can wake up at 4 for another day just like it. And I did this for four years. In the meantime, I passed on potential relationships with girls that I KNOW I would have loved to be with. I passed on clubs I wanted to join, day trips, etc. Not ONCE did I regret what I was doing, uncertain as I was back then of whether what I was doing was for nothing.

You want to look at "happy people" and feel miserable and sorry for yourself, that's your prerogative. The world will always provide you with people that seem happier than you. I stand by what I said. No matter how good you have it, you can always find something to complain about. And the reverse is true as well. You can choose how you see things if you try. I bet you either haven't tried or don't know how.

Well I actually enjoyed myself in college (I was one of those people getting plastered, getting laid, and joining clubs) and had no trouble getting into medical school.

I am miserable studying all the time in medical school. YMMV. You sound kind of weird. Med school sucks. Worth it, but it sucks. Wait until you are here before you comment on it. Judging by how much you had to study in undergrad medical school may be even worse for you than it is for me.

Trust me every year the first years come in bright eyed and bushy tailed with all these chipper attitudes and then you get to see the life drain out of them slowly.

It's sort of interesting so many people in this thread have mentioned the guilt around time spent not studying. That is something I struggle with a lot. I come on here during my breaks to blabber but actually spending a whole day/evening out with friends or family is so guilt ridden now. Especially since if you drink in excess the next half day is kind of shot as well.

 

[KnuxNole]

Well I actually enjoyed myself in college (I was one of those people getting plastered, getting laid, and joining clubs) and had no trouble getting into medical school.

And I am miserable studying all the time in medical school. YMMV. You sound kind of weird. Med school sucks. Worth it, but it sucks. Wait until you are here before you comment on it.

Trust me every year the first years come in bright eyed and bushy tailed with all these chipper attitudes and then you get to see the life drain out of them slowly.

Sadly, this has been true to some extent.

Also, tons of pre meds have fun AND study hard. After all, there are some of those same sorority girls who might be sitting in class with you in the fall 😛

 

[LargeDocGuy2]

Forgot to mention that everyone who I got along *really* well with, dominated pimp sessions with, and just did awesome in general with gave me average marks and no comments, so my comments section is just the general BS that everyone gets PLUS one negative sentence that I told my course coordinator that she should just leave since it's in my evaluations. Can't be perfect, right? It wasn't that bad of a comment, and how am I going to throw a fit over it when I just defended, "Doesn't take negative criticism well," right? Right?! 🙁

You have something seriously wrong with your personality buddy.If you had done so great on pimp questions and got along *really* well with people they would have given you better than average reviews. They probably thought you were a ****ty person like everyone else but just wanted to be nice.

 

[LargeDocGuy2]

Most of the people who ***** about med school either 1) have horrid social skills and get upset when patients and attendings get pissed at them because of this or 2) aren't very intelligent and need to spend nearly every waking hour studying just to get by. Neither of these groups should have gone to medical school because for the rest of us, it's awesome.

 

[Galatasaray]

damn this thread is depressing..

 

[John Lannister]

Most of the people who ***** about med school either 1) have horrid social skills and get upset when patients and attendings get pissed at them because of this or 2) aren't very intelligent and need to spend nearly every waking hour studying just to get by. Neither of these groups should have gone to medical school because for the rest of us, it's awesome.

Wow. Nothing like kicking people when they are down. If someone isn't as smart as you, they shouldn't become a doctor?

http://www.westerngazette.ca/2011/02/01/doctors-lack-empathy-med-school-to-blame/

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...810080281_1_empathy-doctor-patient-non-verbal

Study: Doctors lack empathy

Doctors lack empathy, med school to blame

A recent study found doctors lack empathetic responses to patients, in part because medical schools don't teach doctors how to respond to patients in caring ways.

Btw, I wouldn't define social skills as a tool to get what you want (doing well in med school) - sometimes social skills involve having empathy for others struggles. Food for thought.

 

[BeastInfection]

.

 

[tco]

It's clear that LargeDocGuy2 is a troll. Don't feed him.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Becoming a doctor isnt about being happy bro. Its about being able know you are better than everyone else because you are a doctor. Your friends probably think you are having an awesome time in medical school. Dont let them think otherwise or your going to ruin the only thing you got going for you.

👍

I don't think that being a doctor makes someone better than someone else. How do you come to this conclusion?

To the original question. I can't speak to life beyond 3rd year since I'm not there yet, but life is what you make of it. If you entered medical school for the right reasons, it should be worth sacrificing those vacations and extra spending money early on. Also note that other peoples lives probably aren't perfect either. You just see the surface things (like the vacations) for example. But maybe they're sitting there wishing they tried to get into a professional school.

People tend to want what they don't have.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

You guys just don't get it. It's not just about med school. It applies to everything: your relationships, your wealth, your physical appearance, your amount of free time, anything that you use to measure yourself against others, you're going to most likely tend to look at people you perceive to have it better than you. The specifics of the situation don't matter. "Med school" is not special. You keep thinking along these lines, and you'll never find satisfaction, because there's never going to be a point where you'll find yourself saying, "This is it, it doesn't get better than this." And if there is, it won't last long before you find something else to complain about. So okay, maybe I don't know the "specific, medical school-related suckiness," but it doesn't matter. I have experience with feeling unhappy about other things. Dissatisfaction feels the same no matter the impetus. Changes in circumstances won't change your tendency towards dissatisfaction. You'll adapt to any improvement in circumstance, and quite quickly before you're at a baseline again. Not to mention that good circumstances are precarious. So I don't care about circumstance anymore. I don't rely on the hope that an improvement in circumstance will relieve my dissatisfaction. I make my own happiness. You want to tell me I don't know crap about the specific woes of medical school, fine. I won't argue. But I haven't seen anyone put up a good response to anything else I've written, and to say that it doesn't warrant a seriously considered response because I'm a premed is a cop-out and you know it.

 

[sonofva]

When I was in undergrad I used to live in the district where all the fraternity/sorority houses were. Every day and almost every night, but especially during the beginning of the semesters or when the whether was nice, I'd see scores of hot girls in shoulder-baring sweatshirts and short shorts walk up and down the street going to the next thumping party on a lawn with tiki-torches while I was coming back from another day-long study session to turn in early so i can wake up at 4 for another day just like it. And I did this for four years. In the meantime, I passed on potential relationships with girls that I KNOW I would have loved to be with. I passed on clubs I wanted to join, day trips, etc.

see this is what i'm talking about...robbed of your youth man!

I fished and drank beers and talked to all those girls! I lived in 2 countries overseas, bummed around the US! And I still made it to medical school...granted a more circuitous route, but here I stand almost a 4th year. and if I were coming from your shoes, I probably would have jumped off the edison bridge in to the river long long ago.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

see this is what i'm talking about...robbed of your youth man!

I fished and drank beers and talked to all those girls! I lived in 2 countries overseas, bummed around the US! And I still made it to medical school...granted a more circuitous route, but here I stand almost a 4th year. and if I were coming from your shoes, I probably would have jumped off the edison bridge in to the river long long ago.

Yeah, you say that, but you have no idea if that's actually the case. Here's a question: Do you particularly care right now about things you felt as a child? Let's say from ages 5-10. I can tell you right now that I don't give a flying F- about what I did at that age, what I felt, what I wanted, how happy I was, etc. Why? Time passed. I changed. The 8 year old I was was another person altogether, only minutely related to me by the thin strands of memory. Only once in a blue moon does a thought or an image pass in my mind that connects me to him.

It's the same thing with a more recent past. If it's not practically useful, it's not worth thinking about, so I don't do it. I focus on what's happening NOW. And this way, I enjoy my life, even under circumstances that you or others would deem miserable. Now the question is, should I adopt your standards and ways or should you adopt mine?

 

[sonofva]

Yeah, you say that, but you have no idea if that's actually the case. Here's a question: Do you particularly care right now about things you felt as a child? Let's say from ages 5-10. I can tell you right now that I don't give a flying F- about what I did at that age, what I felt, what I wanted, how happy I was, etc. Why? Time passed. I changed. The 8 year old I was was another person altogether, only minutely related to me by the thin strands of memory. Only once in a blue moon does a thought or an image pass in my mind that connects me to him.

It's the same thing with a more recent past. If it's not practically useful, it's not worth thinking about, so I don't do it. I focus on what's happening NOW. And this way, I enjoy my life, even under circumstances that you or others would deem miserable. Now the question is, should I adopt your standards and ways or should you adopt mine?

wether you give an f about those years is irrelevant. they still shape you into who you are.

and if you spend some of your most formative years hidden away as an anti-social library hermit, that's exactly what you'll become for the rest of your "nows"

 

[punkedoutriffs]

wether you give an f about those years is irrelevant. they still shape you into who you are.

and if you spend some of your most formative years hidden away as an anti-social library hermit, that's exactly what you'll become for the rest of your "nows"

Would that make you unhappy? And if so, why? I want you to seriously answer this question. Pretend I'm your six year old cousin and don't know sh&t and you have to spell everything out.

 

[sonofva]

Well the meaning of life is the meaning that you make. But the purpose is to be radically shocked. To see things outside yourself. And you're never going to get that from a book my friend!

So yes. That would make me sad, because it is time wasted.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

Well the meaning of life is the meaning that you make. But the purpose is to be radically shocked. To see things outside yourself. And you're never going to get that from a book my friend!

So yes. That would make me sad, because it is time wasted.

You've been reading the wrong books. I became an English major for some of the same reasons you're espousing that books fail to do: they radically shocked me, they taught me to see things outside myself. There are many paths to the same end, friend.

 

[CanIMakeIt]

Dude u havent even started medical school yet u dont have any perspective or right to criticize OP. To the OP, third year blows it doesn't get better other than a different kind of crappy-ness of no longer having to study every day but having to show up to a fake-job and fake enthusiasm everyday. Your time will no longer be your own. Oh and don't forget more hoops, step 2 cs, ck etc.

IMHO it is NOT a fake-job because it isn't even a job - you are there to learn and hence medSTUDENT in your name.

 

[cheruka]

I hate to break this to you guys but there will be rotations to pass, shelf exams, step 2 cs and ck, step 3 ( usmle has 2 parts), followed by license exams. After second yr, no one gives you much dedicated study time. So, quit complaining and just deal with it. You may even fail one of these and end up retaking.

 

[CanIMakeIt]

LOL - sucks for you and sorry you had to go through this. I thought I would go into OB when I started OB but slowly I realized it was a sorority and I didn't fit in at all. The evaluations are a crap shoot for the rest of your career. It just seemed to me that Ob-gyn is the most hostile rotation with the least amount of teaching and more bitchiness (no pun intended) there is on any other rotation. Thoroughly hated it - followed by peds (just because of the intern i go on that rotation - she gave me 1 point of possible 9 because one of the families praised me in front of the attending and the whole team and didn't say anything about the intern - so from that point on she would be extra bitchy to me and try to throw me under the bus at every opportunity she got - but that helped me eliminate 2 specialties right there 🙂 - so positive outcomes from negative situations 🙂)

Here's an example:

I just finished OB/GYN. I scored an 87th percentile on the shelf. Not too bad, but not outstanding. As you realize, our grades are not solely based on tests any more. I finished the rotation on night float and labor and delivery - two fairly time consuming rotations (eleven 12 hour shifts in twelve days), but I did what I could to make myself useful on the service. I was told by my classmates that I should just disappear and study, but I refused to do that...Apparently a mistake because I got terrible evaluations anyway.

I was called in to defend a couple of the evaluations I received. One was semi-legit Basically, I did something wrong one morning, and a resident called me out on it. I explained myself (in what I thought was a respectful way) and apologized to the resident. She said "Okay," which I assumed meant it's not a problem. I then (which she didn't know) proceeded to apologize to the patient for any distress I may have caused. She said what happened wasn't a problem at all, and she appreciated our care. For the rest of the week, she and the other off service resident treated me like it was my first day - respectful and kind. We were slammed, so they didn't teach me much, but I didn't blame them. They have jobs. Meanwhile, if there was no one around, I would grab triages on my own (a couple of the triages they didn't even have to see because I reported straight to the senior) and helped out nurses with odds and ends...Again, a lot of stuff they didn't even know happened. Anyway, my evaluation read that I was, "unprofessional, lazy, disrespectful, slammed charts on the desk (never happened), and reacted negatively to criticism (the only criticism I received was a tongue lashing for what happened above - to which I didn't react at all)." The other evaluation had a bunch of made up junk that never happened...It basically got thrown in the garbage...However, both evaluations *numerical* score count towards my grade, which basically screws me.

So, to answer your question, "How is it different?" It doesn't matter what your intentions are, or how you actually act that determine your grade. It's how other people are doing that day or how they perceive that you're acting that determine your grade. I made myself available for an extremely time consuming part of the rotation that my other classmates did the opposite for, and ended up getting terrible evaluations for it. The resident I'm talking about is extremely nice, extremely intelligent, and a very good teacher. I must have just done the wrong thing on the wrong day to make her mad. I'm just glad I got a chance to explain what happened to the course coordinator to avoid that nonsense going into my Dean's Letter...That doesn't always happen. If it would have stayed, that's something that would hurt my career more than just a couple of points on my grade.

 

[Textbookversion]

You've been reading the wrong books. I became an English major for some of the same reasons you're espousing that books fail to do: they radically shocked me, they taught me to see things outside myself. There are many paths to the same end, friend.

Holy crap how did you waste college stuck in a library studying with that joke of a major? Are we being trolled? I'm pretty sure english majors don't even have to sober up for tests.

 

[CanIMakeIt]

This happened to me as well on OB/Gyn (seems to be a recurring motif for the rotation)... one of my evals was done by a resident I was on call with once. Entered a patient's room and introduced myself first to the family and then to the patient (patient was spanish speaking only, family translated) and the resident took me outside and snarled at me for 10 minutes about how it was inappropriate. I delivered 4 babies that night almost entirely on my own (with the help of a newly minted intern) and the nurses otherwise loved me. Got a mediocre eval from her b/c of the above incident.

I don't know if OB attracts bitchy people or if they become that way

This made me chuckle - on match day that statement was true except for a few exceptions LOL. but that's just my experience. But it also seems that that most of the hostility is towards the med students and not towards each others or patients or staff - strange

 

[sonofva]

You've been reading the wrong books. I became an English major for some of the same reasons you're espousing that books fail to do: they radically shocked me, they taught me to see things outside myself. There are many paths to the same end, friend.

I wasn't saying not to read. You just need to have rich diverse life experiences. And you can't get this solely from a book.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

Holy crap how did you waste college stuck in a library studying with that joke of a major? Are we being trolled? I'm pretty sure english majors don't even have to sober up for tests.

I was not "stuck" in a library. I chose to be there because Shakespeare, Thomas Mann, and Tolstoy were more engaging than Lil' Wayne beats, breasts, and a can of PBR. Most of those in my major did not share my enthusiasm. They are the ones that probably perpetuate the stereotype that English Lit is a joke major. And in the sense of how "easy" it is to get by, English is no doubt easier than Engineering, Physics, or Bio, but my goal was never to "get by."

 

[GoSpursGo]

Let's please try to stick to contributing to the OP's question in a positive manner rather than criticizing users' posts or slinging insults.

 

[RockDoc7]

I don't think that being a doctor makes someone better than someone else. How do you come to this conclusion?

To the original question. I can't speak to life beyond 3rd year since I'm not there yet, but life is what you make of it. If you entered medical school for the right reasons, it should be worth sacrificing those vacations and extra spending money early on. Also note that other peoples lives probably aren't perfect either. You just see the surface things (like the vacations) for example. But maybe they're sitting there wishing they tried to get into a professional school.

People tend to want what they don't have.

Well formed response with perspective. 👍

 

[90 diopter]

To those of you who are in 3rd year and beyond.. does life get better?

I feel like my life is passing me by. Seems like all my non-med school friends are enjoying life (making good money, going on vacations, etc.) meanwhile I just accure debt and spend most of my time studying. I feel like my life has gotten worse since starting med school.

Maybe I lack perspective or something. I don't know.. just need to vent I guess.

Anyone else feel the same way?

Attending in private practice here, a couple of years out of residency. Life is great.

The only part of medical school I enjoyed were the social interactions. Otherwise it sucked except for the second half of fourth year where I mentally checked out after my early match in January and took a bunch of vacations.

Internship was awesome, but only because I did a joke of an internship in an amazing city with great people.

Residency sucked; not quite as much as medical school, but still not a part of my life I'd ever want to re-live.

Once I finished training, got nearly all of my weekends off, and reclaimed the option of sleeping 8-9 hours a day, life immediately got awesome. Once I paid off all my student loans, life got even more awesome.

Most of my happiness stems from the fact that I chose a good specialty to go into; something that I enjoy and one that provides a good lifestyle. If I had done primary care, I likely would have quit medicine by now. Choose carefully and life will be so much better in a few years.

 

[Jobikenobi]

Becoming a doctor isnt about being happy bro. Its about being able know you are better than everyone else because you are a doctor. Your friends probably think you are having an awesome time in medical school. Dont let them think otherwise or your going to ruin the only thing you got going for you.

This is awesome. Should we tell him that he is going to live a sad difficult life until he unlearns foolishness like this? Would it help to tell him that he needs to be humiliated, so that he might gain some humility? ..........................naaaaah lets not ruin the surprise.

 

[FunnyCurrent]

Attending in private practice here, a couple of years out of residency. Life is great.

The only part of medical school I enjoyed were the social interactions. Otherwise it sucked except for the second half of fourth year where I mentally checked out after my early match in January and took a bunch of vacations.

Internship was awesome, but only because I did a joke of an internship in an amazing city with great people.

Residency sucked; not quite as much as medical school, but still not a part of my life I'd ever want to re-live.

Once I finished training, got nearly all of my weekends off, and reclaimed the option of sleeping 8-9 hours a day, life immediately got awesome. Once I paid off all my student loans, life got even more awesome.

Most of my happiness stems from the fact that I chose a good specialty to go into; something that I enjoy and one that provides a good lifestyle. If I had done primary care, I likely would have quit medicine by now. Choose carefully and life will be so much better in a few years.

Do you think things woudl be so rosy if you were not an ophthalmologist?

edit: nvm. read the end of your post.

 

[Jobikenobi]

When I was in undergrad I used to live in the district where all the fraternity/sorority houses were. Every day and almost every night, but especially during the beginning of the semesters or when the whether was nice, I'd see scores of hot girls in shoulder-baring sweatshirts and short shorts walk up and down the street going to the next thumping party on a lawn with tiki-torches while I was coming back from another day-long study session to turn in early so i can wake up at 4 for another day just like it. And I did this for four years. In the meantime, I passed on potential relationships with girls that I KNOW I would have loved to be with. I passed on clubs I wanted to join, day trips, etc. Not ONCE did I regret what I was doing, uncertain as I was back then of whether what I was doing was for nothing.

You want to look at "happy people" and feel miserable and sorry for yourself, that's your prerogative. The world will always provide you with people that seem happier than you. I stand by what I said. No matter how good you have it, you can always find something to complain about. And the reverse is true as well. You can choose how you see things if you try. I bet you either haven't tried or don't know how.

Word. That's whats up. Good stuff man. Thanks a lot.

 

[John Lannister]

Attending in private practice here, a couple of years out of residency. Life is great.

The only part of medical school I enjoyed were the social interactions. Otherwise it sucked except for the second half of fourth year where I mentally checked out after my early match in January and took a bunch of vacations.

Internship was awesome, but only because I did a joke of an internship in an amazing city with great people.

Residency sucked; not quite as much as medical school, but still not a part of my life I'd ever want to re-live.

Once I finished training, got nearly all of my weekends off, and reclaimed the option of sleeping 8-9 hours a day, life immediately got awesome. Once I paid off all my student loans, life got even more awesome.

Most of my happiness stems from the fact that I chose a good specialty to go into; something that I enjoy and one that provides a good lifestyle. If I had done primary care, I likely would have quit medicine by now. Choose carefully and life will be so much better in a few years.

Posts like these make me happy.

 

[GlowInTheDark]

Becoming a doctor isnt about being happy bro. Its about being able know you are better than everyone else because you are a doctor. Your friends probably think you are having an awesome time in medical school. Dont let them think otherwise or your going to ruin the only thing you got going for you.

👍

 

[Anigma07]

This pre-med English major needs to stop posting-- you are ignorant to the topic.

To the OP, it only gets better if you realize that sacrifice is necessary: You can sacrifice your early 20s and get a competitive residency and then it gets better later in life (possibly, depending on the field and what you mean by better). You can also sacrifice your grades and live a decent life now but your later years won't be as fruitful.

Does it get better in terms of amount of work, though? No. You will be working just as hard and most likely with the new healthcare system, have more paperwork to fill out.

It's hard to do but you have to realize medicine is only part of your life and when you start building up other parts of your life as well, it gets better.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

This pre-med English major needs to stop posting-- you are ignorant to the topic.

This pre-med English major can make a cogent argument. I guess your critical thinking skills has gotten a bit rusty since English 101.

 

[Coffee Machine]

This pre-med English major can make a cogent argument. I guess your critical thinking skills has gotten a bit rusty since English 101.

OP was looking for encouragement from other med students with experience in the matter. Don't take it personally that most people on this forum don't think you, as a pre-med, have much to contribute-- you don't, because whatever your life experiences and however valid your points are, you just don't know what the OP is going through and aren't in a position to give him encouragement. You haven't been there. As a current MS1, neither have I. It would be inappropriate for me to tell him that it gets better, because I've never been an MS4.

You've dominated this thread with your advice and retorts to those who tell you that you don't have a place here to the point that it's difficult to find any actual responses from people the OP was originally targeting. This thread is not about you. Stop attacking everyone for pointing out that you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

OP was looking for encouragement from other med students with experience in the matter. Don't take it personally that most people on this forum don't think you, as a pre-med, have much to contribute-- you don't, because whatever your life experiences and however valid your points are, you just don't know what the OP is going through and aren't in a position to give him encouragement. You haven't been there. As a current MS1, neither have I. It would be inappropriate for me to tell him that it gets better, because I've never been an MS4.

You've dominated this thread with your advice and retorts to those who tell you that you don't have a place here to the point that it's difficult to find any actual responses from people the OP was originally targeting. This thread is not about you. Stop attacking everyone for pointing out that you don't know what you're talking about.

I leave it to the OP to determine whether he'll consider my input and expand his thinking and perspective beyond what you lot have given him the tools for. Experience you may have, but you're also cloistered. My intentions were and remain good and I've at least tried to contribute more than condescension and insults. I don't apologize and have no qualms about providing an alternative to the tired, ineffectual clinging to future hopes to absolve his present misery.