Does it get better?

[bambam92]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hoping for input from med students--I am curious do any of you find med school less stressful than undergrad? I am a junior now at four year state U and have a decent GPA (3.8+), but with all the ec's I am in at school, biochem research lab that I volunteer in, and clinical volunteering (free clinic) I find it pretty stressful to manage all A's. I have been pretty successful thus far, but I don't manage to do it with the effortless approach every pre-med here on SDN is able to get away with. I work hard, and it wears on me at times. I will take my MCAT this summer, and hopefully will score high enough to get me into Temple or Jeff. (love philly & my dad lives there) My friend is an MS1 at a northeast MD school that is pass/fail and he told me he thinks overall med school is less stressful. He claims he doesn't have to grind for A's all the time now, and getting B's or even a C on tests is okay. I am not one who is gunning for some crazy specialty, will be content with something that is middle of the road. Do any of you med students feel similar to my friend? I am hoping to leave undergrad and be content with the idea I will become a doctor (assuming if I get in of course) I don't want to continue the hamster wheel that is undergrad and everyone just stressing over A's. I have a long term girlfriend (4 + years) that I wish I could spend more time with, but sometimes I can't cause of school. In med school were hoping to move in together.

Anyways sorry for the jumbling, but looking for any sentiments on if med school was less stressful for any of you? I understand it will be more work, but that doesn't necessary always correlate with more stress if you are content with passing. Or am I totally wrong? Thanks for any input guys/gals.

 

[Microglia]

Yea, it is a lot less stressful thus far. I've got a similar story, also a long term girlfriend, and we've been long distance for all of M1 and it's still been much more chill than undergrad. The good news is in m1/2 you really don't have to do anything else but study. Once you realize that it gets a lot easier to manage everything. Just stay above the high school drama and you'll love it.

 

[EngineerPreMD]

Yea, it is a lot less stressful thus far. I've got a similar story, also a long term girlfriend, and we've been long distance for all of M1 and it's still been much more chill than undergrad. The good news is in m1/2 you really don't have to do anything else but study. Once you realize that it gets a lot easier to manage everything. Just stay above the high school drama and you'll love it.

I've been wondering about this as well. I never found that having a ton of work was stressful, but I felt so scatterbrained all the time in college. It was a miserable feeling to be running from one activity to the next, wondering if you were doing enough, and never doing quite as well as you'd like in every aspect of your life. I always imagined that if you're gunning for plastics med school will be undergrad 2.0 on steroids, but if you just wanted to match somewhere decent in a less competitive specialty it would be a lot easier. I've worked 70+ hour weeks sustained over whole summers before and I felt pretty good about it. Sure the hours sucked, but it felt great to finally put my full attention on just one thing. I'm sure M3 will bring entirely new challenges, but I'm really hoping M1/2 will be a little better trying to do 25 hrs/week of research, 19 credits, volunteering, ECs, etc...

 

[kevinus]

I've been wondering about this as well. I never found that having a ton of work was stressful, but I felt so scatterbrained all the time in college. It was a miserable feeling to be running from one activity to the next, wondering if you were doing enough, and never doing quite as well as you'd like in every aspect of your life. I always imagined that if you're gunning for plastics med school will be undergrad 2.0 on steroids, but if you just wanted to match somewhere decent in a less competitive specialty it would be a lot easier. I've worked 70+ hour weeks sustained over whole summers before and I felt pretty good about it. Sure the hours sucked, but it felt great to finally put my full attention on just one thing. I'm sure M3 will bring entirely new challenges, but I'm really hoping M1/2 will be a little better trying to do 25 hrs/week of research, 19 credits, volunteering, ECs, etc...

It'll be worse if you're trying to match into something like derm. Building that CV.

 

[redpanda]

Less stressful in med school, no. I studied less and spent more time with my friends and significant other in undergrad. The grading system of MS1/2 of H/P/F, now P/F for later (more junior) classes at my school wasn't stressful, but everyone will find a way to get stressed out about grades/learning. If there's a P/F system, some people get even more neurotic about Step 1 from day 1 of med school. Some people stress over the fact that there may or may not be an internal ranking system within the school anyway during the preclinical years. MS3 can be stressful because of the highly subjective nature of clinical evaluations plus the need to learn an enormous amount of material for a shelf which may be 4-8 weeks away plus the need to figure out approximately what you're going to do with your life in terms of specialty.

Quite frankly, you need to learn how to manage stress on your own and stop looking at whatever other people are doing (e.g. avoid all the med school people in the few months prior to Step 1). Being in a P/F system is not license to slack because there's not the carrot of an A/honors in front of you. Learning the material well during your preclinical years is a good base for shelf exams (because, really, who learns all of internal medicine in 8 weeks?).

In terms of your significant other, you need to figure out a way to spend time with him/her inside of whatever med school schedule you're keeping, which can often be an exercise in delayed gratification. Not all partners understand the need for you to work like made at particular times, but if they do, that's a really positive quality because it's not like medicine's demands of your time are going to be getting any smaller.

 

[swolebrah]

I'm really wondering this to. Currently I work 22-25 hours a week grave night shifts as a scribe on weekends, volunteering in nonclinical setting, organizations, and taking a full course load. I have been able to maintain a A average thus far and still get time to workout 1-2 hours a day. However I hate having to juggle so many things on top of studying for classes like biochem, genetics, etc... Not to mention the pointless labs that take 3 hours a way from your week. On one side I love the competitiveness and the amazing feeling of doing really well, on the other side if I didn't have my weights I would have collapsed of stress by now.

In a perfect world if all I had to do was maintain a 4.0 GPA and do good on a MCAT , my quality of life and college experience would be a hella lot better.

 

[lovesfall]

I don't think it's less stressful but I think it could be if you are only aiming for pass. I came from FT work plus FT class and thought med school might mean less work. So far that has not been true. The toughest thing for me so far is realizing that there is no limit to what you can/should learn so there's never a point where you can feel done. That said I think some of the battle is pacing yourself and not trying to get it all in in the first pass.