MD Feeling Inferior Because of my School

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throwaway12314

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I was debating whether to post this but I am an incoming M1 who is feeling very insecure about the school I am going to. I applied hastily this cycle and made some mistakes that I feel limited me from a lot of the higher tier schools that I believe I could have gotten into.

As a result, I am going to a mid-tier school that most people outside of medicine have never heard of. I don't think it's a bad school, but seeing my classmates go to all these great schools makes me feel like crap and inferior. I know I should be grateful that I got in at all (and I am), but part of me wishes I hadn't gotten in anywhere so I could reapply next cycle.

I was wondering if any of you guys felt this way before you started and if that feeling eventually goes away.
 
have you met your future classmates yet? I have a feeling you will be amazed at how driven and intelligent they all are. You need to leave this "X tier school" crap back in pre-med land. Your new motto is P = MD , also Step 1 = everything; begin.
 
All medical schools for the most part have similar problems:

1. Archaic curriculum with PhD's (or even doctors) who don't give you the clinical spin you need to truly prepare for the boards. My school does an okay job, but every school has at least a couple of these kinds of lecturers. While details are cool and all, they are impossible and often irrelevant to the bigger picture.

2. Expensive

3. Docs who will treat you poorly during rotations

4. etc
 
To make yourself feel better, visit the thread of 2017 no acceptance. From this moment on, you are not in competition with your classmates from UG, and not really in competition with your med school classmates. You are in, so run with it. You are about to be surrounded by people that will understand your struggles, will share the same good and bad professors. Welcome to med school.
 
I can tell you how it doesn't matter all that much, since you at least got into a mid tier US MD school. I go to one, and one of our graduates recently matched into Harvard's Derm program. But I doubt I'll be able to convince you that your school prestige really not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. In your mind, you feel inadequate because you feel you are going to an inadequate institution relative to your self-perceived talents. Two things:

1. Kill STEP1, do well clinical years, get some great LORs, and do some good research in an area you love. That way, you can get into a prestigious residency. Since you clearly value prestige, it'll make you feel better about all of this. Think about what you can do to obtain prestige in the future. Part of that might honestly be not doing things in a rush, as you admit you did with med school applications. Try to learn from your mistake rather than wallow in self pity about not receiving what you think were entitled to. Trust me, that's easier said than done. It's super hard to consistently do because regret is the epitome of mental masturbation without orgasm. Even though it's addicting, it sadly doesn't even have a pleasurable end. In my limited life experience, those who don't let small hurdles get to them mentally tend to do a lot better than those who obsesses over every small perceived mishap.

2. This one is harder. But stop valuing the prestige of your school so much. Even if you do value it, don't make your self worth so dependent on it. Your self worth is like an economy. Generally speaking, it's good to have a diversified economy. That way, if one part isn't quite where you want it to be, you have other areas to fall back on, at least temporarily. Currently, you are like an oil rich OPEC state. The price of oil has dipped a bit globally, but your country is hit super hard because it is so dependent on the price of that one commodity. Now, if you had a diversified economy, like say Norway, yeah the dip in oil prices might hurt you but not nearly as much. The point of this analogy is to encourage you to find other things you are good at and value, whether it be a hobby you love or really close friends you have. Find a good 4-5 things. If you had those, this type of stuff wouldn't bother you.

I'm speaking from a place of experience. In high school, I did really well on standardized tests. My grades were really good and my ECs, though not unique, were still fairly impressive. I did manage to get into a single Top 20 USWNR school, but I didn't crack into a lot of top ivies and their equivalents, unlike many of my close friends. I felt awful. Looking back, I believe I felt that way because I had connected too much of my self worth and identity to my success as a student. I not only made the error of valuing my success as a student based off the prestige of the institution I attended but also the error of not having a multifaceted identity. Over the last half decade or so, I took a lot of the advice that I just gave you. I'm a lot happier. Good Luck! You'll do great. Just remember to concentrate all of this energy to propel yourself in a more positive direction.
 
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Hopefully you will find that your classmates are great to be around and your administration cares about you. I didn't go to a "top tier" school, but I was extremely impressed with my classmates.

Getting into medical school sucks, but medical school itself was a great experience. Here's your (obvious) recipe for success: Try to enjoy learning as much as possible and study hard, excel in your classes, make lifelong friends, kill step 1 and 2, kill your away rotations, match well and have as much fun as possible while doing it.

I'm convinced that it really doesn't matter where you go for the first two years as most of your learning is self-directed. The teaching and experience is highly variable during third year, but most schools will have a solid curriculum overall (and again your learning and experience still will have a lot to do with how motivated you are). If you are fortunate enough to perform well on step 1, get AOA and impress the faculty on your away rotations, most of your friends will be envious of you.
 
I feel inferior too. We should be friends.
 
Most competitive people get that feeling of "darn, I know I could've done better" at some point or the other. It's normal. You've probably had that same feeling in the past in another situation, and just like back then, you'll be able to rein it in and apply that drive elsewhere. Especially once you actually start school and quickly make the hell of MD admissions a distant memory. Right now it's the summer and you're ruminating, which is why it feels as bad as it does.
 
People tend to miss the bigger perspective until someone reminds them. So, I'll tell you: as a medical student, you're one of the top achievers in the country. Be grateful that you got in somewhere and that you're able to attend. Make the most out of your med school experience, make sure that you do something meaningful and impactful while you're there, and KILL the USMLE Steps 1 and 2. Where you go doesn't matter as much as how you perform. If you do well, you'll make excellent connections and have top-notch experiences wherever you go.
 
I totally get this. But med school is what you make of it. If you start school with this attitude, you'll likely end up miserable. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just keep telling yourself that you're going to love the school, and that everything will be great. Having a positive attitude will make the entire experience more positive.

The only school I got into was a mid-tier state school that I applied to on a whim, with no intention of going there. I was sad that I got rejected from "better" schools, but it turns out that the school I attend is a perfect match for me, and there's nowhere else I would rather be. Hopefully you'll have a similar experience.
 
Most competitive people get that feeling of "darn, I know I could've done better" at some point or the other. It's normal. You've probably had that same feeling in the past in another situation, and just like back then, you'll be able to rein it in and apply that drive elsewhere. Especially once you actually start school and quickly make the hell of MD admissions a distant memory. Right now it's the summer and you're ruminating, which is why it feels as bad as it does.

People tend to miss the bigger perspective until someone reminds them. So, I'll tell you: as a medical student, you're one of the top achievers in the country. Be grateful that you got in somewhere and that you're able to attend. Make the most out of your med school experience, make sure that you do something meaningful and impactful while you're there, and KILL the USMLE Steps 1 and 2. Where you go doesn't matter as much as how you perform. If you do well, you'll make excellent connections and have top-notch experiences wherever you go.

This and this! And beware for the sneaky cousin of this feeling known as "imposter syndrome." Even though you're having these feelings of inferiority about your school now, and especially since you have decided in your mind that it's not the best possible school, chances are pretty good that at some point you're going to struggle and wonder if maybe someone screwed up by letting you in at all. Medical school is hard and because everyone around you is high achieving it's hard to lose sight of what unicornshadow is reminding you. You're super smart and capable compared to most of the country. When you struggle, because everyone struggles at some point, don't lose sight of that. Everyone I know has gone through it at some point, including the people that graduated at the top of my class.
 
Thanks for the kind words and advice guys. I expected to be called a troll or ungrateful but you guys have been surprisingly understanding.
TheIllusionist and EM2Be gave good advice. My $0.02 is this:

1) Big Fish/Small Pond or Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven. Milton

2) Med school is what you make of it.

If indeed you are intellectually head and shoulders ahead of your classmates, you can shine.

If you are an equal to your classmates, follow the above posters' advice and kill your scores, make connections and do your best.
 
I'm also an incoming M1 who got into a "mid" tier school and one thing I did was Google physicians who graduated from my school. Most practicing physicians have a bio online that list where they got their md.

I found a guy who is the director of the specialty I'm interested in at one of the top 5 residencies in the country. After seeing this, I realized there are probably many people who went to the school I'm going to and are doing big things. Might point being is that what med school you go to doesn't always dictate what residency you get or if you get an academic position in the future.
 
I was debating whether to post this but I am an incoming M1 who is feeling very insecure about the school I am going to. I applied hastily this cycle and made some mistakes that I feel limited me from a lot of the higher tier schools that I believe I could have gotten into.

As a result, I am going to a mid-tier school that most people outside of medicine have never heard of. I don't think it's a bad school, but seeing my classmates go to all these great schools makes me feel like crap and inferior. I know I should be grateful that I got in at all (and I am), but part of me wishes I hadn't gotten in anywhere so I could reapply next cycle.

I was wondering if any of you guys felt this way before you started and if that feeling eventually goes away.

Realize that once you're a practicing physician where you went to med school won't matter much. The general public may be impressed by where you went to med school, but people in medicine will care about where you did residency not where you went to school. If you're that insecure about it, keep the chip on your shoulder, crush boards and clinical years, and get into an elite residency.

I go to a DO school and being at a "low tier" med school has never bothered me. Then again prestige is completely meaningless to me, so I don't really relate to what you're going through right now.
 
The general public may be impressed by where you went to med school, but people in medicine will care about where you did residency not where you went to school.

I agree with the rest of your post but the bold is confusing me. If people in medicine care about where I did residency, doesn't getting into a good residency depend on where I went to med school? I know other stuff like good grades, good Step scores, good letters etc. matter but the school could provide an additional factor to consider.

I'm getting confused because some here say it matters, others say it has small role but focus on other things more, and last several say it plays no role.
 
I agree with the rest of your post but the bold is confusing me. If people in medicine care about where I did residency, doesn't getting into a good residency depend on where I went to med school? I know other stuff like good grades, good Step scores, good letters etc. matter but the school could provide an additional factor to consider.

I'm getting confused because some here say it matters, others say it has small role but focus on other things more, and last several say it plays no role.

The reality is that where you go to school can help. Look at Harvard's match list for instance, the vast majority of people got into MGH and the like (forgot to mention part of it is inbreeding within the institution). The average USMLE score is 240. So you can conclude people even with 230 USMLEs are matching into these residencies (where as someone not from one of these schools would definitely have to score higher to match at the same place). However, going to an MD school still leaves doors wide open and if you kill the UMSLE, you won't be locked out of these places. At the same time, going to an elite institution does help in the residency matching game albeit not as much as your USMLE, clinical grades, etc.
 
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I agree with the rest of your post but the bold is confusing me. If people in medicine care about where I did residency, doesn't getting into a good residency depend on where I went to med school? I know other stuff like good grades, good Step scores, good letters etc. matter but the school could provide an additional factor to consider.

I'm getting confused because some here say it matters, others say it has small role but focus on other things more, and last several say it plays no role.

Does it depend on what school you went to? No, but as said above it does help to have the Harvard name and connections when you are applying. I also believe it is specialty dependent. For instance I feel like emergency medicine doesn't place a lot of emphasis on where you went to school. They care about your academic success, step scores and SLOEs. The past few years our graduates have matched very well in EM. However I've talked with classmates who were applying for competitive specialties like ortho, ENT, derm, even high tier IM programs and it seems like they place more emphasis on "lineage." But even then we had students match to high tier IM and surgical subspecialty residencies in my year. You just have to impress the program faculty and make connections.
 
OP I had some similar feelings a number of years ago when I was in your shoes. I too made the move to medicine quickly, took the mcat without ever setting foot in a science class, applied before taking pre reqs, applied late, etc. Somehow I still managed to land a mid tier school that first cycle and I definitely wondered what might have been had I taken the time and done it right.

Now in retrospect I am SOOO glad i did the stupid things I did. I stumbled into an incredible education, crushed boards and aoa and the like and landed interviews at nearly every residency program to which I applied which were only the very best. Matched my number 1. Now I'm in a world where I honestly can't tell you where 99% of faculty went to medical school, but I do know where they did residency and especially fellowship - the latter largely more tied to the name of the famous surgeon than their institution.

Like in all fields, school prestige may matter for a brief time, but the real world hinges far more on the reputation you build AFTER training than on which library you sat in as an MS1. To be a famous physician you actually have to become a badass and do something tangible and amazing. School prestige is like the kiddie version of this, but soon you're going to be a grown up and trade of your actual skills and contributions to your field. Put another way: kids get all caught up in school prestige; adult badasses can go somewhere unknown and actually turn it into something prestigious.

You have all doors still open to you and your career still depends on what you do going forward.
 
You think you got into a mid tier school because you are using the wrong ranking. Top is not Harvard or John Hopkins.

Top is whichever US school is cheapest. In 4 yrs you will thank me unless you have parents who can pay for it.

If my kid told me he got into harvard at 60K (tuition only - 100K all in) or a bottom 1/3 State school at 20K (40K all in), I would be highly disappointed if he chose harvard and he would be to in 4 yrs.

And I am completely serious.
 
I was wondering if any of you guys felt this way before you started and if that feeling eventually goes away.
I did not feel that way at all, but that's heavily influenced by the fact that I snuck into a single school off the waitlist. Personally, I've never once thought about my school's "ranking" or prestige (I don't know what it is, but I think most people would call it a mid-tier school). There's just too much to do in medical school to worry about anything outside of your control! I think the most important thing to remember is that from your mid-tier school, you can do anything. You completely control your own destiny. The only thing standing between you and whatever specialty you choose is your own hard work and ambition.

Tangentially related personal story: I think I applied to around 25 colleges when I was in high school. Most of them were fancy private schools that I really wanted to go to. I got rejected from basically all of them, and ended up attending my "safety" state school. I can now confidently say that I would choose that school over any other school in the country 100 times. You never know what you might fall in love with. Good luck in medical school!
 
Will wait for post in roughly 1 year from OP describing how he was destroyed by curriculum and feels inferior to all classmates who are making it look so easy.

You feel you're better than everybody there? We'll see.
 
have you met your future classmates yet? I have a feeling you will be amazed at how driven and intelligent they all are. You need to leave this "X tier school" crap back in pre-med land. Your new motto is P = MD , also Step 1 = everything; begin.

The first part of your advice is sound, but P=MD and Step 1 = everything are NOT the best framework with which to approach medical school.

Your goal is to do well of course but also to learn medicine. The information you gather now will potentially be used for your entire career. To skimp on it in the name of skirting by or "just trying to pass" is doing a disservice to yourself (your hard work, money) and your future patients. Aim higher than just P, but don't beat yourself up over where you land. Try your best.

While step 1 is tremendously important, it's not the whole story. Doing well on preclinical coursework almost guarantees an excellent USMLE score, as a solid knowledge base for third year and beyond. You have no clue as an m1 what is "important" for boards and what is not. Go in with the mindset that EVERYTHING is important and strive for mastery. Additionally, preclinical grades are often a mainstay in AOA consideration, which itself can be a huge boost.

With a solid work ethic, awareness of your schools curriculum, and a general intellectual curiosity, you'll do well. Forget all the tier garbage and put your nose in the books; you'll get to where you want to be.
 
I agree with the rest of your post but the bold is confusing me. If people in medicine care about where I did residency, doesn't getting into a good residency depend on where I went to med school? I know other stuff like good grades, good Step scores, good letters etc. matter but the school could provide an additional factor to consider.

I'm getting confused because some here say it matters, others say it has small role but focus on other things more, and last several say it plays no role.

I was talking about what matters once a person is a practicing physician, not whether it would matter in terms of getting a residency. As others have said, it can indirectly matter to attendings as it can affect where a person was able to do residency. However, once physicians are out in the real world working, from my experience other physicians don't really care about where a doc went to med school, they care where they did their residency as that's where almost all the skills and knowledge a person needs to be a successful physician are gained.

An analogy would be like asking a PhD where he/she went to undergrad. It might be relevant to the general public, but to other PhD's in the field UG institution won't matter much other than opening doors to the PhD programs.

Edit: Attendings can chime in and say I'm completely wrong, I'm just going off of my experience working with physicians and talking to them/listening to their conversations with other physicians.
 
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I agree with the rest of your post but the bold is confusing me. If people in medicine care about where I did residency, doesn't getting into a good residency depend on where I went to med school? I know other stuff like good grades, good Step scores, good letters etc. matter but the school could provide an additional factor to consider.

I'm getting confused because some here say it matters, others say it has small role but focus on other things more, and last several say it plays no role.

Not entirely. Your performance in med school and your USMLE scores determine your residency. It works very similarly to med school admissions: no one really cares where you went to school as long as you do well and you get a good MCAT score. This isn't like law school, where the school that you go to determines practically everything.
 
from my experience other physicians don't really care about where a doc went to med school, they care where they did their residency as that's where almost all the skills and knowledge a person needs to be a successful physician are gained.

Even then I've had docs tell me that after a few years out of residency they even stop caring about that and just look at your reputation and outcomes. A direct quote "I don't care if you went to Harvard for med school and MGH for residency if you are killing my patients." The guy who said that went to one of those ivory tower surgical programs.

In the community there comes a time when you can't really rely on names any more, and have to actually be a badass if you want a badass rep.

All of these docs are community ones though so academia is probably different.
 
It works very similarly to med school admissions: no one really cares where you went to school as long as you do well and you get a good MCAT score.

This isn't true. Where you go to undergrad definitely matters for private MD school admissions. It's mentioned in one of the AAMC surveys.

But I got the point that other things matter.
 
Even then I've had docs tell me that after a few years out of residency they even stop caring about that and just look at your reputation and outcomes. A direct quote "I don't care if you went to Harvard for med school and MGH for residency if you are killing my patients." The guy who said that went to one of those ivory tower surgical programs.

In the community there comes a time when you can't really rely on names any more, and have to actually be a badass if you want a badass rep.

All of these docs are community ones though so academia is probably different.

This is a small part of why I love the field of medicine so much. Prestige really doesn't mean anything. Your performance, however, does.
 
This is a small part of why I love the field of medicine so much. Prestige really doesn't mean anything. Your performance, however, does.

The caveat would be academia, in academic medicine prestige means everything it seems. That and how big your research grants are.
 
This isn't true. Where you go to undergrad definitely matters for private MD school admissions. It's mentioned in one of the AAMC surveys.

But I got the point that other things matter.

Hm... Not all private schools. Maybe the very top ones, but certainly not all private schools. There's only one public med school in my state and the rest are private. The private schools in my state don't care where you went as long as you performed well and killed the MCAT. Of course, they do take into consideration where you went to school for GPA purposes, but that's as far as it will go. It really depends on the school. Going to a state school vs Harvard isn't going to hurt you that badly in general. There are too many variables that may influence one's decision to go to a state school even if they were accepted to a higher tier school (mostly financial, environment, convenience, etc.)
 
Hm... Not all private schools. Maybe the very top ones, but certainly not all private schools. There's only one public med school in my state and the rest are private. The private schools in my state don't care where you went as long as you performed well and killed the MCAT. Of course, they do take into consideration where you went to school for GPA purposes, but that's as far as it will go. It really depends on the school.


2013 AAMC Survey

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This is with all private MD schools factored in. But I think what it means is that going to a top undergrad helps a lot rather than going to state schools/low tiers hurts. I don't think where you go to school is a drawback: it's a plus if you go to top, and neutral otherwise.

The same is probably true for residency especially for the more competitive, academic ones.
 
2013 AAMC Survey

9d9XM4b.jpg


This is with all private MD schools factored in. But I think what it means is that going to a top undergrad helps a lot rather than going to state schools/low tiers hurts. I don't think where you go to school is a drawback: it's a plus if you go to top, and neutral otherwise.

The same is probably true for residency especially for the more competitive, academic ones.
I can totally see how going to a top school would help, and I see how not going to a top school wouldn't hurt. And you're definitely right about academic residencies. It's just that when I see "selectivity of undergraduate institution", it kind of throws me off to think that where you go to school might hurt someone, which I believe is wrong. That being said, I do feel like those metrics don't take into account the variability between private institutions (that's the same for all general trends; some schools value more things than others). Like, I said, the private MD schools in my area care more about your performance, your experiences, and whether you have experience with underserved communities. That's why it's important to REALLY do your research before applying to med school.
 
You think you got into a mid tier school because you are using the wrong ranking. Top is not Harvard or John Hopkins.

Top is whichever US school is cheapest. In 4 yrs you will thank me unless you have parents who can pay for it.

If my kid told me he got into harvard at 60K (tuition only - 100K all in) or a bottom 1/3 State school at 20K (40K all in), I would be highly disappointed if he chose harvard and he would be to in 4 yrs.

And I am completely serious.
No.

You are ridiculously underselling the intangible opportunities Harvard has to offer. Same goes for other institutions of such caliber. Obviously cost is a factor but it's not as clear cut as you're making it.
 
No.

You are ridiculously underselling the intangible opportunities Harvard has to offer. Same goes for other institutions of such caliber. Obviously cost is a factor but it's not as clear cut as you're making it.
Does this actually matter to the OP? This med student didn't get into Harvard, but wants reassurance that going to a mid-level school is okay, though his friends had more success.
 
This isn't true. Where you go to undergrad definitely matters for private MD school admissions. It's mentioned in one of the AAMC surveys.

But I got the point that other things matter.


And while we're on that topic, it seems like there's a pretty significant correlation between prestige of medical school and prestige of residency in terms of research institutions in the area I've looked at which is IM when you look at the match lists. You can't say whether that's due to those at Harvard converting a 37 mcat average to a 250 USMLE average or whether it's due to name recognition scoring brownie points for students. From what I've heard, lack of name recognition can hurt, but it's not close to low board scores/average clinical grades for a top tier IM program.
 
. This one is harder. But stop valuing the prestige of your school so much. Even if you do value it, don't make your self worth so dependent on it. Your self worth is like an economy. Generally speaking, it's good to have a diversified economy.

This is as far as I've read in this thread, sorry to butt in - just love this metaphor.
 
I was debating whether to post this but I am an incoming M1 who is feeling very insecure about the school I am going to. I applied hastily this cycle and made some mistakes that I feel limited me from a lot of the higher tier schools that I believe I could have gotten into.

As a result, I am going to a mid-tier school that most people outside of medicine have never heard of. I don't think it's a bad school, but seeing my classmates go to all these great schools makes me feel like crap and inferior. I know I should be grateful that I got in at all (and I am), but part of me wishes I hadn't gotten in anywhere so I could reapply next cycle.

I was wondering if any of you guys felt this way before you started and if that feeling eventually goes away.
Work on your self-esteem because accomplishments are not the way to make yourself feel well about yourself.
 
I was debating whether to post this but I am an incoming M1 who is feeling very insecure about the school I am going to. I applied hastily this cycle and made some mistakes that I feel limited me from a lot of the higher tier schools that I believe I could have gotten into.

As a result, I am going to a mid-tier school that most people outside of medicine have never heard of. I don't think it's a bad school, but seeing my classmates go to all these great schools makes me feel like crap and inferior. I know I should be grateful that I got in at all (and I am), but part of me wishes I hadn't gotten in anywhere so I could reapply next cycle.

I was wondering if any of you guys felt this way before you started and if that feeling eventually goes away.
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I can't make you not care about stupid things, nor reassure you that your inherent feelings toward stupid things will resolve.
 
Does this actually matter to the OP? This med student didn't get into Harvard, but wants reassurance that going to a mid-level school is okay, though his friends had more success.
I don't know? I also don't care. Do you have a point?
 
I was debating whether to post this but I am an incoming M1 who is feeling very insecure about the school I am going to. I applied hastily this cycle and made some mistakes that I feel limited me from a lot of the higher tier schools that I believe I could have gotten into.

As a result, I am going to a mid-tier school that most people outside of medicine have never heard of. I don't think it's a bad school, but seeing my classmates go to all these great schools makes me feel like crap and inferior. I know I should be grateful that I got in at all (and I am), but part of me wishes I hadn't gotten in anywhere so I could reapply next cycle.

I was wondering if any of you guys felt this way before you started and if that feeling eventually goes away.
Patients don't ask you where you went to med school. The only person you should e comparing yourself to is yourself.

You're going to be a doctor! So you didn't get into Harvard or Yale? Boo ****ing hoo.
 
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