How much easier or harder is Med school?

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afk1994

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I'm currently a freshman in college, but I was wondering how difficult medical school itself is. Listening to other people who are in med school and those who have graduated it seems that actually getting in is more difficult than med school itself. Just wanted to ask some current medical students.
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getting into med school is relatively straight forward. you have to do decently on a bunch of introductory science, math and english classes (~3.5 GPA), get 75th+ percentile on a standardized test, fill out a standardized application, write a bunch of silly essays, and be a relatable/genuine human being at an interview. med school itself is extremely hard. anyone who thinks they can get in and then coast is in for a rude awakening.
 
I think getting in is harder. You have to do all the above stuff, and fluff up your resume with some volunteer experience or research or some stupid cancer club. [*edit* also if you are white or asian and male you will have to do way better than a 3.5 and 75th percentile.]
Once you get in, it is sort of more work than college, but its a lot more straightforward. Most schools it goes something like this: "Here's a book and 400 pages of power point slides. Memorize them by 3 weeks from now. If you want, you can come listen to me read the slides, but I don't really care either way." So then you just do your own thing and move on. The tests are generally not as "tricky" as undergrad. The teachers generally want you to succeed because it makes them look better. There's no "weeding out."

Yeah I had way more fun in college, but I still have plenty of free time. Third year kinda sucks, but no more than having a moderately difficult job would suck.
 
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afk1994 said:
I'm currently a freshman in college, but I was wondering how difficult medical school itself is. Listening to other people who are in med school and those who have graduated it seems that actually getting in is more difficult than med school itself. Just wanted to ask some current medical students.
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Your medical school's difficulty will be defined both by your abilities and by your goals. If your question is 'how difficult is it for an average matriculant not to fail out of medical school' I would say that it's not difficult at all, you could probably work much less than you did in college and acomplish that. If you're trying to build an application that lets you match into something competitive you're looking at more hours.
 
I'd have to agree that getting in is way more difficult than completing medical school. Being at the top of your medical school class is another story...
 
You need to better define your question to make answers useful because, as has been said, not failing out isn't that hard. Excelling (i.e., being in, say, the top quartile), however, is extremely difficult. Think of it this way: 100% of your med school class got through pre-med and was right around the top 1/3 of their college class. ~95% of those students will become doctors. In other words, getting in is approximately equivalent to completing medical school in terms of chances. On the other hand, of those who got in, only 50% will be in the upper half of their class and everyone is working hard, so being in the top 50% of an elite group isn't so easy.
 
I agree with what everyone has said. It depends on your goals. If I had wanted to just pass every exam and get bare minimum passes on the steps, I could have done that with way less work than I put into college. However, I probably would not have liked the residency options that would come with that decision. Instead, I ended up working much much harder than I did in college. Studying for step 1 was the most brutal study regimen I have ever put myself through. I probably studied harder for that than entire semesters worth of college courses combined. I started to see the Krebs cycle in my sleep. I will say that it paid off on match day 😀

I recommend you work as hard as possible in med school, because it will keep doors open in the event you realize you are passionate about something competitive.
 
I want to caution you that how people describe the difficulty of med school often depends on their perspective going into it. If you go into med school thinking it won't be that bad...then it'll probably be worse. If you go in thinking it's gonna be the worst thing in the world, then it probably won't seem that bad.
 
There's also a lot of adaptation that takes places when you start med school. My work ethic in college (lots of cramming) which permitted a 4.0 GPA and 99th percentile MCAT score would have caused me to fail my med school courses. ie. after you adapt med school probably feels easier because the material is just more interesting (in general). Whether it really is easier or not is debatable.
 
I still think the firehose or pancake metaphors ring the truest. Honestly the material is not difficult to understand or grasp. The difference is the speed and amount of information you have to commit to memory.
 
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Agree with others that it is all about what you are aiming for. Once you get in it is extremely difficult to get kicked out but it is extremely easy to not do so well on clinicals, not do so hot on boards etc and end up being pigeon holed into FM or similar. If this was your goal all along that is fine but for the vast majority this ends up being something they accept. There seemed to be about a 50/50 split in my class of people who did VERY well but truly wanted to do FM and people who did FM because they did not do well.

My advice to you is to work your butt off and keep every door open. You never know what will happen during 3rd/4th year. You don't want to do an elective and say "damn this is the coolest thing ever but I could never get in because of my Step I score".

As Funny mentions above, I found it easier to do well the further I went a long because the material was just plain more interesting to me. I think many would agree.

Survivor DO
 
Getting in is definitely the hardest bit in my opinion. Once you're in, it's just a matter of staying on top of the work and passing exams (for the pre-clinical stage anyway).

As already mentioned, doing exceptionally well and getting top marks is an entirely different story. But medicine itself isn't difficult, in many ways it's actually much less detailed and easier to grasp than a standard biosciences degree. But the volume of information which you will need to retain before exams is much, much higher than for a standard undergraduate degree.
 
Oo Cipher oO said:
I still think the firehose or pancake metaphors ring the truest. Honestly the material is not difficult to understand or grasp. The difference is the speed and amount of information you have to commit to memory.
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What's the pancake metaphor
 
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FunnyCurrent said:
What's the pancake metaphor
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100 stack of pancakes and you have to finish them every morning if you don't you have to take the remaining stack and combine it with the next mornings 100 stack.

Its actually the most accurate analogy because if you've ever tried to eat as much food as possible and came to a point where you have some left and you want to finish it all but your body aches in pain, your brain shuts down in defeat. That's how it feels when each lecture (x4) has 70-100 slides or 36 slides of huge amount of detail and you just can't stuff it in your brain but if you don't finish, you have to make up for it the next day when you have that many slides to encounter the next day.

I know you know how this is Funny, just describing the meaning of the analogy for others.
 
Med school is like taking 24-30 credits every semester of college
The material itself is only slightly more difficult, but the amount is the killer
 
Pic said:
100 stack of pancakes and you have to finish them every morning if you don't you have to take the remaining stack and combine it with the next mornings 100 stack.

Its actually the most accurate analogy because if you've ever tried to eat as much food as possible and came to a point where you have some left and you want to finish it all but your body aches in pain, your brain shuts down in defeat. That's how it feels when each lecture (x4) has 70-100 slides or 36 slides of huge amount of detail and you just can't stuff it in your brain but if you don't finish, you have to make up for it the next day when you have that many slides to encounter the next day.

I know you know how this is Funny, just describing the meaning of the analogy for others.
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Ha, so true.
 
skinMD said:
getting into med school is relatively straight forward. you have to do decently on a bunch of introductory science, math and english classes (~3.5 GPA), get 75th+ percentile on a standardized test, fill out a standardized application, write a bunch of silly essays, and be a relatable/genuine human being at an interview. med school itself is extremely hard. anyone who thinks they can get in and then coast is in for a rude awakening.
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I found this to be the opposite.

😳

I guess I have to work on being relatable...
 
Pic said:
100 stack of pancakes and you have to finish them every morning if you don't you have to take the remaining stack and combine it with the next mornings 100 stack.

Its actually the most accurate analogy because if you've ever tried to eat as much food as possible and came to a point where you have some left and you want to finish it all but your body aches in pain, your brain shuts down in defeat. That's how it feels when each lecture (x4) has 70-100 slides or 36 slides of huge amount of detail and you just can't stuff it in your brain but if you don't finish, you have to make up for it the next day when you have that many slides to encounter the next day.

I know you know how this is Funny, just describing the meaning of the analogy for others.
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Right, and then during exams, you have to regurgitate.

To the original post, I think getting in is a process over which you have much less control and so, regardless of whether it is harder or not, it is more stressful.
 
If studying 10-12 hours a day is easier than college you are out of your mind.
 
Getting into med school is difficult because you have to take a test that is kind of bull**** and doesn't relate to what you learned for 2 years (I did very well on it anyway). Also you have to do **** you may not like such as volunteer.

Med school is way more work. I used to study a few days for each exam in undergrad and thought it was a lot of work... haha. Yea med school is overblown, but still cherish undergrad please.
 
No individual class is overly difficult, but whereas in undergrad you had maybe one or two courses a semester that required real effort you have 4 in medical school. This is in addition to clinical stuff and studying for boards second year.

Med school is difficult due to volume, not necessarily content. Many people say the hardest single class is anatomy, and its done after your first semester.
 
Doctor D said:
If studying 10-12 hours a day is easier than college you are out of your mind.
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If you're studying 12 hours a day, outside of maybe leading up to tests, youre doing it wrong.
 
Are we including class time? I probably hit around that mark
 
afk1994 said:
I'm currently a freshman in college, but I was wondering how difficult medical school itself is. Listening to other people who are in med school and those who have graduated it seems that actually getting in is more difficult than med school itself. Just wanted to ask some current medical students.
Click to expand...

No, it's definitely more difficult. The amount of information coupled with the fact that you're studying for boards in second year.... It's a different hurdle. You have to essentially study everyday. You're pretty much in a situation where there's always more information to learn. That's what medicine is and that's what essentially sucks. Professors can try and teach you the major points, but the stress is basically trying to know everything. Because you want to know everything.
 
BA11 said:
No individual class is overly difficult, but whereas in undergrad you had maybe one or two courses a semester that required real effort you have 4 in medical school. This is in addition to clinical stuff and studying for boards second year.

Med school is difficult due to volume, not necessarily content. Many people say the hardest single class is anatomy, and its done after your first semester.
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^this. Success in med school is about maintaining a high level of effort over a long period of time. My courses in college had more difficult concepts to understand (e.g., partial differential equations), but I spend more hours per week studying in med school to learn all the material.
 
It depends on what you mean by 'difficult'. And even once you're in med school, the definition of difficulty changes. After studying for Step 1, being in the hospital is glorious, even if you are approaching 80 hours per week there. After working 12 hours a day for 12 days straight, with little break for eating, working 8-5 in clinic doesn't seem so bad.

College was easy for a lot of people in med school. Med school takes more effort, because there's more volume to know. But it's not conceptually difficult (or most of it isn't, anyway). It's just a lot of volume. And you have to retain it for a long period of time. I got asked questions today on stuff that I learned way back in first year. It gets easier with time, though.
 
For me, basic sciences was like finals week during summer semester of college...every week. It slowly ramps up and then step 1 is some next level, Hunger Games type stress.

Then third year is the same workload, but add the worst part of every crappy job I ever had, and also add an environment rich in the sort of misguided, mindless, ceaselessly malignant personality disorders you used to think were funny back when reality TV hit it big with Survivor. Except there's no prize.

Then fourth year is what you thought med school was going to be like.
 
hrandani said:
For me, basic sciences was like finals week during summer semester of college...every week. It slowly ramps up and then step 1 is some next level, Hunger Games type stress.
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Pretty much like this. It can get to the point where you'll cover in one day in medical school what it would take a week of MWF class to cover in college.
 
calvnandhobbs68 said:
Pretty much like this. It can get to the point where you'll cover in one day in medical school what it would take a week of MWF class to cover in college.
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Very true. And then second year does that ALL OVER again. :laugh: We went through clinical neuro in 2 weeks... cardio in 2 weeks... etc etc. I was worn out after every block.
 
fizzle said:
In high school people told me college would be hard.

In college people told me med school would be hard.

Now I'm almost done with med school, and I don't believe people anymore. Still coasting, and still doing well.
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Residency will be easy, no worries.
 
By sheer volume of material that needs to be committed to memory, med school is harder. By the amount of logical reasoning required to tackle my exams, I would say my engineering undergrad was harder.

I'm speaking as an MS1 though.
 
Moving to pre-allo.

It depends what you mean. You definitely will work a lot harder in med school than you did in college; you certainly don't need to study 8+ hours a day or take any 30 hour call shifts as a pre-med. First two years is definitely like drinking from a fire hose, and then the next two you get the privilege of being the only one on the team who is PAYING to have the privilege of working your butt off while handling all of the scut. However, of course many many more people get weeded out at the pre-med phase than during med school; a bad semester or two can really tank your GPA in a way that makes it very difficult to recover, while P=MD once you actually make it to med school (though granted, P=/=residency in your desired specialty/location).
 
I've had multiple doctors tell me that it's not "hard" as in the material is somehow as complex as figuring out quantum mechanics, but the volume of the material is so large that it takes up a lot of dedication.
 
I no longer believe the whole "it's not the material, just the volume." Hells to the no. Not for me. It's BOTH. There are some things that will be easy and then there are going to be things that will make you chuck your textbook out the window.

I came into med school preparing for the worst, and it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but it's certainly a lot of work. A classmate I was talking to said he actually thought med school would be easy, and he was in for a rude awakening. Of course, as others have said, your individual goals and abilities will determine how 'hard' you think med school is. So....go into it thinking it's going to be the hardest thing in your life, and if it's not, then no big deal. But if you think it's going to be easy....yeah. Good luck to that person.
 
It seems that a lot of people say the material isnt harder than what you would learn as a typical science/bio major. Certainly not harder than difficult upper div courses. However, I am wondering if this is the same for those who did not major in science, who never really took any difficult and complex science classes (just took the basic pre-reqs). Could the same be said that the material is straightforward (albeit a lot).... of are the non-science major people at a disadvantage in this case.
 
dweji16 said:
It seems that a lot of people say the material isnt harder than what you would learn as a typical science/bio major. Certainly not harder than difficult upper div courses. However, I am wondering if this is the same for those who did not major in science, who never really took any difficult and complex science classes (just took the basic pre-reqs). Could the same be said that the material is straightforward (albeit a lot).... of are the non-science major people at a disadvantage in this case.
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Even people who majored in unrelated fields like engineering or the liberal arts probably took biochem, cell bio, etc through the 400 level. At least I did. But anyways, you do your fair share of "difficult and complex" thinking in any major. Don't act like Bio and Biochem majors are better than other people just because your majors are the traditional ones.


If nontraditional majors struggled (more than others) in medical school, adcoms would have got rid of them years ago. And you certainly wouldn't have people like Sinai getting rid of premed requirements for large portions of their class.

There are more paths to medicine besides the traditional "study Biology/Biochem and go to med school at 22." 🙂
 
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goofball said:
Even people who majored in unrelated fields like engineering or the liberal arts probably took biochem, cell bio, etc through the 400 level. At least I did. But anyways, you do your fair share of "difficult and complex" thinking in any major. Don't act like Bio and Biochem majors are better than other people just because your majors are the traditional ones.


If nontraditional majors struggled (more than others) in medical school, adcoms would have got rid of them years ago. And you certainly wouldn't have people like Sinai getting rid of premed requirements for large portions of their class.

There are more paths to medicine besides the traditional "study Biology/Biochem and go to med school at 22." 🙂
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That makes me feel a bit better. I think the closer we get to fall and the start of school, the more paranoid I have become that I am much less prepared for this than most people.
 
dweji16 said:
that makes me feel a bit better. I think the closer we get to fall and the start of school, the more paranoid i have become that i am much less prepared for this than most people.
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+1
 
dweji16 said:
That makes me feel a bit better. I think the closer we get to fall and the start of school, the more paranoid I have become that I am much less prepared for this than most people.
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You will quickly realize that everyone in med school - even those people you saw on the interview trail that were superstars - will struggle to some extent to stay on top of everything. Some will do it better than others, but everyone is going to be unprepared. It's not something you can really prepare for all that much.
 
Man, every time I read about med schools I think "What am I getting myself into?" I just hope that once I'm there I'm not going to spend every moment thinking "What have I GOT myself into." 😳
 
GoSpursGo said:
Moving to pre-allo.

It depends what you mean. You definitely will work a lot harder in med school than you did in college; you certainly don't need to study 8+ hours a day or take any 30 hour call shifts as a pre-med. First two years is definitely like drinking from a fire hose, and then the next two you get the privilege of being the only one on the team who is PAYING to have the privilege of working your butt off while handling all of the scut. However, of course many many more people get weeded out at the pre-med phase than during med school; a bad semester or two can really tank your GPA in a way that makes it very difficult to recover, while P=MD once you actually make it to med school (though granted, P=/=residency in your desired specialty/location).
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This. If you're just trying to pass, you'll put in more hours than you did as a pre-med, and there will be a lot more expected of you. On some clerkships you get there earlier than the residents and leave later. It is what it is, but you'll still have time to go out, exercise regularly, and have some fun.

If you're trying to do something competitive, be prepared to give up maybe 50% of the free time the average med student has to extra studying, research, etc. But honestly, you'll make time for things that are important to you.
 
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