How often do you go back home as a medical student?

[456432]

For all the medical students, residents, and attendings who attended a medical school away from home, how many times total did you go back/visit home as a medical student? I will be missing my family a lot for sure, and I just want to know what to expect as I'm assuming it's much different compared to going back home during college.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[PapaGuava]

I've only gone home after the end of each semester, but I guess it will depend how far away you are from home.

 

[deleted1079620]

Some schools have rearranged their calendars so as not to allow enough time to go home during the semester, due to COVID, but have shortened the in-person part so that students can go home and stay home earlier in the year.

Before COVID we had both a fall and spring break that lasted a week each, and most people went home then and after the semesters.

I moved permanently for med school so I go home every night. 😁

 

[TheDataKing]

I’ve gone home once in 5 months so far

 

[Kirby Smart]

I think it entirely depends on how difficult and/or expensive it would be to travel home?

But I’m assuming what you were trying to gauge with this Q was do we have enough time between studying to travel home? My answer, personally, would be yes. Aside from weekends before tests, I generally only spend about 4ish hours per weekend studying, so if I wanted to budget my time to be able to visit home every month or so it wouldn’t be unfeasible at all. Again, the main concern is probably the feasibility of traveling based on far you are from home, travel costs, COVID (which hopefully will be less of a factor soon), etc.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

Our schedule is such that a student could go home for winter and summer break without disrupting their studies. Thanksgiving and spring break are only a weekend plus a couple days. I’m in the my first year but I studied the same amount as a normal weekend this thanksgiving and would have fallen behind if I didn’t. Most of my classmates went home (never mind that there’s a pandemic?) but I’m not close with my family.

 

[OchemOficionado]

Yes, it depends on study load. . but other than that there are so many other factors such as how far away from home students are, how close they are with their families, how expensive it is to go home, if there's a reason to go home, etc. I went home 5 times in the first 1.5 years if that helps at all

 

[theconfusedapplicant]

Like others said, it really depends. I haven't started medical school yet but I have friends who go to school only like 30-45 minutes from home, and especially now because of COVID they're home most of the time. Others live at home and just commute the 30-45 minutes. It totally depends how far away you are from your school.