Life in grad school v. medical school

[ReInventor]

Reading this forum for the last few months, I've come across posts saying things like "it can be hard to see friends getting married/getting jobs/buying houses while you are still a student," "you won't have time for anything but studying in med school," etc. I hope that makes sense.

But for me, if I don't apply to medical school, I'll be applying to graduate school in psychology. So either way I'm going to end up in school for 7 years at least and working my butt off. But do the same concerns about medical school apply to graduate school? Am I going to be very busy, have trouble finding time to see friends, sleep, etc. either way? Or is medical school more "damaging" to your lifestyle than graduate school?

Wasn't sure where to ask this, but maybe some nontrads have gone to grad school...

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[FrkyBgStok]

i have no idea how the psychology is as far as beyond bachelors, however a lot of masters and above programs are set up to allow for working. med school isn't. it is set up for 50-60+ weeks for 7+ years. If psychology graduate school is like this, than yes, you will probably have similar issues.

another thing with psychology though is if you get a masters and need to work, or you need to take a break, or have another opportunity you can do it. med students can't really do that. once you start, it is a 7 year sprint that you cannot stop until it is over.

 

[ReInventor]

Oh, I would be applying for a doctorate, not a master's. I know that for what I want to do in life I need a doctorate...whether that's an MD or a PhD, not sure yet. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Nasrudin]

Reading this forum for the last few months, I've come across posts saying things like "it can be hard to see friends getting married/getting jobs/buying houses while you are still a student," "you won't have time for anything but studying in med school," etc. I hope that makes sense.

But for me, if I don't apply to medical school, I'll be applying to graduate school in psychology. So either way I'm going to end up in school for 7 years at least and working my butt off. But do the same concerns about medical school apply to graduate school? Am I going to be very busy, have trouble finding time to see friends, sleep, etc. either way? Or is medical school more "damaging" to your lifestyle than graduate school?

Wasn't sure where to ask this, but maybe some nontrads have gone to grad school...

While you're wating for more qualified opinions I'll chip in with my heavily muscled friend here. Since I have known many people and some family members in grad school.

Both are busy. But the models are very different. Grad school is for producing academic work. You will be supporting the tenure system. Wherein you will be obliged to produce papers to further the career of you and your supervisor and you will be teaching undergrads so that the full profressors can spend sabbatical on a lovely Greek isle.

Med School you will spend all of your time studying. And sprinkling the this and that of your liking or career requirments--research etc.

if your interested in evaluating the careers of psychologist vs psychiatrists their are a lot of good threads in these respective forums.

 

[PlacentaSac]

As someone who has done graduate school (science) and I am now currently in medical school I can tell you my experience. I felt that I had LOTS more time as a grad student. The classes were not as difficult and the competition not as fierce, so there was less stress. With bench work, it was all about reaching weekly goals, so there was TONS of down-time as I was waiting for experiments to finish.

It would be very easy to have a life outside of grad school; being married, going out should not be a problem at all. As the previous poster mentioned, as a med student a good majority of the time is spent studying. There is just WAY more information to master in medical school at a much faster pace.

 

[QofQuimica]

I'm a PhD-to-MD (separate degrees). I would say that I didn't really have more free time in grad school, but what I *did* have was almost full control over my time. If I wanted to come in at noon and work until 4 AM (which is what I did at the end while writing my thesis), I could do that. I took my vacation time whenever I wanted it. The flexibility was awesome; as long as the work got done, the time was mine to allocate. In contrast, med school was much more regimented. When they say it's time to come to class, you go to class. They tell you what time to show up for rounds. They tell you which days you get off. I think the relative lack of flexibility is one of the more onerous parts of med school (and residency, too).

 

[FlyLite]

I met my wife in grad school. She was doing a PhD and I was doing a Master's. She had bought a condo when she came to grad school. We interacted with grad/undergrad students at all levels doing all kinds of social activities.

A lot of the stress is self imposed depending on what you are doing, and how ambitious you are, and also if you are working for a tenure track professor pushing you to publish.

As for Medical school, here are a couple of threads I found sobering...

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/06/reasons-medical-students-burn-depressed.html

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=521175

But then again there are people who can probably talk about the wonderful time they had in med school...

 

[Scottish Chap]

I agree with Q (PhD, then MD graduate here). Control over your time was the biggest difference I saw, and you have that in graduate school. In medical school and residency, you absolutely have to be there at 5:30am some days. Period. If your car breaks down or your kid is sick, too bad; you have to be there.

Now that said, realize that medicine does not have exclusive real estate on long hours. Doctors forget that I-bankers and business folks as well as top-level attorneys regularly work longer hours than we do. Also, with medicine, there is a finite time in which they can torment you...then they have to let you go. As long as you pass, nobody cares how well you do (for the most part). In graduate school, it's an around-the-clock struggle to get data and to prove your worth, and they have complete control over your career. Also, my experience was that the graduate school classes were MUCH harder than the medical school classes. Perhaps the medical students on average are more motivated and accomplished, but as long as you pass, nobody cares.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

For research-based PhD programs, they're so varied that it's almost worthless to try to summarize what they're like.

A few people have made it sound like you have lots of control over your schedule while in grad school. That's true sometimes (it was true for me--sometimes) but also not true sometimes. For example, in grad school I had a friend who had no choice but to sleep in the lab for two weeks and wake up every hour to take blood samples from her monkeys (this while seven months pregnant).

PsyD may be different... I don't know... But in regard to the person who said his/her PsyD friend was going out all the time, hey I've seen people like that in MD, MD/PhD, JD, etc. programs. Those people exist in every program.

 

[ReInventor]

Thank you for all the great answers.

In your experiences, which was "emotionally harder"? I feel like, for me, messing up in grad school--where the work is more about me and my abilities--would upset me more than not doing as well in med school.

And one other question...how would you compare the two in terms of how "intellectually stimulating" they are? I love the feeling of coming up with a new research project, and I think my personality might be more suited to grad school...but I think I like the job that is waiting on the other side of med school a little more. Is med school constantly just non-stimulating memorization, or can you get similar "mental satisfaction" as a medical student?

 

[bioteach]

For me, grad school was much less stressful than medical school. Grad school seemed like a prolongation of undergrad + research/thesis. Med school was a different animal entirely for me. So much more work, so much less free time, so much more stress. However, because it is what I really want to be doing (and partly because I have to work so much harder than ever before) it is SO MUCH more rewarding. I get much more satisfaction out of an A in a med school class than a grad school A. But I had to work so much harder and get more stressed to obtain that A.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

For me, grad school was much less stressful than medical school. Grad school seemed like a prolongation of undergrad + research/thesis. Med school was a different animal entirely for me. So much more work, so much less free time, so much more stress. However, because it is what I really want to be doing (and partly because I have to work so much harder than ever before) it is SO MUCH more rewarding. I get much more satisfaction out of an A in a med school class than a grad school A. But I had to work so much harder and get more stressed to obtain that A.

You got A's in grad school?

At my school they told us that if we were getting A's in our classes that meant we were spending too much time studying and not enough time in the lab.

 

[jissho]

You got A's in grad school?

At my school they told us that if we were getting A's in our classes that meant we were spending too much time studying and not enough time in the lab.

Sounds familiar...

In my graduate program students are required to do research for the first two years in addition to the normal coursework. This was a difficult balancing act. In hind sight I probably would have spent less time in the lab (no late nights or weekends) and more time studying during the first two years.

The course load in medical school may be much higher. However, the added responsibility and pressure to be productive in lab makes graduate school difficult.

My opinion. Both are difficult but in different ways.

 

[Enkidu]

I'm currently starting the second year of my PhD after doing the first two years of medical school. My experience is that graduate school is much more emotionally draining and painful. It's true that I have more control over my life, but I find that in graduate school there is much more stress.

In medical school (at least the first two years) you just have to study all the time. That's pretty easy. I would read and drill for about 10 hours every day, but the goals were clear and I never had any doubt that I was on the wrong track. In graduate school I'm constantly filled with doubt about my data, and my project, and the papers that I'm reading... My approach could be wrong and cost me a year of my life with no usable data. The papers that I'm relying on to inform my research could be wrong as well. This is much worse than simply having to study all the time.

On the bright side, I never felt like I could take a break in medical school. I would get antsy when I went out with my wife if I was away from studying for too long, because the volume was so massive. Now that I'm in graduate school I can spend more time with my family without
feeling guilty.

Edit: My PhD is in electrophysiology. Psychology may be a lot nicer, for all I know. At least I imagine that data is produced much more quickly.

 

[jissho]

In graduate school I'm constantly filled with doubt about my data, and my project, and the papers that I'm reading... My approach could be wrong and cost me a year of my life with no usable data. The papers that I'm relying on to inform my research could be wrong as well. This is much worse than simply having to study all the time.

I think you hit it on the head with this one. One has to be extremely resilient and ready to pick up and start all over again when it comes to research. Nothing is ever certain. Some people revel in this. Me, not so much.

 

[QofQuimica]

Enkidu, you're also at what is the lowest point in your PhD for a lot of people. The excitement of starting has worn off, the end is nowhere in sight, and it's not yet clear how you're going to get from here to there. But hang in there, and keep reevaluating with your PI to make sure you're meeting your goals. Oh, and work on two or three projects at a time. That way, you won't be wasting a year of your life when one thing doesn't pan out.