Ms1 q&a

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This question is not intended to be incendiary, but I'm interested to hear some opinions on the general attitude of medical students. To cut to the chase, are they as arrogant as pre-medical students seem to be?

I ask this because I've been excited for some time now to get the chance to mingle/make friends with relatively like-minded individuals. There were very few pre-med students at my home institution, so most of my friends ended up being from other walks of life, and consequently couldn't relate to my experiences or share in a discussion about science or medicine. Maybe it was just the heightened pressure of the interviews, but a large number of students I met on 'the trail' came off as artificial and pretentious, not the kind of people I would want to hang out with. Is this perception off base?
 
JABWS said:
This question is not intended to be incendiary, but I'm interested to hear some opinions on the general attitude of medical students. To cut to the chase, are they as arrogant as pre-medical students seem to be?

I ask this because I've been excited for some time now to get the chance to mingle/make friends with relatively like-minded individuals. There were very few pre-med students at my home institution, so most of my friends ended up being from other walks of life, and consequently couldn't relate to my experiences or share in a discussion about science or medicine. Maybe it was just the heightened pressure of the interviews, but a large number of students I met on 'the trail' came off as artificial and pretentious, not the kind of people I would want to hang out with. Is this perception off base?
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As with all people, there are arrogant/irritating people in all groups. I empathize with the artificial and pretentious sentiment - I definitely think that's true on interviews. Some of that carries on into med school, but at least in my class I think most people are pretty relaxed. I don't spend time with those that aren't, so I wouldn't know either way I suppose. If you aren't that way then there will be plenty of other people for you to hang with that have more of your mindset.

Really makes me wonder where all those tools at interviews end up. Or maybe they were just nervous for interviews and not acting themselves.
 
NickNaylor said:
Really makes me wonder where all those tools at interviews end up. Or maybe they were just nervous for interviews and not acting themselves.
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Or maybe the answer is "not in medical school, because they're tools and adcoms don't want to get stuck spending four years of their lives dealing with a douche nozzle". They're probably among the "zomg, I had a 3.95GPA and 38 MCAT and didn't get accepted anywhere but SGU" outliers you occasionally hear about.
 
For those of you who did/are doing research between M1/M2, how did you get your position? Was it literally as simple as contacting student affairs and/or a professor you were interested in working with? I'm personally not very interested in research, but I know it's helpful (necessary?) for matching.
 
MedPR said:
For those of you who did/are doing research between M1/M2, how did you get your position? Was it literally as simple as contacting student affairs and/or a professor you were interested in working with? I'm personally not very interested in research, but I know it's helpful (necessary?) for matching.
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Only "necessary" for a couple hypercompetitive fields and some top tier residencies. My school is very not research driven, but there were still a large number of research opportunities presented to us repeatedly. Paid research may take a little more effort, but research in general should be very easy to find.
 
MedPR said:
For those of you who did/are doing research between M1/M2, how did you get your position? Was it literally as simple as contacting student affairs and/or a professor you were interested in working with? I'm personally not very interested in research, but I know it's helpful (necessary?) for matching.
Click to expand...

Pritzker has an institutionalized Summer Research Program for first years that essentially guarantees funding for you if you want to do research. The school solicits projects from faculty and puts them all together in a book which you can use to pick a project, but you can also do work with any faculty member. It's a pretty awesome program since it's so easy to get started with.

I think with most schools you find research undergrad style: by asking professors/faculty members. Fortunately, being a medical student means you're at least somewhat competent, so getting a position probably wouldn't be that difficult.
 
NickNaylor said:
Pritzker has an institutionalized Summer Research Program for first years that essentially guarantees funding for you if you want to do research. The school solicits projects from faculty and puts them all together in a book which you can use to pick a project, but you can also do work with any faculty member. It's a pretty awesome program since it's so easy to get started with.

I think with most schools you find research undergrad style: by asking professors/faculty members. Fortunately, being a medical student means you're at least somewhat competent, so getting a position probably wouldn't be that difficult.
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That does sound pretty awesome.
 
About how many hours of sleep can you get on a typical day and how many hours of sleep do you get on days leading up to an exam?

Also, have you ever watched the movie Patch Adams? Was that movie similar to medical school in a way?
 
iforget2 said:
About how many hours of sleep can you get on a typical day and how many hours of sleep do you get on days leading up to an exam?

Also, have you ever watched the movie Patch Adams? Was that movie similar to medical school in a way?
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Sleep is important to me; I'm like an old man, so I go to sleep fairly early. I would say that I seldom get less than 6 hours of sleep; usually I get at least 8. Leading up to an exam can be a little worse, but even then I won't get less than 4 or so unless I really need to cram. Most days I'll still get at least 6-8 even up to the test.
 
iforget2 said:
About how many hours of sleep can you get on a typical day and how many hours of sleep do you get on days leading up to an exam?

Also, have you ever watched the movie Patch Adams? Was that movie similar to medical school in a way?
Click to expand...

That kind of depends how you prepared the weeks before exam week. If you plan it right: 12 hours a day.

Patch Adams is a horrible representation of medicine in general.
 
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NickNaylor said:
Sleep is important to me; I'm like an old man, so I go to sleep fairly early. I would say that I seldom get less than 6 hours of sleep; usually I get at least 8. Leading up to an exam can be a little worse, but even then I won't get less than 4 or so unless I really need to cram. Most days I'll still get at least 6-8 even up to the test.
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So there's no need to pull all-nighters to study? I feel like if I'm not able to get an adequate amount of sleep, then studying will be highly inefficient the next day. And the same goes for trying to study through the night. It sounds like it's not difficult to get your studying done on a regular schedule if you prioritize your time properly.
 
JABWS said:
So there's no need to pull all-nighters to study? I feel like if I'm not able to get an adequate amount of sleep, then studying will be highly inefficient the next day. And the same goes for trying to study through the night. It sounds like it's not difficult to get your studying done on a regular schedule if you prioritize your time properly.
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pulling an all nighter is idiotic and counterproductive, and totally unnecessary
 
JABWS said:
So there's no need to pull all-nighters to study? I feel like if I'm not able to get an adequate amount of sleep, then studying will be highly inefficient the next day. And the same goes for trying to study through the night. It sounds like it's not difficult to get your studying done on a regular schedule if you prioritize your time properly.
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No, I've never pulled an all-nighter. I've gotten up super early (~4am) a few times to get some studying in before an exam, but I've never felt the need to not sleep at all.
 
iforget2 said:
About how many hours of sleep can you get on a typical day and how many hours of sleep do you get on days leading up to an exam?

Also, have you ever watched the movie Patch Adams? Was that movie similar to medical school in a way?
Click to expand...

During 1st and 2nd year you decide how much time you sleep. I never pulled an all nighter and I'm pretty sure the minimum I ever got was at least 6 hours. Some (crazy) people pull them but if you need sleep you can get sleep. However, 3rd year +/- 4th year depending on what rotations you do there were several rotations that required 24-30+ hours without sleep.

I've never seen anything like patch adams in real life. Don't get me wrong I do my best to make my patients laugh but you won't seen anyone walking around with a red rubber nose except for maybe on peds. Even then it's probably only on Halloween. However, I think most doctors do their best to relate to their patients. Some hospitals do have fun activities for the patients (mostly at the peds hospital but some of the other hospitals have the occasional activity like the VA has karaoke once a week).
 
NickNaylor said:
No, I've never pulled an all-nighter. I've gotten up super early (~4am) a few times to get some studying in before an exam, but I've never felt the need to not sleep at all.
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I'll admit, I pulled an all nighter during my last exam of the year. I had zero motivation the weeks after the previous test. Hit me the week of the test I was probably going to fail. One of the dumbest things I have ever done.

I didn't fail. 👍

I usually wake up about three hours before a test and cram random minutiae, I stick as much as possible in my short term memory.
 
tiedyeddog said:
I'll admit, I pulled an all nighter during my last exam of the year. I had zero motivation the weeks after the previous test. Hit me the week of the test I was probably going to fail. One of the dumbest things I have ever done.

I didn't fail. 👍

I usually wake up about three hours before a test and cram random minutiae, I stick as much as possible in my short term memory.
Click to expand...

Pretty much my strategy to the T.
 
Does anyone at Chicago know who you are? Like from SDN?
 
I actually routinely pull all nighters. I study normally and stuff as much stuff into long term memory as I can well in advance of the test. The night before the test, I always plan on sleeping and getting well rested, but end up thinking "what's one night without sleep matter" and pulling an all nighter to cram minutiae. I function fine on one night without sleep, so it's worked for my grades :shrug:
 
Plue00 said:
Does anyone at Chicago know who you are? Like from SDN?
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One of my classmates did an informal "study" of SDN looking at frequency of posts and what kind of school users ended up at. He was none too pleased when I changed my username as it screwed his data up. :laugh:

At least a couple of my classmates post here occasionally, but I don't know who they are. The admissions office knows who I am and will pass information my way that they want shared on the Pritzker thread.

I ran into a couple of weird ass people on the interview trail that figured out who I was. After that happened I changed my username. Hasn't been a problem since.
 
kpcrew said:
He's famous, everyone knows who he is. He even wrote an article here.
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NickNaylor said:
One of my classmates did an informal "study" of SDN looking at frequency of posts and what kind of school users ended up at. He was none too pleased when I changed my username as it screwed his data up. :laugh:

At least a couple of my classmates post here occasionally, but I don't know who they are. The admissions office knows who I am and will pass information my way that they want shared on the Pritzker thread.

I ran into a couple of weird ass people on the interview trail that figured out who I was. After that happened I changed my username. Hasn't been a problem since.
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:laugh:

I laughed.

How did the admissions office figure it out though?
 
Nymphicus said:
:laugh:

I laughed.

How did the admissions office figure it out though?
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Not sure, actually. I was talking with someone in the office and he said, "so you're our mole, huh?" I admitted that I was "the guy," and that's all she wrote.
 
La Presse said:
Naylor,

What were your favorite m1 courses and why?
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I really enjoyed physiology. Looking back anatomy was pretty cool, but it was too intense and, frankly, terrifying to say it was one of my favorites. It was a very cool experience, though. Microbiology was also interesting.

I think I enjoyed those the most because they were most directly applicable to clinical medicine. Anatomy, biochem/cell bio/genetics, and pathology, though interesting in their own rights, were a little more abstract and more removed from clinical medicine. It was at times hard to figure out how much of anything was important to being a physician in those courses.
 
I know its personal preference, but did your study habits change drastically when you got to medical school? As in library vs. studying at home or alone vs. studying with a group?
 
loveoforganic said:
Only "necessary" for a couple hypercompetitive fields and some top tier residencies. My school is very not research driven, but there were still a large number of research opportunities presented to us repeatedly. Paid research may take a little more effort, but research in general should be very easy to find.
Click to expand...

What school do you go to?

NickNaylor said:
Pritzker has an institutionalized Summer Research Program for first years that essentially guarantees funding for you if you want to do research. The school solicits projects from faculty and puts them all together in a book which you can use to pick a project, but you can also do work with any faculty member. It's a pretty awesome program since it's so easy to get started with.

I think with most schools you find research undergrad style: by asking professors/faculty members. Fortunately, being a medical student means you're at least somewhat competent, so getting a position probably wouldn't be that difficult.
Click to expand...

That's a great system. Getting some kind of research stipend would be awesome.


Cinclus said:
That does sound pretty awesome.
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+1
 
MedPR said:
That's a great system. Getting some kind of research stipend would be awesome.

+1
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Most research oriented schools do this; Wisconsin gives about 6k to each student for the m1 summer, essentially everyone can get it.
 
drizzt3117 said:
Most research oriented schools do this; Wisconsin gives about 6k to each student for the m1 summer, essentially everyone can get it.
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Awesome.

Did you guys research the entire summer or did you take a week or two off completely? My girlfriend just started M3, but between M1/M2 she did a preceptorship instead of research.
 
nalcodr said:
I know its personal preference, but did your study habits change drastically when you got to medical school? As in library vs. studying at home or alone vs. studying with a group?
Click to expand...

Mine didn't. I'm generally more efficient now, though; sometimes I'll study with friends, other times not. Sometimes at the library, other times not. It just depends on where I'm at and my schedule I suppose.
 
NickNaylor said:
Pritzker has an institutionalized Summer Research Program for first years that essentially guarantees funding for you if you want to do research. The school solicits projects from faculty and puts them all together in a book which you can use to pick a project, but you can also do work with any faculty member. It's a pretty awesome program since it's so easy to get started with.

I think with most schools you find research undergrad style: by asking professors/faculty members. Fortunately, being a medical student means you're at least somewhat competent, so getting a position probably wouldn't be that difficult.
Click to expand...

SIU has a very similar program. I am at another institution this summer doing my project but many of my classmates chose to stay on campus. We got a scholarship and will have the participation in this program mentioned in our Dean's letter.
 
nalcodr said:
I know its personal preference, but did your study habits change drastically when you got to medical school? As in library vs. studying at home or alone vs. studying with a group?
Click to expand...

Not drastically, but yes.

To clarify, in undergrad, it was much easier to cram a couple of days before an exam and still do well. Not that easy, IMHO, in med school. Like Nick said, you'll become more efficient to deal with the volume (you pretty much have to).

My mindset is really what has changed drastically. In undergrad, I used to be a lot more about making sure I do well on the exam -- more of a memorize-and-forget after the exam kind of style. Now, I feel it's a lot more important for me to learn things in a way that they stay with me for a long time and I don't just dump them out of memory after the exam.
 
Kaushik said:
My mindset is really what has changed drastically. In undergrad, I used to be a lot more about making sure I do well on the exam -- more of a memorize-and-forget after the exam kind of style. Now, I feel it's a lot more important for me to learn things in a way that they stay with me for a long time and I don't just dump them out of memory after the exam.
Click to expand...

That's a really good point. In undergrad I usually had no problem memorizing everything for tests. It literally is not possible in medical school. I kind of triage by what I think will be the most clinically important, after understanding the big picture.
 
My question is: U mirin brah? U mirin?
 
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