Gotta burn some time before match day! I'm an MS4 at a top 25 school on the west coast applying into internal medicine, plans for doing hospital medicine or GI. I'm happy to answer any questions about the application process or med school itself.
MS4 taking questions
- Thread starter Phyozo
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Are you starting to feel that you are reaching an important milestone in your life? Are you excited?
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Biggest mistake in your medical school career/something you could have done differently or better. I am not talking step 1 scores or class grades - more subjective issues.
Also, good luck!
Also, good luck!
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were you in any serious relationships during med school?
do you feel at all prepared for PGY-1?
can you give some background about what the residency application is like?
do you feel at all prepared for PGY-1?
can you give some background about what the residency application is like?
Come about mid-late May, I'll start feeling a mixture of excitement and fear...excitement since I'll finally be able to own my patients, sign my own orders, carry a census of more than 4 (which is about how many you carry as a 3rd year), and get knee deep in patient care. I'll be terrified for the same reasons.
I'm feeling awesome right now because I have no classes and basically am scheduled for several months of vacation after match day. 4th year is amazing and I plan on enjoying it thoroughly.
I wished I had studied less. I'd say I'm on average less bright than the average student, but work harder than the average student. I missed a few weddings and other significant get togethers during MS1 and MS2 year because I was worried about my classes. In retrospect, I wish I would've taken more time out of the first 2 years to spend with friends, family. I think most people in my class realize that medicine will always be an important part of their lives, but it can't be everything, and you reach a point where you will never know everything so balance becomes all that more important because you can really let it consume your life if you don't take time out for yourself
Yeah I got married between my MS1 and MS2 year to a wonderful lady who continues to be one my strongest advocates.
I currently feel VERY confident and prepared for PGY-1 year. Of course, this means basically nothing as I will soon realize the immense magnitude of how much I don't know, be beaten down and humbled as an intern, and then hopefully regain some confidence as a PGY-2 (i hear this is how the trend goes...).
Residency application is WAY easier than med school apps. There's a primary application done through ERAS which consists of your numbers and accomplishments. All interview invites to programs are given through ERAS. Unlike med school, lame volunteer work and extracirriculars are less important and clinical grades/usmle step1/LORs become key in getting interviews and ranked. For every program you interview, you add to your rank list. Another website, the NRMP, enters your rank list and each of the residency programss rank lists and matches you via an algorithm. Every american medical student finds out where they go for residency on match day (3/16 this year) in a big ceremony.
She goes to school right now, but also works on the side so really she's supporting me. We have a few loans, but we also received a very generous wedding gift from our parents and other relatives which has helped tremendously.
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Have you seen this thread (Application process: Looking back as a 4th year)? Do you agree with his points about what to look for in a med school? If you had to go back, would you pick the same school again? Why or why not?
Thanks for doing this!
Thanks for doing this!
Completely agree. I'd read the thread carefully and take it to heart. Things I would add to it is the fact that a lot of learning is self directed, including studying for the step1/2 and NBME so time management and discipline are good skills to have. Also, I was surprised how much the "name" of a program ended up mattering in terms of getting residency interviews. This matters most in the upper echelon of academics, but my friends who went to UCSF with average board scores ended up netting better residencies than my friends who went to your mid-tier schools with amazing numbers. This is a generalization of course, and there are definitely exceptions, but I was surprised at how small a field medicine is.
I'd definitely pick the same school again because it was the most reputable school I got into, great location with lots of friends nearby, and provided me with an atmosphere to really excel, specifically including ample research opportunities. If I could go back, though, I could probably be happy at most of the places I got accepted.
Yeah, I made an extra 15k that year of free aid since our combined income was effectively 0 whereas before, I had to take my parent's income into account when applying for aid.
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Did you enjoy medical school?
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What are your plans if you don't match?
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Not quite. Some specialties, such as urology, match early and some programs take applicants outside of the match prior to match day.
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To clarify, If you are a US allo senior, you cannot take a spot outside of one of the matches (NRMP, urology/San Fran or military matches). If you are not a US allo senior (ie you are an IMG, or you graduated a year or more ago, or are coming out of a prelim residency year etc), there may be pre-match opportunities outside of the match, prior to match day.
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how much in debt are you?
is there a way to pay off (or have time to work to pay off) school loans/expenses during school?
is there a way to pay off (or have time to work to pay off) school loans/expenses during school?
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This is not true. There are several programs that take US allo seniors outside of the match. This is different from pre-match in that these programs never enrolled the positions in NRMP at all. Some radonc programs do this (or did as recently as last year). RWJ, Moffitt CC, and Columbia radonc programs all did this relatively recently.
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That may be (although it is excessively rare, and some of the programs you list appear not to do this any longer). They would have to forego using the match at all to do this.
If I don't match, I'll scramble into something with the new SOAP program. The nice thing about IM is that there are more spots than applicants so I'll find a program...it's just a matter of which and where.
I decided IM after my IM rotation...I enjoy the puzzle solving aspect of the field and the breadth and depth of information you gotta know as an internist. IMO, there's no other field in medicine where you are required to know and synthesize the amount of information like you do in internal. Also, it's nice to have tons of opportunities for fellowship afterwards such that you can really tailor your future career goals to your interests.
Toughest rotation depends on what you define as tough. Physically draining? Definitely Gyn/Onc...long surgeries, awake at ungodly hours rounding, plus those docs are tough. Emotionally draining? Probably surgery with the constant barrage of med student abuse coupled with multiple overnight calls and scutwork everywhere. Want to tear your hair out and punch someone in the face? Probably some of the parents of screaming kids I saw on peds, "Yes Ms. Jones, you should get this vaccine. No it doesn't cause autism. Yes I'm sure."
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My bad...I meant to say that by far the majority of US seniors find out where they'll be on match day, save a few specialties like uro or optho
Much less debt than the average med student. This answer depends...some of my classmates worked for Kaplan or Princeton review or TA'ed at the undergraduate campus during M1/M2 year. You also have some time to work between M1/M2 summer and during later 4th year. Having said that most people suck it up and just try to spend reasonably, live on a budget, and pick specialties that actually pay (not primary care for example...). It's hard to work during med school cause you almost always have something more immediately important going on (that test next week, your research, step 1, not failing 3rd year, step 2, applying for residency...etc)
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How are you feeling? Any pain?
Awesome, what was your favorite aspect of medical school?
Lol, wtf?
Too many to count...scrubbing in on interesting surgeries (and not just holding retractors, but being first assist, sewing, dissecting, using the bovie, etc), delivered several babies, scrubbing in on a crazy C-section in the middle of a call night with a crashing baby and mom with basically no platelets and a uterine artery extension when taking the baby out, tons of interesting and complicated medicine cases (my favorite and why I'm going into this field), bonding with your team over ice cream in the middle of the night, etc. Most of my favorite moments came third year, for sure, though I must say I'm loving 4th year right now with the light load and multiple months of vacation ahead...
No pain, but feel sleepy
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What are you doing up so late?
