Older Student Younger Student Interaction

[dank204]

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Just wanted to know how it is in med school with older students and younger students interacting. Older like late 20's - Early 30's. Do you guys all get along and socialize or do the young people hang out with the young people. In other words, if you are an older student, will you feel out of place?

 

[Lil Mick]

My class tends to separate based on age, but I think that a lot of it has to do with the maturity/life circumstances of us nontraditionals (don't like to start the party at midnight...) rather than being excluded. That being said, my school has a lot of very young students (under 21) entering medical school, so this may have something to do with the separation...

 

[DoctwoB]

My class is very integrated with age, people definitely hang out with the older med students. The people who are older and/or have kids tend not to come out and party as much for obvious reasons, but its not as though they wouldn't be including or invited.

 

[christina30]

It's not so much about age as it is about their circumstances, imho. The non-trads who are married with kids tend to stick together and usually don't come out to parties or other school events, while the single non-trads will hang around the younger people.

 

[mvenus929]

Our class is fairly young... about half are straight out of undergrad and there are only 2 people over 30. The oldest person in our class doesn't tend to party with the rest of us, but the next oldest person does, and people in their late 20's are out there partying along with the 21 year olds. We tend to forget how old people actually are.

I agree with the above; people tend to segregate more based on personal situation than age; the married individuals in our class tend not to come out and party as much as the (intra-class) couples or singles.

 

[sunset823]

It's not so much about age as it is about their circumstances, imho. The non-trads who are married with kids tend to stick together and usually don't come out to parties or other school events, while the single non-trads will hang around the younger people.

I agree with this, but I would add that there's more than the 'single partiers' and the 'older married people with kids'. I am on the middle to older side of my class (26), but I am friends with one of the youngest people in the class (23), and neither of us go to any of the class parties/formals. However, there are other 26-27 year olds who attend all the parties. There are a few married people in the class and they do their own thing, I don't even know that they hang out with each other let alone the single people. I think they just have their own lives with their spouses/families and don't bother with the rest of the class. (but they are very nice when you interact with them in the classroom setting).

So no matter how old you are or your personal situation you can find your niche. Nobody really cares how old you are in med school. Then again, there are only a handful of 'traditional' people in my class who came straight through. But, for example, my M4 'big brother' (I'm an M2 and we're paired with an upperclassman to discuss academic stuff) is a year younger than me (he was straight through, I've taken 3 years out since undergrad), and that's never been a big deal to either of us.

 

[AlexMorph]

I honestly can't even tell who is old and who is young. Plenty of my classmates are genuinely surprised when we learn the true ages of some of our colleagues. Don't worry about it.

 

[whoknows2012]

I am one of the younger people in my class and I can agree with most of the other posters comments that age really isn't an issue in terms of people hanging out together. My friends are mostly older and some are around 30. Just like anywhere else, people that have more in common will flock together.

 

[C5toC9]

there are some people who will always come out and then there are those who you never see in non-academic events. age is independent.