Quitting during first year

[Morsetlis]

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At the end of the day, just be glad you're not me.

 

[DrDMD2014]

Just an update --

Counseling has helped a lot. I no longer feel depressed, in fact I feel great most days (without drugs). I lost all the weight I gained since I started med school and I feel like I am leading a pretty balanced life considering I spend most of my days trapped in lecture/library/clinic.

But counseling has given me the clarity I needed to make this decision: I'm not coming back to med school this fall or ever.

There's a million reasons for why I am doing this, but it boils down to this.

To me, medicine is a sh***y job. There's a lot of other sh***y jobs out there, but they don't require 4 years of med school, 3 years of residency, and 200k of debt to obtain.

So I am finishing up this semester since I paid a lot of money they won't refund. But I also will start exploring other careers.

Thanks for your support.

Hi
Did you finally find your niche after leaving med school? I'm a 4th year undergrad and I just decided to ditch the whole pre med crap last month because I felt the same way you did. Unlike my other pre med friends who just "volunteered and shadowed" I actually did an internship in clinical medicine and worked in the ICU with patients and doctors and nurses directly which involved listening to their problems, talking to them and dealing with a daily dose of death, coma and very sick people with a laundry list of problems that spanned several continents. I was so excited to get the internship because I had the hero complex that all other pre meds had too about saving the world and helping people. It made me happy and excited in the beginning, but then like you said it gets old and then just listening to problems and dealing with sick people all day makes you depressed, sad and tired and you start to not care anymore which is what happened to me. I stopped caring and that was like the slap in the face for me that the reason I wanted to do medicine in the first place was not there anymore. I'm not the only one, my friend who also did the internship with me feels the same way and we both are no longer going to do medical school. When death and sick people become a chore and burden and takes control of your normal life, emotions, and your state of mind that's when I know I had to stop and rethink how I want my life to go. I had people say its definitely going to be difficult but you will get over it and all but I know how I feel because I went through the agony myself so I know that if it doesnt make you happy then do not do it because life is too short to be spent in unhappiness. I am looking at consulting jobs now because even though its busy at least no one dies or no one is terminally ill. Good luck to you and i applaud you for making the right decision and for taking a chance at finding happiness your way and not the way people want you to.🙂

 

[tiedyeddog]

Hi
Did you finally find your niche after leaving med school? I'm a 4th year undergrad and I just decided to ditch the whole pre med crap last month because I felt the same way you did. Unlike my other pre med friends who just "volunteered and shadowed" I actually did an internship in clinical medicine and worked in the ICU with patients and doctors and nurses directly which involved listening to their problems, talking to them and dealing with a daily dose of death, coma and very sick people with a laundry list of problems that spanned several continents. I was so excited to get the internship because I had the hero complex that all other pre meds had too about saving the world and helping people. It made me happy and excited in the beginning, but then like you said it gets old and then just listening to problems and dealing with sick people all day makes you depressed, sad and tired and you start to not care anymore which is what happened to me. I stopped caring and that was like the slap in the face for me that the reason I wanted to do medicine in the first place was not there anymore. I'm not the only one, my friend who also did the internship with me feels the same way and we both are no longer going to do medical school. When death and sick people become a chore and burden and takes control of your normal life, emotions, and your state of mind that's when I know I had to stop and rethink how I want my life to go. I had people say its definitely going to be difficult but you will get over it and all but I know how I feel because I went through the agony myself so I know that if it doesnt make you happy then do not do it because life is too short to be spent in unhappiness. I am looking at consulting jobs now because even though its busy at least no one dies or no one is terminally ill. Good luck to you and i applaud you for making the right decision and for taking a chance at finding happiness your way and not the way people want you to.🙂

You do realize most physicians don't work in an ICU, right? Most doctors don't experience death and hospice issues like a critical care specialist does...

Also, what could a premed become a consultant of?

 

[notbobtrustme]

You do realize most physicians don't work in an ICU, right? Most doctors don't experience death and hospice issues like a critical care specialist does...

Also, what could a premed become a consultant of?

butts

 

[thepoopologist]

Just an update --

Counseling has helped a lot. I no longer feel depressed, in fact I feel great most days (without drugs). I lost all the weight I gained since I started med school and I feel like I am leading a pretty balanced life considering I spend most of my days trapped in lecture/library/clinic.

But counseling has given me the clarity I needed to make this decision: I'm not coming back to med school this fall or ever.

There's a million reasons for why I am doing this, but it boils down to this.

To me, medicine is a sh***y job. There's a lot of other sh***y jobs out there, but they don't require 4 years of med school, 3 years of residency, and 200k of debt to obtain.

So I am finishing up this semester since I paid a lot of money they won't refund. But I also will start exploring other careers.

Thanks for your support.

Balls of steel, my man. Hope things have been going well since then.

 

[Arkangeloid]

Honestly, I felt this way too. I had a life after college and good group of friends while I was working and I haven't really seen them or hung out with them in a long time. And, I live 45 minutes away from the city

Personally, the thing that kept me going was the look of gratitude that you see in your patient's eyes after you've treated them. That has what has kept me going as I am preparing for boards and putting in 18 hour study days.

If you don't have that feeling, perhaps medicine isn't for you

Good luck!

Not a single person in my class has ever said something like this.

 

[crock1255]

Didn't read all the comments, so apologies if it's a repost, but I quit - technically took a leave of absence, though I thought I'd never be back - during my first year. For me it was a maturity issue. I was positive the grass was greener on any other side. For me, it wasn't.
Not to cause a stir, but this is a job. That's it. Sure it's a job that requires some additional time and dedication, but not so much more than other jobs - and not everyone gets to be an Ibanker.

TL;DR:
Stick out the year, take a leave of absence, line something up you think you'd like more. See if you do. It's stupid to stick it out and be miserable, but don't something else for a bit might make you realize that you won't be as miserable as you once thought.

http://freakonomics.com/2011/09/30/new-freakonomics-radio-podcast-the-upside-of-quitting/

 

[Kahreek]

Hi
Did you finally find your niche after leaving med school? I'm a 4th year undergrad and I just decided to ditch the whole pre med crap last month because I felt the same way you did. Unlike my other pre med friends who just "volunteered and shadowed" I actually did an internship in clinical medicine and worked in the ICU with patients and doctors and nurses directly which involved listening to their problems, talking to them and dealing with a daily dose of death, coma and very sick people with a laundry list of problems that spanned several continents. I was so excited to get the internship because I had the hero complex that all other pre meds had too about saving the world and helping people. It made me happy and excited in the beginning, but then like you said it gets old and then just listening to problems and dealing with sick people all day makes you depressed, sad and tired and you start to not care anymore which is what happened to me. I stopped caring and that was like the slap in the face for me that the reason I wanted to do medicine in the first place was not there anymore. I'm not the only one, my friend who also did the internship with me feels the same way and we both are no longer going to do medical school. When death and sick people become a chore and burden and takes control of your normal life, emotions, and your state of mind that's when I know I had to stop and rethink how I want my life to go. I had people say its definitely going to be difficult but you will get over it and all but I know how I feel because I went through the agony myself so I know that if it doesnt make you happy then do not do it because life is too short to be spent in unhappiness. I am looking at consulting jobs now because even though its busy at least no one dies or no one is terminally ill. Good luck to you and i applaud you for making the right decision and for taking a chance at finding happiness your way and not the way people want you to.🙂

this is why premature internships can be damaging, i never did one. But i think i would feel very overwhelmed seeing sick people and not understanding a bit about of hospital's and clinical medicine ins and outs, it would give a huge feeling of powerlessness.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Hi
Did you finally find your niche after leaving med school? I'm a 4th year undergrad and I just decided to ditch the whole pre med crap last month because I felt the same way you did. Unlike my other pre med friends who just "volunteered and shadowed" I actually did an internship in clinical medicine and worked in the ICU with patients and doctors and nurses directly which involved listening to their problems, talking to them and dealing with a daily dose of death, coma and very sick people with a laundry list of problems that spanned several continents. I was so excited to get the internship because I had the hero complex that all other pre meds had too about saving the world and helping people. It made me happy and excited in the beginning, but then like you said it gets old and then just listening to problems and dealing with sick people all day makes you depressed, sad and tired and you start to not care anymore which is what happened to me. I stopped caring and that was like the slap in the face for me that the reason I wanted to do medicine in the first place was not there anymore. I'm not the only one, my friend who also did the internship with me feels the same way and we both are no longer going to do medical school. When death and sick people become a chore and burden and takes control of your normal life, emotions, and your state of mind that's when I know I had to stop and rethink how I want my life to go. I had people say its definitely going to be difficult but you will get over it and all but I know how I feel because I went through the agony myself so I know that if it doesnt make you happy then do not do it because life is too short to be spent in unhappiness. I am looking at consulting jobs now because even though its busy at least no one dies or no one is terminally ill. Good luck to you and i applaud you for making the right decision and for taking a chance at finding happiness your way and not the way people want you to.🙂

As others have stated, there are a multitude of careers where dealing with death is not a daily occurence. ICUs are probably the worst place in the world for a pre-med student to go if they are interested in medical school. I recommend you shadow some non-ICU docs before you completely make up your mind about not going for medical school. Being a doctor doesn't mean one thing anymore. There's so many types of doctors doing a wide variety of things to a wide variety of patients. You just happened to have en externship with the doctors that likely see death the most out of any specialty in the entire spectrum.

 

[honeyyygirl]

to be honest first year is pretty damn unmotivating.
the subject matter is boring, you donʻt get to do much clinically..

hang in there!

since youʻve mentioned that you are going to stick it out due to the non-refundable tuition I would re-evaluate to see if you really want to take a LOA.

 

[Arkangeloid]

Eh, I think I just failed Histo.

So that means I will most likely be forced to repeat the semester and be held back a year. At this point, I'm debating whether its even worth staying here. I'm clearly not academically good enough for this stuff, haha. Makes you wonder what the adcoms were thinking I guess.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Eh, I think I just failed Histo.

So that means I will most likely be forced to repeat the semester and be held back a year. At this point, I'm debating whether its even worth staying here. I'm clearly not academically good enough for this stuff, haha. Makes you wonder what the adcoms were thinking I guess.

I remember you posting earlier that you failed/were failing anatomy. Did you actually fail anatomy, or are you just the umpteenth neurotic med student that thinks he/she fails every class, only to pass with a substantial cushion?

 

[Arkangeloid]

I remember you posting earlier that you failed/were failing anatomy. Did you actually fail anatomy, or are you just the umpteenth neurotic med student that thinks he/she fails every class, only to pass with a substantial cushion?

I actually passed the last exam by the lowest number possible, but am now forced to go to extra remedial lab sessions and meet with the professor here and there.

There's a good chance I did flunk this exam though.

 

[evilbooyaa]

I actually passed the last exam by the lowest number possible, but am now forced to go to extra remedial lab sessions and meet with the professor here and there.

There's a good chance I did flunk this exam though.

Okay, so you didn't fail one exam, and now you THINK you failed another exam, in the same way that you THOUGHT you failed the previous exam (but you didn't fail said exam).

I think it's weird they have you remediate for passing an exam, but whatever your school's policy I suppose. I think you are underestimating yourself. It works for some people to motivate them to do better, but for the love of all things holy, do not say you are going to drop out of medical school based on two exams (one that you passed, and one that you THINK you failed).

 

[yehhhboiii]

I remember you posting earlier that you failed/were failing anatomy. Did you actually fail anatomy, or are you just the umpteenth neurotic med student that thinks he/she fails every class, only to pass with a substantial cushion?

im kinda like that but i think the only reason why i dont end up actually failing is that the fear motivates me to study more

 

[Arkangeloid]

Okay, so you didn't fail one exam, and now you THINK you failed another exam, in the same way that you THOUGHT you failed the previous exam (but you didn't fail said exam).

I think it's weird they have you remediate for passing an exam, but whatever your school's policy I suppose. I think you are underestimating yourself. It works for some people to motivate them to do better, but for the love of all things holy, do not say you are going to drop out of medical school based on two exams (one that you passed, and one that you THINK you failed).

I don't have to formally remediate, I just have to wake up at 4:30 AM every Thursday to attend a morning anatomy review for marginal students.

 

[evilbooyaa]

I don't have to formally remediate, I just have to wake up at 4:30 AM every Thursday to attend a morning anatomy review for marginal students.

What in the world... waking up at 4:30 AM for anatomy sounds worse than waking up at 4:30 AM for surgery rounds...

US MD school?

 

[Arkangeloid]

What in the world...

US MD school?

Yes, US Allo.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I don't have to formally remediate, I just have to wake up at 4:30 AM every Thursday to attend a morning anatomy review for marginal students.

wtf? what professor gets up at 4:30 to teach a class? sounds legit horrible

 

[DrDMD2014]

I did shadow physicians from other specialities, volunteer in other parts of the hospital, and and I had a med student discourage me from going into med school once. I did enjoy plastics a lot but i dont know if I would want to go through a surgical residency for 8 years. I find that while I enjoy the non clinical side of things, I do not like talking to patients or listening to an endless list of problems and I do not feel caring anymore after a while. I find the hospital to be a depressing place after a while. I've also seen a lot of cynical healthcare providers in the hospital and my aim is to not end up like one of them. I also do not intend to make a 300k mistake but at the same time I'm not really sure what my niche is. I'm going to try out consulting and if I love it then i'll do it forever or if I dont then i'll consider med school again and possibly a lifestyle speciality. For those giving me advice, honestly do you enjoy the clinical side of medicine? I am just being honest with myself, no point convincing yourself to like something, you either like it or not.

 

[Arkangeloid]

wtf? what professor gets up at 4:30 to teach a class? sounds legit horrible

They force 2nd year TAs to do it.

 

[Akali]

I don't have to formally remediate, I just have to wake up at 4:30 AM every Thursday to attend a morning anatomy review for marginal students.

Wow, wtf? Are you being serious? You have to go to lab at 4:30 in the morning because you barely PASSED a first year unit? lolwut i dont even. If that's true, I'm so sorry man. You have my condolences - godspeed.

 

[Umyo]

Don't quit! We need you 🙁

 

[Arkangeloid]

Wow, wtf? Are you being serious? You have to go to lab at 4:30 in the morning because you barely PASSED a first year unit? lolwut i dont even. If that's true, I'm so sorry man. You have my condolences - godspeed.

Well, I didn't pass the unit (yet), I passed the first exam. I still got 2 anatomy ones to go haha.

We have the first session in a few hours, I'll tell you guys how it goes haha, probably gonna spend the whole night studying Anatomy and then sleep after the session.

 

[Ismet]

I actually passed the last exam by the lowest number possible, but am now forced to go to extra remedial lab sessions and meet with the professor here and there.

There's a good chance I did flunk this exam though.

I thought I bombed more than half my exams first year. How you feel after the exam does not equal how you did. Hopefully the remedial sessions help you figure out a better way to study so you can improve and keep moving forward. You just started, and anatomy is rough. Don't give up!

 

[Koalafied]

Meh....... more-or-less similar story here.

Yeah.....🙁

 

[Arkangeloid]

I thought I bombed more than half my exams first year. How you feel after the exam does not equal how you did. Hopefully the remedial sessions help you figure out a better way to study so you can improve and keep moving forward. You just started, and anatomy is rough. Don't give up!

Heh, so I got an 83% on the Histo exam. Below the class average, but now I'm passing the class by a fairly good margin, so I guess I can chill a bit. Unless they made a mistake entering my grade (honestly I was surprised by how high the number was), but eh, that's pretty doubtful.


Though I'm kinda worried that consistently below-average performances might mean that I'm looking at a pretty low STEP1 score...then again, IMO there's not too much difference between an 80% and an 85%.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Heh, so I got an 83% on the Histo exam. Below the class average, but now I'm passing the class by a fairly good margin, so I guess I can chill a bit. Unless they made a mistake entering my grade (honestly I was surprised by how high the number was), but eh, that's pretty doubtful.


Though I'm kinda worried that consistently below-average performances might mean that I'm looking at a pretty low STEP1 score...then again, IMO there's not too much difference between an 80% and an 85%.

Wtf, chill out broham, you're getting annoying with this pessimistic downer stuff.

You passed. That's good.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Heh, so I got an 83% on the Histo exam. Below the class average, but now I'm passing the class by a fairly good margin, so I guess I can chill a bit. Unless they made a mistake entering my grade (honestly I was surprised by how high the number was), but eh, that's pretty doubtful.


Though I'm kinda worried that consistently below-average performances might mean that I'm looking at a pretty low STEP1 score...then again, IMO there's not too much difference between an 80% and an 85%.

Dude.

You are the EXACT definition of the neurotic med student I mentioned earlier. Seriously. Chill. You'll be fine. Doing barely above passing on one anatomy exam and then getting 80%+ on a Histo exam doesn't mean you're going to fail medical school. It also doesn't mean you're not going to do well on boards.

 

[yehhhboiii]

Heh, so I got an 83% on the Histo exam. Below the class average, but now I'm passing the class by a fairly good margin, so I guess I can chill a bit. Unless they made a mistake entering my grade (honestly I was surprised by how high the number was), but eh, that's pretty doubtful.


Though I'm kinda worried that consistently below-average performances might mean that I'm looking at a pretty low STEP1 score...then again, IMO there's not too much difference between an 80% and an 85%.

jesus christ

 

[Arkangeloid]

Lol I'm sorry dudes, I guess I don't really have the sense of perspective as you guys do.

 

[Ismet]

Lol I'm sorry dudes, I guess I don't really have the sense of perspective as you guys do.

Don't worry, most people don't have that perspective either when they are just starting M1, it's just easy to look back 1-2 years and realize just how relatively easy a class was or how dumb it was to freak out over a class. You'll be in that position next year. The first couple exams are scary because you don't really know what to expect or if how you've been studying is actually working, but you get used to it. And then you'll look back on your MS1 self later and laugh. 😀