Starting MS4 in a week...

[fahimaz7]

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Anyone have any questions? I'll check this thread over the next week or so and answer anything that I can. I've been on SDN a long time, heard lots of good advise, and figured I could give something back during my free week between MS3 and MS4.

 

[darkjedi]

Anyone have any questions? I'll check this thread over the next week or so and answer anything that I can. I've been on SDN a long time, heard lots of good advise, and figured I could give something back during my free week between MS3 and MS4.

Enjoy it, I hear 4th year is like a negative-paid vacation, haha

 

[gettheleadout]

What in particular did you like/dislike about how your school did third year?

What specialty are you aiming for?

 

[MusicJunkie]

If you could do it over, knowing what you know now, what factors would have been most important to you when choosing a school?

 

[syoung]

How does applying to residency work? Do you choose hospitals and then pick specialties? Do you rank specialties?
IE: I like radio/anes/OB. Would I rank these and then apply to hospitals or would I apply to each hospital's program individually?

What kind of class schedule did you have in MS1/2? Did you get a lot of early patient contact then or only in MS3?

 

[drizzt3117]

How does applying to residency work? Do you choose hospitals and then pick specialties? Do you rank specialties?
IE: I like radio/anes/OB. Would I rank these and then apply to hospitals or would I apply to each hospital's program individually?

What kind of class schedule did you have in MS1/2? Did you get a lot of early patient contact then or only in MS3?

Google eras. Early patient contact is useless. Almost as overrated as free clinics.

 

[hiyaman]

Did you feel prepared to tackle your third year clerkships after 2 years of basic science?

 

[syoung]

Google eras. Early patient contact is useless. Almost as overrated as free clinics.

Why do you say that? Do you differentiate between MS1/2 contact vs 3/4?
Do you mean to say residency doesn't require any community service in the form of free clinics or any at all?

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

Early patient contact is useless. Almost as overrated as free clinics.

Could you expand?

 

[mimelim]

Why do you say that? Do you differentiate between MS1/2 contact vs 3/4?
Do you mean to say residency doesn't require any community service in the form of free clinics or any at all?

No application 'requires' community service, never mind from free clinics. It doesn't for medical school and certainly not for residency. You risk coming off as a cold heartless bastard, but you don't need much to get rid of that...

Regarding patient contact... The problem is, the MS1/2 curriculum is about preparing you for Step 1, NOT for how to take care of patients or be a good doctor. It in no way shape or form prepares you for being in the hospital or function as an medical student/resident. Thus, most 'early' patient interactions are of limited scope and not designed to provide you with any substantive experiences beyond shadowing and seeing what happens at various clinics/wards.

 

[boshtrich]

Could you expand?

I think what dirzzt was referring to (I could very easily be wrong) is that you residency placement is mainly a function of Step 1 scores, clinical rotation grades, and research. In general, free clinics and patient exposure in your first year of medical school is relatively meaningless for residency purposes. Also, I doubt you would know enough as an MS1 to make a significant impact in a patient's medical care.

 

[sylvanthus]

No application 'requires' community service, never mind from free clinics. It doesn't for medical school and certainly not for residency. You risk coming off as a cold heartless bastard, but you don't need much to get rid of that...

Regarding patient contact... The problem is, the MS1/2 curriculum is about preparing you for Step 1, NOT for how to take care of patients or be a good doctor. It in no way shape or form prepares you for being in the hospital or function as an medical student/resident. Thus, most 'early' patient interactions are of limited scope and not designed to provide you with any substantive experiences beyond shadowing and seeing what happens at various clinics/wards.

agreed

 

[mimelim]

Did you feel prepared to tackle your third year clerkships after 2 years of basic science?

If the first two years of medical school help you with anything its on pimping questions. But to be honest the impact is minimal at best. MS1/2 do not help you in the hospital or the real world. The subset of a class that shines as an MS1/2 is different than that that shines in MS3/4. Those subsets overlap in every medical school class across the country, but the overlap can vary substantially.

 

[mimelim]

Also, I doubt you would know enough as an MS1 to make a significant impact in a patient's medical care.

This is true, but not for the reason that you are thinking. Many would argue that no medical student makes a significant impact in a patient's medical care. I wouldn't go that far, but the impact even of MS3/4 is limited.

The reason why MS1s would have less of an impact is not because of less medical knowledge but rather because they are less familiar with how to function in the hospital environment. The biggest impact students have is in getting crap done and facilitating what interns/residents do. Getting records from other institutions, tracking down imaging, finding family, writing notes, orders, handling pages, writing discharges etc. Those are all things that get faster with practice and if you show up once a week for, you don't really get better at.

 

[syoung]

If the first two years of medical school help you with anything its on pimping questions. But to be honest the impact is minimal at best. MS1/2 do not help you in the hospital or the real world. The subset of a class that shines as an MS1/2 is different than that that shines in MS3/4. Those subsets overlap in every medical school class across the country, but the overlap can vary substantially.

agreed

I think what dirzzt was referring to (I could very easily be wrong) is that you residency placement is mainly a function of Step 1 scores, clinical rotation grades, and research. In general, free clinics and patient exposure in your first year of medical school is relatively meaningless for residency purposes. Also, I doubt you would know enough as an MS1 to make a significant impact in a patient's medical care.

No application 'requires' community service, never mind from free clinics. It doesn't for medical school and certainly not for residency. You risk coming off as a cold heartless bastard, but you don't need much to get rid of that...

Regarding patient contact... The problem is, the MS1/2 curriculum is about preparing you for Step 1, NOT for how to take care of patients or be a good doctor. It in no way shape or form prepares you for being in the hospital or function as an medical student/resident. Thus, most 'early' patient interactions are of limited scope and not designed to provide you with any substantive experiences beyond shadowing and seeing what happens at various clinics/wards.

Good to know guys. Thanks for the info.

 

[911 Turbo]

Do attractive women look at you differently when you have your coat on?

 

[mimelim]

Do attractive women look at you differently when you have your coat on?

When you wear a white coat everyone looks at you differently.

Attractive women fall into the category of 'everyone', ergo the answer to your question is, yes. A white coat, rightfully or wrongfully means something to people in the context of being in a hospital. Now to your question, in my brief, 2 years of living in the hospital with a white coat on, the additional attention one receives wearing a white coat is directly correlated to age and not correlated with attractiveness (of the person giving attention). My explanation for this older generations tend to have an innate higher level of respect for doctors and trust them implicitly. When you wear a white coat, even if you are at the bottom of the food chain people still associate you with that group that 'automatically' deserves respect and admiration.

As for attractive members of the opposite sex... You get hit on, it happens. Just don't do something stupid 😉

 

[armybound]

What in particular did you like/dislike about how your school did third year?

What specialty are you aiming for?

Third year.. a different beast. I can't really think of too much I liked about it, it is what it is. You show up and do what you have to do. I can't imagine that's much different at most schools. We had long call (28 hours) which was fine. We also have a third year elective, which is great for early exposure to a field you may be interested in.

What I didn't like revolved around grading. It's very subjective and not standardized, so people could request the docs they knew always gave honors. The third year grades become almost meaningless when there's such huge variation in grading among students who really all perform roughly the same, with a few exceptions.

If you could do it over, knowing what you know now, what factors would have been most important to you when choosing a school?

I still think location may be one of the most important things to consider. By that I mean choose a place that offers whatever it is that you like to do to have fun/de-stress. There will be plenty of times when you're burned out and just want to relax. It's great being able to do whatever it is you do to relax.

These other things like curricula and grading schemes don't really matter.

 

[drizzt3117]

Why do you say that? Do you differentiate between MS1/2 contact vs 3/4?
Do you mean to say residency doesn't require any community service in the form of free clinics or any at all?

I don't think any patient contact you get in the first two years (except at places like duke, Penn, etc which have accelerated curricula) will stick at all. We had probably the most early patient contact of any school (you see patients 15 minutes into orientation) and it doesn't make you any better clinically.

Volunteer experiences are fine although they're far less important for residency, but the problem with free clinics is that you get to work at them very infrequently at most schools. Our school had 5 clinics and you maybe get 1 shift per semester; that's not enough to really learn anything, IMO.

 

[maybemed2013]

Is studying for the mcat.... 5 hrs days with 1 day off similar to studying in med. school?
Is med school studying better or worse?

 

[sanityonleave]

Is studying for the mcat.... 5 hrs days with 1 day off similar to studying in med. school?
Is med school studying better or worse?

Worse, but it's not awful. It's essentially a full time job -- we had lecture most days from 8-12 (most of which was mandatory) and then I would usually take an hour for lunch and study from 1-5ish, assuming I didn't have an afternoon lab / clinical.

That said, I almost never studied past 5pm in med school and I took most Saturdays off. People who study 12 hours a day are generally not using their time efficiently. It's one reason why nontrads often don't find med school so onerous -- it's no worse than a slightly more than full time job (6 days a week versus 5, similar hours) if you use your time efficiently. And that includes studying for step 1.

EDIT: the above info is only regarding M1/M2. M3 is a different animal, and that varies based on the rotation and your institution. I just got my schedule for my OB/GYN clerkship starting Monday, and I have a week of night float (5p-6:30a) bookended by two weekend call days -- essentially, I have two 26 hour shifts on either end of my week of night float, with one day to flip my sleep schedule back to 16 hour inpatient ward days. Ouch.

 

[AestheticGod]

How is your sex life going for you currently? (Touching girls boob for breast cancer or males for Gyno doesn't count)

 

[mimelim]

Third year.. a different beast. I can't really think of too much I liked about it, it is what it is. You show up and do what you have to do. I can't imagine that's much different at most schools. We had long call (28 hours) which was fine. We also have a third year elective, which is great for early exposure to a field you may be interested in.

What I didn't like revolved around grading. It's very subjective and not standardized, so people could request the docs they knew always gave honors. The third year grades become almost meaningless when there's such huge variation in grading among students who really all perform roughly the same, with a few exceptions.

Just to add some contrast...

Third year was the best time of my life. What was there not to like? I got to sample different areas of medicine, all of which were fascinating. I was given a taste of what it was like to live the life of a resident and go through the trials and tribulations that hospital teams go through every day. I have enough stories to fill several books. Being a 3rd year student is an absolute privilege. You are exposed to extremely private information, trusted to help a team, even if only doing little things. If you demonstrate a reasonable level of ability your exposure is ONLY limited by your interests. If your end perspective is "I show up, do my job and leave", you missed something along the way and maybe hospital medicine really isn't for you.

Grading always has some elements of luck in it, but it is like always vastly overstated. The grading is aimed at figuring out who will make good physicians/residents rather than who can regurgitated random minutia the best. It isn't perfect, but it is much more meaningful than anything in the first two years. I've never heard of a school that allows someone to request a doctor for a clerkship. If you did that at my school you would get laughed at. There is always variability among graders and it sucks, but over the course of a year, it is obvious who the top students are.

There is a subset of every medical school that excels the first two years in medical school, they usually end up AOA, with decently high Step 1 scores, tended to have done pretty well in undergrad. There is a second subset that function at a very high level on the wards. Combination of street smart, problem solving skills and people skills. These two subsets overlap to varying extents in every school, but most certainly are not perfect matches. In fact, I would say the correlation between those two groups is weak at best. Not implying a negative correlation, but rather that there is little if any correlation.

 

[drizzt3117]

I hated 3rd year. Feeling totally superfluous is pretty not awesome. Luckily my school is extremely non-malignant so that was nice. All the gunners definitely showed their true colors 3rd year though, had to fight my way through to get almost all honors.

 

[hiyaman]

I hated 3rd year. Feeling totally superfluous is pretty not awesome. Luckily my school is extremely non-malignant so that was nice. All the gunners definitely showed their true colors 3rd year though, had to fight my way through to get almost all honors.

what do you mean by a malignant school? Is it the same thing as a malignant residency? (Where everyone is yelling at you and you're getting written up for small things lol)

 

[Frazier]

what do you mean by a malignant school?

he means that the school did not cause his cancer to spread.

 

[drizzt3117]

what do you mean by a malignant school? Is it the same thing as a malignant residency? (Where everyone is yelling at you and you're getting written up for small things lol)

Endless scut, lots of getting coffee, sending faxes, getting lunch/dinner/dry cleaning for your residents/attendings, etc

 

[gettheleadout]

Endless scut, lots of getting coffee, sending faxes, getting lunch/dinner/dry cleaning for your residents/attendings, etc

Nothing better than paying someone to get to pick up their dry cleaning right?

 

[mimelim]

Endless scut, lots of getting coffee, sending faxes, getting lunch/dinner/dry cleaning for your residents/attendings, etc

Chairman of our surgery department told us during clerkship orientation that if anyone asked us to get their dry cleaning for them that we were supposed to go and get it for them. But instead of taking it to the resident/attending we were required to drop it off at his office so he could deal with it 🙂

 

[obgyny]

Why do you say that? Do you differentiate between MS1/2 contact vs 3/4?
Do you mean to say residency doesn't require any community service in the form of free clinics or any at all?

Early patient contact isn't completely useless 🙄. Well I guess it depends on what you're doing. One of the student-run clinics at my school has the medical students interviewing/examining the patients. An MS1/2 is paired with an MS3/4. The MS1/2 takes the history & the MS3/4 does the physical exam and supervises, then they present to the attending to figure out the plan. The med students also do the writeup (and get it signed by the doc). So it's an opportunity to practice your history-taking/physical exam skills.

 

[armybound]

Just to add some contrast...

Third year was the best time of my life. What was there not to like? I got to sample different areas of medicine, all of which were fascinating. I was given a taste of what it was like to live the life of a resident and go through the trials and tribulations that hospital teams go through every day. I have enough stories to fill several books. Being a 3rd year student is an absolute privilege. You are exposed to extremely private information, trusted to help a team, even if only doing little things. If you demonstrate a reasonable level of ability your exposure is ONLY limited by your interests. If your end perspective is "I show up, do my job and leave", you missed something along the way and maybe hospital medicine really isn't for you.

I agree with you completely. I love being a medical student. I feel privileged all the time to be doing what I'm doing.

But third year can really suck depending on how you're treated. If I had made this response 2 months ago I would have had nothing but awesome things to say, but my last rotation was awful. They (residents, nurses) treated us like we were completely worthless and incompetent. We were given absolutely no respect and no responsibility. It was everything that I did not want third year to be. Unfortunately it does sometimes exist, and being made to feel less than worthless is not fun.

Aside from that I love being a medical student.

 

[drizzt3117]

Early patient contact isn't completely useless 🙄. Well I guess it depends on what you're doing. One of the student-run clinics at my school has the medical students interviewing/examining the patients. An MS1/2 is paired with an MS3/4. The MS1/2 takes the history & the MS3/4 does the physical exam and supervises, then they present to the attending to figure out the plan. The med students also do the writeup (and get it signed by the doc). So it's an opportunity to practice your history-taking/physical exam skills.

Idk why you'd want to do free clinic as a ms3/4 esp if a m1 was taking the history.... /wrists.

 

[killinsound]

How many times did you cough per hour?

 

[Bacchus]

Idk why you'd want to do free clinic as a ms3/4 esp if a m1 was taking the history.... /wrists.

I'd have to agree (if I was paired). As a new 4th year, if I was paired with a first year to see a patient I'd probably find it frustrating. At this point in time I think my history taking skills are able to pick up on the big things, but they're no where refined to a resident's or attending's skills. To try and rely on a first year without any clinical knowledge would be exasperating. I don't know much in the realm of things, but then to rely on a few things an MS1 was able to gleam from the patient, well I'd probably do what residents do to rotating students: go in and ask the same questions again plus more.

Standardized patients in 1st and 2nd year were good clinical experience, but it can't compare to the real world experience of being a student that has gone through a year of rotations just as you can't compare a 3rd year's history taking skills to an established physician who has been practicing for 20 years.

1st year + 3rd year = incredible inefficiency, moreso than the current 3rd and 4th year model.

 

[Bacchus]

If you could do it over, knowing what you know now, what factors would have been most important to you when choosing a school?

I would have chosen a cheaper school. I also would have applied for the NHSC. But, alas, as an incoming MS1 you don't know where your future will be taking you.

 

[235009]

Anyone have any questions? I'll check this thread over the next week or so and answer anything that I can. I've been on SDN a long time, heard lots of good advise, and figured I could give something back during my free week between MS3 and MS4.

congrats! i'm right there with you

it's really unfortunate that these advice threads always degenerate into drizzt complaining while patting himself on the back for having honored everything

in general i thought third year was far better than the first two years because everything you're learning is actually relevant and you get to interact with people all day rather than sit in your room with your face buried in a book. Sure there's some inefficiency because it's impossible to control what the patients who come in will have, for obvious reasons. Sure it would be "more efficient" if you just went in for rounds and left but I would rather see sheltered med students be shocked by 12 hour days now and get all their moaning out of the way rather than having that reality hit them during intern year when its too late

 

[thesauce]

congrats! i'm right there with you

it's really unfortunate that these advice threads always degenerate into drizzt complaining while patting himself on the back for having honored everything

The OP hasn't been back to respond - the thread can't degenerate if it had no substance to begin with.

 

[tiedyeddog]

The OP hasn't been back to respond - the thread can't degenerate if it had no substance to begin with.

Haha, I was going to say, OP hasn't done much explaining....

 

[mvenus929]

I don't know much in the realm of things, but then to rely on a few things an MS1 was able to gleam from the patient, well I'd probably do what residents do to rotating students: go in and ask the same questions again plus more.

Or you could do what my residents tend to do: go in and talk to the patient with (or without) me, get all the critical information, then leave me to get the rest of the history. Then page me if there's something you didn't ask but need to know.

 

[kpcrew]

congrats! i'm right there with you

it's really unfortunate that these advice threads always degenerate into drizzt complaining while patting himself on the back for having honored everything

 

[Law2Doc]

Or you could do what my residents tend to do: go in and talk to the patient with (or without) me, get all the critical information, then leave me to get the rest of the history. Then page me if there's something you didn't ask but need to know.

Not sure why this is a bad approach. The med student has the time to sit down and hear about all the noncritical details of the patients life. The resident is usually overtaxed and playing whack a mole -- get in, get the info, and get out fast. A lot of the time the resident already has more info about the patient than you know, from sign out, from the consult, because the patient is a frequent flyer, etc., and more importantly knows what the attending is really going to care about, which is the only golden nuggets you really are hoping to extract anyhow. Not to sound jaded, but a lot if the time as a resident the real life goal is to keep your attending happy, and good patient care is more or less usually a happy benefit of doing that primary goal. You have too much work to do to actually sit down and exchange pleasantries with the patient, but the guy in the short white coat is perfect for that role, and the patients tend to be equally happy talking to a "student doctor" as a doctor.

So yeah, this sounds like appropriate use of the med student.

 

[armybound]

Not sure why this is a bad approach. The med student has the time to sit down and hear about all the noncritical details of the patients life. The resident is usually overtaxed and playing whack a mole -- get in, get the info, and get out fast. A lot of the time the resident already has more info about the patient than you know, from sign out, from the consult, because the patient is a frequent flyer, etc., and more importantly knows what the attending is really going to care about, which is the only golden nuggets you really are hoping to extract anyhow. Not to sound jaded, but a lot if the time as a resident the real life goal is to keep your attending happy, and good patient care is more or less usually a happy benefit of doing that primary goal. You have too much work to do to actually sit down and exchange pleasantries with the patient, but the guy in the short white coat is perfect for that role, and the patients tend to be equally happy talking to a "student doctor" as a doctor.

So yeah, this sounds like appropriate use of the med student.

How about letting the med student take the history first, present the patient to you, and answer any questions you have or go get more information if there's something they missed? It helps teach the med student how to take a complete history without any information from the resident, how to present, and what kind of things they missed in the history for that particular type of patient.

Mopping up the small details doesn't really teach a med student much about gathering a relevant history. Sure it's about keeping your attending happy, but what's the point of a med student being there if they're not going to do or learn anything useful?

 

[Law2Doc]

How about letting the med student take the history first, present the patient to you, and answer any questions you have or go get more information if there's something they missed? It helps teach the med student how to take a complete history without any information from the resident, how to present, and what kind of things they missed in the history for that particular type of patient.

Mopping up the small details doesn't really teach a med student much about gathering a relevant history. Sure it's about keeping your attending happy, but what's the point of a med student being there if they're not going to do or learn anything useful?

Simple, because when push comes to shove the attending has expectations of the residents that supersede any teaching obligations they impose on the residents. It's more important for me to know what I need to about my patients to keep the attending happy than to ensure the med student the best learning opportunity. If I don't know my patients, or if the med student misses something, I get reamed. (not all med students are superstars, and I don't want to find out who isnt during rounds.) If I dont give the med student the perfect learning experience, there's really no repercussions, so most residents err on the side of gathering all their info and pushing the med student to mop up duty when it's busy. If there's ample time to do what you describe, sure a resident will do that, but on a busy service it's much more of a "let me get what I need and don't slow me down approach". There are lots of ways a med student can add value, but being the primary history taker on a patient the resident is ultimately responsible for is very risky, and plenty of residents have been needlessly burned due to the rare bad or lazy med student, or the guy who simply doesn't give a crap because hes dead set on path or something.

 

[armybound]

Simple, because when push comes to shove the attending has expectations of the residents that supersede any teaching obligations they impose on the residents. It's more important for me to know what I need to about my patients to keep the attending happy than to ensure the med student the best learning opportunity. If I don't know my patients, or if the med student misses something, I get reamed. (not all med students are superstars, and I don't want to find out who isnt during rounds.) If I dont give the med student the perfect learning experience, there's really no repercussions, so most residents err on the side of gathering all their info and pushing the med student to mop up duty when it's busy. If there's ample time to do what you describe, sure a resident will do that, but on a busy service it's much more of a "let me get what I need and don't slow me down approach". There are lots of ways a med student can add value, but being the primary history taker on a patient the resident is ultimately responsible for is very risky, and plenty of residents have been needlessly burned due to the rare bad or lazy med student, or the guy who simply doesn't give a crap because hes dead set on path or something.

I don't see the difference other than time, to be honest. You give the med student the first crack at the patient, maybe it delays you seeing that patient by 30 minutes, but if you're busy with other patients then what's the difference? You'll still have the opportunity to ask the patient all of the questions you wanted to know (since you're still going to interview the patient yourself), you just gave the student an opportunity to learn and to impress.

I understand that patient care is king, but I think good patient care and teaching can be accomplished at the same time with a little bit of patience. Obviously depends on how much time you have, though.

 

[drizzt3117]

Our residents would usually tell us to get started in the ED and we'd present to the attending and they'd present to them separately after either they came while we were still doing our h&p or after. They quickly found out which students they trusted quickly.

I don't see the difference other than time, to be honest. You give the med student the first crack at the patient, maybe it delays you seeing that patient by 30 minutes, but if you're busy with other patients then what's the difference? You'll still have the opportunity to ask the patient all of the questions you wanted to know (since you're still going to interview the patient yourself), you just gave the student an opportunity to learn and to impress.

I understand that patient care is king, but I think good patient care and teaching can be accomplished at the same time with a little bit of patience. Obviously depends on how much time you have, though.

 

[diagonal]

Our residents would usually tell us to get started in the ED and we'd present to the attending and they'd present to them separately after either they came while we were still doing our h&p or after. They quickly found out which students they trusted quickly.

That's a very fast analysis.

 

[thesauce]

Simple, because when push comes to shove the attending has expectations of the residents that supersede any teaching obligations they impose on the residents. It's more important for me to know what I need to about my patients to keep the attending happy than to ensure the med student the best learning opportunity. If I don't know my patients, or if the med student misses something, I get reamed. (not all med students are superstars, and I don't want to find out who isnt during rounds.) If I dont give the med student the perfect learning experience, there's really no repercussions, so most residents err on the side of gathering all their info and pushing the med student to mop up duty when it's busy. If there's ample time to do what you describe, sure a resident will do that, but on a busy service it's much more of a "let me get what I need and don't slow me down approach". There are lots of ways a med student can add value, but being the primary history taker on a patient the resident is ultimately responsible for is very risky, and plenty of residents have been needlessly burned due to the rare bad or lazy med student, or the guy who simply doesn't give a crap because hes dead set on path or something.

I absolutely agree. Even during internship at a hospital associated with a top 10 med school, I was burned by giving too much responsibility to the students on the wards. There are specialties that are conducive to it- inpatient medicine is not one.

 

[armybound]

I absolutely agree. Even during internship at a hospital associated with a top 10 med school, I was burned by giving too much responsibility to the students on the wards. There are specialties that are conducive to it- inpatient medicine is not one.

were you burned because the students saw the patient or because you didn't do your part to make sure everything was in order?

I've definitely been guilty of not being as thorough with my H&P as I could have been and it reflected very poorly on the residents, not only because I did a poor job but because they didn't follow behind me and do a better job.

 

[fahimaz7]

What in particular did you like/dislike about how your school did third year?

What specialty are you aiming for?

Third year is an interesting beast. We have 2 months off between MS2 and MS3 which is great for step 1 studying. Other than that, I like that we had a month of elective during the MS3 year, which some places don't have. I also liked the married preference that we were able to obtain, which essentially meant we could elect to stay in the town that we lived in for all of our rotations.

If you could do it over, knowing what you know now, what factors would have been most important to you when choosing a school?

Money. Plain and simple. Go to the cheapest school. For some reason pre-med students seem to think that it matters where you go (in terms of what grades you will get, board scores, etc), when this couldn't be farther from the truth. You can score >270 at a state school for a fraction of the price that a different, more prestigious school would be.

How does applying to residency work? Do you choose hospitals and then pick specialties? Do you rank specialties?
IE: I like radio/anes/OB. Would I rank these and then apply to hospitals or would I apply to each hospital's program individually?

There's a complicated but simple process for applying to residencies. You fill out a standardized application and click boxes of the places that you want your application sent to. After that it's all about the interview and the rank list (you rank them and they rank you).

What kind of class schedule did you have in MS1/2? Did you get a lot of early patient contact then or only in MS3?

Did you feel prepared to tackle your third year clerkships after 2 years of basic science?

Tackle? I felt like I could at least understand what was going on, which is often the majority of the battle. The first two years prepare you to have a very simplified understanding of a few medical conditions that could/may present with a certain complaint. From there, third year, 4th year, and residency is all about figuring out how to transition from this basic knowledge into a diagnosis and treatment. For instance, I knew all about DM and insulin, but I had no idea how to start an insulin drip, dosages, sliding scale management, etc. when I started MS3.

Do attractive women look at you differently when you have your coat on?

Chicks aren't impressed with being in medical school. Most realize that you will be in school for another century and you will make less money than the teacher that has 4 months of vacation and works a fraction of the time.

Is studying for the mcat.... 5 hrs days with 1 day off similar to studying in med. school?
Is med school studying better or worse?

No. Studying in medical school is nothing like undergrad (atleast for me). MS1 and MS2 required me to go to class from 8-12 then study at least 40-60 hours/week on top of the classroom time. When it got close to our tests (2 weeks), I would buckle down and study more. I have 4 feet of notebooks (that are packed) from MS1 and MS2. Third year is like working a 80-100 hour/week job and then layering on another 20 hours of studying a week to finish 1-2 books and questions (500+) for each 1 month rotation.

 

[fahimaz7]

How is your sex life going for you currently? (Touching girls boob for breast cancer or males for Gyno doesn't count)

It's good. My wife is pregnant and we are expecting our first kid later this year. Medical school isn't much different than any other professional field (law, pharm, dental, etc). We all work 60-80 hours a week (100+ on surgery and medicine rotations as well as Step 1 and step 2 prep) and still balance a family too 🙂

The OP hasn't been back to respond - the thread can't degenerate if it had no substance to begin with.

Sorry guys. I went out for the day and forgot about this thread. Thread subscription = win 🙂

😀