What I learned at orientation...

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After a week long orientation, and nervous excitement about starting in the gross lab on Monday I thought I'd share what I learned at med school orientation.

1. Parties every night have fun but don't be the '**** that can't hold down his/her liquor.

2. There are two groups and only two groups of entering medical school. The pompous jerks who knew they would always be in med school and are further increasing their ego AND/OR those students who are just happy to be there.

3. Short white coats aren't cool, and never will be cool. In fact, they are rather toasty when you walk outside the auditorium into some afternoon heat.

4. Orientation itself is pretty boring...OK. So EXTREMELY boring. Bring pillows and a sleeping bag (or coffee if you plan to stay awake).

5. Med school is goign to be a bee-atch no matter what just grin and bear it like a colonoscopy.

(feel free to add to this list)

 

[lilmo]

6. You'll gain more knowledge within 5 minutes of meeting your big sib than you did at 40 hours of orientation....................

 

[docjolly]

Bump..

 

[ericdamiansean]

6. You'll gain more knowledge within 5 minutes of meeting your big sib than you did at 40 hours of orientation....................

just make sure the big sib is not a jock 😀

 

[lilmo]

just make sure the big sib is not a jock 😀

thanks for the reminder. i forgot jocks and brains were mutually exclusive.

 

[Howard Roark]

good luck

 

[lilmo]

let me guess. you got beat up by the jocks in grade school? hence the bitterness?? or are you really a jock in disguise as an intelligent med student?

 

[4 Ever]

6. You'll gain more knowledge within 5 minutes of meeting your big sib than you did at 40 hours of orientation....................

If you ask the right questions


7. You'll hate hearing "well you have to develop your own learning style. You have to do what works for you".

8. The white coat ceremony is not for you - its for your parents so suck it up and let them be happy (oh btw, WC is boring)

9. You can't get to know everyone in your class because eventually you'll forget them and they'll forget you.

10. No matter how many times you're told "med school is hard" you still don't realize just how hard til the classes start (just like you might not believe me right now)

 

[sambo]

I attend a pretty competitive school and last year's grade distributions in our (hard core science) classes go something like this: 30% A, 55% B, 10% C, 5% D. So I don't think it's THAT hard.

That's got to be one of the dumbest posts I've ever heard. If your school is "competitive" as you say, then mostly all the students are the cream of the academic crop (ie made all A's their entire lives). All those gunner bastards worked their asses off, and only 30% of them made A's. It is HARD. Just wait, grasshopper.

 

[Long Dong]

I attend a pretty competitive school and last year's grade distributions in our (hard core science) classes go something like this: 30% A, 55% B, 10% C, 5% D. So I don't think it's THAT hard.

Grades suck a$$, p/f rules

 

[4 Ever]

I attend a pretty competitive school and last year's grade distributions in our (hard core science) classes go something like this: 30% A, 55% B, 10% C, 5% D. So I don't think it's THAT hard.

grade distributions have nothing to do with how hard certain things are. Hell its medical school - All those kids (minus the D's) had to study their asses off to get those grades. Numbers on tests don't show you the effort put into earning them

 

[lilmo]

first test block rapidly approaching. studying my ass off like i never have before in my life. will i make the grade?

 

[Firebird]

Maybe I'll throw in a positive comment or two, since everyone else is being incredibly negative...

Your school, like mine, might NOT be segregated into the two groups of people. I haven't met one "pompous jerk" in my whole class. Everyone is extremely easy going. And no, we're not an osteopathic school, haha.

The whole part of orientation is not boring. We were invited to a museum of medicine by the local doctor who owns it. It was full of neat things, including a 1920's Model T known as the "Doctor's Car." He then provided a catered lunch. There were quite a few other interesting things that went on, too.

The white coat ceremony at our school was for our parents, but it was for us too. It was one of the best formal ceremony type things that I have ever been to. Our keynote speaker was the chief FP resident who started her residency in her fourth year of medical school (because she was so advanced) and had recently climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro as part of our Wilderness and International Medicine programs (which, as a plug, are among the best programs of their type in the world).

Our class is incredibly small, so we do get to know everyone...eventually.

 

[Harrie]

You think med schools hard, then you start classes and you realize its really hard. Then you start second year and you realize that first year was comparatively a breeze. Then you start third year and you work crazy hours, never sleep, and feel lost every day. Then you start fourth year, thinking you will be living a nice leisurely life, but you realize you have all those applications, personal statements, letters of rec, etc.
I guess around graduation might be fun, but then you start internship, that's when the hard stuff really starts.

 

[tom_jones]

After a week long orientation, and nervous excitement about starting in the gross lab on Monday I thought I'd share what I learned at med school orientation.

1. Parties every night have fun but don't be the '**** that can't hold down his/her liquor.

Parties every night??? Yeah right. Med students don't drink for the most part. You'll be lucky to find 5-10 people in your class that go out to the bars more than once a year.

 

[Harrie]

1. Parties every night have fun but don't be the '**** that can't hold down his/her liquor.

(feel free to add to this list)

We had parties every night for about the first month. Now we are lucky to have a party every semester.

 

[sambo]

Parties every night??? Yeah right. Med students don't drink for the most part. You'll be lucky to find 5-10 people in your class that go out to the bars more than once a year.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. I'd say at least 30% of the people in my class drink, and some of them drink more in med school than they did in undergrad.

 

[Firebird]

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. I'd say at least 30% of the people in my class drink, and some of them drink more in med school than they did in undergrad.

get some new batteries for your sarcasm detector

 

[8744]

Ah, orientation. If I recall (in best Chairman Kaga voice) it was a week of emotional masturbation during which we were told six hundred times that we were special, we were going to be empathetic, and gosh darnit, people liked us!

Then classes started and people went from feeling warm and fuzzy to stressed, tired, and wound to the breaking point. Oh the bull**** they fed us, everything from "if you don't study in a group you're going to fail" to "get the textbooks because there will be required reading." Har har.

Word of advice: Study hard, keep up with the material, listen to good advice from your upper-classmen and try not to get to caught up in the touchy-feely stuff. You've got a long road ahead. No sooner will you start feeling like you're in command of medical school when you will start third year and feel like the biggest superfluous, ignorant, non-essential piece of baggage to ever break the plane of the pelvic outlet.

Sincerely,

P. Bear, MSIV

 

[lotanna]

ok u pick 106 student leaders and then expect teamwork
LOL its 1st day and so far so good, good bunch, helps that I know several from b4 😀
But goodness, this is going to be a long 4yrs, i can imagine i'll be sick of teh same faces within a month!!!!!! 😱

 

[dtreese]

After a week long orientation, and nervous excitement about starting in the gross lab on Monday I thought I'd share what I learned at med school orientation.

1. Parties every night have fun but don't be the '**** that can't hold down his/her liquor.

2. There are two groups and only two groups of entering medical school. The pompous jerks who knew they would always be in med school and are further increasing their ego AND/OR those students who are just happy to be there.

3. Short white coats aren't cool, and never will be cool. In fact, they are rather toasty when you walk outside the auditorium into some afternoon heat.

4. Orientation itself is pretty boring...OK. So EXTREMELY boring. Bring pillows and a sleeping bag (or coffee if you plan to stay awake).

5. Med school is goign to be a bee-atch no matter what just grin and bear it like a colonoscopy.

(feel free to add to this list)

Do you go to my school? Were you at the same orientation? Sounds like it.

 

[chameleonknight]

I think 100% of my class drinks, but there are still plenty of boring people.

 

[ericdamiansean]

thanks for the reminder. i forgot jocks and brains were mutually exclusive.

But it seems weird, that most students ie. freshmen still prefer to hang out with the cool jocks because they want to look all cool and 'in'

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
C'mon guys, it's not THAT bad. You have a brain so use it. Medical school is no worse or no better than any other school. The only competition that you have is with yourself. If you are happy in your own skin and you get you work done, then you are COOL, period. RELAX and enjoy yourselves. PGY-1 will come sooner than you think. 🙂

njbmd