What is the first week like?

[cubbbie]

What was your experience like during your first days of med school? I started thinking about this for the first time and I truly started panicking. I remember my first week of college -- everyone tactlessly trying to size up everyone else, painfully trying impress our new classmates, all those godawful conversations I'd overhear: "What'd you get on YOUR SATs? How many languages do YOU speak fluently?"

I can only imagine it would be much worse the first week of med school. Please someone tell me it's not.

Thank you.

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[Dookter]

The first week of medical school is nothing hard. However, the first week after Christmas break [for us at Duke] is a killer. In 6 days, we've done 12 chapters of neuroscience. And I have an exam over it all in, um, like a day and a half. So the point is that there is no reason to panic about the first week since you'll probably learn things you already know and will get to hang out at a bar with your new classmates.

Back to studying...

 

[Wizard of Oz]

At my place, most of the "sizing up" was in the sense of, "Whoa that person is hot" followed by, "Whoa that person is already taken."

You can't really "size people up" by intelligence or previous success because odds are excellent that the students doing the best are really just the ones working the hardest. For the preclinical years, I don't think you're going to see anybody with an advantage due to previous career, major, or "prestigious" undergraduate university. You can also check your MCAT at the door and leave it in in the comode with the rest of the toilet paper. It doesn't matter anymore. Everybody here starts at zero.

Yeah I remember the first week alright. People still went to class, everyone was still saying, "Yeah I remember this stuff from undergrad so I don't need to study," there were more smiles abound than cups of coffee, and people were still optimistic that "They're not really going to ask us THAT kind of detail, are they?" If you ever find yourself asking that question, the answer is probably yes.

Best of !

 

[Flopotomist]

Our first week of orientation was a drunken debacle. We had social outings organized by the second years nearly every night. There wasn't much "sizing up" since we have all sorta already arrived here at medical school. Then again, my school (Loyola) doesn't really have the ridiculous gunner-type jerkoids I have heard about.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Hungover.

 

[Tired]

What was your experience like during your first days of med school? I started thinking about this for the first time and I truly started panicking. I remember my first week of college -- everyone tactlessly trying to size up everyone else, painfully trying impress our new classmates, all those godawful conversations I'd overhear: "What'd you get on YOUR SATs? How many languages do YOU speak fluently?"

I can only imagine it would be much worse the first week of med school. Please someone tell me it's not.

Thank you.

It's way worse. Not only is everyone a dork, but no one wants to go drinking after the marathon lecture sessions.

Take a book or your iPod. The first week is boring as ****, nothing but pointless orientation and motivational speeches. And don't bother hitting on the hot girls, they all have boyfriends at first. Give them a month, by then they're usually broken up.

 

[medicomel]

well, for the nonscience majors, it was more like "hit the ground running." during the first week, i spent a lot of time reading the textbooks and staying up rather late to get a good foundation for what was to come. from there, i guaged my progress and toned it down to a more comfortable level after the first exam. it's better to be overly prepared than underprepared. with that said, a lot of the science majors who were cocky about the material were surprised that they failed the first exam.

 

[cubbbie]

Thanks for the input. I suppose I could tolerate a period of dealing with initially inflated egos as long as I'm drunk the whole time ...

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

Basically, they hand out your lifetime AA membership card, if you don't already have one.

 

[MartianOddity]

In a Polish English program: We all lived in Dorm the first week with nothing serious to do. People drank at parties and slept a lot, socialized in the dormitory kitchen and learned from eachother how to make life easier by paying the least effort.

It was interesting that people weren't boasting about which score they got as they tend to do otherwise. The ones who discussed their expectations and present goals with eachother showed up to be the more serious students who made better in school later on (with a couple of exceptions). But that's just how it was in my school, and do not accept it as a general fact.

It was fun, but as time went, more and more people were shown to be dorks in various ways. In a class of 48 students I find about 30 of my fellow students to be dorks.

 

[SelflessAct]

I remember my first week of college -- everyone tactlessly trying to size up everyone else, painfully trying impress our new classmates, all those godawful conversations I'd overhear: "What'd you get on YOUR SATs? How many languages do YOU speak fluently?"

Seriously? I never met people who asked me questions like this in my first days of undergrad. Wow, sorry you encountered such tools. If you meet people like this in your medical school, try your best to avoid them.

Generally the first couple of weeks of a block are the most opportune times to party and socialize (aside from the night/weekend after an exam), and the first week of med school is certainly no exception. Have fun, make friends (you'll need them later). Good luck!

 

[Conqueror]

Our first week was a lot of partying. The really brutal stuff didn't come til after Xmas.

 

[cubbbie]

I remember my first week of college -- everyone tactlessly trying to size up everyone else, painfully trying impress our new classmates, all those godawful conversations I'd overhear: "What'd you get on YOUR SATs? How many languages do YOU speak fluently?"

Seriously? I never met people who asked me questions like this in my first days of undergrad. Wow, sorry you encountered such tools. If you meet people like this in your medical school, try your best to avoid them.

Well, I'm sure people were slightly more subtle than that, but that is how my brain has, over time, filtered those conversations. I'm just looking forward to never, ever having to think about all those acronyms again: MCAT, LOR, EC, GPA. It doesn't help that I'm on this site all the time. But the idea of meeting those acronyms face-to-face the first week of med school frightened me. But, as I mentioned before, as long as I'm drunk I can deal ...

 

[logos]

It was like a graduation. We had all these talks by different people who always commented on how great we were and how much we had accomplished. Then we got called up on stage our "white coat ceremony" and given a coat and a pin.

 

[tomatoattack]

Question: "what is the first week like?"

Answer: It is confusing and a good time to hit the booze pretty consistently, all sorts of cheeseball speeches that really seem to tug on some people's heartstrings

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

You get drunk a lot, you listen to boring things a lot, you meet new people and ask them exciting questions like "Where are you from?" and "What is your undergrad?", or maybe even "What was your major?"!

Its like anything else when you meet a lot of new people in a short period of time. Plus added in some force-feeding social stuff.

 

[MadameLULU]

Well the maturity level of most students starting med school is higher than that of people starting college, so I would venture to say there is very little of the "sizing up" aspect. There was one instance in which I did see it, and we all just gave this girl the "who cares what you scored" look. Most people were genuinely interested in getting to know more about their classmates and their life experiences.

 

[Law2Doc]

What was your experience like during your first days of med school? I started thinking about this for the first time and I truly started panicking.

It's just like prison. Just pick out the meanest looking classmate and beat the crap out of him. That way no one messes with you or your stuff, or asks you "what your major was". Some of the more grizzled upper classmen can teach you to make a shank out of a plastic fork, if things get really rough. White coats, orange jumpsuits --- it's all the same.

 

[tsunamivani]

hahaha!!! i feel like it will be middle school all over again and i'm going to worry about finding someone to sit with me at lunch

 

[turkleton]

Oh man, the first week was glorious. 5 straight nights of going out, 5 straight days of having a headache during some ridiculus orientation capped off by a huge ceramony and a fancy coat with our names on it. I'd say hell started a couple months after that.

By the way, what the hell kind of college did you go to? You guys really compared who's fluent in what language??? I knew we were dumb at State U, but you guys are in another universe.

 

[symphony]

I'm in the middle of my second week, so first week is still pretty fresh...
Two weeks ago, I was told by the orientation speaker that my MCAT score puts me in the "borderline failing" category for the first semester based on past data.

What a way to start!

I had my first dissection today. Anatomy... never felt so dumb in my whole life! Even MCAT can't beat that. Everyone seems to know his/her things...except me. Everyone says, "I know this stuff" or whatever from undergrad...except me.

So yeah, that's my first week in a nutshell.
I better study like crazy or I will never make it.



God bless us all.


ps: I also miss home - 4000 miles away.

 

[StritchMD2011]

I'm in the middle of my second week, so first week is still pretty fresh...
Two weeks ago, I was told by the orientation speaker that my MCAT score puts me in the "borderline failing" category for the first semester based on past data.

What a way to start!

I had my first dissection today. Anatomy... never felt so dumb in my whole life! Even MCAT can't beat that. Everyone seems to know his/her things...except me. Everyone says, "I know this stuff" or whatever from undergrad...except me.

So yeah, that's my first week in a nutshell.
I better study like crazy or I will never make it.



God bless us all.


ps: I also miss home - 4000 miles away.

I'm confused. What kind of school starts in January???

 

[symphony]

The one in the Caribbean

 

[beefballs]

lots of tickling lots and lots of tickling

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

I've been here six months and never been asked about my MCAT score, GPA, etc. Most conversation during the first week involved normal, get-to-know-you small talk, with all the required inanity of "Where are you from?" "Where did you do your undergrad?" Definitely nothing to be worried about. But then again, College didnt start for me with a bunch of douchebags asking me my SAT score, so maybe things will be different for you

 

[CCLCMer]

What was your experience like during your first days of med school? I started thinking about this for the first time and I truly started panicking. I remember my first week of college -- everyone tactlessly trying to size up everyone else, painfully trying impress our new classmates, all those godawful conversations I'd overhear: "What'd you get on YOUR SATs? How many languages do YOU speak fluently?"

I can only imagine it would be much worse the first week of med school. Please someone tell me it's not.

Thank you.

Most schools start out with some orientation days, so it won't be that bad unless you really hate playing those icebreaker games. But yeah, everyone knows everybody's business, so don't get so drunk that you don't know what you're doing, because if you do, no one else will ever let you forget about it. Or so I've heard.

 

[turkleton]

CCLmer, I'm assuming Cleveland Clinic, doesn't sound so hot. I don't ever recall thinking that everyone means business during orientation week and didn't get the impression that others did as well. Maybe our class was full of a bunch of alcoholics but we had no inhibition on drinking just a couple more beers and it wouldn't come back to bite you in the arse. I say enjoy the first week- you'll make good friends which really is the bread and butter of surviving the first semester. Sure there are the gunners who need to do ENT at havad and will spend orientation week reading baby moore... so what. Let loose, it'll serve you better and you'll probably be happier. My two cents.

 

[CCLCMer]

CCLmer, I'm assuming Cleveland Clinic, doesn't sound so hot. I don't ever recall thinking that everyone means business during orientation week and didn't get the impression that others did as well. Maybe our class was full of a bunch of alcoholics but we had no inhibition on drinking just a couple more beers and it wouldn't come back to bite you in the arse. I say enjoy the first week- you'll make good friends which really is the bread and butter of surviving the first semester. Sure there are the gunners who need to do ENT at havad and will spend orientation week reading baby moore... so what. Let loose, it'll serve you better and you'll probably be happier. My two cents.

I don't know where you got the impression I was saying that things would bite you in the arse because everyone means business during orientation week. That's practically the complete opposite of what I was saying. My class is very small and pretty close-knit, so you're bound to get teased if you have a little too much fun. I totally didn't mean that people would literally be out to get you, which is why I put the little winky sign at the end of my message.