MD & DO What would you tell your premed self?

[ZX10R]

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Its a waste of time and life, dont do it. This is coming from someone with zero debt.

 

[Medical_studies]

At the end of M2, I would have told premed self:

Don't worry, be happy, say your prayers everyday. All those 3 are easier said than done!

Also find a way to study in a way that you enjoy studying. Enjoy the time you spend in premed around patients and doctors. Watch videos over reading books and learn how to be really good at watching videos at double speed. Really prepare in advance for days when you shadow doctors while in the basic science years in order to get the most out of it.

Treat it like a 4 year job interview and try your best to be on top of your game every day. Dress casual formal for class and never skip class. Check studentdoctor.net forums atleast once a day. Delete facebook, etc. Try to always prepare like it could all disappear tomorrow but have confidence that no matter what, this journey will be a success. Stay in touch with your friends before medical school even if it hurts your grades.

 

[WinslowPringle]

Don't take the MCAT cold.
Don't major in biology.
Be prepared to eat your words.
Don't worry about the haters.
You aren't going to save the world.

 

[Avulse]

I would say, "hey take that old sandwich you forgot about out of your backpack before it molds this time"

Oh wait was the advice supposed to be med school related

 

[Hopeful101]

And do what instead though? You need an alternative.

Teach Highschool biology like I wanted to. If I could go back further I probably would have learned to code and done something like that

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

3% of the "premeds" at your school will make it; you'll be one of them, the girl who wears scrubs and ****-talks everyday won't.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

Teach Highschool biology like I wanted to. If I could go back further I probably would have learned to code and done something like that

If you actually had a different career in mind, that's different. I assume you don't care at all about money, which is fine if you don't.

 

[thepoopologist]

1. Exercise and eat well

2. Don't forget about the rest of life.

3. If there's something else worth doing that takes less time, its worth considering.

 

[calivianya]

That school that you thought was your favorite? It’s gonna ruin your life. Pick one of your other acceptances.

 

[BigPikachu]

Work hard & persevere. You'll make it & it'll all be worth it.
Don't forget to smell the roses along the way.
Life is not all about work; it just pays for life.
Love your family; don't forget about them.

 

[deleted1038938]

Stop PARTYING so much! FOCUS ON YOUR GRADES or your last two years you will be playing catch up.

Also stop worrying about what people think. You won't even be friends with a lot of your college circle because you'll end up far away from Miami and no one maintains ties with the friend who only shows up 4 weeks of the year/visit a friend who lives in a cold tundra of a place.

 

[deleted941485]

I love these especially since it’s been Almost 10 years since I graduated

1. Medicine is just a job
2. Working hard only gets you so far
3. Luck has more to do with where you end up in life than you care to admit so stop agonizing
4. You are not special...like seriously you’re not cool and never were just embrace it
5. Be more skeptical! Mentors and advisors will never truly have your best interests at heart.
6. Exude a confidence without seeming arrogant.
7. Neuroticism kills
8. Always have an escape plan- Medicine is going to be ****tier than you think seriously you gotta have one
9. Med Students are an unbearable lot of human beings so spend only enough time so they don’t think you’re a douche.
10. Date someone who has nothing to do with healthcare and who thinks the world of what you do because you’ll need the encouragement.
11. If you’re disappointed now, just remember it gets worse.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

Stop PARTYING so much! FOCUS ON YOUR GRADES or your last two years you will be playing catch up.

Also stop worrying about what people think. You won't even be friends with a lot of your college circle because you'll end up far away from Miami and no one maintains ties with the friend who only shows up 4 weeks of the year/visit a friend who lives in a cold tundra of a place.

I would agree with not partying excessively but partying somewhat frequently is very strongly recommended. Life does get A LOT harder once med school and residency and attending years happen. Enjoy relative freedom while it lasts.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I would agree with not partying excessively but partying somewhat frequently is very strongly recommended. Life does get A LOT harder once med school and residency and attending years happen. Enjoy relative freedom while it lasts.

You could even make that more general and just say enjoying yourself somewhat frequently is highly recommended. Partying isn’t for everyone, but I totally agree that you should take the opportunity to enjoy yourself while you can because it does become a lot harder in med school.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

You could even make that more general and just say enjoying yourself somewhat frequently is highly recommended. Partying isn’t for everyone, but I totally agree that you should take the opportunity to enjoy yourself while you can because it does become a lot harder in med school.

True. I just meant to address that point specifically.

I think deferring fun is the biggest mistake one can make in their youth. I'm very thankful I did not do that and I would always tell myself that peak prime time is late teens and early 20s/college years.

 

[PhillyMed777]

True. I just meant to address that point specifically.

I think deferring fun is the biggest mistake one can make in their youth. I'm very thankful I did not do that and I would always tell myself that peak prime time is late teens and early 20s/college years.

Well done
Wish I did the same. Regret it deeply. No paycheck will bring it back.

 

[juliannewman]

The people who say “just do something else” are so damn out of touch with society. News flash, but, tech and finance/biz aren’t great as your college buddy makes it out to be. Check out work in fast food sometime...

 

[ccp005]

great responses above
To basically summarize don’t go into medicine. There is nothing good to be had from that decision. I’m too tired to explain why, you will need to take my word for it.

How much of this is specialty dependent and how much is just medicine as a whole? As someone who is primarily interested in the less competitive specialties, do you think that will make a difference in the overall rigor?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

How much of this is specialty dependent and how much is just medicine as a whole? As someone who is primarily interested in the less competitive specialties, do you think that will make a difference in the overall rigor?

It’s very person dependent. Plenty of people in medicine are happy with their careers and would do it again. Probably more complex than just specialty. A person in the wrong specialty will probably not enjoy medicine. Also there are definitely people who should not have gone into medicine because they’d be much happier doing something else.

 

[Eye-eye]

Prestige REALLY is not that important. You'll be happier when you get over name recognition and just chill. And you'll still do great.

 

[Eye-eye]

Also, on the DO/MD thing earlier in the thread - as one who used to think it didn't make that much difference in the end (in terms of matching), check out page 3: https://www.sfmatch.org/PDFFilesDisplay/Ophthalmology_Residency_Stats_2019.pdf
I know that wasn't OP's point, but man, did it floor me to see the difference in match rate.

 

[Tenk]

Work at McDonald’s. Buy bitcoin. Drive lambos.

 

[Luftwaffle]

I'd tell him to invest in Zoom stock

 

[deleted804295]

"Go drink a beer. Go to that party. Stop crying over a B."

/thread

 

[Lawpy]

Prestige REALLY is not that important. You'll be happier when you get over name recognition and just chill. And you'll still do great.

Except maybe struggling to match in certain programs in certain specialties once Steps go P/F

 

[deleted804295]

Game the **** out of premed. Don't take "interesting" hard classes. All the most successful premeds gamed the hell out of premed.

So grateful to have learned this junior year. Dropped my difficult major for biology. Best decision I made.

My friends who recently graduated with tough majors are still paying for it. Some that are better students than me have to take gap years or go DO 🙁

 

[PhillyMed777]

How much of this is specialty dependent and how much is just medicine as a whole? As someone who is primarily interested in the less competitive specialties, do you think that will make a difference in the overall rigor?

possibly - if you care less about your performance through this journey, the process will hurt less.

For whatever it is worth, I'm a senior derm resident. I've spent far to many of my good years in life trying to perfect everyday. Took me too long to realize it was not worth it. Do whatever you wish with this information.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Prestige REALLY is not that important. You'll be happier when you get over name recognition and just chill. And you'll still do great.

Yeah not anymore. A survey of PDs shows that med school name will now be more important for over 50% of PDs.

 

[seikilos]

I feel that most here who project their dissatisfaction with medicine/med school are biased or completely unaware what other careers are like in the real world

Where do you believe you would end up? Finance? HR? Accounting? Management? Marketing? Logistics? Aviation? Contracting? as a Tik Tok influencer?

Medicine is for those who are dedicated to their practice and I understand how much adversity is required to be endured. But I can attest that the other paths you'd follow are not nearly as fulfilling, or stable, or lucrative; and I understand are likely to lead you and your family to being trapped in the cycle or the "american dream".

If you want to keep looking back and convince yourself the grass is greener on the other side, go ahead.

 

[Ho0v-man]

^^*cough* premed says “what”?*cough*

 

[slowthai]

I feel that most here who project their dissatisfaction with medicine/med school are biased or completely unaware what other careers are like in the real world

Where do you believe you would end up? Finance? HR? Accounting? Management? Marketing? Logistics? Aviation? Contracting? as a Tik Tok influencer?

Medicine is for those who are dedicated to their practice and I understand how much adversity is required to be endured. But I can attest that the other paths you'd follow are not nearly as fulfilling, or stable, or lucrative; and I understand are likely to lead you and your family to being trapped in the cycle or the "american dream".

If you want to keep looking back and convince yourself the grass is greener on the other side, go ahead.

Don't necessarily agree with everything quoted, but man did my eyes just glaze over reading that list.

I know a lot of people are totally against the "medicine is a calling" thing after experiencing how much mind blowing BS and stupidity we have to deal with, from power tripping, boomer status preclinical admins, to malignant attendings, to brain-dead hospital administrators. Let us not forget the money hungry NBME, and the schools that are giving you 250,000 reasons (and counting) not to quit. I get it, and I hate these parts of medicine to the max, but out of everything, it's the BS I can deal with to do what I want. Is it a calling? I feel like it is, for me. Will it stay that way? I really, really hope so, lol.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Don't necessarily agree with everything quoted, but man did my eyes just glaze over reading that list.

I know a lot of people are totally against the "medicine is a calling" thing after experiencing how much mind blowing BS and stupidity we have to deal with, from power tripping, boomer status preclinical admins, to malignant attendings, to brain-dead hospital administrators. Let us not forget the money hungry NBME, and the schools that are giving you 250,000 reasons (and counting) not to quit. I get it, and I hate these parts of medicine to the max, but out of everything, it's the BS I can deal with to do what I want. Is it a calling? I feel like it is, for me. Will it stay that way? I really, really hope so, lol.

Same. I think you can go into medicine, be a good doctor, and be happy without viewing it as a calling. But some of us do.

 

[Hopeful101]

I feel that most here who project their dissatisfaction with medicine/med school are biased or completely unaware what other careers are like in the real world

Where do you believe you would end up? Finance? HR? Accounting? Management? Marketing? Logistics? Aviation? Contracting? as a Tik Tok influencer?

Medicine is for those who are dedicated to their practice and I understand how much adversity is required to be endured. But I can attest that the other paths you'd follow are not nearly as fulfilling, or stable, or lucrative; and I understand are likely to lead you and your family to being trapped in the cycle or the "american dream".

If you want to keep looking back and convince yourself the grass is greener on the other side, go ahead.

Come back after a couple years of medical school and let us know if you still feel that way lol

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

What would I tell my premed self?

Don’t waste so much time crying over your college boyfriend who left you just before the first day of med school. Better times are ahead.

 

[penicillinman]

Go home and study around your kids more, you don’t get that time back

as a super non trad with kids, about to start MS1...this does give me something to think about.

 

[NicMouse64]

I feel that most here who project their dissatisfaction with medicine/med school are biased or completely unaware what other careers are like in the real world

Where do you believe you would end up? Finance? HR? Accounting? Management? Marketing? Logistics? Aviation? Contracting? as a Tik Tok influencer?

Medicine is for those who are dedicated to their practice and I understand how much adversity is required to be endured. But I can attest that the other paths you'd follow are not nearly as fulfilling, or stable, or lucrative; and I understand are likely to lead you and your family to being trapped in the cycle or the "american dream".

If you want to keep looking back and convince yourself the grass is greener on the other side, go ahead.

It's not even the grass is greener mentality. It's just the pure amount of BS that is thrown your way for no reason. I've had other jobs and had crappy bosses. I've dealt with office politics. But there was supposed to be something special about medicine. The science, the taking care of patients, the mentorship, the respect, the overarching goal of doing whats best for someone else's health. Even if it's not your calling, hopefully some of those things are what drove most of us to medicine. It's not that medicine is worse than other fields, it's that it's nearly impossible to demonstrate the dissapointment of coming out on the other side and realizing, nope you aren't special and nope you aren't going to necessarily handle the challenges better than any of your predecessors.

But that's ok. You take the positives. Having family members ask about health conditions or just helping them to understand a topic or even a disease they might have is gratifying. Having friends respect what you do and also curious about what you see, that's cool. Getting to learn new things and be constantly surprised at how far you've come, that's fun.

We've all been premed. I was just as starry eyed as anyone else. I still think it was the right decision. I went into it for the right reasons. I don't regret anything. But that doesn't mean I would necessarily do it over again if I knew everything I knew now. I could've been a software engineer or pharmaceutical engineer, made good money, had less stress, but I would've always thought why I didn't go through with it. Hindsight 20/20.

 

[ExcitatorySynapse]

As a premed, I would've advised myself to:

a) get treated for mental health issues way earlier, since that impeded performance.
b) despite my dislike of premeds/premed culture, been better informed and realistic about the application cycle so I could've planned and executed more effectively. Blindly following what the advisors said (who definitely had a secondary agenda to reduce premed stress at a school riddled with suicides) was not the best idea.
c) developed good lifestyle habits/time management skills/been more healthy and confident so i could've enjoyed the college experience more
d) not stressed so much about the MCAT and not preparing in a 'traditional' way - caused me to delay my exam a bunch of times
e) take the time to really enjoy and study the texts we discussed in my required humanities/non-science classes - I miss literature and philosophy a lot

I also wish that I had really thoroughly explored my career options while continuing to fulfill premed requirements. Basically every door was open to me in undergrad and due to family insistence and my own mental health issues, I didn't venture out too much.

RE: the finance discussion - in the twilight days of college, I decided to actually look into finance and consulting more. I had calls with a bunch of finance people. They were extremely self absorbed and annoying (and yes, these are the people buying hospitals). Consulting also felt super contrived with little substance. I think if you genuinely like being a *content* expert and working to improve people's lives, I'm not sure how good of a fit non-quantitative finance or consulting are. Just my $0.02.

 

[BigPikachu]

It's just a job. Work smart not hard. Invest your money wisely. Keep healthy. Don't neglect family and friends. Don't get complacent. Keep learning. Be kind. Be patient. Don't be a dick.

 

[Eye-eye]

Come back after a couple years of medical school and let us know if you still feel that way lol

I'm an M4 and certainly agree that this hyperfocus on the negatives is harmful and unrealistic. Personally, I've never understood the "just go business and you'll make more money with less effort and time" advice. Sure, maybe for 0.01%, but for most that's just not the case. Medical training sucks, but if you just want a 9-5 with great pay, you go through (admittedly exhausting) training and if you make smart choices, you can do that in a good number of specialties. If you don't choose those specialties because that's not your calling/interest, that's fine, but then it's on you, and you should stop saying you should have done business and advising everyone away from medicine, when in reality you could have done a ROAD specialty and made 5x most business majors easily with a fairly 9-5 job.

I dunno, I get the negatives, and granted, I have not seen the worst of them yet as a med student. But at the same time, you can find **** to complain about in anything, or things to love. Medicine offers both some really crappy experiences and amazing ones, and I'm not a fan on focusing on the crappy ones you can't change. Online forums unfortunately tend to focus on the bad, and I do think the cynicism can be quite detrimental.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

as a super non trad with kids, about to start MS1...this does give me something to think about.

Something good that’s come out of covid is that we did the second half of MS1 online and I got to spend a lot more time with my kids.