Whats up with 4th year?

[MacGyver]

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Whats the deal here? I hear about people taking off months at a time.

why the **** would you be an idiot and pay upwards of 25k per year so you can take months off? THat makes absolutely zero sense to me.

If you've already met your grad requirement for your electives, then you are a buffoon if you pay those outrageous levels of tuition and instead of doing clinical work, just take time off.

 

[Samoa]

Residency interviews.

 

[njbmd]

Sometimes, you have met all of the clinical requirments,done the research, done a fellowship and want to take the months off that you previously spent working when the rest of your class was taking vacation. Worked for me and I enjoyed every second of the vacation time that I had earned by getting my stuff done early.

 

[deleted109597]

Whats the deal here? I hear about people taking off months at a time.

why the **** would you be an idiot and pay upwards of 25k per year so you can take months off? THat makes absolutely zero sense to me.

If you've already met your grad requirement for your electives, then you are a buffoon if you pay those outrageous levels of tuition and instead of doing clinical work, just take time off.

Or it could be that you can't do any more away rotations, and the ones offered at your school blow. I don't know that paying tuition for that month means I need to take a certain class, especially when I know it doesn't do anything for me.

 

[MacGyver]

Yes i know about interviews... but all that stuff should only take up a couple of months, not half the year.

 

[backrow]

I don't know your background, but I'm guessing you're not a fourth year yet. If you were I think you would understand wanting to take as much time off as possible. For many this will be the last time in a long time (7 yrs for neurosurgery) that they will be able to take longer than a week or so of vacation at a time. With that facing you and the realization that in a few short months you will be responsible for actually writing the orders and we won't even mention cross-cover at night it is nice to be able to relax and get away from the long days in the hospital for a little bit.

 

[OB1🤙]

What exactly is the point of this post? If you wanna work hard your 4th year, do it. If you wanna do as little work as possible, do it. To each their own. Who cares what other people do?

I'm paying $40K+ in tuition this year, and if I didn't see a patient in between now and May 19th when I get handed a diploma, I wouldn't care at all. I figure I may as well rest up before the $hitstorm of intern year hits and my life outside the hospital ceases to exist.

You do have a life outside the hospital, don't you?

 

[excalibur]

I don't get this post either.

This really makes no sense. If you do all your third and fourth year requirements straight w/o taking a break, you'll be done in late February, and have March, April, May, and June off. Would it be acceptable to then take those months off before starting intern year? If so, then it seems you just have a problem with people interspersing these months throughout the two years, which I don't get. People pay tuition to get an education and to get there MD degree. To get the MD, they have to fulfill the requirements set out by the school. During third and fourth year, you have to complete a set amount of rotations which don't take two calendar years to complete. THERE ARE GAPS. If you fill in these gaps with rotations, you're going above and beyond the requirements set out by your school. There are not many med students who just add on an extra month of rotations b/c they feel guilty about paying all this money in tuition, and then ONLY completing their med school's requirements for graduation. It's rare where you'll find a student who has completed all the requirements, successfully matched (say in general surgery), and has one month left until graduation (not to mention one free month after graduation until internship), who then says, "You know, I never got around to taking a rotation in pathology. I think I will be better served as a surgeon if I knew what the pathologists were thinking and doing every time I send a sample for biopsy. Woe is me. I have spent so much money for my education without taking pathology, and here I am contemplating going to Acapulco for the month with Vanessa, that hot Brazilian chick I met at the undergrad library when I was studying in my med school apparel and had my general surgery books in full view for every passer-by. I could never live with the GUILT of not taking ONE month of an UNREQUIRED rotation that could potentially improve my 40 YEAR career as a physician."

I guess you think upperclassmen are f'n stupid if they just complete the minimum amt of requirements set out by their school. Because if they simply do that, THEY ARE INEVITABLY GOING TO HAVE FREE MONTHS.

 

[deleted109597]

Uh, I graduate May 5th, I automatically get most of May off. Unfortunately, all of the people who aren't 4th years will learn shortly that this "Intern year starts 1 July" is a myth, and often people start as early as the 10th of June with orientation.
And nobody takes half of the year off. There are requirements. At most, people at my school can take 8 weeks off.

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

It's rare where you'll find a student who has completed all the requirements, successfully matched (say in general surgery), and has one month left until graduation (not to mention one free month after graduation until internship.

It even sweeter if you have the military match and find out in mid December. The original poster is obviously not a 4th year. Because the 4th year is glorious! As one friend said, "If they'd pay me 50K the rest of my life to be a senior med student, I'd do it for the rest of my life."

 

[Bertelman]

Let's get this straight. I'm paying my tuition either way. I can choose to do another IM month where I do H&Ps, cut and paste a few progress notes each day, and overall get nothing more out my time than I did during my third year. Or maybe I can do a rads rotation, spend 4 hours in a dark room, then go home. Either way, I'm learning little more than what I have already forgotten during third year.

I know! I'll take the 10 weeks vacation my school grants me, and spend quality time at home with my wife and newborn child who I will not see again until he is entering pre-school.

OP, listen. It's great that you are so pumped about clinical learning. Keep that enthusiasm. Leave the decisions about how to spend our time during 4th year to the ones that have a choice. You'll learn after third year that another hour at the hospital, or another month on IM will not really deliver any more education. It will certainly take a few more wisps of your soul, however. And release the thought that money you pay (or get payed) is directly related to what you are owed. As a resident, you will quickly learn that the money you are payed is hardly worth your contribution. Likewise, the money you pay the school does not equal, dollar for dollar, your educational experience. Everyone in your class pays the same tuition. They don't all walk out with the same education.

If you feel like learning during fourth year is underutilized, then regiser for classes during yoru vacation time. My guess is that you will get a call from your Dean's office. Then you can try shadowing physicians during your months off, who will ask you, dumbfounded, why the F you are there and not at home. Yes, you must be right. More right than the tens of thousands of med students before you. Fourth year is a wasted learning opportunity, because med students CLEARLY don't spend enough time in the hospital.