Med students dropping out

[MissMed]

Some students have quit the program in the first year either to come back next year because of medical reasons or just because they figured out med was not for them. I find it unfortunate that some people have made comments such as: I can't imagine doing that since so many people want to get into medschool - once you are in you should tough it out - it is unfair to others that were not admitted to quit.....

 

Have you had the same experience? What are your thoughts?

[rmorelan]

Some students have quit the program in the first year either to come back next year because of medical reasons or just because they figured out med was not for them. I find it unfortunate that some people have made comments such as: I can't imagine doing that since so many people want to get into medschool - once you are in you should tough it out - it is unfair to others that were not admitted to quit.....

 

Have you had the same experience? What are your thoughts?

 

Well I guess if you suspend temporarily your school training because of medical reasons and return I don't think I would call that dropping out(?) Someone in our year is doing that - she is pregnant actually. Like any other undergrad problem there is room to deal with such things.

 

As for leaving because they figured it wasn't for them - that is unfortunately because both the person and the system lost time and money but in the end it is better not to do something you don't think is the right fit for you. Probably a horribly sole searching type of thing to do, and likely happens more in clerkship than preclerkship.

[MissMed]

I don't think it happens very often.

 

The retention rate is very high and those that do leave do so because of health reasons or other things beyond their control.

 

I agree that retention rate is impressive - out of 228 students in my 1st year only 3 retracted....alot less than in any program.

[hastin11]

It seems strange to me to drop out, mostly because medicine is diverse enough that I think you could find SOMETHING that would interest you. Many people think of it as a GP or surgeon, but there are specialties that differ significantly from this (pathology etc), or jobs that you can do once you are finished your residency that pertain to almost any interest (administration, epidemiology, etc, etc)