How stressful is med school? And life after that?

[ilovesummer]

Hi guys

I am looking for advice, either from current med students, or people who are friends with med students. Or have an "in." That sort of thing. I don't have friends in the program because I'm an arts student. I've heard that medschool is easier than undergrad, and that the most stressful time is actually getting in. I think my mcat teacher said that medschool was a "walk in the park" compared to undergrad. Has anyone found this to be true?

 

With final papers and exams coming up (I'm in my last year of undergrad), I feel like I am going bonkers from the quantity of work, but even more so from the internal pressure to be top. It's easy to coast in arts, but to get those higher grades... only like 1 person per class gets a 4.0 in it. I actually think I am losing it. So, I was wondering, does it get better... because if med school, and being a doc after is just as stressful as this, or even more so, I'm not sure if I have the grit to do it. I'm applying to physio currently, not sure if I want that or meds, but I think stress of the job would be a big thing that influences which way I go. Does anyone have any insights? Or even ummm reassurance?

 

thanks

[Lactic Folly]

My experience:

I found undergrad to be more stressful than medical school, in large part due to the pressure to achieve those 4.0s as you stated.

 

In medical school, the preclerkship curriculum did cover a good amount of material, but most of it was not that difficult to understand and learn, and tests were primarily objective.

 

The main source of stress in medical school tends to be clerkship (subjective evaluations) and applying for residency. You can see evidence of this in the threads that discuss CaRMS and matching to residency. As a clerk, the hours are long, but in general, I don't think you have enough responsibility to encounter undue stress from your clinical duties... if you are in over your head, you *should* have backup readily available.

 

After that, I think stress would be a function of your fit with your medical career (and your workplace). Different people handle stress differently and find different things stressful - managing a difficult airway? dealing with family conflict in the ICU? making a final call whether a biopsy specimen contains cancer or not? breaking bad news to a patient? running a code? For every person who finds these tasks stressful, another person thrives on the challenge.

 

Currently, I would characterize my existence as relatively stress-free (until board exams approach). I enjoy my job and the people I work with. Call is busy, but it's nice to be able to provide a needed service and to see the impact that your contributions have to patient care. Over time, you gain experience and learn to manage uncertainty, which is part of the process of developing clinical judgment and becoming a doctor.

[orange123]

Hi guys

I am looking for advice, either from current med students, or people who are friends with med students. Or have an "in." That sort of thing. I don't have friends in the program because I'm an arts student. I've heard that medschool is easier than undergrad, and that the most stressful time is actually getting in. I think my mcat teacher said that medschool was a "walk in the park" compared to undergrad. Has anyone found this to be true?

 

With final papers and exams coming up (I'm in my last year of undergrad), I feel like I am going bonkers from the quantity of work, but even more so from the internal pressure to be top. It's easy to coast in arts, but to get those higher grades... only like 1 person per class gets a 4.0 in it. I actually think I am losing it. So, I was wondering, does it get better... because if med school, and being a doc after is just as stressful as this, or even more so, I'm not sure if I have the grit to do it. I'm applying to physio currently, not sure if I want that or meds, but I think stress of the job would be a big thing that influences which way I go. Does anyone have any insights? Or even ummm reassurance?

 

thanks

 

Hi there,

 

here is my take on it. (I think other students on this forum may be able to give you a different take on this. )

 

Med school is a lot of work. And it's tiring. And it's not as sweet as undergrad. Yes, I know you're probably thinking WTF? Undergrad is pure hell. Well, yes and no. It can be stressful at times, but it's so nice to have time to yourself! It's so nice to be able to make your own schedule, choose your own courses, have breaks in between classes, or classes that begin at 1pm to maximize your sleep time!

 

Med school gives you less flexibility to set up your own schedule. That being said, it is also very true that the amount of work, stress, and class schedule will also depend on which school you choose to attend.

 

However, seeing as you're from an arts major, the amount of work you will have to put into your courses may be more than the average joe who has graduated with a BSc in biology/medical/health sciences.

 

I know that I have to work a little bit harder than my colleagues because my background is not as strong in the basic sciences. So though med schools teach you everything from scratch, I find that I don't "get" everything in first pass. It is often after reading various sources (not just relying on class notes), that I understand the basics behind, say, renal physiology. While for some other students, this stuff acts as a "review" and makes their life easier.

 

So you have to make an informed decision. And you're at a wonderful place right now, where you can gather all the necessary info in order to decide whether this is something you'd like to do. It takes a lot of motivation to get through not just the 4 years of undergraduate medicine, but also post-graduate training in whichever field you decide (2-7 years! on top of 4 years. and this is not taking into account fellowships )

 

However, I can say that though at times I feel like I'm slogging away, deep down in my heart, I know that I am the happiest in medicine. Doing something else, wouldn't have made me as satisfied as I am now that I'm living my dream, knowing that I'm training to be a great physician.

 

*wow that sounds so cheesy. but it's true! *

[deeman101]

My UG can be summarized as "OMG wtf!! Eff my lifffeeee!!!!" I was really unhappy with how hard I felt I was being pushed by life in general for those 4 years. Especially considering I'm an innately lazy person and I like to sleep A LOT.

 

My med life (1st year right now) can be described as "lots of work, but totally do-able." Classes are early morning but they end pretty early for us (2:30, sometimes 3:30pm) and all lecs are recorded. Ex: I totally plan to skip next monday and friday just because I want longer weekends . The mandatory stuff is all you have to really come for in preclerkship. Plus I usually sleep 6 to 7 hrs a night and then nap for another 1-2hrs in the afternoon (yay sleep!). And I still hang out / play video games / do hobbies, etc. Although to be fair I'm not really big on ECs, just the odd shadowing and attending seminars given by the various clubs. I've learned my lesson about ECs from UG.

 

But my UG was pretty much a dumbed down version of preclerkship, so I'd say I have a good base in this stuff. Coming from an arts background, like orange said, you'll have to put more effort in. But I don't think drastically more. After a few months you'll get used to the steady flow of information. Thats one thing that really made a difference for me. The way how information is delivered in blocks makes things so much more manageable, even though theres more of it.

 

 

EDIT: I did undergrad at UofT and I'm at McGill now for med.

[Guest copacetic]

i think med school is alot less stressful than undergrad for a couple of reasons. For one thing, medicine is actually not that complex (conceptually) its just alot of memorization. I suck at memorization, sure, but my school emphasizes the important stuff, so you dont really need to memorize everything exactly...youll see the important stuff over and over.

 

the other thing is that you know you are on the path to fulfilling your dream, so that helps with the hard times. Its also pretty interesting, alot more interesting than undergrad since alot of the stuff is relevant, and not pointless like in undergrad. Your profs arent out to fail you like in undergrad, their there to help you become a good doc, so that helps.

 

People also chill out once they get into meds, so their alot better company than they probably were in undergrad.

[ilovesummer]

Hi guys

Your posts were incredibly helpful. Thanks! You have given me the motivation to keep on pushing

[DOC_Ma]

Different stress in med tbh. In undergrad, u r worried about getting high marks now in med u only need a pass. But theres more work and more stuff to know in med than undergrad but psychologically I am no longer stressed about anything cz deep down I know that they cant kick me out due to bad grades

[apache]

the workload in pre-clinical is much less if you're just going for class average and you don't volunteer a lot. there's no pressure to get an a, so that's good. i don't like that the workload is less intelligible: i find you're just thrown facts without an explanation of the underlying theory behind things, but that's a thing that's contingent on the individual since i'm not keen on memorizing things and medicine has a lot of memorization. i also miss the diversity of undergrad in both the people i see everyday and the material i'm studying, so it's a tradeoff.

 

the workload in clerkship goes up quite a bit on most rotations, but i'm sure if you're uber passionate about medicine it can actually be quite enjoyable, if you're not, then life may suck.

 

residency is up to you, you can sign your life away to neurosurgery or go 9-5 plus self study with pathology.

[pathman]

Well I guess I'm different from a lot of people posting here. I come from an UG background in science and I recall learning courses in a night or two and doing fine on exams. I did however go to class and just try to learn as much as I could there.

Med school was a different story due to the sheer amount of volume necessary to learn. Preparing for the next exam began on day 1 of a new block. The one good thing about med school is the lack of assignments...but even that's not totally true, because you want to be prepared for tutorials and problem based learning sessions and these require work beforehand. Also, clerkship can involve some assignments and presentations in addition to exams at the end of each rotation. Yeah..med school was more challenging for me.

[DOC_Ma]

Well I guess I'm different from a lot of people posting here. I come from an UG background in science and I recall learning courses in a night or two and doing fine on exams. I did however go to class and just try to learn as much as I could there.

Med school was a different story due to the sheer amount of volume necessary to learn. Preparing for the next exam began on day 1 of a new block. The one good thing about med school is the lack of assignments...but even that's not totally true, because you want to be prepared for tutorials and problem based learning sessions and these require work beforehand. Also, clerkship can involve some assignments and presentations in addition to exams at the end of each rotation. Yeah..med school was more challenging for me.

 

which med school do you go to?