Honestly not sure. I think it's largely because Cali is such a competitive location and specialties are already difficult for many DOs to get into. If you look at any DO match list (other than the west coast schools) you're unlikely to find more than 1 highly competitive match in Cali. Same can be said for New England. Some of it may be due to my classmates not wanting to end up out there (I know you'd have to pay me 7 figures to even consider it), but I'd say there's too many factors involved to give a concrete explanation.
Already been said but first year isn't bad. You'll likely end up killing yourself for the first 2-3 sections until you adapt to the pace of med school and get into a routine. Especially because biochem and immuno are faster paced than most of first year and they're also the first classes. Once you get into your groove though it's pretty easy to be average during first year imo. I just went to all the classes/labs, didn't study on weeknights more than an hour, and would review all lectures once on the weekends. I took Friday and Saturday nights off and would study most of Sunday and part of Saturday afternoons, but sometimes only Sunday. I was typically within 3% of the average on every test during first year and had a great lifestyle. Second year sucked and was by far the worst year of med school imo. I'd study 12-14 hours a day (including breaks) and was pretty much a straight C student. I also felt burnt out during most of second year due to the pace of the material we had to cover. Might have done better second year if I'd worked harder during M1 and built up my stamina more, but thankfully it didn't end up hurting me in the long run anyway.
Third year will totally depend on who your attendings are and your attitude about being in clinic. I had classmates who felt miserable on some rotations for whatever reason while I loved it. Just depends on your personality and sometimes if you end up with a crappy attending (thankfully most of mine were at least kind of nice). Fourth year is all on you. It's basically an elective year and you can set up almost any rotation you want. I actually managed to set my schedule up where I was only "on rotation" 6 weeks from mid-October to early/mid-Jan. Other classmates didn't plan their schedules as well and struggled to get days off for interviews. So again, 4th year is what you make of it because you have so much control over what your schedule is.
No one will care in first two years, so go crazy. When you start 3rd year is when you really need to start maintaining a professional look as some patients, co-workers, and attendings will judge you.
