A guide to Med School- as a recently graduated student

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Ravizzle

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Hey all, I wrote a guide to NSU-COM a few months back for one of our school publications. Some friends told me it would be pretty generally applicable to others so i figure I'd share it with the SDN peeps.


A guide to NSU-COM



“I’m done.” Oh how great it feels to say those two words. 4 years. At times it feels like it was an eternity and other days I reminisce and think about how it all went by too fast. The crazy roller coaster ride known as medical school is now over, and I get to move on to the next big attraction. Residency. But before I begin my freak-out for what the next few years has in store for me, I have some time to reflect on my past 4 years at NSU and share my thoughts, tips and advice for those that are still on their journey. I’m not quite sure how many of you will be reading this, and where you are in your journey, so in interests of saving you time I will keep it chronological, skip forward to where you’re currently at and find the info that is relevant to you.


Just a few general words of advice. Med school sucks. You need to know this going in. You are always studying, always tired, and always stressed. They key is to balance it out with other things so that you persevere and get to the other side. It’s ok to bitch and complain, but don’t do it all the time. Try to have a positive outlook. You don’t want to be labeled as the Debbie downer of the class or the guy that argues with everyone and is absolutely miserable. Although it may seem like it to you at times, the school isn’t out there to sabotage your medical career. You are just very stressed and any inconvenience or policy that hinders you slightly will feel disproportionally unfair to you. Just take deep breath, and move on.

Alright, onto the real advice.


Pre-M1: You have just been accepted to NSU. Yay. Life is great.


Don’t:

Pre-study- It’s not worth it. “But I’m a non-trad, and I’ve been out of the game for a minute. (urban dictionary it; “a minute” in cool people lingo means “a very long time”)” Still not worth it. You will spend 2 weeks studying what we will cover in 1 or 2 days. “But I’ve never taken anatomy before” Still not worth it, like half your peers haven’t either and you aren’t going to remember enough things in the amount of detail needed for it to be worth your while. You will waste your entire summer and gain very minimal results.


Go on forums and obsess over every aspect of what medical school will be like. If you are like me and have lots of free time before school starts, you will look for useless things to pass the time. Obsessing on forums and SDN etc are NOT the way to go. Only go on there for specific advice, don't just browse around mindlessly refreshing and reading up on all the horror stories (As a person with over like 1k SDN posts trust me). You will just become more anxious and wound up. Instead watch a **** ton of TV! Netflix through the wazoo, that way you will be all caught up on the shows and have stuff to talk about with your peers. (Your TV watching skills will become so great that somehow in the future you will find out a way to binge watch the latest season of House of Cards right before finals and Step1 and still do well!)

Do:

Buy school supplies. HIGHLIGHTERS. Very important. Actually never mind, we use iPads now. If u really want to prepare for med school in your time off, prepare for the nonacademic rigors of med school. Learn to meal prep, get a gym routine going, figure out what you will do to help manage your stress. Schedule automatic payments/reminders for your all your bills (finals week is a blur and you don’t want a stupid late payment ruining your credit score.)


Travel. This is one of the best times to go explore, you are worry free, and the crippling medical school debt hasn’t accumulated yet. If you don’t have a baller European budget like some of your boujie peers and friends, don’t fret, staycations and domestic vacations are great. The national parks are great and inexpensive (I’ve never actually been, but I’ve heard from many of my peers). Also I can give a great endorsement of Canada, go visit there, people are super friendly, the place is beautiful, and it’s a cheap flight right on over. (Full Transparency: I’m Canadian)


M1: You are excited. You are in Medical School yay!

Lots of great Instagram and Snapchat material the first few weeks.

· A nice professional pic at the white coat ceremony (Profile pic for sure!)

· A picture of your study materials in the library with all your different colored pens and highlighters (the Valencia and Hefe filters are highly recommended!)

· Social events (your friends and family will really appreciate the snapchat barrage of multiple poorly lit videos of you going HAM at America’s backyard in Las Olas.)


Jokes aside. The first few weeks of M1 are great. Cherish it. Live it up. Because after that. **** gets real.


Honeymoon period is over. Oh snap! Its time to buckle down and study. First semester is all about learning how to study efficiently. Some of your undergrad methods may work here, and some may not. The pace of med school is much faster than you are accustomed to. It can be overwhelming initially.


Don’t:

Be intimidated. You were accepted for a reason. Trust the process (Shout out to Joel Embiid). You are a highly capable individual and you have the (particular set of) skills needed to succeed (Shout out to Liam Neeson). Some of your classmates may seem more capable than others, but you don’t need to worry about others. Study as much as YOU need to do well. Don’t compare yourself to others. There is always going to be that one guy who never studies and does well, and there are going to be those that study all day and all night and make u feel guilty about taking even the smallest of study breaks. You just do you.


Be too much of a social butterfly. Yay you made lots of friends! Now don’t feel obligated to try and group study with them all the time if that’s not how you are productive. You don’t need to RSVP to every single event that you are invited to. Just because Justin goes out partying every weekend and does really well, doesn’t mean that you can get away with it. Don’t get suckered into trying to mimic him. What you don’t see is the beastly work ethic he has when you don’t see him out and about. Have fun, but make sure you make the time to get your work done as well. Work hard, play hard –David Guetta ft. usher.


Be too much of a bookworm. Take breaks, watch some TV, get dinner with friends, go to some volunteer events, join a school club or two. Find a good balance between studying and extracurricular activities. All work and no play makes harry a sad boy.


Do:

Call your mom. She misses you. Her Lil Timmy is all grown up and away from home now. She worries about you constantly. You’re a terrible cook, and those microwave chicken sandwiches from Costco that you eat for every other meal (delicious as they may be) are probably carcinogenic. Call home once in a while, update them on how everything is going. This is a great two-way therapy session. Your momma will feel much better listening to your voice and you will be able to voice your frustrations with school and get some much needed mental support from your family. Reach out to your friends, family and anyone else you miss and keep your support system updated on how you are doing.


Change up your study habits. If you find that your old ways of studying aren’t cutting it, go ahead and try something new. Reach out to upperclassmen and colleagues in your class and try and incorporate some new study methods into your routine. You weren’t a big flash cards person in undergrad? Maybe you find that flash cards are really helpful for anatomy now. You used to re-write all your notes in undergrad? Ain’t nobody got time for that, maybe u find that re-watching a few difficult lectures at 2X speed is what u need to get through that second pass of the material.


M2: You are 1/4th of the way to becoming a doctor! You made it through the gauntlet which is 1st year and you are ready to obliterate 2nd year and move on to rotations. But hold up, you still have one mighty obstacle looming on the horizon. STEP 1 (Level 1 if we are trying to be osteopathically correct).


Don’t:

Start freaking out about boards. In your last week of M1 they will hand out the First Aid books and people will just start losing their minds. Step 1 is tough, but don’t let it be any more stressful or intimidating than it needs to be. There is no need to start hardcore studying 1 year in advance. Learn your material well in class and start adding a few annotations here and there to First Aid. In my opinion around winter of M2 is the best time to start gearing up for boards and do a light pass through first aid and some mild Qbanking, and around spring break is when you should be going into full boards immersion mode.


Blow off class completely. It’s the second half of M2 year and everyone just came back from winter break and is in full boards frenzy. A common mistake I saw was people just neglected class completely to study for boards and then this ended up biting them when it came around to midterms and finals. Focus on getting your class work done first and learning the material well, and AFTER that integrate that knowledge into your boards study plan.


Do:

Enjoy your Winter and Spring breaks. Don’t spend your entire break time trying to board study. You deserve the time off and you need this time to recharge your batteries. A medical outreach trip is a great idea. NSU offers so many opportunities which aren’t very expensive and a great way to travel and gain some hands on experience. (I went to Jamaica with SNMA and highly recommend it!)


Uworld, First-Aid, Pathoma (UFAP). Add on any other resources you wish to, but do not skip out on the holy trinity. The UFAP method has been tried and tested and is unbeatable. Even if you only take the COMLEX, Uworld is a better learning qbank than the comlex qbanks. Do COMBANK or COMQUEST to get used to the weird question styles of the COMLEX, but be sure to use the UFAP for your actual learning of the knowledge.



M3: Yay no more class! You get to play doctor now (or so you think).


Don’t:

Do the obvious really stupid mistakes (Which should be common sense yet you see people do all the time). Don’t be late, don’t ask to go home early, don’t blow off your rotation, don’t show an attitude, don’t be on your phone all the time. When you’re at the rotation, be present, ask questions when appropriate, read up on things you don’t know, be helpful to the residents (yes this sometimes means scutwork).


Be disinterested. Even if the rotation you are on isn’t the specialty you plan on going into, try to learn as much as you can from it. You don’t need to lie and tell everyone that you are going into a certain field just so they think you care, its ok to share what you are going into even if its very different from the rotation you are on. I’m going into Peds, and when my attending asked me what I was interested I was honest about it (he of course told me I was going to be poor forever), I still did my readings and showed interest in whatever service I was on and worked hard and they never held me not going into their specialty as a slight.


Say “Are u sure?”, when ur resident says you can go home early. What u need to do is say “thank you” and immediately start packing up your stuff, do not make eye contact in case they remember something else, and you get ur butt out of there. Residents that let you out early remember what it was like to be a student and so you must take advantage of when you have cool residents who realize that you have done all your useful learning for the day and don’t need to be waiting in the resident room for hours doing nothing. So just go home. Don’t ruin it for the other students that are rotating with you by asking more questions or finding more work for them to stay and do.


Do:

Bring treats for your resident team on your last day. This means cookies and or brownies etc. Don’t be like spending crazy money and trying to buy everyone fancy coffees and stuff. As a future resident I think I would really appreciate a small gesture like this. Is this going to get you honors on your eval? NOPE. You gotta earn that stuff, but it does show that you appreciate your team for the month and helps keep us residents from dying of hypoglycemia.


Show initiative. Don’t be annoying, but don’t be just sitting there doing the bare minimum. Sure, you will get by doing the minimum, but if you truly want to get the most out of your rotations ask to do stuff, take initiative and show interest and you will get to do much more. If u want to learn procedures let your team know and ask to draw labs, put in IVs, catheters whatever for practice. On surgery ask the techs if they have expired sutures in the back or extra that they opened during the cases (but didn’t use) that you can have for practice. If you want to do posters or research papers ask your residents if they need a hand with any projects they working on, bring an interesting case to their attention and ask if you can write it up with them (You will likely be doing a big chunk of the work and not be first author, but its worth it for the experience at first).


Start thinking about what u want to be when u grow up. If you have no idea what you want to do, now is the time to figure it out. 3rd year goes by quickly and in the last half of 3rd year you need an inkling of what you want to do so you can setup your elective rotations and residency applications. Ask yourself if you can see yourself doing this field for your entire life. Consider the lifestyle and non-medical aspects of that particular field as well. This is tough to do for many (myself included) and it can be confusing as to what field you like and are suited for. Ask friends, family, and faculty for advice and guidance.


Start asking for letters of rec. Get these in as soon as you can, because its always a struggle to get ahold of your letter writers and have them upload their letters to ERAS. You want to be ready on day 1 to submit all your apps and be complete.


M4: It’s the home stretch! Almost there. M4 year is the best year of med school. You still have the stress of residency applications and all that jazz, however you are a grown up now! You are getting do more and more on rotations now, and are starting to gain the confidence of actually managing your patients.


Don’t:

Apply to just a few residency programs. Even if your stats are great, be wise and apply broadly. You can always turn down interviews or not rank programs later, but its better to have more options initially. Make sure all your letters are in and any documents you need are submitted. Make sure your scores are released to each program (you have to select each lil box for every program to release your score to them).


Check out completely after match. Yes your motivation has disappeared. Its ok to let off the throttle now. But don’t blow off your rotations or do anything stupid that can jeopardize your graduation. Make sure you get all your evals are in for the year, your patient logs and modules are done.


Do:

Be prepared for your interviews. Depending on your specialty and your program interviews can be very different. (Surgery friends tell me they were asked pimp questions on their interviews, while at some of my peds interviews we just talked about harry potter and favorite ice cream flavours). The big question at every interview is the WHY question. Don’t be robotic about it, show them why you want to go into whatever you applied to and back it up with examples of how you demonstrated that interest. Be courteous to all the staff and co-interviewees on interview day.


Have a backup. Especially if you are applying to a competitive specialty. Have a contingency plan, what will you do if you don’t match? Will u scramble into a different specialty, will you do a TRI, etc. Its ok to be confident in what you are going for, but there are no guarantees in this field. Even if a program director loves you and assures you that you will be ranked to match in their program its not done until you get that match email and it says you are there. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.


Sign up for airline loyalty programs (Free), or get a travel credit card (usually have an annual fee). M4 gets expensive, most people are applying broadly so there might be lots of travel for interviews, auditions, rental cars, flights, etc… Rack up the travel rewards and air-miles for free upgrades, cashback deals and free checked bags etc. (I paid for a post-match trip to Spain from all my rewards points accumulations)


Travel. After match is a great time to travel. Hopefully you have your independent study time saved up or do an international rotation for a month. Go enjoy yourself. Residency is coming.


ENDING WORDS


Congrats and good luck to you all. Med school sucks. But it’s like Charles Dickens says, it’s the best of times and the worst of times. Before you know it, you will be in my shoes, a 4th year in his last month of rotations just chillaxing and maxing. You will make amazing memories in med school and some of the closest friends you will ever make. Med school will test your endurance and mental fortitude, and so the most important thing is to manage your stress, and have a solid support system.


I hope this guide was helpful. If it wasn’t, then too bad, you aren’t getting these 15 minutes back. Go cry me a river.


-Ravizzle, DO
NSU-COM Alumni
Class of 2017 SGA president
Future Pediatrician

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I was going to say, thinking this could be another pros and cons, that this thread should be the Dos and don'ts of every DO school, but then I realized that it's going to be nearly the same as yours anyway.

But yeah. Nice heads ups you've given.
 
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Great insight. Thanks.

Sent from my LGLS676 using SDN mobile
 
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Since you got me 100% on the pre-m1 stuff, I'm going to save this for later use. Thank you so much!
 
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Thanks. I really enjoyed this.
 
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Been looking up to you since the get go broheem. Glad you got your stuff done. Expect a pm soon!
 
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i think the best of times/worst of times was Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities otherwise u r spot on
 
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i think the best of times/worst of times was Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities otherwise u r spot on

Good Catch! I fixed it, thanks for the heads up.
 
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