Students, educators, and physicians writing on KevinMD about medical school: admissions and what they select for, the cost of tuition and the debt it leaves, the curriculum and what students say it does and does not teach, Step 1 and the test-prep industry, pass/fail, mistreatment and depression in training, the match, Caribbean schools, and what should change. Most contributors are students writing while still in school, many of them anonymously. For what physicians have said about paying off that debt and the money decisions that follow, see Physician personal finance: what physicians say about their own money, in their own words. For a maintained record of what students and physicians have said about medical school on KevinMD since 2004, see Medical school: what students and physicians say, in their own words. For what physicians and deans have said for and against affirmative action and diversity in admissions, see Race and medicine: what physicians say, in their own words. For what international and Caribbean graduates have said about the Match and visas, see Immigration and medicine: what physicians say about immigrant doctors and immigrant patients, in their own words.
The New York University School of Medicine stunned the nation by announcing tuition for all current and future medical students will be free, irrespective of merit or financial need. Dr. Robert Grossman, dean at NYU, commented: “This decision recognizes a moral imperative that must be addressed, as institutions place an increasing debt burden on young people who aspire to become physicians.” NYU says their scholarship — which begins in the …
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Free medical school isn’t necessary a silver bullet
It’s Sunday, and the clock is approaching 8 p.m. Every computer in our team room is still on, and the sound of typing is filling the small space. A spread of snacks, interspersed between stethoscopes and stacks of faxed records, is ignored for the time being.
This scene was a familiar one on inpatient medicine, where call days can stretch long into the evening. Although those days were challenging and draining, …
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Embrace the teamwork involved in becoming a physician
After countless hours of hard work and three demanding years of medical school, it’s now time to face the spotlight! If your interview invites have started rolling in and you are feeling intimidated by the thought, follow these tips to land your first choice of clinical residency.
1. Be prompt with your responses to interview invites
Be sure to set your inbox to automatically refresh every hour during the interview season so you …
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8 tips to land the residency of your dreams
“Sondor” is a made-up internet neologism that captures the fleeting but poignant sense of “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness.”
I think about this word often when I see my patients. Everyone is the main character of his or her life, and during the third year of medical …
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A medical student as storyteller and story-listener
The dawn of 2018 brought new hopes and new promises for me as I began the third year of my medical school journey. This marked the beginning of a challenging era, one that would test my capabilities to the fullest but also one that was the culmination of countless sacrifices and the fulfillment of years of yearning. After all, this was what I had come to medical school for.
Third year …
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Here’s what the third year of medical school taught me
Preparing for medical school demands displaying your passion for both medicine and helping others. Like medical schools, other graduate school programs (think: business or law) require strong grades, test scores, leadership experience, and resumes. But medical school requires so much more than that. Good extracurricular activities for medical school are a particularly important part of the application process.
Through your application — personal statement, AMCAS experience list, secondaries, and interviews — you must …
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What kind of extracurricular activities do medical schools look for?
There is a saying among students that medical education is like “taking a drink out of a fire hydrant.” The simile evokes the torrent of information and the impossibility of taking it all in.
The type of people who are admitted to medical school aren’t used to being wrong; to call them perfectionists wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Many secured a seat in medical school because they had made …
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Being a physician was never the objective. The goal was becoming one.
Many people think medical school is all about memorization and books. But some of the most valuable lessons I learned in my first year as a medical student came from a much different experience.
No matter what stage you are at in your journey, there are always new facts, techniques, and procedures to learn. You are presented with an enormous amount of information during your preclinical years. There is so much …
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What this student learned from a standardized patient exam
Sanjay Gupta. John Locke. Jill Stein. Charles Krauthammer. What do they all have in common?
If you guessed that they are all physicians, then you’re right.
Less salient, however, is the fact that all of them pursued passions outside of medicine. (Dr. Gupta is an Emmy Award-winning medical reporter. John Locke was a physician-philosopher. Stein and Krauthammer both made their mark in politics.) In doing so, they avoided an existential trap that …
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Why medical students should not let medicine define them
“Passion isn’t a path in the woods. It is the woods.”
-Tom Robbins, “Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas”
I’ve met plenty of accidental physicians. These have been photographers, travel writers, artists, outdoor guides and chefs who awoke one day to find themselves doctoring. Their passions didn’t die — they were just delayed by lifestyle choices. By the time they recognized a need to follow their passion, they were at least partially through …
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It’s better to not go into medicine than try to get out of it
As an aspiring physician on the pre-med track (a microbiology and immunology major), I believe that creating a strong academic foundation, especially in math and science, is essential for future career and academic success. Growing up in Miami’s more improvised area, Liberty City, quality learning materials were scarce. Even when there were resources for active learning, most students were completely unaware of their existence or lacked the training to make …
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How the science of learning salvaged my college career
Before coming to medical school, I made a promise to myself: I will not become a robot doctor. Time and again, I visited what I call robot doctors: those physicians unable to empathize with me and seemingly unable to compute moments when I said something unscripted. For example, I once made an appointment with a doctor to discuss what might have been irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). While describing my symptoms …
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A vow to never become a robot doctor
First of all, many osteopathic medical schools are located in underserved areas — or as underserved as possible while still having enough of a medical community to make training possible. My school, LMU-DCOM is located in the middle of Appalachia, for example. Osteopathic medical schools generally encourage students to specialize in primary care, at least as much as they can, considering that our health care system is not …
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Explaining what osteopathic medicine is
I am both relieved and nervous because they say that the first year is the worst, but now I have the overarching cloud of doom following me around during second year: Step 1.
Now that I’m home, I constantly am wondering how I made it this far — in disbelief that I passed all my courses pretty well. I constantly ask myself if exams were too easy and if I’m just …
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Reflections after finishing the first year of medical school
“Check it out,” my boyfriend said, angling his rash-covered arms in front of the camera. Despite his best precautions, after a day of yard work, he was covered in poison ivy. Over video chat, he showed off the pustules that had erupted on his feet; I cringed.
“It’s fine,” he said, wincing while putting his socks back on. “I’m glad to know how awful it feels. I’ve seen a bunch of …
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How physical should medical training be?
There has been a recent surge in discussion about men’s fear to work alone with female colleagues in medicine. This reluctance puts both men and women at a disadvantage. Women are being excluded from career opportunities and men are missing out on the benefits of collaboration. As a victim of sexual misconduct during my own medical training, I find the recent increase of acceptance of reporting to be a step …
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How to ease men’s fear of mentoring in medicine
The glorious season is upon us. Yes, it is finally autumn. But it is also the season of ERAS with all of its letters of recommendation, USMLE scores, medical school transcripts, and personal statements.
I have dutifully reviewed dozens of applicants whose last names begin with the letters “T” through “Z.” I have noted the test scores and grades. I have considered the caliber of medical school and whether the LORs …
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5 tips to medical resident success
Note: This article contains language about physical assault that could be upsetting to some readers.
Stanford Medical School saved my life. Not in the metaphorical way, but in a very literal way. If I didn’t start medical school when I did, there is a high chance I wouldn’t be alive today.
I struggled writing this piece because only a small handful of people know my story. By the time you’re done reading …
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How medical school saved this student’s life
It’s hard for me to believe that a few years ago, I completely turned my back on an acting career I had spent almost two decades building and instead decided to forge into an unknown world of medicine. Even now, with nearly seven years of experience in the medical field and currently in my fourth year of medical school, I sometimes feel lost for an identity.
At the time of my …
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I learned how to be a good doctor in theater school
As a patient who has had extensive dealings with five prestigious Manhattan medical institutions, I have taken the liberty of writing this letter from the perspective of one who has spent many long and arduous years in the underbelly of our deeply troubled health care system, and one who has seen firsthand how the doctor-patient relationship has steadily eroded over time. This relationship, so foundational to the practice of medicine, …
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A patient’s open letter to aspiring physicians
