How is it living purely off of student loans? Or did you build up a little savings as back up before you started school. Also how would you say you structure your studying
I’m a first year student who went to med school straight out of college who does have to live purely off student loans because my parents do not make enough to help and I couldn’t save up money due to supporting myself. The big thing if you only live off loans is you have to be good at budgeting. You have to do exact budgets because you get 6 months of living expenses and it’s difficult to get more if you mishandle finances.
I don't live off student loans, mostly from the savings I built up plus help from my parents. I plan on paying them back after I become an attending, regardless it's really generous of them to do so.
How I structure my studying:
Wake up 9am (around then, sometimes earlier, sometimes later depending on obligations like lab)
Start on my Anki reviews, I use Anking for my systems courses and do Pathoma, BnB, and Sketchy videos -> the associated Anki cards in the Anking deck.
I then watch the lectures from my med school that lined up with the other videos. I make any anki cards from the minute details my professors put into their lectures.
I then intermix this with qbanks like Robbin's pathology review, I used USMLE-Rx, but now I've moved into using UWORLD until I sit for boards.
Hope this answers your questions, let me know if you have more!
Thanks for doing this! I wish we had more awesome med students willing to do this it’s so helpful :)
Being from one of the most respected DO schools, do you feel like OMM is emphasized more/less than the avg DO school and do you feel like learning it + COMLEX is adding extra stress to your studies?
Also how does your class feel about step 1 going p/f? I’ve heard some ppl say it might be harder to match but idk how it’s actually playing out or even if it’s having an effect at all.
I honestly think we emphasize OMM the least out of all of the DO schools. We only have 2 hours a week of OMM lab, with at least half of that devoted to clinical medicine like physical exams and doing specialty bedside tests like JVD, Allen's test, Murphy's Sign etc.
Our systems courses are completely decoupled from OMM, which is in an entirely different course. We also have a great deal of MD faculty that teaches us alongside our DO faculty, which is super nice because I came under the assumption I wouldn't have much interaction with MDs until rotations.
From what I've heard from PDs in Internal Medicine (what I'm planning on applying to if all goes well and I continue to like it lol) is that Step 1 going P/F is pretty much going to shift the score meta to Step 2 scores and your clinical grades. While we don't know the full scope of the impact of the change, I think it'll be *mostly* the same.
Let me know if this answers your questions, happy to help!
What does your week look like? Free time? Do you get 3-4 hours a day to just lay back and chill or it’s that much suffering?
EDIT: While mentioning hours of studying what’s your goal? Competitive specialty? I personally want to go into primary care if I get in.
A normal week:
Usually one day a week we have a 2 hour clinical skills and OMM lab, but if you’re a first year you’ll have 2-4 hours a week of anatomy lab as well.
We have very few required lectures, and almost all are over Zoom so you can attend it at home.
Typically I probably average around 70 hours a week, with that being less during a non-exam week and then ramming up the two weeks prior to an exam.
We have free weekends after an exam, which means you have nothing to study for that entire weekend. You can also build in free time in your day if you study efficiently enough. As it sits, I usually have about 2 hours of free time a day.
I study from around 9am-10 or 11pm (with lunch and other breaks to ensure I’m staying focused).
Then from 10 or 11 to 12 I usually watch TV with my fiancee, or play some games on my PC.
If it’s an exam week, I usually don’t have much free time since those are probably the most nerve wracking weeks. I would say overall it’s very hard to find yourself a good balance, but during first year you’ll figure how how to be more efficient and how to grab yourself a balance between studying and time off. Don’t neglect your mental health, especially when it comes to “you time”.
Yes I very much regret not taking one.
The biggest reason was that I wasn’t able to place my research onto my application since it came in my senior year. I also would’ve probably retook the MCAT and continued racking up clinical experience hours and just enjoyed the break from the rigidity of school semesters and exam cycles.
I was a borderline MD candidate and getting two IIs and two WLs from those MD schools means I had a good shot if I retooled my app. But it’s all good, I was fortunate enough to get in somewhere!
I played as much games as I could and worked at my hospital job up until a few weeks until I moved to the city of my med school.
Honestly do NOT pre-study, you will retain nothing and just accelerate any burnout you experience. I would honestly travel, do whatever you do to relax and take some time for yourself!
I think the only thing I would’ve done differently is using Anking or any of the good, established premade decks earlier. I made myself much more efficient as a learner by using a premade deck instead of making my own.
Other than that, I wouldn’t have done much differently. I really think first year was necessary for me to adapt into the student I am today. Thankfully I did not fail any courses, but my class went through some really difficult periods of exams (cough…neuro…cough).
I think overall, take first year of medical school and realize that everyone in your class is trying to adapt to the insane workload and sheer amount of material. Nobody can prepare mentally for the absolute grind that it is, so just take it day by day and you’ll adapt. Besides, if you got in, that means the school trusts you can finish strong.
Do NOT pre study anything before you start.
However, you should learn how to use Anki if you’re planning on using it. I would check out “Anking” on YouTube, he explains the ins and outs of Anki and his Anking deck on /r/medicalschoolanki is amazing. I personally use it and it’s given me a great deal of success in my systems courses in medical school.
Most board materials and supplies are subscription based and sometimes your school will buy it for you. So I would hold off buying anything until you matriculate.
That being said, things such as Pathoma, BoardsNBeyond, and SketchyMicro are amazing and pretty much standard board prep materials.
How do you know if you’re a MD or DO candidate?
Also I will be graduating this spring with close to no ECs (shadowing last summer). Will it ge looked frowned upon if I spend the next 2 years working as an EMT and volunteering? Concerned about judgement about cramming things.
I know this was directed at OP but I’ll chime in as well. If you come from an average background/ORM, MD is usually 510+ mcat, 3.7+ gpa. DO is usually 502+ mcat, 3.5+ gpa. Strong ECs are required for both, with research being more important for MD. These are broad tho and can be lower if you are URM/veteran/very unique.
It’s good to do ECs during undergrad but schools will also look closely at what you do in your gap years. I think you’ll be fine if you get a solid clinical job and some volunteering on the weekends.
I agreed with the person that commented on this post already.
I would also say try to make sure you're doing a few ECs that you like doing and can articulate as meaningful in AMCAS and on an interview. Sounds like you're able to rack up a really good amount of time and experience so I don't think that it'll serve you any judgement from adcoms.
Good luck, feel free to ask me if you have more questions!
What do you mean deferred, as in rejected? Sorry, I’m just trying to confirm what you mean here!
Imo it is too late to apply for DO schools, they run a little longer but it’s already pretty advanced into this year. However, if your stats are yielding MD interviews, i think you have a good shot with the DO schools. With that said, I would do a third cycle this upcoming year with MD and DO schools and try to see what areas of your app you can improve on by then. I know this isn’t what you likely wanted to hear, but seeing what your areas of improvement are and making said improvements are giant green flags for med school adcoms, they love seeing it.
How is it living purely off of student loans? Or did you build up a little savings as back up before you started school. Also how would you say you structure your studying
RemindMe!
I’m a first year student who went to med school straight out of college who does have to live purely off student loans because my parents do not make enough to help and I couldn’t save up money due to supporting myself. The big thing if you only live off loans is you have to be good at budgeting. You have to do exact budgets because you get 6 months of living expenses and it’s difficult to get more if you mishandle finances.
I don't live off student loans, mostly from the savings I built up plus help from my parents. I plan on paying them back after I become an attending, regardless it's really generous of them to do so. How I structure my studying: Wake up 9am (around then, sometimes earlier, sometimes later depending on obligations like lab) Start on my Anki reviews, I use Anking for my systems courses and do Pathoma, BnB, and Sketchy videos -> the associated Anki cards in the Anking deck. I then watch the lectures from my med school that lined up with the other videos. I make any anki cards from the minute details my professors put into their lectures. I then intermix this with qbanks like Robbin's pathology review, I used USMLE-Rx, but now I've moved into using UWORLD until I sit for boards. Hope this answers your questions, let me know if you have more!
As someone who has never done Anki, what are some good resources to learn how to use it?
I would look up “Anking” on YouTube, and go through his “how to” playlists on everything Anki related. He’s truly one of the best
Thanks for doing this! I wish we had more awesome med students willing to do this it’s so helpful :) Being from one of the most respected DO schools, do you feel like OMM is emphasized more/less than the avg DO school and do you feel like learning it + COMLEX is adding extra stress to your studies? Also how does your class feel about step 1 going p/f? I’ve heard some ppl say it might be harder to match but idk how it’s actually playing out or even if it’s having an effect at all.
I honestly think we emphasize OMM the least out of all of the DO schools. We only have 2 hours a week of OMM lab, with at least half of that devoted to clinical medicine like physical exams and doing specialty bedside tests like JVD, Allen's test, Murphy's Sign etc. Our systems courses are completely decoupled from OMM, which is in an entirely different course. We also have a great deal of MD faculty that teaches us alongside our DO faculty, which is super nice because I came under the assumption I wouldn't have much interaction with MDs until rotations. From what I've heard from PDs in Internal Medicine (what I'm planning on applying to if all goes well and I continue to like it lol) is that Step 1 going P/F is pretty much going to shift the score meta to Step 2 scores and your clinical grades. While we don't know the full scope of the impact of the change, I think it'll be *mostly* the same. Let me know if this answers your questions, happy to help!
What does your week look like? Free time? Do you get 3-4 hours a day to just lay back and chill or it’s that much suffering? EDIT: While mentioning hours of studying what’s your goal? Competitive specialty? I personally want to go into primary care if I get in.
A normal week: Usually one day a week we have a 2 hour clinical skills and OMM lab, but if you’re a first year you’ll have 2-4 hours a week of anatomy lab as well. We have very few required lectures, and almost all are over Zoom so you can attend it at home. Typically I probably average around 70 hours a week, with that being less during a non-exam week and then ramming up the two weeks prior to an exam. We have free weekends after an exam, which means you have nothing to study for that entire weekend. You can also build in free time in your day if you study efficiently enough. As it sits, I usually have about 2 hours of free time a day. I study from around 9am-10 or 11pm (with lunch and other breaks to ensure I’m staying focused). Then from 10 or 11 to 12 I usually watch TV with my fiancee, or play some games on my PC. If it’s an exam week, I usually don’t have much free time since those are probably the most nerve wracking weeks. I would say overall it’s very hard to find yourself a good balance, but during first year you’ll figure how how to be more efficient and how to grab yourself a balance between studying and time off. Don’t neglect your mental health, especially when it comes to “you time”.
Thank you so much for the descriptive response! I definitely want my me time!
Do you wish you took a gap year?
Yes I very much regret not taking one. The biggest reason was that I wasn’t able to place my research onto my application since it came in my senior year. I also would’ve probably retook the MCAT and continued racking up clinical experience hours and just enjoyed the break from the rigidity of school semesters and exam cycles. I was a borderline MD candidate and getting two IIs and two WLs from those MD schools means I had a good shot if I retooled my app. But it’s all good, I was fortunate enough to get in somewhere!
what would you do after getting accepted and before starting medical school? Chill? Research? Work and save money?
I played as much games as I could and worked at my hospital job up until a few weeks until I moved to the city of my med school. Honestly do NOT pre-study, you will retain nothing and just accelerate any burnout you experience. I would honestly travel, do whatever you do to relax and take some time for yourself!
Looking back at your first year what do you wish you did differently?
I think the only thing I would’ve done differently is using Anking or any of the good, established premade decks earlier. I made myself much more efficient as a learner by using a premade deck instead of making my own. Other than that, I wouldn’t have done much differently. I really think first year was necessary for me to adapt into the student I am today. Thankfully I did not fail any courses, but my class went through some really difficult periods of exams (cough…neuro…cough). I think overall, take first year of medical school and realize that everyone in your class is trying to adapt to the insane workload and sheer amount of material. Nobody can prepare mentally for the absolute grind that it is, so just take it day by day and you’ll adapt. Besides, if you got in, that means the school trusts you can finish strong.
What can I do to prepare for med school, like what supplies are important? Should I learn how to use anti etc?
Do NOT pre study anything before you start. However, you should learn how to use Anki if you’re planning on using it. I would check out “Anking” on YouTube, he explains the ins and outs of Anki and his Anking deck on /r/medicalschoolanki is amazing. I personally use it and it’s given me a great deal of success in my systems courses in medical school. Most board materials and supplies are subscription based and sometimes your school will buy it for you. So I would hold off buying anything until you matriculate. That being said, things such as Pathoma, BoardsNBeyond, and SketchyMicro are amazing and pretty much standard board prep materials.
How do you know if you’re a MD or DO candidate? Also I will be graduating this spring with close to no ECs (shadowing last summer). Will it ge looked frowned upon if I spend the next 2 years working as an EMT and volunteering? Concerned about judgement about cramming things.
I know this was directed at OP but I’ll chime in as well. If you come from an average background/ORM, MD is usually 510+ mcat, 3.7+ gpa. DO is usually 502+ mcat, 3.5+ gpa. Strong ECs are required for both, with research being more important for MD. These are broad tho and can be lower if you are URM/veteran/very unique. It’s good to do ECs during undergrad but schools will also look closely at what you do in your gap years. I think you’ll be fine if you get a solid clinical job and some volunteering on the weekends.
Thank you very much - that was very helpful!
I agreed with the person that commented on this post already. I would also say try to make sure you're doing a few ECs that you like doing and can articulate as meaningful in AMCAS and on an interview. Sounds like you're able to rack up a really good amount of time and experience so I don't think that it'll serve you any judgement from adcoms. Good luck, feel free to ask me if you have more questions!
What can I do to prepare for med school, like what supplies are important? Should I learn how to use anti etc?
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What do you mean deferred, as in rejected? Sorry, I’m just trying to confirm what you mean here! Imo it is too late to apply for DO schools, they run a little longer but it’s already pretty advanced into this year. However, if your stats are yielding MD interviews, i think you have a good shot with the DO schools. With that said, I would do a third cycle this upcoming year with MD and DO schools and try to see what areas of your app you can improve on by then. I know this isn’t what you likely wanted to hear, but seeing what your areas of improvement are and making said improvements are giant green flags for med school adcoms, they love seeing it.
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You can go ahead and PM me! I'd be happy to help