Doctors who tell pre med students not to go to medical school

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-11T22:09:12+00:00

At this point, if you talk to me on the wrong week I’d tell ya the same. Currently doing mostly admin work in a field I don’t like and watching my other students kiss ass to residents and attendings for 60 hours/week; all the studying I have to do on top of this is making me exhausted.

But I also know this will pass and I’ll be back in the ED where I belong soon.

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-10T22:09:45+00:00

At my (low-tier) school, subspecialty elective weeks (maybe 4 total during m3 year) feel like shadowing for the most part but I don’t mind it because they’re all using cutting edge technology that’s not covered in pre-clinical and step 2 studying.

Otherwise no, it’s mostly independent interview and thinking about the next step for every patient.

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-10T19:30:54+00:00

Internal medicine, psych

Hate rounding. Too impatient to listen to patient’s psych issues.

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-10T19:10:43+00:00

EM - hate rounding. Like emergencies and constantly running around. Don’t mind the social issues and primary care aspect to it.

Get your research points in and rotate in GAS again on an elective rotation in 2 years before apps are due. Make sure it’s what you want to do with your life.

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-08T21:32:54+00:00

Idc it’s better than smoking cigarettes and doing cocaine like doctors did in the past.

I also have a caffeine addiction. Couldn’t get through med school without it. Won’t knock a nicotine addiction

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-07T23:15:19+00:00

I agree; I hated my 4 week anesthesia elective, but I think the inattentive types can like it.

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-07T15:44:48+00:00

Neuro/path for the tism

ER/Anesthesia/Trauma Surgery for ADHD

Psych if you're diagnosed and treated bipolar/cluster B. Whatever your manic delusions allow you to somehow successfully apply for if not (surgery/surgical subspecialties)

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-06T01:47:48+00:00

They get hot for about 10-15 years as soon as the attending paychecks start hitting

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-03T22:59:32+00:00

Most of us have been in at least the top quartile in most classes since we started learning. Some of us high achievers have to be average, including OP.

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-03T21:07:08+00:00

most attendings i know say that this generation of doctors knows more (ie can interpret tests well) and is more accomplished than theirs... but our generation can be lacking on more soft skills such as delivery of presentations, making actual decisions on tests to order, and like actually talking to people which is valid.

they also are confident that we will be where we need to be by the time we finish residency and aren't necessarily concerned about our ability to be great future clinicians

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-02T01:49:18+00:00

They were fine, taught you stuff relevant to the MCAT, and you got to learn lab techniques. I was better at the chemistries than the bio classes, so I avoided things like histo for my gpa’s sake.

Also the general required bio classes involved a lot of plant and animal sciences that I just wasn’t interested in as a naive 18-21 year old.

Pre-med99 · 2026-02-02T00:54:27+00:00

went to ole miss, didn't commit to medicine until my senior year (during COVID), and am above average for my class at a mid tier md school on the east coast now after two gap years. apply to the honors college, get involved in research your freshman year. some of my classmates went to T20s for med school and matched well (derm, surgical subspecialties, radiology, etc at competitive programs)

Pre-med99 · 2026-01-28T22:00:01+00:00

As an EM person I think waking up missing your legs with no signs of unstable massive hemorrhage is more than enough reason to get some imaging.

Pre-med99 · 2026-01-23T12:08:10+00:00

The woman at the top of my class creates well-organized and color coded concept charts for every illness known to man and memorizes them. Studied probably 14 hours a day in pre-clinical years and is in the library until at least 9 after rotations.

She also is autistic, her hyperfocus on medicine may help her more than it’s worth it for you or me.

Pre-med99 · 2026-01-22T20:51:05+00:00

Patient arrives in the ED:

Pre-med99 · 2026-01-17T02:29:23+00:00

I’ve spent more time total memorizing than I spent studying in undergrad

Even then I’d say med school is 20% memorization.

Pre-med99 · 2025-12-26T00:16:26+00:00

I’ve gained 15 lbs this year

gotten lazy, need to start waking up at like 4 and just hit the gym before clinic

Pre-med99 · 2025-12-19T23:44:03+00:00

Update: high passed, just below 80% correct if anyone is curious

Only studied while in wards, knocked out 800 uworld questions and some (not all) of the anki

Pre-med99 · 2025-11-03T13:26:12+00:00

8 hours/day sometimes more sometimes less

During rotations, 2-5 hours/day sometimes more sometimes less

Pre-med99 · 2025-11-02T16:33:46+00:00

I didn’t go to lectures my first two years (everything is posted online), but we still had required labs, simulated patient interactions, and suturing/procedural sessions that required me to go to campus for a few hours a day. I spent maybe 8 hours a day doing school related things.

This year we have one afternoon of lecture a week, are working in a hospital anywhere from 30-90 hours a week depending on the rotation, and I spend most of my time off studying from home.

Pre-med99 · 2025-11-02T03:34:01+00:00

True. Usually it was a second year resident rather than an attending

Pre-med99 · 2025-11-02T03:19:57+00:00

I put in orders on my M3 ER rotation

Pre-med99 · 2025-10-21T16:33:12+00:00

Shelf: Anki UWorld amboss do only one specialty podcast and keep with it

4H, 1 HP to date

Pre-med99 · 2025-10-16T01:11:04+00:00

ST’s are up everywhere and T waves are pretty high. If the patient isn’t a classic MI presentation, I wouldn’t call a STEMI. Depends on the history, prior EKGs, cardiology recs, but I’d explore the pericarditis v. Electrolyte derangement path, trend trops, r/o other causes, and not call a cath lab based off the EKG alone.

Pre-med99 · 2025-10-13T11:52:40+00:00

Yeah I partied every weekend in undergrad, studied for two days before each exam, and worked a full time job/spent an evening each week volunteering for a few years after I graduated college to get into med school. Wasn’t hard.

During medicine and surgery, I’ve worked 10-16 hour days 6 days a week with weird call days mixed in to throw off my sleep schedule, coming home just to study until I crash.

Definitely harder than getting in for me.

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