Regrets?

[whitelobster]

It would help me greatly if you all could inform me of the process you've taken to get where you are now (medical school or graduates) and what you wish you had or hadn't done. Thanks!
~Beth

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[LR6SO4]

I'm glad I decided to go to medical school. I'm glad I took some time off to work beforehand too! I wish I would have...taken another year off and went skiing!

 

[e2k]

Since college I've been a schoolteacher, a martial arts instructor, EMT, computer tech, English teacher, junior anthropologist, diabetes researcher along with even more esoteric positions.

I've lived in France, Japan, Korea, Mexico and all over the U.S. I also went to graduate school, published a book, wrote really bad poetry, and gotten married.

That was in the four years between college and med school. Now I'm in my third year at Sackler in Tel Aviv, and glad that I'd gotten out before getting in.

Basically, I did everything I wanted to do before med school. Now I really want to be a physician.

I just can't decide which kind...
ERIC

 

[nochaser]

...I've been a schoolteacher, a martial arts instructor, EMT, computer tech, English teacher, junior anthropologist, diabetes researcher along with even more esoteric positions... Now I really want to be a physician.

I just can't decide which kind...

••

Why am I not surprised?

 

[kris]

I'm not sure what kind of information you're after here, but my biggest regret is that I listened to the pre-med advisors at my school without question. I thought they knew what they were talking about, and I wasted an entire year applying when I had no business applying.

I was a grad student at the time, and they advised me just as they would have any undergrad. That was an expensive lesson for me.

I'm in med school now, but I had to apply twice.

So there you have it. That's my regret.

--kris

 

[snow100]

well,

i did have some regrets. and i left med school this year. i was in my first year. i want to do some things with my life before i decide on a career. maybe i will go back to medicine, i don't know. i've done a lot but not quite as much as e2k. but i want to do more things. u only live once.

snow

 

[mpp]

Originally posted by kris:
•they advised me just as they would have any undergrad. That was an expensive lesson for me.
•••

kris,

What would you do differently as a grad student as opposed to an undergrad?

 

[kris]

Originally posted by mpp:
•

kris,

What would you do differently as a grad student as opposed to an undergrad?•••

I'm a little short on time here, but briefly I'll just say that I was in grad school in the humanities. My advisors thought I could apply without being finished with my degree; they were wrong. Many med schools explicitly don't want applications from grads not yet done with their programs. There are several threads about this alone floating around in the SDN archives.

Being from the humanities, many of my science courses were rather old. My med school wanted me to take 1-2 years of upper level science classes to better prepare for the transition, and perhaps to prove that I could. Then there's the fact that any science rec letters were also several years old coming from undergrad science profs.

That's the short of it.

--kris

 

[doctor7]

i wish i had made more ethically questionable decisions in my youth ... the whole honor system thing is a bit depressing, especially if it's to go on for the rest of your life.