Name: You Just Got into Medical School. Now What?
Uploaded: 2021-04-03T18:20:22.000Z
Duration: 11 min 39 s
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Adverbs of degree

Here's what to expect and what to do next to make the most of your next four years as a medical student.

Dodgeball medical insiders dot com If you've ever wondered how to navigate the medical school process to position yourself for a strong residency position, you've come to the right place.

After receiving your acceptance and prior to your medical school orientation, you'll have several months of free time.

The gunners amongst you may be tempted to get a head start on studying or otherwise prepare yourselves to get a leg up.

There is little you can do leading up to your first day that will make a meaningful difference in your success.

Enjoy and cherish the break and slow pace of life while you still can, as you won't get another opportunity like this for quite some time.

Your first two years of medical school are your pre clinical years, where you're attending class and small group sessions to learn physiology, anatomy, path of physiology and the basics of the various organ systems.

Your first few months will be an adjustment period.

It does not matter how well you performed.

An undergrad medical school will be different during this time.

Focus on getting your study fundamentals in order.

Succeeding and thriving in medical school can only happen once you have a foundation of strong study strategies and are dialed in with your efficiency and productivity habits.

You'll need to be able to sustain a relatively high intensity for the next four years.

Many schools have pass fail grading during the preclinical years, which usually means you can just study for the boards and you'll end up passing your classes, too.

However, note that some pass fail schools still have internal rankings across all four years.

This will be codified in your Dean's letter when you're submitting your residency application.

And if your school has an A o a chapter, which is a medical school honor society, figure out whether they factor in pre clinical grades or not.

Getting into a away will definitely help your residency application.

If your school is graded either with letter grades or honors pass fail, there will generally be more pressure to bring your a game as you get acclimated.

Now is the time to begin seeking out exposure to the various specialties you are considering.

The sooner you can narrow down and pinpoint which single specialty you want to pursue, the sooner you can focus your efforts on finding a mentor in that field, securing publications and getting involved with relevant extracurriculars.

It's okay not to know, and many students won't finalize their decision until their third year.

But if you're able to figure this out sooner, you will be at an advantage.

At most medical schools, you'll have a summer break between your 1st and 2nd years.

This is likely the last summer vacation of your life, so enjoy it at the same time.

Use this as an opportunity to do something useful.

Most students up to pursue research in a field of interest.

And with roughly 10 weeks dedicated to full time research, you should be able to secure a publication or at least an abstract and presentation.

It generally takes a few months to secure one of these positions, so start looking no later than March, but ideally, a little bit sooner in your second year of medical school, the intensity will be dialed up compared to your first year.

The main reason for this is us, Emily Step one, the most heavily weighted and dreaded exam of a medical students life at most medical schools.

You'll take us Emily, Step one at the end of your second year, right before starting third year.

However, there are a few schools that have students take Step one during their third year.

However, in 2022 step one will be passed fail, and as a result, there will be far less stress and anxiety surrounding it.

While that will give you welcome breathing room as a second year medical student, it's kicking the can down the road, and you'll likely experience greater pressure to perform well on us.

It's still best practice to apply yourself and perform reasonably well on Step one.

After all, many of the concepts tested here will be further built upon and assessed in future tests such as yourself exams and Step two CK.

However, since Step one won't be graded now, is an opportunity to reallocate some extra time and energy to other factors that will move the needle on your application namely, research.

Your 3rd and 4th years of medical school are your clinical years where you're spending most of your time learning in the hospital, clinic and operating room.

Third year for most students is a rough but welcome transition.

You're finally in the hospital and our one large step closer to becoming a doctor.

You'll be rotating in various required specialties such as internal medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, psychiatry and more.

If you've narrowed down your intended specialty by the end of your second year, you can use that to your advantage to strategically schedule out your third year rotations.

At the very least, you hopefully have a vague idea of things you're drawn to like patient population, such as adult versus pediatrics or how procedural you want to be, such as surgical or nonsurgical.

You usually don't want to do your target specialty first since your first few months of third year or a transition period, and you won't be as likely to impress your precept.

As this may interfere with your away rotation scheduling or compromise, your Step two CK Studying third year is considered the longest and most intense year in medical school.

Not only are you studying for written tests in the form of self exams for every rotation, but you'll also be assessed by your various attendings.

On a subjective level, your overall grade in a given rotation is a reflection of your combined performance on your shelf exam and your clinical evaluations.

Your clinical rotations will be graded usually some form of honors pass, fail or honors.

Your performance on these third year rotations will be far more important and far more waited on your residency application.

Compared to your pre clinical grades towards the end of your third year, you should have figured out which specialty you're applying to.

At this time, you'll begin applying through the visiting student application service or visas to secure sub internship positions at various programs across the country in your desired specialty.

The end of third year is also the time most students take us Emily Step two ck, although others off to take this later during their fourth year in your fourth year of medical school, you know how to handle your clinical rotations, but you'll now need to work extra hard at your away rotations to impress.

Knocking it out of the park will help you secure a strong letter of recommendation, make a positive impression to hopefully receive an interview invitation and ultimately rank well at some away rotations.

Programs won't invite you for a formal interview, but will instead have an interview at the end of the rotation, thus saving you a trip during your residency application cycle.

In most specialties, letters of recommendation are ranked by program directors as one of the most important factors in assessing your residency candidacy.

You should receive several letters as 1/4 year, including from mentors at your home program as well as attendings in your away rotations.

However, letters are something you should be mindful of throughout your medical school career.

Work hard and impress your P I from your summer research between 1st and 2nd year.

Impress your attendings during your third year clerkships, particularly for rotations in your intended specialty and, of course, knock it out of the park in your sub internships as 1/4 year, not all away rotations and sub internships are created equal.

This can be the most trying and intense time of medical school.

My colleagues in internal medicine and emergency medicine described straightforward rotations that were sometimes even easier than some third year clerkships.

But those in surgery were often tested by the institution to see how hard they could work, and if 100 hour work weeks would shake them as 1/4 year.

You'll still have a few electives and mandatory rotations at your home program, but you'll overall have much more flexibility and even dedicated research months, which are much more relaxed.

Your residency application will be submitted in September, and you'll want to take a few months during summer to prepare your personal statement and other parts of your application.

Between October to February, you'll attend interviews at residency programs across the country.

At the end of February, you'll submit your rank list, and a month later in March, your fate will be sealed on match day.

There are a few other considerations to keep in mind.

If you want to set yourself up for a smooth and successful medical school career, first, do not get in trouble or have any professional marks against you.

This will be reported on your residency application and will hinder your chances of matching at a top program.

We have helped a number of students overcome such marks and match into very strong programs, but it required a great deal of effort, finessing, storytelling and networking.

Second, be careful with extracurriculars.

There's a steep opportunity cost to your time in medical school, and time spent on one activity takes away time from something else that could be higher yield.

Being a secretary or treasurer of some student group isn't going to mean anything on your residency application.

On the other hand, if you're able to start a meaningful advocacy initiative or organization, certain specialties may look favorably upon this.

Additionally, certain specialties will see certain activities or side hustles as a liability.

This is most prominent in surgical specialties, which are more old school and thinking and don't want you to be distracted.

After all, surgical residency is extremely demanding, and they are concerned any draws outside of surgery will compromise your ability to be a top performing surgeon.

Other specialties may be more or less understanding, but I still recommend avoiding talking up or highlighting any activities that could possibly draw negative attention.

While it may be awesome that you have 50,000 followers on Instagram, there will be some faculty who look down on this.

It's one of those things from a risk assessment perspective that's more likely to hurt than help.

Third research as it relates to your residency application is a game, and you can play the game to win.

Even if you are uncertain about your specialty, get involved with the research early, learned to play the game and pump out papers and abstracts.

It will help you regardless of which specialty you apply into.

I'm working on creating a research course that will teach you how I secured 65 publications, abstracts and presentations and what systems you can use to also crank out research with these.

If you're interested, sign up for my weekly newsletter Link in the description and last I found credit card turning immensely valuable when I was applying to residency.

I'm glad one of my classmates turned me onto it because it allowed me to save several thousands of dollars on flights and hotels when interviewing at 20 different programs all across the nation.

I started two years prior to my first residency interview, and that gave me enough runway to accumulate hundreds of thousands of points, even after medical school and residency.