Becoming a doctor isn't as straightforward as deciding to attend medical school. As a
future physician, there are 5 important decisions you'll need to make that will shape your experience,
future options, and even your happiness. Here's how to navigate them.
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com. If you search how to decide which medical
school to attend, most blogs and forums like Reddit or SDN will tell you to just go to
the cheapest medical school. They argue that any increased cost of attending a more expensive
school will surely not be worth the added loan burden, as the quality of education across
medical schools, at least in the United States, is more or less the same.
The issue with this oversimplification is that it completely removes important and valid
nuance from the discussion. On average, higher ranked and larger institutions
will open up more doors to you professionally than lower ranked and smaller institutions.
For example, say you want to pursue neurosurgery for residency. Unfortunately for you, neurosurgery
is one of the top 5 most competitive specialties, and if your school doesn't have a neurosurgery
residency program, then you'll be at a substantial disadvantage for multiple reasons.
Without a neurosurgery program, your exposure to the field will be limited, as will your
ability to secure letters of recommendation and neurosurgeon mentors who can bat for you
when it's residency application time. For smaller specialties like neurosurgery, ENT,
plastic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and many others, who you know and who is willing
to vouch for you is massively important in your residency match outcome. Additionally,
these smaller specialties have fewer residency programs across the nation, primarily academic
in nature rather than community. And some academic institutions, particularly old school
elite programs, tend to care more about your "pedigree", which is a silly way of saying
they care about how elite and impressive your medical school is. After all, they want to
maintain their elite and superior aura, which is silly, but is a reality of the situation.
The other important consideration in choosing a medical school to attend is the location.
Where you attend medical school is often in the same region in which you'll attend residency,
which is often in the same location you'll practice as an attending physician. This is
of course not a hard and fast rule, as there are many exceptions, but it is a strong trend.
For this reason, I urge students to choose a school in a location where they will be
happy. I prioritized UC San Diego over some other top 5 medical school acceptances because
I love San Diego and it is a phenomenal program. Even after doing my medical training there
and having associated stressful memories or challenging times, it's still a magical place
I love to visit. If you'd like to be a physician in the US,
it's much easier to do so if you attend medical school in the US. While Caribbean and other
international options are much much much easier to gain admission into, they also make it
far more difficult to match successfully into a desirable residency program. You can find
all my thoughts on Caribbean medical schools on my Caribbean medical school playlist.
The next decision relates to who you associate with most. Just ask around or even view the
comments to my videos, and you'll see that the medical school experience can vary greatly
for different people. From my perspective, medical school is a grind,
requiring immense dedication. Someone else may have a very valid opinion on the other
end of the spectrum, stating their medical school experience was more relaxed than college,
and they had plenty of time for relaxing, working out, and spending time with friends.
If both could be true, why is there such a discrepancy?
It comes down to your medical school and residency goals, which shapes how you need to allocate
your time and energy. If you want to either attend a top tier institution
for residency or hopefully match into one of the hypercompetitive fields of dermatology
or plastic surgery, then you'll have to work much harder than if you are happy matching
to a community program in family medicine. One isn't better than the other, but one will
require far more dedication and work ethic. By aiming to score at the top of your class
or hit the 260's for USMLE, your approach and experience of medical school will be in
stark contrast to your classmate who is content simply passing class exams while scoring 220
on USMLE. While your goals should ultimately be set
by you, it's shocking how much our behaviors and routines are influenced by others. If
your friends say you study too much and should relax more, you'll probably find yourself
studying less than if you were surrounded by friends with similar goals.
Relationships are a mixed bag, and I'm not for or against them during medical school.
I was in a relationship and it was a good experience and I grew a lot from it, but keep
in mind relationships can be a distraction and add complication to your life if they're
unhealthy. If you're dating another medical student,
you'll both understand each other's professional demands, but if your partner isn't in healthcare,
it's highly likely there will be some tension over your lack of time. There are many other
considerations to dating in medical school that I cover on my dating playlist.
Your specialty choice is arguably the most important decision you'll make in your medical
training. After all, this single decision will dictate your future career as a physician,
including your work-life balance, compensation, risk of burnout, and day to day reality as
a medical professional. If you're not sure where to start, the easiest
place is to first decide whether you want to be surgical or non-surgical, since the
two are so different. If you're stuck between one surgical and one non-surgical field, it's
likely because you haven't gotten enough exposure to each. And as many surgeons will tell you,
only do surgery if you can't imagine yourself doing anything else – reason being it's
extremely demanding. After that, it's common to focus on things
like work-life balance, bread and butter, and the patient population. But don't forget
often overlooked considerations, such as the long term viability of the specialty. After
all, you'll likely be practicing for at least a few decades. Some questions to ponder include
whether or not there is a high likelihood that the demand for that type of specialist
will decrease in the future based on new technologies. Are dynamics changing due to midlevel scope
creep, thus reducing the need for physicians in that specialty? Is it already saturated
and is the job market highly competitive? These are concerns very much impacting several
specialties today. Your specialty decision will also determine
how hardcore you need to be in medical school, which ties in with the previous point. If
you want to become a plastic surgeon or orthopedic surgeon, your experience of medical school
will be completely different than if you were trying to match into anesthesiology or family
medicine or emergency medicine. Everyone needs a mentor to most effectively
navigate through the gauntlet that is medical school. Mentors will shape your approach to
medical school and your future career as a physician. They'll tell you what to prioritize,
and what not to waste time on. They'll offer useful guidance, and if you have a few different
mentors, great, as they can provide various perspectives, allowing you to make well informed
decisions. Ideally, you want that mentor to be in your
intended specialty, but it doesn't always have to be the case. One of my mentors was
in internal medicine and I found tremendous value in that relationship, even though I
went into plastic surgery. I simply had additional mentors within plastic surgery who could speak
to the specifics of the field. There's no single way to find a mentor, but
it generally requires a bit of work and a bit of luck. For many, their research principal
investigators become mentors. Or perhaps it's the clinical preceptor that you rotate with.
Maybe you've befriended some upperclassmen who can offer guidance in navigating your
specific medical school, rotations, and hospitals. In extracurriculars, like Free Clinic, you
may take a particular liking to one of the doctors there and begin a mentor-mentee relationship.
There's no right or wrong, but always respect your mentor's time, maintain integrity, and
keep your word. Finally, be careful with regards to the inputs
and resources you choose in medical school. If you're constantly reading SDN, a place
riddled with neuroses and anxieties, then don't be surprised if you find neurotic and
anxious tendencies in yourself. If you frequent political news sources, which tend to be biased
one way or the other, you'll likely find yourself more angry, self-righteous, and intolerant
of opposing viewpoints. Based on where you are in life, there are
certain resources and inputs you want to prioritize and invest in. Back in residency, I remember
deciding between buying the new iPhone to replace my aging one, or enrolling in a similarly
priced course. I ultimately chose the course, and I'm glad I did, as it taught me many important
life lessons and introduced me to life long friends. Even as a premed and medical student,
I was much more willing to pinch pennies in most domains of my life, such as tech, going
out, traveling, and even food, as long as it wasn't junk food. But I always prioritized
my professional life and academic success, and that paid off in big ways.
When someone tells you they don't have time to exercise, it's actually that they don't
prioritize it over other activities in their life. Oftentimes when someone says they cannot
afford to eat healthy or buy a study tool, it's again simply a matter of prioritization.
As a premed, you shouldn't take your MCAT prep lightly, and you should invest your time,
energy, and money in the resources that have the greatest odds of helping you achieve your
MCAT score goals. In July of 2021 as I record this video, I would point you to these three
resources: AAMC official practice materials, UWorld for practice questions, and Memm for
content review and memorization. When applying to medical school, you similarly
want help from trusted experts who can elevate your application, help you get into your dream
school, and even make it possible to earn merit based scholarships to reduce your loan
burden. That alone saved me six figures in student loans. As you look at resources and
companies to work with, seek out those who are actual MD physicians, not PhD or other
types of doctors that didn't go to medical school. Look for those who have achieved stellar
results themselves, a track record of success with positive ratings from customers, and
a systematic approach so you know you'll always receive high quality service. If you decide
on Med School Insiders, we'd love to be a part of your journey in becoming a future
physician. Visit us on MedSchoolInsiders.com. If you haven't already, check out our blog
on MedSchoolInsiders.com that covers medical school application and study strategies in
greater depth. Or learn more with one of these two videos. Much love, and I'll see you guys
there.