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Imagine a different life. Instead of the beeping of IV pumps and the bustling of the healthcare team, you are instead surrounded by the purr of diagnostic machines, the whirring of refrigerators, and the bright white fluorescent lights of a laboratory. There are no patients here, but there are parts of them. And what makes it even more exciting is that there are things that only you know, things that only you can find out, and knowledge that is only contained within the walls a pathologist calls home. 

It goes without saying that medical colleges have the highest tuition fee amongst all colleges/universities globally. Trust me, it is hard enough to deal with med school without considering the exorbitant tuition fee. Most medical students are always fighting to make ends meet due to the ongoing load of student debt, scholarships, and housing fees. 

Personal statements (PS) form an integral part of your residency application. It has a citing factor of 78% by program directors according to NRMP data. If you are anything like me, you probably have half a dozen versions of it typed out, with every new draft looking more and more different from the others.

One of the most exciting stages of a medical student’s journey is their first clinical placement. Learning about the theory underpinning the human body and its systems is fascinating, but it’s much more illuminating to see this theory being applied to help real people.

I’ve often been perplexed by this dilemma that is presented to us:  On one hand, we as doctors are supposed to be the champions of humanity, the healers supposed to be guiding entire nations through trying times, such as the recent COVID pandemic. On the other hand, we are sometimes poor at managing our own personal connections. We barely have time to appreciate the ones who actually depend on us, the ones who actually derive emotional comfort from us. 

Medical school is great. We get to embark on a career that we absolutely love, and we get to help the members of our community for a living. It’s no secret that pursuing this line of work is intrinsically rewarding, but there are some additional benefits of med school that can sometimes go unnoticed. For instance, I’ve found that medical school has improved my own personal, non-medical life too. Here are some of the ways that medical school has impacted my life outside of medicine. 

The aspect of medical school that students seem to most universally anticipate are their clinical rotations. When you’ve got your basic biomedical theory down and have practiced one too many cannulations on a plastic model, you know it’s time to see the real patients. However, it’s very possible for the budding excitement you feel at the thought of attending your first clinical placement to be overshadowed by waves of self-doubt and anxiety. Perhaps you now feel you don’t know nearly as much as you thought you did, or maybe you’re terrified of being schooled by a particularly strict doctor. If this sounds like you, don’t worry— we’ve all been there. Fortunately for you, there are a few tips you can follow during each of your rotations to ensure you make the most of your clinical experiences. Keep reading to find out what they are and how you can put them into practice!

It’s not uncommon to hear medical students complaining about how medical school has ‘ruined their life’, but if you look past the melodrama and the whining-for-the-sake-of-it-ness, there actually is some truth to how medical school has ruined my everyday perception of life outside of medicine. I have definitely developed a few bad habits thanks to medical school, which I’ve had to work very hard making conscious efforts to correct. I thought I would list some of these bad habits here so you don’t make the same mistakes.