I'm skeptical that they work in the first place. But I just decided on my #1 choice (Applying DR) and am planning to write it this weekend and schedule it to send first thing Monday morning.

Is it too late? Will it look bad to send one this late (I interviewed in November)? Program's website says thy interview Nov-Jan, but I have no idea when their last date was.

Hey guys. I'm an M1 currently (24F) and in a 3-year long distance relationship with my partner (23M). I know part of the baggage with being in medicine is not having control over where you live for the next decade. My partner promised me he would move closer to me (next state over, few hours drive away) for nursing school, but 3 months ago, he last minute changed his mind and enrolled in a school in his home state (which means another 1.5 years long distance). The thing is, he didn't tell me about this switch up (his grandpa had stage 1 cancer but things were looking ok and now he is cancer free a week after he made this choice) and I feel blindsided. Also, he's never lived outside his home state but has sworn to follow me for med school, residency, etc. He's very close with his family and everyone in his family lives within an hour of each other. He says he's gonna move to me after he graduates and gets his license so he can work in the same city as me. I feel like this truth bomb might be a red flag for future hesitancy and lack of transparency around committing to move to me and follow me and my career around. I felt disrespected by the lack of communication and being blindsided. What if this happens again down the road? Besides this incidence, everything has been great. And he was by my side through every step of getting to med school. He came to my white coat, helped me move in, would practice mock interviews with me just list a few of the many things he did for me. First half of M1 year he would fly to see me every 4-5 weeks. He's a committed and loving and good person so this incidence feels especially blindsiding.

I'm also dying in school rn. We're a 1 year preclinical program and things just feel on the go all the time and i have to use 120% of my brain to pass. If we break up, I feel like idk if I can survive it while juggling school. Also the next few blocks are supposed to be the hardest. Anyone have experiences with going through break up in med school? Anyone been through something similar? Also, we were serious and talked about marriage and spending our lives together. Now, I feel like I'll have to start from square one. Afraid of being a nun forever or not finding the one because I don't think I have time for dating. I feel the pressure of making a choice now because I have a block exam in 4 weeks and I really need to lock in then and I can't study if I'm spiraling or freshly heartbroken.

TLDR: feeling heartbroken after long distance partner blindsided me and did not move closer to me. do i break up? if so, how do i handle it with med school? will i be alone or miss out if i leave him? feels like everyone in my school is in a relationship or engaged.

Also so sorry if this is a wrong place to put this, but I feel like my life is kinda controlled by med school and needing to survive and do well, so unfortunately this personal experience I have is really influenced by school. Thanks for all the insights in advance, feeling terrible rn.

Hello, I am a current M1 interested in doing clinical research in oncology. However, my school does not have an associated academic center ( I go to a DO school) and I was wondering how I would go about doing such research or if anyone could share advice. I would like to go into heme/onc someday and I know an academic internal medicine residency is the best place to start, and therefore would like to get into research. Should I contact the attendings at my schools core site rotations and ask? Or should I contact attendings at an academic medical center associated with another medical school in the area? Any advice would be appreciated thank you.

Does anesthesiology care about being a back up for applicants? Considering ortho with back up anesthesia.

Getting mixed up between different GI infection names & their clinical manifestations.

I.e. Differentiating between Shigella spp vs Streptococcus Gallolyticus vs Yersinia Enterocolitica vs Klebsiella.

Just need advice on keeping these infections straight

I’m a nursing student (not a medical student), but after watching the PITT, I was left with some questions about the medical hierarchy.

How exactly does the intern, resident, and employee system work? I’m at the start of episode 2, where two new characters were introduced: one as a 2nd-year resident and the other as an intern (which is a first-year resident, right?). They both seem to turn to another resident who’s been there longer (and is, respectfully, fine af—just had to mention that).

At one point, the intern acts without permission, upsetting the more experienced resident. I understand that residents are doctors, but they don’t actually have authority yet, right? So is it common for residents and medical students to be supervised by other residents?

I’ve heard The PITT is one of the most accurate medical dramas, so I’d love some clarification—especially since, as a 2nd-year nursing student, I haven’t been in clinicals that put me close to doctors or residents yet.

Any insight from medical students would be much appreciated!

Hey all. I couldn’t really get a good answer for this elsewhere, so I figured I’d ask here.

Are there experimental questions on the shelf exams? I thought that maybe with them being 110 questions, that would leave 10 to be experimental. Or, there is just 110 graded questions because NBME like the number 110 lol. Any info would be great!

I’ve been doing full histories using the 4 frames model, and have noticed it takes me AGES to complete one. I’m mindful that I have to get a lot faster, but how? Patients often go off on tangents (sometimes for a while) and I don’t want to be rude and cut them off…

Rotation vs reality

Hi everyone, I’m wrapping up my surgery rotation. I really loved surgery and could see myself going into it, but the residency gives me pause. After 2 months on the rotation plus studying, I’m absolutely drained and exhausted. I have fun every day, but I also come home with soreness, headaches, and feel lightheaded on rounds. The thing is, student hours are around 10-12 hours a day Mon-Fri. Meanwhile residents are pulling 24s and here on weekends. Could I last through a surgery residency? Is this normal for students to feel? How do people adjust to residency?

M3 here,

I’m like 99% set on applying gas but just finished my gen surg clerkship and was pretty astounded by how competent the senior surgery residents/attendings were with managing critically ill patients. I felt as though when others were recoiling from the chaos, these surgery team was just proceeding calmly, like it was just another day. Pretty bad-ass and something I aspire to…but I also have a good life outside of medicine and would like to maintain that.

I think I might be hanging on to a fleeting feeling but wanted to know if others have experienced this type of thing before. In all likelihood I’ll apply gas, just wanted to see if this itch will be scratched with a career in gas -> crit care, etc.

TLDR: OR is hands-down the best place in hospital, the question is should I marry it or not?

Well here it is, my anxiety slowly but surely creeping up as the ROL opens up and March 21st slowly approaches. Anyone else look back on your interviews, which might’ve felt good in the moment, and now think that you could’ve done significantly better? Now you think it actually was kinda mid, you came off as stiff, etc. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

And of course, the classic med student neuroticism will catastrophize this. What if I don’t match at all? What if I match into a really shitty program? What if I don’t get anything I’m hoping for at all in residency and beyond?

Please help calm me down, thanks 🥴

Have you got any recommendations about sites that let you see in specific muscle, articulations, bones etc..?

Hi all,

I'm definitely donating my body to science, hopefully to a medical school's anatomy lab. I've thought about getting tattoos to help medical students with my cadaver, and was wondering what particular tattoos would be most helpful?

So far I know I'm getting the incision lines for the anterior thorax(subclavicular -> sternum -> floating ribs). What other lines would be really helpful? Maybe a division of the abdominal sections?

On my last IM AI and I just cant bring myself to grind the way I used to. Feel like i was carrying more weight as an M3 than I am now. Now im just waiting to be dismissed and crawling day by day towards the match. This gets better intern year yes? The drive comes back?

I've been substituting in-house lectures with bootcamp whenever there are somewhat relevant videos that align with the in-house lecture, and that has so far worked pretty well for me. I've still been watching some in-house lectures when I can't find any relevant BootCamp videos at all. I am debating on just ditching in-house lectures entirely (except for the anatomy ones), and then using the extra time I have to make sure I finish all the BootCamp videos in this block, even the ones with topics that won't be on our exam. but that also sounds like hella extra work and also increases the chance of me not passing my exams. Any advice/recommendations?

Current OMS-III trying to decide on my specialty and would love some input. I have done rotations in both anesthesiology and radiology, and I can see myself doing either one in the future. I was leaning towards anesthesia but then I am unsure if I can handle the stress for 20+ years and still enjoy it in the future. I didn't love neither physiology nor anatomy lmao.

Here are pros and cons I put

Pros about Anesthesia:

• Less Pt interaction 
• Free time when in solo case
• Actually doing things to save people in front
• Hands on experiences
• Not so long for residency - 4 years
• Easier scheduling like working part time

Cons

• Can get sued easily 
• Not in charge- some people overlook like surgeons
• Not so much easy schedule - have to do calls, I don't like nights and have to sleep
• Supervising CRNAs a lot now
• Can be super stressful in some times when things go down- biggest concern, I am unsure how I would be in a stressful environment, typically do not like it.

Pros about Radiology:

• Lovely lifestyle
• No pt interaction 
• Lots of time and self care- It is speedy reading and heard no break while reading
• Very easy scheduling, work from home 
• Not really directly saving people but it is a huge part in patient's diagnosis and treatment.

Cons

• Heavy sue
• A lot of studying on your own- which I am concerned because I learn through experiencing it personally or like seeing through actual cases/patients
• Dark rooms working alone, lonely and boring
• No pt interaction literally just reading images left and right- is this why I became doctor tho?
• Longer residency
• More competitive - idk if I can get in

That's right bitches. You read that right. While your lame ass immune system is letting microbes come and go with only a few toll-like receptors mine is bringing the HEAT.

Interferon-gamma? More like interferon-CAN'T-a with you.

Cause you can't-a mount a debilitating immune response like my swole-ass immune system can. Only thing taking this bad-boy down is Spanish Flu and that's cause my T-cells hate those nerdy Spaniards so much they go full scale kamikaze on their asses.

That's right. Bow before my amazing immune system.

Also, I would like to request an absence from tomorrow's mandatory Dean's hour due to health concerns.

I appreciate your time and consideration.

Hi guys, is there any advantage to certifying or submitting my rank order list early in February when it opens? Does it have any effect on the match outcome submitting it earlier versus later?

Thank you!

Hey y’all!

Feeling pretty bummed this week, I’m on an away rotation at a program I’m very interested in and I’ve really enjoyed my time; I’ve gotten great feedback from my attendings so far. At the suggestion of the AI director, I had a meeting a few days ago to talk to the PD while I’m here to get some one-on-one interaction.

The problem is I think I totally blew it. Honestly at this point I’m done with my interviews, I interviewed with this program over a month ago, and I’ve had a lot of my questions answered by faculty and residents so I made the mistake of thinking this meeting would be very casual and the PD might ask me some questions about my experience here. But not really, I got asked like two questions then I asked one and kind of blanked on other questions. I kind of just chatted about the city and my interests then stated my interest in the program and awkwardly left after 10-15 minutes. I know it was stupid of me not to come prepared with more questions to ask and I feel like I completely blew this one chance to make a strong impression in person and it’s been replaying in my head for the past few days. It’s honestly made it really hard to focus and feel like it’s affected my performance since then.

Should I send a letter of intent to smooth things over? Ask more questions in more casual settings before I’m done with the rotation? Did I commit a major faux pas or am I really overthinking this? It’s so close to rank lists being made I don’t want my last impression to be negative and that I’m unprepared. Could definitely use some advice!

Currently in my dedicated, a few more weeks till step2.

I haven't worked out properly in the last 2 months. I am already a hard gainer and I am losing everything I gained 2 months ago.

I checked my weight and I am back to the same weight I started at a year ago and I am devastated.

I know there are a lot of things up in the air with loan repayments, but from my knowledge it's beneficial to file for a tax return to qualify for certain income-based repayment plans. Should I file as an independent or file with my parent's tax return?

I am interested in cardiology and always wanted to be a cardiologist, but as a first generation student with a disabled singled parent, it would be too selfish of me to go through 12+ years of school/training making little to nothing while my mom continues to work while disabled.

How do people in these circumstances afford to support their families , and support themselves while in medical school. Are there loans or grants? Completely disregarding the cost of tuition for the medical school, how do people afford rent, food, travel, clothes, etc.? I’ve seen videos of people buying homes/getting married while in medical school, how do people do that? Do people take out loans?

How do you feel fulfilled when 60% of your patients die, and the rest of them are gonna live with long term sequela (with exception of very few).

I’m asking because I like the science of it, but I’m scared that I’m gonna burn out

This is a venting post. I am currently doing my sub-i for an IM where I feel as though theres absolutely no guidance. I am used to sub-I's that let me go chart review and go see patients by myself, come back, present to an intern and senior resident about the assessment and plan (I still suck at this part) and we'd talk about each assessment and plan for the day together (sprinkle of education). This rotation has none of that, I often hunt the residents down by myself, and when I do, they give me short answers like "yeah thats pretty much it" when in reality during rounds, they come up with updated stuff from their imobile (which I have no access to). I am also uncomfortable because in these last few days, I've heard at least 5 times that they are going to make a match list. "8pm resident matchlist party" as an announcement or attending today left the dictation room saying "I will be in my office finalizing rank lists all day" im like guys, I am still here lmao. How would you feel if I told you that you are not going to make my top 5 rank list anymore b/c this experience sucked?

Hey guys. So I know once you’re sure, you should send a communication to your no. 1 choice.

But for your second, should you also say something? Like “you’re one of my top choices / really high on my list”? I’ve heard that PDs will see through that and be like ok so that just means we’re not no. 1 and I’ve also heard PDs are reasonable and they appreciate knowing that they’re high on the list.

So what’s the Reddit consensus?

I’m an M1, and I feel like I’m studying my ass off just to get a few points above passing. My school is pass/fail but we’re ranked, and it’s pretty discouraging to get 10 points below the average :( I’m starting to feel like the dumb one of my class, and it sucks

I’m sorry are they bleaching them for preparation of the photo being taken I’m so confused isn’t everyone butthole kinda brown colored 😭😭.

It has come to my attention that I am just not used to the bright pink buttholes that really pale people have 💀

That was fuckin weird. Just unpacking (👀) this. Middle aged dude with tens of adults lined up to finger his cinnamon ring as he gasps and takes deep breaths with each rep. Wtaf