r/medicalschool

We’ve been going through a rough patch for some time now. We’ve known each other for almost 10 years. To say we are soulmates is a shared belief. She’s in her 4th year of uni (UK).

I feel like she’s slowly slipping away and I can’t seem to help her with anything.

We’ve both had some personal issues outside of our careers, but her personal life for the past 1.5 years has been very turbulent, with both good and bad experiences. So has mine (excluding the career demands).

I feel like I have stood by her side as much as I could, I’d travel several times week to see her when she was struggling, I’d cancel on other people, including family, to prioritise her and support her, because 2025 truly hasn’t been easy on her.

But I feel like for the past year, this support has become so one sided, we’ve both gotten used to this new dynamic of me giving and her taking.
I am slowly now realising how painful it is for me to constantly feel sidelined, both because of her personal life and career. I understand her work schedule is a nightmare, and I’m not asking her to shift it around me. However, she doesn’t even accommodate me with the things that are under her control, I feel.

I simply don’t have any more of myself to give to her without there being any space for me in our friendship anymore.

We moved in together 5 months ago and we have spoken bout this numerous times but it always ends short because she cannot sit through the conversation for whatever reason, be it her exams/studying or things that are under her control like going to the gym for 4 hours. She’s a very optimistic person by nature and I feel like she doesn’t understand the severity of what I’m feeling.

I’ve always been the more emotionally open person in our friendship, but she’s always had the desire to hear/understand albeit not being emotionally intelligent. Seems like med school took this out of her for the past couple months and we’ve really been struggling to hear each other out. It’s a never ending circle of pointing fingers at each other.

I have been feeling extremely lonely in our friendship for nearly a year now and I hate myself for thinking that I have to end us. For the last couple days I feel like I’ve been actively grieving the future of a friendship that means the world to me and I hate myself for wanting to leave. But I feel like if I stay, I will tarnish all the good memories I have of her with resentment.

Does anyone have any insight? It’s been hell feeling like this and knowing I might lose her.

But the school will continue to have access to the inbox. There are a lot of prior posts about this, but it still gets forgotten and students end up only have random screenshots of like 4 emails from a multi-year period

If you graduated this year congrats, make sure to read up on your school policy so you aren't stuck trying to figure out how to get access to that inbox or how to cancel all those subscriptions you signed up for with that .edu account.

Inspired by a recent post and asking for purely scientific purposes for when I build my rank list: can we crowdsource where people have found the best physician lounge (ideally free) food? Mine is just a basket of expired granola bars pretending to be “wellness.”

Names of hospitals, legendary items, hidden gems, and snack lore all welcome. My future is in your hands.

So I'm done with my first year and I'm slightly concerned I might be behind the schedule for being a competitive residency applicant. I'm happy with how I performed in my classes as I have scored in the top quartile for every exam. However, I focused all my energy into my academics and literally have zero research, club, leadership, or volunteer experience. I understand that Step 2 is the most important part, but have I set myself back in regards to my experiences? I have no idea what specialty I want to do so I want to be as competitive as I can in case I end up wanting to do something competitive.

Just starting M3, people have told me to reference Amboss to brush up on stuff, but I don't really understand how to read the articles? They're really dense and packed with tables and such, I don't know how to digest them properly and for the level I'm at. Any advice is appreciated

Got my step 2 score back today. Pretty devastated. Got a 233. Kind of late to the ortho game, switched mid 3rd year. Have about 3 pubs and 5 in the process and around 20 or so posters/presentations. Honestly really devastated because I love ortho with all my heart and have all these aways lined up. Really don’t want anything else but ortho. Please be honest or let me know advice to make this happen

So basically my shelf is the day after tomorrow and I don’t have tomorrow off. I’m on vascular surgery. At the beginning of the rotation, the preceptor mentioned that she doesn’t let people take the day before an exam off, so I’ve been considering calling out sick instead.

My mental health is honestly kind of in shambles right now. I’m extremely anxious, feeling physically unwell from the stress, and I could really use the extra time to study and decompress before the exam. At the same time, I’m worried it’ll look suspicious given what she said earlier in the rotation.

What are the pros and cons of calling out sick in this situation? Would you do it? Please let me know your thoughts.

I started my very first rotation ever….in surgery. It’s my fist week and I’ve already cried.

What resources can I use to holistically read/learn about specific surgeries that we will be performing? I want to be able to anticipate what my attending will ask me.

My brother is graduating from medschool and going into residency for ER. I was originally going to go with the cardiology iv but then I saw online that the core digital might be better since it has noise canceling which is useful in a noisy environment like the ER.

I have like zero knowledge on this topic so some advice on which one I should get would be much appreciated. Thank you!!

Yep you read that right. Just went through a heart-wrenching breakup today while being just 20 days away from my Level 2 and 26 days away from Step 2. Didn’t study, eat, sleep, move all day today. Fml

I have a genuine question because looking at the math is pretty crazy. I recently found out about a medical school graduate who is sitting on over $500k in student loan debt. Looking at a typical resident salary, I honestly do not understand how you handle that without the interest completely swallowing you alive. How are y'all navigating paying off that level of debt during residency?

Also, what happens if you don’t match?

The thought of facing $500k in debt without a guaranteed resident income sounds like a total nightmare.

For anyone who didn't match or knows someone who went through it, what do people actually do? Do you scramble for industry jobs or consulting just to keep your head above water while trying to reapply?

Would love to hear some real strategies from anyone navigating this right now or in the future .

I live in a Scandinavian country, so it might be different elsewhere. However, I am from a family of former refugees, so having financial security and working towards that was encouraged from a young age. As I am nearing the end of med school I prioritize specialities with good work-life balance and making a decent salary. Especially to compensate for the 600 years I have been in higher education.

Why is this such a taboo to admit? Let’s be real, if the pay was cut by half, 50% of medics and medical students wouldn’t do medicine. It just wouldn’t be a good deal, considering how demanding it all is.

Title

bro this is bullshit. I literally logged one thing 3 hours too late, even though I turned it in on time 3 days earlier. I was early or on time for every other bs assignment and logbook thing. Honored the shelf. Honored the clinical evals. One single logbook slip. pmo for real

Does anyone have any experience/ stories of matching as a DO and only taking step 2?

For context: I’m a DO student, interested in psych, and I didn’t take step 1 because I was worried I wouldn’t pass comlex. I ended up passing comlex, but now I am hoping I didn’t shoot myself in the foot. I’ve asked my advisors and a former PD, and the advice is the same: it’s okay to just take step 2. But I’m wondering for the recent classes that just matched (with only step 2 score + comlex), what was your experience?

See title. Rising M4, honestly thought I was chilling after getting mid 270s on step2 and all honors third year. Unfortunately my preclinical performance was total dog shit and I am guaranteed to be bottom quartile, possibly even bottom 10%. I didn’t fail anything but I passed every block by literally 1-2 points and usually failed multiple quizzes but didn’t have to remediate because I’d do well enough on the final to get me over the edge. I genuinely thought none of this mattered because we are a Pass Fail school for preclinicals but now my dean is saying all this will get reflected on my MSPE and I will likely end up with the worst possible overall adjective. How fucked am I lol? My school advisor says I need to have a back up plan for anesthesia because my peformance is reflective of someone who is “sloppy, all over the place, and possibly not ready for the demands of residency” (basically her exact words). I am so fucking done with med school holy shit they bait you with “pass fail” then stab you in the back at the last moment for no reason. What am I supposed to do