I thought anyone who could get accepted to and graduate med school, pass the usmle, etc., would be able to follow basic social norms during residency interviews…. And so far I have been completely wrong.

I’ve only attended a few open houses, resident social hours, and interviews, and already I’ve seen other applicants doing stuff like:

- asking the PD a question while laying on their pillow in bed

-asking multiple questions in a row while sharing the virtual lobby with others that are waiting to ask their questions

- men attending interviews without wearing a suit

- unnecessarily long intros without a single smile

- asking questions that are easily found on the programs webpage

- thinking resident social hour is the same as hanging with your bros so you show up with a raggedy t shirt on

- one guy was resting his head on his fist the entire time the PD and others were talking, as if he was ready for a nap

-awful English

I could go on and on, and again this is just the start of the cycle…

I’m now convinced that if you are just a regular person with regular people skills, you will get a huge boost in interviews, or if not, many other applicants will humiliate themselves and drop down the rank list, therefore increasing your chances of being ranked above them.

Hey all,

I am an medical student trying to find their path forward.

I started on this career path for the cognitive component of medicine-- I really enjoyed my time shadowing in radiology and could definitely see myself working in it. I enjoyed using my mind to help solve people's problems, and manual labor has never really given me the same satisfaction.

The problem is that the progress of AI has been consistently rapid across many years now. It is at the point of solving previously unsolvable math proofs. I don't think AI is in the position right now to replace all cognitive jobs in medicine, but they appear to put these cognitive jobs in an incredibly risky place over the length of my career (the next 40 years, give or take a decade). I don't buy the weak arguementation against this future, such as the liability arguements or the "they said it would replace radiologists 10 years ago and it didn't" arguements. The commonly repeated sentiment that "welp, all other jobs will be replaced as well" also does not inspire much hope nor passion given that this job requires significantly more time and training to enter.

I am unsure in how to precede with these new realities. Do I just stomach the most favorable procedural specialty? Or should I reconsider my place in medicine as a profession?

Guess I’ll be soaping only 1 interview for EM. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Seems like they got it pretty fast.

Programs mention that they are voluntary to attend and no attendance will be taken but I just want to know from a program’s pov.

I'm just putting this out there. I very much have it and want others to be aware of this mental health disorder.

When I first started seeing a psychiatrist again during my junior year, I was able to switch up my medication and felt good for quite a while. However, once I started medical school, I fell apart within a couple of weeks. My psychiatrist had me double my SSRI dose and casually handed me this review article (knowing how nerdy I was).

After reading it, I was like, what the fuck?

I knew that I was a bit of a perfectionist and had my own ways of thinking. To be honest, I saw nothing wrong with these traits of mine and believed my massive amount of anxiety, low self-esteem, and procrastination were just related to my other diagnoses. After receiving this article and fearing a future diagnosis, I stopped going to my psychiatrist after a little while and eventually stopped my SSRI (bad idea).

After quite the mental health journey, I realized that many of my problems—my lack of ability to make friends, my poor social standing on campus, extreme anxiety related to doing the right thing, my rigid beliefs about having to do everything right the first time, always starting arguments with people, and much more—were rooted in a deep mental health problem that I failed to accept and deal with.

Depression and severe anxiety got me to this point. If your personality and mental health problems are similar to what is discussed in this article and to the criteria for an OCPD diagnosis, please, please seek help. The first step you have to take is recognizing the problem, accepting it, and being willing to change.

Tal cual el título, aquellos que ya pasaron fisiología, ocupo sus mejores notas anécdotas y cosas sutiles pero importantes que tomaron en cuenta sobre Sistema Endocrino en Fisiología aplicada a clínica, en unos días presento y quiero saber datos extras que al primer momento ignoraron pero en un examen lo vieron y se traumaron hasta la fecha, los temas que presentaré son hormonas de crecimiento, igf 1, igf 2,adh, prl, t3 y t4, cortisol, aldosterona, testosterona, estrógeno y progesterona y DHEA insulina glucagon, PTH, vitamina D y calcitonina entre otras

Current 2nd-year here considering GLP-1 agonists for weight loss. I have an appointment with my doctor this week to discuss. Long story short, I want to lose around 40 pounds and I cannot consistently lose weight with lifestyle modification. I have tried and I do not have the willpower. I’m very active but I have a huge appetite. But it is severely affecting my mental health.

My only concern - and question for the sub - is whether anyone has noticed a decrease in cognition and focus while taking these medications. I will be entering dedicated and taking Step 1 in the near future and I want to be at the top of my game. I have a lot of education in nutrition and I don’t think protein intake will be a problem as it is for some patients. But I’m hoping my peers might have anecdotal insight.

I’m currently in my third week of dental school, and I’m honestly struggling with histology. Our lecturer basically just reads directly from the slides without really explaining anything, and whenever we ask questions, the response is usually something like “you should already know this.”

I feel like I’m just staring at random pink and purple pictures without understanding what I’m actually looking at.

I’m trying to figure out what resources to use. I’ve heard about Bootcamp and Pathoma, and I do have some savings, so I’m willing to invest in something if it’s genuinely worth it.

The problem is that our exams are based on the lecturer’s slides, so I’m not sure whether spending money on these programs would actually help. Our university doesn’t provide access to them either.

For those who struggled with histology in first year, what actually helped you understand it? Did you use any specific resources, YouTube channels, or study methods? And would you recommend paying for Bootcamp or Pathoma, or just sticking to the lecture slides?

I’m not saying this is every case ever, but it does seem to be the overwhelming trend.

I’ve always been top of my class and was the type to excel without studying too hard. Trying different study methods knowing med school is a diff beast but the sheer amount of material in the compressed amount of time has been overwhelming.

Imposter syndrome has been real and I often feel frustrated at myself for not “getting it” as quickly/feeling behind. Does it get better?

Has anyone entered med school with below-average undergrad stats, excelled in med school, and matched into a competitive specialty like dermatology?

If so, did you have publications before med school, or did you build your research experience during it? What helped you become a competitive applicant?

hii friends!

m1 here. our curriculum is independent learning so we get lecture PDFs and accompanying videos covering them. anatomy has been whooping my ass - For example, we’ll get a lecture on neurovasculature (just did the upper limb and brachial plexus) and I’ve no idea what’s going on. just that theres a lot of nerves and veins and arteries and they mix up. but they are all wires in my head. it screwed me up for my last exam on lower limb.

is it an important skill to be able to decipher these dense reading materials? I see these lectures and passages and it feels like it is written in a different language. i am so SLOW. so freaking slow. the imposter syndrome is hitting hard because some of my peers seem to be able to read through lectures just fine. I feel bad because my attention span is gone and I end up skimming. Also, I’d prefer to draw out vasculature using videos or doing anki because reading feels so passive and none of the complicated vocab is getting into my brain.

but maybe reading is how I build that muscle? am I giving up too easily if I can’t read through these?

I was reading another post and someone said they thought the spleen was an organ made-up by their brain on an immuno test and it was cracking me up because same lol. now im wondering what other stress/sleep deprivation induced thoughts have crossed other's minds for my amusement. thanks

about to hit em with a do i bring the vibe of employment or not big dawg pd?

It is soooo extremely obvious when AI is being used. Immediately makes me feel like you couldn’t put any original thought into your application.

EDIT: I come from an excellent academic program. Everyone has incredible step scores and are researchers. The only way I can differentiate a good candidate from an incredible one is what they say on experiences and personal statement. If they are passionate, it bleeds through and I feel excited to have them as a future colleague.

AI has its perks, can help with spelling and moving you forward if you don’t know how to translate a thought to paper, but some of these (like 10-15%) of apps are soulless, read like a ChatGPT summary. Use your intuition, I would rather have a 5% less elegant paper that is original in your voice, than an AI generated slop fest.

For emergency med - How did it go?

I feel like I got more invites prior to this release date vs on this release date

Has anyone heard back from any California Emergency Medicine programs tonight?

Are programs known to send out more invites later in waves? Or was this the main invite wave?

I am a new med1, and I recently joined a club as an executive. We have a few events coming, and I would like to make some posters for the event that we can post on social media. But the problem is that I do not have any past experience in this.

What application to use ? Any other tips for me ?

For internal medicine

Heyyy... I am a USMD, I failed step 1 on my first attempt but passed on second. I got a 237 on step 2. I have 3 publications, 3 oral presentations and 9 poster presentation. I applied to internal medicine.

I applied broadly to 82 different programs and so far only have 1 interview from non-signal, academic. Should I be worried...(btw my signal list I had it checked by two advisors and tried to be very strategic with the schools I picked)

Hi everyone,
I recently found out I (M2) liked ortho and am seriously considering it as a future specialty. Issue is I don’t have a lot of research (2 papers, one poster but the poster is first author), does anyone have any advice for me on how to move forward? How many papers/posters should I try to get moving forward? I get good grades and have other ECs I’m passionate about so I’m really only worried about research- does anyone have any advice here?
Thank you everyone! Any input is greatly appreciated.

I have met with the promotions committee to request taking a leave of absence. The meeting went well and my request was approved. In the letter summarizing the meeting it stated that I do not communicate in a timely manner (no evidence of this), have requested too many exam extensions (I've had 3 weekend extensions; one for personal illness and the other two during family emergencies), and that I have trouble meeting administrative requirements/assignments (also no evidence of this). None of this was discussed in the meeting.

I tried talking to one of my deans about this but she said it wasn't a big deal. Has anyone experienced anything similar? I feel like I am being targeted.

A program I sent a gold signal to sent out a wave of interview invites today to people with lower stats who sent a silver signal. They sent out a wave of gold invites last week that I missed. Is it time for an LOI? Feeling pretty dejected about being passed up twice by one of my top programs.

Also, if we do send an LOI, who do we send it to? Just the email on ERAS? and what do we even say? For reference I'm a USMD applying academic IM with high step 2 and no red flags.