There are many people out there who regret med school or quit medicine. But I am not one of those people. I never for a second regretted going to med school or quitting medicine. But that’s not to say I haven’t had any regrets on this journey. This a written adaptation of a series I’m filming for YouTube, which I’ll call “Reflections of a 4th year Med Student“. You can watch the full video below!
Often pre-meds will tell me that so many physicians have told them not to go into medicine or that they regretted it so they should consider another career. I don’t have any actual data to support this but anecdotally what I’ve observed is that sometimes the physicians who have this sentiment are part of an older generation OR they pursued medicine for the wrong reasons.
Not taking additional gap years(s)
The first regret I have is that I was afraid to take more gap years, or what I like to call “growth” years. I did take two, but I would’ve taken three if I had known that it was becoming more common to do that. I took growth years because I didn’t decide to apply to med school until two months before graduating when I was preparing to apply to pharmacy school. So I needed to build my CV for med school, get more experience, study for the MCAT, etc. But my GPA wasn’t great and I needed to do super well on the MCAT, which I didn’t. I did below average for MD schools at least and would’ve retaken it if it weren’t for the extra time and resources and personal things going on at the time. I also didn’t want to wait another year because I felt behind. So in hindsight, I wish I had retaken the MCAT so I could do better and be more competitive for schools especially because I wanted to stay in California near family but ended up in an MD program in Virginia, which I’m still thankful for but I am always home-sick. There is nothing wrong with taking gap or growth years. You should do it if it’s going to strengthen your candidacy for medical school because it’s not worth reapplying, which takes so much time and money, especially for my first-gens.
I probably didn’t need to take growth years if I had known I wanted to pursue medicine earlier, so another regret I have is not pursuing medicine earlier. My biggest message for you all, especially if you are first-gen is this: Rather than letting fear dictate your future, let your passion guide you and learn to overcome that fear somehow.
Neglecting the importance of stress management and mental health
Second, I didn’t learn how to manage stress until the second half of college which is common for first-gens, but I wish someone had mentored me earlier and told me just how important it was to play hard in addition to working hard. During my first two years I was so focused on just work and school, work and school, and didn’t take care of myself. Third year I joined a pre-health fraternity which completely turned my life around. Even though I was playing more and studying less, I was doing better in school. The second thing is that if you are stressed, you cannot study efficiently or effectively. Even though I worked and studied more than I ever did during my first two years, my grades were crap because I was stressed and couldn’t see how inefficient I was in studying.
Late involvement in research
Third, this is more related to apply for residency, but I wish I had gotten involved in research earlier. I’ve always despised research because my brain just doesn’t process research that well, like statistics, epidemiology, writing a manuscript. It also takes a lot of patience. But I realized that there are opportunities for research in any field you want and if you are passionate about the topic, the research isn’t too bad. So I didn’t get involved until my third year, which was literally when I was the most busiest. Maybe if I had more publications I could’ve scored interviews at some more residency programs in California, but who knows. It at least wouldn’t have hurt. So getting involved in a project first year and seeing it through would’ve been ideal.
Not engaging in my passions during M1/M2 year
Fourth, I regret that I didn’t volunteer more during my first and second year of med school when I had more time, because I loved it so much during my growth years before med school. I thought that I would have no time for anything except studying and that was not the case. I think that more volunteering experience would’ve been a great addition for residency applications too. I did end up starting my own mentorship program and own website/blog but I wish I had done it earlier. And it doesn’t have to be volunteering, but anything you’re passionate about that you want residency programs to know about you, you should definitely do during your 1st two years.
Settle for mentors who were not right for me
Lastly, mentorship. I regret not spending more time seeking mentors that were invested in me and just considered whoever was willing to give me advice, as my mentors. I did not find any good mentors until medical school and even now I do not have any mentors that actually share my background and who can understand the struggles of a first-gen and provide advice that can meet me where I am. They do provide great technical advice, but in terms of coping with imposter syndrome, finances, family dynamics, I don’t have any mentors to guide me on those aspects. So I really encourage you all to find mentors that are right for you and not just take advice from anybody.
