4 ms·

I'm in medical school

• 127001 9y ago
  How old are you now and how far off are you from graduating?
  • pragone 9y ago
    I am 29 now, and I'll be 31 when I graduate. I just started 3rd year. If you're not familiar, after medical school (4 years), you have to complete a residency in order to become board certified. Residencies last anywhere from 3 to 6 years depending on the specialty. After residency comes an optional fellowship to further sub-specialize. Those can be 1-3 years.
• sedeki 9y ago
  I have been thinking about going that route as well. How and when did you know it was the right choice for you?
  • pragone 9y ago
    I did EMS in college, so I had some patient care experience. I started working as a software engineer in Manhattan right after college. I was working 9-5 days, M-F in an office and just couldn't stand it. I missed being outside, and I missed being with patients. I probably could have shopped around and found some place that worked well for me, but I just wasn't sold on writing software for a lifetime. Edit: Let me add this: One of the biggest headaches I found in day-to-day life in the office was the lack of self-improvement. I missed being challenge not just with new material, but with what my colleagues were learning as well. There was no real drive for self-improvement in the officeplace, no real interest in spending anytime outside of work to learn and get better, and I missed that aspect of school and medicine. I'll also say that I probably thought seriously about quitting medical school 30 or 40 times in the first 2 years. Now that I'm on rotation and actually interacting with patients full time again, I'm in love.