Which medical schools are known for having the happiest, most collaborative medical students?
It looks like you are still a HS student? It is waaaayyyyy to early to think about happy med school students. Seriously, one step at a time.
And on a more serious note, med school is often said to be like trying to drink water from a fire hose. Happy is not a common adjective used to describe med school. More like stressed, drowning or exhausted.
Medical school is stressful and exhausting as @CottonTales has said, and “happy” is a relative term.
When my older daughter started med school, the Dean who welcomed them to the school told each of them to sit down and make list of 10 they considered important in their lives --and to include things like getting a full night’s sleep, daily exercise, spending time with family or friends, eating healthy meals, maintaining a relationship with a spouse or partner, participating in sports or clubs, owning a pet, reading for pleasure, having a hobby… then to go back through their list and cross out everything except for 3 things because in med school they wouldn’t have time for all of them.
So “happy” could mean that a med student got 7 hours of sleep the night before, managed to eat a couple of reasonably healthy meals that day, and was able to spend an hour with their dog at the park.
Approx. 60% of those that apply do not get an acceptance to any med school anywhere. Of those that get accepted, approx. half will get only one acceptance to one school, whereas other half will get multiple acceptances. I’d say they’re all very happy even if only receiving one acceptance.
You need to love medicine before you go to a medical school. It is not an easy decision, academically, or psychologically. As a physician, you are dealing with blood, flash, sickness, and death on a daily basis. You can say medical school students are all happy because that is their chosen profession for the rest of their life. MOST of the first-year pre-med college students drop out not only because they are not successful academically, but also they are not prepared to deal with human perils.
Agree strongly with the above. I am a physician as is my husband. Medical school is extremely difficult. Even if the courses are not too hard as far as concepts(for the science-major types like me who had biochem and genetics in undergrad before taking in med), the pace is extraordinary and the hours a week needed to study are more than double undergrad. My husband and I went to different med schools after the same top undergrad–together we know med students who came from T10s, top publics, small LACs…all of the different backgrounds did not matter much: we all felt as though the pace was unbelievably faster than undergrad. Once hospital rotations start, you are exhausted. All the time. 80-hr work weeks are common. No sleep for 36-40 hrs or more is standard, once a week/usually twice. After med school is residency, which is 3-7 yrs. The first year of residency makes you realize med school was actually not the max exhaustion one can feel. It is a continuation of more years with the same or more hours, plus even less time for outside (non-with-you-in-residency) friends, only 2 weeks off a year (some years 3) to see family–and you do not have full control of which weeks! It has been worth it for us. But our eyes were wide open beforehand.
You have to really want to be a physician with every ounce of your soul to get through it successfully. Asking what the “happy” schools are is a clear indicator you are not ready (or just too young) to seriously consider this path.
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Wow. This is eye opening. I’m amazed there are so many doctors when I read posts like this. Hats off to all of those who complete med school.
Many years ago I was married to a medical student in Canada. While the demands of med school were strong, and I believe the training resulted in high caliber physicians at the end, the process is (or at least, was at that time), a little different in Canada. There were limits in how long students/interns/ physicians could work without breaks for sleep…a much saner and safer way (for patients and practitioners alike) seems to me. My ex was at the University of Calgary, and (at that time, anyway), students studied one body system (or other medical theme) at a time intensely for six weeks, had an exam and a long break (maybe three or four days) before moving on to the next. Students had patient contact from the very first year. Our marriage was over before he did his internship and residency so I don’t know how that went, but I do believe he actually enjoyed medical school and did quite well.