<p>I am worrying, but it is only 10 day trip, hopefully she has fun, then NYC for 4 days and then couple more trips within 5 hrs hours from home. We have rented apartment already, so if she does not have time to pick her furnature, then, I guess, air matress will do for awhile. </p>
<p>somemom, thank you for warning.
“Miami- DD says the hardest thing was for bright kids who never had to study much to determine just how much they now need to study and how to do it effectively”. I hope that D’s habits will serve her well, as she has always studied very hard, she never had it easy. However, she likes variety of activities, so I see that stress might come from being too focused on one thing. Her Music Minor in UG, sorority and many other activities were her great relaxation, helping her a lot. I imagine that she will not have time for anything but study. How about at least going to gym? Do they have time to hit gym few times a week? Is it worthwhile to bring a keyboard to apartment, will she have any time to play?</p>
<p>D1 is in Eastern Europe for 4 whole weeks! More than just a jaunt. Fortunately she had already moved into her rental house before she left. One fewer thing she’ll have to do when she gets back.</p>
<p>Miami–your d will have time to go the gym. She will just have to plan. D1 gets up at 6am everyday to run. When she starts med school, she will still get up to run, only she’ll run on the golf course adjacent to the med school campus, then shower in the med student locker room and be ready to start classes at 8am. </p>
<p>D1 has several friends who are MS1s and MS2s. They still all go climbing occasionally on weekends, attend parties, go to concerts in other states, go skiing. Have your d take her keyboard if that’s something she enjoys.</p>
<p>Miami-How much free time anyone has in med school is contingent upon how effective they are at studying. If you study 4 hours a day effectively without wasting time on facebook, etc., then it is absolutely possible to have a social life. I have a boyfriend, and throughout MS1 and MS2 I took every weekend off from studies to see my friends and my boyfriend. The only exception is the intensive USMLE study period. However, many of my classmates are much more effective at studying on the weekends, so they didn’t have much of a social life. Others could still successfully not study at all until 2 days before the exam and just cram then. I also play the piano, and up until the past couple of months I played about 3 hours a week, and definitely could have played more if I wanted to. And even as an MS3, I will be bringing my keyboard up from home into my new apartment. Still plenty of time for your daughter to enjoy herself, as she should. Otherwise, we would all go insane. Literally.</p>
<p>MS1 was “soul crushing” for me at MCP Hahnemann, now Drexel, School of Medicine because there were so many times when I felt I would never be able to absorb all of the information that was being thrown at me. There were times when I had to read 50 to 100 pages from text books each night and had to be able to retain it for tests. Unlike my undergraduate major, Astrophysics, the material was not particularly difficult to understand but there was just so much of it you feel like you are drowning. I took USMLE step 1 in 1998 so I do not have a clear memory of it but I do remember week after week of studying all day long for the test. The test itself took an entire day and left me uttterly exhausted. I was so glad when I found out I passed it because I could just not imagine having to go through all that again. One of my classmates failed and I felt so bad for him. I took step 2 as an MS4 and passed it on my first attempt and took step 3 during my intern year of residency and also passed it in one attempt. They were also long grueling ordeals but it seems like it is step 1 of the USMLE that takes the most out of you.</p>
<p>Residents working 80 hours a week have it easy now. When I was an intern in Internal Medicine we were still doing 36 hour shifts Q3 which had to add up to close to 120 hours a week.</p>
<p>Sounds scary. One thing D. has is time management, had to learn at very early age being overloaded priamrily with her sport… What she does not have, she will not get up at 6am, unless she absolutely have to be somewhere, gym is not included in her understanding of “absolute necessity”, so she might actually not be able to do it. Too bad. I will suggest taking her keyboard, sometime all she needs is 15 - 20 min. playing.</p>
<p>I want to comment on the “experience” posts but I seem to be at a loss for words. And that really never happens. lol. </p>
<p>Law school at my school was boot-camp style and may have been soul-crushing (although I think it was more “soul-sucking” as in they just took it from us). It was so long ago and the shared misery is what I remember. Friendships forged under fire. </p>
<p>I do recall coming in with an attitude of being top of the class, and coming out with the attitude of “I survived with some pride left”. And I do remember conversations with classmates after some years where they expressed that their psyches (egos?) suffered mightily. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s having realistic expectations? Both of the work required and your place in the line?</p>
<p>Another thought. Is it possibly easier for some students to deal with their place in line if they come from a a school where everybody was a high-school star and they were just one of many? Or stated in the reverse, is it a more difficult transition for those who were always at the very top and now find themselves amongst equals and even their “betters”? I’m not really talking about actual performance, just on the psychological aspect.</p>
<p>I think it’s clear that you better have your mind right going in, or it can be truly overwhelming and some may not recover in time.</p>
<p>^ It was stressful and even sometimes shocking to go from being the student that was used to dominating their classes to a student who struggles to keep up with their class. It is humbling and a major blow to your self-esteem for someone who thought of themselves as a high achiever to be put in a situation where everyone else is at least as smart and motivated as you are and no matter how hard you try, you are no longer special and at times not even adequate.</p>
<p>curm,
But you said before that your D. is just fine, surviving well. And she is at the one of the top of the tops. does she feel as your post #26 suggested?</p>
<p>In DDs group there was definitely time for a social life, limited, but something to hang onto called fun. DD has always had intense study skills, but also knows she needs to get up and run around now & again or she will not absorb what she is reading. They played frisbie together, did rope climbing, went to wine tasting, etc.</p>
<p>Of course compared to UG, no Greek obligations, no sports obligations, no applications and essays, no searching for shadowing ops, the clinical stuff now is part of their schedule. </p>
<p>It’s not easy, but it was not as hard as she feared. I do think the above comments about expectations are right on. If you are an uber genius who has never studied before, this might be your Waterloo, you may actually have to start studying. I have watched tons of smart kids over the years, some had to begin studying in HS for the 1st time, others in UG, each time it was both difficult to accept that the old methods no longer worked and to figure out how to do something that had heretofore not been necessary in the midst of what seemed like really important times in life and tough to not begin to doubt oneself.</p>
<p>I saw it with my kids, too. MS DD always had to work hard because of the LD, she has never hit that place where all of a sudden it got hard, because it was always hard. The sisters each had a time where they came face to face with the fact that they could not just do the work without making an effort and that adjustment was the tough part- not the learning, not even the work, but learning HOW to study right for them and to not think they had gotten stupid all of a sudden :D</p>
<p>MS DD was able to help several classmates in tailoring their study methods, because she figured it out years ago. I think a lot of smart people wonder if they really are smart or were just fooling everyone and if this kids of study change hits someone at a vulnerable point it can cause self doubt. Plus adapting to the time suck in your life is no fun either.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to listen to all this. Partly because D1’s physics background may actually be useful in this process. Not because of the material content she learned, but the life lessons majoring in physics taught her–she will never be the smartest kid in the class; she will always have to succeed by dint of effort and not innate ability/brilliance; she will always have to study better, not study harder, than the next kid over; there are many different ways to reach a correct solutions, if your first approach doesn’t work, try something else. </p>
<p>(“Physicists eat their young” is a unfortunate truism about the profession. Her modern physics prof–which is the first intro class for majors-- routinely assigned problem sets from graduate textbooks to all these kids just starting to learn the material. Talk about a soul crushing experience! No wonder 70% of the class failed the course and immediately changed majors. D1 managed a C and was proud of it. Her major cohort started out at over 250 sophomore year–and just 14 graduated.)</p>
<p>I think either way, medical school will be an adjustment, unless you are one of the few truly brilliant ones. Even students who attended top notch undergrads are used to a certain level of dominance. After all, if you attend a top 10 med school, it’s because you earned a 3.9 GPA at Harvard or Princeton or whatever while the average Harvard student only earned a 3.4. Now, you’re in a school where everyone else also earned a 3.9 at a prestigious college. </p>
<p>I would say, overall, med school is pretty collaborative. You root for your friends and classmates to do well. But, deep down, you (especially if you want to get into a competitive specialty) still want to be better than them. On our Dean’s Letters when we apply to residency, we are split into 5 tiers. You want to be in one of the top 2-3 tiers if you’re aiming for derm or plastics.</p>
<p>Nope, miami. She is doing just fine. I’m just broadening the scope a little bit with some general questions. I have seen 4 grade grids and a written eval, and all suggest she is performing at a high level.</p>
<p>As is DD at another top 10, doing quite well that is, including 100% on some finals and being asked to tutor classmates who needed to retest. (and despite an MCAT that might have predicted a struggle ;)) </p>
<p>I do think every bright kid has their day of reckoning, when it is finally not easy for them and someone else is as smart or smarter, sooner or later, that day comes. I think it is better if it comes sooner. And some kids are vulnerable and do flame out at that point because they give up or panic.</p>