future physician, there are 5 important decisions you'll need to make that will shape your experience,

future options, and even your happiness. Here's how to navigate them.

Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com. If you search how to decide which medical

school to attend, most blogs and forums like Reddit or SDN will tell you to just go to

the cheapest medical school. They argue that any increased cost of attending a more expensive

school will surely not be worth the added loan burden, as the quality of education across

medical schools, at least in the United States, is more or less the same.

The issue with this oversimplification is that it completely removes important and valid

nuance from the discussion. On average, higher ranked and larger institutions

will open up more doors to you professionally than lower ranked and smaller institutions.

For example, say you want to pursue neurosurgery for residency. Unfortunately for you, neurosurgery

is one of the top 5 most competitive specialties, and if your school doesn't have a neurosurgery

residency program, then you'll be at a substantial disadvantage for multiple reasons.

Without a neurosurgery program, your exposure to the field will be limited, as will your

ability to secure letters of recommendation and neurosurgeon mentors who can bat for you

when it's residency application time. For smaller specialties like neurosurgery, ENT,

plastic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and many others, who you know and who is willing

to vouch for you is massively important in your residency match outcome. Additionally,

these smaller specialties have fewer residency programs across the nation, primarily academic

in nature rather than community. And some academic institutions, particularly old school

elite programs, tend to care more about your "pedigree", which is a silly way of saying

they care about how elite and impressive your medical school is. After all, they want to

maintain their elite and superior aura, which is silly, but is a reality of the situation.

The other important consideration in choosing a medical school to attend is the location.

Where you attend medical school is often in the same region in which you'll attend residency,

which is often in the same location you'll practice as an attending physician. This is

of course not a hard and fast rule, as there are many exceptions, but it is a strong trend.

For this reason, I urge students to choose a school in a location where they will be

happy. I prioritized UC San Diego over some other top 5 medical school acceptances because

I love San Diego and it is a phenomenal program. Even after doing my medical training there

and having associated stressful memories or challenging times, it's still a magical place

I love to visit. If you'd like to be a physician in the US,

it's much easier to do so if you attend medical school in the US. While Caribbean and other

international options are much much much easier to gain admission into, they also make it

far more difficult to match successfully into a desirable residency program. You can find

all my thoughts on Caribbean medical schools on my Caribbean medical school playlist.

The next decision relates to who you associate with most. Just ask around or even view the

comments to my videos, and you'll see that the medical school experience can vary greatly

for different people. From my perspective, medical school is a grind,

requiring immense dedication. Someone else may have a very valid opinion on the other

end of the spectrum, stating their medical school experience was more relaxed than college,

and they had plenty of time for relaxing, working out, and spending time with friends.

If both could be true, why is there such a discrepancy?

It comes down to your medical school and residency goals, which shapes how you need to allocate

your time and energy. If you want to either attend a top tier institution

for residency or hopefully match into one of the hypercompetitive fields of dermatology

or plastic surgery, then you'll have to work much harder than if you are happy matching

to a community program in family medicine. One isn't better than the other, but one will

require far more dedication and work ethic. By aiming to score at the top of your class

or hit the 260's for USMLE, your approach and experience of medical school will be in

stark contrast to your classmate who is content simply passing class exams while scoring 220

on USMLE. While your goals should ultimately be set

by you, it's shocking how much our behaviors and routines are influenced by others. If

your friends say you study too much and should relax more, you'll probably find yourself

studying less than if you were surrounded by friends with similar goals.

Relationships are a mixed bag, and I'm not for or against them during medical school.

I was in a relationship and it was a good experience and I grew a lot from it, but keep

in mind relationships can be a distraction and add complication to your life if they're

unhealthy. If you're dating another medical student,

you'll both understand each other's professional demands, but if your partner isn't in healthcare,

it's highly likely there will be some tension over your lack of time. There are many other

considerations to dating in medical school that I cover on my dating playlist.

Your specialty choice is arguably the most important decision you'll make in your medical

training. After all, this single decision will dictate your future career as a physician,

including your work-life balance, compensation, risk of burnout, and day to day reality as

a medical professional. If you're not sure where to start, the easiest

place is to first decide whether you want to be surgical or non-surgical, since the

two are so different. If you're stuck between one surgical and one non-surgical field, it's

likely because you haven't gotten enough exposure to each. And as many surgeons will tell you,

only do surgery if you can't imagine yourself doing anything else – reason being it's

extremely demanding. After that, it's common to focus on things

like work-life balance, bread and butter, and the patient population. But don't forget

often overlooked considerations, such as the long term viability of the specialty. After

all, you'll likely be practicing for at least a few decades. Some questions to ponder include

whether or not there is a high likelihood that the demand for that type of specialist

will decrease in the future based on new technologies. Are dynamics changing due to midlevel scope

creep, thus reducing the need for physicians in that specialty? Is it already saturated

and is the job market highly competitive? These are concerns very much impacting several

specialties today. Your specialty decision will also determine

how hardcore you need to be in medical school, which ties in with the previous point. If

you want to become a plastic surgeon or orthopedic surgeon, your experience of medical school

will be completely different than if you were trying to match into anesthesiology or family

medicine or emergency medicine. Everyone needs a mentor to most effectively

navigate through the gauntlet that is medical school. Mentors will shape your approach to

medical school and your future career as a physician. They'll tell you what to prioritize,

and what not to waste time on. They'll offer useful guidance, and if you have a few different

mentors, great, as they can provide various perspectives, allowing you to make well informed

decisions. Ideally, you want that mentor to be in your

intended specialty, but it doesn't always have to be the case. One of my mentors was

in internal medicine and I found tremendous value in that relationship, even though I

went into plastic surgery. I simply had additional mentors within plastic surgery who could speak

to the specifics of the field. There's no single way to find a mentor, but

it generally requires a bit of work and a bit of luck. For many, their research principal

investigators become mentors. Or perhaps it's the clinical preceptor that you rotate with.

Maybe you've befriended some upperclassmen who can offer guidance in navigating your

specific medical school, rotations, and hospitals. In extracurriculars, like Free Clinic, you

may take a particular liking to one of the doctors there and begin a mentor-mentee relationship.

There's no right or wrong, but always respect your mentor's time, maintain integrity, and

keep your word. Finally, be careful with regards to the inputs

and resources you choose in medical school. If you're constantly reading SDN, a place

riddled with neuroses and anxieties, then don't be surprised if you find neurotic and

anxious tendencies in yourself. If you frequent political news sources, which tend to be biased

one way or the other, you'll likely find yourself more angry, self-righteous, and intolerant

of opposing viewpoints. Based on where you are in life, there are

certain resources and inputs you want to prioritize and invest in. Back in residency, I remember

deciding between buying the new iPhone to replace my aging one, or enrolling in a similarly

priced course. I ultimately chose the course, and I'm glad I did, as it taught me many important

life lessons and introduced me to life long friends. Even as a premed and medical student,

I was much more willing to pinch pennies in most domains of my life, such as tech, going

out, traveling, and even food, as long as it wasn't junk food. But I always prioritized

my professional life and academic success, and that paid off in big ways.

When someone tells you they don't have time to exercise, it's actually that they don't

prioritize it over other activities in their life. Oftentimes when someone says they cannot

afford to eat healthy or buy a study tool, it's again simply a matter of prioritization.

As a premed, you shouldn't take your MCAT prep lightly, and you should invest your time,

energy, and money in the resources that have the greatest odds of helping you achieve your

MCAT score goals. In July of 2021 as I record this video, I would point you to these three

resources: AAMC official practice materials, UWorld for practice questions, and Memm for

content review and memorization. When applying to medical school, you similarly

want help from trusted experts who can elevate your application, help you get into your dream

school, and even make it possible to earn merit based scholarships to reduce your loan

burden. That alone saved me six figures in student loans. As you look at resources and

companies to work with, seek out those who are actual MD physicians, not PhD or other

types of doctors that didn't go to medical school. Look for those who have achieved stellar

results themselves, a track record of success with positive ratings from customers, and

a systematic approach so you know you'll always receive high quality service. If you decide

on Med School Insiders, we'd love to be a part of your journey in becoming a future

physician. Visit us on MedSchoolInsiders.com. If you haven't already, check out our blog

on MedSchoolInsiders.com that covers medical school application and study strategies in

greater depth. Or learn more with one of these two videos. Much love, and I'll see you guys

there.