to figuring out what your med student friend is up to

FIND OUT WHERE WERE GOING AT THE END OF THIS POST

Since starting this blog, I have had the pleasure of meeting many new virtual friends so I decided to write a blog post about what is happening in my educational life and what goals I am working towards!

A LITTLE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND INFO

My name is Yasmine and I am currently in my third year of medical school at Ross University School of Medicine. Before I started my medical school journey, I completed my undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies in 2015 at Colorado State University. Leading up to college I lived my entire young life in Aurora, Colorado- a beautiful place I still love to visit.

After I graduated from college, I took a gap year while I finished my pre-requisites for medical school in the evenings and taught preschool in the daytime. This was also the year I applied to medical school. When I received my acceptance in January of 2016, I had the option of starting in May 2016 or in September 2016. I went for May 2016 and moved in late April to the island of Dominica to start medical school.

MEDICAL SCHOOL… WHAAAAA?

For my friends and family who are not familiar with the medical school timeline, after you receive your bachelor’s degree (usually 4 years of undergrad), you apply to medical school after taking and passing a long exam called the MCAT. For me, once I was accepted to medical school, the two years that followed looked a little something like this:

Now that we have passed the first of our boards examinations, we get to move on to the last two years of medical school. These two years include clinical rotations, some more board exams, and applying for the residency match.

Right now, we have started our first rotation called Internal Medicine Foundations. It is a 6-week long rotation in Miramar, Florida. We learn many basics in the classroom and we get to spend time in a Pulmonology private practice. During this rotation, we will find out where we will be moving in December to continue our third year of medical school. We ranked our top three locations out of five options and we will find out shortly where we will be going (STAY TUNED).

Third year is all about clinical rotations where we shadow and learn from physicians and other healthcare providers  in different specialties. Then, during our fourth year we choose our own elective rotations that are focused in specialties we are interested in pursuing as a career. 

After completing the next two years of rotations, we will apply for the Match to hopefully obtain a residency in a specialty of our choosing. A residency is basically our first job after we graduate from medical school and become MD’s. It provides more in depth training for 3-5 more years.

That is 4 years total of basic sciences and clinical rotations, followed by a graduation and becoming doctors officially. Then, 3-5 more years of specialized training. It is a long journey, but it is going by so fast!

Check back for posts specific to each rotation in our new home:

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