Thoughts on Medicine School, from a medical student

Hello,
I'm new to medical school. When I was gining exams to get into the Uni I didn't truly want to be a doctor. I was in love with astrophysics. I wanted to be a physicist and then go abroad to get my master on astronomy and astrophysics. I talked about the future education with my parents and my teachers and they believed it was not plausible. Or at least, it wasn't worth it.

In a country like mine, Greece, the financial crises stops us, the youth, from following what we truly want. But is that what I truly wanted? I couldn't know back then. I don't even know now. It turns out I had the capabilities to study and get into medical school. Had a lot of support and everyone was happy I was in. Great. I talked all summer with my friends about not truly wanting to be here. But I always thought, well, let's give it a shot. I like challenges, this could be one of them.

I was in Alexandroupolis, a town in northern Greece for one month studying medicine. It took me 3 weeks to adjest. Then I had to leave to Patra, a southern town of Greece to study medicine, in order to not put an extra economical weight to my parents' shoulders.

Here I am, 3 weeks later, now that I think i'm starting to adjust in the program, the teachers' attitude, the students' habbitualities, the routine. And I'm reaching to today. I have a dozen things on my mind about my future plans, my goals, my interests here. I found out I love what I have accomplished, and I love the fact that I'm in this school, and I right now want to get the most out of it, by trying the smartest and the hardest way to be a good student and simultaneously, a good teacher of myself, in order to become a good doctor, a good servant of humanity. This is my long-term ethical goal, and what will be driving me for the next 10 years.
Now that I'm here in this University, I don't want to live that

Hello, I'm new to medical school. When I was giving exams to get into the Uni I didn't truly want to be a doctor. I was in love with astrophysics. I wanted to be a physicist and then go abroad to get my master in astronomy and astrophysics. I talked about the future education with my parents and my teachers and they believed it was not plausible. Or at least, it wasn't worth it. In a country like mine, Greece, the financial crises stop us, the youth, from following what we truly want. But is that what I truly wanted? I couldn't know back then. I don't even know now. It turns out I had the capabilities to study and get into medical school. Had a lot of support and everyone was happy I was in. Great. I talked all summer with my friends about not truly wanting to be here. But I always thought, well, let's give it a shot

So if you didn't want to study medicine how did you end up applying and getting in? Did you already have the relevant work experience and knowledge for interviews etc..

Just curious as I didn't think medicine was a degree you could just choose at random

OP hasn't been online for 6 days. But I've heard that in Greece you choose what to study essentially just based on exam results, and because medicine is one of the subjects that require the highest results, a lot of people end up doing medicine even if they don't really want to just because they have high results and because of that feel pressured to choose medicine.

I think it's quite common outside the UK and the US to not have interviews or work experience requirements for med school.

So if you didn't want to study medicine how did you end up applying and getting in? Did you already have the relevant work experience and knowledge for interviews etc..

Just curious as I didn't think medicine was a degree you could just choose at random

No need for that in Eastern Europe. It's all about good grades.

That's why the doctors there are smart but generally not good

Ahh okay, but surely they still get relevant training in uni?!

Yeah they have the medical knowledge, but they don't know how to interact with patients.
They will know the histopathology behind Mrs Jones lung cancer but will struggle to deliver these news to her


Obi that's all a generalisation and there are still many great doctors. But loads of people go to medical school cause they were good at sciences in school and want a good job. They don't care about their patients as much