So yesterday I am wearing the T-shirt I got in my orientation week package. I am showing my dad the front, which says “Canada’s Next Top MD”.

My dad responds by unbuttoning the front of his shirt and revealing the T-shirt he has underneath: “So You Think You Can MedSchool”.

Oh, and then he says “Pwned”.

(For those of you who don’t watch much TV, those phrases are parodies of the reality TV shows Canada’s Next Top Model and So You Think You Can Dance)

Anyways, I figured I’d share that tidbit with you, both because I thought it was pretty funny, but also because I feel guilty for not providing the Orientation week reflection I had promised. Orientation week was much more tiring than I thought it would be. I had intended on doing a detailed write up after each day, but I gave up on that idea after realizing how exhausting each day was and how little energy I would have to write up anything decent.

I am writing this as I sit in my new bedroom in downtown Toronto at a place I will be sharing with my brother for the foreseeable future. Although the beginning of university or college is often the big transition for many young people, I feel as if this was the real transition I was waiting for. Although I had lived on residence for a few years at York University, having a new “permanent” home is a completely different feeling.

It also has to do with the transition to medical school. The big difference between medical school and my undergraduate program is that medical school is very focused, and in a way, more obviously relevant – I am learning and training for a specific profession. It’s quite different from studying undergraduate biology where that could lead to numerous different destinations. Whereas I could choose my courses in undergrad, I will be learning the exact same thing as all of my peers over the next few years. In a way, all of this might be a good thing – by having to learn things that I know are directly relevant to what I will be doing long term, I will probably be motivated to take my studies more seriously.

There are ~225 students in my class. That’s a big number, when you realize most other medical schools in Canada tend to have a number in the 100’s. I actually think there is a good chance you could go the entire four years of medical school here without having met every single person at least once – it also doesn’t help that the class will have varying schedules once clerkship starts in 3rd year.

Going to medical school in a way seems like a step backwards, at least school-wise, because it’s like high school all over again. You are part of a small community, and you are all in the same class together (unlike undergrad where you and your friends could easily have very different schedules). While this is good because you can form closer, stronger, relationships right away, it can feel weird sitting in one single lecture hall for eight hours in a day (that’s exactly what I will be doing tomorrow!).

I have only been in class for one day so far, but all I can is that it is long. You don’t get breaks anymore. Most days I am going for 9am to 5pm with a one hour lunch break. Occasionally I will get a Friday afternoon off here and there, but for the most part, the program here at UofT is pretty packed.

Anyways, since I didn’t give a report on orientation week, I feel I at least owe a detailed report of my first day of medical school. I’ll do my best to keep it interesting, but no guarantees – sometimes it’s hard to make class interesting 🙂

UofT Medical School – Day 1

7:44am – I wake up and am unable to see the time on my alarm clock. I panic for a second, thinking that there was a blackout and I slept in. Turns out I woke up exactly 1 minute before my alarm was set to go off. I get up, relieved, and grab some cereal for break fast. The door opens and my parents walk through – they are here during the day to watch over the final day of renovations for our place. I’m glad that tomorrow the place will finally be completely ready to live in. Jerome has 9:10am class as well (all our classes start 10 minutes after the hour), so we head out together at 8:30am. Even though the Medical Sciences Building, the location for all of our lectures, is only 15 minutes away, we leave pretty early because the first day will be packed.

8:45am – I arrive at the Medical Sciences Building. My brother and I split up as he has class in the lecture hall right next to mine. I enter and am relieved to see that while the middle column is starting to fill up, there is still a lot of space. I see a friend of mine from undergrad, so I go over to say hi. I excuse myself for a second while I throw my bag and jacket onto a middle row as I promised to save some seats for friends. I go back to my friend and chat for a bit, before inviting him to come up to sit at the area I have “reserved”. The class is starting to slowly fill up, and I wonder if this will be like undergrad where classes will eventually become a bit emptier as time goes on.

9:10am – I have my first real medical school anatomy lecture on the topic of Chest Wall & Breast. The pace is very fast. While the professor is good, I feel like I am missing half of the things he says because I am trying to write down the other half. At the end of the lecture, I am in a bit of shock, as I wonder if the whole year will be like this and question how the heck I will ever pass my courses at this rate.

10:10am – Remaining in the same classroom with the same professor, we begin our anatomy lecture on the Structure of a Spinal Nerve. The fast pace is no longer a surprise, but the material continues to be pretty dense, especially for someone like myself who has no background in anatomy or physiology. This one doesn’t seem as bad though.

11:10am – Finally just one more lecture until our lunch break. The topic is Overview of the Chest Contents. I am beginning to get a bit hungry, but realize that at least the fast pace of the lectures makes them go by much faster. Still looking forward to finally taking a break at lunch.

12:00pm – We head outside and sit on the stone steps for lunch. The weather is nice outside, but I’m still a bit shocked about how intense the morning has been, and am getting concerned about how I will ever catch up with all of the material I think I have missed in the morning.

1:10pm – More anatomy with 50 minutes of Trachea, Lungs and Pleura. Afternoon is bad for me – I begin almost dozing off at a few points. Pretty sure I missed a bunch of stuff. I’m just not used to class yet. Maybe I’ll grab some coffee tomorrow afternoon.

2:10pm – 1st Anatomy Lab – met lab partners and lab groups, got skull/skeleton boxes, and filled out paper work. We will be starting our first dissection lab on Thursday. After first I wasn’t looking forward to the labs, but realizing how many lectures I will have every day, the dissection labs might just be a good change of pace from the lecture hall.

3:10pm – We end the day with a two hour session on Intro to CanMeds, Physician as a Manager, and Team Work. The lecture starts off pretty interesting, but once we get into a lot of definitions around some theory on team work, I feel myself almost dozing off a few times again. I think about trying to get more sleep tonight.

So that’s sort of a glimpse into a random day in the life of a UofT medical student. Of course, this is not a great representation, because there are many days that will be quite different, such as Fridays when we learn clinical skills. But most days are going to consist of lectures and labs. Tomorrow my whole day is eight lectures in the same room.

I don’t think I will be doing a detailed update everyday, as I can’t see it being that interesting, but I will try and update whenever something interesting happens.

Hope everyone had a good summer, and best of luck with the new school year!