The day is finally here! The culmination of all my hard work, all the days in school and nights studying have led me to this day: Medical School Orientation! At my school, we have a week of orientation and then classes start the Monday of the next week. I will tell you what we did each day and what you can expect when you start medical school orientation!
Day One
Since check-in started at 0800, I woke up at 0600 so I would have plenty of time to get ready and find my way to the check-in building. My school has a dress code so we wore business professional clothing each day of orientation. After two years of wearing scrubs at work and sweatpants at home, it felt good to get dressed up!
At check-in, we received our student IDs {so official!} and they provided a small breakfast of muffins, coffee, and water. There was not any assigned seating so we all nervously wandered around to pick the most friendly-looking table. I walked in with two guys and since I created the class GroupMe chat, they recognized me so we sat together!
The orientation activities began at 0900 with welcomes from the Dean of the medical school, President of the college, the class president, and some other administrative people. At about mid-morning, we had a wellness break to stretch our legs, go to the restroom, and the 2nd year peer mentors passed out some free goodies.
We then had some more talks about the history of osteopathic medicine, and careers in medicine followed by lunch!
The afternoon was exciting as we received the iPads, Smart Keyboards, and Apple Pencil that the school provides to each student at no cost! We also took a tour of campus. We ended day one with an ice cream social!
Day Two
Tuesday started off with an overview of our curriculum for first and second years. My school has a regions-based curriculum which means we look at different regions of the body and learn everything about that region such as the organs, vessels, nerves, bones, muscles, etc.
First year is about the body in a healthy state and then second year we learn about pathology and the body in a diseased state.
After we talked about what we are going to learn, we talked about how to learn and what resources the school has for us to take advantage of if we need help.
Since we all received our iPads on Monday, we were required to bring them for the rest of the week. Today we talked about how to access our textbooks which are all virtual and included on our iPads. Then we had a wellness break followed by a presentation from the school’s counseling center.
After lunch we talked about professionalism as both a medical student and as a physician and what that means for us. Then we went to the main plaza outside and picked up our diagnostic equipment that my school provides for us!
Today’s social event was trivia night and my team came in 6th place!
Day Three
Day three went by quickly but was jam packed with things!
We started off with a talk from some of our professors about the class and block exams. Our anatomy professor went through the syllabus with us. {I guess gone are the days where you spend the first class going through the syllabus!} Our biochemistry and histology professors gave us mini-lectures so we can get a feel for the style of lectures.
During lunch we met our faculty advisors. Every student is assigned to a faculty advisor for the duration of our four years in medical school.
The afternoon was filled with fun things. We had a presentation from clinical affairs about third and fourth year rotations, and a presentation about research and the summer research fellowship that is offered between first and second year.
Following the presentations, we had a student organization fair, white coat fitting, and picked up our free scrubs provided by the school!
I signed up for the email lists of a few organizations that I am interested in!
Day Four
Thursday was the shortest day and least exciting.
We started the day with the class picture in front of the school. There are 150 of us so you might be able to see me with a magnifying glass!
After the photo we had presentations from campus safety, financial services, and the Title IX Coordinator.
At today’s wellness break, we got these cool hot/cold eye masks!
After break, we talked about the student handbook and policies and then had lunch while a recruiter for the U.S. Army talked to us about Army Healthcare!
Day Five
The last day of orientation! This week went by pretty quickly.
The only thing we did on Friday was take a block exam. {Fun, right?!} The main point of the exam was so that we would be familiar with the format of block exams and the interface. We take our block exams on our iPads in a certain testing app.
For more information about how I have used an iPad in the past for school, check out this post!
The test material included some things from the mini-lectures and from some of the pre-matriculation videos we watched. The exam does not count for anything, it is more of a gauge to see where we are at with what we should have learned in undergrad.
Apparently, the average score is usually 25-30%! I’m setting my bar very low.
And that was my first week of medical school! I was so nervous beforehand thinking I would not make any friends and I would feel homesick, but I am adjusting pretty well! My apartment is pretty much all set up, my kitty is settled in, and I found a good group of friends. We are already planning on studying together!
Don’t forget to subscribe so you can keep up with my medical school journey. You can also follow me on Instagram @medicineandmoscato my DMs are always open for questions or just to chat!
