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Stephanie Moss, MD: In medicine, we frequently overemphasize the body's physical health because we can physically conceptualize it through physiology, anatomy, chemistry, pathology, etc.We cannot put thoughts and emotions on a slide and look at it under a microscope. Rarely do academic medical school curriculums emphasize mental health.
I'll be going over the Taboos of Medical School. As medical students, we are immediately thrown into the deep end of the pool, where we must learn to swim, if not suffer the consequences. In a short period of time, we are given countless medical diagnoses, physiological and biological pathways to memorize, medications, their mechanism of action, and we must learn these quickly.
A lot of people mention "drinking from a fire hose." It is true. We are frequently tested, graded. and judged on our [00:01:00] intellect based on how quickly we're able to spit out and regurgitate information we most recently learned. As you see next, through the rest of the taboos, there are multiple types of struggles medical students experience. The six topics we will cover is one, mental health. Two, challenges with academics and imposter syndrome.
Three, failing quizzes, exams, courses, step exams. Four, accommodations for physical and mental health disabilities. Five, taking a leave of absence, also called an LOA. And six finances.
Stephanie Moss, MD: [00:00:00]
Welcome to life as a patient doctor. I'm your host, Stephanie Moss, navigating life as a patient and a future MD. Walk alongside me as I reflect on the challenges and lessons I've learned undergoing medical school with invisible disabilities.
Today, I'll be going over my most popular blog posts. called Surviving the Taboos of Medical School. So the six topics we will cover is one, mental health. Two, challenges with academics and imposter syndrome.
And six finances. So it starts off dear medical student first, welcome to med school. Each and every one of you deserves to be here. I know that the imposter syndrome will set in at some point during your medical career, if it hasn't already.
Second, I want to introduce myself. My name is Stephanie, and I'm currently an M4 at a Chicago medical school. I took a leave of absence from medical school during my second and third year of medical school to have mental health and physical health healing. Continue studying for my step one exam. I am married with two dogs.
And I'm a year behind my husband, who is now an intern in neurology. I want to share some advice about some pertinent topics that rarely people talk about, but it definitely and most desperately needs to be documented.
To note, this information is more specific to my medical school, but many schools have similar resources and procedures.
So bookmark and save this for a future. Also share with other medical students, especially since these are taboo topics.
Today, I’m delving into one of my most popular blog series: Surviving the Taboos of Medical School. The six taboo topics we'll cover are:
2. Challenges with Academics and Imposter Syndrome
3. Failing Quizzes, Exams, Courses, and Step Exams
4. Accommodations for Physical and Mental Health Disabilities
5. Taking a Leave of Absence (LOA)
Number one, mental health. I'm going to start with mental health because if you're human, you have a mind and you will struggle at some point dealing with your own mental health. In medicine, we frequently overemphasize the body's physical health because we can physically conceptualize it through physiology, anatomy, chemistry, pathology, etc.
However, we cannot put thoughts and emotions on a slide and look at it under a microscope. Rarely do academic medical school curriculums emphasize mental health as a pertinent portion of an individual's health. I'm here to talk about your mental health as a future healthcare provider. Actually, all our mental health.
Oh, a lot of people mention drinking from a fire hose. It is true. We are then frequently tested, graded. and judged on our intellect based on how quickly we're able to spit out and regurgitate information we most recently learned. As you see below and next, through the rest of the taboos, there are multiple types of struggles medical students experience.
And I'll also say that not just medical students, Anyone, if you're human, you experience it. I want to emphasize in this number one taboo that you are not alone. I'm going to say that again. You are not alone. Everyone is struggling with their mental health, whether or not they're in a place that they're able to verbally acknowledge.
Or even mentally recognize it. This is all part of being human. There will be moments when we notice our mental struggles and sometimes they come out as emotions, which can be overwhelming, especially if we've been pushing them down for so long in order to focus on our academics or patient care, these emotions can become so severe, pour out of our body as anger or sadness.
frustration, or even as apathy. In this last emotion, apathy, one might consider giving up on medicine or even life. I want to say that this is normal to have thoughts and emotions, even though they might scare you. You're not a bad person for thinking these things. I'm going to repeat that. You are not a bad person.
You're just under a lot of pressure and your body and mind is responding as a stress response. However, if these emotions are not addressed, they can become so overwhelming that you might start thinking about making a plan and acting out on those emotions of pain. So if you see yourself actually coming up with a plan, being specific of how you might want to end your life, Then, this is time that we need to take serious action.
Please, please tell someone. You can phone a friend, text a friend, a peer, a teacher, a mentor, anyone. The phone number, 988, is the suicide hotline number. Or, always, an emergency if you don't remember, 911. This is the time where you must be brave and ask for help. I know from personal experience it is very hard to ask for help, especially when you have these thoughts.
Although, trust me, I know, especially coming from a traumatic background myself, I know it's hard to ask anyone for help because you don't know if someone will actually be there to give you help or actually receive that help in a positive way. But just know this, there is someone that cares about you, that wants to help you, whether that's me or someone else.
You are worthy. You have a purpose in this world. There is at least one person who cares and believes in you. Even if that one person is me, Stephanie. If you'd like to read more about this specific topic on suicide and mental health, I have a couple blog posts that I have on the website linked and I'll also link below.
It's called The Call of the Void Suicide Ideation.
Also on the rest of my website, I do have mental health collection of resources like support groups, books, podcasts, and more resources for both patients and healthcare providers. Whew. Let's take a deep breath in through the nose, uh, through the mouth.
You made it through number one.
Mental health is a critical issue that often goes unspoken in the medical community. If you’re human, you have a mind, and it’s natural to struggle with mental health at some point. In medical school, the focus is often on physical health, but the importance of mental wellness cannot be overstated.
As future healthcare providers, we face immense pressure, diving into an overwhelming amount of information, frequently tested, and graded based on quick recall. This continuous stress can lead to emotional exhaustion, anger, sadness, frustration, and even apathy.
It’s essential to recognize that you are not alone. If you’re experiencing severe symptoms or suicidal thoughts, it’s crucial to seek help immediately. The suicide hotline is available at 988, or you can call 911 in emergencies.
Let now let's go to number two, challenges with academics and imposter syndrome. According to the AAMC, in 2021 to 2022 cycle, there were sixty two, four hundred and forty three individuals who applied to med school, medical school for just 22,000 positions. That means 35 percent were accepted.
Wow. In 2021, 11,576 pre medical students applied to my personal medical college. Out of those interviewed and selected, only around 152 began as an M1. That means only 1. 3 percent were selected. I wanted to make notice. If you're a medical student, you're part of that 1%. Congratulations.
Keep this 1 percent number close to your heart because there will be times more than you can count where you might feel unworthy, stupid, dazed.
There's a lot of emotions. This will happen because you're now in a group of individuals who are also part of the 1%. Do not get worked up when you do not get the top grade or you're not in the 1 percent of your class. It will always be a bell curve. Be happy if you get average or the mean score because that is it.
It is the average of the 1 percent of this medical school class. If your school is in the pass fail system, like mine, then all you need to do is pass. And I feel like that is, is said a lot, but needs to be talked about more. All you need to do is pass. That means 70 percent usually. I know you hear it a lot and it's, it takes some time for that to sit in, but it's okay to pass.
It's more than okay. It's awesome. That means that you have the knowledge that you need to have to be an amazing doctor. So that means that at the end of the block, all your grades will be added together. All those quizzes, homework, assignments, exams, And you just need to overall get above the 70%. You can do it.
Now, if you're struggling to understand something, as 50 percent of your classmates most likely are also struggling. So reach out and ask for help from your own classmates, upperclassmen, and your academic mentors. Each school usually has a free tutoring service, so ask your academic advising early. Please don't wait until you fail that exam.
But wait, I did say fail. That means you score below 70, can be 69. 9, but it's okay, it happens. We'll talk about that in a little bit. There are so many resources out there. So take a deep breath, it's okay, especially if you just started medical school. There is so many resources that they'll just throw at you.
And every single different block or body system, there might be a different resource that might be better. I promise you'll get your groove eventually. I heard it all the time from upperclassmen, but it does happen eventually. So looking at the different resources, I have a list on this blog post of the most common resources that you can do, and I highly recommend that you get it for at least all three years of medical school, maybe four.
Right now, being in my fourth year, you probably don't need them. I haven't touched a lot of these resources in a while, especially after I finished step two, but yeah. specifically for the first two, three years, definitely. So I'm going to just name them. Most common ones for learning all subjects are Boards and Beyond, Osmosis, AMBOS, Online Med Ed.
And I will say I'm not getting promotion to say these. Pathology, there's Pathoma. Histology, there's a histology guide that is free. Memorize with pictures. You can use Sketchy, which is highly, highly requested. And then there's also Pixerize. And then I do get, um, support from PicMonic. If you want to use the 20 percent off link, that one, I do get all the other ones.
I don't get anything. Anatomy, the university of Michigan pictures is also free. Also very helpful, especially when I was in COVID and had to learn. Um, for MSK block without having the body in front of me, that was really helpful.
For quizzing, you definitely can use Anki. I personally don't use Anki. A lot of other people do, like my husband used Anki all through medical school.
He's still using Anki to study for a step three exam. That's him. It was too overwhelming for me and that is okay. I'll get to that one in another blog post and podcast episode.
Cardiology, there's a free University of Michigan heart sounds where you can actually hear the different parts. I would say that is really helpful especially for step two is really where you hear, um, they'll actually have an image where you put your stethoscope, um, virtually and you'll have to recognize it just from the sound, what type of murmur it is.
So that's really helpful. For dermatology, DermNet is free. I think you would use that starting for step two, maybe a little bit of step one, UWorld. This one, you definitely will use all four years. I need to get UWorld again for just my emergency medicine block that's next month. Which is sad because it already expired after I finished step two, so I have to figure that out.
The competitive nature of medical school can amplify self-doubt and imposter syndrome. You're part of the 1% who made it into medical school, which is a tremendous achievement. Remember, it’s okay to struggle. The journey to becoming a doctor is challenging, and it's normal to feel overwhelmed at times.
Number three, failing. Quizzes, exams, courses, and step one, two, and really step three. I do have a entire blog post just on how not to fail step, so I'll put that in the link.
But this will just be a general explanation of what does it mean to actually fail in medical school. So I start off, I hate the word failing, because In medical school, it just means you didn't score the minimum that the school put in place. It's usually 70 percent. So if you score below 70 percent on a quiz or exam, it's okay.
It's not usually a huge impact. on your final final grade because it becomes an average. However, if you are scoring below the 70 percent often enough, I highly recommend meeting with an advisor early. It's better to get resources early than after you actually fail a final course. So if you do score below 70 percent on the summative final exam or in the overall block, that would be a fail.
However, It is okay. From my experience, from my own experience, and also talking to other medical students in my medical school and in other medical schools, at least a quarter of medical students fail the course at least once in their medical career.
At least a quarter. That's huge. That's 25%. So what happens?
So at my school, if you do fail, you will meet with the academic advisor and they'll just have you retake the exam during the next time off. Whether if that's winter break, spring, summer break, or during your dedicated, your step one time period, or I guess step two. Most schools do provide free tutoring and extra support to make sure you pass.
The retake exam. When the retake does come and you still don't feel ready, please contact your advisor and ask for more time. You deserve to be at your best. Only take it when you're ready. That will come up multiple times on my podcast and blog. At my school, if you do retake and pass, then on your report card to residencies, it will show that you pass.
They'll actually remove that fail grade. Only my school. But if you fail the retake, then sometimes more things happen. Like you have to re retake the entire course. There are other options. So I tell you, it is rare to fail the retake because you're going to have more time to study. Take it when you're ready.
Okay. What happens if you fail more than two courses? At least in my school, when you retake the second, retake. So the second exam that you're retaking and, and you pass, then the second grade will show up that you failed once and then passed it. However, I do want to note that this was written before my school removed grades.
From a lot of their, um, what they provided to residency. So I need to read, look at my transcript and see exactly how residencies, um, saw it, but I know from my school and a lot of residencies are really not caring about the grades in first year and second year, which is called the preclinical years because they just want to know that you got through it.
And we're in got through to take step, but we'll talk about that later. We'll talk a little bit about what will happen if you need to take some time off to study and BME. Step exams, you take it between your second and third year of medical school. However, there are some schools and international medical graduates do take it sometimes later, or sometimes the students take it like after a third year.
Every school is different. So look at your requirements. I go through kind of what it looked like, um, to provide the school. So you can skip through if you don't want to listen, but at my school, at the beginning of our M2 year, we're provided UWorld to start studying. And I do want to say, I do have a blog post just for a step.
At the beginning of our M2 year, we're provided UWorld to start studying. Some people use the question bank at the same time. We are learning a specific subject in class. So like, for example, second year medical school, we start with the sex and reproduction block. So you could go on UWorld and just select the questions that are just for, um, reproduction, female, male, things like that, and just do questions on that.
And a lot of people do like 10 to 40 a day just to like, to allow you to learn, and then you're also studying a little bit. And then in the spring of our second year of medical school, we're given the first aid step one book and we're provided two months of dedicated study time. So about eight weeks at my school, there is specialized tutoring, tutoring services, and they also some practice exam.
But if you want any more, more vouchers, you have to ask. That's going to be a big thing. Ask for your needs. If you do fail a previous course and you have to study and retake during that dedicated time, that shortens the amount of step one prep time by at least one to two weeks. So take note of that. At my school, there is an opportunity to extend the time you're studying for step one.
So one option is using the first month of your M3 year, usually around May, um, for your four week elective block. And that gives you more time to study for step one. But I will talk about that in a little, a little bit more, especially in regards to taking additional time. Okay, we're talking about failure.
What happens if you fail step one? Let me tell you. It is scary. It is painful, but it will be okay. I failed it and I am still a fourth year medical student waiting to hopefully match a dream residency.
It will be okay. So it was a little bit different when I took it. There was a minimum score that you had to reach to be above passing.
That was the important thing is making sure on practice exams that you score above that minimum passing score. I have an entire blog post again, and I'll podcast all about how not fail step. But I do want to mention since we're talking about failure, it's okay if you fail. A lot of people do fail. And it happens and you'll get through it.
It'll be a lesson learned and you'll be able to take step again and you will work hard and you will pass. And there'll be something in the past. Maybe it'll come up during your residency interview. It did for mine for other reasons, but it was an opportunity to share what I learned. A big thing to not fail is to make sure that you're scoring above the passing score.
At my school, they recommended at least two practice exams. And if you're not doing that, then extend the test date. Paying more money to extend your test date is better than spending so much more money later of having when taking a leave of absence. Again, we'll link to and talk about more of that later.
Okay, so this is actually really helpful.
This tells us how many people are failing Step 1. And I actually have, there's an article I linked from the AAMC that says, No, a Step 1 failure won't doom your medical career. In quotes, In 2017, 72 percent of USMD applicants, including both USMD seniors and prior graduates, So, who failed step one on their first attempt went on to residency.
72 percent who failed still got in to residency compared to 94 percent of applicants who passed on the very first time. That is huge. Keep that in mind. It says in quotes, however, we know from longitudinal data that within six years after graduation from medical school, more than 99 percent of graduates have records of graduate medical education and, or are in practice in the United States.
That means if you keep pushing through. And keep going and, and learn from those failures, whatever those failures are, if they're step one, any challenge you will have, if you keep going. And if you graduate medical school, you will be okay. And you keep going, you can graduate and practice.
I actually failed step one. Not once, but twice. It was a really hard experience. Actually have talked a lot about this experience and try to help other students not fail and go through the challenges I have.
So I have, um, in addition to, to writing blog posts, I've also written articles. There's one on Doximity it's, it's titled, I failed step one by one point.
Failure in medical school doesn’t define your future success. It’s merely a sign that you need additional support. Many students fail at least one course during their medical careers. The key is to seek help early and use available resources to improve.
If you fail a major exam like Step 1, it’s important to remember that this doesn’t spell the end of your medical career. Learn from the experience, prepare better, and take the exam again when you're ready. Statistically, most students who persist eventually succeed and match into residency programs.
So number four, accommodations for physical and mental health disabilities. I'm also right now working on another blog post on all about accommodations, but here's a little snippet about accommodations and disabilities.
All medical schools and exams are required to have sort, some sort of accommodations available. However, not all schools value this. Or have individuals who know how to spread the word that they do exist. I unfortunately found out I could apply to accommodations after two years of medical school failing two courses and failing step one exam, it took that long for me to learn that there were accommodations and that I actually considered that I qualified for them.
If you struggle with any of the following things, and this is non inclusive, please talk to your school accommodations representative. So one, not finishing quizzes or exams in the time given. So you feel like you have to skip over the questions or rush them, and you can't actually take the time to read them, pause, think about the question, and answer them.
If you're finding that you have to just quickly skip over the questions and just put random answers, maybe just need that additional five minutes. That might mean you, you could benefit from an accommodation for maybe extended time. If you need to take a bathroom, water, medication, snack break during your exam, and you're not actually given the breaks during the exam, that might be another reason.
If you suffer from testing anxiety, if you have a diagnosed medical, physical, or mental health disability that you already know about, that Maybe you have a diagnosed learning disability like dyslexia. If you have a mental health condition that impacts your focus while in class or taking an exam such as ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar, all of these and other ones could be reasons that you, that you might require accommodations.
If you have a medical or mental health condition where you need to take time off to go to therapy or have medical appointments, that qualifies you as accommodations for you to leave clinic or just to have those times available. If you are breastfeeding, also you can get accommodations for that. If you need time in private to do medical care such as injections for insulin, infertility, other things.
If you need a quieter room or just less people in the room during exams, if you need to sit in a chair during rounds or just can't stand for longer than 30 minutes at a time accommodations, if you have an acute injury or illness that will impact your academics longer than a week, Probably a good idea.
If you need time off during the day for other types of appointments, medications, or self care during clinicals, also accommodations. Like I said, I have an entire blog post about just accommodations and disabilities, um, but I do link some more information in this blog. I, I specifically, I link the medical school graduation questionnaire from 2020 of all schools summary report.
This said that by AAMC, they did this questionnaire for medical students, 7. 6 medical student graduates self reported they suffered from a disability, and 0. 6 percent said, I don't know. I do want to mention self report. We already talked about it is a stigma, so it could be higher. However, from the ones that did say, yes, it actually asked what type of disability?
61.1 percent put ADHD. 13 percent did chronic health disability. 3.3 percent did deaf or hard of hearing. 9. 3 percent said they had a learning disability. 1.9 percent had a mobility disability. 15.3 percent said a psychological disability. 2.4 percent said a visual disability. And 6 percent said other. In total, of the 15,424 respondents of this medical student survey, 1, 273 stated that they had a disability or I don't know.
That's huge. And then I did put, of those who stated they did have a disability, and actually requested accommodations, only 2.9 percent were actually denied accommodations by their school. Thank you. So worst thing that happens is they say no. I do want to say that again. Worst thing about asking for [00:30:00] help is that they say no.
I put in various links on where you can learn more about myself requesting accommodations. On KevinMD, um, I wrote the article requesting disability accommodations in medical school. And then I do have different blog posts such as living with chronic medical conditions as a clinical medical student requesting disabilities accommodation in medical school.
I do want to state that even if you don't receive accommodations, Everyone still needs time to take care of their health. So that's why on my website I have tons of resources for mental health. Text or call 988 is, is the phone number. And I do, and I did mention in the blog post, each year three to four hundred physicians die by suicide.
So please do not be the statistic. Let's change how individuals in medicine talk about their mental health. And we are done. Oh, wait, I forgot. I have a resource just for individuals with disability.
So you can go to the collections page and click disabilities, or you can, if you just want to learn how to, as a healthcare provider, how to help people with disabilities, go to disabilities tab on the bottom for healthcare provider.
Accommodations are available for students with disabilities, although not all schools proactively offer this information. If you have a medical, physical, or psychological condition that affects your academics, you may be entitled to accommodations.
Common accommodations include extended test time, breaks during exams, and specialized equipment or space. If you’re unsure whether you qualify, reach out to your school’s disability services office to discuss your needs.
I do switch out my collection resources, the top for individuals. Who have the condition and then down below for healthcare providers. Few.
Let's take a deep breath all together. Let's do a different breathing technique.
So this time I want you to put your hand on your heart. Either on your chest or on your neck or on your wrist.
Let's feel your heart rate. Let's connect back into our body.
Before we go on to number five. And I want you to take a deep breath for four heartbeats. Breathe out for four heartbeats.
Breathe in for four heartbeats. Breathe out for four heartbeats.
Number five, taking a leave of absence, LOA. And again, I do actually write an entire blog post just about taking a leave of absence, and I'll also do a future podcast.
There are two types of leave of absence for medical school, academic and personal. When one takes a leave of absence from medical school, one must sign a piece of paper from an administration Of one of the two options. So an academic leave of absence is when the school decides you must take a leave because you fail too many courses, have to retake a year, or have to retake the board exam.
It is important to note that it's not seen as favorably by residencies. Now, a personal leave of absence can be for any reason, and you don't have to state what that reason is. You can just checkmark, and it's important to do that before major concerns happen, and you're fine. forced to do an academic leave of absence.
So some reasons you would take a personal is maybe family obligations, health concerns, research, or just needing to take a break.
Now I do want to mention that when you actually do residency applications and interviews, you will most likely be asked about it. I was asked a lot, but it allowed me a great opportunity to talk about what I did during that leave of absence and how I grew as an individual in a future position.
Area on the ERAS application, which is the online application to submit to residency, where it asks you if you've taken some time off and then in a couple sentences to actually explain again, another blog post, another podcast, all about that. So some things to consider if.
You're going to take a leave of absence.
First, how will you finance this time and month off? It's important to note, you are not allowed to take federal loans when you're on a leave of absence. And if they give you the leave, the loans, you'll have to pay them, you have to give them back. So how will you finance? This time, including how will you finance your health insurance?
If you're not 26 anymore and not on your parents insurance, you'll have to figure out how you're going to get health insurance, whether that's Medicaid, extending your school's health insurance. Things like that.
Next, does your school provide continuing access to academic study spaces and tutoring?
There may come a time when you need to take a leave of absence for personal or academic reasons. It’s important to distinguish between the two types:
A personal leave is viewed more favorably by residencies and can provide the necessary time to address personal matters without academic penalties. When planning a leave of absence, consider how you will finance your time off, including health insurance and living expenses.
Last one is finances in medical school.
I do put down more examples of my personal experience with all financial traumas and realities. Medical school called the financial realities of being a medical student of a lower socioeconomic status. Couple of quick facts. Did you know 30 percent of medical students take 0 percent of loans? 30% of medical students in the United States take zero loans.
I'm not in that 30 percent. So who's paying for their tuition and living expenses? From our study and from this data from the AAMC, usually family. 33 percent of medical students come in with outstanding undergraduate and pre medicine loans. I'm one of the 33 percent paying for college. The median amount of total scholarships for over four years of graduate medical students reported was 25, 000.
So a lot of times they say like, Oh, you can get scholarships. I was very, very lucky that 50 percent of my tuition, I received scholarship all four years, but that's of tuition. So I still had loans for the other 50 percent of academics and also living expenses. Next 21. 1 percent of 2020 graduating medical students had non education student debt.
Which means 78.9%, hence zero non educational debt, so like credit cards, houses, just to note. Especially just to applied medical school, it costs about 10,000, so things to note. I also put the 2020 medical school graduation questionnaire that actually goes through, um, Whether people have zero debt, one to 25,000 debt.
Um, and then people who have more than 150, 000 of non debt, maybe that's purchasing, like, a home. Another fact, in 2020, 11 percent of graduating medical students had between 300,000 and 400,000 in medical school debt. Which means nearly 3 percent had between 400,000 and 500,000. And about 1 percent had more than half a million dollars in debt.
I like saying the statistic because it really is kind of setting when individuals say, Oh, medical school have average 200, 000 of debt. The thing is, it's an average and we looked above. There's a lot of people who don't take any, they take zero debt. So that brings the average down. For my husband and I combined, we're gonna be at that almost half a million dollars.
I put actually a really cool video on why medical school costs so much, so the changing costs of medical school, so you can see that linked. I also put [00:39:00] in kind of the cost of medical school and you can, there's actually a link that you can go to what every single medical school costs. I don't know how like recent that's updated.
Average cost of tuition per year is 54,000. Average cost of tuition for four years is 218. That's just the tuition. You have to remember, people have to live. Maybe not well, but they have to live. They have to eat, they have to get food, they have to have a place to sleep. Total living expenses, usually allocated for all four years, is 116,000, which equals out to 29,000 per year.
So medical students are living at 29,000 a year. So if we add that together, total tuition for four years, which is 218, 000, and then the living expenses of 116, 000, we put it together, that's worth 334, 000. 334, 000. Now don't get me started on compound interest. That's a whole nother thing. I thank you that my husband, he loves math.
And so maybe he'll help me on that future post. Um, then I go through the average cost of living expenses, um, according to the school versus how much it is per reality. For example, for the school back a year ago, they gave us a monthly allowance of 2,400, so they're hoping that rent will cost you about 1,400 with utility, transportation, car repairs, insurance, about 380, miscellaneous, including food, entertainment.
Clothing, only 200 per month. That's less than half of our food budget, and that doesn't even cover our dog's food budget, which is 100 a month. But anyway, educational resources, they give us 400 a month. You really can't pass medical school without all those online educational resources.
To end, I do talk about that a single medical student who takes out a hundred percent of loans for living expenses without any parental financial support is around 250 percent of the federal poverty level annual income.
That's huge. A big thing to note is that medical school and students who come from low income communities and are underrepresented in medicine for their color of their skin, their race, their heritage, they actually get, they have less financial assistance because they don't have family to help with their medical school and living expenses.
I talk about that a lot later. It is noted that individuals sometimes pay for private tutors, even though we do have tutors part of the school, they're usually just upperclassmen.
Students might choose to use money to actually pay for professional tutors. And I end this blog post on finances on just all the additional financial resources that I've used a lot during my leave of absence, but it's good to note throughout.
If you do take student loans, you can increase your student loans at any time of the year for medical costs. So if you pay for your medicines, for your co pays, anything that the insurance doesn't cover, you can submit those receipts and increase your loans. That's huge. Um, you can also increase your loans for a computer or a tablet, once, for the entire four years of medical school.
Every year you can request two flights home. And then there's other things they actually just uploaded from my school. You can actually, um, put money, increase your loan amount for dependents. So that is huge. Other things, food stamps, which during COVID, they did allow individuals who were students to go on it, which was so helpful.
But you have to have no financial support and no additional income, including your partner. If you have a partner, link to food banks, food support, an amazing place called Lasagna Love, which gave free lasagnas. Thank you so much for getting us through my leave of absence where we had no money.
Medicaid, I linked to the Medicaid application. Chicago Utility Support, and then also WIC application if you or your partner have a young child.
Medical school expenses can be overwhelming. Many students incur significant debt to cover tuition and living costs. The average debt for medical students can be hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time they graduate.
To manage financial stress, explore scholarships, grants, and financial aid options. Utilize student loans responsibly and be aware of programs that can help with living expenses. Plan a budget that includes both academic and personal expenditures to stay financially stable throughout your education.
Did I forget anything? That was a lot, but I'm so thankful that you kept with me through the end. We covered six topics that are taboos in medicine and medical school.
Such as mental health challenges with academics and imposter syndrome, failing quizzes, exams, courses, and step accommodations for disabilities, taking a leap of absence and finances in medical school.
Did I forget any other taboos? Let me know in the comments. of if there are other taboos that that exist in medicine that I should cover. Also check out my website medpsycmoss.com where you can actually read this blog post and other ones that have way more detail on each individual topics.
If you haven't already, click follow on the podcast that you're listening, whether if it's on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, on YouTube.
Thank you. And you can find me on any social media, @medpsycmoss.
That includes TikTok, Twitter, X, Instagram, YouTube. Thank you so much and I hope to see you next podcast.
Take care and thank you for listening to my journey as a patient doctor.