A Day in the Life of a Med Student

The Yale System encourages adult learning, which to me means that I am learning for a career and not for an examination.

At YSM, we support each other. The pre-clinical years come without cut-throat competition, and instead reward collaboration. We learn how to work as a team during the first month of medical school, which is a skill that we will have to use for the rest of our lives as clinicians—with other health care providers, and most importantly, with patients. Our deans and our administrators are proactive and accessible.

The flexibility offered to medical students to allow for the best balance of achieving their own goals (i.e., research, advocacy, etc.) at Yale University while still receiving a world-class medical education. More so, Yale's financial aid is second to none; the Unit Loan ensures at-need medical students do not graduate with significant debt relative to the median debt of graduating students nationwide.

I knew that my classmates here would be not only brilliantly smart, but also multi-passionate, with vibrant interests within and outside of medicine. I have amazing classmates, who form a cohesive and inclusive community, made even better by the fact that we are allowed to be human in addition to just being students.

Yale School of Medicine has an extremely supportive and nurturing culture—a major factor that drew me to the school. I got the sense early on that Yale is committed to making medical school an inspiring, enjoyable, and personalized experience and supporting student wellness without compromising the quality of the world-class medical education students receive. I loved the flexibility of the Yale System that treats students as adult learners and accommodate everyone’s diverse learning styles and interests, hence creating an extremely collaborative learning environment. Students here are all very passionate about what they do, and very kind and supportive of one another.

I chose the Yale MD-PhD program because I felt it was the best place to do an MD-PhD. The Yale System at the medical school, in addition to an outstanding neuroscience department, made me choose Yale. People here are amazing and want to see you succeed.

I chose [Yale] because of the flexibility of the curriculum and the emphasis on student wellness, the collaborative environment, and the availability of resources and connections. I've always been involved in many things outside of medicine, and I loved that Yale would be somewhere that gave me the room to continue exploring my artistic side, leadership roles, and research, while still having time to perform well in classes.

I’ve made wonderful friends of all years through YFLI (YSM first-gen & low-income), a group that I also had the immense privilege of co-leading this past year. Currently, on clerkships, I really appreciate that we can focus on caring for and learning from our patients, rather than be preoccupied with studying for shelf exams or worried about (non-pass/fail) clerkship grades.

YSM is an absolutely incredible and special place. You really can do/explore anything you decide you're interested in and go beyond your wildest expectations. But I think the most unique aspect of Yale School of Medicine is how incredibly supportive, kind, and generous everyone here is. I have found more of a home here than I thought possible, and I could not be happier with my decision to attend YSM as part of my journey towards becoming a doctor.

I also wanted a place with a curriculum that would allow me to have the freedom to explore and have a noncompetitive but collaborative environment for learning. Financial Aid was also important to me and Yale is much better than the other schools I was considering.

I had previously completed my MPH at Yale and made some wonderful friends here, so I was well-aware of the flexibility that YSM gives its students to curate their own paths as physicians.