Come along with me to show you how a typical Wednesday during my second year as a medical student looked like. Being a medical student is no joke—it’s been a demanding but fulfilling journey. Every day is a crazy mix of learning, hands-on experience, and taking care of yourself.
I’m excited to share a day in the life with you so you can get an idea of what it’s like to be a medical student. I’ll cover everything from my early morning study sessions to getting hands-on in the clinic to trying to balance school, my business, and my personal life.
Full disclosure: Right now, I am already a fourth year medical student, but I know that many of you have been super curious about those earlier stages, so I pulled this out from my schedule back then! Granted, a lot of my routines are still the same today.
So, join me as I go through the ups and downs of my typical day in the life of a medical student!
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Actual Day in The Life of a Medical Student
My “Day In The Life Of A Medical Student”
Before I go through the timeline of my day, I want to give you a background about my medical school schedule at the University of Colorado, which differs from how many other medical schools structure their program.
So, a lot of medical schools split their training into two parts: pre-clinical and clinical. However, we don’t have the traditional two years of lecture and then the third year, you start clinical rotations. Here, we have a shorter pre-clinical curriculum with one year of lecture didactics, and then in our second year, we mix in clinical experience. So, basically, we get to start clinicals a year early.
The Timeline of One Day in My Med Student Life
On my YouTube channel, I share regular vlogs and picked one of those typical days for this blog post – from when I first woke up through my skincare routine before crashing into bed that night. So, here’s a breakdown of how that day went for me during my second year:
5:00 a.m. Morning Routine
So, my main focus at the moment is establishing a cozy, productive morning routine that involves studying first thing right after I wake up. Today, I managed to jump out of bed at the crack of dawn without snoozing my alarm. Definitely a total win in my book.
After a refreshing shower and my skincare routine, I feel invigorated and ready to tackle the day. Of course, my morning trio of beverages – my Java shake, Celsius, and a gallon of water (one of the best decisions ever!) – are on hand to kickstart my day.
5:50 a.m. – 6:50 a.m. Study Time
I’ve got a solid hour to tackle some of these questions. It’s pretty early, so I’ll probably just focus on around 20 questions and squeeze in some Anki flashcards, too, before I have to change into my business casual outfit, rush out the door, and head to the hospital.
If you are completely new to Anki (which has been my not-so-secret study weapon for med school) – go through my blog post The Ultimate Anki Tutorial for Complete Beginners.
8:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Internal Medicine Clinic
At the clinic for my internal medicine rotation, I am so blessed to have my own little office where I can sit and wait for the patient to come to me while my preceptor is in the adjacent room interviewing other patients.
Unlike some other rotations, here I get the opportunity to interview the patients myself, come up with a full assessment and plan, and then prepare the oral presentation. It’s a collaborative process – the patient, me, and the preceptor all gather in the room. I present the assessment and plan, write the notes, and put in the orders.
By about 11:30 a.m., I’d seen two patients and was finishing up my notes. I’d also put in orders for medications, but they need to be signed off by my preceptor. I also submitted requests for consults, such as sending a patient to the Ortho Clinic for a shoulder issue. Finally, I documented everything we discussed and the plan moving forward.
1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Learning Seminar
The session today was about inquiry, which honestly felt like a fancy way of saying statistics. We dissected biostat essentials like likelihood ratios, predictive values, sensitivity, specificity, and numbers needed to treat. But, it was peppered with real-world examples and clinical scenarios to bring the concepts to life.
Luckily, we ended at four (not five as was scheduled). So I could have time to rush home to log onto my meeting with literally not a second to spare!
5:00 p.m. Meeting with My Business Coach
At my meeting with Kalia, we discussed setting goals and priorities for my business It’s Life by Maggie. We’ve been meeting weekly to determine our top priority for the week – for me, it’s staying focused on being a medical student and preparing for Step. It’s all about building that habit of starting my mornings with questions, and I’m already feeling the benefits.
In terms of business, my top priority was creating videos for a fun challenge back then.
If you’re a pre-med thinking about applying this cycle, I hold a Free Premed Workshop on a regular basis.
This will give give you aaaall the must-have strategies I so wish I knew about when applying the first time.
You’ll also get an inside look into my own application – including all the mistakes I made the first time.
Plus how I turned it around the second time and earned 10 acceptances!
As for my personal life, well, I haven’t quite figured out a specific priority yet. But there’s a sense of cohesion and organization slowly falling into place in my life. And I can’t wait to see it all come together. I just know that things are about to click into place, and it’s an exciting feeling that’s palpable.
6:00 p.m. Dinner
One thing I told Kalia is that by the end of April, I never want to be up here in the office doing business work instead of cooking with George downstairs. I want to have my evenings free for quality time with loved ones. And with the support of my incredible team, I have a strong feeling that I’ll make it happen.
8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Night Routine
My nightly routine is all about setting myself up for the next day, especially when mornings are a struggle for me. I mean, who really wants to rush out the door ten minutes before they have to leave, right?
I start by putting away the dirty Tupperware from my meals throughout the day. Tonight, I’m restocking my lunchbox with fresh and pre-portioned food from the fridge. Thanks to George, who insists on meal prepping, I don’t have to worry about spending precious time during the week preparing meals. It’s a real time-saver and a money-saver too.
After sorting out my meals, I refill my water bottle. I learned the hard way that staying hydrated is essential, especially after a tough gym session. So, I lug around a gallon of water every day. Sure, it might seem a bit extra, but it helps me prevent those painful leg cramps at the gym.
Next, I gather all the cold items I’ll need for the next day and pack them in my lunchbox. I also stash my keys in their designated spot to avoid morning scrambles. It’s all about prepping my car, too, so I’m not juggling a ton of things when I leave in the morning. Trust me, throwing things into your car at the last minute is a headache you don’t need.
With my backpack in the car, it’s time for my skincare routine. I never used to have one, but with my wedding coming up back then, I figured it was time to start glowing. So, I’ve been experimenting with cleanser, vitamin C serum, and moisturizer. It’s a simple routine for now, but it’s a step towards taking better care of my skin.
And with that, I wind down for the night, ready to rise and shine early the next day!
Head over to the video, Productive Morning routine + Wednesday day in the life to watch me go through my day. Plus, you’ll get to meet George making dinner and the cuteness of my dog Oakley and my cat Maroon!
A Typical Week in My Medical School Study Schedule (While Also Running a Business on the Side)
Here’s what my schedule usually looks like for the week. I like to use a time-blocking system so I can plan to fit in everything I need to do and want to accomplish. Check it out!
FAQs
Is there homework in medical school?
After a day of attending lectures, labs, and clinical rotations, the learning doesn’t stop. Although there is no traditional homework, my studying is more about reinforcing the knowledge I gained in lectures and understanding complex medical concepts. As you can see from my “Day in the life of a medical student,” I spend every morning studying for exams. Apart from that, I sometimes have readings to complete, research to conduct, and assignments to submit.
Is Medical School Fun for You?
Of course there are pros and cons (like my school has a ridiculous amount of required lectures) but overall I have had so much fun in medical school. I always loved when different clubs would host skills nights. For example, the emergency medicine club hosted an IV skills night where we got to learn how to place IVs on each other. The Women Interested in Ortho group hosted a casting night and we got to put casts on each other then learn how to cut them off. Then various groups always host suturing skills night which is super fun as well.
Another thing I really enjoyed was how often we did ultrasound teaching. First year we would usually have a whole morning to learn ultrasound once per block that correlated with our current curriculum. So during our Pulmonary and Cardiovascular unit we got to ultrasound the heart and lungs on each other. Being able to see the anatomy of the heart, like the different valves, chambers, and blood vessels is SO cool.
Then second year was filled with a lot of fun clinical rotations. My favorite ones were OB/Gyn on labor and delivery and surgery rotation. The most exciting surgery days were when I spent the whole day in the OR and the residents were either out for lectures or the attending let the senior resident do the surgery on their own. In both scenarios, the medical student gets to be first assist and you get to do things that are way more fun than just holding an instrument and feeling like a 3rd wheel. Some days I even got to do things like use the scalpel to put in port holes for laparoscopic surgeries, make the first incision on a spine surgery, and use the Bovie instrument as the surgeon told me where to cut. Makes me smile just thinking about it!
Can you have a life in medical school?
A lot of premeds or incoming first-year medical students worry that medical school is so busy that it will consume their lives for four years, leaving no time for anything else. But I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way!
But you definitely CAN have a life in medical school, I promise!
That doesn’t mean it will be without its difficulties, and certain seasons are busier than others, but you don’t have to put your life outside of medicine completely on pause for four years. I have classmates who are getting married and one who just had twins!
Once you start medical school and learn what your schedule looks like, when the big tests are, when your breaks are, and so on, you’ll be able to start planning. You’ll know when would be good seasons to plan holidays, events and whatever else you’d like to do and which seasons you’ll want to focus more on school (like IM and surgery rotations).
How do you find time to work out as a busy medical student?
It’s definitely possible to find time to exercise, even as a busy medical student. For me, the #1 factor that allows me to go to the gym is to do my studying FIRST thing in the morning.
Yes, that means waking up at 5 a.m. so I can get a solid two hours of focused studying every morning. But that also means that in the afternoons, I usually feel happy, productive, and stress-free, so I’m ready and have time for a workout.
Of course, there are days I will either rest because I’m tired or I need to work on something else instead of going to the gym. Lucky for me, if I’m lacking motivation, I have the world’s best accountability partner (my husband George) to talk me into getting my booty moving.
What Matters At the End of the Day
I hope this peek into my busy Wednesday as a medical student has given you some insight into the challenges and rewards of this journey. While it may seem overwhelming at times, the opportunity to learn and grow in a field that can make a real difference in people’s lives is so inspiring.
Remember, everyone’s experience in medical school is unique, so don’t compare yourself to others too much. Stay focused, stay motivated, and, most importantly, take care of yourself along the way. Wishing you all the best in your own medical school adventures!
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