46 weeks down, 2 to go. It's hard to believe that's all that remains of M3 year—arguably the most feared, most challenging, but also most exciting year of medical school. As I sat in our weekly seminar this Friday, entitled, "Preparing your residency application," I realized how far we've come since last May. I find it truly hard to believe that it was only eleven months ago that we left the lecture halls and entered the hospital, a time when everything felt so incredibly new and foreign. 

I had been told that the learning curve of M3 year is incredibly steep, but it is only now at the end of the year looking back that I appreciate just how much we've learned over the last eleven months. In just a few weeks, many of us will begin our fourth year with sub-internships, rotations in which we have less oversight and more direct patient responsibilities than we did as M3s. I am sure there will once again be a challenging transition as we begin to function more like interns, though the rigorous third year has provided a strong foundation for doing so. 

It is exciting to hear more and more of my classmates declaring (or at least hinting at) what they are going to apply into, and I've noticed a definite transition from school-centric to career-focused thinking and discussions. As I mentioned in my last post, I am taking a research year off, and have therefore delayed this process a little, but I am still excited to complete the milestone that third year represents and to experience a few M4 rotations before entering the lab.

Since I last wrote, I have completed my family medicine rotation, as well as the first half of neurology. I was based in Chelsea for family medicine, a quaint town about 15 minutes outside of Ann Arbor. It was refreshing to get out in the community after numerous back-to-back rotations at the University hospital, and I really enjoyed the fast-paced and outpatient nature of the rotation, as well as the abundant one-on-one teaching time with faculty. I am now on neurology at St. Joe's, a private hospital in Ann Arbor, and I am surprised by how much I'm enjoying the rotation. It's great to see an entirely different hospital system, and I must admit that I have been surprised by how attentive and teaching-geared the attending physicians are to the rotating students. It is definitely an interesting and relatively low-key month to end the year on!

Today was the Big House Big Heart road race, an annual event that races a bunch of money for local charities. Best of all, it ends on the 50-yeard line of the football stadium (hence the name of the race!) with the Michigan fight song blaring, which—though I may be slightly biased—has to be one of the best race finishes to a road race there is! I did the 5K race, the shorter of the two distances, but I haven't raced in quite a while, so I'm definitely feeling it right now!

I'll check back in soon, hopefully on the two week break we have between M3 and M4 year! In the meantime, if any applicants or admitted students have questions before final decisions are due, feel free to email with any questions! [email protected]