Hey,
I applied for OPT on April 7th, and going to do my biometrics on May 7th. My start date is July 6th. Should I do premium processing? I lowkey don't want to pay alot of money if I'm going to get it if I wait.
hey, this might be the burnout talking,
but im an international student who applied this cycle for MD/PhD, and got 2 post-II WLs and it doesn't seem like I'm getting off any of them. But throughout the past year and the stress of just waiting to get my decision, im starting to doubt that i actually want to do an MD.
As much as I love the idea of having a direct impact on patient life and doing something more translating benchside to bedside, I really really hate the amount of stress and time commitment that it takes to get through it. from what i see, PhD is alot more likely to maintain life balance and especially if u go through with industry after. Again, I know that I wouldn't be able to see patients, but yknow I'm not a crazy try-hard who has to do everything they want. I absolutely love research more than patient care, and that's why I'm interested in doing MD/PhD, and I'm unsure if doing an MD is worth stressing myself over for the next 2 gap years to retake MCAT, do more clinical hours, etc. etc. instead of having a normal lab tech research.
I just sometimes feel like studying takes alot more of my mental effort compared to my peers, even though i'm able to get pretty good grades at the end. and I just always listen to my premed peers talk about how they miss the grind or how they're excited to be a resident, and im just terrified. i hate the idea of constant stress and constantly trying to grind to get into a different position l(like having to work hard even in med school to get into good residency, etc.). To me, doing research was never a grind compared to trying to study for MCAT or doing clinical work.
sorry for the rant, but I'm trying to make sure I enter my 2 gap years with a clear goal so I feel like I need to decide whether I'm doing MD/PhD or not. I see some MDs do the research that I want to do, but like it makes me wonder what if I just do a PhD and get to the same place, what does it matter? I'm sure the MD helps in some way, but I'm unsure if it's worth the extra stress of trying to get into a T20 MD/PhD program because I'm an international student.
soo... any wisdom?