A Day in the Life

Ben Ferguson --

First-year medical student:

6am: Wake up, get ready, breakfast

8am: Arrive to campus in time for 8:30 lecture, sit in class until 10:30

10:30am: Lunch break

1pm: Lecture

2pm: Lab until 4 or 5pm

Evening: Arrive home, dinner, look over a few notes, read a chapter or two, watch some tube, pass out at midnight

Second-year medical student:

6am: Wake up, get ready, +/-breakfast

8am: Arrive to campus in time for 8:30 lecture, sit in class until 11:30

11:30am: Read over notes, +/-lunch

1pm: Lab until 4 or 5pm

Evening: Arrive home, +/-dinner, look over a few notes, read up for next day, do boards questions, freak out about boards, do more questions, chat online with classmates about how mutually freaked out we are, pass out at 2am

First-year grad student:

7:30am: Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast

9am: Arrive to campus, +/-lab, +/-go to lecture at 10:30

11:30am: Lunch break, check on samples in lab

1pm: Lecture

3:30pm: Lab until evening

Evening: Arrive home, dinner, +/-read paper for discussion tomorrow, +/-look over notes, +/-read up on potential thesis topics, pass out at 10pm or earlier

Early second-year grad student:

7:30am: Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast

9am: Arrive to campus, check email, check blogs, check news, check websites

11:30am: Finish checking email, blogs, news, sites; recheck to make sure nothing new popped up during initial round of checking

12pm: Lunch break

3pm: Think about starting experiment or two; decline

3:30pm: Finish thinking about starting experiment or two; begin round two of internet time

Evening: Arrive home, dinner, +/-care about anything, +/-read up on potential experiments for thesis, +/-consciousness, pass out at 10pm or earlier

Late second-year grad student:

5:30am: Wake up, +/-shower, +/-breakfast

6:30am: Arrive to lab, start experiments immediately, freak out about how, at this pace, you’re never going to graduate

12pm: Continue experiments, +/-check email, freak out more

3pm: Continue experiments, totally flip out

6pm: Continue experiments, call fiancee to get reamed for not calling/being home earlier, freak out and/or flip out, sweat profusely

8pm: Arrive home, dinner, +/-think about experiments, +/-catch up with the outside world, +/-appear to have a normal life, +/-freak out

9:30pm: Go back to lab, freak out more

Midnight: Pass out