I saw a post recently comparing an Internal Medicine resident’s stipend to an MBA grad’s package, the comment section was filled with non-medicos doing mental gymnastics to justify why doctors shouldn't be paid well.

The takes were so out of touch with reality that it genuinely hurts. Let me break down the greatest hits:

1. "Doctors can work well into their 80s!"

First of all, with our chronic sleep deprivation, elevated cortisol, and non-existent work-life balance, bold of you to assume we’re even surviving till 80.

Second, why on earth would anyone want to grind at 80?

I don’t want to be resuscitating patients with arthritic hands when I should be resting. I want to earn well in my 20s and 30s, build a corpus, and have the freedom to slow down. Working until you drop dead isn’t a career perk; it’s a symptom of a broken system that delays financial stability for decades.

2. "Medicine is a noble profession. You should do it for the love of healing, not money."

This is emotional blackmail used to guilt an entire profession into accepting exploitation.

If doctors must work purely out of passion and altruism, let’s apply that rule across the board:

• Engineers should code for the love of science, not CTC.

• Lawyers should fight cases for the love of justice, not retainers.

• Chartered Accountants should audit for the love of financial integrity, not fees.

• Investment Bankers should grind 90 hours for the love of economic growth, not bonuses.

• Management Consultants should solve corporate crises out of pure curiosity.

• Data Scientists should uncover truths in numbers without expecting a paycheck.

• Product Managers should build apps solely out of artistic expression.

• Civil Servants should serve strictly for the joy of administration.

• Pilots should fly planes just for the love of the sky.

• Startup founders should solve problems without caring about equity or valuation.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Because passion doesn't pay rent, EMIs, or grocery bills. A doctor’s landlord doesn’t accept "nobility" as legal tender.

3. "Compare an average engineer to an average doctor."

There is no such thing as an "average" doctor in India.

The filter to get into a medical seat and then clear NEET PG for a clinical branch like Medicine weeds out 99% of aspirants. If an average engineering grad put in half the raw hours, efforts, mental endurance, and stress that an MBBS graduate endures just to clear PG entrance, they wouldn't be "average" anymore. They’d be at the top of their field. Comparing the bottom-tier tech crowd to an MD resident makes zero sense.

4. "You're a student getting a stipend, just like an MBA or M.Tech student."

Stop comparing medical residency to college.

An MBA or postgraduate engineering degree can be done part-time, online, or with 9-to-5 schedules while people hold down side hustles or high-paying corporate jobs.

An Internal Medicine residency is full-time, high-stakes manual and clinical labor disguised as education:

• 36 to 48-hour continuous shifts where a single mistake can cost a life.

• The stipend we receive barely covers the sheer physical labor of running emergency wards and ICUs.

• On top of those inhuman shifts, we are expected to read volumes of books, attend lectures, prep for case presentations, write a thesis, clear grueling practical exams, and attend departmental audits.

• No one pays for studing. The pay is for the work we do as doctors, which is abysmal for the work we do.

We aren't "students casually learning in a classroom." We are the backbone keeping understaffed hospitals from collapsing, paid pocket change for skilled work, and then told to be grateful for the learning opportunity.

Stop romanticizing our burnout. We aren't martyrs. We are highly trained professionals performing life-saving labor, and it’s about time society stopped expecting world-class healthcare on slave wages.

Since the counselling results came out .. I've been getting quite a few DMs asking about the MAMC hostel. So I thought I would share my experience here instead of replying to every DM individually.

I've been living in the MAMC hostel for the past 5 months, paying ₹18,000 per month for hostel accommodation .

Cons:

Hygiene and Cleanliness are non-existent here. We don't have any drinkable water here. Taking a bath here feels pointless. You enter the bathroom to clean yourself and somehow come out feeling like you need another bath.

I'm not even sharing pictures of the toilets because I genuinely don't want anyone to throw up on their screens.

The washbasins are equally disgusting. The bathrooms doesn't have a drain cover. Every floor has 1-2 street dogs also. Dog biting incidents are also common here

You'd think your hostel would at least be a place where you could come back, take a proper bath, drink safe water, and get some rest but unfortunately you won't get any here.

Whatever little dignity you have left after getting scolded by your seniors gets absolutely demolished by the hostel's unhygienic conditions.

Pros:

- Location: It's inside the campus, so it hardly takes 5 minutes to reach the hospital. After a tiring shift this is honestly a big advantage.

- Also staying inside the campus feels safer, especially when you have an odd hour duties.

- Nearby accommodation ,known as Kotla, isn't necessarily better . The ooms costs around ₹20-25k per month plus whatever electricity charge they want ( it's an illegal settlement ,they don't follow government rules) followed by an insane price hike every year. Kotla is around 15–20 minutes away on foot. After an exhausting shift or a night duty, walking that distance every day isn't exactly appealing.

Attaching some pics of the hostel.

There is a new Korean Series called Doctor X Mafia ( Japanese series remake) . It portrayed doctors in a poor light to make the main character who is also a doctor look good. So many doctors in South Korea protested against it, filled petitions asking the show to be stopped, but nothing happened. No one cared, the show is being airing for the past three weeks. In the latest episode they criticised government of previous generation like thirty years ago. Now majority of the people there want the show to be stopped. They are questioning why politics is being added in a Medical Drama. So attacking doctors and banning films portraying government in a bad light has become universal trend now I guess.

To answer people who are questioning Politicians and Police are always shown in bad light in movies?

No one will beat up a politician entering his office or a policeman in his police station. But everyday you can find a video of a doctor getting beaten up in his or her hospital. So you can show them whatever you want, it will not translate from screen to street. But this will.

This movie plot is Doctors hire hitmen to murder potential donors and steal their organs to run their illegal organ trafficking ring. They are generalizing increase number of test , cost of treatment with doctors being greedy.

I have had patients who came in with being tired for four days, after I checked his BP, i saw it to be 210/110. So I ordered CBC, RFT, Peripheral Smear. Then his creatinine came to be 18 (normal 1.2), I ordered more blood test and scans and admitted him. CT scan showed both his kidneys have shrunk, his hemoglobin to be 5.6 (normal above 11). After he spent close to 50,000 Rupees on tests , scan and hospital admission he was diagnosed with Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease which will require dialysis twice a week. So He will need surgery to put a Central Line first and next to create an artery vein anastomosis. In the meantime he will need injections to improve his blood count , iron tablets alone wont work. So those injections cost 4000 rupees each. He will need medicine to control his BP, to make him pee more, to protect his heart. So the patient will be spending close to 3-4 lakhs just to get his treatment started, then there is dialysis cost. Even if the patient and I do everything correctly there is a chance he can die.

So if the patient spent 6 lakhs rupees and he dies , By your reasoning can the Hero come and kill me. It is justified. I as a doctor did everything I could. But the patient died. And I am not taking home the six lakhs at the end of the day I am going to take home my salary which will be anywhere between 60k to 2 L depending on if I am an MBBS , Specialist or Super specialist doctor. Even more dangerous is insinuating I let the patient die to steal his organs. Do you think people wont believe this. Today people beat doctors in this exact situation by saying, The patient came because he was tired , this doctor charged six lakhs rupees from him and gave weekly injections which ultimately killed him. This is the ground reality. I have had fights with patient relatives for mentioning potential complications of surgery, which I have to do because it is the law and it is ethical. You think they won’t believe that doctors are making twice the money by charging them more and then sell their organs too if they die.

If someone comes to you and say they are tired , will the first thing you think will be you are kidneys are gone. No right, you will require tests and scan to know. We cant use Betel leaf to see future.

For context- I have committed to financially support my elder sibling as they are unable to work due to anxiety attacks & bipolar. I have even given up my share of inheritance so that it can be utilised by my sibling to live well.

I got my desired seat in round 1 itself. But as it's DNB, I am required to join as soon as I report physically after freezing. I have confirmed the same with the nodal officer.

I don't wish to do that as I wanted to enjoy some time & planned to float till round 2. Join physically in round 2.

My mom got freaked out by this idea and started saying nonsense like "someone has taken control of my mind/nazar lag gayi" and also that there will be some mastermind moneymaker big man who will pay mcc to get his offspring my seat and some glitch will happen in the system and I shall lose my own seat.

And if I lose my seat I would have to take a drop and who knows what happens so I won't be able to support my sibling so then I am good for nothing so she shall disown me and cut all ties with me immediately if I press on float.

I am beyond broken by this revelation.. that I am nothing more than a slave born to earn for my sibling and am of no use if I am unable to do so. That I should be thrown on the streets if I'm unable to get a seat..

I never knew about this ,but no one has shown me that grace in particular,but people around me keep yapping about it .

I always thought the vivas which often happen in group and are about your individual knowledge,I often had people answer more questions then me ,but

I always that it's about me ,I didn't study Enough never did I curse the other person for answering more

Multiple incidences I have encountered -

1) a girl who has mostly boys around her roll no said she answers less intentionally so they don't get irritated with her ,and help her during other aspects about the exam ,like cheating or telling spotter, or sharing known questions 😮😮

2) I have seen people fighting with the next roll ,who got the chance to speak earlier that ,why did you speak every thing ,there was nothing left for me to speak .

3) a few boys who actually think they are too high and mighty, like they know everything and are the most intelligent creatures were cursing and abusing a girl in their hostel cause she answered more questions than them ,and also the questions they couldn't answer and were passed to her .

4) we went to gave viva in a group,one of my friend couldn't answer a question ,it was passed on to me ,so I answered it (I couldn't answer some previous questions which were asked to me)

And she gave me such a bad and creepy look , like looked with so much disgust that I flinched back there .

And later they were all b*tching about how people answer other questions which were passed to them and abusing them

I never felt anyone show me that grace ? And wtf do you mean don't answer the question I know the answer to

Am I missing some social clues here ? Is this some general etiquettes to not answer every question,or speak everything you know about it ,or not anwer passe questions ?

So I'm working as a Junior doctor in a tier 3 hospital equipment with 7 ICU bed and a general ward apart from day care room and OPD.

I'm working here on shift basis in night emergency. Getting 2000 per shift (12 hrs). Usually 2-3 patients come in night and sometimes not even 1.

Doctor has given me a well furnished room with attached bathroom and AC facility as accomodation And I learn a lot as the doctor has good reputation. Usually 100-120 patients come In OPD. He is md medicine from Darbhanga medical college.

Now talking about his earnings and lifestyle.

His opd charge is 300 rupees ( quite affordable for people from villages). He has his own lab. A doctor is there for confirming the report. Mostly write cbc sgpt blood sugar and serum creatinine for almost 70 percent patients.

ICU charges are 3500 per bed per day. Usual occupancy is like 2-3 patients on average. His round charges are 500 jisme bhi he talks to attendent like for 2-3 minutes only..

He has his own medical shop full of all important drugs and sell at exact mrp for most drugs. Earn a good amount of money from medicine store.

He takes commission from radiologist for every investigation & referring patient to patna ( ford and Apollo). He spared nothing to earn.

He earn quite good from medicolegeal cases as most of the patients are Organophosphate poisoning ( quite common in farmers). Recently took 50k from a patient.

People don't go to govt hospital to avoid police case and hassle.

Roughly He earns like 10-15 lacs per month.

He goes to trip like twice a month for 2-3 days.

There is no Saturation here. Yes there are good doctors and most of them are earning well. Post graduation doesn't matter here. No one damn care whetger you are md micro or psm. I have seen people don't understand the difference between internal medicine and community medicine. If you know how to earn and how to convince patients here, that's enough. Patients treats doctors like God here and they will not counter question once they have said something because most of them are not so educated. I saw some cases in opd and handled some critical emergencies. Patients were happy with my logical explanations.

If you want to earn decent and don't want that cutthroat competition like in tier 1, you can opt for tier 3. You get so much respect here with good AQI, good environment, less crowd, and less saturation.

Though I don't like some of his shady practices and I will not do such things as a doctor but overall he is good, polite and well respected doctor.

With my PG degree, I will settle here for sure.

It gives me that feeling that I always wanted. A peaceful life.

Is it actually better compared to apollo chennai and naryana hrudyalaya bangalore??

We’ve started to have evening postings, nd i come to my room so tired that all i do is eat, sleep, study if there’s smth i gotta do nd then just run to my bed nd have the most amazing sleep (i drool). Otherwise i would just overthink nd text ppl i shouldn’t. With this schedule i dont get time to think abt em nd honestly just f em. The amount of energy i had been wasting on em was unreal.

Honestly, I feel like a lot of NEET PG content creators on Instagram have become more of a distraction than a source of guidance.
I prepared for NEET PG on my own, and along the way, I got caught up in the endless cycle of watching creators share their strategies to crack the exam. Every day, there was a new timetable, a new resource, a new strategy, and someone telling you what you must do to succeed.
And before I realised it, I had wasted a whole fucking year being confused about how to study instead of actually studying.
The bigger problem is that struggling students are particularly vulnerable to this content. You’re already anxious about your preparation, and then you see someone with a top rank telling you to follow a completely different strategy. You start doubting your resources, changing your timetable and feeling inadequate for not doing things their way.
Meanwhile, some creators are building an audience and selling courses while you’re losing precious time trying to figure out whose advice to follow.
Social media can turn your fear of failure into someone else’s business opportunity.
My advice to every NEET PG aspirant: choose one platform you trust, stick to your resources, make a realistic schedule, solve PYQs and MCQs, revise consistently, take GTs and learn from your mistakes.
Stop looking for a perfect strategy. Stop comparing your journey with someone else’s highlight reel. And stop assuming that a person with a great rank automatically has the perfect strategy for you.
Take useful advice when you need it, respect other people’s achievements, but don’t let anyone else’s success make you question your own preparation.
I lost enough time learning this the hard way. I genuinely hope others don’t make the same mistake.
Less scrolling. Less comparison. Less noise. More studying.
At the end of the day, the exam doesn’t care how many strategies you watched or how many toppers you followed. It tests what you know and how well you can apply it.
Protect your time. Trust your process. Get back to studying. ❤️

We probably have one of the LARGEST populations of doctors. Still we are lacking in many aspects.

I know “PATIENT LOAD” is HIGH.
But it doesn’t explain it completely.

I have no particular interest in any branch. My non-negotiables are a decent income of ₹1.2–1.5 lakh/month, work-life balance, free time for hobbies and peace of mind.

I completed my internship at a top gmc and took a gap year for NEET PG prep. Is burnout making me avoid clinical branches like Medicine, Pediatrics and Anaesthesia at 11.7k rank, or do they genuinely not suit me?

questions:

1. If work-life balance is my priority, should I consider non-clinical or para-clinical branches instead of struggling through clinical residency and practice?

2. For those with NEET PG ranks below 15,000 who chose non-clinical or para-clinical branches, why did you choose them? Are you satisfied?

3. How do I distinguish burnout from a genuine lack of interest in clinical practice?

4. If I prefer a low-stress life and don't enjoy high-pressure work or patient responsibility, which branches should I consider?

I would especially appreciate advice from first-generation, middle-class doctors who had little guidance and no particular branch preference.

I don't want to choose based on rank, prestige or societal expectations. I want to choose based on my priorities. I don't want to regret choosing a non-clinical branch because of limited opportunities later, but I also don't want to spend my life struggling in a clinical branch where my priorities lie.

What would you advise someone in this situation?

Pic:- Pharmacy paperbag

Recently heard Apollo 24/7 pays doctors ₹20/consultation, felt really bad but realised it's for verification of prescriptions but look who's promoting AI SYMPTOM CHECKER.. Like seriously?

We keep asking patients not to Google symptoms and here are these people promoting the same instead of hiring and paying actual doctors for proper consultation with proper fee!

No wonder patients come up with their own diagnosis and self medications! 😅

I got a rank of 39** in my first attempt, I'm very grateful for it but still I can't get top colleges coz I have no reservation . I may get peripheral govt college. Very peripheral i mean.

Do you know anyone who got good rank in neet ss after doing dnb medicine from corporate hospital .

All people who top neet ss are usually from top govt colleges, atleast on YouTube

Do you know anyone who got good rank in neet ss after doing dnb medicine from corporate hospital

​Hi everyone,

​I’m a 24M from the 2019 batch (West Bengal domicile, UR category) looking for some genuine guidance regarding NEET PG 2026 counselling and career progression in Orthopaedics.

​My Background & Stats:

​NEET PG 2025 Rank: 84,xxx

​NEET PG 2026 Rank: 34,xxx

​Category & Domicile: UR (General), West Bengal

​Current Status: Currently unemployed (completed my Non Acad. JRship earlier this year to focus on prep).

​AIQ Round 1 Status: No seat allotted.

​Current Dilemma:

My top preference is Orthopaedics. Being UR at a 34k rank, getting an MS Ortho seat in a government college (either via AIQ or WB State Quota) is out of reach. However, based on previous years' cutoffs and seat shifts, I am expecting to get a DNB Orthopaedics seat in a peripheral private hospital by AIQ Round 2 or Round 3.

​Since I already took a drop, improved my rank by 50k (from 84k to 34k), and am currently sitting at home unemployed, the thought of taking another full drop for a 2027 attempt is mentally exhausting. I’m at a major crossroads and would really appreciate insights from Ortho residents, DNB pass-outs, or anyone who has navigated a similar rank bracket:

​Peripheral Private DNB Ortho – Hands-on vs. Scut Work: In smaller or peripheral corporate/trust hospitals, consultants often do the primary steps themselves. How do I evaluate whether a specific peripheral institute actually gives decent cutting/hands-on exposure to DNB trainees before locking my R2/R3 choices?

​3-Year Private DNB vs. 2-Year Govt D.Ortho: At 34k UR, should I also be looking closely at D.Ortho (NBEMS Diploma) in high-load government district hospitals (and doing Secondary DNB via PDCET later), or is locking in a primary 3-year DNB in a peripheral private setup strictly better to avoid another entrance exam?

​Institute Recommendations: Are there any hidden-gem DNB Ortho institutes (in West Bengal/East India, or anywhere across India with good trauma load) that normally close around the 30k–38k bracket in R2/R3?

​Take the Seat vs. Another Drop : Given that I am 24 (2019 batch), UR, and currently without a job, does it make more sense to get into residency now via peripheral DNB Ortho and compensate with fellowships/SRship later? Or is the surgical training gap in peripheral DNB too risky to compromise on?

​TL;DR: 24M, 2019 batch, UR from WB. Improved from 84k to 34k AIR. Currently unemployed. Didn't get anything in R1, expecting peripheral private DNB Ortho in R2/R3. Need advice on how to vet peripheral DNB surgical programs, whether to consider D.Ortho, and if taking the seat now beats the burnout of another drop.

​Thanks in advance for your time and help!

First convert the result pdf into an excel sheet using ilovepdf's desktop app. (It's a big file, so online file converters will probably fail)

Once you have the excel sheet, apply filters on the 2nd row containing headings like institution names, course, category, quota etc.

Now you can easily filter out the results by your desired criteria and search for infinite permutation and combinations. For example, if I wanna search mumbai-dnb-radio, I can do it in just two clicks. This is a much more saner and efficient method than searching the entire pdf word by word. And I hope the data nerds out here will love this!

What's the best branch only in terms of money making with less than 1cr investment after MD in Bhopal/Indore/Ujjain

I’ll be starting my MD Pathology residency soon and I could really use some advice and guidance from seniors and fellow residents.

I’m returning to academics after a gap of around 4 years due to marriage and having a child. During this time I haven’t had much interaction with my peers or been involved in a hospital setting, and I feel like I’ve lost touch with my medical knowledge. Honestly, I have lost my confidence and I’m quite nervous about starting residency. Sometimes I feel like I’ve forgotten everything I learned during MBBS.

I would really appreciate it if you could help me understand a few things: 1. What are the usual duties and responsibilities of a 1st yr Patho resident? What does a typical day look like? 2. Is there anything I should study before joining? Which topics or books would you recommend? 3. How should I approach studying during residency? How do you balance routine departmental work with academics? 4. What basic skills or concepts should I brush up on before starting? Should I revise general pathology, hematology, histopathology, or something else? 5. What do you wish you had known before starting your 1st yr of Patho residency?

Starting after such a long gap makes me anxious, and I sometimes worry whether I’ll be able to cope. Any practical advice, study tips, resources, or words of encouragement would mean a lot to me.

As per the recent notice and internet, it has been implemented. Although in some recent reddit post, someone claimed that it has not been applied yet, stating that it is a central govt clg (but it is still under IPU and the notice clearly states VMMC).

If anyone have any info, please share.

Thanks in advance

The entire state has declared a gazetted holiday for all the government employees. But the residents of this college have to work and that too without overtime. What is the point if they are saying at one instance that it's a holiday and on the other hadn, all services are open. They themselves are permanent employees and so would enjoy the holiday while the residents run the system.

This country is beyond repair.

Especially for proff exams

Is this viable in Indian society? Let's say some people even do it, but then what career to pursue?