Change happens – there's nothing you can do to stop it or slow it down. Once you have successfully aced your MCAT and surpassed medical school interviews, it is most likely that you will get accepted; and this is not something light to start with.

Medical school is not the same with any school. Students in medical schools are being taught and trained to become the doctors that will take care of 98 percent of the world's total population. You can imagine the ethical responsibility that comes with it. Thus, it is only fitting that medical students learn to deal with changes.

After two years, here comes USMLE Step 1, a year or so, USMLE Step 2. While you can choose to ignore these successive changes or refuse to respond to it when it arrives, this doesn't have any effect on its arrival; USMLE will come no matter what you do.

Every medical student deals with change in his or her unique way, but most undergo through the four phases of transition when they are first confronted with it. The four steps are as follows:

Denial. The most common initial reaction to change is to deny it exists. Consider a medical student who refuses to slow down on partying and going out with friends. He would be wasting time and risking his academic performance just because he cannot accept that this part of his life calls for maturity earlier than what is expected from his friends who are not in medical school.

Resistance. Eventually, after denying that change has arrived, the next phase of dealing with transition comes – medical students decide to acknowledge its presence but resist it nonetheless. If you hear yourself saying things like, "Let's wait a while longer to see what happens before we make a move," or "If it isn't broken, why fix it?" then you can be certain that you're resisting the changes that have arrived on your doorstep.

Exploration. After resisting change – unsuccessfully – most medical students begin to realize that they aren't going to be able to stop it, so they slowly begin to explore it instead. At this stage, there's still no commitment to accepting the change, but students are definitely warming up to it.

Acceptance. The final phase of transition is acceptance. Instead of ignoring or fighting the change that has arrived, the change has been fully accepted and integrated into the medical student's thinking, processes and perhaps even in his values.

The next time a significant change approaches your life, try to become aware of what phase you and your colleagues are in. Are you denying it? Resisting it? Or exploring and accepting it? Understanding where you are in the four phases of dealing with transition can help you get to the final phase more quickly.