Can a med student from MCW give us some info and advice on the school please? Here are just some of the questions I've been thinking about.
1) Is MCW worth an extra $20,000 per year over a good state school? (mine is SUNY Upstate)
2) How friendly and close are classmates with each other? For instance do you all often hang out at least regularly at least a little bit after classes? Do groups ever go out to a bar (or wherever) and celebrate after a test? Are there any clubs or activities that people arrange and actually attend on a regular basis?
3) How good are the rotation options?
4) How much fun / relaxing / cool / enjoyable stuff is there to do in the local area?
5) Are any classes mandatory attendance? Which labs are mandatory attendance and which are not?
6) How much / how well does MCW prep you for the board (usmle?) tests?
7) What is the housing situation like? For instance how much do apartments cost? Are good apartments easy to get? Are all the students living in the same very small area, or are they dispersed?
8) I assume a car is absolutely necessary, so what's the parking situation like? Do I need to rent a parking space, or would I be fine just parking on the streets? Is traffic ever a problem?
9) How 24 hour friendly is the school? Like is the library open 24 hours? What about the gym? Is the local area late-night friendly? For instance are there restaurants open late?
10) Are *video* recordings available for *all* classes and labs?
11) Please tell me all the pros and cons that you can think of for going to MCW. And please tell me any other ideas / suggestions / points to consider / whatever that you can tells us about MCW.
I'm looking forward to hearing some honest answers from you MCW students. Help clue me in.
1) Are you certain that it is 20,000? That would make SUNY upstate right around 34,000 total (including cost of living). Not knowing the SUNY well enough, I'd say 20,000 is a pretty good incentive to go to a school.
2) The class of 2013 is pretty close. We do hang out after school, and there are always celebrations after test week. People do attend the parties, so they are usually a lot of fun. As medking said, 2013 might not be the norm, especially compared to 2012
3) Haven't gone through rotations, but from what I have heard, what MCW lacks in pre-clinical prowess, they are ahead of the curve when it comes to rotations. Some of the best hospitals in the country are here (Children's for example). Our VA system is well coordinated as well.
4) I would say the local area is what is lacking for MCW. The area directly surrounding the school is pretty rustic/suburban. There isn't too much to do directly around the school, but there is a good sized mall, restaurants, bars, etc. If you want to look around Milwaukee, there are lots of things to do. The Brewers games are always fun (our class tailgated/went to a game right after finals), the art museum is pretty cool and the zoo is decent (haven't been yet).
5) There are very few mandatory classes. 3 guest lectures and 3-4 small groups in biochem, your interviewing course (6 days), your human behavior course (6 days) and evidence based medicine small group (6 days). Everything else is optional. All labs (except anatomy) are done through a computer system that can be accessed from anywhere off-campus. Anatomy lab is not mandatory, but highly recommended.
6) Not taking step 1 for a year, so I can't really comment on this. I do know that there are small and large group tutoring sessions. Hopefully someone further on in the school can answer this one better.
7) Housing is very good around the school. There are apartment complexes within 3-4 miles of the school where most people live. There are definitely clusters where more students live, but in general people are close enough to school and each other that it doesn't really matter. As for cost, you can get a 1BR apartment for about 500 not including electric. Generally, you will probably spend about 700-800 per month for a 1BR apartment after paying all utilities. If you get a 2BR, you can find apartments at about 600 per month.
8) A car is by no means a necessity. There are people who walk to school every day, even in the winter (some apartments are as close as 5 minutes walking). If you do have a car, almost every apartment will come with a parking spot, because you can't park on the street after 3 am. So don't worry about that. Traffic is only a problem if you are traveling by highway (lots of construction). There is a little increase in local traffic around 4-5 pm, but nothing too bad.
9) The library is not 24 hours (although i wish it was at least for test week). However, the study rooms are 24 hours as is the anatomy lab and computer lab. The gym is 24 hours. The surrounding area is not super late-night friendly, but most restaurants are open till 8 or later, starbucks is open till 1 and the bars are usually open till 12.
10) The lectures are not video recorded, but every lecture is audio recorded. There are rumblings that they are trying to get video set up, but the teachers don't want to do it because they would have to change their entire syllabus to remove everything that might possibly be considered copywritten. All audio is available on itunes, so you can download it to your ipod and listen wherever. Labs are not recorded because these are done on your own (hence why all labs are on computer and available 24/7 off-campus). There are times set up for lab when professors are around to answer questions if you want to attend those instead of doing them on your own.
11) I think that I've covered most of the major pros/cons in this post already. The one thing that I would consider is that after the class of 2014, MCW is planning on changing it's curriculum to be more PBL in an attempt to remove lectures from the curriculum. Your class will not feel the full effects of this program, except for the Pathways program (see the Class of 2014 thread in the Allo forums for more info.)
Hope this helps.
