Thanks so much for offering your help! I know it's going to be a hectic year, but students like you are great in trying to help ease some of that nervousness.
My question: what specifically drew you to attend MCV? and in your experience, how OOS friendly is MCV?
I chose MCV over several schools that were much closer to home because I was impressed with its programs and its emphasis on underserved and international populations.
We have an especially vibrant global health program with exciting projects around the world. Every year, through preexisting programs M1s go to established sites in
Honduras, Peru, the Dominican Republic,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador,
Ghana and other places. (As a part of those trips, they also offer/require a global health elective and a Spanish elective for M1s. Both were excellent.) We also have M3 rotations in
Honduras (Family Medicine) and an effort is underway to add additional sites in other specialties. On top of all that, we have the
International Trauma System Development Program (ITSDP), a clinical research team that partners with the
Panamerican Trauma Society (an affiliate of the WHO/PAHO) to provide assistance to Latin America in developing trauma care systems on both national and local levels. (The PTS itself is also now headquartered out of the VCU Division of Trauma Services, which provides some great publication opportunities.) It has been said that if you go to Latin/South America and talk to physicians there about American trauma systems, we are the hospital system they are talking about.
Additionally, because the region near the school actually has a median income below the federal poverty line, the school is very intentional in its approach to training culturally-competent physicians who are [hopefully] understanding of the needs of low SES communities. This aspect also means we get lots of interesting pathology and trauma cases.
Finally, our early clinical experience is really something the school prides itself on. As an M1, I served at a clinic where I got to "be" the physician. I went in with my partner (an advanced student from another healthcare program), saw our patient and we worked together to get the history, perform the exam, come up with an assessment, tentative diagnosis, and plan. We then presented to a junior preceptor (an M4 on a teaching rotation) who would provide coaching as necessary (e.g., "did you ask....?" or "have you considered...?" or "I would..."). Finally, we would present our patient to the supervising attending. The attending would ask any questions necessary and then spend a few minutes with the patient (with us observing or assisting) to ensure we didn't miss anything. At the beginning, much of our work was checked but by the end of the year, the attendings would occasionally do little more than glance into the room (assuming they trusted you and felt the case was simple enough).
As for the OOS issue, I am OOS and I found it very OOS friendly. Of the 201 in our class, 100 are OOS and this is consistent from year to year at right about 50% OOS. I would say they show almost no preference for IS students (although I'm sure they have to somewhat to get the little state funding they do receive).
So TL;DR:
- Underserved population focus
- Unbeatable international/global health program
- Awesome early clinical experience that defies the "early clinical experience is a gimmick" mantra of SDN
- Very OOS-friendly (50% of class is OOS -- about the same as most private schools)
