I know curriculum is a huge issue talked about on the thread, ive seen differing opinions. I guess should I be concerned that I will be part of a class in which the curriculum is still being figured out or tested.
It's one factor, for sure, but depending on what your other options are, it may or may not be a major factor.
So, on the up side, a lot of the major issues with the curriculum have been addressed for next year already. There will be more kinks to work out, but the school is really receptive to student feedback and things can be adjusted for the better mid-year.
Also, no curriculum is going to be *exactly* perfect or to your preference. Things you like or dislike will be great or awful for the next person, and so there are a lot of things you will just have to suck up and make the best of, because that's the nature of the beast.
On the down side, it was a rough year for the M1s. Next year *shouldn't* be as rough, but there's no guarantee that the fixes put in place won't bring their own problems.
But they survived it and the class of 2023 will too.
So again, how much of a factor it is will depend on you and your other options. If you've got a great spot somewhere else and this is a backup, then save yourself the stress and go with the other school. If you don't have another acceptance, or one at a school that you don't like so much, then it's a non-issue because you're gonna come here anyway and just deal with it.
This school was one of the only ones ive interviewed at that revealed their step 1 score averages and they were the national average which idk if that is common but i was curious as to why they would tell us if they werent like above national average. The faculty attributed to the old curriculum to those scores. Could you shed some light on this issue if you know anything about how well the school preps you for the step?
Having the school avg at the natl avg is good. Very few schools sit above the natl avg. Individuals will score above or below depending on their talents and studying rigor/intensity, but for the school at the whole to be at average is really solid.
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***A note on averages in medical school***
IDK if you've ever heard of the 10% rule of social dynamics, but say you have 1000 people... roughly 10% of them will be ________(fill in the blank - cool, smart, whatever). If you take that 10% and separate them off, then again, 10% will be ______. You can continue this and it will hold true until you run out of people to separate off. It's a pretty stable thing across humans.
So when you think of averages, you're thinking of the big average - across the whole population - which is generally synonymous with mediocre. But in med school, you've already separated off that top 10% a couple times over (via UG gpa, mcat, med school admissions, etc.). So your population solely consists of people who are at the far right end of the statistical curve and you've zoomed in to a special little bump in that curve that is the variation just within that group. Being average in that group is *not* mediocre. It's just a slight variant on pretty damn good. This is true for any metric you want to look at.
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As to how well they prepare us for step... it's fine. Nothing to stress about (as with any US med school). There are some areas here that are better (anatomy, neuro) and some that are worse (physio), but all around we're on par. With the new curriculum, there have been some improvements made - NBME questions for M1/2 lecture exams instead of in-house questions (so more practice throughout), and a few weeks more dedicated study time - both of which are significant. I take step in a month and any unpreparedness I feel is entirely due to 1) expected nerves and 2) my own laziness in studying, but not to how the school prepared me.