Hey guys, congrats on your acceptance to BU!
I'm a first year here and I'm very happy with things so far. Hopefully I can answer some of your questions about preclinical stuff.
Popbirch, thanks for clarifying about the housing. If you don't mind, I have some questions about BUSM.
1. Looking at the academic calender, it seems like daily schedule is 8-5pm. While I am a lecture person so I plan to attend most of the lectures, how much of other things are mandatory to attend? In other words, do we get few afternoons off? Also does schedule get better once anatomy is over? Do you feel like you are in classroom for way too long?
One thing is I wanna know what classes are like--do a lot of people go to lecture and lab? Is there a good mix of small group and lecture-based learning (I've talked to one student who says that the small group learning in first year is a bit of a joke, but does it get better in second year?--small group learning is really important to me)? Do people study together? How many students who go there are interested in primary care?
How many afternoons are free varies during the year, but roughly: in the fall you have IP (which is the case-based group class) and ICM where you learn to do patient interviews ~ one afternoon/week each and depending on the anatomy dissection schedule you'll have none to most of the other afternoons free, for neuro (december and january) class starts at 9 and lectures are done by 1 with lab/small group discussion until 3 a few days a week. In the spring you have most afternoon's free (IP and ICM once a week) and definitely nothing that would go till five except for your ICM which in the spring is a one on one placement with a physician to work on your physical exam/interview.
Except for ICM, IP and the anatomy and histology labs, nothing is mandatory. The nice thing is that this lets people cater to what works for them and fits their learning style. I go to almost all of the lectures (most of which are very good, some not so good), but most people don't physically attend a lot of the lectures (they are all on video though and I think most people watch them). Most people do go the the physiology discussions (small group of students with a faculty member going through problems) and in general I found them to be very helpful. Whether there is too much class time depends on your learning style, but there is very little that you need to go to so most people figure out what works for them.
As far as small group learning vs lecture, the curriculum is definitely tilted towards lecture (which I like, but different strokes for different folks). I've found the histo labs and neuro and physio discussions to be very good and helpful in learning the material (these are 10-20 students/faculty). The case-based learning class can seem like something of a throwaway first year, especially in the beginning since most people know so little. That said, I've enjoyed mine and felt like it was a good experience and gets you familiar with uptodate and researching topics you don't know about. Plus, I've already noticed that it is better this semester since we can actually talk through the physiology and figure out what is going on as a group and I think that trajectory continues next year. They do a good job of integrating it with the other coursework, but it is more like an addendum on to your other work and not the main mode of teaching like at some schools.
The students here are great and many people study together/have study groups and people are very helpful (send out study guides etc.). It seems like there are a good number of students interested in primary care and there are several programs that are catered to students interested in primary care (they can have all their ICM placements at the same community health center etc.). However, the caveat is that I'm sure there are more 1st years interested in primary care at pretty much all med schools than actually go into it.
also, for a more accurate academic calendar go to mybumc.com
Anyways, feel free to keep asking questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Good luck w/your decisions and congrats again!
And good luck to those who are still waiting for responses!
