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I have to choose between these two schools, but i am having a hard time. If anyone has accepted or rejected either of these could you tell me why.
MCW and Madison
- Thread starter em_train
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Personally, I think that they both have excellent facilities and have similar residency match results. I think something that should be considered while you make your choice is the city they are each in. Also, MCW hospitals are great and you don't have to travel around the state during 3rd/4th year unless you want to, while at UW-Madison you don't really have much of a choice. I am most likely going to MCW. I felt like the students there were more cooperative with each other and less stressed out due to block exams. My "gut" feeling that I had while visiting both schools keeps leading me back to MCW. But to each his/her own. Best of luck with the decision.
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YzIa said:
It's April 27-30.
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DrET said:
Only for out of staters, eh? I say we storm the building . . . we'll make our own second look!
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DrET said:
I'm a M3 at MCW. I won't give my opinion for a few reasons, mostly because I didn't apply to UW (outta stater) and I've spent a total of 23 minutes in Madison in my life. I really can't compare the two, but I'm sure you'll get a great education at either. Like a previous poster said, it may just come down to city, curriculum, feel, etc.
But, the point of my reply to the above is....if you wanna come take a second peek, glance or stare at MCW, you don't need a formal "second-look weekend" to do it (I have no idea if we even have one). Just call Mike Istwan and tell him you want to visit, get another tour, meet with faculty, students, whatever, and I'm sure he'll do his best to accomodate you. Feel free to let me know if you have MCW-specific ?s. Good luck, but I really don't think you can lose this one.
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See my response on the other thread on this same topic.
Hawkeye Kid said:
I am pretty sure i will be attending MCW in the fall. I wanted to know if you thought the core rotations (fp, im, ob) were too crowded/too many students on the rotation at the same time to keep students from getting hands on experience.
Also, is there any formal required patient contact in the first two years to develop basic clinical skills (like shadowing a community doc )
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i go to UW and will stay at UW for med school starting in the fall. i go to milwaukee often and like it, however, madison is a much better town (IMHO) for young people. just go party there for a weekend and you'll know. and i know usnews **** doesn't really matter, but i have a cousin that does USMLE step 1 reviews for people that fail it the first time, and she told me that people from MCW and ros franklin are the worst in her class. i know i'm setting myself up to get chomped because it seems like everyone on SDN loves MCW, RF, or jefferson, but don't shoot me i'm just the messenger.
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pratik7--i'll try to address this in chronological order...
M1: you'll take an interviewing class in which you'll learn how (not) to talk with patients, how to take a good history, be empathetic, etc. there's also a mentor program where you'll be paired with a dr with whom you'll meet 5-6 times (usually primary care, though you can request specialists). the amount of hands-on experience with the mentor is pretty dr-specific--some will have you watch, others will let you do lots of stuff. it's pretty much luck of the draw.
M2: you have a physical exam class in which you'll learn the basics of the exam. you'll also meet with a clinician who will go over H&Ps with you individually and give you patients to practice on. you'll write H&Ps for them and get feedback. there are standardized pts at the end of the year that will eval your proficiency. also, there is a new clinical skills area at the school that is specifically designed for that purpose (haven't seen it, but i've heard it's pretty cool).
M3/4: while we do have large classes, we're also spread out across the milwaukee area and you're generally on teams with 1-3 other students. typically, you'll have your "own" pts that you will share with an intern; most services expect you to be the person in charge of your pts care, and will give you as much responsibility as you're willing to take on (within reason, of course). as for "hands on" stuff, it depends on what you mean. generally, you won't do many procedures as a junior student because most of them will go to the intern (this will vary greatly on your intern/resident, however). but, in terms of physical exam, blood draws, etc, opportunity is rarely lacking--especially if you seek it out. also, the student:attending ratio is pretty low (2-4:1 in most rotations). i've rarely felt that there were so many students on my team that my educational experience suffered, and the fact that there are many students means that there are many options with respect to sites at which to do rotations (big vs. small, academic vs. private, etc).
let me know if you have other ?s about this or other MCW-related stuff.
as for the milwaukee/madison distinction, docrugby is right that madison is a younger town. it can be argued as to whether or not it is a "much better town" for young people, and this would be completely individualized by what you want from a city. my understanding is that madison is basically a large college town (granted, they do have state gov't, etc). i went to UG in a college town that has been described as a "little madison" (guess where???) and i can say without a doubt that, while it was great during UG, i'm very glad that i don't have to deal with a lot of the issues that are common in college towns anymore...ya know, now that i'm a whole three years older and wiser and all. I think that you do a lot of maturing in medical school as you grow into the profession and you might find that the things you thought were cool in college might not seem so cool a few years from now. or maybe i'm just lame, who knows.
as for the USMLE thing, your post is, as you know, completely anecdotal. i can say with certainty that MCW is consistently at or above the national average on step1. now, does that mean that the 5% of people that fail don't bite it really hard? i don't know. but to attempt to draw a conclusion about the school as a whole based on your cousin's informal study--likely a small sample taken from a small population--is pretty weak (that doesn't constitute "chomping," does it?).
M1: you'll take an interviewing class in which you'll learn how (not) to talk with patients, how to take a good history, be empathetic, etc. there's also a mentor program where you'll be paired with a dr with whom you'll meet 5-6 times (usually primary care, though you can request specialists). the amount of hands-on experience with the mentor is pretty dr-specific--some will have you watch, others will let you do lots of stuff. it's pretty much luck of the draw.
M2: you have a physical exam class in which you'll learn the basics of the exam. you'll also meet with a clinician who will go over H&Ps with you individually and give you patients to practice on. you'll write H&Ps for them and get feedback. there are standardized pts at the end of the year that will eval your proficiency. also, there is a new clinical skills area at the school that is specifically designed for that purpose (haven't seen it, but i've heard it's pretty cool).
M3/4: while we do have large classes, we're also spread out across the milwaukee area and you're generally on teams with 1-3 other students. typically, you'll have your "own" pts that you will share with an intern; most services expect you to be the person in charge of your pts care, and will give you as much responsibility as you're willing to take on (within reason, of course). as for "hands on" stuff, it depends on what you mean. generally, you won't do many procedures as a junior student because most of them will go to the intern (this will vary greatly on your intern/resident, however). but, in terms of physical exam, blood draws, etc, opportunity is rarely lacking--especially if you seek it out. also, the student:attending ratio is pretty low (2-4:1 in most rotations). i've rarely felt that there were so many students on my team that my educational experience suffered, and the fact that there are many students means that there are many options with respect to sites at which to do rotations (big vs. small, academic vs. private, etc).
let me know if you have other ?s about this or other MCW-related stuff.
as for the milwaukee/madison distinction, docrugby is right that madison is a younger town. it can be argued as to whether or not it is a "much better town" for young people, and this would be completely individualized by what you want from a city. my understanding is that madison is basically a large college town (granted, they do have state gov't, etc). i went to UG in a college town that has been described as a "little madison" (guess where???) and i can say without a doubt that, while it was great during UG, i'm very glad that i don't have to deal with a lot of the issues that are common in college towns anymore...ya know, now that i'm a whole three years older and wiser and all. I think that you do a lot of maturing in medical school as you grow into the profession and you might find that the things you thought were cool in college might not seem so cool a few years from now. or maybe i'm just lame, who knows.
as for the USMLE thing, your post is, as you know, completely anecdotal. i can say with certainty that MCW is consistently at or above the national average on step1. now, does that mean that the 5% of people that fail don't bite it really hard? i don't know. but to attempt to draw a conclusion about the school as a whole based on your cousin's informal study--likely a small sample taken from a small population--is pretty weak (that doesn't constitute "chomping," does it?).
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DocRugby said:
Just to add to what Hawkeye said, (Iowa City is your mini Madison) Board passing rates are so high, that people who retake the exam cannot be used as a fair representation of the class as a whole.
