Be wary of BU

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BladesofGlory

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hi, all, just thought i'd post this piece of editorial on one medical school that you should seriously research before going there, namely BU (Boston University) medical school. While some people may become accustom to how this school treats its student, many will come to dislike their experience at the school very early in their education.

1. The school opts for students to complete their basic science clinical experience at a community health center in an urban location, i.e. the CHEERS program. However, the quality of education at the sites varies, at one site a preceptor is known for disparaging medical students who show up at his site, and many of these student decide not to return. Even to the point of making snide comments and making the student feel as though they often know nothing. Personally, I was told that neurologic complications of diabetes are not important as a first year, only to find out later that the neurologica manifestations of diabetes have a negative impact on a patient's health, i.e. diabetic foot problems, etc . . .

2. Abusive teaching styles which are institutionally ingrained. Several students have been verbally harassed and physically threatened on a daily basis in certain rotations. The school administration condones this abuse, and unofficially have told students who complain that they use techniques of intimidation and "torture" to teach medical students (straight from the mouth of one of the assisstant deans) And if you report the abuse, faculty at the core clinical sites will find ways to make your life difficult.

3. Bellittling of medical students. Often if you are confused about remarks in an evaluation of your performance in a clerkship you are told that you are just supposed to know what to do, without being given advice of what to change. Often, faculty members enter into abusive and unprofessional teaching relationships with students and vent their anger by writing bizarre comments in your evaluation, the dean's office knows this and has tried in many instances to edit them out of the MSPE (dean's letter) because of the numerous lawsuits that would result, not out of concern for the students. Bottom-line: if you are not "in" with the administration or are perceived as protesting this abuse there are many unofficial ways that they can make your life difficult.

4. Forgive the expression, but BU treats its students more like slaves, because they know that with their super high tuition students are forced to grin and bear the humiliation. Many applicants would have choosen to go elsewhere, and the school knows it, so the students who do end up at BU are all viewed as substandard or worhty of harassment by the faculty. Unofficial motto told to me by on secretary: "BU, its about the aBUse!"

5. Lip-service towards helping the indigent. BU claims to wish to serve the indigent population with good medical care, but some of the most abusive attendings use BU clinics, which some have many indigent patient, to "teach" students which includes harassing the student in front of the patient and then getting angry with the patient! NEVER go to BU for medical care if you can avoid it. Ironically, BU is reimbursed for indigent patients through the free-care pool, yet serves them poorly.

PLEASE, do yourself a favor and avoid this school! Do not be fooled by BU's fancy-smancy website, the school lacks a real spirit towards serving indigent people, and treat its students like horse ----,

well you get the point, rant over.

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Another school abuse thread? I thought I saw one about AMC here a couple days ago. To the OP, are you a medical student there and if so, what year are you? Is this something drastic enough to transfer out of between M2 and M3?
 
WOW... I was seriously considering BU. I had always heard the place is run like a business, the students are super competitive, etc...

This definitely raises even more doubts.
 
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I have a friend who went to BUSDM (Boston U Dental School) and what he told me falls in line with what the OP said. He ended up hating BU and told me several times that his instructors were pricks that made his and several of his classmates' lives miserable. He said many of the faculty were ex-military dentists and they were very bitter. At BU, many of the first two years science classes were taken with the med students for what it's worth.
 
I posted in the thread about AMC because I was accepted there.. But I was rejected by BU and I'm still posting here.. The mere fact that a student claiming to attend a certain med school posts negative things about their med school does not mean that the school is actually bad. I'm sure you can find at least a handful of people at any school who disliked their experience. Just because someone is vocal enough to make a post on SDN about their particular school, assuming that this person is a student there to begin with, it does not follow that there is something egregious about this school in relation to the many other med schools in the U.S. You can find someone who will complain in any situation, and I wonder whether these med students would really have been happier at another school. Read the clinical forums and see how well students think they are being treated on the wards. I highly doubt this is unique to BU or any other institution.
 
I have a friend who went to BUSDM (Boston U Dental School) and what he told me falls in line with what the OP said. He ended up hating BU and told me several times that his instructors were pricks that made his and several of his classmates' lives miserable. He said many of the faculty were ex-military dentists and they were very bitter. At BU, many of the first two years science classes were taken with the med students for what it's worth.

I read that is the norm for dental students though - they get treated like crap by faculty and even by the administrators...at least this is what I read over at the pre-dent/dent forums last year...
 
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I have a friend who went to BUSDM (Boston U Dental School) and what he told me falls in line with what the OP said. He ended up hating BU and told me several times that his instructors were pricks that made his and several of his classmates' lives miserable. He said many of the faculty were ex-military dentists and they were very bitter. At BU, many of the first two years science classes were taken with the med students for what it's worth.

dental school is like that everywhere. cant really compare two diff programs (md and dds) with diff faculty
 
Not that I doubt the OP's word, but I would love to hear if anyone else has thoughts on this matter. I was actually incredibly impressed by how happy the students at BU were. They seemed extremely relaxed, friendly, and satisfied to be there. On the other hand, I basically only talked to students in their first year, so maybe they just haven't seen the depths yet.
 
Not that I doubt the OP's word, but I would love to hear if anyone else has thoughts on this matter. I was actually incredibly impressed by how happy the students at BU were. They seemed extremely relaxed, friendly, and satisfied to be there. On the other hand, I basically only talked to students in their first year, so maybe they just haven't seen the depths yet.

I agree. We got the chance to talk with 3rd and 4th years when I was there for interview. When I asked them about some of the negatives, they couldn't think of much to say.
 
I agree. We got the chance to talk with 3rd and 4th years when I was there for interview. When I asked them about some of the negatives, they couldn't think of much to say.

The students who want to host interviewees or lead tours are always going to be the happier of the students. It is nearly impossible to get a feel for the school from the interview. I got a really good impression of the school from my interview. Now that I'm digging deeper, it does seem that BU has its share of very unhappy students (don't tell me every school has the unhappy few...I know that. It seems that BU has more than a few).

I checked out this website recommended by another SDNer. I looked at BU side by side with Tufts (comparable stats and in same city) and AECOM (comparable stats and another school I'm considering).

http://www.amsa.org/premed/medsurvey/

I noticed a few things:

- BU is rated as the most competitive of the three
- The standard deviations of the ratings for BU are in general much larger than for AECOM, and slightly larger than Tufts, leading me to think that for whatever reason, student opinions of the school differ greatly.
- Also if you look under the comments section "What do you like best about this school?" Not a single BU student mentioned the cooperative atmosphere of the student body. But for Tufts and AECOM, at least one person commented on the student body in a positive light.
- Students at BU spoke negatively about the administration and the competitiveness of the students. This was not the case at Tufts or AECOM.

I understand that these surveys never represent the entire student body. But the fact that NOT A SINGLE BU student out of the 18 who completed the survey had anything positive to say about the student body may mean more than generic anecdotal evidence.

One of the reasons I think BU has some unhappies is the way the school has so many special programs leading to med school. Some students matriculate through their undergrad path, others come from their masters program. I've heard that some of these students have taken classes that exempt them from certain med school classes. These students have an advantage as a first year with a lighter load as well as familiarity with the BU system.

I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from attending BU...I'm still deciding myself. I'm just posting what I've researched towards coming to a sensible decision.
 
For what it's worth all of my friends at BU hate it there. PM me for details or if you want to get in touch with someone there.
 
Tatowedges,
You have a good point. I did notice that the comments on the survey about the clinical years are all positive. The comments on the first two years, on the other hand....
 
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does anyone have anything nice to say about BU? I've been accepted to BU, but my impression at the interview of the students I met was that some were pretty unhappy. I'm a little worried and disheartened by this post, because as it stands right now, I have two acceptances, and am probably leaning toward BU because it is a far better school than the other acceptance, and I really liked it when I visited it.
 
It's in Boston. That's pretty sweet.
 
does anyone have anything nice to say about BU? I've been accepted to BU, but my impression at the interview of the students I met was that they were pretty unhappy. I'm a little worried and disheartened by this post, because as it stands right now, I have two acceptances, and am probably leaning toward BU because it is a far better school than the other acceptance.

Despite where I end up going, I'll always try to keep in mind the saying, "It's not where you go, but what you do there that matters."

There are good people everywhere and BU must have many great assets as a school or it wouldn't be so highly ranked. I would go and make the most of it. Take advantage of its perks and try to avoid the negative aspects. As long as you keep an open-mind and have reasonable expectations, I think you can make a good experience out of nearly any situation. :)

If I found certain classmates to be gunners, I would probably avoid them when I can. Also, maybe I would try to live further away from campus so I can partition out my personal life from my professional one as a BU med student.
 
...The mere fact that a student claiming to attend a certain med school posts negative things about their med school does not mean that the school is actually bad...

I completely agree. I don't have any insight into BU, but I do have a related story.

On my interview day at USC, while I was waiting for my interview, I was sitting with several other interviewees. A student sat down with us and began telling us how horrible the school is, that we definitely shouldn't come here, and that he's really sorry he did. It kind of shocked me, so I told my student interviewer about it later that day. He said "Oh, yeah... that guy's kind of in trouble", but didn't want to go into it further. So I asked my student host about it when I got back from interviewing, and she told me that he had gotten into major trouble with the administration because he was literally stalking one of the female students. She'd filed a harrassment claim, many other students had noticed and backed her up, and the guy was pissed about it.

Everyone else I met that day had nothing but good things to say, and now that I'm here, I have nothing but good things to say. I love it here, and am really glad I didn't let that one guy influence me. Just take peoples' comments with a grain of salt.
 
doctors abusing their students? please tell me you don't think this only goes on at BU...its called pimping and it happens almost everywhere. not every prof/doc will do it, but they are out there. there are other schools, even in boston (yes, that school), that might be described the same way as your article.
 

That's a pretty interesting site. However, I don't know how much to rely on it. Some of the school names are way out of date (Finch, Hahnemann, etc), so it's unclear how current the info are. And apparently 4 student filled out the survey for the medical school at University of California -Berkeley!?!
 
doctors abusing their students? please tell me you don't think this only goes on at BU...its called pimping and it happens almost everywhere. not every prof/doc will do it, but they are out there. there are other schools, even in boston (yes, that school), that might be described the same way as your article.

Pimping and abuse are at two very different ends of a spectrum. Pimping goes on everywhere and is a normal part of medical education. Abuse is something above and beyond (ie harassment, psychological oppression), and something which no student should have to be put through. What the OP described seemed more like the latter, but I have no idea either way just from a random description on an internet forum.
 
It's Boston. Everybody's unhappy. Complaining is New England's official winter sport. Ask anybody on the street at the end of February anything and we'll give you a long, whiny, bitchy answer. We're convinced the world is out to get us. The only exception to this rule is Bostonians affiliated with Harvard, because they have the eternal golden glow of veritas shining upon them even in their darkest moments. If you move to Boston to do anything other than work at/attend Harvard, you too will become a wretched, paranoid fussbot. At least until June.
 
It's Boston. Everybody's unhappy. Complaining is New England's official winter sport. Ask anybody on the street at the end of February anything and we'll give you a long, whiny, bitchy answer. We're convinced the world is out to get us. The only exception to this rule is Bostonians affiliated with Harvard, because they have the eternal golden glow of veritas shining upon them even in their darkest moments. If you move to Boston to do anything other than work at/attend Harvard, you too will become a wretched, paranoid fussbot. At least until June.
Haha how true it is. Only around the winter months. Everyone is just pissed off 24/7. Also, never flash a smile to anyone in the street, you're asking to get your ass kicked. No one appreciates anyone else being happy, at least thats what ive noticed in the last 4 years there :laugh:
 
BU certainly sucks. Did a grad degree at the med school. I have many friends who are now in the program and hate the school and how they are treated. Dean of Admissions also comes across as a great guy at interview...be weary of him, as he's a two-faced back-stabber.

Think twice about going to a school that will judge you for all the wrong reasons and not give you an education worth the money they charge. Talk to residents at BMC, and they will tell you the students rotating through their services are very lazy and unmotivated to learn anything.

I'm glad others feel the same way about BUSM. They need to change their ways.


PS - I started a thread a yesterday...something along the lines of "any schools you simply despise." Wanna guess what school I failed to mention in that thread??
 
Yeah, I work with a resident (PGY-6) who went to BU and graduated at the very top of his class. When I was deciding where to apply he told me that I should absolutely not apply to BU. He said that is was super competitive and that everyone got their kicks out of being mean to their subordinates. That meant that the medical students got treated like crap. There was always an attending who would stand outside the door during rounds and scream at whoever was late (even if it was for a perfectly good reason- i.e. busy with a patient emergency). Even if you were literally one minute (as in 60 seconds) late this guy would berate you for 5 minutes. The resident I work with had plenty of other examples of this type of stuff.
 
I agree. We got the chance to talk with 3rd and 4th years when I was there for interview. When I asked them about some of the negatives, they couldn't think of much to say.

That's shocking!! Students trying to sell their own school. What nerve...
 
Go elsewhere if you have the opportunity.
 
Well, if memory serves me well, their rejection letter was pretty nice. :laugh:

Seriously though, if you've got more than a few people corroborating stories of abuse, you need to take a good second look at the school. Being pimped and being abused are not the same thing.
 
From the BU web site, it appears that there are some strong initiatives at BUSM to improve the student experience:

http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?DepartmentID=406&PageID=8169


I have an MD/PhD interview at BUSM at the end of Match. Anyone have any advice?

Also, considering how awful the AMSA comments are, it is interesting that BU lists the emails of the AMSA student officers
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?DepartmentID=42&PageID=549

I wonder how they would react to this thread?
 
This is not news, everyone including BU administrators knows BU is not running the most medstudent friendly system, and it has been like that for some time. Why they can't improve is a mystery to me.
 
I just thought I would throw my two cents in about BU. I am in the midst of my first year here, and I couldn't be happier with the school. I enjoy my classmates, and the first year is p/f so you don't need to compete with anyone, just get above a 70%. Which is fairly straight forward because all the testable material from the texts is rewritten by the faculty and handed out in the syllabus. I can't really comment on what the 3/4th years are like because I haven't been there so I'll just write about what I do know.

The faculty hold meetings with students during the every course to discuss changes that need to made promptly to better facilitate learning or deal with issues. They have been used and the faculty have changed things in the classes based on our input. There are a lot of fantastic teachers and some that are ok, and other that I could do without. So in my mind it is just a normal distribution of what you would get at any research institution where PhD's do a majority of the teaching.

As for clinical faculty that I have had interactions with. The head of the general surgery was more than accommodating in allowing students to hang around or come to the OR. He went out of his way to make sure that he had time for MS1's that wanted to hang out. The ER docs pretty much let you come to the ER anytime as long as you tell them before hand. We have an optional class where we learn to place chest tubes, IV's, intubate, some ACLS, etc... which is taught by the ER attendings. They seem like genuinely nice people that would be great to work with. The ENT docs pretty much beg you to come hang out and see what being an ENT is like, surgery or clinic or whatever you want. Which I find very refreshing, because as an undergrad I always felt like I was imposing on docs when I was around and I don't feel that way with these guys. I have a meeting the head of neurosurgery so I'll see how that goes but from the 4th years i contacted he seems to be receptive to students working with him.

In my clinical placement in the first semester I was with the head of the psychiatry rotation who was more than approachable about problems. He also made a point of saying that any clinical problem with attendings or mistreatment of students should be reported and can be dealt with anonymously. The pediatrician I am currently with is instructive about performing physicals and is great to work with. The geriatrician that works in our small groups for H&P's is a great guy, fun to be around and I learn a lot from him.

So thats my experience so far at BU. I can't comment on how other people like/dislike the school so far, and I can't comment on how clinical years will go. I look forward to them but all I would be able to add to the debate is heresay and I actually haven't heard any negative comments from actual students. I usually only hear it in on internet forums.
 
^thanks for your post popbirch! :thumbup:
 
Be weary of one malcontent opinion about anything for the rest of yoru career. I didn't read all of the OP's post, but you'll hear extremes about every program you apply to from now on.
 
What I can tell you is that the dean is the most histrionic jackass I've ever heard. Medicine is debatably more noble than some things but jesus christ in the end its still a job, man. :rolleyes:

:laugh: On one hand I liked that the dean gave up a lot of his time to put on the dog and pony show. The effort makes me feel like he was taking us seriously as interviewers even if his approach was a bit over the top. On the other hand, I do wonder what reality looks like once the show is over.
 
I just thought I would throw my two cents in about BU. I am in the midst of my first year here, and I couldn't be happier with the school. I enjoy my classmates, and the first year is p/f so you don't need to compete with anyone, just get above a 70%. Which is fairly straight forward because all the testable material from the texts is rewritten by the faculty and handed out in the syllabus. I can't really comment on what the 3/4th years are like because I haven't been there so I'll just write about what I do know.

The faculty hold meetings with students during the every course to discuss changes that need to made promptly to better facilitate learning or deal with issues. They have been used and the faculty have changed things in the classes based on our input. There are a lot of fantastic teachers and some that are ok, and other that I could do without. So in my mind it is just a normal distribution of what you would get at any research institution where PhD's do a majority of the teaching.

As for clinical faculty that I have had interactions with. The head of the general surgery was more than accommodating in allowing students to hang around or come to the OR. He went out of his way to make sure that he had time for MS1's that wanted to hang out. The ER docs pretty much let you come to the ER anytime as long as you tell them before hand. We have an optional class where we learn to place chest tubes, IV's, intubate, some ACLS, etc... which is taught by the ER attendings. They seem like genuinely nice people that would be great to work with. The ENT docs pretty much beg you to come hang out and see what being an ENT is like, surgery or clinic or whatever you want. Which I find very refreshing, because as an undergrad I always felt like I was imposing on docs when I was around and I don't feel that way with these guys. I have a meeting the head of neurosurgery so I'll see how that goes but from the 4th years i contacted he seems to be receptive to students working with him.

In my clinical placement in the first semester I was with the head of the psychiatry rotation who was more than approachable about problems. He also made a point of saying that any clinical problem with attendings or mistreatment of students should be reported and can be dealt with anonymously. The pediatrician I am currently with is instructive about performing physicals and is great to work with. The geriatrician that works in our small groups for H&P's is a great guy, fun to be around and I learn a lot from him.

So thats my experience so far at BU. I can't comment on how other people like/dislike the school so far, and I can't comment on how clinical years will go. I look forward to them but all I would be able to add to the debate is heresay and I actually haven't heard any negative comments from actual students. I usually only hear it in on internet forums.

Thanks for the info. Do you know anyone in the MD/PhD program?

Sounds like a lot of clinical exposure for first year, which is great.
 
It is nice to know that somebody at least is having a good time at BU i.e. basic science student.

My worst experience at BU was working in a community clinic (Codman Health Center) and seeing a patient who was bumping into things and I did a visual field examination, and a fundoscopic exam, which was markedly abnormal. I was presenting my patient to the internal medicine resident and she was complaining and boring into me about my abdominal exam, which I did complete, but she felt the need to make me feel like I didn't know what I was doing and acted very upset and disappointed, and seemed to resent my presence in this urban clinic. I finally got the visual exam and I described to her the abnormal results and felt that the patient had "floaters", she then started lecturing me about things I already knew concnerning opthalmologic examination, proving that she did not listen to me. She repeated the visual fields, but did NOT look into the patient's eyes!!! I told her that you should really look into the patient's eyes. She looked confused about what to do, I said that the patient need to see an opthalmologist ASAP, she said, well I will have her come into see the optometrist tomorrow. (She asked, what do you think we should do?) I wanted to rush into the room and tell the patient to forget what her doctor told her and go to the ER, but I did not, because the resident made me feel like I didn't know anything. Next day the resident said that the optometrist say the patient and sent her to BUMC to be admitted ASAP, she had pseudotumor cerebri and was losing her vision, the idiotic resident said, "good pick up" and looked at me sort of confused like she didn't understand what happened I was extremely upset. I decided that day that some attendings/residents care more about harassing students that taking care of patients, I wish like hell I told the patient to go to the ER, I will probably never know if the delay in getting treatment resulted in further vision loss, regardless, the resident's unprofessional teaching behavior that day negatively affected patient care . . . To this day I sternly correct attendings and residents that make inaccurate statements about various medical topics including sepsis, and or management etc . . . they should learn to respect students inputs.
 
BladesofGlory, Are you a current BU med student? What year are you? No worries...I'm not faculty of anything. I'm a disgruntled former GMS sucker.
 
I am not a student at BU, but I did do an internship there for several summers as an undergrad. The professors that I encountered were mostly in the pathology department but they all seemed extremely encouraging to the residents and medical students that they were working with. They were even positive with me and supported my learning always answering any questions, or explaining as they did autopsies or diagnosies under the microscope.


BU did not accept me, but I still think they are a great school in an excellent location. It's a shame that they seem to have another side which may negatively impact patient care, but honestly I personally never saw this while working there.
 
To everyone reading this thread,

There is no way I could reply to everything that has been said about BU in the previous posts but I would like to welcome anyone who wants to know more about the program or who has specific questions about the school, to please contact me.

I am a fourth year student at BU now and have absolutely loved my time here and have no problem answering specific questions about classes, instructors or rotations. I have nothing to hold back as my time here is almost done and would like to help all of you make the right decision on medical school.

As is always the case, there is a lot that has been said here already that just isnt true, enough said.

Best of luck to all of you and again feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
 
Hi everybody. I am a current 4th year at BU, and it saddens me to see this thread casting my school in a negative light. I couldn't look back on my experience here with anything but absolute pride and admiration for this institution. Now that I am getting ready for the match, I find myself really sad to be getting ready to leave this place. I received excellent training both in the preclinical and clinical years, I met some terrific friends that I will have for life, and I loved living in Boston.

And I know that my opinions are the norm. Of all my classmates and friends, I can't think of a single one that regrets their decision to come here. BU serves its students very well. It is an extremely respected institution that will put you in a position to get into the most competitive residencies in the nation. On all of my interviews, people were constantly impressed simply because I had trained at BU. Furthermore the faculty is nothing short of brilliant. Our special patient population attracts the most caring faculty members that you will meet. I couldn't disagree more with the comment that we provide poor care to our population. the mission statement of the entire institution is "exceptional care without exception" and that rings true. The majority of our patients are free care, however, that does not mean that BU cuts corners. We have all the state of the art technology of any hospital and our patients are privy to all of it. Additionally, BU is a leading center for research. This duo of outstanding clinical care and top notch research is something you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere.

And you can't beat living in Boston. For medicine, this is THE town to be in. The city is built around health care. Furthermore, with sooo many colleges in town, it is a very young city with lots of fun nightlife. Throw in the redsox and you've got pretty much the best city ever.

Now, to be absolutely fair, the one draw back I can see about BU is the price of tuition. If you have the opportunity to go to a state school with a much lower tuition, then I would consider that. However, student loans are obviously available and students all live comfortably.

And sure, some people may not like it here.... but I don't know those people. And I absolutely guarantee you that for every person that does not like it here, there are 30 or more who love it. I feel that if somebody was unhappy here, that they would be unhappy anywhere. In other words, there is nothing intrinisc to this school that would make anybody anything but happy.

I hope that puts some of your fears to rest
 
BladesofGlory, Are you a current BU med student? What year are you? No worries...I'm not faculty of anything. I'm a disgruntled former GMS sucker.

I'm another disgruntled GMS sucker. For those of you considering the program, DON'T DO IT!!!! It's a rip off. The professors don't give a damn that you are giving them $30,000 and your valuable time. If I could do things over, I would have enrolled in a Biology Masters Program that pays you get your Masters. As for the negative comments about BU, I have had similar experiences. This doesn't mean that I have not met nice profs and students at BU. Still, I would NOT recommend BU to anyone.
 
bostonu56 and bipperbear, thanks for the commentary, it's good to hear the positives. i've been accepted to BU and I'm strongly considering it (actually, I will almost assuredly be there next fall), and initially this thread gave me pause. mind if I PM you guys?
 
I'm another disgruntled GMS sucker. For those of you considering the program, DON'T DO IT!!!! It's a rip off. The professors don't give a damn that you are giving them $30,000 and your valuable time. If I could do things over, I would have enrolled in a Biology Masters Program that pays you get your Masters. As for the negative comments about BU, I have had similar experiences. This doesn't mean that I have not met nice profs and students at BU. Still, I would NOT recommend BU to anyone.


i'm also a former GMS "sucker". worked my a$$ off and will be going to medschool this fall. there is NO way i would have gotten accepted w/o this program. there definitely are profs who might not give each student the time he/she wants, but you have to keep in mind that this program gives you what you put in. if you work hard and get the grades, the program WILL do good things for you. guaranteed. all i wanted was an acceptance and BU helped me get it.
 
Hi, I am a current 4th year BU student. I was upset to see all of the negative posts regarding BU. I have had a WONDERFUL experience at this medical school over the past four years. I feel as though I am well prepared to start residency. Throughout my academic training I never felt alone or mistreated. The campus is very student friendly. Also, my class is very close...no competitive nature among classmates which in my opinion makes the learning process much more enjoyable and rewarding.

As someone already mentioned, BU can compete with any school across the nation, when it comes time to interview for residency positions. If I had to apply to medical school again, I would choose BU without any hesitation!!!
 
Wow, great to hear some positive things about BU. I'm also very seriously considering attending next year.


Out of curiosity, why the sudden show of support? Some of you have clearly just joined for the express purpose of responding to this thread. Did somebody mention the smack-talk on campus and start this sudden rush to arms?
 
i'm also a former GMS "sucker". worked my a$$ off and will be going to medschool this fall. there is NO way i would have gotten accepted w/o this program. there definitely are profs who might not give each student the time he/she wants, but you have to keep in mind that this program gives you what you put in. if you work hard and get the grades, the program WILL do good things for you. guaranteed. all i wanted was an acceptance and BU helped me get it.

I am happy that BU worked out for you. I worked very hard as well and my MCAT score and undergraduate school helped me get an acceptance. If at all, the GMS program had a negative effect on my application process. I had a very negative experience in the pogram, especially with the profs. Thus, I cannot recommend the program to anyone.
 
hi, all, just thought i'd post this piece of editorial on one medical school that you should seriously research before going there, namely BU (Boston University) medical school. While some people may become accustom to how this school treats its student, many will come to dislike their experience at the school very early in their education.

1. The school opts for students to complete their basic science clinical experience at a community health center in an urban location, i.e. the CHEERS program. However, the quality of education at the sites varies, at one site a preceptor is known for disparaging medical students who show up at his site, and many of these student decide not to return. Even to the point of making snide comments and making the student feel as though they often know nothing. Personally, I was told that neurologic complications of diabetes are not important as a first year, only to find out later that the neurologica manifestations of diabetes have a negative impact on a patient's health, i.e. diabetic foot problems, etc . . .

2. Abusive teaching styles which are institutionally ingrained. Several students have been verbally harassed and physically threatened on a daily basis in certain rotations. The school administration condones this abuse, and unofficially have told students who complain that they use techniques of intimidation and "torture" to teach medical students (straight from the mouth of one of the assisstant deans) And if you report the abuse, faculty at the core clinical sites will find ways to make your life difficult.

3. Bellittling of medical students. Often if you are confused about remarks in an evaluation of your performance in a clerkship you are told that you are just supposed to know what to do, without being given advice of what to change. Often, faculty members enter into abusive and unprofessional teaching relationships with students and vent their anger by writing bizarre comments in your evaluation, the dean's office knows this and has tried in many instances to edit them out of the MSPE (dean's letter) because of the numerous lawsuits that would result, not out of concern for the students. Bottom-line: if you are not "in" with the administration or are perceived as protesting this abuse there are many unofficial ways that they can make your life difficult.

4. Forgive the expression, but BU treats its students more like slaves, because they know that with their super high tuition students are forced to grin and bear the humiliation. Many applicants would have choosen to go elsewhere, and the school knows it, so the students who do end up at BU are all viewed as substandard or worhty of harassment by the faculty. Unofficial motto told to me by on secretary: "BU, its about the aBUse!"

5. Lip-service towards helping the indigent. BU claims to wish to serve the indigent population with good medical care, but some of the most abusive attendings use BU clinics, which some have many indigent patient, to "teach" students which includes harassing the student in front of the patient and then getting angry with the patient! NEVER go to BU for medical care if you can avoid it. Ironically, BU is reimbursed for indigent patients through the free-care pool, yet serves them poorly.

PLEASE, do yourself a favor and avoid this school! Do not be fooled by BU's fancy-smancy website, the school lacks a real spirit towards serving indigent people, and treat its students like horse ----,

well you get the point, rant over.

Good Lord! Pointless pre-clinical experiences? Abusive teaching styles? Belittling of medical students? Students treated like slaves? Lip service towards indigent care?

Well stop the friggin' presses! Alert the networks! Man bites dog!

Are you serious?
 
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...5. Lip-service towards helping the indigent. BU claims to wish to serve the indigent population with good medical care, but some of the most abusive attendings use BU clinics, which some have many indigent patient, to "teach" students which includes harassing the student in front of the patient and then getting angry with the patient! NEVER go to BU for medical care if you can avoid it. Ironically, BU is reimbursed for indigent patients through the free-care pool, yet serves them poorly...

Oh my. We must not offend the friggin' indigent. Can't do that. Don't ever want to risk talking some sense to 'em.

**** the indigent. I treat 'em every day and I am not impressed.
 
Hey everyone,
I am also a 4th year at BU, and I want to respond to some of the false allegations on this thread. In response to buckyboy484, yeah there were some rumors floating around campus that a couple of disgruntled randoms started trashing BU on this site. Some students decided to check it out and respond.
First, the professors at BU do not abuse the students. It is absolutely the opposite. They may have high expectations at times, but why shouldn't they? This is med school. Students shouldn't be allowed to slide by doing the minimum. That's not a sign of a good training program. If a student doesn't know an answer to a question, he/she is by no means belittled for it.
Next, the administration at BU is amazing. I can't imagine a more supportive office of student affairs or student affairs Dean. I have worked closely with their office over the past 4 years and have never, never been disappointed. They are absolutely student-focused in all they do.
As for the Dean of Admissions, I have worked with him as well, giving tours and talking with applicants. Everything he says is sincere. To say otherwise would imply that you know him personally, which I'm guessing the people trashing him do not. He says repeatedly to those who talk with applicants, "We don't want to give them a false impression of BU. Please be up front and don't lie just to make BU look good." Keep in mind, he says this to us when applicants are not around. This man is sincere in what he says.

Look, I can go on all day refuting all these ridiculous claims that have popped up from a few outliers on this site. The bottom line is BU is an amazing place. Our residency placement is off the charts, and the atmosphere is very collaborative. For those who say BU is crazy competitive, it absolutely is not. I can't count how many times students emailed the whole class with notes and diagrams they had put together for class. Plus, we all have a great time together outside of class. Trust me...

If anyone has any specific questions about BU, get in touch with me. We can start a personal email conversation so you know I really am a 4th year and not someone from the school administration. I can also get you in touch with other students from other years.

I hope a few negative comments by a couple of non-BU students doesn't discourage you from coming to this amazing program.
 
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