Are you sure you are an incoming student and not working for the school's marketing department? Haha. I agree with you that there are graduates from BSOM that attend competitive residencies all around the country. But BSOM students end up in competitive residencies because they do well in their classes, they do well on their boards, they have good LORs, etc. not necessarily because of the 'school's innovative curriculum' and the 'students' unique personalities'. I think it is fair to say, looking at our match list, that BSOM fosters an environment where one can succeed as a student. I, however, also think that that is not an aspect of BSOM that makes it unique. Look at any other match list from any other accredited medical school in the US and it is easy to come to the same conclusion. I bring this up not because I have an issue with the BSOM curriculum but because there a lot of student out there who put a lot of weight on what a school's match list looks like when in all actuality it doesn't tell you much about the school itself.
This, on the other hand, is a much bigger deal. One of the reasons people who have the option to go somewhere else choose to attend BSOM is because they feel like it 'fits' them. I know that seems very vague but for those applying it is something you will get a feel for when you attend your interview, meet students and faculty, etc. For me that uniqueness comes from our student body. I have said it on these forums multiple times before, but in my opinion BSOM picks its students well. I really enjoy going to BSOM. I enjoy the dynamic I have with my classmates and faculty and I find that the curriculum suits me well. There are definitely some aspects of the school that can be a little frustrating at times (I'm not talking major issues here just small things that only med student complain about) and I am sure, just like every other medical school, there are a handful of students who wish they would have gone somewhere else. But I would say for the most part students who go here are happy that they did for a multitude of reasons.
I think historically BSOM used to be very in-state heavy. But for some reason the class of 2014, the class of 2015, and I would assume the class of 2016 all have OOS class percentages around 25%. Before that it used to be a single digit percentage. For a public medical school ~25% is pretty OOS friendly. Obviously it is better to have ties to the state. However, there are several students in my class who are OOS and have no ties to the state whatsoever. So I wouldn't worry to much about it.
Yeah I figured! Thanks for the advice. 🙂
