- Joined
- Jul 27, 2008
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
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Hi All,
Another first year here and I just wanted to congratulate those of your who've been accepted! I'm loving my time at Hopkins (and I'll admit I still had some worries when I made the decision to come) and can absolutely recommend coming here. As for the questions:
1. I think my experience has been fantastic so far because of how well we are taken care of, the opportunities given to us and the awesomeness of my class mates. As for being taken care of, I really feel like they do everything possible to help us learn the material. We have binders full of the essential lecture notes so we don't need textbooks, all the lectures are recorded so we can watch/re-watch them at any time and the discussion leaders are suprisingly helpful. Its challenging material, but as helsizzle said, they really teach it to us in a large enough variety of ways that it sinks in. Also, they are frequently giving us meals/hosting events to help us ease the transition: for example, in our current unit we get breakfast breaks with donuts, bagels, fruit and coffee between morning lectures and last weekend the head of the surgery dept. hosted a pumpkin carving party at his home where he taught us to suture.
2. The people are amazing and amazingly diverse. We have atheletes, muscians, study all the times, artists, party animals, etc. etc. in our class and almost everyone is very personalable and interested in getting to know eachother. I know that sounds fake and I wouldn't believe it either, but it's absolutely been my experience.
3. No idea about the grading switch. I know it's been proposed, but I don't know what will happen. One thing I will say: my biggest reservation about Hopkins was the grading system and all my fears were unfounded. I thought it would be basically an A/B/C system with different names but it isn't at all. They really drill into our heads that we should strive for passing and honors are given to such a small number of people that it's not something most of us really think about. Every advisory person I've talked to has said pre-clinical grades don't matter at all when it comes to matching so we should spend these first two years trying to understand the material and exploring opportunities and interests so we are prepared when it comes to the wards/our futures. We are taught very much in the context of "you should understand this for your future patients/ for the future advancement of medicine" and with very little emphasis on grades. To find out our grades is actually fairly hard, so there's really not much emphasis on them.
4. I find that I have a pretty decent amount of free time so far. I'm not too big on the bar scene, so i've only been "going out" in that sense about once a week (though there are people going out 2-3 nights a week), but I think our class has a great balance of people looking to drink vs. do other things in their spare time. I've gone on camping trips, had potlucks, gone to concerts and canvassed in PA with my classmates and find there is pretty much always some random festival to attend in Baltimore. I've also gotten involved in a campus singing group and am taking Spanish class, so there really is time to be well rounded.
Sorry to write so much (and sorry it's not the most coherent composition, i've been immersed in the complement system 🙂)- I just know there are so many myths surrounding Hopkins Aed that definitely worried me when I was in your shoes and I want to do everything I can to assure you that they are wrong!
Congratulations again to those who have heard and good luck to all who are waiting. I'm in no way linked to admissions so I have no idea when you'll be hearing from them, but if you have any other questions please PM me!
Another first year here and I just wanted to congratulate those of your who've been accepted! I'm loving my time at Hopkins (and I'll admit I still had some worries when I made the decision to come) and can absolutely recommend coming here. As for the questions:
1. I think my experience has been fantastic so far because of how well we are taken care of, the opportunities given to us and the awesomeness of my class mates. As for being taken care of, I really feel like they do everything possible to help us learn the material. We have binders full of the essential lecture notes so we don't need textbooks, all the lectures are recorded so we can watch/re-watch them at any time and the discussion leaders are suprisingly helpful. Its challenging material, but as helsizzle said, they really teach it to us in a large enough variety of ways that it sinks in. Also, they are frequently giving us meals/hosting events to help us ease the transition: for example, in our current unit we get breakfast breaks with donuts, bagels, fruit and coffee between morning lectures and last weekend the head of the surgery dept. hosted a pumpkin carving party at his home where he taught us to suture.
2. The people are amazing and amazingly diverse. We have atheletes, muscians, study all the times, artists, party animals, etc. etc. in our class and almost everyone is very personalable and interested in getting to know eachother. I know that sounds fake and I wouldn't believe it either, but it's absolutely been my experience.
3. No idea about the grading switch. I know it's been proposed, but I don't know what will happen. One thing I will say: my biggest reservation about Hopkins was the grading system and all my fears were unfounded. I thought it would be basically an A/B/C system with different names but it isn't at all. They really drill into our heads that we should strive for passing and honors are given to such a small number of people that it's not something most of us really think about. Every advisory person I've talked to has said pre-clinical grades don't matter at all when it comes to matching so we should spend these first two years trying to understand the material and exploring opportunities and interests so we are prepared when it comes to the wards/our futures. We are taught very much in the context of "you should understand this for your future patients/ for the future advancement of medicine" and with very little emphasis on grades. To find out our grades is actually fairly hard, so there's really not much emphasis on them.
4. I find that I have a pretty decent amount of free time so far. I'm not too big on the bar scene, so i've only been "going out" in that sense about once a week (though there are people going out 2-3 nights a week), but I think our class has a great balance of people looking to drink vs. do other things in their spare time. I've gone on camping trips, had potlucks, gone to concerts and canvassed in PA with my classmates and find there is pretty much always some random festival to attend in Baltimore. I've also gotten involved in a campus singing group and am taking Spanish class, so there really is time to be well rounded.
Sorry to write so much (and sorry it's not the most coherent composition, i've been immersed in the complement system 🙂)- I just know there are so many myths surrounding Hopkins Aed that definitely worried me when I was in your shoes and I want to do everything I can to assure you that they are wrong!
Congratulations again to those who have heard and good luck to all who are waiting. I'm in no way linked to admissions so I have no idea when you'll be hearing from them, but if you have any other questions please PM me!
