They are behind in the times but that's ok cuz I imagine downstate to be a great med school.
True and true. Downstate is a little behind in general, I'd say. One of the two home-hospitals (UHB) still uses paper charts, but they are moving to electronic medical records (EMR). They've started using it in ob/gyn, family practice, and i think peds too... I haven't done work here in a while because I've been doing away rotations, rotations in Kings County (EMR-only), etc.
Great med school, definitely. I mean, I always liked Downstate. One reason I chose it was the ms1-ms2 curriculum is set up exactly the way I like to learn - one organ system at a time. It lets you compartmentalize, but at the same time it's organized so that later blocks build on previous blocks, so you're not learning one isolated thing at a time and moving on (though sometimes it will feel like that because, well, what does kidney function have to do with action potentials and neuromuscular physio?). That's on top of location, students seeming really happy here (and still are), comradery (how do you spell that word?) between classes, and the over all down-to-earth feel I got at this place (and is definitely true still today). Third and fourth year, everyone says great clinical exposure, great clinical exposure, blah blah blah so much that it's annoying to hear over and over again. This is absolutely true, though! I'm applying and interviewing for residency right now. It's not until now that I realized just how unique Downstate is for clinical learning. Downstate has a reputation among residency programs (so it seems) for being a hardcore place that pumps out graduates who are machines of efficiency (obv. those are my words, but that's the vibe I'm getting from program interviewers). Almost every interviewer starts my interview with so how is Downstate? I bet you work hard there. It must be really busy, you must do a lot, have to balance a lot, etc etc. And I'm applying in the NYC area so there are a lot of people who are Downstate grads, know someone at Downstate, used to work at Downstate, did their residency at Downstate, work closely with someone who went to DS, etc so they know the deal. Not to mention that drawing blood will cease to be a learning point by about August of MS3 (depending on what rotation you start with), versus people from other schools who tell me they've only done it once or a handful of times, or never at all and they're already interviewing, about to graduate! Of course it's what you make of it, but there's opportunity to place and remove IVs, bladder catheters, NG tubes, etc. Some students have intubated patients. If you do your ob/gyn rotation at UHB or KCH (and probably most other affiliates),
you will deliver a baby before you graduate, not just stand and watch all the time. More than can be said for a lot of other places.
