Hello Voracious Premeds,
While I know most of you have made up your minds already, I thought I would add to this discussion as I feel it has gotten out of hand due to a select few individuals. One of these individuals fails to realize that he is only hurting himself because by discrediting his school, he creates a self perpetuating MYTH. And if fewer quality students come here because of that myth, it may become reality. I do not want that to happen as I am truly happy I chose Texas Techs Paul Foster School of Medicine to call my home. I feel it is indeed a quality school! I have never posted before and in fact had never even heard of this site until medical school (I was a liberal arts major in college and was out of the loop). Even though it is my first post dont get all excited and call me a troll as that seems the be the trendy thing to do around here. When I was making my decision regarding medical school I chose to come here for a number of reasons - many of which I have found to be more than valid. There is no need to freak out! Any school in Texas will provide you with the education you need to be a quality physician. Below is a list of the good and bad. I tried to give a decent number of each so that you can get an accurate picture of what your experience here might be.
PROS/Reasons to come here:
1. Small class sizes so professors do get to know you (if you are a jerk this might be a CON). You also can feasibly get to know all of your peers which is nice.
2. Many shadowing and research opportunities as a first and second year medical student because you dont have much competition (I even got to suture on faces/eyelids last summer. At many other schools you are last in line after all the residents and assistants. Here it was the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the instrumentalist and myself. Great for learning!)
3. Cheap housing (coming from Austin I never thought I could rent a house by myself in a nice neighborhood for $850/mo. Ridiculous and great!)
4. Faculty that ARE willing to listen. (Most established medical schools essentially tell you to shut up and deal with your issues because their system works. At PLFSOM they cant say that so they have curriculum committees that work to change things for a better student experience. While these changes are often slower than you hope for or only affect the class below you, it is nice to know that many DO listen and make changes.) They are also some of the most available faculty you will ever see as they are all concentrated in one building and many primarily focus on teaching.
5. AN AWESOME CURRICULUM. If you pick up a review book for the USMLE Step 1 exam you will note that it is basically organized by systems. Quite possibly the best part of our school is that it is also organized by systems which means you can easily go through the Step 1 review book as you learn rather than taking Pathology, Physiology or Pharmacology and then having to pick out that material from each section. It simply makes more sense.
Also, we have long units so no serious test every 2-3 weeks like some schools. This means you actually have time to relax towards the beginning of each unit at take it a little easier. Maybe travel home to see family guilt free because your stress level will be at least moderately lower.
6. A school that wants you to succeed more than any other in Texas. (Do I really know this for sure? No, but read why before getting judgy.) Their reputation is on the line here! Their first few classes will really define the school and they want everyone to do as well as they can on boards, in clinicals and in residencies. They didnt put in all this effort and money to just pump out mediocre doctors and while all schools in Texas like to say they want to produce primary care physicians because it sounds good to tax payers, truth is they want to produce the best physicians of any kind. (There are actually shortages of a lot of things besides primary care such as just about all the pediatric subspecialties.)
7. Lots of opportunities to get involved with student groups or start a new one. As the school is new and class sizes are small, you have plenty of opportunities for leadership positions.
8. Some of the best facilities in the state. I recently attended the AAMC conference and was amazed when walking around the convention that our schools simulation lab had everything that was out there. Since the school is so new, we are inherently up-to-date on learning aids. The buildings and gardens are also beautiful!
9. The medical skills course is often the highlight of the week (especially during first year when Dr Woods runs it). You get to see standardized patients on a near weekly basis, which helps you hone your clinical skills. Most schools only do this a handful of times in the first two years. You will be way ahead.
10. The weather here is amazing. The heat is dry so you dont really sweat and the winters are mild. There is also a tremendous amount of outdoor activities that can be enjoyed nearly year round. We also have a very long growing season if you are in to gardening.
CONS/Things you may or may not like:
1. Lecture Recordings DO NOT exist in any form. We are the only school in Texas without recordings or scribes. Personally I feel I was lied to flat out. I do not fully understand why faculty and administration are delaying this process month after month. Even the best students dont always make it to class. Also, think about those with families and responsibilities other than just themselves. (You will undoubtedly have classmates with children or developing families.) Skipping class may be necessary at times and does not make you a bad student. It is easy to say you will now when you are all excited, but eventually you will want there to be something to fall back on if you need it.
2. Seemingly shady attendance changes: As mentioned on this forum, they did change a few things over break and forgot to tell us. However, they addressed their lapse in communication and made sure to discount that first days attendance. So they did right by me. Still, I find the class that was newly mandated (Masters Colloquium) to be fairly useless. Student participation could be encouraged more and topics could be, at times, more relevant to the practice of medicine.
3. The Society, Community, and Individual course: While changes have been made I spent many hours learning about El Paso culture. Although this important, I would hope students would pick that up by living in this community for four years. I was also put off by it because they frequently just taught the same things over and over. This course was also the source of our greatest student-student conflicts: many classes were poorly moderated and there was little sense of tolerance towards one anothers beliefs. To my knowledge, many things have changed since the first year though.
4. Anatomy: Lab is simply not a good use of time. I feel the professors (despite being nice and wonderful people) have not fully grasped the idea of integration and still try and cram everything they can in to each hour as if we were in an anatomy block. This will improve with time. Still, I havent heard of many schools where students like anatomy so I dont think this should affect you opinion of the school.
5. Faculty/admin do struggling with providing positive reinforcement. I wish someone would provide the faculty with a short parenting seminar as teaching is quite similar: You get more out of people by encouraging the behavior you want than by constantly beating them down. While the school was well established in 3rd and 4th year clinical teaching before we came, 1st and 2nd year are an entirely different story. Students behave differently when in a work environment like the hospital verses a classroom. I sometimes feel the faculty do not think we understand the difference and try to enforces the strict professionalism of the hospital in the classroom setting, which at times seems silly. Sometimes people do need to be told to suck it up, but that cant be all you ever tell them.
6. More personal/superficial complaint: It is far away and there is not a lot of quality shopping. I drive around 13 hours one-way to go visit family (I have dogs so cant fly.) This is not fun.
Overall, I am very happy with my decision to come here and would recommend this school to anyone. Sure there are some areas that need improvement but after speaking with students at the AAMC conference and also speaking with friends at other medical schools I feel all schools have areas in which they are struggling. The idea that a medical school will be 100% perfect is ridiculous. In the end you find the place that fits you best and you make what you can of it. I am sure that each of you will be happy where you end up as long as you approach that experience with a positive attitude and are willing to grow and change in the process. I wish you all the best!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. My name is Travis. E-mail:
[email protected]
El paso please choose me. 
