It seems like we spent forever in the library, which (at least to me) got a little old. And I, like everyone else, was also hoping to see the gross labs, so it was a little disappointing we missed those.
Those are easily my two biggest complaints about the tour. The library is just not
that important. Yeah, there's a good chance that you'll be spending a lot of time there, but it's a library. Describe the sections, and get on with it. The LRC, as I mentioned, is almost totally useless. At least they didn't try to convince you it's a great place to go over the materials that are supposed to be (but aren't) unique to it like the Tank questions and histo slides. Not going to the gross lab is just freaking criminal. It's not like anyone's identity is going to be violated, not that they'd care even if it was (they are dead, after all). It's just a bunch of metal cases, but I guess someone in a power position flips **** over non-students being in there, for whatever reason. Perhaps one of your M1 friends would be willing to take you in.
I did my best to skip those damn elevators, but it's kind of a long way up to anything else. I'll remember that it's worth the hike next time, though. I've never gone to the gross lab first, so I haven't had that issue before. Oops!
I guess what I'm trying to find out is... what was your M1 (and overall) experience, Al? Did you have time for life/a relationship/friends at all, or did you just have to completely do away with everything for 4 years?
If you study for 7+ hours a day in addition to class, you will be way out on the extreme high end of your class in that regard. I'd say I put in around 4 hours per day plus class at the very beginning until I figured out what I needed to be doing. You'll also get marvelously more efficient at studying in a hurry, so your time investment will drop by a ton. By the end of the year, I was skipping class entirely and could get through a lecture fairly thoroughly in 15-20 minutes or so, meaning my daily time investment to keep up was about 2 hours per day at the absolute most. If you know which resources to use ahead of time (and you will), your life will be way easier than most. Second year rolled around, and after the first day of each subject, I literally never went to class unless it was required. I got to the point where I could review entire subjects for a test in 2-3 hours without much problem at all. Keep in mind that I'm a B student and have no desire whatsoever to be at the top of my class. I did the whole "get A's" thing for awhile last year, and the additional time investment necessary for that 10 point jump is nowhere near worth it to me.
The great thing about the first two years is that you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want. One of the many, many reasons anatomy sucks beyond belief is that it interferes with that freedom, but other than that, skipping class (which I
highly recommend) gives you plenty of time to enjoy your hobbies, SO, and whatever else you like to do. I went to just about every party my class had the entire year and made a big effort to get out as much as possible, another practice I strongly suggest. Staying human is most certainly possible, but finding a balance can be very difficult, especially at first. That said, you're going to disappear come test time, no matter what you do. That's just kind of how it is. There's too much material to deal with.
Overall, I was pretty neutral or maybe slightly negative towards the first two years. There are lots of good aspects to it and also lots of bad. For instance, I despised anatomy passionately but actually rather enjoyed phys and most of the second year curriculum. On the other hand, there isn't really much time to enjoy anything you find cool. It's a perpetual race to shove info into your brain, so everything just kind of floods in with the neat stuff getting drowned out by the sheer volume of crap you need to know. One of my favorite parts is that upon starting med school, you instantly enter a very selective fraternity and will make some extremely close friends in a hurry. Yeah, you'll get picked on for being a freshman all over again, but when push comes to shove, the older students and physicians will back you until the bitter end.
Relationships...well, they're a struggle. If you're going to be in a long-distance thing, you can basically count on it ending at some point unless the two of you do something dramatic to fix the situation (quit med school, she moves here, etc.). Finding people outside of your class to date can be a real challenge since they're probably the only ones you'll have any sort of meaningful contact with for quite some time. In-class relationships can be tricky since, again, you'll be seeing each other constantly, and any ugly break-ups will suck big-time. As I mentioned, making and keeping friends will be no problem at all, though staying in touch with them may be a bit more of a challenge depending on your and their time constraints. It all sounds very complicated, but once everyone gets settled into the anatomy/phys/histo block, schedules will start to crystallize, and you can reliably make plans with people.
Third year is a whole different animal. That wondrous freedom you got from skipping class during the first two years vanishes and gets replaced with stupidly long work weeks. On the other hand, the studying is minimal, and the only true tests come at the end of each rotation. You're also dealing with patients instead of scouring books for hours on end. It's something I actually enjoy, very much unlike studying my ass off for 2 years. Your free time is largely free, and I've been taking full advantage of that fact. I see my friends several times a week for meals, football, bars, or whatever works. (Hint: If you're in town and want several very in-depth answers to any questions you may have, show up to Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday nights around 7 or to the Mexican grocery store on the corner of 65th and University around 1 on Saturdays. We'll be there.) The relative lack of structure and drastic decrease in textual learning combine with the fact that you're actually doing clinical stuff to make this year quite a lot more enjoyable than the first two, despite the relatively poor hours.
So...I think I answered your question. Keep 'em coming if I missed something.
When I was going through the process and talked to the Admissions office we were told that UAMS typically waitlists about 60 people a year and of that about half of the list will normally end up being matriculated due to spots opening up from deferrals, people attending elsewhere, etc. There are some in our class I know that got in off the waitlist, but most of them are out-of-state students. I know there's a "lot" of waitlist movement (I consider half a lot), but I don't think 40 is lower than average by any means, unless the admissions office was just pulling our leg. Either that or the waitlist activity has been decreasing in the last few years.
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