Hey all!! Glad to say I survived midterms and can hopefully come back and check these boards once in awhile ^_^
MS-1s are dealing with the new curriculum. So far it has been pretty great, but there are definitely some shaky spots (particularly with certain lecturers and online material). These are being worked on continuously and the administration has been very receptive to most of the feedback. I am on the student council and we are most definitely working to improve things.
MS2s are having a much harder time. They had a cardio test the other week and something like over 60% of the class failed, due to logistics of the test (not necessarily lack of knowledge/understanding). A retest and refinaggling is being worked out but I know their class was extremely frustrated and vocal about the whole thing. From other things I have heard about this incident, though, was that the students were very disrespectful and hostile afterwards when dealing with administration, thereby putting them on the defensive. Our class hasn't had a major blow-up issue yet, and while some things are being addressed, others are left in the hands of the instructors and sometimes they just won;t follow-through (example: embryo lecture objectives).
Our midterms seemed to go well for the most part, for example the class average on the anat practical was just about 90% (5% higher than last year's class!). I only know of one person who failed one test (he apparently freaked out during the practical), but have not heard anything else in those regards.
If anyone has specific questions, let me know.
Oh, and Tim is correct, some people did not hear back for 12+ to 16+ weeks post-interview and were still accepted. Part of that is due to the interviewers not filling out their forms in a timely manner, and the rest has to do with the committee review that follows if a person does not get the immediate 2 (3?) thumbs up. If the process is the same as last year, the committee meets biweekly and gets through as many applications at a time as they deem fit/necessary/whatever. So you may be "scheduled for review" for three sessions in a row and not actually get reviewed because they spend (too much) time talking about the files ahead of yours.
interview invite today for the regular MD program!! Hoping I'll get the October 4th interview!
The U of M is definitely one of my top choices! I go there for undergrad so if I stick around I won't even have to move out of my apartment!
