Hey, I have a couple of questions. First, how does your class as a whole feel about that test situation? Do you have particularly strong feelings about it or is everyone ticked off at the administration?
Also, I'm not sure if you're trying to give advice in general or advice that counters the environment of the U, but do you really feel that your professors have no responsibility to you? When I interviewed, the faculty made it seem that they were always open to criticism/ suggestions and were willing to be there for the students, but perhaps this is not the case.
And, are you hinting that the students at the U do nothing but study or that they have given up all of their hobbies? It's great to hear insight from a current student so any more specifics you have will be very helpful!
I'm not sure which aspect of the test situation you're asking about. The weekend after the first exam was pure chaos for the second years, the course director and the administration. No one was happy. Once the school decided to apply a different pass/fail standard, more of the class passed, but I know there were still a larger than normal amount of students who had to retake. However, no one really admitted to having to retake the exam (aside from one brave soul who sent an email asking for study buddies), so it was never really talked about openly.
The problem that I am seeing with the second years is that everyone has become very complacent about the situation. Very few people are willing to stand up to the administration and say that they don't like how things are going. One part of the new curriculum was the removal of the exam curve. HD1s had it last year with the old system and they got rid of it this year with the new system, which makes absolutely no sense to me. About two weeks ago, a second year started a petition to get the curve back. Most of the MS2s I talked with thought it was a good idea and made sense to have a curve, but very few people went out of their way to sign the petition (which would have taken about a minute after lab). No one is willing to stand up and take control of the education they are paying for.
When I started thinking about writing the post, I was only going to talk about the UMN, but I realized that a lot of what I was going to say applied to every school you consider. Your interview day, at any school, is structured to make the school look good. You have very little opportunity to talk with students who aren't paid or bribed with food to be your tour guide. I think most of what I said should be considered no matter where you are looking to go, but I especially wanted to point some things out about the U that I'm sure the administration didn't advertise.
I really don't feel like many of the lecturers feel any responsibility to us, there are just so many of them and they are going through the same issues with the administration/course directors. That being said, we do have some absolutely amazing lecturers. HD1 phys and neuro, for example, and a few HD2 cardio lecturers are great. The lecturers that spend an hour or two with us tend to not be "teachers", if that makes sense. Teaching med students in a lecture hall is not what they got into medicine to do.
As for the faculty being there for the students, I have at least 3 emails that I sent over a week ago that haven't been answered. I see so many things that would be immensely helpful to the students that wouldn't require very much energy, but aren't being done. We have a path lab instructor who is in her first or second year of residency who has gone way above her job description by doing some of these things. I'm sure it didn't take her very long, but still, more than was required of her, especially we have people in the medical school who should be doing some of these things (for example, organizing a group discount on a USMLE question bank).
I honestly do not feel that the medical school is "there for the medical students" or using criticism/suggestions to improve the medical school.
I was not saying that the U med students only study. I know many who run, go to the gym and volunteer (99% medical volunteering, so does it count?). There are lots of medical school groups that people participate in too, but as far as other hobbies go, I don't really see much of it. I think it's very interesting that applicants are supposed to be very well-rounded and then once medical school starts, that's essentially all that you do. One thing that the U offers is an arts in medicine award (it's the Fisch award). It provides funding for a year of art that does not in any way have to be related to medicine. The physician who started the award saw that med students were not pursuing hobbies outside of school and wanted to encourage it. I know students who received the award for painting, mural projects, pottery, dance, aerial arts, etc. I think it's great. Many of the projects were during the summer months, though, so again, how much does it count? I think it's true at many medical schools that outside pursuits tend to die off early on. It's just something to consider.
or is this really more like 60 minutes with a nice break in between?
