First, I wanted to throw in my 2 cents about interviews/notifications. I interviewed at 13 schools +/- and toward the end of the trail, I got the feeling that interviews don't really play a huge part in the admissions decision. Of course, there are exceptions. At one school, I hit it off with one interviewer, thanked her in an email after I got home, and she said she hoped I would accept the offer they would extend to me. At Columbia, I had 1 30 min interview w/ the surgeon telling me why P&S is exceptional. Didn't say a word the whole time. Because experiences vary to such extents, I can't imagine schools place great weight on them. Un/fortunately, it's still a numbers game to a large extent, plus your PS & CV. Interviews are there to weed out the weirdos.
Also, while I know it's frustrating that the admissions process could be nicer to the applicants, I found that I was most upset about the actual decision, not when and how I got notified. Maybe I went into it with a large helping of cynicism, but I never expected any part of the process to be a cake walk where my well-being is thought of primarily. The schools from which I had not heard about interview invites into mid/late Jan, I assumed were rejections. Wait lists and rejections do sting, regardless of how and when you find out. You win some, you lose some. That's life.
On a separate note, I'm wondering if any NYU students would care to answer a few questions about their curriculum. I know the main advantage is that you have a few more clinical clerkships under your belt by the time you graduate, which helps with testing and residency matching. However, I figure there must be some trade-offs. Are the first 1.5 years grueling because all that material is condensed? Do you feel like it would be more reasonable/better for your education to have 2 years? Does it take away time from doing something extracurricular like research/community service?
So, the trade-off is more that they cut stuff out of the curriculum vs. actually squash 2 years into 1.5.
For example, we didn't have lectures on every bacteria & virus that you'll find in Step 1 review books (nor were we tested on it).
Instead, they stressed they're teaching us the broader concepts that we can apply to other microbes (how their structural components allow immune system evasion etc).
I'm pretty sure the Basic Science component is the one that's trimmed the most (ie. the systems patho/physiology is mostly intact).
The only place where I
would say the pace was a problem was immunology. Or maybe because that was just poorly taught.
This is just 1 persons's opinion, but I personally love it.
You forget everything by the time you take Step 1, so why be miserable memorizing it now?
The real learning goes on on the wards.
I can't compare it to other med schools, but I do know that we have tons of time.
Sure crunch time before exams we all take it down a few notches, but people take tons of trips over the weekend to visit friends/family all over the US.
We go out pretty much every weekend.
The only thing I would want to change is to make the H&P class we take more legit -- give us more practice so we're more prepared for the wards, but I'm OK w/ the science aspect of things.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any other questions
