If you don't mind my asking, what do you think TT-El Paso's strengths are relative to other Texas schools?
This is usually a per person based question (it'll vary slightly depending on who you ask) so I'll try to keep it to what I think everyone unanimously finds to be Foster's strengths...
1)
Location - There are cases in our careers that doctors will only see once in a lifetime or every few years/decades (unless you stay here in EP or work in a 3rd world country, of course)... here in EP, some of those things seem more routine than rare (so you're bound to see it within your 4 years here).
Also, due to cultural reasons as well as economic, people from this area tend to wait until
very late in their disease to seek treatment. For this reason, you'll see the most advanced cases of disease quite often as well!
2)
Curriculum - As I'm sure the adcoms advertised during your interviews, our curriculum is more like UTMB and Baylor's (and, with UTSA being under "probation," they may be adopting this curriculum style soon as well).
Of course, I've never experienced the "old school"/antiquated curriculum where you have discrete disciplines being taught that follow their own syllabus without thought of the others course content and organization (i.e. biochemistry class, microbiology class, etc.), but all I remember from undergrad was how everyone talked about medical school being so hard.. and while I agree that it totally is, I feel it's not so crazy/insane as other students have it.
The model system with clinical presentation makes complete sense. Going back to what I was ranting about in the last paragraph, let me give an example: in other schools, you may be learning about the renal system in biochemistry one month, but it won't be until the next semester that you actually dissect the kidney in gross anatomy,.. and on top of that, you won't learn about the drugs in pharmacology class related to the kidney in yet ANOTHER month... so it's all over the place.
With the presentation/unit system model that Foster utilizes, they pull from every discipline that is relevant to kidney and so it all gets taught that week (sometimes over two weeks) and thus makes total sense. I think this helps with those synapses firing quicker in your brain about what's going on and so you won't feel as lost about medicine your first two years (which means less stress about all this material!). Not only this, but this organization means you won't have to have those "OH I FINALLY GET IT" moments later on when you are actually seeing patients.
To give you all more proof of this, which you may have heard already but, Texas Tech Lubbock has been sending students here for their 3rd and 4th year since 1969 (so 3rd/4th year and residencies are WELL established here... something many people don't realize when they hear "new school" - it's not all THAT new, just the building and the 1st and 2nd year curriculum). Anyways, some of the attendings that have worked in other medical schools with 3rd and 4th years or have worked here for a long time were astounded with the inaugural class (now in their 3rd year clearkships/rotations) and how amazing at diagnosis and knowledgeable they are compared to the past students.
3)
Class size/resources - I remember one time on TV seeing a story on UT Houston. They had a snap shot of the entire anatomy lab with the students working. There... were.. SO MANY PEOPLE! I mean a class size of 230 people.. all the time! Everybody has the same schedule, remember, this isn't like undergrad where there are multiple classes and teachers for the same subject offered at different times.
Foster's has the smallest class of all the Texas schools. Even 80 feels like quite a bit to me but I can't imagine 200+ like the other schools!
Not to mention my second point... resources! There is no need to fight and claw your way around here to get a chance to shadow or talk with your professors. There is plenty to go around and you don't have to default to a bunch of residents/fellows whenever you're trying to shadow an attending.
My point is... if you're looking to get the most out of your medical school years, I find I'm in one of the best situations/schools to get the most experience and knowledge possible.
4)
Faculty/staff - This is probably not specific to EP (every school has the faculty that everyone loves and some that people don't care about as much) but EP definitely has some faculty that are just AWESOME. I know just about everybody LOVES our two pathology professors, for example; they're AMAZING, and thank goodness for it because pathology tends to bring together the biochemistry, pharmacology, immunology, etc.
Also, more about the 'newness' of this curriculum and what I know everyone is asking: is this curriculum far from being as good as it will be one day? Well, I have found that in the 3 years of the professors sitting around putting all this together BEFORE the first class entered,... they did a really awesome job the first time around. Remember, this isn't a COMPLETELY new idea, it's been done before and Foster recruited professionals in the field to help design it. Not only that, but the professors at our school don't have a God complex that prevents them from working together to make the best possible product.
So basically, I feel they had it right from the get-go. Yes, there are a few quirks, but they are ALL OVER IT and have pretty much remedied all of them. The small tweaks that needed to be made have all but been made and are always under review to make sure everything is working out right in the curriculum. The only issue has been one of the units (which is all but figured out) but the other units are pretty solid and all the upperclassman say they really love them all.
5)
Some personal views... So, I personally find that some things that make me like this school a lot (that maybe others don't really mind either way or care about) are:
a. The school is state-of-the-art. I have definitely find having the newer technologies offered that aren't offered everywhere else to be awesome.
b. Everything is in one building! When I'm studying for a long period of time, I don't have to go far to get to the library, then to the student lounge to make some food, then to do a little work out. It's easy to get around here. Sounds silly but only having to spend a few minutes getting to the student lounge even seems like too much sometimes... Can't imagine how annoyed I'd get if it was in a huge campus spread out all over the place.
c. The city is awesome! I love mountains and let me tell you... I thought I hated hot weather (being from Houston) but now I realize it's the HUMIDITY I hate the most. 90 degrees here doesn't mean you'll start sweating just walking to your car - you actually don't! And I'm someone who sweats a lot if I feel uncomfortable in the heat (or, I guess I've realized, in the hot and humid weather). EP is pretty much the only med school NOT in the humid atmosphere of Texas (besides Lubbock, I guess, but their school isn't doing as well with Step 1 scores as our inaugural class did).
I hope this is useful to you guys and let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck yall.
