2011-2012 University of Arkansas Application Thread

Getting into Med School is Hard? Not with BeMo.
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Currently looking for a house to buy (not rent) in walking distance to UAMS. If you guys know of anyone getting ready to sell, please let me know! Just PM me.

Congrats to everyone!
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Marbleman said:
Currently looking for a house to buy (not rent) in walking distance to UAMS. If you guys know of anyone getting ready to sell, please let me know! Just PM me.

Congrats to everyone!
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I've seen several for sale signs popping up on Pine, Cedar, and Elm near me lately. Pulaski Heights Realty, the Janet Jones Company, and the Charlotte John Company seem to have the vast majority of the Hillcrest listings. I'm sure there will also be a wave of listings as the fourth years start moving away for residencies, pharm and nursing students graduate and leave for jobs, and so on. There is a former real estate agent in our class that can probably recommend a good realtor if you need one.
 
A big congrats to everyone who has gotten positive news. And best of luck for people who didn't make it/have yet to hear. Gosh, it seems like I'm going to be hearing sometime this week, and i'm so nervous! I just have my fingers crossed and hope things turn out well :). It is a dream of mine to be able to start school at UAMS this fall. :luck:
 
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I'm pretty bummed. Im OOS and got waitlisted. If I call, will they tell me where I rank on the Alternate list? I'm going to have to make some big decisions now. I've been accepted to another school and I have to give them some money on the 1st of March to hold my spot. UAMS is my first choice and anything else is really just last place. I hate to say it but if it ain't first its last lol. UAMS is closer to me than Mizzou (my state school) is since i'm in extreme southeast Missouri. I don't know what to do.
 
mark1989 said:
I'm pretty bummed. Im OOS and got waitlisted. If I call, will they tell me where I rank on the Alternate list? I'm going to have to make some big decisions now. I've been accepted to another school and I have to give them some money on the 1st of March to hold my spot. UAMS is my first choice and anything else is really just last place. I hate to say it but if it ain't first its last lol. UAMS is closer to me than Mizzou (my state school) is since i'm in extreme southeast Missouri. I don't know what to do.
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No, they will not tell you where you rank on the alternate list. In reality it's nowhere near as simple at "You're in line at #12" since wait list movement doesn't work in such a straight forward manner, so they wouldn't have much to tell you even if they were willing to share that information. Waitlist movement won't really happen in force until May, but there is a lot of OOS movement. Many of the people I know in our class from OOS are former alternate list people actually. I'm assuming the deposit you would have to put down may be significant enough to lock you in there? March 1st is an early deposit date, which strikes me as a bit of a nasty thing to do since a lot of students haven't received decisions from all their schools by then. Anyway. If it's really not that much in the overall scheme of things, secure your spot with a deposit and then if UAMS accepts you and that is where you want to be you can make the financial decisions later. If things work out and the other place is more expensive than UAMS is OOS then it really won't be a big deal in the long run, but I know that's of little consolation now.
 
Congratulations to everyone who got in!!!!
I got a rejection letter from UAMS on Friday:( I really don't know what to do next. I am interested in reapplying next year though. Can anyone please help me out on what I should do in the meantime?
 
nkd said:
Congratulations to everyone who got in!!!!
I got a rejection letter from UAMS on Friday:( I really don't know what to do next. I am interested in reapplying next year though. Can anyone please help me out on what I should do in the meantime?
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I was wait-listed last year and ended up not getting in. I took a few graduate courses, completed a research internship, volunteered at a local hospital, and coached a soccer team to help improve my application.
You can PM if you want any additional info. I would be happy to help!
 
Any of you guys who were wait listed in previous years..would you mind providing your stats? Got wait listed here and I know its just a waiting game now but I'm curious to see some other stats. Congrats to all that got in!! I know everyone has worked hard for a long time for this!
 
klf2012 said:
Any of you guys who were wait listed in previous years..would you mind providing your stats? Got wait listed here and I know its just a waiting game now but I'm curious to see some other stats. Congrats to all that got in!! I know everyone has worked hard for a long time for this!
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I was wait-listed with a 290....3.25 GPA last year. Hardly any volunteer experience and minimal research experience.
 
nkd said:
Congratulations to everyone who got in!!!!
I got a rejection letter from UAMS on Friday:( I really don't know what to do next. I am interested in reapplying next year though. Can anyone please help me out on what I should do in the meantime?
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I was rejected last year with a 28 MCAT and a 3.6 GPA. I met with Tom South and he gave me some pretty solid advice. I took a CNA course and started working full time at my local hospital ER. I also worked part time as a surgical scrub tech and started volunteering once a week at Arkansas Children's Hospital. In my free time I worked on refining my personal statement and AMCAS application. I was accepted this year and I've gotta say, I'm glad it worked out like this because I'm much more prepared than I would have been last year. If this is really what you want then hang in there. I know a year seems like a long time but it'll fly by if you work hard and stay focused. And keep in mind--they start taking applications again in like 3 or 4 mos! Best of luck to you. I would be more than happy to give you any advice I can if you want to PM me.
 
Accepted!!!!!! :eek: :'((( I've been expecting mail at a different address so it came very unexpected.
 
Accepted!! It came to my house rather than school, and it took my parents forever to check the mail. Most stressful time of my life lol
 
Congrats to all that got in! Look forward to seeing you there. On housing, I live a small 3/2 house 1150ft2 off of N University for $650.00/month with fenced in yard for cujo(s). Any 1-Ms have comments on the "Student-Centered Curriculum"?
 
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MJM09 said:
No, they will not tell you where you rank on the alternate list. In reality it's nowhere near as simple at "You're in line at #12" since wait list movement doesn't work in such a straight forward manner, so they wouldn't have much to tell you even if they were willing to share that information. Waitlist movement won't really happen in force until May, but there is a lot of OOS movement. Many of the people I know in our class from OOS are former alternate list people actually. I'm assuming the deposit you would have to put down may be significant enough to lock you in there? March 1st is an early deposit date, which strikes me as a bit of a nasty thing to do since a lot of students haven't received decisions from all their schools by then. Anyway. If it's really not that much in the overall scheme of things, secure your spot with a deposit and then if UAMS accepts you and that is where you want to be you can make the financial decisions later. If things work out and the other place is more expensive than UAMS is OOS then it really won't be a big deal in the long run, but I know that's of little consolation now.
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Yea I'm going to do what you said. The school is $10k more than UAMS a year so it doesn't really matter in the big picture. I just thought I had a really good chance, 31 mcat, 3.78 gpa, biochem major with a biology minor, lots of extracurriculars, and I have family in Arkansas and I live real close to the Missouri/Arkansas border. I'm like 50 miles inside the Missouri line.
 
Now that a fair number of people have been accepted would you mind posting GPA/MCAT and if you got accepted or not?

I'm a Junior looking at applying to UAMS here in a few months and I'm curious how the current application class did.
 
33Q, 3.7 science GPA, 3.9 cumulative GPA, Arkansas resident but went to an out-of-state college on the east coast, currently doing post-bac fellowship at the NIH
 
I just want to thank Alex and Matt and everyone who has offered me advice for the process until this point, because I'm coming to UAMS this fall!!!!! Oh My God, so excited!

for anyone who cares, my numbers:
p12,v8,b11
cGPA 3.35 and sGPA 3.2
 
medvedyev said:
I just want to thank Alex and Matt and everyone who has offered me advice for the process until this point, because I'm coming to UAMS this fall!!!!! Oh My God, so excited!

for anyone who cares, my numbers:
p12,v8,b11
cGPA 3.35 and sGPA 3.2
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Aww, you're welcome. :oops: Glad to hear about your acceptance and attendance! Enjoy the few months before things start up. (This goes for all of you. Just take some time for yourself.)
 
Rejected! I want to thank UAMS for this wonderful opportunity and Matt for all his help. UAMS is an amazing school and I wish everyone the best of luck!
 
Bizzy said:
33Q, 3.7 science GPA, 3.9 cumulative GPA, Arkansas resident but went to an out-of-state college on the east coast, currently doing post-bac fellowship at the NIH
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Oh FYI, I was accepted in December. I forgot to mention that before.
 
Accepted in January. 30M / 3.83c, good ECs and variety of medical experience. I don't think I'll be attending here but not sure yet.
 
Accepted in February. 29O MCAT, 3.95 GPA, several EC's and volunteer work, no research
 
mrmatt said:
Accepted in January. 30M / 3.83c, good ECs and variety of medical experience. I don't think I'll be attending here but not sure yet.
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Honestly, if you have other options, strongly consider them. They're massacring the pre-clinical curriculum at the moment and replacing a lot of lectures with required TBL/PBL nonsense. The clinical years, however, are remaining unchanged and are still excellent - probably better than most, as far as I can tell. If you can tolerate a little bit of the utter uselessness that is required attendance during the first two years (made worse by the fact it's that it's for PBL) and Little Rock's mediocrity, you'll be rewarded with some pretty darn good training. I'm obviously a really strong advocate of skipping class and learning on your own, but the worst part of a curriculum change is that the administration just doesn't know what's going on. They have a decent framework to start with, but you guys will be the first year to have this stuff throughout your preclinical years. In other words, you're still coming here in the guinea pig stages. We already have pretty abysmal average Step 1 scores, and the last class they changed things up for substantially - the current M3s - shattered the record my class set for most people to fail Step 1. It sounds like they're seriously botching things this year with the current M1s since they sort of instituted this change on the fly, but after a little feedback it should be better for you guys. To paraphrase Voltaire, though, "better" is the enemy of "good." There won't be any data on how the curriculum change will influence Step scores until the year after you get here, but given the track record I mentioned and the enormity of the alterations, I'm not optimistic where the near future is concerned. It'll take at least 3-ish years for them to get all the kinks sorted out, just like it did last time. Just food for thought.
 
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MilkmanAl said:
Honestly, if you have other options, strongly consider them. They're massacring the pre-clinical curriculum at the moment and replacing a lot of lectures with required TBL/PBL nonsense. The clinical years, however, are remaining unchanged and are still excellent - probably better than most, as far as I can tell. If you can tolerate a little bit of the utter uselessness that is required attendance during the first two years (made worse by the fact it's that it's for PBL) and Little Rock's mediocrity, you'll be rewarded with some pretty darn good training. I'm obviously a really strong advocate of skipping class and learning on your own, but the worst part of a curriculum change is that the administration just doesn't know what's going on. They have a decent framework to start with, but you guys will be the first year to have this stuff throughout your preclinical years. In other words, you're still coming here in the guinea pig stages. We already have pretty abysmal average Step 1 scores, and the last class they changed things up for substantially - the current M3s - shattered the record my class set for most people to fail Step 1. It sounds like they're seriously botching things this year with the current M1s since they sort of instituted this change on the fly, but after a little feedback it should be better for you guys. To paraphrase Voltaire, though, "better" is the enemy of "good." There won't be any data on how the curriculum change will influence Step scores until the year after you get here, but given the track record I mentioned and the enormity of the alterations, I'm not optimistic where the near future is concerned. It'll take at least 3-ish years for them to get all the kinks sorted out, just like it did last time. Just food for thought.
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Yup, this is what sways me from not attending. I don't know what's going on with these curriculum changes and I don't want to be in the first year's class that has to endure them.
 
MilkmanAl said:
Honestly, if you have other options, strongly consider them. They're massacring the pre-clinical curriculum at the moment and replacing a lot of lectures with required TBL/PBL nonsense. The clinical years, however, are remaining unchanged and are still excellent - probably better than most, as far as I can tell. If you can tolerate a little bit of the utter uselessness that is required attendance during the first two years (made worse by the fact it's that it's for PBL) and Little Rock's mediocrity, you'll be rewarded with some pretty darn good training. I'm obviously a really strong advocate of skipping class and learning on your own, but the worst part of a curriculum change is that the administration just doesn't know what's going on. They have a decent framework to start with, but you guys will be the first year to have this stuff throughout your preclinical years. In other words, you're still coming here in the guinea pig stages. We already have pretty abysmal average Step 1 scores, and the last class they changed things up for substantially - the current M3s - shattered the record my class set for most people to fail Step 1. It sounds like they're seriously botching things this year with the current M1s since they sort of instituted this change on the fly, but after a little feedback it should be better for you guys. To paraphrase Voltaire, though, "better" is the enemy of "good." There won't be any data on how the curriculum change will influence Step scores until the year after you get here, but given the track record I mentioned and the enormity of the alterations, I'm not optimistic where the near future is concerned. It'll take at least 3-ish years for them to get all the kinks sorted out, just like it did last time. Just food for thought.
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I'm also a bit curious about this. There was a packet that came with the acceptance letters with info about this new curriculum and it explained what to expect (though not very well I think) I understand that LCME has stepped up its game and that UAMS is up for review, thus the changes. From what I've heard, it seems that the curriculum will be a bit better this upcoming Fall and that it will be a sort of hybrid of what the M1s went through. Originally, they would be tested and then groups would discuss the answers; however, because they were graded for accuracy, there was a lot of bickering between students. This year, there's supposedly going to be more open-ended style for the students.

I just hope it's not as bad as it seems.
 
nkd said:
Congratulations to everyone who got in!!!!
I got a rejection letter from UAMS on Friday:( I really don't know what to do next. I am interested in reapplying next year though. Can anyone please help me out on what I should do in the meantime?
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Contact the admissions office and schedule an appointment to discuss what you can do.
 
SimplyKiddo said:
I'm also a bit curious about this. There was a packet that came with the acceptance letters with info about this new curriculum and it explained what to expect (though not very well I think) I understand that LCME has stepped up its game and that UAMS is up for review, thus the changes. From what I've heard, it seems that the curriculum will be a bit better this upcoming Fall and that it will be a sort of hybrid of what the M1s went through. Originally, they would be tested and then groups would discuss the answers; however, because they were graded for accuracy, there was a lot of bickering between students. This year, there's supposedly going to be more open-ended style for the students.

I just hope it's not as bad as it seems.
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It should be a lot better next year. That said, it will still be quite a lot worse than what the current M2-4s had, even without all the bickering and grade-mongering (which, by the way, are integral parts of many med school interactions). I'm really disappointed in the recent national trend toward PBL, but I guess UAMS has to go with the flow to stay accredited.
 
MilkmanAl said:
Honestly, if you have other options, strongly consider them. They're massacring the pre-clinical curriculum at the moment and replacing a lot of lectures with required TBL/PBL nonsense. The clinical years, however, are remaining unchanged and are still excellent - probably better than most, as far as I can tell. If you can tolerate a little bit of the utter uselessness that is required attendance during the first two years (made worse by the fact it's that it's for PBL) and Little Rock's mediocrity, you'll be rewarded with some pretty darn good training. I'm obviously a really strong advocate of skipping class and learning on your own, but the worst part of a curriculum change is that the administration just doesn't know what's going on. They have a decent framework to start with, but you guys will be the first year to have this stuff throughout your preclinical years. In other words, you're still coming here in the guinea pig stages. We already have pretty abysmal average Step 1 scores, and the last class they changed things up for substantially - the current M3s - shattered the record my class set for most people to fail Step 1. It sounds like they're seriously botching things this year with the current M1s since they sort of instituted this change on the fly, but after a little feedback it should be better for you guys. To paraphrase Voltaire, though, "better" is the enemy of "good." There won't be any data on how the curriculum change will influence Step scores until the year after you get here, but given the track record I mentioned and the enormity of the alterations, I'm not optimistic where the near future is concerned. It'll take at least 3-ish years for them to get all the kinks sorted out, just like it did last time. Just food for thought.
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Can you shed some light on what the step 1 pass rate is like/has been at UAMS?
 
MilkmanAl said:
Honestly, if you have other options, strongly consider them. They're massacring the pre-clinical curriculum at the moment and replacing a lot of lectures with required TBL/PBL nonsense. The clinical years, however, are remaining unchanged and are still excellent - probably better than most, as far as I can tell. If you can tolerate a little bit of the utter uselessness that is required attendance during the first two years (made worse by the fact it's that it's for PBL) and Little Rock's mediocrity, you'll be rewarded with some pretty darn good training. I'm obviously a really strong advocate of skipping class and learning on your own, but the worst part of a curriculum change is that the administration just doesn't know what's going on. They have a decent framework to start with, but you guys will be the first year to have this stuff throughout your preclinical years. In other words, you're still coming here in the guinea pig stages. We already have pretty abysmal average Step 1 scores, and the last class they changed things up for substantially - the current M3s - shattered the record my class set for most people to fail Step 1. It sounds like they're seriously botching things this year with the current M1s since they sort of instituted this change on the fly, but after a little feedback it should be better for you guys. To paraphrase Voltaire, though, "better" is the enemy of "good." There won't be any data on how the curriculum change will influence Step scores until the year after you get here, but given the track record I mentioned and the enormity of the alterations, I'm not optimistic where the near future is concerned. It'll take at least 3-ish years for them to get all the kinks sorted out, just like it did last time. Just food for thought.
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I understand the sentiment behind this, but disagree that it's a real concern or will somehow be a detriment to replace useless lectures with group based "critical thinking"/integrated learning activities. They've been tweaking the curriculum since I've been here (to mixed results), so it's not as if the curriculum now, which was one of the more integrated/cohesive I looked at, is down to a perfect science by any means. More importantly, the results they're getting from it kinda suck. As Milkman said, last year was one of the worst Step 1 pass rates for UAMS in a very long time, with the "working" curriculum that had more kinks supposedly ironed out. The main reason for this is that the M2 year is a festering boil on an otherwise acceptable academic curriculum (not great right now, but acceptable) and it's really up to the students to teach themselves if they want to pass NBMEs and Step. I quit going to class after the first week of the M2 year and probably shouldn't have given it that chance. Step 1 pass rates and average Step 1 scores have gone up pretty significantly at schools that implemented new curriculums like UAMS is heading towards, since obviously the lecture heavy curriculum is doing a crap job at educating students for the Step exam, at least in comparison. So this isn't a whole new wheel, they're not reinventing med school. They've been in talks with other schools with working and successful "Active Learning/Student Centered/Whateverthehellyoucallit" curriculums and are taking their "best" practices, tips and tricks, etc. into consideration with pretty extensive student surveys here when implementing the new curriculum. Even better is that the faculty actually seem interested in it and have been pretty upfront in talking to us about what we think needs to be changed (which is a lot, honestly).

Honestly, the only time I learn much of anything in the M2 year in class is during the ICM/Path CAPE activities (TBL essentially), Real Patient clinics (they have added even more of them for our class this year and everyone seems to love these), and small groups. All of those things will stay. What won't stay are the lectures that already are inefficient, low yield, and often redundant between class subjects. Lecture quantity will be stripped down pretty dramatically, and TBL/PBL will a bit more common, but the key is that overall hours on campus will come down overall. Sure, there might be a few more "required" hours, but if those hours are actually useful for once, and you learn something in an applicable way, it's still a lot better. The only reason students don't go to class right now (there are only a handful in our class that still go to lecture sadly) is because they can teach themselves the material more efficiently and effectively than the lecturers, so if the "required" sessions can finally do it better than we can individually, that's a win. I've been keeping up with the proposed changes and implementation as closely as possible, and it seems to be really coming together nicely. Dr. Graham, who really is one of the most student focused faculty I've met anywhere at UAMS, is heading up the changes and new design. For those of you coming next year- the M1 year will not actually be changing all that dramatically. Some lecture hours will be trimmed, but more TBL/PBLs were added this year already and will be refined hopefully a bit by next year as they get in a groove with it, so there's not going to be a huge new change for the new M1s. It's actually the rising M2s that have the most to be concerned about from a "new" curriculum standpoint, since it is the year seeing the most dramatic and sudden changes overall. I'm pretty confident it will be an improvement, but they'll at least have one year to iron out some kinks before the new acceptances hit the M2 year, so there is a slight buffer there.

Milkman's method probably worked well for him (and I've heard other upperclassmen concerned about these changes, but our class is pretty much ready to throw this existing M2 curriculum out the window), and my "avoid campus at all costs" method this year is getting me by so far (I'll tell you more after Step this June, haha!), but I think these changes will result in a system that can work for almost everyone.
-Matt
 
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medvedyev said:
Can you shed some light on what the step 1 pass rate is like/has been at UAMS?
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Here is the average step score compared to the national average and another medical school that switched to a similar "active learning" curriculum in 2001.
uamsstepscore.jpg
 
I just want to add that UTMB has similar students coming in each year. Their average MCAT and GPA last year was 28/3.7.
 
GoHogsGo said:
Well that's definitely not a good sign....
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It's a sign of how drastically UTMB reorganized their curriculum and evidence that UAMS needed to do the same. If UTMB's new curriculum and whatever else they did can take a group of students with comparable average stats to UAMS and get them above the national average scores on Step and keep strengthening their performance, it's a really good sign that they're doing something right down there. I also think it's good that UAMS admin has been looking at this information and are taking steps to try and get things moving in the right direction again Step wise. If UAMS can preserve its already outstanding clinical curriculum and preparation and strengthen its overall academic curriculum at the same time, it'll be in really good shape.
-Matt
 
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I agree with the sentiment, but I don't think the problem was/is with the curriculum so much as it is with the complete lack of guidance we get regarding non-text (read: useful) resources for Step 1. If I hadn't been a member here, I would've been totally screwed. There was brief and limited mention of USMLEWorld, easily the best review resource, while DIT, a fairly worthless program, in my opinion, was pushed hard. Basically, the only thing you ever heard about as useful was First Aid. The curriculum definitely needs an update (even though it worked well for me), but they need to take care of things that are both easier to fix - you could accomplish the task in a whopping 1 email to the listserv - and more important first.
 
So what's the best advice you can give to an entering medical student?? Including preparing for the STEP 1.
 
Still haven't heard anything (OOS)... Could it be possible that my letter gets lost in the mail from 2 schools in a row?
 
Marbleman said:
So what's the best advice you can give to an entering medical student?? Including preparing for the STEP 1.
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In a paragraph or less, read this forum (but try to ignore the scores people post), get a subscription to some question bank during second year, buy First Aid, and follow along with class in those resources. You'll be golden. Skip class as much as you possibly can so you're learning more efficiently and in the manner that fits you best.

lordofchaos13 said:
Still haven't heard anything (OOS)... Could it be possible that my letter gets lost in the mail from 2 schools in a row?
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Very odd, but it's nothing a call to the office can't fix.
 
So I'm curious about the Northwest Arkansas branch campus for clinical years. I've read on the MSAR that they send a minimum of 14 students up there to complete years 3 and 4. How do they choose who goes, and do those students have an easier/harder time with clinical years?
 
esoomssab said:
So I'm curious about the Northwest Arkansas branch campus for clinical years. I've read on the MSAR that they send a minimum of 14 students up there to complete years 3 and 4. How do they choose who goes, and do those students have an easier/harder time with clinical years?
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This is a hard question to answer since it's such a new program the "easier/harder" opinion is probably still very much a question and is probably still evolving as the overall campus and student body up there grows.

As far as who is selected, it is a volunteer type thing with a possible random "lottery" style selection for remaining spots if there aren't enough volunteers. To date no one has ever been forced to go, there have been enough willing volunteers. (There was some mild drama with the current M3 group where a selection was done but then people stepped forward that were "on the fence" and had made decisions to take their spots. It was an unnecessary mess and in response to that they moved up the volunteer timeline so people have more resources and time to think about going to NWA. You'll have the opportunity to tour their campus, talk to their students and faculty, etc. about it well before a decision is required of you. Our class had more volunteers than spots and I believe they are going to let a few extra from our class go if they still want to.)

Easier/harder I don't know how to answer because things are run so differently up there. Here's what I've heard from students up there and administration here about it:
  • You get more one on one time with faculty physicians and patients since there are fewer students and very few residents in NWA.
  • Like Little Rock, you rotate through multiple hospitals (Fayetteville has a pretty nice, new hospital plus a VA hospital, Rogers has a brand new hospital, and Springdale has a bit older but reasonably nice hospital) and regional clinics, but they are much more spread out so you will spend more time commuting.
  • The curriculum doesn't work in the same blocks as the main campus does, which means you'll not really have "easy" months and "hard" months, but a relatively consistent 3rd year overall. I don't know much about how the curriculum works exactly or have heard much about 4th year, but you'll hear more about that process during your 1st year.
  • Primary care leaning people seem to love it. It makes sense really, you get a bit more relaxed setting and a lot more time getting to know doctors and interacting with individual patients from what I hear. The downside is that you'll see less unusual cases than you do at UAMS. NWA is decent sized but very suburban and just doesn't have the super-specialty kind of people and facilities UAMS does in Little Rock so the crazy zebra cases are going to end up in Little Rock most likely. If you have a thing for gunshot wounds you're probably going to be a bit bored in NWA overall too. :D
  • The students there have been doing better on their boards after the units finish than the Little Rock students on average. What that means is almost impossible to determine since it may be just students with better study habits are going up there, it could be the different curriculum layout, etc. Lots of different factors at play so they don't know why that is.

Hope that helps a little. I strongly considered going to the NW Campus and decided against it in the end, but it could be a great experience for the right person.
-Matt
 
Frankly, I don't think going to the Fayetteville campus is a good move. Like Matt said, the zebra cases and exceptionally complex patients come here, to Little Rock, and those are the ones that are best for learning. The faculty here are more used to teaching, and the rotation structures are well established. If you're looking to go to a competitive residency or specialty, you'll suffer from not having access to the bigger names who are at UAMS when rec letter time rolls around. You also won't get as much experience with non-primary care specialties. I don't mean to make it sound like you'll get bad training there, because it's still solid. It's just different and almost solely focused on primary care. If that sounds good to you, the NWA campus may be a viable choice.
 
MilkmanAl said:
Frankly, I don't think going to the Fayetteville campus is a good move. Like Matt said, the zebra cases and exceptionally complex patients come here, to Little Rock, and those are the ones that are best for learning. The faculty here are more used to teaching, and the rotation structures are well established. If you're looking to go to a competitive residency or specialty, you'll suffer from not having access to the bigger names who are at UAMS when rec letter time rolls around. You also won't get as much experience with non-primary care specialties. I don't mean to make it sound like you'll get bad training there, because it's still solid. It's just different and almost solely focused on primary care. If that sounds good to you, the NWA campus may be a viable choice.
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This is exactly why I decided not to go. Since I don't really know what branch of medicine I'd like to go into yet and want to have a good look at all the specialties (and good connections with the specialties if I decide to go that route), the NW campus wasn't a good fit for me. I have friends that are going that are already sure they want to be family/internal/Ob Gyn and I think it'll probably work out very well for them.

-Matt
 
MJM09 said:
This is exactly why I decided not to go. Since I don't really know what branch of medicine I'd like to go into yet and want to have a good look at all the specialties (and good connections with the specialties if I decide to go that route), the NW campus wasn't a good fit for me. I have friends that are going that are already sure they want to be family/internal/Ob Gyn and I think it'll probably work out very well for them.

-Matt
Click to expand...
When do medical students generally decide which specialty they would like to pursue? I have a few ideas of what I may be interested in...but without experience in the majority of the areas, I basically have no clue.
 
I'd say most people have a pretty firm idea about this time during third year. Surprisingly few pursue what they thought they wanted to do coming in, and I'd say the majority change their minds at least once during M3. Given that info, one of the obvious drawbacks of the Fayetteville campus is that you risk stunting your experience in fields you may enjoy. Even if you think you're set on something going into the year, you may have an eye-opener or two during third year that changes your track completely. That's why I generally recommend against going there, but to each his own.
 
Looking online, I didn't see an EM rotation in NWA. Is that true? Also has there been any plans to add an elective in M3?
 
Looking online, I didn't see an EM rotation in NWA. Is that true?
Click to expand...
It wouldn't surprise me. Everyone in my class who went up there (which, granted, is only 4 people) had to come back down here for at least a couple months. One of my old roommates was here for 4 months. You'll get a big ol' pack of electives from which to choose, and just about all of the non-AHEC* ones are offered at either UAMS or Children's.

*AHEC meaning "area health education centers." They're for primary care rotations only and are at locations throughout the state.

Also has there been any plans to add an elective in M3?
Click to expand...
Not to my knowledge. I'd bet that third year is going to mostly stay as it is for quite some time.
 
I was waitlisted this year from district 1 (29Q 3.6cGPA 3.5sGPA lots of ECs and medical experience)

Do you guys know if someone from my district has to decline in order for me to accepted from the waitlist? It had just occurred to me today that this might be the case, and I figured some of you might know.
 
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