Strengths:
Faculty & staff is nice, friendly, and cares about the student body. I felt it during my interview, and I've continued to feel it throughout my first year in many ways. It also doesn't hurt that they are very well-known.
On this note, for girls that might want to start a family in med school: We've already had one female student have a child during her 3rd year, and she is right on track and ready to graduate next year. Two girls in my class (including myself) are currently pregnant, and although we were both asked if we wanted to take a year off, the faculty has been very supportive of our choice to stay on track. I think it's helpful that the upper ranks of our school are loaded with obgyns.
Immediate patient contact: We are given ER shifts and start Family Medicine preceptorships from the 2nd month of school. I had already performed CPR on more than one patient before finishing my 1st year. I also think one of the big highlights for me was being taught how to do a central line. Many students have already sutured up patients, dealt with gun shot victims, etc during their ER shifts. We rotate through the ERs we are affiliated with throughout the 1st and 2nd years, and there is always the option to do more on your own time. It's nice to get an idea of how different hospitals function.
Also, while the school's goal to help the underserved/underinsured and promote primary care specialties shows through in many of the classes, it is obvious that the faculty is committed to helping you match in whatever field you hope to go into. Our 4th years are applying in everything from IM to Optho. It also doesn't hurt that our first graduating class ended up with a USMLE average 10 points above the national average. Some of my friends were in the 260s, and they are sitting in a very nice place for the upcoming match.
Cons:
Honestly, I've been pretty happy with the school and don't have much to complain about. However, since the classes are still expanding (moved to 120 this year, but will be staying at 120 from now on), juggling scheduling/class dynamic of the growing class is probably the issue I see most often. Our class was double any other class they'd dealt with in the past, so growing pains were to be expected. I imagine 120 will be a new challenge for them this year. However, your class will be the 2nd of 120, so things should be ironed out pretty well after the c/o 2016 finished their M1 year.
The order and presentation of the curriculum is not set in stone. You can see that as a pro or a con depending on who you are. It's nice to know what's coming months ahead of time, but it's also nice that they take student input so seriously and try to work towards addressing our concerns. I guess you can't really have it both ways.
Summer break is a little short. We had about 6.5 weeks, and I think most other med schools have 8-9 if I remember right. Honestly though, I had plenty of time to work under an oncologist for a month on a grant, go to disney for a week, and still be bored before school started last week.
Hopefully that helped a bit.
