FSM has had somewhat of a problem launching its new curriculum to the incoming M1's, so I wonder if that has to do with why their secondary app hasn't been released yet.
But our M1 orientation week ended, and I am super excited! The new curriculum features:
- combining normal and abnormal physio during the first 20 months ("phase 1" = 20 months = pre-clinical). If I'm not mistaken, it seems like anatomy is dispersed throughout the majority of that time period, depending on which organ system we are on.
- everything is still p/f, no internal ranking system
- PBL and TBL (team-based learning) is a big part of the learning experience
- exams are once every ~5 weeks or so
- daily schedule looks like... lecture from ~8am to noon PLUS some afternoon sessions 3 of the days (i.e. on TWO of the days, I am done with classes by noon-ish)
- after year 1, we get 4 weeks that we have to dedicate to "AOSC" and 5 weeks of "vacation" (this is in contrast to the usual 12 weeks of summer --> our "2nd year" begins in late July)
- "AOSC" is a REQUIRED "thesis" project that is new to our year. It can be a mentor-guided project in whatever interests you really! It just has to be turned in by your 4th year.
- tons of clinical experience weaved in to the "preclinical" years. Just during orientation week, we had 3 "patient interview" sessions, whether in groups or individual!! Our official clinical experience will begin in Sept. For that, this year, they are launching another program for this called ECMH - a select group of us gets to participate in this, which allows for longitudinal clinical experience in a group setting (physician + M1/M2/M3/M4 in a group). This is to emphasize the purpose of teamwork, and we get to work with upperclassmen in this setting.
- We get about a month of board review time in March/April, and then we begin Clinical Rotations ("3rd year" = "phase 2" at northwestern) in May. This gets us in clinical mode much earlier than before.
Ok, I think that sums up some of the key points I remember from orientation week about our new curriculum. Sorry if it seems a bit scattered! We were on a bit of an information overload this past week.
But I have to say, after orientation week, I have to say that the faculty here is fantastic -- they are so enthusiastic about teaching us and thrilled about the new curriculum. They really put in a LOT of thought into this new curriculum, and the orientation week already demonstrated that. But more importantly, my classmates seem amazing! They are such an insightful bunch, and I am really excited to start the academic year with them!!
Anyway, if you have any more questions, either now or later, please PM me! I am not sure I will get to check this forum very often. Good luck guys!
