Hey guys,
I decided to stop by and check and see how SDN is doing since I haven't been on in awhile. I wanted to let you know that Rush is amazing and it has been everything that I have wanted from a school. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them as best as I can (trying to get some monster studying done on the weekends).
Some basic info (which might have already been said earlier, I haven't read the thread)
My M1 class (2016) has approximately 126 students. Thanks to the amazing orientation week that Rush had, I can safely say that almost everyone in our class is now friends with each another - and it's easy to go from social group to social group.
Anatomy - It's a good ratio. Basically, 4 people to a cadaver, but you rotate in groups of two. On Monday,Wednesday, Friday - we usually have a lecture from 8am-9am about what we are going to see in anatomy from 9am-12pm. So, on Monday - group A/B will dissect. On Wednesday, group A/B will teach what they saw to group C/D, and then group C/D will dissect. On Friday, group C/D will teach what they saw to group A/B, then group A/B will dissect. Rinse and repeat. Tuesdays and Thursdays are more of the physiology lectures - we are in musculoskeletal block right now and have had lectures on cartilage and bone structure, limb embryology, bone physiology, calcium metabolism - to name what we had this week.
Typical day right now is 8/9am to 12pm class, then 1pm-5pm secondary activity. Secondary activities include Preceptorship (you get assigned to shadow/accompany a physician in the Rush area, and learn how to do physical examinations and such - then you get participation grade for documenting the patients you saw and the things you did.), Histology lab, Behavioral Science groups (learning how to interview patients - kind of like communication skills), simulated patient interviews, Team-Based Learning exercises, MIPE (where we learn how to actually do the techniques that you have to do for a physical exam), i-human exercises (online virtual patient that we interview at our own pace), Physicianship (small group meetings to discuss and role-play ethical cases), and anatomy tutoring (M2s guide the M1's in reviewing what was supposed to be found/dissected on the cadavers. We rotate through cadavers in the lab and the M2s give us a mock practical - extremely helpful). Don't think that we do every single one of these things in a week. Many of these things are spread out. I can give you a pdf of our course schedule if you would want that to look at. Some days, like today, I had lecture from 8-9am, but it wasn't my turn in anatomy and I had nothing scheduled for the afternoon, so I really had the entire day to study. This is rare, mind you. M1s at Rush have it easy compared to M2s, where the grind really starts.
Extracurriculars - TONS... >95% of Rush students get involved in extracurriculars/community service organizations. These are typically things in which you go to for 4-5 hours once every week or once every month. Later on in the year, we will have to start document our hours that we spend in Rush-approved community service activities, since we do get a participation grade based on this. This program is relatively new, but since most people get involved in some form anyway, it's something we are glad to have. Also, the lady who is in charge of community service at Rush is the friendliest person you might ever meet. Community service doesn't have to be exclusively clinical, it can be non-clinical. For example, one of the things I'm doing is called RUharmony, a group which organizes pairs of students to go to peds and geriatrics wards at Rush to play songs (guitar, piano...kazoo...whatever).
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I went to Vanderbilt University, applied to UIC, Rush, SIU, Vandy, and several other schools. Got interviews at UIC, Rush, SIU, Vandy, Drexel, New York Medical College, Medical College of Wisconsin. First choice was Vandy, but didn't get in. Rush was my second choice. There has always been a great debate about UIC vs. Rush - and if you want my opinion on that, let's say you would be happy at either. For me, Rush seemed more laid back, the curriculum is on a block schedule. We had an exam on 9/24, and our next exam is October 29th. Compare this to UIC, which from what I know has some form of evaluation pretty much every other week. I could be wrong about this. The choice is what style of learning suits you more. Rush definitely wants students to feel like they are part of a family - it's got the whole "private" school feel.
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Best of luck as you continue the interview process, and hope to see you at Rush next year! If you do decide to come to Rush, you will be rewarded with some of the greatest role models in the field of medicine. One of our favorite teachers is Dr. Kent - truly one of the most compassionate and driven physicians you will ever meet. You can see him here in this old video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jT8z-kQ_w. Hopefully the link works. He teaches several lectures that we have, and he will often bring some of his patients in to talk about their experiences. You will not see a single dry eye in the room after one of his lectures.
At Rush, you will learn that medicine is not just about mastering the science of medicine, it's about mastering the art of medicine. You will learn endless amounts of drug names and their uses, learn almost all of the muscles and nerves of the body, but most importantly, you will learn that the relationship between a patient and physician is one of the most sacred and powerful things on this world. Medicine is People, according to Dr. Kent. That's why Rush has been amazing so far. In everything we are taught, we are reminded to never forget this fact.
Best of luck! Let me know if you have any questions.
