Trying to decide where to rank this school. Can somebody give me an overview of the schedule during 1st and 2nd year? I forgot what they said during the interview. Was it 8-12 on most days after anatomy? Also, what about mandatory slots?
I'll give it a shot as far as MS1 year is concerned.
Anatomy is a lot of time. That's your first block. It sounds like you're already aware that it is a lot more time though. The wet lab stuff is definitely mandatory.
After anatomy, basic science classes as an MS1 run mostly 8-12. Some days are maybe only 3 hours, but usually all 4 hours have something scheduled. These are mostly optional lectures with recordings made available about a day later (they have only been audio recordings up until now, but there is some talk of video recordings starting after the Christmas break). There's a 4-week span during the histology section where you'll have histo lab for 2 hours a day, but that isn't required either if you'd rather learn from the slides and histo books.
Now about ECE... there are supposed to be some big changes coming for how the course is structured. The things I've heard have all sounded like improvements. I'd rather not say on the forums since I haven't seen a finalized announcement. However, no matter what happens, it isn't a major time sink but does have mandatory attendance at some of the activities. For right now, we have something to do about once every one or two weeks. If it's a lecture, it's optional. If it's a small group session, then they're mandatory with attendance taken (scheduled once per month. If it's a session where we're learning history taking and physical exam skills, then they're mandatory (scheduled for once per month). All of this info is the current structure and could be outdated very soon FWIW
If you sign up for additional, optional electives, you will have additional mandatory lectures or skills workshops in the evening about once a month depending on the elective.
MS2 year is mostly 1-5 from what I understand.
Texas Tech is very non-trad friendly from an admissions and schedule standpoint. Some students essentially commute to Lubbock for required activities and spend the rest of their time in their hometown studying. Others stick around in Lubbock but study elsewhere until something required pops up. I also think that the block schedule is great (only studying for one class at a time)
