Could you tell me more about Tampa and your experience with the area? Also, let us know about what you like most / least about your program.
My experience/opinions about Tampa:
If you're from a small town area, Tampa will take some getting used to, mostly because there can be a lot of traffic at times (obvious with a bigger city), and getting used to the traffic patterns is annoying. But once you know them, you learn how to avoid the traffic jams (which can be pretty epically horrendous sometimes). That was what I hated most when I moved here (and honestly, still hate with a passion). I'm from a small-ish city, so there never was horrible traffic.
There are a bunch of different little suburb-type areas. Some nicer than others. The downtown area (where our teaching hospital TGH is), is very nice with an awesome historic district, fabulous dining options (great place for foodies!), lots of night clubs and shopping. Obviously it's more expensive there. After a little apartment hunting, you get to know where the pricey places are and where the more reasonably priced places are. There is a ton to do here. Busch Gardens and Adventure Island are big draws. Both are literally 1-2 miles from the school. You can see the roller coasters from some of the parking garages on campus. There are always some kind of music events going on between the Live Nation Amphitheater and the Tampa Times Forum. Multiple museums in the area. Oh and random food truck rallies that are awesome. We also have an epic and huge State Fair every year, and can't forget the Gasparilla celebration every year (our very own Mardis Gras knockoff! But not quite as insane).
Tampa is great because it's kind of like an epicenter. If you venture out west about 45 min to an hour away, you can hit up St Pete. Their beaches are amazingly gorgeous. Salvador Dali museum is there too (and USF students get a discount!). All Children's Hospital is in St Pete. If you're lucky, you'll get to do your inpatient pediatrics rotation there (some do it at ACH while others do it at TGH). I loved that hospital. It's brand new and gorgeous. Clearwater beach is out that way too. More great beaches. They also have a marina with pretty much every water sport/attraction you can think of. Orlando is about an hour drive east with Disney and Universal (I was a Disney annual pass holder for a while. Disney is heaven. Don't judge
😛). And then down south also about an hour away is Sarasota with even more great beaches and the Ringling Museum, which I have not had a chance to visit yet, but I've heard it's pretty awesome. Very artsy place if you're into that. And all I have to say about north of us is that Gainesville is there, but I'm a diehard USF Bulls fan and I know there are some gators on here, so I won't trash talk
😛
My experiences with the program:
Overall, I'm super happy with my choice to come here. Every faculty member is MORE than willing to do whatever needs to be done to help us succeed. The majority of the students through all the classes are super friendly. We all get along really well and everyone helps each other. The upperclassmen are always willing to help out the underclassmen. There is a "Big/Little" program at our school where all the 1st years are paired with a second year, who is available to help them out, donate books, give advice, etc. I talked to my big all the way up until she graduated a few weeks ago. The upperclassmen send out "survival guides" and teach free review classes for Step. Not very much gunning at all. Obviously there will be a few in every class, but the school has tried to stop that by changing to the pass/fail system. This was enacted with the class below me, so I don't know how it has impacted them, but I haven't heard anything bad. 1st and 2nd year are completely integrated. I loved that. We are in clinics within the first couple of months of classes starting 1st year. What you get to see and do depends on your preceptor. I had an pretty awesome family med dr who let me do a cortisone knee injection after I watched him do a couple! Sounds kinda lame, but it's exciting lol. My biggest complaint about the school is parking. It's horrible. You have to get to class early if you want a space close enough that you're not hiking for 15 minutes. But that comes with a a big school like USF. There isn't dedicated med student parking so we park with all the undergrads, which makes it ridiculous. TGH parking is also horrible, mostly owing to the fact that it's a HUGE hospital on an island with limited space to grow. The school is trying to fix the school parking problem. I know they created some more spaces nearby recently, so that will help. They are also in contact with TGH about parking for us. That's another thing I love about this place, the staff is super receptive to everything we have to say and they try to fix the things that they can as soon as they can. The other thing I don't like too much is the fact that all of our exams are online with a software program that I hate, and the program tends to hate a lot of computers. It's tedious waiting for everyone to fix their bugs. But that's just technical difficulties. I'm just being picky with that lol.
OK. I think I gave a lot of info. Sorry lol! Hope that helps. Any other questions, just ask! Message me if you have a question you don't want to ask publicly.
ALSO! I'm looking for a roommate in my 2/2.5 1400sqft townhouse. Fully furnished except the bedroom that would be yours! I live across the street from USF (literally a 5 min drive, or a 15 min walk) in a nice privately owned complex. Message me if you're looking for a place for next year!
