Anyone interview in march hear back yet? I know its only been a couple weeks.
For those of you not able to go to second look this Friday, have you emailed back saying you can't make it?
For those of you not able to go to second look this Friday, have you emailed back saying you can't make it?
Yes, and I asked them to email me any important information I might miss. They were very helpful 🙂
I emailed them earlier today - Haven't received a reply yet, but it's Saturday, so...
Why don't you send email? They will respond and tell you your status. You should have been rejected by now. You are probably on some sort of waiting list. Try to determine where you are on the list. Try to improve your standing.So it has almost been 2 months since i interviewed and still no news. Anyone else wait this long?
At Second Look, was there any mention/discussion of the expected amount of mandatory class for the new 1.5 year curriculum starting in 2014?
The wait list e-mail says that the wait list movement won't start until late May-early June. I will be going out of country from May 22nd to June 26th. Does it mean I shouldn't even bother sending a letter of updates since I won't get to respond to phone calls/e-mails promptly?
I wasn't at second look, but if you follow this link, there are examples of how a week of classes would be spent.
http://medicine.stonybrookmedicine.edu/LEARNcurr/decisions
Looks like for Lectures (self or In class) in the mornings (9-11am), you have the option of watching classes on your own or attending class.
What did they say about this at the Second Look?
I think somewhere in the curriculum PDF it says classes are not mandatory and the aim of the curriculum is to encourage student based learning rather than solely didactic instruction... Something like that.At Second Look, was there any mention/discussion of the expected amount of mandatory class for the new 1.5 year curriculum starting in 2014?
Was this an official offer or an estimate? I thought they wouldn't be released for another month.Got my financial aid offer earlier this week (need-based grant, nice), but I just emailed them to announce my decision to withdraw. Good luck to everyone on the waitlist!
Are we looking at the same image? From what I'm seeing, there's 3 hours of mandatory class time Monday-Thursday and 4 hours on Friday. And on some weeks, there is 5 hours mandatory every day.I second this question! I also wanna clarify - do we actually have three day weekends to look forward to?! lol I'm only asking because that planned curriculum in the PDF never mentions Fridays and I couldn't attend second look to get this question answered... Anyone..?
I think somewhere in the curriculum PDF it says classes are not mandatory and the aim of the curriculum is to encourage student based learning rather than solely didactic instruction... Something like that.
Was this an official offer or an estimate? I thought they wouldn't be released for another month.
Are we looking at the same image? From what I'm seeing, there's 3 hours of mandatory class time Monday-Thursday and 4 hours on Friday. And on some weeks, there is 5 hours mandatory every day.
Regardless, this is considerably more mandatory class time than most lecture-based schools. And it's distributed across every day of the week.I would assume that labs, like anatomy, would be mandatory. And there seems to be a focus on small group study which is also mandatory (could be case studies and whatnot - wouldn't want to do that on a computer/miss that).
Especially since I was under the impression that most of the students at Stony Brook commute from various distances, this has to be a huge downside to the school. You would think they would be more understanding of this and make more lectures optional/consolidate them so that the mandatory stuff falls out on fewer days, that way people don't have to drive in for a just a few hours every day....Regardless, this is considerably more mandatory class time than most lecture-based schools. And it's distributed across every day of the week.
Agreed. *Lectures* are optional, but they claim that over 50% of the curriculum is "active learning" (aka PBL), so it makes that moot. In addition, 50-60% of your grade will be determined by "soft" factors (peer assessments, essays, etc), so I take it there won't be much flexibility with regards to attendance.Especially since I was under the impression that most of the students at Stony Brook commute from various distances, this has to be a huge downside to the school. You would think they would be more understanding of this and make more lectures optional/consolidate them so that the mandatory stuff falls out on fewer days, that way people don't have to drive in for a just a few hours every day....
Agreed. *Lectures* are optional, but they claim that over 50% of the curriculum is "active learning" (aka PBL), so it makes that moot. In addition, 50-60% of your grade will be determined by "soft" factors (peer assessments, essays, etc), so I take it there won't be much flexibility with regards to attendance.
Though I do wonder if there will be supplemental online lectures, because I imagine 8 hours of weekly lecture isn't sufficient to cover the breadth of preclinical information in only 1.5 years. It's stated that "Faculty and administration will facilitate provision of high quality e-lectures", but also that "Faculty may use or adapt existing institutional or other high quality/ up to date resources to create an organized, detailed and logical syllabus". I'm hoping "e-lectures" just means recorded lectures (not additional lectures) and that the latter statement means that they'll clearly define external resources for us to self-study instead.
I agree with you. Success is a function of how hard and how efficiently you can work. Which is why I think the curriculum should reflect that. From what I've read, PBL is a low-yield, inefficient method of learning that doesn't comport well with self-motivated people who could be doing multiple passthroughs of material or active recall (flashcards). I mean, we're not reinventing the wheel here -- basic science + path (and the boards in particular) come down to how much you can memorize. Of course I'll put in the same amount of work and cover the same material, just in a shorter amount of time (fewer hours in the day due to commute+groupwork and fewer days in total because of the shortened 1.5 year curriculum). Being mired in an essay or presentation every week or two just doesn't sound too appealing to me. I'd like to be treated like an adult and given the independence to approach the material in a way that works best for me, that's all. Like you said, it shouldn't matter how you get there.In some ways it seems annoying to have all that scheduled time. But most of the schools I interviewed at had a set up like that (perhaps there was more free time at schools where you alternated in your group who went to anatomy lab)… In the end you alone determine how well you do in medical school and on the STEP exams. The curriculum is just a vehicle, you are the driver. You'll get there in the end regardless.
I agree with you. Success is a function of how hard and how efficiently you can work. Which is why I think the curriculum should reflect that. From what I've read, PBL is a low-yield, inefficient method of learning that doesn't comport well with self-motivated people who could be doing multiple passthroughs of material or active recall (flashcards). I mean, we're not reinventing the wheel here -- basic science + path (and the boards in particular) come down to how much you can memorize. Of course I'll put in the same amount of work and cover the same material, just in a shorter amount of time (fewer hours in the day due to commute+groupwork and fewer days in total because of the shortened 1.5 year curriculum). Being mired in an essay or presentation every week or two just doesn't sound too appealing to me. I'd like to be treated like an adult and given the independence to approach the material in a way that works best for me, that's all. Like you said, it shouldn't matter how you get there.
For what it's worth, many of the schools I interviewed with (particularly Baylor and Vandy) realized this and fashioned their curriculum accordingly, and it's reflected in their board scores. But don't take this as me whining, it's just an idea that I think is worth considering.
Are we looking at the same image? From what I'm seeing, there's 3 hours of mandatory class time Monday-Thursday and 4 hours on Friday. And on some weeks, there is 5 hours mandatory every day.
For me, it was because my wife goes to school in manhattan so stony brook would be way too far for one of us. If it were closer to nyc I would have had a really hard time turning it down.Curious as to why you guys decided to withdraw
Curious as to why you guys decided to withdraw
And it looks like at least 3 of us are turning it down for the same school lol.
So is the whole PBL and "Self-directed learning" philosophy basically a way of saving the schools money on getting profs to lecture with the alleged excuse of it being more engaging to students?
So is the whole PBL and "Self-directed learning" philosophy basically a way of saving the schools money on getting profs to lecture with the alleged excuse of it being more engaging to students?
Yeah, the other school I am considering changed their curriculum couple years ago. The people who went through the change did not like it but they got through. Bunch of presentations and essays in addition to the basic science seems like a lot, plus doing that in 1.5 years. But the faculties and staff seemed really helpful and I loved the atmosphere at the school. I guess it will be fine 🙂There is a general trend in today's medical schools to reform the curriculum in one way or other. You should go to the web site of the other schools and see what they are doing. You will be surprised at what you will find out!!!
No, it's a way for them to justify their own salaries. Think about how 95% of the medical school curriculum, in this day and age, could be learned from previously recorded lectures and online textbooks. So you see why they have to change up the curriculum to assert their relevance, to make it seem as if this is the more 'enlightened' way to learn, much better than the 'brutish' lecture+annotating+memorization approach. Of course, they'll neglect to mention that this is pretty much the only approach for most medical school courses (i.e. anatomy, pharma, micro, etc). If you look at the professors who designed this curriculum, a lot of them are PHDs in "education" and are trying to fix things that aren't broken -- Stony Brook recently had its highest Step 1 average. Why change what students themselves say works best for them?So is the whole PBL and "Self-directed learning" philosophy basically a way of saving the schools money on getting profs to lecture with the alleged excuse of it being more engaging to students?
Voted with their feet? You realize the students were just watching the recordings at home so they could be more efficient in their studying, correct? If a lecture is somehow supposed to be "better" in real life than over a recording, shouldn't the onus be on the professor to format the class in such a way that would entice people to come? Instead, you suggest that we ingratiate ourselves to the egos of professors (whose salaries *we* pay), show up to their classes, and deal with their daily struggles with technology, even though it would be better for us to study at home at a pace that works for us.
Truncated preclinical years would be awesome if we could graduate a half year early and pay half tuition for the 4th year. Instead, it just seems like we have to learn the same information in a shorter amount of time, while at the same time juggling highly inefficient and low-yield mandatory group classes for most of the day, Monday through Friday.
No, it's a way for them to justify their own salaries. Think about how 95% of the medical school curriculum, in this day and age, could be learned from previously recorded lectures and online textbooks. So you see why they have to change up the curriculum to assert their relevance, to make it seem as if this is the more 'enlightened' way to learn, much better than the 'brutish' lecture+annotating+memorization approach. Of course, they'll neglect to mention that this is pretty much the only approach for most medical school courses (i.e. anatomy, pharma, micro, etc). If you look at the professors who designed this curriculum, a lot of them are PHDs in "education" and are trying to fix things that aren't broken -- Stony Brook recently had its highest Step 1 average. Why change what students themselves say works best for them?