Hey guys, I'm an MS1 and former lurker on SDN. I hope you guys are surviving the application cycle and definitely wish you the best because it's not easy. We just finished our first block at SBU and I feel obligated to share my thoughts. Now I'm sure this might seem shady since this is my first post, but I'll be the first to tell you to please followup on what I say below with other folks. Don't put all your faith into a single opinion.
So, for those who don't know, the current MS1 class is the first to go thru the LEARN curriculum. I'm all for getting into the clinic faster and I knew I'd be a guinea pig to make that happen, but the new curriculum has been highly questionable thus far. The biggest issue - the first block was purely condensed and NOT restructured. We were expected to know the same level of detail in anatomy and biochem, but had instead of finishing before Christmas break, we finished before Thanksgiving break.
The pace was absolutely absurd and that was obvious to everyone but the deans. Just think about it - who would ever think cutting a notoriously difficult block by one month but not altering the content would be fine? Even the professors and TAs were exhausted by the pace and often took pity on the students for what we were going thru. It was grossly irresponsible of the architects of the first block to think this would work.
To be fair, future blocks are likely to improve, but it is hard to have faith when the first block was openly mocked by professors and older students, and rightfully so. Our first set of professors were clearly not fully on board with it and has me wondering if the curriculum was something the deans cooked up and shoved down the throats of everyone because no seems particularly excited about it.
What upsets me most was that I was told the LEARN curriculum was a restructuring of material made in conjunction with professors and older students, but neither seems to have been the case so far. The clinical experiences and freedom down the road will likely make up for the pain right now, but I honestly would have considered my other acceptances much more seriously if I had known what I know now. Just ask anyone about the first block, time spent in class, clicker questions making classes mandatory, lack of correlation between class and exam material, LLC groups, integration of pharmacology.
Again, I implore you to not trust my opinion alone. I do not want to deter you from SBU, but rather give you material to ask questions about to make sure your future school is working to improve because there is definitely a lot of work to be done. I would want to know these concerns about a school I'm considering, so that is why I shared my thoughts.
