Can any current student answer some questions about the school?
1) Is the grading system P/F?
2) Is there video capture for lectures?
3) How many days/hours a week are you in anatomy lab and how many students per cadaver?
4) As someone looking to go into general surgery, is UW a good place to succeed?
5) Any last overall thoughts?
In addition to Rollerbladdin's post, can anyone give more insight into the curriculum?
For first year, how many classes are you taking simultaneously, how much time are you spending in lecture/when is lecture, and how long are the blocks/periods of time in-between exams? Is the semester cumulative, or just the blocks?
Thanks!
1) unranked P/F first year, A/AB/B/BC second year
2) yes lecture capture, and its very popular!
3) I havnt started anatomy yet (Felix is correct, it starts in Jan of M1) but it sounds like 3-4 hours two days per week, 4 people on the cadaver M/W, 4 people on it T/Th (so 8 people dissecting it, but you are only in there with half the group so all 8 dont have to try to crowd around dissecting at once)
4) An older student will have to comment on this, but you could look up old match lists if you'd like. I know there are some big names here though so I think that getting good LORs for residency would be very doable. Also, everyone has to do their 8 weeks of 3rd year surgery in Madison, so even though we have the statewide campus, there is no chance you would get put somewhere else for your surgery rotation, so you know you will for sure be at an awesome academic institution with tons going on.
5) I love this school more every day! I feel like we are in classes way less than most of my peer M1s at other institutions, very few required classes so you can be a stay at home lecture capturer if you want, and just come in for afternoons you have small group or anatomy. Block exams are AMAZING in my opinion, and I am saying that with 2 exams tomorrow morning but its all good
😀 The atmosphere here is ridiculously friendly and collaborative. The M2s are constantly asking us how things are going, offering words of wisdoms, passing down old study guides and review material, etc. The class is big enough that everyone can find others with similar interests. I get free lunch at least twice a week. The professors are really nice and hold lots of office hours. I could go on and on! The only thing that sucks is the weather... its starting to get quite nippy out
Felix - Right now we are taking Epidemiology, Biochem, "Doctoring Class", Genetics, and Cell Structure and Function. That probably sounds like a lot, but it is just like in undergrad where most of those classes are just 3 or 4 days a week for 50 minutes. We are usually in lecture from either 8-12 or 9-12 (its about 50/50) and then we have our doctoring class for 2 hours 1 afternoon a week, and a small group exercise for 2-3 hours about 3 times a month.
Next semester we will be taking Anatomy and Physio lectures in the morning, Anatomy lab and "doctoring" in the afternoons. Second year we learn in organ blocks/systems based approach. You will be learning pathology and pharmacology in every block so I guess you could kind of say its like taking 3 classes 3rd year (those 2 plus more doctoring/PDS, yay!)
This semester we had 6 weeks before the first block, 5 before the next, and will have 4 before the last. I believe most blocks throughout the first 2 years are 4 or 5 weeks apart though. Just the blocks are cumulative, so it is kind of just like having a little "finals week" every fifth week. The exception is epidemiology, where the 3rd block exam will contain questions about the first 2 blocks of material, but that class isnt bad at all, and everyone passes
😉
) so you could use it to buy a new laptop or ipad. The only thing our school provides us with as gifts because of the alumni association are our white coats and stethoscopes, so if you find a great deal this season, you should go ahead and buy it!
