Are there any current med students here than can shed some light on what it's like to live in augusta? Also how good is MCG's facilities, faculty and curriculum?
Hey!
1) Augusta is...I think it's a great city to be in med school. It's bordered by the Savannah River and has a lot of nature-ish places for the outdoorsy folk. It also has a pretty old school downtown street for the hipster and artisan types. Night life is there if you want it, but not so tempting that you really consider reprioritizing your studies. The cost of living is amazing here as well. Rent is very low even for the really nice neighborhoods, and gas is super cheap. Plus South Carolina is like a 6 minute drive from campus and stuff is even cheaper over there.
2) The facilities are top notch. A couple of years ago MCG was left a huge donation by an alumnus, and they used some of it to construct a whole new medical school building with top of the line technology and more study/chill space than you could ask for. We have Harry Potter style academic houses and each house gets an apartment-style common space with a big-screen TV and living room, kitchen area, and small study room. They upgraded the anatomy lab too. I've traveled to other schools and I can objectively say MCG has the best facilities in the state, arguably in the region.
3) Faculty have been really helpful. I didn't know what to expect from them coming in, but our class elected Academic VPs who serve as the go between for us and the faculty. If there was ever an issue, the faculty was quick to fix it. We have some professors who agree to set up review sessions well past the time they probably want to be at school (i.e. 530PM on a Friday evening), just to make sure we understand the material. Most of them have open door policies and they respond to emails very quickly. For things that they couldn't fix for us, we turn in feedback forms that lead to actual, tangible changes for the incoming class.
4) Curriculum is really dependent on your learning style. It's a system-based model, so in first year when you do the Cardiopulmonary module, you learn to do physical exams and histories, anatomy, embryology, biochemistry, physiology, and actual patient case studies for the heart and lungs. Then 2nd year in that module you'll come back and do immunology, pharmacology, pathophysiology, etc. for that system. First year gives you a solid understanding of normal function of the body, so 2nd year makes a bit more sense compared to if you were to learn pathophysiology simultaneously with the basics. Curriculum is a long conversation though...we do team based learning in some cases, and have ultrasound classes as well. PM me for more details.
Hope this helped!