Thanks for popping up, few quick questions:
Not sure if you had a chance, but what made you choose UIC vs others or what would UIC be known for different than the other Chicago med schools? (Rush, Loyola, UofC, Northwestern, RosyFrank for people not familiar).
M1 this year is the first on the new curriculum right? What are your thoughts on it?
Do you remember the timeline when you got notified for campuses/snail mail acceptance letters? When did the Chi campus fill up?
For UIC, there were a few things. They have co-curricular programs like UMED, GMED, IMED, and the new CE-MED, which I think is pretty unique. I was accepted into one of these, which I think really helps with personal interests, gaining new perspectives, opening up opportunities, and making good contacts in the field. Also, UIC has a lot of NIH funding for research; there seems to be a good amount of research opportunities here which are easily accessible. One note about Rosalind Franklin is that it doesn't have a "home hospital," meaning no hospital directly associated with the school. This does make certain things a little bit harder. For example, you'll have to work a bit harder to find research opportunities or you might have to commute further to shadow physicians. You can still do these things there with their "partner hospitals," but it just takes a little bit more legwork. At UIC, we can just walk across the street in between classes when we shadow doctors or do our "hospital visit" assignments (where we interview patients).
A big draw is the patient population we serve, which includes people of lower socioeconomic background. For me personally, I feel a deeper connection to the community because of this and I feel I really get to offer help to people who are struggling.
The new curriculum definitely has some bumps in the road, but compared to what they had previously (when I speak to current M2s) it's much better. For example, we're now on the block system which consists of a set number of weeks dedicated to learning a particular organ system. Within that block each week has a theme. Depending on the theme of the week, you could have some biochem, but maybe not much microbio. Sometimes we'll have pharmacology classes, sometimes not. It all depends.
For example, our first block was on "homeostasis" which included a week dedicated to nutrition (which had general physiology stuff; biochem which included glycolysis, TCA, etc.; pathological diseases associated with malnutrition or related enzyme deficiencies).
Our second block was "pathogenesis" which included a week dedicated to bacteria (which was very heavy on microbio but not so much on biochem) and another week on all the pharmacology associated with related antibiotics.
In later blocks we'll tackle traditional organ systems like the cardiac and respiratory systems, etc.
Compared to traditional (non-block) classes, we don't have biochem every week or microbio every week. Our learning is based on the topics that we're studying at the time. Hope all this makes sense.
Another thing that people don't realize is that the block system makes studying for Step 1 easier. For example, let's say I finish the cardiac block. When I go through Step 1 study material for the heart, I'll have already covered all the topics. In the old system, I might have done the histology of the heart early in M1, then gross anatomy of the heart late in M1, then pharmacology of heart disease in M2. I'd have to filter all the Step study materials based on only what I've learned so far. On top of that you start doing this for other organs and things start to get messy.
With the new curriculum we get clinical experience much sooner. We've already started talking to hospital patients who let us do clinical interviews with them. We're not diagnosing them or anything, but it's so we get some practice and experience in a real clinical setting with real patients. We're also learning how to do physical exams (not on real patients yet) which I think usually started later in the old curriculum.
Also, concerning the bumps in the road, the faculty and staff are very receptive to feedback and want to make sure that we're heard. They know that the curriculum is new so they are still looking to see what works and what doesn't. They do listen to feedback and they make adjustments where they can. For example, previously they were giving us way too much pre-reading and prep work to do before each class (which wasn't always focused on the main points). They were also underestimating the amount of time to do it. For example, they thought some prep would take ~1 hour when it really took ~4 hours (because of taking notes, looking up stuff, etc). They've organized these better and have cut back to some degree, which is good (but it's still med school so there's still a lot).
For the timelines and stuff, you might have to look at past threads. I think I got my campus assignment after a month. Not sure when Chi campus fills up, but it's hard to say because sometimes people get assigned Chicago and then they decide to go to another school which opens up a slot in Chicago.
How's the enviroment there? competitve or collobrative?
Whats a thing you could change about UIC COM?
How are the research opportunities? I heard about James scholar at interview day and was told by a student that it isn't an amazing program and only gives you class credit for doing research, so I am worried about the quality of research opportunities.
Do most students commute or live in dorms?
The environment is very collaborative. We're pass/fail which helps (only started last year). You're always gonna see competitive people in med school, but most people aren't gunners for sure. In the beginning of the year I think everyone was crazy about studying (because we didn't know what to expect), but now that some time has passed we're trying to be more balanced with studying, extra-curriculars, not getting burned out, have a better idea of how/what to study, etc. TBH, though, I still feel overwhelmed and behind every day, but I guess that's just med school.
One thing I'd change? I wish the faculty was more consistent with teaching methods. Some professors are really good with really good PowerPoints. Some are not so good. I guess this happens anywhere though. We do have a lot of MDs teaching us, which is great. We do get some PhDs and PharmDs teaching us too, but there's usually one MD partnering with them. (Some of our classes get taught by two professors at a time where they switch off during the lecture. The MD really keeps things relevant to the clinical aspects.)
Honestly, I don't know anything about the James Scholar program. However, I think a majority of students live in off-campus housing (apartments, 15 minute walk). There are some who live further away and take the train or drive. A few live in dorms, but I would say not so many.
Anyway, hope this helps! Feel free to keep asking questions!
