2018-2019 The Commonwealth Medical College

Started by gyngyn
BU Medical Sciences
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Had an interview scheduled for this Friday but withdrew my application. I do feel bad for withdrawing on them with relatively short notice but because of an opportunity at another school that I can't really turn down, didn't want to waste anyone's time and am hoping that someone else can interview in my place. Best of luck to you all 🙂
 
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Also deferred. Interviewed end of January. Not surprised since my interview went terribly, but it still stings. 🙁
 
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How is the movement after deferment? I really loved this school and thought my interviews went well, so getting deferred is pretty crushing :/ I was looking forward to maybe going to second look, but I can't do that now either
 
I even tried to email and ask when they start handing out final rejections for deferred applicants and if we can expect more final decisions soon and all they could tell me was “it’s a rolling cycle so we don’t have any information.” UGH. FRUSTRATING.
 
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CJE24 said:
If I end up rejected after sitting on a deferral for 4 months I'm going really pissed. Just reject me immediately instead of making me hold my breath.
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YES. It’s annoying that they can just leave us on read for months and months while we wait in agony to probably get the R anyway... I’ve been deferred at another school that doesn’t even allow updates or other communication. WHY
 
drtobe5 said:
YES. It’s annoying that they can just leave us on read for months and months while we wait in agony to probably get the R anyway... I’ve been deferred at another school that doesn’t even allow updates or other communication. WHY
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Also deferred in December -limbo since. I share the same frustrations but after thinking about it logically, it seems we were destined to wait until April for a decision. There are those who were able to move from the deferred-accepted category within a month, but it does not seem to be the norm.

During interview day and on their website it shows that decisions will go out in April with updates for those on the deferred status. Yes, many (including myself) may go onto the waitlist at this point but there is also a chance a handful will be accepted.

Point is, keep a positive mindset, be stoic, and don't let this get to you. It will serve no purpose for your personal growth if you live moment to moment trapped by the anxiety of a decision that has yet to be made. Just my $0.02.
 
themightyquinn said:
Even colder now. Curious what you didn't like about the curriculum?
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Hey sorry about taking a while to respond. As you can imagine, once I withdrew my acceptance here I kind of stopped paying attention to the thread. And to answer your question, after speaking to a bunch of students and my friends there right now, I'm strongly against the longitudinal aspect of their curriculum during the clinical years. There is a certain novelty to it because Geisinger is one of only a handful of schools that does it. In theory, having an experience that is longitudinal is beneficial because it gives you time to absorb all of the experience and process what you're getting out of it. But unlike a traditional third year curriculum, where all you do Monday-Friday for 8-10 weeks at time is focus on one clerkship, your time is split between 6-7 different areas during that first clinical year. So for example, if you're assigned to your surgery portion on Monday mornings, every Monday morning will be the surgery portion for you throughout your time. This inherently limits your understanding and exposure to that field. You may ask how and it's because surgery on Thursdays may have a team of other doctors that highlight a different aspect of the specialty or are even more willing to teach, but since you're only there on Monday mornings, you don't get that exposure. And let's say on Wednesday afternoons, when consultations happen in clinic or a different team leads clinic, you miss out because you're not there. The same goes for the other specialties you balance this with such as internal medicine. I think of it as shadowing almost because half a day, once a week is only a snapshot of a particular field. I think it's more beneficial for students to experience and go through the motions each day of the week and have multiple, full weeks under their belt to be really exposed. Also, this allows for more interaction with residents and attendings to truly understand what a particular specialty is like (I also think this is important for forming good relationships with attendings in the fields that interest you and getting good letters of rec because both have implications on your matching for residency). I think this is so critical especially for us students during this time because it will influence the path of our careers. This is how we learn about the different specialties and it is during this time that we start to decide what specialty we want to go into. Because of this, it's important to understand not just the work but the lifestyle and specific nuances of each specialty that can only be understood when you are a part of it. Plus it's a lot easier to study and do well in your clerkship exams and get good clinical grades (which we need for residency) when you basically live and breath a particular specialty for a chunk of time then get tested on it.
 
I'd almost forgotten about the question, but seriously, thank you very much for the detailed answer. The longitudinal curriculum was something that originally had piqued my interest and in fact I brought out as a key point in my secondary, but I hadn't really thought of it in the terms you laid out and it makes a lot of sense.
 
AldosteroneG said:
Hey sorry about taking a while to respond. As you can imagine, once I withdrew my acceptance here I kind of stopped paying attention to the thread. And to answer your question, after speaking to a bunch of students and my friends there right now, I'm strongly against the longitudinal aspect of their curriculum during the clinical years. There is a certain novelty to it because Geisinger is one of only a handful of schools that does it. In theory, having an experience that is longitudinal is beneficial because it gives you time to absorb all of the experience and process what you're getting out of it. But unlike a traditional third year curriculum, where all you do Monday-Friday for 8-10 weeks at time is focus on one clerkship, your time is split between 6-7 different areas during that first clinical year. So for example, if you're assigned to your surgery portion on Monday mornings, every Monday morning will be the surgery portion for you throughout your time. This inherently limits your understanding and exposure to that field. You may ask how and it's because surgery on Thursdays may have a team of other doctors that highlight a different aspect of the specialty or are even more willing to teach, but since you're only there on Monday mornings, you don't get that exposure. And let's say on Wednesday afternoons, when consultations happen in clinic or a different team leads clinic, you miss out because you're not there. The same goes for the other specialties you balance this with such as internal medicine. I think of it as shadowing almost because half a day, once a week is only a snapshot of a particular field. I think it's more beneficial for students to experience and go through the motions each day of the week and have multiple, full weeks under their belt to be really exposed. Also, this allows for more interaction with residents and attendings to truly understand what a particular specialty is like (I also think this is important for forming good relationships with attendings in the fields that interest you and getting good letters of rec because both have implications on your matching for residency). I think this is so critical especially for us students during this time because it will influence the path of our careers. This is how we learn about the different specialties and it is during this time that we start to decide what specialty we want to go into. Because of this, it's important to understand not just the work but the lifestyle and specific nuances of each specialty that can only be understood when you are a part of it. Plus it's a lot easier to study and do well in your clerkship exams and get good clinical grades (which we need for residency) when you basically live and breath a particular specialty for a chunk of time then get tested on it.
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I'm a current Geisinger student and I'd like to dispel some myths in this post.

LIC at Geisinger is split between 6 specialties and you get an almost astronomical amount of white space. Many of my classmates stated that they had never had so much time to nap in the last three years as they had during their LIC semester. Similar things were stated from previous classes. You do what you want with white space. Officially, it's to be used for continuity patients and checking out specialties that interest you, but, let's face it, a lot of students will use that time to nap, cook, study, hang out with their non-med friends, and whatever else they want.

If you have a strong notion of what you want to do in terms of specialty, the school will try very hard to make sure that you get LIC preceptors aligned with your interests and will create your LIC/block semester accordingly. For example, if you're interested in something more surgical, they'll likely put you on block first so you can test the waters. Conversely, if you're interested in more of an outpatient specialty, they'll probably put you on LIC first semester. If you're still interested in surgery and you want more OR time during LIC, then by all means arrange it with your LIC preceptor and ask if you can still go hang out in the OR during white space. If you end up hating surgery, then great! It's over and done with and you need only to show up to surgery clinic.

Your LIC schedule is not set it stone. They make it seem like it is at the end second year and during orientation third year, but if you're a nice person and you get along with your LIC preceptors, they'll let you rearrange your schedule all the time. If you're interested in any meetings that conflict with your schedule, just email or text your preceptor and say, "hey, can I come in another day or later this afternoon because there's a really cool thing happening at the hospital." They will more than likely say yes. They will also more than likely not care if you make up the time.

It's true that LIC is glorified shadowing for the first 2-4 weeks depending on how you do and who your preceptors are. But as soon as you show an ounce of competence, they'll let you start seeing patients on your own and come in just to make sure you did everything right. You actually become useful in some clinics because you can speed up appointments like well visits and also allow your preceptor to deal with more urgent issues while you're chatting away with the patient. The school absolutely does not want you to be only shadowing for 6 months. If you tell the powers that be that that's what you're doing, they'll work to make sure you get a better experience elsewhere and make sure that the preceptor is properly informed of what third year students should be doing or will never use that preceptor again.

We get almost 6 months with one preceptor on LIC so your preceptors get to know you pretty well. Probably even better than if you had met the same person during a block rotation. Again, if you're a nice person and you get along with your LIC preceptors, you can get pretty darn good letters.

Not everything is perfect and we've dealt with some crappy things this year like every student does at every school every year. But all in all LIC isn't absolutely horrible. At the same time, I wouldn't mind if it were shorter.
 
actualgeisingerstudent said:
I'm a current Geisinger student and I'd like to dispel some myths in this post.

LIC at Geisinger is split between 6 specialties and you get an almost astronomical amount of white space. Many of my classmates stated that they had never had so much time to nap in the last three years as they had during their LIC semester. Similar things were stated from previous classes. You do what you want with white space. Officially, it's to be used for continuity patients and checking out specialties that interest you, but, let's face it, a lot of students will use that time to nap, cook, study, hang out with their non-med friends, and whatever else they want.

If you have a strong notion of what you want to do in terms of specialty, the school will try very hard to make sure that you get LIC preceptors aligned with your interests and will create your LIC/block semester accordingly. For example, if you're interested in something more surgical, they'll likely put you on block first so you can test the waters. Conversely, if you're interested in more of an outpatient specialty, they'll probably put you on LIC first semester. If you're still interested in surgery and you want more OR time during LIC, then by all means arrange it with your LIC preceptor and ask if you can still go hang out in the OR during white space. If you end up hating surgery, then great! It's over and done with and you need only to show up to surgery clinic.

Your LIC schedule is not set it stone. They make it seem like it is at the end second year and during orientation third year, but if you're a nice person and you get along with your LIC preceptors, they'll let you rearrange your schedule all the time. If you're interested in any meetings that conflict with your schedule, just email or text your preceptor and say, "hey, can I come in another day or later this afternoon because there's a really cool thing happening at the hospital." They will more than likely say yes. They will also more than likely not care if you make up the time.

It's true that LIC is glorified shadowing for the first 2-4 weeks depending on how you do and who your preceptors are. But as soon as you show an ounce of competence, they'll let you start seeing patients on your own and come in just to make sure you did everything right. You actually become useful in some clinics because you can speed up appointments like well visits and also allow your preceptor to deal with more urgent issues while you're chatting away with the patient. The school absolutely does not want you to be only shadowing for 6 months. If you tell the powers that be that that's what you're doing, they'll work to make sure you get a better experience elsewhere and make sure that the preceptor is properly informed of what third year students should be doing or will never use that preceptor again.

We get almost 6 months with one preceptor on LIC so your preceptors get to know you pretty well. Probably even better than if you had met the same person during a block rotation. Again, if you're a nice person and you get along with your LIC preceptors, you can get pretty darn good letters.

Not everything is perfect and we've dealt with some crappy things this year like every student does at every school every year. But all in all LIC isn't absolutely horrible. At the same time, I wouldn't mind if it were shorter.
Click to expand...
Thank you
 
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If you guys haven't seen their match list this year, it's pretty impressive. They matched 3 people into some of the top programs for ortho in the nation (Iowa, Duke, and Yale). I feel that school is on the come up ever since the acquisition by Geisinger. Very excited for the future!
 
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