Hey! I am currently on the waitlist at Hopkins, and I heard that the school sends out an email telling you which third you are in on the list (upper, middle, lower). Is that true and if so, does anyone know when it is sent?
Haven't heard anything about ranking emails the past few years. I don't believe that any of my classmates who came off the WL got an email. Students are scored following interviews but the scores are more used to guide committee discussion priority – there's no magical number that nets acceptance vs. WL vs. R (or WL position).
For any current students who already went through their clerkship, did you find the faculty, attendings and residents, to be pretty supportive? Did you feel like you had the opportunity to be "hands on" or did it feel more like shadowing at times?
I felt that our clerkships were high-quality, if not superior to many of my peers' at other schools, but I'll try to provide more discrete info because it's easy to say "yeah clerkships were good" but not have any reference point. Disclaimer, again, this this is all my anecdotal experience and I did my core clinicals 2017-2019.
Medical (IM, psych, neuro): On all my rotations I've been expected to see patients independently, present them, and write student notes. The degree of autonomy will differ where you are on the MS3-MS4 continuum, your preceptor, and your enthusiasm for the specialty. My friends on medical subIs or those who did these rotations later in MS3 were able to have a solid scope of responsibility for their patients (ex: being 1st call, liaising with consults, running family meetings).
I did not have a positive experience on my IM rotation – I came on in July with the fresh interns and had a very stressed, tense team. It was the perfect storm for a poor rotation experience, which was compounded by the fact that I was fresh out of preclinical and didn't know what was a good/bad experience + too afraid to speak up. Since then, people have reported much better experiences (I did my rotation 3 years ago) and I think the culture of Osler Medicine has shifted for the better. I did an elective in Infectious Disease right after IM because I wanted to see if my negative experience was more because I disliked medicine or because I had a dysfunctional team. My ID rotation pushed me harder than my Osler IM one and my attendings were so invested in my education that I ended up learning far more in those 4 weeks than my 8w core. To this day I think ID was my most formative rotation and I would
highly recommend any Hopkins students take a look at it. It was one of those rotations were I was like "ok yeah, this justifies my tuition." *chef's kiss*
Procedural (EM, OB/GYN, ICU): Again, your mileage will vary, but I'd say most students leave delivering at least one baby and participating in a dozen traumas. On both EM and OB I was expected to see patients independently, triage/present, and drop notes. ICU is the most "your mileage may vary" rotation, as it is usually taken MS4 when most folks are days away from match and mentally out to lunch. At bare minimum you'll be expected to carry multiple patients and present. Those going IM or GAS were usually in helping with lines and tubes.
EM and GYN were two of my favourite rotations and, being a procedure-forward person, I was given a good amount of hands-on time. On Emergency Med I did at least 10 interosseous lines, CPR half a dozen times, and led primary trauma survey on some of the more minor traumas. Also soooo many cardiac echos; had some great teachers in the ED. I also went into the ED quite a few times on my subI and was allowed to perform some of the minor procedures myself. We only have one nursing shift on ED where we learn to put in lines and do blood draws, so I wouldn't say these are my strong suit. For GYN I was in the OR quite often and deployed several IUDs.
Surgical: On surgery I got to close several times a day, but I also actively sought out such opportunities. Wasn't expected to do very much clinic on surgery, but the attendings were good about having me work up patients solo when I was in. I went into a surgical subspecialty and did a few other aways, so in comparison to the places I visited Hopkins had a good attitude towards student autonomy. Was left in the room with residents many times to finish cases, first-assisted dozens of times, etc. but nothing were it'd be a detriment to patient care. There were a few times I was asked to do things alone where I was like "wooooah, I'm but an MS4" and people were either like 1) "all right, let me teach you how to do it" or 2) "good call, how about you assist instead." I also felt like Hopkins was pretty conscientious of providing quality care to all their surgical patients and didn't let med students have more leeway with the poor/vulnerable.
The Variability Caveat: Maybe about 10-15% of students will do part of some rotations (4/8 weeks) at Sinai Hospital, which is about 20 min north of Hopkins. I was at Sinai for half of my obgyn, neuro, and IM rotations – I felt the quality here was a lot more hit/miss than Hopkins itself. They've been working to enhance experiences, but I'd still recommend students prioritize JHH (mothership) or JH Bayview (more of our community hospital). Some of my rotations at Sinai felt like pure shadowing, especially on OBGYN. I got to help deliver 1 baby there vs. friends who got 5+ at other sites. However, I did have some high-quality rotations there. I did urogyn at Sinai, during which I was 1-on-1 with a surgeon who really sought to teach me practical skills in both the OR and clinic. I learned how to dictate notes thanks to that rotation, which has paid off in dividends.
Also I wouldn't say 100% of the people you'll meet are non-malignant. I'd say this for any school, any hospital, any program. There are bad eggs just about everywhere, but was fortunate that these people were by far in the minority at Hopkins.
tl;dr (bored in quarantine so bear w me waxing poetic about rotations) – I felt my rotations were hands on and people were supportive, with a few exceptions.
