No worries!
1. That's true! During first year, lectures are typically 8am-12pm Monday - Friday and all the lectures are recorded and posted online. A handful are mandatory (usually when a patient is coming in to speak about their experience with a condition we're learning about), so you can really organize most of your day however you'd like; although honestly you'll prob be studying for the large majority of your days). Besides that, we have a course called Doctoring two days a week, which is mandatory. One of the days is small group PBL and the other is practicing clinical skills.
2. It's truthfully been quite challenging for my class to meet and get to know each other because of COVID restrictions, but under normal circumstances I think there are a lot of opportunities to do so without a house or society system. I've personally not heard of any issues from current M2-4s about not being able to bond with their classmates, but of course it's possible there are students that would disagree that I just haven't met
3. Although there are 3 med schools all pretty much within walking distance of each other, there are also TONS of clinical sites. My understanding is that most students of our do the majority of their rotations at Boston Medical Center, and we have a lot of other clinical affiliates within the city. So while I can't say with 100% certainty that you can do all your rotations within Boston, I'm
pretty sure you can. I'll ask around and update this when I hear back just to make sure! I will say though, that clinical training students receive is generally considered to be one of BUSM's biggest strengths
4. Like any city, Boston can be incredibly expensive and each neighborhood has its own personality. If you're unfamiliar with it, it can be difficult to know where to start. I think living in the MSR during your first year is a great (and relatively cheap!) way to get introduced to the city and figure out what parts you'd like to live in, how much you're willing to spend on rent, etc. It's also a great way to meet your classmates and med students from other years, and being a 5 minute walk from campus and BMC is honestly so convenient. It is important to know, though, that the neighborhood the MSR, BUSM, and BMC are located in (the South End/Roxbury) is not the most... glamorous part of Boston (a lot of homeless individuals in the area, pretty common to find needles on the sidewalks, etc), but I don't think I've heard of any students ever really having any problems
5. Answered this is #1
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions if you have them
