Thanks for offering!
1. In a given week, how many times are you required to attend events (not counting lectures)? With that, I was assuming that lecture attendance is not mandatory, and that they are recorded and posted. Is that the case?
2. Not sure if you are from the area or not, but could you give a comparison to how big Charlottesville is / feels? Some things I've read online said it feels like a really small community, and others not so much. Do you have a lot of friends from outside the medical school? What are the major neighborhoods like and where do people live?
3. Any thoughts on the facilities for the school (preclinical) or affiliated hospitals?
4. In your rotations, how much time do you find yourself dedicating to scutwork for the ancillary staff, compared to actually learning with the attendings? Do you take shelf exams at the end of each rotation or at the end of the year?
5. Research - do most students do bench research, clinical research, or none? Is there a competitive culture around research?
6. Anything you think would be helpful!
1. Lectures are usually recorded and can be watched from home, but there are required events, generally 3-5 per week (team based learning sessions, patient presentations, other group activities, clinical development course, lectures on social issues in medicine).
2. Cville is nice. It has the amenities of a bigger place but feels a bit smaller. Tons of good places to eat. It does feel small-ish, but not tiny. I have a few friends outside the med school - lots of people live either along Emmett/29, Jefferson park avenue, or main street near the hospital, all nice areas.
3. preclinical facilities are very nice. Great lecture and study space. The simulation center is amazing, I just wish we used it more (you get in there more for third year). Health sciences library could maybe use an expansion but it serves its purpose well (although it often gets infiltrated by undergrads which can be frustrating for us sometimes especially when we're taking summative tests).
4. Rotations are very resident and attending dependent - some attendings would take us aside directly and teach us while others were more hands off. I will say, learning to put up with scut in general will serve you well as it's generally a key to good clinical evals on core rotations at the majority of med schools (seriously, your residents will love you and sing your praises in evals if you're always available and demonstrate that you're willing to try and make their lives easier), and a lot of residency will be dedicated to it. But, I think the residents/attendings here do a good job of working teaching in wherever they can. There are often didactic lectures as part of core rotations which are usually awesome and contain a lot of good material. Shelfs are done at the end of each rotation, so you do generally take it when it's fresh in your mind.
5. The research culture is pretty chill, the opportunities are available in abundance. My classmate and I have collaborated on several clinical papers and have been able to be very productive. I'd say most students don't do a TON of research, usually just what little they need for residency apps, but for those of us who genuinely like writing and publishing the opportunities are more than we can take on lol. Majority who do research do clinical, but I and others have done basic science as well.
6. Great culture among students here, I would say. The expectation is that you will collaborate with others, including an entire system of google docs for each lecture containing summaries of all the material for each learning objectives, filled out by the students taking turns. People hang out outside school, go out to eat etc. So if you want a good place that isn't overly hyper-competitive to excess, but with a curriculum that will stretch you and make you apply yourself both in preclinical and clinical, this is a good place for you.
Hope that helps - let me know if you want me to go in depth on anything further, sorry these answers were somewhat quick as I'm up pretty early tomorrow haha
