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?
Lecture (always in the morning) is not mandatory and recorded and posted. It is very efficient and I watched most lectures at a later time because I liked to be able to pause for note taking purposes.
In M1 and M2, the required lectures/small groups/labs (usually in the afternoon) are the following:
MAPS (Medicine and Patients in Society): Medical ethics course Monday afternoon 2 times a month
ICRIT: Problem based learning course Tuesday or Thursday afternoon 2 times a month
Anatomy Lab/Microanatomy/Ultrasound Lab/Radiology: Every Tuesday and Thursday morning August to October
Clinical Skills: Small group learning with attending mentors Wednesday or Tuesday or Thursday afternoon 2 times a month
Other: Clinical skills/PBL/standardized patient experiences that are block specific usually only a couple events per block and helpful for those who like multimodal learning
2. Not sure if you are from the area or not, but could you give a comparison to how big W-S 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?
Winston is small, but still a city. It feels small, but it has all the things that you need as a medical student: low cost of living, plenty of grocery stores, a mall, so many microbreweries, and a ton of super complex patients. I am from a large, expensive city and older (in my 30s), is it where I want to practice long term...no, but is it great for medical school...yes. It is in the South, so people are very friendly so making friends outside of medical school is more than possible both within the Wake graduate school community and in the regular community, but it is dependent on you making an effort because medical school is a time commitment.
In terms of neighborhoods, people either live around the Downtown medical school (i.e. Downtown) or around the hospital (i.e. Ardmore, West End). This is dependent on the life you want to live. I live Downtown in a 1 bedroom apartment, which is cheap compared to what it would cost in other cities, but others like Ardmore because they can have a house and a yard. The commute is non-existent in Winston Salem; from where ever you live you are no farther than 20 minutes from door to door if not 5 minutes. The rents range from as low as $400 if you have roommates in a house to $1300 if you live alone in a one of the fancier one bedrooms, but all are very good options.
3. The campus is completely separated from the undergraduate campus, correct? Do you spend most of your time (in M1 and M2) in the new facility in Innovation Quarter? Any other thoughts on the facilities for the school or affiliated hospitals?
Yes, the medical school campus is completely separate from the undergraduate campus (North of the city). The Downtown Campus in the Innovation Quarter is amazing. It has everything you want in a study space: small group study rooms, big windows with lots of light, quiet study with ambient noise canceling, realistic patient rooms for standardized patient experiences and testing, brand new anatomy dissection rooms with great airflow (no smell), US classroom with ultrasound machines for every bedside (like 20 total), now that interviews are going to be virtual they are setting up studios so people can take interviews in a professional environment, unlimited mental health counseling sessions (including couples counseling), free yoga classes, honestly I could go on and on. This is a very supportive and comfortable place to go to medical school.
In terms of hospitals, you will do all your rotations at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (not religiously associated, just the historic name) and affiliate outpatient clinics. While Wake is affiliated with more hospitals (including Atrium in Charlotte) for now the all the rotations are at Baptist, which has all the core clerkships and all sub-specialty surgical rotation options available.
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?
Current experience is little scutwork and maximum learning with residents and attendings. Attendings at Wake are super friendly and excited to impart knowledge. My experience has been that we are being prepared to be physicians with all the higher thought that is required with that and that I have never been pawned off for scutwork. That being said helping with intern scutwork is a part of learning how to be a physician (i.e. everyone has to do scutwork sometimes), but I don't think that is what you are referring too.
We take shelf exams after each rotation. Pre-Covid (now ours are a little abbreviated due to the shelter in place), 8 weeks IM, 4 weeks Neuro, 4 weeks Psych, 6 weeks Peds, 4 weeks FM, 4 weeks EM, 8 weeks OBGYN, and 8 weeks Surgery. In addition we do 2 weeks Ambulatory IM and 2 weeks Anesthesia with no shelf exams. We have a long 4th year so there plenty of time for Sub-Is, Aways, and interviews
5. Research - do most students do bench research, clinical research, or none? Is there a competitive culture around research?
I would say this is really dependent on your goals, but it is an academic medical center so there is plenty of research if you are motivated. A lot of students do MSRP summer research between M1 and M2. While I did not do that, I continued to publish with the research group I had worked with prior to medical school. In terms of competition, I do not find that to be a factor in anything at Wake since it is P/F for preclincials and on the wards even with grades people are very eager to help each other and the culture of teamwork is rewarded over individual success and "gunning".
**Whew that's a lot. Please excuse grammar/spelling mistakes this was typed "off the cuff".
