First off, good luck and best of skill with your interview! Second, this is my opinion and might not reflect my classmates or your potential experiences, also, especially with the timing of COVID my experience has been drastically different from other classes (we started in July 2020).
Major Pros
- The student body is the biggest positive in my opinion. We really try to help each other out when we can and sure, there are the gunners, but most of the people I've met are here for the right reasons and aren't out to get anyone. I wouldn't be the person I am today without the support of my peers.
- The flipped classroom model has given me the freedom to arrange my own schedule and tailor my learning experience to my style. I don't like going to class and find that I get distracted easily so having the opportunity to be at home and watch lectures on my own time was great. I know for others having the option to go to class and talk about the material kept them organized. Take a look at my other posts for an explanation of clickers/the grading scheme.
- Diversity. I come from a semi-rural homogenous area out of state so being in the center of the world in NYC has been really eye-opening and spurred tons of personal growth. There are all kinds of people here, which is also reflected in the class makeup. In my opinion, it'll help me empathize and treat my patients down the line.
I have a background in prehospital medicine (EMS), so I feel like I already had a lot of exposure coming into medical school. During the first year, you have OSCEs and labs that teach you the skills required to do physical assessments. Also, I found surprisingly that our OMM curriculum helped me learn anatomy and what a normal body feels like. During the second year, we have a class called Medical Simulation that teaches us the more procedural aspects of medicine (suturing, intubation, ultrasound, etc.), which I think does a good job of orienting those without past experience to tasks we will likely do on rotations. There is also an elective shadowing course that you can take advantage of where you basically get a P/F credit on your transcript for shadowing a local doc (you set it up, you choose the specialty, you set the hours). I took advantage of this and it really helped me during the harder times to refocus on why I chose this career.
There's a list of current rotation sites on the website that you can look at so I won't list them out. We are pretty spread out since NYC is densely packed with medical schools vying for sites. Basically, you can be in the city, just outside the city in Jersey, Long Island, Brooklyn, Staten Island, or further out in NY/NJ. While some people view that as a negative I think it's going to give me a chance to tailor my experience.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "extensive" in that question - in terms of education while on the wards, what rotations we do, variety of location, or some other quality? If you could clarify that would be great.
And I just realized one of my classmates beat me to answering your question but I'll still post this for you to have two opinions. Don't get rattled on your interview and stay composed when they do the good cop/bad cop routine. I cried in the bathroom afterward and still made it in (I'm soft tho, don't be scared). You got this!
