2021-2022 Wake Forest

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I literally re-activated my account just to say that Wake is absolutely FANTASTIC and the faculty, residents, and older med students are SO amazing to us. I expected everyone to not really care about lil ole me trying to make it through and pass med school, but everyone has genuinely wanted to accommodate and be of help! I think that is what I was most shocked by when starting medical school here. As a pre-med I was treated like a nobody, and all of a sudden at med school everyone wants to help me! its pretty sweet. I don't think every med school is like that.

Life is what you make of it, and so is med school. Put in the work and you will reap the rewards. See everything negatively and you are going to go down a negative path.

Winston is a quaint city but endearing. It has charmed me.

And a significant other or spouse is not going to change your living experience in Winston lololol sorry but ya gotta make friends and learn how to be happy even without a significant other, no matter where you live. Y'all know that!

Last thing I promise - I started rotations this past week and its the **** - its so cool. So fun. Everything I have worked for. AND, I do think Wake prepared us well because I know way way way more than I expected! I actually understand whats going on with the patients and can answer the attendings questions (this had given me nightmares for weeks). So when you are grinding through the pre-clinical curriculum - keep your eye on the prize because its really worth it!!!

I am so grateful to be at Wake. Hope to see some of you here!!!
 
I am working on the "why us" essay, and I was wondering if anyone could answer some questions. On MSAR, it says "Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Carolinas Medical Center excels in tertiary care." Tertiary care centers are specialized facilities right? Does this mean that Wake Forest is big on research? Do they less emphasize working with the underserved?
 
LiteralLungs said:
I am working on the "why us" essay, and I was wondering if anyone could answer some questions. On MSAR, it says "Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Carolinas Medical Center excels in tertiary care." Tertiary care centers are specialized facilities right? Does this mean that Wake Forest is big on research? Do they less emphasize working with the underserved?
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No, tertiary care means they have specialists and ICUs and other doctors send things to them
 
So I am currently a 4th year at WFSOM and I just heard about what was being said in this forum from other students and spent a lot of time thinking about the earlier comments. As it is easy for some of the younger students to comment on things like clinical rotations and Step 1 and 2 when some have yet to experience them (obviously some have though). Being a 4th year and also having multiple friends in our class who had siblings graduate from WFSOM in previous years makes me think I can give a pretty good idea of what the experience and curriculum through the years has been like. Especially since I even reached out to one of the siblings.

Yes Winston Salem is not for everyone, but it does not claim to be a massive city or a super small rural town. If you want a middle of nowhere, rural town, or a massive city... then this might not be the place for you. I knew I did not want to end up in a big city with endless distractions because I know how I am (no self control lol) and I also know that I was going to be consistently busy to the point that I would never have time for endless stuff. So there's that. I chose Wake and so far it is not too big or small and just perfect for me.

About the curriculum and testing: The school has always been multiple points above the national average for Step 1 and Step 2. Our class actually had the best average as a class ever in Wakes history to my knowledge. The curriculum at the school is the exact same as it was for me, the year below us, and previous years of our classmate's siblings. So the curriculum has stayed the same, only the student's expectations of Step 1 have changed. I, like many of my classmates, spent like 7-8 hours studying every day for step 1 as is typical even though I have wanted to do Internal Medicine for years, not some awful surgery specialty (yes I am biased) that required an Einstein score. My friends who also wanted to do primary care studied like this too because that is what is expected of any medical student across the country. Many of my friends and I got in the mid 240s and beyond on Step 1. Many of us also ironically never used Anki, including me because I hated it, and only used in-house powerpoints during the school curriculum and switched to boards and beyond and pathoma for step 1. We did well on in-house stuff and on Step 1. Many people have this idiotic idea that you can either do well on in house tests or step 1, but not both. Just not true at all. While we did have some people who never watched lectures and do below average on in house tests just because they only studied for Step 1, that was not the majority of people. To say that the curriculum hasnt been great is an opinion obviously from some, but one that is not backed by the data of previous classes scores (in regards to how prepared they were). I know the class that just took step 1, like many classes that also just did across the country, had a harder time with it. I can promise you from my experience and some of the people who took it at Wake, it was not a curriculum problem at all. Some people decided to take it a few days before the cut-off of going pass fail and absolutely crushed it. If I would have gone into that test thinking "oh its pass fail now, so I do not need to study like I should be studying" mentality... It would have absolutely crushed me.

In regards to the rotations. You get to choose the order of your rotations. Almost every single person in our class got their first choice. You get an email before each major rotation asking if there was a subspecialty (like in surgery or internal med) that you wanted and they would "TRY" to get you into that. It worked out for most people. Though I was not a fan of the grading due to how biased some of it was, overall it makes sense. Your grade was distributed between your clinical score, Shelf Score, and professionalism. That way you cant just blow off clinicals and only study for the test or vise versa. Also, every single student is given UWORLD 1 and Uworld 2 for free by the school, which was unheard of for my friends at other schools. Each of us is guaranteed 4 weeks minimum to study for step 2. And if needed we can take an extra 4 weeks (8 weeks total) if needed without hurting us. Since I have taken both step tests, when some of the earlier people havent, this is the truth.

So all in all, I have enjoyed Wake and am very glad to have chosen Wake over the other schools I was considering. The curriculum has been backed with years of over-performing and beating the national average on Step Tests, despite what the earlier person was claiming. We had people in the class above us match into some of the best residency programs in the country (a ton did somehow) to the point that it actually shocked me
 
I will most likely regret posting the earlier long-winded message, but there you all go. If you have any questions about Wake and want an honest, no BS, answer you can reach out to me. While that whole message kind of gives a lot of my thoughts, if you ask me something about Wake that I have not enjoyed or think is done wrong, I will answer honestly. I always hated the people that were on either side of the spectrum of "THIS SCHOOL IS PERFECT, NO IMPERFECTIONS AT ALL" or "This School is awful because of one small thing they did that I didnt like." I would rather for all of you considering us to know the pros and cons of our school and every school for that matter before deciding. That way you have more insight into what the school actually is like before joining. This is how it should be
 
Does anyone know if it is normal for students to receive any types of scholarships or financial aid from Wake? Or do students usually pay the full amount? I filled out the scholarship match form a few months ago and haven't heard anything back yet.
 
tryingtobeadoc said:
Does anyone know if it is normal for students to receive any types of scholarships or financial aid from Wake? Or do students usually pay the full amount? I filled out the scholarship match form a few months ago and haven't heard anything back yet.
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i think they distribute financial awards on April 15th
 
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tryingtobeadoc said:
Does anyone know if it is normal for students to receive any types of scholarships or financial aid from Wake? Or do students usually pay the full amount? I filled out the scholarship match form a few months ago and haven't heard anything back yet.
Click to expand...
Hey there! I'm a current 3rd year that is on a full-ride merit scholarship at Wake (that's how amazing they are). They sent their offer February of the year you start school. I think that could be completely different now and may depend on other factors. I had accepted my seat before the offer IIRC. Best of luck to you!
 
bob_target said:
Last year looked like there wasn’t much WL movement after April 30. What is Everyone’s thoughts on this years?
Click to expand...
Looks like the last round of WL movement happened on 4/7 and 3/9 before that, hopefully, all of us on WL will hear something soon...
 
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