Would you be willing to give your perspective on the school under the new dean and curriculum? There are a lot of old posts that say the administration is not organized, does not care about students, etc. I take most of that with a grain of salt and from what I have read, the new dean seems to be making positive changes and moving the school forward. Would love the perspective of someone who is attending the school now….
Sure, heads up though, this may be a bit of a long-winded response so bear with me.
Let me start by saying these admin problems that you hear about Wayne (eg. being "Wayne Stated") are not unique to WSUSOM. I have friends in medical schools all over the county ( I wish I was exaggerating but approximately 1/3rd of my high school classmates are currently medical students lol) and almost all of them share my frustrations with administration in some way, shape, or form. IMO, Med school admin are notoriously bad because the people seeking admin positions are nearing the end of their career and want a cushiony job that requires minimal work. I think theres an argument to be made about all admin from every field being that way but that's a different can of worms.
With that being said, Wayne definitely has its fair share of problems and many of them seem easy to fix on the surface level. A lot of the issues stem from the lack of transparency between admin/students and the failure of certain departments to communicate with one another. For example, the people who schedule certain in-person classes are often unaware of other in person classes and we ended up with 8-9 required sessions during a synthesis week (a week that is meant to be dedicated for studying prior to finals). Had this information been communicated to us and other departments beforehand maybe this could have been avoided, but many times sessions are added with only a few days notice. Now, I will say there are efforts being made to fix these issues and it looks like they already released our entire schedule for next segment so they are definitely responsive to feedback.
There are problems like this that always pop up, but for the most part it has not made my medical school experience worse than I expected it to be. Tbh, good luck finding admin that actively improve your medical school experience since that requires doing more than the bare minimum and needs to be facilitated by extremely driven and exceptionally organized people. Im borderline ranting now but most of the problem boils down to having people who genuinely care about
enhancing your time in medical school rather than simply ensuring you don't fail. With Wayne being the largest single campus medical student body in the country , we would need some next level leadership since that is one helluva task.
I don't know much about the previous Dean to make a fair comparisons but it seems that Dean Schweitzer has the potential to be a vehicle for meaningful change. From what I've read and heard from admin, WSUSOM is at a crucial point in defining its role amongst the myriad medical schools in the US. It seems like many efforts are being made to have community service be the zeitgeist of this school and I think WSU is perfectly positioned to fulfill that role. Although my time at the school has been brief, I do think we have well intentioned admin that for some reason or another struggle to execute at the highest level. However, the optimist in me genuinely believes that the efforts being made by faculty in combination with the latest revival of Detroit will lead to a fruitful future for the WSUSOM ( only time will tell if that statement holds true).
As you can see, I am more than happy to discuss any and all qualms you may have about this school and genuinely hope you end up matriculating here. I say that despite my frustrations with admin because I have met and interacted with some of the greatest people in my life here at WSUSOM. Where admin falls, our genuinely collaborative and compassionate student body rises and I could not have asked for a better group of people to suffer through med school with. Hopefully, this answers your questions
🙂 Best of luck and I hope I see many of you next year. Happy holidays! <3
Edit: pls forgive my spelling/grammar errors my brain has decided to check out for the remainder of the year (plus I have binged watched more anime than i feel comfortable sharing
😀)