2022-2023 Brown (Alpert)

Started by wysdoc
BU Medical Sciences
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ems22 said:
Got the pre-II R today… for anyone who’s still wondering how crazy this process is, I’m a Brown alum with an LM of 81, did research w and have an LOR from the director of one of the divisions at AMS, and my fiancé is an M1 at AMS. Oh well!
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oh my lord. I am so sorry, I am sure you will do fantastic at another school, but that just seems insane. 81!!!! and heavy heavy connections. I am so curious about how that committee meeting went.
 
throwaway198773 said:
oh my lord. I am so sorry, I am sure you will do fantastic at another school, but that just seems insane. 81!!!! and heavy heavy connections. I am so curious about how that committee meeting went.
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Haha thanks! I’m super lucky to already have some solid As, so I’m just telling myself that at least I don’t have to choose between being with my fiancé and going to a T20. But yeah, you can never count your chickens before they hatch in this process!
 
Anyone else on the WL wondering if we should fill out the aid information that they are emailing us about? None of the other schools that I have interviewed at require FAFSA info before an acceptance.
 
throwaway198773 said:
Anyone else on the WL wondering if we should fill out the aid information that they are emailing us about? None of the other schools that I have interviewed at require FAFSA info before an acceptance.
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I'm rejected here, but the reasoning for filling out FAFSA in advance is so they can prepare a fin aid package soon after you're accepted. I believe there is some processing time associated with FAFSA submission that can delay things. I personally submitted FAFSA and sent it to all the schools I interviewed at, and would recommend the same if you want to compare financial aid packages from different schools.
 
throwaway198773 said:
Anyone else on the WL wondering if we should fill out the aid information that they are emailing us about? None of the other schools that I have interviewed at require FAFSA info before an acceptance.
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I'm on the WL and I did everything. I think they said regardless of your status to get it done it cause if you get admitted they prepare an aid package quickly and late filing can jeopardize the amount of aid you can get. I called the financial aid office a few times and they're super helpful. Just call the number at the bottom of the email, not the one listed on the website, and it'll connect you right to them.
 
Hi! I am building a school list and looking for current M3/M4's that can speak a little bit about Brown!

Specifically, I have the following questions (please feel free to answer as many as you have time for, I know it is a lot!):

1. How often did you have exams during your preclinical years?
2. Are these exams based more on lecture/in-house or NBME material?
3. What are the attendance expectations (for lecture, PBL, etc)?
4. What happens if you fail an exam (is it marked on your transcript)?
5. What is your clinical grading system?
6. What % of students earn honors per rotation (if applicable)?
7. Who chooses which order your rotations are in (students, lottery, other)?
8. If you could describe the environment during your rotations in one word, what would it be?
9. How much time do you have for electives?
10. Do you have AOA at Brown?

Thanks so much in advance for answering! I appreciate you making time for this 🙂
 
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cilantrosoap said:
I’d imagine they’re decently generous, on their website it states that the average need based scholarship package last year was $36K. It’s also stated (bemoacademicconsulting.com) their average graduating debt was $164K, which is well below the national average of ~$200K.
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Appreciate the info
 
amateurpupil said:
Hi! I am building a school list and looking for current M3/M4's that can speak a little bit about Brown!

Specifically, I have the following questions (please feel free to answer as many as you have time for, I know it is a lot!):

1. How often did you have exams during your preclinical years?
2. Are these exams based more on lecture/in-house or NBME material?
3. What are the attendance expectations (for lecture, PBL, etc)?
4. What happens if you fail an exam (is it marked on your transcript)?
5. What is your clinical grading system?
6. What % of students earn honors per rotation (if applicable)?
7. Who chooses which order your rotations are in (students, lottery, other)?
8. If you could describe the environment during your rotations in one word, what would it be?
9. How much time do you have for electives?
10. Do you have AOA at Brown?

Thanks so much in advance for answering! I appreciate you making time for this 🙂
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current MS4 finishing their last rotation this block with time to kill!
1. Exam preclinical years will vary in length, depending on the block but on average about 6 weeks (it's more consistent once you hit organ systems in the second half of first year). They do their best to schedule your exams on Fridays so you will have the weekend off but no promises. You'll also have anatomy practicals as well as 2-3 OSCE exams per pre-clinical year.
2. Exams are based on lecture/in-house, something that students have been advocating to change.
3. Lectures are rarely required (unless it's a special speaker and they explicitly say that you need to come); for small group sessions and doctoring sessions (clinical skills practicals), attendance is mandatory. They did institute a "golden ticket" policy where you can get up to one excused absence (ex. if you need to present at a conference or family emergency) once every semester. However, admin is generally pretty understanding and lenient if you have something going on and most cases you can just make up the work - the important thing is to be proactive and communicate as promptly as possible.
4. Preclinical grades are P/F, with 70% as the cut-off for passing. For first year, failing a block exam does not necessarily mean failing the course. Usually there will be at least 2-3 block exams per course (for example Brain Sciences consists of three block exams, if you fail one exam, you can make it up on the other two exams). This is a safety rail to help students ease into medical school pacing. During second year, this safety rail disappears and if you fail the block exam, you'll fail the course. If that happens, you will have the opportunity to remediate your exam at a later point during the year. As long as you successfully remediate, on your transcript, they won't see the remediation attempt, only that you passed the course. If you fail more than two courses in the same semester, you get placed on academic warning and have to repeat the year - this will, unfortunately, be evidenced on your transcript since it'll be obvious that you're repeating the course.
5. Clinical grading system is Pass (Satisfactory) and Honors. Clinical grades are based on a combination of shelf exam scores and clinical evals.
6. The top ~1/3 for each clerkship course will get honors.
7. Rotations are done by lottery where students will get to rank what rotations they want and by lottery, you'll get a grid schedule with all of the scheduled blocks. Unless you are in PC-PM, then you have no control over your schedule and just have one assigned to you based on your LIC preceptors because PC-PM follows a longitudinal clerkship schedule that is very different from the traditional block schedule.
8. Varied, I guess? Your rotation experience is highly dependent on who is on your team. But in general, I've had pretty positive experiences with attendings and residents. The jump from preclinical to clinical year is pretty intense but they do their best to ease you into it with CSC (a two-week boot-camp scheduled between second year after Step 1 dedicated and before third year so you don't go into the wards completely clueless).
9. If you're talking pre-clinical electives, honestly it will depend on what else you're doing. Most students do at least 1-2 preclinical electives (because there's a huge selection to pick from and they are all very interesting). If you're talking clinical electives, you'll get plenty of elective time during third and especially fourth year.
10. Yes, although AOA was something I did not hear about until they sent us the email to fill out in the summer before fourth year.
 
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Does anyone know who to address letters to, would it be Director McEvoy? If so, is it acceptable to address her as Director like "Dear Director McEvoy" or does she have another title?
 
kroo8s said:
Anyone know if Brown gives out Patagonias for the med students?
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Lol, I wish. It was my understanding that 4 or 5 years ago, AMS used to have Patagonias but this was coordinated by the Office of Student Affairs since Patagonia won't contract with college bookstores. Due to administrative burden, they don't do that anymore. North Face is AMS's official apparel supplier and they still charge students $120 a fleece.
 
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