Hey folks! I know some of y'all asked me earlier for pros/cons of UTMB and it took me a while to respond. We have our anatomy midterm next Tuesday (yep, after the long weekend), and that + getting super involved in student organizations has eaten up so much of my time, haha. Instead of just listing out pros/cons, because that feels too black/white to me, I just wanted to mention a few things I've enjoyed.
CECEs. Don't ask me what it stands for. This is a love/hate for most folks, but tl;dr we are required to do a certain number of clinical volunteering experiences beginning in first semester. For first year, the requirement is 2 inpatient, 2 Hospital to Home (think case management/discharge planning), 2 outpatient, and 1 community experience. The crappy thing is that it's required, so it can definitely feel like being voluntold to be somewhere you don't want to be. They do tend to be 4-5 hour long commitments in the afternoon so your days end up being super long. You're also a 1st semester med student so most of the things you're doing are patient care tech type experiences: taking vitals, turning inpatient pts, cleaning, etc. That said, you are literally getting clinical experience from your very first semester. If you go into it with an open mind you can definitely make it worthwhile. My first inpatient experience was on the neuro floor, and I'm interested in neuro. I got to help with 2 admits and now have a better idea of what the day-to-day looks like with these patients.
St. Vincent's Student Run Clinic. This is not unique to UTMB (e.g. the Houston folks have the HOMES Clinic), but wanted to pimp how awesome this experience is. I've been to two evening clinics so far and when they say student run, they mean it. I'm going in and doing a full HPI, ROS, and physical on these patients. Obviously I consult with the attending/residents/fellows who are supervising before moving forward, but for the most part that care plan is mine. The patients who show up are low SES (it's a free clinic) and they are so nice and grateful to be getting these much needed services.
META block. Also don't remember what it stands for. This is our first block and is a 4-week orientation to med school. Classes focus on things like how to do an HPI, how to write a SOAP, ethics, professionalism, ddx, things you need to buy for med school, resources, study strategies, etc. As a non-trad coming from healthcare, 90% of the classes were useless for me. However, I did like that I essentially had 4 weeks to ease myself into med school: I got to work on establishing good habits, figuring out where all my local needs are (PCP, post office, massage therapist, etc.), and finding friends. Don't discount the importance of that last one - I thought I'd be a total loner but it has been great to have a few groups of friends I can lean on for support or even for logistical things like "Hey I have to miss class can I get your notes?"
SO many opportunities to get involved. I think I'm actively involved in like 5 student groups and 2 research projects already and it's only the end of my 2nd month. I know classmates who are involved in even more lol.
But also, it can be as chill as you want. It's true P/F (none of that "high pass" stuff) and it is very possible to get through doing what fits your comfort zone. I will say, faculty are also very understanding of the demands of being a med student - I emailed one of my research advisors to tell her I was struggling with feeling overwhelmed one week and she said no problem, let's push our meeting to next month, no questions asked.
Shadowing. If you're still trying to figure out where to go specialty-wise, the faculty here are super open for shadowing. I have classmates shadowing derm, ortho, IM, you name it. One of the neurosurgeons who helps in cadaver lab literally told us point blank, if you think you want to do neurosurgery, please reach out and we'll get you in to shadow.
If you don't like Galveston, no worries. I live off the island because I didn't want to be that close to school or in the midst of a tourist city. Housing options on the island are not the best. It's roughly a 30 minute commute to school but I ride the bus that runs between two of UTMB's campuses, so I just study on the bus. Or nap.
NBME exams. Not in-house exams, thank god. Looking at you, Long.