Biostats.moore said:
thanks for the advice...withdrawing now
Amazing what people will do based on rumor. Does anyone cultivate skepticism, or at the least, ask someone who knows something? As a current Albany Med student, I'll address the OP's statements.
Albany Med should be avoided like the plague! The school puts on a good face for interviews for the most part. However, it has a poorly organized basic science curriculum, which is highly redundant....
I've felt that the subject matter was pretty well organized. The systems based approach makes it so that you don't do all biochem in one shot and all of the anatomy at once, so you get some variety, while conceptually everything links together. Personally I'd like to see the curriculum that doesn't have
some overlap. I mean, you
have to talk about peripheral nerves in both musculoskeletal and nervous system themes.
🙄
...Gross anatomy lab is old and poorly kept. The library is horrible, so most students study elsewhere...
The AMC anatomy course is better run than most school's I've heard about. Using 6 person teams, two people dissect. Later in the week, they teach the remainder the relevant bits. Those four take a quiz for the entire team, and then everyone switches. It strikes a good balance because you don't reek of formaldehyde all the time but still you get experience cutting.
Your second comment shows that you aren't in med school yourself,
despite what you've posted elsewhere on SDN. The reality is that many med students across the nation don't come to class, let alone study on campus. The first two years at any med school is primarily self-study, and you can do that anywhere.
...The school is designed around the RPI, Siena, Union, joint program students. AMC has an incredible high turnover thru the waitlist and barely fills the class despite getting nearly 1/2 class from the above mentioned joint program links...
The RPI, Siena, and Union kids are a
third of the class, and classes are
not designed for anyone. The combined degree folks work hard like anyone else, so I don't see how they are a problem. Would MSTPs be a bad thing too?
We don't "struggle" to fill a class. I know kids who came running to this school because they were accepted a week before class started, just like any other school.
...Things just get worse 2nd thru 4th year. They have been cited by LCME for many things during their last review. One was for lack of consistency and reliability in their clinical grading, which has not been corrected. There are many more citations by LCME...Also, on the 4th year graduation questionaires they have consistently, for the last 6-8 years been 30 to 40 pts below the national average on things such as , faculty responsiveness to students concerns and interests, overall happiness w/ educational experience,etc...
I'm only a 1st year, but I'd love to see where you got your information. With your strange accusations and conflicting posts, I call B.S.
I will say that you should go over to the clinical forums and see what posters there have to say about the fairness of clinical rotation grading...
...Many students at AMC take the perspective of let me out as fast as possible and truly don't enjoy the experience b/c of how the school is run...Success at AMC is not b/c AMC helps students, but despite AMC...
While there's always somebody unhappy in any situation, I'll tell you that I haven't met them at AMC. My class is happy to be here and we get along well.
To serious med school applicants: If you start choosing your med school based on how 'boring' the town is, you should reconsider your decision-making process. Most of your time is going to be spent studying, not partying.
For anyone interested in
accurate information about AMC, please feel free to PM me.
