Avoid Albany Med

[Smiles91084]

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You'd think that a "bad" school would interview A LOT of ppl, but to my surprise, I don't have a lot of friends who even get interviews from them. Maybe it's just me and my friends though.

 

[Disinence2]

bumping.....

Basically we have come the conclusion that every school has at least one person that hates it. The poster really hasn't said anything that makes me think "oh that sucks" i don't want to go here anymore.

I had a great experience during my interview, have talked with students who love it, and plan to attend.

I think everyone truely needs to realize that schools are different, and what one person considers great others might consider horrible. They matched someone to my top choice residency program last year, so thats all the proof I need that its a good enough school for me!

 

[Disinence2]

Wow... this thread is disappointing.

Anyone know how the clinical years at Albany are? Do they get better? Are the rotations hard? Is the clinical experience rewarding?

I don't see how the clinical experience could be less rewarding at any school. AMC still is a trauma 1 center and a tertiary care center, and the only hospital within X number of miles (It was a long way).

Its not like some schools that are just 1 of 15 hospitals within 100 miles where they might not get all the "cool" cases.

PS. Are you gonna join the facebook group or what? Looks like some pretty cool poeple are going to AMC next year.

 

[JohnnyDrama33]

AMC is the bomb, and anyone who says otherwise is trippin off of Nyquil.....

They definitely are selective, 9000 students applied this yr and only 600 were chosen for interviews, and last yr they only had 6000 applicants for 650 interview spots

 

[Timmythemic22]

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. Gross anatomy lab is old and poorly kept. The library is horrible, so most students study elsewhere. 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. 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.. 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. Albany is a fairly old school started in 1870's, yet has a pathetic endowment b/c graduates don't like it and thus don't give back. Success at AMC is not b/c AMC helps students, but despite AMC. If you interview here ask about these things and see the response. It will save you from making a potential dreadful mistake.

And who are you?

 

[tissueeng84]

Here is one good thing about Albany - at my interview I asked the students how much PBL they had and no one even knew what PBL was! That was music to my ears 🙂 Also, to me their interview is most like what I thought a med school interview should be like (ethical questions, etc...) I think they really try to see what your character is all about. Maybe that is why they take some people with lower numbers.

Perfect case of to each their own.

It pains me to see students unhappy at heavy PBL schools when they knew full well going into their school that the curriculum was heavy PBL. School that comes to mind is Cornell where you are informed throughout the day about the virtues/cons of PBL. We even tour the PBL rooms and students write letters of intents singing the virtues of PBL to get into "Cornell" because it's in New York. The school is heaven for some and it's disappointing to know so many wanted to go and the class has students who wished they weren't there.

And ethical questions...I guess you're happy because your nightmare interview situation came true??? I don't understand how anybody can like ethical questions over shooting **** like your personal interests and past times or sports.

I guess the word to describe Albany is traditional. Hate it or love it.😉

 

[xylem29]

What got me thinking was when a 2nd year student walked up to our interview group and sarcastically asked "So is Albany a first choice for anyone?" with a thumbs up and a sarcastic smile...

 

[TIGIBedHead]

For the sake of full disclosure, yes I am in the midst of the application process right now, and yes I have been admitted to Albany. Like most people posting in this thread, I haven't experienced life as a med student at Albany. I did, however, enjoy my interview day at the school and I came away with a positive impression. While it is true that Albany may not be everyone's first choice (but to be fair, can you name me one school outside of the top 5 or 10 that is?), I think that a lot of the criticism about the school is unwarranted.

Let's look at some of the evidence: last year's match list. http://www.amc.edu/Academic/Undergraduate/MatchResults.html

To sum it up:
One match into plastic surgery - at Dartmouth
One match into neurosurgery - at SUNY Buffalo
Three matches into orthopedic surgery - 2 at Albany, 1 at Duke
Two matches into ophthalmology - 1 at Albany, 1 at UChicago
Two matches into urology - 1 at Albany, 1 at UConn
Twelve matches into anesthesiology (including at NYPresbyterian, UMichigan, UCLA, NYU, and URochester) and six matches into diagnostic radiology.
Four matches into otolaryngology (including one at Mayo).

If you're interested in peds, some students matched into UMichigan (2), NYU, Children's Hospital of Boston. If you're interested in internal medicine, students matched into Vanderbilt, Yale (2), Einstein (2).

Students match into both competitive specialties and competitive hospitals. This is no Hopkins match list, but evidently a lot of the class does quite well for itself. Given the match last, I don't see how Albany can be that bad of a school. I don't think that Albany is any better on worse than a bunch of the other 100+ med schools in the U.S. It simply seems to get a lot of air time, for better or worse, on SDN.

 

[riceman04]

dumping

 

[Disinence2]

Nice research TGI!

 

[drdoctor]

I'm finishing up my first year at AMC and deifnitely enjoying it. The match list for this year looks even better than last years with derm, a ton of orthos, radiology, ENTs, and anesthesiology. People talk smack for no reason. Just go to some med. school, study, have fun there, meet new people, and get into some residency. Regardless of the so called poor performance of the students enrolling, I have to say that I've met some very very intelligent people who are doing extremely well in school.

 

[Old ortho]

I believe that there are no bad U.S. med schools, but there are med schools with some bad students who don't belong there.

 

[87138]

After reading this thread, I'd be interested to know what you guys (or anyone else) has said in response to the inevitable "So why Albany?" question at interviews.

 

[bellacnella]

i havent applied to Albany, but all of this talk makes me want to apply 😉​

 

[Kthanksbye]

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.

I have a friend who was on their waitlist last year, and she told me they never even touched the waitlist. It was a very unusual year in that regard for a number of schools. KU also barely touched their waitlist.

 

[prettymonkey]

you know what other schools i hear suck... columbia, cornell, nyu, and mount sinai. BEWARE!!!!!! 🙄

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Ive also heard johns hopkins, Mayo, northwestern, and UCSF (if your looking out of NY)

 

[lacesoutdan]

The quality of the school is debatable, but there is no denying that the city of Albany is butt ugly.

 

[Zweihander]

wow, 3 out of 3 prefer the public school to the lower tier private school...its like a bad MD vs. DO thread all over again, where everyone knows the answer! Cheap priced medical schools always win against overpriced (usually private) ones (in most cases, gotta cover my ass on SDN's judging forums!!))) !

3 out of 3! Got a p-value on that?

There are plenty of people who choose private schools (even "low tier" ones ) over public schools for various reasons, and I know several myself. It's pretty stupid to rely on gross generalizations when making decisions as to which school to attend. So is making important life-decisions based on what strangers on SDN say without doing one's own homework. Chances are that for most posters here people are more likely to have reliable information on the school than on any given poster giving them advice, so it's worth it to take any comments on here with a big grain of salt.

The clear and straightforward way to do this is to go on as many interviews as you reasonably can and then, given your acceptances to choose your school based on whatever priorities matter to you most. Some people strongly value reputation, other people want a particular location, whatever.

Some reasonable objective measures to look at for any school are average step 1 scores and match lists, but it needs to be kept in mind that (like the MCAT) these numbers don't tell the whole story.

 

[Tropicana100]

I'm going to Albany tomorrow for a Thur. interview. Looking at Albany so far, I don't see anything wrong with the school. They have some great clinical departments. The curriculum looks pretty solid, with early clinical exposure. The match list is fantastic, although geared more toward primary care. I have a feeling this will be a worthwhile trip.

BTW I don't like the idea of a thread title bad-mouthing any school. That's inconsiderate toward current students.

 

[Revenant]

Harvard is a piece of crap school. Total trash.

 

[Tropicana100]

Harvard is a piece of crap school. Total trash.

I dare you to start a thread.

 

[bashini]

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.
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. 🙄
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 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. 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...
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.

Thank you so much! I was reading this and thought WTF because when I interviewed at Albany last week, I fell in love with it. I don't understand why Albany always get a bad rep on SDN. I LOVED the whole idea behind the gross anatomy lab. It is a nice way to improve your teaching skills. Also, the fact that four people's grades depend on how well you teach, motivates you more. Moreover, you don't have to fight over a cadaver each week with five other ppl. I LOVED IT

Go ahead!! Please withdraw ppl so that I will have higher chances of getting in. I'm glad everyone is jumping at the chance to withdraw or not apply.
Oh and OP, I think you are full of it. I've had 5 interviews so far and I managed to find more than one or two things to like about each school. As of now, I would be happy in any of those schools. When you are applying for a competitive profession as medicine, you just shouldn't be too judgmental. Leave that up to the Admission committees. Just my two cents

 

[neurologist]

So, all you people who have commented on Albany's "bad curriculum" . . .

What constitutes a "good" curriculum?

 

[badasshairday]

This thread is BS. The OP made this probably just to get people to drop Albany acceptances to get the waitlist moving so that he/she could get in.

I went to Albany last week and thought it was a pretty solid school.

 

[nogolfinsnow]

Since I'm a student at AMC, I'm sure I'm biased, but I like it here. I have found many of the lecturers to be very approachable and well-informed. Sure some of them aren't very good but you can't tell me that other schools don't have crappy profs too now and then. I'm only 2.5hrs from NYC and Boston, Canada's 3hrs north, I can hike in the Adirondacks or the Catskills after only an hour drive, the public golf course is in good shape and cheap. So the city sucks, that only matters if you really want to be going out all the time. I have a good group of friends who, like me, are damn happy to be in med school, and even happier that we're not reapplying right now. It's overpriced, but people have spent money on dumber things before. So AMC's not Harvard, no crap. But people graduate from here and match well and go on to good careers, and that's the whole point of med school.

 

[jellybird]

Do student at AMC have to do their clinical rotations elsewhere? Can they do them in a different city?

 

[zeus22]

Do student at AMC have to do their clinical rotations elsewhere? Can they do them in a different city?

At the interview I went to they actually said that the rotations can be done at other cities.

 

[div0t17]

At the interview I went to they actually said that the rotations can be done at other cities.

At the interview I went to they said a lot/most do them in other cities with hospitals with close ties. They said that it's especially good for surgical students because you work directly with attendings instead of residents/being the third wheel. Which is nice.

 

[nygiant]

What a crock of s...this thread is! As a graduate of AMC, and having practiced medicine for 30 years, I can guarantee that those who have disrespected AMC where those who didn't have the grades to get in...schoup,especially fits this profile!

I remember an assh...I went to Colgate with...I was accepted by AMC and this guy didn't even get an interview there...his comment to me was..."Albany must be a bad school" This guy went on the med school where he bragged to classmates that he and his wife ( another MD) were going to make twice the amount of $$$ in the internship year than any other classmates.

Albany gives a solid education..its strength is the emphasis given to the history and physical exam..the basis of all medicine, and the pathology in the Capital District. Those who attend will be solid physicians.

 

[Gut Shot]

It takes your MS1 to realize how broken it is. MS2's make an effort to make things better and are thwarted by admin. MS3's are to busy with clinical to care. MS4's are counting the days till they are done.

Sounds like medical school to me.

 

[searun]

Dr. Richard Selzer, the great professor of surgery and writing at Yale, now retired, graduated from Albany. Dr. Selzer is a spellbinding writer, eg Confessions of a Knife. I admire him tremendously. If AMC educated Dr. Selzer, it must be a pretty good school. My 2 cents.

 

[Phenol312]

this thread is highly unprofessional. thats all i have to say.

bad mouthing medical schools ... i see something very wrong with this. 🙄

 

[nonesuchgirl]

There's this place called Johns Hopkins. I hear it sucks. Please withdraw.

hahaha 🙂

i've heard that in general, medical school is awful and sucks your life. Everyone switch professions. please.

QFT!

 

[lindell12a]

Haha, this thread makes me laugh...🙂