Baylor College of Medicine

[bongsen]

Need help! What do you all think about this school? I love it to death but am scared that no one else thinks so

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[Samoa]

Why should it matter what anyone else thinks? You're the one who'd be going there.

Besides, it's a very good school, with an innovative curriculum and a wealth of clinical and research opportunities. What's not to like?

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by Samoa
Why should it matter what anyone else thinks? You're the one who'd be going there.

Besides, it's a very good school, with an innovative curriculum and a wealth of clinical and research opportunities. What's not to like?

I agree with Samoa. It really is up to you. I'm going to tell you now that lay people WILL think you mean Baylor in Waco when you say you goto Baylor. But it is well known within the field, and the residency opportunities are very good. So the disclaimer is that I will be going to Baylor next year and that Ive turned down/withdrawn from several schools as a result of this.

The tuition is great, the area is really nice, and the preclinicals in 1.5 years is terrific. Baylor has had really high USMLEs (230 to 235-ish average) which is up there with only a few schools (Penn comes to mind) because the curriculum is geared towards clinical correlations. The match lists are quite impressive as well, and the school has some of the best affiliations around. Funding will never be a problem.

So the actual school is incredible, definitely on par with the other schools Ive interviewed at (many of them top 10 and top 5 schools). You wont get the same looks from people as if you say you went to Harvard or JHU, but that comes with the territory. At some point in each of our premed lives, we are going to have to live with not being praised for every little thing we do and just enjoy it for its inherent worth and how it makes us feel. Perhaps this would be a nice start.

 

[ice_23]

Baylor is a great school, you should definitely go there if you can to see what it's like. I'm certain that if you talk to students that go there, you will find MANY ppl that love it. There are many of SDN'ers right now that are considering Baylor for medical school because they liked it. And you'll find ups and downs with Baylor as you will with Cornell, Emory, UMich, etc. Just choose the one that fits you best and go with the flow.

-Ice

 

[ad_sharp]

Baylor is a great school. Look at the rankings if you believe in that sort of thing. Really, any school you want to go to is great. Getting into med school period is great. Great is a great word. Don't allow others to limit your greatness by picking your school for you--That's great advice.

 

[elias514]

Baylor is a truly great medical school, especially if you're a Texas resident. The tuition is dirt cheap for Texas residents (around $6000/yr), but don't let the cost mislead you as to the quality of the school. It is affiliated with the Texas Medical Center, the biggest medical center in the country. Med students do their clinical rotations at St. Luke's, Methodist, Ben Taub, and the VA hospital. Ben Taub is a county hospital, which means that students get tons of hands-on experience. The private hospital affiliations have top-notch cardiology, cancer, opthalmology, cardiothoracic surgery units, among others. Baylor students start their clinical rotations 6 months earlier than the vast majority of med students, which means that they have more time to choose a specialty. The preclinical facilities are incredible--some of the very best that I've seen. As for reputation, current physicians have tremendous respect for Baylor and the TMC. If you can tolerate Houston for 4 years, then you would be INSANE to turn down Baylor.

 

[rager1]

Originally posted by elias514
Baylor is a truly great medical school, especially if you're a Texas resident. The tuition is dirt cheap for Texas residents (around $6000/yr), but don't let the cost mislead you as to the quality of the school. It is affiliated with the Texas Medical Center, the biggest medical center in the country. Med students do their clinical rotations at St. Luke's, Methodist, Ben Taub, and the VA hospital. Ben Taub is a county hospital, which means that students get tons of hands-on experience. The private hospital affiliations have top-notch cardiology, cancer, opthalmology, cardiothoracic surgery units, among others. Baylor students start their clinical rotations 6 months earlier than the vast majority of med students, which means that they have more time to choose a specialty. The preclinical facilities are incredible--some of the very best that I've seen. As for reputation, current physicians have tremendous respect for Baylor and the TMC. If you can tolerate Houston for 4 years, then you would be INSANE to turn down Baylor.

Ben Taub (mentioned in quote above) is also a Level 1 Trauma center and may be the only county hospital in Houston to have one. Additionally, Baylor students also do rotations at MD Anderson Cancer Center even though it is a UT institution. MD Anderson and Sloan in NYC are the best cancer hospitals in the United States and are constantly vying for #1. There's also the fairly new Texas Children's Hospital in which Baylor students also do clinical rotations. TCH is a US News Top 10 pediatric hospital. The medical schhol also boasted the 4th largest sum of NIH research grants among medical schools in the country in 2002...something in the order of $380 million. Harvard, Univ of Wash, and UPenn were #'s 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

--rager1

 

[elee20]

Baylor is great!

Pros: great education, curriculum, very very diverse, great people, huge medical center, plenty of research opportunity, you're in houston, very prestigious, the list could go on but I have to get some work done

Cons: PARKING, and watch out for metro bus drivers if you're walking because they will hit you!

 

[Harps]

I believe Baylor evaluates students, at least for the first two years, on grades (A,B,C...). If this is not true, then Baylor, with its tuition and reputation, should be an excellent place to study medicine. Regardless of whether other people recognize and praise your school or not, you should base your future on tangible qualities of the education offered--curriculum, research opportunities, great mentoring program, strong clinical experience and exposure.

Congrats, if you have been offered an acceptance!

-Harps

 

[HollyJ]

For the first semester, Baylor is strictly P/F. For the remaining 2 semesters of pre-clinicals (there are only 3 semesters of pre-clinical work at Baylor rather than 4), Baylor does a HP/P/F (or some variation thereof).

 

[SOBEIT]

I was told at another interview that Baylor fails 25 students a year as policy. I did not believe it, but peoples eyebrows did raise when this was said. Any truth to it?

 

[ms. a]

Originally posted by SOBEIT
I was told at another interview that Baylor fails 25 students a year as policy. I did not believe it, but peoples eyebrows did raise when this was said. Any truth to it?

I'm sure that's a load of crap. Why would any school accept you, then purposely fail you? It only makes them look bad. Either it says that the admissions committee is incapable of adequately assessing applicants (which is not the case, I'm sure), or it says that they do a very poor job of helping students learn medicine (which, I know, is also not the case). Baylor has so many good qualities that attract outstanding students, and it's already ranked so highly, that there would be no benefit of having such a policy.

 

[elee20]

Not true!!!! They don't fail anybody

 

[bongsen]

I recently heard that they're about to lose, or did lose already, their affiliation with Methodist because of talks by their President to open up a new Baylor Hospital. Any insight here?

 

[Giving My .02]

Baylor in Waco is a baptist university, but Baylor Medical School is no longer affiliated with Baylor University.

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by bongsen
I recently heard that they're about to lose, or did lose already, their affiliation with Methodist because of talks by their President to open up a new Baylor Hospital. Any insight here?

They didnt lose their affiliation. Baylor basically is changing its primary private affiliating from Methodist to St. Lukes. St. Lukes, as Ive been told and read, is the more progressive hospital anyway, and is considered one of the best places to work according to Fortune.

The affiliation wont change anything for quite a while, and it will most definitely be for the better because it will afford Baylor greater autonomy and create a new alliance with up and coming St. Lukes.

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by SOBEIT
I was told at another interview that Baylor fails 25 students a year as policy. I did not believe it, but peoples eyebrows did raise when this was said. Any truth to it?

Uhh, 25 students out of 168 is almost 15% of the class.

I can say with certainty that Baylor, or any school for that matter, will not fail 15% of its class. And if it did, Im sure it would lose accreditation and its reputation. Whoever told you that is telling a horribly inaccurate and unbelievable lie.

In other news, I hear all Harvard Med Students have to donate their left testicle or ovary for future research.

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by Harps
I believe Baylor evaluates students, at least for the first two years, on grades (A,B,C...). If this is not true, then Baylor, with its tuition and reputation, should be an excellent place to study medicine. Regardless of whether other people recognize and praise your school or not, you should base your future on tangible qualities of the education offered--curriculum, research opportunities, great mentoring program, strong clinical experience and exposure.

Congrats, if you have been offered an acceptance!

-Harps

Baylor is P/F and then H/P/F. I think you are referring to UTSW with its grade system.

 

[spumoni620]

I'll go ahead and repeat what the wise ppl on here have been saying - it shouldn't matter to you what other ppl think of your school; getting accepted to any med school can help you achieve your dreams. especially if you "love baylor to death" - that should be your only validation rather than others' opinions/admiration/envious looks.

that said...i think baylor is a well-respected, wonderful school. rankings-wise it's quite competitive, rated quite highly by residency directors, and has a number of top hospitals to gain clinical experience. i personally fell in love with it when I went to interview there. there are so many things i like about baylor - clinics-heavy curriculum, the amazing tmc (largest med center in the world ), the tch, the students' friendliness and heaping praise for professors, a great interview day...etc. etc. not to mention, a rock-bottom tuition for tx residents. i feel quite honored and ecstatic to have an acceptance there.


bottom line is: if you choose a school just b/c it's a status symbol, you risk being very unhappy a few years down the line. so-called "top-ranked" schools are not for everyone; i've interviewed at a few and definitely feel some are overrated (and otoh, at some so-called "lower-ranked" schools i felt right at home). the fact is, if you choose a place you *genuinely* love - regardless of rank - you'll likely thrive, and perform well enough to get into the specialty you desire.

 

[clowne]

Baylor is P/F and then H/P/F.

This isn't a very big deal, but it is actually P/F and then honors/high pass/pass/marginal pass/fail. It is letter grades given a different name, except the cutoffs are slightly different than for the traditional A,B,C... I distinctly remember hearing this when I was there for an interview.

Congrats to everyone accepted at Baylor. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be, too.