Hey everyone!
I am a M1 at Nova, so I will try to answer some of your questions. Most importantly, good luck to those who have interviewed and those waiting for an interview. First off, if it has been three to four weeks since your interview and you haven't heard anything give Rogeria a call. That is how I found out. The admissions committee usually meets every two weeks to discuss and decide on 4 sets of interviews (2 sets per week: Mondays and Fridays). Once their decision is made it goes to Admissions in order for it to be presented to the dean. He reviews every file and will then sign the papers and acceptance letter. So as you can see it takes some time, plus the dean is very busy. I think it is safe to call after 3 weeks. Rogeria will tell you over the phone.
Now to the important stuff. What is Nova like? From those of you who interviewed you know that we have a brand new complex which houses several schools. The facilities are state of the art. I am extremely happy with my choice to come to Nova. I think that I can speak for many of my friends here with the same sentiments. I think the education is excellent. There is absolutely no competition among students, something that is stressed heavily by the faculty and administration since day one. Students are always willing to help each other out, whether it is through tutoring or making up flow charts for upcoming tests and distributing them to everyone etc. The faculty is excellent. All of them are teacher first and clinicians or researchers second. That is very important. There is 4 Biochemistry professors, About nine anatomy teachers, and two histology teachers. I can honestly say that not one of them is a bad teacher. Sure, you might have one or two that does not teach to your style of learning, but you will get that anywhere. They are all extremely fair and have no intentions of making life difficult for you. How is the workload? I doubt this varies among medical schools. Bottom line is that school is extremely time consuming. The information presented is not hard (you have probably seen a lot of it before) but the volume at which they deliver it is incredible. Things you may have studied a whole semester in college will be delivered to you in one week. You will get used to it though. So far there is nothing about Nova that disappoints me. I looked at several other schools and realized that Nova had what I thought was the best curriculum, a faculty that truly cares about its students, and was a school that would best prepare me for a career in medicine.
The bottom line is that wherever you go you will make great friends and probably have fun. I think the most important things to look for are the details. The details at Nova which brought me here were the facilities, the opportunity to gain clinical experience in the first month of school, the large consortium of hospitals Nova is affiliated with for rotations, Harvey, and yes the rural rotations. They may sound unappealing, but these rotations will give you more hands on experience than any other rotation. Most of the time you will be the primary provider of their care. Most of them are within driving distance. As far as South Florida, it's sunny almost every day of the year, the winters are amazing, Miami is a half hour away, Ft. Lauderdale has more thing to do than you will ever imagine…if you have the time. What more can you ask for. I hope this answers your questions. If you have any more….post them.
