CWRU impressions?

[zer0el]

To everyone who knows about the school or has interviewed there: What are your impressions (good and bad)? I'm very impressed with the school (curriculum, clinical facilities, reputation, match list), but would like other viewpoints to either validate my impression or contradict it. Thanks.

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[KBCoch]

I interviewed at Case on 10/14. I stayed with a student in a nice little neighborhood only 5-10 min drive away. Their apartment was gigantic and apparently priced decently. I do love the curriculum there, particularly all of the cool electives that are offered. The wireless internet in the classroom is awesome. I wish that I could have seen the actual hospitals rather than just the cafeteria and atrium area. Did you see the actual floors?
I also wish that I could have seen more of Cleveland. My host told me that all you see on the ride from the airport are the bad parts, because the nice parts are beyond the school. Does anyone have any opinions about Cleveland?

I think Case is a great school. Expensive though...

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by zer0el
To everyone who knows about the school or has interviewed there: What are your impressions (good and bad)? I'm very impressed with the school (curriculum, clinical facilities, reputation, match list), but would like other viewpoints to either validate my impression or contradict it. Thanks.

Case Rocks. My interview was a few weeks ago and I am anxiously awaiting the news, although I'm expecting the waitlist. #1 Choice for me. The only school I've interviewed at that comes close to Case is Pitt. Cost is the only drawback.

 

[mikecwru]

Originally posted by zer0el
To everyone who knows about the school or has interviewed there: What are your impressions (good and bad)? I'm very impressed with the school (curriculum, clinical facilities, reputation, match list), but would like other viewpoints to either validate my impression or contradict it. Thanks.

I am graduating from CWRU. The school enjoys a decent reputation, which is nice around the time for residency interviewing. The curriculum structure is nice, but I was not a big fan of the curriculum content. It is heavily research/scientist based, not clinical stuff. This can be ammended, though, with outside reading and skipping the occasional useless class. The electives at CWRU are cool and that's probably the #1 "true" selling point for the school---opportunities. At what other school can you ride on a medical helicopter doing CPR on a trauma pt as a FIRST YEAR medical student? The classical "early patient exposure" (pregnant chick) is actually a huge pain in the ass. The current first years probably think it's a huge deal, but it's not.

The school is overly PC. If you're a down-to-earth person you may find it hard to swallow at times, but I found my clique of like people ("the pricks!") and we get along fine.

The registrar's office is really well run, but the other administrative sections are not. Fortunately, the registrar's office is usually the most important.... get your classes, get your clerkships, register for the match, start ERAS, and graduate.

CWRU is affiliated with a few hospitals: University, MetroHealth (county), Henry Ford/Michigan (less now), Cleveland VA, Brecksville VA, and now, the Cleveland Clinic. I personally enjoy Metro the most. The actual wards vary from crapholes to fairly luxurious depending on the hospital.

mike

 

[zer0el]

to mikecwru: do you think case students had any problems doing well on the boards? did you find that you knew less than students at other schools because you weren't in class the whole day?

 

[TroutBum]

I interviewed there a couple weeks ago, and I was really impressed with the campus and facilities and curriculum. Mike, your feedback is really interesting--I didn't realize Case was more research-oriented. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of that or not, but like you said what's really drawing me to Case are the electives and the amount of free time (no afternoon classes first year sounds pretty nice. . .) Downtown Cleveland seemed like a really cool area, from the one night I was there. Anybody else want to chime in?

 

[Zoobaby]

Well I love it. My first choice too, but I'm a local so my view is probably a bit slanted. I have also heard that Case produces docs of the "armchair scientist" variety more than those of the "bedside clinical" variety. Who knows...

 

[Thewonderer]

In order to garner good reputation, the school HAS to be research-oriented and some of it carries to the curriculum. It is kind of hard to expect a school to have excellent rep but little emphasis on research. Some schools even brag about how many of their students take a year off to do some outstanding research on their own! Duke has one year research/academic pursue, while Baylor and Penn have half-year built in. UCSD and Yale have thesis requirements where you have to use your summers to do research. These schools don't build their reputation by producing "nice, compassionate" doctors.