Hi, I am a student in Sophie Davis, which is a 7 year BS/MD program in NY. This year, we need to apply to one of 6 medical schools for our clinical rotations (years 3 and 4 for MD degree). I am trying to decide among the following 3 med schools: Dartmouth, NYU, and Stony Brook (SUNY). [i currently have no preference... I listed them in alpha order] Can anyone please share their experiences/advice/stories/hearsay(lol) about any of these schools? I would appreciate any info that will help me decide... Thank you!
Its going to be hard to get something here as really how much experience would any of us have about clincal rotations. I guess NYU if I had to choose at thid moment. If you do em at Dartmouth they do have rotations that can be done in Maine, New Mexico, California so you would be in many different areas if you would like to. I don't know much about NYU or Stonybrook. Try the allo forum perhaps.
NYU would probably give you exposure to the sickest patients at Bellevue, so that would be my pick. Dartmouth has a pretty homogenous patient population, and I dont know much about Stony Brook (isn't it in the suburbs?).
Damn, it must be nice to get into those schools. I know a kid whose in the program and it wasn't that hard to get into Sophie Davis. To bad the fcuker kept it quiet!!
Depends on your specialty interest. NYU is excellent for emergency medicine, Dartmouth - internal medicine. Not sure about Stony Brook, but it sure is the least prestigious of the 3.
I guess that's one of my troubles... I'm not sure about what specialty I want to go into. At the moment I'm leaning toward academic medicine and away from surgeries, but beyond that, it's a huge plain to me... Sophie Davis teaches us a lot about public health and the importance of primary care and I whole-heartedly support their goals, but I know they haven't shown us everything and I don't want to regret personal choices made in ignorance... So what's a good med school for scouting out all the possibilities (using only years 3 and 4 since that's when I'll be there), and still having a good shot at residency if/when I decide?
Sarephina--if you haven't done it already, I would post this in the "Clinical Rotations" forums under "Medical Student Forums." Then your post will be seen by kids who are currently in their rotations, who thus have the most current/direct knowledge of such matters. A slight advantage might be afforded by the NYU/Dartmouth name in getting a residency. Dartmouth has great opps for community and pubilc health, NYU might have a little bit better exposure to those extreme cases. Dartmouth might also get you more exposure to all cases, IF they have fewer students doing rounds per clinician (since it's a smaller school, this MIGHT be true). Either way, you'll be in good shape. SUNY's good too, from what I hear, but go with the big-name school unless you have some specific reason for doing SUNY (only an opinion). See if NYU could get you an apartment/room above the main building entrance (where you enter Tisch Hospital off of 1st ave). If I remember correctly, 3rd & 4th years get preference for those apts, and they are much nicer than the dorms where the 1st/2nd years live. I would personally go to NYU, but only b/c I like being close to international airports, public transportation systems, and museums (good for silence and soul-seeking after stressful days).
Stony Brook because it would be cheaper for you, assuming that you are in-state. Don't worry. Med students are there to learn the basics, such as managing fluid and electrolytes, hypertension, diabetes, myocardial infarction, etc. any hospital and med school will provide you with that.
Thanks, nicholasblonde! I didn't even see that forum. lol Oh yeah, transportation might be an issue for me. Right now I'm totally reliant on the NYC public transportation system (and my legs lol). I'm kind of waiting for cleaner cars to be less expensive... And thank you, Thewonderer. I also hear Stony Brook is very quiet. I like quiet too...
Heeey! haha ~resurrects my old, old thread~ Guess what?? I'm at NYU now, and I'm living in one of those apartments across the street from Tisch. ^_^ Now I'm pondering about specialties... lol
hahaha You're welcome. If anybody here has questions about the 3rd year at NYU, or about Sophie Davis, feel free to PM me.
Hey! Doesn't sophie davis require you to practice in an underserved area for x number of years in primary care? So doesn't that mean you can't really "specialize"?
You sign a service commitment for providing 2 years of primary care service (paid) in an underserved area. These areas are designated each year by an agency I can't recall the name of... they look at the number of docs per person living in each area. Primary care = family medicine, general internal medicine, or general pediatrics. I think ob/gyn is also included (primary care for women!), but none of the subspecialties of any of these primary care fields are included. It is highly preferred that you carry out this service agreement. You can do whatever you want after these 2 years. However, you aren't *forced* to do this if you truly feel passionate about a non-primary care field of medicine. A change of heart costs you the amount of money that the school/government invests in your interest in primary care. We learn a lot about community research techniques and epidemiology, which are quite helpful in interpreting and conducting population-based research studies. If you have a healthy dose of ambition, I think you can become a great leader in public health through this program. There is talk about incorporating a MPH degree into the program too, but I have no idea if it will actually happen. Even if you do end up specializing, I think the curriculum's emphasis on community based research and healthcare gives you useful training. All fields of medicine are related in some way. IMO, even as a specialist, you can help improve primary care by providing input about primary care practices like referrals and screening procedures. The class sizes are pretty small, and we can get to know our classmates very well (which may be good or bad lol). We can get to know the professors very well, too. The area immediately surrounding the school is not very vibrant, but a train or bus ride can take you anywhere in Manhattan... Sooo... in conclusion, if you are seriously thinking about practicing primary care in NY and/or doing public health work, you should consider applying to Sophie Davis. /end plug
You're welcome. ^_^ Also, the curriculum has undergone much revision in the past couple of years and there is new leadership, so you should visit their website and try to talk to the students who are currently attending the school... which your friends have probably already done, so I'll just drop this link and be quiet now. http://med.cuny.edu
i have a question about sophie davis...I heard that after the five years in the program the students went to the 2 years in med school and felt that sophie did not prepare them well enough? is this true?
i would just like to ask you sarephina if you could tell us how the 3rd year has been going so far? any things you wish you could change?
sarephina, my question is very similar to ltmd90. I was wondering if you had any information on Sophie davis avg USMLE step 1 scores and how well students from sophie davis match during residency match time. I have heard things liek LTMD90 about the first 2 years not being the best preparation, but that could just be from people that may not have gotten into Sophie Davis lol. Anyway, it would help a lot if you could either message me or reply to this post. Thanks!
I personally thought the teaching was pretty good, overall. I'm happy with my Step 1 score (but I did take a Kaplan course, to help me navigate through the sheer breadth of information the USMLE covers). I don't feel like I had worse preparation... ANY med school will make people feel like they're being overwhelmed with information. If anything, at Sophie, spending 2.5 years on the preclinicals, having some classes in the summer, and having a biomedical focus from the beginning makes us more prepared. And the tutoring office has really taken off since I was there. I think they got a big grant or something... I also feel like we receive a superior education in statistics, epidemiology, and public health, compared to many other medical schools in which these topics are sort of just glazed over. But I haven't actually attended any lectures in any other med schools, so I could just be spinning cotton here. I feel like we didn't have much opportunity to explore our clinical interests earlier on. Some of my current classmates joined student-run "specialty interest groups" in their 1st or 2nd years, but not surprisingly, no such groups exist in Sophie, which is geared toward primary care. Sophie gives you a lot of exposure to primary care! For better or worse... lol There are probably students who graduate from here after barely passing everything... they probably are not very prepared for 3rd year and beyond, but who would be, at any school? I honestly do not know what our average scores are, or how well we match. I think these are legitimate questions to ask the admissions office, or during your interviews. Some information about that should be in their brochures. I don't remember too well, but I don't think I was particularly worried about these things when I was applying to Sophie out of high school. I probably did find out about that from their brochures or something. Sorry, it was like 6 years ago for me... my memory of that awful, stressful time has gone all fuzzy... lol
