Are you guys sure this is the last year for the Dartmouth-Brown prgm?
Also, the same D vs D/B question was posed in the Allopathic forum.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=231927
Here is my question, and sd's response.
Quote:
Originally Posted by funshine
What do you guys think about the Dartmouth/Brown program? People are telling me how important it is to gain exposure to a variety of cases/patients during 3rd and 4th year, and how I just won't get that at a rural, homogeneous location like Dartmouth. I know I can do away rotations 4th year at just about any school, but that might not be enough.
So, maybe it'd be better to spend the 3rd and 4th years in Providence, where the hospitals have slightly more diversity? I wonder how many people get accepted into the Dart/Brown program. I'd think most people would rather spend the last two years in Providence...
i don't know what people mean when they talk about "variety" and "diversity" of cases at urban hospitals vs. rural hospitals. sure, at DMS you probably won't see half a dozen HIV+ women with >5 kids during morning rounds, and you may not get 3 gunshot wounds during the same ER shift. how "diverse" is that, anyway? you're still seeing a lot of the same stuff ad nauseum, its just different stuff, you know? at a place like dartmouth, because they're such a large referral center, you'll see a ton of different pathology--the only thing that's different is the social ills that you'll get less of (IV drug users, STDs, etc). if the social ills associated with urban living and the lower levels of the socio-economic scheme are what you're looking for in a hospital, then your decision is pretty much "don't go to dartmouth".
also, i usually ask people who are applying to the Dartmouth-Brown program why they aren't just applying to brown instead. if you want the whole urban hospital deal, why bother spending 2 years up in the woods at DMS just to have to move and make new friends again as a third year?
just my random $0.02
sd
Originally Posted by funshine
fair enough, but do you think residency directors would feel the same way? If you want a residency at a city hospital, doesn't it make sense that you should also get your clinical training in a city? Or not? I mean, I'm just a premed here. Every school tells me something different at their interview and I believe it for the day. I don't think patient diversity at Hanover is an issue that you can just dismiss...thats why Dartmouth kept emphasizing (in their DVD) that many students went away for clerkships.
i think it depends on why you want to do a residency at a city hospital. if you want that so that you can ultimately be an urban/metro physician, then of course it makes sense to train in a city hospital. if you're asking me if residency directors put a red "x" on DMS med student applications because they didn't work in the ghetto, well, i dunno. i'm not that far yet. it may be a small, but not likely a deciding factor in the residency app process. i think they emphasize that stuff in the DVD to assuage the fears of applicants like you more than to say "we realize our clinical training is deficient--but you can go somewhere else to fill in the gaps." i mean, the dvd is just a marketing tool, and since they recognize that some students will question DMS's clinical training, they address it.
seriously, just do whatever you want. i'm not here to sell dartmouth to anyone. if you'd rather do your clinical years in providence, then the B-D program (or just going to brown) is probably your best option. for the purposes of this thread, i was only intending to say that dartmouth's "reputation" is just fine. i'm not trying to persuade anyone to actually go there---for god's sake, i didn't even go there!
good luck with your apps.