Lol!
What has been good for you at boca?
Well, everything has been good for me.
😀
Firstly, I would disregard board scores completely. How other students do on the boards is basically meaningless to what your individual score will be. If you want to score well on the boards, you will have equal opportunity to do so here. You will receive nearly 2 months between 2nd and 3rd year to study for and take the boards. Our exams are carefully written to be board-style, so you should be familiar with how to approach the questions.
To decide, I would compile a list of goals for your education and weigh them based on that. The educational environment is very different.
UF has a reputation as a very competitive environment with a large class size.
UM-Boca is virtually the opposite. We are pass-fail with a very small class size. You will get to know every single one of your classmates well, and you will get to know your faculty very closely.
Curriculum is different also. Yes, we are heavily PBL focused but more often than not the PBL overlaps with the lecture and is just an avenue to explore the details in a clinical scenario. Total PBL time is approx 8 hrs/week (same as lecture time). We have an integrated curriculum, so you won't have separate courses. This is a great advantage for some material and a disadvantage for others. Personally, I feel like anatomy deserves its own block. It was tough for me to balance time spent on anatomy with time spent on lecture. However, now that we have gotten out of basic science and into clinical things, school has become a lot more fun and a lot less stressful.
We also do a lot of things outside of classroom time (community preceptor weekly, dept. of health / immersion every other week). These things are invaluable to my education. I feel I am way ahead of the curve in terms of history and physical exam and thought process of a physician. That will pay big dividends in the clinical years, which are the most important aspects of our education.
Here are some disadvantages. Firstly, no one really knows how the clinical work in Boca is going to work out. I am confident that it will work out, but it is still a big deal that no one has gone through it yet. Also, this is where prestige of a med school pays off the most because of networking with well-known academic physicians. We will be at a disadvantage here.
Second, is research. The research done on this campus is basic science, and although we have opportunity and stipends available, not many med students are really interested in whats being done. If you want other opportunities, you can find them but it will take a bit more diligence and willingness to travel. That's OK with me. Truthfully, research is only important for very competitive residencies.
Lastly, I'll just state that there are plenty of students here that aren't so happy with the school. We work hard because we're doing a lot of non-study activities that eat away time and make us tired when we get home. To appreciate it, you have to find the value of it as a long-term benefit. Also, some students simply do not like PBL. It's a different animal, and you should really try and figure out if it's something you would enjoy.
