D
deleted1140515
thank you!! decision has been made 
Last edited by a moderator:
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
chmradbasement
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2023
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 28
Congratulations on your acceptances! As an M4 who's about to graduate, I would be happy to address some of your points as to the pros & cons of CHM, although I will preface this by saying that my experience at CHM was amazing and I would pick CHM out of your two options. Central Michigan is a great medical school as well with a very nice campus and as someone who pursued rural medicine at CHM, I can understand the appeal of low cost of living & the amazing opportunities that rural medicine provides. If you even have a slight interest in rural medicine, I would highly recommend doing your M3 & M4 at a rural location - it was maybe the best decision I made throughout all of medical school, and I simply decided on a whim to go for it!
I can understand the apprehension with a mostly self-study curriculum, but I can assure you that you will be doing a LOT of self-studying no matter which medical school you go to. Even my friends who used the CHM curriculum almost exclusively in M1 had a lot of catching up to do during M2 for Step 1 with outside resources. It is really up to you how much of the CHM curriculum you want to engage with in M1 and M2 vs. utilizing outside resources for a more streamlined approach to the information covered on Step 1. Additionally, the self-studying component of the curriculum is to prepare you for the in-person learning that takes place nearly every day in M1. In this way, I would say M1 was a logical transition for me from undergrad into medical school (this was all pre-COVID), where you had reading assignments that you would then discuss and expand upon during large- and small-group activities. There is simply not enough time to cover all the material you need to know for Step 1 in a lecture format, so it is up to you to figure out which method of independent learning is best suited to you and to evaluate what is working and adjust when needed, and this goes for all medical schools, not just CHM.
With regards to testing, the only "grades" you get for a semester come from the progress tests, but these are by no means the only times that you are evaluated during a semester. You have multiple quizzes every week that, while not reflected in your final grade (unless you are consistently not passing them), are considered "formative" and are used to assess if you are keeping up with the material before the progress testing occurs. In this way, you can adjust what you are doing to study without the pressure to consistently score as highly as possible. I found this to be very helpful because I, along with pretty much all of my classmates, had to figure out HOW to study in medical school, not just what to study.
I agree that the M1 clinical experience can be hit or miss, especially if you were an MA before medical school. Because I was in a rural track, I was placed in a rural clinic for M1 and I really enjoyed it even though it got kind of tedious towards the end of the year. For M2, you are doing rotations similar to what you will be doing in M3 (FM, IM, EM, etc.) which is both a nice change of pace from M1 and also lets you slowly adjust to what will be expected of you in M3 with minimal pressure (no shelves, no "honoring," etc.).
Lastly, if I were in your position and was considering anything even remotely competitive as a future specialty, I would pick CHM over CMU. CHM has strong ties to many hospitals throughout the state, including many of the rural hospitals, and has a new partnership with Henry Ford which will be incredibly useful for LORs / research / mentoring for competitive specialties if that's what you figure out you want to do. CMU being so new will take time to make those relationships, whereas the system is already in place at CHM. Just my two cents.
If you have any questions about going rural for medical school, feel free to DM me! Hope this helps!
I can understand the apprehension with a mostly self-study curriculum, but I can assure you that you will be doing a LOT of self-studying no matter which medical school you go to. Even my friends who used the CHM curriculum almost exclusively in M1 had a lot of catching up to do during M2 for Step 1 with outside resources. It is really up to you how much of the CHM curriculum you want to engage with in M1 and M2 vs. utilizing outside resources for a more streamlined approach to the information covered on Step 1. Additionally, the self-studying component of the curriculum is to prepare you for the in-person learning that takes place nearly every day in M1. In this way, I would say M1 was a logical transition for me from undergrad into medical school (this was all pre-COVID), where you had reading assignments that you would then discuss and expand upon during large- and small-group activities. There is simply not enough time to cover all the material you need to know for Step 1 in a lecture format, so it is up to you to figure out which method of independent learning is best suited to you and to evaluate what is working and adjust when needed, and this goes for all medical schools, not just CHM.
With regards to testing, the only "grades" you get for a semester come from the progress tests, but these are by no means the only times that you are evaluated during a semester. You have multiple quizzes every week that, while not reflected in your final grade (unless you are consistently not passing them), are considered "formative" and are used to assess if you are keeping up with the material before the progress testing occurs. In this way, you can adjust what you are doing to study without the pressure to consistently score as highly as possible. I found this to be very helpful because I, along with pretty much all of my classmates, had to figure out HOW to study in medical school, not just what to study.
I agree that the M1 clinical experience can be hit or miss, especially if you were an MA before medical school. Because I was in a rural track, I was placed in a rural clinic for M1 and I really enjoyed it even though it got kind of tedious towards the end of the year. For M2, you are doing rotations similar to what you will be doing in M3 (FM, IM, EM, etc.) which is both a nice change of pace from M1 and also lets you slowly adjust to what will be expected of you in M3 with minimal pressure (no shelves, no "honoring," etc.).
Lastly, if I were in your position and was considering anything even remotely competitive as a future specialty, I would pick CHM over CMU. CHM has strong ties to many hospitals throughout the state, including many of the rural hospitals, and has a new partnership with Henry Ford which will be incredibly useful for LORs / research / mentoring for competitive specialties if that's what you figure out you want to do. CMU being so new will take time to make those relationships, whereas the system is already in place at CHM. Just my two cents.
If you have any questions about going rural for medical school, feel free to DM me! Hope this helps!
D
deleted1140515
Thank you so much for all your help! I will be messaging you!!Congratulations on your acceptances! As an M4 who's about to graduate, I would be happy to address some of your points as to the pros & cons of CHM, although I will preface this by saying that my experience at CHM was amazing and I would pick CHM out of your two options. Central Michigan is a great medical school as well with a very nice campus and as someone who pursued rural medicine at CHM, I can understand the appeal of low cost of living & the amazing opportunities that rural medicine provides. If you even have a slight interest in rural medicine, I would highly recommend doing your M3 & M4 at a rural location - it was maybe the best decision I made throughout all of medical school, and I simply decided on a whim to go for it!
I can understand the apprehension with a mostly self-study curriculum, but I can assure you that you will be doing a LOT of self-studying no matter which medical school you go to. Even my friends who used the CHM curriculum almost exclusively in M1 had a lot of catching up to do during M2 for Step 1 with outside resources. It is really up to you how much of the CHM curriculum you want to engage with in M1 and M2 vs. utilizing outside resources for a more streamlined approach to the information covered on Step 1. Additionally, the self-studying component of the curriculum is to prepare you for the in-person learning that takes place nearly every day in M1. In this way, I would say M1 was a logical transition for me from undergrad into medical school (this was all pre-COVID), where you had reading assignments that you would then discuss and expand upon during large- and small-group activities. There is simply not enough time to cover all the material you need to know for Step 1 in a lecture format, so it is up to you to figure out which method of independent learning is best suited to you and to evaluate what is working and adjust when needed, and this goes for all medical schools, not just CHM.
With regards to testing, the only "grades" you get for a semester come from the progress tests, but these are by no means the only times that you are evaluated during a semester. You have multiple quizzes every week that, while not reflected in your final grade (unless you are consistently not passing them), are considered "formative" and are used to assess if you are keeping up with the material before the progress testing occurs. In this way, you can adjust what you are doing to study without the pressure to consistently score as highly as possible. I found this to be very helpful because I, along with pretty much all of my classmates, had to figure out HOW to study in medical school, not just what to study.
I agree that the M1 clinical experience can be hit or miss, especially if you were an MA before medical school. Because I was in a rural track, I was placed in a rural clinic for M1 and I really enjoyed it even though it got kind of tedious towards the end of the year. For M2, you are doing rotations similar to what you will be doing in M3 (FM, IM, EM, etc.) which is both a nice change of pace from M1 and also lets you slowly adjust to what will be expected of you in M3 with minimal pressure (no shelves, no "honoring," etc.).
Lastly, if I were in your position and was considering anything even remotely competitive as a future specialty, I would pick CHM over CMU. CHM has strong ties to many hospitals throughout the state, including many of the rural hospitals, and has a new partnership with Henry Ford which will be incredibly useful for LORs / research / mentoring for competitive specialties if that's what you figure out you want to do. CMU being so new will take time to make those relationships, whereas the system is already in place at CHM. Just my two cents.
If you have any questions about going rural for medical school, feel free to DM me! Hope this helps!
