Do med students have any choice in their class schedule during M1-M2?

[dbrokut]

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Or is it like primary school where you're with the same group of students from start to finish in every regard?

Also, I know in M3, all you do is rotations and stuff and then a lot of med schools say M4 is just electives, so are the electives like a rotation in your field of interest or an actual class in your chosen field?

Also in M3, do you have any choice in which specialties you want to rotate or do you just have to rotate every specialty?

Sorry if I'm asking stupid and maybe otherwise questions with obvious answers but I always think it's better to know than be sorry.

 

[adeline]

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MS 1 and 2 are usually mostly science and How to Be a Doctor classes. Some schools stick research in there, some start rotations in March of 2.

Basic required rotations in most places: med, surg, peds, ob/gyn, neuro/psych. Then you can do rotations in those areas, in more specific areas, whatever.

 

[DrYoda]

There are a few schools that have short one or two week periods that are elective classes or activities during MS1 and MS2, I think they call them selectives. But in general the first 2 years of med school are pretty much fixed.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Some schools have special degree programs that give you choices on what your focus is. Also, some schools allow you to take university classes, but idk how many people do.

 

[phospho]

Or is it like primary school where you're with the same group of students from start to finish in every regard?

Usually in the first two years, yes - your classes are registered for you, and you will be seeing the same people every day when you go to class/lab.

Also, I know in M3, all you do is rotations and stuff and then a lot of med schools say M4 is just electives, so are the electives like a rotation in your field of interest or an actual class in your chosen field?

Yes, they are a rotation.

Also in M3, do you have any choice in which specialties you want to rotate or do you just have to rotate every specialty?

You will have to rotate through all the basic specialties that your school has required, e.g. peds, surgery, FM, IM, OBGYN, etc... Though they might let you pick the order in which you want to do them.

Obviously each school varies, but for the most part, that's how it's done.

 

[Vulcan]

I know some schools do non-credit electives that you can choose, such as free clinic work, or shadowing in the ED or OR. These won't impact your grades, but they could be fun 🙂

 

[URHere]

In general:

During MS1 and MS2: you will probably have daily,large lecture classes that you will attend with all of your classmates. If your school uses small groups you will attend them with some subset of your classmates. You do not get to choose, and you go where they tell you. If your school has an option to do a mini-rotation or preceptorship, you may get to choose your field or the physician you work with. Other than that, the most scheduling freedom you have will be with respect to elective classes (you usually need a certain number of electives to graduate, and some number of those elective credits can come from MS1 or MS2 electives like medical spanish, history of medicine, volunteering at community clinics, volunteering with admissions, etc).

During MS3 and MS4: Most of your clerkships will be rotations through the big fields of medicine (family medicine, general internal medicine, peds, OB/Gyn, surgery, psych, etc). You will not be able to opt out of these rotations, but you can usually submit a form requesting the order of the rotations. For example, some students prefer to get the killers, like surgery, out of the way early and finish with something more gentle. You will have a subset of your classmates on each rotation with you, although you may not always be doing the same things at the same times. After completing the core clerkships, you will have time for subspecialty rotations and away rotations. You will have a good deal of flexibility when it comes to these rotations, and you may not have any of your classmates with you. You also have your remaining classroom electives during 4th year and many students choose to volunteer with things like anatomy labs or leading MS1/MS2 small groups.

 

[KeyzerSoze]

in general:

During ms1 and ms2: You will probably have daily,large lecture classes that you will attend with very few of your classmates. If your school uses small groups you will attend them with some subset of your classmates.

ftfy.

 

[mvenus929]

You will have a subset of your classmates on each rotation with you, although you may not always be doing the same things at the same times.

This can vary. I know one of my friends (who is an MS3) is doing her OB rotation through my hospital, and she's one of the two medical students registered with staffing right now. I don't know who the other one is, but I'm fairly certain he/she is not going through OB at the same time. So, some schools will give you more freedom as to where you can do your rotations and thus who you do them with. I know Colorado also requires a rural rotation, and I can't imagine them sending too many people to one location at any given time.

 

[CCLCMer]

This can vary. I know one of my friends (who is an MS3) is doing her OB rotation through my hospital, and she's one of the two medical students registered with staffing right now. I don't know who the other one is, but I'm fairly certain he/she is not going through OB at the same time. So, some schools will give you more freedom as to where you can do your rotations and thus who you do them with. I know Colorado also requires a rural rotation, and I can't imagine them sending too many people to one location at any given time.

If the med school has its own primary teaching hospital, your friend's experience won't be the norm. Some schools can't accomodate all of their students locally, and then they have to send people to a whole bunch of other places. I know NEOUCOM does that, because some of their students come up to Cleveland to rotate. At Case, we have four teaching hospitals, but there are so many of us (about 180 per class counting all three programs) that you will pretty much always have someone else on the rotation with you. They may not be on the same team (or for outpatient, at the same clinic site), but it still counts as the same rotation, and we still take the same didactics together.

dbrokut, like other people have already said, the first two years are pretty much set. The third year rotations are also set, but you can request taking them in a certain order. Fourth year electives are more flexible, but how flexible depends on your school's requirements. At Case, we are required to take 32 weeks of electives (anything we want, but 12 weeks has to be an approved area of concentration), do two acting internships (one of which is in medicine, surgery or peds), and then the rest of the time is vacation. Our scheduling is flexible though where we can put off some third year rotations until fourth year and take some electives in third year. I took a bunch of electives in the middle of my third year (rads, tox, preventive med, etc.)

 

[kappa09]

If the med school has its own primary teaching hospital, your friend's experience won't be the norm. Some schools can't accomodate all of their students locally, and then they have to send people to a whole bunch of other places. I know NEOUCOM does that, because some of their students come up to Cleveland to rotate. At Case, we have four teaching hospitals, but there are so many of us (about 180 per class counting all three programs) that you will pretty much always have someone else on the rotation with you. They may not be on the same team (or for outpatient, at the same clinic site), but it still counts as the same rotation, and we still take the same didactics together.

dbrokut, like other people have already said, the first two years are pretty much set. The third year rotations are also set, but you can request taking them in a certain order. Fourth year electives are more flexible, but how flexible depends on your school's requirements. At Case, we are required to take 32 weeks of electives (anything we want, but 12 weeks has to be an approved area of concentration), do two acting internships (one of which is in medicine, surgery or peds), and then the rest of the time is vacation. Our scheduling is flexible though where we can put off some third year rotations until fourth year and take some electives in third year. I took a bunch of electives in the middle of my third year (rads, tox, preventive med, etc.)

NEOUCOM has three clinical campuses each with 2-4 hospitals. Assignments were done by student preference and lottery for the M1/2 years and will be redone for M3/4. So basically, when you're not on the main campus for lectures, you're with a small subset at one of the clinical campuses. It is nice to have some choice, but I would imagine this is unique to schools without their own affiliated hospitals.