Does your school also has all these extra works?

[Vacant]

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I'm wondering if many other schools also have so many not-so-helpful yet required extra works as we have here at UCSD. The requirements are the following:

- Mandatory Independent Study Project (3 months research in any area): many students have to sacrifice their entire summer break because of this, and some struggle to get it done later in 4th year!

- Mandatory 4 hours Lab technique session for 9 weeks.

- Mandatory 4 hrs "Reading Group" session for entire first quarter with 2 required presentations.

Ok, they are the main things. I say these should not be required but left as electives. Not everyone needs them. Why are we then forced to waste so much time in doing these?

Well, I just want to know what other schools require such wasteful extra works when we are already inundated with so much works.
I should also add that we have exams practically every Mon.

 

[lord_jeebus]

UCSD MS3 here.

If your ISP takes 3 months of real work, you're either working too hard or bound to get a nice publication.

I actually learned some good stuff from reading group as well, although at the time it seemed too in depth.

And what is this 4 hour/wk lab technique thing? CBB lab didn't meet every week and it was like 1-2 hrs when it did... Did they make the elective lab course mandatory? ***

Passing CBB isn't that hard (no need to ace it) so now is a good time to develop your lecture-skipping skills. (ignore this if you're MS2, i'm not sure)

***EDIT: Oh, maybe you're talking about Lab Medicine? It's not lab technique so much as lab interpretation. That course is actually quite useful, for boards and 3rd year. I think other schools would just integrate that content into a path course anyway.

 

[Law2Doc]

***EDIT: Oh, maybe you're talking about Lab Medicine? It's not lab technique so much as lab interpretation. That course is actually quite useful, for boards and 3rd year. I think other schools would just integrate that content into a path course anyway.

Most schools I think work the lab stuff the OP is describing into courses like path and histo (but without knowing more, I am guessing). A lot of schools have multiple article/topic based presentations, but these are also integrated into other courses rather than a distinct "reading group". But presentation skills are not a bad thing for this profession. Most schools however leave the research projects optional. But better than half the med students I know spend their summer doing research anyhow.

 

[medicomel]

my school curriculum has some soft science components. we have to read papers, write essays, and go to talks about certain subjects. although it can seem annoying when you have a lot of other work to do, i think it's really important in the long run. today we're learning about cultural competence and health disparaties.

i feel ya on the research, though. sorry about that 🙁

 

[Hard24Get]

My school requires research as well, but these things can give you something interesting to talk about on your interviews, and most residenc programs like to see research experience, so don't despair.

my school curriculum has some soft science components. we have to read papers, write essays, and go to talks about certain subjects. although it can seem annoying when you have a lot of other work to do, i think it's really important in the long run. today we're learning about cultural competence and health disparaties.

i feel ya on the research, though. sorry about that 🙁

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

I know we need to do some presentations eventually..but that's about it.

 

[vtucci]

We have a mandatory colloquium in our first two years- two hours every two weeks on topics that do not fit seemlessly anywhere else into the curriculum. This is a pass/fail course but failure to complete any of the requirements can lead to being held back. In M2, some of colloquiums require 20-30 minute student presentations or 2000 word papers (although it is variable).

We also have LCE (anywhere from 4-9 hours/week), where we are randomly assigned to work along side docs in primary care and specialties (it is the surgical specialties that typically have the longest ones). A lot of students appreciate this in the preclinical years-- it reminds us why we are here.

In our M1, we had a mandatory applied anatomy lab, which alternated with CT/MRI/imaging lectures. We also had histo labs and of course anatomy labs (but I assume most schools have this), PD skills sessions.

In our M2, we have a lot of mandatory requirements, small groups for micro/immuno (at least 2 hours per week), lab for path, problem sessions for pharmacology. We also have a requirement to volunteer at the free clinics and perform a full H&P write up and SOAP note write up.

We also have clinical reasoning and skills sessions- although these have noted started yet for us).

 

[Vacant]

I forgot to mention we also have to complete 21 hrs of weekly elective courses before the end of second year.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I forgot to mention we also have to complete 21 hrs of weekly elective courses before the end of second year.

The stupidest part of our elective requirement is that there's no standard for how many units a "course" is worth.

You know about DOC right? You get 2 units for a single 1 hr session telling kids not to smoke or drink or whatever.

The good part of the requirement is that it encourages profs to make some really good focused courses for preclinical students. The anesthesiology clerkship for 2nd years is awesome and there's nothing "preclinical" about it.