For Pitt Med Students

[BigRedPingpong]

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Hi guys,
I interviewed at your school on the 17th of this month and thought it was great. However, I felt that I was too hyped up to ask some questions and forgot to ask them. So here are so minor "detail" questions for you.

1. How many students per cadaver?

2. Honoring a course...how many students actually get this. When speaking to the curric guy at pitt, he just said one SD above the mean gets honors.

3. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your
a) educational experience,
b) your clinical experience,
c) your preparation for the boards,
d) the level of competition between fellow classmates,
e) the match rate and ease of getting competitive specialties at competitive hospitals,
f) faculty teaching abilities, in general
g) PITTSBURGH

4. Do you really like your school, or were people just trying to put on a show and be really nice during interview day...'cuz people there were SUPER nice, and I thought it might just be a front for potential students.

5. Please state your year also.

Thanks everyone!

 

[BigRedPingpong]

Bump.

Somewhere over the rainbow...exists a pitt med student ready to reply...

 

[promethius]

Hey BigRed,

I'm an MSI here at Pitt, so I can't answer all your questions, but I'll try to answer as many as I can.

1. How many students per cadaver?

6 students per cadaver.

2. Honoring a course...how many students actually get this. When speaking to the curric guy at pitt, he just said one SD above the mean gets honors.

In order to honor a section, one has to (1) score an average of at least one standard deviation above the mean on all the interims (i.e. midterms) and (2) score at least one standard deviation above the mean on the summative (i.e. final).

Anatomy and biochemistry are two courses that are lumped together for the first basic science section, so you have to do well on both if you want to honor the anatomy/biochemistry section. I don't think you can honor just one course here...

Based on statistics, about 15% of a class will score at least one standard deviation above the mean on any given exam. If one has to meet both of the aforementioned criteria for honors, less than 15% of the class will get honors on a particular section. Theoretically anywhere from 0%-15% of the class will honor a given section, but I think on the average, about 10% will get honors.

Most people here are pretty happy with just passing, which is about 84% of the class. Honoring can get pretty stressful if you let it consume you. Most people do not realize that until after the first section is over. There are quite a few people who are borderline, and you can just imagine how drained they must feel being so close after putting so much effort in, yet not being able to "distinguish" themselves from the other 84% of the class. Just my two cents though.

3. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your
a) educational experience,

8

b) your clinical experience,

N/A--We start our first ambulatory care course next semester.

c) your preparation for the boards,

10--I heard that Pitt does extremely well on the boards. Pitt gives about two months for its second years to study for the boards, which is more than most other schools, and its curriculum is designed with the boards in mind, spending proportionate amounts of time on the topics the boards will cover.

d) the level of competition between fellow classmates,

6--Our class is pretty competitive, but that's because medical school is new to us and everyone wants to do well. However, I feel that H/P/F helps a great deal in decreasing the level of competition. In picking a school to go to, make sure you pick one that uses H/P/F and not normal grading.

e) the match rate and ease of getting competitive specialties at competitive hospitals,

8--I talked to several third and fourth years, and they all seem to say that Pitt has a great name at many of the hospitals they did their away rotations at.

f) faculty teaching abilities, in general

N/A--Can't really tell you because I haven't gone to class on a regular basis to say.

g) PITTSBURGH

7--Pittsburgh is not New York City. In the end, it really depends on what you are looking for in a city. Pittsburgh is not overwhelming, and it has an excellent transportation system. It's also very culturally stimulating if you are into that. Plenty of bars and clubs exist if you just want to blow off stress. The weather does get pretty cold though, and it rains about once or twice a week on average. However, I feel it's a very nice city with many small amenities. It would probably be what I would imagine "a city with a small town feel" would be like.

4. Do you really like your school, or were people just trying to put on a show and be really nice during interview day...'cuz people there were SUPER nice, and I thought it might just be a front for potential students.

Overall, I'm having a pretty good time here. Most students who go here like it because it's not too stressful, and they don't feel as if they have a reputation to live up to as many other big names schools sometimes do. Plus, one of the reasons why I chose Pitt was because it has an integrated campus. You'll find out that you'll need an outlet besides just medical students after one semester in medical school...

5. Please state your year also.

MSI

Good luck with your interviews.

 

[auster]

I'm an MS II

Don't worry about how many students to a cadaver - you will end up not caring for the most part (you will actually want to split the days up so you don't have to cut everyday - VERY time consuming). If you want to cut a lot, you will be able to, if you don't, you won't have to...
And don't listen to the first years about how much competition there is - the first year class is an anomaly in that they are pretty competitive with each other 🙂 If I would categorize the classes, my class is a bit too laid back, the first years are a bit too uptight.
About honors - really don't worry about this. It is quite difficult to do this (not impossible, but difficult), and for most people, unnecessary. Worry about learning things for the boards and for the wards, and (unless you want to do a competitive specialty) take the passing grade that will come to you. And it isn't true that fifteen percent will honor. If you have taken statistics, you will remember that one standard deviation above the mean is an "outlier" - you have to be an outlier to pass, but you have to be an extreme outlier to fail (2 SD below the mean). In other words, there can be tests where no one honors and no one fails, and there can be tests where quite a few people honor. The nice thing with it being very difficult to honor is that it essentially makes this a pass fail school, with honors for those who really care.
I don't remember what your other questions are, and I don't really feel like answering more, other than to say that I love Pitt and Pittsburgh (though I would not want to be in the first year class 🙂 and wouldn't change being here. You can look up the match list if you want (it's in another thread - do a search), but realize that a match list just shows you what a given class was interested in. For instance, last years class evidently likes ENT - I can't tell you what this years graduates are going to be into... In other words, asking about match rates and such is kind of meaningless - it really depends on the individuals that have made up a class (that being said, the past classes have done quite well).

 

[BigRedPingpong]

Thanks people! Been a big help. Any others want to put their 2 cents in?

Perhaps someone with clinical experience at UPMC would like to comment on that.

What about the simulation lab...is that the bomb or what?...i thought so at least when I saw it.

 

[BigRedPingpong]

B U M P

 

[tonem]

It's probably already been mentioned before but Pitt got a perfect score on its recent re-accreditation (one a few schools ever)...one of the comments was "the best simulation center bar none" and from what I gathered last year it is only temporary until they build a new one down at the Center for Emergency Medicine.

 

[tonem]

BRPP,

To answer your last question...i went to Pitt and spent six months of my fourth year at a medical school with a much better reputation and I felt my clinical experiences at Pitt were far superior in every regard....but maybe I'm just biased.

 

[BigRedPingpong]

More posts from Pitt med students!!!

Exams are over, you guys should be wasting time like posting on SDN!

SOMEONE PLEASE COMMENT ON THE SIMULATION LAB!!!!

I saw some MS's in action at the sim lab and was enthralled by it! TALK MORE ABOUT SIM LAB

d Edit: Tonem, nope your comments are appreciated. Alum, please comment too. For you guys have the whole picture of pittmed. Thanks again

 

[tonem]

Didn't wanna hear from former students?

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by BigRedPingpong
More posts from Pitt med students!!!

Exams are over, you guys should be wasting time like posting on SDN!

SOMEONE PLEASE COMMENT ON THE SIMULATION LAB!!!!

I saw some MS's in action at the sim lab and was enthralled by it! TALK MORE ABOUT SIM LAB

d Edit: Tonem, nope your comments are appreciated. Alum, please comment too. For you guys have the whole picture of pittmed. Thanks again

There really aren't a lot of Pitt folk that post on sdn. Most of the people I know from school on sdn haven't even looked at it since spring or summer. I would like to tell you more about the sim lab but I've never seen it. You'd probably be better off contacting someone from the Office of Medical Education www.omed.pitt.edu

 

[BigRedPingpong]

Dr. Octopus,

Can you tell me why your class has been described as so "competitive?" Do you think this cut throatness will die off by year 2?

Elaborate on Pittsburgh...why do you like being there? Why is the city of pittsburgh good? What do you do for fun? Why are all the young people leaving? Why did I like pitt so much when i visited?...gut feeling.

 

[auster]

Originally posted by BigRedPingpong
Dr. Octopus,

Can you tell me why your class has been described as so "competitive?" Do you think this cut throatness will die off by year 2?

Elaborate on Pittsburgh...why do you like being there? Why is the city of pittsburgh good? What do you do for fun? Why are all the young people leaving? Why did I like pitt so much when i visited?...gut feeling.

Wouldn't it be easier to wait to see if you get accepted? Your interviewer will email you if you were accepted, and then you can ask him/her all of these questions. There will also be second look weekend... There will be many opportunities to get all of these questions answered without having people type extremely long reviews of Pitt and Pittsburgh.
That being said, in February, if you are accepted, feel free to PM me, and I would be happy to list the many reasons I love being here....

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by BigRedPingpong
Dr. Octopus,

Can you tell me why your class has been described as so "competitive?" Do you think this cut throatness will die off by year 2?

Elaborate on Pittsburgh...why do you like being there? Why is the city of pittsburgh good? What do you do for fun? Why are all the young people leaving? Why did I like pitt so much when i visited?...gut feeling.

Ha ha! Our class may be a little eager, but it's definitely not cut throat. Everyone that I have studied with has been very helpful - willing to share information and resources, etc. Our class has high means on exams because people work hard and work together, and consequently know their stuff. The curve is massively shifted toward the right, so almost everyone does very well. The downside is that if you slack too much you'll probably fall near the bottom of the pack. No one can predict what next year's class will be like.

On Pittsburgh, I had the same gut feeling. I like the city because it has everything I need, and is not overwhelmingly huge. For fun I do everthing I always did like watch movies, go mountain biking, etc, just not as often. I like to snowboard, and we're only an hour away from a decent resort. Go to second look weekend if you get accepted, and you will be driven all around Pittsburgh, meet many great people, and have an all around good time.

 

[choker]

im a second year at pitt and in stark contrast to the first years, ours is the most laid back and chill class the school has "ever seen" (according to several of our teachers). the class mentality perpetuates itself- with the first years, everyone seems to study all the time, so everyone else is pressured to study more; with the second years, most people seem more than thrilled to just pass, so we go out as often as possible (at least my friends give me a lot of crap when i study instead of go out). whatever, i guess it's just the luck of the draw.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Another thing about our class is that we were pressured into studying a lot before classes even started. Some second years told us that our class had the highest avg. stats of any entering class (or some crap like that). That was pretty intimidating to hear, so I think people did overdo it for anatomy and biochem. I think people have chilled out a lot after the first block, but not to the pot smokin' level of the second years.

 

[Resident Alien]

Originally posted by choker
with the second years, most people seem more than thrilled to just pass,

Im just curious, is that something to be proud of?

 

[auster]

Originally posted by Resident Alien
Im just curious, is that something to be proud of?

I would NOT say that the majority of my class is "just thrilled to pass" - but instead that many people think that school is just one (very big, and extremely important) part of their life, and continue to do the other things that are important to them. There will, of course, be people with that kind of attitude in any class, but I don't think that it is true of even the majority of the class.

The thing that we SHOULD be "proud" of (or at the very least, be thankful for) is that people are very relaxed around test time - I am very glad not to be surrounded by people that take each individual test as though it were the end of the world. There are just too many tests to get too worked up over. You learn what you can in the time you have, and do the best you can, and in all likelihood, that will be more than enough to pass (and perhaps even do quite well).

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by Resident Alien
Im just curious, is that something to be proud of?

Hey, how's Case treatin' you? Things are okay here, except I have the flu and have to miss class (and a genetics test). And yes, the second years here are very laid back, and proud of it. They encourage each other not to study, and make fun of people who do. Our class, on the other hand, could ease up a bit. To me, the ideal situation would be somewhere in the middle. How's Chuck doing?

 

[auster]

Originally posted by Doctor Octopus
Hey, how's Case treatin' you? Things are okay here, except I have the flu and have to miss class (and a genetics test). And yes, the second years here are very laid back, and proud of it. They encourage each other not to study, and make fun of people who do. Our class, on the other hand, could ease up a bit. To me, the ideal situation would be somewhere in the middle. How's Chuck doing?

Not ALL of us second years are like that (I think that it is actually the "loud minority" that is anti-study, at least in public 🙂 )- and I'll bet you guys will ease up a bit in the coming months... It definately gets easier!

 

[T.C.]

I think people have chilled out a lot after the first block, but not to the pot smokin' level of the second years.

They encourage each other not to study, and make fun of people who do.

Bro, I'd be a little careful about what you write on message boards. Never know who is rolling around and reading stuff... maybe taking offense to some things you say which you are really not well enough informed to speak about. Broad generalizations are often not so great... and flat out wrong. Just a friendly piece of advice, take it for what it's worth.

Hope you feel better soon.

Back on topic as I'd be interested in hearing more about the simulation lab...

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by T.C.
Bro, I'd be a little careful about what you write on message boards. Never know who is rolling around and reading stuff... maybe taking offense to some things you say which you are really not well enough informed to speak about. Broad generalizations are often not so great... and flat out wrong. Just a friendly piece of advice, take it for what it's worth.

Hope you feel better soon.

Back on topic as I'd be interested in hearing more about the simulation lab...

Thanks. I wasn't trying to piss anyone off, and the potsmoking thing was just a metaphor for how chill the second years are. I actually look up to them as a class, especially after their amazing job at the talent show.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by auster
Not ALL of us second years are like that (I think that it is actually the "loud minority" that is anti-study, at least in public 🙂 )- and I'll bet you guys will ease up a bit in the coming months... It definately gets easier!

I know, I know

Thanks for the encouragement 🙂