Hi thanks so much for doing this! I’m an admitted Pathways student still very torn about whether or not to attend. I have a few questions:
1. You mentioned that there is more flexibility in your 3rd and 4th years where students go on vacations or do away rotations for example? I’m from CA originally and my entire support system is here so I’m extremely anxious at the idea of setting out on my own and moving my life to Boston. To top it off, HMS has very short breaks (ie no 4 wk summer after MS1... only 1 week!!!). Is it possible to take an extended vacation in your 3rd or 4th year? Can I do aways in CA? Can I conduct research in CA? Ultimately, I would like to do my residency in CA and practice here too so it would be awesome to have some time to go back to CA in my 3rd and/or 4th year.
2. What were your thoughts about the 1 year condensed case based learning curriculum? Do you feel like you were prepared going into the wards? I’m apprehensive that you have to study so much on your own without any faculty direction... and then the quality of your learning must really depend on your small groups right? And I feel like group learning is always hit or miss...
3. How frequently did you have exams during your first year? Did the exams require you to spend a lot of time studying? Did you supplement your curriculum in the first year with outside resources or did you save the outside resources for third year while studying for Step?
4. People say the culture of medicine on the East Coast is a lot more cutthroat than that on the West Coast... do you feel like the quality of clinical education across all hospitals really prioritizes student learning in a non-toxic, non-demeaning manner? I know you mentioned Beth Israel really prioritizing student learning, but is that also true at the other hospitals?
5. Surgery rotation seems long and as someone who is not even remotely interested in surgery, do they cut you some slack on your rotation? Or is it still brutal?
5. Did you move out of Vandy? If so, how is housing in the area? I’ve heard it can be super expensive... any neighborhoods you recommend? Do you need a car for rotations? Or can you rely on public transit?
6. Does rotating at MGH, BWH, and/or BID allow you to serve underserved populations? That is really a priority of mines along with engaging in health equity work and I’m worried the patient populations at these hospitals aren’t as diverse...
1. Yes you can do an extended vacation if that's what you want! There's an elective called Vacation we sign up for. The minimum is to have 3 Harvard-based classes/rotations every 6 months, so that leaves you with 3 months each half year to do aways, research, vacation. However, most students don't take off 3 months for vacation because they're doing research usually, or aways. The one exception is if you intend to match into a highly competitive surgical specialty, i.e. ortho or neurosurg, then you won't be able to vacation since you will need to do ~3 away rotations.
You can definitely do aways in CA, but the politics of aways are complicated. For less competitive specialties, we're advised not to do aways since it only hurts you (it's really hard to shine on aways despite everyone thinking they're the one that will). For more competitive specialties, you need to do aways where you want to match, and if you want to match at UCSF, you shouldn't rotate only at UCLA since then UCSF thinks "why did he rotate at UCLA but claim he wants to match here?" You can circumvent this by doing multiple aways in Cali, but this is something to worry about later. It's a pretty political process for smaller specialties so aways are definitely something to think about before doing.
HMS has an excellent track-record of matching students to California, probably the best besides going to a Cali school. So definitely wouldn't limit you geographically. Last year about 1/4 of the class matched to Cali.
2. My own philosophy is that learning has to be something that you rely on yourself first and foremost for. It's not something you should trust to your profs or peers. The curriculum is very fun and engaging, but due to the PBL nature, you will need to study yourself beyond the class if you want to feel prepared for wards. Class is 8-12:30pm so you have a lot of time outside class... The PBL focuses on more complex concepts and application of concepts so I think its far superior to sitting in lecture. I don't think any med school curriculum, if you only did that, would make you feel completely prepared going onto the wards, if that's something you're looking for.
3. Exams varied by module but generally around one exam per 2 weeks. But each exam covers multiple subjects, since we do multiple subjects in parallel. But we don't finish a subject in 2 weeks, so you will divide the subject amongst 2-3 exams.
4. It really depends on the team you're with, regardless of any institution in the world you're rotating at. I do think at BID specifically there hasn't been a single team that wasn't great. The other hospitals also have many great teachers and teams, but some more hit or miss. I wouldn't really think about this as a factor too much, it's too variable TBH. Classmates are generally not super cut throat on the wards since it's P/F.
5. Surgery rotation is brutal but something everyone has to go through. No way out. Good thing is that since it's P/F you won't have to try as hard and that does go a long way in specialties you don't care for. However, I think it's definitely important to explore all the specialties in depth since you never know if you'll like it or not until you really get into the nitty gritty of it.
6. Not as much but there is a longitudinal clerkship at Cambridge Health Alliance that is primarily underserved populations. It is a lottery to get selected for this (12 spots with about 1/3 of the class entering the lottery).
Ultimately, I think this is how I would simplify your decision:
1) All these micro details matter less than you think once you're in the flow of things.
2) The key curricular details I'd focus on is a) Do I want a 1 year preclinical? b) Do I want P/F (yes 100% you do)?
3) Where do I want to match for residency? By far, if there is ONE specific institution you want to match at, eg UCSF, there is no school that will give you a better chance than that specific school. However, if you're not limited to one school but rather geography (Cali), then certain schools such as HMS will not limit you whatsoever. In fact, I'd recommend HMS since its brand will take you a long way, even more than the Cali brands (perhaps Stanford's brand is similar), and you'll end up in Cali anyways so why not kill 2 birds?
