Help me decide about CCLCM

[Mr. Stethoscope]

Hey everyone. I’m a recently accepted student and am strongly considering Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine as one of my top choices because of its free tuition and great reputation. As most probably know, this is a small school with 32 students per class. Their assessment system is pretty unique in that they don’t have grades or exams, but instead you get written feedback from your peers based on your performance in small groups. Initially I was onboard with this but there is a new development that makes me question whether such a setup would actually be good.

One of the deans of the school recently posted on Twitter that their child was accepted to this school. Now I’m sure this person is probably qualified, and I don’t want to make this post about said applicant. But I worry about what this would do to the dynamics of a 32 person class where no one is anonymous and you actually give your peers feedback. I’m just imagining a situation where I’m in this person’s group and I write something negative him/her that is then also shared with their father the dean. Or even furthermore would the faculty facilitators, who also give students feedback in these small groups, be able to maintain objectivity when they’re giving feedback on a student whose dad is their boss?

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but it has definitely made me reconsider choosing CCLCM just because of the implications of both professional and social dynamics. I would really like to hear other’s perspectives. To give context, I am accepted at other T20 schools with traditional class sizes. In that type of setting, I don’t think I would have given this matter any thought. Thanks in advance!

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[petomed]

Depends on who's paying. If it's me (loans) then I'd probably play the kid's flute as needed for the ~2 pre-clinical years where your peer reviews matter at CCLCM. The research year is unlikely to have peer input weigh heavily on you because most of you likely aren't subject matter experts / PhDs, but this would be worth confirming. There's no way your clinical years are dependent on peer review as you mentioned. So again, it's really only two years of potentially blowing smoke up the kid's rear. That sounds pretty doable for free tuition.

If you're not paying either way then I'd probably take the A at one of the other 4-year T20's and never look back.

Moving up the rungs on the ladder is all about tap dancing the right people. It's unfortunate you'd be doing this as part of med school but you'll certainly do it afterwards. You could probably attach around $5,000 in saved tuition to each instance where you really had to do it.

 

[deleted1110208]

Oh interesting... Would you be able to link to the Tweet?

I too would be concerned about the dynamics of this, but there's also no guarantee that the child of the dean will end up attending.

 

[deleted1110208]

Oh interesting... Would you be able to link to the Tweet?

I too would be concerned about the dynamics of this, but there's also no guarantee that the child of the dean will end up attending.

Nevermind... found it. And it looks from the tweet that she's pretty set on attending.

 

[chilly_md]

I would focus more on how much you wanted to attend before seeing the tweet. If there was a close 2nd choice that is comparable financially, then perhaps go there. I assume research is important to you, but the extra 5th year is a year less of physician salary. So if you have a school that costs less than 40k a year, that is about as good or better than Cleveland Clinic. I believe you still pay living costs on your own too, so factor that in when looking at it financially.

I agree with the previous poster that you can get by with the dean’s kid while you’re there. It sucks but shouldn’t impact you that much as long as you just give some generic good feedback to her.

 

[squids82]

PM if you have any other specific questions that I may be able to answer as an M1.

Feedback is defaulted to be anonymous. You can opt to include your name (about half of my peers have). Regardless, all of it is professional and useful so you can stay anonymous while contributing how you are supposed to.

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

Overthinking it. It will not affect the dynamics at all, but even if it were going to life will be filled with these kinds of situations and you can’t avoid them forever.

If you wanted to go before, would not let this affect your decision at all.

 

[brainperson1]

I believe you are overthinking it, but then again I may be biased because this is one of my favorite schools.

 

[abz]

Hey everyone. I’m a recently accepted student and am strongly considering Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine as one of my top choices because of its free tuition and great reputation. As most probably know, this is a small school with 32 students per class. Their assessment system is pretty unique in that they don’t have grades or exams, but instead you get written feedback from your peers based on your performance in small groups. Initially I was onboard with this but there is a new development that makes me question whether such a setup would actually be good.

One of the deans of the school recently posted on Twitter that their child was accepted to this school. Now I’m sure this person is probably qualified, and I don’t want to make this post about said applicant. But I worry about what this would do to the dynamics of a 32 person class where no one is anonymous and you actually give your peers feedback. I’m just imagining a situation where I’m in this person’s group and I write something negative him/her that is then also shared with their father the dean. Or even furthermore would the faculty facilitators, who also give students feedback in these small groups, be able to maintain objectivity when they’re giving feedback on a student whose dad is their boss?

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but it has definitely made me reconsider choosing CCLCM just because of the implications of both professional and social dynamics. I would really like to hear other’s perspectives. To give context, I am accepted at other T20 schools with traditional class sizes. In that type of setting, I don’t think I would have given this matter any thought. Thanks in advance!

I am a current student at the school.

I believe that your concern is very legitimate and one that I would raise if I was in your shoes. However, with every downside there is also an upside.

Nobody in life gets to choose the cards they are dealt, what matters is how we play them. I had a classmate, who was the son of a faculty, but he used his unique position to advocate for his fellow students. He used his position and voice to speak up about issues that some of us may not have had the courage to speak up about.