How do you like your school???????

[sng33]

I was wondering how each of you who are currently attending medical school like your respective school? Is it different than you thought? better or worse? What is the social life like? Is it easier or more difficult? Do you like the traditional or problem based learning? If all goes well a number of us on this board will have to make some decisions in the next couple of months, and thought that maybe some of you could help us out.

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[sng33]

Just wnat to keep this thread going

 

[sheena]

hi there
i am currently entering my 4th yr of medical school. i am studying at manchester university in the uk. Our course follows problem based learning completely from the 1st yr. we have very few lectures, about 3 a wk. at first i found it very difficult to cope with as there was little guidance or teaching. it is entirely up to the student to research all of the information. withina semester i gradually learned to like the course and appreciated having to learn off your own back. now that i am in clinical i am used to learning by myself as oppose to relying on lectures. you do need a lot of motivation, it prevents cramming in of lecture notes before exams. the downfall are that there are times when you would appreciate some guidance such as how much depth you need to know for a particular topic, so a think a combination of pbl and lecture would provide optimum results. i do hope this info asproved to be of some use.
good luck and take care
shaheena [email protected]

 

[e2k]

I'm at the Sackler American program at University of Tel Aviv, and I love it.

Yes, I'm one of those nuts that actually enjoys memorizing lists of facts (when they pertain to the health of my patients...
For me, the first two years were actually pretty easy: just like undergrad but with more facts. Tel Aviv is a pretty nice city, with beaches and nightlife. My classmates are cool and noncompetative, with few exceptions.
Some of our profs are good, some suck, but I skipped most of my classes anyhow. I'm glad that we didn't have PBL - mandatory attendence sucks.

I just finished an incredible ER rotation in Mexico, possible only because Israel is part of the European federation of students, not American. Now I'm psyched about starting clinical rotations in Tel Aviv. I've heard 3rd year is a lot of work but a lot of fun, and 4th year is slack & beach time.

I am very curious about the American students' experiences and opinions.

 

[daveshnave]

I'm a first year at MCP Hahnemann, although I did the IMS post-bacc program last year, so I've been here for a year already. It's a great school. I've been very impressed with the interest that the professors have in teaching... they really go out of their way to help us learn things. I was not used to this coming from a huge undergrad university where all professors cared about was solely their research. Another great aspect of the school is its curriculum. It actually offers 2 track for students to choose from: a problem-based learning track and a more traditional lecture-based track, set up in the form of symptom-based modules throughout the year. The downside to the 2 tracks is that it really makes class rankings impossible, and partly for this reason MCPHU doesn't rank its students. However, I think this is actually a good thing; I've found that the attitude of the students is much more casual and geared toward learning the material, rather than trying to beat out your classmates. I don't think this really hinders you in anyway when it comes to applying to residencies either- MCPHU has had some great match results over the years, and I think an individual's grades/Step 1 scores are more important for this than an actual class ranking- especially since residency adcoms know MCPHU doesn't rank. Lastly, the financial problems of the school a few years back seem to have been a blessing in disguise- they are now backed financially by Tenet Healthcare, and the money seems to be rolling in. Because of this, the facilities are very modern, and we have state-of-the-art technology for learning, etc. As I said, my classmates are great... everyone is very friendly and casual. Not many uptight "pre-med types" here. I love it here and expect to have a great four years.
-Dave

 

[Ludy]

Dave,
I'm curious as to what percentage of the class chose the PBL curriculum vs. the traditional one. Do you know how that broke down this year? And is the PBL choice a combined lecture/PBL or just PBL?

 

[pcl]

I'm an M1 at CWRU, and so far so good. We just finished our first committee and had our first exam. I have been impressed with the way the school structured the first few weeks. I feel like they are really giving us every opportunity to get involved and settles into life here before they blindside us with rigorous academics (that part started today). Additionally, I think the administration is very interested in giving us the type of medical education that we want to receive as individuals. The flexible elective program is part of that. And I think they really try to keep us patient centered, which is what I was looking for. I'm really happy that I chose this school. Of course, ask me again next year and maybe I'll have a different opinion. Also, my classmates are pretty easygoing and not interested (for the most part) in being competitive.. it's a collaborative/cooperative group so far.

 

[Cameron]

I just finished my first real week at Ohio State and it went very well! For the first 12 weeks we'll focus on Anatomy & Embryology. After 12 weeks the curriculum pathways diverge. For those who aren't familiar with OSU, three curriculum pathways are offered: (1) Lecture/Discussion group, (2) Independent Study(ISP), and (3) Problem Based Learning. There are 35 students in the PBL program selected via random lottery(5 groups of 7 that get shuffled around every quarter), about 50 in ISP, and the rest in L/D. They've had ISP since the '70's and PBL since '91. There hasn't been a statistically significant difference in board scores between the students in the three pathways.

We worked through our first case in PBL and it went well! I think the PBL approach will really work for me here and I'm *very* excited. The PBL groups meet 3 times/week for two hours during the first year. During year two the groups meet twice/week. The attitude of our group is very cooperative and our facilitators were great too.
Good luck!

 

[mvalento]

my school (NYU) is awesome. of course, we haven't exactly started classes yet...

the students here, for the most part, are really cool, like to go out and have a good time. NYU is pass/fail for the first two years, definitely a good thing. i am very happy to be here.

bud

 

[daveshnave]

gp20-
I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I think there are about 60 people taking the PIL curriculum (PBL). You have to apply for it, because there are only a certain number of slots. It's mostly strictly PBL, but I know they also get lectures occasionally, although these are separate from the IFM lecture-base curriculum that I am taking. It's really up to the individual to decide which style is best for him/her.

 

[Hamster]

I am having a wonderful time here at Morehouse School Of Medicine. I will admit this was not my first choice school,( at the time they were my acceptance) And I had my reservations coming to a very small school ( only 41 students) in a very large city ( Atlanta). But everything has really worked out well, I have done well on my first set of exams... all of my classmates are really cool, definitely non-competitve... and I live in a really quiet area of Atlanta that gives me the small-town feel I thought I would never see again.
Any gripes I have would probably be too silly to post here. All said and done, I am really glad I came here... No regrets...Yet.. Ask me after the next text block...or when financial aid is due

 

[kd]

I'm at East Tennessee State Quillen CoM and I love it! I chose this school over several others, including some in the top-20 and I'm glad I did. We have a small class (60 people) with some really nice and interesting people, including lots of us "old farts" and non-trads. Everybody is really friendly and always trying to help each other out- I think I'm really going to like spending 4 years with this group of people.
The professors are really cool and are always available to us- VERY different from the huge undergraduate school I attended. The campus is beautiful, the surrounding mountains even better, and the area very safe.
About my only complaint is that they raised our tuition by $2000 this year, but that's the state legislature's fault, not the school's.
OK ask me again after our first anatomy exam on Wednesday- now it's time to get back to studying the innervation of thoracic and back muscles!

 

[Katie]

Finished my first day of orientation at Tufts today and it's been great so far! Everyone is really friendly and anxious to meet their fellow classmates so far, and the curriculum has us taking most of the basic sciences first semester and anatomy second semester. People have different opinions on this, but I personally like the idea of easing into the subjects I'm more familiar with first and then hitting anatomy. The second years have all kinds of bar trips and dinners planned for us during orientation week; I hope my class turns out to be as sociable as the MSII's (M'04's as they are called here) are.

 

[sng33]

Thanks for the insights into each of your schools it has been extremly informative, and lets keep them coming.

 

[tidy_kiwi]

I think a better question would have been "Who dislikes their medical school?"

Remember: the best medical school is the one where u get accepted.

Kind of similar situation to "Did you choose osteopathy over allopathic" - not many people will actually say they went DO because they couldn't get into MD school, most will say they chose to go that way.

Same with which schools u go to.

Disclaimer: This is a GENERALISATION and is just my opinion - not directed at any of the above posters in anyway.

 

[deejay_mickey]

i just finished my orientation week yesterday and i thought i did a really big mistake coming here. However, it's a whole better when u just look for the light in it. anyway, right now i'm in the international medical university in malaysia. we applied problem based learning instead of problem solved learning to our curriculum here. It has even more advantages than the traditional curriculum... don't worry to much, you'll get used to it... the med student life...

 

[yigit]

If you have the choice I say go to a school that's Pass/Fail/Honors...med school is stressful enough without a bunch of competitive type A personalities competing for top grades (like at most law schools).

This way over-achievers can get honors if they want to and everyone else helps each other pass.

 

[pcl]

Originally posted by yigit:
•If you have the choice I say go to a school that's Pass/Fail/Honors...med school is stressful enough without a bunch of competitive type A personalities competing for top grades (like at most law schools).

This way over-achievers can get honors if they want to and everyone else helps each other pass.•

Or go to a school that's strictly P/F!

 

[cg1]

Yiggit or Pcl or anyone,

If you have the choice I say go to a school that's Pass/Fail/Honors...

I applied to a lot of schools. Without having to go to each website and track down whether or not they are P/F or P/F/H, is there one source out on the internet that has all of the med schools listed and whether or not they are P/F?

Thanks!