Other than the standard reply of "Look at the MSAR and check reqs and match the GPA, MCAT averages with yours"
What else should I be looking into?
What else should I be looking into?
How to pick what schools to apply to.. other than the state schools
- Thread starter vickpick
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The location of a school seems to be important to a lot of people. Some want big cities while others don't care. Some want to be in "conservative" areas while others want to be in "liberal" areas. I want to go to a school that has a block schedule and not the old traditional schedule. I also want to get out of a big city. I've lived in Los Angeles county my entire life.
o ok.. makes sense.. so i should take into consideration the size of the city... i guess smaller cities will probably cost less too..
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Depends. You can get some cheap housing in big cities, but it can be very expensive in the larger cities (think NYC). Larger cities will also have more options for transportation, so you may cut costs there.
Curriculum is important... do you want to go to a school that has a traditional curriculum (separate classes), or a systems-based school (learning everything about, say the heart and lungs in one block)? Do you want to go to a school with PBL? Do you want to go to a school where lectures are mandatory, or one where everything is optional? Do you want all your clerkships in the same area, or do you want to move around the region (some schools limit clerkships in third year to hospitals in one city, whereas some spread across the state and region. Some have mandatory rural clerkships, or specific clerkships at one hospital). Are you interested in research, primary care, or both? Do you want a school that has highly ranked hospitals associated with it?
Do you want to live in a region where it snows? How about where it rains a lot? Are you an outdoor person, or would you rather live in a city where you can go out and party all the time?
Do you want to be in a large (200+) class, or a smaller one? Financial aid is a consideration too... NYU is notorious for giving out only loans in its packages, whereas Mt. Sinai will subsidize students so they take out minimal loans.
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So since I'm a moderate/centrist, does that mean I have a lot more options as far as the political leanings of the area I want to go to school in are concerned?
😛There are other issues people take into account as well. Is there a family connection to other schools outside your state? Research/clinical opportunities you are really interested in? Etc. and so on. It just depends on what your priorities are.
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Yeah, but going to that school may not help you match into derm at all. It just may mean the school attracts students who would do well on the boards and match into derm no matter where they go for med school. Be wary of the classic correlation/causation fallacy in this type of discussion.
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I don't think anyone mentioned this yet, but look at what percentage of the class out of state students got accepted to the school. There are a lot of state schools where that number is <10% so those are probably not worth even applying to if you are out of state. I did not apply to any schools unless they accepted >20% of their class from OOS.
NYC schools have amazing subsidized housing options that are as cheap or cheaper than other places.
correlation =/= causation.
the title of the thread says "other than state schools."
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I dont understand what you mean by traditional, system-based, PBL.
i know PBL stands for problem based learning or something?
but isnt all learning in med school problem based? you are presented with a disease and you have to solve it?
whats the difference between traditional and system based? I dont understand what you mean by learning everything separately or in one block?
not all learning in med school is problem based. in fact, the traditional way of learning the material is through lectures. the new trend is for schools to incorporate some small group, case-based learning into the lecture schedule. schools differ in the extent to which they do this, and how it's set up if they do incorporate PBL.
systems-based means you do one system at a time (e.g. digestive or musculoskeletal) and learn the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, histology, etc. of that one system, instead of doing all of anatomy (for every system) then all of biochemistry, etc.
block scheduling means you only have one science class at a time, so you're doing everything in succession instead of concurrently.
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Oh sorry I thought he mean other then the schools in the state where he is a resident of. I was talking about OOS schools.
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dw2158 does a good job of explaining it all, but I'll elaborate some more.
UVA and University of Colorado (two schools I've interviewed at this cycle, so I have a better idea of what's going on there) both have system-based curriculums. Colorado starts out with Anatomy for 10 weeks...that's the only class you'll have, and you dissect the extremeties, the trunk, and the head and neck in waves. Then they move on to a class called Molecules to Medicine, where you learn the cellular stuff.. things like biochemistry and such. UVA starts out with a similar class called Molecular and Cellular Medicine. Then they each go through the systems... blood, cariovascular/pulmonology/renal, endocrine/reproduction, nervous systems, etc. Each school will break it up a little differently. In these blocks, you learn everything about that system, from the physiology, the biochem, the pharmacology, the pathology, etc.
In the systems curriculums, you learn everything in the first 18 months, then take Step I in like March of your second year, instead of in July. This means you can go through all required clerkships, and some electives, by the end of your third year, so you have an idea of what you want to do for your residency.
In the traditional curriculum, you take classes like you did in undergrad... you'll do biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, etc. You'll take longer to learn the materials, and typically won't start 'third year' until July or August, whereas the people doing the systems-based curriculums start in April.
Traditionally, it's all taught through lectures. PBL means you get into small groups and figure out a problem to learn a concept, rather than have it told to you.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both curriculums, and schools have varying degrees of PBL. I, personally, like the systems-based curriculums better, so that's what I'll look at most strongly if I get to choose between my schools.
i think you're getting things a bit confused... what you described for colorado is not systems-based. but it is block scheduling (one class at a time). UVa sounds more like systems-based, from what you're describing.
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Yes Colorado's description did sound like block scheduling. That is what we have at Tech. We just finished Anatomy and now are are Biology of Cells and Tissues (biochem, genetics, cell bio, and histology). Then in the spring we do Physiology as it normally happens (by system I believe), and then Host Defense (micro, virology). 2nd year its neuro, cancer and multi system disorders, then all the patho and diseases.... our students take Step 1 in early June (you have all of May to study).
I love this curriculum and couldn't do a traditional format. We only have one test to worry about at a time, can focus all energy into one subject, and only had to spend 10 weeks in the Anatomy lab (friends at other schools in from Sept-Mar/April).
System based does it by systems
PBL gives you a case and you look up everything- anatomy, biochem, terminology, pathology etc you need to solve it. Apparently the cases get progressively harder and are organized in a fashion so each "set" of cases tend to reinforce topics. I interviewed at a school that was 100% PBL and it just seems chaotic to me.
I love this curriculum and couldn't do a traditional format. We only have one test to worry about at a time, can focus all energy into one subject, and only had to spend 10 weeks in the Anatomy lab (friends at other schools in from Sept-Mar/April).
System based does it by systems
PBL gives you a case and you look up everything- anatomy, biochem, terminology, pathology etc you need to solve it. Apparently the cases get progressively harder and are organized in a fashion so each "set" of cases tend to reinforce topics. I interviewed at a school that was 100% PBL and it just seems chaotic to me.
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Maybe this is a dumb question but o well. So did all of you do research on the type of schedule and learning type that each school follows. Or did you just apply broadly and go from there.. I plan on applying to as many schools as possible..
And if you did research, did you keep any notes that you could share?
And if you did research, did you keep any notes that you could share?
i just applied broadly and reserved judgment until interview day. if you apply to a solid number and spread of schools, you're bound to see a bunch of different curricula in there. but honestly, some people (many people) only get into one school so they can't even afford to consider different curriculum styles. you're gonna get the info at any med school so
