I, myself, get frustrated at times, because I feel that decisions are being made by the school and I'm not made aware of it... then I come and talk to Linda (our Student Affairs director) and she fills me in on what's going on and why things are being done differently, etc. and I feel a lot better.
Believe it or not, the school is not out to get us. I mean, they don't want you to fail - it doesn't make business sense! Based on the whole "they want your money" logic, wouldn't it only make sense that they make you stay for all 4 years? They want you to succeed, because they, too, can reap from the benefits later on, whether it is your monetary contributions as an alumni, your services as a mentor for their soon-to-be-mandated mentorship program, etc. Your future success in your field will be a reflection of the school, which then will help attract more students, more people will be enrolled, they make more money, and so on. They are making all these changes in our curriculum to make our second year a little bit more bearable, based on the meeting that the class of 2007 had with the Dean.
About the change in the curriculum, so what? They moved 4 light-weight classes to our 5th and 6th blocks because the first year is relatively easy compared to the second year. This allows us to have more time to focus on dense classes like Cardiology, etc., and this was in response to the feedback they received from the 2nd years' class meeting not too long ago. Instead of waiting to fix the schedule for the next class, they acted so quickly so WE don't have to suffer through the same situation. We are lucky to have a distinguished, well-respected administrator like Dean Ross-Lee. She knows what she's doing -- she's been doing this for YEARS. She might seem blunt at times, but maybe it is this attitude that gets things done around here so fast. Sometimes we think we know everything about how a school is to be run just because we've been here for one or two years, but in actually we have no idea on what really goes on.
Now, I'm not saying NYCOM is perfect. For example, we still have schedule glitches that are currently being worked on. The important thing is they're doing something about it. If you follow the schedule to the T, who cares if the lectures are behind schedule? You've done your part. Medical school is all about learning to take the initiative, learning on your own. Once you're a resident, do you think your attendings will assign you homework every night? I don't think so. If you want to be spoon-fed, go back to college.
Now, to those who are currently deciding on where to go for school, first off, make sure medicine is what you really want to do. I think all the frustrations boils down to how unhappy you are with your situation. Find out EVERYTHING about it before you go in -- whether it's lecture based or PBL, the clerkships, the location, the climate, the people, EVERYTHING, and whether the whole package will be conducive to your learning. Remember, your medical school experience is what you make of it. If you have any questions specifically about NYCOM, PM me.
Michele