Loyola Stritch Med School

[MonsterAddict]

Like a good poster i did a search first and didn't find anything within 3 years of any use so i decided to post a new thread. First off, is Loyola a good school? I hadn't really heard of it but found it doing a search and it seems like a nice fit. Current students and people that interviewed there what do you think of the school? Also, how far from the center of chicago is it? Thanks
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[Charles English]

i can't speak for the school, but i live in the city. the main campus is near the lake, but the med school is west--nearly as west as O'hare, but a tad farther south. i'm a practicing pedestrian these days so it is a l o n g bus/train operation to get there. in a car, with horrible traffic (worst case scenario, well, common scenario) it wouldn't take you more than an hour to be downtown if you wanted. hope that helps... i'm wondering myself about their school...i'm applying to all the ones in the city, but Loyola is the one i'm just not sure about. hopefully with you starting this thread people will have good insight.

 

[jbrice1639]

As a Loyola third year student, I obviously think it's a "good school." I'm not really sure how to quantify "good" since I don't know what you're asking, but if you're just talking about rankings, someone can probably just look that up - although we're not a huge research school, and that seems to be the driving force of rankings anyways.

As far as location, it's not in the city of Chicago, as you know. It's definitely nowhere near as far from downtown as O'Hare though. It's about a 15-20 minute drive from downtown to Maywood (where the medical school is) in just about any traffic other than gridlock rush hour (and that really is never when you will be driving to/from school). Also, no need to worry about the main undergrad campus (or the law school campus) as you won't be doing anything on the other campuses, just the medical campus.

I have lived in the Chicago area my whole life, and currently, I live up on the north side of the city near wrigley field. Even that commute is only about 45 minutes - occasionally an hour if traffic is bad, sometimes 30 minutes if traffic is really light (although, really light is rare).

I would also point out that, from a commuting standpoint, University of Chicago is almost as long of a commute from the center of the city as Loyola - not to mention, no one really lives "downtown" because there really isn't much to do downtown after the workday ends. As a student in your 20s, you'll probably want to live somewhere on the north side or the near northwest side of the city where all the young people live - lots of bars, restaurants, etc.

Definitely don't let location be your deciding factor on Loyola. It's a great school, and we have some of the happiest students of all the Chicago schools (they do some sort of survey that's published, so i'm not making that data up).

It's very doable to live in the city and be a student at Loyola - and it's also very doable to live close to school and take advantage of all the city has to offer on a regular basis as well.

The school itself has a very clinical focus - lots of patient contact starting very early. We do block scheduling for the first year, so you're only concentrating on one course at a time, which makes the adjustment to medical school a lot smoother. The facilities are great - we just opened a brand new wing of the hospital, we have one of the nicest gyms I've ever had the pleasure to be a member of, our medical school building is only about 10 years old and was actually designed around our curriculum.

Anyways, I think I've rambled enough. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. I'm starting my surgery rotation tomorrow, but I will try to get back to you in a reasonable amount of time.

(for what it's worth, i had to decide between the chicago campus of UIC and Loyola when I applied, and UIC didn't even come close in that decision, despite location/shorter commute)

 

[Phoenix.]

I don't go to Loyola, but I interviewed there and talked to lots of Loyola med students, and I'd have to agree with jbrice. Some of the happiest med students I've met go to Loyola. And it is a GREAT school with wonderful facilities, a responsive caring administration, great clinical training and humane and well-balanced curriculum. They also have a real mission and focus on serving the underserved which I think is wonderful (and they look for applicants with significant volunteering). Like jbrice, I also preferred Loyola to UIC's Chicago campus - in large part because of the comparison in facilities, curriculum and administration.

I think it would be tremendously hard to interview at Loyola and not think it's an excellent school. However, there is a lot of PBL (i.e., small group learning) there and not a lot of lecture, so it just depends on how you learn. While they have some clinical research, they're also not really known for hard core/lab research, and I would think someone interested in that may find a better match elsewhere. And it is just outside the city rather than in it. It's about a 30-45 minute drive from the city depending on where you live, and if you live in Oak Park or Forest Park near the school, you can jump on the EL and be downtown in under half an hour.

Also, there are definitely lots of threads discussing Loyola in this forum already. Try some more searches. Also, if you want to find impressions by applicants that interviewed there, use SDN's interview feedback database.

 

[Flopotomist]

I don't go to Loyola...I think it would be tremendously hard to interview at Loyola and not think it's an excellent school. However, there is a lot of PBL (i.e., small group learning) there and not a lot of lecture

I wanted to chime in and correct this post by somebody who isn't a student here, and isn't very familiar with our curriculum. We certainly have SOME small groups, but it generally is complementary to lectures as opposed to replacing lectures. We still have lectures, although not as many as some other schools. I can't imagine any student here would describe our curriculum as "a lot of PBL."

If you click around our website you can find the actual link to the entire course schedule (careful when looking at it as you don't actually attend every small group blocked off on the schedule so it may look like there are more times at school than there is).

Here is the link to our physiology schedule for first year to give you an example.

http://www.meddean.luc.edu/template...=1&acadstart=7/30/2001&class=FIRST&course=103

I am also in jbrice's class, but on a milder rotation, so if you have any questions, you could also PM me.

 

[Phoenix.]

Sorry flopotomist - I didn't mean to misinform. I just re-read what I wrote, and it does sound like I was saying Loyola has PBL in place of lectures. I apologize. Loyola certainly has lectures (I even sat in on a few), but from what I've learned, it's not the 9am-5pm lectures that schools with a traditional curriculum frequently have. Also, many of the students I spoke with at Loyola said that they thought there was a lot of small group time - but I'm sure they just meant in comparison to other schools. Personally, I like Loyola's curriculum and the integration of small group learning. But from what I've heard it isn't everyone's cup of tea, so I thought I'd mention it.

 

[Perfectionist]

i heard Stritch med school had an early assurance pathway for college students, how does that work and does it only apply to Loyola undergrad. students?

 

[Phoenix.]

i heard Stritch med school had an early assurance pathway for college students, how does that work and does it only apply to Loyola undergrad. students?

I'm definitely no expert on this, but I did my post-bac at Loyola, and knew an undergrad that tried that pathway. I don't know if it's limited to only Loyola undergrads, but I would guess that it is. From my recollection, students would submit applications to the Loyola undergrad pre-med advising office/committee. The undergrad pre-med committee would then pick out about 7 students to interview, and thereafter select about 3-4 students to send on to Stritch for interviews there. Not sure how many Stritch takes each year. Apologies if any of that information is wrong, and I definitely recommend checking the web site or contacting the school.

 

[NJDIF]

i am not from the area at all, and applied on a lark.

i spent a few days over winter break in chicago, and interviewed there.

it was not only a beautiful campus, modern facility, but everyone there was extremely nice. Being from new york, i couldnt tell if this was just the "mid west" niceness, or the students themselves, but it was really refreshing. everyone really loves it, and the faculty seems like they are chomping at the bit to help out the students. i had to do a double take because no one seemed like the stereotypical stressed out med student.

i got in a week later, and had the tough choice of loyola and one of my state schools.

it came down to cost (loyola would have been 2.5X the cost of my state school), and the fact that my research here just got a few grants.

if cost were no issue, and if my projects here hadnt come to fruition, i would have gone to loyola.