Yup, Mayo is pretty amazing. The top reasons I've heard that people turn down Mayo are the weather and the location. Rochester is actually a really nice place to live (incredibly cheap cost of living), but it's not a big city, so the city folk (like me) could see that as a negative aspect to attending Mayo. I haven't been to Minneapolis yet (it's about an hour and twenty minute drive), but apparently that's where people head off to when they want a larger city. Also, since we get two weeks every six weeks to do selectives, you could do those selectives anywhere you like. I'm definitely looking forward to going to the Mayo Scottsdale campus during the winter, to making a trip or two on an international service trip (you can pretty much arrange to go anywhere you want), and to shadowing/volunteering in other cities/areas. Last year a bunch of students went to the Dominican Republic, and they're going again. My point is just that you're not confined to Rochester, Minnesota for four years. Other than the selectives the first two years, when you get to your third and fourth year, you can do rotations at the Rochester, MN, Jacksonville, FL or Scottsdale, AZ locations. You could also do away rotations elsewhere outside of the Mayo system for some of the fourth year rotations.
And while Rochester is a small place for those used to big cities, I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. There's no undergrad campus, but I really feel like the enormous Mayo hospital system is a huge medical campus with amazing resources and as many opportunities as you can imagine. The only limiting factor really is the social scene. But the med students here definitely make the most of Rochester, and get together for lots of fun activities. And obviously, you'll have so much to do in medical school, and so many amazing opportunities to take advantage of here, that I really can't imagine turning down Mayo for location alone. Anyway, I could go on and on, but I need to get to the farmer's market now to buy some bison bones for my dog.
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Ah, one other thing. Mayo is big on self-directed learning, so if you want a school where you sit in lecture and are spoon-fed for eight hours a day, Mayo might not be the best place for you. They will assign and/or present the material, but they really feel like they're just here to offer the resources and answer our questions. There is a big clinical focus for each class, which I think is truly amazing, but which I suppose someone else might not like if they just want to focus on hard-core science. Mayo seems to be very interested in teaching us the big picture and the clinical applications. So they can gloss over some of the basic details and just figure that we'll learn them on our own. Regardless, I've been really impressed with how much emphasis is on content and understanding rather than rote memorization and regurgitation (which is what I anticipated medical school would be like (but which it will obviously be like next block with anatomy!)). They figure we're all smart and driven, so we'll learn what we need to. The only other potential down-side, is that due to the administration's interest in student feedback and suggestions, the curriculum and class organization is flexible and changes a little each year based on reviews from last year's class. I think that it's great that the curriculum gets better and better each year, but things can be a little rough at first with a new teacher who hasn't taught the course, or a new book/schedule. But they do seem to be very responsive to our concerns and incredibly eager and helpful in trying to smooth out any trouble areas, so I'm not too concerned. Then again, perhaps I should wait to see if I pass Block II first.
And I thought tonight was safe....
