Med School Curriculum Differences

[Richspiders07]

Hello All- After talking with other interviewees at UTMB, I realized the huge differences in med school curriculum. For instance, some schools have class from 8-12 with only one focused course at a time. Others have class all day with 2+ courses at a time.

To me it seems like a no-brainer to attend the med school with the easier daily load as long as their USMLE pass rates are high. What does everyone else think? Do you think this issue is significant enough to influence your final decision on where to attend? ... assuming we have choices!

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[jillibean]

Hello All- After talking with other interviewees at UTMB, I realized the huge differences in med school curriculum. For instance, some schools have class from 8-12 with only one focused course at a time. Others have class all day with 2+ courses at a time.

To me it seems like a no-brainer to attend the med school with the easier daily load as long as their USMLE pass rates are high. What does everyone else think? Do you think this issue is significant enough to influence your final decision on where to attend? ... assuming we have choices!

Yeah, I'm with you. Some people might like the variety of having multiple classes at a time though.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Hello All- After talking with other interviewees at UTMB, I realized the huge differences in med school curriculum. For instance, some schools have class from 8-12 with only one focused course at a time. Others have class all day with 2+ courses at a time.

To me it seems like a no-brainer to attend the med school with the easier daily load as long as their USMLE pass rates are high. What does everyone else think? Do you think this issue is significant enough to influence your final decision on where to attend? ... assuming we have choices!

you're forgetting that med students often don't attend class, especially those at schools where the daily schedule is filled with lectures. Learning the material is more of an individual effort outside the lecture hall. Look for a curriculum that fits your learning style well and you should be fine as long as you put forth the effort to learn all the material. Remember that although you may pass the board and score well on it with such an "easy" schedule, it might be much more difficult to study for such a test in a oddly styled curriculum. Talk to 3rd and 4th years at the med schools you interview and ask them how they felt about this setup in relation to how well it prepared them for the boards. They should be honest about it.

 

[txfisher]

Yeah, I know a 3rd year at utmb who said he loves the curriculum. He said that utsw has the hardest in the state with several classes at once and final exams during the same week, etc. I think that the half day curriculum w/time to study on your own is the best for me, but maybe not for others. But, yeah, I think curriculum is a factor I had not considered before going to visit Galveston and is definitely going to play a part in where I go.

 

[MD-To Be]

Hello All- After talking with other interviewees at UTMB, I realized the huge differences in med school curriculum. For instance, some schools have class from 8-12 with only one focused course at a time. Others have class all day with 2+ courses at a time.

To me it seems like a no-brainer to attend the med school with the easier daily load as long as their USMLE pass rates are high. What does everyone else think? Do you think this issue is significant enough to influence your final decision on where to attend? ... assuming we have choices!

I just got accepted to Wright State University's School of Medicine and they use the half-day one class at a time curriculum and their USMLE pass rate is right at the national average:

94% - Step I
96% - Step II

 

[julie29524]

True, UTMB is a Texas favorite among TMDSAS applicants because of this 8-12 thing, But just because there is less class time, doesn't mean there is less studying or less difficulty. I personally don't mind class time, I figured since we are paying out the wazoo in tuition, the professors should be teaching us in lectures. But if you despise lectures or sleeps through them no matter what happens, maybe you should pick UTMB then.

Advice: curriculums change and modify themselves all the time! So when you interview, ask about them, and make a good judgement. I know for certain UTSA's curriculum is different this year from 2005, quizzes I think.

Good Luck

Hello All- After talking with other interviewees at UTMB, I realized the huge differences in med school curriculum. For instance, some schools have class from 8-12 with only one focused course at a time. Others have class all day with 2+ courses at a time.

To me it seems like a no-brainer to attend the med school with the easier daily load as long as their USMLE pass rates are high. What does everyone else think? Do you think this issue is significant enough to influence your final decision on where to attend? ... assuming we have choices!

 

[medstylee]

Hello All- After talking with other interviewees at UTMB, I realized the huge differences in med school curriculum. For instance, some schools have class from 8-12 with only one focused course at a time. Others have class all day with 2+ courses at a time.

To me it seems like a no-brainer to attend the med school with the easier daily load as long as their USMLE pass rates are high. What does everyone else think? Do you think this issue is significant enough to influence your final decision on where to attend? ... assuming we have choices!

if you have the choice, yeah, i think curriculum can be a very influential. i had some experience with problem based learning in school, and it just really didn't work for me - that's not how i learn. i was originally really interested in a school that had a very pbl-heavy curriculum. but now, looking back, i think it would have been a bad learning environment for me. the school i ended up choosing has a more traditional curriculum with a lot of class hours. that tends to be a turn-off to a lot of people, but i think it will work really well for me. so, it's an important decision. good luck with your applications/interviews.

 

[sscooterguy]

Becareful with what is advertised by the schools. My school said we only had classes 8-12. They didn't mention required afternoon small group sessions 3-4 days a week, plus an additional bimonthly extra afternoon meeting for an ethics type class. Try to contact any students you met on the interview trail about extra work like that. However, even with the extra work, it was more annoying than truely time consuming.

Personally, I would not compare the hours as much as the theory of study. About half of schools teach in subject based style, aka physiology, pharmacology, pathology, etc. The other half does organ based study aka Cardio, Pulmonary, Renal (with the phys, path, pharm etc of each system). Few programs have PBL (problem based learning), aka your patient presents with these symptoms. Learn everything about what it could be from embryology, phys, path, etc. My school also has an independent study route. Again, ask around to see what each school has, how students like it, what your options are.

sscooterguy

 

[DoctaJay]

The thread below really helped me put things into perspective:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=104541&page=1&pp=25