med school with most friendly students?

[The Madden Bus]

Hey guys, I was just wondering which med schools have been known to have students who are generally friendly and sociable. I do realize med school is of course a high stress environment no matter where you are, but surely the environment varies from school to school. I was just curious to know which medical schools tend to have friendlier and more sociable students than others if anyone knows or has heard, etc.

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[taponthecloud]

Medical home-schooling.

 

[TheRealMD]

I find this an odd question. Each class for a medical school is mostly different. Unless you're going to imply that schools specifically pick applicants with certain personalities, it's mostly a wash from school to school anyway.

And certainly at all schools, you should be able to find a core group of friends to be around and enjoy med school with. I'd focus more on the direct aspects that affect your education than anything else: teaching style, approachability of faculty, help from administrative staff, resources, teaching facilities, etc..

 

[notepreocupes]

stanford

 

[RySerr21]

ive heard amazing things about the students and professors/physicians at loyal stritch.

 

[172858]

uth, utmb, ucla, ui-chicago, and tulane.

DEFINITELY NOT ou.

 

[Perrotfish]

I find this an odd question. Each class for a medical school is mostly different. Unless you're going to imply that schools specifically pick applicants with certain personalities, it's mostly a wash from school to school anyway.

Not sure I agree. At the very least you can look at how schools try to create relationships/competition between students. If your medical school has both grades for year 1 and 2, and a straight ranking system (one student is number 1, one student is number 2... all the way to dead last) you're probably going to see a lot less friendlieness. It's hard to be friendly when helping your fellow student out means sacrificing your own chances at a top residency.

And certainly at all schools, you should be able to find a core group of friends to be around and enjoy med school with.

Again, depends. Maybe if you go to a 200 person per class medical school, but what about schools that have 50 per class? This definitely isn't like Undergrad where there are definitely going to be dozens of people who share your interests.

 

[doomknight]

michigan state and ohio state

 

[Danbo1957]

UT-San Antonio, friendliest school in the nation.

 

[Textuality]

I think this also depends on your own personality. For example, I'm sure the student body at Loma Linda are probably really nice, but I definitely would feel like a misfit there (since I'm agnostic). Or maybe NYC attracts med students who are more liberal and urban-oriented, and even though they're really social, maybe what they like to talk about and do just don't really click with you. I really do think that most schools have a student body that's pretty nice, but it's a matter of how well you think you'd fit in with them. For example, I've grown up all my life on the East coast, and felt a little out of sorts sometimes interviewing at schools with a more Southern vibe in its student body, where I didn't find many people who were into indie rock or gay bars, lol. Different schools attract different personalities to some degree (because of location in big cities or rural areas, reputation, what have you) which is why "fit" is always talked about.

 

[doomknight]

Oh yea, and the lesser ranked schools, on average, probably have nicer students. The students at top schools are probably mostly nice too, but on average, they probably have more students that are not nice, physically and non-physically, than lower ranked schools. I read vermont had a beautiful campus with awesome faculty and students, there was a thread on it. Of course, coincidentally, Tucker Max's famous (and almost banned by law) Miss Vermont story was written about an aspiring law student from vermont. I considered applying to vermont myself, until I realized how much they charged for out of state tuition.....

 

[shemarty]

stanford

👍 I agree. But then again, I've never really met the medical students at any other school. Except the ones who went on to become residents or attendings at Stanford. They're all really friendly too.

 

[Cestmoi]

I'd say most likely schools with a real P/F grading system... (not the whole High pass, low pass front). Then the students won't be trying to literally slit eachother's throats for ranks and are more likely to be cooperative... like at AECOM.

 

[EpiPEN]

If one can't find just a few people that you can connect in a class of a hundred or more, then I think one would need to work on some social skills. And I don't think many would turn down an acceptance offer from JHU or another top ranked university to go to somewhere like.. iono... University of Navada or something (No offense if you actually go to Univeristy of Navada, I just randomly picked a school not ranked in the top 50 that I haven't heard much of). So imho, the question of friendly environment is pretty trivial until you actually get acceptances from multiple schools that are on the same tier that you can choose from. Afterall, applying broadly seems to be the motto suggestion of this forum.

 

[Narmerguy]

If one can't find just a few people that you can connect in a class of a hundred or more, then I think one would need to work on some social skills. And I don't think many would turn down an acceptance offer from JHU or another top ranked university to go to somewhere like.. iono... University of Navada or something (No offense if you actually go to Univeristy of Navada, I just randomly picked a school not ranked in the top 50 that I haven't heard much of). So imho, the question of friendly environment is pretty trivial until you actually get acceptances from multiple schools that are on the same tier that you can choose from. Afterall, applying broadly seems to be the motto suggestion of this forum.

That's funny because I went to most of high school in Nevada so I got excited just seeing the local university mentioned at all 😛

However I disagree with your statement. Though sure everyone should be able to find a few friends from a group of 100, what use is it if the other 97 are generally spiteful, cut-throat, antagonistic freaks? I can see why people would try to find a school where there aren't necessarily more friends available to them but less enemies to struggle through.

But from what I've seen people in Nevada are pretty nice 🙂

 

[betheltim]

I'd say most likely schools with a real P/F grading system... (not the whole High pass, low pass front). Then the students won't be trying to literally slit eachother's throats for ranks and are more likely to be cooperative... like at AECOM.

Yeah, that high pass/low pass stuff makes me think hockey more than med school anyway...

 

[Textuality]

Oh yea, and the lesser ranked schools, on average, probably have nicer students. The students at top schools are probably mostly nice too, but on average, they probably have more students that are not nice, physically and non-physically, than lower ranked schools. I read vermont had a beautiful campus with awesome faculty and students, there was a thread on it. Of course, coincidentally, Tucker Max's famous (and almost banned by law) Miss Vermont story was written about an aspiring law student from vermont. I considered applying to vermont myself, until I realized how much they charged for out of state tuition.....

Actually, of all the schools I interviewed at , U Maryland seemed to have the most competitive student body (still really nice people though!). And I didn't notice any kind of physical attractiveness correlation while I was interviewing, haha. I actually hear that has more to do with school location.

In any case, you'll get a feel for how well you fit at the school when you interview and meet the students there 🙂

 

[fireflygirl]

My brother interviewed at a variety of schools and loved the Dartmouth students the best. He also liked the students at University of Vermont. He thought that the geographical location and the laid back atmosphere of the schools had a lot to do with it.

I interviewed at a few schools as well and despite the fact that I'm going to be a student there, I really felt comfortable at PCOM. It's one of the main reasons I picked it over MSU. And the students seemed genuinely happy and appreciated by their peers which was very appealing to me.

 

[EpiPEN]

That's funny because I went to most of high school in Nevada so I got excited just seeing the local university mentioned at all 😛

However I disagree with your statement. Though sure everyone should be able to find a few friends from a group of 100, what use is it if the other 97 are generally spiteful, cut-throat, antagonistic freaks? I can see why people would try to find a school where there aren't necessarily more friends available to them but less enemies to struggle through.

But from what I've seen people in Nevada are pretty nice 🙂

Yeah I suppose, but still, it's not like you are going to be the enemies of the other 97 people in your class. I think I can live with three very close friends and a bunch of other people I sometime associate with (and you gotta admit, not liking 97 out of 100 people is pretty hard to do). Unless one does become the enemy of 97/100 students in class, in which case, I would just fall back to my comment about developing better social skills 😀.

 

[TheRealMD]

Yeah I suppose, but still, it's not like you are going to be the enemies of the other 97 people in your class. I think I can live with three very close friends and a bunch of other people I sometime associate with (and you gotta admit, not liking 97 out of 100 people is pretty hard to do). Unless one does become the enemy of 97/100 students in class, in which case, I would just fall back to my comment about developing better social skills 😀.

But my point is that that can happen ANYWHERE. If anything, it's not the school you should be paying attention to but what the accepted students in your class are like. So definitely take advantage of second-look weekends when you have them.

 

[medking]

Hey guys, I was just wondering which med schools have been known to have students who are generally friendly and sociable. I do realize med school is of course a high stress environment no matter where you are, but surely the environment varies from school to school. I was just curious to know which medical schools are tend to have friendlier and more sociable students than others if anyone knows or has heard, etc.

Perhaps the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)???

 

[EpiPEN]

But my point is that that can happen ANYWHERE. If anything, it's not the school you should be paying attention to but what the accepted students in your class are like. So definitely take advantage of second-look weekends when you have them.

Eh I thought I was on the pro side of caring about the environment only after you get accepted too?

 

[flaahless]

Tulane tends to pride itself on this. I've heard good things about EVMS, too.

co-sign

 

[LadyWolverine]

Actually, of all the schools I interviewed at , U Maryland seemed to have the most competitive student body (still really nice people though!).

Did you meet any students from my class?? 😕

 

[Begaster]

How could anyone be expected to answer this properly?

Every med student will put forth his/her school as the friendliest place ever.

People telling you that a school isn't friendly will be undoubtedly basing that on the interview they had there, where they met a handful of people who may have been having a bad day.

Most schools seem to have their share of awesome and less than awesome people. This shouldn't affect your choice decision at all, because you won't see that much variation between different places.

 

[The Madden Bus]

Tulane was mentioned no less than three times, interesting. I appreciate all the input into this list. Further comment would be appreciated. And for anyone "deeply concerned" about my choice of schools, I am not basing my decision solely on this factor I just thought it would be interesting to know. I do understand that it can vary depending on the class, the city, etc. but surely there can be some trends.

 

[dog0]

When interviewing, the students at Michigan seemed pretty cool. I haven't started at UVA yet, but I visited last weekend, and the students I met were awesome. Plus, they all got/get ****-faced 🙂

 

[ButImLETired]

I've also heard GREAT things about Loyola people. Tufts kids are nice, too.

 

[neuro1617]

I've heard Dartmouth students are really friendly & that it's a good atmosphere. But really I think it depends on your personality. If we all thought the same people were easy to get along with, we'd all be friends with the same people which clearly is not the case.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

School of Hard knocks.

 

[jeffosokisk]

How about USC Keck? The medical students and the professors I've met are really nice.

 

[cbrown800]

i agree with dartmouth, the people there seemed really nice and got along well with each other! vandy was friendly too.

 

[cbrons]

ive heard amazing things about the students and professors/physicians at loyal stritch.

I went on a visit there, this is true. The gross anatomy teacher engaged me in a nice 5 minute conversation even though he was obviously busy... i hear hes the favorite instructor of MS-1s there.

loyola is an amazing school.... man do i hope i get in next yr...

 

[Perrotfish]

How could anyone be expected to answer this properly?

Every med student will put forth his/her school as the friendliest place ever

I've know students from other medical schools that considered their schools relatively unfriendly or overly competitive (I won't name them), though they generally felt that the other aspects of the medical school more than made up for any oddities in their classmates. Heck, at my undergrad (GA Tech) the terrible social skills of the undergrads was a running joke on the campus. This didn't mean that the students at my school didn't consider Tech the best public school in existance, just that they aknowledged that the social side of things probably wasn't their strongest point.

 

[Tx1227]

UT-San Antonio, friendliest school in the nation.

Agree completely and not just because I am a student there. I have been to every MD program in Texas and found that UT-SA and UTMB in Galveston were by far the friendliest, most layed back schools, at least in Texas.

 

[bcat85]

I interviewed at 5 places. I thought SLU and, interestingly enough, Hopkins had the friendliest students.

 

[ohmedschool]

I thought University of Wisconsin (Madison) had the friendliest and most supportive students/faculty. I also have heard good things about Vermont.

 

[SDN2013]

Mayo (Phoenix is there!) and UW-Madison

 

[Hyperstudyosis]

I've heard Mayo is really friendly.....of course if you can get in there, that's a huge accomplishment. It's my dream, but I doubt it will happen...

 

[MilkmanAl]

I really like my class at UAMS, for whatever that's worth.

 

[RySerr21]

Of the schools I have visited thus far I'd say that nicest students I have encountered were at Western University. They literally went out of their way to make sure we were enjoying our interivew day...and not just the DO students. The pharm students, physics therapy students, vet students, etc. etc. It didnt matter, there was always a student from some program that would come up and ask if we needed any help, had any questions, and all were encouraging about the interviews and emphasized that we just relax and enjoy the day.

 

[p30doc]

same, solely based on interview day alone, Western U has definitely had the nicest students so far.

 

[xrevision]

Nobody is mentioning vanderbilt?

 

[Dr Lyss]

I'll throw in Weill Cornell. The faculty & students were amazing. Especially the minority community.

 

[funkydrmonkey]

Nobody is mentioning vanderbilt?

Finally... Thank you, I felt they were really nice. Of all of the places I interviewed at, they tried their hardest to make me feel welcome... I even got an impromptu tour of the undergrad campus by one of the MSII's.😀

 

[Jolie South]

Not sure I agree. At the very least you can look at how schools try to create relationships/competition between students. If your medical school has both grades for year 1 and 2, and a straight ranking system (one student is number 1, one student is number 2... all the way to dead last) you're probably going to see a lot less friendlieness. It's hard to be friendly when helping your fellow student out means sacrificing your own chances at a top residency.

i don't agree with this. we have grades and i think we have rankings (i missed orientation 😳), but i receive so many study guides by e-mail that sometimes i wish i could block them. everyone helps each other out. it's not like you consciously think "ok, this person is number 1 or maybe they might be so i'm not going to help him/her." there are a lot of incredibly intelligent people in my class, but there's no competitive spirit.

people don't even talk about grades. no one knows how anyone else is doing. i mean we know the class statistics as a whole, but not much else.

the only problem i really have with my class is the tools that have to constantly freak out and ask "is this going to be on the test?" that's another story though.

 

[Shaptown]

School of Hard knocks.

You have got to be one of the most obnoxious people I have ever seen. Its a good thing you couldn't make it into an allopathic med school because you are exactly the type of person the OP is trying to avoid...

 

[Jolie South]

let's try to keep it civil. expressing your opinion is ok, but please refrain from insulting other users.

 

[QuacksterVu]

I can't speak for other medical schools, but the environment is not competitive at Jefferson. Everyone makes up different study tools and strategies, then passes it out through our class discussion boards.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Its a good thing you couldn't make it into an allopathic med school because you are exactly the type of person the OP is trying to avoid...

It's not like he's really personable and has an absurdly good application including a 3.95/40 to solidify his chances or anything. Oh, wait...