I don't think I posted in here before today. I'm a current 4th year student at Meharry. I can try to help you answer questions about the school. Questions are better sent to me by PM because I won't be checking this thread. But I'll repost the question and answers here for everyone else to benefit from.
Feel free to find me on Facebook. But know I'm not ignoring you, I just suck at Facebooking.
Welcome to the family!
Alyssa.
I was accepted to Meharry for this fall and saw on the forum that you're a current student there! I had a few questions I was wondering if you could help me with?
1.) Rotations: how does 3rd and 4th year particularly look like? Are all the rotations at Meharry and affiliated hospitals?
Rotations are at Metro General hospital (on campus), Meharry clinics (on campus), ELAM mental health center (on campus) Matthew Walker - a 'patient home' comprehensive health center affiliated with Meharry (on Jefferson), 1919 clinics - the Meharry physicians 'private practice', VA hospital (in Murphreesboro), Middle Tennessee Mental Hospital, Vanderbilt medical center, Vanderbilt children's hospital, and then various private doctors hospitals in the Nashville area.
I really like that we get to see such a variety of different health systems and practices.
3rd year we have 3 months of internal medicine (floor, outpatient, and 2 weeks of neurology), 3 months of surgery (general surgery plus a bag of subspecialties to choose from), 2 months of peds (outpatient and inpatient- inpatient is as Vandy because when they built their children's hospital it was under some deal that ALL other children's hospital in the area had to close.) 2 months of OB/GYN, one month of psychiatry (inpatient at VA or the state mental hospital, in/outpatient at Meharry), and 1 months of Family Medicine (in and outpatient)
for 4th year there are 4 1 month blocks of required "rotations"- Radiology, Internal medicine (either inpatient or ICU at Meharry or the VA), Senior ambulatory (very broad you can do almost anything outpatient in the departments of peds, FM, IM, ob/gyn), and CAPSTONE (which is a mixed bag of lectures and activities to get you ready for residency and culminate your medical experience. It happens in February). You also need to complete 4 elective credits, but you don't have to do them all in your final year. The more you complete ahead of time, the more free time you have in 4th year. In 4th year you also have the option of doing away rotations at other institutions and you'll of course be applying and interviewing for residency programs.
**Note that if you're applying to something particularly competitive, like we had someone match to neurosurg this year, you can take electives/4th year rotations before completing all of your 3rd year ones.
**Note #2. If you through your schedule out of wack by taking Step 1 late (which I think they've now instituted a mandatory date by which u have to take it) or fail it your schedule for 3rd and 4th year won't be as straight forward.
2.) Vandy-Meharry alliance: I get that this is a partnership between the two schools but how does this translate in your education at Meharry? Are there particular rotations at Vandy?
It allows certain access to resources at Vanderbilt (and vice versa). I think that's the best way to put it as I'm sure there are more opportunities than I know about. Things I do know about:
-MD/PHD students can complete their phd portion with a mentor from Vanderbilt
-a lot of students use their medical library to study in. Although the number has probably decreased since out library was renovated 2 summers ago. I know I havent been to the Vandy library since then.
-multidisciplinary clinical case competition that encompasses Meharry and different schools from Vanderbilt
-opportunity to take courses there without fees. I've been completing the requirements for a graduate certificate in global health from their institute for global health
-opportunity to apply for the Vanderbilt medical scholars research program. It's a year of funded research.
-inpatient pediatrics is done at vanderbilt, as well as some subspecialities like nephrology, GI, neuro etc. Certain surgical subspecialities are done there as well - neuro, trama, transplant, vascular, cardio thoracic...
-Vanderbilt people sometimes get training at Meharry. The students rotate through out peds clinic. The peds residents, until the duty hour changes, rotated through out newborn nursery/NICU, and fellows (Cardio, ortho, urology, heme/onc...) do some of their training at Meharry.
3.) Research: I'm especially interested in doing research throughout my 4 years at Meharry but having trouble finding labs I'm interested in online. Is it common for students to research at labs outside of Meharry? Where do you most people research at other than Meharry if this is true?
The website isn't the most user-friendly space. When you get to Meharry you can visit the different departments and talk to people about your interests. Even if they don't have projects in your area, they might be able to introduce you to someone at Vanderbilt who is in that field. I don't think it's common for students to do research at all. It isn't a huge research powerhouse. However, if you are interested in research your goals will be supported (I'm actually on a research year now). For outside of Meharry, most people research at Vanderbilt or their hometowns.
Thanks for all of your help! I really appreciate it.