I'm a first year, I hope I can help a little
In terms of clinical rotations, I hope that a third or fourth year is around (or a second year) to help me here. I chose MSUCOM because of the impressive clinicals and the quality of the clinical education. As for all US med schools, at least that I know of, all your core rotations are required to be at the affiliated hospitals. In the Statewide Campus System this selection is restricted to the designated Base Hospitals, such as POH, Sparrow, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Botsford, and Henry Ford Bi-County to name a few. There are at least a dozen Base Hospitals and then at least 9-10 others in Michigan available for your non-core rotations, which I believe consists of elective and sub-specialty rotations. New hospitals seem to be added almost weekly, every time I ask Kathy Schafer we're making new affiliations, this is definitely a growing school, in size and reputation, which is exciting to be a part of. I'm sure that you can do "externships" (I think that's the term when you rotate at outside sites) almost anywhere. You should definitely email or call the Office to know precisely the policy, but I'm almost positive you can rotate anywhere so long as it's not a core rotation.
Strengths and weaknesses...This is difficult.
I think I'm still at the point where I love the school and find little to complain about, which I'm sure will change in time as I settle in. Still, there is a fair amount of politics especially considering CHM and the relations between the administration of the two colleges. It's insanely complicated so I'm not even going to go into it, plus it's so polarized that it's difficult to not be biased. However, please DO NOT take this as meaning that COM and CHM students don't get along. Many of my friends are CHM students, I routinely studying in the Radiology Bldg (their student center) and the two classes share study materials by email and we share our stock of past exams and study materials. This is something that makes the college a pleasure to attend. You have so many people who are interesting and pretty much all the students are more than willing to help you understand anything. Everyone cooperates and the P/NP system is instrumental (in my opinion) in keeping this lower stress environment from collapsing. It's also definitely a tribute to the efforts of COM and CHM Admissions Committees for selecting outstanding students.
Not sure this is what you meant, but I hope it helps.
Feel free to PM me with any other questions and I'll answer them as soon as I can.
