NJMS vs. RWJ

[medicalman123]

Let's do this

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[medicalman123]

And I know this has been a topic of discussion in the past, however with the new future of both RWJ (soon to be Rutgers) and NJMS (still under the UMDNJ umbrella), how does this affect the debate?

 

[sector9]

Moving to "School-specific discussions"

 

[Shikaka23]

Based on what I've heard, it seems like the division of UMDNJ will benefit RWJMS more than NJMS. However, I don't think the split will really change anything for the students. It's more of a bureaucracy change which will effect where the funding is coming from and free up the inefficiency of managing two schools under one large, overarching institution.

 

[IDrads]

And I know this has been a topic of discussion in the past, however with the new future of both RWJ (soon to be Rutgers) and NJMS (still under the UMDNJ umbrella), how does this affect the debate?

Based on what I've heard, it seems like the division of UMDNJ will benefit RWJMS more than NJMS. However, I don't think the split will really change anything for the students. It's more of a bureaucracy change which will effect where the funding is coming from and free up the inefficiency of managing two schools under one large, overarching institution.

I've been staff, student, and/or volunteer in multiple branches of the UMDNJ system for five years. I will be attending NJMS in the fall. Below I discuss UMDNJ restructuring, and then discuss a few reasons why I love NJMS. I hope others can chime in if they want to add anything about either school.


There is a lot of news these days about the restructuring of UMDNJ, but let's not be mistaken: the restructuring isn't about to start - it started two years ago, when UMDNJ lost all its presence in Camden, as politicians decided to rob RWJMS of all of their clinical hospitals/sites in the Camden area. The phasing out of RWJMS students from south jersey did not start immediately, it is still occurring. The restructuring of UMDNJ is not benefiting RWJ - they have been forced to drastically cut class size in accordance with their loss of clinical sites. What will RWJ gain from Rutgers? More collaboration in basic science perhaps? I would imagine labs already collaborate - as they're essentially on the same campus, but that would be speculating, and I hope a current RWJ student can speak about that. What does Rutgers gain from a merger with RWJ? A lot of power, so they are celebrating. What does the break between NJMS and RWJMS mean for both schools? What comes to mind off the top of my head is increased name recognition. That's an easy call for RWJMS, which presumably would be called Rutgers Med again, and gain the recognition of RU. The chair of the AMA is the chair of neurosurgery at NJMS, and the chair of the AMA student section is an NJMS MD MPH student. Medical students and faculty from all medical school attend AMA meetings, where these two, among others, make speeches for the medical community. Everyone has heard of NJMS through our leadership of the AMA, but people get confused with NJMS, UMDNJ and RWJMS. Separation would allow NJMS to continue to grow its name singularly, and both schools would be able to grow their brands.

Both schools have great match lists, you should check them out. They are both great schools. I'm going to talk about some things I know about NJMS. I recently sat in on a second year pharm lecture. The guest speaker was Dr. Robert Mitchell, state medical examiner in charge, for New Jersey. He started off the lecture by saying how lucky everyone was to be at NJMS, how the clinical experience is top notch because of the area the hospital is in and the hands on, start day one, approach to clinical training. It seemed like a pretty typical type of speech, but he went on. He talked about his experience in residency, saying that in his residency year there were students from Harvard and Mayo Clinic. It became apparent at the beginning of his residency training that he had been much better prepared and trained procedure-wise, and he began teaching those students from top medical schools tips and tricks in the clinical setting. He was later chosen chief resident of his program, and has certainly made a name for himself in his field.

Indeed, clinical training is an oft-stated strength of NJMS. The student-run clinic is unique in that medical students take part in it starting their first year (first month really) of medical school. It is an elective and you get to choose how much time you dedicate to patient work - even as a first year medical student. The emergency room is the only level one trauma center in New Jersey. As a volunteer there, I witnessed an incredible scene that epitomizes the clinical training experience at NJMS. Gunshot victim, immediately sped into trauma. It was some point between June and July - I had just introduced myself to a 3rd year med student who told me he was on his first rotation, and just had taken STEP 1. 15 minutes later he is doing chest compressions in a trauma bay during emergency surgery. In this lies the best kept secret of choosing a medical school. If you are a patient, you choose the best medical center for being treated by top physicians (and you do not pay top dollar to let med students play around with you). If you are a prospective medical student, you choose the place that will make you the best clinician. This is an area in which NJMS strives. Regarding bench research, I have been lucky enough to work with multiple bench researchers at the school, leading to publications. If you are a med student - it is not a matter of luck. I recall a first year med student shooting one email to Dr. Alland (at the time one of the most in-the-news medical researchers in the country due to his TB breakthrough http://goo.gl/Pq2vi ), and the next day receiving an offer to work with a project in his lab. That is the status quo; the amount of pubs you get before graduating is up to how much time you want to put into clinical and/or bench research, it will never be a matter of not getting an offer. Good luck to everyone making choices, you really can't go wrong - medical school is 9 parts how hard you work and 1 part where you are. I'm up for answering NJMS questions, I had seen RWJ students in other NJMS/RWJ threads posting so I wanted to get my perspective out there. Many NJMS/RWJ threads are searchable in this subforum.