I go to Northwestern med and agree with most of what GuyLaroche said... he is pretty much on the money, except that the space/buildings are not small. Everything is compact because it is in one of the most hyper-urban spots in the country, if not the world. But you forget how tall the buildings are. That new "small" research building you spoke of has over 400,000 square footage and is 250 feet tall. The plot of land it is on is small, but that building would stick out like a sore thumb on a college campus. But in Chicago, alas, it APPEARS small because, heck, the Hancock building is a few blocks away and that sucker is 1250 feet tall! 🙂
But yeah, GuyLaroche summed it up pretty nice. Financial aid at this school is not competitive but the DEBT CAPPING is. However you need to show you need it--they don't just hand it out to anyone. If you don't need the debt capping, you can just get a low interest medical loan, but they are definetly not throwing money at students here save for research programs in which you can get a few thousand dollar stipend.
And the school is definetly "up-and-coming" like he said, and I agree with Guy that they seem to have a chip on their shoulder regarding being ranked 20th and are throwing a lot of money at the school to increase it's prestige and facilities. But who wouldn't love that? One man's junk is another man's treasure, I guess, and I for one am thrilled that the administration seems a "little pissed" that they are not ranked as high as they want to be and are throwing the bank at new principal investigators and spanking new facilities. It certainly beats a complacent and do-nothing administration. If any of you get in here and attend next year, basically almost EVERYTHING from the hospital, to the labs, to the clinical training facilities, to the lecture halls, etc., will all be pretty much brand spanking new and world class. There is a 1,000,000 square foot women's hospital under construction and another 1.5 million square foot one under planning, in addition to the amazing hospital they already have. And you can thank the "chip on the shoulders" for it. 😉
And as far as whatever attention you need from the administration, this school is incredible and really here for you, like he said. You can basically fail the first year and retake it at no cost, and you can take a leave of absence if you want to chill out for a year and come back without any strings attached, starting right where you left off. And the curriculum, at least the first two years of lecture based science, is not too intense and Pass/Fail, which other schools are doing, but we only have 2 hours of lecture per day, which allows us a lot of free time to pursue other things. You can actually have a life and a girlfriend here, for instance, so I think that really makes medical school a great experience since they aren't shoving it down your throat here until you hate it, know what I mean?
Grrr.
