Hey jdaasbo,
You guys do rectals on each other??????
well, sheon, as someone who's been in med school for more than 8 months, let me tell you that I know better. Jdaasbo is obviously talking about the basic science classes taught by PhDs. When you start doing your clinical courses (what you actually need to know for the boards), you'll notice that the physicians lecturing to you dont have time for "extended discourses". They're there to give a lecture for two hours, then they leave and you wont see them until rotations.
you wanna be an osteopath huh? well, the most important thing is to have a thick skin. secondly, you have to be able to think for yourself. There are a lot of quacks out there, and even though they are a minority in the field, they make the most noise. for example, they make comments like
"methinks you have a left lateral strain of your SBS" in ordinary speech. Invariable, you will be associated with these people. So your thick skin will get you through. Dont forget that as a physician you must, above all else, keep in perspective what is the best treatment for your patients. And (here i dare say) it will most of the time be a non-osteopathic treatment. What makes this profession so good is that you will have a more extensive training. When it comes to treating others, ignorance is not bliss.
So, i know you're concerned now about teaching style, class size, location. But by far the most important thing that will influence your life once you are in medical school is your graduate medical education. From the moment you get in, you are training towards two goals, deciding what specialty you want, and getting the best residency you can. If you think you may be interested in things other than FP, you want to go to the school with the most extensive graduate medical education opportunities.
You'll be bitching and moaning all throughout the first two years. You'll feel all frustrated about your grades, how you missed honors in cardio by 2 points, etc. Keep in mind that the medical profession is a very corrupt system, not only in practice but also education. You will notice once you get in that maybe half of the people in school with you had some kind of connection with someone. It still amazes me. But it's true and it carries into your internship and residency. It's certainly about grades, but not nearly as much as people tend to believe. I mean, you cant be an idiot and fail every class. I will tell you though, it's mostly about who you know and being in the right place. Which brings me back to my point, go to a school with extensive hospital associations. You might be the person in the class who consistently gets honors, but chances are you are going to pass and do like the rest of the people in your school. So, what will set you apart is how you show yourself off in your clinical years (MSIII and MSIV). Schools around major cities like Chicago, Philly, NY have good reps and access to these places. So when you go to do an elective in a big name hospital they dont look at you like you're form outerspace.
Your pre-clinical years are not going to be fun no matter what the class size, method of teaching, and location. Dont make the mistake of picking a school that has less people per cadaver over a school with good hospitals.
oh by the way, EARLY CLINICAL EDUCATION DOES NOT MEAN ANYTHING. it's a gimmick used by schools. everybody in their right mind knows that it does nothing more than satisfy the egos of premie med students. you are absolutely useless in a hospital until you've completed all your clinical courses and taken the boards. Even after that, people still run around like headless chickens.
later.
