Hey everyone,
I just wanted to say congratulations to everybody who is coming to Case next year. I'm a current Case med student who just finished my 1st year here. I came about this thread randomly when I was doing a google search for something else and figured I can try to be as useful as possible if you have any questions about Case, Cleveland, or anything like that and want opinions. Also, I think they're doing something this year where they're sending out contact info for current students you can call with any questions about Case, so if you're feeling no love from Case bc of their lack of a calendar, hopefully this will make it a little better and give you someone to contact (FYI....I can tell you that for our year, they were extremely slow about getting us any sort of official calendar out and it looks like that unfortunately hasn't changed this year (even though we complained about it!).
About the start date, they did actually release the year 2 schedule a few weeks ago and we are starting on Monday, 8/9. If it's anything like our year, that probably means that like oldtimer said, year 1 is starting on Thursday, 8/5, classes on 8/6, white coat on 8/8.
In terms of orientation, they do try to help you with class-bonding and easing you into it. The first 2 or 3 weeks of school consist of a course called Fundamentals of Medical Decision Making (FMDM). There's a lot of group exercises in there and it culminates with a group project. I guess officially the course is supposed to be a type of biostats course, but really its not heavy material like you might have taken in college or a master's program. In the afternoons, they have a bunch of orientation stuff which is annoying but there's free food, so that's good. Over the course of those few weeks, they organize group outings to bars and baseball games or things like that, so there's definitely chances to meet people.
Once FMDM is over, Biochem starts and I guess that is when it kinda hits the fan, but obviously that varies from person to person and depends on your background (I did not come from a science background before med school). Anyways, I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone who got in or is coming and feel free to ask any questions that might make life easier coming here!