Can you guys tell me which med schools have the most layed-back and relaxed environment to them. The culture of the school is very important to me as I would want to go to one where the students generally get along and are happy to be there instead of one with cut-throat competition.
This is a really interesting discussion. I chose my school (CCLCM) in part because we have no grades, no tests, no rankings, and no backstabbing. I wouldn't say that the students here are laid-back though, including me. Like AmoryBlaine and Law2Doc said, at any med school in the country, you are taking a group of very highly accomplished people and putting them all together in class. Naturally, people with a long history of success want to continue to be successful. You don't get into medical school by being complacent and unambitious, you know?
I do think there is A LOT of peer pressure at CCLCM to excel, but that's not a bad thing. Competition has become such a dirty word, and if it's the kind of zero-sum competition that people tend to think of, then yeah, that's bad. But if it's the kind of competition that makes us all do better than we would have otherwise, isn't that a good thing? Like, maybe I don't feel like studying today. But then my classmate calls me up and says that a bunch of people are going over to school to review neuroanatomy, do I want to come too? Well, no, I don't feel like it. I hate neuroanatomy and would rather pull my fingernails out than go study it on Saturday. But there is always that little voice in the back of your head going, hmm, if everyone else is reviewing neuroanatomy today, maybe I should be too....and now all of us are pushing each other to do more and be better. And yeah, I passed neuroanatomy in spite of hating it.
As another example, one person applied for a fellowship for summer research, and then a bunch more of us applied for them too. So now maybe like a third to a half of the people in my class have research fellowships for this summer, and all of us will have better resumes than we would have otherwise.
This is the kind of thing that I mean when I say that we all push each other to be better students and work harder than we would otherwise. I think this kind of "competition" is awesome, and it's exactly how med school competition should be. Your goal in med school shouldn't be to have a laid-back, fun time. You want to get the most you can get from your education and to prepare yourself for residency and being a physician. That means you are going to have to work hard, even when you'd rather not be. That's when it's good to have classmates who will give you the necessary kick in the a$$.
