PITT APPLICANTS!!! big unpublished pittmed curriculum changes for next year's class

[choker]

hey guys, im a first year at pittmed and we just had a meeting with the dean re: a new curriculum for next year's class. they're still designing it now and they are 90% sure it will be ready and in place by august:

as of next year's class, the preclinical curriculum will be 1.5 years instead of 2. vacation time will be the same, but they are just condensing the courses and cutting out a lot of BS. THEREFORE: clinical years will begin in the middle of the second year.

in addition: with the extra six months, the school is reserving a chunk of time in the fourth year for "scholarly pursuit." this means anything and the school is really flexible on this. basically this means research, extra courses, rotations, etc. the school just wants you to pursue anything in detail. i dont think a thesis will be required, but maybe a report... dunno.

the admissions office will be sending out literature on this within the next month. i personally think it's a great idea. feel free to pm me if you guys have any questions.

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[Bounty]

ooooh! Sounds awesome....now i just have to hurry up and do the app!

 

[jot]

believe it or not - the town is much much better than one would expect - lots to do - the students are cool and laidback. i filled out an interview feedback thing, so more comments there. i'm a fan of the curric change, i think we'll be seeing more of that.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

whoa...at my interview someone asked about curriculum change rumors he had heard and we were all told that the curriculum was under review, but that there were no planned changes as of yet. what exactly is the BS they are cutting out?

 

[choker]

it is still under review and they haven't finalized it yet, they are still trying to figure out how to cut out 6 months and there is a lot of debate as to what wil constitute "scholarly pursuit," but when someone asked the dean how sure he was that these changes would be instituted for next year's class, he said it was almost definite.

as for the comment on the city, it's underrated. the city is nothing but college students so there are a lot of establishments and activities that cater to young adults.

as for the comment on the students, very very very laid back. very chill place to study medicine. honors is a 4 letter word here, very uncool to admit you're trying to get it (it's pretty damn hard, anyway).

 

[brownemily22]

not that i am knocking pittsburgh, but it is NOT all students by any means. now oakland is full of 'em but allegheny county has the 2nd highest rate of sr citizens in the nation (right behind a county in so. florida - forget which one).
it's still a really really underrated place though and a good place to live.

 

[choker]

actually pitt now has the HIGHEST rate of seniors. it beat the highest place in florida about 5 years ago. there is a real dichotomy in the population between the liberal college/grad students and the elderly.

 

[Random Access]

So does the clinical in the 2nd half of the 2nd year make it more Duke-style? Do any other schools have similar systems?

-RA

 

[choker]

it DOES make it more duke/penn style in that the curriculum will be accelerated, but keep in mind that it also has the best of the other worlds in that they still emphasize 1)early patient contact 2)PBL 3)minimal lecture time. also keep in mind that the curriculum is totally block-based, so you only have 1 major course at a time_ which is very nice.

besides penn and duke, i think rochester has a similar "scholarly pursuit" thing.

keep in mind that duke only has 1 preclinical year, and 1 year devoted entirely to research. that 1 year i hear is quite intense, but it must be nice to have a year to do whatever the hell you want (albeit a little excessive considering you just busted your ass for a year).

 

[Resident Alien]

Case 0wns you

 

[Street Philosopher]

pretty sweet!
i hate BS!

 

[CRAZYTERP]

Originally posted by choker
it DOES make it more duke/penn style in that the curriculum will be accelerated, but keep in mind that it also has the best of the other worlds in that they still emphasize 1)early patient contact 2)PBL 3)minimal lecture time. also keep in mind that the curriculum is totally block-based, so you only have 1 major course at a time_ which is very nice.

besides penn and duke, i think rochester has a similar "scholarly pursuit" thing.

keep in mind that duke only has 1 preclinical year, and 1 year devoted entirely to research. that 1 year i hear is quite intense, but it must be nice to have a year to do whatever the hell you want (albeit a little excessive considering you just busted your ass for a year).

Although it sounds exciting that Pitt is doing something new and there will be that added time at the end of year four (or maybe earlier if one chooses to do independent study sooner) I am not sure how great that is in the grand scheme of things. I have spoken to a few students from Duke and UNC med who seem to think that only one year of pre clinical, which is the case at DUKE, hurts you bc a lot of other schools do not believe a student can actually learnt he info properly no matter how samrt they are. Yes, students are given more freedom when it comes research, but they lose critical time for their brains to soak up the info. Personally I am not in favor of just one year of preclinical. One and a half MAY be better, but I am not sure.

The point of this thread is basically to inform some other peeps what I was told by the dukies themselves. That some residency programs frown upon Dukes preclinical approach and since we will all have to end up there someday it might be important to think about how our undergraduate medical education will reflect four years down the road.

-CT