I am an army resident in the national capital consortium who works at both of the major hospitals where USU students rotate. I attended a private medical school in the midwest with an associated level 1 trauma center university hospital and children's hospital. These are my impressions of USUHS.
1. The education is pretty much the same as you would get anywhere else. It is a personal pet peeve of mine that people think the education at Mayo or Hopkins is any better than that of a standard medical school. Do these schools know of some organ system or disease that the rest of the medical establishment is ignorant of? Do the profs at these schools possess the magical ability to insert knowledge into a student's head and make one a better doctor? Medical school requires one to consume a vast amount of knowledge which is done primarily by the individual. Every school has the same disinterested profs giving powerpoints about the same subjects. The bulk of one's learning is done on one's own reading the syllabi and the texts. Of importance is the fact that USUHS has a minimal amount of PBL and adheres primarily to a lecture based curriculum. There is an obvious military slant to a number of course, but whether that is considered a pro or a con is up to the individual.
2. In general, the overall caliber of the students is lower than that of civilian allopathic schools. To be sure, there are plenty of very bright students at USUHS; the top half of each class is equal to the top half of the other medical schools in the country. The bottom half/quarter at USUHS is significantly worse than this population at civilian medical schools. In speaking to my fellow residents, I have been told that 15-20 students are commonly held back between 1st and 2nd year. I was also told that around 10 students per year failed step 1 on their first attempt. In my med school class 3 students were held back and 1 failed step 1. My own hypothesis for this fact comes from USUHS's penchant to accept non-traditional students and prior service students. Some of these people were just never as good at the academic game. My wife echoes my sentiments. The top students that rotate on her team from USU and civilian med schools are equivalent, but she has told me on numerous occasions that when she gets saddled with a bad student, the ones from USUHS are significantly worse than the civilian ones.
3. The opportunities at USUHS are comparable to civilian schools. The obvious exceptions to this statement are the big-name, high powered research oriented medical schools (this is the advantage the Hopkins and Mayos of the world have over normal medical schools-the opportunities to be involved in research). There are research projects going on that students can attach themselves to with some extra work. The military offers residencies in every major medical specialty, so there are always opportunities to rotate in a specialty that you find interesting. The difference for USUHS comes in that the different medical centers have different capabilities. For example, BAMC is the only level 1 Trauma center in the army, so for a surgery rotation heavy on Trauma one must go there. I also think that going to so many hospitals for rotations is beneficial in that one sees how many different departments work and a student will have way more info than a civilian student when it comes time to match having rotated at every program in a given military specialty (the downside to rotating at so many med cens is the obvious toll that travelling takes).
4. USUHS students have no disadvantage when it comes time to match, in fact they may have a slight advantage. PD's in the military really evaluate students individually. If one has top scores, top grades, and was liked on the sub-i one will match there. USUHS students may have a slight advantage in that they have more opportunities to endear themselves to a program director than the civilian students who rotate for a month, and the most important factor in matching is the recommendation of the PD.
