questions for Loma Linda med students

[dc123]

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I'm interested in learning more about your curriculum. What's it like? Traditional? any PBL/small groups? What do you think are the strengths/weaknesses? And overall, how do you like the school? Including clinical years.

Thanks so much in advance. 🙂

 

[dc123]

anyone?

 

[Krony]

The curriculum is definitely "traditional," although there are a handful of small group sessions/labs with interaction with fewer numbers of students and faculty. As of next year my understanding is that the curriculum is being re-worked to take on more of an organ-based structure. The curriculum is very strong with excellent teaching in pscychopathology, physical diagnosis, pathophysiology, neuroscience - with NBME averages well above national averages (I know, not every school takes those exams.) The teaching is variable and occasionally poor in other courses - micro and phys come to mind. Anatomy, Histo, Biochem, seem to be hit and miss depending on who's lecturing. Of course this list is not comprehensive, but overall the curriculum seems decent. My understanding is that we generally score well above the national average for step 1. I'm only an MS2 so I can't tell you much about 3rd year and beyond. Most people ahead of me that I've run into seem to have felt well-prepared for the clinical years and feel that the teaching is decent. Hope this helps.

 

[E Z Daring]

The curriculum is definitely "traditional," although there are a handful of small group sessions/labs with interaction with fewer numbers of students and faculty. As of next year my understanding is that the curriculum is being re-worked to take on more of an organ-based structure. The curriculum is very strong with excellent teaching in pscychopathology, physical diagnosis, pathophysiology, neuroscience - with NBME averages well above national averages (I know, not every school takes those exams.) The teaching is variable and occasionally poor in other courses - micro and phys come to mind. Anatomy, Histo, Biochem, seem to be hit and miss depending on who's lecturing. Of course this list is not comprehensive, but overall the curriculum seems decent. My understanding is that we generally score well above the national average for step 1. I'm only an MS2 so I can't tell you much about 3rd year and beyond. Most people ahead of me that I've run into seem to have felt well-prepared for the clinical years and feel that the teaching is decent. Hope this helps.

I agree with the above for the most part. We have an excellent faculty esp fo Neurology/pathophys/psychopathology. Pharm was pretty weak when I took it, but overall LLUSOM is a great program. I might add that this school absolutely rocks in terms of the student body too. I have met so many awesome people here and most everyone is extremely kind. I was worried about people being extremely competitive and cut-throat in medicine (like it was in premed undergrad), but I think this is probably the friendliest school you'll ever find. It's the Christian atmosphere; it's a "everyone's family" kind of thing. Just my opinion though!

 

[dc123]

The curriculum is definitely "traditional," although there are a handful of small group sessions/labs with interaction with fewer numbers of students and faculty. As of next year my understanding is that the curriculum is being re-worked to take on more of an organ-based structure. The curriculum is very strong with excellent teaching in pscychopathology, physical diagnosis, pathophysiology, neuroscience - with NBME averages well above national averages (I know, not every school takes those exams.) The teaching is variable and occasionally poor in other courses - micro and phys come to mind. Anatomy, Histo, Biochem, seem to be hit and miss depending on who's lecturing. Of course this list is not comprehensive, but overall the curriculum seems decent. My understanding is that we generally score well above the national average for step 1. I'm only an MS2 so I can't tell you much about 3rd year and beyond. Most people ahead of me that I've run into seem to have felt well-prepared for the clinical years and feel that the teaching is decent. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply Krony! So by "traditional" does that mean long days with lots of lecture hours? ...(i'm thinking of med schools where students are in class from 8-5 everyday)

I agree with the above for the most part. We have an excellent faculty esp fo Neurology/pathophys/psychopathology. Pharm was pretty weak when I took it, but overall LLUSOM is a great program. I might add that this school absolutely rocks in terms of the student body too. I have met so many awesome people here and most everyone is extremely kind. I was worried about people being extremely competitive and cut-throat in medicine (like it was in premed undergrad), but I think this is probably the friendliest school you'll ever find. It's the Christian atmosphere; it's a "everyone's family" kind of thing. Just my opinion though!

Thanks also, EZ! Yes, I've heard about the atmosphere...one of the reasons why I'm drawn to this school (I'm non-SDA Christian). So even with the "ranking" (is that just determined by grades on test/finals?) it's a pretty laid back atmosphere among the students?

Would you guys mind if I PM'ed you with any more questions I might have? 🙄 thanks again. 🙂

 

[Krony]

Thanks for the reply Krony! So by "traditional" does that mean long days with lots of lecture hours? ...(i'm thinking of med schools where students are in class from 8-5 everyday)

Thanks also, EZ! Yes, I've heard about the atmosphere...one of the reasons why I'm drawn to this school (I'm non-SDA Christian). So even with the "ranking" (is that just determined by grades on test/finals?) it's a pretty laid back atmosphere among the students?

Would you guys mind if I PM'ed you with any more questions I might have? 🙄 thanks again. 🙂

Class and lab time seems to start out fairly heavy with anatomy lab taking up most afternoons. It usually seems to be the case however, even on in to second year, that most of the time you'll have a few afternoons off each week. We're almost always done at noon on Fridays with only rare exceptions. I had this same concern coming in - as I'm more of an independent learner. There's always the option of skipping lots of class too - which I have done selectively along the way. The curriculum is changing for next year, so I'm not certain what you should expect. Feel free to PM me with any other questions...but I have exams coming up in the next couple of weeks...I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Oh - regarding the ranking - this seems to up the stress level a bit, but students still seem to be more than willing to help one another along the way (sharing resources/teaching each other in anatomy lab, etc.)

 

[phillyfornia]

i heard from a friend of a friend that they don't let you guys go out to bars/clubs and stuff. is that true?

 

[Krony]

i heard from a friend of a friend that they don't let you guys go out to bars/clubs and stuff. is that true?

As the school is run by the Seventh Day Adventist church, those of us who identify ourselves with this tradtion, and those of us who don't, agree not to drink alcohol during our enrollment. As far as I'm aware there are no restrictions as to where we go - but my guess is that you were asking about the alcohol issue.