Questions on Stanford

[Januine]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Anyone from Stanford or know quite a lot about its curriculum- I need your inouts!

I have seen on their website that a lot of their students choose to extend the Year 1-2 curriculum into a course 3 years. Why would they do that?

Is it because the curriculum gets too hard or too much to handle?

Do you love or hate the revised SC curriculum?

 

[blz]

i dont go to stanford but you see this kind of thing at a lot of the top tier schools. most of their class probably takes time pursue to extra degrees, research time, and other endeavors.

 

[ChocolateKiss]

There are no grades at Stanford, so the only way to really distinguish yourself is to do research or other extracurriculars. Spreading your curriculum over 5 or 6 years makes it much easier to get things done in your ECs.

 

[CardinalBulldog]

As a current Stanford MS who took 3 yrs to complete his preclin requirements, maybe I can help shed a little light...

Most Stanford students are extremely active by nature (or else they would not have gotten in) - they want to do research, spearhead organizations, teach, whatever. However, it would be hard (or even impossible?) for me to imagine doing any of that while also taking a full courseload of med school classes. This is traditionally where the Stanford curriculum was unique - it allowed you to split up your coursework however you saw fit, while giving you time to pursue any other interests you might have. To encourage this, Stanford funds lots of research, pays TAs a significant sum of money, and has numerous orgs on campus. What seals the deal however, is the fact that Stanford reduces tuition to 10% (I think it's 15% now) during your fifth year (if you take one). That's right, instead of paying $30,000 for the academic year (or whatever tuition currently is), you would pay $3000 (financial aid is not a factor)!!! So, with no financial reason NOT to take 5 years, most med students do. Actually, the interesting thing is that by taking an extra year I'm going to leave med school far LESS in debt than if I would have taken 4 years. This is because I've TA'ed and done research during my extra time - and both of these activities pay incredibly well (usually around $12,000 to TA a class one quarter).

As Januine mentioned however, things have changed with the new curriculum and "scholarly concentrations". As part of the last class that was not forced to do one of these concentrations, I can not speak intelligently about them. However, I can say that a lot of the flexibility in splitting up coursework has disappeared since most of the preclin courses have become intregrated. The result of this is that now med students usually do 2 years of preclin coursework the same as any other med student, but often take year 3 completely off to teach, do research, etc. In contrast, I spread my preclin courses over 3 years and taught, did research, got involved, etc. WHILE taking preclin courses (albeit only half the courseload at a time).

So, just to dispel any myths out there... NO, we don't feel pressured to do research or teach b/c we have no grades, and NO, the curriculum is not so overwhelming that we feel the need to take 3 years! In all reality, I absolutely LOVE Stanford Med and feel like it's the best med school on the planet. Sure it has its negatives, but the positives greatly outweigh them! (Obviously I'm biased)

Anyway, hopefully that answers some of your questions! 🙂

 

[njbmd]

Moving to Allopathic Class Threads where students at specific schools are more likely to see this.

 

[Doctor~Detroit]

two questions for you, cardinalbulldog:

1) does the money you receive through research or being a TA replace loan money or grant money in your financial aid? (i.e., do they reduce your loand money or grant money an amount commensurate with what you earn?)

2) what do you think are the negatives of stanford?

thanks!

 

[CardinalBulldog]

For Dr. Detroit -

Very good questions:

1) The money you make TAing, doing research, etc. replaces your LOAN money and only your loan money (grants are unaffected).

2) Re: the negatives of Stanford - this is a very personal question so I'll give you a very personal answer. For me, the Stanford environment (and surrounding Palo Alto) at times can seem too much like a "country club" environment. This can be reflected in everything from people/culture to it's Ivory Tower mentality. I'm more of a humble guy, from a simple background, so I often find myself alienated by all of this. Furthermore, I'm also a minority. Although Stanford Med does an excellent job in recruiting talented minorities to the med school, the hospital and faculty leave much to be desired. Also, learning medicine in a private facility like Stanford's has it's own positives and negatives. Luckily we also get to rotate through the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a local county hospital, which allows us to learn "community" medicine. Lastly, from what I know, I'm not a huge fan of the New Curriculum with it's "scholarly concentrations". I disagree with making students choose a career track during their first few months at med school. Also, the desire to conduct research should be nurtured and supported, but not shoved on the students. I also liked the flexibility of the Old Curriculum, where each subject was its own course (ie, path, phys, biochem, micro, etc) and they allowed you to take courses individually at the time that was most appropriate for you.

Of course, as I said previously, I LOVE Stanford Med and would not want to be anywhere else, but I'm not blind to its shortcomings either. 🙂

 

[Doctor~Detroit]

For Dr. Detroit -

Very good questions:

1) The money you make TAing, doing research, etc. replaces your LOAN money and only your loan money (grants are unaffected).

2) Re: the negatives of Stanford - this is a very personal question so I'll give you a very personal answer. For me, the Stanford environment (and surrounding Palo Alto) at times can seem too much like a "country club" environment. This can be reflected in everything from people/culture to it's Ivory Tower mentality. I'm more of a humble guy, from a simple background, so I often find myself alienated by all of this. Furthermore, I'm also a minority. Although Stanford Med does an excellent job in recruiting talented minorities to the med school, the hospital and faculty leave much to be desired. Also, learning medicine in a private facility like Stanford's has it's own positives and negatives. Luckily we also get to rotate through the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a local county hospital, which allows us to learn "community" medicine. Lastly, from what I know, I'm not a huge fan of the New Curriculum with it's "scholarly concentrations". I disagree with making students choose a career track during their first few months at med school. Also, the desire to conduct research should be nurtured and supported, but not shoved on the students. I also liked the flexibility of the Old Curriculum, where each subject was its own course (ie, path, phys, biochem, micro, etc) and they allowed you to take courses individually at the time that was most appropriate for you.

Of course, as I said previously, I LOVE Stanford Med and would not want to be anywhere else, but I'm not blind to its shortcomings either. 🙂

1) sweeeet.

2) i was worried about that. the only place in california i've been to is san francisco, and since that place felt like a beach resort to me i'm worried about what wealthier and whiter palo alto will be like. i'll find out soon enough, i guess. what's the patient population like at santa clara valley hospital, in terms of race/ethnicity and income?

i actually like the idea of the scholarly concentration, but then i'm already pretty sure which area i would like to go into. it would suck if it takes away a lot of time from being a ta or ra, though.