Questions to Ask Medical Schools?

[Wishbone]

Hi all,

I am applying to medical school (DO/MD) school this coming year. I am hoping some people could give me some advice on what I should look for or question I would want to ask. So far I have the following:

1. Curriculum: Systems or intergrated

2. Where I could be aspect to do my clinicals: rural verses city, hospital vs clinic, all in the same city or dispersed throughout the state.

3. Tutition/ size of class, faculty student ratio, percent of drop outs, passing the boards.

4. How much time out side of lectures could I expect to meet with faculty? I have heard from some schools most of my extra tuturing would be from more advanced students rather then faculty, though one school even said professors would even meet with students on the weekends.

5. The school's affliated hospitals

Anything things else?

-Thanks in advance.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Dr JPH]

Wishbone-

Make sure you ask about student life. Although you may have a school in mind, having a diverse student population with lots to do in you free time (current med school students may have a comment here), I'm sure can make the hard work and long hours go by faster.



------------------
Josh Hazelton
[email protected]
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
"D.O. Wannabe"

 

[jlep2003]

You could inquire about student clubs/organizations at the school. Many schools have student organized clubs based on common interests (ex: Pediatrics club, surgery club, Christian Medical and Dental Society, etc..)

 

[RAM#48]

Personally, I think that all of the questions the original poster listed are valid, but they are BLAH! Adcoms hear these same things over and over again, plus a lot of it can be found on the web, school catalog, etc. I agree asking about student life is a good idea.

A couple of questions I asked nearly always and which spawned a bunch of conversation.

"What do students like best about this school?"

"What do students like least about this school?"

For some reason they really provoked a lot of good conversation.

 

[EricCSU]

I really agree with RAM #48 on this one. Although I have yet to apply to med school, I'm given over 40 interviews for different departments that I've worked for as an undergrad (orientation, residence life, peer advising, pre-med club). The students that I always stuck out in my mind the most were those that asked the intelligent, but most importantly different questions. Although the questions you have may be great questions, the answers for those can usually be found yourself. Asking those questions can border on unpreparedness in my opinion. Ask questions that you think would really get them to talk and think. Doing that will leave a much more lasting impression. I've researched a lot on interview techniques, so if anyone has any questions for me, feel free to email me.

 

[jlep2003]

I agree with RAM also. I am a first year at DO school. In retrospect, I would recommend asking questions about how the school integrates social and ethical issues into the curriculum to give students the opportunity to develop into more complete physicians. Ask about ethics classes, cultural diversity and sensitivity classes, Overcoming economic obstacles to treat the underpriveledged. We have classes devoted to this at LECOM, I'm sure they exist elsewhere. I believe any admissions commitee would be impressed by someone who recognizes the need for these courses.

 

[ewagner]

Please include this question...

"What is the student USMLE/COMLEX pass rate and what are the yearly mean scores for this school"

That should give you an idea of student performance vs. other schools.