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Regis University Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences: Reviews/advice?
- Thread starter TheInfinteJest
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I am in the program this year. You picked a good time to ask this question because we are on spring break and have some free time.
This is a fairly new program and there are still a few kinks to work out. But for being a new program, overall they do a very good job of preparing us for medical school.
1. The workload of this program is huge, this is not an easy program by any means and there is little to no room for a job. They work your ass off but for a big benefit at the end. People from the first class have said that it prepared them well for medical school. We have several professors who have taught / are teaching medical students at CU Denver Anschutz medical campus so that is an unknown advantage to most people. Everything we learn is human biomedical based rather than just pure science. For example, in genetics we learn about genetic diseases and concepts that are related to humans, which keeps us interested. It's also useful because they are commonly tested on step 1. Same goes for phys, immunology etc...
2. We have a seminar class where every week we read 1-2 scientific articles on very different topics, ranging from liver transplants to yeast genome to HPV vaccine policies. We are expected to understand them and be able to present them. Regardless of your scientific and research background, you will be have no trouble reading and understanding scientific articles by the end of the first semester.
3. We do 2 major projects, first semester is a physiology project. You work in a team of 4 where you have to write an IRB proposal, get approved, apply for a grant, conduct the project, write a paper on it, and present it as a poster. If you are feeling frisky you can also submit it to a journal. Our physiology professor Dr. Campisi is great and will help you with all of that. The second project is the externship project, that is what we are preoccupied with right now in the second semester. It is kind of like your thesis project, where you need to complete 120 hours of externship and incorporate it into your overall project. I am doing mine at Anschutz Medical Campus, where I interact one-on-one with many physicians. Others do them at National Jewish Hospital, community health centers, microclinics, some future dental students are involved in a project with indigent dental care and even travelled to south dakota for a bit. It takes a huge chunk of your time on top of your classes, but I kind of use it as a networking opportunity with physicians at CU in case I want to do research with them or apply for their residency later on.
4. First years said that the anatomy course really prepared them well since they are doing fine while most of their classmates are struggling. We have a cadaver and models, we learn all the bones, arteries/veins, nerves, joints, muscles, many of the origin/insertion of muscles, and embryology. Anatomy is the biggest reason why med students fail med school and I'm glad I already got a big chunk of it down.
5. We have excellent professors who are always available. I email them on the weekends sometimes and they always reply within 24 hours. It is pretty clear that they are here because they like to teach.
6. TBL/PBL, this is very similar to what they do in a lot of med schools. We do iRAT/tRAT and application. A lot of us didn't like this in the beginning, but eventually we learned to work with each other and act like professionals. You have to give and receive professional criticisms, which is great to talk about during your med/dental/PA school interviews.
7. I applied to med schools during this program and attended several interviews, I prepared with Alice and she was spot-on with all her suggestions for me, she is in close contact with admission directors at different med schools so she helped me sort out what is reliable information on SDN and what is BS. I ended up being accepted to every school I interviewed for, 'nuff said.
What I think needs to improve/change:
1. There are still kinks in the curriculum, schedule-wise we ended up with a grueling 9 hour school day on Thursday, adding to that, we all get up early to prepare for tests/quizzes/projects in the morning, it amounts to a >13 hour day on thursdays. They did see this as a problem so they changed the schedule for the rest of the semester to even it out a bit.
2. Some of us think it's too much work, we feel like they're literally trying to squeeze two years into one. We always have a day off (4 days of real classes), but we use the extra day to do externship or study/catch-up. I guess in the long run this is helpful since med school is known to be like drinking from a fire-hose.
3. I disagree with reading a wide-range of literature articles and think it should be more focused. I tend to be the person who likes to specialize and know something really well as opposed to knowing a little bit of everything. But I also understand why the program choose to do the broad-spectrum approach to journal articles.
4. We had some issues with how some of the classes were taught and tested the first semester, but they did ask us for evaluation and suggestions so hopefully it will be better for the class next year.
In the end though, I think even the negative parts of this program ended up making us more prepared for medical/dental school, because on top of knowing the material, what we also developed is how to complete a large amount of work in a short amount of time consistently. And I think that skill is more valuable than anything in preparation for professional schools. I hope that helps.
This is a fairly new program and there are still a few kinks to work out. But for being a new program, overall they do a very good job of preparing us for medical school.
1. The workload of this program is huge, this is not an easy program by any means and there is little to no room for a job. They work your ass off but for a big benefit at the end. People from the first class have said that it prepared them well for medical school. We have several professors who have taught / are teaching medical students at CU Denver Anschutz medical campus so that is an unknown advantage to most people. Everything we learn is human biomedical based rather than just pure science. For example, in genetics we learn about genetic diseases and concepts that are related to humans, which keeps us interested. It's also useful because they are commonly tested on step 1. Same goes for phys, immunology etc...
2. We have a seminar class where every week we read 1-2 scientific articles on very different topics, ranging from liver transplants to yeast genome to HPV vaccine policies. We are expected to understand them and be able to present them. Regardless of your scientific and research background, you will be have no trouble reading and understanding scientific articles by the end of the first semester.
3. We do 2 major projects, first semester is a physiology project. You work in a team of 4 where you have to write an IRB proposal, get approved, apply for a grant, conduct the project, write a paper on it, and present it as a poster. If you are feeling frisky you can also submit it to a journal. Our physiology professor Dr. Campisi is great and will help you with all of that. The second project is the externship project, that is what we are preoccupied with right now in the second semester. It is kind of like your thesis project, where you need to complete 120 hours of externship and incorporate it into your overall project. I am doing mine at Anschutz Medical Campus, where I interact one-on-one with many physicians. Others do them at National Jewish Hospital, community health centers, microclinics, some future dental students are involved in a project with indigent dental care and even travelled to south dakota for a bit. It takes a huge chunk of your time on top of your classes, but I kind of use it as a networking opportunity with physicians at CU in case I want to do research with them or apply for their residency later on.
4. First years said that the anatomy course really prepared them well since they are doing fine while most of their classmates are struggling. We have a cadaver and models, we learn all the bones, arteries/veins, nerves, joints, muscles, many of the origin/insertion of muscles, and embryology. Anatomy is the biggest reason why med students fail med school and I'm glad I already got a big chunk of it down.
5. We have excellent professors who are always available. I email them on the weekends sometimes and they always reply within 24 hours. It is pretty clear that they are here because they like to teach.
6. TBL/PBL, this is very similar to what they do in a lot of med schools. We do iRAT/tRAT and application. A lot of us didn't like this in the beginning, but eventually we learned to work with each other and act like professionals. You have to give and receive professional criticisms, which is great to talk about during your med/dental/PA school interviews.
7. I applied to med schools during this program and attended several interviews, I prepared with Alice and she was spot-on with all her suggestions for me, she is in close contact with admission directors at different med schools so she helped me sort out what is reliable information on SDN and what is BS. I ended up being accepted to every school I interviewed for, 'nuff said.
What I think needs to improve/change:
1. There are still kinks in the curriculum, schedule-wise we ended up with a grueling 9 hour school day on Thursday, adding to that, we all get up early to prepare for tests/quizzes/projects in the morning, it amounts to a >13 hour day on thursdays. They did see this as a problem so they changed the schedule for the rest of the semester to even it out a bit.
2. Some of us think it's too much work, we feel like they're literally trying to squeeze two years into one. We always have a day off (4 days of real classes), but we use the extra day to do externship or study/catch-up. I guess in the long run this is helpful since med school is known to be like drinking from a fire-hose.
3. I disagree with reading a wide-range of literature articles and think it should be more focused. I tend to be the person who likes to specialize and know something really well as opposed to knowing a little bit of everything. But I also understand why the program choose to do the broad-spectrum approach to journal articles.
4. We had some issues with how some of the classes were taught and tested the first semester, but they did ask us for evaluation and suggestions so hopefully it will be better for the class next year.
In the end though, I think even the negative parts of this program ended up making us more prepared for medical/dental school, because on top of knowing the material, what we also developed is how to complete a large amount of work in a short amount of time consistently. And I think that skill is more valuable than anything in preparation for professional schools. I hope that helps.
Undergrad GPA 3.14 MCAT 29R
Several years of research experience and publications, extensive volunteering and extracurricular activities.
I applied to and was accepted to DO schools, along with another person in the class. One was accepted to CU Anschutz for PA school. Another was accepted to two dental schools. Most others are waiting until next cycle to apply in order to build up their resume.
Several years of research experience and publications, extensive volunteering and extracurricular activities.
I applied to and was accepted to DO schools, along with another person in the class. One was accepted to CU Anschutz for PA school. Another was accepted to two dental schools. Most others are waiting until next cycle to apply in order to build up their resume.
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Thanks goldenroc for taking the time to tell of your experience. Well said.
I'm always happy to answer questions as well:
[email protected]
I'm always happy to answer questions as well:
[email protected]
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Just received my acceptance notification as well!
Can anyone speak on how this program compares to the other Biomedical Sciences programs in Colorado? ex. University of Northern Colorado and Colorado State University. I applied to two Boston schools and two Florida schools, but I really want to come back to Colorado.
CSU doesn't review their applications til after April 1st and they don't notify until June, so I was wondering how these programs stack up.
Can anyone speak on how this program compares to the other Biomedical Sciences programs in Colorado? ex. University of Northern Colorado and Colorado State University. I applied to two Boston schools and two Florida schools, but I really want to come back to Colorado.
CSU doesn't review their applications til after April 1st and they don't notify until June, so I was wondering how these programs stack up.
I can't speak for other Colorado schools, but I also applied and was accepted to several other programs across the country (Drexel, Tulane, Midwestern, Barry).
The advantages of the Regis program are that it is only 1 year and you will receive an MS instead of an MA. The other programs I looked at were only going to give you a "certificate of completion" after the 1st year or and MA. The program at Regis is also very small- 19 in our class this year. We take all of the same courses together, so the professors know exactly why we are there and work with us to make the material relevant. For some students coming from bigger universities this was a major adjustment, so keep that in mind. If you enjoy anonymity in the classroom this is not the program for you. Attendance is mandatory for all classes as well.
Overall, I am very happy with my choice to attend Regis. At interviews dental schools seemed to be impressed with the program. The Team Based Learning portion and cadaver dissection first semester providing good talking points during interviews. This program absolutely contributed to me being accepted to dental school in the fall.
The advantages of the Regis program are that it is only 1 year and you will receive an MS instead of an MA. The other programs I looked at were only going to give you a "certificate of completion" after the 1st year or and MA. The program at Regis is also very small- 19 in our class this year. We take all of the same courses together, so the professors know exactly why we are there and work with us to make the material relevant. For some students coming from bigger universities this was a major adjustment, so keep that in mind. If you enjoy anonymity in the classroom this is not the program for you. Attendance is mandatory for all classes as well.
Overall, I am very happy with my choice to attend Regis. At interviews dental schools seemed to be impressed with the program. The Team Based Learning portion and cadaver dissection first semester providing good talking points during interviews. This program absolutely contributed to me being accepted to dental school in the fall.
