Spending a day "visiting" a school....

[TimmyTheWonderD]

Has anyone else done this proactively? I spent a day with a friend of mine who is an M1 at a school that I applied to and I am really glad I did! It gave me a chance to see everything in action as it really is on any day of any week, no false pretenses!

Anyhow, I would really like to do this with several other schools I am applying to, but I do not have friends at these others and do not know if the schools will provide me with a "chaperone" for the day. I have emailed a few asking if they would mind, let's see what they say. In the meantime I was wondering if anyone else has done this, what they learned from it - ie: they really want to go to that school now, or they really DON'T want to go there now, etc.

Please tell which school, with whom you spent the day (student, friend, tour guide of other nature, alone, etc.) and interview days don’t count…not really the same thing. How long was your day?

I just want to make the most informed decision and I don't want any "I wish I would have known this" surprises AFTER it's too late.

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[TimmyTheWonderD]

Please tell which school, with whom you spent the day (student, friend, tour guide of other nature, alone, etc.) and interview days don’t count…not really the same thing. How long was your day?

duh...I did not even say where I was...I work the night shift, not awake yet today...
Loyola
M1 who is good friend
from 8am to 4pm
WONDERFUL day! I loved every single minute of it! I got to see that the profs there are REALLY, TRULY excited to be there, and that they really care about the students. The students are all very nice, they respect each other and they are all in love with their school! The school offers endless opportunities for those who seek them, ie: day I was there they were doing fundraising for a student volunteer trip to Kenya and they were making/delivering Thanksgiving baskets for families in the area! LOVE IT!

 

[Flopotomist]

Timmy - I think this is a great idea. I did the same thing with a friend who is an MS4 at Loyola, and was also amazed by the school.

 

[ms1finally]

I did this. It was called interview day. As far as getting an inside look, eh. I didn't really want to see the bowels of medical education until I had to. Every school feeds you the same crap: "We foster a non-competitive environment, our students are friendly and happy and help eachother. Our faculty really give a rats ass about the medical students they spend (insert # between 1 and 10) __ days a year teaching. Our administration really goes out of the way to help you. Blah blah." It's only once you've been there for a little bit that the facade starts to crumble.

With that said, I'm happy where I am .

 

[TimmyTheWonderD]

I did this. It was called interview day.

Interview is different, like you said, as they are trying to sell you on their school. However, when they don't know you are there they do not put on any dog and you get to see how it really is.

Why would you not want to see the "bowels" of medical school until you are there? Don't know about you but I hate surprises and would prefer to get the "whoa" factor out of the way.

Glad you are happy!

 

[ms1finally]

Why would you not want to see the "bowels" of medical school until you are there? Don't know about you but I hate surprises and would prefer to get the "whoa" factor out of the way.

I love surprises

and...

Who WANTS to see bowels if they don't have to?

My goal in life is to be a doctor, my goal was NOT to go to medical school (please note that this statement is in fact different fron the following: my goal is to be a doctor without going to medical school). Unfortunately the path to the former is through the latter.

I'd spent enough time working at a medical school to know what medical school is like (sorta) and it sounded quite like the depths of hell to me (it's turning out to be not so much - a pleasant surprise!). I didn't see any point in visiting (and possibly falling in love with) a school that hadn't/might not accept me, so I waited until I had all the facts and responses from everyone to make my decision. Once I had all of that it was pretty clear cut, so I didn't feel the need to go back and look.