Student:Cadaver ratios

[Trekkie963]

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Does anyone have information on the ratio of students to cadavers for gross anatomy at top schools? I'm curious to see if there is any relationship between this ratio and school rank...

-EDIT-

Please try to fill in:

Harvard
WUSTL 3:1
Johns Hopkins
Duke
UPenn
UCSF
UMich 6:1
Columbia
Stanford
U. Washington
Yale
Cornell
Baylor 4:1
UCLA
U. Pittsburgh

 

[skypilot]

You will spend less time picking fat and more time learning structures.

 

[peptidoglycan]

I totally agree with both of the previous responders. Worrying about how many students there are to a cadaver is totally shortsighted and useless. We had 6 and I was thrilled to not have to show up every morning and be "on." Some days I sat in the hallway with my Netter and let me lab partners call me in to see cool things because I was getting so burned out. Forget about this issue and worry about more important things, like what crazy eyes mentioned.

Good luck.

 

[Trekkie963]

Hmm...thanks for the responses, but so far no one has actually said anything useful. I don't particularly care what people think is a good ratio, I am just looking to find out what the ratio is at some of the top schools. If anyone has statistics I'd appreciate them.

 

[wonderkid]

at ucla, its about 5 to 1.
actually i think anatomy is very important for everyone! especially surgeons...so i dont know what the f the above poster is talking about. anatomy is very important and you can use it everyday.
now what the ratio has to do with how good a school is, i have no idea. i have to disagree. but anatomy is very important.
bye.

 

[leiface]

At WashU, they said it is 3:1

 

[PostalWookie]

The ideal ratio is 1:2

When you screw up one cadaver, you call it a practice and move on to the next.

 

[exmike]

4:1 at case

if there were more, the space around the cadaver would be a bit too crowded. definitely not room for four hands, let alone six working on it at once. Less than that and there is too much work to be done by too few people. anatomy is very low yield in terms of effort:reward

 

[Code Brown]

4:1 at case

if there were more, the space around the cadaver would be a bit too crowded. definitely not room for four hands, let alone six working on it at once. Less than that and there is too much work to be done by too few people. anatomy is very low yield in terms of effort:reward

Improvise if the ratio is too high. Just bring a saw to class and cut it in half. Then move half to another table 😀

 

[davidus]

Just cut it down the middle, right? Isn't the left side symmetrical with the right?

ha.

 

[Code Brown]

Just cut it down the middle, right? Isn't the left side symmetrical with the right?

ha.

For the most part. You can have a draw for the internal organs to see who gets them.

 

[DrYo12]

Just cut it down the middle, right? Isn't the left side symmetrical with the right?

ha.

speaking of symmetry. I felt like such an idiot. At one school, we were on the tour and I was a little concerned about having 8 people per cadaver. They told us that they did the dissections in shifts, so that everyone got a chance. So my question was, "well, what if the other team dissects something and since you're not there, you don't get to see it?" To this question the answer was, "right and left sides". D'OH!

 

[acidhouse303]

8:1 at BU !!
6:1 at U mich ann arbor (but its spit into group 1, group 2)

 

[Trekkie963]

speaking of symmetry. I felt like such an idiot. At one school, we were on the tour and I was a little concerned about having 8 people per cadaver. They told us that they did the dissections in shifts, so that everyone got a chance. So my question was, "well, what if the other team dissects something and since you're not there, you don't get to see it?" To this question the answer was, "right and left sides". D'OH!

I wouldn't feel like an idiot if I were you. The person who answered "right and left sides" is an idiot.

 

[DrYo12]

I wouldn't feel like an idiot if I were you. The person who answered "right and left sides" is an idiot.

Thanks! I chalk it up to experience and thinking before I open my mouth... 🙄

 

[DeterminedMD]

Boston U 8:1

I think Temple is 5:1

U of Rochester 6:1 (if I remember right)

 

[DrYo12]

Rosalind Franklin 6:1
NJMS 6:1
USUHS 4:1 😀

If I can even remember anything at this point...

 

[acidhouse303]

aww peptidoglycan i love your screen name
are u a fellow microbiologist
mad love 😍

 

[deuist]

You should go to a school with the most number of students per cadaver. Heck, go to a California school and do computer simulations instead. Anatomy labs are utterly useless for learning about anatomy. You spend more time scraping off fat cells than you do performing dissections and looking at muscles.

 

[Rendar5]

Einstein is 4:1
I don't think it really matters that much, though. I like 4:1, but it isn't anything to base your school on.

 

[benb2099]

Read today it's 6:1 at UF

 

[Trekkie963]

A lot of these numbers seem a lot higher than I expected. I sort of thought 4:1 was the norm. Let's try to fill in these schools:

Harvard
WUSTL 3:1
Johns Hopkins
Duke
UPenn
UCSF
UMich 6:1
Columbia
Stanford
U. Washington
Yale
Cornell
Baylor 4:1
UCLA
U. Pittsburgh

Thanks everyone for your help!

 

[tigress]

Drexel is 5:1 but my husband is in a group with just 3 (I guess the class size wasn't a multiple of 5) and he thinks that's perfect

 

[bidster]

Duke is 6:1, though I agree this seems like a minor factor...

 

[MedicineBird]

The ideal ratio is 1:2

When you screw up one cadaver, you call it a practice and move on to the next.

this is great!!!

 

[patzan]

A lot of these numbers seem a lot higher than I expected. I sort of thought 4:1 was the norm. Let's try to fill in these schools:

Harvard
WUSTL 3:1
Johns Hopkins
Duke
UPenn
UCSF
UMich 6:1
Columbia
Stanford
U. Washington
Yale
Cornell
Baylor 4:1
UCLA
U. Pittsburgh

Thanks everyone for your help!

I'd love to add another school that is not on your list, but you didn't ask for it.

What the heck, I'll add it anyway...Vanderbilt - 5:1 (two dissect, two read, one can do whatever - check out other bodies, study, etc.)

 

[SarahGM]

At Columbia, we are 5:1... except for MY lab table, which is the only 6:1 table there. Oh well, we have fun 🙂

 

[Iwy Em Hotep]

4:1 at UWash.

 

[velo]

At WashU, they said it is 3:1

well its actually 4:1 unless they're changing something next year...

I'll agree that the ratio doesn't really make much a difference...although 8/body seems like a little much...I guess I'd want anywhere between 3-5 in an ideal world

 

[sacrament]

4:1 at OHSU. I'm one of the minority who feels that dissection is extremely valuable, who would have been very displeased with strictly prosections, and is glad he got to dissect every day. There is still a ton of random anatomy that I remember--and look like a semi-genius when I get pimped on it--solely because I labored through the dissection of it and can still see in my mind's eye.

 

[Trekkie963]

Just to fill in the list posted earlier a bit...

Harvard
WUSTL 4:1
Johns Hopkins
Duke 6:1
UPenn
UCSF
UMich 6:1
Columbia 5:1
Stanford
U. Washington 4:1
Yale
Cornell
Baylor 4:1
UCLA
U. Pittsburgh

It's interesting to hear about schools not on this list, too. Keep the stats coming!