doppl: I haven't seen Buffalo's match list but Downstate's is pretty good, alot matching at NY Hospital (Columbia and Cornell), NYU, Mount Sinai, LIJ.
mdhopeful's cousin ( :wink: ):
•••quote:••••avoid living in the dorms if you can..•••••what's wrong with the dorms?
•••quote:••••Unfortunately, Upstate has a lot of curriculum hours so you are in class from morning til late afternoon everyday and does not leave a lot of time for studying on your own. They have the 2nd most curriculums hours in the country (second to Duke which has a compressed curriculum accounting for the increased curriculum hours in its first year)..•••••I don't know how it was earlier, but I don't think that is the case now. I'm a first year and so far I don't think the hours are so unreasonable. We have between 2-3 lectures per day (for all the courses we've had thus far, physio and histo starts Monday).
•••quote:••••There are exams almost every week )..•••••This year we have exams every 2-3 weeks. I heard that the curriculum change was largely put into effect because past students would complain about tests every other week. The curriculum change really doesn't change that, but at least we don't have competing exams, except when we have our Practice of Medicine (non basic science course) exams. In the first year we only take one basic science course at a time till mid March (no competing tests). Then we take Physio and Histo concurrently.
•••quote:••••and not enough hands on practice/patient contact during the first year. )..•••••That has DEFINITELY changed. With the new Practice of Medicine course we're definitely having earlier clinical exposure (some schools have no clinical exposure the first two years). It's a course that lumps together clinical skills (physical diagnosis and communications), epidemiology, and ethics (i.e Medicine and Society). It's not a perfect course (in fact every first year has bitched about it extensively) but I'm glad that I'm having early clinical exposure. We're learning alot of stuff that you would typically learn in third year. And this past Thursday I did a history and physical on an inmate
. (I'm convinced this effort was made to put Upstate on the map in primary care).
•••quote:••••The good note is that the professors are really incredible and really care about the well-being of students though! The Anatomy Dept is fabulous.•••••So far, I'd say about 60% of the professors are good. Actually I really didn't like anatomy. None of the professors had decent notes and basically it was just five professors running the entire course. But the 4th year students were awesome TA's.
I'm sure Downstate's clinical experience is excellent. But I kept on hearing that their basic science program was weak. Really though the SUNYs aren't that much different from one another in terms of national recognition. But if I had the choice I'd choose Stonybrook.
