These Harry Potter "Houses" adcoms love to promote ...

[MissRibeye]

Are they as cheesy as they sound, or are they really a helpful way to build friendships and community with fellow students?

I am genuinely curious, as it seems like a ton of schools have these mentioned in their materials and open houses.

Can people share their experiences - pros and cons?

I'm worried it'll just be another source of "required-and-a-waste-of-time" activities.

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[Goro]

Can you enlighten us as to what you are talking about?

 

[FalconSlice]

Are they as cheesy as they sound, or are they really a helpful way to build friendships and community with fellow students?

I am genuinely curious, as it seems like a ton of schools have these mentioned in their materials and open houses.

Can people share their experiences - pros and cons?

I'm worried it'll just be another source of "required-and-a-waste-of-time" activities.

I can only imagine you are talking about the groups they split each year's classes into for social events, small groups, etc.???

 

[MissRibeye]

I can only imagine you are talking about the groups they split each year's classes into for social events, small groups, etc.???

yes, this.

 

[Neopolymath]

Waste of time. Just make friends like a normal person. Leave it to admin to somehow make socializing weird and mandatory work instead of just grabbing a beer or playing a pickup sport with someone new.

 

[Goro]

Are they as cheesy as they sound, or are they really a helpful way to build friendships and community with fellow students?

I am genuinely curious, as it seems like a ton of schools have these mentioned in their materials and open houses.

Can people share their experiences - pros and cons?

I'm worried it'll just be another source of "required-and-a-waste-of-time" activities.

What penal colony is this that you attend?

 

[MissRibeye]

What penal colony is this that you attend?

I know there are several MD programs that have this. Vandy is an example. TUNCOM is the DO school that most recently brought it up in their open house and mentioned that you try to get your group points and there are games, etc. Noorda is going to have "research houses like harry potter houses" which is at least better because you are put together with people of similar research interests, so that doesn't seem bad, but they mentioned that many schools are doing this now.

I am much older, so maybe that's why I'm turned off by it, I don't know. I'm truly curious about it, though.

 

[jmtbekm]

What penal colony is this that you attend?

I don’t think this is out of the ordinary. If I understand OP correctly, the school breaks you into groups for orientation, labs, anatomy tanks, monthly “wellness” meetings, TBLs, etc. These groups are chosen at random and often different people each time, to facilitate the whole class getting to know one another.

For covid it has worked out that our groups are mostly the same in an attempt to keep us from each other (stupid, because they didn’t check housing situations before making the groups so people from different groups are roommates), which has resulted in most of us knowing about a quarter of the class.

OP, it’s just a hoop your admin has set up for you. I tend to be a wallflower, so if I don’t care for the people in my group I’m not going to engage them much, I just get through it and move on.

I’m nontrad too, so I get it. The other nontrads always seem to find one another to build relationships though.

 

[hallowmann]

Waste of time. Just make friends like a normal person. Leave it to admin to somehow make socializing weird and mandatory work instead of just grabbing a beer or playing a pickup sport with someone new.

I think the issue is that currently students can't just "grab a beer" at a bar with someone and random pickup sport activities aren't a think right now. It just sounds like they are sorting people into small groups for the sake of creating "pods". Seems very normal given the situation.

We were all "sorted" into small(er) groups for different classes like PBL and even OMM, so it's not like this is a revolutionary idea. I think if they required you to go to social activities together that's one thing, but it more or less sounds like they are putting people together to reduce exposure.

Hopefully this time next year it won't be an issue, but who knows. Things look really bad here right now, hospitals filling up, docs and RNs getting sick left and right, makeshift ICUs opening up on the floors, etc.

 

[MissRibeye]

I’m nontrad too, so I get it. The other nontrads always seem to find one another to build relationships though.

Yeah, I did totally fine going back to school with the youngin's these past two years, but sometimes it felt a bit like a mama bear situation. It's true that I did end up finding 2 or 3 nontrads I formed more meaningful bonds with and hope that happens again. I admit I have kind of high hopes for making good friends in med school.

The houses I have heard mentioned don't seem to be created for covid at all, btw.

 

[Neopolymath]

I think the issue is that currently students can't just "grab a beer" at a bar with someone and random pickup sport activities aren't a think right now. It just sounds like they are sorting people into small groups for the sake of creating "pods". Seems very normal given the situation.

We were all "sorted" into small(er) groups for different classes like PBL and even OMM, so it's not like this is a revolutionary idea. I think if they required you to go to social activities together that's one thing, but it more or less sounds like they are putting people together to reduce exposure.

Hopefully this time next year it won't be an issue, but who knows. Things look really bad here right now, hospitals filling up, docs and RNs getting sick left and right, makeshift ICUs opening up on the floors, etc.

Great point about viewing it through the lens of covid. That makes it much more palatable IMO.

 

[drstranger]

Our houses are named after famous Osteopathic physicians...
and we had them before COVID. They seem to function a lot less at my school with covid because a majority of the events you would be with your house have been canceled. It's a cool idea for those that want to participate

 

[builderstorch]

Our houses are named after famous Osteopathic physicians...
and we had them before COVID. They seem to function a lot less at my school with covid because a majority of the events you would be with your house have been canceled. It's a cool idea for those that want to participate

ahh so they are named after real-life wizards.

 

[FalconSlice]

yes, this.

Varies by institution. Can vary from just a method to split up classes/small groups to full-on mini-sections where you might not interact with those outside of your group. All in all, it doesn't matter that much.

 

[jmtbekm]

Yeah, I did totally fine going back to school with the youngin's these past two years, but sometimes it felt a bit like a mama bear situation. It's true that I did end up finding 2 or 3 nontrads I formed more meaningful bonds with and hope that happens again. I admit I have kind of high hopes for making good friends in med school.

The houses I have heard mentioned don't seem to be created for covid at all, btw.

Ours weren’t created for covid either. They were created to give us opportunities to get to know one another in smaller settings than a 160+ person lecture hall, but once covid hit they became a convenient way to sequester us.

Ours are also named for famous Osteopathic physicians, and the school uses them for good-natured rivalry (food drives, monthly “wellness challenges”, etc).

 

[hallowmann]

Our houses are named after famous Osteopathic physicians...
and we had them before COVID. They seem to function a lot less at my school with covid because a majority of the events you would be with your house have been canceled. It's a cool idea for those that want to participate

Ours weren’t created for covid either. They were created to give us opportunities to get to know one another in smaller settings than a 160+ person lecture hall, but once covid hit they became a convenient way to sequester us.

Ours are also named for famous Osteopathic physicians, and the school uses them for good-natured rivalry (food drives, monthly “wellness challenges”, etc).

Well that's just weird then... same school (hopefully)?

I suppose it could be helpful in a big school, but we never had this and we all broke up into groups naturally. The only smaller groups we had were the PBL groups (6-8 people), and the OMM groups were basically two halves of the whole class.

 

[getfat]

I can only imagine you are talking about the groups they split each year's classes into for social events, small groups, etc.???

My school had something like this for our class. Not as much social events for specific houses but the houses for mentor/mentee was good.

I liked the assigned mentorship. You got a 2nd year and a PCS faculty "assigned" to you. So you automatically had somebody you could talk to.

Some people have difficulty asking for help. Especially showing any sign of weakness to professors or classmates.

So i thought it was good that everybody could have assigned person that expected getting questions asked from them and it didn't feel as awkward.

 

[Neopolymath]

My school had something like this for our class. Not as much social events for specific houses but the houses for mentor/mentee was good.

I liked the assigned mentorship. You got a 2nd year and a PCS faculty "assigned" to you. So you automatically had somebody you could talk to.

Some people have difficulty asking for help. Especially showing any sign of weakness to professors or classmates.

So i thought it was good that everybody could have assigned person that expected getting questions asked from them and it didn't feel as awkward.

The mentorship part was a big plus for sure

 

[BoneWizard]

I don't know why we're not mentioning school names here.

ACOM has this kind of system. You're divided into a house first year. Your house sets up events and you can link up with more senior students for mentorship/tutoring/general advice. There's points and whatever awarded but no one is really into the house vs house rivalry. It's just a convenient way to link up with students, ask for help and find out about events.

Major plus is there's no required anything other than a 30m-1hr meeting at some point to go over how things work at the start of the year.

 

[getfat]

I don't know why we're not mentioning school names here.

Idk why i either. @Neopolymath and I are GAPCOM btw.

 

[Neopolymath]

Idk why i either. @Neopolymath and I are GAPCOM btw.

Probably to stay anonymous

 

[jmtbekm]

Well that's just weird then... same school (hopefully)?

Probably not...my school had these groups pre-covid, but they weren’t named after osteopathic physicians until this year. Our admin probably liked the idea at another school.

 

[PapaGuava]

When I was an incoming first-year, I had thought the whole idea of having a group of students in your 'house' or 'college' sounded kind of cool, but it ended up falling flat and there is really no communication. Its just like Hufflepuff, no one cares

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

I'm also nontrad and was matched with a nontrad "big" who has been able to answer a lot of my neurotic first year med student questions and point me towards useful resources. I would participate in house gatherings if not for COVID; I find the group zoom call dynamic awkward. No house participation is mandatory but it's a nice way to meet people in other years and get advice from them.

 

[jurassicpark]

Which medical school has Jedi vs Sith? I would go to that school. And they should have light saber battles and everyone should get a copy of Star Wars Battlefront to play each other line. The distance between the two light sabers will be close to six feet apart, and you can wear darth vader helmets. This would be awesome.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Some MD schools have this too. My school does not, thank God. I really dislike forced socialization.

 

[calivianya]

Hated it, tbh.

We had a bunch of them (10, I think) and all it meant was it took me forever to find my people because I was forced into a group that wasn't my people with limited interaction with the rest of the class.

Third year now and literally everyone I still text/keep up with at this point is outside of my "house." And I also think there are plenty of people in my class that I never even got to meet because of this "house" BS.

 

[UTsksk]

My med school (TCOM) had this. It went ok I guess. I was part of Everett. Met some people I wouldn't have gravitated towards, but ended up hanging out with my own group of friends when it came to socials. You end up knowing your "group" pretty well because they're the ones you're with in OMM, patient interviews, small groups. In first year there was some house rivalry, but it all basically went away second year when people had bigger things to worry about.