To current MCV students....opinions on the school?

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I was recently accepted and am strongly considering the school. Can any current MCV students offer me insight and your opinions on the school? What you like, don?t like, etc. How well does the curriculum prepare students for the boards? Also, what do you think of FCM? When I interviewed, some students said they found it more burdensome than helpful and that they thought the program was more or less played up by the faculty and administration. Any thoughts?

I am a cali resident and would really like to go back west to practice after med school. Do you think students have a good chance matching back in California for residency? Can anyone provide info and stats on match rates?

Any thoughts and opinions on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch!

 

[eagle26]

First, here's a link to the match statistics. It's a little misleading since it doesn't say how many students or the specialty matching in, but you can get and idea about the proportion who did residencies in California.

http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/ume/hospstats.html

I'm a first year, so I can't really give you an idea about how well our curriculum prepares you for the boards, but MCV does give board review classes in the spring before step 1. Upper classmen have felt that between this and the curriculum, they were well prepared. MCV tends to "hold your hand" and walk you through the boards. It's in their best interests for you to succeed.

The curriculum is fantastic; I love the block approach to teaching. Unlike many schools that have several high intensity courses simultaneously and offer midterm and final exam blocks, we tend to concentrate on one or two classes in a very short time period and have more periodic exams. For first year, we have no cumulative exams. Right now we're finishing anatomy....we do the course in 9 weeks with 3 written and 3 practical exams; no other courses are taken at the same time, which is nice.

In regards to FCM, it does tend to be a burden in the sense that you may have to study for an anatomy exam (or other) and realize that you have an obligation to read some stuff for FCM or go to your preceptor, but it's definitely the highlight of my week. With all the academia, I tend to forget about what I'm here to learn and practice. FCM reminds me of that. It teaches you your clinical skills and ultimately, how to be a doctor. Just the other day my preceptor had me do a complete exam on a child. I didn't know what I was looking for yet, but I had the chance and experience. This is what FCM is all about. This is why I enjoy it.

I'm also out of state, so I understand the tuition thing. But I do love it here, curriculum and faculty are great. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions.

 

[Suz177]

I'm also a first year at MCV! I agree w/ everything eagles has said. The block schedule is great! I've heard nothing but good stuff about our board prep, in fact I've heard noone even bothers w/ private review courses, cuz we have an advisor for it all who is top notch! I really like it here and believe MCV is in fact a better school than it is given credit for. The only 2 minuses I've seen being here are budget problems and the grading system (H/HP/P/M/F). I must say though that they have done a great job of not letting the budget cuts affect academia too much...they've cut all kinds of library and gym hours, but don't seem to have touched our curriculum or faculty. That is the other thing great thing at MCV is our faculty. I have not yet seen a prof who wasn't enthusiastic about both his/her field/material and our learning experience. In addition to the block scheduling, most of our courses are taught by several profs, each of whom is an expert in his/her field. If you have any q's about MCV please feel free to PM me! I would love to share w/ you any information you want to know!

 

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thanks for the insight guys! suz177, I PM-ed you.