UCI's new curriculum - so jealous of upcoming CA premeds.

[alwaysaangel]

http://today.uci.edu/news/2010/08/nr_ipad_100803.php

Don't get me wrong- I'm thrilled to be applying to residency and be almost done with med school.

But I am very jealous to watch my school offer ipads and 54 ultrasound machines and a completely new building to incoming medical students.

Technology just keeps becoming more and more predominant in medical schools, even those of us who started school 3 years ago are dinosaurs.

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[JoshuaGuit]

It won't me much use to them other than what they were told to use them for... only 16 gb. I wouldn't be too jealous

 

[ILikeDrugs]

More enslaved drones for Steve Jobs to add to his collective .

 

[Enoko]

I love how effective that gimmick is. Five years ago when I was a senior in HS my friend was picking which college to attend. He narrowed it down to the most prestigious state school in our state, or a average private college. Here was the last discussion I had with him

Me: So, did you pick your school yet?
Him: Yea, I'm totally going to the private college, they give all freshmen a free iPod AND A MACBOOK!!!
Me: Well, the tuition at the state school is 9k, the private school's tuition is 35k.
Him: You're just jelous I get a free laptop AND an ipod. Haha you're school must suck, you get nothing.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Well I think the getting of the ipad is less than what they are using it for. I'm just amazing how much technology is being poured into medical schools across the country.

Train every medical student with an ipad and its just a matter of time until medical records are on ipads and so easy to input because everyone is already trained in it.

Train first and second years who haven't even completed anatomy yet in ultrasound and they will be better at it than most of their attendings.

Other schools are using more virtual education, all are using more procedure videos. Just amazes me how many things weren't there a few years ago.

I'm less impressed with the ipad and more impressed with the changes in curriculum. I get enough money to go buy an ipad but to have had my entire curriculum built around it would have been pretty awesome.

 

[Telekinesis]

I love how effective that gimmick is. Five years ago when I was a senior in HS my friend was picking which college to attend. He narrowed it down to the most prestigious state school in our state, or a average private college. Here was the last discussion I had with him

Me: So, did you pick your school yet?
Him: Yea, I'm totally going to the private college, they give all freshmen a free iPod AND A MACBOOK!!!
Me: Well, the tuition at the state school is 9k, the private school's tuition is 35k.
Him: You're just jelous I get a free laptop AND an ipod. Haha you're school must suck, you get nothing.

Seriously? He got blindly by the word free. Anytime the word free is used people are more apt to pay attention.

 

[DoctaFuture]

Nothing is free! I don't think it's free as I believe it's part of the tuition. But yeah def a cool thing that tablets are being used.

 

[SOcash]

My (public) high school gave tablets to incoming students (and I think it still does), but a lot of teachers ended up banning them from classes because they're so distracting to a 14-year-old. I think it's a great idea for college and medical school though.

More enslaved drones for Steve Jobs to add to his collective.

I'm fairly certain that sticking your finger into the charging slot of an iPhone makes it inject you with nanoprobes.

 

[dragon529]

instead of using the money to open up a few more spots.. they use it on iPads >.< Not saying going high-tech is bad... but they should reconsider their priorities.

 

[morning]

Don't be jealous - they have to get IN first

 

[ceng2doc]

Seriously? He got blindly by the word free. Anytime the word free is used people are more apt to pay attention.

Free tomb!

 

[ceng2doc]

instead of using the money to open up a few more spots.. they use it on iPads >.< Not saying going high-tech is bad... but they should reconsider their priorities.

I second that!

For the record, UCI doesn't even allow post-bach pre-med students although they wouldn't request any financial aid and would pay for the same amount of tuition as others. They say "we don't have enough seats for all, there's a huge financial cut by the California state government." This is unacceptable! Public schools shouldn't become that mean to its potential students when faced with a little bit of a tangling. Educating your citizens shouldn't be recognized as "business" especially by the governmental educational institutions.

I had been to UCI school of medicine last week (it was written on its wall like "medical education" or something like that, though.) It's located on the farthest "hill" of the UCI campus, far away from the city living, which seemed to me as inconvenient to commute, and very silent (just nobody was around!)

Coming from the middle of the IT world, I don't care the tech staff much. I'd love to learn the material via the conventional way(s). I'd prefer playing with the iPad, blackberry, whatnot, on my own!

 

[alwaysaangel]

For the record, UCI doesn't even allow post-bach pre-med students although they wouldn't request any financial aid and would pay for the same amount of tuition as others.

I'm not sure what you mean by this - we have a post-bacc class of like 16 students every year, 4-5 of which are "conditional acceptances" who do a 5 year med program. We have a very active post-bacc program and many of them go to UCI SOM in the end.

I had been to UCI school of medicine last week (it was written on its wall like "medical education" or something like that, though.) It's located on the farthest "hill" of the UCI campus, far away from the city living, which seemed to me as inconvenient to commute, and very silent (just nobody was around!)

"far away from city living?" try to keep driving next time - its just on the other side of the campus in Newport Beach. Keep driving and you run into several shopping centers, Fashion Island and of coure - the beach!

Its not further away from anything than anything else, but if all you knew was UCI undergrad campus yes it would seem far from the world i suppose.

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a tirade on UCI. I was kind of hoping to end up hearing what other med schools are starting to do with technology. Didn't work out that way I guess.

Also, its pretty naive to think that the cost of updating the curriculum (important here at uci! we were a little behind the curve) and the cost of 100 ipads would be anywhere near the same as the cost of adding spots to the class.

When you guys get to medical school you'll understand that adding spots to the class has less to do with costs and more to do with hospital resources for 3rd and 4th year. If there aren't enough teams and hospitals then you're students don't get educated. Period. UCI will likely need a few more associations with hospitals before we can realistically increase our class size - and thats a much bigger issue than "cost."

 

[ceng2doc]

I'm not sure what you mean by this - we have a post-bacc class of like 16 students every year, 4-5 of which are "conditional acceptances" who do a 5 year med program. We have a very active post-bacc program and many of them go to UCI SOM in the end.

I meant second-bachelor degree-seeking students in the form of post-bach students. Those you talked about are studying their BS-MD, and are surely out of topic for this discussion. Schools administration doesn't allow second-bachelors degree-seeking students. I talked to them in person. They told they accept their applications for the Fall semester once in a year, and it's the most probable case that you're gonna be denied. They show you a way of taking your pre-reqs via "Access UCI" through UCI Extension by paying for much more for each credit. However, the catch is that you can only register to a UCI course as a non-student via the Extension only if there's left a seat after everybody has registered after September 7th, just a couple of days prior to the semester, which is of very low probability. So, literally, there's almost no chance for post-bach students if they have already graduated from the university with a BS/BA.

I'm writing this standing on the UCI School Administration staffs' explanations to me last week face to face. However, I'd appreciate to learn the real thing, if their explanations might have included some/all misinformation.

"far away from city living?" try to keep driving next time - its just on the other side of the campus in Newport Beach. Keep driving and you run into several shopping centers, Fashion Island and of coure - the beach!

Well, after seeing medical school campuses within the vicinity of city living / centers close to everywhere when needed, which doesn't require you to drive in a crazy traffic in rush hours, that of UCI came to me a little bit of weird. I hope there's no hard feelings.

Its not further away from anything than anything else, but if all you knew was UCI undergrad campus yes it would seem far from the world i suppose.

Yeah, it's what I felt exactly!

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a tirade on UCI.

No, it wasn't. We love the home of "ant eaters", tender!

I was kind of hoping to end up hearing what other med schools are starting to do with technology. Didn't work out that way I guess.

USF COM provides with online lectures, and a good archive of last years' lectures, per med students whom we talked to tells us. The lecture notes must have been available via online for a long period of time, too, I assume.

Also, its pretty naive to think that the cost of updating the curriculum (important here at uci! we were a little behind the curve) and the cost of 100 ipads would be anywhere near the same as the cost of adding spots to the class.

When you guys get to medical school you'll understand that adding spots to the class has less to do with costs and more to do with hospital resources for 3rd and 4th year. If there aren't enough teams and hospitals then you're students don't get educated. Period. UCI will likely need a few more associations with hospitals before we can realistically increase our class size - and thats a much bigger issue than "cost."

 

[alwaysaangel]

I meant second-bachelor degree-seeking students in the form of post-bach students. Those you talked about are studying their BS-MD, and are surely out of topic for this discussion. Schools administration doesn't allow second-bachelors degree-seeking students. I talked to them in person. They told they accept their applications for the Fall semester once in a year, and it's the most probable case that you're gonna be denied. They show you a way of taking your pre-reqs via "Access UCI" through UCI Extension by paying for much more for each credit. However, the catch is that you can only register to a UCI course as a non-student via the Extension only if there's left a seat after everybody has registered after September 7th, just a couple of days prior to the semester, which is of very low probability. So, literally, there's almost no chance for post-bach students if they have already graduated from the university with a BS/BA.

I'm writing this standing on the UCI School Administration staffs' explanations to me last week face to face. However, I'd appreciate to learn the real thing, if their explanations might have included some/all misinformation.

Wouldn't know. I see what you're saying but thats completely an undergrad campus thing - the med school would have nothing to do with that.

Sorry you were disapointed, I think thats pretty common across the UCs. They don't usually take graduates. Most people I know who had to go back to do prereqs or increase GPAs had to do so through community colleges.

 

[TexasFight]

Anyone know of any other schools that are updating their curriculum's or something similar for next year or the year after?

 

[LuciusVorenus]

I second that!

For the record, UCI doesn't even allow post-bach pre-med students although they wouldn't request any financial aid and would pay for the same amount of tuition as others. They say "we don't have enough seats for all, there's a huge financial cut by the California state government." This is unacceptable! Public schools shouldn't become that mean to its potential students when faced with a little bit of a tangling. Educating your citizens shouldn't be recognized as "business" especially by the governmental educational institutions.

I had been to UCI school of medicine last week (it was written on its wall like "medical education" or something like that, though.) It's located on the farthest "hill" of the UCI campus, far away from the city living, which seemed to me as inconvenient to commute, and very silent (just nobody was around!)

Coming from the middle of the IT world, I don't care the tech staff much. I'd love to learn the material via the conventional way(s). I'd prefer playing with the iPad, blackberry, whatnot, on my own!

It's actually a well hidden secret on our campus. I've been here for 2 years now and just found the medical school last month. The medical center itself is located in Orange, which is much closer to LA/Anaheim/city life. The medical school itself is just part of the main campus and closer to Newport/Huntington. Irvine itself is a "planned" city, so it's the kind of city where it's separated out into a few dozen communities, with each one being pretty self suficient (I've never had to venture out past turtle rock more than a few times a year to get anything, but I still choose to ). I've lived here for around 10 years though so maybe I just think everything looks the same . The nice thing about Irvine though is that there's literally NO real crime. This leaves the police department open to worrying about your little needs, like a possum in your attic, and needs you wish didn't exist, like lots of traffic violation tickets. It's still nice to be able to go outside at literally any time of night/early morning knowing you're completely safe. People around here jog in their undies at 3 am, try doing that in LA .

/Irvine rant :/
sorry about that

 

[ceng2doc]

They admit second bachelor's students in Engineering. I applied to BME for Fall 2010 and got in, but withdrew due to financial constraints. I also know of some who applied to Civil Engineering and Mechanical and got in.

That sounds great. But, are they admitting engineering degree holding students as a second-bachelors student in BME?

Also, can second-bachelors BME students take science courses like OChem, BioChem, Genetics?

 

[MichaelBergen]

I remember reading on their website (or was in the UC system open/closed majors site) that for the School of Engineering, you have to have a bachelor's degree in a field other than engineering.

Yeah, you can, because you're a UCI student already.

That sounds great. But, are they admitting engineering degree holding students as a second-bachelors student in BME?

Also, can second-bachelors BME students take science courses like OChem, BioChem, Genetics?

 

[DaisyBuchanan]

Heck, I'd go to UCI for med school even if I had to give THEM an iPad.

 

[bravofleet4]

it's just an experiment. they admitted themselves that they weren't able to raise funds to purchase ipads for every med student and that they just hope that the costs can be made up in the long run like less printing and textbooks.

 

[Legacy87]

My school, UVM, gives its students "free" tablet PCs. Given the choice, I would take the laptop over the iPad due to practicality imo.

 

[KTownGT]

instead of using the money to open up a few more spots.. they use it on iPads >.< Not saying going high-tech is bad... but they should reconsider their priorities.

Meh, they probably raised their tuition for incoming freshman enough to offset the cost and tacked on a few fees.

 

[LuciusVorenus]

instead of using the money to open up a few more spots.. they use it on iPads >.< Not saying going high-tech is bad... but they should reconsider their priorities.

Eh, 100 new iPads is probably only going to cost them one person's tuition (~40k), so it wouldn't even be enough to open up a single new seat. Who knows, maybe they'll actually save more than 40K on book/printing fees and actually start doing this for every class. Besides, I'm guessing they get a discount from apple. What better advertisement opportunity can you ask for than having a bunch of doctors carrying around your new product

 

[ArcGurren]

More enslaved drones for Steve Jobs to add to his collective .

This

 

[Big Dog]

I meant second-bachelor degree-seeking students in the form of post-bach students. Those you talked about are studying their BS-MD, and are surely out of topic for this discussion. Schools administration doesn't allow second-bachelors degree-seeking students. I talked to them in person. They told they accept their applications for the Fall semester once in a year, and it's the most probable case that you're gonna be denied. They show you a way of taking your pre-reqs via "Access UCI" through UCI Extension by paying for much more for each credit. However, the catch is that you can only register to a UCI course as a non-student via the Extension only if there's left a seat after everybody has registered after September 7th, just a couple of days prior to the semester, which is of very low probability. So, literally, there's almost no chance for post-bach students if they have already graduated from the university with a BS/BA.

As a taxpayer, I agree with UC: you should pay more and you should be at the end of the registration priority line. You already had one bite of the tax-payer funded education (even if you attended a private college instead). There are thousands behind you that deserve a chance at their FIRST BA. OTOH, if UC was smart -- which they are not -- instead of aggressively courting OOS kids for undergrad, they'd offer post-bacs priority registration for premium pricing, just like private colleges.

 

[iwastetimehere]

it's just an experiment. they admitted themselves that they weren't able to raise funds to purchase ipads for every med student and that they just hope that the costs can be made up in the long run like less printing and textbooks.

where did you hear this? they said they held a fundraiser and not only raised enough from that to get every student an ipad, but to also pay for all the e-textbooks necessary for the entire first year

 

[alwaysaangel]

where did you hear this? they said they held a fundraiser and not only raised enough from that to get every student an ipad, but to also pay for all the e-textbooks necessary for the entire first year

Yeah this is what I heard. Mostly it was fundraising and grant money. I heard a tiny part came out of scholarship funds. But it was all paid for.

And of course its experimental if it turns out to be completely useless. But I know the doc heading up the project well and he's not going to drop it easily - he's been pushing for more electronic education since he was an MS1 at UCI (8 years ago).

 

[iwastetimehere]

As a taxpayer, I agree with UC: you should pay more and you should be at the end of the registration priority line. You already had one bite of the tax-payer funded education (even if you attended a private college instead). There are thousands behind you that deserve a chance at their FIRST BA. OTOH, if UC was smart -- which they are not -- instead of aggressively courting OOS kids for undergrad, they'd offer post-bacs priority registration for premium pricing, just like private colleges.

Your generous tax dollars mostly fund the magnificent lifestyles and luxuries afforded to criminals and thugs as a thank you for the crimes they commit in California

The amount of state contribution to the UCs per student has been dropping year after year (something along the lines of 40% less per student than 20 years ago when you adjust for real money), on top of the drop in state funding to the overall UC system. It's inevitable that they would have to take drastic measures to stop the bleeding like taking outside students in place of in-state students. The classrooms are crowded as they are and every UC has been forced to cut/cancel classes. Trying to jam in additional post-bacs into packed classes (where their own full-time regular students who need the courses to graduate cannot themselves get in) or into additional new classes they cannot afford to hold is not really a feasible option

 

[ceng2doc]

As a taxpayer, I agree with UC: you should pay more and you should be at the end of the registration priority line. You already had one bite of the tax-payer funded education (even if you attended a private college instead). There are thousands behind you that deserve a chance at their FIRST BA. OTOH, if UC was smart -- which they are not -- instead of aggressively courting OOS kids for undergrad, they'd offer post-bacs priority registration for premium pricing, just like private colleges.

Then, you don't beg for mercy from other state medical schools for acceptance soon after you have been rejected by all of the UC schools at your application cycle as there's gonna be no mercy left back for you due to your hot blowing breath against out-of-California-state students.

Seems like Cali has been collapsing in many levels starting from its schools' sympathy to out-of-state students. One of the reasons I tend to love down south. We don't need to pay for $1500-$3500/month for a 2-bd apartment as you do in Orange county. If anybody doesn't believe, then go check the rental rates in that "secure" region by looking at rentalliving.com .

Good luck in your cranky UC system, though.

 

[ruiner]

I love how effective that gimmick is. Five years ago when I was a senior in HS my friend was picking which college to attend. He narrowed it down to the most prestigious state school in our state, or a average private college. Here was the last discussion I had with him

Me: So, did you pick your school yet?
Him: Yea, I'm totally going to the private college, they give all freshmen a free iPod AND A MACBOOK!!!
Me: Well, the tuition at the state school is 9k, the private school's tuition is 35k.
Him: You're just jelous I get a free laptop AND an ipod. Haha you're school must suck, you get nothing.

Reading the OP the first thing that went into my head is "Sounds like UCI's tuition just went up at least 500 dollars."

 

[ButImLETired]

http://today.uci.edu/news/2010/08/nr_ipad_100803.php

Don't get me wrong- I'm thrilled to be applying to residency and be almost done with med school.

But I am very jealous to watch my school offer ipads and 54 ultrasound machines and a completely new building to incoming medical students.

Technology just keeps becoming more and more predominant in medical schools, even those of us who started school 3 years ago are dinosaurs.

Hahaha sorry angel, looks like your thread didn't go exactly as planned. It IS pre-allo.

As a fellow med student, I'm with you. That sounds really cool. The idea of iPad-formatted textbooks, stuff like epocrates, online journals, a "virtual stethoscope and ultrasound" etc all in one place sounds like a really awesome way to learn medicine. Imagine getting to fourth year while carrying around all your materials from first and second year! Not that it's necessarily all that useful really but it'd be nice to carry everything along just in case some obscure metabolic disease comes up or something and you need to go back to biochem to review it. Pretty darn cool. I wish we did something like that...

I do know that a bunch of schools are doing something similar to try and offset the cost of paper, to "stay green", and to make sure all students have a standardized electronic format to work with. Some schools are trying to make iPhones work for that, others give tablets, and I think Stanford's giving iPads as well. The other day I was working with this anesthesiologist who can, in real time, watch what's going on in various ORs on campus and see the patients' vital signs, so he knows when to step in and help out a resident. There's also this third party app called Papers or something that allows you to basically download any paper on any subject through your institution's library proxy server onto your computer, and it auto-organizes itself by topic. And then it automatically uploads to his iPad and iPhone. Very nifty, I think.

Anyway, I hope to get some of this cool stuff during my education here but I guess all the young'uns get the fun toys...