chitown82 said:
...He noted while they are excellent doctors, their overall teaching (clinical years) is not as good as at the Chicago campus. Again, this is just his observation. No need to flame me. If you are a Rockford student - I'd like to know more about your experiences thus far.
When I interviewed @ UIC, I told them point blank that assignment anywhere other than Chicago would most likely result in me NOT attending their school. I am from Chicago (proper, not the frelling burbs), I did my undergrad @ the U of C, and had no intentions of ever leaving.
Notice the past tense.
After I was assigned to Rockford, I did a little research and found out many things that made this a more desirable campus for me... looking back on my last 3 years here, they've played out like I thought. Here are the biggies...
1) there are virtually no residents. the only residency game in town is an FP residency at a hospital that very little M3 experience occurs. What's the significance? Well, this turns your m3 core clerkships into de facto sub-i's.
in other words, 3 days into my 3rd year, I was running a hospital medicine service for a physician who was in his clinic, seeing patients. by myself. similarly when i was on surgery, i was first assist on several cases - first freaking assist! i didn't have to bypass the fellow, the senior resident, the junior resident, the intern, the off-service rotator, and the m4 rotator... i could actually see everything, and scrubbed on almost every case my attending did. peds, ob, and psych were the same thing... boatloads of experience.
yeah, so you maybe need to read a little more; but the clinical didactics are fantastic... and most of us do very well on the shelf exams and step 2 (so our teaching can't be THAT bad, can it?)
2) you start seeing patients in the fall of your 2nd year... this is a whole extra year of getting comfortable talking about histories, doing physicals, and developing diagnostic frameworks. plus, it will help with the USMLE Step 2 CS (Colonic Satyr-ism) immensely.
some other benefits are that rockford is the "most affordable city in america" (chicago tribune, 2003 or 2004), and is 1 hour from 3 great cities - chicago, madison, milwaukee. your car doesn't have to pass emissions anymore (so if you have a beater, don't need to replace it)... and it never takes any more than 15 minutes to get anywhere you need to be. try that in chicago at 8am on the kennedy near the junction.
ultimately, then, if you aren't self-directed and need things spoon fed for you, then rockford probably won't do you well. but, if you like actually SEEING and TREATING patients (the reason, i hope, you're going into medical school), and want the responsibility and experience... then rockford'll do you right. plus, if you're worried about rockford being 100% "primary care" - take a look at last year's match list: 9 radiologists, 4 emergency physicians, 4 surgeons, 1 neurosurgeon, 1 ophtho, 1 derm... and most of the IM/Peds group plan to do fellowships.
just my $.02 - and don't knock it till you've tried it.
-t
