UNECOM Vs. Marian

[mhorn01]

I thought I was set on UNECOM before I interviewed and was accepted to Marian. I'm having trouble between picking the obviously more established UNECOM with a great reputation, or Marian which is newer but seems to have a lot of things going for it.

UNECOM pros:

• More established
• Great reputation during clinical rotations
• Has some great biomedical research opportunities
• Pass/Fail/HP/Honors system
• Great anatomy program
• Living in Maine would be cool
• Everyone seems very friendly (family-like atmosphere)
• No competition
• Students seem to have a great work-life balance

UNECOM cons:

• Curriculum changes (could be a pro or con for me, not sure)
• Far away from home
• More expensive (~52K)
• Would have to move for rotations
• Not sure about board prep time

Marian Pros:

• Great location in Indy
• Great healthcare networks to rotate in
• Could do research with IU or one of the hospitals
• Would not have to move for rotations (most likely)
• Close to home
• Less expensive (~46K)
• Seems to have great faculty (taken from more established schools)
• Although new, they seem to have a good reputation already

Marian Cons:

• New
• No graduating class/match list yet
• Didn't seem to have the same camaraderie between students that UNECOM had
• Didn't have the family-like atmosphere feel that other schools had
• A/B/C/D/F grading
• Not a lot of study space

Feel free to mention anything! I appreciate the help!

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[Medschoolornah]

• Pass/Fail/HP/Honors system

id go to une just for that

 

[ClassicJandT]

• Pass/Fail/HP/Honors system

id go to une just for that

Why?

Honors/high pass/pass/fail is just A/B/C/F grading by another name

 

[Medschoolornah]

Why?

Honors/high pass/pass/fail is just A/B/C/F grading by another name

lol u right.

 

[adrian710]

Marian. Location much better and cheaper. Everything else is what you make it.

 

[IslandStyle808]

My pick would go to Marian since it is cheaper. Unless there is a specific competitive field you are after and UNE has that specific department or GME under its network.

 

[DO2015CA]

Marian. Especially with it having that kind of collaboration with IU. Seems like they will be receptive of having Marian residents.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Marian. Especially with it having that kind of collaboration with IU. Seems like they will be receptive of having Marian residents.

.
Agreed, that kind of support and collaboration from the local MD school can really help someone trying to get into some of the more competative specialties, like KCU and KU. Wouldn't be surprised if IU takes some GS residents from Marian and a token Marian student in some of the surg subspecialties from time to time.

 

[Mad Jack]

Do you know what fields you might be interested in?

For the record, the curriculum changes at UNECOM are kind of overblown. Yeah, things change, but that's kind of the norm for all medical schools. Nothing drastic is or has happened. Your first block or two you're like, "oh, this is different than last year." Then you just kind of forget about the consistency year-to-year because it doesn't really matter, because the only real downside is you can't get guidance from senior students.

 

[Mad Jack]

Also, if you want work-life balance, you literally can't beat UNECOM. And the CoL is wicked cheap- you can rent a place on the beach for less than you pay for a 1 bedroom apartment in many parts of the country lol...

As a student, I'll just say that I don't know anyone that regrets choosing UNE. And there's a lot of people that had a plethora of choices, so that kind of says something. We basically have the time of our lives up here, in between the hell that is block weeks (year one) and study sessions for the boards (year 2).

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Also, if you want work-life balance, you literally can't beat UNECOM. And the CoL is wicked cheap- you can rent a place on the beach for less than you pay for a 1 bedroom apartment in many parts of the country lol...

As a student, I'll just say that I don't know anyone that regrets choosing UNE. And there's a lot of people that had a plethora of choices, so that kind of says something. We basically have the time of our lives up here, in between the hell that is block weeks (year one) and study sessions for the boards (year 2).

Side question, how do your classmates typically perform on the boards? Is it common for UNE students to take both COMLEX and USMLE? UNE is one of the schools I know very little about outside that it has a good reputation.

 

[Mad Jack]

Side question, how do your classmates typically perform on the boards? Is it common for UNE students to take both COMLEX and USMLE? UNE is one of the schools I know very little about outside that it has a good reputation.

Here's the data: http://www.une.edu/com/admissions/information/graduate-medical-education-and-comlex-results

Basically we do better than the national average most years on all exams. As to how many of us take the USMLE, can't say for sure, but I don't know a single person that doesn't plan to. Nice thing about UNE is that if you're willing to split up when you take your exams, you can have up to 10 weeks of dedicated study time (if you sacrifice your summer) for the USMLE before rotations. You only have 4 weeks after second year ends for the COMLEX, but 10 weeks until rotations start, so you can really study your ass off for the USMLE if you'd like. With that much time, you're basically only limited by your will to sacrifice your summer and your ability to study your butt off and retain stuff.

 

[mhorn01]

Do you know what fields you might be interested in?

For the record, the curriculum changes at UNECOM are kind of overblown. Yeah, things change, but that's kind of the norm for all medical schools. Nothing drastic is or has happened. Your first block or two you're like, "oh, this is different than last year." Then you just kind of forget about the consistency year-to-year because it doesn't really matter, because the only real downside is you can't get guidance from senior students.

Thanks for the insight! Right now, Im thinking peds and then specialize in pediatric oncology. But I'm also interested in EM.

 

[Mad Jack]

Thanks for the insight! Right now, Im thinking peds and then specialize in pediatric oncology. But I'm also interested in EM.

EM and peds are some if the stronger areas we match to, so UNE definitely would work for you in that regard.

 

[mhorn01]

EM and peds are some if the stronger areas we match to, so UNE definitely would work for you in that regard.

Do you know if UNECOM has any connections with the peds residency program at Maine Medical Center? It seems like they always have at least one person match there?

 

[Mad Jack]

Do you know if UNECOM has any connections with the peds residency program at Maine Medical Center? It seems like they always have at least one person match there?

They seem to like our grads, so I'd say yes. We've got six students that get to rotate at Maine med (a tiny chance) but we've also got a long history of grads going there post-residency, so overall I'd say it's a solid place to match from out of UNE.

 

[cliquesh]

Here's the data: http://www.une.edu/com/admissions/information/graduate-medical-education-and-comlex-results

Basically we do better than the national average most years on all exams. As to how many of us take the USMLE, can't say for sure, but I don't know a single person that doesn't plan to. Nice thing about UNE is that if you're willing to split up when you take your exams, you can have up to 10 weeks of dedicated study time (if you sacrifice your summer) for the USMLE before rotations. You only have 4 weeks after second year ends for the COMLEX, but 10 weeks until rotations start, so you can really study your ass off for the USMLE if you'd like. With that much time, you're basically only limited by your will to sacrifice your summer and your ability to study your butt off and retain stuff.

10 weeks is nice. I think you only need 6 weeks to be totally prepared. Obviously the more time you get the better. I had 8 weeks, but I started to burn out around week 5.

 

[Mad Jack]

10 weeks is nice. I think you only need 6 weeks to be totally prepared. Obviously the more time you get the better. I had 8 weeks, but I started to burn out around week 5.

I'm probably going to intersperse it with actually going out and doing stuff- it's not going to be 10 weeks of 16 hours, 7 days a week studying, but 10 weeks of 16 hour, 5 day a week studying with some time off on the weekends. I'm a bit slower on the uptake in regard to certain topics like pharm and anatomy, so I think the extra time'll be good for me.

 

[sigmasigma]

Hey, I chose Marian over some more established schools because I'm pretty confident it will give me the medical training I want. Mostly, I am excited about the rotations being pretty close, without having to relocate for most of them. Even if you do have to relocate, the school provides housing. I also heard a lot about the awesome research opportunities. You can reach out to IU, as well as doing research at Marian with faculty members. I really liked the feel of the campus and the metropolitan area, compared to other schools I interviewed at. They seem to have their board prep system down, giving a lot of time to study. I also really liked the systems based curriculum they laid out. I loved the fact that there are no mandatory lectures or dress code. I'm not really worried about residency or the match list because I have faith in the rotations and the curriculum, and I believe there will be some good match lists!

As for the family atmosphere, I felt very welcome at Marian during my interview and felt that there was a good vibe. I did hear a lot of people felt the lack of camaraderie, but I personally did not feel that way. I also have a lot of friends that go there and they stated they developed awesome friendships and have absolutely no complaints about the atmosphere.

I don't know much about UNE but I'm sure they have a lot of what I mentioned, also!

I ultimately picked Marian for all of those reasons, and also because it is close to home. The extra support system is important to me!

Hope this helps, of course I don't go to school there yet but I just wanted to go through my thought process!

 

[chizledfrmstone]

UNE has a class size lower than 130??

 

[mhorn01]

UNE has a class size lower than 130??

I thought it was around 150-160ish

 

[DO2015CA]

UNE raised its class size to 175 to years ago