Western Michigan (WMED) vs TCU/UNT School of Medicine

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AsepticTechnique

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Pretty torn between these two schools.

Western Michigan:

Pros:
  • Very good feel about the administration and the overall culture of the school
  • Small class size
  • Traditional clerkships
  • Matched a class, more established than TCU/UNTHSC
  • Has upperclassmen
  • Simulation center seems cool
  • Decompressed curriculum (I like the more frequent breaks and less material all at once)
  • Step 1 in year 3

Cons:
  • Still a newish school, only matched one class so far
  • Expensive, even after financial assistance
  • Quartile ranking in Dean’s letter
  • Kalamazoo seems boring
  • Harsher weather than I am used to
  • Decompressed curriculum (fewer opportunities to go home to CA)
  • TBLs


TCU/UNTHSC School of Medicine

Pros:
  • No tuition first year
  • The administration seems solid, Dean seems strong and motivated to make this a great school.
  • True pass fails
  • Fort Worth seems like a cool place to live and Texas is closer to home (California)
  • Better weather than Michigan
  • Resources from UNT and TCU
  • Small class size

Cons:
  • Brand new school, I’ll be the first class to graduate.
  • Uncertain financial situation, unclear if scholarships will be offered during years 2-4
  • Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LIC), not sure if this is good or bad. As of right now, I am not very interested in primary care.
  • 4-year thesis (not sure if good or bad)
  • Overall, a lot of uncertainty with the school beyond pre-clinicals

TL;DR, I liked WMED more as a school, but Fort Worth >>>> Kalamazoo.

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Western Michigan for sure. You want NO PART in a brand new curriculum at a brand new school.
 
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Pretty torn between these two schools.

TCU/UNTHSC School of Medicine

Pros:
  • No tuition first year
  • The administration seems solid, Dean seems strong and motivated to make this a great school.
  • True pass fails
  • Fort Worth seems like a cool place to live and Texas is closer to home (California)
  • Better weather than Michigan
  • Resources from UNT and TCU
  • Small class size

Cons:
  • Brand new school, I’ll be the first class to graduate.
  • Uncertain financial situation, unclear if scholarships will be offered during years 2-4
  • Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LIC), not sure if this is good or bad. As of right now, I am not very interested in primary care.
  • 4-year thesis (not sure if good or bad)
  • Overall, a lot of uncertainty with the school beyond pre-clinicals

TL;DR, I liked WMED more as a school, but Fort Worth >>>> Kalamazoo.

Just to clarify a few of your concerns:

1-the LIC provides the same exposure to all clinical clerkships as does a non-LIC model that is found across programs (all 7 specialties are represented). LIC is not intended to increase/focus interest on primary care, but rather is designed to provide consistent exposure for 52 weeks than over 6 weeks.
2-scholarships are available to years 2-4.

3-happy to help clarify anything that you feel was unclear or not addressed during your the visit day.
 
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Just to clarify a few of your concerns:

1-the LIC provides the same exposure to all clinical clerkships as does a non-LIC model that is found across programs (all 7 specialties are represented). LIC is not intended to increase/focus interest on primary care, but rather is designed to provide consistent exposure for 52 weeks than over 6 weeks.
2-scholarships are available to years 2-4.

3-happy to help clarify anything that you feel was unclear or not addressed during your the visit day.


Thank you! This was helpful!
 
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I like the idea of a flipped classroom. I relied heavily on podcasts and videos during undergrad so I think that learning style works with me. I think WMed is pretty similar with the use of iBooks in addition to traditional lectures. WMed has TBLs as well, so there is no avoiding that.

I don't know how I feel about LIC. I don't know how it will work with more in-patient focused fields.
 
The nice thing about TCU/UNT is that yes they are new, but they have an already existing backbone with UNT TCOM; they arent necessarily completely starting from scratch, rather they have the help of an experience program (UNT) to get things rolling. However, I definitely wouldn’t let that block the fact that WestMich has already matched so u know what their match results are like.

To me, sounds like u got 2 good options! U seemed to be more content with
WestMich
 
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