What are the risks of going to a brand new medical school?

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nurseawesome

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Looking at Oakland University's new school opening in 2011, Should I be hesitant to go to a new program? Will I have a lower quality medical education?
Thanks😎

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Looking at Oakland University's new school opening in 2011, Should I be hesitant to go to a new program? Will I have a lower quality medical education?
Thanks😎

If that is the only med school you get into, then you should go. Otherwise it will probably be best to go to an established school unless location is important to you.
 
I think that as long as medical school is accredited, you should be fine.

I have two friends who go to the Commonwealth Medical College at Scranton (PA), a medical school that was opened last year. The new medical schools are in need because this country has shortages in health care, and simply taking doctors from other countries will not do any job.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/education/15medschools.html

So, in a short answer, as long as accredited, go for it.
 
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I don't think there's a risk. There's a very low chance of it shutting down or something. But none the least there's a chance. That being said, if your the opening class you'll be getting a huge scholarship maybe full tuition.
 
I don't think the quality will be any lesser than any of the other established schools. Of course there will be glitches here and there as they get underway, but you'll be pioneering the success of the school, and they will call upon you to give them input in order to improve as time goes on. So if you like the idea of being a groundbreaker and the leader of the pack, then a new medical school could be a good thing. If you like tradition, and having someone pave the way for you and ensure that your own transition is smooth, then you might not want to apply.

And yes, there is that yummy incentive in the form of scholarship. Not sure how much, or even if, but if they put it out there it'd be another reason to apply.
 
The only thing I'd be really concerned about is the quality of rotation sites that'll be available to you in the clinical years (3 and 4). That's usually the biggest problem these newer schools have - older schools have very established relationships with their clinical sites, usually, so it's harder for new schools to find sites, etc.
 
If the school has good clinical sites associated with it, that's good. My main issue would be not having earlier classes to ask for advice and stuff.
 
I think that as long as medical school is accredited, you should be fine.

I have two friends who go to the Commonwealth Medical College at Scranton (PA), a medical school that was opened last year. The new medical schools are in need because this country has shortages in health care, and simply taking doctors from other countries will not do any job.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/education/15medschools.html

So, in a short answer, as long as accredited, go for it.


Keep in mind that new med schools aren't FULLY accredited until they graduate their first class.

This does not mean that these schools aren't good schools. It is very possible one of them could be one of the top schools in the next 10 or 15 years...gotta start somewhere.
 
all the risks have been said here (which i feel arent huge). The best thing about a new school is normally the 1st class all gets free tuition for all 4 years. That is sick. If i was accepted to a new school id most likely go just for this reason. As long as the school is associated with a major university id also have less of a concern.
 
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all the risks have been said here (which i feel arent huge). The best thing about a new school is normally the 1st class all gets free tuition for all 4 years. That is sick. If i was accepted to a new school id most likely go just for this reason. As long as the school is associated with a major university id also have less of a concern.

Bolded is not true. UCF did that. FIU did not. I don't know about Commonwealth. It's up to the individual schools and what kind of funding they can get.

Edit: and I don't know if UCF's is for all 4 years. It may have just been the first year...anyone know for sure?
 
Bolded is not true. UCF did that. FIU did not. I don't know about Commonwealth. It's up to the individual schools and what kind of funding they can get.

Edit: and I don't know if UCF's is for all 4 years. It may have just been the first year...anyone know for sure?

As far as I remember, UCF was for all 4 years and I think they may have even given money toward living expenses.
 
Looking at Oakland University's new school opening in 2011, Should I be hesitant to go to a new program? Will I have a lower quality medical education?
Thanks😎

Risk are:
1. that they don't have a set up curriculum yet with faculty that probably aren't used to teaching.
2. a lot of kinks to work out in terms of scheduling, tests and other admin BS.
3. no reputation to help you during residency application.
4. no established rotations during clinical years (maybe) again refer to #2

Benefits:
1. reduced tuition if you're the first/second incoming class.
2. it's a US medical school
3. you get to make your own mark and establish your school's reputation which is kinda fun
4. did I mention it's a US medical school?
 
I would consider a new medical school a better option than going to a Caribbean school. Risk should be quite low. A motivated student should be able to get a good education at any US school.
 
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I wouldn't really mind going to a new school, but I think it would be a huge mistake to underestimate how important having a curriculum squared away is. I was in the second year of the M1 systems-based curriculum at UAMS, and they still had tons of huge issues to work through. Ditto that for this year. There were scheduling disasters all over the place. I would very much like to avoid having something similar happen during my third year, and that's a very real possibility for a school that hasn't actually had to teach clinical med students before.
 
yeh I live in Michigan so OU might be good when i graduate in 2014, also Central Mich is making a med school in 2014. i wanna go to UMich though, they are my school atm GO BLUE
 
Personally I think choosing a brand new school is advantageous - from what I've heard from multiple advisors, any new school is given an extremely rigorous evaluation to get the primary accreditation. Therefore, once a school gets primary accreditation, the chance of it not getting fully accredited is virtually zero. Moreover, I have been told that residency directors make no distinction between a primarily accredited AAMC school and a fully accredited one. I think the benefits of attending a new school are tremendous - tons of leadership opportunities, innovative curriculums (I think it's due time for a change in our medical education system, and these new schools have very revolutionary ideas...I interviewed at the commonwealth and FIU, and was very impressed), plus you have faculty that are one hundred percent invested in your personal success, since the future of their institution depends on it. I turned down seats at several established medical schools for a spot at FIU, and I couldn't be more excited about my decision!
 
Risk are:
1. that they don't have a set up curriculum yet with faculty that probably aren't used to teaching.
2. a lot of kinks to work out in terms of scheduling, tests and other admin BS.
3. no reputation to help you during residency application.
4. no established rotations during clinical years (maybe) again refer to #2

Benefits:
1. reduced tuition if you're the first/second incoming class.
2. it's a US medical school
3. you get to make your own mark and establish your school's reputation which is kinda fun
4. did I mention it's a US medical school?

Agree with this post. During the basic science years, the only issues will be scheduling tweaks and making sure to cover all the material in a way that students won't be relearning large swathes of material for the boards. The biggest issues I see are (1) during rotations, if they are starting those fresh too, nobody on faculty really knows what the role of the med student is on the team yet, so rotations can be good or useless based each attending's decision, and (3) a lot of residency PDs like to go back to the sources that provided them with solid residents in the past, so if you are at a new place, you don't have the prior grads reputation helping you. You also won't have prior grads reputations hurting you in some cases though.

As folks have mentioned, an accredited US allo school is the goal, and so if this is the one you get, go with it. If it's this place or someplace with a solid longtime reputation, I'd think it's a harder sell.
 
Agree with this post. During the basic science years, the only issues will be scheduling tweaks and making sure to cover all the material in a way that students won't be relearning large swathes of material for the boards. The biggest issues I see are (1) during rotations, if they are starting those fresh too, nobody on faculty really knows what the role of the med student is on the team yet, so rotations can be good or useless based each attending's decision, and (3) a lot of residency PDs like to go back to the sources that provided them with solid residents in the past, so if you are at a new place, you don't have the prior grads reputation helping you. You also won't have prior grads reputations hurting you in some cases though.

As folks have mentioned, an accredited US allo school is the goal, and so if this is the one you get, go with it. If it's this place or someplace with a solid longtime reputation, I'd think it's a harder sell.

These would be my main concerns.
 
I hate to be "that girl," but how hard are these schools on accepting their incoming/early classes?

I see two possibilities: harder than normal because they really want a strong initial class; or easier because they really want students to attend. I think the former possibility is more likely since there's no shortage of medical applicants.

Still, I ask because I have no clue.
 
I would say that it is the latter. It was kind of the former for the UCF class because of the full-scholarships+stipend that the class receieved.
 
Agree with this post. During the basic science years, the only issues will be scheduling tweaks and making sure to cover all the material in a way that students won't be relearning large swathes of material for the boards. The biggest issues I see are (1) during rotations, if they are starting those fresh too, nobody on faculty really knows what the role of the med student is on the team yet, so rotations can be good or useless based each attending's decision, and (3) a lot of residency PDs like to go back to the sources that provided them with solid residents in the past, so if you are at a new place, you don't have the prior grads reputation helping you. You also won't have prior grads reputations hurting you in some cases though.

As folks have mentioned, an accredited US allo school is the goal, and so if this is the one you get, go with it. If it's this place or someplace with a solid longtime reputation, I'd think it's a harder sell.

Number 3 (the second one? 🙂) is very important but probably more obvious. Number 1 I think it arguably the most relevant and the one most people wouldn't think of. I think there are a number of kinks you have to work through as a third year starting rotations. Attendings and residents really have to be ready to teach and have to be willing to do it. If it's the first year they are taken over by med students, they might not know how to handle that well so teaching could really be sketchy. Going from a non-academic center to an academic center is a pretty big adjustment. And this also affects the residency issue- not only do PD's not know your program, but they know that you probably had some training hiccups here and there because of how new the clinical partnership is, so they can't trust that you've received the same caliber of training as someone who went to a school in which the integration between school and hospital is essentially seamless.
 
Number 3 (the second one? 🙂) is very important but probably more obvious. Number 1 I think it arguably the most relevant and the one most people wouldn't think of. I think there are a number of kinks you have to work through as a third year starting rotations. Attendings and residents really have to be ready to teach and have to be willing to do it. If it's the first year they are taken over by med students, they might not know how to handle that well so teaching could really be sketchy. Going from a non-academic center to an academic center is a pretty big adjustment. And this also affects the residency issue- not only do PD's not know your program, but they know that you probably had some training hiccups here and there because of how new the clinical partnership is, so they can't trust that you've received the same caliber of training as someone who went to a school in which the integration between school and hospital is essentially seamless.

Sorry I nixed the #2 (there were three initially). The problem with rotations is that they are really meant to give med students a feel for what residency involves, and ultimately in sub-Is, to actually "prepare" med students in some small way for residency. I've seen rotations where the med student was worked hard and actually ended up functioning like an intern without the responsibility and with more supervision. I've also seen folks in rotations where the rotation was basically just a glorified shadowing experience, where they never had to stay overnight, where they never missed a meal, and weren't really an integral part of the team. While that was certainly easier for the med student and even the residents, that really doesn't prepare one for residency. You come out of a rotation like that, you won't have a feel for what life is like as a resident, and you won't have a good sense of the expectations. You will get killed your intern year, and a PD will never go back to that school for interns again.
 
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Something to keep in mind is that federal loans are only given out to students attending schools that have been up and running for a year or two. There is some sort of process there.
 
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