what do you guys consider to be a large med school class? 120? 150?

[hoping2004]

what do you guys consider to be a large med school class? and does it really matter?

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[Bevo]

as far as Im concerned, class size doesn't matter.

its all mostly self teaching anyways.

 

[Laura JC]

We have 256 in our class.
It doesn't bother me at all. I can't think of any reason why it would. If the issue is 'getting to know your instructors', it really ISN'T an issue because at our school, we have instructors who come in, give maybe 2 or 3 lectures and that's it. We also have small lab groups and mentoring groups, so we get personal attention if we want it.

 

[SilverAngel1110]

170 here at g-town. so far, i haven't really been bothered by the size of the class...

 

[DoctorWannaBe]

Do you find it hard to make friends in such large classes? I never sat by the same person twice in my undergraduate classes with 100+ people, so I wonder if there are other opportunities in medical school to make friends.

 

[merlin]

we're at around 180 here at einstein and truthfully i cannot see any advantage/disadvantage either way. all of our small group conferences have about 15 people in them, so they just make more groups as opposed to a class size of around 120. really though, i don't see any difference. good luck.

 

[doc05]

to all you preclinical boys and girls:

class size is entirely irrelevant in ms1/2. You will be affected once you hit 3rd year, if the ratio of clinical sites:class size is unfavorable. Bottom line, this means less flexibility in arranging your clerkship schedule, but in the end it makes little difference.

 

[Laura JC]

Originally posted by doc05
to all you preclinical boys and girls:

. You will be affected once you hit 3rd year, if the ratio of clinical sites:class size is unfavorable. Bottom line, this means less flexibility in arranging your clerkship schedule, but in the end it makes little difference.

I suppose that depends where you are as well. If your school is the only medical school in a large city, I don't see any problem with clerkship scheduling. I wonder if it is a problem in cities where there are several schools?

 

[lowbudget]

200 at UTMB. It's a great size for friends, dating, parties, intramural sports purposes. You'll know everyone if you're half way social. You get cliques, but they mix and morph over time as people cross-clique date and get to know each other through parties, activities, and rotations. 200 isn't really 200 because there are married people with kids, couples who isolate themselves, introverts, and studious people who take themselves out of the social equation. It's really no big deal... big class with diversity means there's always someone who shares one of your interests and you can choose who you want to be with and who you don't.

MS1/2 - makes no difference in terms of learning
MS 3 - Adv: You can hide/coast on certain days/rotations, split weekends, trade call, split census, cross cover, read while others are in the OR... but Disad: There's the added layer of other students after fellows and residents to get procedural experience, and it's a bigger pond if you tend to be a small fish.

 

[Enkedu]

Look, it's not the size that matters, it's what you can do with it

 

[luccas]

All under 300 hundred per class is small. We have 730.

 

[bc_tch]

We got 90 in my class..can't believe you guys have such a huge class. 730 isn't too big??

 

[SoulRFlare]

Originally posted by luccas
All under 300 hundred per class is small. We have 730.

730 per class? what school is that?

 

[luccas]

My school is the Munich University Medical School (in Germany). I look enviously at your litte class sizes. For us a class size of 200 is very very small. Most schools in Germany are between 250 and 400.