I think the type of curriculum at medical school is one of the most important things to consider. ucsf is the bomb and is similar to some posts above. It is organ based with lectures, small groups, problem-based learning sessions, and online supplements to assess how you are doing. The syllabi are so complete that most of us don't use any texts (except a Netter during Anatomy). Our Foundations of Patient Care (FPC) course runs concominantly with our organ's blocks and in FPC we started interviewing patients one week into medical school, have learned physical examination skills, precepted at physicians' practices/clinics and spent a couple days as part of a clinical team in one of the UCSF-based hospitals. I really think the organs approach is the way to go. For instance, when we did cardiovascular..we did the anatomy, histology, physiology, pathology, pathophysiology, medicine, pharmacology, epidemiology, and behavioral aspects all in a very organized and intergrated fashion. Our basic science only goes to March of our second year. We start on the wards in April of our second year. I think this is similar to Baylor and Penn, but I'm not positive.
During that block we broke into small groups and went over to Zion where we practiced our cardio physical exam skills on patients with real cardiac findings. It is pretty nice to be three months into medical school watching yourself properly characterize systolic versus diastolic murmurs, grade murmurs, listen for S3, S4, S2 splitting, palpate for PMI, look for JVD, etc. It really made us all realize just how much we learned. After shadowing a couple internists and residents, I can confidently say that we are learning in a really great way. Supposedly, since changing the curriculum, quite a few attendings have actually called Dean Irby and told him how impressed they were with the level of knowledge that the first and second-year students had/have.
I couldn't imagine learning everything in a non-integrated format. Having to spend my whole first year learning just the basic sciences would really suck (for me). Right from the start, we felt like we were learning medicine. It helps to keep you interested, motivated, and excited.
Also, we are strictly Pass/Fail the first two years. No honors, no high pass, no secret tiering or ranking for dean's letters (I have looked into this and it has been confirmed).
Our online curriculum is the bomb as well. People post review sheets, helpful articles, and we have a forum where we can ask each other and professors questions for clarification that are almost always answered the same day. Our online schedule can be palm-synched, but also has links to self-assessments and a list of the lecture's objectives.
After finishing prologue, cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, and head and neck..almost all of my class is still really pleased.
Oh, one more thing. Our faculty is amazing. Katzung teaches pharmacology here (you might be using his text or board review book by lange). The medicine lectures are always good in my opinion (head of the cardiac cath lab for cards, lots of good nephrologists for small group in renal, etc). Pathology lectures are always a lot of fun. For some reason, the Pathologists here have very strange senses of humor and it helps to get through a powerpoint presentation packed with hyaline cartilage and PMNs. The Anatomy department is a godsend. When we were studying in the lab (which is off the hook) they would be in there all the time going over stuff again, coming in on the weekends, etc. A lot of gratitude goes to them. The physio lectures were very good overall. Pulmonary was a little weak, but renal and cardiology was great. Ok, that's it. Just wanted to make some comments about the faculty.
Tuition/Fees = $11,000/year.
Living expenses = $19,000/year.
