Who's going to Pitt on Monday?

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choker

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just curious. will i be seeing any of you this coming monday, nov. 5 at pitt?

-el chokarino

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Still working out that ethical decision...
 
Good luck choker! I have to be around Scaife for a didactic session tomorrow, maybe I'll see you passing through
 
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Hey Tonem,

I have an interview coming up at Pitt. I was wondering if you could tell the board a little about Pitt. It's one of my top choices!
 
Let's see...grading is honors/pass/fail. The curriculum is modified systems based. We do basic science in blocks for most of the first year then most of the organ systems second year. The blocks are nice because we concentrate on one "hard core" science at a time. For instance, the first basic science block is anatomy and biochem. We did 6 weeks of nothing but anatomy (lecture/PBL/lab) followed by 6 weeks of nothing but biochem. Actually epidemiology and ethics are thrown in one afternoon a week throughout the block but those don't take nearly the effort that anatomy/biochem do. I think after that first block we began clinical exposure with an ambulatory care course where we spend an afternoon a week in a primary care office, a patient interviewing course where we interviewed actors posing as progressively more difficult patients, and a clinical skills course where we learned some of the basics of physical exam. There are also several extracurricular volunteer experiences that students organize and are extremely involved in (ie: homeless care, women's shelter, adolescents in jail, alcohol/drug rehab, etc...). The faculty is great they are very friendly and approachable, especially the PBL facilitators. You get to know them pretty well because you spend a lot of time with them in small groups (8 other students). They are always offering opportunities to do research or spend time with them in their specialties...which is good because Pitt has many highly respected residency programs so even if you don't decide to stay for residency you'll be making connections (the advantage of this shows up in the match - from what I understand we match pretty well). After the first basic science block we have two afternoons off a week for "self directed learning". The student body is very cohesive and non-competitive. It's not unusual to see the honors students helping out their less adept friends. There is a lot of social activity. One of the things that propogates this atmosphere is that students interview prospectives and their evaluations carry the same weight as faculty evaluations. One of the things I heard when I was applying was that the dean's philosophy is everyone will forget 50% of what they learn in medical school so he wanted to take the most important 50% and teach that. A prospective student told me last year that we have had a 100% pass rate on Step 1 of the boards for the last 5 years with a mean significantly higher than the natinal average... (I think its more like a 98-99% pass rate though) so the dean's philosophy seems to have some merit. Bottom line...I have really enjoyed my time in Pittsburgh and I'm sure that the great majority of my class feels the same. Feel free to ask if you have any more specific questions. I hope that helps. Good luck in your interview.

P.S Choker...sorry I missed ya, I hope all went well.
 
thanks, my interviews all went really well and i was really impressed with the school. most impressed with how much the students seem to be so gung ho about loving pitt; i think at least a dozen random med students came up to me and told me about how much they loved pitt. also really impressed with how extensive UPMC is. great interview experience; they really make an effort to sell their school. also, interviewing with a first year is really cool.

-chokerino
 
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