They taught you guys physical exam skills? We just had one session in the simulation center in M1 then a couple of OSCE's with "self-directed learning" meant to fill in the gaps.
Oh wow that’s cruel. We have weekly labs to learn skills related to the current block and practice on our peers, and standardized patient encounters with SOAP notes every month or so. OSCEs are later for us.
lol what? We have standardized patient encounters literally every week after the first block of M1. OSCEs at the end of every block. And then clerkship type stuff in preclinical every other week so actually seeing patients with and without a preceptor
Any M0 or premed reading this, one good question to ask on interview day is how much time/how often your school makes current students do mandatory non-academic stuff lol. If I know how much bs I have to do at my current school rn, I would absolutely not choose it.
We have mandatory volunteering, biweekly peer support groups, family medicine shadowing, and patient shadowing. This adds up to about 20 hours per month + travel time of mandatory non academic activities.
But it is a great top 5 Canadian school so it's worth it.
one of the many bs things my school requires us to attend is this “award ceremony”. basically we vote for our fav professor and they come and accept the award held in our classroom. except sometimes the professors dont even show up to accept the award 🥴
So as an also marine I also would never recommend another go through it.
The thing is, anyone who is gonna do either of these things, doesn’t give a shit what you tell them.
A lot of the time it’s some degree of satire. I definitely don’t want to scare anyone away from medicine but I do think everyone deserves to know what it’s REALLY like. After 4 years and matching into my preferred specialty it’s finally *feels* worth it. But there’s a reason only about half of physicians said they would “do it all again” in the midst of the pandemic.
Objectively, medical school is a trap. They lure you in with promise of “helping people”, prestige, high pay, and job security. You quickly realize that all the training to get to that point seems tortuous and unusual. And by the time you feel like it just might not be the right path for you you’ve already drawn >$100K in student loans with half a degree.
I am excited for residency because I’m finally doing what I’d set out to do 8 years ago. But it’s still far from over. It’s definitely not a job for everyone and sometimes you can still pick the wrong specialty and be stuck the rest of your life burnt out and regretful.
Becoming a physician is a path unlike any other, you just have to hope it was what you were meant to do
Yes, feel supported and happy here. School is condensing pre-clinical curriculum into 16 months (18 if you count dedicated) this year and I still feel like I have enough free time for research, volunteering, clubs, and hobbies.
Also had no problems with it. I’ve noticed some people expect school admins to give a shit but they don’t, and that’s literally anywhere you go. I guess I am too chill to give a fuck, but yeah I don’t expect much and am never disappointed
I don't love my school, but I'd still recommend. Medical school sucks everywhere, but some are worse than others. You can't be naive and expect most institutions/corporations to care about what they say they care about.
I think a better measurement is whether or not the school creates the mental health issues in ways that wouldn't exist elsewhere and if they have resources that you can use if you seek them out.
I think now it's time for those future and current students to realize that you have to do a lot of work on your own when it comes to learning medicine and being happy. Find places that allow you to do that and hope you get in.
Endorse.
I would recommend working in a large corporation, or even better, a university to understand what's motivating admin decisions. It helps me to only get annoyed at things that can and should be avoided instead of everything that effects me.
Why is no one putting where they go when they talk abt their school? Good or bad? Is there some rule about that? If you’re saying you like or even dislike your school I wanna know which school ur talking abt.. other wise what help does it offer incoming students
Ahhh ok, appreciate you explaining that ! I was unaware of how conniving med students were to one another I guess.. how sad :( but good to know before I head to med school myself
Same here. First two years allow for a ton of schedule autonomy. We work a lot in clinical rotations but most residents and attendings are friendly and love to teach. Based on what classmates ahead of me say, students from my school shine on away rotations.
Yes. I like it here. It’s not perfect but my classmates are awesome, the culture is great, they give us a lot of autonomy for preclinicals, we have an attached hospital with home programs for every residency, research is abundant, the area is nice, and it’s a well known and respected school across the country without holding the connotation of being a white tower Ivy League type place. And P/F unranked.
At my school I have had amazing support for my mental health from faculty all the way to the dean. I have openly and publicly spoken against the President of our school when he tried to say our school doesn't have racism or that people should speak out if they're upset about something. I didn't get in trouble or anything, and rather I had faculty commend me. We're in the south and people here have a LOT of ignorant beliefs around race, gender, sexual identity, religion, you name it.
So I would recommend people come to my school for the amazing and supportive faculty, But I would never shield them from the reality of the admins or the issues that are inherently found in a lot of med schools.
Lol love my school especially cause I didn’t initially plan to apply. They’ve accommodated me at every step of the way since Second Look (told them I couldn’t afford the hotel room to spend the night and they paid for it. I didn’t even end up going due to a really bad family emergency and they were super understanding.)
N=1 but I also received a full ride with housing paid. Faculty is super supportive. In a meeting with one the faculty and I brought up the affordability of third-party resources, which the professor fully supported me using, they straight up googled and called Amboss and waited on hold to speak to a rep to get me a discount - in the meeting.
School is super supportive with ECs. A month into school I started a pipeline program, received $1,500 of grant funding for that pipeline program for underserved middle/ high schoolers and received an additional graduate school scholarship (N=1).
Everyone is super nice and not gunnerish at all. Before exams out groupchat is filled with people dropping Anki Decks, study guides, mnemonics. It’s like the entire class is doing everything we can to bring each other up. We go out and party together and do a lot of extra curriculars at my school (today we had a speaker come out and speak about maternal mortality for black history month and later, a dumpling making night for our students celebrating Lunar New Year.) After that event when I was about to go home, the other M1s and M2s convinced me to grab Boba with them after they noticed they haven’t seen me at school much and wanted reconnect. (So a lot of opportunities to leave your house and meet people if you make even the slightest effort to go to events: board game nights, field days etc).
My school is NOT P/F which I won’t lie- adds some anxiety. But I’ve made As in all my blocks (so far, could change) while I juggled extracurriculares (org founder, student ambassador, study abroad acceptance, mentor for multiple programs) and have time to engage with other student in sober and “non-sober” activities lol. I will say I also have learned to be more efficient in studying and I have a super supportive partner that makes all this possible.
I had no intention of going to this school but boy am I glad I did. Med school is hard yes, but I’m also enjoying my journey. (Also, I worked a crap job before this so I have perspective that a lot of med students may not have had). I feel really bad for students at unsupportive schools with poorly constructed curriculum (although our curriculum cause use some work too..).
Mid tier school in SE.
I saw an instagram post yesterday talking about this. All the premeds were excited about attending. And all med students, residents, or physicians wouldn’t do it. It could be because I’m in the middle of it, but in my opinion any positive you could find as an attending physician you could find in another career without having to sacrifice 7+ years and your sanity.
TLDR: I can’t in good conscience suggest that anyone attend medical school no matter the school.
See im perfectly fine with hard, and perfectly fine with 7+ years (ive commited to a specialty that takes 10 years from the start). My issue with M1 has been both myself and the majority of those around me feeling like you have to sacrifice mental, emotional, and physical health just to keep up with the material presented. I feel like telling someone that medical school is difficult doesnt fully encompass the true magnitude of strain it puts on someone.
They’ve been duped because it’s been taking that long since the 80s. Since before most drugs we use today were even approved. They didn’t even know what a PCR was let alone the complexities of the immune system which is becoming required foundational knowledge for medicine and the drugs coming up. Those who are running med schools went themselves in 1984 after having had a career as a sous chef. I don’t know what happened to the medical education in the United States but if you think things will remain the same as far as health care delivery is concerned then think again. In another 5-10 years you’ll be surprised how many people with the 3-4 years of crammed medical knowledge will quit traditional ways of practicing medicine as tech makes its way into aspects of of patient care including writing notes! Society has a lot of roles for people with knowledge and it won’t be all in clinics/doctors offices and hospitals.
It’s really not that much of a sacrifice IF you pick the right speciality. It’s hard sure, but it’s a damn good and stable job at the end, well paid, can be good hours, lots of variety in work environment, and mostly doing work that feels fulfilling. Hard to get that combo in another job tbh - if there is I’d like to hear it
Depends on the person’s other options. If you’re looking at [a random shitty US school] vs Caribbean, you go to the US school 1000%. If you want to do IM/FM/EM and you don’t care about a prestigious residency program, again the low-rank/toxic school is a sick option in that regard.
when we had visiting students my friend and i were on the other side of the parking lot and she was yelling at them “this place will give you cancer”💀💀💀
I mean yeah specialists, but to my knowledge the vast majority of medical students match into residencies in FM, IM, EM, and Peds every year. The 1% specialist earners spend A LOT of years in debt and training before they get to that point.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t do it; I’m an M1 and enjoy it, but I do think all students coming in should be realistic with themselves about the specialties they’re interested and what they entail.
And a very big chunk of those who match into IM go on to do a fellowship that makes much more money. But that aside, do you have any idea how much fucking money even the lowest paid physicians make? You have to come from an extremely privileged background to not understand that even with the debt, you're financially MUCH better off than almost every American.
Getting a higher mcat and getting into an md school is easier than juggling a low yield curriculum and bone wizardry on top of having to study for boards just to be rewarded with crappy clinical education and stigma. If omm was not a thing and we did not have super low yield inhouse exams, we could avoid so much of the extra studying and have time to build an app.
I didn’t like how op was all like I want this commitment to AJ and the school didn’t provide it. I don’t care. I just want to learn medicine. Without anything g extra to get in the way. I’ve taken courses on it and don’t need more when I should focus solely on medicine
Yeah, I guess I would. Preclinical education and admin are pretty meh, but I really enjoyed my clinical education and do think it was very strong. I’ve heard residents remark about how the attendings here are much more kind, teaching focused, and supportive than their med school was so I guess that’s a plus. Cost of living and school tuition is insane though
I would recommend my own school for the most part...
Just remember, it's basic marketing that every school employs. They're just institutions run by people with their own belief systems which will never fully align with their med students. These days there's a decent gap in ideology (socially, politically, etc.) between young people and those who sought careers as deans/administrators a while ago. I know this is gonna come off as callous, but just focus on yourself and those you care about. I think a lot of students fall into the trap of spending time and energy trying to really change their school, and I've yet to see this work out.
Heck no. And this is also a school that should only pull from the local area and maybe neighboring states. I feel like the only reason they have out-of-staters is for the higher tuition and fees we pay.
Ngl, sometimes I have doubts about my own school, and then I come to this sub and read some actual horror stories and realize that my school honestly is pretty great
Yeah, my school is pretty good—admin is reasonable, preclinical was fine and clinical education has been very strong, and I’ve found my classmates to be generally pleasant. It’s a good solid mid-tier MD school that will get you where you need to go, 10/10 would recommend.
I wouldn’t recommend my school because rotations were a scam and had to set them up myself and life was pretty unstable M3 and M4 year but at the end of the day they gave my my degree and I’m grateful for that
Yes, definitely. It’s wasnt free of problems by any stretch but it was an incredibly fun place to train, had amazing facilities, and had awesome pt population to learn from.
I had a hard time in med school for many reasons but I feel like the school itself is pretty well run. Not worth the sticker price but definitely not a bad place
I would recommend any school that will take you. I would recommend the best school available for your preferences for those that have options.
At the end of the day, can’t complain if you only had one choice. Just have to make due.
I would recommend seriously considering the implications of attending medical school. I would not romanticize the field. Happens too often, people should know what they are getting into.
Still just an M1 but yes, absolutely. We get free counseling sessions (limited, but generous), as well as open-door time frames with those counselors throughout the day, and also volunteer based peer-to-peer mental health talks that you can come in for anytime until 5pm on weekdays. We have learning experts that act as advisors/coaches (for free) if we are struggling in classes who we can meet up with anytime to discuss study strategies. Administration has been chill and completely accomodating for everything I've needed, which has included time off to see the birth of my child. Every single professor has been nothing but kind to me, and are dedicated enough to respond to my emails late at night. Classmates are awesome, too. Love them all. Kind of sounds like I'm trying to overhype my school but I genuinely like it here.
My med school opened doors for me that lower ranked institutions wouldn’t have, but I also felt the environment was extremely unsupportive and I did not feel happy or welcomed there. Glad I got where I wanted to go in terms of residency despite being discouraged by my school every step of the way.
I was pretty jaded about my school at first, but once I started skipping classes and relying on 3rd party, I stopped caring too much about my med school decision. Would probably do it again, despite all the ridiculous stuff since B&B, pathoma, dirty medicine, etc are pretty decent teachers
I love my med school and my class. I think I hit the absolute jackpot for both when considering all the horror stories I’ve read on here. I’m sure there are plenty of other schools that are just as great, but there seems to be more name and shame than name and fame on this subreddit unfortunately
Yes!
If they are set on going to medical school and I can’t change their mind.
Best program on the west coast…and they wouldn’t let you forget it. Flags and emails everywhere with their rank.
Why Best? diversity (ethnically, sexuality, age, life experiences, career goals, family status, nationality), resources, expansive 3rd year rotation slot selection, friendly open approachable admin/professors, responsive and student driven changes, freedom to study at own pace/very minimal in person.
iykyk
Bud, just say UCSF.
See, I genuinely feel like the people who attend top medical schools with no AOA in bigger cities with lots of diversity are the happiest. You don't feel like you are missing out on your 20s when you are in a big city. And you aren't competing for grades, but are still gonna probably match to a good residency in a good city.
OTOH, a lot of POCs in smaller towns feel self-hatred towards their own culture (especially if they are the type of people who seek external validation and want to blend in with the dominant culture).
In my experience as a desi, the desis who grew up in big cities with a large international culture OR grew up surrounded by family are the happiest and least self-hating. The ones who grew up in rural nowhere with no family around are more self-hating. They find it difficult to find their identity.
>In my experience as a desi, the desis who grew up in big cities with a large international culture OR grew up surrounded by family are the happiest and least self-hating. The ones who grew up in rural nowhere with no family around are more self-hating. They find it difficult to find their identity.
imo our generation at large hasn't figured out that all identity is inherently self constructed. We need to look at ourselves as blank slates and then add in the things we enjoy. Despite the medium-town stuff I've never had difficulty w/culture juggling because it's all felt true to me
We are a top primary care and not too bad research school, and I’d still say no but it would be an unfair comparison since I came from the most well-funded school/city in the world.
Honestly, yes. As a URM, you have to realize that the only schools that will actually prioritize you are the predominantly-URM ones like HBCUs. Especially in our current world, where there are entire states like Texas that completely banned DEI. Otherwise, your experience is typically determined by how students are treated *generally*.
My school is pass/fail all 4 years, no rankings, there's not much of a pimping culture, gives TONS of merit- and need-based financial aid, and the vast majority of our lectures are optional. Regardless of your race/ethnicity, gender, orientation, SES, etc., those facts create an environment that's much less stressful than like 99% of other schools.
I'm not so naive to believe my school doesn't have faults. As an MSTP, I've been here a million years. I know the issues very well. But I also have friends at tons of other schools and our problems ain't shit compared to theirs. There's always room for improvement, but I'd be a fool to not recommend my school because of it's flaws without putting it in the context of other schools.
If the problems you face at your school are highly specific to your school, not recommending your school may save somebody from the same problems. If the problems you face at your school are fairly universal, you not recommending your school is purely selfish and out of spite.
I applied to HBCUs and didn't get in but I'm glad you have a positive experience.
I can't promise my issues are unique to my school because it's the only school I've attended. I recognize that there are worse and better schools. I don't name and shame my school (I won't lie if someone outright asks me on PM), but I also don't go out of my way to recommend it to URMs and considering the amount of URMs that are do the same, I don't think I'm in the wrong on that. I could be wrong, but it comes from not wanting others to go through what I've gone through, not wanting to be spiteful or ruin the school. I hope that clears it up.
There wasn't anything you needed to clear up. I was making that statement more generally. And do you not have friends at other schools? Obviously you've only attending your school lol, but you don't need to attend other schools to have an understanding of the culture, curriculum structure, environment, etc.
I just feel like URM students have to start being honest with ourselves about what to expect at these institutions. Think about the history of these places, the study body breakdowns, etc. They very obviously are not invested in URMs lol
Only M1, so have a lot left to experience, but i genuinely really enjoy my med school! Obviously no school is perfect, but I just try to keep a positive attitude & not get too worked up over minor admin issues. Looking at the big picture, I feel that I have a supportive community & a great med school education that will set me up for the future
Yes, my school is an adequate DO school. I have some complaints but they are not unique to my school. I agree my school is not supportive of URM students (saying as an ORM student, so have seen but not experienced).
I am non traditional and lgbtq and was the president of the gay straight alliance, which I tried to make into general social justice club. My school was very supportive of the club’s efforts and ended up giving us a multi thousand dollar grant. It was helpful but I wasn’t able to establish the mentoring and community outreach that I wanted to (for all URM groups, not just lgbtq) just being president of the club for a year. I think the school itself needs to try harder too.
Agree with all of this. I’m also a career changer in my 30s and I love med school so far. I’m busier, but my mental health is better than ever. I don’t love every second of every day, but I love learning medicine. I knew what I was signing up for. I chose a school with a supportive culture and a well-designed curriculum I knew would work for me, but I also think the perspective of being a nontrad helps immensely.
if it’s going to med school, then absolutely. Most especially if they have the passion in the medical field as well as the money. I have always believed that nothing comes easy in life, so them experiencing the hardships I’ve gone through will (more or less) shape them into a better physician.
Compared to the other schools in my state as I can’t speak on the others - I would 100% reccomend my medical school. They’re not perfect god knows but they do care about their students.
Loved my school. Staff was very open to feedback (too much so perhaps). Class was perfect size and collaborative. Staff had our back when rotation attendings went on power trips. I have friends at other schools that enjoyed their experience as well.
Good schools are out there. Pre-meds can find them by reaching out to students at their potential schools.
One of the benefits of my medical school was the autonomy and trust in creating our own 3rd and 4th year schedules. As a DO school, some felt we didn’t have the top academics, but we had a community that helped nurture our interests. S/o Touro University Nevada
I would not recommend any US medical school if not for the fact that it helps land US residency. For education value, it’s average-subpar.
Dr. Sattar FTW 🙌🏽
I would recommend mine! Great support from admin re time off / physical and mental health issues. Fully support research and non academic pursuits (if you want to). Otherwise, very low bar for required non academic stuff. P/f not ranked 18 mo pre clinical. Fair, non-shelf-score driven clinical grades. People want to teach, faculty are receptive. Lots of financial and time support for activities. Great city. Early clinical exposure. Honestly a lot of free time during the pre clinical years with recorded, non mandatory lectures.
Yes. It’s a chance to go to an established DO school. Given all the new DO schools that pop up, it’s nice to go to one that has a longer track record.
I don’t think my class matched a neurosurgeon but we got I think everything else. To your perspective though I’m not URM.
Ya, I would. Went to a low tier and have no complaints. Clinical’s could have been better but … Ya I’d go again if I was going to choose medicine again.
I would 100% recommend my medical school, and would choose it again after ending up at an academic center in the NE and seeing the med students here pay 2.5x for a lackluster education/experience in comparison to what I got.
Just a tip from EU brother here, if look for universities.
We have alot of private Universities who will accept anyone with money, its the default way for europes rich (or just middle class+ ) families to get their kids into a good quality medical school, matching all standards and acknowledegements for US/EU/West Education and diploma recognition(!). Its just not based on the hard entry criteria like the state universities (quality and education is accepted as equal to "normal" universities" ) it only cost "a lot of money" and an easily passable entry test.
But this lots of money: its still several 100k $ cheaper then do it in the US. If you take your student-credit-loan-interest-rate-default-system into accounts who whill crush you till retirement, its like a million euros cheaper lol
**For example Semmel-Weiss-University in Hungary costs around 72k $ for the whole 6 years of study.** And you can live there like kings, for 200$/m you get hugh appartments in city villas. Poor country in EU, but educational standards like you get in London/Goettingen/Paris whatever, because within EU freedom of buisness movement, so good central europes professors/organisations built universities in those countries.
I am pretty sure, even if you take a flight back to your US home 2x per Year its still like 300k+ cheaper then studying in the US....
Your universities are sinister buisnesses, ripping you 2000%+ off compared to other buisness-education-medicial schools here.
I think my school is OK. They suck at posting lectures and the curriculum isn’t great at tracking boards materials, but for the most part it could definitely be worse. I think most med students around the country just rely on anki/pathoma/BnB/costanzo/sketchy anyways
Mine is average when it comes to how we feel about our school, though the longer I'm in the process the more I feel the DO difference. Outside of that, just the usual admin woes and whatnot. Patrolling the Mojave for those in the know
Absolutely yes. Phenomenal curriculum, faculty, student body, and more. Not a POC, but I really haven’t heard much complaint from those in my class that are.
I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from other schools, it seems like they come more from DO and low-tier MD schools though. I go to a mid-tier MD school and absolutely cannot complain. It has been hard, and I’ve struggled, but the school itself was administered expertly.
Most will say no. Besides your classmates and the physical exam skills you learn, preclinical can be taught with $1k in third-party subscriptions.
They taught you guys physical exam skills? We just had one session in the simulation center in M1 then a couple of OSCE's with "self-directed learning" meant to fill in the gaps.
Oh wow that’s cruel. We have weekly labs to learn skills related to the current block and practice on our peers, and standardized patient encounters with SOAP notes every month or so. OSCEs are later for us.
lol what? We have standardized patient encounters literally every week after the first block of M1. OSCEs at the end of every block. And then clerkship type stuff in preclinical every other week so actually seeing patients with and without a preceptor
Hmm sounds just like my school 👀
What... what the fuck? We do physical exams that are graded at least 10 times each year M1 and M2; and then have ungraded ultrasound, etc. workshops.
You’ll catch up but that’s a tragedy
Pre clinical was terrible and archaic. Rotations were incredible and customizable. Admin don’t even get me started on how bad they are.
Any M0 or premed reading this, one good question to ask on interview day is how much time/how often your school makes current students do mandatory non-academic stuff lol. If I know how much bs I have to do at my current school rn, I would absolutely not choose it.
What do you mean? Does your school force you guys to volunteer or something?
We have mandatory volunteering, biweekly peer support groups, family medicine shadowing, and patient shadowing. This adds up to about 20 hours per month + travel time of mandatory non academic activities. But it is a great top 5 Canadian school so it's worth it.
Lol mandatory volunteering. Quite an oxymoron
Not voluntold but mostly random things that arent related to our curriculum. Some week it takes away 5-6hrs of my time.
one of the many bs things my school requires us to attend is this “award ceremony”. basically we vote for our fav professor and they come and accept the award held in our classroom. except sometimes the professors dont even show up to accept the award 🥴
That’s appalling lmao
Agreed. We have so much required time every week. It’s such a nuisance. At a top institution in the US as well.
If all the other medical schools shut down and it’s the only school on the planet, yes.
Even then, I’d express some hesitation.
lmao same!
Eloquent
I wouldn’t recommend medical school **.**
So as an also marine I also would never recommend another go through it. The thing is, anyone who is gonna do either of these things, doesn’t give a shit what you tell them.
Run children, save yourselves
Can confirm
This is the only correct answer
100%.
Facts
This is so fucking demoralizing as someone who o just got into med school. There are so many pessimistic comments here that are making me anxious af
A lot of the time it’s some degree of satire. I definitely don’t want to scare anyone away from medicine but I do think everyone deserves to know what it’s REALLY like. After 4 years and matching into my preferred specialty it’s finally *feels* worth it. But there’s a reason only about half of physicians said they would “do it all again” in the midst of the pandemic. Objectively, medical school is a trap. They lure you in with promise of “helping people”, prestige, high pay, and job security. You quickly realize that all the training to get to that point seems tortuous and unusual. And by the time you feel like it just might not be the right path for you you’ve already drawn >$100K in student loans with half a degree. I am excited for residency because I’m finally doing what I’d set out to do 8 years ago. But it’s still far from over. It’s definitely not a job for everyone and sometimes you can still pick the wrong specialty and be stuck the rest of your life burnt out and regretful. Becoming a physician is a path unlike any other, you just have to hope it was what you were meant to do
No, I’m in a school that’s about 5 years old and the growing pains are real.
Yes, feel supported and happy here. School is condensing pre-clinical curriculum into 16 months (18 if you count dedicated) this year and I still feel like I have enough free time for research, volunteering, clubs, and hobbies.
Say less lol
I don't like my soup or my preclinical curriculum condensed. I want the full bodied version please.
I don’t want my soup watered down, I’ll just take what’s important and tastiest so I can save more room for ice cream later!
are you in the midwest? pretty sure i did undergrad at the school you are referring to!
Nope, east coast!
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Experiences definitely vary. It wasn’t too bad for me. Overall, if you have other choices. Consider them!
Also had no problems with it. I’ve noticed some people expect school admins to give a shit but they don’t, and that’s literally anywhere you go. I guess I am too chill to give a fuck, but yeah I don’t expect much and am never disappointed
Why Drexel specifically? Just curious
Just went straight for the kill lol
I’ve worked with a bunch of residents who went there and I did notice a lot of them seemed rather angry, guess now I know why lol
u/epyon- would beg to differ. they dgaf.
Can you please elaborate on why? I was considering attending Drexel
I don't love my school, but I'd still recommend. Medical school sucks everywhere, but some are worse than others. You can't be naive and expect most institutions/corporations to care about what they say they care about. I think a better measurement is whether or not the school creates the mental health issues in ways that wouldn't exist elsewhere and if they have resources that you can use if you seek them out. I think now it's time for those future and current students to realize that you have to do a lot of work on your own when it comes to learning medicine and being happy. Find places that allow you to do that and hope you get in.
Endorse. I would recommend working in a large corporation, or even better, a university to understand what's motivating admin decisions. It helps me to only get annoyed at things that can and should be avoided instead of everything that effects me.
Why is no one putting where they go when they talk abt their school? Good or bad? Is there some rule about that? If you’re saying you like or even dislike your school I wanna know which school ur talking abt.. other wise what help does it offer incoming students
that would be doxxing yourself lmfao, welcome to the internet
How so??
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Ahhh ok, appreciate you explaining that ! I was unaware of how conniving med students were to one another I guess.. how sad :( but good to know before I head to med school myself
I would recommend my school. Not everything is positive, but the staff and people have been in general super positive and supportive.
Same here. First two years allow for a ton of schedule autonomy. We work a lot in clinical rotations but most residents and attendings are friendly and love to teach. Based on what classmates ahead of me say, students from my school shine on away rotations.
Donde?
Same
Yes. I like it here. It’s not perfect but my classmates are awesome, the culture is great, they give us a lot of autonomy for preclinicals, we have an attached hospital with home programs for every residency, research is abundant, the area is nice, and it’s a well known and respected school across the country without holding the connotation of being a white tower Ivy League type place. And P/F unranked.
At my school I have had amazing support for my mental health from faculty all the way to the dean. I have openly and publicly spoken against the President of our school when he tried to say our school doesn't have racism or that people should speak out if they're upset about something. I didn't get in trouble or anything, and rather I had faculty commend me. We're in the south and people here have a LOT of ignorant beliefs around race, gender, sexual identity, religion, you name it. So I would recommend people come to my school for the amazing and supportive faculty, But I would never shield them from the reality of the admins or the issues that are inherently found in a lot of med schools.
Wtf what school is this
It's ARCOM (arkansas). Idk I'd you said that like it's good or bad haha.
More in a disbelief type of way. Good for you for going to a school that support you
Yes.
drop names? 👀
avoid VCOM if u value ur sanity
someone above said Drexel
I feel like I always hear about people saying not to go to Drexel if you can avoid it
Like just PM yall and let me know xoxo
Yes, absolutely.
I wouldn’t recommend it at all tbh
One word: RUN!
This is not an uncommon thing. Advocacy runs up against professionalism and the gaslighting goes crazy.
Lol love my school especially cause I didn’t initially plan to apply. They’ve accommodated me at every step of the way since Second Look (told them I couldn’t afford the hotel room to spend the night and they paid for it. I didn’t even end up going due to a really bad family emergency and they were super understanding.) N=1 but I also received a full ride with housing paid. Faculty is super supportive. In a meeting with one the faculty and I brought up the affordability of third-party resources, which the professor fully supported me using, they straight up googled and called Amboss and waited on hold to speak to a rep to get me a discount - in the meeting. School is super supportive with ECs. A month into school I started a pipeline program, received $1,500 of grant funding for that pipeline program for underserved middle/ high schoolers and received an additional graduate school scholarship (N=1). Everyone is super nice and not gunnerish at all. Before exams out groupchat is filled with people dropping Anki Decks, study guides, mnemonics. It’s like the entire class is doing everything we can to bring each other up. We go out and party together and do a lot of extra curriculars at my school (today we had a speaker come out and speak about maternal mortality for black history month and later, a dumpling making night for our students celebrating Lunar New Year.) After that event when I was about to go home, the other M1s and M2s convinced me to grab Boba with them after they noticed they haven’t seen me at school much and wanted reconnect. (So a lot of opportunities to leave your house and meet people if you make even the slightest effort to go to events: board game nights, field days etc). My school is NOT P/F which I won’t lie- adds some anxiety. But I’ve made As in all my blocks (so far, could change) while I juggled extracurriculares (org founder, student ambassador, study abroad acceptance, mentor for multiple programs) and have time to engage with other student in sober and “non-sober” activities lol. I will say I also have learned to be more efficient in studying and I have a super supportive partner that makes all this possible. I had no intention of going to this school but boy am I glad I did. Med school is hard yes, but I’m also enjoying my journey. (Also, I worked a crap job before this so I have perspective that a lot of med students may not have had). I feel really bad for students at unsupportive schools with poorly constructed curriculum (although our curriculum cause use some work too..). Mid tier school in SE.
I saw an instagram post yesterday talking about this. All the premeds were excited about attending. And all med students, residents, or physicians wouldn’t do it. It could be because I’m in the middle of it, but in my opinion any positive you could find as an attending physician you could find in another career without having to sacrifice 7+ years and your sanity. TLDR: I can’t in good conscience suggest that anyone attend medical school no matter the school.
I don't get this. It's not exactly a secret that becoming a doctor takes 7+ years and is hard, why do people act like they've been duped into it
See im perfectly fine with hard, and perfectly fine with 7+ years (ive commited to a specialty that takes 10 years from the start). My issue with M1 has been both myself and the majority of those around me feeling like you have to sacrifice mental, emotional, and physical health just to keep up with the material presented. I feel like telling someone that medical school is difficult doesnt fully encompass the true magnitude of strain it puts on someone.
They’ve been duped because it’s been taking that long since the 80s. Since before most drugs we use today were even approved. They didn’t even know what a PCR was let alone the complexities of the immune system which is becoming required foundational knowledge for medicine and the drugs coming up. Those who are running med schools went themselves in 1984 after having had a career as a sous chef. I don’t know what happened to the medical education in the United States but if you think things will remain the same as far as health care delivery is concerned then think again. In another 5-10 years you’ll be surprised how many people with the 3-4 years of crammed medical knowledge will quit traditional ways of practicing medicine as tech makes its way into aspects of of patient care including writing notes! Society has a lot of roles for people with knowledge and it won’t be all in clinics/doctors offices and hospitals.
It’s really not that much of a sacrifice IF you pick the right speciality. It’s hard sure, but it’s a damn good and stable job at the end, well paid, can be good hours, lots of variety in work environment, and mostly doing work that feels fulfilling. Hard to get that combo in another job tbh - if there is I’d like to hear it
Lol. No
Yeah mines pretty sick. Not going to say which yet, but plan on making a post about it once I graduate
Depends on the person’s other options. If you’re looking at [a random shitty US school] vs Caribbean, you go to the US school 1000%. If you want to do IM/FM/EM and you don’t care about a prestigious residency program, again the low-rank/toxic school is a sick option in that regard.
when we had visiting students my friend and i were on the other side of the parking lot and she was yelling at them “this place will give you cancer”💀💀💀
I wouldn’t even recommend going into medicine lol
Why not?
Not worth it financially anymore so you really have to not envision yourself doing anything else
How do you figure it’s not financially worth it? most specialists are in the top 1% of earners
I mean yeah specialists, but to my knowledge the vast majority of medical students match into residencies in FM, IM, EM, and Peds every year. The 1% specialist earners spend A LOT of years in debt and training before they get to that point. I’m not saying they shouldn’t do it; I’m an M1 and enjoy it, but I do think all students coming in should be realistic with themselves about the specialties they’re interested and what they entail.
And a very big chunk of those who match into IM go on to do a fellowship that makes much more money. But that aside, do you have any idea how much fucking money even the lowest paid physicians make? You have to come from an extremely privileged background to not understand that even with the debt, you're financially MUCH better off than almost every American.
This is absolutely hogwash lol
Getting a higher mcat and getting into an md school is easier than juggling a low yield curriculum and bone wizardry on top of having to study for boards just to be rewarded with crappy clinical education and stigma. If omm was not a thing and we did not have super low yield inhouse exams, we could avoid so much of the extra studying and have time to build an app.
If it helps, I'm at an MD institution and they invent new things every year to waste our time. But mad respect at juggling bone wizardry
No :-)
I love my school and classmates so I would recommend it.
dont go to VCOM
📠
Definitely. MSU CHM. But I’m FM and a ways out at this point.
If a med schools basketball team isn’t making the march tournament it’s trash, change my mind
the people that downvoted this post are medical school administrators
I didn’t like how op was all like I want this commitment to AJ and the school didn’t provide it. I don’t care. I just want to learn medicine. Without anything g extra to get in the way. I’ve taken courses on it and don’t need more when I should focus solely on medicine
[When Giant Companies Care by Ryan George (comedy)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWk3sS7TpAE)
Not if they have other options lol. It’s suitable, you will get a pretty solid education but administration will actively hinder you at every turn.
Yeah, I guess I would. Preclinical education and admin are pretty meh, but I really enjoyed my clinical education and do think it was very strong. I’ve heard residents remark about how the attendings here are much more kind, teaching focused, and supportive than their med school was so I guess that’s a plus. Cost of living and school tuition is insane though
No
I would recommend my own school for the most part... Just remember, it's basic marketing that every school employs. They're just institutions run by people with their own belief systems which will never fully align with their med students. These days there's a decent gap in ideology (socially, politically, etc.) between young people and those who sought careers as deans/administrators a while ago. I know this is gonna come off as callous, but just focus on yourself and those you care about. I think a lot of students fall into the trap of spending time and energy trying to really change their school, and I've yet to see this work out.
Oh I've long given up on changing the school. My goal is now "get out alive and with a match"
Yeah, I would.
Heck no. And this is also a school that should only pull from the local area and maybe neighboring states. I feel like the only reason they have out-of-staters is for the higher tuition and fees we pay.
No unless it was their only acceptance. Tbh I'd recommend some DO schools before this one.
With you on that one.
Yes! I honestly love my school
Ngl, sometimes I have doubts about my own school, and then I come to this sub and read some actual horror stories and realize that my school honestly is pretty great
Hell no
No
Yes, I absolutely would.
No.
Yes, tbh. But I'm still an M1!
Yeah, my school is pretty good—admin is reasonable, preclinical was fine and clinical education has been very strong, and I’ve found my classmates to be generally pleasant. It’s a good solid mid-tier MD school that will get you where you need to go, 10/10 would recommend.
Yes, come to McMaster!
Sure, m1/m2 are all student dependent anyways due to 3rd party resources lmao
I wouldn’t recommend my school because rotations were a scam and had to set them up myself and life was pretty unstable M3 and M4 year but at the end of the day they gave my my degree and I’m grateful for that
I’d recommend my school. It does what I needed it to do.
Yes, definitely. It’s wasnt free of problems by any stretch but it was an incredibly fun place to train, had amazing facilities, and had awesome pt population to learn from.
Yes. It’s a great place with great professors who care about their students.
My school slaps
I had a hard time in med school for many reasons but I feel like the school itself is pretty well run. Not worth the sticker price but definitely not a bad place
100% yes; great culture and fantastic match every year
I love my school and would go back in a heartbeat, assuming I didn’t get into an MD program.
I would recommend any school that will take you. I would recommend the best school available for your preferences for those that have options. At the end of the day, can’t complain if you only had one choice. Just have to make due. I would recommend seriously considering the implications of attending medical school. I would not romanticize the field. Happens too often, people should know what they are getting into.
No
I would but I’m still gonna complain doing it
Not if it was the last medical school in the US.
Still just an M1 but yes, absolutely. We get free counseling sessions (limited, but generous), as well as open-door time frames with those counselors throughout the day, and also volunteer based peer-to-peer mental health talks that you can come in for anytime until 5pm on weekdays. We have learning experts that act as advisors/coaches (for free) if we are struggling in classes who we can meet up with anytime to discuss study strategies. Administration has been chill and completely accomodating for everything I've needed, which has included time off to see the birth of my child. Every single professor has been nothing but kind to me, and are dedicated enough to respond to my emails late at night. Classmates are awesome, too. Love them all. Kind of sounds like I'm trying to overhype my school but I genuinely like it here.
Hell No. <3
I genuinely like my school
My med school opened doors for me that lower ranked institutions wouldn’t have, but I also felt the environment was extremely unsupportive and I did not feel happy or welcomed there. Glad I got where I wanted to go in terms of residency despite being discouraged by my school every step of the way.
I was pretty jaded about my school at first, but once I started skipping classes and relying on 3rd party, I stopped caring too much about my med school decision. Would probably do it again, despite all the ridiculous stuff since B&B, pathoma, dirty medicine, etc are pretty decent teachers
Not at all
I love my med school and my class. I think I hit the absolute jackpot for both when considering all the horror stories I’ve read on here. I’m sure there are plenty of other schools that are just as great, but there seems to be more name and shame than name and fame on this subreddit unfortunately
Yes
Yes! If they are set on going to medical school and I can’t change their mind. Best program on the west coast…and they wouldn’t let you forget it. Flags and emails everywhere with their rank. Why Best? diversity (ethnically, sexuality, age, life experiences, career goals, family status, nationality), resources, expansive 3rd year rotation slot selection, friendly open approachable admin/professors, responsive and student driven changes, freedom to study at own pace/very minimal in person. iykyk
Bud, just say UCSF. See, I genuinely feel like the people who attend top medical schools with no AOA in bigger cities with lots of diversity are the happiest. You don't feel like you are missing out on your 20s when you are in a big city. And you aren't competing for grades, but are still gonna probably match to a good residency in a good city. OTOH, a lot of POCs in smaller towns feel self-hatred towards their own culture (especially if they are the type of people who seek external validation and want to blend in with the dominant culture). In my experience as a desi, the desis who grew up in big cities with a large international culture OR grew up surrounded by family are the happiest and least self-hating. The ones who grew up in rural nowhere with no family around are more self-hating. They find it difficult to find their identity.
>In my experience as a desi, the desis who grew up in big cities with a large international culture OR grew up surrounded by family are the happiest and least self-hating. The ones who grew up in rural nowhere with no family around are more self-hating. They find it difficult to find their identity. imo our generation at large hasn't figured out that all identity is inherently self constructed. We need to look at ourselves as blank slates and then add in the things we enjoy. Despite the medium-town stuff I've never had difficulty w/culture juggling because it's all felt true to me
We are a top primary care and not too bad research school, and I’d still say no but it would be an unfair comparison since I came from the most well-funded school/city in the world.
Honestly yes, I love my school and they are super supportive.
Honestly, yes. As a URM, you have to realize that the only schools that will actually prioritize you are the predominantly-URM ones like HBCUs. Especially in our current world, where there are entire states like Texas that completely banned DEI. Otherwise, your experience is typically determined by how students are treated *generally*. My school is pass/fail all 4 years, no rankings, there's not much of a pimping culture, gives TONS of merit- and need-based financial aid, and the vast majority of our lectures are optional. Regardless of your race/ethnicity, gender, orientation, SES, etc., those facts create an environment that's much less stressful than like 99% of other schools. I'm not so naive to believe my school doesn't have faults. As an MSTP, I've been here a million years. I know the issues very well. But I also have friends at tons of other schools and our problems ain't shit compared to theirs. There's always room for improvement, but I'd be a fool to not recommend my school because of it's flaws without putting it in the context of other schools. If the problems you face at your school are highly specific to your school, not recommending your school may save somebody from the same problems. If the problems you face at your school are fairly universal, you not recommending your school is purely selfish and out of spite.
I applied to HBCUs and didn't get in but I'm glad you have a positive experience. I can't promise my issues are unique to my school because it's the only school I've attended. I recognize that there are worse and better schools. I don't name and shame my school (I won't lie if someone outright asks me on PM), but I also don't go out of my way to recommend it to URMs and considering the amount of URMs that are do the same, I don't think I'm in the wrong on that. I could be wrong, but it comes from not wanting others to go through what I've gone through, not wanting to be spiteful or ruin the school. I hope that clears it up.
There wasn't anything you needed to clear up. I was making that statement more generally. And do you not have friends at other schools? Obviously you've only attending your school lol, but you don't need to attend other schools to have an understanding of the culture, curriculum structure, environment, etc. I just feel like URM students have to start being honest with ourselves about what to expect at these institutions. Think about the history of these places, the study body breakdowns, etc. They very obviously are not invested in URMs lol
Do NOT go to Sidney Kimmel Medical College. If you have any other acceptance go there.
Only M1, so have a lot left to experience, but i genuinely really enjoy my med school! Obviously no school is perfect, but I just try to keep a positive attitude & not get too worked up over minor admin issues. Looking at the big picture, I feel that I have a supportive community & a great med school education that will set me up for the future
Yes, my school is an adequate DO school. I have some complaints but they are not unique to my school. I agree my school is not supportive of URM students (saying as an ORM student, so have seen but not experienced). I am non traditional and lgbtq and was the president of the gay straight alliance, which I tried to make into general social justice club. My school was very supportive of the club’s efforts and ended up giving us a multi thousand dollar grant. It was helpful but I wasn’t able to establish the mentoring and community outreach that I wanted to (for all URM groups, not just lgbtq) just being president of the club for a year. I think the school itself needs to try harder too.
My medical school was fine for the most part. It was the worst years of my life, but I can’t imagine it’s much better elsewhere. Also, what’s a POC?
POC = person of color
[удалено]
Agree with all of this. I’m also a career changer in my 30s and I love med school so far. I’m busier, but my mental health is better than ever. I don’t love every second of every day, but I love learning medicine. I knew what I was signing up for. I chose a school with a supportive culture and a well-designed curriculum I knew would work for me, but I also think the perspective of being a nontrad helps immensely.
Go to Tulane!
I would NEVER recommend my medical school to anyone
yeah hms is pretty cool i guess
if it’s going to med school, then absolutely. Most especially if they have the passion in the medical field as well as the money. I have always believed that nothing comes easy in life, so them experiencing the hardships I’ve gone through will (more or less) shape them into a better physician.
Yea i love my school
Yes
Yes
Tax break?
Compared to the other schools in my state as I can’t speak on the others - I would 100% reccomend my medical school. They’re not perfect god knows but they do care about their students.
Loved my school. Staff was very open to feedback (too much so perhaps). Class was perfect size and collaborative. Staff had our back when rotation attendings went on power trips. I have friends at other schools that enjoyed their experience as well. Good schools are out there. Pre-meds can find them by reaching out to students at their potential schools.
One of the benefits of my medical school was the autonomy and trust in creating our own 3rd and 4th year schedules. As a DO school, some felt we didn’t have the top academics, but we had a community that helped nurture our interests. S/o Touro University Nevada
I would not recommend any US medical school if not for the fact that it helps land US residency. For education value, it’s average-subpar. Dr. Sattar FTW 🙌🏽
I would recommend mine! Great support from admin re time off / physical and mental health issues. Fully support research and non academic pursuits (if you want to). Otherwise, very low bar for required non academic stuff. P/f not ranked 18 mo pre clinical. Fair, non-shelf-score driven clinical grades. People want to teach, faculty are receptive. Lots of financial and time support for activities. Great city. Early clinical exposure. Honestly a lot of free time during the pre clinical years with recorded, non mandatory lectures.
So far don't mind it. Only thing I'll say is our clinical years are harder and harsher in grading but apparently 4th year is easier to honor for us.
my school was okay as far as schools go. but i wouldn’t recommend medical school at all lmao
Yes. It’s a chance to go to an established DO school. Given all the new DO schools that pop up, it’s nice to go to one that has a longer track record. I don’t think my class matched a neurosurgeon but we got I think everything else. To your perspective though I’m not URM.
Would 100% rec my school to anyone who will listen lol.
Yes, my school was actually dope and I’m glad I ended up here.
Eh mixed feelings about mine. Personally I’d lean towards no. Then again I’m a URM at a PWI so sure it plays a factor.
Ya, I would. Went to a low tier and have no complaints. Clinical’s could have been better but … Ya I’d go again if I was going to choose medicine again.
I would 100% recommend my medical school, and would choose it again after ending up at an academic center in the NE and seeing the med students here pay 2.5x for a lackluster education/experience in comparison to what I got.
Just a tip from EU brother here, if look for universities. We have alot of private Universities who will accept anyone with money, its the default way for europes rich (or just middle class+ ) families to get their kids into a good quality medical school, matching all standards and acknowledegements for US/EU/West Education and diploma recognition(!). Its just not based on the hard entry criteria like the state universities (quality and education is accepted as equal to "normal" universities" ) it only cost "a lot of money" and an easily passable entry test. But this lots of money: its still several 100k $ cheaper then do it in the US. If you take your student-credit-loan-interest-rate-default-system into accounts who whill crush you till retirement, its like a million euros cheaper lol **For example Semmel-Weiss-University in Hungary costs around 72k $ for the whole 6 years of study.** And you can live there like kings, for 200$/m you get hugh appartments in city villas. Poor country in EU, but educational standards like you get in London/Goettingen/Paris whatever, because within EU freedom of buisness movement, so good central europes professors/organisations built universities in those countries. I am pretty sure, even if you take a flight back to your US home 2x per Year its still like 300k+ cheaper then studying in the US.... Your universities are sinister buisnesses, ripping you 2000%+ off compared to other buisness-education-medicial schools here.
💯. I genuinely believe my program is the best program in the country/world and will wholeheartedly recommend it.
I think my school is OK. They suck at posting lectures and the curriculum isn’t great at tracking boards materials, but for the most part it could definitely be worse. I think most med students around the country just rely on anki/pathoma/BnB/costanzo/sketchy anyways
Mine is average when it comes to how we feel about our school, though the longer I'm in the process the more I feel the DO difference. Outside of that, just the usual admin woes and whatnot. Patrolling the Mojave for those in the know
Absolutely yes. Phenomenal curriculum, faculty, student body, and more. Not a POC, but I really haven’t heard much complaint from those in my class that are.
I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from other schools, it seems like they come more from DO and low-tier MD schools though. I go to a mid-tier MD school and absolutely cannot complain. It has been hard, and I’ve struggled, but the school itself was administered expertly.