I'm so glad that my classmates aren't miserable! (Sounds sarcastic. Definitely not sarcastic). I guess you can take me as an n=1 experience. That said, there are others that I have talked to in our class that have considered leaving or transferring. So I am not the only one. Some people feel alone -- that is probably because most of our class is extroverted and being an introvert might lead to loneliness. Some people do feel put off by the relentless nature of our curriculum. Public health is immensely important. But there's no reason to craft a question asking for a specific statistic from lecture. I put that out there because I think it's important to consider. We do have a lot of non-science things to do -- don't let that be minimized by others comments. It takes away from the limited time we have to learn and understand the human body. Ultimately, we are going to be doctors. We will manage the health of patients, not of patient populations. We need to understand the human body. That is an overwhelming task in and of itself. It's difficult to feel like you aren't able to devote adequate time to this fundamental undertaking. If you're the kind of person who likes to set their own priorities, don't come here. If they don't match up with the school's, you will struggle. You will feel like your time is being wasted. You will be frustrated and angry.
Since the beginning though, many people who have dealt with certain parts of the administration display many of the same emotions as me. The entire administration isn't bad. That is true. There are probably two or three administrators who are great for every not so great one. But, dealing with that one administrator who makes you feel like you aren't valued, like you aren't capable, and like you are a "very bad kid" is discouraging. Which, really, is the last thing you need in medical school.
For our last block, a significant percent of our class (Think 15-20%) failed the anatomy practical. A straightforward "identify this pinned structure" test. Now...why do you think that might be? Is 20% of our class lazy or stupid? Absolutely not! It's because there were another things that are required of us, that meant that studying anatomy at the level we needed to was a bit of a struggle. We have the lowest anatomy step score in Chicago... I say this from a third person point of view. because, for clarification, I personally didn't fail the exam.
About 2 days of the week, we're usually going till 3. (PBL on one day and CEC on another.) If you have ECMH that week, your day might go until 7PM. One day goes till 5 PM. And 1 day goes until 12. Good luck studying on the two days of the week you're going till 5 or 7PM. The nature of med school is that you really do need to study daily to stay on top of things. Having two days of the week where you can't study is a big deal. Many people can put it off, but those people often have to pull all nighters. Our curriculum makes that extremely difficult to do while maintaining normal relationships with people and having a life outside of school.
For this last exam (80+ lectures: all of anatomy of the upper and lower limbs,functional anatomy, musculoskeletal pathology, dermatology which is all path) we were given one full day to study. One fourth of our class didn't even get that full day off. Imagine, if you will, a final exam of the same amount of material you might have learned in a semester that you learned in a month (i.e. it's very new to you). You're not familiar with the way the professor tests or what he stresses in the material, and you're studying for your test in a day. Imagine you had 20 new diseases taught to you two days ago. And the entire field of dermatology was introduced and taught to you in a week and a half. And imagine that two hours of your precious studying time two days ago was spent learning about sunscreen and vitamin D thanks to the curriculum design. Finally, imagine you're being tested on the MSK physical exam the same week (i.e. physical exam on fake patients). Now, go ahead and study for this exam in a day... Tell me how much you feel like you're learning and retaining. Tell me if you feel like medical school is meaningful, that you can walk into your first rotation without seriously doubting your training.
I'm trying my very hardest to be happy here. But being happy here is hard. I'm a student here and this is my experience. It's honest. I don't appreciate some of my classmates trying to delegitimize my words. There are others who are respectful in acknowledging them and I thank them for that.
Things I still like about feinberg:
1. Organ systems
2. Our CV and Pulm teachers
3. College mentors
4. the hospital
5. working with the doctor in the clinic I go to ever other week
6. some of the outside clinics you can volunteer at
7. the city of chicago
My advice:
1. go to med school near home/near your close friends.
2. understand what frustrates you -- other people telling me what my priorities should be frustrates me. Being treated like a child who shouldn't be trusted frustrates me.
3. understand what allows you to thrive.
Good luck!
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2015-2016 Northwestern University (Feinberg) Application Thread
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