Thanks! I'll ask here in case anyone else has similar questions about the Athens campus.
Have you felt like there is enough opportunity to come together and get to know both your classmates and students in other years? Does the small class size and being at UGA make this more difficult or less? Subjective question I know, but basically how is the camaraderie between the medical partnership students?
Do you feel like you are a part of the UGA student body as well? Do many of the partnership students take the opportunity to get involved in UGA extracurriculars, go to sporting events, etc?
What are your thoughts on the health sciences campus, and pre-clinical facilities more generally?
I know you aren't into rotations yet, but do you have any thoughts on the local (Athens Regional, St. Mary's, Northeast Georgia Health System) clinical training facilities? I hope to take advantage of some of the opportunities for rotations in other parts of the state, but I am curious how students view their training at their "base" institutions.
Anything else you think is worth mentioning about the Athens campus? Favorite/least favorite aspect of being a medical student there, do many students wish they had chosen a different campus, any particular problems owing to the newness of the program, etc?
Thanks for fielding questions!
It's super easy to get to know everyone at our campus. With only 40 students, we are all very close; think like high school closeness as far as always knowing what is going on, gossip, etc, without the immaturity of being in high school. And we get to know the other classes fairly well. It just depends on the personality of each class too as to how well you get to know them. We've gotten to know the class below us pretty well, but the class above us didn't really take the time to try to get to know my class for instance. Overall though, there is a lot of camaraderie within the class because we spend so much time working in small groups with each other.
As far as interactions with UGA, it's entirely up to the individual how much they get involved. We do get football and other sports tickets, and a lot of us get full season tickets for all the home football games. We are pretty close with the college of public health since we share a campus, and get together with the law and vet schools a lot for social events. We have an IM softball and basketball team I believe. Everything else is really just up to you how much you want to get involved with UGA extracurriculars.
The health sciences campus is great- if you ever want to come by for a tour, feel free. The facilities are great in our main building- we have our own small library, we have about 20 small group rooms that are used for small group, clinical skills, and personal studying. And it's nice being on a full campus as we have lots of green space, a softball field, and other areas to hang out outside.
For clinicals, everything I have heard is wonderful. One of the huge benefits of being in Athens (or the smaller partnership campuses like Rome, Albany, NE GA, etc) is that there aren't any residents. Which means you work one-on-one with the attendings. For some, that may seem intimidating, but most have said that once you get used to it, it really is a huge plus. You learn so much more and are held to higher standards, which means you are more prepared in the long-run for shelf exams and life as a doctor. Plus, you get more hands-on experience since you are the only one there to assist in surgeries, etc. The community in Athens has been incredible supportive of having students in the hospitals, and the hospitals have been great, making us study rooms and locker rooms just for our use. Overall, it's great basically doing clinical rotations in Athens.
Let's see- what else? Most importantly I guess is that the Athens campus is definitely not a good fit for everyone. If you don't like working with others, or you learn best from just being lectured at and aren't very good at self-learning, it's not the campus for you. Those that thrive here are the ones that love problem-based learning and case-based learning, those that work well with others and can learn from other students, and those that are good at learning on their own without going to lectures all day every day. So there is a definitely a personality fit that you should be aware of.
Those that wish they hadn't come here mostly weren't fully aware of what the curriculum entailed; otherwise, I think the majority love the campus here and wouldn't want to go back to Augusta.
A few other things to be aware of- we are generally pushed harder I would say. We have quizzes every single week (yes, that does get annoying, but it keeps all of us from procrastinating and are not worth too much of your grade, so they are really a good learning opportunity). Along with that, while no one has specific numbers, there are rumors that our grades are a tad lower on average. With that being said, things are pass/fail now, so who cares. And when it counts, like step 1, the first two classes have done amazingly well.
Being a new campus has definitely presented a few problems, but most of those have been ironed out by now. There is always going to be some tweaking here or there to try to improve or address student's concerns, but things are running pretty smoothly at this point.
I think one of my favorite parts of being here aside from the small group cases is ECM. For clinical skills, we are in much smaller groups (4 students/facilitator), learn the entire physical exam our first year (whereas in Augusta, I think they only learn a small part their first year), and second year, clinical skills is held entirely in the hospital, so you are seeing patients throughout your second year to practice your history taking and physical exam skills. This is so valuable to me, and it's a great reminder of why we are doing all this, and makes you feel like you are really on your way to becoming a doctor, and feel more prepared for clinicals.
Sorry this is so long! Let me know if you have any other questions or if I missed one of your questions. If you go to the medical partnership website, there should be an email address somewhere if you are interested in coming for a visit and setting up a tour.
