Hi, MS1 here.
Like how many days/hours do you go to lecture/labs?
Class is from 130-530 MTueThurF. Since the second quarter, our classes are generally 1-2 hours of lecture format and then 1-2 hours of small group but there are variations to this. Anatomy lab is threaded through the whole curriculum, and you'll occasionally have whole anatomy days for 4 hours instead of class or maybe for just 1 or 2 hours of the class time. Sometimes we have pathology lab looking at gross specimens.
Are there any small group discussion lessons? Yes, see answer above
Do you buy books or study from material provided by instructors? Almost no one buy books --- maybe an anatomy one. Most of the required prep material is written out in word documents by the professors or they are lecture-style videos. If you need a book, you can just use the free online one through the library.
When do you start having clinical experience? The first week of orientation/immersion. You start doing patient interviews right away and learn the basics of the physical exam right away. Every other Wednesday we are in our assigned primary care clinics for the whole day seeing patients. The other Wednesdays we are with our clinical college (50 students in Cascade, 50 students in Olympic) focusing on learning new clinical skills, this might involve the simulation lab at Harborview. Every other week on a weekday morning we are in our clinical 5 person groups at the hospital either a) getting there at 8 am and doing a full patient history & exam with one patient or b) getting there later in the morning and going around as a group while the people who got their earlier do oral case presentations on their patients
Standardized patients? Immediately -- often during our clinical skill workshops on Wednesdays
Anyone in the global health or Hispanic health program can tell us about your experience? I can't sorry
What are your favorite and not so great things about the program?
Favorite
The faculty are overall very friendly, helpful, available, humble, and empowering. The clinical skills curriculum is phenomenal and the clinical skills experience right away in the program really helps build confidence in that area.
Likely compared to other programs, our time is (usually) not waste in long, boring lectures. Sometimes, though, there is the occasional bad lecture.
I like that pharmacology, pathology, and anatomy are threaded through the curriculum and related to the organ system we are studying rather than us taking a course on each.
They put a lot of emphasis on board prep and give us lots of resources.
They've cut out a LOT of stuff from the old curriculum that doesn't need to be taught or that is redundant. Thus, we take boards earlier and have more time for clinical rotations and clinical curriculum during foundations.
Needs Improvement
They try to cram too much sometimes into some of the courses. I sometimes feel we need one more week in some of the courses.
It's still a new curriculum. The first quarter didn't go as well with the format, but I think they will change a lot by next year because they are VERY open to feedback.
What type of support is there for students?
Counseling staff for only medical students
Your advisor
Career counselor
Learning/education counselor -- his job is to help us do well in class and on boards
Faculty in your clinical college
Dean of students + their office
Service learning manager
Lot of other support staff in the administrative office
How has your experience been so far?
I love the school
-- mainly because the culture of the faculty & students facilitates collaboration among colleagues and patient centeredness. Too tired right now to get into more specifics but if you have other questions, please ask!