Generally speaking what has your experience been like? What do you love about the school/what do you think needs improving? Thanks in advance!!
In general I love Creighton with the past 3 years being amazing.
Positives:
Non-ranked grading means I'm not stressing about whatever my grades are. I have friends right now worried about what rank will be put in their deans letter. Awesome to be in the top 25%, not very awesome to be in any other rank. So without ranks, a Pass is a pass and while most residencies like to see honors, they also take them with a grain of salt and typically use standardized measurements like Step1/2 or LOR to grade applicants because the top 10% may honor at one school while 50% honor at another school so its hard to know really how "good" someone is.
My classmates are awesome. I'd say I get along with 90% of them extremely well and we are a very collaborative and social group. We make intramural sports teams, groups for tail gaiting sports and attending concerts etc.
M1/M2 is very doable. Looking back I was amazed by how much free time I had and the quality of life I got to enjoy. Sure week before finals get a little iffy but otherwise I regularly got 8 hours of sleep, had time to go to gym or play sports, to cook my food or go out with friends to restaurant/bar. It was amazing. Administration and professors are very receptive to student concerns.
I felt like my M3 experience was also great. While some rotations suck because its just not a fit (looking at you OBGYN), I'd say that overall we have a very relaxed/non-malignant environment where students and residents get along great on a personal level and most of the attendings are fantastic at teaching and very kind. Can't even tell ya'll how many stupid mistakes I've made that I know friends at other schools get absolutely crucified for and the attending/resident just helps me understand what to do next time without yelling or belittling. Things are weird with COVID environment, but We currently enjoy a plentiful supply of PPE and don't have to see any COVID positive or COVID probable patients. I feel like the admin has been as good as they can be with regards to communication about the various changes required to navigate COVID as well.
Negatives:
I'm not sure I have any true areas of complaint that are school specific.
Most of what I'd like to happen for M1/M2 seem to have been corrected with the new curriculum. aka. I think we should've started with systems, spent less time on biochem/anatomy, and have more independent learning with team based/case based learning instead of 7 hours of lecture a day.
I guess the Creighton specific complaints are about the cost/whats included or not included but this can be applied to most medical schools. Tuition is crazy high and the interest rates on our loans are disgusting. Prior to July 2020, interest rates were around 7% so your paying 3-4% above your mortage/car etc. crazy especially since its isn't dischargeable in bankruptcy. Plus you have to pay like 2.5% of your loans as origination fees. Its such a scam but i digress. The school forces us to buy all kinds of things I feel our tuition should cover given its somewhere around 60k a year now and those costs are required for us to be educated. This includes things like paying 2500 or so for your step exams, paying 1600 in "technology fees" for the laptop they "give to you for free." Just last year they got rid of the actual Creighton university student health clinic and established a partnership with CHI clinic on the edge of campus. This is fine, but there use to be some freebies like flu shot/TB testing clinics that you now have to attend the CHI or your primary care for. The health insurance policy is fine, but not fantastic.
The rest of my complaints extend to medical school education in general. It is way too expensive for the amount of self-teaching you do. In my opinion M1/M2 can easily be done fully online since what has historically mattered was acing Step 1. So we pay idk 120kish for lectures over M1/M2 and the reality is 90% of what I knew for Step 1 I learned from $1000-2000 of board specific resources that truly prepare you for step/clinicals (things like sketchy, pathoma, boards and beyond, etc). Many lecturers are taught by PHD not MD/DO's who tend to like to talk about nuanced topics that are "low-yield" for standardized exams but that are personally interesting to them. My understanding is med schools everywhere have this problem. This may get worse or at the very least be different for for M1/M2 though since Step1 will now be pass fail and thus the need for these exam specific resources may change. I'm not sure, but once again its a medical education issue not a creighton issue.
I also do wish we had a bit more time seeking out electives during M3 to learn what we want to do. Currently M3 consists of the Core rotations of IM, surgery, peds, obgyn, psych, family med and neuro. During surgery you spend 2 weeks on a surgical elective. one of your 3 week psych rotations can be an "elective" such as pediatrics/adolescent, geriatric psych, and consult psych. You than get three 2 week electives. While this may sound like alot, and is alot compared to other schools, you really don't get the opportunity to learn about IM subspecialties like heme/onc, rheum, nephro, endocrine etc until you are in your 4th year and you really only have your first 3 rotations of M4 before you have to apply to a specialty. Given that there are dozens of subspecialties out there I'd like more elective time. Plus I'd argue that an experience on cardiac surgery would be different then colorectal surgery and thus just having a single General surgery rotation would be inadequate to really tell if you want to go into a field.
I feel like I'm rambling so gonna stop. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.
Summary: Hate/needs improvement = Cost is crazy high and keeps going up, M1/M2 low-yield & hyper specific lectures, would like more elective opportunities.
Liked: everything else. Great collaborative environment. Love the city of omaha which was a surprise. Faculty/admin is certainly above average compared to the stories I hear from friends.
I do *not* want to live in Nebraska. My whole life is in Phoenix!I do *not* want to live in Nebraska. My whole life is in Phoenix!
