happiest/unhappiest students

[josehernandez94]

so this is just for ****s and giggles since I'm kind of bored, and the only real NFL game that matters this weekend is Dallas vs. New England which isn't until 8:30 pm, so I figured I'd start this thread: based on your interview experiences, which schools would you say have the happiest and unhappiest students?

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[SarahGM]

in my experience, columbia's students were the happiest... it almost freaked me out, actually.

 

[Kashue]

Stony Brook
NYU

 

[ZekeMD]

Penn State by far. The students were all very happy and generally excited to be there.

 

[AverageMan]

Columbia students were pretty happy. That's the only real school I could get a read on since I stayed in Bard Hall for my interview. At every other school, the med students who came with us for lunch and conducted the tour all said how happy all the students were and how they all loved it there etc, but I can't help but feel that the opinion is biased since the only students who would volunteer to interact with the interviewees are the ones who like it there and may not be representative of the entire class.

 

[Spitting Camel]

Heard really good things about Loyola and really bad things about UCSD...

 

[DW]

Originally posted by AverageMan
but I can't help but feel that the opinion is biased since the only students who would volunteer to interact with the interviewees are the ones who like it there and may not be representative of the entire class.

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[mmz6]

rochester students r the happiest by far (from were i have been)...

i got to have dinner with 1/3 of the MS1 class (they were celebrating 2 ppls bdays and i was staying with one of them)....

and every one of them were so coo and happy to be there...
they loved everything about it...

 

[Smitty75]

Originally posted by Kashue
Stony Brook
NYU

Stony Brook all the way
I wouldn't know about NYU though

 

[calebho501]

1. Vanderbilt: You heard it online and see it in person as well
2. UCLA: My undergrad school, so I gotta talk to many med students here
3. Emory: Though at times students seem stressed with the joint-exams, they do seem to like the school AND Coca Cola too

 

[Gleevec]

As far as I can tell from my travels (though I might have received a biased account in each case):

Happiest: Michigan, Vanderbilt, Emory, Baylor, Duke, Penn, UT-H

 

[hale-bopp]

I thought Yale students seemed really really happy. Actually, maybe exuberant. They seemed to be enjoying medical school.

Hopkins was the only school I went to where the students I met did not say they were happy. They were more like... I'm not unhappy, and "...yeah, I think I would choose to come here again." Plus my student tour guide said more than once "Even if I didn't like it here, I couldn't tell you that, because it's my job to say I do." not that I'm saying that this is representative of all students there. just the ones I met.

 

[Neuronix]

Don't buy into the cheerleaders. I'm serious. Some schools really coach their students to pitch their school as nirvana. Columbia is one of these schools and I do know a student there know who feels like he was pretty much duped by these cheerleaders as now he is not very happy as a MS1.

I'm not bashing Columbia or the other cheerleader schools, but please view things with a critical eye and don't just go to the school where everyone "seems" the happiest.

Good luck!

 

[josehernandez94]

Based on my experiences, the Rochester students were the happiest. I had a mid-afternoon flight the day after my interview (due to some confusion, I had to stay an extra night), so I went to the school to kill some time before going to the airport. I began conversing with a first-year student, to get a feel for whether the "ordinary" students (i.e., not the tour guides) enjoyed the school. To make a long story short, in the midst of our conversation, three other students came up unsolicited to tell me all the things they loved about the school and to give me some encouragement for the rest of the application process. I already liked the school quite a bit, but this impressed me a lot.

I also have to say that the students at U-Vermont were incredibly friendly/happy/outgoing. Before our interview day started, almost all of their first-year class talked with the interviewees telling us how much they loved their school--again, I was impressed.

I agree with the people who say not to become too enamored with a school just based on how happy the tour guides appear to be. But, if you can, try to talk with students outside of the interview/tour setting. That way, I really think you can get a good feel for student happiness (which is one of the biggest factors in my decision).

 

[Megalofyia]

I have yet to talk to a student from USUHS that doesn't love the school.

 

[SunnyS81]

I was on a subway with some columbia students two years ago, and I asked them about the med school and they told me, "We used to be tour guides, but if I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't be here." I don't know their reasons, but that was enough to cause me not to apply.

They don't coach us here for the lunches and interviews, but it is biased because we are taking time out of our day for zero compensation (same with student hosts). I go about once every month to the interview lunches, I might be a cheerleader because I don't have any good negative comments, then again, I'm not whiny like some people (there's another thread about how my class is the whinest ever).

If you are applying to a state school as out of state, I found a useful question to state students was, "would you come here if you had to pay out of state tuition." You'd be surprised how many tour guides/cheerleaders would flat tell you no or say probably not.

 

[pathdr2b]

Howard students looked pretty happy as well.

 

[spumoni620]

you know, i found it tough to really understand the general "happiness" of the student body from just 2 days, and as others have mentioned, you usually get a biased view. in fact, i've drawn most of my opinions (rightly or wrongly) from students of various schools who post on this site about their school. i guess in every student body there are going to be some who love the school, some who hate it. but, hmm...from what i remember...i actually got a mixed response when i went to michigan (a student i talked to wasn't very happy there--thought the new curriculum was a little shaky in areas. however some others raved about the school) and vanderbilt (a tour guide i had didn't seem very enthused about the # hours spent in class, workload, etc). columbia...i don't know, didn't get to talk to too many students there. as for the happy students...i thought students seemed really happy and relaxed at ut san antonio, duke and baylor. just my perceptions. different ppl are probably going to have atmospheres that appeal to them, so it's hard to universally judge one school as "happy", i guess.

 

[jwin]

happiness will boil down to 3 things (at least for the 1st two years)

1. how much time you are in class
2. what kind of grading scale you are on
3. what kind of exam schedule the school uses


the less in class time the better, first you have more time to study, second, you have less material to study because you had less class hours presenting you with new material.

inevitably, schools with honors, high pass, etc. will be much more competitive than those with p/f even if it is just for year 1 or years 1-2.

if exams are blocked or staggered makes a big difference. blocked is more intense pain a few times a year, but staggered makes for years of unpleasantness. by the time the semester gets rolling, having a graded exam virtually every week for 2 or 3 months is not fun.

IGNORE all members of the student body who are there to represent the school on interview day. they will fall into one of the following categories:
-lying because they represent the school
-one of the people that just thinks wherever they are is the best
-one of those freaks who doesn't even realize they are getting screwed over, but happily follows whatever the med school administration thinks is best
-a 4th year who has been on vacation and electives for 1/2 a year and cannot remember the pain they experience for the last 3 years

making your decision based on these so called cheerleaders is like picking an undergrad because you thought the students in the brochure looked happiest.

 

[fava]

i agree with jwin.
for sure there is more variability from student to student at a given school than there is between whole student bodies from different schools.

 

[Street Philosopher]

Originally posted by spumoni620
you know, i found it tough to really understand the general "happiness" of the student body from just 2 days, and as others have mentioned, you usually get a biased view. in fact, i've drawn most of my opinions (rightly or wrongly) from students of various schools who post on this site about their school.

you are very wise. one of the reasons it is difficult to accurate gauge "happiness" at a school is because sometimes we, as medical students, are happy and other times we are not. personally, i've had weeks where i loved everything about medicine and the school. other weeks i hated medicine and constantly considered changing careers. (to its credit, the school probably had little to do with this.)

i'm not sure there really is a good way to gauge happiness as an interviewee. but then again, i'm also skeptical of the idea that the level of happiness amongst classmates is significantly variable. i think most people will find classmates that they get along with at any school. what's really important is considering what type of learning environment you might like, such as curriculum type, location, the school's exam policy, and other such things. the information you get in making these particular decisions tend to be factual, which means that you'll have less risk of being swayed by a few hours worth of subjective impressions.

 

[daisygirl]

Originally posted by Street Philosopher
you are very wise. one of the reasons it is difficult to accurate gauge "happiness" at a school is because sometimes we, as medical students, are happy and other times we are not. personally, i've had weeks where i loved everything about medicine and the school. other weeks i hated medicine and constantly considered changing careers. (to its credit, the school probably had little to do with this.)

i'm not sure there really is a good way to gauge happiness as an interviewee. but then again, i'm also skeptical of the idea that the level of happiness amongst classmates is significantly variable. i think most people will find classmates that they get along with at any school. what's really important is considering what type of learning environment you might like, such as curriculum type, location, the school's exam policy, and other such things. the information you get in making these particular decisions tend to be factual, which means that you'll have less risk of being swayed by a few hours worth of subjective impressions.

SP is totally on target here.

After having read another post about my particular school, I was struck by the fact that interviewees kept ranting about how happy everyone is at my school. It surprised me how these potential students didn't seem to think about the fact that those taking you on interviews are not exactly representative of the school. Many of the student guides are taking you on tours for a reason- for example, it may be that they want to 'shine' in the eyes of the administration. As Sp said, consider the important things- curriculum, test policies, attendance policies, quality of teaching (if you can somehow deduce this), etc.. Those things are so much more important than the biased view of happiness being presented by a select view who happen to be taking you for a tour.

 

[alex8712]

At my school, first years get free lunch to talk with the prospective students so almost everyone in the class talks to interviewees at some point.

 

[ErraticLotus]

Originally posted by spumoni620
i actually got a mixed response when i went to michigan (a student i talked to wasn't very happy there--thought the new curriculum was a little shaky in areas. however some others raved about the school).

Overall, students at Michigan seem to like the school, but residents here have said that the med students don't get as much interesting clinical experience compared to students at other schools. Donno which ones those are. BTW, I'm not a med student, but I work with residents.