Question for Florida State Medical Students..

[Bionista]

Hey everyone, hopefully there are a few of you on here that go to Florida State? I am wanting to ask how the structure is for year 1 and 2 as far as going to class. Are the lectures mandatory or are they recorded like many other medical schools these days?

Also for rotations, how likely is it to get spots at their remote locations?

I live about 4 hours away so I'm wondering if it's feasible to drive up and stay nearby for a portion of the week and come home sometimes? Also thinking ahead to rotations and wondering about getting spots at their Sarasota location.

Thanks for any tips or info!

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[AGatorForever]

Hey Bionista, current M1 here. FSUCOM is different than most schools in that it is an early start school. We start the last week of May and learn anatomy for the entire summer. This includes the dissection component (yes, we dissect). There are 3 unit exams for the summer and these include embryology, histology, and imaging in addition to the anatomy component. We also have weekly CLC (clinical learning center) assessments where we learn various physical examinations and practice on standardized patients. For the 1st half of Fall semester, we have Medicine II which is primarily biochemistry/genetics and then host defense in the 2nd half before getting into organ system blocks in the Spring. Then we have 3 week clerkship after end of M1 year and get that summer off before continuing the organ system blocks until step 1 in late April.

Lectures are recorded and attendance is not mandatory for most lectures. CLC attendance is obviously required. It might be possible to stay portions of the week, but I HIGHLY HIGHLY do not recommend that. It definitely would not work for summer and may be difficult throughout the first 2 years. Besides, FSUCOM is designed to promote community hence why we have required weekly small group sessions and Learning Communities (essentially huge living/study spaces for medical students).

As far as rotations go, it really depends on a lot of different factors. If you are from Sarasota and you rank that as your top choice, you are almost guaranteed to go there. If you are not from there, you better have some pretty dang good reasons why they should send you there.