I recently got an interview invite to Rush, and will be interviewing there in Jan. Is this considered "late" in the cycle to be interviewing? Im hoping there are a decent amount of spots still available in the class.
Hi everyone I'm an M1 along with Jonathan at Rush (class of 2011). My name is Usama but my fellow M1s have taken to calling me "fresh" (long story).
Anyway to answer your question
Dave501, I interviewed in February and I got in, so although it is later than everyone who interviewed back in November/December, there are spots!
Just a bit of background: I was set on going to UIC College of Medicine. I went to UIC for my undergrad and although it was big and impersonal (even the Honors College felt blah to me), I wanted to go to UIC-COM because of the cost, familiarity and friends. I was accepted at UIC-COM in November and put my deposit in and didn't care that I was getting rejections from Northwestern and Univ of Chicago and the like (I mean, I didn't really have a chance I think, didn't do any research because I don't like it).
Somehow I got an interview from Rush around February. Now I was happy going to UIC so I didn't want to go to this interview. Rush was more expensive and wasn't ranked especially high, you know? But my parents convinced me to go to the interview, and so I did, and it made all the difference. I loved the feeling I got from the students and the faculty. The whole "family" spiel actually seemed true here. When the day was over I was really hoping I got in. I did, and I went back on their 2nd look day (Rush and UIC had it on the same day, which was dumb, so I went to Rush's) and I was convinced.
In terms of price UIC and Rush aren't very different (over 4 years), but the level of contact with Rush faculty is very different. And I can't speak to the level of comradeship among UIC students (I have a few friends there but I don't get time to talk to them too much anymore) but I am pretty sure we've got them beat, and I'd like to think we've got a good many schools beat. Okay, maybe it's just a little bit of 2011 pride. But seriously, I love my fellow classmates (of course not everyone, there are a few I don't like, but out of 138 that's not bad!), and I'm really impressed with the admissions committee and how they're able to select such a diverse student body that still shares core values.
Our class is so helpful to each other, and friendly and, well I won't make this any longer because I've got mid-terms next week
But to make it short, it's great here. And for the record I'm a Muslim and I don't drink alcohol and generally avoid the post-test/exam parties, but it hasn't hindered my social life at Rush at all.
Now there are some faculty, in some classes, who are
not great teachers. What I mean is, they're willing to give you time and help you, but they aren't very good at explaining concepts/ideas. It's disappointing but I also think it's unavoidable, it's rare to be in a school that has all excellent teachers. For the most part you don't need to purchase books because the faculty/school prints out entire lecture notes for you in a series of binders/notebooks, but those teachers who aren't very good at explaining their particular topic/organ will also have poor lecture notes and so you'll need to use actual textbooks. But it's med school, so you should be prepared for that.
Never feel too shy to ask us M2s (well, we'll be M2s when you get there... if this mid-term goes well).
Also as was mentioned by PacoX, the technology at Rush lags. A lot of things are in their infancy (like video recording lectures) and other things just need to be updated. Although Histology uses computer slides (instead of microscopes) which is a great way to learn together, it wasn't until our class that these slides were made available to be streamed to outside access (off-school network).
But the faculty is helpful, as is the staff at student services. Medical school is hard enough, I'm grateful that the good people at Rush help us keep everything in order.
Okay I should really go, but I'll try to check this forum at least once every few days, so feel free to reply and/or ask any questions as they relate to the school itself. I probably couldn't answer much in the way of whether your interview was too late or too early, and how many spots Rush has and all that.
