What made Scholl stand out compared to the other programs you interviewed at?
This guy. Attending CSPM ( sorry if thats false. trying to remember based on memory) and asking me about scholl -_-.
I will start by mentioning that i live in the suburbs of chicago and that i also know 3 students who are currently first years there. These 2 things were very important.
Staying close to family so that i can come back whenever (I could also drive back home from DMU and Kent although not as freqently.) also location was key which why i didnt interview at the further 5 schools.
Knowing people that have experienced something that you are currently going through, to me, is very valuable. If you ever need help or want the inside details theyre always there to help. After attending all the schools i knew that no matter where i went i would have upperclassmen help and guidance but knowing people i trust before i get there just makes it that much easier.
and although the 2 reasons mentioned above are very important they are not the only reasons i chose scholl. These are just specific to my situation anf i wanted to mention that due to them i may have been SLIGHLTY bias.
and before i move on i just want to mention that the next points are almost purely based on my own perspective of things. what i like, and whats important to me, may not be for you, and that is perfectly okay. also i will be saying negative things about some schools but it doesnt mean that i think any schools are bad. Theyre all great, just things that I didnt like.
anyway..
one thing that i felt was very important for me was aesthetics. because i would be away from home for the first time i wanted to be in a place that i enjoyed being at. There also are a few things that tie into aesthetics with me. Facilities and organization.
ill just list off the schools.
-DMU was beautiful. the best looking school of the 4. the facilities all looked amazing (that wellness center OMG <3) just hands down amazing. interview day was well orgnaized
-Kent was very nice as well. not as nice as DMU but nice nonetheless. also well organized and the facilites were above average.
- This is probably the main reason i chose not to consider Temple anymore. something abiut theplace just looked off and unappealing to me. The building seemed old. the facilities...i mean their anatomy lab was cadavars on a wooden table with cloth over them. I just couldnt do it. If the aesthetical aspect wasnt already a turn off, they also ended up not being as organized as the rest. our interview day started late. Our interviewer was 40 min late, granted he is a doctor and he ended up being very cool, but still.
- Scholl ended up being very nice as well. overall nicer than Kent. not as nice as DMU but close. I must say though, There was no financial aid which was...not good. i dont really pay attention anyway (i know i should) but its something they should have.
Another thing that was important to me was sense of community and class size.
The more you feel at home and the more comfortable you are the happier you will be and better you will perform. At least thats how it is for me. Also, I preferred a larger class size. Reason being, the larger the class size the more chance there is of meeting people you mesh with and the bigger the community.
-DMU was average in showing its sense of community. it may be there but i didnt really feel it. It also has a small class size. we had a tour and lunch with 2 students. DMU has a smaller class size
-Kent was the best in this department. We had like 10 students with us the entire day, which I really liked, and it felt like they were family. It was amazing. Carla, i dont exactly know what her official title is (something to do with admissions), was amazing as well. overall it felt the most home-y. It also has the largest class size.
-Once again something about temple I didnt like (Im sorry temple :'( ).
not only did they give the least community feel, we met with only 2 students and only for like a 20 minute lunch. Just didnt like it. and like i said before, it may be there, I just didnt feel it from my experience. Temple has a large class size
-Scholl was similar to DMU, a bit better in the sense that there were more students with us for lunch and tour (4 to be exact).
Also, Kim, the main admissions lady was the best facutly/staff member i interacted with at any school. She kept telling us how all of the students were basically like her children and honestly, i was only interviewing and i felt as if i was her child. Maybe some of you may think thats weird, but i loved it. How can a place not feel like home when one of the faculty/staff feels like your mother.
scholl also has a large class size.
the most important thing will obviously have to be quality of eduction. which includes academic and clinical. I dont really want to dive too much into details but i just felt that scholl had a good balance of both. Temple i believe has the best clinicals and DMU has the best academics. Scholl is above average in both. somthing else i want to tie into quality of education, is interprofessionalism. The reason I think it's important is because the real world is all about interprofessionalism. Also, my logic may be flawed, but I feel that because the world heavily favors MDs/DOs they're going to make sure those students are getting the best education they can get (especially at schools like DMU and Chicago) so if they improve the classes and facilities for the MD and DO students they're indirectly helping us out even if they don't mean to. Just my thoughts.
those were probably the main reasons I chose scholl. one more small reason I can also think of is the student housing option. expensive, but the option is nice to have.
I wish I had more time to decide on which school to go to. But with deposit deadlines coming up and the fact that I was going to leave the country soon for vacation I preferred to make my decision as quickly as possible. So I went with what I thought was the bet choice for me. Like I stated above, Scholl actually wasn't the best at anything. But overall I think it had everything I was looking for. And I'm grateful.
I apologize for the long message. It's probably all unorganized and all over the place. Too lazy to proof read it. Whatever I thought of, I just wrote. I hope this answers your question. And hopefully this helps anyone even a little.
If I can answer any more questions id be more than happy to.