University of Virginia Class of 2012

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For current students: will the new parking garage be of use to med students? What is the parking situation now - can med students get parking passes? Will the new garage help?
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nevermind, misread post
 
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vicinihil said:
just to remind people...if you haven't joined the Facebook group, please do. Nicknames on SDN sucks...faces are everything!

Link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12056061717

Happy early St. Patty's day! :luck::luck::luck::luck::luck::luck: Let the drinking begin!
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Definitely. We have, what, 12 people? And the class is 142? I think there's 100+ in last year's Facebook group. I know the application process is nowhere near over, but still...
 
flip26 said:
For current students: will the new parking garage be of use to med students? What is the parking situation now - can med students get parking passes? Will the new garage help?
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ah, parking. i don't know about the new garage, but the current parking situation is mediocre. the main garage is free on weekends, but students generally park a 5-10 min walk away or can park at the stadium and take a shuttle to the hospital. there are student parking passes for 3rd/4th year rotations which have long hours (ie ob, surgery, etc).
the thing is, it's easy to live close to the hospital... probably half of students live withing walking distance, and don't even think about "where can i park?"
 
I'm living at OH!... and you should know there are buses that go through there, silly! I really don't think it's that far of a walk.. 3/4 mile to the hospital? can't be that bad.
 
Most students live within walking distance. Those who don't typically live near a blue route bus stop which will take you right to the med school and usually a bus comes about every 10 mins or so. I have a lot of friends who currently live in oxford hills or are moving there next year and love it, so it's definitely a med student friendly place.

As for clinical exposure, you start getting clinical experience immediately through the Principles of Medicine course (POM). You'll learn how to interview patients and take histories and practice by doing it on real patients in the hospital. In the spring you'll be assigned a preceptor to shadow, but a lot of people start shadowing before this. Basically if you want more clinical exposure than is built into the curriculum, then just look up a doctor in a specialty you're interested in and ask to shadow them, 9 times out of 10 they will be super excited to have you.
 
I've been waitlisted by UVa (but accepted at a couple of other schools) and I would really appreciate it if any current students or other knowledgeable individuals could help me out with this info so I can figure out how actively I want to pursue getting off of it/how long I will wait before making other plans for the fall.

--How closely do profs follow the syllabus/how necessary are textbooks given the syllabus? (Ideally, I'd like to have a really simple one set of notes to just study like crazy rather than pulling from a wide variety of books.)
--How do people unwind? (I guess to put this in context, I'm going to be 20 when I come to school and I don't want to end up in a situation where I'm not able to get to know a lot of people because I can't go to bars. . .)
--How cohesive is the class? Are there a lot of class-wide social events or is it more little groups?

Thanks so much!
 
drhexane said:
I've been waitlisted by UVa (but accepted at a couple of other schools) and I would really appreciate it if any current students or other knowledgeable individuals could help me out with this info so I can figure out how actively I want to pursue getting off of it/how long I will wait before making other plans for the fall.

--How closely do profs follow the syllabus/how necessary are textbooks given the syllabus? (Ideally, I'd like to have a really simple one set of notes to just study like crazy rather than pulling from a wide variety of books.)
--How do people unwind? (I guess to put this in context, I'm going to be 20 when I come to school and I don't want to end up in a situation where I'm not able to get to know a lot of people because I can't go to bars. . .)
--How cohesive is the class? Are there a lot of class-wide social events or is it more little groups?

Thanks so much!
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One of my friends who is a MS4 said that during the first two years, the exams for each class were based on the information in the lecture slides/notes that the professor gave. The books weren't really needed. Based on this, I wouldn't imagine it being too hard to study from one source (prof notes)
 
For you current students... How are the gym facilities? Do you guys have access to the fieldhouse/other undergrad stuff? If the school weightlifting facilities suck are there any decent gyms in town (Gold's, 24 hour, whatever)? My school's fieldhouse sucks and I don't know if I can deal with crappy equipment for another four years. Gracias.
 
I believe grad students do get access to AFC (only about 4 years old? awesome machines, olympic-sized pool), Mem gym (more for weight-lifty people), north grounds rec center (never been there..).. etc etc. I think we have decent gyms =)

I think there's a Gold's somewhere in Cville too.
 
UVA gyms are awesome. Mem's old, but many of the med students use it since it's fairly close to the med school and it's where many of the powerlifters and other hardcore lifters work out. AFC's where all the pretty people work out (you know who you are), but it has everything you could want. You won't need to get a membership elsewhere unless you're planning on going between 12-6am.
 
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OCallag said:
UVA gyms are awesome. Mem's old, but many of the med students use it since it's fairly close to the med school and it's where many of the powerlifters and other hardcore lifters work out. AFC's where all the pretty people work out (you know who you are), but it has everything you could want. You won't need to get a membership elsewhere unless you're planning on going between 12-6am.
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Anyone here get any scholarships or financial aid info yet? I think I heard something like 5/1 for notification of Financial Aid if you turn in your info on April 1st...so let's milk UVA for what they got! We'll get to the cows later.
 
spunkybling said:
I believe grad students do get access to AFC (only about 4 years old? awesome machines, olympic-sized pool), Mem gym (more for weight-lifty people), north grounds rec center (never been there..).. etc etc. I think we have decent gyms =)

I think there's a Gold's somewhere in Cville too.
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They also have 2 indoor basketball courts.
 
vicinihil said:
Anyone here get any scholarships or financial aid info yet? I think I heard something like 5/1 for notification of Financial Aid if you turn in your info on April 1st...so let's milk UVA for what they got! We'll get to the cows later.
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you mean you can't multitask..ouch..med-school is going to own you!!! haha
 
No one should have gotten financial aid info yet - the Board of Visitors hasn't set the tuition and fees figures. That should happen sometime in April. You're right that May 1 is the day we should know financial aid packages, but they might come earlier.

Enough with the cow comments! :laugh:
 
werd said:
indeed... you can't tell this just by looking at the list, but we matched all 5derm applicants and all 7 ortho applicants; in fact, 6/7 of the ortho folks got their first choice. this list is similar to the high standards of last year's class :).
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So...now in full fledged honesty...how often do you guys to go class :p or rather how necessary is it to go? I heard on my tour that 25% always go, 50% sometimes go, 25% never go.

2nd look day coming up!
 
werd said:
indeed... you can't tell this just by looking at the list, but we matched all 5derm applicants and all 7 ortho applicants; in fact, 6/7 of the ortho folks got their first choice. this list is similar to the high standards of last year's class :).
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For competitive specialties like derm and ortho, the conventional wisdom is that you have to do research during med school and should try to get your name on some publications. Is it easy to fit research into life as a med student at U.Va?
 
vicinihil said:
So...now in full fledged honesty...how often do you guys to go class :p or rather how necessary is it to go? I heard on my tour that 25% always go, 50% sometimes go, 25% never go.

2nd look day coming up!
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it's largely a function of when in the first 2 years you look. during 1st year there's 80-90% attendance. 2nd year sees the attendance go from 70% or so at the beginning to 20-50% (depending on the time in the morning). as time gets more and more precious during 2nd year, ppl are more inclined to just study during class time. the course note handouts are really good, so many find they dont' need to attend the lectures to figure them out... exams stick pretty closely with what's included in the handouts (which is more than enough to keep anyone on their toes, but at least its well-defined).
 
werd said:
it's largely a function of when in the first 2 years you look. during 1st year there's 80-90% attendance. 2nd year sees the attendance go from 70% or so at the beginning to 20-50% (depending on the time in the morning). as time gets more and more precious during 2nd year, ppl are more inclined to just study during class time. the course note handouts are really good, so many find they dont' need to attend the lectures to figure them out... exams stick pretty closely with what's included in the handouts (which is more than enough to keep anyone on their toes, but at least its well-defined).
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And the lectures are broadcast online, right? How many mandatory (small group, etc.) meetings are there?

Also, does anyone know the schedule for second look weekend?
 
Bartelby said:
And the lectures are broadcast online, right? How many mandatory (small group, etc.) meetings are there?

Also, does anyone know the schedule for second look weekend?
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the online lectures are sort of a new thing, and it varies from class to class; i think it's still a minority of courses doing it right now. mandatory stuff varies from semester to semester, but probably 4-7 of the 20-25 hours per week are mandatory on any given week. i dunno about the 2nd look schedule...
 
Bartelby said:
And the lectures are broadcast online, right? How many mandatory (small group, etc.) meetings are there?

Also, does anyone know the schedule for second look weekend?
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All the lectures are recorded unless they contain personal patient information (like when patients come in and speak to us about having a specific disease). The lectures are then usually uploaded to the course website by the next day. Sometimes the file gets corrupted or there were recording problems (aka the lecturer didn't use the mic), but I'd say the majority of lectures make it on the website.

The only mandatory things are labs and POM. Labs vary by semester (during anatomy you'll have lab 3 times a week, right now we have physiology lab maybe for an hour once every other week). POM is about 3 hours every week. Occasionally there are required lectures or clinical problem sets thrown in there, but it's really not that much.

No idea the schedule for second look weekend, sorry.
 
StealthNerd said:
I don't know if it's the alcohol or their talent, but that seemed pretty good. :) Well done.
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I think they're pretty awesome (I might be a little biased though, I'm dating the guitarist ;) )

They're having a big show/party next weekend, if any future VMeders are in the area and want to check it out just PM me for details.
 
killdevil said:
For competitive specialties like derm and ortho, the conventional wisdom is that you have to do research during med school and should try to get your name on some publications. Is it easy to fit research into life as a med student at U.Va?
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Yes. The half-day schedule helps with this, and we get a lot of breaks (one week TG, 2 weeks xmas, 2 spring breaks, each a week). It is very easy to become involved in a lab or a clinical projects, and most attendings and residents would be very amenable to having you help. You can PM if you like.
 
ilovehedgehogs said:
Yes. The half-day schedule helps with this, and we get a lot of breaks (one week TG, 2 weeks xmas, 2 spring breaks, each a week). It is very easy to become involved in a lab or a clinical projects, and most attendings and residents would be very amenable to having you help. You can PM if you like.
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How many of your classmates are opting for the 5th year to do research? When does that year typically fall? After M2?
 
So, there seem to be a dearth of 3rd and 4th years lurking around here, and a multitude of questions about clinical clerkships. As you may have heard, UVa is on a slightly advanced schedule compared to most schools, which means you begin and end your third year in late March/early April. Which means that I have just completed my 3rd year, and currently one week into my fourth year electives.

As far as your clinicals go, you will spend approximately half of your time away from UVa. My schedule, for example, looked like this:
Psych-Salem VA
Neuro-UVa
Ambulatory IM-Bluefield, WV
Inpatient IM-Salem VA
Peds block 1-UVa
Peds block 2-UVa
OB/Gyn-Roanoke
Family-Leesburg, VA
Surgery block 1-UVa
Surgery block 2-UVa

In general, you can spend your inpatient months at one of three places: UVa, the Salem V.A., and Roanoke/Carilion (or Western State for psych). Family Medicine and one month of internal medicine are completely outpatient, and spent in a physician's office working one-on-one with an individual or small group of physicians. Those can be located pretty much anywhere in the state of Virginia.

As a rule, it's hard to generalize whether it's "better" or "worse" to do your rotations away from UVa. For example, I had an outstanding experience in Roanoke for OB/Gyn, and personally delivered 7 babies. However, I had a friend who went there for one month of surgery, and was extremely unhappy with her level of exposure. The Salem VA has a reputation for letting surgery students be much more involved...they essentially act like interns from what I understand. Also, it's important to note that as far as surgery is concerned, everyone spends at least one of the two months at UVa.

I WILL say that the teaching from residents, as a whole, was brst at UVa. While I got good experiences at the other hospitals (I did a ton of procedures in Salem during internal medicine that NO ONE at UVa did), I do feel like the lectures, bedside teaching, etc...is the best when you stay at UVa. Bear in mind, however, that no-one gets to spend the whole time here. There is such a thing as compassionate consideration given to people with spouses and kids. In that case, they try to keep you in CVille more often than not, but that's about the only reason to stay at UVa more than half the time.

That is by far not an exhaustive discussion of 3rd year and its intricacies, but if any one else has any other ?s, let me know.
 
So when you do away rotations UVa gives you a free apartment in that location, right? You just keep paying for your place back home but you don't have to find something on your own?
 
smd09er said:
So, there seem to be a dearth of 3rd and 4th years lurking around here, and a multitude of questions about clinical clerkships. As you may have heard, UVa is on a slightly advanced schedule compared to most schools, which means you begin and end your third year in late March/early April. Which means that I have just completed my 3rd year, and currently one week into my fourth year electives.

As far as your clinicals go, you will spend approximately half of your time away from UVa. My schedule, for example, looked like this:
Psych-Salem VA
Neuro-UVa
Ambulatory IM-Bluefield, WV
Inpatient IM-Salem VA
Peds block 1-UVa
Peds block 2-UVa
OB/Gyn-Roanoke
Family-Leesburg, VA
Surgery block 1-UVa
Surgery block 2-UVa

In general, you can spend your inpatient months at one of three places: UVa, the Salem V.A., and Roanoke/Carilion (or Western State for psych). Family Medicine and one month of internal medicine are completely outpatient, and spent in a physician's office working one-on-one with an individual or small group of physicians. Those can be located pretty much anywhere in the state of Virginia.

As a rule, it's hard to generalize whether it's "better" or "worse" to do your rotations away from UVa. For example, I had an outstanding experience in Roanoke for OB/Gyn, and personally delivered 7 babies. However, I had a friend who went there for one month of surgery, and was extremely unhappy with her level of exposure. The Salem VA has a reputation for letting surgery students be much more involved...they essentially act like interns from what I understand. Also, it's important to note that as far as surgery is concerned, everyone spends at least one of the two months at UVa.

I WILL say that the teaching from residents, as a whole, was brst at UVa. While I got good experiences at the other hospitals (I did a ton of procedures in Salem during internal medicine that NO ONE at UVa did), I do feel like the lectures, bedside teaching, etc...is the best when you stay at UVa. Bear in mind, however, that no-one gets to spend the whole time here. There is such a thing as compassionate consideration given to people with spouses and kids. In that case, they try to keep you in CVille more often than not, but that's about the only reason to stay at UVa more than half the time.

That is by far not an exhaustive discussion of 3rd year and its intricacies, but if any one else has any other ?s, let me know.
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Could you comment on what the daily schedule is like when you're on the wards? Obviously you spend a lot of time at the hospital, but how does a typical day look during 3rd year rotations? Do you have enough time to do other things?

I was heartened to see that there were lots of outdoorsy U.VA med students in evidence at Second Look, since that's important to me - does the clerkship schedule allow enough time to get out and run or bike regularly, for example? That's sort of how I stay sane when I've got a lot of other stuff going on.
 
Bartelby said:
So when you do away rotations UVa gives you a free apartment in that location, right? You just keep paying for your place back home but you don't have to find something on your own?
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indeed. the quality ranges from really nice (many family practice locations) to sort of crappy (dorms in salem).
 
killdevil said:
Could you comment on what the daily schedule is like when you're on the wards? Obviously you spend a lot of time at the hospital, but how does a typical day look during 3rd year rotations? Do you have enough time to do other things?

I was heartened to see that there were lots of outdoorsy U.VA med students in evidence at Second Look, since that's important to me - does the clerkship schedule allow enough time to get out and run or bike regularly, for example? That's sort of how I stay sane when I've got a lot of other stuff going on.
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now that's tough, it's pretty variable by rotation and location... in general,
surgery: 4-5am to 4pm(roanoke) -5-10pm(uva/salem) (later or overnight on call). some of those 4:30am to 9pm days really took it out of me.
medicine: 6am to 5-6pm (10pm on call)
ambulatory medicine: 8am to 3-6pm
peds: 6am to 4-6pm (also variable call)
peds outpt/nursery: 8am-4pm/7am-12pm
ob/gyn: 6am-5pm
family: 8am to 5-6pm
psych: 8am to 3-5pm
neuro: 6am to 4-6pm

this is just my experience. inpt stuff works 6 days a week, outpt stuff gets weekends off. surgery is really tough (80+ hrs/wk), followed by medicine and OB/gyn (65-75 hrs/wk), but i only worked 30 hours/wk on my particular ambulatory medicine rotation. the year is tough, but i think probably better than many (most?) places in terms of how exhausted they make you.
 
Don't kill me for this cause I am really not that guy, I swear... but did any of you use board review books while you were going through the material in class? Did you think that it was worthwhile? If so can you make any book recommendations?
 
ColKurtz said:
Don't kill me for this cause I am really not that guy, I swear... but did any of you use board review books while you were going through the material in class? Did you think that it was worthwhile? If so can you make any book recommendations?
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BRS Physiology is saving my butt right now!

I hear BRS Pathology and Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple are really helpful for second year.
 
This thread seriously needs bumped!
 
Any idea when finaid offers come out?
 
I hope soon. If it comes out at the end of the month then it will just be another thing to be depressed about during exam time. :(
 
The undergrad sent finaid out early last week. I know the two schools aren't really connected, but they were both waiting on the expected budget for the year to dole out money. Obviously it's been submitted for the undergrad, so I'd speculate it's coming soon for us.

Whatever, regardless of what they give me I'm still going to UVA. :)
 
vicinihil said:
we pay more, I demand better treatment. Smacks table.

I hope I get the full 8000 subsidized and the 16000 UVA money.
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That would be a nice extra incentive to go to UVA over VCU, wouldn't it?

I'm going to go out on a limb and wager that very little money is coming my way. Maybe I can haggle with them and settle for a parking permit.
 
My prediction for may 1st

 
My prediction for the next 4 years of my life:

poor.gif
 
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