Hey prospective students:
As applicants very well know, there are hundreds of possible schools you can apply to for medicine.
Overall, all schools look for certain numbers: MCATs and GPA... along with your extracurricular hours.
However, they also look for certain qualities in the prospective students as well.
Yes, all med schools are training you to be the same thing: physicians. But there are many qualities a physician must possess and certain schools value specific ones more than others. Some focus more on the academics while others focus more on the character or the passions an individual carries. Rumor is that some schools mix it up every other year
. This is something every school decides for itself, as medical schools look to graduate a great group of future physicians year after year. After all, each medical student is an investment by the school and state for the benefit of that community.
So I don't quite think it fair to say that VCU is a "clusterfvck" just because of the experience one individual has had.
Maybe the above student competed with many others with similar qualities for that one spot in the class. Maybe he is someone who is to succeed in a different community than the one we have here. Who knows...
Unless you're in admissions, no one really knows the complex process it takes to make up a class of 200+ students that can represent the diversity of our community as well as create a well-rounded learning environment for all.
Our admissions staff is great, but they recently had some transitions happen this past year so I hope what the above student experienced was a one-time error that the office can learn from. As an applicant, I can understand how frustrating such a circumstance could have been. However, if you want to be in medicine, one thing you MUST understand is that we are all human. We make mistakes and many of them can be fixed and learned from.
Now as for CERT:
CERT is for you to prove what you are capable of to prospective schools. Yes some of the material can be outdated…if you’ve studied sciences before though, you know that many things become outdated quickly in this field. However, the professors try their best to be relevant and to stay with the topics we can gain the most out of. Of course that is not to say that there isn’t mindless memorization involved in certain blocks as well. But I feel that it is a great way to prove your ability to handle a tough course load if you need a GPA boost and/or if you have been out of school for long enough. It is also great for establishing connections to professors in the SOM for LORs.
For many of my friends, as long as they put in the work, they have had very successful outcomes in terms of acceptances to schools.
VCU SOM is a great institution that is very selective about the qualities they want to see in future physicians. CERT helped me to prove one of those.
So yes, please apply at your own risk. Only if you believe you can challenge and prove yourself through this program.
Btw, I am currently an M1 at VCU SOM and former CERT 2014-2015 student who was accepted into the SOM after my first semester.