People will say that the faculty listen to the students. This is mostly true, but they take a least a year to make even the slightest change. Ex: We cannot get lecture slides posted before the lecture because “that is not the culture” and “it would put undue pressure on the lecturers”. It should not be that hard to change something like the posting of lecture slides. Do students have a voice? Yes. Does anyone listen? Yes. Do they actually care? Not enough to do something about it in a timely fashion.

There is only ONE faculty individual in charge of medical student research.

First semester of first year is pass/fail…EXCEPT for that giant physiology exam at the end of the semester which definitely counts toward your physio grade. I felt lied to when I learned this.

First year: mostly a waste of time except for anatomy and maybe 30-40% of physio. Biochem was a complete waste. 90% of the information you need to know for the exam is useless. The other 10% you might already know. Very little thinking required for exams.

Second year: Butt load of memorization – maybe useful for STEP. Probably useless in 10-15 yrs. Slightly more thinking required for exams. The pictures in pathology are of poor quality and there is no easy way to compare normal vs pathological findings other than a Google image search.

A quote form more than one student: “I didn’t really understand what they taught first and second year until I started studying for Step 1″. To me that is a nice way of saying that the curriculum is ineffective in teaching the basic principles of medicine.

I wish that I would have paid more attention to “curriculum style” rather than just cost and reputation. I have a feeling that “case based curriculum” might be more effective.

These are all personal opinions. Obviously I take issue with

I’ll admit I’m a bit biased since I go to UTSW. I didn’t even apply to Baylor (I was too connected to both of the students who recently committed suicide and didn’t want to put myself in the same situation they were in).

I do agree to pick what fits your personality. I don’t know too much about Baylor since I didn’t apply there but UTSW is great- great faculty, great fellow students- lots of teamwork, group studying, and e-mailing of study sheets before tests. The colleges system is fantastic- you get a lot of small-group time with a faculty mentor so you learn the whole history and physical exam plus getting to practice taking histories and doing physicals on Parkland and St. Paul patients (including psych). And you form a relationship with a faculty member who’s there to help you with anything- it’s a great resource and a great starting point for any problems or questions you might have. And the first semester being pass/fail is pretty awesome, too…

All I need to know!