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<p>IMO- Good. I personally don’t like schools that use the traditional curriculum of totally separate classes. </p>
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<p>Sounds weird to me. I think Duke does something similar, so you may want to look into how they do their curriculum. [Office</a> of Curriculum - Duke University School of Medicine ::](<a href=“http://medschool.duke.edu/modules/som_curriculum/index.php?id=2]Office”>http://medschool.duke.edu/modules/som_curriculum/index.php?id=2)</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll take a look at Duke.</p>
<p>Do you know if the clinical experience is very helpful for the Step 1?</p>
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<p>I haven’t taken it yet, but Step 1 is basis sciences…so its stuff you learn in the books. Clinical experience may reinforce some of the pathology, but I don’t think its significant enough for them to postpone step 1 till 3rd year. Step 2 is where clinical experience is valued. Hence, you usually take Step 2 at the beginning of 4th year.</p>
<p>So I don’t really understand why they would consider such a drastic change. You would think there must be some benefit for them to do this, especially Step 1 has been taken by most students at the end of the second year before the clinical.</p>
<p>^ It’s to make the program more desirable to prospective students. My son is just finishing his second year of med school and right now he and all his friends are mentally burned out which is why I think the last two academic sections in their curriculum are far less stressful than what has come before them.</p>
<p>Baylor went to this format a few years back (not sure about taking the Step 1 earlier though) and I know it was a factor for some of his friends when deciding on which med school to attend.</p>
<p>There are a few schools that have attenuated pre-clinical curricula (Penn SOM, UC Davis comes to mind).</p>
<p>The USMLE Step 1 is almost entirely based on clinical vignettes, stuff you would see in third year on a daily basis. Third year relies heavily on what you learned in your first two years and applying that to patients…exactly what the Step 1 questions are like. </p>
<p>After all, the questions are never in the format of “What are symptoms of appendicitis?” The questions on the USMLE will sound something like this:</p>
<p>“24 year old patient presents with a 1 day history of lower right quadrant pain and fever. Rebound tenderness and guarding on physical examination. Which of the following would the patient be likely to have?” You’d basically have to identify this as possible appendicitis and know that the person might have a positive obturator or psoas sign.</p>
<p>Hence, the questions are presented as patients, like the ones you encounter on your third year rotations</p>
<p>1 year pre-clinical = Duke
1.5 year pre-clinical = Emory, UVa, Baylor, Penn. I think Penn, Hopkins, Columbia, and UCSF also do this.</p>
<p>NYU is switching to it next year (like UVa). Is that the school she’s considering?</p>
<p>I think it’s a big advantage. Emory and UVa have you take Step 1 before your rotations, but the other schools all have you take it after being in the hospital for a year. I honestly think it’s a wash for any benefit / disadvantages for taking Step 1, in terms of taking it before or after. A shortened pre-clinical curriculum opens up a lot of time for extra electives or research in the later years, though, which I think is huge (I am pretty undecided about what I want to do).</p>
<p>Steeler: Yes, its NYU. </p>
<p>NYU Proposed 4Year Student Schedule
MS1: Foundation (Aug-Dec),Organ System (Jan-June), Summer (June-Aug)
MS2: Organ System (Sept-Dec), Clerkships (Jan-July)
MS3: Clerkships (Aug-Dec), Step I (Jan-Feb), Electives (Mar-July)
MS4 Scholarly Project, Additional Elective Time, Sub-Internship, Capstone Course, Residency Interviews, Step II (Aug-July)</p>
<p>Is this reasonable? I feel as if NYU is the only school that has this kind of schedule, suggesting the students to take the Step 1 in MIDDLE of M3.</p>
<p>I checked on Columbia and Hopkins, and their students are to take the Step 1 between M2 and M3.<br>
Columbia Class of 2012 takes Step 1 June 20, 2010 (after 6 months of clinical, but before MS3) with Sept. 30, 2010 for retake.<br>
Hopkins USMLE Step 1 must be taken by September of Year 3
Havent checked on the others yet.</p>
<p>Well, it’s not really in the middle of M3. In the traditional curriculum format, that point in time would be considered M3. The way NYU has their curriculum set up, it’s after M3. With condensed curricula, consider the clerkship stretch as M3. So M1 = 1 yr, M2 = 0.5 yr, M3 = 1 year, M4 = 1.5 year.</p>
<p>Duke and Penn both do Step 1 that way. I was under the impression that Columbia did it that way as well. According to this link, they do: <a href=“http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/ps/p_students/img/overviewChart.jpg[/url]”>http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/ps/p_students/img/overviewChart.jpg</a></p>
<p>Thanks, Everyone! I’ll try to talk to D after her exams, and then it’s her final decision time…May 15 is coming up fast. </p>
<p>Best of luck to all on the decision making!</p>
<p>Any FA news, cur?</p>
<p>Columbia changed to the condensed pre-clinical for the class of 2013. The chart that Steeler linked to covers the time table.</p>
<p>Not a peep on FA. Very frustrating. D is not very positive about Baylor from what she’s heard from the one fellow who has received his package (all loans) and has received no data at all from anyone who has received a package from Yale. All loans is “no go” when she’s sitting on a scholarship at “already reasonably priced” UT-SW.</p>
<p>Dear Med Schools, </p>
<p>I mean, really. It’s the 28th of April. Decisions are due in 17 days. Ya think you could get some FA packages out? It would be nice if a student could actually look at an award, crunch some numbers, consider some alternatives, correct some errors, offer some explanatory notes, maybe even appeal the award if an appeal is appropriate. </p>
<p>Schools that are more timely start appealing even more to students who are awaiting FA news. Bird in the hand, so to speak. Students want to start planning their summers and with all the different start dates and things that need to be accomplished, after they get that first doable package they start “shopping”. If you are working on improving your yield, and I don’t know that you are, one suggestion would be to get a quicker turn-around time after a student is complete.</p>
<p>I don’t know, maybe you could view as a Secondary App and get it out in 2 weeks. Just a suggestion. ;)</p>
<p>^^What the heck kinda ‘tude is that, curm? You are supposed to be groveling at their alter of greatness. It should be enough that we admitted your D to our little club. You should be soooooooo thankful, that the money should not be an issue, particularly since your other option is school that is Yikes!, not even in the northeast. Heck, your option might as well be offshore since its not even located in a real State, just some high-falutin’ wanna-be Republic. Either y’all wanna come to our NE club or y’all don’t. :D</p>
<p>Dear Curmudge-o-loser, </p>
<p>If you have to ask, it’s likely you can’t afford it. Just ask yourself…when you are at the Bentley/Aston Martin dealership, do the salespeople talk to you about purchasing a vehicle? Or do they assume you are lost? If yes to the former, your D should just commit to us. If yes to the latter, thanks for playing the home version of our game. Again.</p>
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<p>DON’T MESS WIT TEXAS! =) jk jk, hahha, lol.</p>
<p>Curm- for med school at THAT school do they use the same financial aid office as undergrad or does the financial aid come from an office within the med school? Meaning are the same people doing her package that did her undergrad?</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I just checked. Different physical addresses so I’d say they (UG and med school FA) were unconnected.</p>
<p>Nicely stated Blue Bayou ;)</p>
<p>DD has 3 different potential campus options in three different cities for her initial 2 yeasr of classes, still no word. People have been posting assignments on FB for nearly a month, apparently first admitted = last assigned. She is supposed to hear by midnight tonight, which is good since housing apps are due May 1st and it would be nice to know which city!</p>
![http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/ps/p_students/img/overviewChart.jpg[/url]](http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/ps/p_students/img/overviewChart.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
