extra semester of med school clinical rotations?

<p>So, I've been looking at the accelerated medical programs that I've applied to, and I was really impressed that the Baylor College of Medicine (I'm applying to the Rice-Baylor program) divides up its medical school curriculum into 1.5 years of basic sciences, and 2.5 years of clinical rotations, as opposed to 2 years of each.</p>

<p>I was curious as to whether other med schools do that, and I only saw one other (U-Penn Med school, and they don't have a guaranteed med program). These were the only 2 I saw. </p>

<p>Anyway, I was pretty excited, because I imagine that after 4 years of doing basic science stuff in college it's going to be nice to get away from classroom didactics and into the real world a bit sooner. Do you guys think there are any drawbacks to cutting the 4th semester of basic sciences that most medical schools have, or is this as cool as it sounds?</p>

<p>It's pretty freaking cool..I'm not gonna lie.</p>

<p>Penn and Baylor both do this. Duke does get you onto clinics for two years, but one of those years comes sooner. (1 yr. basic science, 1 year clinical, 1 year lab, last year clinical).</p>

<p>This is a big deal, and it's an extreme positive for Penn and Baylor. I'm of the opinion that Duke pushes too far.</p>

<p>Part of it is, of course, the psychological bits.</p>

<p>But -- and this is important -- Penn and Baylor are generally two of the highest scoring schools in the country (often said to be just behind WUSTL, up with Hopkins), and this is the major reason why. The boards are quite clinically focused, by reputation, and Baylor students often give their clinical experience credit for their high scores.</p>

<p>Of course, medical school is brutal, and condensing it is more brutal still. So that's not the best thing in the world.</p>

<p>As someone a mere 4 months and passage of USMLE's away from getting on wards...I'd love to be out there right now rather than spending hour upon hour with my head in Robbin's Pathologic Basis of Disease looking at pictures of pathology slides for my GI test on friday...I really care very little about environmental metaplastic atrophic gastritis at the moment, but that's what I'm sitting here trying to memorize. Especially when we keep getting little tidbits of the M3 year, like our schedules (me - surgery (8wks) starting in july, then Peds(8wks), then Family Practice(8wks). Second semester is Medicine (12wks), then 6 weeks each of Psych and OB/GYN) or where we're going to be doing our peds clerkships. Supposedly we get our rural family practice assignments tomorrow or monday. That only increases my desire to get out there.</p>

<p>That said, wards are about the scariest things I can imagine at the moment. I really don't think I've ever been this scared of anything before. I'm kind of banking on my boards prep to be a little boost on my science knowledge because I'm going to need it to be as best prepared as I can be. I'm guessing that baylor and penn are not pushing their students to take step 1 before getting on wards, so I can't imagine how it might be to not have that last little review...</p>