<p>Do medical schools have college visit sessions like undergrad schools?</p>
<p>Only interviews and second looks as far as I know.</p>
<p>Correct, basically they have the same sort of thing, but unlike college you have to be invited to it.</p>
<p>There goes my dream of doing both undergrad and med school tours in one school at the same time. I guess they don’t need to impress parents for their money in med school.</p>
<p>^ The parents of perspective college students are more “valued” than the parents of the perspective medical school students! Supply and demand!</p>
<p>Hmm…during the second look, the students (and their significant others if any - their parents? not so much) are valued to some degree.</p>
<p>I once learned from curm’s post that the applicants to med school need to have thick skin - you ain’t that special!</p>
<p>OK, interviews, Second Look,…and Medical School visit for bs/md programs, yes, some of them have them, including Gross Anatomy labs (first D’s excitement, she did not complain about smell at this visit, but could not stop talking about it)</p>
<p>I also can’t really see the added value of a med school tour. It’s pretty far down the road if you/your kid is in HS anyway. Plus, all med schools in the US are “good” programs. Sure you might be impressed by some of the hosp facilities, but for the most part, there’s just not that much to see with med schools! (In my opinion, haha). </p>
<p>Essentially, no dorms, no cafeterias (or maybe the hosp caf), very few classroom areas, unlikely to have sports/rec areas, probably no exciting focal point of campus, no football stadium, etc like you would see at a college tour. As far as I know, many med schools are just sections of hospitals. Kind of boring, come to think of it…</p>
<p>Kristin - I have two kids, one in college and one in high school. Both will be applying next year to different levels of college.</p>
<p>
Although DS’s med school still has the (communal) dorm, (pricy) cafeteria, and a “symbolic” 1800-era main building, it is still a big “downgrade” from the college to the med school as far as the facilities are concerned.</p>
<p>Seriously, when DS was on the interview trip, one thing he paid a lot of attention to was: He wanted to find out how bad their dorm or living arrangement is for their students. The “older” the med school is, the worse the living arrangement for their med school students tends to be.</p>
<p>No doubt about it, more likely than not, the college students fare much better than the med school students do.</p>
<p>I think it could possibly get worse from med school to residency. How come most hospitals in a large city, especially the “older” ones, are in the “bad” area? </p>
<p>The most important criteria for D. choosing Med. School were:
-program (they are different from school to school)
-student body (also somewhat different)
-location
Somewhat less important, having car there or not.
I realize that people have different criteria list, but I would forget about dorms, cafeteria, campus,…etc. these are pretty much irrelevant, mostly because of time constraints. Many times, D. indicated that she did not have time to go out to eat (that would include any type of cafeteria). Pasta (mostly prepared once / week) or whatever else, protein bars, frozen meatballs, no time for cleanning (which might be an issue with roomates). She had a studio apartment and it has been working for her. If she had time for a break, she would clean, if not, then nobody would be bothered by it. You want to minimize potential additional issues, streamline your life as much as possible.
Just keep in mind that you might be busy like 14 hours / day. Shower/sleeping/eating/travel will take the rest.</p>
<p>We (the parents) got to tour the med school the night before White Coat when the med school also hosted a Family Dinner. Of course that is too late for those choosing.</p>
<p>Some parents have (embarrassingly) showed up on Interview Day to tour with their prospective student. Don’t advise that. lol Altho I think med schools should consider offering something for parents on that day.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>:-w [-X </p>
<p>^^^
lol…not for me…but for those parents who insist on coming along. </p>
<p>no med school applicant should be traveling with their parents for interviews…</p>
<p>^^
lol…but many do. Actually I went with son on one trip, but I didn’t go to the campus except to “drive by”. I spent my time looking at apartments for son. This was a 6 hour drive trip and my son actually asked me to come (and drive…lol) so that he could study while in the car. </p>
<p>However, med schools are saying that parents are showing up…they’re not expecting to sit in on the interviews, but some are wanting to go on the tour (which is being quite pushy). So, I think schools could offer some kind of “parent tour” that’s away from the one that the students attend.</p>
<p>This is kind of like undergrad orientation…so many parents were showing up that schools started having something offered for the parents to attend while the students were doing their orientation.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s because many applicants’ parents are doctors who will be paying and so they think they should “see what’s going on” or not. </p>
<p>Well, our D. has asked us to take couple vacation days and go with her to one of her Second Look’s. Of course, we were not part of this event, we did not tour Med. School and had absolutely no desire to tour any of Medical Schools under D’s consideration. She asked us to look for apartments and we did. At the end it was a waste of time since she decided to attend another Medical School…where we had to go by ourselves to choose and rent her apartment since she was out of time, traveling abroad beteween her UG graduation and starting at Med. School. Well, she has been happy with her apartment, which would have been gone later. At least she was back in enough time to choose her furnature.<br>
Any way, I do not see any point of parents visiting Medical School, we are not the ones choosing.<br>
…Frankly, one of the reasons that D. did not choose that other school,…because she did not like Chicago and we did not like it eithe, and many, many would prefer to be there. But it was not the main reason though. I just mentioned that because everybody should consider their own criteria.</p>
<p>I love the idea of a parent tour after the White Coat ceremony. I hope whichever school D attends does that. But attending the interview day. Not cool. I have driven D to some interviews but only to drop her off. No way would I want to be the mommy who showed up at interview day.</p>
<p>Was it in this forum or that “other” forum that told the story of the dad who came along on interview day, and even walked with his D (armed draped over her shoulder) during the students group tour? Yikes!</p>
<p>Mine had driven herself, thru all snowstorms in the most snowy places in the nation, dead battery / AAA calls (make sure that they have this magic card) and host not showing until much later, after D. has been in a car in a dark in strange city and not the best part of it for couple hours, while host did not respond to her calls and we have strarted looking for Hotel options. She has survived these adventures in growing up, but it was enough to write few short stories or one novel. Maybe some day she will…naah, just kidding…</p>
<p>^ I don’t even have a drivers license. I did all my interview trips using public transportation and an occasional taxi. It’s doable and probably a lot cheaper. At one interview using a car would have been a disaster. I arrived just as a snowstorm started and by the time I was supposed to leave my flight was canceled and the highways were at a standstill. I took the “T” to the nearest Amtrak station and was home in time for an exam. This interview season has been a great adventure :ar! </p>