· Location. Which schools are located in
areas that meet your personal needs? Do
you prefer a large metropolitan area or a
smaller town environment?
· Out-of-state schools. If you are
planning to apply to an out-of-state school, does
the institution accept a significant number of
nonresident students? Consider the
possibility of attending a suitable school
located further from home, even though
it may not be the choice of your fellow
students. This may enhance your chances.
· Curriculum. Determine whether the
school's curriculum is amenable to your style
of intellectual endeavor. Carefully evaluate it
to determine if you find it most
appealing, challenging, and stimulating. Review
the school's performance in
Chapter 7.
· Mission. A key piece of information
that you should seek, is to uncover the school's
mission. Does it focus on producing primary
care physicians, clinicians, or research-
oriented doctors? The school's literature and
Web site may clue you in as to the type
of physician the school aims to produce. School
profiles are also useful.
· Class size. Regarding class size, the
faculty-to-student ratio for the preclinical
years is important, as well as whether there
are adequate clerkships available for
training during the clinical years. To get
answers regarding these two issues, con-
tact current medical students or alumni. Ask
your advisor for suitable individuals
that must be contacted.
· Teaching. Be sure to become familiar
with the teaching methods used at the
schools you are considering. There currently
are a variety of approaches being
used, aside from the traditional
lecture-laboratory sequence. These include prob-
lem-based learning, integrated teaching, and
computer-assisted teaching/learning.
The school's Web site, as well as its profile,
should be able to clarify this issue.
· Evaluation. It is also important for
you to learn what student performance evalua-
tion methods are used. There are generally five
different types used in medical
schools: multiple-choice exams, oral exams,
structured patient exams, computer-
based simulation exams, and personal
observation. Different types are used, depend-
ing on the course. Check the school literature
regarding this issue. In addition, the
national standardized tests, required by almost
all medical schools, are the
USMLE and the objective structured clinical
examination (OSCE). You may wish
to learn to what extent they are required for
promotion and graduation.
· Grading. Another consideration of
interest is the nature of the grading system
employed by prospective medical schools. There
are two basic systems currently
in use: a numeric/letter or pass/fail. Some
institutions use a combination of both
grading systems, with the least significant
courses usually employing the pass/fail
standard. The pass/fail approach is currently
favored by most medical schools
since it serves to diminish the level of stress
at examination time. It also encour-
ages the student to focus on learning rather
than on just achieving good grades. To
facilitate the residency evaluation process,
most schools currently are using a
three-tier grading system: honors/pass/fail,
which probably approximates the let-
ter grades A, B-, F. This approach facilitates
better differentiation between stu-
dents when recommendations for residency
appointments need to be prepared.
· Faculty. To judge the overall quality
of the school's faculty is quite difficult. For
prospective women medical students, it may be
of interest to note that on average,
25% of preclinical and 30% of clinical faculty
currently are women. The percent-
ages at a school you are interested in may have
some implications as to your com-
fort level at the institution. This
information, obviously, should be taken in the
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