Wayne State University School of Medicine 9/25/12
For
this interview, I was able to stay with a student host again. He
actually picked me up from the airport, which was awesome. The night
before the interview, we went out to dinner with some other medical
students (it sounded like they did this every Monday).
We had a good time, and everyone seemed down-to-earth and
easy-going. His apartment was within walking distance of the school, so
on the way home he actually took me on a "pre-tour" of they medical
campus and the relatively newer Mazurek building, where the admissions
office, library, and study areas are.
The morning of the interview, my host (he was an MS3) had to leave for rotations at about 7:30 am,
so I was pretty much on my own. The tour didn't start until noon, so I
walked over to the library and passed the time reading and preparing for
the interview. Finally, around 11:30 am,
I checked in with the security guard at the front desk (the library and
first floor are public areas, but everywhere else is secured and
requires an access card) and took the elevator up to the third floor. At
the admissions office, I was given the usual school packet, a fairly
thick pamphlet about the ongoing research at Wayne, and a 90+ page book
written by students at WSU SOM that had all kinds of info about the
school, curriculum, what books are needed/not needed, living in Detroit,
student interest groups, etc, which was actually pretty cool.
The
tour guides took our group of about eight or so through the Mazurek
building, the library, the study rooms, the lecture hall for first and
second years in the connected Scott Hall, some lab areas, and the
anatomy lab. Everything in Mazurek was pretty new and shiny. Scott Hall
was a bit older looking, but not run down by any means. The lecture hall was a
pretty good size, but apparently can't hold all of Wayne's many
students--they have an overflow area for any required occasions.
The curriculum at Wayne is pretty traditional, with lectures 9 am - 5 pm
most days for the first two years. Students take 2-3 classes at a time,
with a "doctoring" course beginning in the first week or so. Most
lectures are streamed online--actually most students don't even attend
school, except for required events. There is a "course packet" given out
for each class that contains pretty much all you need to know. Tests
are computer based. Grading is H/P/F, with honors meaning that your
score is greater than one standard deviation above the class mean. The
hospital is associated with about eight hospitals/medical institutes
within walking distance, including the Detroit Medical Center...and
most, if not all, are connected by tunnels. Wayne has a simulation lab, and
uses standardized patients for all years.
I had to leave the tour
early to make my interview, so I missed the hospital tour. The
interview was pretty conversational, lasting about 45 minutes and mostly
revolving around questions like why Wayne, why Detroit, my application,
what should I tell the admissions committee about you, etc (the adcoms,
by the way, meet regularly throughout the season, your interviewer
presents your file, they vote on you, and you are assigned a score that
then is used to compare you with other students). It seemed to go pretty
well, and I was told I'd be informed of a decision on October 24. Afterwards, I changed, walked to the nearby bus stop, and hopped on the bus for the two hour ride to the airport.
Overall,
I felt like Wayne would provide a solid clinical education, and I liked
the streaming option and the course packs. Detroit is Detroit, though
(although it really wasn't that bad....I suppose in some areas it did
seem like every fifth building was abandoned....), which can be great
for education,
but maybe not so much for living. It's doable, though. However, I
didn't like the 9-5 pm schedule or the potential for crazy multiple test
weeks (I think Temple spoiled me in that regard....), and it's very
expensive for out-of-state matriculants--63k a year. Maybe with a merit
scholarship....?
Helpful post.
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