What does your typical day of medical school look like?
My typical day as a first year student at CCOM truly varies. We don't really have a super structured and set schedule, but for the most part:
- Mondays: lectures, sometimes anatomy lab
- Tuesdays: lectures, sometimes biochemistry workshops, physiology workshops, or anatomy lab
- Wednesdays: lectures, OMM lab, sometimes anatomy lab, usually weekly OMM quizzes
- Thursdays: lectures, physical exam skills lab with pre-lab quiz, sometimes biochemistry workshop or anatomy lab
- Fridays: during the first quarter, most of our Fridays were completely free, but now we often have exams or other mandatory events like a quarterly Grand Rounds or OSCEs
Quizzes and exams are pretty frequent and are sprinkled in throughout the week - some may be as early as 7am but we've also had exams at close to 5pm too.
For me, I feel like I get the most out of going to lectures in-person. Attendance is not mandatory for lectures, and they get recorded/posted to our Canvas site later in the day so you can watch them on your own time as well. Lectures start as early as 8:10am and may go as late as about 5ish. We do have a dedicated lunch hour (12-1) which is nice because it helps break up the day. There are also lunch talks on campus often (many of them also have free food!) where different student organizations bring in guest speakers.
Our evenings are pretty free for the most part - there may be some student organization events that occur or things like Student Senate/Government meetings, and we also have intramural sports with games in the evenings. But I'll usually take a little bit after a day of classes to relax and watch an episode of a show or even take a power nap.
As for weekends, at least so far during first year, I've felt like I have enough time for a social life and time to catch up on things like laundry, working out, and cooking.
Are there unique aspects to the curriculum at your medical school or niches that your medical school has emphasized with respect to medical education? (Any insight you can give about how your medical school may provide a unique clinical/learning experience compared to other medical schools)
CCOM utilizes a "symptoms-based" approach to pre-clinical curriculum as opposed to the more classic "systems-based" style. Basically, for each week, there is a different symptom that gets covered in our "Patient Symptoms Presentation" class. On Mondays, the symptom is introduced along with a case, and we go into some common differential diagnoses associated with that symptom and some of the anatomy/physiology involved. On Thursdays, there's usually a little more detail thrown in and we wrap up the case that was presented.
When I was interviewing for CCOM, they really emphasized how this "symptoms-based" approach helps integrate content across several of our classes during the week. So far, I've found this to be somewhat true - for example, there was one week where our symptom of the week was "Joint Pain" and our PSP lectures, anatomy lectures, OMM lectures/lab, and physical exam skills lab all pertained to joint pain and the lower extremities. This was really nice! We got exposure to the anatomy, osteopathic treatment modalities, orthopedic testing, and common joint complaints.
However, not all of our content lines up as nicely. For example, sometimes our symptom of the week was something we hadn't covered in anatomy yet, so learning about the common complaints or how to treat it was a little confusing. I think they plan on taking a look at our curriculum to see if things can be realigned/restructured for the future though!
MWU-CCOM (along with MWU-AZCOM - our sister school in Arizona) has a OneHealth initiative that involves interprofessionalism and focuses on how human health is linked to the health of animals and our environments. Not everything we cover pertains to OneHealth (I wouldn't even say a majority of our content has been tied back to OneHealth) but I think they are working to expand OneHealth in our curriculum.
What clubs and organizations (both academic or non-academic) are you a part of? Additionally, are there any organizations or club events (even if you aren't a part of them) that you think are unique to your school?
I'm a part of student government at CCOM. I was elected as my class's president, so I work with both the Student Senate (which encompasses all the colleges/classes at Midwestern University) and the Student Government Association (which is specific to CCOM).
As for student organizations, I'm a part of our Emergency Medicine club, Radiology Club, American Medical Association chapter (AMA), American Medical Women's Association chapter (AMWA), American Osteopathic Association chapter (AOA), Student Osteopathic Medical Association chapter (SOMA), Student American Academy of Osteopathy chapter (SAAO), and the Mini Medical School program.
I know that all may look like a lot, but it's so easy to get involved in a handful of different clubs since it isn't like undergrad where you had weekly/bi-weekly meetings and stuff. We also use a website called Pulse where organizations/clubs can enter their event details and you can browse/RSVP, so it makes finding things to get involved with pretty easy and streamlined.
I think we have some really cool student orgs on campus. We have a Wilderness Medicine club that often goes hiking/camping; an Integrative Medicine Club that focuses on functional medicine, nutrition, acupuncture, meditation, exercise, and manipulation; a Food As Medicine club that links food and medicine; our Mini Medical School program is a really awesome way to get local high school students interested and excited about science and medicine - it was a 5 week program that met in-person and on campus on Saturdays, and we had med students and physicians giving introductory explorations into medicine, provided mentorship to the high school students, and held a poster conference for them to present in!
Can you give us a brief description of the area surrounding your school? What are some of the more common things you or your classmates have done in the surrounding area during your free time/for fun?
While we are the "Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine", our campus isn't technically in Chicago. We are located in Downers Grove, which is a western suburb of Chicago. However, the city is an easy drive or train ride away! Downers Grove and the surrounding area have a pretty standard suburban feel - a decent amount of restaurants and bars, a roller rink, mini-golf course, and bowling alley not too far away, a handful of shopping malls, a pretty good selection of grocery stores, and plenty of apartments/housing near campus. We also have Naperville close by which is another suburb and has even more restaurants and bars. Being so close to Chicago, there are so many music/sporting venues so there's a good chance your favorite artist or team will be in town!
In the fall, Downers Grove has a farmers market on Saturday mornings, so I would go to that with some of my classmates to get some fresh produce and check out what the local vendors were selling (there is also an amazing donut stand where they make fresh, hot donuts - highly recommend them).
Our campus is also right up against the Lyman Woods Forest Preserve, and there is an access gate to a trail from campus. It's really nice to walk through there and de-stress after an exam or long day.
We aren't too far from the O'Hare and Midway airports or the Metra/Amtrak stations, so if you aren't from the area you have a few options for traveling home!
Some people end up going to medical school very close to where they grew up whereas others move to a completely new place. Depending on your personal experience, can you describe how the location of your medical school relative to your family/support system/home base has affected your experience?
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and then lived in the city for a few years after graduating. I knew when applying to medical schools that I would really prefer to attend a school near my family and support system, so CCOM was high on my list.
I live on-campus at CCOM in the student dorms (Redwood Hall) which is really nice because I don't have to wake up and commute for early morning lectures or quizzes/exams. However, I live only about 45 minutes away from both my parents and boyfriend of 5+ years, so I can go home and visit when I have time. This has really helped my mental wellbeing and I'm so thankful I can be so close to my support system.
Many of my friends aren't from the Chicagoland area/Illinois, and I know homesickness is such a common thing. We really do try to support one another the best we can - for example, during our Thanksgiving break, some people weren't able to go home, so they were invited to do Thanksgiving dinner at a friend/classmate's house! I think that speaks to how connected our class is and how even though your family support system may be states away, it's possible to form a support system here at school as well.
How would you describe the social scene outside of medical school? (The answer to this question could comment on how tight-knit you feel your class is, how frequently you find yourself doing things with your classmates during your free time, what class activities the school has organized to facilitate class bonding, or the relationship between the different years at your medical school)
We are a pretty big class, there's about 200 of us. There really aren't too many times when all 200+ of us are in the same place at once, but when we are (such as orientation, mandatory class lectures, etc), it's great. I think we're a pretty social class, probably more-so than previous classes since the COVID restrictions have loosened a bit. I really have never once felt like there's been cut-throat competition among our class. In fact, we're pretty collaborative. We have several class group chats (GroupMe, Discord) where we share notes/resources/mnemonics we've found helpful for different courses.
Because we have so many student clubs and organizations, I feel like it makes finding "your people" pretty easy. We also have group assignments for OMM lab, anatomy lab, physical exam skills lab, biochemistry workshop, and physiology cases, so you definitely get to know a good chunk of your classmates!
How has your medical school facilitated physical and mental well-being? To expand on this question….Do you think your program has prioritized the well-being of its students? Do you have access to a gym or other ways of exercising? Do you have access to mental health resources?
Midwestern has a free counseling center with counselors available for free to students. This is a great resource, and I've had only positive experiences with our counseling center. However, with so many students across all the different colleges at Midwestern, it can be tough to get an appointment. Midwestern also offers a free 24/7 virtual support line for counseling services and minor medical issues as well, which is nice but lacks the in-person component that some people really enjoy about counseling.
CCOM has a Wellness Committee made up of students, and they've been doing an awesome job at promoting wellness and wellbeing! They offer roundtable discussions to talk about different aspects of mental health and self-care and host events to get our class more active in taking care of our wellbeing.
Recently, QPR training (like CPR, but for preventing suicide) has been introduced to CCOM and though it is not currently a part of our curriculum/required for students, I believe there are discussions on how to incorporate it since those of us who did the training found it to be incredibly worthwhile.
The fitness/recreation center at Midwestern is actually not too bad of a gym and is free for students! They have a gym area for basketball/volleyball/indoor soccer/pickleball/badminton, an area with a good amount of weight machines (no free weights unfortunately) and cardio equipment (treadmills, bikes, rowing machines, stair machine), an aerobics room with yoga mats, foam rollers, and other smaller equipment, and other amenities. There are locker rooms with showers available as well. They also offer fitness classes on a sort of rotating basis, plus intramural sports, so there's always something to get involved with!
How has your medical school helped you connect with mentors and how have these mentors helped you? This can be research mentors, career mentors, or other mentors..
During our orientation week, the second-year students organized an opportunity for the first years to be matched with a "big". This "big-little" program connected me to a second-year student who I was able to chat with about study strategies and how to best approach each class. I also immediately went to my big after not doing so well on an exam and she was quick to tell me that it's OK to fail an exam, and that I just needed to do a little better on the next one.
As for research mentors, CCOM does have some biomedical research on campus but you have to look to off-campus opportunities for clinical research. Research isn't heavily pushed, but there is a research elective offered during the spring of first-year and a summer research fellowship available as well. A list of PIs currently taking on students to work in their labs was posted to our class Canvas page, and all the PIs/professors are more than happy to sit down with you and talk about their work!
In terms of career and other mentors, I really appreciate the alumni network at CCOM. For our more clinically-based courses (patient symptom presentation, physical exam skills, OMM), we have lecturers and faculty who are CCOM alumni, and many of them work in local hospitals or clinics. It's been helpful getting to hear from them and learn about the experiences they had at CCOM that helped lead them to where they are.
During your first and second year of medical school, what exposure to clinical medicine have you had? Are there unique experiences during the pre-clinical years that expose medical students to patient interaction?
First year:
I feel like CCOM does a good job of exposing us to clinical opportunities.
Community health clinics: CCOM students can apply to volunteer in a few of the local community health clinics in the Chicagoland area. Students get to work closely with attendings and interact with patients based on the clinical skills that have been taught in classes.
Early Clinical Contact Program (ECCP): This mandatory program during 1st/2nd year is a great shadowing experience! For first-year students, we were required to sign up with a preceptor, and a list of preceptors/hospital sites was given to us (ranging from emergency medicine to pediatrics to ENT). It was not only a shadowing opportunity, but a chance to write a SOAP note and get some feedback from a physician. During my ECCP, the EM doc I was with allowed me to take a history on a patient and took the time to show me any x-rays/CTs and lab results that came in for the patients we had seen.
OMM Soft Tissue Clinic: On campus, there is a student-run OMM clinic where students and faculty/staff can make appointments. Students basically work together to take a history, perform a standing structural exam, and then perform treatment modalities.
What would you say has been the most difficult part of medical school? An alternative question…what do you think has been the biggest sacrifice you have made in going to medical school?
Most difficult: Adjusting to the pace of lectures and exams. So far I feel like med school hasn't necessarily been exponentially harder than undergrad, but the amount of content we cover in a shorter amount of time makes it a bit difficult, especially having taken a few gap years.
Biggest sacrifice: Probably from both a financial aspect and social aspect - during my gap years, I was working full time and had a great job with steady income and a feeling of financial security. With medical school, I had to take out loans (on top of loans I had to take out for undergrad) and CCOM definitely isn't the cheapest school out there. Socially, I've already had to pass on some weddings and other events just because we had an exam or busy week ahead. However, I will say that I haven't had to miss out on EVERYTHING - it's more a matter of what you're willing to make time for.
How are your pre-clinical courses graded? Are video lectures available? Either live or for review?
CCOM has letter grades (A through C), and in order to pass a course you need to get at least a 70%. There are a couple of courses that are pass/fail (such as our Foundations of Osteopathic Clinical Practice and Interprofessionalism courses) but otherwise everything is graded.
Lectures are not mandatory, though there are some courses that offer a bit of extra credit if you attend a certain number of lectures. Lectures unfortunately are not live-streamed in real time, but the lecture does get recorded and posted to our Canvas site usually within a few hours. The posted lecture videos have captions and can be watched at different playback speeds.