https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/ucla-medical-school-in-crisis.1494584/
I am a faculty member at UCLA and while this is my first post I think everyone will quickly understand why I want to remain anonymous. I also realize that when someone posts something like this as their first post everyone should be openly skeptical of the post and try to understand what motives the poster has. My motives are simple, I think the administration at UCLA medical school have made some major changes to the curriculum that are detrimental to the medical school and the students. If you are applying to UCLA just ask the students and you can decide for myself if there is any truth in what I am posting.
A few years ago the medical school made some major changes to the curriculum, essentially the two preclinical years were cut down to one year. For those of us who went through medical school these two years are difficult and there is a great deal to learn in this time. The thought was to cut out the waste and focus on the key topics, I can say without a doubt this has been a colossal failure. The residents and faculty I work with have noticed a dramatic decrease in the knowledge of the medical students since this change. Most medical schools still have two years of pre-clinical curriculum and then as a third year student you start your clinical rotations and then the 4th year is primarily based on specialty rotations and applying to your chosen field. While many people can argue if this is the ideal model for teaching medical students, I can tell you with certainty it is better than what UCLA has done. UCLA decided to cram the two years of pre-clinical courses into one year. Then the 2nd year students do their clinical rotations, the third year is an “discovery year” where students can do anything they want and then they return as 4th year students for the typical 4th year rotations.
