Meet Darcy...
 Class: 2010
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Undergrad: University of Rochester
Major: Microbiology
Program: M.D./Ph.D.
While I was applying to M.D./Ph.D. programs, I looked for programs that were Medical Scientist Training Programs, meaning that they were NIH funded. UConn was one of
those programs. As I began to delve a little deeper into the components of the UConn program, I was encouraged by what I saw. I liked the size of the school; the systems based education, and
emphasis of balance. Rather than being encouraged to compete for the best grades with fellow classmates, I can focus on doing the best I can without forgetting who I am. I still get to run,
hang out with friends, and keep up with school without worrying about my class rank or what anyone else got on a test. You can continue to cultivate your personality, which can sometimes get
pushed to the background when you are focusing on school too intently. Learning how to balance all of these things in your life is an invaluable skill for anyone, but especially for a
clinician, whose time can be quickly eaten up.
As well as a sense of balance, I feel that UConn Medical School is small enough that you feel a sense of community and you never feel like you are only a number. Faculty is
always willing to help you, whatever the problem. Sometimes you wish they didn’t know your name so that professor won’t call on you in class, but the good always out weighs the bad. You get
know all of your classmates without being forced to get acquainted through awkward social gatherings. I didn’t realize how much I missed that feeling of community until I started here. I went
to a very small high school with a graduating class of 30, and I felt so comfortable there that the transition back to a smaller sized school like UConn was effortless.
 |
 |
|
“Rather than being encouraged to compete for the best grades with fellow classmates, I can focus on doing the best I can without forgetting who I am.”
|
|
|
Just as size and balance drew me towards this school, the systems based education really appealed to me. It allows you to conceptualize what you are learning, because you get
to see from every angle and permutation. You no longer have to compartmentalize your learning into distinct categories of biochemistry, histology, pathology; you get to bring all of those
aspects together at once while learning about the heart, for example. Things begin to make sense and you can make connections between fields of study without having to search through your
memory bank for that random fact about cardiac smooth muscle you learned while studying muscle histology three months before. The faculty works very hard on making this curriculum and continues to
improve it. They ask for, and receive, input from the students and take those suggestions into account when they change things for the next year.
UConn has helped me get through the first two years of medical school without a scratch on me and my experience has only reinforced all of the things I like about the school. I
am now in my first year of my Ph.D. and I am enjoying learning in a new way, but also looking forward to the last two years of medical school. |
