Med school's Web site adds student blogs

Officials at the University of Michigan hope the unfiltered view of school life will help attract applicants.

By Myrle Croasdale, amednews staff. April 17, 2006.

Plenty of medical students have independent blogs, but 12 students at the University of Michigan have blogs on the medical school Web site, an event the university says is a first among medical schools.

The students may post whatever they wish on the "Dose of Reality" site, as long as it doesn't violate privacy or other laws, UM Medical School administrators said.

A campus tale
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The blogs are part of an overall strategy to use the Internet as a recruitment tool. Officials hope that an unfiltered picture of life at the school will increase the number of applicants.

Ben Bryner, starting his third year in May, said he hopes his entries are informative and humorous.

"I remember trying to sift through all the medical school details," he said. "You know they'll all be great, but there are little things that make a difference."

A student shouting out "Come to Michigan" during his campus tour persuaded him UM had a friendly campus. He hopes his postings leave others feeling welcome.

Dan Remick, MD, assistant dean for admissions and director of the blog project, said prospective medical students want information that hasn't been run through administration filters or censored in any way. He said the blogs allow applicants to see exactly what students think about UM Medical School.

Administrators were hesitant at first, Dr. Remick said. He told them students were expected to behave professionally on campus, so they ought to behave the same online. Ultimately, a business executive's column on employee blogs provided the clincher that established UM's blog. In the column, the executive said his employees weren't asked to run e-mails past him, and the executive made the argument that bloggers shouldn't have to run content by either. The remaining UM Medical School blog naysayers were swayed, and the site went live in January. It's had 5,000 hits since then.

The school also hosts Internet chat rooms once a month for applicants and students who've been accepted but haven't decided yet whether they'll choose UM.

The forums, which started in 2005, run for an hour and a half with students and faculty fielding questions on topics such as financial aid.

The effort was expected to boost admissions acceptances 10%; instead they rose 20% for the class of 2005-06.

The blogs are expected to keep applicants' interest high. Students representing all four classes post on the site. The bloggers were recruited through a student-wide e-mail. Because only 12 students responded, all were given the chance, Dr. Remick said.

Next year, three incoming students will be added. Students will keep blogs throughout their tenure at the school. They're asked to post an entry twice a month, with the exception of filing only once a month during their busy third year of clinical rotations.

Nothing deemed inappropriate has appeared on the site, though a photo posted without the written approval of its subject was taken down, Dr. Remick said.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

A campus tale

Hoping to give prospective students a glimpse of life at the University of Michigan Medical School, administrators sanctioned medical students to blog about their experiences on the school's Web site, creating an area called "Dose of Reality." Second-year medical student Ben Bryner posted this excerpt on the site March 16:

"We got our grades back from the Comprehensive Clinical Assessment. I thought I did fine, but it turns out I failed two sections and have to do them over. Maybe I was right to compare the CCA to the Olympics; you need skill and preparation, but you also need luck. Also like the Olympics, there might have been some vote-trading between the Russian and French judges. Well, probably not.

"Ironically, the partly subjective nature of the exam made it the most realistic clinical experience we've had yet. You can get unlucky in the clinic, and that can be enough to wipe out all your preparation. I'm far from perfect at physical exams, just like I'm not a perfect driver. Could I use some extra instruction on physical exams, or on defensive driving? Sure. But just like it's still frustrating to get pulled [over] for a minor traffic offense and have to go to traffic school, it's less than ideal to have to take time out of my board study period to make the test up.

"So as much as I'd like the CCA to be better than real life -- more exacting, more fair, more reflective of the time I put into studying for it -- it just isn't. Taking the CCA is pretty much like real life. ...

"Just to be clear, I am frustrated about this one experience, but I'm pleased with school in general, and as classes end tomorrow I'm starting to get excited for third year."