I am a 3rd year at UNSOM, thought I could offer a little insight into the workings of the school.
1)Location- Being from Vegas, and living in San Francisco the year prior to matriculating, I can say that I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about living in Reno. Turns out it was ok, and I actually enjoyed much more than living here in Vegas, mainly for its proximity to Tahoe. I spent the majority of 2nd semester of second year snowbaording up at Alpine Meadows, which was pretty sweet.
2)Curriculum- old school, subject based. Yeah there is like 5 classes, but think about it, when you are learning about the heart in an organ-based approach, you will also be learning the anatomy, histo, pharm, path, and embryo at the same time (similar to having 5 classes). Our pathology course is awesome. AND JUST REMEMBER, JUST BECAUSE CLASS IS FROM 8-3, DOESNT MEAN IT IS ALL REQUIRED ATTENDANCE. I went to class sporadically throughout 1st and 2nd years, it didnt really affect me, in fact, most of the time it was a waste of my time going to class. It all depends on your learning style.
3)Class size- could be a benefit or a detriment. As someone pointed out on this thread earlier, our class gets along extremely well. The class behind us and the one graduating had a little more hostility towards each other. Profs actually know you by name. Gossip abounds because most of the people will have a life that solely revolves around school.
4)Match lists- as a 3rd year I can finally say that where you go to school isn't nearly as important as what you do when you are there. Board scores, grades, research, and letters of rec are waaaay more important. Also you have the opportunity (similar to other places) to do away rotations at other institutions to show them how hard you work and how smart you are. If you really want to do medicine at UCLA, rotate there and get a letter of rec. This almost trumps having a solid grades, because the department gets to 'see you in action". Keep in mind our school is primary care oriented, so guess what? We match a lot of people into primary care. I think for the folks that match into Anesthesia, Rads, Ortho we do fairly well coming from a no-name place. See this year's match list.
5)The students- hard-working. If you want Rads at UCLA, you are going to work your ass off plain and simple. There are some super bright people at this place, contrary to what you might think. Alot of us (myself included) got into several schools, and chose UNSOM for personal reasons (tuition, location, family, signicant others, etc).
6)Clinical Experience- I have seen some crazy **** here at UMC in Vegas. You work hard and learn a lot. I didnt have to fight for cases when I was on surgery. A friend of mine at UCSF would be consistently bumped from scrubbing in on cool cases by residents, interns, etc.
7)Living experience- I lived in the NW part of Reno. First year I lived with a med student. 2nd year I lived with a non-med student. I am not currently living with med students. The stress level seems to go down when living with a non-medstudent. It can be kinda disturbing seeing your roommate up all night, then when you go to turn on the TV to watch Comedy Central, suddenly you feel like you should be studying. Plus, all you really talk about is school, which can get stale. The benefits are that your roommate wont have 20 people over the night before an exam and you can commiserate about how horrible that embryo test was.
Finally, school is what you make of it. Yeah, the people who graduate from Harvard probably will have an easier time matching at MGH or Brigham. If you work hard, score well on Step 1, do well in your clinicals, and impress people at your away rotation, you wont have any trouble matching at a top notch program.
If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
Good luck with your decisions.
