Both AIIMS Bhopal and Gandhi Medical College (GMC) Bhopal are two fine medical colleges. As far as patient load is concerned, GMC Bhopal is ahead of AIIMS but nevertheless I feel, as far as academics and clinical teaching are concerned, AIIMS Bhopal is superior I will explain why I feel so.
Excellent academic culture
Almost all departments put up their academic schedule in advance and consequently classes are taken according to that. Most of the teachers take excellent efforts to make sure that the student understands what is taught during the lecture. Also, there will be some very studious people at every batch who will ask all the doubts in the world pertaining to that chapter because of which the faculties have to come prepared. One of my physiology faculties told our batch that, he used to come without any preparation, with some downloaded slides, to teach when he was in a state medical college but ever since he joined AIIMS, he has been forced to prepare before the class.
Excellent faculties from all over India
The faculties who join AIIMS have a satisfactory standard as there is a thorough scrutiny of their academic qualifications before their interviews. There were instances in which all the applicants for a particular post were rejected because they failed to meet the qualification criteria. Its not just about the teaching skills, but also about the experiences of faculties which they share which would inspire the medical students. Several faculties have experiences like working in foreign countries, collaborating with big universities of U.S.A, doing excellent research works etc. A good number of excellent faculties, who were previously working at GMC Bhopal, joined AIIMS in the past 8 years.
Orientation to research work
Almost all students of AIIMS Bhopal know the basics of doing a research, courtesy to the effort of community medicine department and encouragement by the faculties to do STS-ICMR projects. Community medicine department starts teaching about epidemiology and bio-statistics right from third semester itself and that is continued till ninth semester. The final exam paper of community medicine has high weightage for epidemiology and bio-statistics. Moreover, many students apply for STS-ICMR projects every year and every year there will be at least 20 to 30 approvals for our institute.
Ambitious students
There will be numerous students in every batch who are very ambitious and actively participate in academic activities and quizzes. Many prepare for USMLE and get placed in reputed colleges of U.S.A. A major chunk crack top P.G entrance exams and secure seats in good medical colleges. In our batch of 49 (first batch of AIIMS Bhopal), 5 are now doing their residency at U.S.A and many are placed at top colleges across India.
Importance for conferences and workshops
The academic system is always supportive to attend conferences and CMEs and to present posters and research papers. All most all departments routinely conduct conferences and departments like Internal Medicine do make it a point to bring eminent faculties from other institutes to deliver lectures. Our pathology department every year send 4 students to Netherlands for summer school oncology workshop. National level Forensic and Pharmacology quizzes are held every year at AIIMS in which students from all over India participate.
Clinical teaching
Departments give good importance for bed side teaching. Departments like Internal Medicine have a very structured plan for clinical postings. The logbook of Internal Medicine is something which will be use throughout your medical career. In seventh semester, students have residency posting in which the students have to stay in a department for one month completely. There won’t be theory classes during that semester. This is done to improve the clinical knowledge of the students. As they spend more time at hospital, gradually their understanding about the subjects will improve.
But, GMC Bhopal is also not a bad option. I have seen good doctors coming out from that college. After all, lot depends on the individual efforts of the students.
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