Anybody else get accepted to TouroCOM-NY for class of 2014 and thinking about going?

Hi everyone, I was wondering where we are supposed to address the letter of acceptance to? Is it the admin office or 230 west 125th?

Very excited to start at Touro! Hope more students start posting on this thread

I am a student at tourocom. Please think about your acceptance. The school has an attendence polciy checked by finger scanning trying to force student to go to 70% of classes. The professors are almost all new and untesteed on their training of students for the complex. The worst problem is the admin. They are punative. They are un willing to commit themselves to the true interests of their students. They threw out a pregnant student that could not make commit to the attendence policy. They keep records of the negative things you do, one student was asked to get a lawyer becuase he refussed to scan his finger as part of the attendence policy.

Choose wisely you can easily ask for a student's email address to verfiy this. Ask a 2nd year student class of 2012

I'm just a lowly first year at tourocom, but this is the first I've heard of half of the stuff mentioned above. And it's true, the professors are new and "untesteed" on their training for the complex. This might be an issue when the complex becomes a standardized test.

the first year professors are great for the most part; and the ones that are not will probably be replaced. Also as a DO student - you should know its COMLEX not complex.

All of the incoming students who choose to attend for the class of 2014 know of the 70% attendance policy. As far as the whole lawyer thing - i believe it was a bad joke. I havent scanned in since september and they have not said a word.

As for the pregnant student, I highly doubt they "threw her out". Especially since they are not enforcing the attendance policy this year. Maybe she decided to take a year off. There have been a couple of first years that needed time off and needed to reschedule their exams - Dean Cammarata (though he doesnt do much for the most part) - made all the necessary arrangements and let the students take the exams when they were ready to (one person even took an exam 3 weeks later).

though I can understand why some of the class of 2012 is upset because they just sprung the whole attendance policy thing on you guys. But as fro the class of 2013 it doesn't matter as much because we were not used to the other way. Also a lot of things have changed for first years since the class of 2012 was there. Great new professors (for the most part), also we don't have that whole BSOM thing anything more, etc.

Yeah people should know that TouroCOM is only 3 years old and does not have a set in stone routine so things will change (for the better) from time to time...however, you should have known that before you decided to attend.

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As for the pregnant student, I highly doubt they "threw her out". Especially since they are not enforcing the attendance policy this year. Maybe she decided to take a year off. There have been a couple of first years that needed time off and needed to reschedule their exams - Dean Cammarata (though he doesnt do much for the most part) - made all the necessary arrangements and let the students take the exams when they were ready to (one person even took an exam 3 weeks later).


I am friends with the student you mention and your assessment is completely wrong.

While you are entitled to your opinion of TouroCOM, you are posting about a situation that you have absolutely no direct knowledge of whatsoever. I am genuinely glad that you are happy with your choice to attend TouroCOM. However, you should not cloud the facts of other people's situations simply because you are pleased with the school and haven't experienced anything negative yet.

The FACT is that this student was not given any sort of maternity consideration whatsoever. She did NOT choose to take a year off.

Wow, reading so much negative feedback about the school does make me really nervous since I'm thinking on going there. Touro was not my only option, but the location is the most suitable for me and my family. All I want is to get a decent education and match into a good residency. Now I'm worried if i'm asking for too much:confused:

All of the incoming students who choose to attend for the class of 2014 know of the 70% attendance policy. As far as the whole lawyer thing - i believe it was a bad joke. I havent scanned in since september and they have not said a word.


Again, you are completely wrong. You were not involved in that situation and I can tell you with certainty that the student involved in that was genuinely concerned at the time. He was advised to get a lawyer directly by a Dean.

The fact that you have the luxury of being able to ignore the attendance policy is the direct result of efforts of the student government and individuals in the Class of 2012. A number of students in the Class of 2012 took the risk and refused to fingerprint from day one despite the continuous threats of expulsion. The American Civil Liberties Union also became involved due to privacy issues. These pressures put on Administration are what allow you to not fingerprint. It is not because Administration just decided they don't care any more.

Again, I am glad that there are students who like TouroCOM and there are certainly good things about our school. However, you are not helping any student make a properly educated decision by commenting on situations that you have no direct knowledge of. You don't know what happened so you can't downplay it as insignificant.

It was a very stressful situation for the student who was advised to get legal counsel and demoralizing to the class when it happened.

I would fully expect that the attendance policy will be strictly enforced for any students entering into the Class of 2014. To say otherwise would be misinformation to potential students who deserve accurate and honest information.

Again, you are completely wrong. You were not involved in that situation and I can tell you with certainty that the student involved in that was genuinely concerned at the time. He was advised to get a lawyer directly by a Dean.

The fact that you have the luxury of being able to ignore the attendance policy is the direct result of efforts of the student government and individuals in the Class of 2012. A number of students in the Class of 2012 took the risk and refused to fingerprint from day one despite the continuous threats of expulsion. The American Civil Liberties Union also became involved due to privacy issues. These pressures put on Administration are what allow you to not fingerprint. It is not because Administration just decided they don't care any more.

Again, I am glad that there are students who like TouroCOM and there are certainly good things about our school. However, you are not helping any student make a properly educated decision by commenting on situations that you have no direct knowledge of. You don't know what happened so you can't downplay it as insignificant.

It was a very stressful situation for the student who was advised to get legal counsel and demoralizing to the class when it happened.

I would fully expect that the attendance policy will be strictly enforced for any students entering into the Class of 2014. To say otherwise would be misinformation to potential students who deserve accurate and honest information.


Question....

What do you think will happen if few students from the new incoming class will refuse to get fingerprinted too?

If you had to do it all over again, would you have gone to this school?

What are the down falls of this school?

Thanks.

Question....

What do you think will happen if few students from the new incoming class will refuse to get fingerprinted too?

If you had to do it all over again, would you have gone to this school?

What are the down falls of this school?

Thanks.

I would expect that they will fingerprint 2014. Administration has likely given up on 2012 and 2013 to adhere to the policy since we didn't know about it when we matriculated but any incoming student will be well aware. I mean, the fingerprint scanners are hard to miss. I'm sure it raised questions on interviews.

I'm not sure what they'll do because an incoming student would have for refusing to fingerprint when he or she is aware of the policy before hand. The school hasn't complied with student privacy law with regard to the scanners, so that could always be raised as an issue, as we have raised numerous times but the argument probably loses some validity with forewarning of the policy.

In so far as getting an opinion on TouroCOM, please solicit more opinions than just mine. Getting a few opinions from different ends of the spectrum will help you best make a decision.

Personally, I regret going to TouroCOM. It wasn't my only option, but I wanted to be in NYC. Little did I know that my 3rd and 4th year would be taking me to NJ, Upstate, or Long Island.

The positives:

I really like many of my classmates and I feel that my education in Pharm, Immuno, and Path is top notch. I think that my professors are truly great educators. NYC is a great place but you will only be in Manhattan for the first two years.

The negatives:

I'm very self reliant and probably could get by with bad professors and just text books so the drawbacks, for me, are outweighing the value they are adding. The real problem with TouroCOM is the Administration and the direction they are taking. I worked before going to medical school and dealt with crappy bosses, coworkers, clients, etc. and I can honestly say that I've never dealt with such unprofessional, disrespectful, and dishonest people as the Administration at TouroCOM. And they don't seem to be getting any better.

Everything at TouroCOM that involves Administration feels adversarial - from asking why a test was graded a certain way, to finding out where tuition money is going, to finding out why we have such crappy and limited clinical rotations. The story always changes and never seems truthful - as an example that you can see for yourself: look how many different board passage rates were quoted to interviewees who posted on this website. It's varied from 90% down to 80% despite the fact that the student body was given a final number of 78% months ago after much persistence. There is no excuse for ANYONE working for TouroCOM to give an interviewee incorrect information and especially not a Dean. The 78% pass rate has been well known for a while now.

The new administrative hires also seem to tow the line just the same as the rest of the deans. The new pre-clinical dean is not a physician and doesn't seem to understand the demands of medical school and the new clinical dean doesn't seem to even really be involved in the development of clinical rotations while there are other doctors who seem to carry so much weight at school and yet have no official function. While others may disagree, I feel like everyone in Administration is using the school as a money maker, a political spring board or a combination of the both.

What is also infuriating is that there are so many Administrators doing an obviously poor job and yet they pretend that they are making the world turn. It's gross incompetence compounded with arrogance and I find it frustrating. Professionalism has become the mantra for the unprofessional at TouroCOM. This also bears out with other students interview experiences, as you can find in other posts.

That said, you need to get more opinions and try to evaluate what is really important to you and your goals. If being in NYC is paramount, remember that you will not be in Manhattan or most likely not even in any of the boroughs for your 3rd and 4th year at TouroCOM. If you want to create connections for a residency in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens it may be a better choice for you to attend NYCOM so that you can network on clinicals in the 3rd and 4th year. They have a MUCH better offering of clinical rotations.

No school is perfect but given the chance to chose again, I would've gone to NYCOM or gone out of NY.

I'm happy to answer any questions as honestly as I can. I hope that helps.

Question....

What do you think will happen if few students from the new incoming class will refuse to get fingerprinted too?

If you had to do it all over again, would you have gone to this school?

What are the down falls of this school?

Thanks.

Count on fingerprinting to continue. They are not keen on kicking out students for failing classes like other schools so they are trying to enforce mandatory attendance to try get the information into your heads. I got the feeling from the last Dean's meeting with the class that folks over 3.5 may be cut some leeway to do what they want.

Would I go here again? The short answer is yes. I came here because it was financially the best school for me to go to(& yes I did get into other schools). The school has issues but most schools do. In fact some schools forbid their students from posting on SDN any dirty laundry that happens in the school and staff actually patrols these boards.

Cons of school= no rotation sites in manhattan, new school issues (see above), close to 3K in fees that are mandatory (the only perk in the fees is the kaplan review class at the end of the year)

pros= Most of the instructors are very good, Dr Bahri in path, Dr Prancan in pharm, Dr Jones in imuno & a new microbiologist professor starting in January who guest lectured once and appeared very good. The clinical Systems lectures are a bit hit or miss dependening upon who is teaching since it is taugh by specialists. They do stream classes for review latter but sometimes the streaming systems gets messed up and a lecture will be missed.

Good luck

Hi

Thank you so much for both of your honest posts.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays. ;-)

Third year chiming in here.

First, screw professionality. If you go to any school or hospital for interviews, you'll find doctors answering phone calls and stepping out for emergencies. I do admit that our deans do need a lesson in hypocrisy but alas that is one lesson that they will never receive.

Second, knowing what I know now, I think I made the right choice in schools. I had to decide between this and NYCOM and I chose Touro more for money and proximity reasons than anything else. After hearing what BonesDO went through at NYCOM, I worry what would have happened there. And I honestly believe the education that the class of 2012, 2013 and 2014 are receiving/will receive is far better than what we got. I do not doubt board scores are going to go way up this year, mostly because our former micro teacher didn't really teach us any micro and that's a big chunk of step 1 and the first thing the new micro teacher did this year was send us 3rd years surveys on how well prepared we were in respect to micro. (hint: unless it had to do with HIV, we weren't)

Third, after talking to students from other schools, we Touro students are not nearly as screwed over with rotations as we think we are. Students at Einstein don't know what rotation they're going into until right before that rotation. I know this because I talked to the students I worked with at BL - one of our hospitals. And the hospitals are not as hard to get to as people think. I mean sure, Trinitas is far and I made sure I wouldn't end up in Far Rockaway but I live downtown and it takes me less than 45 minutes to get to BL and it'll take me less than that when I start at Palisades next month. It would be harder for me to commute to NYCOM for classes.

And as far as the pregnant student goes- it really sucks for her but she's not an isolated case. I knew a girl in my pre-med days who was pregnant and due to give birth in October and she was very high risk. She was planning on attending Columbia dental school. Now Columbia refused to let this girl defer for a year and she felt that in her condition she would miss too much school due to her condition. What happened to her? I honestly don't know. And I knew another girl who found out she was pregnant right before her first year started. She couldn't even go into the anatomy lab except for the nights before practicals to cram like crazy. You have to remember, as a first year you're in anatomy and formaldehyde is very very bad for the baby.

Now does the school piss me off? Oh, hell yeah. They've lied to us, they've promised us things they never deliver, they keep saying they're working on hospitals but never tell us which ones and I am just as upset as everyone else that only 1 hospital on our original list is a rotating site but now that I'm at the hospital, I am quite happy. But then again, I'm being taught by faculty from Albert Einstein and that's pretty cool.

After reading some of the forums here, and observing people going nuts its nice to come upon someone like rwlevin who obviously is independent of the herd. Anywhere you go, be is MD/DO private or public institution there will be a percentage of people who will find it difficult to swim in the sea of medicine. The more you hussle, and the earlier you do it, the more you will learn about navigating these waters of life which will help you in you practice, in your rotations,residencies, etc.
No one is 100% satisfied.EVER! I work at a med school ( MD ), and up and down you hear studetns complaining. there is always some higher strata to achieve.
I also understand that administratin at Touro is flaky, but guess what, its ok. You will get your degree, and you will get your education no matter what. If this is not fullfilled by the school it looses its accreditation, so trust me you will get enough support, maybe be not like in NYCOM or PCOM, but hence its in NYC and much cheaper then NYCOM. I got accepted to NYCOM, but why would I pay extra 100K over 4 yrs for my education? I will bust my ass on rotations, perform well didactically and will end up with a residency in my class ( DO ) and choice.
SO if they want to finger print my ass, go ahead I don't plan to miss more then 30 % of classes anyway.

Hey everyone,
For those accepted to Touro, just a question. I have a strong GPA (3.8-3.9ish) and 25 MCAT and have had my primary into Touro for about 5 weeks now but have yet to receive a secondary. Does Touro screen primaries?

Thanks

Hey everyone,
For those accepted to Touro, just a question. I have a strong GPA (3.8-3.9ish) and 25 MCAT and have had my primary into Touro for about 5 weeks now but have yet to receive a secondary. Does Touro screen primaries?

Thanks

I'd bet my left, no my right kidney that you'd get in with those #'s.

Hey everyone,
For those accepted to Touro, just a question. I have a strong GPA (3.8-3.9ish) and 25 MCAT and have had my primary into Touro for about 5 weeks now but have yet to receive a secondary. Does Touro screen primaries?

Thanks

To answer your question, yes touroCOM does screen primaries. If you get a secondary application it means that you WILL get an interview.

im a first year at touro. its quite funny to stop by this website as i haven't since my interviewing process last year and still see the back and forth battles taking place. i am very pleased with our new professors, except for a couple of them. anyways, throughout my education i have done 90% of the learning independently. administration? i don't really deal with them and most of my classmates don't either. some are good and some aren't. we all took the chance of going to a new school for different reasons and we will deal with whatever is handed down to us. if you have any specific questions besides rotations, feel free to ask.

Accepted TOUROCOM-NY Class of 2014!!!

How does Touro NY treat OOS applicants? Is it instate preferred like how NYCOM is?

In the 2013 class we have a ton of people from the west coast, I'm assuming because the other touro schools are out there. But to answer your question, it doesn't seem to be instate preferred.

First year TouroCOMer chiming in...

As anyone can tell, there's a lot of disagreement between the second and first years about how Touro is. I understand that the current third and second years were burned a lot by false promises from Touro, and yes, that pregnant girl getting thrown out was real, and only added to the tension between the admin and the second years. I feel bad that you guys have been jaded to a point that a lot of second years I talked to just want to wash their hands of Touro and move on to clinical rotations to a point that classes are being skipped, fingerprinting is being boycotted, etc.

However, I have to say that the administration was particularly more receptive to the first years. Lenihan said it himself that the admin understands the first years are different from the second years, and acknowledges that we're trying to succeed. If that means "copping out" and scanning in, so be it.

I think abiding by the rules we were made aware of before attending the school (we were told about the fingerprinting during interviews) has worked in our favor. Our class senators were able to effectively reverse rules that said no food in the lecture halls. There is also improved communication with the admin b/c of monthly / weekly meetings (I'm not sure how often they meet, but it's now a regular thing). However, I can also understand how if these rules were suddenly enforced after attending the school, even little things become huge issues.

What I AM disappointed in though is the lack of unity in the second years. I feel like they're so fractured and that cheating scandal a few weeks ago was horrible. Seriously guys? Why would you try to screw your classmates like that?

accepted with TouroCOM NY class of 2014! :D

i am confident that the school is moving in a positive direction. however, all the negativity surrounding it's growth has created some lingering doubts about coming here over other DO schools. anyone else feeling the same way?

I hear the school is preparing for a visit from their accreditors. Is this ture? If so, I would not believe too much about the sincerity of current presentations to students. Regarding how the first year is not like the other classes it is probably because they just started. I would listen to the classes that have the experience.

I believe COCA already came to TouroCOM for this year. COCA visits each new school every year until it gets fully accredited - this is nothing new, it is a part of the accreditation process. Also the class of 2013 has been here for about 6-7 months now so it's not like we don't know what we are talking about. Some of the class of 2012 may not like the 'new rules' TouroCOM set during their second year because it was different than their first year. As for 2013 the rules were there when we started so it is not that big of a problem for us. And the rules are the least of the worries for the class of 2012.

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Thanks you for the feedback. I am trying to make the best decision possible. This is my career and my decision to attend medical school can not be a quick thought. Regarding some of the first year students perception. I hope they don't believe that they are any different from the other students. The second and third years are all 'Students' . The difference is some of them have more experience. When I interview I will look pass the smiles and congenial ways. I need to attend a school that is challenging but is experienced. Do you feel TouroNY finally knows how to run a medical school? Are the other Touro school's like the N.Y site.

I believe COCA already came to TouroCOM for this year. COCA visits each new school every year until it gets fully accredited - this is nothing new, it is a part of the accreditation process. Also the class of 2013 has been here for about 6-7 months now so it's not like we don't know what we are talking about. Some of the class of 2012 may not like the 'new rules' TouroCOM set during their second year because it was different than their first year. As for 2013 the rules were there when we started so it is not that big of a problem for us. And the rules are the least of the worries for the class of 2012.

COCA hasn't come. They're here the last week of February.

If you're referring to the mysterious group of suits that came at the end of December and again two weeks ago, rumor has it that they're from the Caribbean schools and might be looking to buy the school.

Some inaccuracies in your post:

First year TouroCOMer chiming in...
As anyone can tell, there's a lot of disagreement between the second and first years about how Touro is. I understand that the current third and second years were burned a lot by false promises from Touro, and yes, that pregnant girl getting thrown out was real, and only added to the tension between the admin and the second years. I feel bad that you guys have been jaded to a point that a lot of second years I talked to just want to wash their hands of Touro and move on to clinical rotations to a point that classes are being skipped, fingerprinting is being boycotted, etc.

The pregnant student was not kicked out. She was forced to take a year off against her will. While I'm no Admin fan, they didn't go so far as to kick her out.

Yes, many second years just want to get out of the building. And many third years just want to graduate. This isn't the student body's fault. That so many students spanning two years are so dissatisfied and unhappy is quite suggestive.

I've spoken with many unhappy first years. There may be less dissatisfaction with 2013 than 2012 but I'd say that 2013 is far from universally happy. And again, Admin thought we were much better behaved than 2011 until we reached our second year.

However, I have to say that the administration was particularly more receptive to the first years. Lenihan said it himself that the admin understands the first years are different from the second years, and acknowledges that we're trying to succeed. If that means "copping out" and scanning in, so be it.

Ha. Wait till you guys push back. Just wait. Admin told us the same thing last year when they were fighting with 2011. We were told many times to not be like 2011, and here we are being characterized to 2013 as a poor example just the same.

I think abiding by the rules we were made aware of before attending the school (we were told about the fingerprinting during interviews) has worked in our favor. Our class senators were able to effectively reverse rules that said no food in the lecture halls. There is also improved communication with the admin b/c of monthly / weekly meetings (I'm not sure how often they meet, but it's now a regular thing). However, I can also understand how if these rules were suddenly enforced after attending the school, even little things become huge issues.

The fingerprint scanners were not installed until the middle of the summer, so I'm not sure how you were aware of fingerprinting when interviewing. In fact, I heard the decision on fingerprinting was not made until the summer. If you were informed that here were going to be fingerprint scanners when you interviewed, that is very interesting because Admin didn't even officially announce an attendance policy to the student government until a few weeks before school started and they never mentioned fingerprint scanners. I've spoken to NUMEROUS first years who had no idea about attendance and scanners until school started.

Improved communication? What weekly/monthly meetings? Are you talking about the breakfasts? SGA is very proactive and more effective than you may realize. The fact that some students are enjoying the luxury of ignoring the scanners is a direct result of the efforts of SGA. 2012 was threatened many times over the scanners but because of activity of SGA and resistance of some students no action has been taken against the students who choose not to scan.

What I AM disappointed in though is the lack of unity in the second years. I feel like they're so fractured and that cheating scandal a few weeks ago was horrible. Seriously guys? Why would you try to screw your classmates like that?

Wow. Cheating scandal? Not quite. If that is how it's being portrayed to 2013 it's again quite inaccurate. The administration of that test was a complete mess and a failure. They actually had students take the same exact exam the next day despite already having seen the entire thing. You were not present for the problems that occurred and your generalizations of 2012 are off, especially to call it a cheating scandal.

Do you feel TouroNY finally knows how to run a medical school?

No, I don't think they do. I know many other medical students, MD and DO, and have doctors in my family and none of them have dealt with or currently deal with what we do.

And the rules are the least of the worries for the class of 2012.

What are 2012's worries?

Does anyone have information about Comlex Pass Rates for Touro? Also if any of the current students performed on the USMLE part 1. Do you think the current curriculum prepares you well for the boards?

Do the courses have syllabi with the course materials condensed, or do the professors only supplement their lectures with additional textbook readings.

Just want to get an idea of the teaching style.

I read a blog that stated after retakes they are now at 82% passing rate

Do the courses have syllabi with the course materials condensed, or do the professors only supplement their lectures with additional textbook readings.

Just want to get an idea of the teaching style.

Yes, there is a pretty comprehensive book of syllabi that overviews all the courses in detail.

I read a blog that stated after retakes they are now at 82% passing rate

That passing rate is still pretty pathetic. I hope the 82% is attributed more so to the intellectual capabilities of the class of 2011 and not to the school's teaching curriculum.

I love the fact that the school is so close to where I live, but I'm also worried about the future of the school with all the rumors (buy out... etc...) that surround the school.

What do you guys/gals think?

The rumors are pretty much rumors. When I interviewed there, the place is improving regarding to the staffs as well as technologies. When I was there there was many unopened boxes that we were told that it was used for research and teaching equipments. LAb is particularly new. Many students complain about it being 1 building, but to really have a big campus in NYC is nearly impossible with the program being a few yrs old. It is really different campus life style because if your school is in Middle of nowhere they usually have bigger campus life style, but not in NYC. It cost $$ to have big campus in NYC. The passing rate is due to the fact that students that had failed multiple classes was not dismissed by TOURO, which I believe they want to keep their students in and work with them. It is always a working process regardless new or old school, it will get better with time and experience.

I'd like to second the notion that not all of the first years are enamored with TouroCOM and its administration. I have plenty of second year friends and acquaintances who tell me (and other first years) about the woes encountered by second year students.

Sure, things are well and dandy for first years. We have to scan in four times a day, fine, no big deal. We have to have a ridiculous number of classes (instead of block scheduling), fine. It takes at LEAST one week to get our scores back (recently it's taken more than double that), fine. We have a certain lovely professor copying her exams verbatim from the internet, only to cause a big uproar, and the weightage of that exam to randomly change (from the values given on the syallabus), fine. The new computer exams that were recently implemented have been disastrous for some students, as answers would randomly be lost, hmm fine. Students who reviewed their answers later on found that the computer randomly/magically changed answers around (and administration isn't doing much about this) and the grades have dropped, err fine. Not to mention the questionable quality of some of our faculty, and the ever-constant quizzes (which, if missed, can be punative). Don't forget professors calling on you like they did in elementary school (and if you're not there, they throw a hissy fit...hmm, aren't we allowed to miss 30% of classes??). So, as you can imagine, this is just the beginning. Wait for us to become second years and we don't know where we're rotating, and our rotation schedule.

Honestly, some of the first years have put on the blinders about the things going on right now, and the potential problems that may arise. Maybe, it's time to learn a few things from our second years, and try to be prepared for the impeding issues that may arise. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee, so to speak. I really do hope things turn towards the better, but even this early in the game, I am becoming jaded.

So do you regret having gone to the school? Sounds like the school doesn't know what they want or what they're doing. I sure hope that's not the case.

How is the faculty? Are they a bunch of loonies? I have read that some of them teach at more reputable schools, is that true?

The dean was speaking to my interview group about accepting medical facts in terms of pharmacology and how a physician has to have a great amount of blind faith to administer a drug and believe it will work. In the midst of his story he gave an example that went along the lines of if you saw another man with your wife/gf or woman with your husband/bf you shouldn't jump to conclusions, as it could be their sister or brother or family members. Basically its that same blind faith we have in the ability of medicine to cure..... A little round a bout..... Then he said something along the lines you should really be thinking I'm glad I found my bf with a girl, god forbid it was another man, or your girlfriend was holding hands with another woman.

I found it a little odd, that last part, so I couldn't help but be curious to ask how the faculty/school views homosexuality and public health issues faces by same sex communities. Or was it most probably just an innocent awkward sentence in the anecdote.

Sounds like the school doesn't know what they want or what they're doing. I sure hope that's not the case.

I do agree that some of the things the school is trying to do are not always executed well. The computerized test thing was just a total mess. Personally, i don't think the computers magically changed the answers, but the logistics of it did not work out.

Some of the faculty are loonies, a good number are really good.

I found it a little odd, that last part, so I couldn't help but be curious to ask how the faculty/school views homosexuality and public health issues faces by same sex communities. Or was it most probably just an innocent awkward sentence in the anecdote.

Can't speak for the personal views of the faculty or school, but there haven't been any issues with discrimination or prejudice if thats what you mean.

,

Was this dean Goldberg or Cammaratta?

Actually TouroCOM does not allow the formation of a LGBT club. One of our students worked around the system and instituted a LGBT 'position' in the AMA club - but there is no official club, nor is there allowed to be a formation of one. This is not uncommon in the Touro community - the Touro California school had legal problems over the same issues, until they were forced to allow the club to form both from the community and their students.

Being politically correct is not in the repertoire of the deans here. There have been outrageous things said and done to the women here, as well as the minority students.

Sorry if you don't mind me asking, what they were the things said and done to women and minority students? It was Dean Goldberg.

any third years here willing to chat with an incoming class of 2014-er deciding between here and another school, please pm me. i'd like to have a conversation with someone about their decision to attend touro and their experience at touro for the past 2/3 years. there is a lot of helpful information on this thread, but i would like to delve deeper into some of the issues people keep bringing up.

thanks! :)

That passing rate is still pretty pathetic. I hope the 82% is attributed more so to the intellectual capabilities of the class of 2011 and not to the school's teaching curriculum.

I love the fact that the school is so close to where I live, but I'm also worried about the future of the school with all the rumors (buy out... etc...) that surround the school.

What do you guys/gals think?

I believe the number was 78% passing first time and that the number of folks who passed overall is now in the 90's %. Per higher authority (not school admin) for a first year class, this is pretty much the norm for the passing rate. While their might have been a few individuals in 2011 that where different than what you might expect, I would not dismiss the whole class based upon this. They did go through a lot and from all I have heard are performing well on rotations. Since the quality of teaching has improved vastly, the board pass rate should go up.

As for the future, Touro just bought NY medical college. I can't see this place failing

Does anyone know where you can find medical school's ranking? What is the best and worst DO school? What is the best and worst MD school?

Hey everyone!
Anyone have any good recommendations on finding an apartment? I had heard that Lenox Terrace was near the school, any reviews of that place or suggestions of other places to look? Thanks!

Hey everyone!
Anyone have any good recommendations on finding an apartment? I had heard that Lenox Terrace was near the school, any reviews of that place or suggestions of other places to look? Thanks!

I know a couple of people that live there. It's a really nice place to live in Harlem. The units are fairly new(that I've seen), and the security there is good. If i remember correctly its gated, and there are full time doormen.

I want to set one thing straight as someone deeply involved with both the class of 2013 and 2012 (can't speak for 2011 at all). The school is new and because of it situations change dramatically year to year. What this has lead to is the class of 2012 getting a completely unfair break throughout most of their experience here. They had poor teachers, rapidly changing policy and the admin decided to not let them be an active part in the "shaping" process of their rules and curriculum.

This lead to the students of that class being hostile to the admin and the admin cutting them out of the loop. Alternatively the admin may have cut them out pre-emptively and then they became hostile. The order is unclear and greatly unimportant. The important part is the result: 2012 is constantly butting heads with the admin. They have full right to given how they were treated.

Now on the other side of the coin, 2013 is being treated fantastically. We don't have blinders to the problems. We see the 2012 problems, but they don't apply to us. We see an admin that is hesitant to work with us, but we actively reach out to them to cooperate with us and it has lead to FANTASTIC success and cooperation. Plenty has gone wrong. It's a new school. We switched to a testing system that needed more beta testing. A problem happened where people's answers all became D if they scrolled down with a mouse wheel. This problem was dealt with as best as it can be (by throwing out the test). We have 8 out of 10 teachers being fantastic. the 9th is a PhD who is an expert in some fields and teaches from the book in others and the 10th is a genius in her field but very bad at translating that to teaching. This stuff happens.

What needs to be said though, is that 2013 has problems that any med school has. A glitch on a test making some poeple unhappy. A prof or two out of the entire faculty that you dont like. But for the most part we are very happy because our facilities are state of the art. Most of our teachers are amazing and, frankly, the admin has pledged to work with us and trust in us to not give them the same problems 2012 gives them.

again, 2012 has full right to be like that. i don't blame them. I would do the same if i was in their class. But I am thankful to not be. But this is a school with two FULLY different and, frankly, opposite, experiences. We even sometimes have two different sets of rules. and its to due with us being the third class, where the kinks have been worked out and we came in knowing that actively engaging the admin was the way to not be left out of the loop... and its worked wonderfully.

There seems like there is so much going on. Yes it is a new school but do you feel its worth it to take out so many loans in a place that is not staple. Do you feel that you will be prepared for boards and residency wont be a problem? Are the rotations all in NYC. Can someone please confirm. I do not want to wind up rotating upstate. Thank a bunch.

Yes it is a new school but do you feel its worth it to take out so many loans in a place that is not staple.

Thats really up to you, I'm fine with it.

Do you feel that you will be prepared for boards and residency wont be a problem?

Yes I feel that I will be ready. I don't see why this is an issue, board scores are what YOU put into it.

Are the rotations all in NYC. Can someone please confirm. I do not want to wind up rotating upstate. Thank a bunch.

As of right now there are no rotations in Manhattan. They are mostly in Queens/Brooklyn/The Bronx, some in New Jersey, and I think one at Pallisades Hospital which is about 20-30mins north of manhattan.

There seems like there is so much going on. Yes it is a new school but do you feel its worth it to take out so many loans in a place that is not staple. Do you feel that you will be prepared for boards and residency wont be a problem? Are the rotations all in NYC. Can someone please confirm. I do not want to wind up rotating upstate. Thank a bunch.

1) yea. I feel pretty confident in the school. Its tuition is pretty much par for the course among the schools I looked at. And if uncertainty worries you (and there really isnt any reason to be uncertain with the school) then take your own uncertainty into account. But there is nothing here that makes me think its unstable at all.

2) Residency definitely won't be an issue because the 3rd years are (according to the ones i've talked to) getting rave reviews from their residents and attendings. And getting into a residency is much much much more about connections made in the 3rd and 4th years than board scores, which in many (but not all) residencies serve as an arbitrary cut off to limit applicant pool rather than a true "influencer" of one qualified doc versus another for the spot. (obviously sometimes it will be the decider, but its the case much less often that previous experience with the hospital). Am i worried about the boards? Not more than any other student. Especially in the 1st year, they are trying everything to get us all the info we could ever cram in our heads, and in the end, the boards are very much a personal endeavour to study for. They are even enrolling us all in kaplan review course. (im sure a few of us would wish we could opt out for different courses, but kaplan is solid and it shows their dedication to really raising the board scores)

3) read what the guy above me said. We don't have any manhattan right now because there simply isnt spots to be had in any of these hospitals. We have a huge amount of space in a bronx rotation "plan" and a queens brooklyn rotation "set". We also have a more than enough space in long island and north jersey for those who would want to go there (we have a lot of long islanders and jersey people in our class). As far as upstate goes? We have a rotation set in rockland county thats about 20-30 minutes from manhattan. And my understanding is that we have more spaces than people, so we have a handful (6? 8?) of spots in far upstate NY for anyone interested in that (though i dont think a single person will 'have' to go there) and the same for a rotation in texas for those who are in the army scholarship, which requires a few months spent in fort hood texas anyway.

And here I thought the school I was attending was painful with hypocritical administrators. After reading some of the stories, I am very nervous about my interview and the institution's outlook in general. I had applied to TouroCOM as an in-state backup as I do not want to go to California or Florida to get a medical degree. :scared:

And here I thought the school I was attending was painful with hypocritical administrators. After reading some of the stories, I am very nervous about my interview and the institution's outlook in general. I had applied to TouroCOM as an in-state backup as I do not want to go to California or Florida to get a medical degree. :scared:

I think ultimately, you should make your decision after your interview, your visit, and based on YOUR opinion of your experience at Touro, not what so and so says. I'm not sure why you think the outlook of the school is bleak. If anything, it will continue to flourish and I really feel that it has the potential to be an even stronger school in the future, mostly because of its attractive location continuing to bring in stronger applicants.

There are also a lot of other factors that will continue to help Touro improve, eg the recent meeting with COCA to help effect change for the better at Touro, the acquisition of NYMC, etc.

I'm having a hard time finding an academic calendar online. Might someone know when the first day of classes is at TouroCOM this fall (for first year students)?

Thanks in advance!

1st year orientation starts on July 19th. They have to start school earlier next year because of how the jewish holidays fell on the calender. It works out because we have more time off during the year.

m

Wow for blatant misinformation. We have ZERO hospitals in Brooklyn, even thought they said they were 'close to being finalized.'
The 'huge' amt in the bronx would be 24 spots (class of 125) - and if you are at the bronx you have to travel 4 of the 10 months to nj for surgery, ob/gyn and psych. Those NJ sites are at least an hour away by public transportation - so you need a car. Staten island track - also travel to queens for 2 months. The Queens track has no traveling - but that hospital is on the border of LI. So I'm not sure of the brooklyn/queen set you're talking about.

The army/texas site - they are only allowed to do 3 months and then they have to come back for the rest of the year.

The rest are in NJ - no hospital there has every rotation at one site.

For the first years commenting on rotations, the rotation grids are posted. Please don't post misinformation.

posted this before the grids went up. So i was working with the information given to me off of our tour hand out sheets which just changed over the day the grids went up. It was accurate to that. The grids are up now and i have seen them, my bad.

now for your information, i just checked the grid. If you go to the bronx you have to spend 1 of the 10 months in NJ, not 4. There is variability, but in a quick walk by i saw plenty 1 and 2 month NJ stints with 8 or 9 in NY in most of the slots. Though i do not doubt that 4 is also an option, but it is def not the majority as, i think, you presented it as.

I'm a first year so feel free to diminish my opinion, but i cant undertand how you could be dissappointed with the final product choices. I'm very familiar with the rotation available at other schools since i'm the fifth person in my family all having entered/exited med school in the past 6 years. Sure we thought we'd have some magical smorgasbog of choices, but what we ended up with is still really solid. A SI/Queens track, a pure queens track, an fully NJ track, a Texas specialty setup, and two hybrid tracks that (to my understanding) are a combination of the bronx and palisades,which is RIGHT across the river, where you spend 7 or 8 months at one and 2 at the other. If this varies from that, then i'm wrong, but i know i checked a good few lines before i spoke this time now that i have the actual blocks.

and on it being a bronx/nj hybrid, from midtown they are both identical distances apart of 40 minutes door-to-door. Google maps and mapquest confirmed. Though I have heard that the 10th month of the hybrid formats gets sticky (do you go to queens or rockland for a month etc etc) its still a very good track.

I type too much. i always do. But the short version is that it may not be the ideal situation we were originally told, but it is still a very good 3rd year set of options decently competitive with other places. And we are in our second class ever doing clinicals. No one expected perfection, we buy in knowing stuff is rapidly improving year to year.

Worse comes to worse - though it might be too late for some 2nd years now - but the school has given permission to go out and find your own rotations where ever you want. you go to the hospitals, talk to them, fill out all of your paper work and get it done yourself, and then the school will deem the hospital adequate or not.

which is a great option if you 1) don't like any of the current hospitals the school has provided 2) if you are out of state and want to go back home 3)have a need/reason/obligation to go where ever.

How long this option will be available, we don't know. but currently it is available.

I'm sorry, where did it ever state that it was absolutely necessary for all rotation spots to be within a 25 mile radius to the school? You make it sound like the school has done us a disservice by not providing rotation spots in Manhattan, which would make it easier to commute, but it is by no means necessary. To use Stony Brook Med for example, their rotation spots include Winthrop in Mineola, the VA hospital in Huntington, and Stony Brook. Yes, they're both in Long Island, but Winthrop is about an hour and a half from Stony Brook, and the VA hospital is about an hour from Stony Brook. Guess what, students have to commute or find housing or whatever for those few months that they rotate there.

Furthermore, I haven't heard from any third years about specific rotation sites where they are not being taught medicine. You make it sound like Manhattan hospitals are the only hospitals that can teach. Just do the core rotations like you have to in any other medical school, and do the electives away. A third year has told me that the school is very efficient in setting up the electives and it's not that difficult or much of a hassle to get the proper paperwork signed. Just plan.

I'm sorry, where did it ever state that it was absolutely necessary for all rotation spots to be within a 25 mile radius to the school? You make it sound like the school has done us a disservice by not providing rotation spots in Manhattan, which would make it easier to commute, but it is by no means necessary. To use Stony Brook Med for example, their rotation spots include Winthrop in Mineola, the VA hospital in Huntington, and Stony Brook. Yes, they're both in Long Island, but Winthrop is about an hour and a half from Stony Brook, and the VA hospital is about an hour from Stony Brook. Guess what, students have to commute or find housing or whatever for those few months that they rotate there.

Furthermore, I haven't heard from any third years about specific rotation sites where they are not being taught medicine. You make it sound like Manhattan hospitals are the only hospitals that can teach. Just do the core rotations like you have to in any other medical school, and do the electives away. A third year has told me that the school is very efficient in setting up the electives and it's not that difficult or much of a hassle to get the proper paperwork signed. Just plan.

:thumbup:

I was hoping someone would elaborate on the quality of the clinical rotations. I hear that they are far but have students felt like they are gaining great experiences? I would also like to hear about the OMM offered at Touro in NYC. I have an interview on Monday and if things go well I will be choosing between Touro in CA and NYC. Does anyone out there have any input on this specific choice? Lack of quality clinical rotations is my primary concern in CA, second only to the next big earthquake.

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during the COCA meeting with students - a 2nd year said that he was granted permission to do his entire 3rd year in a different city if he set it up - pretty sure he was not lying - btw he IS doing his entire 3rd year in a different city; also a first year was given permission to find a hospital in his home state for his entire 3rd year

Ask anyone who was there. were you there? since a 2nd year also brought up that we were not allowed to set up our own rotations and then was shown otherwise by the people who said they were granted permission to do rotations in other places.

Again, where did you get this information?????

The director of rotations was asked in a public town hall meeting (where you even in attendance??) and on personal one - to - one meetings if we could set up our own rotations. The answer was a resounding 'No. Not a chance"

No we cannot set up our core rotations. Only electives (but this is at every school)

I would appreciate it if questions about rotations were answered by 2nd or 3rd years - since clearly the 1st years have been living in this bubble of dreams.

This is straight out incorrect as the most prominent person in your class got approval to do exactly this in boston and stated so during the COCA meeting. Also my roommate (a second year) was in the process of doing the same thing for hospitals in California and I was helping him out personally. He ran out of time though (started too late) so he is working on it for next year.

In addition we have a 1st year who has received approval to do so for LI North shore if they can get the hospital to agree to take them and three who are approved to go for the Danbury Hospital system (which during the town hall meeting we were originally told 'no' for, but they later saw how many of us wanted it and changed on that). And these aren't "oh i heard so and so" stories. These are two of my closest friends and in one case I went out to eat with them right after they came out of the clinical dean's office with the paperwork and that was all they could talk about.

Englewood is far away at 90 minutes via mass transit from midtown, but thats still not bad. Especially given pretty much every school ships the majority of their students very very far out of state. And I don't mean just across the river. Palisades hospital is 40 minutes by mass transit alone from the upper west side/midtown (hopstop checked). We only comment because we may have a much more rose-tinted view than you guys have (and you will always have full reason to, i never deny that), but there are times where your assertions just aren't correct because no one can possibly know everything going on. Just as there are times where mine arent correct. E.G. I did go and read the charts and i never saw englewood hospital on the rotation round for the hybrid route. I only saw Rockland/BronxLeb/Palisades. I spoke from the best of my knowledge, but Im not going into harlem any time this weekend to check it though, i have to assume I'm wrong cause you'd def have read that in much more detail than I did.

And you're right, we weren't ever told that the manhattan hospitals were locked. And we still want them just as much as you do, but I can't see how you can be disappointed with the slots we did secure. They are all solid and all very close by. No one really has to pack up and leave the metropolitan area unless they want to (dont think anyone will be required to go far upstate)

I believe the number was 78% passing first time and that the number of folks who passed overall is now in the 90's %. Per higher authority (not school admin) for a first year class, this is pretty much the norm for the passing rate. While their might have been a few individuals in 2011 that where different than what you might expect, I would not dismiss the whole class based upon this. They did go through a lot and from all I have heard are performing well on rotations. Since the quality of teaching has improved vastly, the board pass rate should go up.

As for the future, Touro just bought NY medical college. I can't see this place failing

I'm not sure I see the place failing, but you can't base this on the assumption that ties with Touro are maintained. Rumors are floating around about the school being sold (thus losing the Touro association) and the school has twice been visited by a group of people who may have been potential buyers. NY medical college does nothing whatsoever to strengthen the osteopathic school. What would that have to do with us? If anything, that purchase gives Touro the MD medical school its wanted for a while in NY and it may no longer be interested in the osteopathic school also in NY.

When medical schools report pass rates, they report them as a first pass figure or an "as of date" figure. Is Admin going to be able to count the people who may be left back for passing too late twice? These people passed for 2011 and 2012?

No one really knows for sure what the first try pass rate was. As of Oct 15, it was supposedly 78%.

I think ultimately, you should make your decision after your interview, your visit, and based on YOUR opinion of your experience at Touro, not what so and so says. I'm not sure why you think the outlook of the school is bleak. If anything, it will continue to flourish and I really feel that it has the potential to be an even stronger school in the future, mostly because of its attractive location continuing to bring in stronger applicants.

There are also a lot of other factors that will continue to help Touro improve, eg the recent meeting with COCA to help effect change for the better at Touro, the acquisition of NYMC, etc.

Again, what would the acquisition of NYMC have to do with us? Touro University now has the MD school it has been seeking for a while. It really has no bearing on the osteopathic medical school. We're not sharing rotations. Admin has already said that this isn't happening and I really don't think NYMC would be okay with that anyway. And from my understanding, nothing can change at NYMC until the last class that entered before the purchase graduates.

As of right now there are no rotations in Manhattan. They are mostly in Queens/Brooklyn/The Bronx, some in New Jersey, and I think one at Pallisades Hospital which is about 20-30mins north of manhattan.

Not correct - there are no core rotations in Brooklyn, repeat NONE. There is one hospital in the Bronx (Bronx Leb.) One hospital in Queens is for psych only and the other hospital technically in Queens (St Johns) is on the Queens/Long Island border at the end of Rockaway. There are also rotations at Staten Island University Hospital North site.

In general, if you want to live in Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan for the second two years expect to be doing a hell of a lot of commuting.

2) Residency definitely won't be an issue because the 3rd years are (according to the ones i've talked to) getting rave reviews from their residents and attendings. And getting into a residency is much much much more about connections made in the 3rd and 4th years than board scores, which in many (but not all) residencies serve as an arbitrary cut off to limit applicant pool rather than a true "influencer" of one qualified doc versus another for the spot. (obviously sometimes it will be the decider, but its the case much less often that previous experience with the hospital). Am i worried about the boards? Not more than any other student. Especially in the 1st year, they are trying everything to get us all the info we could ever cram in our heads, and in the end, the boards are very much a personal endeavour to study for. They are even enrolling us all in kaplan review course. (im sure a few of us would wish we could opt out for different courses, but kaplan is solid and it shows their dedication to really raising the board scores)

3) read what the guy above me said. We don't have any manhattan right now because there simply isnt spots to be had in any of these hospitals. We have a huge amount of space in a bronx rotation "plan" and a queens brooklyn rotation "set". We also have a more than enough space in long island and north jersey for those who would want to go there (we have a lot of long islanders and jersey people in our class). As far as upstate goes? We have a rotation set in rockland county thats about 20-30 minutes from manhattan. And my understanding is that we have more spaces than people, so we have a handful (6? 8?) of spots in far upstate NY for anyone interested in that (though i dont think a single person will 'have' to go there) and the same for a rotation in texas for those who are in the army scholarship, which requires a few months spent in fort hood texas anyway.


Hmm....

The Kaplan course consists of a whole lot of lecture. After two years of lecture based learning, is another 3-4 week of lecture really going to help? Many have opinion that Kaplan isn't very good yet Admin is trying to push it off as mandatory although that is probably going to fail. They can make us pay for it, but most are probably not going to attend as at least half of 2012 payed for another board prep

I think you're way off on rotations.

First of all - Bronx doesn't have tons of space. I'm really not sure where you're getting that from. We have 4 rotation slots there (meaning we can have 4 students in each rotation that bronx leb offers at a time) to accommodate 24 students for the year, and, off the top of my head, we don't have surgery, ob/gyn, or psych there so any student at bronx leb will have to go to NJ or somewhere else.

Brooklyn/Queens rotations are set? Who on earth is telling you this? We're doing our rotation lottery this Monday. Go take a look outside the library. There is nothing in Brooklyn and multiple people have asked Admin about Brooklyn and they have confirmed we have nothing there.

Not having rotation spots in Manhattan isn't because "there aren't spots." Money and politics, more likely.

We'll know how 2011 does in residency match when they actually go through the match. Silly endearments conveyed from Admin like "the doctors really like them" mean absolutely nothing. I want them to do well but I would never, ever take Admin's prediction of the future because it seems like they're not very experienced and so many of their predictions have been abysmally wrong.

I'm glad you like the school. I want Touro to succeed because it's in all of our best interests but I think that you're not helping people make a decision by giving inaccurate information.

Worse comes to worse - though it might be too late for some 2nd years now - but the school has given permission to go out and find your own rotations where ever you want. you go to the hospitals, talk to them, fill out all of your paper work and get it done yourself, and then the school will deem the hospital adequate or not.

which is a great option if you 1) don't like any of the current hospitals the school has provided 2) if you are out of state and want to go back home 3)have a need/reason/obligation to go where ever.

How long this option will be available, we don't know. but currently it is available.

Who got permission? Many students have been denied, even just last week. I agree with you 100% that this would help the situation at Touro, but it seems like Admin likes control and going outside of their hospital list does not allow as much control.

Again, multiple students have very recently been denied this. Who told you this would be possible?

I'm sorry, where did it ever state that it was absolutely necessary for all rotation spots to be within a 25 mile radius to the school? You make it sound like the school has done us a disservice by not providing rotation spots in Manhattan, which would make it easier to commute, but it is by no means necessary. To use Stony Brook Med for example, their rotation spots include Winthrop in Mineola, the VA hospital in Huntington, and Stony Brook. Yes, they're both in Long Island, but Winthrop is about an hour and a half from Stony Brook, and the VA hospital is about an hour from Stony Brook. Guess what, students have to commute or find housing or whatever for those few months that they rotate there.

Furthermore, I haven't heard from any third years about specific rotation sites where they are not being taught medicine. You make it sound like Manhattan hospitals are the only hospitals that can teach. Just do the core rotations like you have to in any other medical school, and do the electives away. A third year has told me that the school is very efficient in setting up the electives and it's not that difficult or much of a hassle to get the proper paperwork signed. Just plan.

Actually, we had these expectations because we were given this (false) information when we interviewed. It's not unreasonable to expect what was presented to us when we made the decision to go to Touro.

Reg: Stony Brook, the students I know there do not have these issues. They have many affiliations that can accommodate students quite well. I would not even remotely compare their clinical rotation offerings to ours.

Regarding the quality of education at our clinical sites - many are good, some are not so good. Once you get to the end of second year and into third year, you will see how studying for boards, the potential for having to move, and long commutes will affect you. It's not unreasonable for others to be concerned about this, though. I've had numerous conversations with third years who are pleased with their clinical experience within the hospital but are NOT happy about how much traveling they have to do and the general disorganization surround rotations - i.e. grading, submitting evals, etc. I just recently spoke to a student whose psych rotation site was changed and he didn't even know it until a classmate told him. No one from Admin contacted him.

Oh and getting electives has been a hassle for some. I've spoken with a number who had major issues getting Touro to submit the paper work.

And then there's the whole issue that Touro hasn't even gotten the school set up for ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) yet. That is a serious problem.

Um, the student you're talking about was initially denied and then was granted a concession because of a new child.

Multiple students have been denied. What administrator are you working with? I'd really like to know because I know a few students who want to do this but have been told that they can't. Please PM the Administrators name to me if you can and the student whom he/she made this concession to.

This is straight out incorrect as the most prominent person in your class got approval to do exactly this in boston and stated so during the COCA meeting. Also my roommate (a second year) was in the process of doing the same thing for hospitals in California and I was helping him out personally. He ran out of time though (started too late) so he is working on it for next year.

In addition we have a 1st year who has received approval to do so for LI North shore if they can get the hospital to agree to take them and three who are approved to go for the Danbury Hospital system (which during the town hall meeting we were originally told 'no' for, but they later saw how many of us wanted it and changed on that). And these aren't "oh i heard so and so" stories. These are two of my closest friends and in one case I went out to eat with them right after they came out of the clinical dean's office with the paperwork and that was all they could talk about.

Englewood is far away at 90 minutes via mass transit from midtown, but thats still not bad. Especially given pretty much every school ships the majority of their students very very far out of state. And I don't mean just across the river. Palisades hospital is 40 minutes by mass transit alone from the upper west side/midtown (hopstop checked). We only comment because we may have a much more rose-tinted view than you guys have (and you will always have full reason to, i never deny that), but there are times where your assertions just aren't correct because no one can possibly know everything going on. Just as there are times where mine arent correct. E.G. I did go and read the charts and i never saw englewood hospital on the rotation round for the hybrid route. I only saw Rockland/BronxLeb/Palisades. I spoke from the best of my knowledge, but Im not going into harlem any time this weekend to check it though, i have to assume I'm wrong cause you'd def have read that in much more detail than I did.

And you're right, we weren't ever told that the manhattan hospitals were locked. And we still want them just as much as you do, but I can't see how you can be disappointed with the slots we did secure. They are all solid and all very close by. No one really has to pack up and leave the metropolitan area unless they want to (dont think anyone will be required to go far upstate)

during the COCA meeting with students - a 2nd year said that he was granted permission to do his entire 3rd year in a different city if he set it up - pretty sure he was not lying - btw he IS doing his entire 3rd year in a different city; also a first year was given permission to find a hospital in his home state for his entire 3rd year

Ask anyone who was there. were you there? since a 2nd year also brought up that we were not allowed to set up our own rotations and then was shown otherwise by the people who said they were granted permission to do rotations in other places.

I was there. What you are seeing is the lack of policy and Administration playing favorites perhaps. The one student who announced that he could arrange his own was initially denied. Later, he was told he could because he had a child.

Just because Admin says something in conversation doesn't mean much. You may learn that as you go along. Aside from random exceptions here and there that are rumored but not materialized, nothing matters unless there is a documented policy. Students have been denied the ability to arrange their own cores at teaching hospitals very recently.

To my knowledge, there are two third years who arranged their own cores. One had extenuating circumstances and was granted an exception and the other may have just been a favorite of Admin. Who knows.

I privately responded to you with a list of people in both classes who were given the rights to do the core rotations elsewhere.

As i told you in the PM (and am just echoing here cause its an important note): being able to do the cores wherever you want is a very unique blessing that you can do here. BUT its for those who have a very strong connection already with a certain area. You have to prove you're worth the extra work of the admin having to also monitor the education at your new hospital as well. Many schools (all of the four DO schools people in my family went to) would have no way no how allowed this. The fact is that we are trying to expand so it is worth it for the admin to put the effort in for a small number of students who can prove to be worth it because they have the connections already existing with a valuable market. It isnt any option for anywhere near the majority. but the majority will be happy to just be doing it anywhere. this is for those who bust their ass to seal the deal and already have the networking in place. I just dont want it being said that its not possible, because its a pretty interesting unique feature we have for the core rotations, even if its inaccessible to most.

haha and quoting me from 2 weeks ago is a little lame because that was back when i was reliant on paperwork they give on tours and the old town hall meeting, before the official sheets came out. Though you are right my stuff was somewhat off base saying that there was a brooklyn option, im calling technicality and saying i ran with the info i had at the time :laugh:

but i still thing youre missing the point that unless youre trying to do the hybrid NY/NJ/Rockland county set up you really wont have bad commutes at all. You just need to realize that you cant live on the island of manhattan to do it. My cousin came from Touro CA and had no choice but be sent to the exact Queens/SI rotation that we do right now. He chose not to use the housing that St. John's provides to many of its student doctors and lived in Brooklyn. He didnt have any complaints about his commute between those two locations. I think, and this is wholly me making assumptions, that people are too recalcitrant against moving out of manhattan to any other borough or suburb and they forget that all other schools have rotation sites all over the place.

Example: kirksville has rotation sites in St Louis, at least one near kirksville itself, columbus ohio, michigan, utah and phoenix. We have it in wholly contained in a tight circle of the NYC metropolitan area (and one less talked about binghamton/utica option). Sure you cant live in manhattan for it, but you also dont have to fly across the country. Again, my cousin at Vallejo had no choices in california, he had to move across the continent to brooklyn. I understand your arguments, but I'm gonna stick by my guns that the commutes (with one rotations exception) are really really easy if you give up the overpriced studio apt in manhattan for a cheaper closer and bigger apartment elsewhere. The exception is the hybrid one, and even in that case, those hospitals are all very close to each other as long as you have a car. Thats the price you pay for picking that one, moving to bronx, westcherster, north jersey or rockland and getting a car. I lived two of those four areas. Absolutely wonderful, but you need a car.

Now are you wronged because they told you manhattan was a lock. Sure. I agree. You were mislead. If being in manhattan and manhattan alone was your only reason for coming here then I am extremely sorry for this happening to you, but maybe you should have weighed more things into your selection. But there comes a time to let that one point of anger go and realize that, without that filter of being mislead there, the rotation sites actually look REALLY nice compared to what others have to deal with. Am I almost always on the cheery side of things? Yes. But this is a very fair summary of things this time I think.

And then there's the whole issue that Touro hasn't even gotten the school set up for ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) yet. That is a serious problem.

tiny additional note: COCA said that the school wouldn't be able to set up ERAS until they officially have a 4th year class anyway. I cannot honestly say that I remember their exact wording and reasoning, so someone else will have to elaborate on this more, but that was the gist of it. I pretty sure COCA is going to give it to us straight since their job is to bully the admin when they aren't doing their duties.

Sorry to come in slightly off topic, but I have a question about the application timeline. I have pretty good stats, 31Q MCAT, 3.5 science/non science GPA, decent ECs. I JUST sent off my secondary application this friday to touro. I called the admissions office before doing so to see if it was even worth it at this stage to send my 200 fee in or if I was really too late for the application cycle. They told me not to worry, and that they are interviewing through May. I just wanted to ask you guys here what you thought "realistically" about my applying this late. Do I have a shot? Is the class mostly filled by now? Also, how long after sending in my secondary should I expect to hear about an interview invite at this stage?

Thanks!

Sorry to come in slightly off topic, but I have a question about the application timeline. I have pretty good stats, 31Q MCAT, 3.5 science/non science GPA, decent ECs. I JUST sent off my secondary application this friday to touro. I called the admissions office before doing so to see if it was even worth it at this stage to send my 200 fee in or if I was really too late for the application cycle. They told me not to worry, and that they are interviewing through May. I just wanted to ask you guys here what you thought "realistically" about my applying this late. Do I have a shot? Is the class mostly filled by now? Also, how long after sending in my secondary should I expect to hear about an interview invite at this stage?

Thanks!

Last year my roommate and I both were in a similar situation as you, with similar stats. We were both wait listed, however we were pretty high on the list. I don't know how competitive this incoming class is, but I would call it as a 50/50 shot for you.

As of wednesday the class was ~75% filled.
Source = Obed.

Reg: Stony Brook, the students I know there do not have these issues. They have many affiliations that can accommodate students quite well. I would not even remotely compare their clinical rotation offerings to ours.

Regarding the quality of education at our clinical sites - many are good, some are not so good. Once you get to the end of second year and into third year, you will see how studying for boards, the potential for having to move, and long commutes will affect you. It's not unreasonable for others to be concerned about this, though. I've had numerous conversations with third years who are pleased with their clinical experience within the hospital but are NOT happy about how much traveling they have to do and the general disorganization surround rotations - i.e. grading, submitting evals, etc. I just recently spoke to a student whose psych rotation site was changed and he didn't even know it until a classmate told him. No one from Admin contacted him.

Oh and getting electives has been a hassle for some. I've spoken with a number who had major issues getting Touro to submit the paper work.

My point about Stony Brook was that they have rotation sites 45mins-1 hr away. Even if they move closer to the hospital site, they may still have to come back to the main Stony Brook site for a lecture once a week or something akin to that. As a poster mentioned before, you would either A) move closer to your site or B) be unwilling to move out of Manhattan and take the Port Authority buses to NJ, or take the A train all the way to Far Rockaway.

Rotation sites are good, not so good at other schools as well. It's unreasonable to think that all the rotation spots would be stellar in all the fields they offer. Everyone has different learning styles, and it's a learning process to know which ones work best at whichever location. The most unpopular site seems to be St Johns, but even then some have been wanting to switch out of Bronx Lebanon for it because they preferred it there. Unfortunately, the third years are being the guinea pigs for all of us and reporting fairly well about which places are best to go for what, without having had the same advantage. However, I hope that their 4th year goes more smoothly. But yeah, Surgery is a completely different experience when you take it at the VA hospital (in Northport, sorry I mislabeled the location before) vs. Stony Brook Hospital.

I just wanted to point out that it is not only our school who hates certain rotation sites, have to deal with commutes to certain hospitals, etc. I hate to put it this way, but sometimes I feel that sometimes the expectations from Touro are too high, especially when some of these issues happen at other schools as well. Maybe it was because of the letdown from being told Manhattan hospitals were secured, and it's justifiable to be upset about that. But I honestly think you're taking everything as such an offense without seeing the benefit of some of these rotation sites.

Edit: Oh, and by the way, I really wish you would stop disregarding everything we say as pesky first years who have no idea what we're talking about. We attended the same COCA meeting, heard the same information reported back to us from third years, and were also active in seeking change at Touro / learning about the rotation sites. We have as much right to comment on them as you highly esteemed second years.

The most important thing is to see if the roations are associated with hospitals with good residency programs. If they are not I would not go to this school. Who cares about commuting? I would commute 2 hours if I had a chance to rotate at a hospital with good residency programs where I can make some strong connections.

My point about Stony Brook was that they have rotation sites 45mins-1 hr away. Even if they move closer to the hospital site, they may still have to come back to the main Stony Brook site for a lecture once a week or something akin to that. As a poster mentioned before, you would either A) move closer to your site or B) be unwilling to move out of Manhattan and take the Port Authority buses to NJ, or take the A train all the way to Far Rockaway.

Rotation sites are good, not so good at other schools as well. It's unreasonable to think that all the rotation spots would be stellar in all the fields they offer. Everyone has different learning styles, and it's a learning process to know which ones work best at whichever location. The most unpopular site seems to be St Johns, but even then some have been wanting to switch out of Bronx Lebanon for it because they preferred it there. Unfortunately, the third years are being the guinea pigs for all of us and reporting fairly well about which places are best to go for what, without having had the same advantage. However, I hope that their 4th year goes more smoothly. But yeah, Surgery is a completely different experience when you take it at the VA hospital (in Northport, sorry I mislabeled the location before) vs. Stony Brook Hospital.

I just wanted to point out that it is not only our school who hates certain rotation sites, have to deal with commutes to certain hospitals, etc. I hate to put it this way, but sometimes I feel that sometimes the expectations from Touro are too high, especially when some of these issues happen at other schools as well. Maybe it was because of the letdown from being told Manhattan hospitals were secured, and it's justifiable to be upset about that. But I honestly think you're taking everything as such an offense without seeing the benefit of some of these rotation sites.

tiny additional note: COCA said that the school wouldn't be able to set up ERAS until they officially have a 4th year class anyway. I cannot honestly say that I remember their exact wording and reasoning, so someone else will have to elaborate on this more, but that was the gist of it. I pretty sure COCA is going to give it to us straight since their job is to bully the admin when they aren't doing their duties.

Yeah, I think I remember COCA being nonchalant about the issue and brushing it off as simply "You don't have to worry about that until 4th year."

The most important thing is to see if the roations are associated with hospitals with good residency programs. If they are not I would not go to this school. Who cares about commuting? I would commute 2 hours if I had a chance to rotate at a hospital with good residency programs where I can make some strong connections.

As far as rotation sites and where I think we can stand to make a bigger improvement is having rotation sites at academic centers/ teaching hospitals, where they actually offer residencies because LORS matter more from them than the community hospitals. Unfortunately, many DO schools are not associated with huge university hospitals. This is both a benefit and a negative. The benefit is that you have more hands on training often because if there are no residents, you are often the first assistant on many of these cases. The negative is obviously the lack of a connection afterward. If you're shooting for a Manhattan residency in the future, I would highly recommend audition rotations. And then you can blast them away by saying "yes I've put in a central line before," etc.

Not having rotation spots in Manhattan isn't because "there aren't spots." Money and politics, more likely.

Yes, money and politics. However there is no "going rate" of payment for students to rotate at hospitals. I don't think anyone should write off the lack of Manhattan hospitals on our rotation list as Touro being unwilling to cooperate with them. Many Manhattan schools do not pay for their students to rotate through.

Sorry to come in slightly off topic, but I have a question about the application timeline. I have pretty good stats, 31Q MCAT, 3.5 science/non science GPA, decent ECs. I JUST sent off my secondary application this friday to touro. I called the admissions office before doing so to see if it was even worth it at this stage to send my 200 fee in or if I was really too late for the application cycle. They told me not to worry, and that they are interviewing through May. I just wanted to ask you guys here what you thought "realistically" about my applying this late. Do I have a shot? Is the class mostly filled by now? Also, how long after sending in my secondary should I expect to hear about an interview invite at this stage?

Thanks!

I got in straight out doing everything two weeks earlier. I know my friend did it right around the time frame you did and was high waitlisted, and taken off and put onto full acceptance about 3 days later. Its obviously less likely than an earlier applicant, haha, obed told us they were almost all full last year when i did all this stuff, but still people were waitlisted and came off of it after me. so not totally useless.

I had a little over a one week gap between everything being in (you get an e-mail telling you its all in) and being offered an interview date. interviews were held about 3 weeks later (but youre given choices) and then acceptance is 2 weeks following that.

The most important thing is to see if the roations are associated with hospitals with good residency programs. If they are not I would not go to this school. Who cares about commuting? I would commute 2 hours if I had a chance to rotate at a hospital with good residency programs where I can make some strong connections.

Well St. Johns (where one of my family members ended up doing residency) is a huge huge place for AOA residencies. They have all the basics youd expect and derm and opthomology. One of our teachers is the son of the head of DO residencies there, so we have plenty of ins there. (And Dr. Sheldon Sirota also has some minor board position so you see him from time to time in the hallways as well)

but yea, as someone else said. the goal is to either be at a place with a strong residency from the start, or use the 4th year as an audition round at the places you do want to go and knock them out with all of the extra hands-on experience you had given the special environment some of the other hospitals give.

Sorry to come in slightly off topic, but I have a question about the application timeline. I have pretty good stats, 31Q MCAT, 3.5 science/non science GPA, decent ECs. I JUST sent off my secondary application this friday to touro. I called the admissions office before doing so to see if it was even worth it at this stage to send my 200 fee in or if I was really too late for the application cycle. They told me not to worry, and that they are interviewing through May. I just wanted to ask you guys here what you thought "realistically" about my applying this late. Do I have a shot? Is the class mostly filled by now? Also, how long after sending in my secondary should I expect to hear about an interview invite at this stage?

Thanks!

I sent in my secondary and got an interview within two weeks. In fact, I just interviewed today and was told that the class was 3/4 full. However, also remember that many students make a deposit but opt for a different school. I would send in your secondary. However, its up to you to decide if its worth $200.

Good luck!:luck:

thanks for your responses! hopefully I can get an interview quickly after sending everything in because I know I am down to the wire. So am I understanding that when someone is placed on the high waitlist they can be reconsidered immediately instead of having to wait until mid june? That would be amazing.

thanks for your responses! hopefully I can get an interview quickly after sending everything in because I know I am down to the wire. So am I understanding that when someone is placed on the high waitlist they can be reconsidered immediately instead of having to wait until mid june? That would be amazing.

yes. They are being completely truthful when they say that the waitlist is a true rolling waitlist. People come off of it every day. As said before, my friend was only on it for 3 or 4 days from being told he was on it to being told he was accepted.

yes. They are being completely truthful when they say that the waitlist is a true rolling waitlist. People come off of it every day. As said before, my friend was only on it for 3 or 4 days from being told he was on it to being told he was accepted.

Obed is waiting till they interview everyone until they start pulling people off waitlist. So no waitlist movement till May for this year, this is directly from him.

Would be nice if it was faster.

Obed is waiting till they interview everyone until they start pulling people off waitlist. So no waitlist movement till May for this year, this is directly from him.

Would be nice if it was faster.

there you go. most up to date info out there. It would be nice if they told us tour guides more about the waitlisting process cause ive been asked a few times on tours and had to shrug and just tell them i hope they dont have to worry about waitlists :laugh:

Even so, may is earlier than june which is when non rolling based admissions take a second look at apps. So this definitely indicates they are interviewing through the entire month of April?

Even so, may is earlier than june which is when non rolling based admissions take a second look at apps. So this definitely indicates they are interviewing through the entire month of April?

They are interviewing through April. Obed said wait list movement will occur after he get done interviewing everyone, by may. I am hoping thats early may.

Wow. I thought applying to medical school's would be so different. Thanks for everyone's honesty and comments. I keep hearing changes, misinformation, bullying, this class vs that class, me and not us. This is our careers and there is so much going on. I would like to hear from the students that transfered out. If I ever wanted to transfer? Is it complicated?

Wow. I thought applying to medical school's would be so different. Thanks for everyone's honesty and comments. I keep hearing changes, misinformation, bullying, this class vs that class, me and not us. This is our careers and there is so much going on. I would like to hear from the students that transfered out. If I ever wanted to transfer? Is it complicated?

Extremely. You have to have a very good reason. By that I mean that you have to have a very sick relative you need to take care of, or your spouse is in another state and he/she can't come to yours, or the school you currently attend was hit by a hurricane. You also need a letter from your dean verifying this, and that you are in good standing with the school. You also may need to start from year one depending on how the curriculum match up, unless you are in 3rd or 4th year.

Does anyone know whether accepted students will receive any official letter or package stating our accptance to TouroCOM? Does this school have any official correspondence at all besides Obed's emails?

We have as much right to comment on them as you highly esteemed second years.

I don't think anyone has discouraged you from commenting. I encourage input. It helps people make a decision about coming to Touro.

Wow. I thought applying to medical school's would be so different. Thanks for everyone's honesty and comments. I keep hearing changes, misinformation, bullying, this class vs that class, me and not us. This is our careers and there is so much going on. I would like to hear from the students that transfered out. If I ever wanted to transfer? Is it complicated?

Don't come to Touro with a plan of transferring out. It's not easy. I know of 6 students who have accomplished it.

I think Touro would be a great place if the Admin at the top changed. They are the problem. I really think everyone else is great for the most part - the professors, the students, even the secretaries.

Admin really just has no idea of what they're doing. Most of them are inexperienced and instead of looking at what other medical schools do, they try to invent something strange and new. Let's face it, Touro right now is probably in the bottom 10 medical schools in the country. Admin should be trying to pull board scores up, networking for its students to get great residencies, and trying to make students happy so that it develops a reputation as a great place.

Instead, they do strange things like compressing first year basic science to add pathology and pharmacology to the first year and then adding 3rd and 4th year clinical material to second year at the expense of basic sciences again. What's next? Are the deans going to warp spacetime and give us degrees before we start classes? Are we going to start our residencies before clinical rotations? It just makes no sense.

I'm taking the boards in less than two months and instead of winding down school, I have five exams and three quizzes in the last three weeks of school on top of an intro to rotations class, a white coat ceremony and an infection control class.

There is bullying. There are threats. I'm not sure if this has changed for 2013, but I know that 2011 and 2012 have many stories that warrant being shared here but I unfortunately can't because it would identify people involved who would not want any kind of retaliatory action. I would bet that Admin reads some of these posts as well, or that some students print these out and run to admin with a copy every time something less than positive is said about the school. It's happened before. Without a doubt though, people have been threatened with expulsion and told they will have negative things put on their files in order to ruin their chances at residency.

Again, I see this as problem with select group at the top. I hope this will change eventually. I really think Touro could be a great place and one a very good school if it had proper, experienced leadership.

I read your PM. Again, when there is a documented policy and people have actually accomplished arranging their own cores, then this is a marketable "benefit" of the school.

It's not so much the fact that we were mislead about the Manhattan slots, it's that we're not really in NYC at all aside from Bronx Leb, and Staten Island, if you really want to count that borough. And it's also the lack of transparency and the seeming lack of effort at getting rotations slots elsewhere. There are plenty of hospitals in Brooklyn and Queens.

The rotation situation is more a symptom of the systemic problem at Touro. Top level admin does what it wants, whenever it wants and doesn't expect any repercussions.

Are you aware of the "auditing" policy? Most medical schools have a split semester option for students who have trouble - basically the second year gets spread out into two years. Touro changed that and took it away. Anyone who failed three or more classes were officially expelled in writing but then were told that they must "audit" the second semester by attending all classes and taking all tests and pay a 7500 dollar fee. They are still expelled but they "may" be allowed back in depending on how they do. They no longer have access to student loans because they are not registered students and they aren't told what grades they need to get to get back into the school. How can a school expel students and then charge them tuition when they can't get student loans in order to keep some kind of vague undefined connection to the school? It's really awful. This isn't some isolated event. There are at least half a dozen students in this situation.

And then there are the third years who took longer to pass the COMLEX. Even though we never have had a documented cut off date that would result in expulsion, these students were also expelled on paper and then told they had to remediate basic sciences....even though they had already passed the COMLEX and had passed the first few months of rotations!! And not only that, a dean announced that the new rule is that we all have to take the COMLEX by june 30th but can fail it and then have a year to pass it and not be removed from rotations. So they expelled students, made them pay money, left them back a year even though they HAD PASSED THE COMLEX at this point and then let them back in the school even though they made up new rules in the end anyway. It's absolutely absurd.

I privately responded to you with a list of people in both classes who were given the rights to do the core rotations elsewhere.

Now are you wronged because they told you manhattan was a lock. Sure. I agree. You were mislead. If being in manhattan and manhattan alone was your only reason for coming here then I am extremely sorry for this happening to you, but maybe you should have weighed more things into your selection. But there comes a time to let that one point of anger go and realize that, without that filter of being mislead there, the rotation sites actually look REALLY nice compared to what others have to deal with. Am I almost always on the cheery side of things? Yes. But this is a very fair summary of things this time I think.

I don't think anyone has discouraged you from commenting. I encourage input. It helps people make a decision about coming to Touro.

It was in reference to sss349 a couple of posts back who had written:

"I would appreciate it if questions about rotations were answered by 2nd or 3rd years - since clearly the 1st years have been living in this bubble of dreams."

In reference to your other post about the auditing policy, yes, I've only recently become aware of it through some friends who are now going to have to repeat first year or be expelled entirely because they failed too many classes. I wasn't aware of ANY expulsion policy, and assumed that because of 2011 data that said people had failed 4+ classes and still went on to take the boards, that there simply wasn't any expulsion policy. Didn't hear about the COMLEX rule. It doesn't make sense to me that they'd make that rule based on one year's data that showed the earlier they took it, the better they did. Then again, it's Lenihan... Why am I not surprised?

I'm conflicted about the expulsion policy because I believe that they should have made it clear to the class instead of springing it on them. But I also see where the administration is coming from and having to show better numbers that they weren't getting from people they were allowing to move on to the next year despite failing too many classes.

The COMLEX rule I think can be changed. I'm not sure why they have to be left behind a year for failing the early date. They can just take a retake a few months later on, right? Or is that only for the USMLE?

There never was any set date. The school originally had a cut off of Oct 15th or be removed from rotations. There was never anything about expulsion. It appears to be another money making scheme. This people passed the COMLEX, albiet after October 15th, and they should've been allowed to return to rotations. Instead they were expelled and then offered to "audit" for $7500 bucks and retake classes they've already passed. Why should they retake basic sciences when they already passed COMLEX and months of rotations?

And not only that, Goldberg announced a new policy just before break that anyone who scores below 500 on the COMLEX will lose a month of elective in the fourth year to do an audit month of basic science work! What could possibly be the point? Who knows how the policy changes. They certainly avoid documenting policy on paper, so maybe it'll never happen or become something even more useless down the road.

Agreed on Lenihan. Multiple students called him out on not having enough data to make his bizarre assertions. One of my favorite is that having less time to study for COMLEX results in better COMLEX scores? Hahahahahahahaha. The guy has no experience as a med school administrator and has no business being in his position but he'll certainly play with stats to try to make it look like he does.

It was in reference to sss349 a couple of posts back who had written:

"I would appreciate it if questions about rotations were answered by 2nd or 3rd years - since clearly the 1st years have been living in this bubble of dreams."

In reference to your other post about the auditing policy, yes, I've only recently become aware of it through some friends who are now going to have to repeat first year or be expelled entirely because they failed too many classes. I wasn't aware of ANY expulsion policy, and assumed that because of 2011 data that said people had failed 4+ classes and still went on to take the boards, that there simply wasn't any expulsion policy. Didn't hear about the COMLEX rule. It doesn't make sense to me that they'd make that rule based on one year's data that showed the earlier they took it, the better they did. Then again, it's Lenihan... Why am I not surprised?

I'm conflicted about the expulsion policy because I believe that they should have made it clear to the class instead of springing it on them. But I also see where the administration is coming from and having to show better numbers that they weren't getting from people they were allowing to move on to the next year despite failing too many classes.

The COMLEX rule I think can be changed. I'm not sure why they have to be left behind a year for failing the early date. They can just take a retake a few months later on, right? Or is that only for the USMLE?

Does anyone know if the high waitlist has started to move yet?

Thanks

Does anyone know if the high waitlist has started to move yet?

Thanks

There is a wait list thread... and, we were told that there would be no movement until Obed sent an email to see who was still interested.

From what I hear, the last interview is Wednesday. Hopefully they will start pulling us in shortly thereafter. :luck:

I hope so. I'm getting nervous and have already moved significant amounts on other waitlists. I don't want to have to make a decision elsewhere before hearing from Touro.

Facebook TouroCOM c/o 2014 (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=643988094&v=info&viewas=643988094#%21/group.php?gid=113245495377566&ref=ts)

,

Hi,

Just wanted to let all of you know, Touro lost their Bronx Lebanon Rotation Site. The information leaked to a few students from a chief resident.

Why did they lose Bronx Lebanon? Competition from caribbean schools? How many rotation sites are now in NYC?

Why did they lose Bronx Lebanon? Competition from caribbean schools? How many rotation sites are now in NYC?


If anyone is not interested in this school please call Obed to be taken off of the waitlist. Ws waitlisters will be eternally grateful to you!

Yay! I got accepted yesterday!

I know a few individuals were having problems viewing the class link:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=174841614306&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=174841614306

how does the NYMC/Touro merger affect the incoming class?

Why did they lose Bronx Lebanon? Competition from caribbean schools? How many rotation sites are now in NYC?

Probably a few reasons - Touro Admin isn't the most likable bunch by any stretch and Bronx Leb wants to make money. Having Touro rotate doesn't add any prestige so if Bronx Leb wants to profit off those spots, it's no huge loss for them to get rid of Touro and Ross to let in a Caribbean school that will pay more money.

There have been rumors that Touro was going to lose Bronx Leb for over a year now, so this isn't a huge surprise. It's going to be quite a hardship though for the 24 students who planned their lives based on being in Bronx Leb for most of their rotations of third year. Touro Admin should've been forthright with this information much sooner instead of letting students find out through the rumor mill. Such is Touro.

how does the NYMC/Touro merger affect the incoming class?

It won't have any affect on the DO school. NYMC probably will experience a bit of Touro-ization.