2019-2020 Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (Georgia Campus)

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Received an acceptance letter in the mail today as well! :)
 
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Current OMS1 here. Ask me questions if you have any.
Just finishing SPOM in 2 weeks so I can give pretty fresh views on current classes.
Warning though, I may be late in responding.
GL with all your apps.
 
LimeCloud said:
Current OMS1 here. Ask me questions if you have any.
Just finishing SPOM in 2 weeks so I can give pretty fresh views on current classes.
Warning though, I may be late in responding.
GL with all your apps.
Click to expand...
How do you feel about the mandatory attendance? Do you think it has helped/hurt your preparation for your exams? Do you still have time to study, workout, sleep??
 
SteministUnderGrad said:
How do you feel about the mandatory attendance? Do you think it has helped/hurt your preparation for your exams? Do you still have time to study, workout, sleep??
Click to expand...

Starting off with a tough one to approach I guess...
My perspective on mandatory attendance is pretty negative, unfortunately.
This is because I don't learn efficiently by listening to lecture in classroom.
The first time I am exposed to a material, I need time to pause and look up stuff that I don't know and make connections with facts I already know to make a big picture.
I can't do this in classroom without missing a bunch of information every time.

After I form this big picture, I memorize the terms and facts by using anki.
The good thing about a school that has been open for a while is that the upperclassmen already made anki decks for most lectures (excluding embryology, which was drastically overhauled recently).
These anki decks and other learning resources from upperclassmen are very readily accessible.

So, I need to form a big picture and then do the relevant anki.
With mandatory attendance, I basically ended up not listening to lecture.

While I will physically be sitting in the lecture hall, I will have earplugs on.
In fact, I now mostly form the big picture by using the anki browser to read through the relevant deck's cards.
And then I do that anki deck and look over the lecture ppt to make sure I didn't miss anything.

This gives me actually enough time to exercise twice a week for 3 hrs at a time (pure exercise time).
This basically means I don't study after school twice a week because I get home at about 10:30 PM after exercise.
The rest of the time, I am mostly studying though.

So things are not unendurable.
I, like most others, have found ways to cope with it.
The first 2 trimesters are supposedly the worst, so I am hoping things will further improve.

Mandatory attendance does hurt my learning by wasting a lot of time.
Unfortunately, the faculty seem pretty dead set on making "active learning" in classroom the main source of learning of students.
This is usually done with clicker questions and overload of quizzes, as well as releasing a week's worth of recorded lectures on the friday of that week.
What a lot of students felt was that the overload of assignments try to micromanage the students' learning.

We recently brought this up and the faculty were willing to reduce the assignments for next trimester, so we will see.

I personally feel that this is the worst aspect of PCOM GA. Not anything that cannot be overcome, but it just creates needless hurdles, pain and stress.
It definitely goes against the current trend in medical schools.

That said, quite a few of my classmates can actually learn efficiently from lecture, unlike me.
For them, it does not matter, as they will be going to lecture anyway.
So how it affects you will ultimately depend on how you learn.
 
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If you guys had the option to attend both, would you choose PCOM-GA or ACOM?
 
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gagee said:
If you guys had the option to attend both, would you choose PCOM-GA or ACOM?
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Such a personal choice...I’d say whichever is 1) cheapest 2) has best match rates in your desired specialty (if you have one yet) 3) which location fits your lifestyle best (consider proximity to support system, campus resources, recreation, weather).

Congrats on two As, that’s amazing!!
 
I'm currently filling out the AACOMAS primary and am worried that I will applying super late in the cycle. Is the DO cycle similar to the MD cycle in terms of early (July-August)/on-time(September)/late (October)?
If I am complete at PCOM by early December, would that have a huge effect on my chances? LM 68-69/GA resident​
 
sumbrwnkid said:
I'm currently filling out the AACOMAS primary and am worried that I will applying super late in the cycle. Is the DO cycle similar to the MD cycle in terms of early (July-August)/on-time(September)/late (October)?
If I am complete at PCOM by early December, would that have a huge effect on my chances? LM 68-69/GA resident
Click to expand...
DO cycle is much longer than MD so I think you should still be ok. I would try to be complete before Thanksgiving.
 
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LimeCloud said:
Starting off with a tough one to approach I guess...
My perspective on mandatory attendance is pretty negative, unfortunately.
This is because I don't learn efficiently by listening to lecture in classroom.
The first time I am exposed to a material, I need time to pause and look up stuff that I don't know and make connections with facts I already know to make a big picture.
I can't do this in classroom without missing a bunch of information every time.

After I form this big picture, I memorize the terms and facts by using anki.
The good thing about a school that has been open for a while is that the upperclassmen already made anki decks for most lectures (excluding embryology, which was drastically overhauled recently).
These anki decks and other learning resources from upperclassmen are very readily accessible.

So, I need to form a big picture and then do the relevant anki.
With mandatory attendance, I basically ended up not listening to lecture.

While I will physically be sitting in the lecture hall, I will have earplugs on.
In fact, I now mostly form the big picture by using the anki browser to read through the relevant deck's cards.
And then I do that anki deck and look over the lecture ppt to make sure I didn't miss anything.

This gives me actually enough time to exercise twice a week for 3 hrs at a time (pure exercise time).
This basically means I don't study after school twice a week because I get home at about 10:30 PM after exercise.
The rest of the time, I am mostly studying though.

So things are not unendurable.
I, like most others, have found ways to cope with it.
The first 2 trimesters are supposedly the worst, so I am hoping things will further improve.

Mandatory attendance does hurt my learning by wasting a lot of time.
Unfortunately, the faculty seem pretty dead set on making "active learning" in classroom the main source of learning of students.
This is usually done with clicker questions and overload of quizzes, as well as releasing a week's worth of recorded lectures on the friday of that week.
What a lot of students felt was that the overload of assignments try to micromanage the students' learning.

We recently brought this up and the faculty were willing to reduce the assignments for next trimester, so we will see.

I personally feel that this is the worst aspect of PCOM GA. Not anything that cannot be overcome, but it just creates needless hurdles, pain and stress.
It definitely goes against the current trend in medical schools.

That said, quite a few of my classmates can actually learn efficiently from lecture, unlike me.
For them, it does not matter, as they will be going to lecture anyway.
So how it affects you will ultimately depend on how you learn.
Click to expand...
Is there currently any discussion of overturning mandatory attendance? It seems to be deeply unpopular.
 
9s_2b said:
Is there currently any discussion of overturning mandatory attendance? It seems to be deeply unpopular.
Click to expand...
The faculty are extremely adamant about this one. I dont see it goung away at least in the next few years, or until there is a major change in leadership
 
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SteministUnderGrad said:
Such a personal choice...I’d say whichever is 1) cheapest 2) has best match rates in your desired specialty (if you have one yet) 3) which location fits your lifestyle best (consider proximity to support system, campus resources, recreation, weather).

Congrats on two As, that’s amazing!!
Click to expand...
Thank you! This is really a hard choice! I really liked ACOMs campus and the way the staff seemed to be in each student's life, but ACOM is fairly new which is the only negative I have... But even then... they already have a great reputation. PCOMGA on the other hand has good stats and match rates for the past few years.. cost will be around the same... Ahh in my mind they are both equally good! Which is making it so hard for me to decide. Thank you for your response! I am going to have to lay out pros and cons!
 
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II today! Complete in July
 
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Wannabedoctor1029 said:
Does PCOM only take IS applicants? I was complete in July and haven't heard anything. LM ~69
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No, they also accept OOS. They’re private so they don’t really have strong IS preference. But I’ve heard that PCOM South GA does prefer IS south Georgians
 
Wannabedoctor1029 said:
Does PCOM only take IS applicants? I was complete in July and haven't heard anything. LM ~69
Click to expand...
Also, were your letters sent in after you paid for the supplemental portion? That happened to me and I called them, they sorted it out, and then I was really complete.
 
At what point following secondary submission would it be safe to ask for some sort of update? 3-4ish months? I definitely don't want to be a bother by asking too soon.
 
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__lav__ said:
At what point following secondary submission would it be safe to ask for some sort of update? 3-4ish months? I definitely don't want to be a bother by asking too soon.
Click to expand...


Check the portal and make sure everything is complete there. If it is, then it is just a waiting game.
 
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Does anyone have data on the interview to acceptance ratio at this campus? I can’t find it anywhere
 
chicayeye96 said:
Does anyone have data on the interview to acceptance ratio at this campus? I can’t find it anywhere
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Last year 427 were accepted. I forgot now, but I remember deciding on a guess for about how many they likely interviewed based oh how often they interview (twice a week?) and how many people were at my interview (about 20). I can't imagine they would interview more than like 600 people, but I could be wrong. I suspect the post II A rate is probably close to 70%, but again I can't prove this.
 
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II just now, complete late july
 
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Docnish said:
First thing was the writing portion. After, we were taken for the presentation on the school, financial aid. We went on a tour of the school after that. The interview is a 2 on 1 and is at the end of day (you’re dismissed as your interview is over). Really chill, they’ll use the answers you wrote during the morning to guide some of their questions. I ended up joking around with my interviewers bc it was that chill.
Click to expand...

Hey! I’ll be interviewing here in a couple weeks and was curious if the 2 on 1 is open or closed file?
 
So, when I first started looking to apply to PCOM it looked like they took CASPER, but now they don't? Are they doing MMIs to make up for this in the interviews? I'm planning to apply next cycle.
 
Noticed my portal changed today asking for a deposit. Hoping for good news!
 
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Portal changed asking for deposit. Interviewed last Friday.
 
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Dr.gylenhal said:
Portal changed asking for deposit. Interviewed last Friday.
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I see a portal change too! The deposit options are added to my checklist. Did you get an actual link to make a deposit or is it just a checklist item at this point? Don't want to get my hopes up if it isn't really an acceptance
 
chicayeye96 said:
I see a portal change too! The deposit options are added to my checklist. Did you get an actual link to make a deposit or is it just a checklist item at this point? Don't want to get my hopes up if it isn't really an acceptance
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I got my acceptance letter last week. First my portal changed and added deposit money to my checklist. Then it changed again with a link to pay the deposit. Then I got the letter in the mail a few days later.
 
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