Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine (ACOM) Discussion Thread 2016-2017

[lnguyen1412]

Oo really?? Ok thank you! That makes me feel better. I only went to LECOM's interview and there were like 40 ppl there.

Last time I counted in the interview appt portsl, there were only 22 slots for my date so I assumed the same. I counted 5 of us getting accepted (no idea how many does not post here).

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[velodork]

I'm getting worried for my September interview! I know it's "early", but it sounds like already 100+ people have been accepted.

Many schools havent even started interviewing yet. New schools like ACOM have every incentive to interview/accept as early as possible because they know that most of their applicants will be accepted elsewhere to more established/desireable programs.

 

[Batou]

I'm not sure if this was discussed in prior posts but can anyone speak to the quality of rotations and whether they are ward or preceptor based? I know this is a new school but it seems to be really building a good reputation which is encouraging! I think I'm going to love this school

I'm a third year rotating in Dothan, so my knowledge is somewhat limited to my area. Currently here, there are no residency programs (there will be one starting in 2018 for IM), so it's all preceptor based. From what I understand, most of the rotations sights do not have residency programs. Downside is that you may not get exposure to how that works until you do visiting rotations, upside is you do way more stuff. One of the other third years in my area is doing a crazy number of surgeries and is assisting/closing. A friend in another sight delivered a crazy number of babies on his OB rotation. It's going to be what you make of it.

If anyone has any other questions, I'll try to check back and answer them, as I'm sure other current students are doing. Or feel free to private message me if you like.

Remember, they were interviewing well into spring the last few years, and people were accepted off the wait list as late as orientation week. Try not to freak out too much, and good luck.

 

[lnguyen1412]

I'm a third year rotating in Dothan, so my knowledge is somewhat limited to my area. Currently here, there are no residency programs (there will be one starting in 2018 for IM), so it's all preceptor based. From what I understand, most of the rotations sights do not have residency programs. Downside is that you may not get exposure to how that works until you do visiting rotations, upside is you do way more stuff. One of the other third years in my area is doing a crazy number of surgeries and is assisting/closing. A friend in another sight delivered a crazy number of babies on his OB rotation. It's going to be what you make of it.

If anyone has any other questions, I'll try to check back and answer them, as I'm sure other current students are doing. Or feel free to private message me if you like.

Remember, they were interviewing well into spring the last few years, and people were accepted off the wait list as late as orientation week. Try not to freak out too much, and good luck.

I'll maybe the future student at ACOM. What will you recommend I should do until school start?

 

[superdudu]

I'll maybe the future student at ACOM. What will you recommend I should do until school start?

Relax, travel, hang out with friends, learn to make some dishes, shop for adult clothe. If you feel like reading/learning something, review molecular and anatomy. Things like pumps, cell signaling, muscle names and their general locations will really help you hit the ground running when school starts. But no need to focus on the minute details, just the general gist of things.

 

[aidnaltiam]

Hey guys, I'm sorry if this was previously posted and I missed it, but why do they ask for ACT/SAT scores on the secondary? Do I need to disclose this information? I honestly don't remember...

 

[Brawndo2016]

Hey guys, I'm sorry if this was previously posted and I missed it, but why do they ask for ACT/SAT scores on the secondary? Do I need to disclose this information? I honestly don't remember...

No, I didn't list anything and have interviewed already.

 

[aidnaltiam]

No, I didn't list anything and have interviewed already.

Alright. Thank you very much

 

[epap]

Good luck to those of you interviewing! Currently a first year here at ACOM! Happy to answer any questions I can. I will try to check this forum as my schedule allows/when I feel like procrastinating from studying anatomy/molecular

 

[MS4.MD]

So I received an acceptance from ACOM, I love every aspect of the school and it is close to home (4 hour drive). I was thinking about canceling my other interviews at BCOM, LECOM Erie, NYIT, and WCUCOM. Could anyone give me insight into theses schools like if they're as good as ACOM? I researched them and was not getting the same feel ACOM did.

 

[bengalsfan0525]

Just out of curiosity, Arkansas NYIT or NY NYIT?

Edit: Also cancelled LECOM.

 

[TAL14]

I also canceled BCOM and LECOM Erie. But I have heard good things about NYIT. I would want to check that school out before I made my final decision.


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[jcve34]

So I received an acceptance from ACOM, I love every aspect of the school and it is close to home (4 hour drive). I was thinking about canceling my other interviews at BCOM, LECOM Erie, NYIT, and WCUCOM. Could anyone give me insight into theses schools like if they're as good as ACOM? I researched them and was not getting the same feel ACOM did.

BCOM, LECOM and WCUCOM have about the same to offer as ACOM if not less when taking into account that ACOM is apart of the nearby medical center

 

[lnguyen1412]

So I received an acceptance from ACOM, I love every aspect of the school and it is close to home (4 hour drive). I was thinking about canceling my other interviews at BCOM, LECOM Erie, NYIT, and WCUCOM. Could anyone give me insight into theses schools like if they're as good as ACOM? I researched them and was not getting the same feel ACOM did.

So far ACOM also gave me the best feeling. But I still gonna check out LMU and Touro to make my final decision. I'm 80% sure about ACOM now though. Love it!!!
In addition, I also need to work to earn money for deposit haha

 

[lnguyen1412]

@Batou just a question for you:

How do you feel basic science curriculum prepared you for clinical years?

Why did you choose Dothan site over others?

I also noticed that PCOM have residency program at SAMC in internal medicine, is that specific rotation a ward base?

 

[Batou]

I'll maybe the future student at ACOM. What will you recommend I should do until school start?

Personally, I would try to relax as much as you can. If you're really weak on biochem or anatomy, you could certainly look over it, but really not much will compare. It's an overused expression, "drinking from a fire hose," but it is accurate. Try not to stress about school before you get there, there will be PLENTY of time to stress out over it.

@Batou just a question for you:

How do you feel basic science curriculum prepared you for clinical years?

Why did you choose Dothan site over others?

I also noticed that PCOM have residency program at SAMC in internal medicine, is that specific rotation a ward base?

Basic science for my year was great, though the best professor has since moved on. I feel like I forgot most of the stuff I learned first semester, as I expect most do, and you relearn it for boards. It rarely comes up in clinicals so far, aside from random pimping knowledge. Drugs and disease mechanisms are vastly more important. Of course, your mileage my vary.

I chose Dothan for a number of reasons. Primarily, I had some personal medical issues around the time frame we had to choose, and I didn't want to find a new neurosurgeon to work with. Also my wife and I have a house, and I'd heard some great things about preceptors here. I'd heard great things about other sights too, but for me staying was a far less stressful choice with all the personal stuff that was going on. I'm really glad I did, I will get to work with some of the awesome guest lecturers we had, and I've enjoyed all my preceptors (all 3 of them ) so far. Talking with friends at other sights, it sounds like most of them are having a great time, though to be fair I haven't talked to anyone at the really small sights.

There is a IM residency at SAMC planned to start in 2018, I don't know it's affiliation. Previously, PCOM had students rotating at various sights throughout AL, as part of AMEC. My understanding is, at least in Dothan, it's only ACOM students now. As we have two classes rotating now, other areas probably have fewer students from other schools as well, but I don't know for sure. In Dothan it's preceptor based, there are no residents of any sort here.

 

[lnguyen1412]

Personally, I would try to relax as much as you can. If you're really weak on biochem or anatomy, you could certainly look over it, but really not much will compare. It's an overused expression, "drinking from a fire hose," but it is accurate. Try not to stress about school before you get there, there will be PLENTY of time to stress out over it.



Basic science for my year was great, though the best professor has since moved on. I feel like I forgot most of the stuff I learned first semester, as I expect most do, and you relearn it for boards. It rarely comes up in clinicals so far, aside from random pimping knowledge. Drugs and disease mechanisms are vastly more important. Of course, your mileage my vary.

I chose Dothan for a number of reasons. Primarily, I had some personal medical issues around the time frame we had to choose, and I didn't want to find a new neurosurgeon to work with. Also my wife and I have a house, and I'd heard some great things about preceptors here. I'd heard great things about other sights too, but for me staying was a far less stressful choice with all the personal stuff that was going on. I'm really glad I did, I will get to work with some of the awesome guest lecturers we had, and I've enjoyed all my preceptors (all 3 of them ) so far. Talking with friends at other sights, it sounds like most of them are having a great time, though to be fair I haven't talked to anyone at the really small sights.

There is a IM residency at SAMC planned to start in 2018, I don't know it's affiliation. Previously, PCOM had students rotating at various sights throughout AL, as part of AMEC. My understanding is, at least in Dothan, it's only ACOM students now. As we have two classes rotating now, other areas probably have fewer students from other schools as well, but I don't know for sure. In Dothan it's preceptor based, there are no residents of any sort here.

Thanks. You have cleared up most of the thing for me . I have a few more for you, and I promise these will be it. Sorry to have swamp you with questions, I'm a curious pre-med haha.

Do you recommend study boards since day 1? Or starting second years?
Do the school provide you any timeframe to study for boards?

I love Dothan and I would also like to stay there for my 3rd year as well because I think it will be more convenient for me. But I'll explore other sites by the time I'm second year there.
Thank you.

 

[MS4.MD]

Just out of curiosity, Arkansas NYIT or NY NYIT?

Edit: Also cancelled LECOM.

It was NYIT NY I believe.

 

[MS4.MD]

So far ACOM also gave me the best feeling. But I still gonna check out LMU and Touro to make my final decision. I'm 80% sure about ACOM now though. Love it!!!
In addition, I also need to work to earn money for deposit haha

Yeah same here! That's why I did not want to waste any money on other interviews.

 

[Batou]

Thanks. You have cleared up most of the thing for me . I have a few more for you, and I promise these will be it. Sorry to have swamp you with questions, I'm a curious pre-med haha.

Do you recommend study boards since day 1? Or starting second years?
Do the school provide you any timeframe to study for boards?

I love Dothan and I would also like to stay there for my 3rd year as well because I think it will be more convenient for me. But I'll explore other sites by the time I'm second year there.
Thank you.

Don't worry about boards till 2nd year, in my opinion. Definitely not from the first day, you won't know enough to be able to do any actual board study.

I personally liked Pathoma, which the school does provide for second year. I got it 2nd semester to go along with neuro, which helped me a lot. I liked using USMLE-RX during systems 2nd year to practice board style questions. It's not as good as UWorld, but it's cheaper, and most suggest saving UWorld till your dedicated study time.

My class got about 6 weeks dedicated board study time, though there was some short things interspersed. I've heard this is changing with 2019, so I can't say what it will be like for 2021.

 

[lnguyen1412]

Don't worry about boards till 2nd year, in my opinion. Definitely not from the first day, you won't know enough to be able to do any actual board study.

I personally liked Pathoma, which the school does provide for second year. I got it 2nd semester to go along with neuro, which helped me a lot. I liked using USMLE-RX during systems 2nd year to practice board style questions. It's not as good as UWorld, but it's cheaper, and most suggest saving UWorld till your dedicated study time.

My class got about 6 weeks dedicated board study time, though there was some short things interspersed. I've heard this is changing with 2019, so I can't say what it will be like for 2021.

Thanks. U the best.

During my interview I did ask about board preps and the interviewer said that they plan to purchase Wolfpack to help future students prepare for board!!! They are well aware of the merger and want to do all they can to help student not only pass COMPLEX but do well in USMLE as well if they wish to take it.

 

[ritts]

Can anyone comment on the dress code for lecture?

 

[FCMike11]

Can anyone comment on the dress code for lecture?

It's either business casual or scrubs (+++). Seems like most students (from what the ambassador said) love the scrubs option. There are some exceptions - the day I was there the Governor of Alabama was as well and all students were asked to wear business casual.

 

[cjcarter]

Can anyone comment on the dress code for lecture?

Scrubs or business casual for lectures. White coat for guest speakers.


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[Alienman52]

Are ACOMs rotations wards or preceptor based? Or is it a mix? How are the best rotations distributed?


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[Prilozack]

I'm getting worried for my September interview! I know it's "early", but it sounds like already 100+ people have been accepted.

I highly doubt more than 100 have been accepted.

 

[femmegoblue]

I highly doubt more than 100 have been accepted.

Not that this is an actual representation of admitted students, but there's only like 25 people in the FB group!

 

[cptnjack]

hey guys, I'm interviewing this friday , september 9th, I saw that most of you who flew in went to atlanta and drove from there to dothan. How long did it take you guys to drive, and how bad is traffic on the way back to atlanta, and in dothan in the AM of the interview? I still haven't booked my flight hotel or car, so trying to do that ASAP now. also, any tips guys!?! Planning on arriving thursday evening, and then leaving to ATL right after the interview. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[cjcarter]

I think the drive to ATL is 3 hours. I flew into PCB and it was around 1.5 hour drive from the airport to Dothan. Small airport, very clean and hardly any people were there. I recommend it!


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[dr_of_rock]

Flying into Atlanta is the cheapest. And google maps says it's a 3:08 drive. My interview is on a Friday. I plan on flying in Thursday evening and leaving right after the interview also.

 

[Prilozack]

You can also fly into PCB. It's about an hour and a half or so from there.

 

[MADD!!!]

+1 for flying into PCB. That's what I'm doing. @stardust379

 

[GBCrzzyy]

I'm still just kind of stunned that I have an II at a medical school. It totally doesn't feel real

 

[DocWinter]

Are ACOMs rotations wards or preceptor based? Or is it a mix? How are the best rotations distributed?


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I am a 3rd year at ACOM. Primarily preceptor based. You get assigned a Dr in your rotation and mainly stay with them, follow their pts and occasionally get passed to other providers in the same field depending on preceptor, site and workload.

What do you mean by the distribution? Are you asking which rotation sites are the best?

 

[GBCrzzyy]

I am a 3rd year at ACOM. Primarily preceptor based. You get assigned a Dr in your rotation and mainly stay with them, follow their pts and occasionally get passed to other providers in the same field depending on preceptor, site and workload.

What do you mean by the distribution? Are you asking which rotation sites are the best?

I think they mean which students get the best rotations? How do they decide who gets what?

 

[hiijakd]

I think they mean which students get the best rotations? How do they decide who gets what?

you enter your top 10 sites and the school places them into an algorithm that makes the most people happy. There are no qualifiers to place one person above the other. The only exception to that process is the fellows who get first choice of clinical sites as part of their contract.

 

[hiijakd]

hey guys, I'm interviewing this friday , september 9th, I saw that most of you who flew in went to atlanta and drove from there to dothan. How long did it take you guys to drive, and how bad is traffic on the way back to atlanta, and in dothan in the AM of the interview? I still haven't booked my flight hotel or car, so trying to do that ASAP now. also, any tips guys!?! Planning on arriving thursday evening, and then leaving to ATL right after the interview. Any advice is appreciated!

Keep in mind that ATL is ONE HOUR AHEAD of Dothan. You don't want to miss your return flight because you can't get back in time. The interview day wraps up around 3-3:30 in the afternoon local time.

 

[DocWinter]

I think they mean which students get the best rotations? How do they decide who gets what?

What hijack said. We had good success, 66% of our class got their #1 pick and 95ish % got top 3.

There are really no best sites, there is what you want and where you want to live

 

[gamieg]

hey guys, I'm interviewing this friday , september 9th, I saw that most of you who flew in went to atlanta and drove from there to dothan. How long did it take you guys to drive, and how bad is traffic on the way back to atlanta, and in dothan in the AM of the interview? I still haven't booked my flight hotel or car, so trying to do that ASAP now. also, any tips guys!?! Planning on arriving thursday evening, and then leaving to ATL right after the interview. Any advice is appreciated!

I really recommend giving yourself at least 4 hours to get to and from Dothan from Atlanta, especially during rush hours. the rental car terminal is outside the airport and you have to take a shuttle and walk there, same coming back. it's really conveniently planned out for an airport, but still takes time to find and navigate just because it's somewhere new.

the drive itself is relatively easy, mostly two-laned roads that are highway speed with some bits going into towns where the speed limit is accordingly lower. there are long stretches where there aren't any streetlights or other cars though, especially if you're driving at night (like I did). going to Dothan took me about 3.5 hours, a little less when coming back because it was daylight and a weekend so less traffic.

most people had to book it back to Atlanta right after the interview, and I imagine the traffic was a bit rough in Atlanta because of people getting off of work. like previous posters said, take the time difference into consideration. it's nice going to Dothan because you gain an extra hour, but you lose it going back to Atlanta so book the flight accordingly. good luck and drive safe!

 

[sanix95]

I used the Panama City airport. I liked that there was no time difference, and the traffic wasn't too bad. However, the road that my GPS took my to was a one lane and very curvy. Kind of annoying when I couldn't pass the car ahead of me

 

[Prilozack]

What hijack said. We had good success, 66% of our class got their #1 pick and 95ish % got top 3.

There are really no best sites, there is what you want and where you want to live

Can you choose rotations in any state if you have connections with other academic institutions?

 

[DocWinter]

Can you choose rotations in any state if you have connections with other academic institutions?

No...You get one of the 20 core rotation sites. You can do away rotations in 4th year in many other places if you can arrange it/get approved.

 

[FedForPres]

Can anyone share their timeline from secondary sent to II? I know it can vary, I just wanted to see a couple examples as I am going to send in my secondary tonight! (Also include stats if you don't mind sharing .)

 

[sanix95]

Can anyone share their timeline from secondary sent to II? I know it can vary, I just wanted to see a couple examples as I am going to send in my secondary tonight! (Also include stats if you don't mind sharing .)

Secondary sent 7/12
Complete 7/12
II 7/20
Interview 8/12

 

[FedForPres]

Secondary sent 7/12
Complete 7/12
II 7/20
Interview 8/12

Thanks for the quick reply! Anything you can note about the interview? Laid back, tough questions, etc.? (Assuming I even get an II.)

 

[CyrusJS]

My interview is this Friday. I reserved at the Comfort Inn & Suites because of the free shuttle service for the interview. Is the shuttle service something we have to make an appointment for beforehand, or if I just show up it will be available? Not much information about it was provided on the interview informational.

 

[Wiggly Tuff Da Ruff]

My interview is this Friday. I reserved at the Comfort Inn & Suites because of the free shuttle service for the interview. Is the shuttle service something we have to make an appointment for beforehand, or if I just show up it will be available? Not much information about it was provided on the interview informational.

Email admissions to ask for shuttle service! If you have mr. Bob Willis email email him directly!

 

[jcve34]

My interview is this Friday. I reserved at the Comfort Inn & Suites because of the free shuttle service for the interview. Is the shuttle service something we have to make an appointment for beforehand, or if I just show up it will be available? Not much information about it was provided on the interview informational.

And they have a complimentary breakfast that wasn't bad!

 

[GBCrzzyy]

Can anyone share their timeline from secondary sent to II? I know it can vary, I just wanted to see a couple examples as I am going to send in my secondary tonight! (Also include stats if you don't mind sharing .)

complete 8/25
II 8/31
scheduled for earliest date possible at that time 11/18

 

[medschoolplease123]

so is this correct: the comfort inn will provide a shuttle to and from campus for an interview if you schedule it with the adcom? And how much is typically 1 night for the comfort inn? Anyone know?

My interview is this Friday. I reserved at the Comfort Inn & Suites because of the free shuttle service for the interview. Is the shuttle service something we have to make an appointment for beforehand, or if I just show up it will be available? Not much information about it was provided on the interview informational.

Email admissions to ask for shuttle service! If you have mr. Bob Willis email email him directly!

And they have a complimentary breakfast that wasn't bad!