ATSU (KCOM) vs Nova

[mspeedwagon]

First let me say that I'm blessed to have two acceptances in hand with several more interviews upcoming. That said, I basically have till Feb. 13th to put down a deposit at either Nova or ATSU-KCOM. I'm leaning one way, but I don't want to taint replies so here is a basic pros/cons list for each. It seems tuition is roughly the same (COA is higher for Nova unless I'm selected for their research yr (see below), in which case it would be quite a bit cheaper).

ATSU-KCOM
Pros:
- Reputation. Oldest DO school. Solid match (from what I can tell).
- Friendly: It's a small town. Everyone is friendly. It would be easy do adjust (I think). Although, coming from Manhattan is might be pretty boring.
- Cost of living: It's Kirksville, MO. My current rent for a few months would cover my two years there.
- Opportunity to move: I can/have to do rotations elsewhere. I would get to choose from a variety of places. It's a lottery system though so I may not get my top choice.
- Academic support: I've been out of school a long time. It seemed that ATSU had more non-trads and more structured academic support for them compared to Nova.
- They had more patient simulators including one that actually gave birth. I don't know how much of an advantage this is, but their facilities were high tech. They also had an ultrasound lab which seemed cool, but again, it's another class on top of an already packed schedule.

Cons:
- Location (Kirksville). While I don't mind a small town, Kirksville is really hard to get to. It involves a flight on a Cessna from St Louis or driving 3-4 hrs from other "major" cities. With family in California and Boston and lots of friends in NYC, it's a really long flight out. For example, to get to Boston I flew Kirksville-St. Louis-Charlotte-Boston.
- Moving: While it's nice to have the opportunity to move, I feel I may not have as strong of a bond with my classmates. I can foresee us losing touch during rotations. The bond is what I'm most looking forward to (beyond becoming a doctor of course).
- Social life: It seemed that most of the class was married. Seems to be a common choice among the Mormons (just bring that up b/c Mormons get married young and aren't open to dating outside their community for the most part). I'd love to have the option of dating in med school.
- Lots of classes and lots of OMM/OMT. While I don't mind it, I've heard it can take away from time for other classes. Also, ATSU-KCOM has more classes in general than other schools. There semester starts in early July to accommodate this. Students weren't thrilled about this fact. They said the semester is very long.


Nova Southeastern
Pros:
- Academics: Seemed ok on interview day. Classes were large, but people seemed to know each other. I've heard the first year is awful and the second year is awesome. Seemed to be the universal opinion.
- Weather. I HATE winter weather. I interviewed on what they considered an "awful" day. It rained in the morning. I can live with that. And the campus is gorgeous.
- Rotations: Looks like you can stay put for the majority of your four years. There are some things that have to be done away (rural rotations) and some opportunities where you can go away (international), but you can be based in Florida the whole time.
- Flights: With both Fort Lauderdale and Miami airport, I can get anywhere I want to (direct).
- Social: I did not run into too many (any) married folks. Also, it has a full university so I could date outside of the med school potentially.
- They have a program where if you take a year off in between years two and three and do research, you can get the remainder of your school free. It's super competitive, but I was told at my interview I'd be an awesome candidate (coming in with 10 yrs of prior research experience). I'd be very interested in this and, as long as I do fine academically, see no reason I wouldn't be in contention.

Cons:
- Three months of a rural rotations in the 4th year. I hear for some this can interfere with audition rotations.
- First year of classes are supposedly hell. Lots of tests and not well structured. Lots of complaints.
- Less patient simulators (compared to ATSU-KCOM).
- Cost of living in higher than in Kirksville. Coming from NYC it isn't terrible, but factor to consider.
- Lots of med schools in Florida. Reputation might not be as strong as some of the others in the state. Could effect the ability to get elective rotations.

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[DoctorSynthesis]

First let me say that I'm blessed to have two acceptances in hand with several more interviews upcoming. That said, I basically have till Feb. 13th to put down a deposit at either Nova or ATSU-KCOM. I'm leaning one way, but I don't want to taint replies so here is a basic pros/cons list for each. It seems tuition is roughly the same (COA is higher for Nova unless I'm selected for their research yr (see below), in which case it would be quite a bit cheaper).

ATSU-KCOM
Pros:
- Reputation. Oldest DO school. Solid match (from what I can tell).
- Friendly: It's a small town. Everyone is friendly. It would be easy do adjust (I think).
- Cost of living: It's Kirksville, MO. My current rent for a few months would cover my two years there.
- Opportunity to move: I can/have to do rotations elsewhere. I would get to choose from a variety of places. It's a lottery system though so I may not get my top choice.
- Academic support: I've been out of school a long time. It seemed that ATSU had more non-trads and more structured academic support for them compared to Nova.
- They had more patient simulators including one that actually gave birth. I don't know how much of an advantage this is, but their facilities were high tech. They also had an ultrasound lab which seemed cool, but again, it's another class on top of an already packed schedule.

Cons:
- Location (Kirksville). While I don't mind a small town, Kirksville is really hard to get to. It involves a flight on a Cessna from St Louis or driving 3-4 hrs from other "major" cities. With family in California and Boston and lots of friends in NYC, it's a really long flight out. For example, to get to Boston I flew Kirksville-St. Louis-Charlotte-Boston.
- Moving: While it's nice to have the opportunity to move, I feel I may not have as strong of a bond with my classmates. I can foresee us losing touch during rotations. The bond is what I'm most looking forward to (beyond becoming a doctor of course).
- Social life: It seemed that most of the class was married. Seems to be a common choice among the Mormons (just bring that up b/c Mormons get married young and aren't open to dating outside their community for the most part). I'd love to have the option of dating in med school.
- Lots of classes and lots of OMM/OMT. While I don't mind it, I've heard it can take away from time for other classes. Also, ATSU-KCOM has more classes in general than other schools. There semester starts in early July to accommodate this. Students weren't thrilled about this fact. They said the semester is very long.


Nova Southeastern
Pros:
- Academics: Seemed ok on interview day. Classes were large, but people seemed to know each other. I've heard the first year is awful and the second year is awesome. Seemed to be the universal opinion.
- Weather. I HATE winter weather. I interviewed on what they considered an "awful" day. It rained in the morning. I can live with that. And the campus is gorgeous.
- Rotations: Looks like you can stay put for the majority of your four years. There are some things that have to be done away (rural rotations) and some opportunities where you can go away (international), but you can be based in Florida the whole time.
- Flights: With both Fort Lauderdale and Miami airport, I can get anywhere I want to (direct).
- Social: I did not run into too many (any) married folks. Also, it has a full university so I could date outside of the med school potentially.
- They have a program where if you take a year off in between years two and three and do research, you can get the remainder of your school free. It's super competitive, but I was told at my interview I'd be an awesome candidate (coming in with 10 yrs of prior research experience). I'd be very interested in this and, as long as I do fine academically, see no reason I wouldn't be in contention.

Cons:
- Three months of a rural rotations in the 4th year. I hear for some this can interfere with audition rotations.
- First year of classes are supposedly hell. Lots of tests and not well structured. Lots of complaints.
- Less patient simulators (compared to ATSU-KCOM).
- Cost of living in higher than in Kirksville. Coming from NYC it isn't terrible, but factor to consider.
- Lots of med schools in Florida. Reputation might not be as strong as some of the others in the state. Could effect the ability to get elective rotations.

Hey ms I would say nova. I think kirksville is gonna be a culture shock whereas nova is pretty nice. And nova is established in south Florida so I wouldn't worry about rotations. My friends at Nova med don't make it out to be hellish and they have a good amount of simulators and Harvey!

 

[subtleoverlord]

Weren't the Harvey dolls created at the Gordon Center by the University of Miami? I'd be surprised if you didn't have access to them at Nova. The other Florida medical schools seem to use them a lot.

 

[ToKingdomCome]

I think I'd pick nova. I wouldn't want to live in kirksville lol. Both schools will get you where you wanna go though

 

[AM508]

I personally chose KCOM. However, the caveat there is that I am from a rural area and feel absolutely like a fish out of water in a big city (for example, every time I visit NYC I am absolutely miserable). Kirksville seemed to be just about right for me as far as size. As far as academics, both KCOM and Nova seem to be highly regarded so I would think you couldn't go wrong academically. At the end of the day, you probably won't go wrong with either. Your choice probably would hinge most upon where you would be most comfortable living.

 

[mspeedwagon]

Thank you for your response. I might be your polar opposite. I live in downtown Manhattan for a reason. I've never really lived anywhere rural in my life (well, technically I did part of my high school in a town with 10k people, but the town over was densely populated). I'd definitely rather live in Davie (vs Kirksville).

Any last opinions welcome. Once I wake up tomorrow one of these schools will have my deposit (leaning toward Nova for the record).

I personally chose KCOM. However, the caveat there is that I am from a rural area and feel absolutely like a fish out of water in a big city (for example, every time I visit NYC I am absolutely miserable). Kirksville seemed to be just about right for me as far as size. As far as academics, both KCOM and Nova seem to be highly regarded so I would think you couldn't go wrong academically. At the end of the day, you probably won't go wrong with either. Your choice probably would hinge most upon where you would be most comfortable living.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

Thank you for your response. I might be your polar opposite. I live in downtown Manhattan for a reason. I've never really lived anywhere rural in my life (well, technically I did part of my high school in a town with 10k people, but the town over was densely populated). I'd definitely rather live in Davie (vs Kirksville).

Any last opinions welcome. Once I wake up tomorrow one of these schools will have my deposit (leaning toward Nova for the record).

Go with nova they are both good but you won't be comfortable in kirksville. Nova is only 10 minutes from fort Lauderdale and its 40 minutes from Miami. Nova is in the suburbs but city life is very close by. Las olas is awesome. The weather us awesome. And nova as a school is very good they have tons of residency programs.

 

[Bill Brasky]

- First year of classes are supposedly hell. Lots of tests and not well structured. Lots of complaints.

It's no worse than any other school. We're just a bunch of cry babies.

 

[mspeedwagon]

Apparently a really big bunch of cry babies . Nowhere did people complain about the first year as much. That said, I decided Nova > ATSU-KCOM. It looks like it's going to get a little more complicated as, per my interview today, I'm very likely to get into PCOM as well. A thread for another day I guess.

It's no worse than any other school. We're just a bunch of cry babies.

 

[mspeedwagon]

Since I hate when people don't update threads, I want to post feedback here. As a non-trad student, if I were to do it again I'd pick KCOM and here is why. The folks at KCOM identified me as a student that would struggle in medical school at my interview (I am indeed struggling) and said they had many non-trads and offered more resources to them to help them transition (they had a learning center dedicated to this). I vastly underestimated the importance of this.

Nova does not have as many resources for non-trads (yes, they offer tutoring if you fail a test and yes, you can meet with your faculty adviser who will give you tips, but with test after test after test, there is little time to take full advantage of these resources). There are also too many miscellaneous requirements that take time away from studying. While the medical school curriculum is going to be brutal anywhere, I would rather have had some time to troubleshoot between tests (i.e. block tests) and a school that has many more non-trads and non-trad resources (there are only a handful of us in the class).

I put a lot of emphasis on location when I evaluated schools, which was a mistake. Honestly, 90% of what you see if the inside of a library (or wherever you choose to study). That said, there are things I do absolutely love about Nova (the OPP department is great and I enjoy the clinical skills class).

Just my two cents! Obviously, I only attended one school so it is entirely possible I would have said the opposite had I gone to KCOM (I realize that). I judged schools on the wrong criteria. If you've been out of school a long time this is how to judge, 1) best resources for non-trads, 2) fewest extra classes/requirements, 3) strength of the faculty (unfortunately, tour guides aren't very honest about this and it's hard to get a read for it yourself and most med school teachers aren't on ratemyprofessor or similar), 4) a test schedule that allows you enough time to change study habits from test to test if needed and 5) school with fewest students re-mediating courses (again, hard to get a gauge for this, and your M1 tour guide might truly not know the answer to this question).

Good luck all!

 

[docycle]

@mspeedwagon What miscellaneous reqs are pissing you off the most?

How much time are you getting in between tests?

How are things going now that I'm assuming the semester is almost done/is done? Have you gotten in the swing of things or are you still having significant issues?

 

[mspeedwagon]

It isn't so much the requirements as the timing of them. I had to spend hours at an art museum the day before my immunology exam (which I failed as a result). I had physician shadowing about an hour away on every third Tuesday. Three hours in clinic plus two driving is involved. We had tobacco cessation one Friday. And we have a class on Fridays called foundations and applications of clinical reasoning I would do away with. Two hrs of mandatory class plus two exams. All these takes away from time to study the subjects that matter.

Four exams this wk. Not a good time to ask how things are going . After the first two weeks of school we have basically had an exam or two almost every wk. I haven't found my rythm and have been doing poorly. We are all ready for a break. I would still have rather gone to kcom. As far as I can recall the doctoring course was their only auxiliary course.