HELP! KCOM v. UNECOM v. PNWU

[trixiecat]

KCOM - Got a weird vibe from the professors on interview day. Admins and students all very friendly. Cute little town. Reputation and career potential very solid from this school. Class size 175. Very old facilities.

UNECOM - 3 hours away from fiance. Friendly students. Hearing that their administration is in a bit of a flux. More debt than other choices. Very nice facilities. Class size 135.

PNWU - 3 hours from hometown. Very friendly people. A lot of rural medicine exposure during clinicals for more experience. Great OB/Gyn and FM depts, but unsure about the rest. Have not graduated a class yet (2014 is first). Brand new facilities. Class size 75 (huge pro for me).

I really like PNWU, but don't want to ruin my career by going to a brand new school with no affiliations or reputation.

I need to send in my decision in 3 days. HELP ME DECIDE PLEASE!

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I'd go with the older more established schools. And it appears that UNECOM is the best in your eyes as you didn't get a weird vibe and it had good facilities. However KCOM is the oldest and one of the most established DO schools, it's hard to pass up.

So what you should do is make a list of pro's and con's.

 

[denco88]

KCOM - Got a weird vibe from the professors on interview day. Admins and students all very friendly. Cute little town. Reputation and career potential very solid from this school. Class size 175. Very old facilities.

UNECOM - 3 hours away from fiance. Friendly students. Hearing that their administration is in a bit of a flux. More debt than other choices. Very nice facilities. Class size 135.

PNWU - 3 hours from hometown. Very friendly people. A lot of rural medicine exposure during clinicals for more experience. Great OB/Gyn and FM depts, but unsure about the rest. Have not graduated a class yet (2014 is first). Brand new facilities. Class size 75 (huge pro for me).

I really like PNWU, but don't want to ruin my career by going to a brand new school with no affiliations or reputation.

I need to send in my decision in 3 days. HELP ME DECIDE PLEASE!

Ultimately, you are going to do best where you are the happiest... The great thing about medical school is that if you prepare for your boards and get high scores on your boards, you are set, regardless of what school you go to. Its the great equalizer. I know that PNWU is a new school, and there are going to be some kinks, but I haven't really heard a bad thing about it anywhere. If that is where you will be happiest, go there!

 

[trixiecat]

What you just read was my pro/con list.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

What you just read was my pro/con list.

I'm sure you can think of more things..
Which is an advantage to you in terms of climate and state residency. Like for example if you live on the west coast its probably better to go to Pacific than the others.
Which is cheapest.
Which made you feel more at home.
Do you have relatives living close to the school?
Pass rates for the comlex?

 

[trixiecat]

My fiance will be in law school in Vermont until I start clinicals in M3. I honestly think I would be happy at all schools, but maybe happiest at Yakima since it's in my home state and near where I want to live eventually.

But I really care most about my career and future residency prospects. Yakima had a 83% comlex pass rate for their first class. No other schools would release comples or usmle information when I called, but they all had great residency placement stats (except PNWU obv).

I mainly got the weird vibe from one professor that interviewed me at KCOM because he didn't ask me any questions and just chatted with me. Plus the weather was awful that day.

Could someone direct me to ShyRem's post about UNECOM?

 

[dunaa]

My fiance will be in law school in Vermont until I start clinicals in M3. I honestly think I would be happy at all schools, but maybe happiest at Yakima since it's in my home state and near where I want to live eventually.

But I really care most about my career and future residency prospects. Yakima had a 83% comlex pass rate for their first class. No other schools would release comples or usmle information when I called, but they all had great residency placement stats (except PNWU obv).

I mainly got the weird vibe from one professor that interviewed me at KCOM because he didn't ask me any questions and just chatted with me. Plus the weather was awful that day.

Could someone direct me to ShyRem's post about UNECOM?

Here is one of ShyRems posts (#10) http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=738410

I don't see how this post should make anyone shy away from UNECOM (@elftown). Every single school has its problems and thats just life. If you go to some school with the naive expectation that everything will be smooth academically and admistratively then you will be sourly disappointed (even if its been around for a million years). Like ShyRem said, its what you make of it. OP, make a choice that makes you and your family feel most comfortable. You should be able to picture yourself at where you choose for the next 2yrs at least . You decide!

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

KCOM - Got a weird vibe from the professors on interview day. Admins and students all very friendly. Cute little town. Reputation and career potential very solid from this school. Class size 175. Very old facilities.

UNECOM - 3 hours away from fiance. Friendly students. Hearing that their administration is in a bit of a flux. More debt than other choices. Very nice facilities. Class size 135.

PNWU - 3 hours from hometown. Very friendly people. A lot of rural medicine exposure during clinicals for more experience. Great OB/Gyn and FM depts, but unsure about the rest. Have not graduated a class yet (2014 is first). Brand new facilities. Class size 75 (huge pro for me).

I really like PNWU, but don't want to ruin my career by going to a brand new school with no affiliations or reputation.

I need to send in my decision in 3 days. HELP ME DECIDE PLEASE!

For my own reasons I have decided to not attend PNWU even though it is only 6 hours from my hometown.

I would say from your post PNWU is where you want to be so I say "go there". You seem to be a bit dramatic on the outlook of your career if you go to PNWU, it is even a bit silly. The only thing picking PNWU over the others is going to do is maybe lower your SDN rep...and we all know how much that counts for in life.

 

[Total180]

I mainly got the weird vibe from one professor that interviewed me at KCOM because he didn't ask me any questions and just chatted with me. Plus the weather was awful that day.

Could someone direct me to ShyRem's post about UNECOM?

I just interviewed there today and I think I got that guy!! At first I thought it was weird, but I really think they just want to see if you have good communication skills and can hold a conversation with a stranger (since most of your patients will be). I thought he was super nice, and we had a really good conversation about living in New York haha. I would rather have a nice conversation with my interviewer than get grilled on health care issues and ethical questions any day of the week. Overall, I got an amazing vibe from the school. I LOVED how concerned they were with the students happiness (mental and physical) and that there was always something to do other than schoolwork if you needed a break. But every school is different for each person. Sounds to me like you want to go to PNWU but are afraid of reputation. If that is where you want to be, you would be doing yourself a disservice choosing somewhere else you wouldn't be happy, because it will probably reflect in your schoolwork. Good luck with your choice.

 

[JaggerPlate]

Don't really know what you're referring to with regard to the 'old' facilities at KCOM. Half of our campus (the Connell Technology Center) is brand spanking new (2007, and this includes the new library, dozens of breakout rooms, robotic sim lab, HUGE skills/OTM lab, etc, etc), and we also just finished adding brand new breakout rooms in a different part of campus and finished a whole block of state-of-the-art, brand new simulated patient exam rooms.

If you're referring to the original school of Osteopathy that housed in the front of the school ... it's from 1892, but we don't hold classes in there

I kid ... but I don't personally think our facilities are old at all. Granted, the anatomy building isn't brand new, nor is the hospital or Guthensohn clinic, but everything else is pretty up to date. Let me know if you have any questions about the faculty (you said you had a weird vibe from an interviewer), facilities, etc, etc, etc.

OH ... and, obviously, my vote goes for KCOM.

 

[Dr Yiot]

no offense to unecom but i would probably cross them off the list just because the cost of attendance is so high.

im not going to comment on pnwu because i don't know enuf about the school.

kcom is an excellent school. i wud go here in a second. dont let the vibe of 1 faculty member scew your view of the school. im sure the other schools have odd faculty members you just havent met yet. go with a school you really like that you feel you would succeed at.

honestly the only drawback to kcom is that jaggerplate goes there. and he thinks he's the beesnees.

 

[JaggerPlate]

honestly the only drawback to kcom is that jaggerplate goes there. and he thinks he's the beesnees.

I would greatly consider this before committing to KCOM.

 

[Dr Yiot]

It shud actually be added to kcom's secondary application.

 

[ccc2009]

hey jaggerplate,

pmed u, let me know if you didnt get it. look forward to your reply

ccc2009

 

[masscrash]

I recently got accepted to PNWU. I really loved it there. It is a good fit for me. I also look forward to being part of something that has the potential to be great. If you are successful then they are going to use you as an example and other students will determine if they want to go there because of where you ended up. Doubtful people are going to look to your success to determine the success of schools like KCOM and UNECOM. Hospitals love PNWU students and are asking for more of them for rotations. And they are working hard at finding residencies for the first class and there will definitely be more opportunities in 2015. I am happy to hear that you were accepted to such great school. Let us know what your decision is.

 

[sylvanthus]

Go to the cheapest school imo, most of medical school is independent study and learning anyhow. Also, I wouldnt let friendliness be a deciding factor. Everyone is friendly when they are trying to make a good impression.

 

[JaggerPlate]

Go to the cheapest school imo, most of medical school is independent study and learning anyhow. Also, I wouldnt let friendliness be a deciding factor. Everyone is friendly when they are trying to make a good impression.

I agree in one sense ... but in another, I think that 3/4 years at DO schools are too subjective to simply say 'shop for cost.' Trust me, I almost 100% did the same thing, but in the end, I decided to weigh several factors, both cost and 3/4 years included, and made a different decision.

 

[masscrash]

Go to the cheapest school imo, most of medical school is independent study and learning anyhow. Also, I wouldnt let friendliness be a deciding factor. Everyone is friendly when they are trying to make a good impression.

I respectfully disagree. I think that the cheapest school will have the cheapest facilities, the cheapest technology, equipment and lower paid faculty. If you are given the opportunity to pay a little more and make this stressful experience a little bit more enjoyable, it is worth it to me. As for friendliness I don't look at how friendly they are to me. I talk to other students about how nice and helpful the profs are. Are students competitive or are they in it together. You can also look at the friendliness of the school to the profs. An unhappy prof makes unhappy students.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I respectfully disagree. I think that the cheapest school will have the cheapest facilities, the cheapest technology, equipment and lower paid faculty. If you are given the opportunity to pay a little more and make this stressful experience a little bit more enjoyable, it is worth it to me. As for friendliness I don't look at how friendly they are to me. I talk to other students about how nice and helpful the profs are. Are students competitive or are they in it together. You can also look at the friendliness of the school to the profs. An unhappy prof makes unhappy students.

Mass, all things being equal sylvanthus has 2 years on you at the exact same school. One could look at this two ways:
1. He's jaded
2. He's right

Either way, I have gained a good deal of info from him about PNWU.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I agree in one sense ... but in another, I think that 3/4 years at DO schools are too subjective to simply say 'shop for cost.' Trust me, I almost 100% did the same thing, but in the end, I decided to weigh several factors, both cost and 3/4 years included, and made a different decision.

3/4th years and tuition I believe should be number one and number two (in either order) when deciding a DO school for an unmarried student.

 

[sylvanthus]

I respectfully disagree. I think that the cheapest school will have the cheapest facilities, the cheapest technology, equipment and lower paid faculty. If you are given the opportunity to pay a little more and make this stressful experience a little bit more enjoyable, it is worth it to me. As for friendliness I don't look at how friendly they are to me. I talk to other students about how nice and helpful the profs are. Are students competitive or are they in it together. You can also look at the friendliness of the school to the profs. An unhappy prof makes unhappy students.

Ahhh hell not worth ranting as people know who I am on here. Suffice it to say that expensive school does not equal nice facilities. Also, the students who are around during interviews are generally not representative of the student body as a whole. Furthermore, because people are afraid of retaliation if they say something bad about the school, they are not going to tell you the hard truth, ever. Everyone is going to say things are great! Hell, Im scared to say it on a bloody messageboard.

So, an interview does not give you an honest clue what the school is like, nor does talking to a handful of students. Why I think price, and as a couple others have stated, rotation quality are the most important factors.