The Kent State merger would mean more if Kent State had a med school. At DMU we are closely aligned w/ one of the top DO med schools in the country. Your networking opportunities are created by sitting in class alongside DOs who will one day send you referrals, not Kent State undergrads.
The $ numbers quoted so far are consistent with what I came up with a year ago, so I'll summarize ... DMU has the cheapest tuition, is in the least expensive city, and they give you an $1,800 laptop/ext. hard drive (plus think of the money saved by getting free updates and repairs for 4 years) as well as a
free ipad. This is new for your class while the rest of us are stuck with ipod touches
Don't count on getting a 4.0 anywhere, but especially in Ohio since they aren't on a block system. This means you'll have a traditional finals week, so imagine letting a semester worth of med school pile up into 1 week ... at DMU we took our first final in
October. FYI, I got an 86% in that class, which was my first B since I was 16 (4.00 GPA 27 MCAT coming into school), so I would have already lost my scholarship in Ohio, but at DMU I still have a chance. And if I'm not in the top 1/4 of my class after this year but move up next year, then I get my $5,000 scholarship back in year 3.
DMU has an opportunity for free tuition all 4 years if you practice 4 years in an underserved community. All MD and DO students can do this due to a federal program, but podiatry students are excluded, so said opportunities can only be provided by the individual schools. Lastly, DMU offers tons of extremely easy and flexible jobs (some of which you can study at, publish research in, etc.) that pay over $10/hr, as well as a paid summer research program.
Go where it feels right but keep an open mind about DMU.