Now that's interesting. I've never heard of anyone going that far before! How many people did you call in the area? How did you decide who to call? Did you just cold call these physicians and start asking about DCOM? Any more detail about what they said?
Typically, in smaller systems in the Appalachian region, residency directors deal with rotating students as well as the residents themselves. I'm not sure if that's the same at larger hospital systems or not. Obviously there haven't really been enough DCOM residents for anyone to form an opinion based on the graduating students alone. With that said, I know most of the DCOM residents in this area are doing very well.
I know two residency administrators so I personally asked them their opinions about several different DO schools. Both of their systems take students from VCOM, DCOM, WVSOM, and UPike-KYCOM. Both of them had great things to say. One of the directors commented how the DCOM students seemed just as capable as students from the longer established schools. That goes right along with what has been said on here for years.
I also know a few physicians who are preceptors for Pike, DCOM and VCOM and spoke to them as well. Similar feedback - nothing particularly exceptional about DCOM students but right on the same level as the longer established schools. The one thing I did get out of all of this is that it takes many schools years to build up a good reputation and trust - DCOM seemingly did it overnight.
The school can only do so much and, along the same lines, the student can only do so much. It's a relationship between the two. One physician wanted me to realize that a couple of lesser quality students through a rotation or residency is not necessarily the school's fault - it's really more a reflection of the students themselves. He likened it to opening a door - most any school will put the information and opportunity out there to allow us to mold into exceptional students and clinicians, it's up to us to put in the time.
As I said, there were some negative things to be said about other schools but I took that with a grain of salt because they've been filtering students in for a longer time so there's more chance for opinions to grow. The thing I wanted to hear was that DCOM students weren't "green," so to speak, and seemed less capable than other longer established systems. Across the board, that was not true in my research. That's what sealed my decision for me - there was no question after that.
I guess I'm just older and wiser, so to speak, than many premeds... even if only by a handful of years. ANY school will give a tremendous review of their own programs. It's important to do your own research and ask people who are unbiased. I don't think any school will try to be dishonest about problems but recruitment pitches in any field (medicine, business, law enforcement, whatever) are always positive.
This is a $300,000 decision we're all making and I was of the opinion through the entire process that I'm entitled to ask the tough questions about income in my target practice region, match rates, attrition, etc.
My opinion... worth price paid!
Anytime you have anything new to update your application with, sending it their way even in just an e--mail is a must....never know what might just cause your application to get pulled to the top and be reconsidered! Good luck and don't lose faith! 
