Pros and Cons of your DO School

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I'm a 4th year at CCOM. If people are trying to make matriculation decisions now based on reviews I'd be happy to try to answer some questions. I don't really feel like doing a whole write up though, those look hard.

Maybe people can PM you if they have questions? If you just open it up to questions, this will become a CCOM thread.

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bumping this... anyone want to do an updated CCOM review? I read the older ones on here, which are helpful!
 
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Oh well now I can answer that one. Umm, good academics. Most professors adequate. Good school. OMM one day a week for 1.5 hours. Anatomy lab 1-3 days a week. Small, but good school. Our professors know their ****
 
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This is the most immortal thread on SDN.
 
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Would love an updated version for GA-PCOM!


Solid course work that really although in a hit you over the head type way gets you prepared for 2nd year and boards.

At the end of 2nd year we can take an extra 4 weeks to study for boards

Gaining new clinical Ed sites in FL

Cons are about the same as everywhere else nothing that's horrible
 
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TCOM changed its curriculum a little bit this year for 1st years. Less lecture and more self study.
 
Could anyone post an updated review/insight into NSU-COM?

Thanks!
 
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DMU

Curriculum: We take multiple classes simultaneously, with tests anywhere from once to 3 times a week. Tests are typically 40-70 questions and I think we get 90 minutes (I'm a faster test taker so it could actually be more, I just don't know). We aren't on a block schedule. Anatomy is a year long during 1st year. My major beef is that we had head and neck anatomy first, at the same time as biochemistry, which was a pain in the butt. Classes range from a couple weeks (History of medicine) to the whole year (anatomy, clinical medicine, OMM). For the most part lectures are not mandatory - however OMM lectures are, as well as Ethics, and a few have the first couple lectures as mandatory. We do have elective courses including humanities offered. Grading is F/C/C+/B-/B/B+/A-/A/A+. 70% is passing for all classes except Clinical Medicine which is 80%. I really don't know much about 2nd year curriculum, to be honest.

Location: Des Moines. Des Moines is a fantastic midwest city. Including surrounding suburbs I believe the population is like half a million. I would consider that good sized, but it's all about perspective really. DMU is located pretty centrally, which is nice as it's easy to get pretty much anywhere you want to go from school. Bar scene is great, there is pretty much whatever you could want for entertainment around besides professional sports teams. I know quite a few people who go tailgate at college football games though if that is your thing. Weather is Iowa lol - it's much more mild than where I was coming from, but again that's all going to depend on your tolerance for cold/snow. We have 4 solid seasons though which I enjoy. In general I would say it's a safe, affordable, family friendly place to live.

Cost: 40K. Pretty standard for DO schools I believe. They also offer quarter, half, and full scholarships which I believe is quite rare. There are also scholarships through the rural health program.

Faculty: Amazing. Seriously, I know every school says that their faculty cares about students, but our faculty truly does. They have a real passion for teaching and it really shows. They are always more than willing to answer questions in person or via email. We also have profs that will wander around campus before an exam asking students if they need help. Truly, I can't rave about them enough.

Reputation: Excellent. 2nd DO school in the country, we are consistently viewed as one of the top DO schools.

Clinical Rotations: Can't tell you that much about them to be honest. I know there are around 50 year long spots in the Des Moines area, and lots of other year longs around the country. The list of places changes from year to year so I can't really provide you guys with more information.

Housing: Most people live right next to campus. 3000 Grand, Grand Prix, and Imperial will all give you very reasonable prices. Most people I know live in 3000 in 3 bedrooms that are like $800. I know there are also 1 bedroom studios close by that are only like $400. Most of the married people and those with kids live in homes or townhouses. Mr. TP and I were able to buy on the east side of town for very cheap.

Study areas: Awesome. Lot's of study rooms around campus. There are quiet places in the library, as well as booths in the common area if you like to study with people around. You can also reserve large study rooms to study with your friends. There are also coffee shops around campus if that is your thing. Most people I know study both at school and at home.

Social Scene: Very chill. We have a solid group of people who like to party, go out after exams and all of that. There are also people who that isn't there thing and they get together and do stuff. Really whatever is your idea of a good time is there are going to be people who are down. Like I said, I really enjoy the bar scene, and there is a bar close to school that is super chill so you don't even have to go downtown if you don't want to. We also don't have a dress code, no restrictions on food or anything like that. Just very laid back

Local Hospitals: Again not sure about rotations, but the local hospitals are Mercy and Unity Point.

Board Prep: I know that we had some of the highest board scores in the country coming from our school last year (for both USMLE and COMLEX). They take board prep very seriously. I know 2nd years take a practice COMLEX before the real thing and if they don't pass they have to go through a intense kaplan course before they take it. Basically DMU really really wants you to do well. I know we are consistently above the average 1st time pass rates. http://www.dmu.edu/do/program-strengths/national-board-examinations/


Specialty: Here is last year's match list: http://www.dmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Residencies-by-specialty1.pdf
 
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Pros: we only do 1.5 hrs/week of OMM

Cons: we do 1.5 hrs/week of OMM
 
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Can we get a CCOM or Nova summary? :)
 
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I will try to do a PCOM-GA review later today if anyone is interested
 
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Any Touro-nv students want to give us an update?!!
 
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PCOM-GA - From a current MS4


Curriculum:
We have an integrated curriculum here (not systems-based) in which each year is broken into 3 'trimesters'. First year is as follows:
-Trimester 1 - Anatomy & Gross anatomy lab, with OMM, and biostat/Preventive medicine course. There is some embryo mixed in as well.
-Trimester 2 - Biochem, micro, genetics, cell bio, etc, OMM, and the same yr round biostat/Preventive med course
-Trimester 3 - Devoted 100% to neuroscience/neuroanatomy, OMM and biostat/prev med course
Second yr is as follows:
-Trimester 1 - Cardio, Pulm, Renal, OMM
-Trimester 2 - MSK, GI, GU, OB/GYN, OMM
-Trimester 3 - Surgery, Ophto, Peds, Psych, Ortho, and probably some other courses I am missing, and of course, OMM

We usually have a block of tests about every 3 wks. For example, during my 1st year we would have Anatomy practical, anatomy test, OMM test, and Biostat test all in the same day. This was kind of brutal and got some getting used to, but the tests began to spread out as trimesters progressed. Some people like having all the tests on one day (frees up the wknd!) and some don't.

OMM is extremely extensive/serious here. I really have no clue why. They teach us about 50,000,000 x more info than we actually need to know for boards/life. If you are into OMM, this is the place for you. If you aren't, you can just go through the motions and get through it. There is a 1hr OMM lecture per week and a 1.5hr lab. Sometimes there are more than 1 lecture a wk, but it varies. There is also a quiz the first 5 min of every lab session. This is over the prior wks info and can be hard. So if you don't study before hand, you will not do well. Quizzes add up and obviously factor in your grade. Also, the lab practicals are pretty stressful and widely subjective. These probably stress everyone out more than anything. Written tests are not bad.

All grades are anything >70% = pass. There are technically no 'A', 'B', 'C', etc grades.


Location:
Suwanee/Lawrenceville, GA really isn't that bad. The living is very inexpensive especially if you have a roommate. I paid ~$400/mo, and that seems to be around the norm, maybe a bit higher. There are some good restaurants right in the immediate area and downtown Lawrenceville/Suwanee are nice places. And of course, Atlanta is 25-30min away. A lot of students went for nice dinners or out to the bars in Atlanta on free wknds.

Cost:
I think the cost of the school is the same as any DO school. mid-$40ks

Faculty:
Faculty is overall very good. They are all willing to teach and helpful. A lot of people complain about some of the professors, but I think they forget that this is a Graduate program. Info isn't spoonfed to you like undergrad. You are definitely going to have to do some reading on your own time. There is only so much they can put in a powerpoint. With that being said, again, most professors are very good and approachable. Some seem to venture off and talk about non-board related material (which no med student cares about), but I think that has been fixed in recent years. Again, I am a 4th yr, and I know they have some new/better faculty that I have not experienced.

Reputation:
Everyone knows PCOM. Nobody knows PCOM-GA. This is not a negative. I'm just throwing it out there because I had to have 100s of conversations with random people I meet that always do the "Ooooh, I didn't know there was a Georgia campus."

Clinical Rotations:
There is a lot of diversity in rotation options, which is good. There are many anchor sites attached to a hospital (Columbus, GA; Warner Robins, GA; Rome, GA; West Palm Beach, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Montgomery, AL; Mobile, AL) and there is another option in which you have the freedom to go to different clinics/hospitals/outpatient offices around the Atlanta/Lawrenceville area. The anchor sites are a great way to get to know the doctors/nurses at a single hospital all yr. The 'J-track' option around Atlanta is a good thing to do if you want to stay in the same area as your school for all 4yrs. Or, if you have a sig other that needs to stay in the same area for a job.

Housing:
Many apartment complexes, houses, Condos, townhouses to rent out. There is an apartment complex where most students live during pre-clinical yrs. They love the PCOM students.

Study areas:
This depends. The school definitely has many study rooms, but they are first-come first-serve and get occupied very quickly. If the pharmacy school and masters program and DO program all have an exam the same day/wk, then the library/study rooms can become pretty packed. I think they renovated the library but I haven't been there in a year so I can't really speak on that. In my opinion, just get there early and you will never have a problem finding a study space. If you stroll in at noon, you will have a problem depending on the day.

Social Scene:
A LOT of the students get together outside of school. They have an annual halloween party, and random parties throughout the yr. I had a lot of fun meeting and hanging out with all of my classmates. I built a strong group of friends that I will probably remain friends with forever. Med school is tough, and the friends I made in my class made school a lot better. A majority of the students are collegial and willing to help as well. Oh, and a lot of people like to have fun and let loose once exams are over!

Local Hospitals:
We are not affiliated directly with any hospitals. We do have affiliations with many hospitals around, but no one hospital that we all rotate at or anything. Gwinett Medical Center is a massive hospital that is right down the road from campus and I know they have tried to make that our home base for many years, but have not been successful. It's all poliltics...so I hear.

Board Prep:
We do not get any time off for board prep. This kind of stinks, but you really can handle it if you make a schedule and stick with it. I along with many of my friends did very well on boards with this format. It definitely isn't the easiest thing to do, but it is doable.

Specialty:
I don't know what goes here?

Grades:

Curriculum: A-
Location: B+
Cost: B
Financial Aid: A
Faculty: A-
Reputation: A
Technology: A+
Study Space/Library: B-
Library technology/Resources: A+
Rotations: A
Social: A+
Hospitals: N/A
Post Grad: A


Overall Grade:
A-
 
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BUMP. Can someone please give an updated NOVA and NYCOM (Lecture vs. PBL) summary?
 
BUMP. Can someone please give an updated NOVA and NYCOM (Lecture vs. PBL) summary?
+ if anyone wants to add some more about VCOM-VC or any experiences thus far at MU-COM that would be awesome! :highfive:
 
I took what Dr. JPH had and updated it. Needless to say, the school has changed a lot. It made me sad reading his review. I left some of his things in that didn't change (italicized).

Curriculum: I can only speak for my year, but they completely butchered our schedule. Our first true break wasn’t until March. Not a single weekend off without something (including coursework) looming over our heads. For example, they gave us all of biochemistry in 7 days before Christmas break; we had a test a few days after New Years. Later that term,they ran out of time due to their ineptitude at proper scheduling, and crammed 40 hours of Heme/Onc in 1 week, and gave us the weekend to learn all of it including 30 hours of immunology from the weeks prior. As a result, almost no-one in my class knows anything about leukemias/lymphomas. 2nd year has been worse. They outright refuse to tell us what our 3rd term looks like leading up to boards. The past few years, we’ve gotten no dedicated study time. They just put easy P/F courses during 3rd term that people don’t really have to study for. This year, they moved one of those easy courses to the Fall to lighten up the workload. They didn’t plan properly, and so now Neuroanatomy is pushed into 3rd term. They also added a few new “Pain in the ass courses”.


Location: Philadelphia... pretty much a haven for medical education. This is one of the main redeeming factors about the school.

Cost: Around $45,000, which is pretty high considering there aren’t enough seats in our lecture halls for students. It’s about 70 students too short. They have 2 overflow rooms which live-stream the lectures, but then berate all of the students in those rooms during the lectures; not saying information into the mics then suggesting “they should have been here”. The financial aid department holds on to your money for the maximum time (2 weeks). This past term they received our money on November 17, and held it past Dec 4th; people couldn’t pay their CCs, rent, insurance, etc for December without advances or pay-day loans.


Faculty: HORRENDOUS. They do not teach us physiology almost at all. You’re going to need to use Dr. Najeeb or FA or SOMETHING for physiology, because you won’t learn how the human body works at PCOM. Many of our renown clinicians no longer teach, as the school tries to cut resources. Research funding has run dry on a national level. Our best professors are guest lecturers from our neighboring MD counterparts. Other than our immunology and surgery professors, the rest are lacking. The “best pathology professor” spoke in the earlier review left. We are now left with powerpoints filled with buzz words and Pathoma.

Reputation: Rock solid. Arguably the best DO school in the country and holds its own against the 4 MD schools here in Philly. We rotate with them and get nothing but high marks. Our students and residents rotate with some of the best MD students on the east coast and not only do we match up, sometimes we outshine. No worry that someone wont know PCOM, at least not from Maine to Florida to Chicago. Also, one stat shows that nearly 25% of all current physicians have done some or all of their medical training in Philadelphia. We are known ubiquitously. None of this changed, but this is only because PCOM can select from the best DO students.

Clinical Rotations:This is changing so ½ of people are going to spend time in one hospital. They manually select people that they know and put them in those sites; do a Biomed degree or student council, otherwise you’re screwed. The sites are Danville, Scranton, Reading, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the other ½ cannot do rotations at those sites (Geisinger, Lankenau) because of the permenant students. The remaining students are randomly put into groups (there is a match algorithm they use, but it’s still a lottery-based system) – these groups determine how many electives you get before match; the most is 6-7, the fewest is 2-3. After they put us into groups, the students then fight amongst themselves to determine who gets to go where. They tell us this is good because it improves “interpersonal communication skills”. They actually said that to us. They got rid of the 3rd term elective.

Study areas: Not so great. Too many students for too few desks. PCOM has a collaborative agreement with dozens of colleges in the area to use their libraries so this helps immensely. But if you are the type who likes to study on campus, stake your claim early. Although I always studied at home, many people study in the cafeteria or local coffee shops (plenty of those).

Social Scene: 70% of the students are really awesome. Probably the best thing the school has going for it. Just a great group of people. The biomed grads are kind of cliquey. A few of them got professionalism violations for sharing old exams among themselves. I'm pretty sure this is how they are at any school with a biomed program (inferiority complex?). The faculty knows all of them and gives them inside information about how to get a rotation they want, etc.

Board Prep: A basic scientist is in charge of our boards, and she compares it to her PhD candidacy exam. Needless to say, they have unrealistic views of boards. They give us Combank and force us to do question sets to identify our weakness. Combank is one of the worst question banks. They won’t tell us what our 3rd term looks like despite it changing drastically from the year prior. As a result, we have no idea how to plan to study. Our exams are extraordinarily easy and very one dimensional. They usually give us the questions before the exam, so you have no way to judge.


Clinical Prep: They make us do a lot of pain in the ass things, interviewing comatose patients or patients refusing to talk, etc. Realistically, it will let us hit the ground running.

Specialty: PCOM sends more people into specialty fields than most other DO schools, but they're trying to increase their presence in primary care, so if you're definitely interested in something other than Primary Care, it may be a bit of an uphill battle by the time you get here.

So here are my grades:

Curriculum: F
Location: A+
Cost: C+
Financial Aid: B-
Faculty: C
Reputation: A+
Technology: B+
Study Space/Library: C-
Library technology/Resources: B-
Rotations: B+
Social: A
Hospitals: B+
Post Grad: A+
Cafeteria Food: A-
Cafeteria Prices: B+

Overall Grade: B-
 
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I have noticed a number of complaints regarding inadequate campus study space...

Anyway, I think these last couple of reviews give some pause to the notion of "established" DO schools being that much better than the newer schools. Honestly, it is disappointing to see such underwhelming reviews of decades-old schools that (given how long they have been around) one would expect to be far better.
 
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I have noticed a number of complaints regarding inadequate campus study space...

Anyway, I think these last couple of reviews give some pause to the notion of "established" DO schools being that much better than the newer schools. Honestly, it is disappointing to see such underwhelming reviews of decades-old schools that (given how long they have been around) one would expect to be far better.

Honestly you just need a desk at home to study at...
 
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I took what Dr. JPH had and updated it. Needless to say, the school has changed a lot. It made me sad reading his review. I left some of his things in that didn't change (italicized).

Curriculum: I can only speak for my year, but they completely butchered our schedule. Our first true break wasn’t until March. Not a single weekend off without something (including coursework) looming over our heads. For example, they gave us all of biochemistry in 7 days before Christmas break; we had a test a few days after New Years. Later that term,they ran out of time due to their ineptitude at proper scheduling, and crammed 40 hours of Heme/Onc in 1 week, and gave us the weekend to learn all of it including 30 hours of immunology from the weeks prior. As a result, almost no-one in my class knows anything about leukemias/lymphomas. 2nd year has been worse. They outright refuse to tell us what our 3rd term looks like leading up to boards. The past few years, we’ve gotten no dedicated study time. They just put easy P/F courses during 3rd term that people don’t really have to study for. This year, they moved one of those easy courses to the Fall to lighten up the workload. They didn’t plan properly, and so now Neuroanatomy is pushed into 3rd term. They also added a few new “Pain in the ass courses”.


Location: Philadelphia... pretty much a haven for medical education. This is one of the main redeeming factors about the school.

Cost: Around $45,000, which is pretty high considering there aren’t enough seats in our lecture halls for students. It’s about 70 students too short. They have 2 overflow rooms which live-stream the lectures, but then berate all of the students in those rooms during the lectures; not saying information into the mics then suggesting “they should have been here”. The financial aid department holds on to your money for the maximum time (2 weeks). This past term they received our money on November 17, and held it past Dec 4th; people couldn’t pay their CCs, rent, insurance, etc for December without advances or pay-day loans.


Faculty: HORRENDOUS. They do not teach us physiology almost at all. You’re going to need to use Dr. Najeeb or FA or SOMETHING for physiology, because you won’t learn how the human body works at PCOM. Many of our renown clinicians no longer teach, as the school tries to cut resources. Research funding has run dry on a national level. Our best professors are guest lecturers from our neighboring MD counterparts. Other than our immunology and surgery professors, the rest are lacking. The “best pathology professor” spoke in the earlier review left. We are now left with powerpoints filled with buzz words and Pathoma.

Reputation: Rock solid. Arguably the best DO school in the country and holds its own against the 4 MD schools here in Philly. We rotate with them and get nothing but high marks. Our students and residents rotate with some of the best MD students on the east coast and not only do we match up, sometimes we outshine. No worry that someone wont know PCOM, at least not from Maine to Florida to Chicago. Also, one stat shows that nearly 25% of all current physicians have done some or all of their medical training in Philadelphia. We are known ubiquitously. None of this changed, but this is only because PCOM can select from the best DO students.

Clinical Rotations:This is changing so ½ of people are going to spend time in one hospital. They manually select people that they know and put them in those sites; do a Biomed degree or student council, otherwise you’re screwed. The sites are Danville, Scranton, Reading, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the other ½ cannot do rotations at those sites (Geisinger, Lankenau) because of the permenant students. The remaining students are randomly put into groups (there is a match algorithm they use, but it’s still a lottery-based system) – these groups determine how many electives you get before match; the most is 6-7, the fewest is 2-3. After they put us into groups, the students then fight amongst themselves to determine who gets to go where. They tell us this is good because it improves “interpersonal communication skills”. They actually said that to us. They got rid of the 3rd term elective.

Study areas: Not so great. Too many students for too few desks. PCOM has a collaborative agreement with dozens of colleges in the area to use their libraries so this helps immensely. But if you are the type who likes to study on campus, stake your claim early. Although I always studied at home, many people study in the cafeteria or local coffee shops (plenty of those).

Social Scene: 70% of the students are really awesome. Probably the best thing the school has going for it. Just a great group of people. The biomed grads are kind of cliquey. A few of them got professionalism violations for sharing old exams among themselves. I'm pretty sure this is how they are at any school with a biomed program (inferiority complex?). The faculty knows all of them and gives them inside information about how to get a rotation they want, etc.

Board Prep: A basic scientist is in charge of our boards, and she compares it to her PhD candidacy exam. Needless to say, they have unrealistic views of boards. They give us Combank and force us to do question sets to identify our weakness. Combank is one of the worst question banks. They won’t tell us what our 3rd term looks like despite it changing drastically from the year prior. As a result, we have no idea how to plan to study. Our exams are extraordinarily easy and very one dimensional. They usually give us the questions before the exam, so you have no way to judge.


Clinical Prep: They make us do a lot of pain in the ass things, interviewing comatose patients or patients refusing to talk, etc. Realistically, it will let us hit the ground running.

Specialty: PCOM sends more people into specialty fields than most other DO schools, but they're trying to increase their presence in primary care, so if you're definitely interested in something other than Primary Care, it may be a bit of an uphill battle by the time you get here.

So here are my grades:

Curriculum: F
Location: A+
Cost: C+
Financial Aid: B-
Faculty: C
Reputation: A+
Technology: B+
Study Space/Library: C-
Library technology/Resources: B-
Rotations: B+
Social: A
Hospitals: B+
Post Grad: A+
Cafeteria Food: A-
Cafeteria Prices: B+

Overall Grade: B-
On another thread, you told me to choose PCOM over Howard. Now, you are posting super negative things about PCOM. Do you regret going to PCOM? Not attacking, genuinely asking.
 
On another thread, you told me to choose PCOM over Howard. Now, you are posting super negative things about PCOM. Do you regret going to PCOM? Not attacking, genuinely asking.

It is an interesting read on what PaddysPub said, however I can tell you they've already made some very significant changes in the curriculum from their year to mine in regards to what they say about the material before Christmas break. There's been a big deal so far about what happened last year to the M1s and the material they're giving us this time around.
 
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I took what Dr. JPH had and updated it. Needless to say, the school has changed a lot. It made me sad reading his review. I left some of his things in that didn't change (italicized).

Curriculum: I can only speak for my year, but they completely butchered our schedule. Our first true break wasn’t until March. Not a single weekend off without something (including coursework) looming over our heads. For example, they gave us all of biochemistry in 7 days before Christmas break; we had a test a few days after New Years. Later that term,they ran out of time due to their ineptitude at proper scheduling, and crammed 40 hours of Heme/Onc in 1 week, and gave us the weekend to learn all of it including 30 hours of immunology from the weeks prior. As a result, almost no-one in my class knows anything about leukemias/lymphomas. 2nd year has been worse. They outright refuse to tell us what our 3rd term looks like leading up to boards. The past few years, we’ve gotten no dedicated study time. They just put easy P/F courses during 3rd term that people don’t really have to study for. This year, they moved one of those easy courses to the Fall to lighten up the workload. They didn’t plan properly, and so now Neuroanatomy is pushed into 3rd term. They also added a few new “Pain in the ass courses”.


Location: Philadelphia... pretty much a haven for medical education. This is one of the main redeeming factors about the school.

Cost: Around $45,000, which is pretty high considering there aren’t enough seats in our lecture halls for students. It’s about 70 students too short. They have 2 overflow rooms which live-stream the lectures, but then berate all of the students in those rooms during the lectures; not saying information into the mics then suggesting “they should have been here”. The financial aid department holds on to your money for the maximum time (2 weeks). This past term they received our money on November 17, and held it past Dec 4th; people couldn’t pay their CCs, rent, insurance, etc for December without advances or pay-day loans.


Faculty: HORRENDOUS. They do not teach us physiology almost at all. You’re going to need to use Dr. Najeeb or FA or SOMETHING for physiology, because you won’t learn how the human body works at PCOM. Many of our renown clinicians no longer teach, as the school tries to cut resources. Research funding has run dry on a national level. Our best professors are guest lecturers from our neighboring MD counterparts. Other than our immunology and surgery professors, the rest are lacking. The “best pathology professor” spoke in the earlier review left. We are now left with powerpoints filled with buzz words and Pathoma.

Reputation: Rock solid. Arguably the best DO school in the country and holds its own against the 4 MD schools here in Philly. We rotate with them and get nothing but high marks. Our students and residents rotate with some of the best MD students on the east coast and not only do we match up, sometimes we outshine. No worry that someone wont know PCOM, at least not from Maine to Florida to Chicago. Also, one stat shows that nearly 25% of all current physicians have done some or all of their medical training in Philadelphia. We are known ubiquitously. None of this changed, but this is only because PCOM can select from the best DO students.

Clinical Rotations:This is changing so ½ of people are going to spend time in one hospital. They manually select people that they know and put them in those sites; do a Biomed degree or student council, otherwise you’re screwed. The sites are Danville, Scranton, Reading, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the other ½ cannot do rotations at those sites (Geisinger, Lankenau) because of the permenant students. The remaining students are randomly put into groups (there is a match algorithm they use, but it’s still a lottery-based system) – these groups determine how many electives you get before match; the most is 6-7, the fewest is 2-3. After they put us into groups, the students then fight amongst themselves to determine who gets to go where. They tell us this is good because it improves “interpersonal communication skills”. They actually said that to us. They got rid of the 3rd term elective.

Study areas: Not so great. Too many students for too few desks. PCOM has a collaborative agreement with dozens of colleges in the area to use their libraries so this helps immensely. But if you are the type who likes to study on campus, stake your claim early. Although I always studied at home, many people study in the cafeteria or local coffee shops (plenty of those).

Social Scene: 70% of the students are really awesome. Probably the best thing the school has going for it. Just a great group of people. The biomed grads are kind of cliquey. A few of them got professionalism violations for sharing old exams among themselves. I'm pretty sure this is how they are at any school with a biomed program (inferiority complex?). The faculty knows all of them and gives them inside information about how to get a rotation they want, etc.

Board Prep: A basic scientist is in charge of our boards, and she compares it to her PhD candidacy exam. Needless to say, they have unrealistic views of boards. They give us Combank and force us to do question sets to identify our weakness. Combank is one of the worst question banks. They won’t tell us what our 3rd term looks like despite it changing drastically from the year prior. As a result, we have no idea how to plan to study. Our exams are extraordinarily easy and very one dimensional. They usually give us the questions before the exam, so you have no way to judge.


Clinical Prep: They make us do a lot of pain in the ass things, interviewing comatose patients or patients refusing to talk, etc. Realistically, it will let us hit the ground running.

Specialty: PCOM sends more people into specialty fields than most other DO schools, but they're trying to increase their presence in primary care, so if you're definitely interested in something other than Primary Care, it may be a bit of an uphill battle by the time you get here.

So here are my grades:

Curriculum: F
Location: A+
Cost: C+
Financial Aid: B-
Faculty: C
Reputation: A+
Technology: B+
Study Space/Library: C-
Library technology/Resources: B-
Rotations: B+
Social: A
Hospitals: B+
Post Grad: A+
Cafeteria Food: A-
Cafeteria Prices: B+

Overall Grade: B-
For those of us who have aspirations of matching into a competitive specialty, does PCOM provide guidance for research opportunities for the Summer after M1 year?
 
Also from second years, dedicated board study time is 4 weeks long, with an easier load leading up to the time it takes for you to take boards
 
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Update for RVUCOM - From a current OMS-I (So take the things I say about clinical years with a grain of salt. I only have my own experience.)


Curriculum: This is arguably the strongest asset of our school. Our curriculum is pretty unique in that we cover all of the systems twice in blocks in our first two years. We have year long classes (OMM, Clinical Medicine, Medical Ethics, Medical Informatics, Anatomy), and then we have our specific systems courses.

First year we start with Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms --> Immuno/Heme/Lymph --> Musculoskeletal (Anatomy and clinical correlations of the back, upper limb and lower limb) --> Cardiovascular --> Respiratory --> Renal --> Holiday Break --> GI --> Endo --> Spring Break (1 week) --> Neuroscience --> Pathologic Basis of Disease I --> Pathologic Basis of Disease II --> Summer (Last day June 15th)

Our first year curriculum focuses primarily on normal anatomy and physiology (with clinical correlations thrown in) until PBD I and II, and then the whole second year curriculum is Pathology and Pharmacology. So for instance, for the CV system, you will see normal anatomy and physiology in year I, talk about some pathology at the end of year I and then have a whole additional block that, after reviewing normal quickly, will focus on CV pathology, labs, pharm, etc. in Year II. So by the time you prepare for boards, you have seen all of systems 3 times before you even start board review. Because of this (IMHO), RVU had the best 1st time COMLEX pass rate in the nation this past year, with the second highest average COMLEX I score (by 2 points). The curriculum really does prepare us well for the future, so if you do poorly on boards, it's your fault and yours alone.

A few details:
- Passing for each class is 70% (no letter grades).
- Most lectures are not mandatory, with only special interactive sessions and labs being mandatory.
- Lectures are recorded and are posted within 15 minutes of the lecturer finishing up.
- We have standardized patients in our simulation labs on campus to test us on Clinical Medicine skills (pass/fail grading)
- We have 4 honors tracks: Rural and Wilderness Medicine, Global, Physician Scientist/Research, and Military Medicine (for all HPSP students)
- We have CutSuits! (for military and rural/wilderness tracks) -->

Location: RVU is located in a suburb of Denver called Parker. Parker itself is a very suburban community. If you're into that kind of thing (ultra safe neighborhoods, lots of shopping, etc.), awesome! You can live right next to school. I am a city guy myself, so I live in Aurora, which has cheaper rent, and is closer to downtown Denver, which has everything anyone could want from a big city (awesome food, good nightlife, all kinds of stuff to do, etc.). The beauty of it is that no matter what type of living situation you want, you can make it happen. I have classmates who are boarding their horses at ranches nearby that they go ride every day.

Mountains. Duh. The school itself is about an hour and a half-ish from the major ski resorts (Keystone, A Basin, Breckenridge, Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper, etc.) and closer to places to hike, mountain bike, climb, etc. Being active outdoors is a big deal at school. Everyone gets into the mountains. See social scene below.

Cost: $46,000ish?

Faculty:
Like any school, there are some professors that are more engaging to listen to in lecture, but the overriding theme is that our faculty knows their stuff, and they are happy to meet with you to go over concepts you may not understand. Every single one of them has an open door policy, and we've even had a prof this year come in on the Saturday before her final and do an interactive whiteboard session to go over the immune response from start to finish with those that wanted to see it again (it took about 3 hours out of her weekend). I'm sure everyone says this, but our faculty really do care about us!

Reputation:
RVU is still a fairly new school (first graduating class in 2010), but our reputation is growing really fast. I could tell stories all day of 3rd and 4th years that have received incredible feedback from their preceptors. Additionally, some of the first graduates are starting to land chief resident spots at great locations, so it's only getting better.

Clinical Rotations:
This is my weakest area of knowledge. I know we have great rotations set up in the greater Denver area as well as a dedicated program in Colorado Springs, but that's about all I know. I'm originally from MN, and I plan on doing my whole third and as many audition rotations as I can land back there, so my research and time has been spent on those rotation sites. What I do know is that our clinical affairs office is super helpful and accommodating in setting up away rotations. All I need to do is get the OK from a doc that I can rotate with (I already have sites at Mayo, the U of MN, a Neuro Clinic and Abbott Northwestern mostly lined up) and the office will coordinate the relationship and get all of the paperwork that needs to be done lined up for me.

Housing:
There is no on-campus housing, but there are all kinds of apartments, houses and condos within 10 minutes from school. Like I said earlier, housing costs are higher in the Parker area, but if you want to save some money, Aurora and Englewood are 15ish minutes from school, and are much more affordable.

Study areas:
LOTS! There are 10 study rooms on the third floor equipped with flatscreen TV's that have HDMI hookups, whiteboard walls, and all kinds of plug-ins. There are also probably 25-ish more between the library and study nooks scattered around. There are lots of individual study areas as well all throughout the school, and they put like 87238947928734 plug ins throughout the school, with associated comfy chairs.

Social Scene:
The social scene here is whatever you want it to be. We have students who are parents who spend time with other families, we have married couples without kids who group together, we have single people who like to keep to small groups, and we have single/dating/married people who like to hit up the scene in downtown Denver. We've had parties with classmates, etc. etc.

Arguably the best part about our social scene, however, is how active our class is. Any day of the week, there will be someone doing something active where anyone who wants to can get in on. We ski, hike, mountain and road bike, outdoor and indoor climb, play pickup football, basketball, hockey, volleyball, ultimate, disc golf, etc. You name it, there's someone in the class who wants to join. Right now, skiing and boarding are the main players, with groups carpooling up every weekend and many weekdays. Most of our classmates have the EPIC pass in one if its incarnations.

Edit: I forgot my favorite thing about the school. OMG. I'm willing to put money down that our class collaborates as much as or more than any other one in the nation. Our facebook group is filled with mnemonics, helpful videos, etc. So much so, that as a class we're putting together our own version of the classic board review book, First Aid, that is school specific. In other words, we're posting all of these helpful tips and tricks, mnemonics, study resources, full flashcard sets, and more to Google docs where they will become immortalized. We are planning on passing this link down to future classes with the hopes that we will all benefit. We have NO gunners to my knowledge. The people here are really awesome.
Tl;dr for edit: No gunners, we help each other. Seriously.

Local Hospitals:
We are not affiliated with a hospital per se, but RVU runs a AOA IM program at skyridge hospital about 10 minutes from the school that we have very close ties to. As far as notable/regarded major hospitals go in the area, National Jewish is in Denver (#1 ranked respiratory medicine hospital in the nation repeatedly), and Denver Children's (in Aurora) was ranked a top 10 overall children's hospital in 2014.

Board Prep:
We have board prep built in. To my knowledge, that includes a full KAPLAN course that's integrated into our tuition, and time off for self study. Like I said earlier, it seems to be paying off. We are also required to take both the COMLEX and USMLE, which means we're prepared for both, and therefore keep our options open as we're deciding on what residencies we're interested in.

Grades:
70% is passing, Some classes/competencies are Pass/Fail

For Profit Status:
Just gonna address this before I get messages. This is not an issue for us students. We get an awesome education, they have not and are not holding money back instead of spending it on facilities, faculty are great, etc. If anything, this is a positive for students. When we ask for things, instead of having to go through the red tape of getting projects approved, things can be turned around extremely quickly. For example, a few years ago students were concerned that there weren't quite enough group study spaces on campus, they brought this to the administration at the end of their first year (with maybe a month to go?) and by the next year the 10 rooms with TV's and whiteboard walls were built. Quick.

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff. If you have additional questions PM me and I'll get to them when I have a night off. Cheers!

Curriculum: A+
Location: A
Cost: B
Financial Aid: C
Faculty: A
Reputation: B+
Technology: A
Study Space/Library: A+
Library technology/Resources: A+
Rotations: A-
Social: A
Hospitals: A-
Post Grad: A


Overall Grade: A
 
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On another thread, you told me to choose PCOM over Howard. Now, you are posting super negative things about PCOM. Do you regret going to PCOM? Not attacking, genuinely asking.

I don't regret it, but that's because we are great in spite of the school. The school is run by a few people who aren't nearly as smart as the average medical student. But once you get out of it on 3rd and 4th year, their control of you is minimal and you can rotate through some great hospitals.

It is an interesting read on what PaddysPub said, however I can tell you they've already made some very significant changes in the curriculum from their year to mine in regards to what they say about the material before Christmas break. There's been a big deal so far about what happened last year to the M1s and the material they're giving us this time around.

Yeah, they really fixed a lot of the issues we were able to see ahead of time. But they change it every year, and it seems like the cycle is to break it, then fix it. BTW: They ****ed up our schedule again right now.

SPOM is easily the best run, best taught, most organized course. CMBM isn't too bad now that they fixed it, but they're not teaching you what you need to know for boards.

Most of us started feeling slighted during CMBM last year, and it just built on from there.

Also from second years, dedicated board study time is 4 weeks long, with an easier load leading up to the time it takes for you to take boards

Who told you that? This comes up during our class meetings and we never get an answer. When PCOM starts putting exam-reviews the day before your next test, and releasing results on Fridays at 5pm, you'll realize they're not operating in your best interest.

I hate to be so negative, but I'm not the only one who feels like this.
 
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I don't regret it, but that's because we are great in spite of the school. The school is run by a few people who aren't nearly as smart as the average medical student. But once you get out of it on 3rd and 4th year, their control of you is minimal and you can rotate through some great hospitals.



Yeah, they really fixed a lot of the issues we were able to see ahead of time. But they change it every year, and it seems like the cycle is to break it, then fix it. BTW: They ****** up our schedule again right now.

SPOM is easily the best run, best taught, most organized course. CMBM isn't too bad now that they fixed it, but they're not teaching you what you need to know for boards.

Most of us started feeling slighted during CMBM last year, and it just built on from there.



Who told you that? This comes up during our class meetings and we never get an answer. When PCOM starts putting exam-reviews the day before your next test, and releasing results on Fridays at 5pm, you'll realize they're not operating in your best interest.

I hate to be so negative, but I'm not the only one who feels like this.
it puzzles me that after 100+ years of existence, your school still can't totally get its act together. Every school has its problems, yes, but I would expect much better from of the most "established" schools that many dub the "Harvard" of DO programs.
 
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it puzzles me that after 100+ years of existence, your school still can't totally get its act together. Every school has its problems, yes, but I would expect much better from of the most "established" schools that many dub the "Harvard" of DO programs.
Keep in mind it's n=1 in terms of opinion. I have multiple friends at PCOM ( 3 second years, 1 4th year, and 2 1st years) who have told me otherwise. (I specifically asked after seeing Paddy's post)
 
I don't regret it, but that's because we are great in spite of the school. The school is run by a few people who aren't nearly as smart as the average medical student. But once you get out of it on 3rd and 4th year, their control of you is minimal and you can rotate through some great hospitals.



Yeah, they really fixed a lot of the issues we were able to see ahead of time. But they change it every year, and it seems like the cycle is to break it, then fix it. BTW: They ****** up our schedule again right now.

SPOM is easily the best run, best taught, most organized course. CMBM isn't too bad now that they fixed it, but they're not teaching you what you need to know for boards.

Most of us started feeling slighted during CMBM last year, and it just built on from there.



Who told you that? This comes up during our class meetings and we never get an answer. When PCOM starts putting exam-reviews the day before your next test, and releasing results on Fridays at 5pm, you'll realize they're not operating in your best interest.

I hate to be so negative, but I'm not the only one who feels like this.
Gotcha. Wellllppp that's unfortunate.
 
it puzzles me that after 100+ years of existence, your school still can't totally get its act together. Every school has its problems, yes, but I would expect much better from of the most "established" schools that many dub the "Harvard" of DO programs.

I think it also has to do with a push towards primary care and that universities across the country are turning into a money making model. Unfortunately, they cut some of their best professors. I've had professors at community college that would be in the Top 3 at PCOM. They really don't care if we do well on boards, as long as we all pass, because they can sell pass rate. Our boards are below average, despite having one of the highest average MCATs of DO schools.

The fact that we have 200 seats in the lecture hall for 270+ students is pretty telling about their priorities. There are usually about 30-40 people sitting on the floor in the overflow classrooms because there aren't enough seats (at least for mandatory lectures, most people realized going to lecture is a waste of time). They used to have a way to stream the lectures to any PC on the network, but they disabled it for students without an explanation.
 
If I was a prospective med student looking at this thread, I would take this advice:

No such thing as rank for DO's schools, they are more or less all the same. Find the cheapest DO school that's been around for >15 years, and the one that has the most 4th year electives. Most students will go into primary care anyway so might as well be in the least amount of debt since DO schools across the board offer the same opportunities for good or for worse.

If you really want to nitpick, ask about the strength of their 3rd and 4th clinical rotation sites. That's basically the most important education you'll get in med school, and as you see in this thread this is grossly underemphasized because most reviews are written by M1's and M2's. This is all written in my humble opinion so take it for what it's worth.
 
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I think it also has to do with a push towards primary care and that universities across the country are turning into a money making model. Unfortunately, they cut some of their best professors. I've had professors at community college that would be in the Top 3 at PCOM. They really don't care if we do well on boards, as long as we all pass, because they can sell pass rate. Our boards are below average, despite having one of the highest average MCATs of DO schools.

The fact that we have 200 seats in the lecture hall for 270+ students is pretty telling about their priorities. There are usually about 30-40 people sitting on the floor in the overflow classrooms because there aren't enough seats (at least for mandatory lectures, most people realized going to lecture is a waste of time). They used to have a way to stream the lectures to any PC on the network, but they disabled it for students without an explanation.
that is unacceptable.
 
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I am a NYCOM student and I don't see where the reputation comes from but I think its the fact that we have a lot of residency affiliations and things of that nature. So basically, I guess you have to get through the first two years and hopefully that gets you something in the end because historically, there is a pretty good match every year (maybe due to large volume of students or maybe because of rep). Again, I have not set foot in rotations yet (that starts in August) but thats what I hear around here.

Any specific questions, you can PM me.


Can I BUMP your post from two years ago? Now that you are a resident, having graduated from NYIT-COM, have your views on your overall experience changed any?
 
I think it also has to do with a push towards primary care and that universities across the country are turning into a money making model. Unfortunately, they cut some of their best professors. I've had professors at community college that would be in the Top 3 at PCOM. They really don't care if we do well on boards, as long as we all pass, because they can sell pass rate. Our boards are below average, despite having one of the highest average MCATs of DO schools.

The fact that we have 200 seats in the lecture hall for 270+ students is pretty telling about their priorities. There are usually about 30-40 people sitting on the floor in the overflow classrooms because there aren't enough seats (at least for mandatory lectures, most people realized going to lecture is a waste of time). They used to have a way to stream the lectures to any PC on the network, but they disabled it for students without an explanation.

Your school is starting to sound like my school. That's a bit upsetting. Don't they know that higher boards = more "prestigious"/high-profile matches, which they could definitely sell to prospective students? I expect it from my school, but not yours.

If I was a prospective med student looking at this thread, I would take this advice:

No such thing as rank for DO's schools, they are more or less all the same. Find the cheapest DO school that's been around for >15 years, and the one that has the most 4th year electives. Most students will go into primary care anyway so might as well be in the least amount of debt since DO schools across the board offer the same opportunities for good or for worse.

If you really want to nitpick, ask about the strength of their 3rd and 4th clinical rotation sites. That's basically the most important education you'll get in med school, and as you see in this thread this is grossly underemphasized because most reviews are written by M1's and M2's. This is all written in my humble opinion so take it for what it's worth.

I very much agree. 3rd and 4th year is important, and location is important for a lot of people, but cost is way up there too, and school recognition only matters when it comes to wanting residency in a specific region, otherwise it's meaningless among DO schools.
 
I think it also has to do with a push towards primary care and that universities across the country are turning into a money making model. Unfortunately, they cut some of their best professors. I've had professors at community college that would be in the Top 3 at PCOM. They really don't care if we do well on boards, as long as we all pass, because they can sell pass rate. Our boards are below average, despite having one of the highest average MCATs of DO schools.

The fact that we have 200 seats in the lecture hall for 270+ students is pretty telling about their priorities. There are usually about 30-40 people sitting on the floor in the overflow classrooms because there aren't enough seats (at least for mandatory lectures, most people realized going to lecture is a waste of time). They used to have a way to stream the lectures to any PC on the network, but they disabled it for students without an explanation.

I have never seen this. And our class is bigger than yours from what happened with CMBM last year. And yes i've seen all 270 of us in Ginsberg at the same time. Also I would describe it as students "sitting on the floor". It seems like your trying to go for the shock factor there. The students are sitting at desks that just happen to be at the bottom row. It's not like they sit with their legs crossed on the legit floor.
 
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Not to add fuel to the flame about PCOM but here it is. The students that I've seen that come out of there are wildly variable these days, from excellent to cow excrement and I guess the reviews I just saw explain why to some extent. Interesting thing to note about some of their associated residencies which I discovered from classmates who are residents there. PCOM actually pays the residents and contracts them out to the hospitals. This is good for PCOM graduates who fail to match because PCOM apparently puts extreme pressure on the hospitals to accept a subpar candidate over a superior one from another school. It is also good because the contract terms supposedly have a certain amount of residents on it, which makes it very difficult to get fired. This is bad because some of these hospitals have minimal supervision and letting a resident like that manage patients kills a lot of patients. In my own experience the Western students have been the most consistent in knowledge and abilities thus far. Obviously anecdotal but that's all I got.
 
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I have never seen this. And our class is bigger than yours from what happened with CMBM last year. And yes i've seen all 270 of us in Ginsberg at the same time. Also I would describe it as students "sitting on the floor". It seems like your trying to go for the shock factor there. The students are sitting at desks that just happen to be at the bottom row. It's not like they sit with their legs crossed on the legit floor.

I agree about the desks vs. sitting on the floor. Most of the time everyone doesn't need to be in Ginsberg all at once, and we definitely have a decreased class size since orientation (when they quoted 280+). But I think the puzzling thing is that Zedeck has a significantly smaller capacity--so for second-years, it's a different story. Not really sure how it worked out that way, but hopefully they expand it if they're planning to keep increasing the class size.
 
I have never seen this. And our class is bigger than yours from what happened with CMBM last year. And yes i've seen all 270 of us in Ginsberg at the same time. Also I would describe it as students "sitting on the floor". It seems like your trying to go for the shock factor there. The students are sitting at desks that just happen to be at the bottom row. It's not like they sit with their legs crossed on the legit floor.

Walk into Ginsburg, look around, then walk into Zedeck and take note of the size difference. They stream lectures to the overflow room on the 2nd floor, but there still aren't enough chairs up there. Additionally, Ginsburg is only approved for 260 (I think, its posted on the top) students as per the fire code. Not sure about Zedeck, but I imagine the capacity hovers around 190. You also have dozens (>60) of mandatory lectures as a second year, so often, all of us need to be there.
 
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I'm gonna go ahead and leave this here: at my school, doesn't really matter where, they are having us do "skits" for our hardest term class. Literally a skit. Like, a variety show. Instead of realizing we have an assload to already study for, we have to do these stupid things that waste time. Yea, I've never ever heard a medical school doing this.
 
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Not to add fuel to the flame about PCOM but here it is. The students that I've seen that come out of there are wildly variable these days, from excellent to cow excrement............ In my own experience the Western students have been the most consistent.



....says the Western grad.


How many PCOM grads do you come across in Southern California?


Please pre-meds, take everything on SDN with a grain of salt. People post out their ass all over this site.
 
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So this isn't in the format of this thread, but I had someone PM me asking some specific questions and I wrote out this lengthy review of DCOM...figured it might help someone else. I'm a 4th year. Sorry for rambling/grammar mistakes/typos....I'm tired and typing on my phone.

First, I want to say you have to take what people say on the internet and in interviews with a grain of salt. I have noticed that no one wants to say anything negative about their own school because it makes them feel inferior. I think that's dumb. There are good things and bad things about every school, even the top tier schools like Harvard. I think it's funny that we will bitch about it ad nauseum amongst ourselves but then the school is all rainbows and puppy dogs when we talk to other people.

The basic sciences sucked while we were doing them...but looking back I really think we were prepared for boards and we weren't reeeeally absolutely miserable during the 1st 2 years. The professors are really variable...you'll learn how each person likes to test and teach and then you decide how you'd learn best from them. There are some professors that less than 10% of the class would physically attend and there were others that everyone liked (or were coercing us with extra points) and would go to. I was a mediasiter and watched almost every class on my own time (definitely one of the perks). Honestly there are a lot
Of new professors so I'm probably not as qualified to talk about the basic sciences anymore.

The clinical rotations are what you make of them. I felt pretty prepared for audition rotations minus being able to present a patient in the "proper way" because we don't rotate through hospitals with residents. I haven't heard a TON of complaints from other people about not feeling like they learned what we were supposed to. It seems ours are more lenient in terms of hours which has actually pretty nice because I don't think it's really necessary to work 5am-8pm watching the residents do notes or something to get a good education.

The pathology was great. Honestly anywhere you go you are going to see stuff because it's not like the patient knows they have something cool so they go to the big centers. They usually get sent there from somewhere else. My core served a huge area so we saw quite a bit of stuff. The things that needed specialists were sent out but even if you were at that big center you wouldn't really get to see anything because there are 8million people ahead of you in the pecking order. I honestly think being at a medium size hospital was fine. Like I said you just have to make sure you do some rotations at a place with a residency at some point before auditions to learn how you are supposed to fit into the hierarchy/present a patient (even though everywhere you go will be a little different).

3rd year you can do as much or as little traveling as you want. One of the big pros of our clinical years is the amount of flexibility. That's also a con because in order to take advantage of the flexibility you have to work harder to set up your rotations. Depending on your core (half the class does their core the first half of the year and half does it the second half) you could get your cores out of the way and then do whatever you want wherever you want (about 6 months of 3rd year and almost all of 4th year.) The school basically does nothing to help set most rotations up. Or you can stay at your core and easily set stuff up...but you have to stay wherever that is...and most places aren't the most exciting of locations.

Grading is letter based for the first 2 years and for all of your cores. The rest is pass/fail which I really think is dumb because we go from having grades to just a pass (which is like a C at most programs that have the honors/high pass/pass type thing going). Anyway, the grading really doesn't matter cause you'll be ranked either way almost everywhere.

I didn't take USMLE and should have. I'm pretty sure for the people that took it, almost all , if not everyone passed but it's kindve a self selection type of thing. Obviously if you don't think you will do well why risk having the fail when it's possible (although harder) to still get MD residencies if you don't take it...and DO residencies are still an option for us...don't know what will happen with the merger. I am applying to obgyn and I applied to 70 acgme programs and only got 7 invites. I was expecting less so I am happy...but if I took usmle (and did ok on it) I'm sure I would have done better. I think I got so many because I busted my (figurative) balls and did 5 audition rotations. Most of the places I actually feel Like I have a shot at I rotated through which is also a perk of our schedule. We basically can do as many aways as we can muster up the energy for. A lot of schools only have the options to do a few. In my opinion that is a HUGE detriment to applying for residencies.

Overall, I would rate the school about a B-. Harrogate kinda sucks but it's beautiful and a fine place to study for 2 years. I think the basic science education is a lot better than I originally thought when I was going through it. Our facilities are beautiful but that really shouldn't factor into your decision honestly...it's just a good way to impress students during the interview. I think the administration leaves us out to dry more than I would like especially 3rd and 4th year (meaning they do absolutely nothing for their $40,000 tuition) but that is a common theme at DO schools. At some points I felt like I was succeeding in spite of my school instead of because of it...but I think I am probably going to match in the specialty I want and that is really ally that matters to me.

As a side note. For all the premeds trying to pick a school....I know it seems like the most important decision you will make concerning your career, but it's really not. If you read through all the comments here you can see that people's experiences vary widely even within the same school. I honestly don't think one school is going to give you a leg up over another (I am talking only about DO schools because I hope if you are at the deciding point you know that going DO has relative disadvantages as compared to MD). Go where you think you will be happiest because you reeeeally don't want to be miserable for 4 years. We tend to forget that we still have to live during medical school...I have only just recently realized that I haven't put my life "on hold" like I originally thought when I was entering med school. I just was living a different kind of life than most people and that's ok. Anyway, hope this helps some people and if anyone has any specific questions feel free to PM me or comment here.
 
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