School comparison / Withdraw?

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nikon

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How do these schools compare against each other?

AZCOM, CCOM, NOVA, TOURO-CA, WESTERN.

I have been accepted into Nova and chances of getting into the other schools are good.

I really like Nova but wonder if I would be making a huge mistake canceling my app with the rest of the schools. What would I be missing out? I am sure most of you are or will be facing similar situations. I could use all the different perspectives.

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have you read the "pros and cons of your DO school" thread?

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=407104

lots of good info in there... hard to compare 5 schools

To me, Western, CCOM, and Nova seem much more established than Touro and AZCOM. CCOM and Western have all their rotation sites within the area of the school, so you wont have to move, or move too far at least, after second year.

You know about the locations.

Nova and Western are in really nice locations, in my opinion.

Nova you may have to move during third year, but most or all of your rotation sites will be within an area, they call them tracks, I believe, so you won't be going all over the country.

CCOM is one of the old school DO schools, so it has one of the better reputations.

Some of it may come down to where you want to be living, and you don't have to go on all of those interviews, it'd probably be good to do some research and pick maybe one or two more that you'd like to go to, if you aren't totally sold on Nova, or are just really curious about the other schools. Would suck to spend your life wondering :laugh:

Also, you may want to look at the curriculum of each school, see if you favor one. That actually made a difference to me, as well. I don't want to be doing anatomy for 2 years
 
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For me, it was

Western>Nova>CCOM>AZCOM>Touro


A fair amount of that has to do with location... just where I'd rather be. I don't think it's a good idea to sacrifice the quality of your education because of location, though.

Decisions decisions
 
For me, it was

Western>Nova>CCOM>AZCOM>Touro


A fair amount of that has to do with location... just where I'd rather be. I don't think it's a good idea to sacrifice the quality of your education because of location, though.

Decisions decisions

So if you were basing the schools on of quality of education would they be any different?
 
So if you were basing the schools on of quality of education would they be any different?

From the research I've done...maybe. That goes as far as clinical rotations and such. Really tough to compare, though. Sometimes it's a matter of not being better, but different, and what works for you.
 
How do these schools compare against each other?

AZCOM, CCOM, NOVA, TOURO-CA, WESTERN.

I have been accepted into Nova and chances of getting into the other schools are good.

I really like Nova but wonder if I would be making a huge mistake canceling my app with the rest of the schools. What would I be missing out? I am sure most of you are or will be facing similar situations. I could use all the different perspectives.

If I were you I'd cancel touro-ca and go for interviews at azcom, ccom, and western. I really liked azcom and got a good feeling from the school. I haven't interviewed at ccom or western, but I 100% will if offered one.
 
Thanks you guys for chiming in, especially the "pros and cons" thread.

Decision, decision...

Curriculum, rotation, and COMLEX aside,

CCOM tuition is now at 46.8k(for entering class 2009). Western's website shows 43.3k. Living expense at both locations would be fairly high. Some commented that of Nova is about same as Downers Grove, but Nova's tuition is definitely much less.

As for AZCOM, the summer dry heat is a concern. I am an outdoor person and don't like staying inside an ACed room all day.
 
How do these schools compare against each other?

AZCOM, CCOM, NOVA, TOURO-CA, WESTERN.

I have been accepted into Nova and chances of getting into the other schools are good.

I really like Nova but wonder if I would be making a huge mistake canceling my app with the rest of the schools. What would I be missing out? I am sure most of you are or will be facing similar situations. I could use all the different perspectives.
I go to Nova, was also accepted at Touro-ca and Western, and turned down an interview at CCOM. I was already accepted at western when i turned down CCOM. CCOM's tuition was just too high for my taste. I would cancel Touro-ca. Western is worth a look, I really liked the school, but obviously Nova won out for me.
 
I go to Nova, was also accepted at Touro-ca and Western, and turned down an interview at CCOM. I was already accepted at western when i turned down CCOM. CCOM's tuition was just too high for my taste. I would cancel Touro-ca. Western is worth a look, I really liked the school, but obviously Nova won out for me.

Are you from Florida?
 
I'd go to either CCOM or NOVA. Both schools are respectable, and both schools have rotation sites near their campus, so you don't have to move all over the country during your 3rd and 4th year. I would also check out Western if you are interested in practicing on the west coast. I would probably skip AZCOM(the campus is nice, but the rotations are not great) and I would skip Touro-CA(heard too many bad things about this one).
 
Having worked in medicine for the past several years in both NY and CA, and with some of my former physician mentors moving to FL, my 2cents here is that Western is more well known than CCOM or NOVA once you leave the region. When I was asking around to find out about speaking to or shadowing a DO, every single practitioner who was identified (after asking more than a dozen physicians) was a graduate of Western, except for one (NYCOM). If you are concerned that you want to do a residency or practice in an area far away from where you attend school, you might want to factor this into your decision.

I am not saying that this reflects on the quality of education you can get at any of those schools.

From the schools on your list, I only interviewed at NOVA. I don't believe that the location of Western and NOVA are comparable when you get down to your actual daily life. While both are in a warm climate that will have nice weather, Western is not as well situated to take advantage of the benefits of that region...and that area is kinda smoggy and unpleasant in my opinion (I am from L.A.).

I have heard that the facilities at Western are rather run down, but haven't seen it for myself. I wasn't super impressed by those at NOVA since they were doing prosections and had pretty old, crummy tables for doing manipulation (they were the only one of 7 schools at which i interviewed that didn't have a new OMM lab with adjustable tables...if you're tall or short, that stinks).

Touro-CA is jewish and thus closes libraries from sundown friday through saturday if that matters to you.

I believe CCOM has a good education but didn't interview there or hear anything of concern about it. AZCOM is newer, and I, personally, would avoid newness just for the increased risk of rapid turnover in faculty and changes to curriculum.
 
Thanks, I appreciate your input.

Having worked in medicine for the past several years in both NY and CA, and with some of my former physician mentors moving to FL, my 2cents here is that Western is more well known than CCOM or NOVA once you leave the region. When I was asking around to find out about speaking to or shadowing a DO, every single practitioner who was identified (after asking more than a dozen physicians) was a graduate of Western, except for one (NYCOM). If you are concerned that you want to do a residency or practice in an area far away from where you attend school, you might want to factor this into your decision.

I am not saying that this reflects on the quality of education you can get at any of those schools.

From the schools on your list, I only interviewed at NOVA. I don't believe that the location of Western and NOVA are comparable when you get down to your actual daily life. While both are in a warm climate that will have nice weather, Western is not as well situated to take advantage of the benefits of that region...and that area is kinda smoggy and unpleasant in my opinion (I am from L.A.).

I have heard that the facilities at Western are rather run down, but haven't seen it for myself. I wasn't super impressed by those at NOVA since they were doing prosections and had pretty old, crummy tables for doing manipulation (they were the only one of 7 schools at which i interviewed that didn't have a new OMM lab with adjustable tables...if you're tall or short, that stinks).

Touro-CA is jewish and thus closes libraries from sundown friday through saturday if that matters to you.

I believe CCOM has a good education but didn't interview there or hear anything of concern about it. AZCOM is newer, and I, personally, would avoid newness just for the increased risk of rapid turnover in faculty and changes to curriculum.
 
They switched back to full dissection for class of 2013. :)

It would have behooved them to tell us that when they admitted us. At one point I was deciding between NOVA, UNECOM, and NYCOM, and the prosection issue was a major deciding factor...it is one of the things that knocked NOVA out of the running. I had specifically inquired about the gross anatomy situation, too.
 
Having worked in medicine for the past several years in both NY and CA, and with some of my former physician mentors moving to FL, my 2cents here is that Western is more well known than CCOM or NOVA once you leave the region. When I was asking around to find out about speaking to or shadowing a DO, every single practitioner who was identified (after asking more than a dozen physicians) was a graduate of Western, except for one (NYCOM). If you are concerned that you want to do a residency or practice in an area far away from where you attend school, you might want to factor this into your decision.

I am not saying that this reflects on the quality of education you can get at any of those schools.

From the schools on your list, I only interviewed at NOVA. I don't believe that the location of Western and NOVA are comparable when you get down to your actual daily life. While both are in a warm climate that will have nice weather, Western is not as well situated to take advantage of the benefits of that region...and that area is kinda smoggy and unpleasant in my opinion (I am from L.A.).

I have heard that the facilities at Western are rather run down, but haven't seen it for myself. I wasn't super impressed by those at NOVA since they were doing prosections and had pretty old, crummy tables for doing manipulation (they were the only one of 7 schools at which i interviewed that didn't have a new OMM lab with adjustable tables...if you're tall or short, that stinks).

Touro-CA is jewish and thus closes libraries from sundown friday through saturday if that matters to you.

I believe CCOM has a good education but didn't interview there or hear anything of concern about it. AZCOM is newer, and I, personally, would avoid newness just for the increased risk of rapid turnover in faculty and changes to curriculum.

What's funny is that I've had multiple people in medicine (my aunt is an RN, my mom's doc who is an MD and my PCP who is a DO, all in S Cal) say CCOM all the way. Without even knowing what DO schools I was applying to, they all said CCOM was really well established, well known, and churned out some great physicians. With that said, you're set at CCOM, Western, or NOVA. All established, will get you where you want to go, etc ... you need to search deeper and see what you're looking for. It's different for everyone else (location, cost, facilities, name, etc).
 
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