The Commonwealth Medical College (TCMC) MBS 2012-2013

[cooldriver]

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[RichardAlpert]

Congrats! Do you mind if I ask, what date did you interview?

Do you know anything about when they decide and send out responses?

 

[jawster]

Just got the acceptance for the class of 2014 today! See everyone in August!



-Also, looking for a good place to live if anyone knows of one and/or a roommate.

Thanks

 

[Gatorpaws02]

Hi everyone!! So I got accepted to the TCMC MBS program for the class of 2014. I was wondering if anyone can help me guide on how good the program is? how are the classes and the atmosphere? do students do study groups? cost of living and any apartments near or around the area with bus transportation, also my dream is to go to BU Med school, so I am wondering if anyone who has finished this program have gotten into any Massachusetts or Pennsylvania MD schools? Thank you in advanced!

 

[plasmamorris]

Hi everyone!! So I got accepted to the TCMC MBS program for the class of 2014. I was wondering if anyone can help me guide on how good the program is? how are the classes and the atmosphere? do students do study groups? cost of living and any apartments near or around the area with bus transportation, also my dream is to go to BU Med school, so I am wondering if anyone who has finished this program have gotten into any Massachusetts or Pennsylvania MD schools? Thank you in advanced!

If you read back a couple of posts - I've given a pretty long run down on TCMC's program. There's also a really thorough ranking/review of the program by Chip90 in the Rate your SMP & Post-Bac thread.

As for Massachusetts schools - we haven't sent anyone there to my knowledge. For the most part - our students end up in PA schools. One of my classmates was very qualified and got into a number of Pennsylvania MD schools: Drexel, Penn State, and TCMC. We've sent a few to Drexel and some were admitted to PCOM in the past. Most of the successful MBS students end up at TCMC though. We have sent people to Case Western and this year we sent someone to Iowa-Carver. For the most part though - people who have gotten into schools outside of TCMC really were using the SMP as a gap year rather than a real application enhancer. Their GPAs and MCATs were already pretty good.

 

[Gatorpaws02]

Hey! Yeah I read them and seem pretty insightful. I just don't know how they manage the financial situation since I am out of state and I am a minority. I am not sure whether they give scholarships or how do they help with the loans. I also read the Chip90 and yeah it was helpful however I found it a bit biased (no offense to your peer or something like that), it just seems that way. If you can help me more, then I would appreciate it thank you again!!!

 

[plasmamorris]

As far as financial help with regard to scholarships - you won't get any help from TCMC. They don't have much scholarship money to give out and they give all of it to 1 or 2 MD students every year. What they will do is allow you to take out a full amount in loans up to the calculated cost of attendance. This includes tuition, housing, books, transportation, food, and miscellaneous costs. If you're concerned about financial aid - you should speak with Ellen McGuire. She's really nice and can help walk you through everything. Her email is [email protected]. I think they give some financial break to NEPA residents, but as you're out of state - that won't be helpful to you.

 

[2PINZ]

I'm pretty positive I will be attending this fall. I want to live downtown, and if anyone is looking for a roommate feel free to message me. I'm 23/m.

Oh, and why isn't there a 2013-2014 TCMC thread...?

 

[jawster]

I'm pretty positive I will be attending this fall. I want to live downtown, and if anyone is looking for a roommate feel free to message me. I'm 23/m.

Oh, and why isn't there a 2013-2014 TCMC thread...?

Hey that is awesome. I look forward to seeing everyone in August. I am not sure why there is not a thread yet. I have started a Facebook group called TCMC MBS Class of 2014. It has not had much activity yet but I created it so we can all share info such as housing, events, and anything else. I had some luck finding a place to live on placefinder.com and apartment list.

 

[Gatorpaws02]

To the people who has been accepted to TCMC, does anyone have information about the MCAT preparation it says that we could do it prior or after the program? Can anyone give me any insight if this course is paid from our tuition and how beneficial is it? Also, what is the cheapest rent there in Scranton and does it come furnished the rooms? Thank you!

 

[wsh5022]

Hey guys,

Is anyone still looking for housing/roommate(s)? Another MBS student and I are looking to get a 3BR apartment near the school and are looking for one more roommate. The rent + utilities per month is very cheap and the apartment is 2 blocks from the school. If you're interested, you can message me through SDN and I can give you more details about the place. Thanks.

 

[Sweetheart07]

That's quite a few questions haha. I'll try to be brief for your sake and mine.

How do I feel about TCMC MBS - I love it. I think it's a great program that really helps people get into schools. The admin, profs, and everyone are great. TCMC has some of the nicest people around. These types of programs will be intense and full of grateful people (me) and not so grateful people (some people on SDN). It's all a matter of perspective. Do the work, take the risk, make your moves wisely with your particular situation in mind and everything will work out one way or another. This process isn't for the weak and TCMC's MBS isn't a magic bullet. Reading any SMP thread - you'll see those who've gone before you speak about "changing". That's definitely true - you like become a better student/person/applicant in one really intense year. It's glorious if it works out right and terrible if it doesn't.

Did it help - Yes, I was accepted into TCMC's MD class of 2017. My classmates and I have had many interviews (MD and DO). Some of my friends have gotten into good DO and MD schools (Penn State, Iowa - Carver, UMDNJ-SOM, the DO school). I think at this point 8-10 of us have gotten into TCMC. A handful of us are waiting to hear if we'll get into Drexel. Note the class size started at 69 and is now about 64. ~30 ppl aren't applying till this upcoming app cycle. The same 10-20 ppl seem to be getting interviews/acceptances. About 10 or so have been rejected pre-interview at TCMC. These are all approx and may drastically change by June. 5 or so from last year's MBS class were accepted this year. A handful of my classmates are going to the carib.

Likes/Dislikes - I like a lot and dislike very little. I'll start with what I don't like. I think the class size is too large. This makes for awkward group sizes (too many ppl - not enough work). I think some of the class curricula could be rearranged (some fall courses taught in spring and vice versa). I wish we took anatomy but that's really difficult with limited resources. What I like: the people, the building, the faculty, learning services, the MD students, the environment. In the end - I think the program was really rigorous and made me a better person/student/applicant. I really changed as a person and redefined my work ethic here. I could write forever on each of those topics (if you have questions on any in particular I'd be happy to go into more depth).

Changes for you guys - CHRP (Community Health Research Projects) may change for you guys. We currently go out into "the field" (hospitals, agencies, community) to do public health research. There just aren't enough agencies and people in NEPA to do this well anymore. So you guys will be using state and federal data banks to do your projects. There may be individual course changes - but we won't know about that until you guys are taking the courses next year.

The MBS program has been around since the school was started. This will be it's 4th graduating class. Your class will be the 5th. From my understanding this may have been the smoothest year they've had. A lot of my classmates were up in arms about them ditching the curving grade scheme (however no other credible SMP in the country curves in the traditional sense). I don't see a whole lot changing, but that may be a naive assumption on my part.

Provisional accred - once the MD4's graduate in May with us (kinda cool how we're graduating with the inaugural class) TCMC will essentially be fully accredited. They're doing one last LCME survey in about 2 weeks and that is literally the last thing besides graduation that needs to occur for TCMC to be fully accredited. Everyone's super excited.

Matriculating - I pretty much got this in the did it help section. I'll add that one thing to consider carefully is when to apply. You need to take a serious look at your application (MCATs, GPA, ECs) and see whether 1 semester or 2 semesters of decent work will help. For some ppl it's enough for 1 semester, for others it's simply not. If you have MCAT issues - you absolutely need to address them as early as possible. TCMC is good about communicating this. I think it's preposterous for ppl to get upset when they have sub 3.0 GPAs and poor MCATs to pout and get angry when they don't get into med school after 1 good semester of work. It doesn't work like that. You've gotta make up for lost time. There's a balance and ultimately everything works out if you give it the appropriate amount of time.

That wasn't as brief as I hoped it would be haha but hopefully it was remotely helpful. Good luck on the SMP app cycle and hopefully you get into TCMC!

Hey!

I thought it was quite late in the cycle for acceptances but I just got an email from them today to schedule my interview! Surprising but happy news .

Nonetheless, I'm still confused if this is a good program for me or not. I had a 3.2 GPA in my undergrad. I've been volunteering at the local hospital (ER, stroke unit, mother baby) for the past 7 years, I have 2 months of shadowing experience with a DO and 1 month experience shadowing an MD. My mcat score was really bad so I know I definitely need/want to retake that. I was VP of a the South Asians Socitey and part of a Bhangra dance team on campus for my extra curricular. I have also been doing research on diabetes using fruit flies as a model for the past 3 years.

With all that in mind, what are my chances of getting into a med school next year after this MBS program? Will it help me or am I wasting my money?

Any help will really be appreciated!! If you need any other information from me to answer the question, please don't hesitate to ask!

Thanks!!

 

[attainmydream21]

Hey!

I thought it was quite late in the cycle for acceptances but I just got an email from them today to schedule my interview! Surprising but happy news .

Nonetheless, I'm still confused if this is a good program for me or not. I had a 3.2 GPA in my undergrad. I've been volunteering at the local hospital (ER, stroke unit, mother baby) for the past 7 years, I have 2 months of shadowing experience with a DO and 1 month experience shadowing an MD. My mcat score was really bad so I know I definitely need/want to retake that. I was VP of a the South Asians Socitey and part of a Bhangra dance team on campus for my extra curricular. I have also been doing research on diabetes using fruit flies as a model for the past 3 years.

With all that in mind, what are my chances of getting into a med school next year after this MBS program? Will it help me or am I wasting my money?

Any help will really be appreciated!! If you need any other information from me to answer the question, please don't hesitate to ask!

Thanks!!

Hey you should also post this on the 2014-2015 thread. It's much more active than this one!

But if I can offer my two cents - I don't think it will hurt you more than help you. They offer a Princeton Review course for the MCAT prior and after the MBS year. Overall, I think if you can bring your MCAT score up and do well in the MBS program, you should be primed for med school admissions. How bad is your MCAT score if you don't mind me asking?