The Commonwealth Medical College (TCMC) MBS 2016-2017

[BlondeB3auty2619]

So let me 1st start off by saying this, I agree, students should not base their opinions on the posts of individuals from a single class, however, they should use ALL info posted. Take the good, bad, and the ugly and make informed decisions. It would be foolish to ignore any post that did not come from you or the PCOM student. It seems ridiculous for you to be able to adequately comment on this years class without being a member. As would be the same for me if I tried to comment on the experiences of your class. So, you commented that this past years students were "less than stellar" but how many students in your class would have been deemed the same under this new system? You graduated the MBS program with a 3.92 GPA, congrats, but you failed to recognize that your own GPA would most likely have been a lot less under the +|- system. You mentioned only 2 changes to the program but should have also mentioned that exams are now taken on computers, there are ALWAYS errors, professional development changed from a pass/fail system to a graded system, some exams have 40 questions that need to be completed in 50 minutes, many of the classes only have 3 possibly 4 grades that make up your overall grade in the class, and the running joke amongst the administration AND the Med students is that the MBS program often feels as if they are the "red headed step child (this was mentioned on day 1 by admin during orientation)." There is no curve, correct, but you mention that their is also no curve in Med school. Whilst this may be true, you should also mention that on average the Med students have 100+ questions per exam, only need a 70% to pass, AND have the option of retaking the exam if failed. On the other hand, the MBS exams average 35-40 questions while needing a 93% for an A. The math is simple. Think about it this way, the TA's from this class chose to go to other institutions for medical school although they were accepted into the TCMC medical class, why is that? Anyway, as stated, I encourage students to use ALL info posted to make informed decisions. Although I thoroughly disagree with your post, I did enjoy your talk with us during professional development. Good luck with your future endeavors =)

I do not usually post on SDN, but after reviewing a few of these posts I wanted to say something.

I would only take the word of the PCOM student above and myself about this program. This past years MBS class was anything but stellar and I feel it has more to do with the average student than it did with the professors. I am a 2015 graduate and the only changes they made was a professor change, who before was the actual neuro teacher and the addition of the plus minus system which was requested by the students over multiple years.

The course work is challenging but the staff cares more about your success than even your mother would. There is no curve but nor is there in medical school and that means you can get an A without worrying about how well someone else is doing. From my class alone I believe we have passed the 50% point on medical school acceptances alone. TCMC is what you make of it, and it was so good I turned down MD offers to attend here in the Fall.

To any upcoming student do not base your opinion of an institution based off individuals from a single year. Good luck to all who are coming and I'll see you in August.

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[AlphaEta251]

You are absolutely correct, you should not ignore everyone's opinion and I guess that is where I will claim fault. Everyone has a unique situation and none should be diminished. I apologize.

However, most of the problems you spoke on below were in existence during my tenure and would therefor not be "new". I believe I was speaking to the fact to the change in how cell bio was run and the +/- grading that was issued in this year. I would hesitate you to assume my final GPA sum since you have no knowledge, but that is neither here nor there. Tests for every class have always had someone say they were to long, some classes have always had only tests to decide the final grades which there were only 3 to 4, and some students have always felt as though they were on the outside looking in.

I am not going to go into the difference between the MDs and the MBS test, because it is far more involved and I was generalizing to school in general where you are only looking at a single example. What I will say is that when deciding schools you have to have a lot of factors involved and I hope after this year if you plan to apply that you will be given choices like I was and so many of my classmates and MBS alumni before me were given, and the decision made is much more involved than how you are portraying this. I generalized about a class which I will not do again, so maybe you can use this to understand where I am finding fault in your arguments.

Obviously, loads of students are successful and move on. So maybe the program is not at fault but the students who do not achieve their marks are? But that is a conversation for another time and I am not as good at typing as I am as speaking. Which if you are only joking about me being enjoyable I would be heart broken because I thought it was one of my better moments.

I am still helping your class and as mentioned at that meeting and would extend you the same offer of help for getting GAP year stuff going if you are looking towards Penn or the Philly area in general. I hope you make it back to TCMC one day.

So let me 1st start off by saying this, I agree, students should not base their opinions on the posts of individuals from a single class, however, they should use ALL info posted. Take the good, bad, and the ugly and make informed decisions. It would be foolish to ignore any post that did not come from you or the PCOM student. It seems ridiculous for you to be able to adequately comment on this years class without being a member. As would be the same for me if I tried to comment on the experiences of your class. So, you commented that this past years students were "less than stellar" but how many students in your class would have been deemed the same under this new system? You graduated the MBS program with a 3.92 GPA, congrats, but you failed to recognize that your own GPA would most likely have been a lot less under the +|- system. You mentioned only 2 changes to the program but should have also mentioned that exams are now taken on computers, there are ALWAYS errors, professional development changed from a pass/fail system to a graded system, some exams have 40 questions that need to be completed in 50 minutes, many of the classes only have 3 possibly 4 grades that make up your overall grade in the class, and the running joke amongst the administration AND the Med students is that the MBS program often feels as if they are the "red headed step child (this was mentioned on day 1 by admin during orientation)." There is no curve, correct, but you mention that their is also no curve in Med school. Whilst this may be true, you should also mention that on average the Med students have 100+ questions per exam, only need a 70% to pass, AND have the option of retaking the exam if failed. On the other hand, the MBS exams average 35-40 questions while needing a 93% for an A. The math is simple. Think about it this way, the TA's from this class chose to go to other institutions for medical school although they were accepted into the TCMC medical class, why is that? Anyway, as stated, I encourage students to use ALL info posted to make informed decisions. Although I thoroughly disagree with your post, I did enjoy your talk with us during professional development. Good luck with your future endeavors =)

 

[ck1994]

I was just accepted into the TCMC MBS program a couple of days ago, and will be attending. I am very excited for this new experience. I am undergraduate senior coming from the University of Scranton looking to improve my academic profile to further apply myself to doing well on the MCAT and going off to medical school afterwards. I'm hoping that I do not need to take another gap year after the program

 

[m-ezy]

Hey everyone, ill be attending tcmc mbs program this upcoming fall as well. I'm pretty excited! I just graduated from Marywood university which is right down the road, and In a bit of a predicament because my roommate moved out after graduation and now I'm in search of a new one. I live in an apartment building on Green Ridge street; only like 3 minutes from tcmc. Rent would be 300 a month but if my other friend joins in as well, hopefully, then it would only be 200 a month. Pretty decent and clean place too! Well just email me at [email protected] or on here if you're interested!

 

[ck1994]

Greetings everyone,

I'd like to know given my circumstances my chances for admission to medical school for the fall of 2017. I am currently a graduating Senior with a 3.19 GPA, thousands of hours of Clinical Experience working as a Patient Transport Aide, Nursing Assistant, and Nursing Unit Clerk / Assistant. I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours of Volunteering within the local community, domestic communities, as well as International Communities in Honduras and Haiti. I was granted an opportunity to go on a medical service trip to Haiti this past January and was able to put my clinical skills to the test. However, I am planning on taking my MCAT in August because I had applied to this program GRE/MCAT optional. I wanted to know from my fellow SDN community on what my next steps are to applying AMCAS and AACOMAS, as well as my chances on admissions in an MD1 program while involved in the rigorous MBS curriculum at TCMC during this year. Please let me know what you can tell me from your previous experiences that can get me involved and accepted into the MD1 program without having to take a GAP year after the MBS program.
Best Regards,

 

[Amun24]

Greetings everyone,

I'd like to know given my circumstances my chances for admission to medical school for the fall of 2017. I am currently a graduating Senior with a 3.19 GPA, thousands of hours of Clinical Experience working as a Patient Transport Aide, Nursing Assistant, and Nursing Unit Clerk / Assistant. I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours of Volunteering within the local community, domestic communities, as well as International Communities in Honduras and Haiti. I was granted an opportunity to go on a medical service trip to Haiti this past January and was able to put my clinical skills to the test. However, I am planning on taking my MCAT in August because I had applied to this program GRE/MCAT optional. I wanted to know from my fellow SDN community on what my next steps are to applying AMCAS and AACOMAS, as well as my chances on admissions in an MD1 program while involved in the rigorous MBS curriculum at TCMC during this year. Please let me know what you can tell me from your previous experiences that can get me involved and accepted into the MD1 program without having to take a GAP year after the MBS program.
Best Regards,

HI I am kind of in the same boat. i already took the mcat and did pretty good but I am apply while I am in the MBS. I know you asked for previous experience in a similar situation. But I thought I did say something anyway. I know TCMC will look at your application for an interview and your 3.19 is not far off the cut off but I think a strong show in the MBS program and a good mcat will get you over. I would say apply TCMC at least and see how that goes. Applying now would give you a greater incentive to study harder during mbs because I have friends that have done this though not TCMC but a similar program and after they sent in their first semester grades, they started getting interviews. So give it a shot and see how it goes. i hope this helps

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

I do not usually post on SDN, but after reviewing a few of these posts I wanted to say something.

I would only take the word of the PCOM student above and myself about this program. This past years MBS class was anything but stellar and I feel it has more to do with the average student than it did with the professors. I am a 2015 graduate and the only changes they made was a professor change, who before was the actual neuro teacher and the addition of the plus minus system which was requested by the students over multiple years.

The course work is challenging but the staff cares more about your success than even your mother would. There is no curve but nor is there in medical school and that means you can get an A without worrying about how well someone else is doing. From my class alone I believe we have passed the 50% point on medical school acceptances alone. TCMC is what you make of it, and it was so good I turned down MD offers to attend here in the Fall.

To any upcoming student do not base your opinion of an institution based off individuals from a single year. Good luck to all who are coming and I'll see you in August.

When you say PCOM student are you referring to me (VCOM student)?

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Ok so for the first question let me first explain, I rushed my mcat and took it at the beginning of the program and I applied, I got a few interviews but I was waitlisted and rejected. The program provides a MCAT course by Princeton Review that is given to the MBS students at the end of the masters program, so if you are planning to apply while at program you should take the MCAT before because the course load is so intensive that you will not be able to handle both let alone hand the courses given.

As for my experience, I will tell you that my class is made up of many different students with different backgrounds, I came in right after Undergrad I had graduated and I did not want to waste a year doing nothing so I decided to do this program.
My experience has been both positive and negative, positive is definitely how prepared I feel for medical school, but this is not just a normal post bacc type program or even a special master program, it is a legit masters squeezed into 1 year, you take 18 hrs of graduate work each semester. The course load is extremely intense, you take courses that medical students that at a faster pace. So, basically I had rethink the way I study.

As for advice for incoming student, I say be prepared from the get go, make a schedule for yourself you have class every day from 1:30 to 5:30 so know whether you are a morning person or a night owl, you had to keep up with the material because exams come quickly, and they are usually planned on consecutive days. So plan ahead, especially if you like me involved student government, volunteering and such.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask me more

I'm not sure you can comment on the pace of medical school and compare it to TCMCs program because you haven't been in medical school yet. Maybe the pace of the post bac in certain classes is faster than an area of TCMCs MD program if you talk to MD students but keep in mind MD students also have other responsibilities like the boards and anatomy. And it may be different depending on what school you go to. For instance, at TCMC you take physiology over the course of a semester (unless that has changed now). At many medical schools all of physiology for all organ systems is in a few month course., along with biochemistry. That's a world of difference. Also I can say as a 4th year medical student now, that med school is much faster than the Post Bac at TCMC. I don't care what post bac you go to nothing is going to be faster than medical school. Now, with that said, TCMCs MBS is certainly a beast and you go into first year leagues ahead of others, and you may find certain subjects like physiology much easier to handle, but to say compare the pace of the program to med school before entering.

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Theres been some comments that the program is organized, tests are poorly written etc. I can't say that I don't disagree with this. There are certainly improvements that could've and should've been made from when I graduated in 2013. But,

So let me 1st start off by saying this, I agree, students should not base their opinions on the posts of individuals from a single class, however, they should use ALL info posted. Take the good, bad, and the ugly and make informed decisions. It would be foolish to ignore any post that did not come from you or the PCOM student. It seems ridiculous for you to be able to adequately comment on this years class without being a member. As would be the same for me if I tried to comment on the experiences of your class. So, you commented that this past years students were "less than stellar" but how many students in your class would have been deemed the same under this new system? You graduated the MBS program with a 3.92 GPA, congrats, but you failed to recognize that your own GPA would most likely have been a lot less under the +|- system. You mentioned only 2 changes to the program but should have also mentioned that exams are now taken on computers, there are ALWAYS errors, professional development changed from a pass/fail system to a graded system, some exams have 40 questions that need to be completed in 50 minutes, many of the classes only have 3 possibly 4 grades that make up your overall grade in the class, and the running joke amongst the administration AND the Med students is that the MBS program often feels as if they are the "red headed step child (this was mentioned on day 1 by admin during orientation)." There is no curve, correct, but you mention that their is also no curve in Med school. Whilst this may be true, you should also mention that on average the Med students have 100+ questions per exam, only need a 70% to pass, AND have the option of retaking the exam if failed. On the other hand, the MBS exams average 35-40 questions while needing a 93% for an A. The math is simple. Think about it this way, the TA's from this class chose to go to other institutions for medical school although they were accepted into the TCMC medical class, why is that? Anyway, as stated, I encourage students to use ALL info posted to make informed decisions. Although I thoroughly disagree with your post, I did enjoy your talk with us during professional development. Good luck with your future endeavors =)

You are 100 % right about your comments about taking everything into consideration. Take all comments into consideration and take them all with a grain of salt, including mine. Keep in mind though not all medical schools test the same way. My medical school is graded on a letter based grade, 90% for an A etc. And I had a similar test format in medical school to the TCMC method. i.e. multiple 50 minute to an hour exam times for exams that have 40 to 50 questions on them. Not all medical schools use the 100 question big block testing format. I also had many classes that only had one or two tests. For example, physiology is taught throughout the first two years at VCOM. So you get 1 or maybe two exams each block for your physio grade. Ya one test.

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

You are absolutely correct, you should not ignore everyone's opinion and I guess that is where I will claim fault. Everyone has a unique situation and none should be diminished. I apologize.

However, most of the problems you spoke on below were in existence during my tenure and would therefor not be "new". I believe I was speaking to the fact to the change in how cell bio was run and the +/- grading that was issued in this year. I would hesitate you to assume my final GPA sum since you have no knowledge, but that is neither here nor there. Tests for every class have always had someone say they were to long, some classes have always had only tests to decide the final grades which there were only 3 to 4, and some students have always felt as though they were on the outside looking in.

I am not going to go into the difference between the MDs and the MBS test, because it is far more involved and I was generalizing to school in general where you are only looking at a single example. What I will say is that when deciding schools you have to have a lot of factors involved and I hope after this year if you plan to apply that you will be given choices like I was and so many of my classmates and MBS alumni before me were given, and the decision made is much more involved than how you are portraying this. I generalized about a class which I will not do again, so maybe you can use this to understand where I am finding fault in your arguments.

Obviously, loads of students are successful and move on. So maybe the program is not at fault but the students who do not achieve their marks are? But that is a conversation for another time and I am not as good at typing as I am as speaking. Which if you are only joking about me being enjoyable I would be heart broken because I thought it was one of my better moments.

I am still helping your class and as mentioned at that meeting and would extend you the same offer of help for getting GAP year stuff going if you are looking towards Penn or the Philly area in general. I hope you make it back to TCMC one day.

I think the problem with students who get left behind is that the TCMC admission standards aren't high enough for how difficult the program is. I'm going to be very blunt here, and keep in mind I graduated in 2013. I know the admission standards / qualifications have changed somewhat but still. When I was there, there were simply students that probably would've been better off just applying on their own, taking a 5th year of undergrad, retaking the MCAT something. Because the program was just too rigorous for them. They didn't succeed in the program, and they wouldn't have made it in medical school either. It's just life. The problem is it was a 40K mistake for them. The people that fail at TCMC in my opinion, more times than not probably just shouldn't have been there. The people that succeed deal with all the same crap (test errors, organization) that the people who fail deal with. Do a very good self assessment of your abilities before going to TCMC. Don't use it as a GPA booster, that's insane. This program is best fit for people who were on the cusp of getting into medical school and need the extra boost. It's for the people that probably should've and would've succeeded in medical school anyway, but fell through the cracks of the application process because the numbers are always stacked up against you. That's just my opinion. Feel feel to disagree, please.

For those that will be attending next year, work hard and try your best. Be willing to change and adapt. Realize many people have done well, and if you find someone that isn't doing well try to help them.

If you have questions about TCMC or medical school feel free to ask.

 

[gsk93]

Is anyone looking for male housing? PM me!

 

[JDtoMD16]

I am looking to apply to this program next year. Being a nontrad student with a GPA < 3.0, I was wondering what my chances of admission are? Low GPA is from undergrad ~5 years ago and the issues that got me in the hole have since been addressed. Long story short, I barely graduated while putting in minimal effort. Grade replacement has helped me a lot but I am thinking I will need an SMP to get me over the hump. Anybody have experience getting admitted to the MBS program with a GPA < 3.0? Thanks!

 

[world-traveler]

I am looking to apply to this program next year. Being a nontrad student with a GPA < 3.0, I was wondering what my chances of admission are? Low GPA is from undergrad ~5 years ago and the issues that got me in the hole have since been addressed. Long story short, I barely graduated while putting in minimal effort. Grade replacement has helped me a lot but I am thinking I will need an SMP to get me over the hump. Anybody have experience getting admitted to the MBS program with a GPA < 3.0? Thanks!

I definitely think it is worth applying. I was a non-trad student with a not so great GPA. I think they will look favorably on any recent coursework that shows improvement. This program helped me a lot. I wish you the best

 

[medicineandallthatjazz]

Hi,
I just got accepted into the MBS class of 2018. I would love you to talk to someone that is either currently in the program or has already completed it. Would really appreciate your help!
I can be reached at [email protected]

 

[Scoot14]

II today, complete mid-late August

oops wrong thread