Touro University - California (TUCOM-CA) Discussion Thread 2016-2017

BU Medical Sciences
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sdhere1234 said:
Bump, for those that are complete what did you do?
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I received a complete email and just sent my letters through AACOMAS.
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Because AACOMAS sends all of the letters we upload. How do you let them know who the people are? Mine is going to send 6 letters...and I want to make sure they know the 3 I want! haha
 
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For those of you guys who got the complete email how many days after you submitted your secondary did you get the email?
 
Helpmeplease04 said:
For those of you guys who got the complete email how many days after you submitted your secondary did you get the email?
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10 days! I submitted it on July 8th and got the complete email on July 18th


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Helpmeplease04 said:
For those of you guys who got the complete email how many days after you submitted your secondary did you get the email?
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submitted 7/1 and received complete email 7/12.
 
Got it! I'll keep waiting then I guess.. thanks everyone! I also had a second question I listed my LOR information by adding them onto the recommendation list, but my letters have already been sent and accepted by AACOMAS, should this matter at all?
 
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Lycian said:
Hello! Touro OMS III here.

Different people have different attitude about this school. For me personally, I am 11/10 satisfied with it, I think the experience I’ve had here is significantly better than I could have had at any other school, and I am beyond grateful I ended up here.

From what I’ve seen there are 2 (often overlapping demographics) that tend to dislike the school.

1) People who hate osteopathic manipulation and do not believe it should be taught in schools.

2) Gunners who to whom gunning is the end all be all of life.

If you fall into either of those, you probably don’t want to go here.

Beyond the awesome location (Mare Island, where over half the students live, unlike Vallejo is a safe quiet natury friendly communal neighborhood, and basically the only affordable one like that in the Bay Area), there are quite a few strong positives about the school.

General Strengths of the school:

The school has a very focused osteopathic emphasis. Some osteopathic schools are more allopathic and spend very little time on osteopathic work or integrating the principles into the curriculum. Many of the faculty and administration are passionate of maintaining an osteopathic identity to the school. Some students came there for that reason, while others realized they had a deep love for osteopathic manipulation from exposure to this emphasis, and of course a minority regretted this emphasis. There is a lot of fabulous support for OMM, and many students I know at other DO schools (who are passionate for OMM) are basically pissed off they never went here when we’ve compared notes on the OMM programs.

If you take advantage of it and make the effort, a lot of what the OMM program gives is basically magic for 3rd and 4th year, and I cannot count how many people were blown away by what it allowed them to do during clinical years (and many of our long time attendings are comfortable referring tricky cases to the Touro students).

The student base is extremely close and supportive (in other words we are not at a gunner school). On many exams, we’ve gotten through from other students going out of their way big time to help each other, most of the class is on extremely friendly terms with each other, and we can often have fun parties or bonding activities that don’t actually need alcohol to have everyone relax enough to vibe and have fun (although that’s not to say we are opposed to it..).

The administration from my perspective is super cool. They will listen to complaints and suggestions you have, and they go out of their way to open doors for you so that you can succeed or do beneficial things in addition to the normal medical school experience. As far as I can tell, that is not the norm for administrations.

The faculty are also very passionate about supporting their students and go way over the top to support and help their students succeed. Some of the lecturers are also very good. They will also give you a lot of time outside of class to help you succeed.

Give or take all lectures are recorded so you can watch them at home on 2x (or faster with a chrome plugin :p).

We have a very good anatomy program (most schools have significantly less anatomy than me do) and the lab is well ventilated. This might seem like a trivial details, but insufficiently ventilated anatomy labs are a large problem for many individuals I have spoken with.

This school is supportive of holistic practices. For example, we got in the news for having an elective that teaches anatomy through yoga (soooo many facebook shares you have no idea…), there is a weekly meditation class and an integrative medicine elective for interested students.

The school puts a fairly large emphasis on training you to be primary care physicians. As a result, we tend to have a lot of labs and education to work with all that stuff (which is actually turning out to be really helpful for 3rd year shelf exams), and we perform better on rotations. A lot of medical students aren’t really prepped for the clinical years, so as a result they struggle on rotations and I think there is some on going debate in the medical community of how much more it needs to be taught pre-clinically, but our school already does it a lot.

I do not have a good comparison of how it’s done at other places, but our school is invested in the students succeeding and has a lot of support systems in place to address all the issues which could commonly come up. From what I’ve seen, they’ve gone far beyond the duty I would expect a school to do in order to help medical students succeed.

The new system clinical distinction system for 3rd year gives an absolutely amazing degree of flexibility for students and ability to succeed as they want to as a physician. I feel very lucky to be in the first class to get it.

The global health program (where you spend a month in a foreign country like cambodia, ethiopia or taiwan practicing medicine) is pretty awesome and available to anyone who wants to do it.

Overall, I feel confident in generalizing that the students here are MUCH happier than students at a typical medical school.

Debatable Weaknesses of the school:

Touro is one of the most competitive DO schools in the country (due to location). As a result, many excellent candidates I would view as perfect fits for the school are not able to get in.

The school is fairly small, so certain resources you would expect to be present at a large school aren’t there. I actually like the small feel because it’s much more informal and allows much greater flexibility, but many things you would normally expect a large institution to have (ie our gym is functional but quite small) aren’t here.

The school is technically Jewish. In reality that doesn’t mean much, but on a practical level:

1) We get different holidays (pro in my opinion)
2) You are not allowed to use club funds for providing non kosher catered food on campus.
3) All the food in the cafeteria is kosher (so no pork basically).
4) There are lots of free jewish dinners/religious services provided and typically some type of jewish ceremonial thing at each assembly we have.
5) I have asked a lot of people and no one has been able to give me a clear answer on if the Jewish name Touro is pronounced Tour-Ooh or Tuh-Row. (people use both, the former is probably safer at interviews).

We bought the historical buildings from the navy and as far as I understand there are various agreements on how much they can be renovated (historical character needs to be maintained), so the campus is not super pretty.

The school is less board focused than other schools, and emphasizes teaching you useful stuff besides busting you case every day non stop to study for tests (thus happier students). A lot of the random stuff we learn ends up being tested on Comlex so we score a bit above average on it, but if we grilled non stop for boards, given the average MCAT of our school (before they switched to new mcat, we were the only DO school to break a 30 average), we probably do a lot better. On the other hand, we aren’t prepared well for USLME (which matters less now due to merger) and we tend to do much better on Comlex 2. At the end of the day, we have a good match list since the non boards part of preclinical is great preparation for years 3 and 4, and thus there are much better letters evals and rotation interviews.

Politically the climate is fairly liberal (bay area medical school). I like it but I have heard conservative students complain.

School is more open than most schools to non traditional applicants.

The school is very open to changing and improving (both from the faculty/admin debating it and from students proposing ideas), so there are often new programs and curriculum changes introduced, and as far as I can tell, the school is a lot more awesome than it was 4 years ago when I initially decided I had to go here.

Students frequently complain about the school health insurance plan. If you are too lazy to find an alternative option you may have dissatisfaction here.

Parts of the osteopathic program (the advanced useful OMM) require you to either have some natural sensitivity or a willingness to practice and quiet your mind. That is a good life skill to have, but if you don’t have it and don’t want to learn it, some of the Osteopathic manipulation in 2nd year will not be your cup of tea, although you aren’t really penalized for lacking sensitivity it in the grades, it’s just more really frustrating to not be able to do what a lot of other people can.

I really like my 3rd year rotation schedule and think I have it much better than most people I know at other schools, but unlike most schools we do not have an affiliated teaching hospital (way too much competition for sites in the bay area), and as a result we have to split into a lot of different groups (which is super sad because we all got super close in the first 2 years). The rotation experience is slightly different, although still cool and you just need to make sure you get the site that fits for you. There is a lottery to select everything afterwards. I am not positive, but I believe almost all of the class got their first or second choices for rotation sites as only 10 people were asking to trade sites once it was worked out.

Parts of Vallejo have crime, but crime on Mare Island is almost non existent.

Objective Weaknesses of the school:

There is a degree of bureaucratic disorganization with the school, which I believe partly comes from the fact we are partially managed by Touro New York, and amongst other things, from my inquiries the time zone difference actually makes things very complicated. Every person I’ve spoken to has a tale or two of something frustrating happening (ie. if you don’t hear back in a few months, you should make sure your application is in the correct pile). I am yet to hear of any issues that were serious problems however.

The pathology program really needs to be supplemented with Pathoma, and I like many wish I had realized this early on (pathology is hard to teach, and pathoma just does it so perfectly…).

The mosquitos here kind of suck, leave actually irritating bites and can bite through clothing. There is due to a nasty asian species that can only live in this specific biome. The mosquitos aren’t unmanageable, and don't carry diseases, but for some reason this year there have not been very many of them, and they are honestly my least favorite thing about this school.

I will admit in writing this I am super biased towards this school. In the past the only reason I paid for college was because you had to to get the degree, but in Touro’s case, I actually feel like the education I am getting is basically worth what I am paying for the degree. I also probably forgot a few pro/cons but that was everything off the top of my head and a pretty good list.

Good luck!
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This is a great synopsis of the overall strengths/weaknesses of Touro-CA. As an alumnus, I can definitely attest to the non-gunner nature of the school and it's something that I've grown to appreciate more and more having observed some other medical schools especially those (both allopathic and osteopathic) in California.
 
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Anyone submit their letters straight from interfolio? I submitted mine Jul 29 and submitted the secondary Aug 1. I just got an email today saying they received my secondary but don't have my letters. Anyone know how long they usually take to update letters?
 
For the GPA portion of the "Post-Secondary Academic Record" should I be input the GPA that is on my primary application or my official transcript?
 
Lost Nomad said:
For the GPA portion of the "Post-Secondary Academic Record" should I be input the GPA that is on my primary application or my official transcript?
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I used the GPA from my official transcripts, but I had 3 separate colleges to input.
 
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@Lycian What's the typical day like for students here? i.e. when classes are and if they are recorded or not
 
Received a pre-secondary rejection. Good luck to those of you applying! One of my dream DO schools, especially when I am IS applicant.
 
DameJulie said:
Received a pre-secondary rejection. Good luck to those of you applying! One of my dream DO schools, especially when I am IS applicant.
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Keep your head up! You will definitely get into a school somewhere! Don't give up!


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sdhere1234 said:
Anyone submit their letters straight from interfolio? I submitted mine Jul 29 and submitted the secondary Aug 1. I just got an email today saying they received my secondary but don't have my letters. Anyone know how long they usually take to update letters?
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It's strange because I sent my LORs directly from Interfolio to TUC and TUN, but TUC received them early on while TUN didn't.
 
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DameJulie said:
Received a pre-secondary rejection. Good luck to those of you applying! One of my dream DO schools, especially when I am IS applicant.
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Mind if you post your stats? Weird how they rejected instate so quickly
 
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II just now

Out of state, white, 30mcat, 3.3Xc 3.6 science


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nicolemsd said:
Congrats, do you know if there is anyway for me to check my application status online.
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Doesn't look like it - all of my portal info is still just "application status submitted"


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II 3.66 518 Non trad.
 
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II
IS, sGPA 3.52, 510 MCAT
 
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docsmall said:
You have any info about the interview dates? I am going to call tomorrow but want a bit of a heads up
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No, I was hoping to get some love from pomona as well so I could interview at the same time. It is expensive to fly out to both.
 
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Damn. Completed on 7/27 and still no news from them. IS and with similar stats as those with II :(
 
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Nickerbocker said:
Damn. Completed on 7/27 and still no news from them. IS and with similar stats as those with II :(
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Don't worry I'm in the same boat. I was complete 6/28 and live 5 miles from campus lol
We just gotta be patient! It's still early

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II! OOS, GPA of 3.61, MCAT of 514, submitted secondary on August 9.
 
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boxasaurus said:
What available dates are there currently? Just curious- just want to see when the current interviews are.
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Admissions said their interview dates are on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the first available to me was September 27.

As an aside, does anyone know the cheapest option for getting from Oakland Airport to Vallejo?
 
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FlipOneSock said:
Admissions said their interview dates are on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the first available to me was September 27.

As an aside, does anyone know the cheapest option for getting from Oakland Airport to Vallejo?
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I'm a Bay Area Local. I think you would be best off renting a car to be honest.
 
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DocBaller said:
Don't worry I'm in the same boat. I was complete 6/28 and live 5 miles from campus lol
We just gotta be patient! It's still early

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Same here!! Patience has never been my strong suit unfortunately, lol
 
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The Yay Area tho. Petition Touro to have lectures at Lake Merritt, you guys down?


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