USF vs Belmont vs PCOM philly

[ron_johnson]

Hey guys I'm actually wait listed at USF and Belmont but wanted to get people's thoughts. I feel like the ranking here is probably USF > Belmont > PCOM. Cost will be pretty similar for each option.

USF
- MD
- Established school with affiliated hospital and residency programs
- warm weather
- Furthest from family/friends (I live in VA)

Belmont
- MD
- New school, I would be a guinea pig.
- No home residency programs.
- HCA affiliated?

PCOM
- DO
- Established school with good reputation
- Has some home residency programs (ortho, ENT, plastics)
- Closest to family/friends (also have some friends who are MD students in philly)

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[Bowel-Plumber]

USF without a question. If you get off the waitlist then that’s where you’re going.

As for the other two, I personally would choose PCOM. Not trying to be a guinea pig

 

[Dr.MambaMentality]

USF! MD program would open up far more opportunities for you. And between your two MD schools, USF is more established with a history of great match lists and has a great hospital and home residencies.

 

[Sandman23]

What specialty are you aiming for? Did you get to see how Belmont is?

 

[PhillyW]

USF first because MD, then PCOM otherwise. I like PCOM a lot personally and can’t speak to USF. I got in there and won’t be attending but it’s truly an awesome program from everything I’ve heard. There are plenty of research opportunities, inhouse residencies, well-known name and great match list, and being close to family is a huge bonus. However, idk how grading works at USF but PCOM is standard grading I believe and I’m pretty sure they’re doing a curriculum restructuring right now (correct me if I’m wrong).

 

[ron_johnson]

Hey guys bumping this because I got into Belmont. USF is still top choice, but any more thoughts on Belmont vs PCOM? I feel like the main pro of Belmont is MD and the main pro of PCOM is that it's just a really solid, established school vs Belmont being new. I do worry about my ability to match back to VA if I end up going to PCOM and wanting to do a competitive specialty, but I really don't know what I want to do atm. I get that typically MD>DO is always the advice but this seems like a special case.

 

[Sandman23]

Belmont is doing it's very best. I can tell from every interaction I had with them that they're doing what they can. The curriculum is solid - breaks with "Impact Weeks" between each module. An amazing quiz schedule as well (one quiz a week that's summative and another on the following week that's formative - both of which are on Fridays). So, you essentially have one quiz that matters every 2 weeks. The other one isn't graded / carries little value. Clerkship is P/F but pre-clerkship is letter grade. Seems very backwards but that's probably the only curriculum-related con for me

When I say all this, it definitely reflects the value I have on not being so high stress in med school. And honestly, it's not like it'll be out-of-this-world stress to have pre-clerkship letter grade. A lotta DO schools have it too. Not sure about PCOM so can't honestly compare them. I will say that I honestly struggle to find a MD school that I would choose over any DO schools I'm familiar with (including TCOM). Lmk if you need any more info on Belmont. I do my research with every school so I got a good archive of what the school has to offer