I've been accepted to UNE-COM and NYCOM. Despite lots of research, I really can't seem to make up my mind yet...any thoughts on choosing between these two schools in particular?
Pros and Cons of your DO School
- Thread starter Ilikescience
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It's very personal to choose - which school do you feel best about? Where are you from - is either closer to your family, and is that important to you? Think about costs.
Location - Maine vs. the New York metro area, they're extremely different environments, so which suits your personality best?
I can tell you that, as a NYCOM student, I'm glad I chose to attend this school, but we could be polar opposites as far as personality goes, so maybe you'd be miserable here and happier at UNECOM.
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Both are very good and expensive schools (IMHO). Both have great alumni base.
Depends on where you are from and what you are looking for in a school as they are very different schools regarding non-educational characteristics (location, population, etc.)
If you are from NYC-metro and want to stay around go to NYCOM; if you are from anywhere else, especially smaller cities/towns, go to UNECOM, but I'm a little biased.
UNECOM certainly has a smaller class (~1/2 of NYCOM) and I've really enjoyed my time at UNECOM. Personally I wouldn't go anywhere else if I had to do it over again but that's just me!
At UNECOM, If you choose to do so, you can easily get to know every core faculty (non-guest lecturers) and if you choose not to, you can go your entire 4 years without anyone knowing your name…
I know a little bit about NYCOM but not enough to give you advise about NYCOM.
Congratulations on your acceptances and feel free to PM me if you have specific questions about UNECOM!
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Supremely helpful, thanks for doing this!
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it doesn't take a whole lot of thinking to realize if the schools aren't listed in this thread by now... it's probably not a good sign.
I am thoroughly relieved to hear the reviews i've heard from TCOM. I met an M3 there who was just like a TCOM mascot. He loves it, and had a great sense of humor about OMM and DO vs MD etc.
I am thoroughly relieved to hear the reviews i've heard from TCOM. I met an M3 there who was just like a TCOM mascot. He loves it, and had a great sense of humor about OMM and DO vs MD etc.
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TCOM is a great school ... I doubt you'll hear many negative comments. The only negative things I've ever heard about TCOM were complaints about the town it was in (which I know nothing about and were anecdotal comments made by someone from TX who lived near it) and some grumblings about the proposed MD program.
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Disagree - if a school were really poor by students' standards, then people would've been compelled to address it in this thread. This thread isn't just for good reviews. So if a school hasn't been mentioned here, it doesn't really mean anything, imho.
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Unless students at a school feel like they will be punished by the school for a harsh review.
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Which seems to be a more common mentality than you might think.
But people just remember you can send your reviews to the admins on the forum and they can post them anonymously for you.
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Would anyone mind doing an updated KCOM one?
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It doesn't need an updated one. This stuff doesn't change year to year. I wouldn't only say it really changed over the course of about 3-5 years.
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+1
I would like to see a KCOM one too. Although I am basically 90% sure of heading to KCOM next fall, I did have some concerns about a change in testing to block testing for the class of 2015 and some issues with board prep recently. If any current student could elaborate on those issues, and the changes implemented by the administration it would be much appreciated. thanks!
Thought I would knock something out quick for you guys asking about it.
Curriculum: Currently is non-systems based with block testing. I am a 2nd year and have not block tested so I can't speak too much about it. It may or may not change for the incoming class. Not sure where this fits in, but our OMM lab is second to none! 100 hydraulic adjustable tables along with projection screens so there isn't a "bad seat in the house".
Technology: Laptops are required and the campus is wireless. There is a computer lab for all to use with free printing. No computers in the anatomy lab like I have seen at other schools but I don't think this was a disadvantage at all. Around a dozen human simulator patients that are used to practice ACLS/Cardio/Pharm etc. Also brand new standardized patient exam rooms that are identical to Step 2 PE rooms.
Testing: Multiple-choice, 20-50 questions depending upon the subject. May or may not be block testing in the future.
Location: I'm from a small town so Kirksville was just like home for me. Even my classmates from bigger cities have grown to love it. The only difficulty is that there is no good way to fly in/out unless you take the puddle jumper. Housing/cost of living is way below what you would see at the bigger city schools, I have a 2 bedroom apt. to myself across the street from campus for $350.
Cost: Its medical school, its expensive, I don't know figures off the top of my head but its similar to most other schools.
Faculty: The professors here all have an open door policy. They will stick around after lecture to answer questions or you can always catch them in their office. They all have a genuine interest in the students and want you to succeed.
Study areas: Lots of breakout rooms/study space. The library basement was recently redone and we have 20 brand new study rooms opened. Its still competitive for space come finals time but you can always find somewhere.
Clinical rotations: Lots of options across the country, check the website for specifics. I can't speak for the "quality" of them yet as I'm not to that point in my education. But I have heard GREAT things about them.
Housing: Some oncampus housing available but it fills up fast. Like I said before, it is very affordable to find a quality place to live around town.
Social scene: Lots of things to do either through school or in town. We have intramural sports, LOTS of campus clubs, Prom, BBQs out at the local lake, bowling, movie theater, lots of restaurants, bars, etc. I have never felt like there was nothing to do with the one night a week we have to go "out".
To sum up:
Curriculum: B+
Location: B+
Cost: B
Faculty: A-
Housing: A-
Study space: A
Social scene: B
Reputation: A+
Overall: A-
Curriculum: Currently is non-systems based with block testing. I am a 2nd year and have not block tested so I can't speak too much about it. It may or may not change for the incoming class. Not sure where this fits in, but our OMM lab is second to none! 100 hydraulic adjustable tables along with projection screens so there isn't a "bad seat in the house".
Technology: Laptops are required and the campus is wireless. There is a computer lab for all to use with free printing. No computers in the anatomy lab like I have seen at other schools but I don't think this was a disadvantage at all. Around a dozen human simulator patients that are used to practice ACLS/Cardio/Pharm etc. Also brand new standardized patient exam rooms that are identical to Step 2 PE rooms.
Testing: Multiple-choice, 20-50 questions depending upon the subject. May or may not be block testing in the future.
Location: I'm from a small town so Kirksville was just like home for me. Even my classmates from bigger cities have grown to love it. The only difficulty is that there is no good way to fly in/out unless you take the puddle jumper. Housing/cost of living is way below what you would see at the bigger city schools, I have a 2 bedroom apt. to myself across the street from campus for $350.
Cost: Its medical school, its expensive, I don't know figures off the top of my head but its similar to most other schools.
Faculty: The professors here all have an open door policy. They will stick around after lecture to answer questions or you can always catch them in their office. They all have a genuine interest in the students and want you to succeed.
Study areas: Lots of breakout rooms/study space. The library basement was recently redone and we have 20 brand new study rooms opened. Its still competitive for space come finals time but you can always find somewhere.
Clinical rotations: Lots of options across the country, check the website for specifics. I can't speak for the "quality" of them yet as I'm not to that point in my education. But I have heard GREAT things about them.
Housing: Some oncampus housing available but it fills up fast. Like I said before, it is very affordable to find a quality place to live around town.
Social scene: Lots of things to do either through school or in town. We have intramural sports, LOTS of campus clubs, Prom, BBQs out at the local lake, bowling, movie theater, lots of restaurants, bars, etc. I have never felt like there was nothing to do with the one night a week we have to go "out".
To sum up:
Curriculum: B+
Location: B+
Cost: B
Faculty: A-
Housing: A-
Study space: A
Social scene: B
Reputation: A+
Overall: A-
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Try doing a search. AZCOM has been discussed in detail on these forums over the last few years. Just might not have a nice pretty format for your info though
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Posted from another forum:
don't post often and this one is long. Back out now if you don't want this giant amount of text to suck away 10 minutes of your life
I'm up here in snowy, beautiful Maine and have been for more than 1.5 years attending UNECOM. I'm in the middle of the systems-based second year and we're into renal diseases right now. I know many are looking for as much information as possible since this is what we do when we're making big life decisions. Here's a few of my thoughts - please don't give them more value or attention than you would any other internet stranger - lots of people in my class have different opinions. Also, I haven't ever attended another med school so it's honestly hard to compare UNECOM with other schools.
DO or MD? What's the "osteopathic approach"
This is asked/discussed so much that I thought I'd give my perspective after being in a DO school for a while. My view is controversial, so please don't respond as if what I'm saying is "true" or "a good idea". It's just how I feel right now and may change later. I personally think that osteopathy should be taught in certain primary care residencies and not in med school. I think it's something that is beneficial to patients and should be a tool in the toolbox of any doctor who sees patients in a setting where it can be applied. I think the ideas that Dr. Still (aka Jesus, nah I'm just playing. But seriously, the numerous giant photos and statues of this man are kinda weird) presented to the medical community in the late 1800s and then 1900s are great, but I also think that the idea that MDs do not incorporate these ideas is wrong. I feel that being at a DO school I have been taught to be a good listener, take a good history while considering who my patient is instead of what the disease is, and to be aware of the bodies innate healing mechanisms. But I also feel that this is being taught at every decent MD school, too, and I'm not comfortable patting myself on the back and thinking that my osteopathic approach is better than the MD approach in some way. I know there are MDs who are not good with patients, don't care about people, give lots of drugs and send patients out the door as fast as possible - but this is the doctor, not a DO vs. MD issue. Any decent primary care MD will incorporate all the good qualities of bedside manner, seeing the patient as a whole, and letting the body work to heal itself that an osteopath would - the big difference I see is OMM. MDs (for the most part) do not have training in manipulation. I feel OMM has healing value - I've seen it on preceptorships and shadowing. I just think that OMM should and could easily be taught in residency. It's hard and frustrating to learn OMM for 2 years without seeing a patient with pathology you can put you hands on. It's frustrating to spend hours in lab each week learning about a somatic dysfunction and then being asked to diagnose and treat it on your classmate who is super healthy and runs marathons. I'm kinda wishing that DOs and MDs would just merge (i.e. DO degree disappear - omg blasphemy, burn her she's a witch) and osteopathy become a resident level option for people who want to learn and incorporate manipulation into their future practice. I think this additional training would be ideal for family meds, IM, peds, OB, PMNR, and others. I would love to learn OMM in a residency setting, but I'm not a big fan now at the pre-clinical level. This opinion of osteopathy could change later, I'm still very young in this journey. In summary, if you're not interested in being a doctor who uses OMM often on patients in your practice, then when you go to a DO school try to limit the amount you complain about the OMM classes
Specifically at our school, we have about 3 hours of osteopathy per week (1h lecture, 2 hour lab). During 2nd year, we also may have more lectures on the applications of osteopathy within that system (e.g. musculo-skeletal e.g.) It's a not a large amount of our overall medical education - at least I don't see it that way. Many students in my class have expressed that they don't see themselves ever using OMM, and many are really interested in OMM and I'm sure will become great healers using OMM.
Enough about osteopathy.
Strengths of UNECOM:
I like my classmates (for the most part ). I am sure that other schools have more class problems. People are generally nice in Maine and somehow this gets into the classroom and students. When you spend years with 120+ people in a stressful environment (med school), it's naive to think you will not begin to hate going to class some days or dislike certain people. But all in all, I imagine it's worse in other places.
Cost of living is moderately low if you're from a city in the northeast. Biddeford/Saco is cheap. Portland cost is not bad and you get a cool city. Many ppl commute - it's not a big deal and you can listen to goljan lectures in your car on the way through pretty maine.
We have some damn good faculty. We also have some not so good. Some are really, really, ridiculously...ummm, not good . But many are really good and focus on what we need for boards. I learn a lot on my own now in the later half of year 2, but in the beginning with anatomy and physiology (the foundation) when I attended every lecture I was very often impressed with my profs. Year 2, as others have stated, is hit and miss with the unfortunate approach to having 8+ different lecturers per system - usually with only 1 or 2 having even looked a board review book recently to see what they should focus on. But on the bright side, you are not required to attend many lectures and the noteservice allows off-campus review of lectures to supplement your board studying if you miss a class. I must also mention that some systems are really outstanding with almost every lecture focusing on boards-relevant material - I just wish more were like this.
We have good rotation sites/options and a decent lottery system allowing most (not all) people to get their first choice on where to spend 3rd year. Our students have a good rep with the hospitals and we are told that were are generally quite well prepared to begin 3rd year.
Weaknesses of UNECOM:
Cool, now I can vent! Just kidding.
I think there are a few weaknesses that should be mentioned and I encourage you braver pre-meds to find diplomatic ways of bringing these issues up at interviews and on tours. The more UNECOM hears about them, the faster they will be addressed.
First, I think the past several years of upper level administration changes have resulted in a detachment between the students and the university president and deans. We just recently obtained a new COM dean and a new COM dean of academic affairs. These people obviously play an important role in the stability, growth, and quality of UNECOM and I think it's safe to say that all the changes have had some negative effects. Specifically, there has been a lot of poor communication between the students and administration (as can be read about by others posting here) and I think the effect on us as students of this separation is a feeling of neglect. Our new administration has put a very big emphasis on things that are going to change and ideas they will implement over the next few years which will have profound effect on quality of education and education experience of UNECOM. Immediate changes are often rushed (meaning only takes a few months, which is "rushed" for academia) and result in lots of little problems and issues. In the meantime, we're all kinda thinking, great, so we're not really going to see any of the big changes and that printer we asked for last year is still "on the waiting list" so to speak. Med schools are large institutions and changes take time and lots of patience. This can be frustrating for us as med students.
Another weakness is the tuition. It's my opinion that it's too high and I'll tell you why. When you pay 46k per year for school, you want a decent education and a good shot at residency. I feel like I'm getting that. But since you're paying 46k and you know this is a lot, you also want a few perks. You might like some free anatomy lab supplies (scalpel, gloves). You might feel good when the school says they will provide your COMLEX fee since tuition is so high. You might appreciate a quiet study space/room. You might feel good when you see free coffee provided on days with morning lectures. You might like an assigned parking space so you don't have to compete with undergraduates and classmates at 7:55am. I could list a lot of other things that UNECOM doesn't provide and none of these are considered by me to be real "weaknesses" of the school. These are all minor things and I'm not complaining - I'm just saying that I feel that if the school treated us more like sophisticated, adult customers of a very valuable product by giving us perks and sense that they care a lot, we would be happier with our choice in school and giving them so much money. We can be sure that the tuition will never lower (it is raised 6% per year), so beginning to look at other ways to offset this 46k/year would go a long way in my opinion. Tuition is a factor in many complaints I hear from my classmates.
A final weakness in my opinion is the lack of cohesion amongst the 2rd year systems courses. Every 2-4 weeks we start a different system with several clinicians teaching. The quality and value of the lecture in our preparation for board exams is all over the place. Sometimes excellent, often OK, and too often just not as efficient as an hour of study time with a good COMLEX review book. There's a lot of overlap in material between the 8 clinicians and I wonder sometimes if I would be better off attending fewer lectures and doing more self studying. I think for each system there should be a director who keeps up with what is being emphasized on boards so the course content matches. Then, the lecturer topics should be determined and assigned to 4 or fewer lecturers who communicate so that they don't overlap. Finally, common and tricky board-style vignette questions should be presented with each lecture with brief explanation of right and wrong choices. Anyway, I'm going off into med school utopia here...
Final thoughts
I'm glad I'm here in school getting this done. I'm feeling now that being a doctor is not about med school - rather, we're just here to learn thousands of vocabulary words and some basic professionalism so we can begin residency, learn to be doctors, and not look like complete clowns. I'm confident that I will be able to repay my debt someday (300k-ish expected) and be a good provider for my family while enjoying a nice career. I'm confident I will get a residency position that will train me to be a good doctor even if it's not my first choice or I'm limited to the non-ultra-competitive specialties. When you look at it that way, UNECOM is fine
Most important thing I've learned is to relax and focus on the patient.
Thanks to ShyRem who spends time writing posts about UNECOM that helped me when I was pre-med.
I hope the time you spent reading this was in some way helpful and good luck to pre-meds in your search for where you belong.
don't post often and this one is long. Back out now if you don't want this giant amount of text to suck away 10 minutes of your life
I'm up here in snowy, beautiful Maine and have been for more than 1.5 years attending UNECOM. I'm in the middle of the systems-based second year and we're into renal diseases right now. I know many are looking for as much information as possible since this is what we do when we're making big life decisions. Here's a few of my thoughts - please don't give them more value or attention than you would any other internet stranger - lots of people in my class have different opinions. Also, I haven't ever attended another med school so it's honestly hard to compare UNECOM with other schools.
DO or MD? What's the "osteopathic approach"
This is asked/discussed so much that I thought I'd give my perspective after being in a DO school for a while. My view is controversial, so please don't respond as if what I'm saying is "true" or "a good idea". It's just how I feel right now and may change later. I personally think that osteopathy should be taught in certain primary care residencies and not in med school. I think it's something that is beneficial to patients and should be a tool in the toolbox of any doctor who sees patients in a setting where it can be applied. I think the ideas that Dr. Still (aka Jesus, nah I'm just playing. But seriously, the numerous giant photos and statues of this man are kinda weird) presented to the medical community in the late 1800s and then 1900s are great, but I also think that the idea that MDs do not incorporate these ideas is wrong. I feel that being at a DO school I have been taught to be a good listener, take a good history while considering who my patient is instead of what the disease is, and to be aware of the bodies innate healing mechanisms. But I also feel that this is being taught at every decent MD school, too, and I'm not comfortable patting myself on the back and thinking that my osteopathic approach is better than the MD approach in some way. I know there are MDs who are not good with patients, don't care about people, give lots of drugs and send patients out the door as fast as possible - but this is the doctor, not a DO vs. MD issue. Any decent primary care MD will incorporate all the good qualities of bedside manner, seeing the patient as a whole, and letting the body work to heal itself that an osteopath would - the big difference I see is OMM. MDs (for the most part) do not have training in manipulation. I feel OMM has healing value - I've seen it on preceptorships and shadowing. I just think that OMM should and could easily be taught in residency. It's hard and frustrating to learn OMM for 2 years without seeing a patient with pathology you can put you hands on. It's frustrating to spend hours in lab each week learning about a somatic dysfunction and then being asked to diagnose and treat it on your classmate who is super healthy and runs marathons. I'm kinda wishing that DOs and MDs would just merge (i.e. DO degree disappear - omg blasphemy, burn her she's a witch) and osteopathy become a resident level option for people who want to learn and incorporate manipulation into their future practice. I think this additional training would be ideal for family meds, IM, peds, OB, PMNR, and others. I would love to learn OMM in a residency setting, but I'm not a big fan now at the pre-clinical level. This opinion of osteopathy could change later, I'm still very young in this journey. In summary, if you're not interested in being a doctor who uses OMM often on patients in your practice, then when you go to a DO school try to limit the amount you complain about the OMM classes
Specifically at our school, we have about 3 hours of osteopathy per week (1h lecture, 2 hour lab). During 2nd year, we also may have more lectures on the applications of osteopathy within that system (e.g. musculo-skeletal e.g.) It's a not a large amount of our overall medical education - at least I don't see it that way. Many students in my class have expressed that they don't see themselves ever using OMM, and many are really interested in OMM and I'm sure will become great healers using OMM.
Enough about osteopathy.
Strengths of UNECOM:
I like my classmates (for the most part ). I am sure that other schools have more class problems. People are generally nice in Maine and somehow this gets into the classroom and students. When you spend years with 120+ people in a stressful environment (med school), it's naive to think you will not begin to hate going to class some days or dislike certain people. But all in all, I imagine it's worse in other places.
Cost of living is moderately low if you're from a city in the northeast. Biddeford/Saco is cheap. Portland cost is not bad and you get a cool city. Many ppl commute - it's not a big deal and you can listen to goljan lectures in your car on the way through pretty maine.
We have some damn good faculty. We also have some not so good. Some are really, really, ridiculously...ummm, not good . But many are really good and focus on what we need for boards. I learn a lot on my own now in the later half of year 2, but in the beginning with anatomy and physiology (the foundation) when I attended every lecture I was very often impressed with my profs. Year 2, as others have stated, is hit and miss with the unfortunate approach to having 8+ different lecturers per system - usually with only 1 or 2 having even looked a board review book recently to see what they should focus on. But on the bright side, you are not required to attend many lectures and the noteservice allows off-campus review of lectures to supplement your board studying if you miss a class. I must also mention that some systems are really outstanding with almost every lecture focusing on boards-relevant material - I just wish more were like this.
We have good rotation sites/options and a decent lottery system allowing most (not all) people to get their first choice on where to spend 3rd year. Our students have a good rep with the hospitals and we are told that were are generally quite well prepared to begin 3rd year.
Weaknesses of UNECOM:
Cool, now I can vent! Just kidding.
I think there are a few weaknesses that should be mentioned and I encourage you braver pre-meds to find diplomatic ways of bringing these issues up at interviews and on tours. The more UNECOM hears about them, the faster they will be addressed.
First, I think the past several years of upper level administration changes have resulted in a detachment between the students and the university president and deans. We just recently obtained a new COM dean and a new COM dean of academic affairs. These people obviously play an important role in the stability, growth, and quality of UNECOM and I think it's safe to say that all the changes have had some negative effects. Specifically, there has been a lot of poor communication between the students and administration (as can be read about by others posting here) and I think the effect on us as students of this separation is a feeling of neglect. Our new administration has put a very big emphasis on things that are going to change and ideas they will implement over the next few years which will have profound effect on quality of education and education experience of UNECOM. Immediate changes are often rushed (meaning only takes a few months, which is "rushed" for academia) and result in lots of little problems and issues. In the meantime, we're all kinda thinking, great, so we're not really going to see any of the big changes and that printer we asked for last year is still "on the waiting list" so to speak. Med schools are large institutions and changes take time and lots of patience. This can be frustrating for us as med students.
Another weakness is the tuition. It's my opinion that it's too high and I'll tell you why. When you pay 46k per year for school, you want a decent education and a good shot at residency. I feel like I'm getting that. But since you're paying 46k and you know this is a lot, you also want a few perks. You might like some free anatomy lab supplies (scalpel, gloves). You might feel good when the school says they will provide your COMLEX fee since tuition is so high. You might appreciate a quiet study space/room. You might feel good when you see free coffee provided on days with morning lectures. You might like an assigned parking space so you don't have to compete with undergraduates and classmates at 7:55am. I could list a lot of other things that UNECOM doesn't provide and none of these are considered by me to be real "weaknesses" of the school. These are all minor things and I'm not complaining - I'm just saying that I feel that if the school treated us more like sophisticated, adult customers of a very valuable product by giving us perks and sense that they care a lot, we would be happier with our choice in school and giving them so much money. We can be sure that the tuition will never lower (it is raised 6% per year), so beginning to look at other ways to offset this 46k/year would go a long way in my opinion. Tuition is a factor in many complaints I hear from my classmates.
A final weakness in my opinion is the lack of cohesion amongst the 2rd year systems courses. Every 2-4 weeks we start a different system with several clinicians teaching. The quality and value of the lecture in our preparation for board exams is all over the place. Sometimes excellent, often OK, and too often just not as efficient as an hour of study time with a good COMLEX review book. There's a lot of overlap in material between the 8 clinicians and I wonder sometimes if I would be better off attending fewer lectures and doing more self studying. I think for each system there should be a director who keeps up with what is being emphasized on boards so the course content matches. Then, the lecturer topics should be determined and assigned to 4 or fewer lecturers who communicate so that they don't overlap. Finally, common and tricky board-style vignette questions should be presented with each lecture with brief explanation of right and wrong choices. Anyway, I'm going off into med school utopia here...
Final thoughts
I'm glad I'm here in school getting this done. I'm feeling now that being a doctor is not about med school - rather, we're just here to learn thousands of vocabulary words and some basic professionalism so we can begin residency, learn to be doctors, and not look like complete clowns. I'm confident that I will be able to repay my debt someday (300k-ish expected) and be a good provider for my family while enjoying a nice career. I'm confident I will get a residency position that will train me to be a good doctor even if it's not my first choice or I'm limited to the non-ultra-competitive specialties. When you look at it that way, UNECOM is fine
Most important thing I've learned is to relax and focus on the patient.
Thanks to ShyRem who spends time writing posts about UNECOM that helped me when I was pre-med.
I hope the time you spent reading this was in some way helpful and good luck to pre-meds in your search for where you belong.
For anyone attending PCOM, do you have any things that you dislike about the school/program/city/anything related? Or was there anything you wished you knew before choosing or beginning attendance at PCOM? Thank you!
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Any new reviews on NYCOM? It seems most of what has been posted has reflected negatively upon the school and the only real positive reviews dealt with DPC track. Any fresher reviews available?
Over all avoid if you can, I regret coming to PCOM the main issue being people. very hostile in the community, if you aren't from around here you don't belong here attitude.
College it self is okay. Apartments around are scarce and in poor condition, so dorms are only viable options. IMHO any place will be better than here.
Good Luck
Nevermind I thought you were referring to PSOM. (Pikeville). No clue about philly.
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Rockety are you referring to PSCOM??? If so, could you edit you post to do a review on PSCOM?
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yeah i would like to hear any opinions from NSU folks, please
this, specifically in regards to the rural requirement. So is it 3 separate 1 month rotations that could be scattered any time during 4th year? Can you do the rural rotation out of state? Say I want to do one in NYS (where I am from); will this be possible?
Also are you really just SOL if you get scheduled September-November for rurals? I feel like if you are that unfortunate soul, there is almost no chance of getting into the hospital/region of your choice for your desired residency (you may match, but not where you want), since those are prime months for doing aways/auditions.
And will the "scrambling" situation change, that many students have complained about? Almost any MD and many (if not most?) DO schools seem to have a system in place with people whose job is to help students scramble, not tell them they are on their own.
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All of what you've said is true except you can still go wherever you want, you will have about 3 months of electives, granted you have the numbers going for you.
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Would you mind writing a review for NSU?
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Does this mean that come 4th year, you can only do two rotations in your desired specialty?
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You can refer to my review on NSU. Graduated 2010.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=9318520&postcount=825
In short. Great school, but there are some cons as no school is perfect.
Best of luck
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Just finished first year at LECOM-Bradenton.
Curriculum: Anatomy is lecture-based, PBL for basic sciences, once weekly lectures for Clinical Education and OMM. At the end of first year are mini-courses that rely on lecture and independent reading for Advanced Clinical Nutrition, Ethics and Public Health. Anatomy is FAST - 10 weeks. It is the same course that the course director taught at USF in 20 weeks. It's a lot of work, but the faculty are great, in my opinion. Your success will be dictated by how much time you put in.
I absolutely love PBL. With most PBL exams, there is also some assigned reading, in addition to the topics we picked from cases. I've come to realize I don't learn the assigned reading as well as I do the other stuff, and it's partly because I don't read it to understand the case. If you have a problem-solving, investigative attitude about learning, PBL will be great for you. It's a ton of work, but I LOVE not having lectures for basic sciences. My advisors were great about helping me with any issues I had regarding PBL.
The Clinical Education course needs some work. They have a core faculty, plus guest lecturers that come in depending on speciality. The exams suck, they are not well-written, and sometimes we think they are testing out of a book that was used in previous years, instead of the new one they assigned. The good news is they are listening to our critiques and changing the course a bit. We have "skill session" and "focused exam workshops" to learn history taking and physical techniques. I don't have anything to complain about with that, nor anything to rave about. It's fine.
Our course director for OMM is Dr. Fotop. His lectures are not good, but the guy is awesome. He's a genius with OMM and he's the most personable, coolest prof I've ever met. Written and practical exams are fair.
Technology: Uhh...yeah, well, we download powerpoints from the portal for any lectures. I'm not sure what sort of technology we'll be introduced to in second year. In the lab we had access to Anatomy Revealed, which is a pretty cool anatomy program. At this point in our education, I can't think of much more we'd need as far as technology goes.
Testing: Almost everything is multiple choice. We have practical exams for clinical education and OMM. With PBL, sometimes I'd hear complaints of questions being on the test that the group did not pick. One mistake like that was made for my group, and the course director acknowledged the problem and assured us that those questions are dropped. For anatomy, the "practical" section of the exams consisted of projected photos of cadavers and histo slides. Depending on your eyesight and where you sit, that can be an issue. We had a problem with the perspective of some of the photos, and when we brought this to the professor he changed them to make that easier.
Location: I'm from Buffalo, so this environment is a welcome change. I love it. Most students live closer to the school, but I wanted to be closer to the beach and in a more heavily populated area, so I went further west. My apt complex is called Fountain Lake of Bradenton, and it's great. Bradenton is okay, there are nice parts and crappy parts. There are plenty of areas nearby for fishing, kayaking, hiking, etc. Siesta key is 20 min away, and Sarasota has lots of great restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. For me, being in such a beautiful location, especially with the freedom of PBL, helps me deal with the stress of school. I can start my day by walking around a gorgeous lake, fishing, laying out by the pool, reading on my lanai, or I can take my books to the beach. Also, St. Pete and Tampa are within an hour away.
Cost: The loans are more than enough to live on. The LECOM's the cheapest DO school, but it's still expensive.
Faculty: Mostly good. I've never had a negative interaction. They seem open and willing to hear what students have to say. The faculty that I don't like so much have been very minor players in the grand scheme of things, but the big guns - the directors for anatomy and PBL - they are awesome. I've heard other things about the administration, but I can't speak about that from personal experience.
Study areas: Library is nice, but chilly, like most of the school. No eating or drinking in PBL rooms, which sucks. But hey, everything's clean. The PBL rooms are quite nice, and lots of people study in the cafeteria.
Clinical rotations: They just changed this, and I'm not super happy about it, although I'm sure some people are. Previously, students basically had to set up their own rotations with affiliates for core rotations, and with whoever they want for electives. Now, we will be telling LECOM what geographical area we'd like, and they will match us up with affiliates. I was planning to do my research and set myself up with the places I wanted, and now I won't have a choice except to tell them I want to stay in the Tampa Bay area. The biggest critique of the old system was that students had to do too much themselves and they wanted more help. Well, now you don't have to do anything really.
Housing: No campus housing. Most people seem satisfied with their apartments. There's plenty of affordable housing in the area. Some students get together and rent condos or houses.
Social scene: Uhh, I'm not as plugged into the social scene as a lot of people. I moved here with my boyfriend, and we don't live in one of the complexes where most of the students are. I have a small circle of close friends, and that's more my style. But if you're coming here alone and looking to make a crap load of friends, it seems easy to do. There are lots of clubs and events all the time.
To sum up:
Curriculum: A
Location: A+
Cost: B
Faculty: A-
Housing: A-
Study space: B+
Social scene: A
Reputation: B
Overall: A-
Curriculum: Anatomy is lecture-based, PBL for basic sciences, once weekly lectures for Clinical Education and OMM. At the end of first year are mini-courses that rely on lecture and independent reading for Advanced Clinical Nutrition, Ethics and Public Health. Anatomy is FAST - 10 weeks. It is the same course that the course director taught at USF in 20 weeks. It's a lot of work, but the faculty are great, in my opinion. Your success will be dictated by how much time you put in.
I absolutely love PBL. With most PBL exams, there is also some assigned reading, in addition to the topics we picked from cases. I've come to realize I don't learn the assigned reading as well as I do the other stuff, and it's partly because I don't read it to understand the case. If you have a problem-solving, investigative attitude about learning, PBL will be great for you. It's a ton of work, but I LOVE not having lectures for basic sciences. My advisors were great about helping me with any issues I had regarding PBL.
The Clinical Education course needs some work. They have a core faculty, plus guest lecturers that come in depending on speciality. The exams suck, they are not well-written, and sometimes we think they are testing out of a book that was used in previous years, instead of the new one they assigned. The good news is they are listening to our critiques and changing the course a bit. We have "skill session" and "focused exam workshops" to learn history taking and physical techniques. I don't have anything to complain about with that, nor anything to rave about. It's fine.
Our course director for OMM is Dr. Fotop. His lectures are not good, but the guy is awesome. He's a genius with OMM and he's the most personable, coolest prof I've ever met. Written and practical exams are fair.
Technology: Uhh...yeah, well, we download powerpoints from the portal for any lectures. I'm not sure what sort of technology we'll be introduced to in second year. In the lab we had access to Anatomy Revealed, which is a pretty cool anatomy program. At this point in our education, I can't think of much more we'd need as far as technology goes.
Testing: Almost everything is multiple choice. We have practical exams for clinical education and OMM. With PBL, sometimes I'd hear complaints of questions being on the test that the group did not pick. One mistake like that was made for my group, and the course director acknowledged the problem and assured us that those questions are dropped. For anatomy, the "practical" section of the exams consisted of projected photos of cadavers and histo slides. Depending on your eyesight and where you sit, that can be an issue. We had a problem with the perspective of some of the photos, and when we brought this to the professor he changed them to make that easier.
Location: I'm from Buffalo, so this environment is a welcome change. I love it. Most students live closer to the school, but I wanted to be closer to the beach and in a more heavily populated area, so I went further west. My apt complex is called Fountain Lake of Bradenton, and it's great. Bradenton is okay, there are nice parts and crappy parts. There are plenty of areas nearby for fishing, kayaking, hiking, etc. Siesta key is 20 min away, and Sarasota has lots of great restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. For me, being in such a beautiful location, especially with the freedom of PBL, helps me deal with the stress of school. I can start my day by walking around a gorgeous lake, fishing, laying out by the pool, reading on my lanai, or I can take my books to the beach. Also, St. Pete and Tampa are within an hour away.
Cost: The loans are more than enough to live on. The LECOM's the cheapest DO school, but it's still expensive.
Faculty: Mostly good. I've never had a negative interaction. They seem open and willing to hear what students have to say. The faculty that I don't like so much have been very minor players in the grand scheme of things, but the big guns - the directors for anatomy and PBL - they are awesome. I've heard other things about the administration, but I can't speak about that from personal experience.
Study areas: Library is nice, but chilly, like most of the school. No eating or drinking in PBL rooms, which sucks. But hey, everything's clean. The PBL rooms are quite nice, and lots of people study in the cafeteria.
Clinical rotations: They just changed this, and I'm not super happy about it, although I'm sure some people are. Previously, students basically had to set up their own rotations with affiliates for core rotations, and with whoever they want for electives. Now, we will be telling LECOM what geographical area we'd like, and they will match us up with affiliates. I was planning to do my research and set myself up with the places I wanted, and now I won't have a choice except to tell them I want to stay in the Tampa Bay area. The biggest critique of the old system was that students had to do too much themselves and they wanted more help. Well, now you don't have to do anything really.
Housing: No campus housing. Most people seem satisfied with their apartments. There's plenty of affordable housing in the area. Some students get together and rent condos or houses.
Social scene: Uhh, I'm not as plugged into the social scene as a lot of people. I moved here with my boyfriend, and we don't live in one of the complexes where most of the students are. I have a small circle of close friends, and that's more my style. But if you're coming here alone and looking to make a crap load of friends, it seems easy to do. There are lots of clubs and events all the time.
To sum up:
Curriculum: A
Location: A+
Cost: B
Faculty: A-
Housing: A-
Study space: B+
Social scene: A
Reputation: B
Overall: A-
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Does anyone mind doing a newer review of LECOM erie? I've recently been accepted and was absolutely blown away by the school. I do have a few concerns but I assure you they have nothing to do with dress code, mandatory attendance or no eating or drinking other than the cafeteria. It has more to do with rotation sites. But a complete review would be great!
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Bump for GA-PCOM, please! A recent review, including clinicals, would be great for anyone so motivated.
Also, anyone posting their (thus far... I know, no clinicals) impressions of VCOM-Carolinas or WCU-COM would also be greatly appreciated.
Also, anyone posting their (thus far... I know, no clinicals) impressions of VCOM-Carolinas or WCU-COM would also be greatly appreciated.
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haHA nevermind
Last edited:
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Posted at the request of an anonymous user regarding TCOM:
Curriculum: In first year it was okay - some busywork, optional lectures and "MLM's" which were case-presentation sessions used only for learning (you also did not absolutely have to attend these). However, the second year curriculum so far has been maddening. There are no lectures or clear objectives, so you have to just "read robbins" or "read harrison's" before class. The MLM's which were once learning sessions are now daily, required testing sessions via iclicker; each MLM is worth 1 point of your grade in the systems course, and if you make less than 60% on that MLM you miss the point for the day (which you would think is fine until you realize how much material there is, how little teaching there is and how innacurate the iclicker can be). Though class is only 2-4 hours per day in second year, self studiers beware. The MLM sessions tend to be almost all questions, with as many as 40 questions per hour. Recently they have "allowed" for us to miss 4-5 MLM's per systems course, which helps somewhat. However, for those who do not learn well through the MLM's, it is still frustrating to be stuck in class basically every day.
The second year director states that if you are not studying 10 hours per day, you are not working hard enough. We are allotted 75 seconds per question on exams and have several 160+ question exams - if you fail one of these monster exams, you fail the entire course. This is not for all courses, but it is done in a few.
Some of these policies may change, but if I had known what I know now about TCOM's second year curriculum I would not have come here. I have felt like it is extremely anti-student.
Location: Fort Worth is not a bad place - a big city without feeling crowded like Dallas. It's fine.
Cost: Very affordable at 13k/year in-state
Faculty: Like most schools, the quality of the faculty varies. We have some wonderful teachers and some teachers that I wish did not work here. It balances out I suppose.
OMM: Disjointed and in transition. Many students nearly failed OMM last semester, and they have changed the course this semester. There are now 2 mini quizzes every week and a large quiz every so often. The director is not very well liked though that may change as she is new. I attended a lecture by an OMM professor at Touro-CA last year and wished that we had that kind of class at TCOM.
Reputation: As far as I know, TCOM has a good reputation. This was a big draw for me when I applied.
Clinical Rotations: I hear good things about clinical rotations from third years, although some people have poor experiences depending on their attending (this seems to be the norm for most schools, though). There are multiple sites around Texas in which to do rotations, so after 2nd year you are not limited to staying in FW if you would like to go elsewhere.
Housing: There are many housing options in Fort Worth, nice one-bedrooms 10-15 mins from campus run around 6-700. Living close to campus is pricey, but there are sometimes houses to rent in the neighborhood if you catch them at the right time. Many students have roomates to cut costs.
Study areas: Work is being done to expand study areas, which are currently inadequate. I hope that the new construction will go a long way to improve study space availability.
Social Scene: Each class is very different. With the advent of the "college" system (breaking the classes up into smaller groups), it seems like it has improved. This is new and was not implemented for my class. I feel that the social scene is pretty average.
Board Prep: We score slightly below average compared to MD schools on the USMLE, do well on the COMLEX and have 95%+ pass rates on both.
Additional: I feel like I was lied to in the admissions process. They are trying new things I suppose, but they do not seem to be listening to the students very much. They like to experiment. While I was interviewing I believe they said only a couple students fail every year, but I know at least 15 failed my year and 18 failed the year before that. They have altered the repeat policy to try and get more people to graduate with their class, so hopefully that helps (this is one of few positive policies implemented this year).
I do not mean to sound like I'm just ragging on my school. TCOM produces good doctors that go into good specialties, and we have historically done well on the boards. However, in the admissions process I was told there was room for self-studiers, which has turned out to be completely untrue. Quizzes and tests come at you often and it feels like we are just paying people to constantly test us. I think that knowing what I know now, I would have looked more closely at the day-to-day lives of students in schools I was considering. I would not have chosen a school with this kind of adversarial administrative culture, but I also do not believe that my career will suffer significantly as a result. It's all about "fit" and TCOM should be more honest about what kinds of students would fit in there. I found out that I should have looked closer at schools with a more flexible curriculum, more reasonable testing schedule and clear objectives/syllabi.
Curriculum: D
Location: B+
Cost: A
Financial Aid: A
Faculty: C+
Reputation: A
Technology: B+
Study Space/Library: C
Library technology/Resources: C
Rotations: ?
Social: C
Overall Grade: C-
Curriculum: In first year it was okay - some busywork, optional lectures and "MLM's" which were case-presentation sessions used only for learning (you also did not absolutely have to attend these). However, the second year curriculum so far has been maddening. There are no lectures or clear objectives, so you have to just "read robbins" or "read harrison's" before class. The MLM's which were once learning sessions are now daily, required testing sessions via iclicker; each MLM is worth 1 point of your grade in the systems course, and if you make less than 60% on that MLM you miss the point for the day (which you would think is fine until you realize how much material there is, how little teaching there is and how innacurate the iclicker can be). Though class is only 2-4 hours per day in second year, self studiers beware. The MLM sessions tend to be almost all questions, with as many as 40 questions per hour. Recently they have "allowed" for us to miss 4-5 MLM's per systems course, which helps somewhat. However, for those who do not learn well through the MLM's, it is still frustrating to be stuck in class basically every day.
The second year director states that if you are not studying 10 hours per day, you are not working hard enough. We are allotted 75 seconds per question on exams and have several 160+ question exams - if you fail one of these monster exams, you fail the entire course. This is not for all courses, but it is done in a few.
Some of these policies may change, but if I had known what I know now about TCOM's second year curriculum I would not have come here. I have felt like it is extremely anti-student.
Location: Fort Worth is not a bad place - a big city without feeling crowded like Dallas. It's fine.
Cost: Very affordable at 13k/year in-state
Faculty: Like most schools, the quality of the faculty varies. We have some wonderful teachers and some teachers that I wish did not work here. It balances out I suppose.
OMM: Disjointed and in transition. Many students nearly failed OMM last semester, and they have changed the course this semester. There are now 2 mini quizzes every week and a large quiz every so often. The director is not very well liked though that may change as she is new. I attended a lecture by an OMM professor at Touro-CA last year and wished that we had that kind of class at TCOM.
Reputation: As far as I know, TCOM has a good reputation. This was a big draw for me when I applied.
Clinical Rotations: I hear good things about clinical rotations from third years, although some people have poor experiences depending on their attending (this seems to be the norm for most schools, though). There are multiple sites around Texas in which to do rotations, so after 2nd year you are not limited to staying in FW if you would like to go elsewhere.
Housing: There are many housing options in Fort Worth, nice one-bedrooms 10-15 mins from campus run around 6-700. Living close to campus is pricey, but there are sometimes houses to rent in the neighborhood if you catch them at the right time. Many students have roomates to cut costs.
Study areas: Work is being done to expand study areas, which are currently inadequate. I hope that the new construction will go a long way to improve study space availability.
Social Scene: Each class is very different. With the advent of the "college" system (breaking the classes up into smaller groups), it seems like it has improved. This is new and was not implemented for my class. I feel that the social scene is pretty average.
Board Prep: We score slightly below average compared to MD schools on the USMLE, do well on the COMLEX and have 95%+ pass rates on both.
Additional: I feel like I was lied to in the admissions process. They are trying new things I suppose, but they do not seem to be listening to the students very much. They like to experiment. While I was interviewing I believe they said only a couple students fail every year, but I know at least 15 failed my year and 18 failed the year before that. They have altered the repeat policy to try and get more people to graduate with their class, so hopefully that helps (this is one of few positive policies implemented this year).
I do not mean to sound like I'm just ragging on my school. TCOM produces good doctors that go into good specialties, and we have historically done well on the boards. However, in the admissions process I was told there was room for self-studiers, which has turned out to be completely untrue. Quizzes and tests come at you often and it feels like we are just paying people to constantly test us. I think that knowing what I know now, I would have looked more closely at the day-to-day lives of students in schools I was considering. I would not have chosen a school with this kind of adversarial administrative culture, but I also do not believe that my career will suffer significantly as a result. It's all about "fit" and TCOM should be more honest about what kinds of students would fit in there. I found out that I should have looked closer at schools with a more flexible curriculum, more reasonable testing schedule and clear objectives/syllabi.
Curriculum: D
Location: B+
Cost: A
Financial Aid: A
Faculty: C+
Reputation: A
Technology: B+
Study Space/Library: C
Library technology/Resources: C
Rotations: ?
Social: C
Overall Grade: C-
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Yes, TCOM has been converting the 2nd year systems curriculum to a new curriculum called PTAC (Problem- and Task-focused, Application-oriented Curriculum). The MLMs (Mechanisms Learning Modules) in 1st year are a glimpse of this.
The PTAC curriculum uses case vignettes and relies on interactive dialog and quizzes (the Socratic method). It presumes knowledge of the readings assigned, and it requires class attendance.
Thus the new curriculum can be problematic for those who prefer to stay home and show up only for the exams.
TCOM does have a good reputation in Texas. It is a hard school - some exams are obnoxious. But most students pass, and most go on to good residencies.
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Would anyone be willing to post a review for OUCOM? These have been extremely helpful. Thank you to everyone who has contributed!
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POSTED AS PER REQUEST BY ANONYMOUS.
NSU-COM
Curriculum:
The curriculum differs highly from M1 year to M2 year. M1 year the classes and faculty are from the "College of Medical Sciences" not the "College of Osteopathic Medicine" these basic science professors therefore do not answer to the medical school. These basic science professors teach at the Dental School, Optometry, etc, etc. Because of this I feel the first year curriculum is not well organised and massive amounts of material are presented in differing fashion by the professors (from writing on an overhead projector pathways to powerpoints and current research from others) That being said, the Histology Department and Anatomy Department are fantastic. Dr. Dribin and Dr. Conover who have been with NSU-COM since the beginning will teach you well. I have nothing but praises for the anatomy and histo departments.. likewise Neuroanatomy is taught well. M1 year is basically scheduled in semesters with class all over the place. Imagine undergrad but taking 34 credits.
M2 year is completely different, most of the professors have MD/DO and many have PhDs, JDs, on top of their medical degree. They are usually practicing physicians. Classes are all recorded and you can view them at home or where ever. The scheduling is by organ system Blocks, which in my opinion is better. From what i have heard, M2 year makes up for any deficiencies you may think you have had during M1 year.
Location:
Davie ,FL. Davie is west of Ft.Lauderdale by like 10 minutes. Davie frankly sucksm there is traffic and yea it sucks. Palm Beach County is 20min+ north and Miami is 20min+ south. There are major highways coming near the campus so it makes traveling easy.
Cost: No clue, but it went up this year and i complained.
Faculty: M1 yr= college of medical sciences, (great anatomy/histo departments) The rest of the departments vary by professor. M2 yr faculty = college of osteo med. Practicing MD/DO that teach their various specialties in corresponding blocks.
OMM: We have 3 kinda renowned professors, Dr. Wallace, Dr. Bosler, Dr. Sandhouse. In the DO world everyone knows these guys. Dr. Sandhouse writes for Comlex, and you will see why and know exactly which questions are his on exams. I have never heard of anyone doing poorly on OMM on complex from Nova, on the contrary everyone does exceptionally well.
Reputation: No clue.. good? maybe top 5? top 10? DO school
Clinical Rotations: Rotations here are done on a lottery system. You rank all the rotation sites and then depending on which lottery number you get you are correspondingly matched to your site rankings. Broward General Hospital (Ft.Laudy), Mount Sinai Hospital (Miami), Palmetto General Hospital (Miami), Memorial (Broward), Palms West Hospital (Palm Beach), Colombia Hospital (Palm Beach), etc. etc. are just some of them. You may be doing clinical rotations with students from University of Miami, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Carribean schools. etc. I think? I could be wrong. These are all MD schools and most have their own dedicated sites, but they end up everywhere. Rotations are mostly in south florida, but there are sites in Tampa, Orlando, New York, etc. South Florida has many different types of cultures and populations and a big international presence so you will see cool stuff.
Housing: Around campus they rob you. But the furthur you get the prices drop. Remember this is still south florida, so it may expensive to you. Most people move again for their 3rd/4th yrs. You definately need a car. You may be living in palm beach, miami or else where for your 3rd/4th yr. You can commute to davie from these locations. In 2 hours u can get from south miami to north palm beach county.. with davie in the middle west ward, no traffic of course. Some people live in ft.lauderdale and commute to class 1st/2nd year since they want to be near the beach guess.
Study areas: Health Professions Division Library (small library, mostly study tables, kinda gets packed when other programs feel they should study.) There are a bunch of study rooms u check out for 3hr periods. There is a seperate building that has a bunch more rooms. Main Campus Library (hours aren't as good and u have to deal with undergrads, but its more space) Law Library (more study spots). Rosenthein? Rosenstein? Building has large rooms to study. And finally the University Center is open 24/7 to study. (it has a gym, cafeteria, star bucks, study tables scattered, and a convenience store).
Social Scene: The social scene is huge here and if your not from florida try not to get lost in it. The same reason u might have famous doctors teaching you in some community or university hospital is the same reason u need to stay focused here. The weather is amazing (to stare at from the library), beach is amazing, downtown ft.lauderdale has tons of night life, other programs may be their literally every night. Palm Beach County has good night life, and then there is Miami. Miami has the top nightclubs in the world, then theirs the food, people, etc. So as long as u can focus, then it shouldn't be a problem. Just don't expect to go to med school and do those things. Work hard play hard?
Board Prep: M1 and M2 year you have a class called Clinical Reasoning which is aimed to start making you think in terms of cases studies and integrading disciplines. M2 year u have a class called "Board Review" where u do problems from Comsae, Kaplan Q bank, UWorld, or where ever. There is a panel of professors that walk you through how to solve them and using First Aid. There is an optional Saturday class with Dr. Raymond who teaches for Kaplan USMLE on top of being faculty at the University of Miami. He reviews everything high yield on the block your on. Nova starting first year provides you with a set of Kaplan USMLE books, and second year you get online access to Kaplan materials including Qbank. Many students start using FA early, doing gunnertraining, and pathoma. In the past students have not done to the administrations expectations on their board exams, given the quality of students being accepted, so this is why all these things have been implemented.
Additional: Dress code is ceil blue scrubs or dress clothes with lab coat. There are tons of other programs around u studying much less than you. Some students in your class have gone to UPenn or Colombia and and others come from small colleges, some people have 36/38 mcats others 24s. Wide variety in students. Administration is very laid back. Rules are flexible and problems that arise are taken at a situational basis. The administration is trying to change a bunch of stuff and doing research on you to see if u produce better board scores. So you may feel like a guinie pig.. we all did also.
Curriculum: C?
Location: B+
Cost: B-?
Financial Aid: ??
Faculty: B+
Reputation: A?
Technology: A
Study Space/Library: A-
Library technology/Resources: A
Rotations: AAAA+++
Social: AAAA
Overall Grade: B?
NSU-COM
Curriculum:
The curriculum differs highly from M1 year to M2 year. M1 year the classes and faculty are from the "College of Medical Sciences" not the "College of Osteopathic Medicine" these basic science professors therefore do not answer to the medical school. These basic science professors teach at the Dental School, Optometry, etc, etc. Because of this I feel the first year curriculum is not well organised and massive amounts of material are presented in differing fashion by the professors (from writing on an overhead projector pathways to powerpoints and current research from others) That being said, the Histology Department and Anatomy Department are fantastic. Dr. Dribin and Dr. Conover who have been with NSU-COM since the beginning will teach you well. I have nothing but praises for the anatomy and histo departments.. likewise Neuroanatomy is taught well. M1 year is basically scheduled in semesters with class all over the place. Imagine undergrad but taking 34 credits.
M2 year is completely different, most of the professors have MD/DO and many have PhDs, JDs, on top of their medical degree. They are usually practicing physicians. Classes are all recorded and you can view them at home or where ever. The scheduling is by organ system Blocks, which in my opinion is better. From what i have heard, M2 year makes up for any deficiencies you may think you have had during M1 year.
Location:
Davie ,FL. Davie is west of Ft.Lauderdale by like 10 minutes. Davie frankly sucksm there is traffic and yea it sucks. Palm Beach County is 20min+ north and Miami is 20min+ south. There are major highways coming near the campus so it makes traveling easy.
Cost: No clue, but it went up this year and i complained.
Faculty: M1 yr= college of medical sciences, (great anatomy/histo departments) The rest of the departments vary by professor. M2 yr faculty = college of osteo med. Practicing MD/DO that teach their various specialties in corresponding blocks.
OMM: We have 3 kinda renowned professors, Dr. Wallace, Dr. Bosler, Dr. Sandhouse. In the DO world everyone knows these guys. Dr. Sandhouse writes for Comlex, and you will see why and know exactly which questions are his on exams. I have never heard of anyone doing poorly on OMM on complex from Nova, on the contrary everyone does exceptionally well.
Reputation: No clue.. good? maybe top 5? top 10? DO school
Clinical Rotations: Rotations here are done on a lottery system. You rank all the rotation sites and then depending on which lottery number you get you are correspondingly matched to your site rankings. Broward General Hospital (Ft.Laudy), Mount Sinai Hospital (Miami), Palmetto General Hospital (Miami), Memorial (Broward), Palms West Hospital (Palm Beach), Colombia Hospital (Palm Beach), etc. etc. are just some of them. You may be doing clinical rotations with students from University of Miami, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Carribean schools. etc. I think? I could be wrong. These are all MD schools and most have their own dedicated sites, but they end up everywhere. Rotations are mostly in south florida, but there are sites in Tampa, Orlando, New York, etc. South Florida has many different types of cultures and populations and a big international presence so you will see cool stuff.
Housing: Around campus they rob you. But the furthur you get the prices drop. Remember this is still south florida, so it may expensive to you. Most people move again for their 3rd/4th yrs. You definately need a car. You may be living in palm beach, miami or else where for your 3rd/4th yr. You can commute to davie from these locations. In 2 hours u can get from south miami to north palm beach county.. with davie in the middle west ward, no traffic of course. Some people live in ft.lauderdale and commute to class 1st/2nd year since they want to be near the beach guess.
Study areas: Health Professions Division Library (small library, mostly study tables, kinda gets packed when other programs feel they should study.) There are a bunch of study rooms u check out for 3hr periods. There is a seperate building that has a bunch more rooms. Main Campus Library (hours aren't as good and u have to deal with undergrads, but its more space) Law Library (more study spots). Rosenthein? Rosenstein? Building has large rooms to study. And finally the University Center is open 24/7 to study. (it has a gym, cafeteria, star bucks, study tables scattered, and a convenience store).
Social Scene: The social scene is huge here and if your not from florida try not to get lost in it. The same reason u might have famous doctors teaching you in some community or university hospital is the same reason u need to stay focused here. The weather is amazing (to stare at from the library), beach is amazing, downtown ft.lauderdale has tons of night life, other programs may be their literally every night. Palm Beach County has good night life, and then there is Miami. Miami has the top nightclubs in the world, then theirs the food, people, etc. So as long as u can focus, then it shouldn't be a problem. Just don't expect to go to med school and do those things. Work hard play hard?
Board Prep: M1 and M2 year you have a class called Clinical Reasoning which is aimed to start making you think in terms of cases studies and integrading disciplines. M2 year u have a class called "Board Review" where u do problems from Comsae, Kaplan Q bank, UWorld, or where ever. There is a panel of professors that walk you through how to solve them and using First Aid. There is an optional Saturday class with Dr. Raymond who teaches for Kaplan USMLE on top of being faculty at the University of Miami. He reviews everything high yield on the block your on. Nova starting first year provides you with a set of Kaplan USMLE books, and second year you get online access to Kaplan materials including Qbank. Many students start using FA early, doing gunnertraining, and pathoma. In the past students have not done to the administrations expectations on their board exams, given the quality of students being accepted, so this is why all these things have been implemented.
Additional: Dress code is ceil blue scrubs or dress clothes with lab coat. There are tons of other programs around u studying much less than you. Some students in your class have gone to UPenn or Colombia and and others come from small colleges, some people have 36/38 mcats others 24s. Wide variety in students. Administration is very laid back. Rules are flexible and problems that arise are taken at a situational basis. The administration is trying to change a bunch of stuff and doing research on you to see if u produce better board scores. So you may feel like a guinie pig.. we all did also.
Curriculum: C?
Location: B+
Cost: B-?
Financial Aid: ??
Faculty: B+
Reputation: A?
Technology: A
Study Space/Library: A-
Library technology/Resources: A
Rotations: AAAA+++
Social: AAAA
Overall Grade: B?
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Excellent NSU-COM review.. from someone who graduated
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...&postcount=825
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...&postcount=825
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The new curriculum is not really new and has been well received by most students, so I'm wondering if the difficulty experienced by the reviewer is course/instructor-specific. I believe that the vast majority of TCOM students (>95%?) graduate on time, and people who fail a class can remediate or repeat just like anywhere else. TCOM's long record of success speaks for itself. I don't view any of that as "extremely anti-student".
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Just wanted to express my thanks to the medical students of past and present who have participated in this thread. You guys have shared a wealth of invaluable information that has served, and will continue to serve as a tool for pre-med students for years to come. Thank you!
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You guys both hit the nail on the head. ILikeFood, my experience has been almost exactly the same as yours. It is laughable that the first year is not run by the COM. .
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Any chance we can get another review of OSU-COM? Please?
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