Vcom

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JKDMed said:
Has VCOM fallen off the planet? I haven't heard a thing since I got that stupid, "Falwell must pray about your primary to decide to send a secondary" email.
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I got an e-mail last week that they would call sometime this week if we were picked for first round of interviews. It is Thursday afternoon, and I have not heard anything. I am not the best of applicants, but I don't think anyone has heard from them 🙁.
 
shenningdo said:
I got an e-mail last week that they would call sometime this week if we were picked for first round of interviews. It is Thursday afternoon, and I have not heard anything. I am not the best of applicants, but I don't think anyone has heard from them 🙁.
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I haven't even gotten a secondary yet. I'm about ready to give up on them, especially with all the LU crap.
 
JKDMed said:
I haven't even gotten a secondary yet. I'm about ready to give up on them, especially with all the LU crap.
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I just got a secondary on Monday... Just thought i'd let ya know! Hope you get yours soon also...
 
I sent my secondary in awhile ago. I was also told they would phone us if we got interviews this week. I've been stressing over this one for awhile now 🙁
 
VaGirl82 said:
I sent my secondary in awhile ago. I was also told they would phone us if we got interviews this week. I've been stressing over this one for awhile now 🙁
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Don't stress. I am sure you will get an interview! Good luck, and know that you are not alone. I am on vacation in DC before I head to WVSOM on Monday for my interview. I have not stopped checking my phone to see if VCOM called 🙁. Only time will tell. It will all work out well.
 
shenningdo said:
Don't stress. I am sure you will get an interview! Good luck, and know that you are not alone. I am on vacation in DC before I head to WVSOM on Monday for my interview. I have not stopped checking my phone to see if VCOM called 🙁. Only time will tell. It will all work out well.
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Thanks for the reassurance. Good luck on your interview at WVSOM on Monday! Let me know how it goes. I've got one there Sep 12 😀 .
 
JKDMed said:
Has VCOM fallen off the planet? I haven't heard a thing since I got that stupid, "Falwell must pray about your primary to decide to send a secondary" email.
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Yeah, me neither. I'm like just reject me now or send a secondary!!! I was going to email them but when I reread their email it said that they would contact me as to the status of my application. Ah well, I really dont have the money right now anyway for the app fee.
 
Raven Feather said:
Yeah, me neither. I'm like just reject me now or send a secondary!!! I was going to email them but when I reread their email it said that they would contact me as to the status of my application. Ah well, I really dont have the money right now anyway for the app fee.
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I interviewed last year and got a weird vibe about the school a few days afterwards. Not really that much of a loss. Their dealings with Liberty Univ make me uneasy as well.
 
Hang tight folks..... Last week was orientation week for the new MSIs. That is always a busy time at med schools.

Good luck to all who are interested in VCOM. It is a great school. I sure feel like I am getting my money's worth. IT is amazing just how much we have learned here.
 
JKDMed said:
I interviewed last year and got a weird vibe about the school a few days afterwards. Not really that much of a loss. Their dealings with Liberty Univ make me uneasy as well.
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Why did you even apply again?
 
JKDMed said:
I interviewed last year and got a weird vibe about the school a few days afterwards. Not really that much of a loss. Their dealings with Liberty Univ make me uneasy as well.
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Can you ellaborate on that a bit?
 
JKDMed said:
I interviewed last year and got a weird vibe about the school a few days afterwards. Not really that much of a loss. Their dealings with Liberty Univ make me uneasy as well.
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Why did you apply again if you are so uneasy, and you have all this weird vibe crap going on? We have been in school and we are finishing up our second week tomorrow. I haven't had any faculty come try and convert me either. (BTW, our faculty appear to be superb and totally helpful.) There have been no revivals, no snakes in the class, no one holy-rolling on the floor, and sorry, no Mr. Falwell preaching hell-fire to our class either. Just some good old hard core basic sciences like biochem going on here. We can even consider ourselves real MS I's now, having taken our first exam today.

Believe me, I am not a Liberty U. apologist. In fact, I probably disagree with 99% of what Mr. Falwell represents. But this thing has blown completely out of hand on this forum. Especially, by many who haven't or don't even attend here. Even to those who do attend here I don't see what the problem is. Your degree from here will be the same regardless if we allow 3 people from Liberty U. per year come here or not. Why should they be penalized for the behavior of their school president anyhow? Are they not worthy to go to med school simply because of where they received their undergrad? I went to a little po-dunk school, smaller than Liberty, myself. But I bet I can stand toe to toe with you. Do you think that Liberty U. is ALL a bunch of little Jerry's kids running around shaking their fingers at everybody? I am sure many are there just to receive a quality education. Are we going to now shun students from Harvard U. for the remarks about women from their president, Lawrence Summers? ( although, I didn't think he was all that wrong)

As a private institution, VCOM has a right to do business with whom ever it is they want to do business with. And it really doesn't matter how we all found out about them doing their business. I pay my tuition for a quality medical education. As long as I receive it then very little else that does not have a direct impact on my life, or your life, should matter (like who VCOM does business with.) Can any of the 3rd years dispute the quality of your medical education that you have received here? I am not talking of the disorganization and growing pains that new schools go through either. I am talking your basic sciences education. It is none of my business how VCOM does its business or what they spend their money on, nor is it any of yours. When you are in practice as a physician, will you listen to anyone tell you how to run your business because they don't like how you handle it? I don't think so. Also know this, many medical schools have their affiliations with all sorts of schools. VCOM's agreement with liberty is nothing new.

To all considering VCOM: it is nothing less than a medical college. You will study basic sciences here, period! I have been challenged by the faculty and admin staff to strive to be the best doc I can be here. You will too if you don't get so easily swayed by the intolerance of those who claim to be tolerant.
 
Nobody has said that VCOM will become a religious nut school, at least not that I have seen. The problem is that a medical school is aligning itself with a school that is a religious nut school and will carry with it this association. Some people don't care, some people do.
 
Nicely put, Static Line!! I will second what he said. This is a fine medical school where you will get a great solid medical education.

People can get so worked up about things that they start to cloud their judgement and their ablity to look at the overall picture....which is with med schools...."are you getting a great education that will make you a great physician?"

If you don't like the school or feel weirdly about it, then simply....don't apply.

😎
 
Amy B said:
Nicely put, Static Line!! I will second what he said. This is a fine medical school where you will get a great solid medical education.

People can get so worked up about things that they start to cloud their judgement and their ablity to look at the overall picture....which is with med schools...."are you getting a great education that will make you a great physician?"

If you don't like the school or feel weirdly about it, then simply....don't apply.

😎
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To be honest, I would go despite Jerry and Liberty. It really doesn't bother me especially since many of my elder family members are much like him. 😀 I'm quite used to being around "holy rollers" (as many call them).

Now Im not saying that is the atmosphere at VCOM, but even if it was, Oh well--as long as I was getting a quality education.
 
Static Line said:
Why did you apply again if you are so uneasy, and you have all this weird vibe crap going on?
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As I have said before, I applied because it was there and it's fairly easy to get an interview at VCOM. If I was accepted I would probably still go, though I don't know that I would enjoy it.
 
JKDMed said:
Has VCOM fallen off the planet? I haven't heard a thing since I got that stupid, "Falwell must pray about your primary to decide to send a secondary" email.
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Hey, just to let ya know, I just emailed them asking them to update my application status since it has now been over a month since they sent me that same e-mail you are talking about. I will let you know what they say, good or bad. 👍
 
Daaang, that was quick. I just received a response from them. They said that my application was scheduled to be reviewed by October 1st and they would notify me of my status.

That is awfully late as my primary was verified at the end of July. Maybe they are holding out b/c of my subpar MCAT score. Awww well.
 
Raven Feather said:
Daaang, that was quick. I just received a response from them. They said that my application was scheduled to be reviewed by October 1st and they would notify me of my status.

That is awfully late as my primary was verified at the end of July. Maybe they are holding out b/c of my subpar MCAT score. Awww well.
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Possibly, but the scores don't come out until mid October. I got tired of waiting and withdrew my app. Good luck.
 
Raven Feather said:
Daaang, that was quick. I just received a response from them. They said that my application was scheduled to be reviewed by October 1st and they would notify me of my status.

That is awfully late as my primary was verified at the end of July. Maybe they are holding out b/c of my subpar MCAT score. Awww well.
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Don't worry about it. I didn't apply until after I received my Aug MCAT scores (and they weren't that good either). I interviewed and was accepted before Christmas.
 
Static Line said:
Don't worry about it. I didn't apply until after I received my Aug MCAT scores (and they weren't that good either). I interviewed and was accepted before Christmas.
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Here's the thing, I did not retake the MCAT nor did I check that I was.
 
I got a secondary today!!! Yiiipppeee.

So AmyB, staticline....give me some more insight on VCOM, please.
 
Congrats on getting the secondary. So what would you like to know more about? Anything in particular you want to know about? 🙂
 
Amy B said:
Congrats on getting the secondary. So what would you like to know more about? Anything in particular you want to know about? 🙂
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The atomosphere created by the student body, I didn't quite understand the curriculum, dress code, etc.

Thanks!! 😀
 
Dress code - it is business causual. Pants, slacks, dresses, skirts, blouses, polo shirts, etc. Just not jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes. Mostly everything else is ok. During final exams week, the dress code is lifted and you can wear just about anything (scrubs, shorts, jeans,etc). We also have a number of jeans days that are used as fund raisers. Donate $2 to whatever group is raising money and you can wear jeans on that day.

Curriculm - It is systems based. You will start with the skin and every course you have that block will deal with skin. Then you move to skelatal then musclular, etc.....So say for exampl in neurology block, you are doing neuro stuff in anatomy and physiology and in principles of primary care/OMM. And in CCC (clinical cases correlations) you are going over cases related to neural problems. So you will hear things over and over in all the classes which will help to cement the learning. The profs have a general idea of what the others are going over so they will say something and follow it up with, "Dr so and so will be going into more detail in physio on this topic." It is an awesome way to learn this stuff. It helps to tie it all together.

For the most part the student body here is wonderful. I really enjoy the interactions with my classmates. It is not the cut throat sparring ring like at some schools. We help each other. To me, it seems like a my classmates are family. Is there complaining? Of course, you can't get 155 people in a room and not have some complaining, but for the most part everyone gets along with everyone.

Did that answer your questions? If you have more, please ask. 🙂
 
Well all- I never figured that I would post anything on here- but I figured that anyone wondering about VCOM might benefit from this.

I just started my MSIII and am working in internal medicine. First of all- the rotation is absolutely WONDERFUL! I am amazed every day by how much I learn and how great our attendings are in teaching us information and leading by example in how to be a great clinician. Secondly- I really do feel that I know my stuff when I go in and see my patients, I can do an complete H&P, come up with at least 10 differentials and have a good idea for a plan and pertinent treatment recommendations to give during rounds. That should really tell you something about VCOM's curriculum. There are not many 3rd year students that come fresh out of the classroom that can do that. It is a great experience- and I would recommend VCOM to anyone. Our curriculum, although new and still growing, is still unbelievable. My classmates are great to work with and I really can say that I am proud to be in the inaugural class.

So- if there are any perspective students out there who have any questions at all- please feel free to contact me. I am pretty level headed, married with 2 kids, and have no problems with giving honest answers on some of the tough questions that I know have come up. But in all seriousness, please do realize that VCOM will give you an unbelievable education and we have some of the best faculty around- your abilities as a DO graduating from VCOM will far outshine anything else! 😀
 
JKDMed said:
Possibly, but the scores don't come out until mid October. I got tired of waiting and withdrew my app. Good luck.
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Did you withdrawl from every school that you are waiting for an answer from or just VCOM? Let me rephrase what you said earlier, "It's not VCOM's loss, just yours." Hope you enjoy another year w/o med school!
 
Static Line said:
Did you withdrawl from every school that you are waiting for an answer from or just VCOM? Let me rephrase what you said earlier, "It's not VCOM's loss, just yours." Hope you enjoy another year w/o med school!
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What is the point of this personal attack? I got tired of waiting and don't really like the school that much, so I withdrew, which doesn't really seem to make it much of a loss for me since I don't really care.
 
I think static line is pointing out that first you are excited about VCOM, then you aren't, then you are and then you are "tired of waiting". I mean, who gets tired of waiting in september. It sounds like there is more going on behind your words. And that is none of our business, but you sound bitter about VCOM.
 
Amy B said:
I think static line is pointing out that first you are excited about VCOM, then you aren't, then you are and then you are "tired of waiting". I mean, who gets tired of waiting in september. It sounds like there is more going on behind your words. And that is none of our business, but you sound bitter about VCOM.
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Since when have I been "excited" about it?
 
I got an invite to fill out VCOM's secondary application a while ago. But I was just filling it out yesterday and recieved a call from them today about not turning it in yet. Did any one else get a call from them to submit a secondary? That was wierd...I had to try and remember exactly which application it was on the spot cause I was working on apps all weekend...and they were all a blur! 😱
 
VCOM puts a personal touch to their application process. That shows in the phone call. I remember thinking..."wow now that is cool and makes me feel important that they called." The application process can be a cold and impersonal one.
 
they called me, too, and left a message, which made me feel a bit guilty about not submitting the secondary. i'm still thinking it's probably not a good match for me, but i could be wrong.
 
I have heard that all the things that have been said about VCOM and LU in the media were retracted. I am an MSII at VCOM and I haven't noticed anything "weird" going on around here. It seems like all things are "normal" here in medical school. No religious dealings as of yet.

VCOM made me feel right at home during my interview, which is one of the reasons that I chose to attend. Hopefully they are still giving people that feeling as well as continuing to provide quality academics.

Good luck to you all!
 
Badger1049 said:
I have heard that all the things that have been said about VCOM and LU in the media were retracted. I am an MSII at VCOM and I haven't noticed anything "weird" going on around here. It seems like all things are "normal" here in medical school. No religious dealings as of yet.

VCOM made me feel right at home during my interview, which is one of the reasons that I chose to attend. Hopefully they are still giving people that feeling as well as continuing to provide quality academics.

Good luck to you all!
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Out of all the schools I am applying to and called, VCOM is by far the friendliest! WOW! They return your calls right away and are soooooo sweet! Forgive my ignorance, but can someone summerize the negativity behing VCOM?
 
FrogE7 said:
Out of all the schools I am applying to and called, VCOM is by far the friendliest! WOW! They return your calls right away and are soooooo sweet! Forgive my ignorance, but can someone summerize the negativity behing VCOM?
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I'll give you this. Megan is super nice. I worked with her quite a bit during the app process last year and was looking forward to finally meeting her, but unfortunately she wasn't there interview day. I've heard she's a cutie.

The school isn't bad, I just don't dig the "happy family" atmosphere and it came across during my interviews. The older radiology woman even told me she could see I'm that way. I don't mind working with people and helping them out, but when it comes to learning and studying I've always been the, "lone wolf" unless I was tutoring or leading study groups, which I did often in undergrad.

The location was pretty cool and the stone buildings on the VTech campus were neat, but I just thought I'd feel out of place in such an interdependent environment.
 
I too fit into the study alone category. . .every once in a while I will go to a review session or study group, but most of the time I am at home studying or in one of the small group rooms studying by myself. The reason they do this is to inspire a non-competitive environment.
 
Badger1049 said:
I too fit into the study alone category. . .every once in a while I will go to a review session or study group, but most of the time I am at home studying or in one of the small group rooms studying by myself. The reason they do this is to inspire a non-competitive environment.
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The more I hear about VCOM the more I want to go there! (funny cause this was a school I wouldn't have thought of twice two days ago). I just like non-competative environments especially because I am a person that tends to get carried away and lock myself up in my room for days. I need a school to bring balance in my life. 🙂
 
question for you vcom'ers. i'm a super-liberal, pro-choice feminist who's not remotely religious (ex-catholic with a religious family, so i respect religious people but expect them to respect us non-religious folks, too, and not try to convert us). i get the vibe that my viewpoints wouldn't be very accepted or that i wouldn't fit in there, especially because they didn't allow a student planned parenthood group to form. is my vibe wrong?
 
I am only recently looking into VCOM and hadn't heard anything about Falwell, etc., until reading this forum. Is this email about Falwell praying about your secondary for real or am I missing some joke? Just wondering!
Thanks,
ah1120
 
It's a joke. VCOM uses Liberty U as a feeder school to fill its class.
 
So let me ask a "out of the blue" question. On their secondary, they ask you to list which area(s) you are interested in. Does the "mission medicine" they list have religious connotations?
 
goat said:
So let me ask a "out of the blue" question. On their secondary, they ask you to list which area(s) you are interested in. Does the "mission medicine" they list have religious connotations?
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from what i've heard, vcom's medical mission are all sponsored by religious groups. if you do a search on this and find the earlier post discussing all the vcom issues, you'll find that some students felt deceived because they thought the missions would be secular.
 
exlawgrrl said:
question for you vcom'ers. i'm a super-liberal, pro-choice feminist who's not remotely religious (ex-catholic with a religious family, so i respect religious people but expect them to respect us non-religious folks, too, and not try to convert us). i get the vibe that my viewpoints wouldn't be very accepted or that i wouldn't fit in there, especially because they didn't allow a student planned parenthood group to form. is my vibe wrong?
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This school and actually medical school in general, is not the place to come to voice your viewpoints. You have the rest of your life for that. You are going to have just as many with the opposite opinion as yours, and those discussions always spiral downward. You are hear to study basic sciences and medicine. Unless asked about my opinion, I keep my opinions which are very ultra conservative-and religious to my self. Don't get me wrong, I love to engage in good intellectual, political, and social value, debates. I think they are fun. I just don't think the public forum of medical school is the place. Really, we are just too busy for that anyhow. However, I have met some people here who are ultra liberal as yourself and saw some "Kerry-Edwards" (thank goodness that didn't happen) bumper stickers out in the parking lot. We get along fine because we are in the same boat, and we are just trying to make it out of this place. You are right though, the school will not allow you to use their name to promote such things as "planned parenthood" or other pro-choice propaganda. That's their right as a private institution though. I haven't looked for it but I haven't seen the school admin or faculty members actively promote pro life (which I am) issues either, but I have only been here one month. We just don't have time for it, and if you came hear to study, as long as you are wise you won't have problems either. Believe me, you will develop core groups of friends and you can talk all you want. I appreciate the fact that I don't have to have liberal viewpoints crammed down my throat. I came from an undergrad school that was primarily Native-American, very liberal school and being a WM did not help me any. I think if you come here to study rather than make a name for yourself then you will be just fine. I don't have a school sponsored group that says," I am prolife, or I am heterosexual and you better accept me." I don't think the opposite viewpoint should have a school sponsored forum to do so either.
 
Static Line said:
This school and actually medical school in general, is not the place to come to voice your viewpoints. You have the rest of your life for that. You are going to have just as many with the opposite opinion as yours, and those discussions always spiral downward. You are hear to study basic sciences and medicine. Unless asked about my opinion, I keep my opinions which are very ultra conservative-and religious to my self. Don't get me wrong, I love to engage in good intellectual, political, and social value, debates. I think they are fun. I just don't think the public forum of medical school is the place. Really, we are just too busy for that anyhow. However, I have met some people here who are ultra liberal as yourself and saw some "Kerry-Edwards" (thank goodness that didn't happen) bumper stickers out in the parking lot. We get along fine because we are in the same boat, and we are just trying to make it out of this place. You are right though, the school will not allow you to use their name to promote such things as "planned parenthood" or other pro-choice propaganda. That's their right as a private institution though. I haven't looked for it but I haven't seen the school admin or faculty members actively promote pro life (which I am) issues either, but I have only been here one month. We just don't have time for it, and if you came hear to study, as long as you are wise you won't have problems either. Believe me, you will develop core groups of friends and you can talk all you want. I appreciate the fact that I don't have to have liberal viewpoints crammed down my throat. I came from an undergrad school that was primarily native american and being a WM did not help me any. I think if you come here to study rather than make a name for yourself then you will be just fine. I don't have a school sponsored group that says," I am prolife, or I am heterosexual and you better accept me." I don't think the opposite viewpoint should have a school sponsored forum to do so either.
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hmm, thanks for your insight, but it's steering me farther away from submitting that vcom secondary. my political views are part of who i am, and i don't want to keep them suppressed. also, ob-gyn is one of my top specialties, and i think involvement in pro-choice group would be wonderful for me during my basic science studies. and, i do want to go on medical missions, but i don't want them to have a religious overtone.
 
ah1120 said:
I am only recently looking into VCOM and hadn't heard anything about Falwell, etc., until reading this forum. Is this email about Falwell praying about your secondary for real or am I missing some joke? Just wondering!
Thanks,
ah1120
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While waiting for Falwell's answer, I consulted with His Noodlyness the Flying Spaghetti Monster and He informed me that I should not wait any longer for VCOM.
 
question for you, static line -- how does having a christian medical students association chapter fit with your definition of medical school being apolitical and totally for studying the basic sciences? why allow cms and yet disallow planned parenthood?

also, i googed that john rocovich guy discovered that he's anti affirmative action and opposed wording in virginia tech's anti-discrimination clause concerning gays and lesbians. also, he's a big republican political contributor. since he seems to be the guy shaping the school, i wouldn't feel comfortable attending.

the dress code thing is just bs, too. i'm interviewing at other schools with a dress code and still think it's absolutely ridiculous. i attended another professional school and have held a professional job with a dress code for these past few years. i'm not going to be made any more of a professional doctor by having to dress up for class. imo, the osteopathic educational profession is going the wrong way with pursuing professionalism through a dress code.
 
Ok folks, here is my 2 cents on this.... We are all humans and we all have our views and opinions on everything. Does my opinion affect you? Probably not. Does that make my opinion less valuable to me? No way. In other words whether you like my opinion or whether you are opposed to it, will not change my opinion.

Now you are wanting to enter medical school. You will be working with attendings that don't share your opinions, you will have patients that don't share your opinions. Does that mean you will quit your jobs, does it mean you will drop those patients? Of course not. But in a professional career such as medicine you will find out that your opinion will not be able to dictate what you do and how you act. We have had so many ethics lectures and bottom line... in the end in will not matter what your opinion is but rather what your patient's best interest is and what their opinion is that willl dictate what you do.

Here is an example for you.....I do not believe in abortion. I feel morally that it is a sin, HOWEVER while working at a free clinic one of my duties was pregnancy counseling of women who just found out they were pregnant. I had to provide them the information for ALL their options. These options included abortion. I absolutely hated explaining this to them, but as their counselor I was under the obligation to do so. My feelings did not matter. My opinion did not matter, my moral convictions did not matter. All that mattered was the patient's rights. You will have to learn how to temper your opinion sometime. Medical school might as well be where you start to learn how to do this.

Believe me when I say it is hard to learn how to handle your opinions and how to temper how you act. I have gotten in a few situations where I didn't temper my opinions and ran my mouth off and didn't handle things professionally. I have learned from my mistakes and have been working on handling things in a much more professional manner. This will help me when I get out into my medical career.

The staff here wants what is best for you. They are a caring bunch of people.

Can you always get your way... NO, but hey, name one place you can do what you want all the time.

AS to our missions and religion.... religion is not dictating what VCOM is doing... compassion and caring for their fellow man and women is. We just sent a group of doctors and MSIIIs as well as the Dean of the school to help out with the hurricane relief effort. VCOM did not bat an eye when this disaster stuck, but rather immediatly started setting up a group to go down there to help.

If you are looking for a "perfect" medical school to attend, well all I have to say is goodluck. No place is perfect. If you are looking for a medical school that will teach you how to be a caring and compassionate doctor, then VCOM is the school for you.
 
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