2019-2020 Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine (ACOM)

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The level 1 COMLEX first time pass rate was 89% for 2018-2019. Nationally, it was 93%. Seems like ACOM's first time pass rates are lower than a handful of schools, can any current student talk about this more or does anyone have a reason as to why? Should this statistic be a concern of ours when choosing to go to ACOM vs other schools, like does it hold much relevancy? How do you think ACOM has prepared you for the COMLEX?
 
art_angel said:
The level 1 COMLEX first time pass rate was 89% for 2018-2019. Nationally, it was 93%. Seems like ACOM's first time pass rates are lower than a handful of schools, can any current student talk about this more or does anyone have a reason as to why? Should this statistic be a concern of ours when choosing to go to ACOM vs other schools, like does it hold much relevancy? How do you think ACOM has prepared you for the COMLEX?
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I also need the answer to this question. I called the school and left a voicemail, but they haven't respond yet. I actually forgot that Alabama was still CST and I'm back on the east coast now. ACOM is actually my top choice out of WCUCOM, LUCOM and CUSOM (pending acceptance in January:xf: ...very near my home town and GREAT interview).

Board scores aren't my top priority since I will be using the military HPSP and will be attending a military residency, but I still want to be competitive since I know what my top military residency choice will be already (come from a military family and want to do a pediatric residency at Walter Reed NMMC... where my dad worked as an ICU nurse for nearly 15 years).

My choice is really between ACOM and WCUCOM, who has been at the national average and was the first school I fell in love with. Honestly, the choice is killing me but the WCUCOM deposit is due this weekend. If I had to pick with only my heart, I would choose WCUCOM, but ACOM had too many other important factors that would play into my success as a student. It seems like ACOM is a school that gets you over the top prepared for the clinic and doesn't like to teach the boards (like CUSOM most definitely does). Even Dr. Heath Parker said "we teach you what you need to know to pass the boards, but there's so much more to medicine and being a physician."
 
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mandyads said:
I also need the answer to this question. I called the school and left a voicemail, but they haven't respond yet. I actually forgot that Alabama was still CST and I'm back on the east coast now. ACOM is actually my top choice out of WCUCOM, LUCOM and CUSOM (pending acceptance in January:xf: ...very near my home town and GREAT interview).

Board scores aren't my top priority since I will be using the military HPSP and will be attending a military residency, but I still want to be competitive since I know what my top military residency choice will be already (come from a military family and want to do a pediatric residency at Walter Reed NMMC... where my dad worked as an ICU nurse for nearly 15 years).

My choice is really between ACOM and WCUCOM, who has been at the national average and was the first school I fell in love with. Honestly, the choice is killing me but the WCUCOM deposit is due this weekend. If I had to pick with only my heart, I would choose WCUCOM, but ACOM had too many other important factors that would play into my success as a student. It seems like ACOM is a school that gets you over the top prepared for the clinic and doesn't like to teach the boards (like CUSOM most definitely does). Even Dr. Heath Parker said "we teach you what you need to know to pass the boards, but there's so much more to medicine and being a physician."
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ACOM>WCU and Campbell is basically Acom with better board scores. ACOM has not prepared students well in the past. I wouldn’t say they were worse than most DO programs, just not as good as the ones that teach directly to boards. Their curriculum hasnt prepared well in the past and that’s why you saw the wolfpacc being put in place. It wasn’t that students were stupid. Well that was a dumpster fire and now they are doing away with it and doing what we said in the first place with giving more dedicated, buying UW, and NBMEs. ACOM is getting better and if only they did away completely with the attendance policy. It would shoot to the top of my list in recommending newer ones.
 
mandyads said:
I also need the answer to this question. I called the school and left a voicemail, but they haven't respond yet. I actually forgot that Alabama was still CST and I'm back on the east coast now. ACOM is actually my top choice out of WCUCOM, LUCOM and CUSOM (pending acceptance in January:xf: ...very near my home town and GREAT interview).

Board scores aren't my top priority since I will be using the military HPSP and will be attending a military residency, but I still want to be competitive since I know what my top military residency choice will be already (come from a military family and want to do a pediatric residency at Walter Reed NMMC... where my dad worked as an ICU nurse for nearly 15 years).

My choice is really between ACOM and WCUCOM, who has been at the national average and was the first school I fell in love with. Honestly, the choice is killing me but the WCUCOM deposit is due this weekend. If I had to pick with only my heart, I would choose WCUCOM, but ACOM had too many other important factors that would play into my success as a student. It seems like ACOM is a school that gets you over the top prepared for the clinic and doesn't like to teach the boards (like CUSOM most definitely does). Even Dr. Heath Parker said "we teach you what you need to know to pass the boards, but there's so much more to medicine and being a physician."
Click to expand...
Yeah your decision should be between ACOM and CUSOM. Out of the schools mentioned, those are the best. ACOM just became a little better with the board preparation changes as well.
 
DO2015CA said:
ACOM>WCU and Campbell is basically Acom with better board scores. ACOM has not prepared students well in the past. I wouldn’t say they were worse than most DO programs, just not as good as the ones that teach directly to boards. Their curriculum hasnt prepared well in the past and that’s why you saw the wolfpacc being put in place. It wasn’t that students were stupid. Well that was a dumpster fire and now they are doing away with it and doing what we said in the first place with giving more dedicated, buying UW, and NBMEs. ACOM is getting better and if only they did away completely with the attendance policy. It would shoot to the top of my list in recommending newer ones.
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Thank you for responding! That's right... They did mention that they had used Wolfpacc the last two years and decided not to renew the contract since the students wanted other resources. I imagine that will improve things a lot. Personally, I know prep courses do not help me at all and I've used UWorld in the past and it's a beautiful thing!

Considering the critical bits you've mentioned, why do you still feel as though ACOM is a better choice than WCUCOM?

From what I know ACOM has slightly more diversity, slightly better environment and has 60% attendance, rather than WCUCOM's 80%. I also liked the fact that ACOMs students seemed so comfortable with actual clinical medicine and were impressive on clinical rotations (also the fact that they have superior clinical rotations). Curriculum wise, I also appreciate that ACOM does all anatomy in the first semester. I've done full dissection on a human cadaver twice now and would like to just get it over with. After taking four anatomy courses (two at a demi-medical school level), that will probably be my strength and allow me much more flexibility in my first semester.
 
I think ACOMs pass rates will go up for the newer classes, especially this current set of first years. Wolfpacc seriously messed up some of the students in my class by putting a time drain on prep time. ACOM vs CUSOM is really just down to location/residency area preference at this point.

WCU definitely brought up their Level 1 pass rates. However they still have a declining level 2 rate which is now in the 80s and still haven’t published their 2018 data which is suspicious. Add that to their 92% placement rate and still quite high attrition and it becomes likely the worst DO school in the country that’s graduated a class.
 
neurosrgn said:
Yeah your decision should be between ACOM and CUSOM. Out of the schools mentioned, those are the best. ACOM just became a little better with the board preparation changes as well.
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I will probably find out if I am accepted into CUSOM within days before the ACOM deposit is due as well, so I will definitely re-look at everything before I make a decision. I'm only 1.5 hours away from CUSOM, so I would definitely take that opportunity to revisit the school when there are more students there. I just don't know if I appreciate the fact that they teach to the boards. It's helpful, but it's not my top priority. Their attendance is also 80%, compared to ACOM's 60%. It's a tough choice. CUSOM has a location I thought would have preferred (close to NC family and DC/MD), but I realized I will not be seeing much of my family anyway, lol. And the actual area the school is in is... ehhhh. There is a nice town supposedly close to it, but I forgot the name of it. Definitely so much to consider! I never thought I would get an interview - let alone options!
 
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mandyads said:
Thank you for responding! That's right... They did mention that they had used Wolfpacc the last two years and decided not to renew the contract since the students wanted other resources. I imagine that will improve things a lot. Personally, I know prep courses do not help me at all and I've used UWorld in the past and it's a beautiful thing!

Considering the critical bits you've mentioned, why do you still feel as though ACOM is a better choice than WCUCOM?

From what I know ACOM has slightly more diversity, slightly better environment and has 60% attendance, rather than WCUCOM's 80%. I also liked the fact that ACOMs students seemed so comfortable with actual clinical medicine and were impressive on clinical rotations (also the fact that they have superior clinical rotations). Curriculum wise, I also appreciate that ACOM does all anatomy in the first semester. I've done full dissection on a human cadaver twice now and would like to just get it over with. After taking four anatomy courses (two at a demi-medical school level), that will probably be my strength and allow me much more flexibility in my first semester.
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mandyads said:
I will probably find out if I am accepted into CUSOM within days before the ACOM deposit is due as well, so I will definitely re-look at everything before I make a decision. I'm only 1.5 hours away from CUSOM, so I would definitely take that opportunity to revisit the school when there are more students there. I just don't know if I appreciate the fact that they teach to the boards. It's helpful, but it's not my top priority. Their attendance is also 80%, compared to ACOM's 60%. It's a tough choice. CUSOM has a location I thought would have preferred (close to NC family and DC/MD), but I realized I will not be seeing much of my family anyway, lol. And the actual area the school is in is... ehhhh. There is a nice town supposedly close to it, but I forgot the name of it. Definitely so much to consider! I never thought I would get an interview - let alone options!
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WCU clinical education mixed with 92% placement. Not matched, placement. Meaning 8% of students had no job come July. ACOM does have good clinical education in terms of becoming extremely comfortable with you exams. Yes you are preceptor base but ACOM requires the preceptors to work you so you don’t get the horror stories of seeing no patients (at least for my class prior to the class expansion).

Trust me you want to be taught to the boards. That’s what gets you a residency. The other lines that administrators use are bologna. Saying “they don’t teach to boards and there is more to being a doctor than that material.” It is true but becoming doctors is a stepwise pathway. Getting a solid foundation in medicine is important. You will continue to develop your skills throughout residency. Also, what irks me is the way they word it. They say it as if the schools teaching to the boards won’t teach you the other stuff about being a doctor (how to use your stethoscope, etc.). The fact is you go to medical school to match to residency to become a physician. Without that foundational knowledge you won’t succeed as well. The reason we have steps/levels is because the governing body decided “this is the knowledge we expect students to have at this point in their training”. You will soon find out that medical school is a time crunch so for everything added thing that isn’t board relevant it will take place of board relevant stuff. It’s not in addition to.

ex: level 1 is basically pathophysio. Non-board relevant schools sacrifice those lectures in order to do more bs clinical relevance ones. They essentially give level 2 lectures in place of level 1. You will learn the level 2 material regardless if they gave you that lecture. You will not learn pathophys after you leave the classroom but you will learn clinical correlations needed for level 2.

So with ACOM giving you more time for studying and UW is a very very good thing. This greatly increases ACOMs worth
 
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DO2015CA said:
WCU clinical education mixed with 92% placement. Not matched, placement. Meaning 8% of students had no job come July. ACOM does have good clinical education in terms of becoming extremely comfortable with you exams. Yes you are preceptor base but ACOM requires the preceptors for work you so you don’t get the horror stories of seeing no patients (at least for my class prior to the class expansion).

Trust me you want to be taught to the boards. That’s what gets you a residency. The other lines that administrators use are bologna. Saying “they don’t teach to boards and there is more to being a doctor than that material.” It is true but becoming doctors is a stepwise pathway. Getting a solid foundation in medicine is important. You will continue to develop your skills throughout residency. Also, what irks me is the way they word it. They say it as if the schools teaching to the boards won’t teach you the other stuff about being a doctor (how to use your stethoscope, etc.). The fact is you go to medical school to match to residency to become a physician. Without that foundational knowledge you won’t succeed as well. The reason we have steps/levels is because the governing body decided “this is the knowledge we expect students to have at this point in their training”. You will soon find out that medical school is a time crunch so for everything added thing that isn’t board relevant it will take place of board relevant stuff. It’s not in addition to.

ex: level 1 is basically pathophysio. Non-board relevant schools sacrifice those lectures in order to do more bs clinical relevance ones. They essentially give level 2 lectures in place of level 1. You will learn the level 2 material regardless if they gave you that lecture. You will not learn pathophys after you leave the classroom but you will learn clinical correlations needed for level 2.

So with ACOM giving you more time for studying and UW is a very very good thing. This greatly increases ACOMs worth
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Great Information! Thank you so much for taking the time out to address some of these concerns for myself and the hundreds of others that will stumble across it over time!
 
mandyads said:
Great Information! Thank you so much for taking the time out to address some of these concerns for myself and the hundreds of others that will stumble across it over time!
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no worries! I am happy to. I stumbled over them because I didn’t have help. I find it important to give not only my opinion but my reasons why after having successfully gone through the gauntlet and what would’ve made it easier. Medical school sucks no matter which school you go to. You will never find a perfect one
 
Does anybody know the mean comlex scores for acom? I know they post the pass rate on the website. Also, if you’re away from Dothan for rotations, do you have to come back to Dothan for anything during years 3 &4?
 
Withdrew my acceptance and it was a very hard decision to make. GL everyone
 
Nontrad_Reapp said:
Does anybody know the mean comlex scores for acom? I know they post the pass rate on the website. Also, if you’re away from Dothan for rotations, do you have to come back to Dothan for anything during years 3 &4?
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I know the mean for class of 2019 was around 515. For third year, you’ll probably be back at least once for OSCEs for COMLEX 2PE prep. Then fourth year, mandatory to be in Dothan for like 3 days for graduation stuff. You can go back for match day if you want.
 
arjusmc said:
Just noticed I have an II. I didn’t receive an email or anything. I wonder how long it was sitting there for.
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I personally loved ACOM. I hope you have a great time on your interview!
 
Any recommendations for one bedroom apartments/condos/houses that are moderately convenient to the campus besides Summerfield? Considering Summerfield for first year, but either way I’d love to hear about housing ideas. I don’t want any roommates, and just generally looking for safe and secure relatively lower cost 1 bed 1 bath places, my last one was over 985/month with power and water etc, I’d like to be lower than that... I’m also going to check online places like Zillow too but figured I’ll ask here as well. Thank you to all who keep looking and answering, I appreciate it a ton.
 
CEHarris2911 said:
Any recommendations for one bedroom apartments/condos/houses that are moderately convenient to the campus besides Summerfield? Considering Summerfield for first year, but either way I’d love to hear about housing ideas. I don’t want any roommates, and just generally looking for safe and secure relatively lower cost 1 bed 1 bath places, my last one was over 985/month with power and water etc, I’d like to be lower than that... I’m also going to check online places like Zillow too but figured I’ll ask here as well. Thank you to all who keep looking and answering, I appreciate it a ton.
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I would love to hear about other apartment options as well! I would ideally like to get an apartment as close as possible to campus. I wanted to get a one bedroom at Summerfield but they told me they're already full so I'm currently on the waitlist 🙁
 
A lot of students live at Magnolia but it’s a bit pricey. Also if you check Craigslist renting a house is pretty cheap if you share it with other classmates. Alexander court is close to the school as well if you need something really cheap their one bedroom was like $400 when I was searching a few years ago.
 
fashionenthusiast said:
I would love to hear about other apartment options as well! I would ideally like to get an apartment as close as possible to campus. I wanted to get a one bedroom at Summerfield but they told me they're already full so I'm currently on the waitlist 🙁
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sweetwater and fieldcrest (field something) are places students lived and are better priced. They are both on the south/sw side of the circle with at most a 10 min commute
 
Hey everybody,
I'm considering sending a primary here, but I can't find out the secondary screens? They say they have them, but I called the office and can't get a hold of anybody there? Do any of you know what those screens are? Thank you all so much for your time, insight, and assistance..... it is greatly appreciated!!!!! ..... 🙂
 
Tennis Guy said:
Hey everybody,
I'm considering sending a primary here, but I can't find out the secondary screens? They say they have them, but I called the office and can't get a hold of anybody there? Do any of you know what those screens are? Thank you all so much for your time, insight, and assistance..... it is greatly appreciated!!!!! ..... 🙂
Click to expand...

I would send your Primary ASAP. They review your primary, and if they believe that you are competitive, then they will send you a secondary application, and once you fill that out, they will review for a possible interview invite. It takes about 1-3 months to get to a "complete" status - aka when they actually review your final application to decide if they want to send an interview invite.

It is late, but you never know unless you try. I hope that helps 🙂
 
Stargazer24 said:
I would send your Primary ASAP. They review your primary, and if they believe that you are competitive, then they will send you a secondary application, and once you fill that out, they will review for a possible interview invite. It takes about 1-3 months to get to a "complete" status - aka when they actually review your final application to decide if they want to send an interview invite.

It is late, but you never know unless you try. I hope that helps 🙂
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Yes, thank you so much for the information..... I really appreciate it!!! ..... 🙂 Do you or anyone know the numbers for the cGPA, sGPA, and MCAT screens for the secondary though or if there are any at all?
 
Tennis Guy said:
Yes, thank you so much for the information..... I really appreciate it!!! ..... 🙂 Do you or anyone know the numbers for the cGPA, sGPA, and MCAT screens for the secondary though or if there are any at all?
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Hey, not sure exactly, but ACOM has listed the averages for MCAT and GPA which could give you a good estimate on what they could be. The question below are from the Admissions FAQs on the website.

What are ACOM averages for GPA and MCAT?
  • For the 2017 cycle, applicants had the following average quality metrics: total GPA average of 3.40; science GPA of 3.3; and MCAT score of 501 (26 on the old exam). ACOM uses a holistic approach when reviewing applications. Personal characteristics, past accomplishments, how well your future goals align with ACOM’s mission, and other factors are also important in the application process.
What are the competitive scores for ACOM?
  • A competitive applicant has an MCAT score of 501 (26 on the old exam) and an overall GPA of 3.4 (4.0 scale). The competitive science GPA is 3.3 (4.0 scale).
 
Does anyone know how many people are normally on the waitlist or how many are on the waitlist now?

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
 
icamel said:
Does anyone know how many people are normally on the waitlist or how many are on the waitlist now?

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
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+1

I haven’t heard of a rejection yet so I think they are just waitlisting everyone
 
icamel said:
Does anyone know how many people are normally on the waitlist or how many are on the waitlist now?

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
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Not sure, but when I interviewed Mr. Willis said they take about 40 people off the waitlist come June, if I remember correctly.
 
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Stargazer24 said:
+1

I haven’t heard of a rejection yet so I think they are just waitlisting everyone
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yeah from my interview it sounded like they only reject/"do not recommend" people who are applying their second time there and haven't made the necessary improvements
 
But 40ish people is a lot to take off of the wait list so theres still hope! We just have to keep our heads up!
 
Tennis Guy said:
Yes, thank you so much for the information..... I really appreciate it!!! ..... 🙂 Do you or anyone know the numbers for the cGPA, sGPA, and MCAT screens for the secondary though or if there are any at all?
Click to expand...
I never saw any defined stats for the secondary screening but you def can still send your primary. After I completed my secondaries, within a week they marked my application as complete and sent an interview invite. Overall you def can still send them primaries!!!
 
Sheeshtopher said:
Got a II, but declined. Set on cusom atm!
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So you never called to see why they marked it complete? I have 2 profs and 1 is kinesiology but he was only my research PI so I’m wondering if they even look at the letters or just credentials when marking
 
subliminalstatus said:
So you never called to see why they marked it complete? I have 2 profs and 1 is kinesiology but he was only my research PI so I’m wondering if they even look at the letters or just credentials when marking
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Nope, never called. Technically I had a premed advisor letter from my smp. I had LOR from DO, MD, research PI, undergrad prof that taught me, and smp lor.
 
Has anyone who interviewed this year been told what the tuition will be?
 
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