AZCOM Alumni here... Please think long and hard before considering this school. I am pretty disappointed in them for multiple reasons, and in hindsight believe that ANY other school would have been a better choice. Allow me to provide my opinion as to why I would make my strongest recommendation against attending AZCOM:
1. The tuition is out of control. You do not get what you pay for. Don't expect there to be more opportunities because you are paying more. There will be less, and you will only incur more debt. Around 15 students from my class failed to match apparently, and a quarter of the class above me matched through the scramble. The administration will downplay just how much you will be discriminated against as a DO. I was asked if DO's learn acupuncture on the residency interview trail. I have colleagues who were told they were interviewed simply out of curiosity as the residency program 'did not typically take DO's', and were pimped on the spot during the interview to see how much they know. I was personally told by several chairmen of departments that being a DO alone hurts my chances of matching at their institution, regardless of my scores and publications.
2. Career advising is pathetic. While they certainly have faculty for fields like OB, FM, IM, and PEDS, I did not have any faculty in my field of interest, and they were not able to connect me to alumni who have gone into my field of interest. Had to navigate the match alone. The importance of USMLE was downplayed strongly by school officials. I took both COMLEX and USMLE. I matched. And I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with my COMLEX scores.
3. My rotation coordinator was prohibitive and completely awful. I was told bluntly that they did not want to do the paperwork for rotations I requested because they personally believed I would not get accepted by the other institution. I had to jump the chain of command on this and was ultimately accepted to said institution. I was told as an MS3 that they were often "too busy" processing rotation requests for MS4's. When I was an MS4, I set up nearly my own entire schedule via VSAS with little input from them... The specific rotation coordinator is now in a different administrative role.
4. The dean and other administration have a very condescending authoritarian tone throughout medical school. They are quick to call the class unprofessional, for, say, skipping a mandatory Friday lecture that covered the same content you had last week in pathology.
5. They did not hire a single prominent speaker for our graduation, white coat, or bridging ceremonies. This was particularly upsetting, considering how much money we pay each year ($71k x 260) and how much money they saved in the 3 months prior to my graduation since all rotations were canceled due to COVID19, as they no longer had to pay attendings for hosting students, a number I personally calculated could have been close to $900,000 for our class (~$2k per student per rotation).
6. This may be specific to me personally, but they failed their duty to protect my personal information, my social security number, and academic information such as transcripts, class rank, and deans letter. I got an email from a current student, about a month after I graduated, saying they accidentally accessed my information. The school had made it all public on its shared folders apparently. I got an email from the dean as well, saying they fixed the problem, and what was seemingly written by their legal team, they coercively claimed that the risk of compromise is low due to "facts and circumstances" that they would not comment on, nor would the dean. I am still awaiting clarification on these facts and circumstances, as to why I should not worry about my social security number going public. They also concluded that there was no "significant risk of financial, reputational, or other harm". They have not offered to provide me with identity theft insurance. This is also a blatant FERPA violation.
7. The school administration censored a student body-wide demonstration to show solidarity with the black community by kneeling because they were apparently concerned with "how it would look". After outrage from the current classes, and at least 3 years of alumni classes threatening to de-affiliate and commit to never donating a dollar, they elected to hold a vigil for George Floyd among other things.
8. Student representation, such as student government, was rarely included in major decisions. Expect to have to fight hard for otherwise minor changes. Only after a swath of complaints, did it seem like student government would be included in decisions after they were made.
Again, it is my opinion that this place is not worth the hassle. Please PM me if you have any questions. If you're going to go the DO route, try to incur as little debt as possible. You may not have the same opportunities as your MD colleagues, even with the same USMLE scores, so do what's right financially.
