its a welcome/introduction and then x2 30 min interviews with individual staff/faculty, then a current student panel
2020-2021 Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine (CUSOM)
- Thread starter PapaGuava
- Start date
oh geez... I was like WTH??? lol
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Hey guys, current student here --
Try not to freak out about this waitlist stuff too much. the year i interviewed here, they accepted a small amount early on (classe sizes are around ~160 usually) and then waitlist after that filled. you are not interviewing for no reason. I'm so far out from the application process now so forgive me for being vague (I dont remember) but there's some day in like April or May or something when all of the MD schools accept/reject/pull off their waitlists, and that will shift things around a TON. A lot of people will drop their spots and they will start picking out of the waitlist. In the past, around that time, they sent us an email letting us know where we fell on the waitlist and if we'd like to stay on it. For instance, I interviewed in january and was waitlisted, and a few months later I got an email saying I was like top 10% or top tier of the waitlist or something. I was pulled off of the waitlist and accepted not too long after. They will continue to pull people off the waitlist until literally days before classes start (inconvenient yes, but can we really complain?). There are people in my class who just picked up last minute and came to CUSOM.
*If you want to increase your chances of getting in, send update letters, letters of intent, and even call admissions and talk to them about whatever (make up some questions, lol) and make sure they know who they're talking to. This will 100% make a difference bc they keep track of what you send on your file.
I don't plan to get on SDN again so I'm just gonna drop some HONEST perspectives to common curiosities that we get during the "med student questions lunch" part of your interview days. I don't know if you all will be online or in person, but things to address (I did a year in person and a year online):
1) Dress code: Dress code every day is seemingly annoying, but I learned to appreciate it. If you're like me, you showed up to undergrad lectures wearing basically a garbage bag and nike shorts with a bird's nest for hair. However, this is med school and not undergrad or watching TV at home -- they do this so we learn to present ourselves professionally around our colleagues and professors, regardless of how lazy, tired or crappy we may be feeling on any given day. It's not like getting dressed up for prom everyday, but it's looking and dressing yourself presentably as a future doctor, as how we present ourselves makes an impression. It also forces you to participate in self care which can sometimes be overlooked with the stress of med school going on. They also do this so we gradually build up our wardrobe to include professional attire for when we go on rotations and actually begin working as a physician. When you look well, you feel well, and you will perform well. It's a professional environment, as it should be.
2) Lillington: Yes, it is not the most fun place around, esp if you are from a bigger area originally (we have people from literally all over the country here). Some people love it and some don't, I personally wouldn't live here for reasons other than med school. Tbh it doesn't really matter because the first two years of school will be occupied by you studying, and it REALLY helps with minimizing distractions. It is EXTREMELY safe and quiet. When you have a free weekend, Raleigh/Durhman and Fuquay are not far for all of your needs. Trust me, I don't love it, but I have truly learned to appreciate what it offered during the first 2 years when you're mainly studying. The cost of living is also incredibly cheap. After your 2 preclinical years you will be placed elsewhere for rotations, which includes some bigger city areas or smaller areas, depending on your preference. Something nice about CUSOM is that you will rotate within the same city for the 3rd and 4th years (not including away rotations if you want to do them). This is super convenient bc you don't have to move around a bunch and get to develop a relationship with the people there and the community.
3) Mandatory attendance: Depends on whether you're in person or not. As of rn, you can miss 20% of each course's classes, which is a fair amount in my opinion. Some people like live lectures, some don't. I never did so I would put my headphones in and study during live lectures when we were in person. Now that we're online, I let the lectures play on my phone and leave it in another room (lol) and catch up on them on my own time. Some people love the live lectures and some don't, you will just have to figure that out for yourself. They don't work for me and I have gotten by just fine with my own system. I think the reason behind mandatory live lectures is bc some people like to ask questions, and the professors prefer to lecture to an engaged crowd. Our classes have been very successful in the past so if it's not broken, why fix it? (maybe what they're thinking).
4) Housing/Living: Hop on housing options now if you're already in. If you want to live in Lillington, check out Campbell Pointe apts and get on the waitlist before more people start to get accepted. They've got really nice, relatively modern housing, great management, and a gym for residents. There are a chunk of other good options for apts and houses too (Campbell Creek), but I think that's the best option. If you want to live in Fuquay, a lot of people live at the village Marquee apts or the Meridian. I can't say I'd personally recommend living too much farther but that's up to you and whether you're in person or not. We have some people that commute from farther (Fayetteville, Raleigh/Durham, Holly springs, etc.) and they do just fine. I personally can't imagine driving that far everyday if you're in person, but again, up to you. Most places allow pets and if they don't, it's very easy to override that by getting paperwork from CUSOM to make them into emotional support animals. The undergrad campus has a pretty nice brand new gym too, along with a 2 additional older ones (not as nice, but get the job done). Some people go to nearby gyms in Fuquay, Coats, Dunn (planet fittness), etc. There is also a Crossfit in Lillington if that's your thing.
5) Why I chose CUSOM: I interviewed at quite a few schools during my cycle and I picked CUSOM because the facilities are some of the nicest I've seen. The online tours/pics don't do it justice. It really is state of the art and the anatomy lab is just about as good as it gets. The people here are also incredibly nice and supportive, which idk if it's just a southern thing or a CUSOM thing. Everyone here tends to be successful and we have a decent amount of competitive residencies matches. they emphasize research more than the avg DO school does and this helps us be competitive for more competitive specialities. We are required to do at least one research project in pre-clinical years, which comes off as just another task, but it really does help you in the long run. they also give us access to more opportunities. We are near the research triangle area, so a lot of people do stuff through UNC, Duke, etc. Next, there is a great relationship and teamwork mentality here where we are not all pinned against eachother out of competition. Yes there are some of those people, as there will be wherever you go, but most of us just ignore them. 2nd years and 1st years are very connected and help each other out a TON. Lastly, they really recognize mental health and we have so much access to support when we need it. Everyone at CUSOM 300% realizes that we are real humans and not just med students, and will help you endlessly if you fall down (I am speaking from experience). They will go to the end of the world to make sure you are successful. For example, God forbid anything happen in your personal life, they will 100% work with you to get you through it on top of school.
I personally don't have kids, but we have plenty of students who do already and/or get pregnant during school. Everyone makes it work and there is a great support system including family groups that get together and help each other out. Just throwing it out there; if this is your case -- don't worry.
YOU ALSO HAVE A WEEK LONG BREAK AFTER EACH BLOCK (8 total between 1st + 2nd year), WHICH IS INCREDIBLE (I don't think other schools do that).
6) Boards prep: They do a great job at preparing us for boards and giving us what we need to succeed, so honestly what you will do with that is up to you. They do a great job at highlighting board heavy concepts throughout lectures and we get a lot of resources such as question banks, kaplan books/question bank, etc. We do get a chunk of lectures that are more clinical than boards relevant which people get annoyed by, but imo it's whatever because it gives context and we are here to learn how to be functional doctors, not just pass a test. They keep us accountable for completing board practice questions early on. We all also pass around a lot of resources to eachother too. There are qualifying exams you need to pass to take the boards (common thing schools do that I wasn't aware of before starting). If you don't pass the 3 of them, they put you in bootcamp and special tracks to make sure you get it together before test day, which is shown on as our pass rates %. Overall, you're in good hands. I'd say 2/3 of us take the USMLE Step in addition to COMLEX. Overall, everyone does fine in the end, and a chunk of people do very exceptional. I'd get familiar with interpreting the stats if you can.
7) Primary care: They will not haggle you into going into primary care if you don't want to. Obviously they emphasize it because it's important and the mission of a lot of DO schools, but once you get here, they 100% know that we all don't want to do that. they give us a ton of resources and help us a lot along the way to make sure we are competitive for whatever speciality we are aiming for, primary care or not. We have things like radiology club, surgery club, derm club... you name it. Going to a DO school doesn't mean you are sentenced to primary care, at least not here. Our specialized systems lectures (e.g. opthamology, radiology, patholoy) are done by people in that field who encourage us to go for it if we want, and offer to be a resource for us if we want help navigating getting into that field.
8) Religiousness/Politics: This is a religious school, and that's all there is to it. Very rarely you'll have a professor pray before a lecture for 30 seconds or so. I have worked with docs at the clinics who will pray with their high risk patients before leaving the room. As a not really religious person, it doesn't bother me, and I personally haven't heard of it bothering anyone. That's about the extent of it. You're not going to be hussled into converting, but if being around for an occasional prayer bothers you, please reconsider coming here. That said, if you are super religious, you will definitely find a group of people here and have a ton of options to get more in touch with that. If you want it, it's there and if you don't, it's very easy to ignore. They are also progressive with things like LGBTQ+ community (we have a pride club), cultural competency, controversial things (e.g. abortion) and do a good job of educating us on everything in an unbiased manner (this is more toward end of 2nd year). That said, if we as students find something that is outdated, biased, or doesn't sit right with us, we speak up and they are very receptive of feedback and willing to make changes.
Something important to note -- we are in the South (not the deep south/bible belt, but it is still the south, especially Lillington) and we have people from all over the country. With that said, we tend to have a wide spectrum of political views among people here. Politics do not tend to come up (definitely not from Campbell) but just be aware that students come from very different walks of life, and that means everyone may not share the same opinions as you. For example, we had an issue one year where students put up campaign flags during the election, which upset a lot of people. CUSOM admin did a great job of stopping this because school is an innapropriate place for politics. Just be aware that you will be around many different viewpoints. As a doctor, you have to treat everyone equally regardless of who they are or what they believe, and CUSOM (probably any school, really) is a great place to learn to practice that. I encourage you to always stay open minded to the different lifestyles people come from, regardless of whether you agree with them or not. However, I am throwing this in here because if you think this may bother you, please consider this when choosing your school.
9) Tests/quizzes/cirriculum/grading system: Weekly quizzes... yes they are annoying, but they do a great job at keeping you from falling behind on material and keeping you accountable. They are annoying in the present but I appreciate them a lot looking back. We are taught by MDs, DOs, PhDs, etc. We learn by systems and then have cumulative, integrated exams around every 2-3 weeks. For example, block 4 (end of 1st year) is neurology and psychiatry. So after 2-3 weeks of lectures, you will have one cumulative exam on the material in those lectures along with anatomy practicals. Some schools will do it like, every 2-3 weeks, you'd have 1 neuro exam, 1 psych exam, and 1 anatomy exam. I personally prefer how we do it bc boards/life in general is not separated by systems. Blocks are usually around 9 weeks each, and you have 8 total in your first two years. At the end of each block, we have finals week. If you do not pass a class, you have a week to remediate it. It's doesn't happen too often but it does happen and that's perfectly ok. We are on a numerical grading system, which is not too common to other medical schools. It is not the most ideal, but you get used to it. Residencies don't really look at pre-clinical grades anyway. In my mind, it's fine because it forces you to really try and master all the information you can, instead of just doing the minimum to get a 70% and pass. This sets you up for knowing/retaining more in the future. Again... we've all been successful in the past, so if it's not broken, don't fix it, right?
10) OMM: Let's be honest -- some people still consider the MD > DO bias. If you find yourself to be that way at all, please consider what you are getting yourself into. Statistically it may be slightly easier to get into some DO schools, but do not come in here thinking you are going to be made into an off-brand doctor. What most people don't realize is that being a DO means that you are going to be required to complete OMM courses in addition to everything else in med school. It is more than just being "holistic" in your approach to care, so please read up on how OMM works and what exactly it is. It's basically physical therapy with chiropractic techniques to it. This includes more lectures, more tests, more practicals, and more hours spent in the lab each week (2hrs/wk usually), and potentially 2 sets of each board exam. Not to say it's harder than going to an allopathic school, but by definition, with the addition of OMM, it is definitely more work. Please make sure that this is actually what you want before you decide to come to a DO school. I personally think in the next 10 years, the bias will not be much of a thing anymore and DO schools will be just as competitive to get into. I personally like OMM -- I won't become an OMM doctor but I like the opportunity to take what I want from it with me for future practice.
11) Clinical preparation: We are known for being prepared really well for patient encounters, with a huge emphasis on personal social skills. We are prepared through trauma simulations, case based studies, standardized encounters with patient actors, and labs. You learn a TON and you will be amazed with how much progress you will make before your clinical years. They also emphasize imaging/ultrasound a lot, and we have many labs just for learning ultrasound on each other based on the system we are learning at the time. I remember them saying that not a lot of schools do that, but not entirely sure. We also have a student run clinic that sees real patients at our health center, which you will be able to participate in to get actual patient experience before clinical years.
12) Mission trips: We have a variety of mission trips (international, national, and local) that you can go on. I'm not sure what the status of all of those things will be with COVID, but as of right now, we still have local NC clinics going on to serve the underserved regions, along with a mobile clinic bus. They have more info on that on the website. Personally I think that the international trips are overpriced, so that's your own choice. Not sure what this will be like with/after COVID, but if you go on an international mission trip thru CUSOM as a 1st or 2nd year, you are able to do international rotations in your 3rd/4th year.
13) Fun things to do around here: Lots of hiking spots, parks, etc. Breweries, bars, restaurants, shopping etc. more so in Fuquay/Raleigh/Durham. We're not far from Wilmington beach and also not far from skiing/snowboarding in Asheville. Students do weekend/day trips when there's time.
Hope I addressed anything anyone was wondering about. Good luck! Remember, you will end up where you are supposed to be. If now is not your time, be patient and do not give up because it will happen for you. Hope to see some of you at CUSOM!
Try not to freak out about this waitlist stuff too much. the year i interviewed here, they accepted a small amount early on (classe sizes are around ~160 usually) and then waitlist after that filled. you are not interviewing for no reason. I'm so far out from the application process now so forgive me for being vague (I dont remember) but there's some day in like April or May or something when all of the MD schools accept/reject/pull off their waitlists, and that will shift things around a TON. A lot of people will drop their spots and they will start picking out of the waitlist. In the past, around that time, they sent us an email letting us know where we fell on the waitlist and if we'd like to stay on it. For instance, I interviewed in january and was waitlisted, and a few months later I got an email saying I was like top 10% or top tier of the waitlist or something. I was pulled off of the waitlist and accepted not too long after. They will continue to pull people off the waitlist until literally days before classes start (inconvenient yes, but can we really complain?). There are people in my class who just picked up last minute and came to CUSOM.
*If you want to increase your chances of getting in, send update letters, letters of intent, and even call admissions and talk to them about whatever (make up some questions, lol) and make sure they know who they're talking to. This will 100% make a difference bc they keep track of what you send on your file.
I don't plan to get on SDN again so I'm just gonna drop some HONEST perspectives to common curiosities that we get during the "med student questions lunch" part of your interview days. I don't know if you all will be online or in person, but things to address (I did a year in person and a year online):
1) Dress code: Dress code every day is seemingly annoying, but I learned to appreciate it. If you're like me, you showed up to undergrad lectures wearing basically a garbage bag and nike shorts with a bird's nest for hair. However, this is med school and not undergrad or watching TV at home -- they do this so we learn to present ourselves professionally around our colleagues and professors, regardless of how lazy, tired or crappy we may be feeling on any given day. It's not like getting dressed up for prom everyday, but it's looking and dressing yourself presentably as a future doctor, as how we present ourselves makes an impression. It also forces you to participate in self care which can sometimes be overlooked with the stress of med school going on. They also do this so we gradually build up our wardrobe to include professional attire for when we go on rotations and actually begin working as a physician. When you look well, you feel well, and you will perform well. It's a professional environment, as it should be.
2) Lillington: Yes, it is not the most fun place around, esp if you are from a bigger area originally (we have people from literally all over the country here). Some people love it and some don't, I personally wouldn't live here for reasons other than med school. Tbh it doesn't really matter because the first two years of school will be occupied by you studying, and it REALLY helps with minimizing distractions. It is EXTREMELY safe and quiet. When you have a free weekend, Raleigh/Durhman and Fuquay are not far for all of your needs. Trust me, I don't love it, but I have truly learned to appreciate what it offered during the first 2 years when you're mainly studying. The cost of living is also incredibly cheap. After your 2 preclinical years you will be placed elsewhere for rotations, which includes some bigger city areas or smaller areas, depending on your preference. Something nice about CUSOM is that you will rotate within the same city for the 3rd and 4th years (not including away rotations if you want to do them). This is super convenient bc you don't have to move around a bunch and get to develop a relationship with the people there and the community.
3) Mandatory attendance: Depends on whether you're in person or not. As of rn, you can miss 20% of each course's classes, which is a fair amount in my opinion. Some people like live lectures, some don't. I never did so I would put my headphones in and study during live lectures when we were in person. Now that we're online, I let the lectures play on my phone and leave it in another room (lol) and catch up on them on my own time. Some people love the live lectures and some don't, you will just have to figure that out for yourself. They don't work for me and I have gotten by just fine with my own system. I think the reason behind mandatory live lectures is bc some people like to ask questions, and the professors prefer to lecture to an engaged crowd. Our classes have been very successful in the past so if it's not broken, why fix it? (maybe what they're thinking).
4) Housing/Living: Hop on housing options now if you're already in. If you want to live in Lillington, check out Campbell Pointe apts and get on the waitlist before more people start to get accepted. They've got really nice, relatively modern housing, great management, and a gym for residents. There are a chunk of other good options for apts and houses too (Campbell Creek), but I think that's the best option. If you want to live in Fuquay, a lot of people live at the village Marquee apts or the Meridian. I can't say I'd personally recommend living too much farther but that's up to you and whether you're in person or not. We have some people that commute from farther (Fayetteville, Raleigh/Durham, Holly springs, etc.) and they do just fine. I personally can't imagine driving that far everyday if you're in person, but again, up to you. Most places allow pets and if they don't, it's very easy to override that by getting paperwork from CUSOM to make them into emotional support animals. The undergrad campus has a pretty nice brand new gym too, along with a 2 additional older ones (not as nice, but get the job done). Some people go to nearby gyms in Fuquay, Coats, Dunn (planet fittness), etc. There is also a Crossfit in Lillington if that's your thing.
5) Why I chose CUSOM: I interviewed at quite a few schools during my cycle and I picked CUSOM because the facilities are some of the nicest I've seen. The online tours/pics don't do it justice. It really is state of the art and the anatomy lab is just about as good as it gets. The people here are also incredibly nice and supportive, which idk if it's just a southern thing or a CUSOM thing. Everyone here tends to be successful and we have a decent amount of competitive residencies matches. they emphasize research more than the avg DO school does and this helps us be competitive for more competitive specialities. We are required to do at least one research project in pre-clinical years, which comes off as just another task, but it really does help you in the long run. they also give us access to more opportunities. We are near the research triangle area, so a lot of people do stuff through UNC, Duke, etc. Next, there is a great relationship and teamwork mentality here where we are not all pinned against eachother out of competition. Yes there are some of those people, as there will be wherever you go, but most of us just ignore them. 2nd years and 1st years are very connected and help each other out a TON. Lastly, they really recognize mental health and we have so much access to support when we need it. Everyone at CUSOM 300% realizes that we are real humans and not just med students, and will help you endlessly if you fall down (I am speaking from experience). They will go to the end of the world to make sure you are successful. For example, God forbid anything happen in your personal life, they will 100% work with you to get you through it on top of school.
I personally don't have kids, but we have plenty of students who do already and/or get pregnant during school. Everyone makes it work and there is a great support system including family groups that get together and help each other out. Just throwing it out there; if this is your case -- don't worry.
YOU ALSO HAVE A WEEK LONG BREAK AFTER EACH BLOCK (8 total between 1st + 2nd year), WHICH IS INCREDIBLE (I don't think other schools do that).
6) Boards prep: They do a great job at preparing us for boards and giving us what we need to succeed, so honestly what you will do with that is up to you. They do a great job at highlighting board heavy concepts throughout lectures and we get a lot of resources such as question banks, kaplan books/question bank, etc. We do get a chunk of lectures that are more clinical than boards relevant which people get annoyed by, but imo it's whatever because it gives context and we are here to learn how to be functional doctors, not just pass a test. They keep us accountable for completing board practice questions early on. We all also pass around a lot of resources to eachother too. There are qualifying exams you need to pass to take the boards (common thing schools do that I wasn't aware of before starting). If you don't pass the 3 of them, they put you in bootcamp and special tracks to make sure you get it together before test day, which is shown on as our pass rates %. Overall, you're in good hands. I'd say 2/3 of us take the USMLE Step in addition to COMLEX. Overall, everyone does fine in the end, and a chunk of people do very exceptional. I'd get familiar with interpreting the stats if you can.
7) Primary care: They will not haggle you into going into primary care if you don't want to. Obviously they emphasize it because it's important and the mission of a lot of DO schools, but once you get here, they 100% know that we all don't want to do that. they give us a ton of resources and help us a lot along the way to make sure we are competitive for whatever speciality we are aiming for, primary care or not. We have things like radiology club, surgery club, derm club... you name it. Going to a DO school doesn't mean you are sentenced to primary care, at least not here. Our specialized systems lectures (e.g. opthamology, radiology, patholoy) are done by people in that field who encourage us to go for it if we want, and offer to be a resource for us if we want help navigating getting into that field.
8) Religiousness/Politics: This is a religious school, and that's all there is to it. Very rarely you'll have a professor pray before a lecture for 30 seconds or so. I have worked with docs at the clinics who will pray with their high risk patients before leaving the room. As a not really religious person, it doesn't bother me, and I personally haven't heard of it bothering anyone. That's about the extent of it. You're not going to be hussled into converting, but if being around for an occasional prayer bothers you, please reconsider coming here. That said, if you are super religious, you will definitely find a group of people here and have a ton of options to get more in touch with that. If you want it, it's there and if you don't, it's very easy to ignore. They are also progressive with things like LGBTQ+ community (we have a pride club), cultural competency, controversial things (e.g. abortion) and do a good job of educating us on everything in an unbiased manner (this is more toward end of 2nd year). That said, if we as students find something that is outdated, biased, or doesn't sit right with us, we speak up and they are very receptive of feedback and willing to make changes.
Something important to note -- we are in the South (not the deep south/bible belt, but it is still the south, especially Lillington) and we have people from all over the country. With that said, we tend to have a wide spectrum of political views among people here. Politics do not tend to come up (definitely not from Campbell) but just be aware that students come from very different walks of life, and that means everyone may not share the same opinions as you. For example, we had an issue one year where students put up campaign flags during the election, which upset a lot of people. CUSOM admin did a great job of stopping this because school is an innapropriate place for politics. Just be aware that you will be around many different viewpoints. As a doctor, you have to treat everyone equally regardless of who they are or what they believe, and CUSOM (probably any school, really) is a great place to learn to practice that. I encourage you to always stay open minded to the different lifestyles people come from, regardless of whether you agree with them or not. However, I am throwing this in here because if you think this may bother you, please consider this when choosing your school.
9) Tests/quizzes/cirriculum/grading system: Weekly quizzes... yes they are annoying, but they do a great job at keeping you from falling behind on material and keeping you accountable. They are annoying in the present but I appreciate them a lot looking back. We are taught by MDs, DOs, PhDs, etc. We learn by systems and then have cumulative, integrated exams around every 2-3 weeks. For example, block 4 (end of 1st year) is neurology and psychiatry. So after 2-3 weeks of lectures, you will have one cumulative exam on the material in those lectures along with anatomy practicals. Some schools will do it like, every 2-3 weeks, you'd have 1 neuro exam, 1 psych exam, and 1 anatomy exam. I personally prefer how we do it bc boards/life in general is not separated by systems. Blocks are usually around 9 weeks each, and you have 8 total in your first two years. At the end of each block, we have finals week. If you do not pass a class, you have a week to remediate it. It's doesn't happen too often but it does happen and that's perfectly ok. We are on a numerical grading system, which is not too common to other medical schools. It is not the most ideal, but you get used to it. Residencies don't really look at pre-clinical grades anyway. In my mind, it's fine because it forces you to really try and master all the information you can, instead of just doing the minimum to get a 70% and pass. This sets you up for knowing/retaining more in the future. Again... we've all been successful in the past, so if it's not broken, don't fix it, right?
10) OMM: Let's be honest -- some people still consider the MD > DO bias. If you find yourself to be that way at all, please consider what you are getting yourself into. Statistically it may be slightly easier to get into some DO schools, but do not come in here thinking you are going to be made into an off-brand doctor. What most people don't realize is that being a DO means that you are going to be required to complete OMM courses in addition to everything else in med school. It is more than just being "holistic" in your approach to care, so please read up on how OMM works and what exactly it is. It's basically physical therapy with chiropractic techniques to it. This includes more lectures, more tests, more practicals, and more hours spent in the lab each week (2hrs/wk usually), and potentially 2 sets of each board exam. Not to say it's harder than going to an allopathic school, but by definition, with the addition of OMM, it is definitely more work. Please make sure that this is actually what you want before you decide to come to a DO school. I personally think in the next 10 years, the bias will not be much of a thing anymore and DO schools will be just as competitive to get into. I personally like OMM -- I won't become an OMM doctor but I like the opportunity to take what I want from it with me for future practice.
11) Clinical preparation: We are known for being prepared really well for patient encounters, with a huge emphasis on personal social skills. We are prepared through trauma simulations, case based studies, standardized encounters with patient actors, and labs. You learn a TON and you will be amazed with how much progress you will make before your clinical years. They also emphasize imaging/ultrasound a lot, and we have many labs just for learning ultrasound on each other based on the system we are learning at the time. I remember them saying that not a lot of schools do that, but not entirely sure. We also have a student run clinic that sees real patients at our health center, which you will be able to participate in to get actual patient experience before clinical years.
12) Mission trips: We have a variety of mission trips (international, national, and local) that you can go on. I'm not sure what the status of all of those things will be with COVID, but as of right now, we still have local NC clinics going on to serve the underserved regions, along with a mobile clinic bus. They have more info on that on the website. Personally I think that the international trips are overpriced, so that's your own choice. Not sure what this will be like with/after COVID, but if you go on an international mission trip thru CUSOM as a 1st or 2nd year, you are able to do international rotations in your 3rd/4th year.
13) Fun things to do around here: Lots of hiking spots, parks, etc. Breweries, bars, restaurants, shopping etc. more so in Fuquay/Raleigh/Durham. We're not far from Wilmington beach and also not far from skiing/snowboarding in Asheville. Students do weekend/day trips when there's time.
Hope I addressed anything anyone was wondering about. Good luck! Remember, you will end up where you are supposed to be. If now is not your time, be patient and do not give up because it will happen for you. Hope to see some of you at CUSOM!
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Thank you so much for all the info!!!
BeKind2025
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This was really useful, thank you!!
FloatingHead
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+1. Very excited as there seems to be a ton of WL movement at this school!
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Can I ask you both for your stats? And how did you guys find out?
FloatingHead
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Found out via email.
512. 3.7/3.9
FloatingHead
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This may be a stupid question but do I need to reply to the email saying that I want to be on the waitlist or do they just assume that unless I tell them otherwise?
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I believe you should... I did.
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This was wonderful to read, I cannot wait to start in the fall!!!
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Have any accepted students heard back about financial aid (loans and scholarships) from CUSOM? I was accepted back at the beginning of February and I still have not heard anything. I've emailed the financial aid office twice and they still have not sent me a financial aid package/have no timeline on when that might be. Not sure if this is the case at other medical schools as well but it's pretty frustrating.
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I haven’t either, I called yesterday or the day before and they said they’ll send out financial aid packages in the next 1-2 weeks.
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FloatingHead
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I haven't heard of any recently, but SDN is a very small sample size. At the virtual fair on Tuesday, they said that most of their WL movement starts in May.
Thanks for the info! what was the virtual fair for? did you get an invite by email?
FloatingHead
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It was the "choose DO virtual fair expo" that AACOMAS puts on from time to time. A lot of schools were there and hosted instant messaging chat sessions. I got an email about it from aacomas
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what has their average turnaround time been recently? I believe they said during my interview on 4/6 that we’d know in 2-3 weeks. Don’t know if it’s foolish to expect a decision by tomorrow lol
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At this point, I'd continue to wait until after 4/30 (and beyond) for WL movement throughout other schools.
FloatingHead
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I interviewed on 3/22 and heard back on 4/6 so it was 2 weeks and a day for me. Totally possible that you could hear back tomorrow, but like others have said at this point WL sounds like the best case scenario and WL movement most likely won't happen until May.
Did we apply to all of the same schools? Lol
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NC resident!!!
FloatingHead
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Do y'all think it would be better to send a letter of interest now or wait until after the WL ranking comes out in May?
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I’d probably do it before the ranking comes out just in case that has any sort of effect on it
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Just got the waitlist email. Interviewed 4/6.
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+1 agree 500000%
What if they accept 50 people off WL and the letter put you in position 49 over 51...
Not sure if it actually has any effect on position but it definitely can't hurt.
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Has there been any recent waitlist movement? If not, does anyone know an approximate date as to when they will send out the waitlist rank?
FloatingHead
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In my WL email they said they will send the final WL ranking during the first week of May.
I got accepted off the WL yesterday. I got the WL email earlier this week so I was surprised to get the acceptance email yesterday around 1.
I also got the same email, signed up for the 11th this month!
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Mr-DOctor
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Same I wonder when will they send us the waitlist ranking
drkoffee87
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Has anyone received status of their waitlist ranking yet?
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I have not
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Do you know how the ranking works? Do they give you a specific number or tell you if you’re in the top 25% or something like that?
FloatingHead
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NGL, I was thrown off by them sending that WL workshop invite before sending the rankings but hopefully we'll get them tomorrow.
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Just got the (and my first of the cycle) A! Super grateful to be going to CUSOM.
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