2022-2023 William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine (WCUCOM)

[Ellesandra319]

thanks so much guys and how would you guys rate the extracurriculars/clubs WCUCOM offers? From what I’ve seen, the school mainly has specialty interest groups but that’s about it. Do students usually volunteer/seek extracurriculars externally in the community instead?

there's tons of clubs both chapter based (linked to a national org) and interest clubs. not sure what you've seen, but in my opinion there are more chapter based clubs as opposed to interest groups. some of the chapter based ones would be SAOAO, AMWA, AWS, AANS, ACOOG, ACS, SOM, etc. you can see a full list here: William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine Clubs. you'll have the opportunity to be more involved in E-Board of clubs second year. as far as first year opportunities, it's definitely worth joining clubs, and I know a lot of people in my year (who will be E-Board of your clubs next year) are working to have more opportunities for first years to be involved, do events, etc. There's also quite a few one off volunteer opportunities that will pop up from the school during the semester!

frankly as far as EC's go, beyond club events and the volunteer opportunities that pop up, you're just not gonna have time first year to do much else after you take care of yourself and your classes. your main goal first year should be to succeed in your classes; everything else comes second!

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[sis2kk]

Anyone else interviewing Tuesday 4/11?

 

[medster123]

ii just now

 

[aspiringphysician2234]

is it worth it to send a letter of intent when i got placed on alternate list almost a month ago? WCU is my first choice and i don’t wanna lose the chance because i didn’t shoot my shot

Did you send the letter? If so, who did you send it to? Dr. Weir?

 

[bestopresto]

there's tons of clubs both chapter based (linked to a national org) and interest clubs. not sure what you've seen, but in my opinion there are more chapter based clubs as opposed to interest groups. some of the chapter based ones would be SAOAO, AMWA, AWS, AANS, ACOOG, ACS, SOM, etc. you can see a full list here: William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine Clubs. you'll have the opportunity to be more involved in E-Board of clubs second year. as far as first year opportunities, it's definitely worth joining clubs, and I know a lot of people in my year (who will be E-Board of your clubs next year) are working to have more opportunities for first years to be involved, do events, etc. There's also quite a few one off volunteer opportunities that will pop up from the school during the semester!

frankly as far as EC's go, beyond club events and the volunteer opportunities that pop up, you're just not gonna have time first year to do much else after you take care of yourself and your classes. your main goal first year should be to succeed in your classes; everything else comes second!

Cool! Thanks again for such a detailed response!

 

[drthedude]

Does anyone know what the post-II A rate is at now?

 

[Ellesandra319]

Does anyone know what the post-II A rate is at now?

i think right now the vast majority are going to be alternate list or deferred list post-II. how many come off the alternate list is kind of just up to how the rest of the cycle pans out, but there is still a ton of movement that will still happen!

 

[drthedude]

i think right now the vast majority are going to be alternate list or deferred list post-II. how many come off the alternate list is kind of just up to how the rest of the cycle pans out, but there is still a ton of movement that will still happen!

ty! do you know if a lot of people even come off deferred? since it is after alternate?

 

[Ellesandra319]

ty! do you know if a lot of people even come off deferred? since it is after alternate?

i think there's definitely a strong chance! i wouldn't give up hope until end of July. they pulled people for our class off deferred all the way up to the week before classes started.

 

[LlMITBREAKER]

@Ellesandra319 Does WCUCOM have a lot of partnered hospitals for rotating? I know that WCUCOM does not have any core residency programs itself, but if most of core rotations are done within a single partnered hospital, it can compensate.

 

[Ellesandra319]

@Ellesandra319 Does WCUCOM have a lot of partnered hospitals for rotating? I know that WCUCOM does not have any core residency programs itself, but if most of core rotations are done within a single partnered hospital, it can compensate.

if you're talking about 3rd year rotations, like most DO programs, we are assigned a hospital site throughout the gulf south where you rotate through all of 3rd. some of those sites are in hattiesburg though! like at most MD/DO programs, 4th year you, with assistance from the school, pick your own rotation sites, mostly to audition for places you'd like to match for residency.

 

[LlMITBREAKER]

if you're talking about 3rd year rotations, like most DO programs, we are assigned a hospital site throughout the gulf south where you rotate through all of 3rd. some of those sites are in hattiesburg though! like at most MD/DO programs, 4th year you, with assistance from the school, pick your own rotation sites, mostly to audition for places you'd like to match for residency.

Thanks! That's sounds great. Also, I know first 2 years are pass fail. But are students ranked in some way? I wonder if how we are graded during rotation varries per site. I heard some have to NBMEs or in house test or a presentation etc.

 

[drthedude]

Does anyone know how Dr. Sharma is in terms of interviews?

 

[Ellesandra319]

Does anyone know how Dr. Sharma is in terms of interviews?

just sent you a PM!

 

[Ellesandra319]

Thanks! That's sounds great. Also, I know first 2 years are pass fail. But are students ranked in some way? I wonder if how we are graded during rotation varries per site. I heard some have to NBMEs or in house test or a presentation etc.

right now we are ranked internally and the only time that quartile rank gets mentioned is potentially in your dean's letter. there are some rumblings that that may be removed sooner rather than later though. I can't state enough that rank matters 0.00001% so don't stress about that. People do, cause with P/F, it's one of the few things people can compete for, and it's annoying and imo a bad look. Competition for the sake of competition is annoying. Don't be that guy haha Do your best and wherever that puts your rank is where it puts your rank.

Grades during rotation I think is High Pass/Pass/Fail or some variant, but maybe a 2nd or 3rd or 4th year can chime in on that cause i'm not sure! I'm pretty sure we have shelf exams at the end of each rotation but I could be wrong on that too.

 

[Amp_Feta_Beans]

if you're talking about 3rd year rotations, like most DO programs, we are assigned a hospital site throughout the gulf south where you rotate through all of 3rd. some of those sites are in hattiesburg though! like at most MD/DO programs, 4th year you, with assistance from the school, pick your own rotation sites, mostly to audition for places you'd like to match for residency.

Do most students who want to stay in Hattiesburg have a favorable “clinical site lottery” outcome?

 

[Ellesandra319]

Do most students who want to stay in Hattiesburg have a favorable “clinical site lottery” outcome?

It's changed year by year how they assign/lotto the sites... Sometimes its just been straight lottery (pull a number, pick your site in numerical order, etc.), sometimes its been by class rank, etc. There was another more nuanced way it was done this year i think where you like ranked your programs and then lotto'd to pick between those rankings... i don't totally understand it lol and its not a guarantee year to year how its done.

What I do know is that there is not preference given by the school to people based on relationship status, residence, etc (which I personally think is fair). You DO have the opportunity to swap with people if its mutually agreed upon though. So say someone drew Hattiesburg and you drew NOLA, and they really wanted to go to NOLA and you wanted to stay in Hattie, you could swap during the week following the lotto.

 

[sharktank_selena]

Does anyone know how many people are on the alternate list?

 

[LlMITBREAKER]

right now we are ranked internally and the only time that quartile rank gets mentioned is potentially in your dean's letter. there are some rumblings that that may be removed sooner rather than later though. I can't state enough that rank matters 0.00001% so don't stress about that. People do, cause with P/F, it's one of the few things people can compete for, and it's annoying and imo a bad look. Competition for the sake of competition is annoying. Don't be that guy haha Do your best and wherever that puts your rank is where it puts your rank.

Grades during rotation I think is High Pass/Pass/Fail or some variant, but maybe a 2nd or 3rd or 4th year can chime in on that cause i'm not sure! I'm pretty sure we have shelf exams at the end of each rotation but I could be wrong on that too.

Nah I'm not worried about rank myself. I just want to do my best and hopefully not just pass but pass well lol. But I didn't know that a quartile percentage is what is reported in the deans letter. I was really asking cus I was looking at the clubs webpage you posted earlier and SSP had a GPA requirement. This has me confused because WCUCOM is P/F, how is GPA calculated lol. Perhaps this means that students still get letter grades and regular GPA but it's just not shared with residency programs? Thanks for answering my questions btw!!

 

[chemgirl97]

Nah I'm not worried about rank myself. I just want to do my best and hopefully not just pass but pass well lol. But I didn't know that a quartile percentage is what is reported in the deans letter. I was really asking cus I was looking at the clubs webpage you posted earlier and SSP had a GPA requirement. This has me confused because WCUCOM is P/F, how is GPA calculated lol. Perhaps this means that students still get letter grades and regular GPA but it's just not shared with residency programs? Thanks for answering my questions btw!!

The SSP requirement is an 85 average, calculated from your final numerical grade in the class and the credit hours for the class. That's how your rank is determined as well. Your transcript will show P/F.

 

[xvx26]

Hey guys, I’ve introduced myself awhile ago but I’m a member of the Student Admissions Committee and wanted to remind accepted students to join our fb page if you haven’t already: https://m.facebook.com/groups/707664294424429/?ref=share&mibextid=afzh1R.

We are planning on hosting a Q/A session over Zoom on Monday 4/10/23 at 10 AM central time please join us!! We will try to record it if you can’t.

I also noticed y’all talking about the honor society, Sigma Sigma Phi, which I just got accepted into, so send me a DM if you want to know more about it!

 

[Ellesandra319]

Nah I'm not worried about rank myself. I just want to do my best and hopefully not just pass but pass well lol. But I didn't know that a quartile percentage is what is reported in the deans letter. I was really asking cus I was looking at the clubs webpage you posted earlier and SSP had a GPA requirement. This has me confused because WCUCOM is P/F, how is GPA calculated lol. Perhaps this means that students still get letter grades and regular GPA but it's just not shared with residency programs? Thanks for answering my questions btw!!

makes total sense. we aren't given letter grades. class rank for things you apply for like SSP is calculated by your overall numerical percentage average between all your classes. your not assigned like "GPA points" for letter grades like you are in undergrad. SSP is not nearly as competitive as AOA (which DO programs can't have) and the vast majority of people who have >85% and apply for SSP get in!

 

[medster123]

Anybody know anything about Veronica Scott and Randall Harris ?

 

[LlMITBREAKER]

makes total sense. we aren't given letter grades. class rank for things you apply for like SSP is calculated by your overall numerical percentage average between all your classes. your not assigned like "GPA points" for letter grades like you are in undergrad. SSP is not nearly as competitive as AOA (which DO programs can't have) and the vast majority of people who have >85% and apply for SSP get in!

In your opinion, is it fairly doable to get over 85% at WCUCOM? I am not sure if I actually want to join SSP, but it would be nice if I could have the option. Also, how many clubs can an average student handle without being stretched too thin with responsibilities? I am sure some clubs are more demanding than others as well.

 

[Ellesandra319]

In your opinion, is it fairly doable to get over 85% at WCUCOM? I am not sure if I actually want to join SSP, but it would be nice if I could have the option. Also, how many clubs can an average student handle without being stretched too thin with responsibilities? I am sure some clubs are more demanding than others as well.

I think so. I would say over 30-40% of our class probably had 85+% coming into this semester. I think that's maybe dropped a little bit more lately... especially since our last neuro exam. hahaha obviously gonna differ class to class. but 85+ average (between all classes too) is definitely pretty easily attainable if you put in the work consistently. Because its an average of all classes, you could have say an 80 avg in Physio and a 90-95 in OPP and you'd still be fine.

First year join as many as you want as a member. You'll only be limited by funds; most of the club charge a nominal (~20$) fee. The national chapters sometimes have higher fees. IMO joining as a member first year is so you can participate in as many or as few fun events those clubs may put on (for example AWS does suture nights), and build relationships with people. I also think its to figure out which clubs you may want to pursue E-board positions with heading into second year.

Second semester of first year you'll start running for e-board for the clubs, which you'll take office if elected at the beginning of second year for most clubs. To that end, I would probably not personally reccomend E-boarding more than 2-3 clubs, but some have done more. It also depends on the position. Like if your historian for 2 clubs, President of 1, and treasure of another, maybe you'd be fine, but you def wouldn't want to be like President or VP of more than like 2 maybe 3 clubs. It also depends on the club; for example President of SGA or student council is gonna be way more involved than President of a smaller more niche club. But that's just my personal opinion!

 

[monboo]

First A of the cycle!

Edit: Was on alternate list for less than a week

 

[LlMITBREAKER]

First A of the cycle!

Edit: Was on alternate list for less than a week

congrats!

 

[LlMITBREAKER]

@Ellesandra319 Does WCUCOM have ample research opportunities now for students to earn publications and present? Last I talked to Dr. Smith, he said that they hired someone to coordinate students to help them get those. Hopefully students do not have to travel far, since WCUCOM has an active undergrad campus where faculty still do research/lab work. Furthermore, I see a research club in the link where they discuss articles and studies. Can you tell me a bit more about it and is that how students seeking research opportunities should start or is it just a discussion group of interesting research happening. I find research to be pleasantly interesting so I would join it anyway haha.

I have always wondered if research like poster presentations and publications acquired before medical school (like during undergrad/grad programs) can be listed on residency apps? I worked in labs for a while at UMMC so I have a lot of posters and 2 pubs. I hope I can use them.

 

[Ellesandra319]

@Ellesandra319 Does WCUCOM have ample research opportunities now for students to earn publications and present? Last I talked to Dr. Smith, he said that they hired someone to coordinate students to help them get those. Hopefully students do not have to travel far, since WCUCOM has an active undergrad campus where faculty still do research/lab work. Furthermore, I see a research club in the link where they discuss articles and studies. Can you tell me a bit more about it and is that how students seeking research opportunities should start or is it just a discussion group of interesting research happening. I find research to be pleasantly interesting so I would join it anyway haha.

I have always wondered if research like poster presentations and publications acquired before medical school (like during undergrad/grad programs) can be listed on residency apps? I worked in labs for a while at UMMC so I have a lot of posters and 2 pubs. I hope I can use them.

Most the research you are going to want to pursue in medical school is going to be clinical research as opposed to bench work. To that end in my experience very few students do undergrad bench work at the undergrad or at usm because residencies tend to value clinical research much more highly. We have several dedicated people on staff that can help pair you with opportunities for clinical research! As with any medical school, work is not just going to be handed to you on a silver platter, its going to be a combination of your own pursuits and interests, as well as pursuing the opportunities the school has available if they match with your interests!

There will be lots of opportunities to present posters and papers both at the COM and around the country through various clubs' national chapters. As far as what you use on residency apps from undergrad, it really will just depend on the work and how impactful it was. That's gonna vary person to person!

The research club mostly gets together to discuss various articles!

 

[LlMITBREAKER]

Most the research you are going to want to pursue in medical school is going to be clinical research as opposed to bench work. To that end in my experience very few students do undergrad bench work at the undergrad or at usm because residencies tend to value clinical research much more highly. We have several dedicated people on staff that can help pair you with opportunities for clinical research! As with any medical school, work is not just going to be handed to you on a silver platter, its going to be a combination of your own pursuits and interests, as well as pursuing the opportunities the school has available if they match with your interests!

There will be lots of opportunities to present posters and papers both at the COM and around the country through various clubs' national chapters. As far as what you use on residency apps from undergrad, it really will just depend on the work and how impactful it was. That's gonna vary person to person!

The research club mostly gets together to discuss various articles!

Cool thanks. That makes sense. I guess then that students work with the research coordinator and then they might give the student a list of PI's/contacts to call? I bet that must be the norm for med schools in general.
Thanks for the helpful info!

 

[sharktank_selena]

Any current students I can reach out and message? Would appreciate the help.

 

[candiantrynaDO]

Hey everyone! Currently looking for one female student to join two incoming M1's at the Beckenridge apartments! Please PM me if you are interested !

 

[orchid_97]

Does anyone still have an upcoming interview?

 

[drthedude]

Does anyone still have an upcoming interview?

I have one on 4/19

 

[HopefulPremed.]

I have one on 4/19

is that the last one? are they still sending ii?

 

[winnerwinnerchickendinner]

What is the point in sending all these interviews this late? They have about 65 people on the alternate list. I doubt all of them are going to get off. This is also bad news for those on the deferred list too.

 

[Ellesandra319]

What is the point in sending all these interviews this late? They have about 65 people on the alternate list. I doubt all of them are going to get off. This is also bad news for those on the deferred list too.

you'd be surprised how much the list will move. to my knowledge everyone made it off alternate list last year, as people who got in at the last minute were pulled up from deferred. i'm sure there are more applicants this year and obviously that's not any kind of guarantee, but try to hang in there!

 

[drthedude]

is that the last one? are they still sending ii?

Nah I think there’s on after mine also

 

[orchid_97]

is that the last one? are they still sending ii?

No clue but I'm hoping they are!

 

[winnerwinnerchickendinner]

you'd be surprised how much the list will move. everyone made it off alternate list last year and people were pulled up from deferred. i'm sure there are more applicants this year and obviously that's not any kind of guarantee, but try to hang in there!

Really? Everyone from the alternate list made it? Thank you for sharing that information with us. That changes the way I look at the waitlist now. Do you know how many people were on the alternate list last year?

 

[Ellesandra319]

Really? Everyone from the alternate list made it? Thank you for sharing that information with us. That changes the way I look at the waitlist now. Do you know how many people were on the alternate list last year?

I don't... to my best knowledge we didn't know our rank unless you got in in the first round of II's and were on the very first alternate list in the fall. I will say anecdotally that of my group of 15-20 friends, all but like 2 were on the alternate list at some point.

 

[roundglasses]

just got the A from alternate list! crying happy tears rn

 

[Ellesandra319]

just got the A from alternate list! crying happy tears rn

ahhhhh congrats!!!! welcome!!!!

 

[DocInProgress23]

Please help me decide on a school. I am APS at ATSU KCOM and I got accepted to KansasCOM and WCUCOM. I really don't know which school to pick. I am still waiting to hear back from TouroCOM Harlem and Nevada. Any advice will be helpful.

 

[HopefulPremed.]

Please help me decide on a school. I am APS at ATSU KCOM and I got accepted to KansasCOM and WCUCOM. I really don't know which school to pick. I am still waiting to hear back from TouroCOM Harlem and Nevada. Any advice will be helpful.

i would look into atsu or wcu. touro harlem is also good. not sure about kansas since its new and also nevada had a weird thing where they couldn't fill their class last year so i wouldn't go with those.

 

[winnerwinnerchickendinner]

Please help me decide on a school. I am APS at ATSU KCOM and I got accepted to KansasCOM and WCUCOM. I really don't know which school to pick. I am still waiting to hear back from TouroCOM Harlem and Nevada. Any advice will be helpful.

ATSU-KCOM is a really good school. That is without a doubt #1 on my list. KansasCOM didn't graduate their first class yet so I would be weary of that. WCUCOM would be my #2

 

[DocInProgress23]

i would look into atsu or wcu. touro harlem is also good. not sure about kansas since its new and also nevada had a weird thing where they couldn't fill their class last year so i wouldn't go with those.

Wow I had no idea that happened at Nevada Touro COM. Thank you for the advice.

 

[DocInProgress23]

ATSU-KCOM is a really good school. That is without a doubt #1 on my list. KansasCOM didn't graduate their first class yet so I would be weary of that. WCUCOM would be my #2

I am just worried about living in a small town as a POC for ATSU KCOM.

 

[omogedoctor]

I am just worried about living in a small town as a POC for ATSU KCOM.

I don't know anything about those schools, but as someone who did an SMP in a rural area, the demographics of the student body is way more important that the actual community the school is in. As a med student, you spend most of your time in school or with classmates so as long as the student population is welcoming, you'll be fine. At least, that was my experience as a POC.

 

[Dr.Flash7]

What is the point in sending all these interviews this late? They have about 65 people on the alternate list. I doubt all of them are going to get off. This is also bad news for those on the deferred list too.

Did you email and they told you there was 65 people on the alt list? Were they able to tell you your rank out of the 65?