Hey guys, longtime lurker here who never really felt compelled to post as an applicant, but feel now as a first year who just started at NYCPM I can give you guys some good info. I see a lot of you guys are stressing out and getting impatient but you guys for the most part look to have some pretty solid stats and have ample time as the cycle just started. To give you a little background on me, I applied last year to DO schools and after only getting waitlisted from one school called up NYCPM in April to see if they had any spots open. They said yeah and so I copied and pasted my DO application from the AACOMAS into the AACPMAS and had to wait another 4 weeks and resend my transcripts and letters to the same damn place for the same verification because as the lady on the phone said, same building/company but we can't cross departments. So had my interview late May and got my acceptance first week of June. And one of the guys who also interviewed with me on the same day and now is a good friend also got accepted and there were people after us who got accepted later too. So basically for all you guys stressing about getting applications out ASAP and interviews, just chill. You guys are way ahead of the pack. Most of my classmates I asked got accepted after January, probably because our school has that January start option (which I highly recommend and will go into more detail below). The biggest advantage you guys have applying right now is with scholarship money as its a first come first serve basis. I got nothing but I'm not complaining considering how late I applied.
Now for some big insider info, our class for this year is the smallest class since 2005. Normally NYCPM has classes of 110. We have around 85 I think, 20 Januaries + 65 Sept starters. The dean told us during orientation that there was a major drop in applicants during the last cycle, 25% for NYCPM and 35% across all schools. Even though there was a decrease, they said that the still wanted to keep academic standards at a fairly high level and thus didn't cave in to filling the extra 25 spots to less that amazing applicants so thus the cut the class size instead of just filling the seats with scrubs who might have failed out in a year anyway. I believe she mentioned the average cGPA was 3.5 and sGPA 3.3 and MCAT 25. Whats that mean for you guys? Well its should be easier to get in if there is less competition, unless last years application cycle was just a one off anomaly. Most of you guys as is had the stats to fill those extra 25 spots if you had applied last year. Also a rumor one of my fellow classmates told me, NYCPM last year tried to keep spots open last year late into the cycle in an effort to catch MD/DO trickle down applicants like myself but this kinda backfired as they lost a lot of students to Temple. Not sure how legit that is but it would make sense as to why from reading this thread it seems like most of you guys heard back from NYCPM first regarding interviews. I think they really want to hit out of the gates hard early to get the best applicants before Temple at least in the North East.
As for the interview, I read on here that NYCPM had a fairly laidback interview when I was in your shoes. And on interview day when I showed up an hour early and they put me in the clinic to shadow current students they also said don't worry it's laidback. Well it wasn't. After talking to a few 2020 classmates, NYCPM seemed to have changed their interview tactics last year to a good cop bad cop style. The interviewers alternate week to week but in my case I had Dean Lee as the good cop and Dr. Haber as the bad cop. And boy did Dr. Haber grill me like and FBI integrator. I though I started off well but towards the end I thought in my opinion I had started crash and burning. The question he tripped me up the most on was "are you sure you want to be a physician?" And I of course said yes but he kept going more into detail and must have asked like 7 times are you really sure before I cracked and said "IDK, I guess?". Basically my advice to you guys interviewing at NY, don't cave like I did just keep saying confidently yes I'm sure and be prepared for them to really examine your undergrad grades and ask you if you're prepared to take for instance biochem or anatomy without taking it in undergrad already. And I know he was putting on an act because after the interview when I was waiting in the lobby he came up to me and started talking to me about surgery, something I mentioned I was very interested in the interview, and he had a completely different demeanor and was really nice and pleasant. Also at least for me, they really liked how the Podiatrist I got a LOR from was starting a residency on Long Island, so my advice is try to get a letter from shadowing a podiatrist who is a residency director as they really value DPMs who like to teach and educate who can vouch you would be a good student. Dr. Haber himself was a residency directory for a big surgery residency in New Jersey.
Now IDK if you guys are aware but our school has a January class. My advice, as was the same advice those students in the clinic on interview day told me, is if you can try for January instead of the conventional Aug start. 3 of my roommates here in the student housing (The Bridges), are "Jannies". Basically the way it works is instead of the typical 4 years its 4.5. You basically take less classes the first 2 years spread over more time but the tuition is the same. So instead of paying 15000 a semester you pay 10000 over 3 so it sill works out to be 30000. But you start of with 3 classes: bacteriology, gross anatomy, and infectious disease but by the time you get added in to the Aug class you are taking less classes as you already knocked 3 out so your workload is less and you have more time to study for other classes. The January class I think is capped at 30 so you end up forming a close knit group as evident with our 2020 Jannies. Only downside is you will have to pay an extra 8 months worth of rent and living expenses (keep in mind NYC is as expensive as it comes) but if thats not a problem for you it seems like a pretty sweet deal to ease you in to medical school and ease up your course load. And by your 3rd year you are back to being fully in sync and taking all the same classes at the same time as your Aug classmates.
Anyway I hope that was of some help to you guys and a few of you can relax a bit if a May applicant like me could get in. So far I really like he school and my fellow classmates. If I could describe how school is, its a long day with lectures from 9-4 with you then needing to study the rest of the day and you end up going to bed thinking "Damn I wish there were more hours in the day so I could get more studying in!" It's a lot of material thrown your way and at NYCPM we basically have a test every week sometimes 2. We're only in our second week and we already have a bacteriology test this Friday and a Biochem test next Thursday. So it's fast paced but at least here at NYCPM here's a real camaraderie among not just the 2020 class but with all he students where everyone is really trying to help each other so we can all succeed and become great doctors.
I only applied to NY so I can't help much with questions about other schools but feel free to hit me up with any questions you might ave about the application process, or LORs, clinical + shadowing expieiernce, or NYCPM in general like housing or the neigborhood of Harlem. Also if anyone from NY/Long Island is having trouble finding a DPM to shadow I can give you at least 4 (all different practices) in central Long Island who would be more than happy to have you shadow. Also I saw three interviewees during lunch today, including I think one of you guys posting here. I was tempted to come over and say hi but didn't want to awkwardly barge into your lunch with the designated student ambassadors but if any of you want to say hi, I am always have lunch in the cafeteria at 1pm M-Th and 12 on Friday so I'd be glad to say hello and give any tips or impressions. Anyway long post, now I need to go back to studying biochem and Bact
