ACOM vs ATSU-SOMA: Help Needed!

[premedjunky]

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Today I was accepted off the waitlist to ACOM. I have already put my $2,000 deposit down at ATSU and have secured an apartment with a move in date of July 8, which came with some down payments as well. However, I have heard great things about ACOM and I’m not sure if ACOM is substantially better than ATSU where it would be smart for me to take my losses and go with ACOM.
Some pros & cons for each:
ACOM
Pros:
-Tuition about 55k
- Cheap cost of living, can find a 1bdrm for 1000 or less
- Great rotations & match list
- Great reputation
- Close to home as I am from South Florida (but this isn’t too big a deal for me)
Cons:
- In a smaller city (I’m a big city person)
- Letter grading system
- I would have to put down another deposit
ATSU-SOMA
Pros:
- P/F grading system
- 1 + 3 model where you are in clinic for years 2-4
- Big city in the phoenix area
- have already paid deposit & secured housing
- Established & good reputation in the past
Cons:
- Tuition 62k
- Expensive living my 1 bdrm is 1600
- I have heard rumors of unhappy students & turmoil recently

I would appreciate any insight! Thank you!

 

[chilly_md]

Take the cheaper school. The difference in tuition makes up for your lost deposit. And you would have easier access to home and wouldn’t run the risk of SOMA’s new curriculum that everyone seems to dislike.

 

[premedjunky]

Take the cheaper school. The difference in tuition makes up for your lost deposit. And you would have easier access to home and wouldn’t run the risk of SOMA’s new curriculum that everyone seems to dislike.

thank you!!

 

[premedjunky]

@wysdoc @Goro your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Goro]

ACom

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Today I was accepted off the waitlist to ACOM. I have already put my $2,000 deposit down at ATSU and have secured an apartment with a move in date of July 8, which came with some down payments as well. However, I have heard great things about ACOM and I’m not sure if ACOM is substantially better than ATSU where it would be smart for me to take my losses and go with ACOM.
Some pros & cons for each:
ACOM
Pros:
-Tuition about 55k
- Cheap cost of living, can find a 1bdrm for 1000 or less
- Great rotations & match list
- Great reputation
- Close to home as I am from South Florida (but this isn’t too big a deal for me)
Cons:
- In a smaller city (I’m a big city person)
- Letter grading system
- I would have to put down another deposit
ATSU-SOMA
Pros:
- P/F grading system
- 1 + 3 model where you are in clinic for years 2-4
- Big city in the phoenix area
- have already paid deposit & secured housing
- Established & good reputation in the past
Cons:
- Tuition 62k
- Expensive living my 1 bdrm is 1600
- I have heard rumors of unhappy students & turmoil recently

I would appreciate any insight! Thank you!

I am going to go against the previous posters. As someone who goes to a pass/fail school, I would say whole heartedly that I believe medical school would have sucked 100x more if it was letter graded during the pre-clinical years. There is already enough stress as it is so I think adding class rankings and letter grades during the pre-clinical years is unnecessary. Not to mention that it limits your ability to choose how you want to spend your time and your studies. If you find that you prefer outside materials then you will be SOL because your main focus will have to be the faculty lectures in order to do well. I only did outside resources during pre-clinical years and still managed to do slightly above average on the class exams/quizzes, but in order to get high scores you will 100% need to watch every single faculty lecture and that won't leave you much time to do independent studies. In addition to this, I wish my school did the 1+3 model because it would have given us much more exposure to clinical medicine and allowed us to have a better idea of what specialty we want to pursue. If you want something competitive you need to establish that early on and the only way you will know that's what you want is if you are rotating in it on a daily basis to see what it is actually like. One thing you didn't mention is if either school has mandatory lectures. Assuming ATSU-SOMA doesn't have mandatory lecutres then it would be a no brainer for me.

TLDR; choose ATSU-SOMA

 

[premedjunky]

I am going to go against the previous posters. As someone who goes to a pass/fail school, I would say whole heartedly that I believe medical school would have sucked 100x more if it was letter graded during the pre-clinical years. There is already enough stress as it is so I think adding class rankings and letter grades during the pre-clinical years is unnecessary. Not to mention that it limits your ability to choose how you want to spend your time and your studies. If you find that you prefer outside materials then you will be SOL because your main focus will have to be the faculty lectures in order to do well. I only did outside resources during pre-clinical years and still managed to do slightly above average on the class exams/quizzes, but in order to get high scores you will 100% need to watch every single faculty lecture and that won't leave you much time to do independent studies. In addition to this, I wish my school did the 1+3 model because it would have given us much more exposure to clinical medicine and allowed us to have a better idea of what specialty we want to pursue. If you want something competitive you need to establish that early on and the only way you will know that's what you want is if you are rotating in it on a daily basis to see what it is actually like. One thing you didn't mention is if either school has mandatory lectures. Assuming ATSU-SOMA doesn't have mandatory lecutres then it would be a no brainer for me.

TLDR; choose ATSU-SOMA

Although ATSU-SOMA is pass/fail, they do have class rankings so the pass/fail is a little misleading.
Also, ATSU is changing curriculum to a problem based learning & students will be in the classroom everyday.
I agree with the old ATSU i might have leaned towards there but with the new changes I’ve heard many negatives coming from there.
Also, with how expensive phoenix is I can’t find a good enough reason to choose ATSU even though i desperately want to because of the location lol
Going to ATSU means furnishing an apartment for 10 months & then possibly having to moving across the country & doing that again.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Although ATSU-SOMA is pass/fail, they do have class rankings so the pass/fail is a little misleading.
Also, ATSU is changing curriculum to a problem based learning & students will be in the classroom everyday.
I agree with the old ATSU i might have leaned towards there but with the new changes I’ve heard many negatives coming from there.
Also, with how expensive phoenix is I can’t find a good enough reason to choose ATSU even though i desperately want to because of the location lol
Going to ATSU means furnishing an apartment for 10 months & then possibly having to moving across the country & doing that again.

Okay thanks for the clarification. If this is the case then my entire argument won't apply and in this case you should just go with ACOM.

 

[premedjunky]

Okay thanks for the clarification. If this is the case then my entire argument won't apply and in this case you should just go with ACOM.

I appreciate your insight!

 

[slimeBall]

Today I was accepted off the waitlist to ACOM. I have already put my $2,000 deposit down at ATSU and have secured an apartment with a move in date of July 8, which came with some down payments as well. However, I have heard great things about ACOM and I’m not sure if ACOM is substantially better than ATSU where it would be smart for me to take my losses and go with ACOM.
Some pros & cons for each:
ACOM
Pros:
-Tuition about 55k
- Cheap cost of living, can find a 1bdrm for 1000 or less
- Great rotations & match list
- Great reputation
- Close to home as I am from South Florida (but this isn’t too big a deal for me)
Cons:
- In a smaller city (I’m a big city person)
- Letter grading system
- I would have to put down another deposit
ATSU-SOMA
Pros:
- P/F grading system
- 1 + 3 model where you are in clinic for years 2-4
- Big city in the phoenix area
- have already paid deposit & secured housing
- Established & good reputation in the past
Cons:
- Tuition 62k
- Expensive living my 1 bdrm is 1600
- I have heard rumors of unhappy students & turmoil recently

I would appreciate any insight! Thank you!

hey quick question if you can give me some insight!

so i just got waitlisted and i really dont know what to expect im hearing theres alot of waitlist movement for acom. how was your experience? when did you get waitlisted, and when did they take you off the waitlist and accept you? appreciate any info thanks