ACOM vs. PCOM South Georgia

[BioPsychotic]

I am so grateful to have received 2 acceptances and would like some help choosing between them. Thank you!

ACOM
Pros

• Location
  • Dothan is a slightly bigger city than Moultrie
• Environment
  • When I attended the interview and toured the campus I was blown away by how invested the administration/faculty are in student success
  • Students seem very happy here
• Results
  • ACOM has been shown to produce great match lists
  • Recently beat highly ranked MD programs to win national & international patient simulation competitions
• Strong clinical education
  • Monopoly on rotation sites through the Alabama Medical Education Consortium
  • Clinical opportunities available in cities like PCB, Pensacola, Tallahassee, Mobile, Birmingham, Huntsville
  • Main affiliated hospital in Dothan has IM and EM (brand new) residencies

Cons

• Far from family (though neither is close to my immediate family)
  • Closest extended family members are 2hrs away
• Slightly more expensive
  • Tuition is the same, but total COA is 12K more expensive (ACOM seems to budget more for things like transportation)
• High attrition rate

PCOM South Georgia
Pros

• Prestige
  • Attached to the PCOM brand, which has more name recognition than ACOM
• 45 mins away from extended family members
• Slightly cheaper

Cons

• Location
  • Moultrie is a tiny town where I cannot see myself being happy
• Environment
  • During the interview day, I got a feeling that students did not seem very happy; the tone was definitely quite off
• New school
  • Has not graduated a class yet; no information on COMLEX pass rates or match rates
  • Little information on quality of rotations

Summary: I am leaning towards ACOM. It seems that ACOM invests heavily in its students and produces exceptional results. I can figure out how to live in Dothan, but I could not imagine myself being happy in a town with less than 15,000 people. However, the most important factor for me is the ability to secure a competitive residency. Thus, I am considering PCOM South Georgia because of its association with PCOM. I should note that the ACOM curriculum does not contain a psychiatry clerkship, even though it constitutes 10-15% of Step 2 CK content. I have also heard that PCOM has a stronger pre-clinical curriculum. ACOM seems to have a slight edge in research, but I cannot identify a significant difference between the 2.

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Note that I am interested in the following specialties:

• Orthopedic surgery
• Anesthesiology
• Internal medicine (cardiology, oncology)

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[DOcSto]

the most important factor for me is the ability to secure a competitive residency.

I'm not very schooled on X vs. Y based on this critical factor, but I will say you point out not being happy in a smaller town as a con to PCOM SGA. In my opinion, if you can't see yourself being happy in a given location, then it doesn't matter what being attached to the "PCOM brand" might bring to the table if your mental health dampens your ability to excel academically.

Just going off your pros and cons, I'd say ACOM is the clear choice.

 

[BioPsychotic]

I'm not very schooled on X vs. Y based on this critical factor, but I will say you point out not being happy in a smaller town as a con to PCOM SGA. In my opinion, if you can't see yourself being happy in a given location, then it doesn't matter what being attached to the "PCOM brand" might bring to the table if your mental health dampens your ability to excel academically.

Just going off your pros and cons, I'd say ACOM is the clear choice.

Thanks for your input! I also feel that ACOM would be a better fit for me personally while providing me with the resources to succeed. That is why I'm seriously leaning toward ACOM.

 

[chilly_md]

The PCOM label won’t help significantly for the South Georgia campus. I would choose ACOM to avoid worrying about how the match list will turn out. You really seemed impressed with them too. PCOM also changed their pre-clinical curriculum recently.