Advantages of PCOM from student prospective

[OrdinaryDO]

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Listen OP, we are all giving good advice here. Don't just listen to the posts that make you feel good, because you have to be realistic. PCOM is undoubtedly a great school, and probably one of the top DO schools in the country. I'm originally from NJ, and love the city, so I definitely know the appeal. PCOM, NYITCOM, RowanSOM would've been my top choice. Out of the three, it just came down to cost for me, since they're all excellent schools.

It is really up to you to decide what you want to do. You can succeed, but just know that you have to work hard wherever you go. As I'm entering as a medical student next year, I have the expectation that there is a high probability that I will go into primary care, and I'm okay with that. Of course I want to keep my options open, and doing my clinicals will help solidify my decision of whichever residency I want to go. After seeing my board scores, the picture will become clearer. Choose the school based on your living habits and study habits. Consider that finances will also play a huge role in determining your happiness.

My biggest advice to you is, if you want to become a physician, apply both MD and DO. If you can't get into the MD school, then go to the DO school instead. You'll become a physician either way. Take the easier path for yourself.

Don't forget that the top specialties D.O.'s occupy are anesthesia, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Family Practice. Those are all very good specialties.

 

[Userneedmoreinfo]

Thanks for the info.

 

[mathnerd88]

Thanks for the info.

No problem. I hope all of this advice will guide you forward. If you end up at PCOM, let me know. I'll be close by.

 

[Dustbowl12]

With no horse in the race, I personally see PCOM as the best DO school in the nation, in my opinion it is much better than a lot of MD schools especially the low and mid tier ones. It has two teaching hospitals, been around for 100 years, and its alumni network is all over the place in very influential places, as deans, as head of departments in MD schools, etc. PCOM grads are known and well respected across the US, even in SW and Westcoast USA. They also have top notch research facilities, not sure why thats being questioned. If you get in to PCOM, you almost have to go unless theres some extreme circumstance

 

[mathnerd88]

With no horse in the race, I personally see PCOM as the best DO school in the nation, in my opinion it is much better than a lot of MD schools especially the low and mid tier ones. It has two teaching hospitals, been around for 100 years, and its alumni network is all over the place in very influential places, as deans, as head of departments in MD schools, etc. PCOM grads are known and well respected across the US, even in SW and Westcoast USA. They also have top notch research facilities, not sure why thats being questioned. If you get in to PCOM, you almost have to go unless theres some extreme circumstance

If you think PCOM is better than mid-tier MD schools you are dreaming. PCOM may be better than the bottom of the barrel MD school, but you are still a DO...

The name can only take you so far.

 

[Camaxtli]

If you think PCOM is better than mid-tier MD schools you are dreaming. PCOM may be better than the bottom of the barrel MD school, but you are still a DO...

I love PCOM but he might have went a bit far on that one. 😛. Its a great school though.

 

[ortnakas]

Yay, another thread evolved into "let's come up with a DO school ranking system that will turn into a circle jerk."

Edited for accuracy

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

Yay, another thread evolved into "let's come up with a DO school ranking system that will turn into a circle jerk."

(not OP's fault. collective effort)

OP continually asked for a ranking. It is directly OP's fault lol.

 

[ortnakas]

Haha, @DoctorSynthesis good point, I started scrolling too fast and didn't realize that's who was asking.

 

[Userneedmoreinfo]

I don't think people wanted to answer my questions so it diverged into this.

 

[Dustbowl12]

If you think PCOM is better than mid-tier MD schools you are dreaming. PCOM may be better than the bottom of the barrel MD school, but you are still a DO...

The name can only take you so far.

So you genuinely believe places like wayne st, ucr, cal northstate, east carolina, etc are better than a place like PCOM? that's hilarious.

your scores, performance and letters matter more than your letters.

 

[mathnerd88]

So you genuinely believe places like wayne st, ucr, cal northstate, east carolina, etc are better than a place like PCOM? that's hilarious.

your scores, performance and letters matter more than your letters.

Not exactly. Be careful with that statement. The school's resources, clinicals, community name may be better, but you're still just a DO. It has been known for a while that DO's with even higher USMLE scores than MD's get shafted over MD. Some residency programs will not even pick/interview DO applicants. With this merger, I have a feeling it would hurt DO's way more than MD's. PCOM's average matriculant stats is still probably lower than those MD schools you listed.

You have already plenty of posters who already can give their experiences. Head on over to the other threads, and you'll see there's a difference. Even in this thread, you have medical students who are in agreement.

You'll need to work much harder as a DO to get into the same residency vs. MD.

Maybe you kind of need a dose of reality...the leaders in healthcare and good residency programs are generally located in city areas. You want to get into the best residency you possibly can. I want to be able to get into good residency programs in NY, Boston, Chicago, LA, SF, Cleveland etc. As a DO, I would be put at a disadvantage over MD. I would have to have even better USMLE scores than the MD applicant to even be considered.

If I just wanted to do a noncompetitive residency and not care where I ended up, then it wouldn't matter (MD vs. DO.)

 

[Dustbowl12]

Not exactly. Be careful with that statement. The school's resources, clinicals, community name may be better, but you're still just a DO. It has been known for a while that DO's with even higher USMLE scores than MD's get shafted over MD. Some residency programs will not even pick/interview DO applicants. With this merger, I have a feeling it would hurt DO's way more than MD's. PCOM's average matriculant stats is still probably lower than those MD schools you listed.

You have already plenty of posters who already can give their experiences. Head on over to the other threads, and you'll see there's a difference. Even in this thread, you have medical students who are in agreement.

You'll need to work much harder as a DO to get into the same residency vs. MD.

Maybe you kind of need a dose of reality...the leaders in healthcare and good residency programs are generally located in city areas. You want to get into the best residency you possibly can. I want to be able to get into good residency programs in NY, Boston, Chicago, LA, SF, Cleveland etc. As a DO, I would be put at a disadvantage over MD. I would have to have even better USMLE scores than the MD applicant to even be considered.

If I just wanted to do a noncompetitive residency and not care where I ended up, then it wouldn't matter (MD vs. DO.)

Well said. You have a nuanced approach and I agree. If you take two applicants one MD one DO with same stats the chances are a DO will
likely get tossed in favor of the MD.

Even though the bias is dying it still has some life in some areas/walks of life. Probably will take a few more years if not several to be gone.

For me personally I would take a school like OSUCOM DO with the largest teaching hospital in the nation over say a Loma Linda MD, or a newer school like BCOM DO with largest sim lab in nation over one of the new florida MDs just because I feel the education and training would be better.

Those top 20-25 MD schools blow every other MD and all DO schools out of the water.

 

[itsogre]

For me personally I would take a school like OSUCOM DO with the largest teaching hospital in the nation over say a Loma Linda MD, or a newer school like BCOM DO with largest sim lab in nation over one of the new florida MDs just because I feel the education and training would be better.

lol

Loma Linda may be unconventional in in that they want to make "physicians for Christ," not just Christian physicians, but their hospital system and the medical school are excellent.

and you'd pick BCOM because of a Sim Lab that you'll use handful of times and that'll be of marginal benefit to you as an MS1/MS2 over Florida MD schools with good rotations and research faculty/opportunities? ayy lmao

 

[Dustbowl12]

lol

Loma Linda may be unconventional in in that they want to make "physicians for Christ," not just Christian physicians, but their hospital system and the medical school are excellent.

and you'd pick BCOM because of a Sim Lab that you'll use handful of times and that'll be of marginal benefit to you as an MS1/MS2 over Florida MD schools with good rotations and research faculty/opportunities? ayy lmao

BCOM @ NMSU has amazing research facilities and funding access, and their rotations are almost entirely at ACGME residency offering teaching hospitals.

Anyways....PCOM is awesome man go to PCOM!

 

[Camaxtli]

Hello SDNERS

academics: do the upper class men help with tutoring etc

Research: how many students do research and does everyone have the opportunity to do research

Clinical: major locations specifically academic hospitals

Student life: other than organizations such as intutmurals etc.

Match : not just places from the website but rather specific numbers scores.

Location: where are the best places to live close to campus. Walking please

I hope this isn't too general

I want as much info as possible.

Sorry to bump this thread but I couldn't really answer clinical all to well for you last time. Found this post from top tomato and it seems to be very accurate so i'm quoting it for you.

" I go to PCOM and we have such an extensive OPTI network, that I've never felt that a DO "can't do neurosurgery or ortho or urology" or any of that BS. The best thing about PCOM is going to be the clinical and GME education that it can provide. Our surgical and surgical subspecialty residencies are very good and considered some of the best AOA residencies around. I've heard (non PCOM) residents say that PCOM urology residency (located at Einstein) is even better than some ACGME residencies. Last fall, PCOM posted where our general surgery residents were going for fellowship and about 5-6 of them were going to ACGME cardiothoracic or trauma fellowships. Another interesting note, is that if you look at the surgical and surgical subspecialty residencies you'll notice that there is a lot of in house favoritism, meaning that they tend to pick PCOM grads over other schools.

Our clinical education is also more of the same, and yes we do rotate with MD students. PCOM recently has made a change to the way we do our core rotations during 3rd year by setting up these "clinical core campuses" which basically means that you do all of your 3rd year rotations at one site. Which could be a good thing or could be a bad thing. The two biggest core campus sites that we have are Lankenau and Einstein, both of which are shared by Jefferson. There are others but they are located in Pittsburgh, Reading, and the Geisinger health system. However there are only enough spots for roughly half the class. Which may or may not be much of a problem, some students didn't want to be stuck at one hospital and opted to rotate the traditional way. If you didn't get a CCC slot, than you would rotate the way PCOM traditionally rotates. The CCC sites created a lot of controversy because anybody who planned on rotating where a CCC site was set up had their rotation cancelled. Obviously this made a lot of students unhappy. "