Very frustrating experience with AZCOM here. Recently graduated so I'll share my opinion with the hopes that you don't make the worst mistake of your life coming here like I did. There is a little research among the basic science faculty but practically nothing clinical going on that I was ever aware of. Good luck trying to get a publication with their poor quality faculty, many classmates wasted plenty of summers and study time on research that went nowhere. The school lacks many important departments so if you're seeking to enter a specialty like radiology, etc the advising will be poor/none. The administration has a pervasive condescending tone that becomes more prevalent and disappointing around your second year on. This, in my opinion, is top-down from the dean. In terms of student clubs and affairs, admin is unhelpful in getting you affiliated with clubs or getting your business sorted out if you run student clubs. The assistant dean for student affairs (Julie High Horse) rarely answers her emails if at all. Most admin people on campus work from about 9-10am to 3-4pm. But hey they'll be happy to tell you while you're interviewing that the school is so expensive because they pay their employee's enough to answer all your questions, work longer, and answer all their emails.
Any big decisions like refusing to cover board study materials or closing the gym's free-weight section are made on their own without any input from student government. Any complaints brought to their attention are usually dismissed, especially regarding proposed curriculum changes. I heard our dean Kemper just decided they will no longer be providing UWorld, an essential board resource tool because they are not scoring well enough in OMM. OMM is a fractional component of boards and arguably irrelevant to clinical practice, and still, this decision was made without any student government input. Most people would try to improve the OMM department rather than discontinuing their Uworld subscription in place of combank, a poor quality second rate DO specific study tool that the majority of students in the nation believe is inferior to comquest, which is far inferior to UWorld... But I digress.
Tuition: $68,000+ yearly now which increases by about 5-8% each year (about $5k spike my last year there). At this rate, the school will soon be the most expensive in the country. You will also be paying out of pocket or via additional loans for all board exams, expenses, and travel. Be prepared for major additional fees on top of all this.
Reputation: a DO is a DO is a DO is a DO is a DO... half the country's residencies won't even interview you on those grounds alone... You think the school's reputation amongst the DO community matters? Of every email I get from "The DO", not one reports that AZCOM is a leader in anything like grants received, number of students with first-choice matches, etc. This begs the question, where does the notion that "this school's reputation is good" come from?
Clinical years: damn near impossible to get them to let you set up your own rotations as third-year electives. Less than good when trying to get them to approve paperwork for 4th-year audition rotations. This is a major limitation and setback of the school and something important to consider if you're thinking about going here. They are more interested in saving time and money than doing the paperwork to get their students out in meaningful clinical experiences that will likely bring you strong LORs.
Big mistake coming here without knowing all this. For the amount we all pay for this place to claw atop our shoulders, I am very disappointed in how little they do to help us settle into medical careers and our residencies. Be prepared to do everything yourself and still get told "no" by them because it's "just their policy".
Do yourself a favor and go to the cheapest school you can, because, at the end of the day when you have to set up everything on your own and learn everything on your own, you don't want to be 400k+ indebted to people who have helped you as little as possible along the way.
