Any current/former AZCOM students?

[futuredrummerdoctor]

I am starting medical school this fall at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ and I have a few questions! MUCH appreciated if you could respond if you are affiliated with AZCOM, thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Dagrimsta1]

Ask away

 

[recycledpaper]

Just graduated this May. PM me.

 

[ForgotUserName]

Graduated from AZCOM four years ago. Feel free to PM me.

 

[Pokedoc]

PM me if anyone still has questions.

 

[ERinspired]

Current student if you still need some help!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Jinxapotato]

Also starting at AZCOM in July. Can you guys comment on the San Diego clinical rotations? I'd like to do residency in San Diego if that matters.

Also is it possible to find the 2018 match list?

4th year here, from what I heard Cali rotations are not the best (in term of quality or convenience - you gonna be driving around A LOT), I'd recommend staying in Phoenix or Tucson.

 

[944363]

4th year here, from what I heard Cali rotations are not the best (in term of quality or convenience - you gonna be driving around A LOT), I'd recommend staying in Phoenix or Tucson.

4th year here, from what I heard Cali rotations are not the best (in term of quality or convenience - you gonna be driving around A LOT), I'd recommend staying in Phoenix or Tucson.

Can confirm. Lots of gas bills from all the driving. Lots of miles added to your car. You simply cannot survive without a car. Don't expect the school to reimburse either

 

[TheRealCookieMonster]

Yikes

 

[alprazoslam]

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.

Savage lol

 

[TheRealCookieMonster]

So I've seen a lot of bashing DO schools. Am I correct in concluding that with a few exceptions DO schools are mostly garbage and experiences like that of kcjones2140 are pretty common? Or should I just consider that AZCOM specifically could be bad?

 

[Jinxapotato]

So I've seen a lot of bashing DO schools. Am I correct in concluding that with a few exceptions DO schools are mostly garbage and experiences like that of kcjones2140 are pretty common? Or should I just consider that AZCOM specifically could be bad?

Depends, my experience at AZCOM are pretty acceptable. In my clinical years I pretty much had everything I wanted, and setting up aways/electives was very easy for me. However I have heard of horror stories from other students... Your coordinator will make or break you.
For board prep, honestly I never expected teh school to do much for me so I kinda went in on my own. It worked out fine so it can be done.

 

[alprazoslam]

Part of it is we start to realize how lame college in general is once we are in grad school. Just think back how dumb undergrad was with our organic grade depending more on who’s teaching than our ability to do synthesis and whatever else we did.

College is discontinuous and unstandardized in general but we apparently don’t really pick out the flaws until comlex or usmle are on the horizon.

That and most our UG teachers were probably more intelligent than the average DO degree holding family medicine or OMM certified faculty
Not bashing family med it’s on my specialty list but it’s a hard truth

 

[Jim Hopper]

I just heard from a current AZCOM student that the admin just told the second-years that they'll have to get a "waiver" from the Dean's office in order to sit for the USMLE Step 1. What's that about?

 

[NurWollen]

I just heard from a current AZCOM student that the admin just told the second-years that they'll have to get a "waiver" from the Dean's office in order to sit for the USMLE Step 1. What's that about?

Wait what lololololololol

Sent from my SM-G930V using SDN mobile

 

[amerepedestrian]

Current AZCOM student. Happy to chat about anything. That Block 1 exam was brutal! Any exam-specific advice for this school would be appreciated from alumni or those doing well so far.

 

[hallowmann]

I just heard from a current AZCOM student that the admin just told the second-years that they'll have to get a "waiver" from the Dean's office in order to sit for the USMLE Step 1. What's that about?

Everyone who takes the USMLE must complete a "Certification of ID/Applicant Authorization form" to be eligible to take the exam and part of that involves getting a letter from your school admin saying that you're eligible to take the exam and in good standing. They may be talking about that.

 

[recycledpaper]

I enjoyed my time at AZCOM. Only school that accepted me and now I’m gonna do radiology. If you don’t like AZCOM, you prob wouldn’t like any medical school, MD or DO.

 

[TheRealCookieMonster]

Only school that accepted me. If you don’t like AZCOM, you prob wouldn’t like any medical school, MD or DO.

Right...

 

[Jinxapotato]

I just heard from a current AZCOM student that the admin just told the second-years that they'll have to get a "waiver" from the Dean's office in order to sit for the USMLE Step 1. What's that about?

probably he meant that they need a clearance...I know the school tend to advise against the weaker students to go on suicide missions.

 

[Jim Hopper]

Everyone who takes the USMLE must complete a "Certification of ID/Applicant Authorization form" to be eligible to take the exam and part of that involves getting a letter from your school admin saying that you're eligible to take the exam and in good standing. They may be talking about that.

That makes sense. I wasn't aware of this, thank you.

probably he meant that they need a clearance...I know the school tend to advise against the weaker students to go on suicide missions.

So do they have the power to block them from sitting for the USMLE if they aren't deemed to be academically strong enough?

 

[puahate]

Not applying to this school. Very useful thread guys. We need more like this.

 

[Jinxapotato]

That makes sense. I wasn't aware of this, thank you.



So do they have the power to block them from sitting for the USMLE if they aren't deemed to be academically strong enough?

I think they do, they have to sign a paper before you register for USMLE

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Not applying to this school. Very useful thread guys. We need more like this.

If you are worried about theae kinds of things you need to not apply DO. Don't kid yourself about one school being magically better, they all have rough points. The competition between COMs for students is more false than reality. Theres enough students for every COM no matter what thier policies are at this point.