vipergts66 said:
hi i'm a texas resident applying to TCOM. for anyone who goes there now or planning on it, how does the school compare to other DO schools? where are most of the rotations done, i heard the hospital near the school closed? does that make it difficult to do your rotations? and how well do DOs from this school place in MD residencies such as surgery or anesthesiology? thanks.
I'm a fourth year graduating in May. Your experience at TCOM my differ from mine in that the school has undergone some changes in the last couple years. Yes, Osteopathic Medical Center of Texas closed last year. It was a major site for third year rotations. Its closing however was a blessing in disguise because it paved the way for the school to greatly expand its relationship with John Peter Smith Hospital, the major indigent hospital in Fort Worth. Now third year students do a large number of roations there--psych, medicine, surgery, OBGYN, etc. It is a vastly superior rotation site compared to the old OMCT. It has all the major pathology of a county hospital, similar to UT-Southwestern-Parkland, etc., just as a major teaching hospital should have. They also have a number of MD residency programs there. This releationship should only gain strength as time goes by. For example, the OBGYN department at TCOM just became the OBGYN department at JPS, with the same faculty, department head (now a DO), etc.
Most TCOM grads do MD residencies, in almost all specialties, save for a select few (ENT, Rads, and maybe Surgery), mostly because there are very few DO residencies in Texas. And being a Texan, you are probably well aware of the fact that most Texans (95% of eachclass as UNT is a state school) want to stay in Texas.
I'm of course bias, but I would rank TCOM in the top 5 of all DO schools, based primarily on admissions selectivity, board pass rates, residency selections, etc. But that's just me. I think you can get a solid education at any of the DO schools. What you'll soon find out is that medical school is a lot of self study. It requires a lot of self discipline. You get out of it exactly what you put into it, no matter where you go. Hope this helps. Good luck.