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ATSU-SOMA vs. ARCOM vs. LECOM-Elmira vs. NSU vs. UIWSOM
- Thread starter premedpl
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Jesus Christ, are you the rebirth of AT Still himself? That is an insane amount of interviews.
Anyway my choice would be LECOM. You cannot beat 30k/year to become a doctor. Is having food, and not needing to wear formal attire in lecture worth 40k in loans to you? To me, no.
Anyway my choice would be LECOM. You cannot beat 30k/year to become a doctor. Is having food, and not needing to wear formal attire in lecture worth 40k in loans to you? To me, no.
Haha, that made me chuckle! Hope Dr. Still is proud 🙂
I came into undergrad hoping to matriculate into Osteopathic Programs and over the years tailored my experiences to work with DOs and promote Osteopathic Programs at my university — I think that helped me gain the interviews
That being said, I am also leaning LECOM.
- cost
- location
- reputation in the NJ/NY/PA area is great as well
Thanks for the input 🙂
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I'd go to LECOM, and cancel all other interviews except for KCU (or PCOM-PA if you get an interview). These 2 are among the DO schools I would pass a lower tuition for.
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Elmira is a brand new school. Beware of these until they graduate a class, as it takes time for Faculty to gel and deliver a comprehensive curriculum.
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I have nothing to add beyond what’s already been said, but I just wanted to say I’ve seen you around on the school-specific threads and you seem lovely, congrats on all the success that’s come your way this cycle future doc!
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why not go with ATSU and choose the brooklyn CHC?
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I understand, in the grand scheme, 22k/year (or 88k over 4 yrars), price diff sounds like a lot but when you are making 250+k a year as an attending, you'll pay it off without too much trouble. I would go to the school that would optimize your chances to become the best FM, peds, or OB doc that you can be and that has a history of matching into high quality residencies in the aforementioned areas. Given what Goro said above, LECOM- Elmira sounds like a school to just scratch off your list because of the high risk nature of going to a new DO school. Keep in mind you can always use this year before school starts to apply to scholarships to help offset the higher tuition costs. Good luck!!
Thanks for the input!
There will be a lot to consider for sure! The one redeeming quality that Elmira has as a new campus is that the town itself & its associated hospital (arnot health) has been a LECOM rotation site for many years back.
The only new aspect of the program is the pre-clinical education, which relies on PBL, like Seton Hill & Bradenton.
The bigger issue with newer programs I have read about revolves around rotation sites not being fully vetted for an established. LECOM has that aspect covered, but pre-clinical education would be a concern.
Given that, would you still cross off LECOM-Elmira?
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Given ATSU is also transitioning to a PBL, it sounds like you'll have a similar preclinical experience. Comparing ATSU and Lecom, it might then come down to how much weight personally you give the match list, being able to start clinicals a year sooner, and the city you want to live in. If you go w ATSU and Brooklyn CHC, housing will be more but you'll also be able to train at NYU Langone- Brooklyn which is a level 1 Trauma center - also Brooklyn would be a pretty fun place to live I would think. If it was my decision, i would probably go with ATSU....but before making a final decision I would likely reach out to current students at both schools--ideally ATSU students who are at the Brooklyn CHC--to gather more info and go from there.
Yes! I need to track some of these students down, it’s harder to find ATSU-SOMA students as they are all over the country.
That, and I still do not know if the Brooklyn Site is available, awaiting my acceptance email (phone call last Friday).
That, and I still do not know if the Brooklyn Site is available, awaiting my acceptance email (phone call last Friday).
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Brooklyn CHC is still available, i just checked! Once you are admitted officially, you'll have access to the link to rank your CHCs, and see which CHCs are still available. I still have the link that was issued to me previously, and it shows that Brooklyn is still open! Your acceptance email / call should also say that if you have interest in talking to current students, the admin staff can put you in touch with them.
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With all due respect, this is wrong. if your reasoning is based on board scores, UIW had an 85% first time pass rate. NSU may have had some issues in this regard but you also have to consider the fact that:
1. Larger class size = larger room for error
2. Boards are the students responsibility (yes the school helps, but as students we must hold ourselves accountable).
3. Schools like OSU and MSU have also had their fair share of issues regarding board scores and they are arguably amongst the best DO programs.
4. The match statistics are still arguably impressive for NSU. Out of every student, only 4 people did not match this past year, BUT those students may have been only applying to competitive specialties when they weren’t competitive applicants to begin with.
Ultimately, all of the schools will allow someone to become a physician and your bias against NSU seems to be based on surface level issues without taking a deep look into the program and all it has to offer. If ANYTHING, my only con for NSU would be cost of attendance.
*For reference, I was recently accepted to NSU-KPCOM, UIWSOM, ACOM, NYITCOM-Jonesboro, & LUCOM. I was waitlisted to KCU-COM post-interview.
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UIW is a brand new school. Low pass rates and avg Boards scores are expected. For Nova, it's inexcusable. And none of these concerns are about having great matching. Great students can always match. It's about the deficits of the school.
For Nova, two of the four last years have declining first-time COMLEX pass rates. The last two years for which we have data are in the low 90s. They still have yet to post data for the 2019-20 cycle, which is fishy. Some 7% of their 2018 grads failed to match, ditto 4% of their Class of 2019. There are also signs of significant delay to graduation in these numbers. That’s still not good for a veteran school. I’d expect > 95% pass rates and match rates closer to 100%. These problems are what you expect from a new school. Something is very wrong there. See: Residency Match Data and COMLEX Level 3 Board Scores | NSU COM
And also:
Thoughts On Nova Post Preclinical Years
I am a current medical student at Nova and after reading comments at a previous thread about the academic failures of my school I thought it would be helpful to attest that everything that has been written in such great detail is still 100% correct and a reality for many of us. From the...
forums.studentdoctor.net
Nova, alone among all the schools of whose students reach out to me, seems to wield the professionalism bludgeon the most against valid student complaints.
Look, I get being true to your school, but loyalty shouldn't blind you to real issues.
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I appreciate what you are saying and believe me, your argument holds some validity. For the record, I am not a student at NSU, I was simply accepted so there is no loyalty or allegiance on my end. If that were the case, I would be siding with UIWSOM and the other schools I was accepted to this cycle as well. In Texas, I have heard TOO many negatives for UIWSOM from current students, faculty, and even attending physicians regarding the school's implementation of self-directed curriculum, board preparations, and most importantly clinical rotations (many students did not have access to them during the pandemic). And even after hearing all of this, I still would not be against attending UIWSOM if I had not already secured an acceptance I feel to benefit me more because at the end of the day IT IS A US MEDICAL SCHOOL. Every single one in the US sets up a student for the success they need to obtain a residency placement. And every physician DO or MD will echo that it really doesn't matter where you attend, as long as it's located in the good ole United States of America.UIW is a brand new school. Low pass rates and avg Boards scores are expected. For Nova, it's inexcusable. And none of these concerns are about having great matching. Great students can always match. It's about the deficits of the school.
For Nova, two of the four last years have declining first-time COMLEX pass rates. The last two years for which we have data are in the low 90s. They still have yet to post data for the 2019-20 cycle, which is fishy. Some 7% of their 2018 grads failed to match, ditto 4% of their Class of 2019. There are also signs of significant delay to graduation in these numbers. That’s still not good for a veteran school. I’d expect > 95% pass rates and match rates closer to 100%. These problems are what you expect from a new school. Something is very wrong there. See: Residency Match Data and COMLEX Level 3 Board Scores | NSU COM
And also:
Thoughts On Nova Post Preclinical Years
I am a current medical student at Nova and after reading comments at a previous thread about the academic failures of my school I thought it would be helpful to attest that everything that has been written in such great detail is still 100% correct and a reality for many of us. From the...
Nova, alone among all the schools of whose students reach out to me, seems to wield the professionalism bludgeon the most against valid student complaints.
Look, I get being true to your school, but loyalty shouldn't blind you to real issues.
I have read the negative commentary posted on several threads regarding NSU and quite honestly, it seems to be rubbish. For starters, complaints are posted all over this forum as well as on Reddit for EVERY medical school. Drawing the conclusion that NSU is a poor program based on anonymous online posts is information bias?? If I were to adhere to the similar logic you are presenting in your argument, then I could just as easily counter by saying I have heard nothing but great things about the program and its phenomenal research opportunities, quality residency match placements, and dynamic curriculum... All I'm saying is it is not a bad school. It is gonna go through some growing pains with the addition of their new Tampa Bay campus in 2019.
Also, as I said earlier, if you look at the past data posted by aacomas, well-established veteran schools have also had their fair share of issues similar to Nova such as MSU and OSU. Does that mean I am going to disregard their prestige as tier-1 DO programs? Heck no?
