Attending Western U Pomona with a baby

[jfn1837]

Hi SDNers,

I will start Western U DO next year with a 7 month old baby and a spouse who will most likely be working full time. I have read about some courses requiring mandatory attendance and others not at Western, but would like to have a better understanding of how many days (or half-days) I can reasonably expect to not have to go to school during the first two years of med school, to coordinate child-care..

Any and all answer/advice is greatly appreciated! Even better - if someone at Western U with young children can shed some much needed light 🙂

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[HotLunch96]

Does your baby have a bachelor's degree and has it taken the MCAT? Should be able to attend class/lab with you and earn a degree as well.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

Hi SDNers,

I will start Western U DO next year with a 7 month old baby and a spouse who will most likely be working full time. I have read about some courses requiring mandatory attendance and others not at Western, but would like to have a better understanding of how many days (or half-days) I can reasonably expect to not have to go to school during the first two years of med school, to coordinate child-care..

Any and all answer/advice is greatly appreciated! Even better - if someone at Western U with young children can shed some much needed light 🙂

During the first half of Fall semester, you will be attending gross anatomy lab ~2days/week. Also, you will have one afternoon OMM lecture/week and one afternoon clinical medicine lecture/week. Therefore, during the course of anatomy, expect to be on campus ~4 days a week. However, once anatomy is over, and MCBM begins, you don't need to go to class, but you'll still have to go to OMM and clinical medicine, but that's only 2 afternoons per week.

Real mandatory attendance, with its utmost annoying sense, doesn't begin until second year, when you'll have to be on campus almost everyday of the week. Attending the lectures is not mandatory, but they will be administering a small quiz at the end of each lecture, so if you don't want to miss out on earning these easy points, you'll need to attend. On the days you don't have these "mandatory" lectures, you'll either have OMM, clinical medicine, or small group activities, so you'll end up going to everyday of the week.

I know people who decided to stop attending these lectures and sacrifice the quiz points because, in their rationale, they could utilize this time for studying and understanding the material on their own pace. It's a risky decision, and for some, it paid off well while for others it caused some regrets.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

Does your baby have a bachelor's degree and has it taken the MCAT? Should be able to attend class/lab with you and earn a degree as well.

0/10

 

[GUH]

Hi SDNers,

I will start Western U DO next year with a 7 month old baby and a spouse who will most likely be working full time. I have read about some courses requiring mandatory attendance and others not at Western, but would like to have a better understanding of how many days (or half-days) I can reasonably expect to not have to go to school during the first two years of med school, to coordinate child-care..

Any and all answer/advice is greatly appreciated! Even better - if someone at Western U with young children can shed some much needed light 🙂

I know several classmates at COMP who had young children in the first two years and they managed. Most but not all of their spouses did not work full time.
You are typically required to be on campus 2-4 days per week. You will more often be required to be on campus in the afternoon; mornings tend to be more flexible.

Edit: Ibn is correct that you will be required to spend more time on campus second year. This is due to mandatory small groups.

 

[jfn1837]

Thank you Ibn and GUH for the greatly helpful info! Think I will arrange full-time daycare during the anatomy lab period and see if I will be able to cut down a little afterwards since husband will be working downtown LA.. It's both scary and exciting to deal with a baby and med school at the same time - hope the exciting part will trump the scary part 🙂