AZCOM Questions

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shelbybro

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Hi guys,

I was fortunate to have received an acceptance from AZCOM this cycle and I am super excited to finally start my journey to becoming a physician. I had some questions regarding studying for didactic years, how clinical rotations are set up/work, and board prep. If there are any current students or alumni that would be able to take the time to help me out, I would be super grateful! I can PM those personally if that works as well. Thank you!

EDIT: My apologies if I posted in the wrong forum and please move to the appropriate location if so.
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shelbybro said:
Hi guys,

I was fortunate to have received an acceptance from AZCOM this cycle and I am super excited to finally start my journey to becoming a physician. I had some questions regarding studying for didactic years, how clinical rotations are set up/work, and board prep. If there are any current students or alumni that would be able to take the time to help me out, I would be super grateful! I can PM those personally if that works as well. Thank you!

EDIT: My apologies if I posted in the wrong forum and please move to the appropriate location if so.
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I think you are getting a little too far ahead of yourself which is typical for an M0. Just relax enjoy your time until school starts and then once school starts really focus on doing well in your courses for the first year. Board prep and rotations and everything have a while before you need to start thinking about those. If you want advice on what you can do for the time up until school is familiarize yourself with Anki and see if you like it as a study tool. You can youtube it and practice making decks etc so you get a feel for it and how to use it as a study aid. The best thing you can really do is to read/youtube on the best ways to study in med school because what worked before may not work for M1 and beyond. Everyone has their methods for studying but you can get a feel for what you think may work well for you. Other than that just relax, travel and relax
 
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shelbybro said:
Hi guys,

I was fortunate to have received an acceptance from AZCOM this cycle and I am super excited to finally start my journey to becoming a physician. I had some questions regarding studying for didactic years, how clinical rotations are set up/work, and board prep. If there are any current students or alumni that would be able to take the time to help me out, I would be super grateful! I can PM those personally if that works as well. Thank you!

EDIT: My apologies if I posted in the wrong forum and please move to the appropriate location if so.
Click to expand...

What you should really be concerned about is how you're ever going to pay off their absurd tuition.
 
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Rekt said:
What you should really be concerned about is how you're ever going to pay off their absurd tuition.
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That’s definitely a big concern for me, so I want to ensure I do really well in school to set me up with a realistically possible good residency and career. I was fortunate enough to get admitted to a medical school in this ever growing premed competition, so I gotta make the best of it.
 
shelbybro said:
That’s definitely a big concern for me, so I want to ensure I do really well in school to set me up with a realistically possible good residency and career. I was fortunate enough to get admitted to a medical school in this ever growing premed competition 1st year admission spots, so I gotta make the best of it.
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Corrected that for you. Competition and average board scores actually decreased as the spots have gone up so drastically since about the 2016 cycle. However, AZCOM is a solid school with great matches every year tho. It you get over the tuition, they are not one that I am too concerned about as far as future placement rate.
 
It wasn't long ago that AZCOM tuition was one of the lowest among DOs when they were first opened. However, due to the amount of California students that go into this school, board scores and placement rates became solid, allowing the adcoms to con premeds into thinking that Midwestern is a top tier DO school with great placement.

Their clinical education is average at best. However, less California students are going there nowadays due to the increasing available options in Cali. I personally wouldn't go there.
 
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AZCOM Tuition $68,574
Harvard Med Tuition $59,800

There is simply no value for the $ at AZCOM...
 
Alright, I get that the tuition is really expensive lol. I’m looking for input from current AZCOM students. This is the only acceptance I have and the only chance I get to become a doctor, so I’m gonna make the best out of it.
 
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shelbybro said:
Alright, I get that the tuition is really expensive lol. I’m looking for input from current AZCOM students. This is the only acceptance I have and the only chance I get to become a doctor, so I’m gonna make the best out of it.
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I have met attending fellow or resident level people from AZCOM in Cards, Anesthesiology, and GS. All of them are wonderful people, so my opinion is that you will get a decent enough education that won’t shut you out of whatever specialty that you’re shooting for.
 
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Black Coffee 24/7 said:
I have met attending fellow or resident level people from AZCOM in Cards, Anesthesiology, and GS. All of them are wonderful people, so my opinion is that you will get a decent enough education that won’t shut you out of whatever specialty that you’re shooting for.
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I'm just hoping to get a good education that will provide me with the option to specialize if I don't end up liking any of the primary care fields. Truth is, I don't know exactly what field of medicine interests me as of now and I'm also well aware that I need to score higher than my MD peers in Step.
 
Fun fact: In 2018 only 2 DOs matched ACGME plastics. Both came from AZCOM. Another fun fact is that one of them is listed as MD on his schools residency page.
 
BMRMike said:
Fun fact: In 2018 only 2 DOs matched ACGME plastics. Both came from AZCOM. Another fun fact is that one of them is listed as MD on his schools residency page.
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I know who you're talking about and he is definitely listed as a DO.

Current Residents
 
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SW0LDIER said:
I know who you're talking about and he is definitely listed as a DO.

Current Residents
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Oh well I guess they changed that. When I looked him up mid last year it took a while to find him since I had to figure out who was a DO or not. Good.

It's pretty impressive though. It's quite a bit higher than the average for US MD schools (not that it's a big enough sample size but w/e).
 
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BMRMike said:
Oh well I guess they changed that. When I looked him up mid last year it took a while to find him since I had to figure out who was a DO or not. Good.

It's pretty impressive though. It's quite a bit higher than the average for US MD schools (not that it's a big enough sample size but w/e).
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Reference for students aspiring to go into plastic as a DO. Pretty impressive...
  • DO from Midwestern University, Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine
  • Scored 722 on COMLEX Level 1 and 807 on COMLEX Level 2 CE
  • Scored 243 on USMLE Step 1 and 264 on USMLE Step 2 CK
 
AZCOM alumni here - now a teaching attending. I thought it was a great school and prepared me well for boards (600/700's on COMLEX levels, 240's/250's on USLME's) and would absolutely go there again in a heartbeat. Faculty were great, and Phoenix was a great city to live in for 4 years.

Interestingly - when I was applying to academic positions after residency, I had an incredibly well regarded (at the national level) IM PD tell me AZCOM was the #2 DO school in the nation. Keep in mind there are no real rankings of DO schools, but this was his opinion from the various national meetings he led.

I'm 4 years out from AZCOM now (8 years from being an MS1) so I don't think I can answer a lot of your questions in an accurate way. Sorry about that.
 
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Current MS1 feel free to PM me if you still have questions
 
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Current MS3 pursuing ortho, feel free to PM if you have questions. Getting high boards is definitely possible, I think the curriculum does a good job of getting you all the information you need, it's up to you to put in the effort. For 3rd year rotations, I would choose East Valley (since they allow you to choose until school starts) as that is a very good trading chip if you decide you want to go to the LA/SD/Chicago areas later on (a lot of trading happens mid-2nd year).
 
What are your thoughts on using an older edition textbook for most classes? And I know some classes are not mandatory, but which are?
And how many hours a week are spent in OMM and the anatomy lab?
 
MoreProbableThanNot said:
Current MS3 pursuing ortho, feel free to PM if you have questions. Getting high boards is definitely possible, I think the curriculum does a good job of getting you all the information you need, it's up to you to put in the effort. For 3rd year rotations, I would choose East Valley (since they allow you to choose until school starts) as that is a very good trading chip if you decide you want to go to the LA/SD/Chicago areas later on (a lot of trading happens mid-2nd year).
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Have you heard about any curriculum changes occurring at AZCOM in the next year or two? Our student ambassadors hinted at upcoming changes but could not go into detail.
 
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Ixacex said:
What are your thoughts on using an older edition textbook for most classes? And I know some classes are not mandatory, but which are?
And how many hours a week are spent in OMM and the anatomy lab?
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DO NOT BUY ANY text books. Seriously. Not one exam question was ever asked that wasn't in the slides. If you truly want to use a textbook, the school provides access to online textbooks and you can rent them from the library (HINT: you won't ever rent them). You have access to AccessMedicine/OBGYN/Surgery/anything you ever need through the library website. The only textbook you may consider, is Netter's (trust me, still not worth it, I'd give you my copy if I knew you). So to answer your question: don't bother with textbooks.

Mandatory classes are Anatomy lab (duh), OMM lab (duh), Physiology Small groups (1x/week I think?), Biochem small group (1x/week I think?) and Clinical Medicine classes (sometimes, although the school is shifting to more recorded classes and less mandatory classes for this course). Most other courses have their lectures recorded (except for Biochemistry because one of the professors did not want to have them recorded. This may have changed. In any case, the slides are handouts aka slides but in a paper format are enough to get you a good grade).

4 hours MAX/week in OMM lab. Attendance is mandatory, it usually doesn't take 4 hours (there's a lecture before that you don't need to attend). For anatomy lab, the body is "shared" by 3 other groups, so you go in every 3rd lab day for about 3-4 hours, which amounts to at most twice a week (although I HIGHLY recommend going in on your own on the weekend or after lab hours to study different bodies).
 
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JDsfloatingheadDr said:
Have you heard about any curriculum changes occurring at AZCOM in the next year or two? Our student ambassadors hinted at upcoming changes but could not go into detail.
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Just that they are reducing the number of mandatory lectures. Not surprising that the ambassadors didn't tell you anything. The school gets a hard-on keeping information from students, it's frustrating.
 
Dochopeful13 said:
I’m just a lowly pre med but do you think a DO degree from AZCOM is economically worth it especially if you do primary care??
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not only no, but heII no
 
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Dochopeful13 said:
I’m just a lowly pre med but do you think a DO degree from AZCOM is economically worth it especially if you do primary care??
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It worth it... You can make 250-300k as a PCP (150K+ Post taxes)... Let's say you put 75k/yr toward your student loan, you can pay off your student loan in 5-6 yrs.
 
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Splenda88 said:
It worth it... You can make 250-300k as a PCP (150K+ Post taxes)... Let's say you put 75k/yr toward your student loan, you can pay off your student loan in 5-6 yrs.
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no its 100% not. People who get into AZCOM generally have good stats for DOs. These people could have gotten into any DO school (like LECOM) and paid 20-30k less per year and it wouldn't have changed their overall outcome (primary care).
 
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DNC127 said:
no its 100% not. People who get into AZCOM generally have good stats for DOs. These people could have gotten into any DO school (like LECOM) and paid 20-30k less per year and it wouldn't have changed their overall outcome (primary care).
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I thought we were talking about it from a pure ROI standpoint... If someone has to choose between AZCOM and LECOM, of course, that is a no brainer.
 
Splenda88 said:
It worth it... You can make 250-300k as a PCP (150K+ Post taxes)... Let's say you put 75k/yr toward your student loan, you can pay off your student loan in 5-6 yrs.
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What?? Your gonna come out with 400k before you even start getting interest capitalized in residency (add 60k that capitalizes at residency then you start compound interest at 460k, you will probably be near 550k within 3 years.). You will not pay the loans off in 5-6 years with 75k a year. Maybe 7-8. Either way thats a long time to live like a resident after medical school. I would not goto AZCOM for primary care.
 
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If its your only acceptance, go. But always pick an MD or the cheapest DO. Doctors a doctors a doctor
 
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