Being the Inaugural Class

[Mosonik]

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So.. fellow DO-hopefuls. There are a few new schools opening up in our cycle and I just wondered how ya'll are going to attack the process of deciding whether or not to attend one?

I feel like most of the new programs (I don't feel its necessary to name names though) and that they have great potential but let's be honest, there are both advantages and bumps to being the first class that you won't get anywhere else. How do you weigh the potential and opportunity of a new program with the more "knowns" of an older, more established one? (This is assuming we actually get a choice)

I want honesty and please stay on topic.

 

[Goro]

It's a two-edged sword. You get to the the pioneers and the guinea pigs at the same times. If you're resilient and are highly self-motivated, you can overcome any flaws that rookie faculty and/or curriculum will make.

I'd like to reduce your worries if you're applying to Marion COM; I've met those people and they know what they're doing.

So.. fellow DO-hopefuls. There are a few new schools opening up in our cycle and I just wondered how ya'll are going to attack the process of deciding whether or not to attend one?

I feel like most of the new programs (I don't feel its necessary to name names though) and that they have great potential but let's be honest, there are both advantages and bumps to being the first class that you won't get anywhere else. How do you weigh the potential and opportunity of a new program with the more "knowns" of an older, more established one? (This is assuming we actually get a choice)

I want honesty and please stay on topic.

 

[Woland]

Pre-meds opinion:

(1) The new schools opening this year (inaugaral class 2017) are not vastly different from any other new school that has opened up in late 2000s. I took only precursory glance at the new programmes, but none of them offer a sudden unique perspective to teaching osteopathic medicine or carry a new mission (with the exception of religeous aspect, but focusing on christianity is rather a limiting factor).

(2) New schools have tuition in the upper 40k, which is on par with any other private medical school in the country. I have not heard about any tuition waiver offers to the inaugaral class.

(3) Quality of clinical years education strongly depends on the rotation sites you get to attend. While some of new programmes indicate that they have some rotation spots with local area hospitals, there is no clear evidence that these rotations will cover all core rotations for all students. That means that students will be farmed out to distant rotation sites and will likely to have to set them up themselves. That is no different from any established school currently charging the same 40+K for the farm out/self-set up.

(4) You are not a doctor until you have completed a residency programme. The new schools do not have any strong indication that they have significant postgraduate education connections to the hospitals they send their students to do core rotations at. A 6 student PGY class of Family medicine programme at an affiliated hostoptal will not provide sufficient pool for all graduates. Plus those newly created 6 FM spots will be hard fought for with graduates from other establshed schools. And this is a key issue here.
Residency directors, ACGME or AOA, will not have any knowledge of quality of education at medical school and students of inaugaral class will be at an inherent disadvantage. According to one programme director (who I met accidentally in line of volunteering, as I am not even a medical student), they already suffer from an alphabet soup fatigue having hard time recognizing new MD schools. Addition of new DO schools will not make it easier, neither for them nor for applying students.

Bottom line: Inaugaral class will be getting an unknown quality of education, with unknown prospects of clinical roations and decreased chance of matching to a residency programme for the same outrageously high price charged by schools that graduated a class or a dozen (or even a hundred classes).

It is my understanding that Goro is an ADCOM/faculty, so his answer carries more weight that my thoughts.

 

[Moosepig]

With VCOM and ACOM both opening schools in Alabama, I have thought and reviewed this issue quite a bit. In my personal opinion, if you get acceptances to somewhere more established, that would be the place to go. However, if you don't, you can have a totally successful and enjoyable experience at a new school if you are willing to keep an upbeat spirit through the craziness that I would imagine is present in the first few years of a new medical school.

 

[Mbeas]

I didn't apply to any schools that hadn't graduated a class.

 

[411309]

Ill put it ths way, if I get accepted into ACOM, ill be taking that acceptance. But some schools arent for everyone. What may be a great school for me, may not be a great fit for someone else.

 

[Doctor Bob]

((4) You are not a doctor until you have completed a residency programme.

This is not true. You're a doctor the moment you graduate from medical school. You may not be able to independently practice at that point and you may still have a lot of learning ahead of you, but you certainly are a doctor.

 

[Goro]

I'm not shilling for MarionCOM, but they have rotations/residency program set up that quite strong, with a Catholic hospital chain in IN (for starters).

4) You are not a doctor until you have completed a residency programme. The new schools do not have any strong indication that they have significant postgraduate education connections to the hospitals they send their students to do core rotations at. A 6 student PGY class of Family medicine programme at an affiliated hostoptal will not provide sufficient pool for all graduates. Plus those newly created 6 FM spots will be hard fought for with graduates from other establshed schools. And this is a key issue here.