Hi Luwi25,
I'm currently a third year DO student at COMP and was not aware of this thread. I have a few comments on the thread so far after browsing:
- First and foremost, I think it is great that you are asking questions and trying to get the good as well as the bad. You should try to get as much information as possible, but remember that much of it may be subjective and not representative of the majority so some things need to be taken with a grain of salt. You will hopefully pick the school that is the best fit for you... it won't be the same school for everyone.
- The reason that quite a few of SDN COMP students seem negative could be due to the fact that many of the students who feel positively about the school or feel like they are on the path to becoming a good doctor are busy on rotations or not even on SDN browsing these Osteopathic forums in the first place. I am probably one of the few third year students who still posts on a semi-regular basis and I had no idea this thread was around until someone brought it to my attention.
- I agree with m16surgeon's comments regarding neighborhoods and the English-speaking skills. The Pomona neighborhood isn't all that bad when you think in relative terms. Medical schools like JHU, UPenn, and Columbia are in much much worse areas of town. I don't know anyone who doesn't feel safe walking around Pomona to local eateries during the daytime. During the nighttime, security does try to provide escorts, but if they aren't on the ball, there are usually fellow students around to walk each other to the parking lots which neighbor the school. Common sense goes a long way here and I can't remember the last time I've heard of any incidents to students. As far as speaking skills go, I am sure that many other medical schools have professors with various accents that may be less understandable than others. I know of one professor that I have slight trouble understanding, but others don't have any problems and his notes are relatively clear.
- Regarding the current interim dean and the past dean, I have heard that the interim dean has made positive impressions in terms of wanting to get things done for the school... definitely a good sign. This is not to say that the previous dean was not effective in the past, but it may have been due more to politics with administration than anything else. I can truthfully say that the previous dean and the current COMP administration has a strong desire to improve the school. Whether or not these interests may conflict at some point with those of other administration is a different story. You can certainly understand that as Western U. has multiple disciplines/colleges under its "roof", there are always going to be conflicts of interests (esp. financially) between the respective colleges and adminstration.
- Regarding financial matters and where tuition money is going, that is partially what some of the current allegations and investigations are dealing with. One of the main reasons why these matters were brought up and jobs were put on the line was because people felt so strongly about COMP and its students.
- I would also like to know whether students of other medical schools pay for application fees for certain rotations. Affiliations could probably make a difference although I am certain that a number of rotations that require applications usually require an application fee. (After talking to one fourth year student at our school, he informed me that students of other schools have to pay these application fees as well and students do not get "reimbursed" for them by their schools.)
- The rotations office has become slightly more organized in the past although I do feel that students who know what they are doing and do the legwork to set up their rotations seem to be happier. There has been some shifting around in the rotations office lately and I will have to check to see what the response has been so far. I don't know of any major decrease in rotation sites available in southern California for COMP students. Often times, certain hospitals drop students and rotations for their own reasons which vary quite a bit. I can say that there are still a wide variety of strong rotation sites for students to learn their 3rd year clinical skills at. During your fourth year, there are lots more opportunities to set up rotations out-of-state or at non-affiliated sites, but these require more work on the student's part. The rotations office won't do all your work for you and I would be naive to think they would. Just like the med school application process, I would try to do things ahead of time and constantly check to make sure things are in order. I will be honest and say that I have currently only had two rotations but I have had positive experiences with both and talking to other third year classmates, most seem to have positive experiences as well with a few negatives mixed in.
- I think one of the biggest things to consider is location and wanting to stay in southern California. COMP students do seem to make better connections and stay in the area more often although a number end up moving somewhere else for various reasons. COMP students have matched with pretty competitive residencies in the past as well. As I've said before, medical school is what you make of it. I would be lying to say that COMP doesn't have problems, but to say that other schools don't have as serious problems would be very misleading. It is just a matter of who speaks up on SDN. Also, consider that COMP has a somewhat bigger class compared to other schools so I would normally expect the number of students with unhappy experiences to be increased proportionally. I could ask a ton of students with positive experiences to all write their feelings on SDN, but wouldn't that be artificially stacking the positive aspects of the school? I prefer more viewpoints to help someone make a well-educated decision on what school to attend.
- As stated in a previous message thread, the 2005 class' COMLEX pass rate for June was 92%, about the same as the national average. The 2004 class had a lower pass rate. I think it varies from class to class, but there have been changes in curriculum occuring, some more noticable than others, but they include such things as reducing classroom hours as well as introducing more useful clinical information rather than some repetitive lecturing.
- As far as speaking to unhappy students who say to stay away from COMP, I do recall a few incidences where by chance, interviewees would always end up sitting down in a classroom in an area that happened to have more of the unhappy students sitting around. All I can say is that during interviews, it is important to get as many viewpoints as possible.
- I don't mean to make this a negative comment towards TUCOM, but I have noticed here and there that some TUCOM students on rotations end up coming down to socal for rotations for various reasons. Last year as second years, the 2005 class tried to set up some block rotations in the bay area, but we weren't successful due to the saturation of medical students in the area from the number of schools up there already. Hopefully the situation is improving.
- Lastly, take this with a grain of salt, but I believe the school hasn't affected me negatively in terms of my medical education and residency options in the future. Of course, if I had put more time into studying I'm sure I would be a much better student, but I take responsibility for any of my own shortcomings.
Good luck in your decision!
I guess although I don't believe it's second rate. I guess it all depends on you. However, since you are from Texas, if you have to leave anyways I'd recommend looking at other schools besides TUCOM. There may be better DO schools out there including TCOM. 
