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COMs Establishing New Residency Programs
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Apologies... my term most threw ya off there. I mean many. I have edited the error. We had a 76 % match rate between all matches.
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Only 76 percent of your graduating class landed a residency?
Is WCU the school that had a 92.5% placmeent rate?
I wonder this as well.
Honestly it is impossible to tell. We had a lot of people not match and quite a few failed to soap about 14. Most rescrambled into or were “placed” into TRIs. However as of now 4 do not have residencies and around the time those numbers came out it was 6 or 7. So yes it is most likely us, but I cant confirm this to be sure but the numbers seem to line up. Class size was about 96 ish. Of the remaining 4 they may not meet qualifications to be placed and thus maybe dismissed or repeat the year and I am not sure how COCA looks at this. It could be after graduation these 4 are dismissed and the placement rate will be 100% thus meet COCA standards.
It is a huge embarrassment for myself and many of us that our numbers even approached this level. Administration is in denial about it but seems to be tightening the leaches on the incoming 1st and 2nd year classes. The school has been having trouble filling the 1st year class for two years now and a public sanction from COCA would make this worse.
1) to assist OP, ACOM has opened i think a 12 resident IM program at the mother hospital SAMC, and plans for 2018 IM in North AL are in the works (but this is associated with a core site and may not be directly from ACOM)
2) It sounds like the 92% match SOM is indeed WC. As bad as that 92% match is, it's equally horrible that 1 in 4 students had to go through the beast which is the SOAP/scramble. I was fortunate to match om match day but my friends who shared their experience say it was a terrifyingly awful experience.
COCA needs to step in. Any school with a match below 98% average makes me uneasy, but below 95% is just wrong.
2) It sounds like the 92% match SOM is indeed WC. As bad as that 92% match is, it's equally horrible that 1 in 4 students had to go through the beast which is the SOAP/scramble. I was fortunate to match om match day but my friends who shared their experience say it was a terrifyingly awful experience.
COCA needs to step in. Any school with a match below 98% average makes me uneasy, but below 95% is just wrong.
Update on CUSOM GME development since opening the school. All programs located in NC.
ACGME accredited programs:
1. Dermatology
2. EM x 2
3. OB/GYN
4. Psychiatry
5. IM x 3
6. FM x 2
7. TRI x 2
AOA accredited, transitioning to ACGME
1. General Surgery
2. FM
3. Primary care sports medicine fellowship
Planned/in development
1. Most IM fellowships
2. Several surgical subspecialties
ACGME accredited programs:
1. Dermatology
2. EM x 2
3. OB/GYN
4. Psychiatry
5. IM x 3
6. FM x 2
7. TRI x 2
AOA accredited, transitioning to ACGME
1. General Surgery
2. FM
3. Primary care sports medicine fellowship
Planned/in development
1. Most IM fellowships
2. Several surgical subspecialties
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Wow. A class size of only 96. I was thinking that it was 14 that didn't match in a class size >200. This is why each COM should be required to create a 1-for-1 student to residency position, and not be allowed to operate until this sanction is met.
Also, I think due to the high attrition rate at WCU the class size shrunk to 96 from probably ~120 or so that started.
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...Double Wow. That's not helping their case at all. That's starting to approach Caribbean levels.
Yep, and couple that with low COMLEX first time pass rate... That's why they are tightening the rules for their 1st and 2nd year classes.
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So if 14 didn’t match, and you started with a class of 120, that’s a success rate of 68%......that is truly horrifying.
I’ve said it before, the crunch will come silently in the number of students who don’t even make it to match day. For the Caribbean, SDN makes sure premeds understand it’s not the match rate they show, but the start to finish numbers that needs scrutiny. If walking onto campus you have a 68% of becoming a practicing physician, I don’t see how this school is any better than the Caribbean.
I’ve said it before, the crunch will come silently in the number of students who don’t even make it to match day. For the Caribbean, SDN makes sure premeds understand it’s not the match rate they show, but the start to finish numbers that needs scrutiny. If walking onto campus you have a 68% of becoming a practicing physician, I don’t see how this school is any better than the Caribbean.
Thats what is left. The class started at 120 ish. Lost about 10 every year.
Our class was around 116 we are around 94. Attrition rate is pretty high.
Too bad COCA doesn’t measure success rates.
That sounds like us. We started with 118, and are graduating 90. If 4+ are unplaced, that's about right. My classes COMLEX 1 pass rate was terrible, but COMLEX 2 score went up 40 points. I think our PE percentage went down. I know at least 1 that lost their residency spot due to a PE failure and 1 was scrambling to find one after passing the second time.
The last email we got in March from admin said they were still trying to secure spots and we would know something soon.
Graduating on the construction site is gonna be real interesting this year.
The last email we got in March from admin said they were still trying to secure spots and we would know something soon.
Graduating on the construction site is gonna be real interesting this year.
Yeah I was hoping i was wrong but I have had other sources confirm that it is us. It is super doubtful COCA will take any real action. Super embarrassing. No only that back on the WCUCOM forum people are chatting up the school ignoring this kind of stuff. 92% placement rate was something I would have avoided a school over now I just cant believe it... blows me away
Would you say though is this because of the school or the students?
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The school has had a reputation for malignancy for a while now. I think its not the students IMO.
I just wonder because from all the info I gather, COMLEX doesn’t seem to be hard to pass and there’s still open residencies on the AOA side. So kinda confused why these students can’t get in unless they have some malignancy on their app
Anything can be hard to pass if you are not given adequate time to prepare. WCU requires mandatory attendance and is a 40 hour a week school from what I remember when I looked at it. Not sure on board prep time, but I would bet it was short. They had professors arguing with students on SDN in either the 2013 or 2014 thread from what I recall. It was bad, very very arrogant faculty.
WCU was the only school that didn’t accept my DO LOR since they uploaded it to interfolio with a digital signature. I’m glad I crossed them off my list after that.
Overall, I think WCU’s struggles are a result of the school and not the students. It’s sad to watch our colleagues fail to succeed while the regulating bodies just watch. At the very least, sanctioning the school might deter “investors” from founding new schools without a plan to create GME and support their students.
That being said, some of the newer schools seem to be doing fairly well. Some are opening up more residency spots than the branch campuses of the “established schools.” They also have pretty low attrition if the numbers someone posted in another thread are correct.
Overall, I think WCU’s struggles are a result of the school and not the students. It’s sad to watch our colleagues fail to succeed while the regulating bodies just watch. At the very least, sanctioning the school might deter “investors” from founding new schools without a plan to create GME and support their students.
That being said, some of the newer schools seem to be doing fairly well. Some are opening up more residency spots than the branch campuses of the “established schools.” They also have pretty low attrition if the numbers someone posted in another thread are correct.
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It was maybe 6 weeks, if memory serves me. @WorldChanger36 can chime in better than I can, but I believe COMLEX scores went up for their class due to the post-tornado suspension of the mandatory attendance policy.
While true we did have that post tornado benefit the school added extra stuff and other requirements that slowed us down. All in all we had relatively sinilar prep timing and our scores just barely edged out your class. We were still 10 points below national average, although we had less failures, we had a more normal median. We had more high scorers but not as high as your class mostly mid 600 with our averages being in the low 500. We also had the same number of people take USMLE and I believe we were the first class to have a failure on that.
We on had about 5 to 6 weeks of dedicated study prep time. Some had 2 weeks and some like myself had about 8 due to luck. It was difficult, the school does a great job at getting in your way thinking they were helping.
6 weeks of actual dedicated or dedicated with required mandatory activities during it?
Hopefully your administration let you know that the average COMLEX Level 1 score this year is about 40 points higher than it has been in the last few years (final average is 557.89). Every school SHOULD have went up SIGNIFICANTLY. I noticed on SDN a lot of students reporting how well their class did on Level 1 compared to previous years oblivious to the fact that there was some sort of inflation this year that resulted in record high averages. If you are trying to compare to previous years, you need to subtract about 40 points.
Nothing crazy, but here are the residencies for UIWSOM (they are in San Antonio and Laredo)-
Currently AOA accredited, initial accreditation ACGME:
Family Medicine- 16/16/16
Internal Medicine- 8/8/8
In Development (July 2019 estimated launch):
Psychiatry
Internal Medicine
Preventative Medicine
When I interviewed, they said they were working with a large hospital system in SA for multiple residencies, but I heard that fell through unfortunately (probably because of the merger). I do know the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education came from RVU and helped develop multiple programs there, so hopefully he will do the same in SA.
Currently AOA accredited, initial accreditation ACGME:
Family Medicine- 16/16/16
Internal Medicine- 8/8/8
In Development (July 2019 estimated launch):
Psychiatry
Internal Medicine
Preventative Medicine
When I interviewed, they said they were working with a large hospital system in SA for multiple residencies, but I heard that fell through unfortunately (probably because of the merger). I do know the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education came from RVU and helped develop multiple programs there, so hopefully he will do the same in SA.
I want to say there were a couple of required activities. COMSAE was at the end of May. BLS/ACLS/PALS come to mind, and we came back to campus sometime in July for 3rd year orientation.
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Their Psych program is approved now!
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