Cons of going to a 1st year DO program

[DO3]

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What are some cons of going to a first year program like William Carey? I interviewed, and I was accepted. I was very impressed with everything, especially their rotation sites. It seems like their rotation sites are at better hospitals than places like LMU-DCOM. I am very tempted to go here instead of one or two of the more established schools that I have been accepted to. Any thoughts?

 

[Laryngophed]

What are some cons of going to a first year program like William Carey? I interviewed, and I was accepted. I was very impressed with everything, especially their rotation sites. It seems like their rotation sites are at better hospitals than places like LMU-DCOM. I am very tempted to go here instead of one or two of the more established schools that I have been accepted to. Any thoughts?

 

[Moose A Moose]

You probably already know the answers.. they're less established, still getting on their feet, yet to be well known in the medical (DO) community, etc. I'm sure a lot of people would be adverse to it.. but personally, I'd go for it- kind of person I am.. especially if it looks nice and all. You'll be one of their "first generation-ers".

 

[ShinyDome19]

Congrats on your acceptance.

Ill give you my input on WCU. I was supposed to interview at WCU this week, but decided to withdraw my app early last week when I sent in my $1500 down-payment on a seat at LECOM. First, I work at the University of Mississippi school of medicine and I can tell you that a lot of the faculty and physicians I have spoken to about the school have a lot of high hopes for it and they really understand the need for another school in mississippi. So, as far as I am concerned, if you are planning on staying and practicing in mississippi, the school already has a good name in the region among physicians, atleast they know the school is out there and want it to succeed. However, one main reason I chose not to follow through with my interview there was for that same reason, as I am not sure where I will end up practicing medicine after medical school, I am married and my wife is a professional as well, so I dont want to "limit" her and myself to the local area for future employment - i use the word limit in the context that it is a new school and will likely take a while to become known outside of the area.
The second main reason was simply the cost. At 38K/year or something like that, to be what Physio Doc 2Be posted below, when I can attend a school for 10K less/year (LECOM), and since I am pretty sure I want to go into primary care, saving 40K in the long haul will be nice. I am actually very supprised that WCU set their tuition so high. Not that I have anything against mississippi, but there is a big stigma out there that this is a really poor/crappy place to live...why not try to attract people to come here with a cheaper tuition and a much smaller down payment (3K is a little excessive for a new school in my book).

I do give WCU props for how they are setting up their rotation sites, the system they are setting up sounds pretty cool. But, without having feedback from other students who have gone through the rotations, I would say its a little early to say they necessarily have good rotations...

just my $0.02.

 

[thepoopologist]

Where else have you been accepted? My opinion hinges on that.

 

[thepoopologist]

But my initial rxn is that I would never be the first class of any school without a full tuition scholarship. There will be kinks along the way and I say let others sort them out. Especially when the tuition is 38k a year for an unproven product. I would rather go to SGU than a just opened DO school (the only carribean I'd ever consider btw). But that's just me. I want to know what I'm paying for.

 

[ShinyDome19]

Since the school doesn't have full accreditation you're going to have to take private loans. That could be good or very, very bad.

This was actually the first question I had asked the school when I first learned it was opening up. Apparently, since the school is part of William Carey University, you can get all the subsidized federal Loans and stuff.

 

[LateBl00meR]

You should only go to DO schools with facebook networks and an attractive PA class.

 

[creativename]

You should only go to DO schools with facebook networks and an attractive PA class.

I'm not gonna play like your priorities don't make sense to me. So right off I wanna say those are good standards to live by. I especially like that your decision making criteria leaves no wiggle room. Either the PA class is attractive or it isn't, it's binary and therefore PC in my book. My question to you though is does one out of two count for anything? And how about this, what if the school has a plethora of education majors? I'm just sayin. I don't wanna turn your world upside down or anything. I'm just sayin.

 

[boone95]

What are some cons of going to a first year program like William Carey? I interviewed, and I was accepted. I was very impressed with everything, especially their rotation sites. It seems like their rotation sites are at better hospitals than places like LMU-DCOM. I am very tempted to go here instead of one or two of the more established schools that I have been accepted to. Any thoughts?

I chose a 1st year program over established programs. The biggest thing you need to decide is if you are comfortable helping to start and develop the school, or if you'd rather have everything laid out for you, tried and true.

Different people like different things, so it's up to you to decide where your best fit is.

 

[Biology101]

rotation sites......that could so easily change

 

[JaggerPlate]

How do they set up their rotations??

 

[scpod]

Being a part of the first class of any school can be exciting.... but it can also be a really huge pain in the ass. The worst part is that there are no upperclassmen to help guide you, and that can be truly detrimental. Everyone will be in the process of "learning" how to run a medical school. There will be many mistakes and errors made that will be corrected in future years. You are not much more than a guinea pig.

You might as well forget about the rotations thing too, because what looks good on paper can truly suck in the real world. You have absolutely no idea what the good rotations are and who the good preceptors are because it hasn't been done before. There are no people who have gone through it to help you make decisions. You are running around blind.

There are plenty of threads on SDN from previous years where others became members of the first class of a new school. Go search through some of them and look at what they went through. If it doesn't trouble you at all, then go for it. Good luck.

 

[ShinyDome19]

How do they set up their rotations??

They have a Hub system set up, so that you pick a "Hub" that you want to do your 3rd and 4th year rotations at. Each Hub will have like 3 to 5 hospitals or so within a certain mile radius of eachother...You do all your rotations at those hospitals. Makes it so you dont have to move a whole lot.

 

[DO3]

Thanks for all of your replies. I have some decisions to make.

 

[JaggerPlate]

They have a Hub system set up, so that you pick a "Hub" that you want to do your 3rd and 4th year rotations at. Each Hub will have like 3 to 5 hospitals or so within a certain mile radius of eachother...You do all your rotations at those hospitals. Makes it so you dont have to move a whole lot.

Cool. Hope it works out.